Stegomyia indices of Aedes aquatic stages in El Geneina town, Western Sudan

Background: Darfur in Western Sudan has the most volatile camps of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and has experienced several outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. Aims: To determine the prevalence and Stegomyia indices of Aedes aquatic stages in El Geneina town, Western Darfur. Methods: Cross-sectional entomological surveys of immature stages of Aedes were carried out during August–November 2019 in 4 sites with IDP camps and a residential area with no camp. Results: We searched 17 730 houses, IDP camps and buildings of governmental corporations for Aedes larvae, and 6809 (38.4%) were positive for Aedes aquatic stages. Both Aedes aegypti and Aedes vittatus larvae were found. However, A. aegypti constituted > 90% of the larvae. Six positive water containers were recorded: tyres, clay pots, barrels, plastic water tanks, flower vases and old cars: 26% of 92 tyres contained Aedes larvae compared to 23.8% of 21 old cars and 17.1% of 44 198 clay pots. This suggested that clay pots were the main source of Aedes. The results showed high infestation of El Geneina town with Aedes immature stages in all study sites including public buildings and residential areas with no IDP camps. Stegomyia indices varied among study sites, and were more elevated in sites with IDP camps. For all sites, House index = 38.40, Container Index = 11.40, Breateu index = 13.60 and Pupa Index = 27. Conclusion: Multisectoral response coupled with community participation are urgently needed to reduce the burden of Aedes-borne diseases in the unstable El Geneina town.

RESEARCH OF THE SETTLEMENT OF PRAGUE-KORCHAK CULTURE IN RIVNE CITY

The paper introduces into scientific circulation the results of research of the objects of Early Slavs of the Prague-Korchak culture in a multi-layered settlement in the southern part of Rivne city. The settlement is located on the eastern shore of the Basiv Kut Reservoir, on the oval hill measuring 220 Ч 120 m. The first finds of the Early Middle Ages were discovered here by V. K. Piasetskyi in 1989. In 2019, the excavations were carried out on the area of 590 m2; the housing and storage pit of the Prague-Korchak culture have been discovered. The quadrangular foundation pit of 3.5 Ч 3.5 m square was sunk into the earth to the 0.3—0.4 m from detection level. The remains of stone stove made on the wooden frame were located in the northern corner of the dwelling. Such semi-dugout dwellings with the stove in one of corners was the main type of residential buildings in the population of the Prague-Korchak culture. The pillar holes found in the corners of the foundation pit and in the middle of the walls indicate the frame-pillar construction of the wooden walls. Among the stones from the destroyed stove and on the earthen floor in the central part of the foundation pit of the dwelling the remains of nine clay pots were found. We managed to reconstruct the full profiles of seven of them; two else vessels are represented by the profiles of the upper parts. The pots from the dwelling have a conical body, weakly marked shoulder, scarcely marked neck and short rim. The surface of the item is insufficiently smoothed and bumpy. The admixtures in the clay are mostly of small and medium size, with added fireclay, grus and sand. By their size the vessels are divided into small (1), medium (5) and large (3). All pots from the dwelling belong to variants 1—3 of the first type according to I. P. Rusanova’s classification. This combination is typical of the early monuments of the Prague-Korchak culture. The analysis allows attributing the ceramic complex from Rivne to phaze 1 according to I. O. Havritukhin and to date it as belonging to the second half of 5th — mid-6th centuries. The settlement was not large; two or three farmsteads could simultaneously exist there. They were located at a distance of 100—150 m from each other.

