Potential Risk Areas Research Articles

Epidemiology of imported malaria and entomological study of breeding sites of potential risk areas in the province of Khemisset (Morocco)

No case of autochthonous malaria has been detected in Morocco since 2004. This achievement is due to a national strategy to combat the disease by appropriate and well-organized disease detection and treatment, as well as control of the mosquito vector of the disease, the female Anopheles mosquito. Nonetheless, imported malaria cases have been increasing (75 in 2007), due to the rise in international travel and migration from countries where the disease is endemic. This work is divided into two parts: the first part is a retrospective study of the cases of imported malaria identified by optical microscopy in the Laboratory of Medical Entomology of the Khemisset Provincial Delegation of Health from 2000 to 2010. The second part is an entomological study conducted in 2010 of the Culicidae insect family, especially the Anopheles genus. The results show that of 176,457 requests for parasite testing, 14 were positive. All positive samples came from men older than 23 years. The cases identified are imported from two African countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (86%) and Ivory Coast (14%). The years of high incidence were 2003 with four cases and 2000, 2004 and 2006 with two cases. The species found are Plasmodium falciparum in 13 cases (93%) and Plasmodium ovale in one case (7%). The vector of autochthonous malaria, which was eliminated in 2004, is Anopheles (Anopheles) labranchiae Fallerouni 1926, and it was the dominant species found in our entomological study (424 larvae). The other species were found in breeding sites in potential at-risk locations in the study area.

Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis in the Changseon area, Korea, and Assessment of Potential Risk to Human Health

From 2008 to 2013, the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis were collected from a major area of mussel production (Changseon area), which is a designated shellfish-cultivating area for export, located on the southern coast of Korea. The samples were analyzed for mercury (Hg) using a direct Hg analyzer and for other metals, such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), chromium, copper, nickel, and zinc, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The concentrations and bioaccumulation of the heavy metals were determined, and a potential risk assessment was conducted to evaluate their hazards towards human consumption. The concentration and bioaccumulation ratio of Cd were the highest of the three hazardous metals (Cd, Pb, and Hg). The concentrations of hazardous metals in all samples were within the limits set by Korea and other countries. The estimated dietary intake (EDI) was compared to the provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI) adopted by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EDIs of all heavy metals tested for mussel samples ranged from 0.01 to 4.99% of the PTDI; the highest value was measured for As. The hazard index (HI) can be used to assess the risk of heavy metal consumption associated with contaminated food. The HI for all samples was far less than 1.0, which indicates that the mussels produced in the Changseon area do not represent an appreciable hazard to humans and are fit for consumption.

The Letter of Credit, its resilience and viability in securing international commercial transactions

Purpose – This paper aims to address issues of law and policy, the potential pitfalls such as fraud, conflict of law and documents discrepancies that are often encountered by the parties in usage and practice of the Letter of Credit (LC). The article has gleaned other forms of payment mechanisms in international commercial trade to demonstrate that despite the upsurge in international payment instruments, the LC has remained a viable commercial product. This article aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the law governing the LC and why it has remained resilient and a viable commercial product for many years. Design/methodology/approach – The author has utilized the current version of UCP 600 (2007) and the legislation such as Brussels Convention (2000) in Europe, litigated cases and secondary data sources in writing the paper. The data generated were then evaluated taking into account the most recent legal and policy changes regarding the usage and practice of the LC in international commercial transactions. The paper straddles many issues but evaluated in a distinctive way to underscore the purpose for writing it. Findings – The findings of the paper have demonstrated that despite a myriad of payment mechanisms as a result of innovation in international trade, the LC is still a viable commercial product. Parties will need to be knowledgeable and skilled enough to keep abreast of dynamic changes on law and policy relating to usage and practice of LCs. Short of that parties could be vulnerable to risk exigencies inherent in international trade they sought to eliminate by subscribing to the LC. Research limitations/implications – The limitations lie in realm that the paper was largely library-based and the author did not carry out extensive corroborative research studies on issues it was written on. Thus, any future work on the LC will try to corroborate issues of policy and practice and how they are internalized in commercial practice. Practical implications – The paper has articulated the governing law of the LC and the context in which it is harnessed in commercial practice. It has articulated potential risk areas that the parties ought to watch out for before and during the process of harnessing the LC as a payment mechanism. The paper has demonstrated that risks inherent in international trade are now higher than in past decades because of globalization and its attendant fluid environment. The paper is relevant to banks, regulators, governments and also students because it internalizes most recent changes in the usage and practice of the LCs in international trade. Social implications – International trade affects local businesses, banks, ordinary people, national governments and it has far reaching implications for societies as whole. The LC is utilized to mitigate, if not eliminate, potential risks in international trade transactions, and it has far reaching social implications for economies to be overlooked. Originality/value – The article has gleaned other forms of payment mechanisms in international commercial trade to tease out that despite the upsurge in international payment mechanisms, the LC has remained a viable commercial product. This article is a MUST read because it internalizes recent changes in the usage and practice of documentary credit which have not been addressed in its context. Even though the article has been undertaken by analysis of secondary and primary data sources, the author has done so in a distinctive way to underscore the most recent changes to the usage and practice of the LC and the purpose it was written.

