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Background The Leprosy Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (LPEP) program explored the feasibility and impact of contact tracing and the provision of single dose rifampicin (SDR) to eligible contacts of newly diagnosed leprosy patients in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. As the impact of the programme is difficult to establish in the short term, we apply mathematical modelling to predict its long-term impact on the leprosy incidence. Methodology The individual-based model SIMCOLEP was calibrated and validated to the historic leprosy incidence data in the study areas. For each area, we assessed two scenarios: 1) continua-tion of existing routine activities as in 2014; and 2) routine activities combined with LPEP starting in 2015. The number of contacts per index patient screened varied from 1 to 36 between areas. Projections were made until 2040. Principal findings In all areas, the LPEP program increased the number of detected cases in the first year(s) of the programme as compared to the routine programme, followed by a faster reduction after-wards with increasing benefit over time. LPEP could accelerate the reduction of the leprosy incidence by up to six years as compared to the routine programme. The impact of LPEP varied by area due to differences in the number of contacts per index patient included and differences in leprosy epidemiology and routine control programme. Conclusions The LPEP program contributes significantly to the reduction of the leprosy incidence and could potentially accelerate the interruption of transmission. It would be advisable to include contact tracing/screening and SDR in routine leprosy programmes.

© 2016 The Author(s).The anti-cancer activity of the benzo[h]quinolines was evaluated on cultured human skin cancer (G361), lung cancer (H460), breast cancer (MCF7) and colon cancer (HCT116) cell lines. The inhibitory effect of these compounds on the cell growth was determined by the MTT assay. The compounds 3e, 3f, 3h and 3j showed potential cytotoxicity against these human cancer cell lines. Effect of active compounds on DNA oxidation and expression of apoptosis related gene was studied. We also developed a quantitative method to measure the activity of cyclin-dependent kinases-2 (CDK2) by western blotting in the presence of active compound. In addition, molecular docking revealed that benzo[h]quinolines can correctly dock into the hydrophobic pocket of the targets receptor protein aromatase and CDK2, while their bioavailability/drug-likeness was predicted to be acceptable but requires future optimization. These findings reveal that benzo[h]quinolines act as anti-cancer agents by inducing oxidative stress-mediated DNA damage.

Design of high quality factor (Q) micromechanical resonators depends critically on our understanding of energy losses in their oscillations. The Q of such structures depends on process induced prestress in the structural geometry, interaction with the external environment, and the encapsulation method. We study the dominant fluid interaction related losses, namely, the squeeze film damping and acoustic radiation losses in a drumhead microresonator subjected to different prestress levels, operated in air, to predict its Q in various modes of oscillation. We present a detailed research of the acoustic radiation losses, associated with the 15 transverse vibration modes of the resonator using a hybrid analytical-computational approach. The prestressed squeeze film computation is based on the standard established numerical procedure. Our technique of computing acoustic damping based quality factor Qac includes calculation of the exact prestressed modes. We find that acoustic losses result in a non-monotonic variation of Qac in lower unstressed modes. Such non-monotonic variation disappears with the increase in the prestress levels. Although squeeze film damping dominates the net Q at lower frequencies, acoustic radiation losses dominate at higher frequencies. The combined computed losses correctly predict the experimentally measured Q of the resonator over a large range of resonant frequencies

ARKIVOC: vol. 2008, no. 11, (issn) 1551-7012, (dlps) 5550190.0009.b19, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License. Please contact mpub-help@umich.edu to use this work in a way not covered by the license.