Rotavirus infections and climate variability in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a time-series analysis.

Attempts to explain the clear seasonality of rotavirus infections have been made by relating disease incidence to climate factors; however, few studies have disentangled the effects of weather from other factors that might cause seasonality. We investigated the relationships between hospital visits for rotavirus diarrhoea and temperature, humidity and river level, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using time-series analysis adjusting for other confounding seasonal factors. There was strong evidence for an increase in rotavirus diarrhoea at high temperatures, by 40.2% for each 1 degrees C increase above a threshold (29 degrees C). Relative humidity had a linear inverse relationship with the number of cases of rotavirus diarrhoea. River level, above a threshold (4.8 m), was associated with an increase in cases of rotavirus diarrhoea, by 5.5% per 10-cm river-level rise. Our findings provide evidence that factors associated with high temperature, low humidity and high river-level increase the incidence of rotavirus diarrhoea in Dhaka

On the r-matrix structure of the hyperbolic BC(n) Sutherland model

Working in a symplectic reduction framework, we construct a dynamical r-matrix for the classical hyperbolic BC(n) Sutherland model with three independent coupling constants. We also examine the Lax representation of the dynamics and its equivalence with the Hamiltonian equation of motion.Comment: 20 page

Seismic Response and Liquefaction Analysis by an Approximate Method

Presented is a simplified procedure for performing the dynamic effective stress analysis. An equivalent linear method is applied to the procedure. It is assumed, in this method, that the variations of the shear modulus and damping factor due to strain level and effective stress are independent one another. That is, firstly the total stress analysis is done in order to obtain the effective strain. Then the effective stress analysis is carried out and the moduli are varied due to the variation of the effective stress only. The accuracy of the result is checked by comparing it with that of nonlinear solution

Critical enhancement of thermopower in a chemically tuned polar semimetal MoTe2_{\bf 2}

Ferroelectrics with spontaneous electric polarization play an essential role in today's device engineering, such as capacitors and memories. Their physical properties are further enriched by suppressing the long-range polar order, as is exemplified by quantum paraelectrics with giant piezoelectric and dielectric responses at low temperatures. Likewise in metals, a polar lattice distortion has been theoretically predicted to give rise to various unusual physical properties. So far, however, a "ferroelectric"-like transition in metals has seldom been controlled and hence its possible impacts on transport phenomena remain unexplored. Here we report the discovery of anomalous enhancement of thermopower near the critical region between the polar and nonpolar metallic phases in 1T'-Mo$_{1-x}$Nb$_{x}$Te$_2$ with a chemically tunable polar transition. It is unveiled from the first-principles calculations and magnetotransport measurements that charge transport with strongly energy-dependent scattering rate critically evolves towards the boundary to the nonpolar phase, resulting in large cryogenic thermopower. Such a significant influence of the structural instability on transport phenomena might arise from the fluctuating or heterogeneous polar metallic states, which would pave a novel route to improving thermoelectric efficiency.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

Impacts of El Niño Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole on dengue incidence in Bangladesh

Dengue dynamics are driven by complex interactions between hosts, vectors and viruses that are influenced by environmental and climatic factors. Several studies examined the role of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in dengue incidence. However, the role of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), a coupled ocean atmosphere phenomenon in the Indian Ocean, which controls the summer monsoon rainfall in the Indian region, remains unexplored. Here, we examined the effects of ENSO and IOD on dengue incidence in Bangladesh. According to the wavelet coherence analysis, there was a very weak association between ENSO, IOD and dengue incidence, but a highly significant coherence between dengue incidence and local climate variables (temperature and rainfall). However, a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) revealed that the association between dengue incidence and ENSO or IOD were comparatively stronger after adjustment for local climate variables, seasonality and trend. The estimated effects were nonlinear for both ENSO and IOD with higher relative risks at higher ENSO and IOD. The weak association between ENSO, IOD and dengue incidence might be driven by the stronger effects of local climate variables such as temperature and rainfall. Further research is required to disentangle these effects

Evaluation of the hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in proton-conducting oxides by converting the PSL values of a tritium imaging plate

Proton-conducting oxides have potential applications in hydrogen sensors, hydrogen pumps, and other electrochemical devices including the tritium purification and recovery systems of nuclear fusion reactors. Although the distribution of hydrogen (H) in such oxide materials is an important aspect, its precise measurement is difficult. In the present study, the hydrogen solubility and diffusivity behavior of BaZr0.9Y0.1O2.95 (BZY), BaZr0.955Y0.03Co0.015O2.97 (BZYC), and CaZr0.9In0.1O2.95 (CZI) were studied using tritiated heavy water vapor i.e., DTO (~2 kPa, tritium (T) = 0.1%) by converting the photostimulated luminescence (PSL) values of the imaging plate (IP). The samples were exposed to DTO vapor at 673 K for 2 h or at 873 K for 1 h. The disc-shaped oxide specimens (diameter ~7.5 mm; thickness ~2.3 mm; theoretical density (TD) > 98 %) were prepared by conventional powder metallurgy. The IP images of the specimen surfaces of all the three materials T-exposed revealed that BZY showed the most uniform T distribution with the highest tritium activity. The cross-sectional T concentration profiles of the cut specimens showed that T diffused deeper into BZY and BZYC than into CZI. The hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in the CZI specimen were lower than that in the BZY and BZYC specimens. This suggested that barium zirconates were more favorable proton conductors than calcium zirconates.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

Dynamic Centrifuge Tests on Sea Revetment with Multi-Anchors

In the construction of sea revetment, composite type of revetment has been frequently used in Japan, in which huge sized concrete caissons are placed on gravel mound to sustain earth pressure induced by sea reclamation. There are several case records of serious disaster with large displacement of the caisson in huge earthquake. This requires research efforts to find a new type of sea revetment having better static and dynamic performances. A sort of tieback caisson is an idea for the requirement, in which a concrete caisson with relatively small width is reinforced by many anchors. Authors started to study the applicability of this new type of caisson to sea revetment construction, in which a series of centrifuge test has been conducted to investigate its static and dynamic behaviors. In the dynamic tests, the model ground was subjected to several earthquake motions at a 50 g centrifugal acceleration field until the ground failed. The model tests were conducted changing the caisson width and the number and length of anchors. Simple calculations incorporating with the anchor force were also conducted to evaluate stability of the caisson. This paper describes the model ground preparation, test results and calculated results in detail

Disease mechanism, biomarker and therapeutics for spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA)

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a hereditary neuromuscular disorder caused by CAG trinucleotide expansion in the gene encoding the androgen receptor (AR). In the central nervous system, lower motor neurons are selectively affected, whereas pathology of patients and animal models also indicates involvement of skeletal muscle including loss of fast-twitch type 2 fibres and increased slow-twitch type 1 fibres, together with a glycolytic-to-oxidative metabolic switch. Evaluation of muscle and fat using MRI, in addition to biochemical indices such as serum creatinine level, are promising biomarkers to track the disease progression. The serum level of creatinine starts to decrease before the onset of muscle weakness, followed by the emergence of hand tremor, a prodromal sign of the disease. Androgen-dependent nuclear accumulation of the polyglutamine-expanded AR is an essential step in the pathogenesis, providing therapeutic opportunities via hormonal manipulation and gene silencing with antisense oligonucleotides. Animal studies also suggest that hyperactivation of Src, alteration of autophagy and a mitochondrial deficit underlie the neuromuscular degeneration in SBMA and provide alternative therapeutic targets