Identification of areas with significant flood risk at the confluence of Danube and Ipeľ rivers (southern Slovakia)

The village of Chľaba is located in the southwest Slovakia, bordered with the fork of Danube River and Ipeľ River and in the southeast foothill of Burda Mts. This creates a specific rural environment of a Slovak–Hungarian border area. Ministry of Environment of the Slovak republic did not include this village in the list of potential significant flood risk areas, despite the fact that during the time of extraordinary floods, the village of Chľaba is completely separated from the only functional access road. This leads to great damages on arable land plots in the inundation area and consequently to a significant soil erosion. This phenomenon takes place in the area of huge parcels, which are characterized by intensive agriculture activities and harvests. In the paper, we tried to identify the range of the flood affected areas during the time of extraordinary floods (June 2013) and to propose flood protection arrangements within the landscape utilization changes in affected areas. The article presents the resulting map of the sloped and under-flooding areas, based not only on a terrain identification by conventional methods of field research, but also on a comparison of real slopped areas in 2013 with prognostic flood hazard map and flood risk map created by the Danube Floodrisk project. In the conclusion, we propose landscape utilization changes, which could lead to more effective human activities applications in the cadastral territory of the Chľaba village. This attitude might reduce the negative impact of floods in the researched endangered territory.

Time-specific ecologic niche models forecast the risk of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Dongting Lake district, China, 2005-2010.

BackgroundHemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a rodent-borne infectious disease, is one of the most serious public health threats in China. Increasing our understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of HFRS infections could guide local prevention and control strategies.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe employed statistical models to analyze HFRS case data together with environmental data from the Dongting Lake district during 2005–2010. Specifically, time-specific ecologic niche models (ENMs) were used to quantify and identify risk factors associated with HFRS transmission as well as forecast seasonal variation in risk across geographic areas. Results showed that the Maximum Entropy model provided the best predictive ability (AUC = 0.755). Time-specific Maximum Entropy models showed that the potential risk areas of HFRS significantly varied across seasons. High-risk areas were mainly found in the southeastern and southwestern areas of the Dongting Lake district. Our findings based on models focused on the spring and winter seasons showed particularly good performance. The potential risk areas were smaller in March, May and August compared with those identified for June, July and October to December. Both normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land use types were found to be the dominant risk factors.Conclusions/SignificanceOur findings indicate that time-specific ENMs provide a useful tool to forecast the spatial and temporal risk of HFRS.

Risk Management Incorporated to Life-of-Mine Planning at Sossego Copper Mine, Carajás, Brazil

Open pit mine design and production scheduling deals with the quest for most profitable mining sequence over the life of a mine. The dynamics of mining ore and waste, and spatial grade uncertainty make predictions of the optimal mining sequence a challenging task. Valuation and related decision-making in surface mining require the assessment and management of orebody risk in the generation of a pit design and long term production scheduling. As the most profitable mining sequence over de life of a mine determines both economic outcome of a project and the technical plan to be followed from mine development to mine closure, the adverse effects of orebody risk on performance is critical and are documented in various studies. Ignoring such a consequential source of risk and uncertainty may lead to unrealistic production plans. This paper presented a set of procedures that enable mine planning engineers to carry out a series of analysis, which can be used to evaluate the sensitivity of incremental pit shells and pit designs to grade uncertainty. The results obtained from the analysis have shown to provide valuable information, which can be used to develop mining strategies that are risk resilient in relation to grade uncertainty. A real life application at Sossego copper mine ensure that such procedures are technically implementable, supporting decision-making as (a) in-fill drilling programs; (b) review of mining sequence; (c) identification of areas of upside potential and downside risk and (d) ore blending between mining areas in order to minimize the impact of high risk areas. The goal of this work is to provide an approach for clear risk analysis and management in mine planning cycle to various aspects of pit optimisation and design, resulting in more technically and economically sustainable life-of-mine production plans and mineral reserve depletion.

