1,720,960 research outputs found
Mosquito diversity and febrile illness in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts, North Western Tanzania
No full textMSc ThesisMosquito-borne viruses cause emerging and re-emerging infections affecting humans and
animals. These diseases present themselves mainly with fever. The present study aimed at
determining socio-demographic and clinical characteristics among febrile patients, and
detection of selected mosquito-borne viruses circulating in Aedes aegypti and Ae.
albopictus. Using a hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study design, in total 400
febrile patients were recruited after consenting into the present study. A structured
questionnaire was administered to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. The results
showed that most of the febrile patients (n=400) were aged between 20-29 years (25.25
%), followed by those aged 10-19 years (23.25 %), and only 13.15% were older than 50
years. The results show that fever (100 %) was the most common symptom reported,
followed by headache (68.75 %), joint aches (67.75 %), seizures (63.50 %), vomiting
(61.50 %) weakness in legs (59.50 %), laboured breathing (58.50%) and the least observed
symptoms were abdominal pains (41.75 %), neck stiffness (33.75 %), and rashes (33 %).
Screening 22 pools of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus using reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed the presence of Flaviviruses, Bunyaviruses
and Alphaviruses. Further screening of specific viruses in Aedes mosquitoes showed the
presence of Chikungunya virus. Furthermore, the risk factors for mosquito-borne viral
infections were investigated in the present study. The findings of this study show that
12.75 % of patients were in contact in forests and 79 % had been bitten by day-biting
mosquitoes within three months prior to sampling. Only 28.75 % of febrile patients had
malaria, indicating the widespread nature of febrile illness other than malaria. It can be
concluded from the results of present study that Aedes mosquitoes are infected with
Chikungunya virus and that interaction between humans and forests predisposes humans
to mosquito bites.Southern African Centre for Infectious diseases (SACIDS
Mosquito diversity and febrile illness in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts, North Western Tanzania
No full textMSc ThesisMosquito-borne viruses cause emerging and re-emerging infections affecting humans and
animals. These diseases present themselves mainly with fever. The present study aimed at
determining socio-demographic and clinical characteristics among febrile patients, and
detection of selected mosquito-borne viruses circulating in Aedes aegypti and Ae.
albopictus. Using a hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study design, in total 400
febrile patients were recruited after consenting into the present study. A structured
questionnaire was administered to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. The results
showed that most of the febrile patients (n=400) were aged between 20-29 years (25.25
%), followed by those aged 10-19 years (23.25 %), and only 13.15% were older than 50
years. The results show that fever (100 %) was the most common symptom reported,
followed by headache (68.75 %), joint aches (67.75 %), seizures (63.50 %), vomiting
(61.50 %) weakness in legs (59.50 %), laboured breathing (58.50%) and the least observed
symptoms were abdominal pains (41.75 %), neck stiffness (33.75 %), and rashes (33 %).
Screening 22 pools of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus using reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed the presence of Flaviviruses, Bunyaviruses
and Alphaviruses. Further screening of specific viruses in Aedes mosquitoes showed the
presence of Chikungunya virus. Furthermore, the risk factors for mosquito-borne viral
infections were investigated in the present study. The findings of this study show that
12.75 % of patients were in contact in forests and 79 % had been bitten by day-biting
mosquitoes within three months prior to sampling. Only 28.75 % of febrile patients had
malaria, indicating the widespread nature of febrile illness other than malaria. It can be
concluded from the results of present study that Aedes mosquitoes are infected with
Chikungunya virus and that interaction between humans and forests predisposes humans
to mosquito bites.Southern African Centre for Infectious diseases (SACIDS
Establishment of long-read nanopore sequencing and proficient nanobodies against peste des petits ruminants virus on the road to develop diagnostic and therapeutic tools
No full textThesisPeste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) causes a highly devastating disease of sheep and
goats, peste des petits ruminants (PPR), that threatens food security, animal production and
the conservation of wild small ruminants. Growing body of evidence suggests that multiple
wildlife and atypical host species can be infected with PPRV, posing a serological
diagnostic challenge in multi-host environment. Recent studies confirmed that single-
domain antigen binding fragments (nanobodies) derived from heavy-chain-only camelid
antibodies and nanopore sequencing have proven to be powerful technologies for the
development of cost-effective and robust therapeutic and diagnostic tools, respectively.
