OPTIMAL CONTROL APPLIED TO RIFT VALLEY FEVER

Abstract Rift Valley Fever (RVF) virus is a mosquito‐born pathogen that infects livestock but it also has the capability to infect humans through direct or indirect contact with blood or organs of infected animals and by bites from infected mosquitos. The economic and social cost of the disease to rural populations can lead to a cascade of negative effects on the sustainability of animal and human populations. Vaccines exist to protect against this disease. Through a compartment model depicting the interactions leading to the spread of RVF in Aedes and Culex mosquitos and a livestock population, an optimal control problem is developed to minimize the number of vaccinated livestock at the final time while minimizing the negative effects of the infected Aedes and Culex mosquitos and the cost of the vaccination process. The unique optimal vaccination strategy is produced for given high transmission parameters and numerical results portray that vaccination depends on the level of effectiveness of the protocol.     

Thermal evolution of inverted basins: Constraints from apatite fission track thermochronology in the Cuyo Basin, Argentine Precordillera

Apatite fission track thermochronology (AFTT) was applied to derive the thermal history of formation and inversion of the oil-bearing Triassic–Cretaceous Cuyo Basin, Argentine Precordillera. The obtained central fission track ages range from 13 to 163 Ma, and the mean track lengths from 8.2 to . Based on the integration of AFTT, stratigraphic and structural data, five evolutionary phases are here proposed for the studied area: I—Late Permian cooling related to the extrusion of basement volcanics, and initial extensional regime responsible for the Cuyo Basin formation, II—Triassic–Jurassic heating linked with the filling, and consequent burial, of the Cuyo Basin, III—Jurassic–Paleogene tectonic stabilization, IV—Early Miocene heating related to the load of foreland sedimentation, V—Late Miocene rapid cooling related to the Cuyo Basin inversion. During the Late Miocene, rock units formed in different crustal levels were juxtaposed through thrust, reverse and normal faulting, resulting in contrasting old and very young central fission track ages in closely spaced samples.     

Computational prediction and biochemical characterization of novel RNA aptamers to Rift Valley fever virus nucleocapsid protein

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a potent human and livestock pathogen endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that has potential to spread to other parts of the world. Although there is no proven effective and safe treatment for RVFV infections, a potential therapeutic target is the virally encoded nucleocapsid protein (N). During the course of infection, N binds to viral RNA, and perturbation of this interaction can inhibit viral replication. To gain insight into how N recognizes viral RNA specifically, we designed an algorithm that uses a distance matrix and multidimensional scaling to compare the predicted secondary structures of known N-binding RNAs, or aptamers, that were isolated and characterized in previous in vitro evolution experiment. These aptamers did not exhibit overt sequence or predicted structure similarity, so we employed bioinformatic methods to propose novel aptamers based on analysis and clustering of secondary structures. We screened and scored the predicted secondary structures of novel randomly generated RNA sequences in silico and selected several of these putative N-binding RNAs whose secondary structures were similar to those of known N-binding RNAs. We found that overall the in silico generated RNA sequences bound well to N in vitro. Furthermore, introduction of these RNAs into cells prior to infection with RVFV inhibited viral replication in cell culture. This proof of concept study demonstrates how the predictive power of bioinformatics and the empirical power of biochemistry can be jointly harnessed to discover, synthesize, and test new RNA sequences that bind tightly to RVFV N protein. The approach would be easily generalizable to other applications.     

Experimental analysis of conical baffles with rifts on heat transfer and pressure drop

In the present study, convective heat transfer to the air from a heating tube attached to conical baffles with rift was experimentally examined. The air entering the test section first contacts the large surface of the conical baffle. Therefore, the conical baffle both directs the air toward the heating surface and increases the heat transfer surface area. In the experiments, baffles with inclination angles of 45°, 60°, and 80° were used. The baffles were placed on the heating tube at the pitch of 15 mm. The temperature of the heating fluid (water) was kept fixed at 65°C. In addition to the riftless baffles, the experiments were carried out by using baffles with a rift spacing of 1.5 and 3.5 mm so that the boundary layer separation mechanism could be accelerated. Experimental results for eight different velocities of airflow (2–20 m/s) were presented. For the inclination angle of 60°, the increase in the heat transfer of the baffle with rift was 13% at a rift spacing of 1.5 mm and 4% at a rift spacing of 3.5 mm according to the riftless baffle. In addition, for the inclination angle of 60°, the pressure drop values of the riftless and the rift spacing of 1.5 and 3.5 mm were almost the same.     

Influence of the balance of the intertropical front on seasonal variations of the isotopic composition in rainfall at Kisiba Masoko (Rungwe Volcanic Province,SW, Tanzania)

Tropical rainfall isotopic composition results from complex processes. The climatological and environmental variability in East Africa increases this complexity. Long rainfall isotope datasets are needed to fill the lack of observations in this region. At Kisiba Masoko, Tanzania, rainfall and rain isotopic composition have been monitored during 6 years. Mean year profiles allow to analyse the seasonal variations. The mean annual rainfall is 2099?mm with a rain-weighted mean composition of ?3.2?‰ for δ¹⁸O and ?11.7?‰ for δ²H. The results are consistent with available data although they present their own specificity. Thus, if the local meteoric water line is δ²H?=?8.6 δ¹⁸O?+?14.8, two seasonal lines are observed. The seasonality of the isotopic composition in rain and deuterium excess has been compared with precipitating air masses backtracking trajectories to characterize a simple scheme of vapour histories. The three major oceanic sources have two moisture signatures with their own trajectory histories: one originated from the tropical Indian Ocean at the beginning of the rainy season and one from the Austral Ocean at its end. The presented isotopic seasonality depends on the balance of the intertropical front and provides a useful dataset to improve the knowledge about local processes.