SummaryBackgroundThe WHO declared the 2014 west African Ebola epidemic a public health emergency of international concern in view of its potential for further international spread. Decision makers worldwide are in need of empirical data to inform and implement emergency response measures. Our aim was to assess the potential for Ebola virus to spread across international borders via commercial air travel and assess the relative efficiency of exit versus entry screening of travellers at commercial airports.MethodsWe analysed International Air Transport Association data for worldwide flight schedules between Sept 1, 2014, and Dec 31, 2014, and historic traveller flight itinerary data from 2013 to describe expected global population movements via commercial air travel out of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Coupled with Ebola virus surveillance data, we modelled the expected number of internationally exported Ebola virus infections, the potential effect of air travel restrictions, and the efficiency of airport-based traveller screening at international ports of entry and exit. We deemed individuals initiating travel from any domestic or international airport within these three countries to have possible exposure to Ebola virus. We deemed all other travellers to have no significant risk of exposure to Ebola virus.FindingsBased on epidemic conditions and international flight restrictions to and from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as of Sept 1, 2014 (reductions in passenger seats by 51% for Liberia, 66% for Guinea, and 85% for Sierra Leone), our model projects 2·8 travellers infected with Ebola virus departing the above three countries via commercial flights, on average, every month. 91 547 (64%) of all air travellers departing Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone had expected destinations in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Screening international travellers departing three airports would enable health assessments of all travellers at highest risk of exposure to Ebola virus infection.InterpretationDecision makers must carefully balance the potential harms from travel restrictions imposed on countries that have Ebola virus activity against any potential reductions in risk from Ebola virus importations. Exit screening of travellers at airports in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone would be the most efficient frontier at which to assess the health status of travellers at risk of Ebola virus exposure, however, this intervention might require international support to implement effectively.FundingCanadian Institutes of Health Research.

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BackgroundNew glaucoma diagnostic technologies are penetrating clinical care and are changing rapidly. Having a systematic review of these technologies will help clinicians and decision makers and help identify gaps that need to be addressed. This systematic review studied five glaucoma technologies compared to the gold standard of white on white perimetry for glaucoma detection.MethodsOVID® interface: MEDLINE® (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations), EMBASE®, BIOSIS Previews®, CINAHL®, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library were searched. A gray literature search was also performed. A technical expert panel, information specialists, systematic review method experts and biostatisticians were used. A PRISMA flow diagram was created and a random effect meta-analysis was performed.ResultsA total of 2,474 articles were screened. The greatest accuracy was found with frequency doubling technology (FDT) (diagnostic odds ratio (DOR): 57.7) followed by blue on yellow perimetry (DOR: 46.7), optical coherence tomography (OCT) (DOR: 41.8), GDx (DOR: 32.4) and Heidelberg retina tomography (HRT) (DOR: 17.8). Of greatest concern is that tests for heterogeneity were all above 50%, indicating that cutoffs used in these newer technologies were all very varied and not uniform across studies.ConclusionsGlaucoma content experts need to establish uniform cutoffs for these newer technologies, so that studies that compare these technologies can be interpreted more uniformly. Nevertheless, synthesized data at this time demonstrate that amongst the newest technologies, OCT has the highest glaucoma diagnostic accuracy followed by GDx and then HRT.

The present novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection has engendered a worldwide crisis on an enormous scale within a very short period. The effective solution for this pandemic is to recognize the nature and spread of the disease so that appropriate policies can be framed. Mathematical modelling is always at the forefront to understand and provide an adequate description of the transmission of any disease. In this research work, we have formulated a deterministic compartmental model (SEAMHCRD) including various stages of infection, such as Mild, Moderate, Severe and Critical to study the spreading of COVID-19 and estimated the model parameters by fitting the model with the reported data of ongoing pandemic in Oman. The steady-state, stability and final pandemic size of the model has been proved mathematically. The various transmission as well as transition parameters are estimated during the period from June 4th to July 30th, 2020. Based on the currently estimated parameters, the pandemic size is also predicted for another 100 days. Sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the key model parameters, and the parameter gamma due to contact with the symptomatic moderately infected is found to be more significant in spreading the disease. Accordingly, the corresponding basic reproduction number has also been computed using the Next Generation Matrix (NGM) method. As the value of the basic reproduction number (R0) is 0.9761 during the period from June 4th to July 30th, 2020, the disease-free equilibrium is stable. Isolation and tracing the contact of infected individuals are recommended to control the spread of disease.

This article presents a comparative analysis of the properties of cotton yarn spun on aerodynamic compact spinning and open-end rotor spinning systems. Yarn samples with a linear density of 50 Tex, 37 Tex, 30 Tex, 25 Tex, and 20 Tex were spun both on the aerodynamic compact and rotor spinning systems using the same finisher drawn sliver of medium staple cotton which were produced by a specific mixing. The quality parameters such as mass variation, imperfection index, hairiness, and tensile behavior (strength in count strength product, elongation percentage) of the yarn samples were assessed and analyzed. The results revealed that aerodynamic compact spun yarn had a lower unevenness and mass variation, a higher imperfection in case of a finer count, less hairiness, higher tensile strength, and lower elonga-tion% compared to the open-end rotor spun yarn samples. Finally, pairedsamples t-test and regression analysis were carried out by using IBM SPSS 25 to check the significance of yarn quality parameters and correlation among them.

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The present novel corona virus (COVID-19) infection has engendered a worldwide crisis across the world in an enormous scale within a very short period. The effective solution for this pandemic is to recognize the nature and spread of the disease so that appropriate policies can be framed. Mathematical modelling is always at the forefront to understand and provide an adequate description about the transmission of any disease. In this research work, we have formulated a deterministic compartmental model (SEAMHCRD) including various stages of infection, such as Mild, Moderate, Severe and Critical to study the spreading of COVID-19 and estimated the model parameters by fitting the model with the reported data of ongoing pandemic in Oman. The steady state, stability and final pandemic size of the model has been proved mathematically. The various transmission as well as transition parameters are estimated during the period from June 8th - July 30th, 2020. Based on the current estimated parameters, the pandemic size is also predicted for another 100 days. Sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the key model parameters, and corresponding basic reproduction number has been computed using Next Generation Matrix (NGM) method. As the value of basic reproduction number (R0) is 0.9761 during the period from June 8th - July 30th, 2020, it is an indication for the policy makers to adopt appropriate remedial measures like social distancing and contact tracing to reduce the value of R0 to control the spread of the disease.

This paper aims to analyze the formation of starting mark on loom and the effect of shed geometry formed by warp yarns under various conditions. The actual cause of starting mark in woven fabric is variable pick spacing and cloth-fell displacement due to the relaxation nature of the warp yarn and fabric and the loom's dynamic characteristics after restarting. Herein, nine woven fabrics of different constructions, compositions are used on an air-jet loom with a series of settings. Three shed angles were selected for specific warp yarn count, and other loom settings like heald frame height, back-rest height and depth, air pressure, take-up correction, automatic start offset, stop position were triggered to change the shed geometry, and then the effect of starting mark on fabric was checked. The pick spacings were then measured from fabric using a projection microscope, whereas various plots were generated utilizing the obtained data to check the pick spacing variation after a certain period of loom stoppage and restarting. Finally, the experimental results were analyzed with standard deviation, coefficient of variation % analysis using the IBM SPSS statistical program.