Urban and Rural—Population and Energy Consumption Dynamics in Local Authorities within England and Wales

The formulation of feasible and pragmatic policies that mitigate climate change would require a thorough understanding of the interconnectivity that exists between environment, energy, and the composition of our settlements both urban and rural. This study explores the patterns of energy consumption in England and Wales by investigating consumption behavior within domestic and transport sectors as a function of city characteristics, such as population, density, and density distribution for 346 Local Authority Units (LAU). Patterns observed linking energetic behavior of these LAUs to their respective population and area characteristics highlight some distinctly contrasting consumption behaviors within urban and rural zones. This provides an overview of the correlation between urban/rural status, population, and energy consumption and highlights points of interest for further research and policy intervention. The findings show that energy consumption across cities follows common power law scaling increasing sub-linearly with their population regardless of their urban/rural classification. However, when considering per capita and sector specific consumptions, decreasing per capita consumption patterns are observed for growing population densities within more uniformly populated urban LAUs. This is while rural and sparsely populated LAUs exhibit sharply different patterns for gas, electricity, and transport per capita consumption

Productivity, infrastructure, and urban density – an allometric comparison of three European city-regions across scales

Agglomeration-based arguments citing Dutch and German city-regions have been a primary driver in advocating intercity transport strategies in the north of England. In this paper, we adopt an allometric urban model investigating the applicability and transferability of these transport-led agglomerative strategies promoted to address England’s regional economic under-performance. This is undertaken through a comparative study of the size-cost performance balance of three city-regions and the overall urban networks in the Netherlands, Germany, and England and Wales using city units defined at different spatial scales. While our results support a case for better mobility and transport comparing the three urban networks regardless of the spatial scales, comparisons of specific city-regions indicate a more nuanced interplay of productivity, mobility infrastructure, and urban density

Molecular detection of Trichostrongylus species through PCR followed by high resolution melt analysis of ITS-2 rDNA sequences

Polymerase chain reaction followed by high resolution melting (PCR-HRM) analysis is a simple, rapid and accurate method for molecular detection of various nematode species. The objective of the present study was, for the first time, to develop a PCR-HRM assay for the detection of various animal Trichostrongylus spp. A pair of primers targeting the ITS-2 rDNA region of the Trichostrongylus spp. was designed for the development of the HRM assay. DNA samples were extracted from 30 adult worms of Trichostrongylus spp., the ITS-2-rDNA region was amplified using PCR, and the resultant products were sequenced and characterized. Afterwards, the PCR-HRM analysis was conducted to detect and discriminate Trichostrongylus spp. Molecular sequence analysis revealed that 24, 4, and 1 of the samples were T. colubriformis, T. vitrinus and T. capricola, respectively. Results from PCR-HRM indicated that complete agreement was relatively found between speciation by HRM analysis and DNA sequencing for the detection of Trichostrongylus species. The PCR-HRM analysis method developed in the present study is fast and low-cost; the method can be comparable with other molecular detection techniques, representing a reliable tool for the identification of various species within the Trichostrongylus genus. © 2020 Elsevier B.V

Survey of hydatid cyst surgeries in hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences during 2004 to 2014

Background: Hydatidosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases with global distribution. Due to the prevalence of the disease in country, the study aimed to determine the clinical and laboratory findings in patients with hydatidosis admitted to surgical departments of educational hospitals, Imam Khomeini and Golestan, in Ahvaz city during 2004-2014. Materials and Methods: Data of the patients including demographic characteristics, and clinical and laboratory findings were recorded in a prepared form and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests by the SPSS software. Results: From a total of all patients, 49 (55.7) and 39 patients (44.3) were females and males respectively; 25 patients were resident in rural areas and 62 in urban areas. The mean age of the patients was 30.6±2 years. Also, the maximum and minimum percentages of the disease were observed in the age group 20-29 and 80-89, respectively. Recurrence was observed in 9 patients. The highest prevalence of the hydatid cyst was in the right lobe of the liver (26.1). Among the methods of imaging, sonography and MRI had the highest and lowest use in the diagnosis of the disease, respectively. Conclusion: Findings of this study show that the most common organs affected are the liver and the younger age group and suburbs are more prone to hydatidosis. Due to the chronicity of the disease and the late diagnosis during the visit, screening for endemic areas and high-risk persons is recommended

Induction of apoptosis by alcoholic extract of combination verbascum thapsus and ginger officinale on Iranian isolate of trichomonas vaginalis

Introduction: The genus Malassezia is an important skin resident of human. The present study aimed to analyze in vitro activity of the essential oils of Lavandula stoechas, Cuminum cyminum and Artemisia sieberi against clinical strains of Malassezia species. Methods: A total of 47 Malassezia strains, including Malassezia furfur, Malassezia globosa and Malassezia obtuse, were used in this study. A disk diffusion technique was selected for testing the susceptibility of Malassezia strains to the essential oils. Results: All the essential oils showed in vitro activity against Malassezia strains, with M. furfur and M. obtusa being the highest and lowest susceptible of the strains, respectively. The highest antifungal activity was associated with the essential oil of C. cyminum (mean ± SD: 50.0 ± 0.0 mm), followed by L. stoechas (mean ± SD: 46.8 ± 3.1 mm) and A. sieberi (mean ± SD: 36.9 ± 5.7 mm). The inhibition zone ranges were 12.5 to 15.6 mm (mean ± SD: 14.4 ± 1.6 mm) for ketoconazole and 11.6 to 13.3 mm (mean ± SD: 12.4 ± 0.9 mm) for fluconazole. Although all the antifungal drugs were found to possess good antifungal activities against Malassezia strains, their effects were lower than the activities shown by the essential oils tested (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These results indicated that the essential oils tested, especially the one from C. cyminum, inhibited the growth of clinical strains of Malassezia, implying its potential use in the treatment of Malassezia infections. This indicates that this plant may be useful in preparation of new drugs

