Poliovirus vaccine coverage in Israel is over 90%. The last nine birth cohorts have been vaccinated exclusively with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). However, between February and July 2013 type 1 ...wild poliovirus (WPV1) was detected persistently in 10 and intermittently in 8 of 47 environmental surveillance sites in southern and central Israel and in 30 stool samples collected during July from healthy individuals in southern Israel. We report results of sequence and phylogenetic analyses of genes encoding capsid proteins to determine the source and transmission mode of the virus. WPV1 capsid protein 1 nucleotide sequences were most closely related to South Asia (SOAS) cluster R3A polioviruses circulating in Pakistan in 2012 and isolated from Egyptian sewage in December 2012. There was no noticeable geographical clustering within WPV1-positive sites. Uniform codon usage among isolates from Pakistan, Egypt and Israel showed no signs of optimisation or deoptimisation. Bayesian phylogenetic time clock analysis of the entire capsid coding region (2,643 nt) with a 1.1% evolutionary rate indicated that Israeli and Egyptian WPV1-SOAS lineages diverged in September 2012, while Israeli isolates split into two sub-branches after January 2013. This suggests one or more introduction events into Israel with subsequent silent circulation despite high population immunity.
Burnishing processes are effective methods for treating pieces to increase their durability and roughness. Studies reveal that traditional burnishing can be strongly improved with the assistance of ...external energy sources. A vibrating module was attached to a classical burnishing tool and was tested on aluminum specimens to find the optimal vibration-assisted burnishing parameters. Vibration caused roughness improvements of the specimens and decreased the processing time by fivefold compared to traditional burnishing. At the tested frequency, no significant consequences were found on hardness and residual stresses.
In the present work, microstructure and texture evolution in a commercial 308L stainless steel wire is assessed by comparing several electropulsing configurations and thermal annealing treatments ...performed during and after a single pass wire drawing process. In this context, the objective is to determine if the electropulsing brings significant differences on the material microstructure with respect to a conventional annealing treatment. To this end, electron backscattered diffraction was used to analyze the microstructure changes in all the studied cases. The results indicate that recrystallization and detwinning are drastically accelerated when in situ electropulsing treatment is applied in the specimen during its drawing. Moreover, electropulsing or large times of furnace treatments after the wire drawing are found to enhance the material conductivity compared to the in situ electropulsing treatment during the wire drawing. Finally, differential scanning calorimetry and material resistivity are performed to analyze the thermal events in a meso/micro scale. Accordingly, the bulk temperature for the electropulsed specimens is assumed to be much higher than the bulk temperature recorded at the surface of the specimen.
This paper presents the SR-GCWS-CS probabilistic algorithm that combines Monte Carlo simulation with splitting techniques and the Clarke and Wright savings heuristic to find competitive quasi-optimal ...solutions to the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) in reasonable response times. The algorithm, which does not require complex fine-tuning processes, can be used as an alternative to other metaheuristics—such as Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, Genetic Algorithms, Ant Colony Optimization or GRASP, which might be more difficult to implement and which might require non-trivial fine-tuning processes—when solving CVRP instances. As discussed in the paper, the probabilistic approach presented here aims to provide a relatively simple and yet flexible algorithm which benefits from: (a) the use of the geometric distribution to guide the random search process, and (b) efficient cache and splitting techniques that contribute to significantly reduce computational times. The algorithm is validated through a set of CVRP standard benchmarks and competitive results are obtained in all tested cases. Future work regarding the use of parallel programming to efficiently solve large-scale CVRP instances is discussed. Finally, it is important to notice that some of the principles of the approach presented here might serve as a base to develop similar algorithms for other routing and scheduling combinatorial problems.
This book focuses on the impact of digital media use for political engagement across varied geographic and political contexts, using a diversity of methodological approaches and datasets. The book ...addresses an important gap in the contemporary literature on digital politics, identifying context dependent and transcendent political consequences of digital media use. While the majority of the empirical work in this field has been based on studies from the United States and United Kingdom, this volume seeks to place those results into comparative relief with other regions of the world. It moves debates in this field of study forward by identifying system-level attributes that shape digital political engagement across a wide variety of contexts. The evidence analyzed across the fifteen cases considered in the book suggests that engagement with digital environments influences users' political orientations and that contextual features play a significant role in shaping digital politics.
This research work analyses the effect of cold working level produced by drawing, on the work hardening exponent of 0.18 and 0.43 % C ferrite-pearlite steels. Such analysis is carried out by means of ...true stress-true strain curves derived from uniaxial tension tests. The work hardening exponent behaviour was determined by using Hollomon and differential Crussard-Jaoul models. It is found that the work hardening exponent decreases as a function of the applied cold-drawing level, and negative values were obtained when differential analysis is used. The results indicate that the Hollomon analysis shows some deviations from the experimentally determined true stress - true strain curves while the differential Crussard-Jaoul analysis fits better when two work hardening exponents are considered. This analysis establishes two exponents for different stages of plastic deformation which are determined by the sharp slope change in the plot of In (dsigma/depsilon) - In epsilon.
An outbreak of paralytic poliomyelitis occurred in the Dominican Republic (13 confirmed cases) and Haiti (8 confirmed cases, including 2 fatal cases) during 2000-2001. All but one of the patients ...were either unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children, and cases occurred in communities with very low (7 to 40%) rates of coverage with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The outbreak was associated with the circulation of a derivative of the type 1 OPV strain, probably originating from a single OPV dose given in 1998-1999. The vaccine-derived poliovirus associated with the outbreak had biological properties indistinguishable from those of wild poliovirus.
Here we report a documented case of congenital transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi from a Bolivian mother with chronic Chagas disease living in Spain. The serology and blood nested polymerase chain ...reaction (PCR) were positive for the mother, and amastigote forms were observed in histopathological study of the placenta and umbilical cord. Direct examination, culture, and nested PCR were positive in the blood of the neonate. At the age of 8 days, the neonate began treatment with 5-7.5 mg/kg/day of benznidazol, which was continued for 60 days. Direct examination, blood culture, and nested PCR were negative to T. cruzi 20 days after the start of treatment and remained negative 4 and 7 months thereafter. Serological tests were negative at 4 months. To detect congenital infection and initiate early treatment of infected newborns, protocols are required to detect Chagas disease in pregnant women who migrate from endemic to non-endemic areas.
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