Schistosomiasis control requires multisectoral approaches including praziquantel treatment, access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, and health education. Community input can help ensure health ...education programs are culturally appropriate to effectively direct protective behavior change. This study reports on the three-stage development of an education program for Malagasy children, with an impact evaluation on their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to intestinal schistosomiasis. A cross-sectional study took place in 2017 with follow-up in 2018 in the hard-to-reach Marolambo district, Madagascar. A novel schistosomiasis education program (SEP) was designed in collaboration with researchers, stakeholders, and local community and included cartoon books, games, songs, puzzles, and blackboard lessons, costing $10 USD per school. KAP questionnaires were completed by 286 children pre-SEP and 273 children post-SEP in 2017, and by 385 and 337 children pre-SEP and post-SEP, respectively, in 2018. Improvements were observed in responses to all questions between pre- and post-education answers in 2017 (53-77%, P < 0.0001) and 2018 (72-98%, P < 0.0001) and in the pre-education answers between years (53-72%, P < 0.0001). Praziquantel mass drug administration attendance improved, rising from 64% to 91% (P < 0.0001), alongside improved latrine use, from 89% to 96% (P = 0.005). This community-consulted and -engaged SEP resulted in substantial improvements in children's understanding of schistosomiasis, with improvements in praziquantel uptake and latrine use. Socioculturally tailored education programs can help gain schistosomiasis control. Continued investment in SEP will help promote the future well-being of children through increased participation in control and treatment activities.
We have developed a compact instrument for sensitive, rapid and continuous measurement of trace gases in air, with results presented here for methane (CH
4
), nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N
2
O) ...and ammonia (NH
3
). This instrument takes advantage of recent technology in quantum cascade (QC) lasers and infrared detectors, which allows high sensitivity without cryogenic liquids, e.g., 0.2 ppb (0.2×10
-9
) of NH
3
in air in 1 s. One may substitute a QC laser operating at a different wavelength to measure other gases. The instrument operates continuously, requiring little operator attention, and web-based remote access is provided for instrument control, calibration and data retrieval. The instrument design includes a thermoelectrically (TE) cooled pulsed distributed feedback (DFB) QC laser, a low volume (0.5 l) multipass cell offering 76 m absorption path length and a TE cooled detector. Integrated software for laser control and data analysis using direct absorption provides quantitative trace gas measurements without calibration gases. The instrument may be applied to field measurements of gases of environmental concern.
We study the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) sizes of massive (~0.8 x 10 super(11)M sub(middot in circle)) galaxies at 3.4 < or =, slant z < 4.2, selected from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey, by ...fitting single Sersic profiles to Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3/ F160W images from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. Massive quiescent galaxies are very compact, with a median circularized half-light radius r sub(e) = 0.63 + or - 0.18 kpc. Removing 5/16 (31%) sources with signs of active galactic nucleus activity does not change the result. Star-forming galaxies have r sub(e) = 2.0 + or - 0.60 kpc, 3.2 + or - 1.3 x larger than quiescent galaxies. Quiescent galaxies at z ~ 4 are on average 6.0 + or - 1.7x smaller than at z ~ 0 and 1.9 + or - 0.7x smaller than at z ~ 2. Star-forming galaxies of the same stellar mass are 2.4 + or - 0.7 x smaller than at z ~ 0. Overall, the size evolution at 0 < z < 4 is well described by a power law, with r sub(e) = 5.08 + or - 0.28(1 + z) super(1.44+ or -0.08) kpc for quiescent galaxies and r sub(e) = 6.02 + or - 0.28(1 + z) super(-0.72+ or -0.05) kpc for star-forming galaxies. Compact star-forming galaxies are rare in our sample; we find only 1/14 (7%) with r sub(e)/(M/10 super(11)M sub(middot in circle)) super(0.75) < 1.5, whereas 13/16 (81%) of the quiescent galaxies are compact. The number density of compact quiescent galaxies at z ~ 4 is 1.8 + or - 0.8 x 10 super(-5) Mpc super(-3) and increases rapidly, by >5x, between 2 < z < 4. The paucity of compact star-forming galaxies at z ~ 4 and their large rest-frame UV median sizes suggest that the formation phase of compact cores is very short and/or highly dust obscured.
