scholarly journals A micro-epidemiological analysis of febrile malaria in Coastal Kenya showing hotspots within hotspots

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Bejon ◽  
Thomas N Williams ◽  
Christopher Nyundo ◽  
Simon I Hay ◽  
David Benz ◽  
...  

Malaria transmission is spatially heterogeneous. This reduces the efficacy of control strategies, but focusing control strategies on clusters or ‘hotspots’ of transmission may be highly effective. Among 1500 homesteads in coastal Kenya we calculated (a) the fraction of febrile children with positive malaria smears per homestead, and (b) the mean age of children with malaria per homestead. These two measures were inversely correlated, indicating that children in homesteads at higher transmission acquire immunity more rapidly. This inverse correlation increased gradually with increasing spatial scale of analysis, and hotspots of febrile malaria were identified at every scale. We found hotspots within hotspots, down to the level of an individual homestead. Febrile malaria hotspots were temporally unstable, but 4 km radius hotspots could be targeted for 1 month following 1 month periods of surveillance.

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-33
Author(s):  
D. R. Аgliullin ◽  
G. R. Khasanova ◽  
E. A. Abdulaeva ◽  
S. T. Agliullina ◽  
A. N. Amirov ◽  
...  

Objective: To assess the incidence of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) through the example of a large industrial Russian city.Methods: A retrospective analysis of CSC of Kazan population for 2009–2018 has been done.Results: From 2019 to 2018, 831 new cases of CSC were registered in Kazan. A statistically significant upward trend with growth rate 105.2% and accession rate 5.2% was typical for the annual track record. The mean age of patients was 50 years, the minimum age was 14 years, the maximum age was 87 years. A statistically significant upward trend was detected in track record of incidence in groups of 30–39-year-old and 40–49-year-old. Seasonal increase of the incidence was recorded in February, March, April, October, and November.Conclusions: The upward trend and seasonal prevalence are typical for longterm morbidity of CSC in Kazan. The highest morbidity rate of CSC and statistically significant upward trend of its incidence in track record were recorded in the age of 30–39. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s416-s416
Author(s):  
Sumon Ghosh ◽  
Md. Sohel Rana ◽  
Sukanta Chowdhury

Background: Vaccinating dogs against rabies is an effective means of reducing human rabies. Methods: We analyzed 1,327 clinically diagnosed human rabies deaths and mass dog vaccination (MDV) data during 2006–2018 to quantify the impacts of MDV on human rabies incidence in Bangladesh and a subset of rabies death data (n = 422) for clinico-epidemiological analysis. Results: We found a positive and increasing trend of dog population vaccination (P = .01 and τ = 0.71) and a negative and declining trend (P < .001 and τ = −0.88) of human rabies cases (correlation coefficient, −0.82). Among 422 human rabies death cases, most victims (78%) sought treatment from traditional healers, and 12% received postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). The mean incubation period of rabies cases with exposure sites on the head and neck (35 days) was shorter than the upper limb (mean, 64 days; P = .02) and lower limb (mean, 89 days; P < .01). MDV is effective for reducing human rabies cases in Bangladesh. Conclusions: Creating awareness among the animal bite victims to stop relying on traditional healers rather seeking PEP, addressing the role of traditional healers through an awareness education program in respect to the treatment of dog bites, ensuring availability of PEP, and continuing to scale up MDV can help prevent human rabies deaths.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Yinjing Guo ◽  
Xiangrong Wang ◽  
Xueqing Zhang

This paper extends the stochastic stability criteria of two measures to the mean stability and proves the stability criteria for a kind of stochastic Itô’s systems. Moreover, by applying optimal control approaches, the mean stability criteria in terms of two measures are also obtained for the stochastic systems with coefficient’s uncertainty.


Author(s):  
Giuseppe Lippi ◽  
Gabriel Lima-Oliveira ◽  
Giorgio Brocco ◽  
Antonella Bassi ◽  
Gian Luca Salvagno

