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Development and evaluation of a health education module for the prevention of respiratory tract infections among private hajj and umrah pilgrims
Full text linkHajj pilgrimage is usually associated with a regular occurrence of respiratory
tract infection among pilgrims. Vaccination uptake and other preventive behaviours
have generally been low among pilgrims across the globe. Despite this, there is
presently no validated health theory-based health education module in Malaysia to
guide the pilgrims on how to boost compliance with these preventive practices and
increase their knowledge towards respiratory tract infection, preventive attitudes and
practices towards prevention strategies. The general objective of this study is to
develop and evaluate the effectiveness of health education modules against respiratory
tract infections among Hajj pilgrims from Malaysia. This study was carried out in
phases comprising of development and validation of questionnaire phase, development
and validation of health education module for respiratory tract infection prevention
phase, baseline characterization of pilgrims’ phase, intervention phase and evaluation
phase. At the first phase of the study, a cross-sectional study was conducted for the
development and validation of a measurement tool using the content, construct (items
response theory, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis)
validation and reliability. This phase is followed by the development and validation of
new health education module via a smartphone application. For the intervention and
the evaluation phase, a quasi-experimental study was utilized, where pre-post
intervention data were analysed among 52 and 50 Hajj/Umrah pilgrims in the
intervention or control group respectively. The intervention group was given health
education module on the prevention of respiratory tract infections during Hajj and
Umrah in the form of a smartphone application which was strictly guided by the health
belief model. The control group received a smartphone application on normal Hajj and
Umrah guidance from a different Hajj/Umrah travel company. Follow-up data were
collected using the same questionnaire that was used during the pre-test data
collection. Mixed design repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyse the effect of
group, time, and group-time interaction on the dependent variables. There was a
significant improvement in knowledge score and the main effect in the intervention
group compared to the control group, based on time (p = 0.005, ηp2 = 0.075).
Likewise, there was significant improvement in attitude score and main effect based
on time (p = 0.035, ηp2 = 0.044). Similarly, there was a significant change in practice
score and also main effect based on time (p = <0.001, ηp2 = 0.155) and interaction of
group with time (p = 0.042, ηp2 = 0.041). Similarly, the occurrence of RTI in the
intervention group is lower when compared to the control group. The new health
educational intervention module developed was effective in improving the knowledge,
attitude and practices toward prevention of RTI among Hajj pilgrims from Malaysia.
Further studies are also needed to investigate the barriers and motivators to link the
knowledge gap about the uptake of mandatory and recommended vaccine as well as
the other components of the module. Therefore, Hajj agencies need to conduct health
education before departure of pilgrims to prepare them against the common respiratory
infections or in the event of outbreaks of infection during Hajj/Umrah
Occurrence and antibiotic resistance of Campylobacter and Arcobacter spp. in dogs and cats
Full text linkCampylobacter and Arcobacter are becoming more recognised because of their detection in a wide range of hosts and food of animal origin. Campylobacter is considered one of the most common causes while Arcobacter has emerged as a cause of gastro-enteritis in humans and both are of public health concern. They are gram negative, curved, spiral or S- shaped and are members of the order Campylobacterales, class Epsilon and phylum Proteobacteria. Several studies have been conducted in developed countries on their occurrence and characterisation in dogs and cats but such studies are lacking in most developing nations like Malaysia. Due to this present scenario, this study was conducted to determine the presence of Campylobacter and Arcobacter in dogs and cats and to also determine antibiotic resistance patterns of the isolates. The presence of these organisms was determined using conventional and molecular techniques. For Arcobacter, rectal and buccal swab samples were collected from owned dogs (40) and cats (40) presented to the University Veterinary Hospital (UVH), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and a private veterinary clinic within Kuala Lumpur, and stray dogs (61) and cats (46) from an animal shelter and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) dog pound. Rectal swabs were also taken for the detection of Campylobacter in these animals. Suspected colonies of the two organisms were subcultured and subjected to biochemical tests which included catalase, oxidase, hippurate hydrolysis and indoxyl acetate hydrolysis tests. