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A first report of Biomphalaria pfeifferi in the Lower Shire Valley, Southern Malawi, a major intermediate snail host species for intestinal schistosomiasis
Get PDFThe distribution of certain permissive intermediate snail host species in freshwater is a crucial factor shaping transmission of intestinal schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that causes much human suffering in Africa. To shed new light on southern Malawi, where cases of intestinal schistosomiasis have been found, repeated malacological surveys were conducted in Chikwawa and Nsanje Districts in the Lower Shire Valley, to detect and to characterize populations of Biomphalaria, the intermediate host for intestinal schistosomiasis. Sampling took place across a total of 45 freshwater sites, noting water conductivity, pH, temperature, total dissolved salts (TDS) and geographical elevation. The presence or absence of snails was predicted upon physiochemical and environmental conditions in Random Forest modelling. Water conductivity, TDS and geographical elevation were most important in predicting abundance of snails with water temperature and pH of slightly less important roles. This first report of B. pfeifferi in the Lower Shire Valley enhances understanding of the environmental factors that strongly associate and allow prediction of its local distribution. This represents a useful step towards developing appropriate intervention strategies to mitigate intestinal schistosomiasis transmission.Additional authors: Lucas J. Cunningham, Julie-Anne Akiko Tangena & J. Russell Stothar
Is Portfolio Diversification Still Effective: Evidence Spanning Three Crises from the Perspective of U.S. Investors
Get PDFThis paper uses over twenty years of data to examine diversification benefits for U.S. investors through assessing different portfolio opportunities, including a stock (60%)-bond (40%) portfolio, an internationally diversified stock portfolio, and a cross-asset diversified portfolio compared with investing only in the U.S. stock market. Our data set consists of three stock indices (S&P 500, MSCI EAFE, and MSCI EM) and three assets (Gold, Oil, and Bonds). Portfolios are built using both equal- and mean-variance efficient-weights and are compared primarily using the Sharpe ratio. The results indicate that before 2009, U.S. investors could benefit from an internationally diversified stock portfolio. However, since 2009, this international stock portfolio is less likely to benefit U.S. investors. In contrast, the cross-asset diversified portfolio does provide greater benefit and outperforms the U.S only, the stock-bond portfolio, and the international stock portfolio over different time periods. Of note, the mean-variance efficient portfolio weighting outperforms the equal-weighted portfolio. Overall, a portfolio consisting of the S&P500 Index, gold, oil, and U.S. 10-year Treasury Note is the preferred option for U.S. investors
Understanding Curriculum Making by teachers: implications for policy as text and as practice
Get PDFRecent debates in curriculum studies have focused on the role of teachers as active curriculum makers. In this chapter, we argue for a more systemic approach to curriculum making as social practice. Our particular focus is on micro and nano curriculum making by teachers, that is curriculum making in schools and classrooms respectively, as curricular programmes are developed and enacted into practice. In making sense of these complex practices, we draw upon a theoretical typology for understanding and analysing curriculum making across different sites within education systems, and an ecological understanding of teacher agency. We apply these theoretical insights to the analysis of various influences on micro/nano curriculum, emerging from a range of recent empirical studies in five European education systems. In undertaking this analysis, we challenge prevalent notions of curriculum making as a linear process of delivery or implementation, instead seeking to understand it as interpretation and enactment across sites by multiple social actors, and tracing the multiple and dynamic connection
'I can just do work I'm paid to do' : Hybrid work and tertiary labour time gains
Get PDFThis paper adopts a moral economy framework to analyse the unique and collective experience of remote work during the UK pandemic lockdowns. Through analysis of qualitative interviews with workers based at home during periods of lockdown, we explore how this offered workers a new opportunity to evaluate a particular type of work extensification experienced when working onsite. We found that workers gained clarity over ‘preparing-for-work’, commuting and other unpaid labour as unfairly burdening nonwork time and social goods like family, health and leisure. We expand on the idea of tertiary time to suggest that hybrid work, despite its potential drawbacks, is viewed by workers as a way to regain some control over this area of their lives. By examining this in terms of the concept of lay normativity, our analysis draws out the importance of personal needs and emotional connections. We identify how, during the pandemic's extreme circumstances, a new opportunity for evaluation emerged that facilitated the development of a new sentiment around tertiary time devoted to the commute and preparation for work