Genetic variation of Giardia lamblia isolates from food-handlers in Kashan, Central Iran

<p><strong><em>Background:</em></strong> Based on genotyping study of human isolates of <em>Giardia lamblia</em>; humans are mainly infected by two assemblages A and B. The present study was carried out to determine the sub-assemblages of <em>G. lamblia</em> isolated from food handlers referred to Kashan health centers, central Iran, 2015.</p><p><strong><em>Methods:</em></strong> In this cross-sectional<strong> </strong>study,<strong> </strong>3653 stool samples collected from food-handlers that annually refer to health center for getting a health certification and examined microscopically for <em>G. lamblia</em> cyst. Totally, 44 isolates were selected from 47 <em>Giardia</em> positive samples. Cysts were partially purified by the sucrose density gradient method. After freeze-thaw cycles, genomic DNA was extracted using QIAamp Stool Mini kit. A single step PCR-RFLP method was used to amplify a 458bp fragment at the glutamate dehydrogenase <em>(gdh</em>) locus, restriction enzymes <em>BspLI </em>and <em>RsaI</em> were used for distinguish between genotypes A and B and their subgroups.</p><p><strong><em>Results:</em></strong> Of 44 isolates, 24(54.5%) were sub-assemblage AII, 9(20.5%) group B including 7(15.9%) BIII and 2(4.6%) BIV sub-assemblage and 11(25%) isolates showed a mixed pattern of AII and B. Sub-assemblage AI was not detected in this study.</p><strong><em>Conclusion:</em></strong> The higher rate of sub-assemblage AII demonstrated an anthroponotic origin of the infection so infected food-handlers could directly transmit this protozoan to consumers via contaminated food and water. For finding of pattern of transmission and distribution of <em>Giardia</em> assemblages and sub-assemblage, more studies in human and animal population in different regions are necessary

The effect of alcoholic extracts of Arctium lappa L. and Satureja hortensis L. against Trichomonas vaginalis in vitro

Background: Trichomonas vaginalis infection is one of the most prevalent type of vaginitis in women. Considering the side effects of metronidazole and therapeutic properties of Arctium lappa L. and Satureja hortensis L. in traditional medicine, this study aimed to examine the anti-Trichomonas effects of Arctium lappa and Satureja hortensis alcoholic extracts in vitro. Materials and Methods: This experimental study was conducted on T. vaginalis isolated from 1203 persons referred to five health centers in Kashan city. Five T. vaginalis isolates were cultured in a TYI-S-33 medium and were used to study the effect of Arctium lappa and Satureja hortensis extracts. The effects of different concentrations (12.5, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1000 µg/mL) of plant extracts on the growth of T. vaginalis trophozoeites were studied 12, 24, and 48 h after the culture. Also, the culture media and metronidazole (0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 µg/mL) were considered as the negative and positive controls, respectively. The effects of the extracts and drug were examined by counting the number of live and dead parasites using the trypan blue staining method. Results: Results showed that the alcoholic extracts of Satureja hortensis and Arctium lappa had an inhibitory effect on the growth of T. vaginalis. The IC50 values of the alcoholic extracts of Satureja hortensis, Arctium lappa and metronidazole after 24 h were 190.8, 996.7 and 0.0326 µg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: The present study shows the in vitro anti-Trichomonas effect of Arctium lappa and Satureja hortensis extracts. The anti-Trichomonas effect of Satureja hortensis extract was higher than that of the Arctium lappa extract. Further studies are recommended to investigate the anti-Trichomonas effect of major components of these plants, especially the Satureja hortensis extract

Copper adsorption from aqueous solution by activated carbon of wax beans waste activated by magnetite nanoparticles

Copper, a heavy metal, causes environmental pollution through a variety of industrial processes in many countries. Adsorption is known as an effective and efficient way of removing heavy metals. The present study was conducted mainly to magnetize the carbon in wax bean waste with magnetite nanoparticles and use it as adsorbent to remove copper from aqueous solution. Carbon was obtained from wax beans waste and activated with magnetite nanoparticles. The characteristics of obtaining adsorbent were studied and analyzed by FE-SEM, BET, and FT-IR. In this study, the effect of pH, adsorbent dose, contact time and copper concentration on the efficiency of copper removal was investigated per full factorial design by the Design Expert Software. The concentration of copper was measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Varian AA240). For statistical analysis of the experiment’s data, ANOVA and P-value were used. Copper initial concentration 100 mg/L, adsorbent dose 1 g/L, pH 7 and contact time 40 min were obtained as optimal conditions for copper removal. Investigation of the isotherms indicated that the experimental data of the process were correlated with Langmuir Model. The maximum capacity of copper adsorption of Langmuir Model was 49.75 mg/g. Findings indicated that at optimal conditions, the amount of copper adsorbed from synthetic wastewater and real wastewater was 99.73% and 63%, respectively. Therefore, this method is capable of removing copper effectively and could be used to remove this metal from industrial wastewaters. © 2018 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved

Non-universality of elastic exponents in random bond-bending networks

We numerically investigate the rigidity percolation transition in two-dimensional flexible, random rod networks with freely rotating cross-links. Near the transition, networks are dominated by bending modes and the elastic modulii vanish with an exponent f=3.0\pm0.2, in contrast with central force percolation which shares the same geometric exponents. This indicates that universality for geometric quantities does not imply universality for elastic ones. The implications of this result for actin-fiber networks is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor clarifications and amendments. To appear in PRE Rap. Com