1,720,979 research outputs found
An evaluation of the influence of livestock movements on the transmission, spread and persistence of infectious diseases in northern Tanzania
Full text linkIn northern Tanzania livestock are heavily relied upon as a main source of income, social status and nutritional security, especially by those living in the most impoverished communities (Covarrubias et al., 2012; Government of Tanzania, 2017). The high dependence on livestock is accompanied by a high burden of infectious production-limiting and zoonotic pathogens circulating within the livestock population but poor access to veterinary services. Zoonotic pathogens can spill over to cause disease in people, which are often misdiagnosed and erroneously treated leading to worse patient outcomes (Crump et al., 2013; Zhang et al., 2016). For pathogens that cause disease in livestock alone, the economic returns from investing in disease control can far outweigh the costs (Jones et al., 2016). Improved livestock health and productivity is widely recognised as a route out of and away from poverty for people living in the most marginalised communities (Randolph et al., 2007). Funding and resources to invest in the livestock sector and livestock disease control are often lacking as the broad benefits to individuals, societies and economies are poorly documented and often overlooked (Rich and Perry, 2011; World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), 2013). Policy makers need clear guidelines to develop efficient livestock disease control programmes that reduce livestock and zoonotic pathogen burden through minimal use of resources for maximal societal gains (FAO, 2009; Dutilly et al., 2020).
Livestock movements are widely recognised as providing a route to move pathogens between populations (Fevre et al., 2006). These movements can drive large epidemic outbreaks of disease and also provide opportunities for pathogens with relatively low R0 to persist in populations (Green, Kiss and Kao, 2006a; Prentice et al., 2017). Where dense comprehensive data on livestock movements is available, this can be used by policy makers to guide effective disease control programmes (Kao et al., 2006). However, information on livestock movements is not routinely collected and centrally recorded in Tanzania and is therefore not available to guide livestock disease control programmes.
Through this PhD, I gather and analyse data on three major types of permanent livestock movements in cattle and small ruminants across and beyond the Arusha, Manyara and Kilimanjaro regions in northern Tanzania. Permanent movements are those into or out of household herds and flocks with no plan to return the animal(s) to their origin. Using household survey data in conjunction with livestock serological data, market survey data and government movement permit data, I evaluate how livestock movements contribute to epidemiological connectivity and disease risk. Movements to and from households, including market movements go largely unreported in the study area but can cover long distances up to 300 km in a single movement. I use the data to construct networks of livestock movements and use concepts from network analysis to identify sub-village and ward locations that can be targeted with efficient disease control and surveillance interventions.
My analysis shows that high risk locations for disease introduction are also those at high risk of onward transmission, and that locations at high risk for small ruminant pathogen transmission are also high risk for cattle pathogen transmission. Additionally, I show that locations at risk of introduction and onward transmission of less transmissible pathogens (e.g. Brucella spp.) are also high risk for epidemic-prone pathogens (e.g. Foot and Mouth disease virus) that are rapidly transmitted. The positive correlations identified between locations’ risk ranks show that multi-species interventions which aim to prevent introduction and onward transmission of multiple pathogens could be an efficient use of disease control resources in northern Tanzania. Specifically, I show that household cattle introductions and sub-village betweenness are positively associated with cattle’s risk of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) exposure and this risk is ubiquitous across the study area. For other pathogens investigated, the associations between introductions and exposure are complex and vary depending on pathogen and the agro-ecological (A-E) class of the livestock keeping system. This complexity is likely driven by the varying transmission routes and shedding cycles of different pathogens, in combination with the different livestock mixing and contact rates between infectious and susceptible individuals in the different A-E systems. Nevertheless, risk factors relating to household and sub-village livestock introductions are identified and can be used to guide disease control interventions in different settings.
I also identify that livestock market movements are most often made on foot with increased risk of these livestock contacting local non-moving livestock and creating opportunities for pathogen dissemination across the landscape. Frequently travelled routes to and from market are therefore also identified as areas where an increase in active surveillance would benefit both local livestock and animals moving into the market system. Findings from this work will be useful for policy makers in northern Tanzania who have minimal resources available to reduce livestock and zoonotic pathogen burden. High risk locations identified in this analysis can be made targets for knowledge exchange and information dissemination, active surveillance and multi-pathogen vaccination programmes. Additionally, the results from this study can be used to guide future research questions which address how temporary contacts between livestock from different herds and flocks might affect pathogen transmission in the area
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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