Assessing cow health condition by using the recent Cowdition Smartphone App and its correlation with vital clinical parameters

Highly productive milk cows suffer from increasing loss in body condition at early lactation, and are more prone to metabolic disorders. Recent Cowdition smartphone application has the ability to determine animal health situation and it is called body condition scoring (BCS) system. It can apply adequately for proper farming and management the animal performance. BCS is also helping to assure that all stages of annual cow cycle are in a good condition. Consequently, appropriate dietary changes can be done to prevent any deficiencies and metabolic diseases. Routinely, rectal body temperature and pulsation and respiratory rates are measured as suitable vital indicators for evaluation the health of the animals and recognize the clinical abnormalities. Therefore, this study intends to correlate between the animal body condition and vital physiological parameters measurements to assess cow health. A total of 30 cows at different stages of the reproduction period, raised at different farms location in Al Muthanna Governorate/ Iraq was nominated animal material of the present study. For each cow, Bayer smartphone Application/ BCS Cowdition was used to measure the body condition, and at the same time, body temperature and pulse and respiratory rates were also measured. Scores that collected from the Cowdition application system were compared with physiological vital indicators parameters. The overall means of BCS were found as 3.9 ± 0.068 and range from 2.5 to 5 for minimum and maximum values respectively. Moreover, 63.33 % (19 out of 30) cows showed the standard BCS ranged between 3.25-3.75 and revealed typical vital clinical parameters. Also, 30% (9 out of 30) cows showed fat BCS values ranged between 4- 4.25 accompanied with variation in the vital clinical parameters that increase with high BCS values. Only 6.66% (2 out of 30) cows showed extremist BCS values which were 2.5 and 5 for poor (emaciated) and grossly fat cow respectively. Moreover, these cows showed also variations in the vital clinical parameters. In conclusion, this study represented for the first time in Iraq the adoption of smartphone BCS Cowdition system to evaluate the animal health. Besides, to understand the relationship between BCS and physiological vital clinical parameters values (body temperature, pulse and respiratory rates), to evaluate and assess the cow body health that helps in the improving of animal nutrition and avoid the metabolic diseases that commonly occur in the highly productive cow. The authors recommend another future study that uses BCS Cowdition Smartphone Appication and correlates it with the animal’s metabolic diseases

Sect and House in Syria: History, Architecture, and Bayt Amongst the Druze in Jaramana

This paper explores the connections between the architecture and materiality of houses and the social idiom of bayt (house, family). The ethnographic exploration is located in the Druze village of Jaramana, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. It traces the histories, genealogies, and politics of two families, bayt Abud-Haddad and bayt Ouward, through their houses. By exploring the two families and the architecture of their houses, this paper provides a detailed ethnographic account of historical change in modern Syria, internal diversity, and stratification within the intimate social fabric of the Druze neighbourhood at a time of war, and contributes a relational approach to the anthropological understanding of houses

Machine Learning Approach for the Early Prediction of the Risk of Overweight and Obesity in Young People

Obesity is a major global concern with more than 2.1 billion people overweight or obese worldwide which amounts to almost 30% of the global population. If the current trend continues, the overweight and obese population is likely to increase to 41% by 2030. Individuals developing signs of weight gain or obesity are also at a risk of developing serious illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, respiratory problems, heart disease and stroke. Some intervention measures such as physical activity and healthy eating can be a fundamental component to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to detect childhood obesity as early as possible. This paper utilises the vast amount of data available via UK’s millennium cohort study in order to construct a machine learning driven model to predict young people at the risk of becoming overweight or obese. The childhood BMI values from the ages 3, 5, 7 and 11 are used to predict adolescents of age 14 at the risk of becoming overweight or obese. There is an inherent imbalance in the dataset of individuals with normal BMI and the ones at risk. The results obtained are encouraging and a prediction accuracy of over 90% for the target class has been achieved. Various issues relating to data preprocessing and prediction accuracy are addressed and discussed

Structure-based design and synthesis of antiparasitic pyrrolopyrimidines targeting pteridine reductase 1

The treatment of Human African Trypanosomiasis remains a major unmet health need in sub-Saharan Africa. Approaches involving new molecular targets are important and pteridine reductase 1 (PTR1), an enzyme that reduces dihydrobiopterin in Trypanosoma spp. has been identified as a candidate target and it has been shown previously that substituted pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines are inhibitors of PTR1 from T. brucei (J. Med. Chem. 2010, 53, 221-229). In this study, 61 new pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines have been prepared, designed with input from new crystal structures of 23 of these compounds complexed with PTR1, and evaluated in screens for enzyme inhibitory activity against PTR1 and in vitro antitrypanosomal activity. 8 compounds were sufficiently active in both screens to take forward to in vivo evaluation. Thus although evidence for trypanocidal activity in a stage I disease model in mice was obtained, the compounds were too toxic to mice for further development

