Induced Bank Filtration: Hydraulic Testing of Pilot Filters

Hydraulic tests were performed on two pilot scale filters as part of a water treatment project in the village of Nersa, Karnataka, India. The filters use locally sourced alluvial material to filter E.coli contamination using natural processes that mimic those in Riverbank Filtration (RBF). Two pilot scale filters were tested, one containing locally sourced granular activated carbon (GAC) and one without. A falling head test and tracer test were preformed, and breakthrough curves were used to analyze the hydraulic performance. E.coli data were also collected, and percent removal was calculated to determine the effectiveness of the filters. Relative to the influent water, the E.coli removal percentage of Filter 1 (no GAC) was consistently high and ranged between 97.1% and 100% E.coli. The addition of GAC did not improve performance in this study. Overall, the effectiveness in bacteria removal observed in the non GAC filter warranted construction of a full-scale system

Study Design of a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate a Large-scale Distribution of Cook Stoves and Water Filters in Western Province, Rwanda

Background: In Rwanda, pneumonia and diarrhea are the first and second leading causes of death, respectively, among children under five. Household air pollution (HAP) resultant from cooking indoors with biomass fuels on traditional stoves is a significant risk factor for pneumonia, while consumption of contaminated drinking water is a primary cause of diarrheal disease. To date, there have been no largescale effectiveness trials of programmatic efforts to provide either improved cookstoves or household water filters at scale in a low-income country. In this paper we describe the design of a clusterrandomized trial to evaluate the impact of a national-level program to distribute and promote the use of improved cookstoves and advanced water filters to the poorest quarter of households in Rwanda. Methods/Design: We randomly allocated 72 sectors (administratively defined units) in Western Province to the intervention, with the remaining 24 sectors in the province serving as controls. In the intervention sectors, roughly 100,000 households received improved cookstoves and household water filters through a government-sponsored program targeting the poorest quarter of households nationally. The primary outcome measures are the incidence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) and diarrhea among children under five years of age. Over a one-year surveillance period, all cases of acute respiratory infection (ARI) and diarrhea identified by health workers in the study area will be extracted from records maintained at health facilities and by community health workers (CHW). In addition, we are conducting intensive, longitudinal data collection among a random sample of households in the study area for in-depth assessment of coverage, use, environmental exposures, and additional health measures. Discussion: Although previous research has examined the impact of providing household water treatment and improved cookstoves on child health, there have been no studies of national-level programs to deliver these interventions at scale in a developing country. The results of this study, the first RCT of a large-scale programmatic cookstove or household water filter intervention, will inform global efforts to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality from diarrheal disease and pneumonia

Low dose influenza virus challenge in the ferret leads to increased virus shedding and greater sensitivity to oseltamivir

Ferrets are widely used to study human influenza virus infection. Their airway physiology and cell receptor distribution makes them ideal for the analysis of pathogenesis and virus transmission, and for testing the efficacy of anti-influenza interventions and vaccines. The 2009 pandemic influenza virus (H1N1pdm09) induces mild to moderate respiratory disease in infected ferrets, following inoculation with 106 plaque-forming units (pfu) of virus. We have demonstrated that reducing the challenge dose to 102 pfu delays the onset of clinical signs by 1 day, and results in a modest reduction in clinical signs, and a less rapid nasal cavity innate immune response. There was also a delay in virus production in the upper respiratory tract, this was up to 9-fold greater and virus shedding was prolonged. Progression of infection to the lower respiratory tract was not noticeably delayed by the reduction in virus challenge. A dose of 104 pfu gave an infection that was intermediate between those of the 106 pfu and 102 pfu doses. To address the hypothesis that using a more authentic low challenge dose would facilitate a more sensitive model for antiviral efficacy, we used the well-known neuraminidase inhibitor, oseltamivir. Oseltamivir-treated and untreated ferrets were challenged with high (106 pfu) and low (102 pfu) doses of influenza H1N1pdm09 virus. The low dose treated ferrets showed significant delays in innate immune response and virus shedding, delayed onset of pathological changes in the nasal cavity, and reduced pathological changes and viral RNA load in the lung, relative to untreated ferrets. Importantly, these observations were not seen in treated animals when the high dose challenge was used. In summary, low dose challenge gives a disease that more closely parallels the disease parameters of human influenza infection, and provides an improved pre-clinical model for the assessment of influenza therapeutics, and potentially, influenza vaccines

For richer or poorer in sickness for wealth: what price consumerism?

Affluence and material goods of varying types are portents of a millennium age consumer culture that encourages the masses to voluntarily participate in the need to buy, buy and buy! This trend to spend creates a purchasing fervour that preoccupies many consumers with the ongoing yearning to shop until they drop. Clever marketing tactics such as enticing smells, catchy jingles, prize-draw entries, lucrative sales, discounts and the recruitment of celebrities to advertise a range of different wares are just some of the ploys adopted by vendors and retailers to maintain the sustainability of this cycle of consumer spending. This scenario promotes what could be perceived as a never-ending desire to procure yet more products and merchandise, which can create social dilemmas such as personal debt due to, for example, impulse buying, excessive spending and unnecessary borrowing. Retailers and manufacturers are driven by a quest to sell so constantly tout their goods to tempt consumers including those with a need for personal and social respect, to take the bait in order to encourage them to keep buying. This, coupled with the rapid advances in technology over recent decades, has made it easier for consumers to shop, order, obtain and pay for their goods from the comfort of an armchair or via handheld devices, and all at a tap of a button. In essence, technology has added to, or even exacerbated, the materialistic consumer trend as witnessed across many global societies today – from the east and the west to the north and the south. But what impact does consumerism have on the well-being of humankind and, in turn, the environment? This chapter adopts a comparative approach to answer this question by exploring the implications of consumerism as a means for broadening the topic’s framework and to contribute to debates regarding consumerism, well-being, social dilemma, sustainability and techno-economics

