Predicting malaria dynamics under climate change

Malaria dynamics are closely tied to climate, as rainfed water pools provide the habitat for the Anopheles mosquitoes, and temperature influences this vector's ability to spread disease. Climate change drives shifts in microtopographic controls on the persistence of mosquito habitat and the life cycles of Anopheles vector and Plasmodium parasite, which affect the transmission of malaria. The ability to accurately predict malaria dynamics in the future requires the consideration of the impacts of modifications in ecohydrologic system under climate change on these shifts. The primary goal of this research is to investigate the relationships between the dynamics of malaria and changes in the ecohydrologic system due to the acclimation of vegetation under elevated atmospheric CO2 condition and temperature increase. We also aim to understand how the dominant controls of malaria interact under environmental perturbations by quantitatively analyzing changes in malaria incidence rates. Here, a coupled ecohydrology-malaria dynamics model is developed to predict malaria dynamics under projected climate change. The impacts of ecologic acclimation on soil moisture and persistence of ponded water that provide habitat for mosquitoes are captured using a coupled multi-layer canopy and physically-based flow surface-subsurface modeling approach. The transmission of malaria in response to these impacts and temperature increase are assessed by using a stochastic meta-popolation simulation model. We show that impacts of elevated CO2 and temperature have opposing effects on malaria prevalence. While air temperature increase shortens the life cycles of Anopheles and Plasmodium and increases the risk of spreading the disease, lower soil moisture resulting from increasing evapotranspiration reduces the habitat suitability for mosquitoes. The interplay between air temperature increases and soil moisture reduction under climate change leads to a smaller net increase in environmental suitability for malaria transmission than previously thought. In addition, we found larger net increase of malaria incidence under high temperature increase due to its nonlinear effects on the life cycles of vectors and parasites. The models and methods used are generalized and can be applied to other mosquito-borne diseases

TextANIMAR: Text-based 3D Animal Fine-Grained Retrieval

3D object retrieval is an important yet challenging task, which has drawn more and more attention in recent years. While existing approaches have made strides in addressing this issue, they are often limited to restricted settings such as image and sketch queries, which are often unfriendly interactions for common users. In order to overcome these limitations, this paper presents a novel SHREC challenge track focusing on text-based fine-grained retrieval of 3D animal models. Unlike previous SHREC challenge tracks, the proposed task is considerably more challenging, requiring participants to develop innovative approaches to tackle the problem of text-based retrieval. Despite the increased difficulty, we believe that this task has the potential to drive useful applications in practice and facilitate more intuitive interactions with 3D objects. Five groups participated in our competition, submitting a total of 114 runs. While the results obtained in our competition are satisfactory, we note that the challenges presented by this task are far from being fully solved. As such, we provide insights into potential areas for future research and improvements. We believe that we can help push the boundaries of 3D object retrieval and facilitate more user-friendly interactions via vision-language technologies.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2304.0573

COVID-19 Social Science and Public Engagement Action Research in Vietnam, Indonesia and Nepal (SPEAR): Protocol for a mixed methods study exploring the experiences and impacts of COVID-19 for healthcare workers and vulnerable communities

Background: When the novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 – started to spread globally, there was a call for social and behavioral scientists to conduct research to explore the wider socio-cultural contexts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), to understand vulnerabilities, as well as to increase engagement within communities to facilitate adoption of public health measures. In this manuscript, we describe the protocol for a study conducted in Indonesia, Nepal, and Vietnam. In the study, we explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting individuals and their communities. We focus on the wider health and economic impacts of COVID-19, in particular emerging and increased burden on mental health, as well as new or deepened vulnerabilities in the communities. The introduction of vaccines has added another layer of complexity and highlights differences in acceptance and inequalities around access.  Methods: We use mixed methods, combining survey methods and social media surveillance to gain a picture of the general situation within each country, with in-depth qualitative methods to gain a deeper understanding of issues, coupled with a synergistic engagement component. We also include an exploration of the role of social media in revealing or driving perceptions of the pandemic more broadly. Participants include health workers and members of communities from 13 sites across the three countries. Data collection is spread across two phases. Phase 1 is concerned with exploring lived experiences, impacts on working lives and livelihoods, mental health and coping strategies. Phase 2 is concerned with acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, factors that increase and reduce acceptance, and factors that influence access. Conclusions: We will disseminate findings in multiple ways including short reports and policy briefs, articles in peer-reviewed journals, and digital diaries will be edited into short films and uploaded onto social media sites.</ns3:p

Elimination of Dengue by Community Programs Using Mesocyclops (Copepoda) Against Aedes Aegypti in Central Vietnam