Therefore, the main objective of this study was to generate PPRV-reactive nanobodies in
order to set pace for the development of diagnostic and possible therapeutic nanobodies in
the future, alongside with establishment of rapid complete genome nanopore sequencing of
PPRV. Firstly, a strategy was developed to generate nanobodies against PPRV, whereby an
alpaca
(Vicugna
pacos) was
immunized
with live
attenuated
vaccine
strain
(PPRV/Nigeria/75/1) to raise an affinity-matured immune response in the heavy-chain-
only antibody classes. An immune nanobody library with approximately 64 million
independent transformants was engineered, of which 100% contained an insert with the
proper size of nanobody gene. Following phage display and in vitro affinity selection
(biopanning), nine nanobodies that specifically recognise PPRV were identified on
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. They showed superb potency in identifying rapidly
PPRV, which is likely to open a new perspective in the diagnosis and possible treatment of
PPRV infection. Secondly, prior to the full genome sequencing of PPRV, nanopore
sequencing protocol was tested for amplification and sequencing of PPRV. With this
protocol, there were no DNA fragments and nucleotide sequences in the GC-rich region
between matrix (M) and fusion (F) genes at the genome position between 4,444 and 5,526.
Thus, a tiling multiplex polymerase chain reaction method was developed to amplify the missing DNA fragments. Following redesigning of three pairs of overlapping long read
primers and cascade of optimization, the GC rich region was successfully amplified and
sequenced (accession numbers: MW580394, MW580395 and MW580396). These three
pairs of primers targeting the GC-rich region were used along with other 22 pairs of
primers in tiling multiplex PCR for complete PPRV genome sequencing. The resulting
PCR amplicons were used for nanopore library preparation and ultimate sequencing. This
method has resulted into complete genomes of PPRV, with 15,948 nucleotides long for
both isolates that were produced within four hours of sequencing (Accession numbers
MW960272 and MZ322753). Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genomes revealed a
high nucleotide identity between 96.19 and 99.24% with lineage III PPR viruses currently
circulating in East Africa indicating a common origin. The nanopore sequencing platform
can be deployed to overcome PPR diagnostic and surveillance challenges, unanticipated
variations in virus pathogenicity, circulation of disease in wildlife populations and to
service remote and nomadic communities with challenging geographical landscapes.
However, further investigations are recommended for PPRV reactive nanobodies
especially on diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Once validated, these technologies
have great potential for use in the field as rapid and cost-effective tools in context of
planned PPR Global Control and Eradication Programme.Africa Centre of Excellence for Infectious Diseases of
Humans and Animals (SACIDS), World Bank (WB-ACE II Grant PAD1436, IDA credit 5799-TZ)
Mosquito diversity and febrile illness in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts, North Western Tanzania
No full textMSc ThesisMosquito-borne viruses cause emerging and re-emerging infections affecting humans and
animals. These diseases present themselves mainly with fever. The present study aimed at
determining socio-demographic and clinical characteristics among febrile patients, and
detection of selected mosquito-borne viruses circulating in Aedes aegypti and Ae.
albopictus. Using a hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study design, in total 400
febrile patients were recruited after consenting into the present study. A structured
questionnaire was administered to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. The results
showed that most of the febrile patients (n=400) were aged between 20-29 years (25.25
%), followed by those aged 10-19 years (23.25 %), and only 13.15% were older than 50
years. The results show that fever (100 %) was the most common symptom reported,
followed by headache (68.75 %), joint aches (67.75 %), seizures (63.50 %), vomiting
(61.50 %) weakness in legs (59.50 %), laboured breathing (58.50%) and the least observed
symptoms were abdominal pains (41.75 %), neck stiffness (33.75 %), and rashes (33 %).
Screening 22 pools of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus using reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed the presence of Flaviviruses, Bunyaviruses
and Alphaviruses. Further screening of specific viruses in Aedes mosquitoes showed the
presence of Chikungunya virus. Furthermore, the risk factors for mosquito-borne viral
infections were investigated in the present study. The findings of this study show that
12.75 % of patients were in contact in forests and 79 % had been bitten by day-biting
mosquitoes within three months prior to sampling. Only 28.75 % of febrile patients had
malaria, indicating the widespread nature of febrile illness other than malaria. It can be
concluded from the results of present study that Aedes mosquitoes are infected with
Chikungunya virus and that interaction between humans and forests predisposes humans
to mosquito bites.Southern African Centre for Infectious diseases (SACIDS
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
- …