SecureMEMS: Selective Deposition of Energetic Materials

There exists a pressing operational need to secure and control access to high-valued electromechanical systems, and in some cases render them inoperable. Developing a reliable method for depositing energetic materials will allow for the near-seamless integration of electromechanical systems and energetic material, and, in turn, provide the pathway for security and selective destruction that is needed. In this work, piezoelectric inkjet printing was used to selectively deposit energetic materials. Nanothermites, comprising of nanoscale aluminum and nanoscale copper oxide suspended in dimethyl-formamide (DMF), were printed onto silicon wafers, which enabled both thermal and thrust measurements of the decomposing energetic material. Various solids loadings were studied in order to optimize printing characteristics. Going forward, further studies will focus on the plausibility of inkjet printing other energetic materials for the purposes of the degradation of electromechanical systems

Study design of a cluster-randomized controlled trial to evaluate a large-scale distribution of cook stoves and water filters in Western Province, Rwanda.

BACKGROUND: In Rwanda, pneumonia and diarrhea are the first and second leading causes of death, respectively, among children under five. Household air pollution (HAP) resultant from cooking indoors with biomass fuels on traditional stoves is a significant risk factor for pneumonia, while consumption of contaminated drinking water is a primary cause of diarrheal disease. To date, there have been no large-scale effectiveness trials of programmatic efforts to provide either improved cookstoves or household water filters at scale in a low-income country. In this paper we describe the design of a cluster-randomized trial to evaluate the impact of a national-level program to distribute and promote the use of improved cookstoves and advanced water filters to the poorest quarter of households in Rwanda. METHODS/DESIGN: We randomly allocated 72 sectors (administratively defined units) in Western Province to the intervention, with the remaining 24 sectors in the province serving as controls. In the intervention sectors, roughly 100,000 households received improved cookstoves and household water filters through a government-sponsored program targeting the poorest quarter of households nationally. The primary outcome measures are the incidence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) and diarrhea among children under five years of age. Over a one-year surveillance period, all cases of acute respiratory infection (ARI) and diarrhea identified by health workers in the study area will be extracted from records maintained at health facilities and by community health workers (CHW). In addition, we are conducting intensive, longitudinal data collection among a random sample of households in the study area for in-depth assessment of coverage, use, environmental exposures, and additional health measures. DISCUSSION: Although previous research has examined the impact of providing household water treatment and improved cookstoves on child health, there have been no studies of national-level programs to deliver these interventions at scale in a developing country. The results of this study, the first RCT of a large-scale programmatic cookstove or household water filter intervention, will inform global efforts to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality from diarrheal disease and pneumonia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial is registered at Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02239250)

Detection of Potential Transit Signals in the First Three Quarters of Kepler Mission Data

We present the results of a search for potential transit signals in the first three quarters of photometry data acquired by the Kepler Mission. The targets of the search include 151,722 stars which were observed over the full interval and an additional 19,132 stars which were observed for only 1 or 2 quarters. From this set of targets we find a total of 5,392 detections which meet the Kepler detection criteria: those criteria are periodicity of the signal, an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio, and a composition test which rejects spurious detections which contain non-physical combinations of events. The detected signals are dominated by events with relatively low signal-to-noise ratio and by events with relatively short periods. The distribution of estimated transit depths appears to peak in the range between 40 and 100 parts per million, with a few detections down to fewer than 10 parts per million. The detected signals are compared to a set of known transit events in the Kepler field of view which were derived by a different method using a longer data interval; the comparison shows that the current search correctly identified 88.1% of the known events. A tabulation of the detected transit signals, examples which illustrate the analysis and detection process, a discussion of future plans and open, potentially fruitful, areas of further research are included

An L Band Spectrum of the Coldest Brown Dwarf

The coldest brown dwarf, WISE 0855, is the closest known planetary-mass, free-floating object and has a temperature nearly as cold as the solar system gas giants. Like Jupiter, it is predicted to have an atmosphere rich in methane, water, and ammonia, with clouds of volatile ices. WISE 0855 is faint at near-infrared wavelengths and emits almost all its energy in the mid-infrared. Skemer et al. 2016 presented a spectrum of WISE 0855 from 4.5-5.1 micron (M band), revealing water vapor features. Here, we present a spectrum of WISE 0855 in L band, from 3.4-4.14 micron. We present a set of atmosphere models that include a range of compositions (metallicities and C/O ratios) and water ice clouds. Methane absorption is clearly present in the spectrum. The mid-infrared color can be better matched with a methane abundance that is depleted relative to solar abundance. We find that there is evidence for water ice clouds in the M band spectrum, and we find a lack of phosphine spectral features in both the L and M band spectra. We suggest that a deep continuum opacity source may be obscuring the near-infrared flux, possibly a deep phosphorous-bearing cloud, ammonium dihyrogen phosphate. Observations of WISE 0855 provide critical constraints for cold planetary atmospheres, bridging the temperature range between the long-studied solar system planets and accessible exoplanets. JWST will soon revolutionize our understanding of cold brown dwarfs with high-precision spectroscopy across the infrared, allowing us to study their compositions and cloud properties, and to infer their atmospheric dynamics and formation processes.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap