Controlling the counterintuitive optical repulsive thrust of nano dimers with counter propagating type waves and background medium.

This work focuses on the utilization of counter-propagating plane waves for optical manipulation, which provides a unique approach to control the behavior of Rayleigh and Dipolar nanoparticles immersed in a homogeneous or heterogeneous medium. Our study presents an interesting finding of a repulsive force between plasmonic-chiral heterodimers where the particles move away from each other in both near and far field regions. Interestingly, this repulsive thrust supports the wave like nature of light for the case of homogeneous background but particle type nature of light for heterogenous background. At first, we have investigated the theory underlying the optical trapping of the chiral particle and the impact of this phenomenon on the overall repulsive behavior of the heterodimers placed in air (homogeneous) background. After that, our proposed set-up has further been investigated putting in air-water interface (heterogenous background) and by varying light angle only a little bit. Our observation for this interface case is suggesting the transfer of Minkowski momentum of photon to each optically pulled Rayleigh or dipolar particle of the dimer set, which ultimately causes a broad-band giant repulsive thrust of the dimers. However, in absence of the other particle in the cluster, a single half-immersed particle does not experience the pulling force for the broad-band spectrum. The 'common' reason of the observed repulsive thrust of the dimers for both the aforementioned cases has been attributed to "modified" longitudinal Optical Binding Force (OBF). Technically, this work may open a new way to control the repulsion and attraction between the nanoparticles both in near and far field regions by utilizing the background and the counter-propagating waves. We also believe that this work manifests a possible simple set-up, which will support to observe a background dependent wave 'or' particle nature of light experimentally.

Temporal and spatial relationships of CrAssphage and enteric viral and bacterial pathogens in wastewater in North Carolina.

Enteric disease remains one of the most common concerns for public health, particularly when it results from human exposure to surface and recreational waters contaminated with wastewater. Characterizing the temporal and spatial variation of enteric pathogens prevalent in wastewater is critical to develop approaches to mitigate their distribution in the environment. In this study, we aim to characterize pathogen variability and test the applicability of the human-associated wastewater indicator crAssphage as an indicator of enteric viral and bacterial pathogens. We conducted weekly samplings for 14 months from four wastewater treatment plants in North Carolina, USA. Untreated wastewater samples were processed using hollow fiber ultrafiltration, followed by secondary concentration methods. Adenovirus, norovirus, enterovirus, Salmonella, Shiga toxin 2 (stx2), Campylobacter, and crAssphage were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and reverse transcriptase (rt)-qPCR. Our results revealed significant correlations between crAssphage and human adenovirus, enterovirus, norovirus, Salmonella, and Campylobacter (p<0.01). Pathogens and crAssphage concentrations in untreated wastewater showed distinct seasonal patterns, with peak concentrations of crAssphage and viral pathogens in fall and winter, while bacterial pathogens showed peaked concentrations in either winter (Campylobacter), fall (Salmonella), or summer (stx2). This study enhances the understanding of crAssphage as an alternative molecular indicator for both bacterial and viral pathogens. The findings of this study can also inform microbial modeling efforts for the prediction of the impact of wastewater pathogens on surface waters due to increased flooding events and wastewater overflows associated with climate change.

Developing a Low-Cost IoT-Based Remote Cardiovascular Patient Monitoring System in Cameroon.

(1) Background: Cameroonians are exposed to poor health services, more so citizens with cardiovascular-related diseases. The global high cost of acquiring healthcare-related technologies has prompted the government and individuals to promote the need for local research and the development of the health system. (2) Objectives: The main goal of this study is to design and develop a low-cost cardiovascular patient monitoring system (RPM) with wireless capabilities that could be used in any region of Cameroon, accessible, and very inexpensive, that are able to capture important factors, well reflecting the patient's condition and provide alerting mechanisms. (3) Method: Using the lean UX process from the Gothelf and Seiden framework, the implemented IoT-based application measures the patients' systolic, diastolic, and heart rates using various sensors, that are automated to record directly to the application database for analysis. The validity of the heuristic evaluation was examined in an ethnographic study of paramedics using a prototype of the system in their work environment. (4) Results: We obtained a system that was pre-tested on demo patients and later deployed and tested on seven real human test subjects. The users' task performances partially verified the heuristic evaluation results. (5) Conclusions: The data acquired by the sensors have a high level of accuracy and effectively help specialists to properly monitor their patients at a low cost. The proposed system maintains a user-friendliness as no expertise is required for its effective utilization.

