Coulomb-Gas Approach For Percolation Theory

The aim of this work is to present a non trivial confirmation of the powerful of the Coulomb gas-techniques for Boundary Conformal Field Theory (BCFT). We show that we can re-derive the known Cardy result of percolation problem via the technics developed by S. Kawai in the Coulomb-Gas formalism.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. The title and the abstract were changed and the introduction was modifie

Characterization and diversity of the market-gardening production systems and their interactions with urban and peri-urban environment in Southern-Benin, West Africa

The market-gardening production plays an important role in contribution to food availability. However this activity is limited by constraints and also generates harmful effects on health and environment. Thus to ensure the sustainability of this activity is a great challenge. A survey on market-gardening farms management was carried out from 2009 to 2010 on 197 farmers in production site of Cotonou, Sèmè-kpodji and Ouidah in Southern Benin. The aim of study was to characterize and categorize the farms in order to identify the means by which this activity could be improved and made socially, economically and ecologically more sustainable. The production was characterized by a weakness of farming rotations, the use of chemical and organic fertilizers as well as the use of chemical pesticides in the pest and disease control. Farmers' annual earning varied widely with an average of 917,646 XOF. About one quarter of the farmers earn less than the minimum wage. By combining Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), we identified seven types of farmers. Development Project focusing on sustainability improvement of the production and income of the producers could target the first five categories of market-gardeners who experience more hardship (difficult access to land, challenges with irrigation and pests and diseases control). These farms depend mostly on chemical pesticide. Authorities especially at the municipal level should help with a better land allocation, particularly for farmers in Cotonou and Sèmè-kpodji. Continuing education and awareness raising efforts by Extension services towards producers about health and environmental hazards of synthetic pesticides could improve sustainability of vegetable growing in Southern-Benin. (Résumé d'auteur

The boundary states and correlation functions of the tricritical Ising model from the Coulomb-gas formalism

We consider the minimal conformal model describing the tricritical Ising model on the disk and on the upper half plane. Using the coulomb-gas formalism we determine its consistents boundary states as well as its 1-point and 2-point correlation functions.Comment: 20 pages, no figure. Version 2:A paragraph for the calculation of the 2-point correlators was added. Some typos and garammatical errors were corrected.Version 3: Equations 24 are modified. Version 4 : new introduction and minor correction

Modelling the risk of being bitten by malaria vectors in a vector control area in southern Benin, west Africa

Background: The diversity of malaria vector populations, expressing various resistance and/or behavioural patterns could explain the reduced effectiveness of vector control interventions reported in some African countries. A better understanding of the ecology and distribution of malaria vectors is essential to design more effective and sustainable strategies for malaria control and elimination. Here, we analyzed the spatio-temporal risk of the contact between humans and the sympatric An. funestus and both M and S molecular forms of An. gambiae s.s. in an area of Benin with high coverage of vector control measures with an unprecedented level of resolution. Methods: Presence-absence data for the three vectors from 1-year human-landing collections in 19 villages were assessed using binomial mixed-effects models according to vector control measures and environmental covariates derived from field and remote sensing data. After 8-fold cross-validations of the models, predictive maps of the risk of the contact between humans and the sympatric An. funestus and both molecular M and S forms of An. gambiae s.s. were computed. Results: Model validations showed that the An. funestus, An. gambiae M form, and S form models provided an excellent (Area Under Curve>0.9), a good (AUC>0.8), and an acceptable (AUC>0.7) level of prediction, respectively. The distribution area of the probability of contact between human and An. funestus largely overlaps that of An. gambiae M form but this latter showed important seasonal variation. An. gambiae S form also showed seasonal variation but with different ecological preferences. Landscape data were useful to discriminate between the species' distributions. Conclusions: These results showed that available remote sensing data could help in predicting the human-vector contact for several species of malaria vectors at a village level scale. The predictive maps showed seasonal and spatial variations in the risk of human-vector contact for all three vectors. Such maps could help Malaria Control Programmes to implement more effective vector control strategy by taking into account to the dynamics of malaria vector species. (Résumé d'auteur

Retrospective histopathological study of canine mammary gland tumours diagnosed from 2006 – 2012 in Universiti Putra Malaysia