AbstractBackground:Despite the importance of manual pipetting of fluids such as water, solutions, buffers, reagents, or biological samples in daily laboratory practice, the intra- and inter-individual imprecision of this activity has not been recently described in scientific publications.Methods:Twenty laboratory operators were randomly enrolled for this study. Imprecision of manual pipetting was estimated by asking each laboratory professional to dispense 1 mL, 100 μL or 10 μL of distilled water for 10 consecutive times with three certified pipettes into a 50-mL plastic container placed into a gravimetric balance. The weight of the water dispensed was systematically recorded for each of the 10 repeated attempts, and the inter- and intra-operator imprecision was finally calculated and expressed as coefficient of variation (CV%).Results:The mean intra-individual imprecision was 5.7% (range, 0%–11.8%) for pipetting 10 μL, 0.8% (range, 0.4%–1.9%) for pipetting 100 μL, and 0.2% (range, 0.1%–0.5%) for pipetting 1 mL. Overall, the mean inter-individual imprecision was 8.1% for pipetting 10 μL, 1.1% for pipetting 100 μL and 0.4% for pipetting 1 mL. A significantly inverse correlation was found between intra-individual pipetting imprecision and the amount of water dispensed (r = –0.80; p<0.001). No significant correlation was observed between individual pipetting performance and sex, age, qualification, and years of experience in the laboratory.Conclusions:The results of this study show that manual pipetting is plagued by a considerable intra- and inter-individual imprecision, which is inversely correlated with the amount of fluid dispensed.


1957 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. H. Duff ◽  
Norah J. Nolan

Two measures are needed to describe numerically the activity of the internodal cambium in terms of annual increment. These are "specific wood volume increment", a measure of additive growth and "specific increment of cambial area", a measure of multiplicative growth. The mean area of the internodal cambium is the basis of reference for both since it is the measure of that which is active in growth. The former measure of specific growth is numerically equal to ring width and the manner of its factorial control has already been considered. Data for the latter are new.The geometry of the apical meristem and its products is too complex for the ready computation of specific terminal growth, but it can be shown empirically that internode length is a valid measure of apical activity. Analysis of internodal wood volume growth into its three linear components leads to the conclusion that the determinants in control of wood growth act mainly through their effect upon apical activity and upon specific increment of cambial area.


Author(s):  
J.D. Mande ◽  
P.M.F. Mbithi ◽  
S.W. Mbugua ◽  
I.B.J. Buoro ◽  
P.K. Gathumbi

Ventrodorsal pelvic radiographs were made of 32 adult dogs under general anaesthesia. The hip joints were evaluated according to the severity of osteoarthritic changes graded as 0, 1, 2 or 3. The dogs were euthanased, the hip joints opened and the ligamentum capitis femoris dissected out in toto. The volume of each ligament was determined using a water displacement technique and the mean volume compared to the four radiographic grades of osteoarthritis. There was an inverse correlation (r = -0.75) between the mean volume of the ligamentum capitis femoris and the increasing severity of osteoarthritis as assessed by radiography. The results confirmed the crucial role of radiography in the clinical evaluation of hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis in the adult dog. Assessment of the volume of the ligamentum capitis femoris revealed that it is an important tool for research in canine hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis.


1969 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Maxwell

In 1932 all 11-year-old children in Scottish schools were given a group intelligence test, and a sample of 1000 was individually tested. The future careers of this sample were followed till 1939. In 1968, 709 of the original sample could be traced, and data about education, employment, and family were obtained. In 1947, a parallel survey was conducted in Scotland, and a sample of 1208 children was individually tested, and followed up for 16 years. The same data about education, employment and family are available for the 1947 Sample.A comparison between length of school education indicates a greater proportion completing a full secondary education in the 1947 than in the 1932 Sample. Proportionally, more of the 1947 Sample graduated from university. In marriage, it is possible to cut across the 1932 Sample at the age of 27 years, to make direct comparison with the 1947 Sample at the same age. The greatest incidence of marriage is in the middle range of IQ, but later records for the 1932 Sample show a relative uniformity of marriage over the IQ range. The pattern for occupational class is similar. There is a slight tendency to later marriage in the 1932 Sample. Two measures of differential fertility for IQ are used. For both samples, there is a negative relationship between the mean IQs of the sample members and the number of their sibs, more marked for the 1947 Sample. The number of children born to members of the two samples before the age of 27 years shows a similar relationship, but in the following 20 years the pattern for the 1932 Sample changes to one with a peak of mean IQ at two children. It is suggested that linear differential fertility for IQ may be a function of the age of the parent.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Scrosati

This study investigated the synchrony of frond dynamics among patches of the intertidal seaweed Mazzaella parksii (=M. cornucopiae; Rhodophyta: Gigartinales) at local spatial scale. At Prasiola Point (Pacific coast of Canada), the mean synchrony of the seasonal changes in frond density among seven permanent, 100-cm2 quadrats was significant (mean Pearson's r=0·73, with 0·65–0·81 as 95% confidence limits) between 1993 and 1995. This indicates that predicting seasonal trends for non-monitored patches at local spatial scale can be done relatively well based on observations on a limited number of quadrats. The identification of the spatial scales at which seaweed populations covary synchronously will permit minimizing sampling effort while retaining the ability to make valid predictions for non-monitored sites.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 6381-6405
Author(s):  
Mark R. Muetzelfeldt ◽  
Reinhard Schiemann ◽  
Andrew G. Turner ◽  
Nicholas P. Klingaman ◽  
Pier Luigi Vidale ◽  
...  

