60419 research outputs found
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Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Veterinarians Towards Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship in Nigeria
No full textAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health concern and the inappropriate use of antibiotics in animals and humans are considered contributing factors. A cross-sectional survey to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of veterinarians regarding AMR and antimicrobial stewardship was conducted in Nigeria. A total of 241 respondents completed an online survey. Only 21% of respondents correctly defined the term antimicrobial stewardship and 59.8% were unaware of the guidelines provided by the Nigeria AMR National Action Plan. Over half (51%) of respondents indicated that prophylactic antibiotic use was appropriate when farm biosecurity was poor. Only 20% of the respondents conducted antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) frequently, and the unavailability of veterinary laboratory services (82%) and the owner’s inability to pay (72%) were reported as key barriers to conducting AST. The study findings suggest a focus on the following areas of potential intervention may be useful in improving appropriate antibiotic use and antimicrobial stewardship among veterinarians in Nigeria: increased awareness of responsible antimicrobial use among practicing and new graduated veterinarians, increased dissemination of 33 regularly updated antibiotic use guidelines, increased understanding of the role of good biosecurity 34 and vaccination practices in disease prevention, and increased provision of AST at affordable costs
Decay studies of the long-lived states in 186 Tl
No full textDecay spectroscopy of the long-lived states in 186Tl has been performed at the ISOLDE Decay
Station at ISOLDE, CERN. The � decay from the low-spin (
A Critical Role for Perivascular Cells in Amplifying Vascular Leakage Induced by Dengue Virus Non-Structural Protein 1
No full textDengue is the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral disease affecting humans, with
severe dengue typified by potentially fatal microvascular leakage and hypovolaemic shock.
Blood vessels of the microvasculature are composed of a tubular structure of endothelial cells
ensheathed by perivascular cells (pericytes). Pericytes support endothelial cell barrier
formation and maintenance through paracrine and contact-mediated signalling, and are critical
to microvascular integrity. Pericyte dysfunction has been linked to vascular leakage in
noncommunicable pathologies such as diabetic retinopathy, but has never been linked to
infection-related vascular leakage. Dengue vascular leakage has been shown to result in part
from the direct action of the secreted dengue virus (DENV) non-structural protein NS1 on
endothelial cells. Using primary human vascular cells, we show here that NS1 also causes
pericyte dysfunction, and that NS1-induced endothelial hyperpermeability is more pronounced
in the presence of pericytes. Notably, NS1 specifically disrupted the ability of pericytes to
support endothelial cell function in a 3D microvascular assay, with no effect on pericyte viability
or physiology. These effects are mediated at least in part through contact-independent
paracrine signals involved in endothelial barrier maintenance by pericytes. We therefore
identify a role for pericytes in amplifying NS1-induced microvascular hyperpermeability in
severe dengue, and thus show that pericytes can play a critical role in the aetiology of an
infectious vascular leakage syndrome. These findings open new avenues of research for the
development of drugs and diagnostic assays for combating infection-induced vascular
leakage, such as severe dengue
Effects of Metamaterial Loading on Miniaturization of Loop and Open Loop Microstrip Filters
No full textIn this paper, metamaterial loading on loop and
open loop microstrip filters is investigated where both
rectangular loop and open loop structures are considered. Spiral resonators are loaded on the four sides of the square loop and result in higher size reduction compared to the conventional split ring resonators with identical structural parameters. It is shown that, for both proposed filters, metamaterial loading provides size reduction, due to possessing lower resonant
frequency of spiral resonators. The structures are analytically investigated through the transmission matrix method. In the designed rectangular loop filters, there are two nulls on both sides of the pass-band, which provide high out-of-band rejection and is preserved in the corresponding miniaturized metamaterial loaded structures. However open loop resonators provide lower resonant frequencies or more compact size filters. The proposed filter is fabricated and tested and measured results are in good agreement with simulation ones
Recent development and challenges in spectroscopy and machine vision technologies for crop nitrogen diagnosis: A Review
No full textRecent development of non-destructive optical techniques, such as spectroscopy and machine vision technologies, have laid a good foundation for real-time monitoring and precise management of crop N status. However, their advantages and disadvantages have not been systematically summarized and evaluated. Here, we reviewed the state-of-the-art of non-destructive optical methods for monitoring the N status of crops, and summarized their advantages and disadvantages. We mainly focused on the contribution of spectral and machine vision technology to the accurate diagnosis of crop N status from three aspects: system selection, data processing and estimation methods. Finally, we discussed the opportunities and challenges of the application of these technologies, followed by recommendations for future work to address the challenges
Spatial spillovers of agglomeration economies and productivity in the tourism industry: The case of the UK
No full textThis research investigates the direct and (indirect) spatial spillover effects of agglomeration economies on the productivity of the tourism industry. With increasing concerns about the persistence of low (labour) productivity in tourism across many developed economies, there is an urgent need to address this productivity challenge. Using major under-exploited UK microeconomic panel data, spatial econometric modelling is employed to estimate the effects of agglomeration economies on productivity. Findings reveal the significant effects of agglomeration economies on productivity within a specific region, but also significant spatial spillover effects across neighbouring regions, suggesting the possibility of productivity convergences. Competitive and complementary effects of agglomeration economies on productivity are identified
Untangling the causal effect of procedural justice on legitimacy using longitudinal data
No full textObjective: An overwhelming body of research based on cross-sectional data has identified a positive relationship between perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy. Following Tyler’s theoretical framework these studies have often interpreted the observed relationship as evidence of an unequivocal causal connection from procedural justice to legitimacy. Here we re-examined the validity of this conclusion by considering the temporal order of that association and the potential biasing effect of time-invariant third common causes.