Experimental investigation of a pyramid type solar still with porous material: productivity assessment

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effect of porous material (clay pots) and it is facing on the productivity performance of a pyramid type solar still. The clay pots are placed in the basin facing up and facing down. The numbers of clay pots considered were 9 and 25, and its performance was compared with normal (0 clay pots) solar still. Design/methodology/approach The pyramid solar water distillation system has been designed, fabricated and tested under the actual environmental conditions of Kanchikacherla (16.6834 0N, 80.3904 0E), Andhra Pradesh, India. The solar still is used to produce the fresh water and hot water simultaneously from the brackish (i.e. containing dissolved salts) feed water for domestic applications. From open literature, it was established that the rate of evaporation is higher when the flowing water is held for a longer duration on the black color absorber plate, thereby leading to an increase in productivity of freshwater. Therefore, the pyramid solar still has been tested for smooth absorber plate and the absorber plate with porous heat storage material. Findings The porous material increases the production rate of freshwater compared to a base plate. However, the pyramid still with clay pots has higher productivity at a lower temperature because of the porosity effect. Originality/value The total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity and pH of the distilled water and the saline water have also been measured and compared.

Assessment of Household Water Quality from Selected Storage Vessels used in a South-Western Rural Community, Nigeria

Water is an important requirement for life but its contamination via natural and anthropogenic activities is of great concern. This study determined some physicochemical parameters of drinking water from the main source (borehole), and selected storage vessels in Abimbola, Ayedaade Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria. About 10 household water samples were collected randomly from the 70 households in the village. The major water storage vessels used by the villagers were clay pots. Only about one-fifth of the households used plastic containers. All the physico-chemical parameters assessed were within permissible limits of the World Health Organization and Standards Organization of Nigeria’s drinking water guidelines except for Lead and nitrite. Furthermore, water stored in clay pots had significantly higher levels of Nitrate (p=0.04), Nitrite (p=0.04), Sulphate (p=0.04), Lead (p=0.03), Iron (p=0.04), and Manganese (p=0.04) than those stored in plastic containers. Results suggest that the type of storage vessels used could influence the physicochemical quality of the water stored in them. Also, basic water quality monitoring needs to be conducted routinely to ascertain and maintain high quality water supply per time.

Indigenous Pottery Embedding Worldviews in Limpopo Province, South Africa

This article applies a culture-sensitive approach to an exploration of three topics related to African pottery: first, the core culture that constitutes a specific worldview, second, the socio-historical contexts of clay pots whose names are associated with verbal expressions that have been anthropologically analysed and found to be pertinent to communality, and, third, selected indigenous South African pottery mentioned in local Northern Sotho and Vhaven?a proverbs that convey local knowledge. Through interviewing potters and heritage practitioners and applying an emic view, I seek to contribute to a more accurate interpretation of African pottery meanings by emphasising the need for documentation processes to take into account indigenous languages in order to recognise the epistemological significance of indigenous pottery productions and their meanings in their respective cultures. I argue that the use of Western models to evaluate and understand local pottery meanings is problematic. A method needs to be developed to integrate African knowledge systems into mainstream knowledge production to address challenging aspects of theories currently used to describe and formulate pottery names and meanings.

Assessment of Indian cooking practices and cookwares on nutritional security: A review

Food provides us nutrients and the energy required for growth, reproduction, and maintenance. Energy is required to perform all voluntary and involuntary activities like digestion, respiration, circulation, carrying out professional, household and recreational activities. Despite having rich food diversity, we are using only a few items as our staple food. With the adoption of eastern cooking practices and cookwares, risk of both pre-and post-transitional diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, malnutrition, obesity, etc. has increased significantly. Aluminium toxicity and nutrients breakdown has become a common problem in pressure cooking. To overcome this problem, it is important to shift from the modernized cooking methods to our traditional cooking practices, i.e., use of earthen cookwares, clay pots and some selected metal utensils, e.g., copper, iron, brass, etc. It has been shown that earthen, copper, iron, and soapstone cookwares do not leach toxic trace elements into the food and enhance the sensory qualities without decreasing the food nutrients. Adoption of traditional Indian cooking practices (such as fermentation, roasting, germination, etc.), cookwares (such as earthen, copper, iron, soapstone, etc.) and increasing the consumption of healthy diet grains like millets, etc. can easily combat the pre- and post-transition health problems in India, effectively. This review would provide a deep understanding to the people to decide the best cookware and cooking processes that will improve their health and provide ample nutritional value to them.