Tracking the temporal variation of COVID-19 surges through wastewater-based epidemiology during the peak of the pandemic: A six-month long study in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 has continued to be a serious concern after WHO declared the virus to be the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic. Monitoring of wastewater is a useful tool for assessing community prevalence given that fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 occurs in high concentrations by infected individuals, regardless of whether they are asymptomatic or symptomatic. Using tools that are part of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach, combined with molecular analyses, wastewater monitoring becomes a key piece of information used to assess trends and quantify the scale and dynamics of COVID-19 infection in a specific community, municipality, or area of service. This study investigates a six-month long SARS-CoV-2 RNA quantification in influent wastewater from four municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) serving the Charlotte region of North Carolina (NC) using both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR platforms. Influent wastewater was analyzed for the nucleocapsid (N) genes N1 and N2. Both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR performed well for detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 using the N1 target, while for the N2 target RT-ddPCR was more sensitive. SARS-CoV-2 concentration ranged from 103 to 105 copies/L for all four plants. Both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR showed a significant positive correlation between SARS-CoV-2 concentrations and the 7-day rolling average of clinically reported COVID-19 cases when lagging 5 to 12 days (ρ = 0.52-0.92, p < 0.001-0.02). A major finding of this study is that RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR generated SARS-CoV-2 data that was positively correlated (ρ = 0.569, p < 0.0001) and can be successfully used to monitor SARS-CoV-2 signals across the WWTP of different sizes and metropolitan service functions without significant anomalies.

Zoonotic diseases appeared to be a major hurdle to successful deer farming in Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Due to the diversified lifestyle and fancy ecology associated with Chitra deer (Axis axis), deer farming has become popular in Bangladesh. Diseases may be the common constrain of successful deer farming. This study aims to investigate the pathological, bacteriological, and nucleic acid based technologies to identify specific causes of morbidity and mortality of captive deer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two deer farms and a park deer (designated as farm A, B, and C) entailing 87, 54, and 20 deer, respectively, showed illness and death constitute the study materials. A total of 42 deer died during this investigation. Following death, routine post-mortem examination, histopathology, impression smear staining, isolation, and identification of bacteria were carried out. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription PCR were carried out to safeguard the etiology. RESULTS: Clinically, farm A and B showed the acute phase of illness and park deer showed chronic illness. Case fatality rates were 90%, 92%, and 100% in farms A, B, and C deer, respectively. Pasteurella multocida and Streptococcus pneumoniae were identified from the visceral organs of farm A deer. Farm B deer was infected with Clostridium perfringens type A. Park deer was infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and hydatid cyst. CONCLUSION: The infectivity in farm A deer was due to stress as induced by punishing weather. The infectivity in farm B deer was due to feeding a higher volume of protein in the diet. The park C deer may optate infection from companion man and animals living around. The diseases of captive deer identified mainly were zoonotic. It needs extensive veterinary services and specialized technologies to identify these diseases, monitor the infectivity and eliminate the public health important diseases at early onset.

Tracking the temporal variation of COVID-19 surges through wastewater-based epidemiology during the peak of the pandemic: a six-month long study in Charlotte, North Carolina

The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 has continued to be a serious concern after WHO declared the virus the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic. Monitoring of wastewater is a useful tool for assessing community prevalence given that fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 occurs in high concentrations by infected individuals, regardless of whether they are asymptomatic or symptomatic. Using tools that are part of the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach, combined with molecular analyses, wastewater monitoring becomes a key piece of information used to assess trends and quantify the scale and dynamics of COVID-19 infection in a specific community, municipality, or area of service. This study investigates a six-month long SARS-CoV-2 RNA quantification in influent wastewater from four municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) serving the Charlotte region of North Carolina (NC) using both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR platforms. Influent wastewater was analyzed for the nucleocapsid (N) genes N1 and N2. Both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR performed well for detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 using the N1 target, while for the N2 target RT-ddPCR was more sensitive. SARS-CoV-2 concentration ranged from 103 to105 copies/L for all four plants. Both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR showed a significant moderate to a strong positive correlation between SARS-CoV-2 concentrations and the 7-day rolling average of clinically reported COVID-19 cases using a lag that ranged from 7 to 12 days. A major finding of this study is that despite small differences, both RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR performed well for tracking the SARS-CoV-2 virus across WWTP of a range of sizes and metropolitan service functions.

