Prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection in cattle from selected commercial farms and nomadic settlements in Yola, Adamawa State

Cryptosporidium species are apicomplexan parasites commonly associated with diarrhoea in both men and animals. They are of public health importance. The study aimed to determine the occurrence of Cryptosporidium species in cattle in the Yola metropolitan area, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Four hundred and sixteen (416) faecal samples were collected from cattle in commercial farms and nomadic settlements and were analyzed using Modified Ziehl Neelsen (MZN) technique. Twenty-seven (27) positive samples were subjected to nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for the amplification of a specific fragment of 18S rRNA gene that was used to detect Cryptosporidium spp. Seventy-three (17.5%) out of 416 samples were positive for Cryptosporidium oocysts by MZN, and 26 (96.0%) out of 27 isolated oocysts of Cryptosporidium detected by MZN were positive by PCR. Commercial farms had a higher prevalence (19.2%) of Cryptosporidium oocysts than the nomadic settlements (15.9%). Based on risk factors, there was a significant association (P<0.05) between the occurrence of Cryptosporidium oocysts and factors such as sex and faecal consistency. At the same time, age, breed, management system, animal source and drinking water source varied insignificantly (P>0.05). This study has shown the occurrence of Cryptosporidium infection in cattle in the Yola metropolis. There should be an awareness campaign among public health workers on the dangers posed by the organism to humans so that the Government would enforce control and preventive measures

Neuroscience and end-of-life decisions. New anthropological challenges for constitutional law: «Is Human Nature the only science of man»?

Nowadays, neuroscience permits the unveiling of interior elements of hu-man beings - the perception of pain, the presence of consciousness and even the will - in the absence of external manifestations. Physicians, indeed, seem capable of measuring the true mental state of individuals and their inner world through an elec-troencephalography or a functional magnetic resonance imaging. This new frontier affects the world of law and places heavy demands for lawyers embroiled in end-of-life matters. The present paper focuses on the use of neuroscientific acquisitions within end-of-life decisions, aiming to highlight two risks embedded in this use: the utmost deference towards science and scientific authority and the maximization of self-determination. The paper will provide, at the beginning, a framework of case law and end-of-life regulatory attempts; it will follow the analysis of the main challenges posed to law by advances in neuroscience. In the latter part of this paper, we will of-fer food for thought on the role of neuroscience and - in a broader perspective - of science in law

'Heaven starts at your parents' feet' : adolescent bowing to parents and associated spiritual attitudes

In a quantitative survey of religious attitudes and practices in a multi-religious sample of 369 school pupils aged between 13 and 15 in London, the practice of bowing to parents was found widespread in 22% of adolescents spanning several religious affiliations and ethnicities – especially Buddhists, Hindus and those of Indian, African and ‘Other Asian’ ethnicity. Whether an adolescent bowed correlated significantly with spiritual attitudes such as wanting to abstain from alcohol, hearing religious stories, being inspired by religious festivals and liking the idea of seeing God in everything. Findings suggest bowing to parents can have religious significance on all three levels of Jackson’s Interpretive Approach and therefore cannot be regarded as a ‘cultural accretion’ of religion. Study of bowing to parents could form a unifying exercise in shared values for study of religion in the plural classroom and facilitate community cohesion in certain religious membership groups

Emerging business models in local energy markets: A systematic review of peer-to-peer, community self-consumption, and transactive energy models

The emergence of peer-to-peer, collective or community self-consumption, and transactive energy concepts gives rise to new configurations of business models for local energy trading among a variety of actors. Much attention has been paid in the academic literature to the transition of the underlying energy system with its macroeconomic market framework. However, fewer contributions focus on the microeconomic aspects of the broad set of involved actors. Even though specific case studies highlight single business models, a comprehensive analysis of emerging business models for the entire set of actors is missing. Following this research gap, this paper conducts a systematic literature review of 135 peer-reviewed journal articles to examine business models of actors operating in local energy markets. From 221 businesses in the reviewed literature, nine macro-actor categories are identified. For each type of market actor, a business model archetype is determined and characterised using the business model canvas. The key elements of each business model archetype are discussed, and areas are highlighted where further research is needed. Finally, this paper outlines the differences of business models for their presence in the three local energy market models. Focusing on the identified customers and partner relationships, this study highlights the key actors per market model and the character of the interactions between market participants

A parallel implementation of an off-lattice individual-based model of multicellular populations

As computational models of multicellular populations include ever more detailed descriptions of biophysical and biochemical processes, the computational cost of simulating such models limits their ability to generate novel scientific hypotheses and testable predictions. While developments in microchip technology continue to increase the power of individual processors, parallel computing offers an immediate increase in available processing power. To make full use of parallel computing technology, it is necessary to develop specialised algorithms. To this end, we present a parallel algorithm for a class of off-lattice individual-based models of multicellular populations. The algorithm divides the spatial domain between computing processes and comprises communication routines that ensure the model is correctly simulated on multiple processors. The parallel algorithm is shown to accurately reproduce the results of a deterministic simulation performed using a pre-existing serial implementation. We test the scaling of computation time, memory use and load balancing as more processes are used to simulate a cell population of fixed size. We find approximate linear scaling of both speed-up and memory consumption on up to 32 processor cores. Dynamic load balancing is shown to provide speed-up for non-regular spatial distributions of cells in the case of a growing population