Forty-eight canine mammary tumours (CMT) diagnosed at the Histopathology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, were reviewed retrospectively. Two control groups, one comprising all other cases involving female dogs and another group comprising only cases of neoplasia involving female dogs diagnosed in the laboratory over the same period of time were used for comparisons in this study. Fisher’s exact test and logistic regression were used to determine association between the factors and the risk of CMT. Thirty-nine (81.3%) of the tumours were diagnosed as adenocarcinoma, 8.3% (n=4) each, were the diagnoses for squamous cell carcinoma and mixed cell tumour. Adenoma had 2.1% (n=1). The prevalence of canine mammary gland tumours in this study is 39%. When CMT cases were compared with all other cases, significant association was observed with adult dogs (p = 0.032, logistic regression 0.012) and intact dogs (p= 0.009, logistic regression, 0.003). When CMT cases were compared with neoplasia cases, significant association was observed with pure breeds (p = 0.025) and intact dogs (p = 0.000034, logistic regression 0.00042). This study found that pure breed dogs, intact dogs and older dogs (> 5years) have higher odds of having CMT in Malaysian dog population

Mammary gland tumours in the dog, a spontaneous tumour model of comparative value to human breast cancer

Mammary gland tumours are the most common neoplasia diagnosed in the female dog. These tumours occur spontaneously or naturally as in humans, 50% of which are commonly diagnosed as malignant. Metastasis to other tissues especially the lung is a common cause of death in these dogs. Treatment of canine mammary gland tumours (CMT) involves mainly surgical resection with wide margin followed by chemotherapy with cytotoxic drugs for those with lymph node and distant metastasis. With the dog continuously described as a very suitable and valuable large animal model of human breast cancer, it becomes very obvious that CMT can be a model to further understand the biology of cancer as well as screening for new therapeutic agents that could be used to treat human breast cancer and CMT more effectively. This review focuses on research work that has been done on CMT over the past years, describing the epidemiology, diagnostics and recent advances in therapy for CMT as well as discussing the significance of the dog CMT as spontaneous animal model for human breast cancer

Automating Active Stereo Vision Calibration Process with Cobots

Collaborative robots help the academia and industry to accelerate the work by introducing a new concept of cooperation between human and robot. In this paper, a calibration process for an active stereo vision rig has been automated to accelerate the task and improve the quality of the calibration. As illustrated in this paper by using Baxter Robot, the calibration process has been done faster by three times in comparison to the manual calibration that depends on the human. The quality of the calibration was improved by 120% when the Baxter robot was used

Fibroblast growth factor receptors: their expression and clinicopathological relevance in canine mammary gland tumours

Mammary gland tumour (CMT) is the most common neoplasm which occurs naturally in dogs. CMT affects mainly female dogs and can lead to metastatic disease and eventually death if untreated. Among the recent biomarkers involved in growth signaling explored in human cancers which are yet to be explored in canine mammary gland tumours are the fibroblast growth factor receptors. This study aimed to determine the expression of FGFRs in CMT and the relationship between the expression and clinicopathological parameters. Forty-six CMT were immunohistochemically probed for the expression of FGFR2, FGFR3 and FGFR4 using rabbit polyclonal antibodies. Western blotting was used to evaluate cross reactivity of the antibodies with the canine FGFR protein. The expression of FGFR2 was significantly associated with histopathology grade 3 of the tumours p=0.027. FGFR4 expression was associated with large breed dogs p=0.044, and large tumour size (>3cm), p=0.045. Many studies in human cancers have reported prognostic value of FGFR expression. FGFR2 expression was associated with histopathology grade, indicating the usefulness of high FGFR2 expression in CMT as an indicator of increased tumour malignancy. Large tumours have shown significantly higher FGFR4 expression. Tumour size is one of the criteria for tumour staging (TNM), which placed large tumours (>3cm) on stages 2 and above. Large breed dogs have a significantly higher FGFR4 expression in this study. Based on these findings, FGFR2 and 4 can be used as markers for advanced and aggressive CMT which further studies are warranted to evaluate for possible targeted therapy

Characterization of health and environmental risks of pesticide use in market-gardening in the rural city of Tori-Bossito in Benin, West Africa

A study on the use of pesticides in market-gardening production was carried out on 108 market-gardeners in the rural city of Tori-Bossito in Southern Benin. The objective of the study was to characterize the potential risks of pesticides usage by farmers and the impacts on their health and on the environment. Two risk indexes were calculated for each pesticide: an environmental risk index (ERI) and a health risk index (HRI). First stage larva of the mosquito Aedes ae-gypti were used as bio-indicator for detecting insecticide residue in vegetable before their harvesting on the farms. The highest ERI were obtained for carbofuran, chlorpyriphos ethyl and endosulfan. Pesticide residues were found in 42% of the samples of leaves of eggplant, cucumber, amaranth and solanum. Vegetables growers used pesticides that may be highly hazardous and which were not registered in most cases. These situations could have unexpected consequences including the exposure of consumers to health hazards. (Résumé d'auteur