Load carriage is an inevitable part of military life both during training and operations. Loads carried are frequently as high as 60% bodyweight, and this increases injury risk. In the military, load is carried in a backpack (also referred to as a Bergen) and webbing, these combined form a load carriage system (LCS). A substantial body of literature exists recording the physiological effects of...

Carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults is rarely detected by the gold standard culture method. With molecular tests of high sensitivity now available, we analysed upper respiratory tract samples collected during autumn/winter 2012/2013 from parents of PCV7-vaccinated infants and from childless adults, directly comparing culture and qPCR-based S. pneumoniae detection. As compared to the ...

Here we discuss the application of an edge detection filter, the Sobel filter of GIMP, to the recently discovered motion of some sand dunes on Mars. The filter allows a good comparison of an image HiRISE of 2007 and an image of 1999 recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor of the dunes in the Nili Patera caldera, measuring therefore the motion of the dunes on a longer period of time than that previ...

We give a Riemann–Hilbert approach to the theory of matrix orthogonal polynomials. We will focus on the algebraic aspects of the problem, obtaining difference and differential relations satisfied by the corresponding orthogonal polynomials. We will show that in the matrix case there is some extra freedom that allows us to obtain a family of ladder operators, some of them of 0-th order, somethin...

1. The purpose of this paper is to discuss statistical metadata (hereinafter called metadata) from the survey methodologist’s perspective. In particular, metadata as it relates to data quality is the main theme. We develop this by examining the metadata needs for a methodologist from the perspective of the design and evaluation of a specific measurement objective in a specific survey: the colle...

Abstract. We study a general transition operator, generated by a random walk on a graph X ; in particular we give necessary and sufficient condition on the matrix coefficient (1-step transition probablilities) to be a bounded operator from l(X) into itself. Moreover we characterize compact operators and we relate this property to the behaviour of the associated random walk. We give a necessary ...

let $g$ be a locally compact group, $h$ be a compact subgroup of $g$ and $varpi$ be a representation of the homogeneous space $g/h$ on a hilbert space $mathcal h$. for $psi in l^p(g/h), 1leq p leqinfty$, and an admissible wavelet $zeta$ for $varpi$, we define the localization operator $l_{psi,zeta} $ on $mathcal h$ and we show that it is a bounded operator. moreover, we prove that the localizat...

Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MnB) is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis; however, MnB is most commonly associated with asymptomatic carriage in the nasopharyngeal cavity, as opposed to the disease state. Two vaccines are now licensed for the prevention of MnB disease; a possible additional benefit of these vaccines could be to protect against disease indirectly by disrupting nasopha...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal carriage is the precursor for development of pneumococcal disease, and is also responsible for transmission of the organism from person-to-person. In Africa, little is known about the pneumococcus in relation to people with HIV infection. The aim of the study was to investigate the epidemiology of pneumococcal carriage among HIV infected children visiting a tertiary hosp...