Abstract. High-resolution general circulation models (GCMs) can provide new insights into the simulated distribution of global precipitation. We evaluate how summer precipitation is represented over Asia in global simulations with a grid length of 14 km. Three simulations were performed: one with a convection parametrization, one with convection represented explicitly by the model's dynamics, and a hybrid simulation with only shallow and mid-level convection parametrized. We evaluate the mean simulated precipitation and the diurnal cycle of the amount, frequency, and intensity of the precipitation against satellite observations of precipitation from the Climate Prediction Center morphing method (CMORPH). We also compare the high-resolution simulations with coarser simulations that use parametrized convection. The simulated and observed precipitation is averaged over spatial scales defined by the hydrological catchment basins; these provide a natural spatial scale for performing decision-relevant analysis that is tied to the underlying regional physical geography. By selecting basins of different sizes, we evaluate the simulations as a function of the spatial scale. A new BAsin-Scale Model Assessment ToolkIt (BASMATI) is described, which facilitates this analysis. We find that there are strong wet biases (locally up to 72 mm d−1 at small spatial scales) in the mean precipitation over mountainous regions such as the Himalayas. The explicit convection simulation worsens existing wet and dry biases compared to the parametrized convection simulation. When the analysis is performed at different basin scales, the precipitation bias decreases as the spatial scales increase for all the simulations; the lowest-resolution simulation has the smallest root mean squared error compared to CMORPH. In the simulations, a positive mean precipitation bias over China is primarily found to be due to too frequent precipitation for the parametrized convection simulation and too intense precipitation for the explicit convection simulation. The simulated diurnal cycle of precipitation is strongly affected by the representation of convection: parametrized convection produces a peak in precipitation too close to midday over land, whereas explicit convection produces a peak that is closer to the late afternoon peak seen in observations. At increasing spatial scale, the representation of the diurnal cycle in the explicit and hybrid convection simulations improves when compared to CMORPH; this is not true for any of the parametrized simulations. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of simulated precipitation in a high-resolution GCM are found: the diurnal cycle is improved at all spatial scales with convection parametrization disabled, the interaction of the flow with orography exacerbates existing biases for mean precipitation in the high-resolution simulations, and parametrized simulations produce similar diurnal cycles regardless of their resolution. The need for tuning the high-resolution simulations is made clear. Our approach for evaluating simulated precipitation across a range of scales is widely applicable to other GCMs.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse T Kaye ◽  
Daniel E. Bradford ◽  
John Joseph Curtin

The current study provides a comprehensive evaluation of critical psychometric properties of commonly used psychophysiology laboratory tasks/measures within the NIMH RDoC. Participants (N = 128) completed the No Shock, Predictable Shock, Unpredictable Shock (NPU) task, Affective Picture Viewing task, and Resting State task at two study visits separated by one week. We examined potentiation/modulation scores in NPU (predictable or unpredictable shock vs. no shock) and Affective Picture Viewing tasks (pleasant or unpleasant vs. neutral pictures) for startle and corrugator responses with two commonly used quantification methods. We quantified startle potentiation/modulation scores with raw and standardized responses. We quantified corrugator potentiation/modulation in the time and frequency domains. We quantified general startle reactivity in the Resting State Task as the mean raw startle response during the task. For these three tasks, two measures, and two quantification methods we evaluated effect size robustness and stability, internal consistency (i.e., split-half reliability), and one-week temporal stability. The psychometric properties of startle potentiation in the NPU task were good but concerns were noted for corrugator potentiation in this task. Some concerns also were noted for the psychometric properties of both startle and corrugator modulation in the Affective Picture Viewing task, in particular for pleasant picture modulation. Psychometric properties of general startle reactivity in the Resting State task were good. Some salient differences in the psychometric properties of the NPU and Affective Picture Viewing tasks were observed within and across quantification methods.


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