Classical swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease in Lao PDR

Approximately 75% of the population of Lao PDR is engaged in agriculture and the vast majority (approximately 90%) of these producers are in the smallholder sector. Livestock are an important contributor to national, agricultural and village economies and are relied on for food security. The pig population has increased over the past 5 years at an annual average increase of 4.7% at the national herd level and up to 20% in some provinces. Cattle and buffalo populations have grown at more modest rates of 1–2% (Figure 1). Disease, including foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and classical swine fever (CSF), is a major constraint to efficient and sustainable livestock production. Up to 80–90% of pigs and 99% of cattle and buffalo are produced in the smallholder sector using low input practices; as such, there is limited private sector input. Disease reporting, diagnosis, control and prevention are addressed by the Lao Government through the National Department of Livestock and Fisheries (DLF) and local agriculture and forestry offices at provincial and district government levels. These activities are supported by international partners such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Commonwealth Scientific and Investigation Research Organisation (CSIRO), Japanese International Cooperation Association (JICA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), European Union (EU) and Office International des Epizooties (OIE). Disease reporting and communication are passive and reports are made from villages through government administrations at district and provincial levels and then to the national level—the DLF and the National Animal Health Centre (NAHC). Communication of FMD-related information at regional and international levels is coordinated by the OIE South-East Asian FMD regional coordination unit (SEAFMD RCU), where reports are submitted monthly. Disease reporting for CSF is less well coordinated and information is provided to the OIE

Politeness and paradigms of family: A perspective on the development of communicative competence in the Japanese ESL speaker

This thesis examines the issue of linguistic politeness in English with specific reference to Japanese ESL speakers. It develops a theoretical framework that sees shared assumptions concerning the marking of social-power and social-distance differentials as crucial. Developing the notion that linguistic politeness is a function of a status-dependent and context-dependent variety of language usage, it argues that there are four fundamental types of utterances, and that speech acts conforming to any of the power and distance configurations by means of which these four utterance types are defined can be considered to be polite if-but only if -both speaker and hearer have similar conceptions of their role-relationship within a given speech event. It argues further that perceptions of role-relationships -for both native speakers of Australian English and for Japanese ESL speakers-result from culturally codified understandings of family, and that these understandings provide the primary conceptual template for social actors manufacture and maintenance of social reality in extra-familial face-to-face interaction. As these conceptual templates are not congruent across cultures in the ways in which familial power and distance variables are codified, however, neither are the role-relationships in terms of which extra-familial social encounters are framed; and this, in tum, can lead to Japanese ESL speakers using politeness strategies in contextually inappropriate ways. From this theoretical perspective, the research uses a custom-designed interactive multimedia software package to compare choices of utterances with verified power and distance configurations made by Japanese ESL speakers with choices made by native speakers of Australian English in a variety of everyday speech situations

Durational Residency Requirements for In-State Tuition: Searching for Access to Affordable Higher Learning

With the annual costs of earning a college degree in the United States swelling, the relative lower cost of a public education is precious. State residents save thousands of dollars a year by enrolling at a public university in their home state. On the other hand, non-residents, even those who wish to become residents, must pay inflated out-of-state prices, while receiving the same education. While non-residents may eventually gain the benefits of residency, including reduced tuition rates, the cost differential until then is often substantial. In California, depending on a student\u27s individual taxpayer status, an out-of-state student may never gain residency while enrolled, resulting in a nearly doubled tuition bill for the term of their education. This Note analyzes the constitutionality of durational residency requirements and their interplay with the right to travel under Equal Protection, Due Process, and the Privileges or Immunities Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. This Note argues that durational residency requirements like the one in California are unconstitutional

The dynamics of measles in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although vaccination has almost eliminated measles in parts of the world, the disease remains a major killer in some high birth rate countries of the Sahel. On the basis of measles dynamics for industrialized countries, high birth rate regions should experience regular annual epidemics. Here, however, we show that measles epidemics in Niger are highly episodic, particularly in the capital Niamey. Models demonstrate that this variability arises from powerful seasonality in transmission-generating high amplitude epidemics-within the chaotic domain of deterministic dynamics. In practice, this leads to frequent stochastic fadeouts, interspersed with irregular, large epidemics. A metapopulation model illustrates how increased vaccine coverage, but still below the local elimination threshold, could lead to increasingly variable major outbreaks in highly seasonally forced contexts. Such erratic dynamics emphasize the importance both of control strategies that address build-up of susceptible individuals and efforts to mitigate the impact of large outbreaks when they occur

Effect of Training/Competition Load and Scheduling on Sleep Characteristics in Professional Rugby League Athletes.