The randomised uterine septum transsection trial (TRUST) : Design and protocol

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sustaining effective COVID-19 control in Malaysia through large-scale vaccination

Introduction: As of 3rd June 2021, Malaysia is experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. In response, the federal government has implemented various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) under a series of Movement Control Orders and, more recently, a vaccination campaign to regain epidemic control. In this study, we assessed the potential for the vaccination campaign to control the epidemic in Malaysia and four high-burden regions of interest, under various public health response scenarios. Methods: A modified susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered compartmental model was developed that included two sequential incubation and infectious periods, with stratification by clinical state. The model was further stratified by age and incorporated population mobility to capture NPIs and micro-distancing (behaviour changes not captured through population mobility). Emerging variants of concern (VoC) were included as an additional strain competing with the existing wild-type strain. Several scenarios that included different vaccination strategies (i.e. vaccines that reduce disease severity and/or prevent infection, vaccination coverage) and mobility restrictions were implemented. Results: The national model and the regional models all fit well to notification data but underestimated ICU occupancy and deaths in recent weeks, which may be attributable to increased severity of VoC or saturation of case detection. However, the true case detection proportion showed wide credible intervals, highlighting incomplete understanding of the true epidemic size. The scenario projections suggested that under current vaccination rates complete relaxation of all NPIs would trigger a major epidemic. The results emphasise the importance of micro-distancing, maintaining mobility restrictions during vaccination roll-out and accelerating the pace of vaccination for future control. Malaysia is particularly susceptible to a major COVID-19 resurgence resulting from its limited population immunity due to the country's historical success in maintaining control throughout much of 2020

Distinct clinical and neuropathological features of G51D SNCA mutation cases compared with SNCA duplication and H50Q mutation

Background: We and others have described the neurodegenerative disorder caused by G51D SNCA mutation which shares characteristics of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). The objective of this investigation was to extend the description of the clinical and neuropathological hallmarks of G51D mutant SNCA-associated disease by the study of two additional cases from a further G51D SNCA kindred and to compare the features of this group with a SNCA duplication case and a H50Q SNCA mutation case. Results: All three G51D patients were clinically characterised by parkinsonism, dementia, visual hallucinations, autonomic dysfunction and pyramidal signs with variable age at disease onset and levodopa response. The H50Q SNCA mutation case had a clinical picture that mimicked late-onset idiopathic PD with a good and sustained levodopa response. The SNCA duplication case presented with a clinical phenotype of frontotemporal dementia with marked behavioural changes, pyramidal signs, postural hypotension and transiently levodopa responsive parkinsonism. Detailed post-mortem neuropathological analysis was performed in all cases. All three G51D cases had abundant α-synuclein pathology with characteristics of both PD and MSA. These included widespread cortical and subcortical neuronal α-synuclein inclusions together with small numbers of inclusions resembling glial cytoplasmic inclusions (GCIs) in oligodendrocytes. In contrast the H50Q and SNCA duplication cases, had α-synuclein pathology resembling idiopathic PD without GCIs. Phosphorylated α-synuclein was present in all inclusions types in G51D cases but was more restricted in SNCA duplication and H50Q mutation. Inclusions were also immunoreactive for the 5G4 antibody indicating their highly aggregated and likely fibrillar state. Conclusions: Our characterisation of the clinical and neuropathological features of the present small series of G51D SNCA mutation cases should aid the recognition of this clinico-pathological entity. The neuropathological features of these cases consistently share characteristics of PD and MSA and are distinct from PD patients carrying the H50Q or SNCA duplication

Cowries in the archaeology of West Africa: the present picture

Despite the perceived importance of cowrie shells as indicators of long-distance connections in the West African past, their distribution and consumption patterns in archaeological contexts remain surprisingly underexplored, a gap that is only partly explicable by the sparse distribution of archaeological sites within the sub-continent. General writings on the timeline of importation of cowries into West Africa often fail to take into account the latest archaeological evidence and rely instead on accounts drawn from historical or ethnographic documents. This paper is based on a first-hand assessment of over 4500 shells from 78 sites across West Africa, examining chronology, shell species and processes of modification to assess what distribution patterns can tell us about the history of importation and usage of cowries. These first-hand analyses are paralleled by a consideration of published materials. We re-examine the default assumption that two distinct routes of entry existed — one overland from North Africa before the fifteenth century, another coming into use from the time sea links were established with the East African coast and becoming predominant by the middle of the nineteenth century. We focus on the eastern part of West Africa, where the importance of imported cowries to local communities in relatively recent periods is well known and from where we have a good archaeological sample. The conclusion is that on suitably large assemblages shell size can be an indication of provenance and that, while the present archaeological picture seems largely to confirm historical sources, much of this may be due to the discrepancy in archaeological data available from the Sahara/Sahel zone compared to the more forested regions of the sub-continent. Future archaeological work will clarify this matter