Hypotheses: 1) Past perceptions of police procedural justice predict future perceptions of legitimacy; 2) Past perceptions of police legitimacy predict future perceptions of procedural justice; and 3) Perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy are associated as a result of third common causes.
Method: We fitted random intercepts cross-lagged panel models to seven waves of a longitudinal sample of 1,354 young offenders in the ‘Pathways to Desistance’ study. This allowed us to explore the directional paths between perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy, while controlling for time-invariant subject heterogeneity.
Results: We did not find evidence of the assumed temporal association; lagged within subject perceptions of procedural justice rarely predicted within subject perceptions of legitimacy. We did not find evidence of a reciprocal relationship either. Instead, we detected substantial time-invariant subject heterogeneity, and perceptions of legitimacy being self-reproduced.
Conclusions: Our findings challenge the internal validity of the commonly reported positive associations between procedural justice and legitimacy found in studies using cross-sectional data
Monotonic Norms and Orthogonal Issues in Multidimensional Voting
No full textWe study issue-by-issue voting by majority and incentive compatibility in multi-dimensional frameworks where privately informed agents have preferences induced by
general norms and where dimensions are endogenously chosen. We uncover the deep connections between dominant strategy incentive compatibility (DIC) on the one hand,
and several geometric/functional analytic concepts on the other. Our main results are:
1) Marginal medians are DIC if and only if they are calculated with respect to coor-
dinates defined by a basis such that the norm is orthant-monotonic in the associated
coordinate system. 2) Equivalently, marginal medians are DIC if and only if they are computed with respect to a basis such that, for any vector in the basis, any linear
combination of the other vectors is Birkho¤-James orthogonal to it. 3) We show how semi-inner products and normality provide an analytic method that can be used to �nd
all DIC marginal medians. 4) As an application, we derive all DIC marginal medians for lp spaces of any finite dimension, and show that they do not depend on p (unless p = 2)
Evidence Based Prediction and Progression Monitoring on Retinal Images from Three Nations
No full textPurpose: The aim of this work is to demonstrate how a retinal image analysis system,
DAPHNE, supports the optimization of diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening programs
for grading color fundus photography.
Method: Retinal image sets, graded by trained and certified human graders, were
acquired from Saudi Arabia, China, and Kenya. Each image was subsequently analyzed
by the DAPHNE automated software. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and
negative predictive values for the detection of referable DR or diabetic macular edema
were evaluated, taking human grading or clinical assessment outcomes to be the gold
standard. The automated software’s ability to identify co-pathology and to correctly
label DR lesions was also assessed.
Results: In all three datasets the agreement between the automated software and
human grading was between 0.84 to 0.88. Sensitivity did not vary significantly between
populations (94.28%–97.1%) with specificity ranging between 90.33% to 92.12%. There
were excellent negative predictive values above 93% in all image sets. The software
was able to monitor DR progression between baseline and follow-up images with the
changes visualized. No cases of proliferative DR or DME were missed in the referable
recommendations.
Conclusions: The DAPHNE automated software demonstrated its ability not only to
grade images but also to reliably monitor and visualize progression. Therefore it has the
potential to assist timely image analysis in patients with diabetes in varied populations
and also help to discover subtle signs of sight-threatening disease onset.
Translational Relevance: This article takes research on machine vision and evaluates
its readiness for clinical use
A Study on the Effectiveness of Alternative Commercial Ventilation Inlets that Improve Energy Efficiency of Building Ventilation Systems
No full textPassive air pollution control devices known as
aspiration efficiency reducers (AER) have been developed using
aspiration efficiency (AE) concepts. Their purpose is to reduce the
concentration of particulate matter (PM) drawn into a building air
handling unit (AHU) through alterations in the inlet design improving
energy consumption. In this paper an examination is conducted into
the effect of installing a deflector system around an AER-AHU inlet
for both a forward and rear-facing orientations relative to the wind.
The results of the study found that these deflectors are an effective
passive control method for reducing AE at various ambient wind
speeds over a range of microparticles of varying diameter. The
deflector system was found to induce a large wake zone at low ambient
wind speeds for a rear-facing AER-AHU, resulting in significantly
lower AE in comparison to without. As the wind speed increased, both
contained a wake zone but have much lower concentration gradients
with the deflectors. For the forward-facing models, the deflector
system at low ambient wind speed was preferred at higher Stokes
numbers but there was negligible difference as the Stokes number
decreased. Similarly, there was no significant difference at higher wind
speeds across the Stokes number range tested. The above results
demonstrate that a deflector system is a viable passive control method
for the reduction of ventilation energy consumption
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