AbstractConlan, G, McLean, B, Kemp, J, and Duffield, R. Effect of training/competition load and scheduling on sleep characteristics in professional rugby league athletes. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2021-This study examined the effect of training/competition load, scheduling, and associated factors on sleep behavior in professional rugby league athletes. Sleep characteristics were assessed in 26 professional rugby league athletes using wrist-mounted actigraphy and nightly sleep diaries. Sleep actigraphy assessed the time into and out of bed, the duration in bed, sleep duration, efficiency, latency, wake after sleep onset, number of awakenings, and the awakening length. Sleep was measured during 3 different weeks: (a) preseason low training load (TL) (2,356 ± 322 AU), (b) preseason high TL (3,542 ± 445 AU), and (c) in-season match week (1,526 ± 409 AU). The influences of internal TL (session rating of perceived exertion load), training schedule, age, and training location on sleep behavior were analyzed. Repeated-measures 2-way analysis of variance and effect size analyses (d) compared sleep variables between training weeks. The mean weekly sleep duration was significantly lower during high TL week (5 hours 53minutes ± 14 min/night; p = 0.015, d = 0.59) compared with the low TL (6 hours 25minutes ± 8 min·night-1) or match weeks (6 hours 26minutes ± 10 min·night-1; p = 0.02, d = 2.04). Reduced sleep duration in the high TL week occurred alongside earlier out-of-bed times compared with the low TL (p = 0.003, d = 1.46) and match weeks (p = 0.001, d = 5.99). Regardless, the lowest sleep duration was on match night (p = 0.0001, d = 1.22). Earlier training start times resulted in earlier wake times (p = 0.003, d = 4.84), shorter in-bed durations (p = 0.0001, d = 0.62), and shorter sleep durations (p = 0.002, d = 0.32). Younger athletes slept for longer durations (p = 0.029, d = 1.70) and perceived their sleep quality to be superior (p = 0.006, d = 14.94) compared with older athletes. Sleep attained by rugby league athletes is influenced by training and competition schedules, with early training start times and late-night matches being primary drivers of sleep behavior. Coaching staff should have awareness surrounding the implications of training and playing schedules on athlete sleeping patterns

Chemistry and health of olive oil phenolics

The Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower incidence of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer. The apparent health benefits have been partially attributed to the dietary consumption of virgin olive oil by Mediterranean populations. Most recent interest has focused on the biologically active phenolic compounds naturally present in virgin olive oils. Studies (human, animal, in vivo and in vitro) have shown that olive oil phenolics have positive effects on certain physiological parameters, such as plasma lipoproteins, oxidative damage, inflammatory markers, platelet and cellular function, and antimicrobial activity. Presumably, regular dietary consumption of virgin olive oil containing phenolic compounds manifests in health benefits associated with a Mediterranean diet. This paper summarizes current knowledge on the physiological effects of olive oil phenolics. Moreover, a number of factors have the ability to affect phenolic concentrations in virgin olive oil, so it is of great importance to understand these factors in order to preserve the essential health promoting benefits of olive oil phenolic compounds.<br /

Productivity loss and cost of bovine tuberculosis for the dairy livestock sector in Ethiopia

Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is endemic in Ethiopia. Although upgraded dairy cattle account for only 1% of the total cattle population, they are the backbone of the marketed milk production in the country. Supported by research data outputs from three years, we report in this paper an estimate of the productivity loss and cost of BTB to the Ethiopian dairy sector in two dairy settings, the urban production system in Central Ethiopia (model 1) and the national upgraded dairy production (model 2). Primary data sources were used (e.g. market survey; three-year longitudinal productivity survey; abattoir survey) as well as secondary data sources. A matrix population model, composed of a population vector representing the herd composition that is repeatedly multiplied with a projection matrix, was developed to simulate the livestock dairy population. The initial herd structure was simulated over 30 years to obtain an equilibrium herd-structure representing an Eigenvector of the projection matrix. We performed an incremental cost of disease analysis by comparing livestock production with and without BTB during a period of 10 years. We assumed a BTB prevalence of 40%. In year ten, the Net present value (NPV) of livestock production in terms of milk, meat and hides was estimated at 154.5 million USD for model 1 and 1.7 billion USD for model 2. Loss of NPV over 10 years was estimated at 12 million USD for model 1 and 131.7 million USD for model 2, representing roughly 7.3% loss in NPV or 219 USD per animal. This is a benchmark against which a national TB control program could be developed in the future to calculate its benefit/cost ratio

Endemicity of Zoonotic Diseases in Pigs and Humans in Lowland and Upland Lao PDR: Identification of Socio-cultural Risk Factors

In Lao People's Democratic Republic pigs are kept in close contact with families. Human risk of infection with pig zoonoses arises from direct contact and consumption of unsafe pig products. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Luang Prabang (north) and Savannakhet (central-south) Provinces. A total of 59 villages, 895 humans and 647 pigs were sampled and serologically tested for zoonotic pathogens including: hepatitis E virus (HEV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and Trichinella spiralis; In addition, human sera were tested for Taenia spp. and cysticercosis. Seroprevalence of zoonotic pathogens in humans was high for HEV (Luang Prabang: 48.6%, Savannakhet: 77.7%) and T. spiralis (Luang Prabang: 59.0%, Savannakhet: 40.5%), and lower for JEV (around 5%), Taenia spp. (around 3%) and cysticercosis (Luang Prabang: 6.1, Savannakhet 1.5%). Multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical clustering of principal components was performed on descriptive data of human hygiene practices, contact with pigs and consumption of pork products. Three clusters were identified: Cluster 1 had low pig contact and good hygiene practices, but had higher risk of T. spiralis. Most people in cluster 2 were involved in pig slaughter (83.7%), handled raw meat or offal (99.4%) and consumed raw pigs' blood (76.4%). Compared to cluster 1, cluster 2 had increased odds of testing seropositive for HEV and JEV. Cluster 3 had the lowest sanitation access and had the highest risk of HEV, cysticercosis and Taenia spp. Farmers which kept their pigs tethered (as opposed to penned) and disposed of manure in water sources had 0.85 (95% CI: 0.18 to 0.91) and 2.39 (95% CI: 1.07 to 5.34) times the odds of having pigs test seropositive for HEV, respectively. The results have been used to identify entry-points for intervention and management strategies to reduce disease exposure in humans and pigs, informing control activities in a cysticercosis hyper-endemic village