(Re) constructing Homelands between precarity and intentionality - Syrian Armenians in Armenia
Get PDFSyrian refugees from the war which has been waging since 2011 now number more than 6.4 million. Of these, an estimated 24,000 Syrians of ethnic Armenian origin have arrived in the Republic of Armenia since 2011. Government sources estimate the number of those who have stayed to number around 14,000. Some have moved to other destinations perceived to hold better prospects, whether temporarily or with a view to stay permanently; others have returned to rebuild their lives in Syria. In mapping these multidirectional movements, it is apparent that Syrian Armenians’ encounter with Armenia is a process of continuous negotiation—Armenia is alternately a site of refuge, a historic or potential homeland, and a temporary transit. While previous studies have acknowledged the economic, social, and political challenges of settling in Armenia, the 2020 war in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and its continuing reverberations at both the local and the wider geopolitical levels add a layer of critical precarity that is qualitatively different. This article argues that the 2020 war and its continuing violences have rendered Armenia a precarious homeland for Syrian Armenian refugees. Such precarity potentially jeopardizes the intentionality of many Syrian Armenians to stay in Armenia
Prognostic models for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following traumatic brain injury: a CENTER-TBI study
Get PDFBackground: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with an increased risk of major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We aimed to identify predictors and develop models for the prediction of depression and PTSD symptoms at 6 months post-TBI. Methods: We analysed data from the Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury study. We used linear regression to model the relationship between predictors and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and PTSD symptoms (PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Health Disorders Fifth Edition). Predictors were selected based on Akaike’s Information Criterion. Additionally, we fitted logistic models for the endpoints ‘probable MDD’ and ‘probable PTSD’. We also examined the incremental prognostic value of 2–3 weeks of symptoms. Results: We included 2163 adults (76% Glasgow Coma Scale=13–15). Depending on the scoring criteria, 7–18% screened positive for probable MDD and about 10% for probable PTSD. For both outcomes, the selected models included psychiatric history, employment status, sex, injury cause, alcohol intoxication and total injury severity; and for depression symptoms also preinjury health and education. The performance of the models was modest (proportion of explained variance=R2 8% and 7% for depression and PTSD, respectively). Symptoms assessed at 2–3 weeks had a large incremental prognostic value (delta R2=0.25, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.26 for depression symptoms; delta R2=0.30, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.31 for PTSD). Conclusion: Preinjury characteristics, such as psychiatric history and unemployment, and injury characteristics, such as violent injury cause, can increase the risk of mental health problems after TBI. The identification of patients at risk should be guided by early screening of mental health.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Access to the CENTER-TBI dataset can be granted after approval of a study plan proposal, submitted through the online system: https://www.center-tbi.eu/data
Who is the 'public' when it comes to public opinion on energy? A mixed-methods study of revealed and elicited public attitudes to shale gas extraction
Get PDFShale gas is a contentious energy source. Yet, ‘imagined’ notions of the public (for example, NIMBYs) rarely reflect the reality of public opinion. We use an inductive, empirical approach to define UK publics in relation to shale gas extraction, drawing on multiple data sources (social media, a national survey, and two local surveys) and composite measures. Cluster analyses and thematic coding reveal a diversity of responses ranging from active opposition, through ambivalence, to active support. The number of communities varies by data source and analytical method, but across all datasets we see more opposition than support. Across all datasets, political views were an important lens through which shale gas was understood. Our findings have implications for how developers and policy-makers engage with the public, and expose limitations of pre-defined notions of the public that may not reflect empirical realities