Performance evaluation of virus concentration methods for implementing SARS-CoV-2 wastewater based epidemiology emphasizing quick data turnaround.

Wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) has drawn significant attention as an early warning tool to detect and predict the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in a community, in conjunction with public health data. This means of monitoring for outbreaks has been used at municipal wastewater treatment centers to analyze COVID-19 trends in entire communities, as well as by universities and other community living environments to monitor COVID-19 spread in buildings. Sample concentration is crucial, especially when viral abundance in raw wastewater is below the threshold of detection by RT-qPCR analysis. We evaluated the performance of a rapid ultrafiltration-based virus concentration method using InnovaPrep Concentrating Pipette (CP) Select and compared this to the established electronegative membrane filtration (EMF) method. We evaluated sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 quantification, surrogate virus recovery rate, and sample processing time. Results suggest that the CP Select concentrator is more efficient at concentrating SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater compared to the EMF method. About 25% of samples that tested negative when concentrated with the EMF method produced a positive signal with the CP Select protocol. Increased recovery of the surrogate virus control using the CP Select confirms this observation. We optimized the CP Select protocol by adding AVL lysis buffer and sonication, to increase the recovery of virus. Sonication increased Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV) recovery by 19%, which seems to compensate for viral loss during centrifugation. Filtration time decreases by approximately 30% when using the CP Select protocol, making this an optimal choice for building surveillance applications where quick turnaround time is necessary.

Performance evaluation of virus concentration methods for implementing SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater-based epidemiology emphasizing quick data turnaround.

Wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) has drawn significant attention as an early warning tool to detect and predict the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in a community, in conjunction with public health data. This means of monitoring for outbreaks has been used at municipal wastewater treatment centers to analyze COVID-19 trends in entire communities, as well as by universities and other community living environments to monitor COVID-19 spread in buildings. Sample concentration is crucial, especially when viral abundance in raw wastewater is below the threshold of detection by RT-qPCR analysis. We evaluated the performance of a rapid ultrafiltration-based virus concentration method using InnovaPrep Concentrating Pipette (CP) Select and compared this to the established electronegative membrane filtration (EMF) method. We evaluated sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 quantification, surrogate virus recovery rate, and sample processing time. Results suggest that the CP Select concentrator is more efficient at concentrating SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater compared to the EMF method. About 25% of samples that tested negative when concentrated with the EMF method produced a positive signal with the CP Select protocol. Increased recovery of the surrogate virus control using the CP Select confirms this observation. We optimized the CP Select protocol by adding AVL lysis buffer and sonication, to increase the recovery of virus. Sonication increased Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV) recovery by 19%, which seems to compensate for viral loss during centrifugation. Filtration time decreases by approximately 30% when using the CP Select protocol, making this an optimal choice for building surveillance applications where quick turnaround time is necessary.

Implementing building-level SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance on a university campus.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of ongoing challenges and presents an increased risk of illness in group environments, including jails, long-term care facilities, schools, and residential college campuses. Early reports that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detectable in wastewater in advance of confirmed cases sparked widespread interest in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a tool for mitigation of COVID-19 outbreaks. One hypothesis was that wastewater surveillance might provide a cost-effective alternative to other more expensive approaches such as pooled and random testing of groups. In this paper, we report the outcomes of a wastewater surveillance pilot program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a large urban university with a substantial population of students living in on-campus dormitories. Surveillance was conducted at the building level on a thrice-weekly schedule throughout the university's fall residential semester. In multiple cases, wastewater surveillance enabled the identification of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases that were not detected by other components of the campus monitoring program, which also included in-house contact tracing, symptomatic testing, scheduled testing of student athletes, and daily symptom reporting. In the context of all cluster events reported to the University community during the fall semester, wastewater-based testing events resulted in the identification of smaller clusters than were reported in other types of cluster events. Wastewater surveillance was able to detect single asymptomatic individuals in dorms with resident populations of 150-200. While the strategy described was developed for COVID-19, it is likely to be applicable to mitigation of future pandemics in universities and other group-living environments.