From September 2000 to June 2003, a community-based program for dengue control using local predacious copepods of the genus Mesocyclops was conducted in three rural communes in the central Vietnam provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Khanh Hoa. Post-project, three subsequent entomologic surveys were conducted until March 2004. The number of households and residents in the communes were 5,913 and 27,167, respectively, and dengue notification rates for these communes from 1996 were as high as 2,418.5 per 100,000 persons. Following knowledge, attitude, and practice evaluations, surveys of water storage containers indicated that Mesocyclops spp. already occurred in 3-17% and that large tanks up to 2,000 liters, 130-300-liter jars, wells, and some 220-liter metal drums were the most productive habitats for Aedes aegypti. With technical support, the programs were driven by communal management committees, health collaborators, schoolteachers, and pupils. From quantitative estimates of the standing crop of third and fourth instars from 100 households, Ae. aegypti were reduced by approximately 90% by year 1, 92.3-98.6% by year 2, and Ae. aegypti immature forms had been eliminated from two of three communes by June 2003. Similarly, from resting adult collections from 100 households, densities were reduced to 0-1 per commune. By March 2004, two communes with no larvae had small numbers but the third was negative; one adult was collected in each of two communes while one became negative. Absolute estimates of third and fourth instars at the three intervention communes and one left untreated had significant correlations (P = 0.009-< 0.001) with numbers of adults aspirated from inside houses on each of 15 survey periods. By year 1, the incidence of dengue disease in the treated communes was reduced by 76.7% compared with non-intervention communes within the same districts, and no dengue was evident in 2002 and 2003, compared with 112.8 and 14.4 cases per 100,000 at district level. Since we had similar success in northern Vietnam from 1998 to 2000, this study demonstrates that this control model is broadly acceptable and achievable at community level but vigilance is required post-project to prevent reinfestation

Exploration de la biodiversité végétale et microbienne pour la qualité et la sureté des aliments

International audienceLa qualité et sureté des aliments jouent un rôle important au Vietnam et dans la région de l'Asie du Sud Est. Dans son programme intégral, l'ASEAN met la sureté des aliments parmi des 12 priorités. Plusieurs travaux ont été focalises sur l'exploration de la biodiversité et des innovations technologiques en Asie du Sud Est afin d'améliorer la qualité et de gérer la sureté des aliments. C'est pour ces raisons, nous avons crée un réseau régional avec les soutiens des partenaires francophones et non-francophones en se basant sur les besoins de la région, l'expertise des partenaires et les coopérations étroites. Ce réseau est composé des 10 partenaires dynamiques et actifs provenant de la France, la Thaïlande, la Chine, et le Vietnam qui ont fait partie du Pre-projet de Coopération Scientifique Inter-universitaire PCSI http://pcsi2013.hust.edu.vn) de l'Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) et le Laboratoire International Associe UB/AgroSup Dijon/HUST "Tropical Bioresources & Biotechnology"(www.umr-pam.fr/relation-internationale/tropical-bioresources-biotechnology.html). Notre présentation partagera nos expériences pour monter ce réseau a travers les régions et avec les partenaires francophones, souligner nos activités de recherche multidisciplinaires ainsi que notre point de vue vis-a-vis les interactions Nord-Sud et Sud-Sud. Nous allons aborder nos résultats issus de différents projets associes a ce réseau donc tels que la biodiversité des actinomycètes associes aux plantes médicinales, les bactéries lactiques dans les produits traditionnels fermentes du Vietnam et la valorisation de l'agriculture (riz, manioc) et leurs sous-produits par voies biologiques. (Résumé d'auteur

Transforming medical education to strengthen the health professional training in Viet Nam: A case study

The competency-based undergraduate curriculum reform at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Faculty of Medicine (UMP-FM) is detailed and reviewed in reference to the instructional and institutional reforms, and enabling actions recommended by the Lancet 2010 Commission for Health Professional Education. Key objectives are to: revise the overall 6-year curriculum to be more integrated and competency-based; reinforce students’ knowledge application, problem-solving, clinical competence, self-directed learning and soft skills; develop a comprehensive and performance-based student assessment programme; and establish a comprehensive quality monitoring programme to facilitate changes and improvements. New features include early introduction to the practice of medicine, family- and community-based medicine, professionalism, interprofessional education, electives experiences, and a scholarly project. Institutional reform introduces a faculty development programme, joint planning mechanism, a “culture of critical inquiry”, and a transparent faculty reward system. Lessons learnt from the curriculum reform at UMP-FM could be helpful to medical schools from low- and middle-income countries considering transitioning from a traditional to a competency-based curriculum