1,720,955 research outputs found
Prevention and response to rabies incursions in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)
Full text linkRabies is a viral, zoonotic disease that kills 59,000 people annually, mainly in low-andmiddle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa and Asia, through dog-to-human transmission. To eliminate dog-mediated human rabies deaths, the ‘Zero by 30’ global strategy developed by WHO and fellow international organisations recommend a sustained 70% vaccination coverage in dog populations. However, in rabies-endemic countries, rabies surveillance is severely limited due to lack of political will and insufficient resources for rabies detection, treatment and prevention. Rabies control measures including diagnostic tools, dog vaccines and post-exposure prophylaxis or PEP for humans, are undersupported in LMICs, therefore resulting in poor case detection and reporting, and high numbers of human deaths. Nevertheless, the path toward dog rabies elimination is straightforward, and has been achieved and sustained by many high-income countries (HICs), although incursions from LMICs are occasionally reported.
My objective was to explore different strategies aimed at controlling rabies incursions in LMICs. I used a transdisciplinary approach involving analysis of past incursions, realtime evaluation of an incursion as it unfolded into an outbreak, and assessment of a novel intervention that could potentially reduce rabies transmission. Beginning with an introductory chapter, this thesis focuses on what constitutes a rabies incursion and the current status of rabies surveillance and control measures worldwide. Next, in Chapter 2, I performed a systematic review of rabies incursions reported globally from 2001 to 2022 to highlight the catalytic role that incursions have played in global rabies (re-)emergence. My analysis identified incursions that resulted in outbreaks mainly in LMICs, and pinpointed common factors that contributed to different outcomes, from those that were contained to those causing fatal outbreaks and establishing endemic circulation. My findings illustrated the importance of preparedness and response capacity to minimize resurgence in nearby rabies-free zones, which is typically lacking in LMICs.
For the third chapter, I investigated the detection and response to a dog-mediated incursion in the previously rabies-free island province of Romblon, Philippines. A positive canine rabies case was initially detected in late 2022, and led to the detection of more than 40 positive samples within a year, as well as two laboratory-confirmed human rabies deaths. Lack of surveillance and suspension of mass dog vaccination activities due to COVID-19 restrictions contributed to the introduction of rabies into Tablas Island, which was human-mediated via boat travel. Contact tracing and dog vaccination were initiated but reach was limited. Integrated bite case management (IBCM) was essential for detection of this outbreak, and phylogenetic analysis of outbreak samples revealed possible introductions from rabies-endemic provinces within the Philippines.
My fourth and fifth chapters describe the implementation of long-lasting collars during a mass dog vaccination event in Puerto Galera municipality, Philippines. In the fourth chapter, I evaluated the feasibility of incorporating collars into vaccination campaigns by interviewing practitioners about their experiences with using collars. I also administered questionnaires to community members to gauge their behavior changes toward collared dogs, and conducted transect surveys to assess collar durability. While practitioners experienced minimal difficulty with learning and applying collars, questionnaire answers exposed a lack of understanding of rabies transmission among the local community. Most believed that dogs are susceptible to rabies even when vaccinated, and reported displaying indiscriminate behavior toward collared and non-collared dogs. Understanding of rabies among residents must therefore be improved for collars to induce a change in human behavior toward collared dogs. Collars were found to be vulnerable in coastal conditions as most were lost within months, necessitating a different material for improvement of collar durability. In Chapter 5, I used mark-resight survey results to estimate the free-roaming dog population and vaccination coverage in Puerto Galera, capitalizing on the deployment of collars. I determined that overall vaccination coverage was low, especially among freeroaming dogs, and that the dog population in Puerto Galera is severely underestimated. Targeting vaccination toward free-roaming dogs caused significantly increased coverage in an area where vaccination of free-roaming dogs was prioritized.
Summarized in my final chapter are the main conclusions to be drawn from this thesis: incursions in rabies-free zones in LMICs are frequent, underscoring the importance of targeting and sustaining rabies vaccination in rabies-endemic areas. Delayed incursion detection results from gaps in rabies surveillance, which can be enhanced with tools like IBCM, while genomic sequencing can determine incursion sources. LMICs such as the Philippines face unique cultural challenges to rabies elimination: knowledge gaps on rabies and traditional practices that have normalized free-roaming dogs are some of which have prevented rabies control interventions like collars from being more effective. My work shows that key priorities for LMICs like the Philippines should be sustaining control strategies (particularly dog vaccination and rabies surveillance) and improving rabies education, to accelerate progress toward the ‘Zero by 30’ goal
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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