Exploring the Behavioral Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among an Urban Population in Bangladesh: Implications for Behavior Change Interventions

BackgroundWhile vaccines ensure individual protection against COVID-19 infection, delay in receipt or refusal of vaccines will have both individual and community impacts. The behavioral factors of vaccine hesitancy or refusal are a crucial dimension that need understanding to implicate appropriate interventions. The aim of this study was to assess the behavioral determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and to provide recommendations to increase the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Bangladesh. MethodsWe employed a Barrier Analysis (BA) approach to examine twelve potential behavioral determinants (drawn from the Health Belief Model and Theory of Reasoned Action [TRA]) of intended vaccine acceptance. We conducted 45 interviews with those who intended to take the vaccine (Acceptors) and another 45 interviews with those who did not have that intention (Non-acceptors). We performed data analysis to find statistically significant differences and to identify which beliefs were most highly associated with acceptance and non-acceptance with COVID-19 vaccines. ResultsCOVID-19 vaccine Acceptors in Dhaka were different from Non-acceptors in terms of many of their beliefs and responses. The behavioral determinants associated with the behavior included perceived social norms, perceived safety of COVID-19 vaccines and trust in them, perceived risk/susceptibility, perceived self-efficacy, perceived positive and negative consequences, perceived action efficacy, perceived severity of COVID-19, access, and perceived divine will. In line with the Health Belief Model, beliefs about the disease itself were highly correlated with vaccine acceptance, although not the only determinant. Other responses of Acceptors provide clues such as providing vaccination through government health facilities, schools, and kiosks, and having vaccinators maintain proper COVID-19 health and safety protocols as to ways to make it easier to boost acceptance. ConclusionAn effective behavior change strategy for COVID-19 vaccines uptake will need to address multiple beliefs and behavioral determinants, reducing barriers and leveraging enablers identified in this study. The national plans on COVID-19 vaccination should adopt culturally and community label acceptable and appropriate evidence-based behavior change interventions strategies to promote high vaccination coverage and acceptance in all societal structures across the country.

Implementing Building-Level SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance on a University Campus

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of ongoing challenges and presents an increased risk of illness in group environments, including jails, long term care facilities, schools, and, of course, residential college campuses. Early reports that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detectable in wastewater in advance of confirmed cases sparked widespread interest in wastewater based epidemiology (WBE) as a tool for mitigation of COVID-19 outbreaks. One hypothesis was that wastewater surveillance might provide a cost-effective alternative to other more expensive approaches such as pooled and random testing of groups. In this paper, we report the outcomes of a wastewater surveillance pilot program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a large urban university with a substantial population of students living in on-campus dormitories. Surveillance was conducted at the building level on a thrice-weekly schedule throughout the universitys fall residential semester. In multiple cases, wastewater surveillance enabled identification of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases that were not detected by other components of the campus monitoring program, which also included in-house contact tracing, symptomatic testing, scheduled testing of student athletes, and daily symptom reporting. In the context of all cluster events reported to the University community during the fall semester, wastewater-based testing events resulted in identification of smaller clusters than were reported in other types of cluster events. Wastewater surveillance was able to detect single asymptomatic individuals in dorms with total resident populations of 150-200. While the strategy described was developed for COVID-19, it is likely to be applicable to mitigation of future pandemics in universities and other group-living environments.

Sustainable use of tannery sludge in brick manufacturing in Bangladesh.