We report the likely identification of a substantial population of massive M ~ 10sup 11 M galaxies at z ~ 4 with suppressed star formation rates (SFRs), selected on rest-frame optical to near-IR ...colors from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE). The observed spectral energy distributions show pronounced breaks, sampled by a set of near-IR medium-bandwidth filters, resulting in tightly constrained photometric redshifts. Fitting stellar population models suggests large Balmer/4000A breaks, relatively old stellar populations, large stellar masses, and low SFRs, with a median specific SFR of 2.9 + or -1.8 10sup -11 yrsup -1. Ultradeep Herschel/PACS 100 mu m, 160 mu m and Spitzer/MIPS 24 mu m data reveal no dust-obscured SFR activity for 15/19(79%) galaxies. The study suggests that most of the star formation in the progenitors of quiescent z ~ 4 galaxies was obscured by dust.
Fear conditioning is a valuable behavioral paradigm for studying the neural basis of emotional learning and memory. The lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) is a crucial site of neural changes that ...occur during fear conditioning. Pharmacological manipulations of the LA, strategically timed with respect to training and testing, have shed light on the molecular events that mediate the acquisition of fear associations and the formation and maintenance of long-term memories of those associations. Similar mechanisms have been found to underlie long-term potentiation (LTP) in LA, an artificial means of inducing synaptic plasticity and a physiological model of learning and memory. Thus, LTP-like changes in synaptic plasticity may underlie fear conditioning. Given that the neural circuit underlying fear conditioning has been implicated in emotional disorders in humans, the molecular mechanisms of fear conditioning are potential targets for psychotherapeutic drug development.
The performance of two vertical mixing parameterizations in idealized continental shelf settings is analyzed to assess in what aspects and under what conditions they differ. The level 2.5 ...Mellor‐Yamada turbulence closure (M‐Y) is compared with an enhanced version of the K profile parameterization (KPP), which has been appended to include a representation of the bottom boundary layer. The two schemes are compared in wind‐driven one‐ and two‐dimensional shallow ocean settings to examine differences in (1) the surface boundary layer response, (2) the response when surface and bottom boundary layers are in close proximity, and (3) the response when the horizontal advective effects of a coastal upwelling circulation compete with the vertical mixing processes. The surface boundary layer experiments reveal that M‐Y mixes deeper and entrains more than KPP when the pycnocline beneath the wind‐mixed layer is highly stratified and mixes less when it is weaker. This is related to the role of vertical diffusion of turbulent kinetic energy in M‐Y and the nature of the interior shear mixing parameterization of KPP. In shallow water when surface and bottom boundary layers impinge on each other, the stronger mixing at the interface produced by KPP can lead to much more rapid disintegration of the pycnocline. The two‐dimensional upwelling circulation experiments show that the two schemes can produce quite similar or significantly different solutions in the nearshore region dependent on the initial stratification. The differences relate to the stronger suppression of turbulence by M‐Y under the restratifying influence of horizontal advection of denser water in the bottom boundary layer.
Using observations made with MOSFIRE on Keck I as part of the ZFIRE survey, we present the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation at . The sample was drawn from a stellar-mass-limited, -band-selected ...catalog from ZFOURGE over the CANDELS area in the COSMOS field. We model the shear of the H emission line to derive rotational velocities at the scale radius of an exponential disk ( ). We correct for the blurring effect of a 2D point-spread function (PSF) and the fact that the MOSFIRE PSF is better approximated by a Moffat than a Gaussian, which is more typically assumed for natural seeing. We find for the Tully-Fisher relation at that +(0.193 0.108) and infer an evolution of the zero-point of or compared to z = 0 when adopting a fixed slope of 0.29 or 1/4.5, respectively. We also derive the alternative kinematic estimator , with a best-fit relation , and infer an evolution of compared to if we adopt a fixed slope. We investigate and review various systematics, such as PSF effects, projection effects, systematics related to stellar mass derivation, selection biases, and slope. We find that discrepancies between the various literature values are reduced when taking these into account. Our observations correspond well with the gradual evolution predicted by semianalytic models.