Probable contribution of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes to the circulation of chikungunya virus during an outbreak in Mombasa County, Kenya, 2017–2018

Background Chikungunya virus is an alphavirus, primarily transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. In late 2017–2018, an outbreak of chikungunya occurred in Mombasa county, Kenya, and investigations were conducted to establish associated entomological risk factors. Methods Homes were stratified and water-filled containers inspected for immature Ae. aegypti, and larval indices were calculated. Adult mosquitoes were collected in the same homesteads using BG-Sentinel and CDC light traps and screened for chikungunya virus. Experiments were also conducted to determine the ability of Culex quinquefasciatus to transmit chikungunya virus. Results One hundred thirty-one houses and 1637 containers were inspected; 48 and 128 of them, respectively, were positive for immature Ae. aegypti, with the house index (36.60), container index (7.82) and Breteau index (97.71) recorded. Jerry cans (n = 1232; 72.26%) and clay pots (n = 2; 0.12%) were the most and least inspected containers, respectively, while drums, the second most commonly sampled (n = 249; 15.21%), were highly positive (65.63%) and productive (60%). Tires and jerry cans demonstrated the highest and lowest breeding preference ratios, 11.36 and 0.2, respectively. Over 6900 adult mosquitoes were collected and identified into 15 species comprising Cx. quinquefasciatus (n = 4492; 65.04%), Aedes vittatus (n = 1137; 16.46%) and Ae. aegypti (n = 911; 13.19%) and 2 species groups. Simpson’s dominance and Shannon-Wiener diversity indices of 0.4388 and 1.1942 were recorded, respectively. Chikungunya virus was isolated from pools of Ae. aegypti (1) and Cx. quinquefasciatus (4), two of which were males. Minimum infection rates of 3.0 and 0.8 were observed for female Ae. aegypti and Cx. quinquefasciatus, respectively. Between 25 and 31.3% of exposed mosquitoes became infected with CHIKV 7, 14 and 21 days post-exposure. For the experimentally infected Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes, between 13 and 40% had the virus disseminated, with 100% transmission being observed among those with disseminated infection. Conclusions These results demonstrated high risk of chikungunya transmission for residents in the sampled areas of Mombasa. Transmission data confirmed the probable role played by Cx. quinquefasciatus in the outbreak while the role of Ae. vittatus in the transmission of chikungunya virus remains unknown.

Selenium resistant bacteria enhance Zea mays growth parameters under selenium stress

Heavy metals normally accumulate in the environment and as a result they create various problems to life, especially to plants. In this study two selenium resistant bacteria, Bacillus pumils strain CrK08 and Bacillus licheniformis strain AsK03 were checked for their effect in enhancing growth of Zea mays in the clay pots experiment, under selenium stress. Both strains significantly promoted root length in control and in autoclaved soil. Number of roots from plant base was reduced in control and autoclave soil respectively. Moreover, the fresh weight and dry weight were reduced in control and autoclave soil plants. In selenium treated plants, fresh weight was high than in the non-treated plants. However, Strains also produced an increase in soluble protein content. Indole acetic acid (IAA) content was enhanced to and, while acid phosphatase activity was significantly lower in inoculated plants than the controls and peroxidase content reduced. Selenium content in control plants was high as compared to treated plants. So, these strains promote plant growth under Se stress (17 mg kg-1) in soil.

The mediums of dissemination of knowledge and illustration in neurosurgery: unraveling the evolution

The earliest evidence of man’s attempts in communicating ideas and emotions can be seen on cave walls and ceilings from the prehistoric era. Ingenuity, as well as the development of tools, allowed clay tablets to become the preferred method of documentation, then papyrus and eventually the codex. As civilizations advanced to develop structured systems of writing, knowledge became a power available to only those who were literate. As the search to understand the intricacies of the human brain moved forward, so did the demand for teaching the next generation of physicians. The different methods of distributing information were forced to advance, lest the civilization falls behind. Here, the authors present a historical perspective on the evolution of the mediums of illustration and knowledge dissemination through the lens of neurosurgery. They highlight how the medium of choice transitioned from primitive clay pots to cutting-edge virtual reality technology, aiding in the propagation of medical literature from generation to generation across the centuries.