Cosmic Strings Lens Phenomenology: Model of Poisson Energy Distribution

We present a novel approach for investigating lens phenomenology of cosmic strings in order to elaborate detection strategies in galaxy deep field images. To account for the complexity of the projected energy distribution of string networks we assume their lens effects to be similar to those of a straight string carrying a {\em random} lineic energy distribution. In such a model we show that, unlike the case of uniform strings, critical phenomena naturally appear. We explore the properties of the critical lines and caustics. In particular, assuming that the energy coherence length along the string is much smaller than the observation scale, we succeeded in computing the total length of critical lines per unit string length and found it to be $4/\sqrt{3} {\bf E}(3/4)$. The length of the associated caustic lines can also be computed to be $16/(\pi \sqrt{3}) {\bf E}(3/4)$. The picture we obtain here for the phenomenology of cosmic string detection is clearly at variance with common lore.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Minor correction

The Role of Runoff Attenuation Features (RAFs) in Natural Flood Management

Publication history: Accepted - 18 November 2022; Published online - 23 November 2022Natural Flood Management (NFM) and catchment-based solutions for flood risk management and environmental problems are wide-ranging and complex. Management of fluvial flood risk in the UK is undergoing a fundamental shift, with a change in emphasis from solely working with structural defences to considering catchment-based measures which attenuate flood runoff. At the heart of this change are NFM and nature-based solutions. One key type of intervention is the Runoff Attenuation Feature (RAF): a class of features that targets runoff flow pathways and creates new temporary flow storage (such as ponds and leaky barriers). However, there is currently a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of NFM and RAFs at larger catchment scales and for managing extreme flood events. Nevertheless, there is a strong evidence base to suggest that well-designed RAFs deliver a range of ecosystem services if installed in the correct location. This paper reviews and critiques the role of RAFs and NFM as an interventionist and holistic approach to lowering runoff rates. The link between RAF design types and their relationship to land use and scale is made. Recent novel innovations and attempts to scale up RAFs are discussed. The role of antecedent conditions, groundwater and the change in residence time of processes is highlighted. The uncertainty and complexity of proving NFM effectiveness underpin a view that new thinking in catchment flood management is needed. New research is required, and many questions are raised about RAFs and NFM. The direction of travel is that a positive and proactive NFM community can now embrace the problem. Proof that RAFs and NFM can address flood management is not likely to be resolved without a great deal of further research but confidence that RAFs do beneficial work is growing and an argument for greater amounts of runoff attenuation is made.The Environment Agency Local Flood Levy and the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence Committee for commissioning and funding the Belford Proactive Flood Solutions project. PQ (lead author) would also like to acknowledge funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) research grant (2018-W-LS-20) and the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Sciences Analytical Services Division (JHI-D2-2). RA would like to acknowledge funding from DAERA Evidence and Innovation Grant (number 19-4-03) which contributed to this article’s preparation

Improving adherence to acute low back pain guideline recommendations with chiropractors and physiotherapists: the ALIGN cluster randomised controlled trial

Background Acute low back pain is a common condition, has high burden, and there are evidence-to-practice gaps in the chiropractic and physiotherapy setting for imaging and giving advice to stay active. The aim of this cluster randomised trial was to estimate the effects of a theory- and evidence-based implementation intervention to increase chiropractors’ and physiotherapists’ adherence to a guideline for acute low back pain compared with the comparator (passive dissemination of the guideline). In particular, the primary aim of the intervention was to reduce inappropriate imaging referral and improve patient low back pain outcomes, and to determine whether this intervention was cost-effective. Methods Physiotherapy and chiropractic practices in the state of Victoria, Australia, comprising at least one practising clinician who provided care to patients with acute low back pain, were invited to participate. Patients attending these practices were included if they had acute non-specific low back pain (duration less than 3 months), were 18 years of age or older, and were able to understand and read English. Practices were randomly assigned either to a tailored, multi-faceted intervention based on the guideline (interactive educational symposium plus academic detailing) or passive dissemination of the guideline (comparator). A statistician independent of the study team undertook stratified randomisation using computer-generated random numbers; four strata were defined by professional group and the rural or metropolitan location of the practice. Investigators not involved in intervention delivery were blinded to allocation. Primary outcomes were X-ray referral self-reported by clinicians using a checklist and patient low back pain-specific disability (at 3 months). Results A total of 104 practices (43 chiropractors, 85 physiotherapists; 755 patients) were assigned to the intervention and 106 practices (45 chiropractors, 97 physiotherapists; 603 patients) to the comparator; 449 patients were available for the patient-level primary outcome. There was no important difference in the odds of patients being referred for X-ray (adjusted (Adj) OR: 1.40; 95% CI 0.51, 3.87; Adj risk difference (RD): 0.01; 95% CI − 0.02, 0.04) or patient low back pain-specific disability (Adj mean difference: 0.37; 95% CI − 0.48, 1.21, scale 0–24). The intervention did lead to improvement for some key secondary outcomes, including giving advice to stay active (Adj OR: 1.96; 95% CI 1.20, 3.22; Adj RD: 0.10; 95% CI 0.01, 0.19) and intending to adhere to the guideline recommendations (e.g. intention to refer for X-ray: Adj OR: 0.27; 95% CI 0.17, 0.44; intention to give advice to stay active: Adj OR: 2.37; 95% CI 1.51, 3.74). Conclusions Intervention group clinicians were more likely to give advice to stay active and to intend to adhere to the guideline recommendations about X-ray referral. The intervention did not change the primary study outcomes, with no important differences in X-ray referral and patient disability between groups, implying that hypothesised reductions in health service utilisation and/or productivity gains are unlikely to offset the direct costs of the intervention. We report these results with the caveat that we enrolled less patients into the trial than our determined sample size. We cannot recommend this intervention as a cost-effective use of resources