Students’ perceptions towards tourism education and careers after the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa

The changing career environment in tourism following COVID-19 has piqued the interest of scholars who are curious as to whether such changes have altered perceptions of tourism careers. This study examined undergraduate students' perceptions towards tourism education, careers and the tourism and hospitality industry prospects following COVID-19 in the Sub-Saharan region using a case study of Malawi. The study is guided by the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and employed qualitative research methods. The findings revealed that the majority of students had favourable views of tourism careers as a result of their optimism regarding tourism recovery. Those who had lost faith in tourism and its careers expressed reservations about countries' economic ability to implement tourism recovery strategies. The study suggests career guidance and counselling, as well as increasing student awareness of government tourism recovery measures and recovery success stories across industry subsectors, as means of restoring student confidence in tourism and tourism-related careers.http://www.ajhtl.comam2023Marketing Managemen

Birthing practices of traditional birth attendants in South Asia in the context of training programmes

Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) training has been an important component of public health policy interventions to improve maternal and child health in developing countries since the 1970s. More recently, since the 1990s, the TBA training strategy has been increasingly seen as irrelevant, ineffective or, on the whole, a failure due to evidence that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in developing countries had not reduced. Although, worldwide data show that, by choice or out of necessity, 47 percent of births in the developing world are assisted by TBAs and/or family members, funding for TBA training has been reduced and moved to providing skilled birth attendants for all births. Any shift in policy needs to be supported by appropriate evidence on TBA roles in providing maternal and infant health care service and effectiveness of the training programmes. This article reviews literature on the characteristics and role of TBAs in South Asia with an emphasis on India. The aim was to assess the contribution of TBAs in providing maternal and infant health care service at different stages of pregnancy and after-delivery and birthing practices adopted in home births. The review of role revealed that apart from TBAs, there are various other people in the community also involved in making decisions about the welfare and health of the birthing mother and new born baby. However, TBAs have changing, localised but nonetheless significant roles in delivery, postnatal and infant care in India. Certain traditional birthing practices such as bathing babies immediately after birth, not weighing babies after birth and not feeding with colostrum are adopted in home births as well as health institutions in India. There is therefore a thin precarious balance between the application of biomedical and traditional knowledge. Customary rituals and perceptions essentially affect practices in home and institutional births and hence training of TBAs need to be implemented in conjunction with community awareness programmes

Bianchi Type V Viscous Fluid Cosmological Models in Presence of Decaying Vacuum Energy

Bianchi type V viscous fluid cosmological model for barotropic fluid distribution with varying cosmological term $\Lambda$ is investigated. We have examined a cosmological scenario proposing a variation law for Hubble parameter $H$ in the background of homogeneous, anisotropic Bianchi type V space-time. The model isotropizes asymptotically and the presence of shear viscosity accelerates the isotropization. The model describes a unified expansion history of the universe indicating initial decelerating expansion and late time accelerating phase. Cosmological consequences of the model are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

An international effort towards developing standards for best practices in analysis, interpretation and reporting of clinical genome sequencing results in the CLARITY Challenge

There is tremendous potential for genome sequencing to improve clinical diagnosis and care once it becomes routinely accessible, but this will require formalizing research methods into clinical best practices in the areas of sequence data generation, analysis, interpretation and reporting. The CLARITY Challenge was designed to spur convergence in methods for diagnosing genetic disease starting from clinical case history and genome sequencing data. DNA samples were obtained from three families with heritable genetic disorders and genomic sequence data were donated by sequencing platform vendors. The challenge was to analyze and interpret these data with the goals of identifying disease-causing variants and reporting the findings in a clinically useful format. Participating contestant groups were solicited broadly, and an independent panel of judges evaluated their performance. RESULTS: A total of 30 international groups were engaged. The entries reveal a general convergence of practices on most elements of the analysis and interpretation process. However, even given this commonality of approach, only two groups identified the consensus candidate variants in all disease cases, demonstrating a need for consistent fine-tuning of the generally accepted methods. There was greater diversity of the final clinical report content and in the patient consenting process, demonstrating that these areas require additional exploration and standardization. CONCLUSIONS: The CLARITY Challenge provides a comprehensive assessment of current practices for using genome sequencing to diagnose and report genetic diseases. There is remarkable convergence in bioinformatic techniques, but medical interpretation and reporting are areas that require further development by many groups

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010–19: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

BACKGROUND: Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. METHODS: The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk–outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. FINDINGS: Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4·45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4·01–4·94) deaths and 105 million (95·0–116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44·4% (41·3–48·4) of all cancer deaths and 42·0% (39·1–45·6) of all DALYs. There were 2·88 million (2·60–3·18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50·6% [47·8–54·1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1·58 million (1·36–1·84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36·3% [32·5–41·3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20·4% (12·6–28·4) and DALYs by 16·8% (8·8–25·0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34·7% [27·9–42·8] and 33·3% [25·8–42·0]). INTERPRETATION: The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden

Observing islet function and islet-immune cell interactions in live pancreatic tissue slices.

Live pancreatic tissue slices allow for the study of islet physiology and function in the context of an intact islet microenvironment. Slices are prepared from live human and mouse pancreatic tissue embedded in agarose and cut using a vibratome. This method allows for the tissue to maintain viability and function in addition to preserving underlying pathologies such as type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). The slice method enables new directions in the study of the pancreas through the maintenance of the complex structures and various intercellular interactions that comprise the endocrine and exocrine tissues of the pancreas. This protocol demonstrates how to perform staining and time-lapse microscopy of live endogenous immune cells within pancreatic slices along with assessments of islet physiology. Further, this approach can be refined to discern immune cell populations specific for islet cell antigens using major histocompatibility complex-multimer reagents

Nuclear cosmochronometer for supernova neutrino process

Short-lived radioisotopes with half-lives of 0.1-10 Myr are known as nuclear cosmochronometers to evaluate the passing time from a nucleosynthesis event such as s-process in an AGB star or r-process to the solar system formation (SSF). Neutron rich short-lived radioisotopes such as 129I and 244Pu, which were predominantly produced by the r process, have been studied in order to evaluate the age of the last supernova (SN) around the solar system. However, the recent studies show neutron star mergers are a candidate for the r process. Thus, there is no robust cosmic clock for the last SN before the SSF.We focus our attention on neutron-deficient short-lived radioisotopes, in particular, which may be produced by neutrino-process. This is because the neutrino process can occur only in core-collapse SNe. In an early phase, a huge number of neutrinos are emitted from a proto neutron star formed in the center of a massive star. Some neutrinos interact with preexisting isotopes and thereby produce rare neutron deficient isotopes such as 138 La, and 180Ta as well as 7Li and 11B.There are five neutrino-deficient short-lived isotopes of 53Mn, 92Nb, 97Tc, 98Tc, 146Sm. We have proposed the neutrino-process origin for unstable isotopes for 92Nb (T1/2=35 Myr) and 98Tc (T1/2=4.2 Myr). We have calculated neutrino-induced reaction cross section involved using the QRPA model and statistical model. We have calculated the neutrino-isotope abundances in SNe using SN models. In the case of 92Nb, its initial abundance at SSF could be reproduced by the later input model. It is found that it is possible to explain the origin of 92Nb by the SN neutrino process. In contrast, for 98Tc, the upper limit for the initial abundance was reported. The calculated result is consistent with the observed upper limit. We discuss possible age for the last SN for various neutrino process chronometers.The 15th International Symposium on Origin of Matter and Evolution of Galaxie