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The objective of this study was to determine the etiology of febrile illnesses among patients from October 1, 1993 through September 30, 1999, in the urban community of Iquitos in the Amazon River Basin of Peru. Epidemiological and clinical data as well as blood samples were obtained from consenting patients at hospitals, health clinics and private residences. Samples were tested for arboviruses in cell cultures and for IgM and IgG antibodies by ELISA. Blood smears were examined for malaria, and sera were tested for antibodies to Leptospira spp. by ELISA and microscopic agglutination. Among 6,607 febrile patients studied, dengue viruses caused 14.6% of the cases, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus caused 2.5%, Oropouche virus 1.0%, Mayaro virus 0.4%, and other arboviruses caused 0.2% of the cases. Also, 22.9% of 4,844 patients tested were positive for malaria, and of 400 samples tested, 9% had evidence of acute leptospirosis. Although the study was not designed to assess the importance of these pathogens as a cause of human morbidity in the total population, these results indicate that arboviruses, leptospirosis, and malaria were the cause of approximately 50% of the febrile cases. Although the arboviruses that were diagnosed can produce asymptomatic infections, our findings increased the overall understanding of the relative health burden of these infections, as well as baseline knowledge needed for designing and implementing further studies to better assess the health impact and threat of these pathogens in the Amazon Basin of Peru.

The increasing popularity of smart mobile devices enables a widespread use of Location Based Services (LBS). LBSs require real-time processing of frequent updating data (i.e., Streams), and return customized results to mobile users based on their own locations. The mobile environment brings additional design and development considerations to LBS applications, such as real-time awareness, energy efficiency, and privacy preservation. In a recent project, we worked on the Emergency Medical Service as an example LBS application, and developed a Cloud-based LBS prototype, named as Early Alert System (EARS), to deliver real-time emergency vehicle's information to smart mobile devices based on their geo-proximity. EARS leverages Cloud-based stream processing systems to address the real-time stream processing needs, and also develops effective methods to conserve energy consumption and preserve user privacy. EARS is an efficient approach to deliver real-time geo-information from the Cloud to mobile users, and can be easily generalized to other LBS applications in the mobile environment.

Describes the underlying business processes, activities, and roles used in transforming novel data sources, during the H1N1 response, into informative assets to support public health surveillance. By formally articulating and describing each of these steps, in a structured manner, we hope to contribute to the dialogue of developing useful practices for leveraging electronic health data to meet the public health surveillance challenges of the 21st century.

The effects of vapors of four commercial propoxur formulations and their solvent systems (blanks) on dispersal of German cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.), of a laboratory susceptible and two propoxur-resistant field strains were studied. Little or no dispersal occurred in experiments with water-based formulations (emulsifiable concentrate and wettable powder). Rapid dispersal occurred in experiments with aerosol and propoxur-in-oil formulations and their blanks. The order from most rapid to slowest dispersal was as follows: propoxur-in-oil, aerosol, aerosol blank and oil blank. Each strain differed from the others in response to at least one of the test materials. Resume Reponses subletales de Blattella germanica aux vapeurs d'insecticides du commerce L'etude a porte sur les effets des vapeurs de quatre formules commerciales de propoxure et de leurs solvants sur la dispersion d'une souche sensible de laboratoire et de deux souches resistantes de la nature de B. germanica L., Avec des solutions aqueuses, concentre emulsifiable ou poudre mouillable, la dispersion est faible ou nulle. Une dispersion rapide est obtenue avec des aerosols ou des formules de propoxure en solution dans l'huile ou avec ces solvants seuls. Le classement, du dispersant le plus rapide au plus lent, est le suivant: Propoxure dans l'huile, aerosol, solvant d'aerosol, solvant de solution huileuse. Chaque souche differe des autres pour au moins une reaction a l'une des substances testees.