Spatial and spatio-temporal analysis of human brucellosis in Iran.

Brucellosis is an important public and veterinary health problem in Iran and poses enormous economic burdens and significant human morbidity. In order to better understand the epidemiology of the disease in Iran, yearly spatial distribution and possible hotspots of the disease have been investigated in this study. A cross-sectional survey was performed on 39 359 recorded cases during April 2009 to March 2012 throughout the country. Moran's I was applied to investigate the yearly patterns of the spatial distribution. Presence of possible hotspots was investigated using both local Moran's I and spatial and space-time scan statistics. Moran's I at county and province level showed that distribution of human brucellosis was regularly clustered. Both local Moran's I and spatial and space-time scan statistics detected significant hotspots of human brucellosis cases with high incidence rates. Hotspots were predominantly located in the west, northwest and northeast. Comparison of the population-based frequencies of human brucellosis in different elevation classes indicated the highest possibility of human brucellosis occurred in counties with high average altitudes (>2000 m). Human brucellosis continues to be a widespread challenge, especially in western and northwestern parts of Iran. The hotspots highlight the potential high risk areas requiring special plans and resources for monitoring and control of the disease.

“10 lessons for new clinicians”

<p>As a new clinician, if you have trained as a lawyer via a traditional legal education route you inevitably have very little experience of clinical education to bring to the role, although you of course have your professional and practical experience to draw on. Although many readers are experienced clinicians, this is a timely opportunity to go back to the beginning and re-assess the potential problems or risk areas that clinicians face at the beginning of a new academic year, with a new intake of students. Society changes continually so each year will bring new issues as well as those well known to all clinicians.</p><p>In clinic at Northumbria University final year students are placed in to groups of up to six students known as firms and each firm is allocated an area of law such as employment or housing. Each firm is supervised by a qualified solicitor who allocates cases to the students. Students can work individually or in pairs, depending on the complexity of the case. At the end of the academic year, students are assessed on their practical performance using grade descriptors. They also submit reflective pieces about their experiences in clinic.</p><p>These “lessons” have emerged from our own first year of transition from practising lawyer to clinical educator. We hope some of them ring true with other new clinicians.</p>

Achieving a polio free world

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the spread of polio is an international public health emergency, and a coordinated international response is sought. Although the importance of such a response is recognized, there are challenges to stopping the spread of polio and achieving a polio free world. The most important issue is directing limited national resources to the specific areas where polio is endemic. In an article published in BMC Medicine, Upfill-Brown and his colleagues recognized this problem and successfully identified the potential risk areas in Nigeria using a validated spatial predictive model of wild poliovirus circulation. They also showed that a lower vaccine-derived population immunity is associated with the probability of a higher number of wild poliovirus cases within a district. Identification of the potential risk areas and understanding the magnitude of risk may help direct limited resources of the endemic countries to areas most at risk to maximize the impact of interventions and motivate the people to participate in the intervention program. These efforts are crucial if these endemic countries hope to eradicate polio.Please see related research article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/12/92.

Ecological niche modeling for predicting the potential risk areas of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a novel bunyavirus. The spatial distribution has continued to expand, while the areas at potential high risk of SFTS have, to date, remained unclear. Using ecological factors as predictors, the MaxEnt model was first trained based on the locations of human SFTS occurrence in Shandong Province. The risk prediction map of China was then created by projecting the training model onto the whole country. The performance of the model was assessed using the known locations of disease occurrence in China. The key environmental factors affecting SFTS occurrence were temperature, precipitation, land cover, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and duration of sunshine. The risk prediction maps suggested that central, southwestern, northeastern, and the eastern coast of China are potential areas at high risk of SFTS. The potential high risk SFTS areas are distributed widely in China. The epidemiological surveillance system should be enhanced in these high risk regions.

