We describe the follow-up investigation of an outbreak of endophthalmitis due to Burkholderia contaminans following cataract surgery in a single clinic. Whole-genome sequence analysis of bacteria recovered from affected patients and the clinic identified the clinic’s ventilation system as the source of infection.

During the colonial period sexually transmitted infections (STIs) came to be recognised as a major public health problem in African cities. Thus, STI control and urban modernisation became deeply entangled as authorities redrew spatial and social boundaries to manage populations and their cross-cultural interaction. Public health measures, urban planning and policing were part of a coordinated effort to neutralise the potential impact of rapidly growing African urban migration on the Belgian Congo’s ‘model’ capital Leopoldville. While STI control was facilitated by new drugs (arsenicals, sulfonamides and antibiotics) to treat syphilis, chancroid, gonorrhoea and chlamydia (bacterial STIs), the effects of the 1929 economic crisis and urban social change illustrated the limits of colonial authority. Redesigning urban spaces and repressive measures to curb polygyny and prostitution operated in a parallel fashion with the expansion of health coverage, new treatments and awareness campaigns. To gain a better understanding of the evolution of STI incidence among African urban populations during the colonial period between 1910 and 1960, extensive archival records and secondary literature were consulted to assess the interplay between improved screening, diagnostic and therapeutic methods with demographic and social change. They show that STI rates, probably peaked during the pre-1929 period and apart from a short period in the early 1930s associated with mass screening, declined until becoming residual in the 1950s. Reflecting upon sanitary interventions and their broader dimensions, the article analyses the evolution of treatment regimes and their impact in the changing urban organisation and environment of the colony’s capital.

In the last decade, mobile technology offered new opportunities and challenges in animal health surveillance. It began with the use of basic mobile phones and short message service (SMS) for disease reporting, and the development of smartphones and other mobile tools has expanded the possibilities for data collection. These tools assist in the collection of data as well as geo-referenced mapping of diseases, and mapping, visualization and identification of vectors such as ticks. In this article we share our findings about new technologies in the domain of animal health surveillance, based on several projects using a wide range of mobile tools, each with their specific applicability and limitations. For each of the tools used, a comprehensive overview is given about its applicability, limitations, technical requirements, cost and also the perception of the users.The evaluation of the tools clearly shows the importance of selecting the appropriate tool depending on the envisaged data to be collected. Accessibility, visualization and cost related to data collection differ significantly among the tools tested. This paper can thus be seen as a practical guide to the currently available tools.

Here we quantify the time-dependent mechanical properties of a linear viscoelastoplastic material under contact loading. For contact load relaxation, we showed that the relaxation modulus can be measured independently of concurrent plasticity exhibited during the loading phase. For indentation creep, we showed that the rate of change of the contact creep compliance can be measured independently of any plastic deformation exhibited during loading through , where a(t) is the contact radius, h(t) is the displacement of the contact probe, and Pmax is the constant applied load during the creep phase. These analytical relations were compared with numerical simulations of conical indentation creep for a viscoelastoplastic material and validated against sharp indentation creep experiments conducted on polystyrene. The derived relations enable extraction of viscoelastic material characteristics, even if sharp probes confer concurrent plasticity, applicable for a general axisymmetric contact probe geometry and a general time-independent plasticity.

There is a need to characterize the quality of contacts and the noise properties of new materials deposited or grown as thin films. Poor contacts are interface dominated. Perfect contacts have a negligible interface contribution and there is only a resistance and noise contribution from outside the contact region. The presence of current crowding enhances the resistance and noise contribution. Such contacts are called constriction dominated contacts. The conductive film is characterized by its sheet resistance and normalized conductance fluctuations for a unit surface. The resistance and noise is studied between two circular top electrodes of the same diameter on the conductive. To distinguish between perfect and poor contacts and to characterize the thin film in case of good contacts, we need a set of contacts with different diameters.Models for perfect and poor contacts are investigated. The scaling of resistance and noise with contact radius r is for interface dominated poor contacts: R i $\propto$ 1/r 2 and S Ri $\propto$ 1/r 6. In contrast, perfect contacts with contact diameter (2r) much smaller than the distance between the centers (2b) show: R c $\propto$ ln(b/r) and S Rc $\propto$ 1/r 2. From the resistance and noise measurements between constriction dominated perfect contacts, the sheet resistance and normalized noise of the thin film are calculated.