Multi-phase, multi-ethnic GWAS uncovers putative loci in predisposition to human sprint performance, health and disease
Get PDFThe genetic underpinnings of elite sprint performance remain largely elusive. For the first time, we uncovered rs10196189 (GALNT13) in the cross-ancestry, genome-wide analysis of elite sprint and power-oriented athletes and their controls from Jamaica, the USA, and Japan, and replicated this finding in two independent cohorts of elite European athletes (meta-analysis P < 5E-08). We identified statistically significant and borderline associations for cross-ancestry and ancestry specific loci in GALNT13, BOP1, HSF1, STXBP2 GRM7, MPRIP, ZFYVE28, CERS4, and ADAMTS18, predominantly expressed in the nervous and hematopoietic systems. Further, we revealed thirty-six previously uncharacterized genes associated with host defence, leukocyte migration, and cellular responses to interferon-gamma and unveiled (reprioritized) four genes, UQCRFS1, PTPN6, RALY and ZMYM4, responsible for aging, neurological conditions, and blood disorders from the elite athletic performance cohorts. Our results provide new biological insights into elite sprint performance and offer clues to the potential molecular mechanisms interlinking and operating in elite athletic performance and human health and disease.Additional authors: Thomas Venckunas, Paul Cieszczyk, Wim Derave, Ioannis Papadimitriou, Fleur C. Garton, Sandosh Padmanabhan, Yannis P. Pitsiladi
Researching LGBTQ+ homelessness and building social justice in the UK & the US: methods, ethics, recruitment
Get PDFLGBTQ+ homelessness research is an emerging area growing in importance in the UK, the US, Canada and Europe. Research to date indicates that methodology and participant recruitment are particularly challenging for this group. Sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as homelessness and poverty are taboo topics that are often stigmatized. Homelessness for LGBTQ+ people is therefore under-reported both by third sector organizations and governments. The scale of the problem is difficult to determine, resulting in the de-prioritization of support, funding and policy change. Drawing on research outcomes from projects in England, Scotland and the US, this paper explores possibilities for conducting research into LGBTQ+ homelessness can happen, and why such research is vital to world-building and epistemic justice. We consider the delicate question of whether we can accurately and ethically produce data on LGBTQ+ homelessness, what the repercussions are for those currently experiencing homelessness, and whether it is still important to pursue such research given the potential harms
Genomic diversity and evolutionary patterns of Edwardsiella ictaluri affecting farmed striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) in Vietnam over 20 years
Get PDFEdwardsiella ictaluri continues to pose a significant risk to the health and production of striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) in Vietnam. Whilst recent advances in genomic sequencing provide an insight into the global genomic diversity of this important fish pathogen, genome-wide analysis of Vietnamese isolates recovered over time is lacking. In this study, we used a whole-genome sequencing approach to compare the genomes of 31 E. ictaluri isolates recovered over a 20-year period (2001–2021) and performed comparative genomic analysis to explore temporal changes in genome diversity, population structure and mechanisms driving pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance. Our findings revealed an open pan-genome with 4148 genes and a core genome (3 060 genes) accounting for over two-thirds of the genome. Moreover, we found the genomes sequenced to classify into two distinct lineages and estimated the ancestral origin of these lineages within Vietnam to date back to the 1950s. Plasmids were highly prevalent in Vietnamese E. ictaluri, with isolates harbouring up to four plasmids within their genome. Further, a diverse mobilome was observed with nine different plasmid types detected across the genome collection. Exploration of putative plasmids revealed a diverse set of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) against key antibiotics used in Vietnamese aquaculture and virulence genes associated with protein secretion systems. Correlation analysis revealed the total number of ARGs detected in genomes to increase with isolate recovery time. Whilst the number of virulence genes remained relatively stable, temporal variation was noted in several virulence factors related to motility and immune system modulation. Findings from this study highlight the need for continued genomic surveillance to monitor changes in antimicrobial resistance and pathogenesis, to help inform the development of disease control and management strategies.Life Below Wate
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