The Use of Ecological Niche Modeling to Infer Potential Risk Areas of Snakebite in the Mexican State of Veracruz

BackgroundMany authors have claimed that snakebite risk is associated with human population density, human activities, and snake behavior. Here we analyzed whether environmental suitability of vipers can be used as an indicator of snakebite risk. We tested several hypotheses to explain snakebite incidence, through the construction of models incorporating both environmental suitability and socioeconomic variables in Veracruz, Mexico.Methodology/Principal FindingsEcological niche modeling (ENM) was used to estimate potential geographic and ecological distributions of nine viper species' in Veracruz. We calculated the distance to the species' niche centroid (DNC); this distance may be associated with a prediction of abundance. We found significant inverse relationships between snakebites and DNCs of common vipers (Crotalus simus and Bothrops asper), explaining respectively 15% and almost 35% of variation in snakebite incidence. Additionally, DNCs for these two vipers, in combination with marginalization of human populations, accounted for 76% of variation in incidence.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results suggest that niche modeling and niche-centroid distance approaches can be used to mapping distributions of environmental suitability for venomous snakes; combining this ecological information with socioeconomic factors may help with inferring potential risk areas for snakebites, since hospital data are often biased (especially when incidences are low).

Predicting potential global distributions of two Miscanthus grasses: implications for horticulture, biofuel production, and biological invasions.

In many regions, large proportions of the naturalized and invasive non-native floras were originally introduced deliberately by humans. Pest risk assessments are now used in many jurisdictions to regulate the importation of species and usually include an estimation of the potential distribution in the import area. Two species of Asian grass (Miscanthus sacchariflorus and M. sinensis) that were originally introduced to North America as ornamental plants have since escaped cultivation. These species and their hybrid offspring are now receiving attention for large-scale production as biofuel crops in North America and elsewhere. We evaluated their potential global climate suitability for cultivation and potential invasion using the niche model CLIMEX and evaluated the models’ sensitivity to the parameter values. We then compared the sensitivity of projections of future climatically suitable area under two climate models and two emissions scenarios. The models indicate that the species have been introduced to most of the potential global climatically suitable areas in the northern but not the southern hemisphere. The more narrowly distributed species (M. sacchariflorus) is more sensitive to changes in model parameters, which could have implications for modelling species of conservation concern. Climate projections indicate likely contractions in potential range in the south, but expansions in the north, particularly in introduced areas where biomass production trials are under way. Climate sensitivity analysis shows that projections differ more between the selected climate change models than between the selected emissions scenarios. Local-scale assessments are required to overlay suitable habitat with climate projections to estimate areas of cultivation potential and invasion risk.

Impact of Urbanization on Local Air Quality: Differences in Urban and Rural Areas of Balikesir, Turkey

AbstractOzone (O3) is a secondary pollutant which is produced photo‐chemically by reactions involving NOx and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and m‐, p‐xylenes (BTEX) in the presence of sunlight. The present study determined outdoor air quality in both the urban area of Balikesir City and rural area (around Ikizcetepeler Dam) in the same region in the western part of Turkey. The main objectives of this study were to analyze the temporal evolution and qualify the spatial distribution by using geostatistical techniques; to determine the spatial variability of air pollutants using the spatial auto‐correlation statistic; and to identify the local spatial patterns of the pollutants in order to highlight the areas of potential risk of O3, NO2, and BTEX pollution and its possible causes. For this purpose firstly, the data were compiled by using passive sampling in winter and in summer. Concentrations of O3 ranged from 14.03 to 42.43 μ g/m3 in winter and from 81.79 to 70.39 μ g/m3 in summer in urban area. The mean NO2 and BTEX concentrations varied between sites, while mean winter concentrations were higher than the mean in summer. During winter seasons, the motorway, residential areas, urban traffic, and industrial sites showed high BTEX levels compared to the suburban and rural sites. This paper investigates the spatial mapping of temporal trends in air quality for both urban and rural areas for annual, summer and winter means. The global Moran's I result demonstrated that O3, NO2, and BTEX had significant positive global spatial correlations. In addition, the results of local spatial auto‐correlation analysis showed the locations of significant high–high spatial clusters and low–low spatial outliers.

