Epidemiology of Visceral Leishmaniasis in India

Kala-azar is a leading parasitic infection of great epidemic and mortality potential. More than 90% of Incident cases brought to notice of WHO in 2019 were mainly reported from 10 countries. Four endemic states in India namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand have high disease burden of Kalazar. All 4 endemic states have to mandatorily notify cases to the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) every month, even if there are zero cases. In recent years of Kala-azar cases, India have witnessed reduction of 97% largely due to the introduction of single-dose AmBisome –in India has been the game changer. There are three forms of leishmaniasis seen in India Kala-azar, they are Visceral Leishmaniasis, Post Kalazar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL) and Cutaneous leishmaniasis. PKDL patients harbor the parasite and may be the source of new infection to the vector even 20 years later. Poverty enhances the risk for Kala-azar. Poor housing and domestic sanitary conditions are good breeding ground for sandfly which is the vector for Visceral Leishmaniasis, as well as resting sites and their ease of sandfly contact with humans. Kala-azar is a climate-sensitive disease as any change in temperature and humidity influences vector breeding

MCD of Non-aromatic Cyclic π-Electron Systems. Part 6: Pentalenes and Heptalenes

The magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of several stable derivatives of pentalene (1) and heptalene (2) have been recorded. The lowest energy transition (from the ground to the S state in perimeter model nomenclature) is extremely weak in MCD and in absorption. The sign patterns of the B terms for the first three strong transitions—N₁, N₂, P₁—in the order of increasing energy, are −−+ for 1 and ++− for 2. These findings are in perfect agreement with numerical results obtained at the SACCI level and with expectations based on the perimeter model of Parts 1–4 of this series, both of which lead to the conclusion that the magnetic mixing of the S excited state with the ground state is dominant. This is an extremely rare situation for an organic molecule, in which B term signs are normally determined by the mutual magnetic mixing of excited states. It can be expected to occur in other conjugated systems derived from 4N-electron perimeters that have a low-energy first excitation, which is of intrashell nature in the perimeter model and therefore is magnetic-dipole allowed. In contrast, all low-energy transitions in the much more common systems derived from (4N + 2)-electron perimeters are of intershell nature and are magnetic-dipole forbidden

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) Tracks 2-3 Peta-Gram Increase in Carbon Release to the Atmosphere During the 2014-2016 El Nino

The powerful El Nio event of 2015-2016 - the third most intense since the 1950s - has exerted a large impact on the Earth's natural climate system. The column-averaged CO2 dry-air mole fraction (XCO2) observations from satellites and ground based networks are analyzed together with in situ observations for the period of September 2014 to October 2016. From the differences between satellite (OCO-2) observations and simulations using an atmospheric chemistry-transport model, we estimate that, relative to the mean annual fluxes for 2014, the most recent El Nio has contributed to an excess CO2 emission from the Earth's surface (land+ocean) to the atmosphere in the range of 2.4+/-0.2 PgC (1 Pg = 10(exp 15) g) over the period of July 2015 to June 2016. The excess CO2 flux is resulted primarily from reduction in vegetation uptake due to drought, and to a lesser degree from increased biomass burning. It is about the half of the CO2 flux anomaly (range: 4.4-6.7 PgC) estimated for the 1997/1998 El Nio. The annual total sink is estimated to be 3.9+/-0.2 PgC for the assumed fossil fuel emission of 10.1 PgC. The major uncertainty in attribution arise from error in anthropogenic emission trends, satellite data and atmospheric transport

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) tracks 2–3 peta-gram increase in carbon release to the atmosphere during the 2014–2016 El Niño

The powerful El Niño event of 2015–2016 – the third most intense since the 1950s – has exerted a large impact on the Earth’s natural climate system. The column-averaged CO_2 dry-air mole fraction (XCO_2) observations from satellites and ground-based networks are analyzed together with in situ observations for the period of September 2014 to October 2016. From the differences between satellite (OCO-2) observations and simulations using an atmospheric chemistry-transport model, we estimate that, relative to the mean annual fluxes for 2014, the most recent El Niño has contributed to an excess CO_2 emission from the Earth’s surface (land + ocean) to the atmosphere in the range of 2.4 ± 0.2 PgC (1 Pg = 10^(15) g) over the period of July 2015 to June 2016. The excess CO_2 flux is resulted primarily from reduction in vegetation uptake due to drought, and to a lesser degree from increased biomass burning. It is about the half of the CO_2 flux anomaly (range: 4.4–6.7 PgC) estimated for the 1997/1998 El Niño. The annual total sink is estimated to be 3.9 ± 0.2 PgC for the assumed fossil fuel emission of 10.1 PgC. The major uncertainty in attribution arise from error in anthropogenic emission trends, satellite data and atmospheric transport

Evidence-based national vaccine policy

India has over a century old tradition of development and production of vaccines. The Government rightly adopted self-sufficiency in vaccine production and self-reliance in vaccine technology as its policy objectives in 1986. However, in the absence of a full-fledged vaccine policy, there have been concerns related to demand and supply, manufacture vs. import, role of public and private sectors, choice of vaccines, new and combination vaccines, universal vs. selective vaccination, routine immunization vs. special drives, cost-benefit aspects, regulatory issues, logistics etc. The need for a comprehensive and evidence based vaccine policy that enables informed decisions on all these aspects from the public health point of view brought together doctors, scientists, policy analysts, lawyers and civil society representatives to formulate this policy paper for the consideration of the Government. This paper evolved out of the first ever ICMR-NISTADS national brainstorming workshop on vaccine policy held during 4-5 June, 2009 in New Delhi, and subsequent discussions over email for several weeks, before being adopted unanimously in the present form

National CO2 budgets (2015–2020) inferred from atmospheric CO2 observations in support of the Global Stocktake

Accurate accounting of emissions and removals of CO2 is critical for the planning and verification of emission reduction targets in support of the Paris Agreement. Here, we present a pilot dataset of country-specific net carbon exchange (NCE; fossil plus terrestrial ecosystem fluxes) and terrestrial carbon stock changes aimed at informing countries’ carbon budgets. These estimates are based on "top-down" NCE outputs from the v10 Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) modeling intercomparison project (MIP), wherein an ensemble of inverse modeling groups conducted standardized experiments assimilating OCO-2 column-averaged dry-air mole fraction (XCO2) retrievals (ACOS v10), in situ CO2 measurements, or combinations of these data. The v10 OCO-2 MIP NCE estimates are combined with "bottom-up" estimates of fossil fuel emissions and lateral carbon fluxes to estimate changes in terrestrial carbon stocks, which are impacted by anthropogenic and natural drivers. These flux and stock change estimates are reported annually (2015–2020) as both a global 1° × 1° gridded dataset and as a country-level dataset. Across the v10 OCO-2 MIP experiments, we obtain increases in the ensemble median terrestrial carbon stocks of 3.29–4.58 PgCO2 yr-1 (0.90–1.25 PgC yr-1). This is a result of broad increases in terrestrial carbon stocks across the northern extratropics, while the tropics generally have stock losses but with considerable regional variability and differences between v10 OCO-2 MIP experiments. We discuss the state of the science for tracking emissions and removals using top-down methods, including current limitations and future developments towards top-down monitoring and verification systems

Circular dichroism of europium(3+) in a potassium neodymium double nitrate (K<SUB>3</SUB>Nd<SUB>2</SUB>(NO<SUB>3</SUB>)<SUB>9</SUB>) single crystal

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