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) was employed for the confirmation of the suspected isolates and differentiation of species. Overall, the results showed carriage rates of 32.6% (15/46) and 12.5% (5/40) of Campylobacter in stray and client owned cats respectively, while Arcobacter was detected in 34.78% (16/46) and 45% (18/40) in stray and client owned cats respectively. In stray dogs, Campylobacter and Arcobacter were detected at 16.3% (10/61) and at 50% (31/61) respectively. Arcobacter butzleri was the only species that was isolated and © COPYRIGHT UPM ii Campylobacter upsaliensis (60%), C. helviticus (20%) and C. jejuni (11.4%) were the species of Campylobacter isolated. Risk factors for Campylobacter and Arcobacter infections in dogs and cats were determined through questionnaires filled by pet owners. Among the factors that were looked at included age, sex, breed category, single or multi-pet household, recent treatment with antibiotic, housing of the dogs and cats, source of drinking water, contact with other animals, consumption of raw meat and fish and place of residence of the owner. Factors found to significantly increase the risk for Arcobacter infections were multi-pets household type and source of drinking water in cats while none were significant in the case of dogs. None of the factors analyzed was significant in terms of the occurrence of Campylobacter in both dogs and cats. Antibiotic resistance pattern using minimum inhibitory concentration (M.I.C) and disc diffusion methods were carried out. Eighty nine (89) Arcobacter butzleri and 28 Campylobacter isolates were tested against 12 antibiotics using the disc diffusion method namely ciprofloxacin (Cip) 5µg; ampicillin (Amp), 10 µg; tetracycline (Te), 30 µg; erythromycin (E), 15 µg; gentamicin (CN), 10 µg; cefotaxime (CTX), 30 µg; penicillin G (P), µg; streptomycin (S), µg; nalidixic acid (NA), µg; enrofloxacin (Enr), µg; amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (AMC), µg and ceftazidine (CAZ), µg. Four antibiotics, namely ampicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin were used against Campylobacter and Arcobacter butzleri isolates for the M.I.C. Overall, the isolates were found resistant to at least one antibiotic using both techniques. For Campylobacter isolates, the resistance to the antibiotics using the disc diffusion method was as follows: ciprofloxacin (17.8%), gentamycin (32.1%), cefotaxime (42.8%), penicillin G (53.5%), tetracycline (32.1%), ampicillin (42.8%), erythromycin (50%), streptomycin (42.8%), nalidixic acid (46.4%), amoxycillin/clavulanic acid (17.8%), ceftazidine (50%) and enrofloxacin (21.4%). Using the M.I.C.E. strip (Oxoid), Campylobacter and A. butzleri isolates showed exception in the resistance to ciprofloxacin. For Arcobacter isolates the resistance to antibiotics using the disc diffusion was as follows: ciprofloxacin (2.1%), gentamicin (63.1%), cefotaxime (69.4%), penicillin G and ampicillin (98.9%), tetracycline (33.6%), erythromycin (53.6%), streptomycin (85.2%), nalidixic acid (61.0%), amoxycillin/clavulanic acid (43.1% ), ceftazidine (3.6%) and enrofloxacin (31.5%). In comparison, the resistance rates between the disc diffusion and M.I.C. were not significantly different. The antibiotic resistance showed and 35 patterns for Campylobacter and Arcobacter isolates respectively. Campylobacter isolates were found resistant to nine (9) antibiotics while Arcobacter showed resistance to ten (10) antibiotics. Multi drug resistance (MDR) was reported among 50% and 78.9% of Campylobacter and Arcobacter isolates respectively. It can be concluded that the occurrence of Campylobacter and Arcobacter species in dogs and cats is of great public health significance as pets are in close contact with humans. Good management and controlling the population of stray dogs and cats are key factors in preventing the spread of Campylobacter and Arcobacter in these animal species. Antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter and Arcobacter not only increases the risk of treatment failure in both humans and animals but also spreads antibiotic resistance genes
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
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