Table of Contents

Abstract Cover Story Protect minors on your campus while reducing institutional liability Reduce risks, liability of programs involving minors Know your institution's areas of potential risk, liability Learn more about your institution's responsibilities for protecting minors in your programs Legal News Briefs NCAA faces new suit over concussions Organizations seek reversal of court decision Student held on bond for threatening classmates College settles free speech case Of Counsel Address challenges of internships for students with disabilities Training Tools Provide access, equal opportunities in housing, technology Lawsuits & Rulings ACADEMIC AFFAIRS — ADULT LEARNERS Student gets another chance to show she deserves Ph.D. ATHLETICS — LIABILITY Coach found not liable for cheerleader's brain injury DISABILITY — ACCOMMODATIONS Failure to follow protocols lead to employee's dismissal DISABILITY — SERVICE ANIMALS College reverses policy regarding animals on campus DISABILITY — STUDENT AFFAIRS Unexcused absences, not disability, lead to student's job loss FACULTY — AGE DISCRIMINATION Department chair claims he was replaced with a younger worker FACULTY — TENURE Associate professor claims discrimination kept him from promotion FACULTY — 11TH AMENDMENT University terminates professor without holding a hearing FERPA — RIGHT TO NONDISCLOSURE Some students' employment records may not be subject to FERPA GOVERNANCE — DISCRIMINATION When board has ‘ultimate control’ it's the proper party to sue STUDENT AFFAIRS — AFFORDABLE CARE ACT Two universities receive exemptions for part of Affordable Care Act You Be the Judge Did mandatory drug‐testing policy violate students' rights? Lawsuits & Rulings CAMPUS LEGAL ADVISOR QUICK STUDY

Health risk estimates for groundwater and soil contamination in the Slovak Republic: a convenient tool for identification and mapping of risk areas.

We undertook a quantitative estimation of health risks to residents living in the Slovak Republic and exposed to contaminated groundwater (ingestion by adult population) and/or soils (ingestion by adult and child population). Potential risk areas were mapped to give a visual presentation at basic administrative units of the country (municipalities, districts, regions) for easy discussion with policy and decision-makers. The health risk estimates were calculated by US EPA methods, applying threshold values for chronic risk and non-threshold values for cancer risk. The potential health risk was evaluated for As, Ba, Cd, Cu, F, Hg, Mn, NO3 (-), Pb, Sb, Se and Zn for groundwater and As, B, Ba, Be, Cd, Cu, F, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se and Zn for soils. An increased health risk was identified mainly in historical mining areas highly contaminated by geogenic-anthropogenic sources (ore deposit occurrence, mining, metallurgy). Arsenic and antimony were the most significant elements in relation to health risks from groundwater and soil contamination in the Slovak Republic contributing a significant part of total chronic risk levels. Health risk estimation for soil contamination has highlighted the significance of exposure through soil ingestion in children. Increased cancer risks from groundwater and soil contamination by arsenic were noted in several municipalities and districts throughout the country in areas with significantly high arsenic levels in the environment. This approach to health risk estimations and visualization represents a fast, clear and convenient tool for delineation of risk areas at national and local levels.

Soil losses in rural watersheds with environmental land use conflicts

Soil losses were calculated in a rural watershed where environmental land use conflicts developed in the course of a progressive invasion of forest and pasture/forest lands by agriculture, especially vineyards. The hydrographic basin is located in the Douro region where the famous Port wine is produced (northern Portugal) and the soil losses were estimated by the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) in combination with a Geographic Information System (GIS). Environmental land use conflicts were set up on the basis of land use and land capability maps, coded as follows: 1—agriculture, 2—pasture, 3—pasture/forest, and 4—forest. The difference between the codes of capability and use defines a conflict class, where a negative or nil value means no conflict and a positive i value means class i conflict. The reliability of soil loss estimates was tested by a check of these values against the frequency of stone wall instabilities in vineyard terraces, with good results. Using the USLE, the average soil loss (A) was estimated in A=12.2t·ha−1·yr−1 and potential erosion risk areas were found to occupy 28.3% of the basin, defined where soil losses are larger than soil loss tolerances. Soil losses in no conflict regions (11.2t·ha−1·yr−1) were significantly different from those in class 2 (6.8t·ha−1·yr−1) and class 3 regions (21.3t·ha−1·yr−1) that in total occupy 2.62km2 (14.3% of the basin). When simulating a scenario of no conflict across the entire basin, whereby land use in class 2 conflict regions is set up to permanent pastures and in class 3 conflict regions to pine forests, it was concluded that A=0.95t·ha−1·yr−1 (class 2) or A=9.8t·ha−1·yr−1 (class 3), which correspond to drops of 86% and 54% in soil loss relative to the actual values.

