During the last 100 years the Ethiopian upper Blue Nile Basin (BNB) has undergone major changes in land use, and is now potentially facing changes in climate. Rainfall over BNB supplies over two-thirds of the water to the Nile and supports a large local population living mainly on subsistence agriculture. Regional food security is sensitive to both the amount and timing of rain and is already a...

Phenothiazine-based photosensitisers have been employed in photoantimicrobial research for nearly 80 years, both as lead and novel compounds. However, the main structural variations have mainly involved the auxochromic side chains and little has been reported concerning either peripheral substitution or structures with chromophores other than those of the phenothiazinium or annelated benzo[a]ph...

A method is presented for recording extrinsic optical signals from segments of single skeletal muscle fibers under current or voltage clamp conditions. Such segments, which are cut from intact fibers, are maintained in a relaxed state, while exhbiting otherwise normal physiological properties, including healthy delayed rectifier currents. Extrinsic fluorescence changes are demonstrated, using t...

A monolayer of Nile Blue (NB) has been covalently immobilized on the self-assembled thiol-monolayer modified gold electrode. Cyclic voltammograms indicated a stable and reverse redox process of NB bonded on the electrode surface. The mechanisms of redox process coupling with proton transfer were proposed. The NB-modified electrode showed excellent electrocatalytic activity toward Nicotinamide a...

The VecTest antigen-capture assay for West Nile virus was performed on oral and tissue swabs from dead birds in New York State from April 2003 through July 2004. Results were compared with those from real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction of kidney or brain. Oral VecTest sensitivity is adequate for surveillance in American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) (87%), Blue Jays (Cyano...

Plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) membranes that incorporate a highly lipophilic sodium-selective neutral ionophore (ETH 4120) and novel H(+)-selective chromo-ionophores, lipophilic isologs of Nile Blue, are used in the competitive binding of Na+ and H+ for a reversible, optical determination of sodium activities in buffered solutions at different selected pH values. These optode membranes are u...

Framing the Issue The Republic of South Sudan is comprised of three provinces—Bahl el Ghazal, Equatoria and Greater Upper Nile, which are subdivided into 10 states: Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Lakes (Bahr el Ghazal); Unity, Upper Nile, Jonglei (Greater Upper Nile); and Western Equatoria, Central Equatorial (which contains Juba, the national capital) and Eastern Equa...

Chrome salt utilization in tanning industry become spread over the world owing to its preferred quality leather industry. However, Environmental concerns of chromium have shifted interest current research metal-free and friendly processing options. Vegetable tanning, been proven be environmentally safe manageable, while producing good with similar characteristics as that tanned leather. So, obj...

West Nile virus and wild birds West Nile virus (WN) is a virus of wild birds, transmitted from bird to bird primarily by mosquitoes. Native to southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the virus arrived in North America in 1999 and spread quickly across the continent. Over 225 species of birds have been reported as infected with WN; some of these species, such as members of the crow family, ...