Objective Favorable outcomes of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) compared with open repair for descending thoracic aortic aneurysms (DTAs) have led to increasing TEVAR use. We evaluated ...the effect of case volume and hospital teaching status on clinical outcomes of intact DTA repair. Methods The Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) data set (2004 to 2007) was queried to identify open repair or TEVAR for DTA. Hospitals were stratified by DTA volume into high volume (HV; ≥8 cases/y) or low volume (LV; <8 cases/y) and teaching or nonteaching. The effect of hospital variables on the primary study end point of 30-day mortality and secondary end points of 30-day complications and long-term survival after open repair and TEVAR DTA repair were studied using univariate testing, multivariable regression modeling, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling. Results We identified 763 hospitals performing 3554 open repairs and 3517 TEVARs. Overall DTA repair increased ( P < .01) from 1375 in 2004 to 1987 in 2007. The proportion of hospitals performing open repair significantly decreased from 95% in 2004 to 57% in 2007 ( P < .01), whereas those performing TEVAR increased ( P < .01) from 24% to 76%. Overall repair type shifted from open (74% in 2004, the year before initial commercial availability of TEVAR) to TEVAR (39% open in 2007; P < .01). The fraction of open repairs at LV hospitals decreased from 56% in 2004 to 44% in 2007 ( P < .01), whereas TEVAR increased from 24% in 2004 to 51% in 2007 ( P < .01). Overall mortality during the study interval for open repair was 15% at LV hospitals vs 11% at HV hospitals ( P < .01), whereas TEVAR mortality was similar, at 3.9% in LV vs 5.5% in HV hospitals ( P = .43). LV was independently associated with increased mortality after open repair (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.1−1.8; P < .01) but not after TEVAR. There was no independent effect of hospital teaching status on mortality or complications after open repair or TEVAR repair. Conclusions The total number of DTA repairs has significantly increased. Operative mortality for TEVAR is independent of hospital volume and type, whereas mortality after open surgery is lower at HV hospitals, suggesting that TEVAR can be safely performed across a spectrum of hospitals, whereas open surgery should be performed only at HV hospitals.
The spatial structure of the mean and seasonal surface circulation in the central region of the Mid‐Atlantic Bight (New Jersey Shelf) are characterized using 6 years of CODAR long‐range HF radar data ...(2002–2007). The mean surface flow over the New Jersey Shelf is 2–12 cm/s down shelf and offshore to the south. The detided root‐mean‐square (RMS) velocity variability ranges from 11 to 20 cm/s. The variability is on the order of the mean current offshore and several times that of the mean current nearshore. The Hudson Shelf Valley and the shelf break act as dynamical boundaries that define the New Jersey Shelf. The surface flow on the New Jersey Shelf depends on topography, seasonal stratification, and wind forcing. The flow is in the approximate direction of the wind during the unstratified season and more to the right of the wind during the stratified season. During the stratified summer season, the dominant along‐shore upwelling favorable winds from the SW drive cross‐shelf offshore flow. During the unstratified/well‐mixed winter season, the dominant cross‐shore NW winds drive cross‐shelf offshore flows. During the transition seasons of spring and autumn, along‐shore NE winds, often associated with storm events, drive energetic down‐shelf, along‐shelf flows. The surface transport pathways are either cross‐shelf dominated during summer and winter or along‐shelf dominated during the transition seasons. The residence time of surface Lagrangian drifters on the New Jersey Shelf ranged from 1 to 7 weeks with summer and autumn showing faster transport than winter and spring.
is associated with physiological effects in the host. Dysregulation of catecholamines in the central nervous system has previously been observed in chronically infected animals. In the study ...described here, the noradrenergic system was found to be suppressed with decreased levels of norepinephrine (NE) in brains of infected animals and in infected human and rat neural cells
The mechanism responsible for the NE suppression was found to be downregulation of dopamine β-hydroxylase (DBH) gene expression, encoding the enzyme that synthesizes norepinephrine from dopamine, with downregulation observed
and in infected brain tissue, particularly in the dorsal locus coeruleus/pons region. The downregulation was sex specific, with males expressing reduced DBH mRNA levels whereas females were unchanged. Rather, DBH expression correlated with estrogen receptor in the female rat brains for this estrogen-regulated gene. DBH silencing was not a general response of neurons to infection, as human cytomegalovirus did not downregulate DBH expression. The noradrenergic-linked behaviors of sociability and arousal were altered in chronically infected animals, with a high correlation between DBH expression and infection intensity. A decrease in DBH expression in noradrenergic neurons can elevate dopamine levels, which provides a possible explanation for mixed observations of changes in this neurotransmitter with infection. Decreased NE is consistent with the loss of coordination and motor impairments associated with toxoplasmosis. Further, the altered norepinephrine synthesis observed here may, in part, explain behavioral effects of infection and associations with mental illness.
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