Potential distribution of Avena sterilis L. in Europe under climate change

AbstractAvena sterilis (sterile oat) is one of the most extended and harmful weeds in Mediterranean cereal crops. A process‐based niche model for this species was developed using CLIMEX. The model was validated and used to assess the potential distribution of A. sterilis in Europe under the current climate and under two climate change scenarios. Both scenarios represent contrasting temporal patterns of economic development and CO2 emissions. The projections under current climate conditions indicated that A. sterilis does not occupy the full extent of the climatically suitable habitat available to it in Europe. Under future climate scenarios, the model projection showed a gradual advance of sterile oat towards Northeastern Europe and a contraction in Southern Europe. The infested potential area increases from the current 45.2% to 51.3% in the low‐emission CO2 scenario and to 59.5% under the most extreme scenario. These results provide the necessary knowledge for identifying and highlighting the potential invasion risk areas and for establishing the grounds on which to base the planning and management measures required. The main actions should be focused on controlling the large‐scale seed scattering, preventing seed dispersal into potentially suitable areas.

Modelling the impact of increasing soil sealing on runoff coefficients at regional scale: a hydropedological approach

Abstract Soil sealing is the permanent covering of the land surface by buildings, infrastructures or any impermeable artificial material. Beside the loss of fertile soils with a direct impact on food security, soil sealing modifies the hydrological cycle. This can cause an increased flooding risk, due to urban development in potential risk areas and to the increased volumes of runoff. This work estimates the increase of runoff due to sealing following urbanization and land take in the plain of Emilia Romagna (Italy), using the Green and Ampt infiltration model for two rainfall return periods (20 and 200 years) in two different years, 1976 and 2008. To this goal a hydropedological approach was adopted in order to characterize soil hydraulic properties via locally calibrated pedotransfer functions (PTF). PTF inputs were estimated via sequential Gaussian simulations coupled with a simple kriging with varying local means, taking into account soil type and dominant land use. Results show that in the study area an average increment of 8.4% in sealed areas due to urbanization and sprawl induces an average increment in surface runoff equal to 3.5 and 2.7% respectively for 20 and 200-years return periods, with a maximum > 20% for highly sealed coast areas.

Prevalence of antibodies against hantaviruses in serum and saliva of adults living or working on farms in Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Hantaviruses are an established cause of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe. Following a confirmed case of HFRS in the UK, in an individual residing on a farm in North Yorkshire and the Humber, a tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England, and the subsequent isolation of a Seoul hantavirus from rats trapped on the patient’s farm, it was considered appropriate to further investigate the public health risk of this virus in the region. Of a total 119 individuals tested, nine (7.6%) were seropositive for hantavirus antibodies. Seven of the seropositive samples showed a stronger reaction to Seoul and Hantaan compared to other clinically relevant hantaviruses. Observation of rodents during the day, in particular mice, was associated with a reduced risk of seropositivity. In addition to one region known to be at risk following an acute case, five further potential risk areas have been identified. This study supports recently published evidence that hantaviruses are likely to be of public health interest in the region.

Mapping Potential Soil Erosion Risk Areas in Abia State, Nigeria Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS)

Mapping Potential Soil Erosion Risk Areas in Abia State, Nigeria Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) The study used Geographic Information System (GIS) to integrate data from Remote Sensing (RS) to map out areas that are prone to erosion in Abia State, Nigeria. This was done using the index model and weighted overlay of ArcGIS software. The result showed that about 0.18% (2.325 ha) of the study area, covering the northern part (Abriba and Nkporo areas) and Ikwuano areas is under very high potential erosion risk, while 0.92% (11.475 ha) is under high erosion risk. The high erosion risk areas in the north are all located on the top of the escarpment running from Isuochi, through Isuikwuato, Ohafia and down to Arochukwu.Also 20.98% (262.54 ha) of the study area, covering the following Local Government Areas - Umuahia South, IsialaNgwa North, IsialaNgwa South, Osisioma, Obingwa, Aba North and Aba South is under moderately high erosion risk, while 34.51% (431.82 ha) is under moderate erosion risk and 43.49% (543 ha) covering the Ukwa/ Ngwa area, whose topography is gentle to no slope falls under low potential erosion risk. The study showed that using RS and GIS technologies for erosion risk/hazard mapping, based on the methodology used, resulted in effective and accurate assessment of soil erosion in considerable short time and at a low cost for large study areas or watersheds. It is recommended that Government Agencies and private should explore the advantages offered by RS and GIS in delineating erosion prone areas for planning and design of structures.