Chromium-rich tannery sludge generated from tanneries has the potential to become a serious environmental burden in Bangladesh and a promising avenue for disposal of this sludge is by stabilizing it in clay brick products. But for sustainable industrial application of such technique it needs to be ensured first that the engineering properties of bricks as a building material are not diminished by addition of sludge, the process becomes energy efficient compared to alternatives and the use of such bricks do not pose any harmful environmental effects in the long run. In this study, clay bricks were prepared with different proportions of sludge (10%, 20%, 30% and 40% by dry weight) in both laboratory-controlled and field conditions and their suitability as a construction material was assessed based on their strength, water absorption, shrinkage, weight-loss on ignition and bulk density. For the sludge incorporated bricks, the compressive strength ranged from 10.98MPa to 29.61MPa and water absorption ranged from 7.2% to 20.9%, which in most cases met both the Bangladesh and ASTM criteria for bricks as a construction material. Volumetric shrinkage, weight loss and efflorescence properties of sludge-amended bricks were found to be favorable and it was estimated that an energy saving of 15-47% could potentially be achieved during firing with 10-40% tannery sludge-amended bricks. The quality of sludge-amended bricks made in the brick kiln was relatively inferior compared to bricks produced in the laboratory due to operating in a less-controlled environment with respect to maintaining adequate compaction and optimum moisture content. The leaching behavior of several heavy metals (Cr, As, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb and Zn) from sludge-amended bricks has been found to be insignificant and far below the Dutch regulations and USEPA regulatory limits. Results from this study indicate that tannery sludge can be sustainably stabilized in clay bricks and large-scale application of this technique can be envisaged in the context of Bangladesh where brick remains a dominant building material.

N-acetyl-D-glucosamine kinase interacts with dynein light-chain roadblock type 1 at Golgi outposts in neuronal dendritic branch points

N-acetylglucosamine kinase (GlcNAc kinase or NAGK) is a ubiquitously expressed enzyme in mammalian cells. Recent studies have shown that NAGK has an essential structural, non-enzymatic role in the upregulation of dendritogenesis. In this study, we conducted yeast two-hybrid screening to search for NAGK-binding proteins and found a specific interaction between NAGK and dynein light-chain roadblock type 1 (DYNLRB1). Immunocytochemistry (ICC) on hippocampal neurons using antibodies against NAGK and DYNLRB1 or dynein heavy chain showed some colocalization, which was increased by treating the live cells with a crosslinker. A proximity ligation assay (PLA) of NAGK-dynein followed by tubulin ICC showed the localization of PLA signals on microtubule fibers at dendritic branch points. NAGK-dynein PLA combined with Golgi ICC showed the colocalization of PLA signals with somal Golgi facing the apical dendrite and with Golgi outposts in dendritic branch points and distensions. NAGK-Golgi PLA followed by tubulin or DYNLRB1 ICC showed that PLA signals colocalize with DYNLRB1 at dendritic branch points and at somal Golgi, indicating a tripartite interaction between NAGK, dynein and Golgi. Finally, the ectopic introduction of a small peptide derived from the C-terminal amino acids 74-96 of DYNLRB1 resulted in the stunting of hippocampal neuron dendrites in culture. Our data indicate that the NAGK-dynein-Golgi tripartite interaction at dendritic branch points functions to regulate dendritic growth and/or branching.

Efficacy of strain RB51 vaccine in protecting infection and vertical transmission against Brucella abortus in Sprague-Dawley rats

Immunizing animals in the wild against Brucella (B.) abortus is essential to control bovine brucellosis because cattle can get the disease through close contact with infected wildlife. The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of the B. abortus strain RB51 vaccine in protecting infection as well as vertical transmission in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats against B. abortus biotype 1. Virgin female SD rats (n = 48) two months of age were divided into two groups: one group (n = 24) received RB51 vaccine intraperitoneally with 3 x 10(10) colony forming units (CFU) and the other group (n = 24) was used as non-vaccinated control. Non-vaccinated and RB51-vaccinated rats were challenged with 1.5 x 10(9) CFU of virulent B. abortus biotype 1 six weeks after vaccination. Three weeks after challenge, all rats were bred. Verification of RB51-vaccine induced protection in SD rats was determined by bacteriological, serological and molecular screening of maternal and fetal tissues at necropsy. The RB51 vaccine elicited 81.25% protection in SD rats against infection with B. abortus biotype 1. Offspring from rats vaccinated with RB51 had a decreased (p < 0.05) prevalence of vertical transmission of B. abortus biotype 1 compared to the offspring from non-vaccinated rats (20.23% and 87.50%, respectively). This is the first report of RB51 vaccination efficacy against the vertical transmission of B. abortus in the SD rat model.