BACKGROUND Appropriate methodology for storage biological materials, extraction of DNA, and proper DNA preservation is vital for studies involving genetic analysis of insects, bacteria, and reservoir hosts as well as for molecular diagnostics of pathogens carried by vectors and reservoirs. Here we tried to evaluate the utility of a simple filter paper-based for storage of insects, bacteria, rod...

Landfill leachates are repeatedly found contaminated with organic pollutants, such as alkylphenols (APs), phthalates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at levels exceeding water quality standards. It has been shown that these pollutants may be present in the colloidal and truly dissolved phase in contaminated water, making particle separation an inefficient removal method. The aim of t...

Sand ripples present a difficult challenge to current mine hunting approaches. We propose a robust and adaptive method that suppresses sand ripples prior to the detection stage. The method exploits a fractal model of the seabed and the connection between: dual-tree wavelets and local, directional fractal dimension; interscale energy ratios, scale invariant frequency localised fractal dimension,...

Median grain sizes on riverbeds range from boulders in uplands to silt in lowlands; however, rivers with ~1–5mm diameter bed sediment are rare. This grain size gap also marks an abrupt transition between graveland sand-bedded reaches that is unlike any other part of the fluvial network. Abrupt gravel-sand transitions have been attributed to rapid breakdown or rapid transport of fine gravel, or ...

Sandfly fever group viruses in the genus Phlebovirus (family Bunyaviridae) are widely distributed across the globe and are a cause of disease in military troops and indigenous peoples. We assessed the laboratory sensitivity and specificity of the Sand Fly Fever Virus Antigen Assay, a rapid dipstick assay designed to detect sandfly fever Naples virus (SFNV) and Toscana virus (TOSV) against a pan...

The superconducting band-pass filter has small insertion loss and excellent out-of-band rejection properties. It has been put to practical use in a number of applications. However, in order to expand its range of application, a tuning technique that can restore the filter characteristics is needed. We propose an automatic tuning system using a trimming library and checked the feasibility of the...