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Increasing water scarcity in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has underscored the need to improve our understanding of the management of water resources. Using total evapotranspiration (TET) and precipitation (P) data of the past 16 years this study used a modified version of the climate moisture index (CMI) in order to evaluate water scarcity throughout the SADC region, by examining the relative importance of P and TET on the variability of the CMI. The CMI value for the Democratic Republic of Congo (CMIDRC = 0.347) as well as for Angola (CMIAngola = 0.351), ranged between 0.25 and 1, characteristic of a humid region, whereas CMI values for Botswana (CMIBotswana = 0.027) and South Africa (CMISouth Africa = 0.075) ranged between −0.6 and 0 or 0 and 0.25, characteristic of semi-arid to sub-humid regions. Namibia (CMINamibia = −0.125) has been experiencing drier conditions. The findings of this linear correlation analysis confirm a strong and significant relationship between DRC-Angola (r = 0.837), and a weak but significant relationship between Botswana–Namibia (r = 0.554) and South Africa–Namibia (r = 0.445) with regard to CMI, and suggest the possibility of transferring water from wetter to drier regions in the SADC study area.

In this study, the full-length VP2 gene of canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) was cloned into the pBacSC vector which possesses baculovirus transmembrane domain (gp64 TM) gene, baculovirus cytoplasmic domain (gp64 CTD) gene, and green florescence protein (GFP) gene. Baculovirus gp64 TM and gp64 CTD in the pBacSC vector were designed to display heterologous proteins on the baculovirus envelope. After cloning the VP2 gene of CPV-2 into pBacSC vector, the recombinant plasmid pBacSC-VP2 was transformed into E. coli DH10Bac competent cells to form recombinant bacmid DNA. One recombinant baculovirus BacSC-VP2 that expresses the VP2 protein of CPV-2 was obtained. Confocal microscopy and immunogold electron microscopy were used to verify whether VP2 expressing on baculovirus envelope or cell membrane. Immunization of BALB/c mice with recombinant baculovirus BacSC-VP2, demonstrated that serum from the BacSC-VP2 treated models had higher levels of virus neutralization titers than the control groups. The results show that the recombinant baculovirus BacSC-VP2 can induce a strong immune response in a mouse model, suggesting that the pseudotyped baculovirus BacSC-VP2 can serve as a potential vaccine against CPV infections.

A reliable and an efficient power system is a necessity for any industrialized society. Governments have to enforce regulations to guarantee that such a power system, in spite of many competing stakeholders, participants, companies, and regulating agencies can be operational. This paper analyzes the present arrangements and the future requirements to be posed on incentives and regulation for ancillary services (AS) for power balancing. The paper proposes companies to assess their own needs for AS. A two-sided market for AS is being described to replace the existing arrangements for secondary control. The proposed solution guarantees a reliable and efficient operation of power systems in a market environment with responsive, reliable, and accountable but also competing prosumers, a large penetration of less-predictable renewables and continent-spanning transmission networks.

To investigate the observed variation in glucose tolerance and insulin secretion in intrauterine growth retarded newborn rats and to explore the mechanism of the variations, Sprague-Dawley pregnant rats were allocated into two groups: a control group and an intrauterine energy restricted group. The intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) in the rats was induced by 50% calorie restriction in pregnant rats from gestational day 15 until term as compared to the control group. The pancreata of control and IUGR newborn rats were dissected respectively. RT-PCR was used to study the mRNA level related to insulin synthesis and exocytosis. Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests were done to study the function of the pancreatic islet. We found that birth weight and pancreas mass of IUGR newborn rats were significantly lower than those of controls. Although no significant differences were observed in mRNA level of insulin and PDX-1, the expression of genes related to insulin exocytosis such as munc13-1, vamp-2, syntaxin1a, rab3a were reduced significantly in IUGR newborn rats. IUGR animals were glucose-intolerant. The observed blood insulin level and insulin secretion response to glucose challenge were both found to be at reduced level in IUGR newborn rats as compared with the normal control group rats. With these findings, we hypothesize that IUGR can induce changes in glucose homeostasis due to, at least in part, a reduced function of insulin exocytosis in newborn rats.

The recent increasing trend in the severity of floods, especially across West Africa has been due largely to severe storm outbreaks which are complex and difficult to predict. Most of the weather forecasting centers in Africa now use numerical weather prediction (NWP) model outputs to predict the occurrence and severity of these storms. However, several studies have shown that NWP models and their forecasts are subject to errors and biases because of the complex atmospheric uncertainties and the currently limited knowledge of the mathematical formulation of the atmospheric physics and dynamics. The incorporation of statistical techniques is therefore useful and has indeed become a necessary component of improving NWP model products. Model Output Statistics (MOS), for example, use large multiple regression equations to provide a statistical relationship between the forecast output of NWP models and the observed variables. This study investigates the implementation of the MOS equations generated for Western Sahel (WS), required to correct forecast biases and errors from the 20 km × 20 km resolution Limited Area Model over Africa (Africa LAM) developed by the United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UK Met Office). Daily observed rainfall from January 2005 to December 2006, of 36 selected meteorological stations regionally distributed across the WS as well as the T + 24 h rainfall forecasts from the Africa LAM over the same period were retrieved and analyzed. Results indicated about 76% improvement to the original Africa LAM rainfall forecasts by the MOS method over the southern region of the WS during July–August–September—the period when severe storm activities are highly probable. Results also showed a consistently smaller root mean squared error (RMSE) values from the MOS-corrected rainfall forecasts when compared with the RMSEs from the original Africa LAM rainfall forecasts for all the seasons and regions of the WS.

Nkomazi local municipality of South Africa is a high-risk malaria region with an incidence rate of about 500 cases per 100 000. We examined the influence of environmental factors on population (age group) at risk of malaria.r software was used to statistically analyse data. Using remote sensing technology, a Landsat 8 image of 4th October 2015 was classified using object-based classification and a 5-m resolution. Spot height data were used to generate a digital elevation model of the area.A total of 60 718 malaria cases were notified across 48 health facilities in Nkomazi municipality between January 1997 and August 2015. Malaria incidence was highly associated with irrigated land (P = 0.001), water body (P = 0.011) and altitude ≤400 m (P = 0.001). The multivariate model showed that with 10% increase in the extent of irrigated areas, malaria risk increased by almost 39% in the entire study area and by almost 44% in the 2-km buffer zone of selected villages. Malaria incidence is more pronounced in the economically active population aged 15-64 and in males. Both incidence and case fatality rate drastically declined over the study period.A predictive model based on environmental factors would be useful in the effort towards malaria elimination by fostering appropriate targeting of control measures and allocating of resources.

Introduction: INSTRUCT (CellCoTec B.V., Netherlands) is a technology that combines freshly isolated autologous chondrocytes and mono-nucleated cells from bone marrow with a porous scaffold filling the defect and providing cartilage matching mechanical stability. Based on (pre-)clinical data it is anticipated[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], Deutscher Kongress für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie (DKOU 2015)