Community-based study on knowledge, attitudes and perception of rabies in Gelephu, south-central Bhutan.

postprintCommunity knowledge, attitudes and practices are important both for prevention of human deaths due to rabies and for control of the disease in animals. This study was a cross-sectional survey investigating the level of community knowledge as well as attitudes and perceptions about rabies in Gelephu, south central Bhutan, a region endemic for rabies. A total of 615 household respondents were interviewed, of which 224 (36%) were males and 391 (64%) were females. The majority of the respondents had high level of knowledge, and attitude and perception of rabies, and has a positive attitude towards the prevention and control of rabies. Multivariable logistic regression model showed that better knowledge about rabies was predicted by gender, educational level and dog ownership status of the respondents, whilst health-seeking behaviours of animal bite injuries were predicted by dog ownership status, presence of children in the household and occupation of the respondents. The majority of the respondents believed that stray dogs are a problem in the community and felt that it was important to control the dog population in Gelephu. These findings also indicate that there exists a knowledge gap about rabies in the community that could be improved by creating an awareness education programme. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Perception, Rabies, Cross-sectional survey, Bhuta

Community-based study on knowledge, attitudes and perception of rabies in Gelephu, south-central Bhutan.

Community knowledge, attitudes and practices are important both for prevention of human deaths due to rabies and for control of the disease in animals. This study was a cross-sectional survey investigating the level of community knowledge as well as attitudes and perceptions about rabies in Gelephu, south central Bhutan, a region endemic for rabies. A total of 615 household respondents were interviewed, of which 224 (36%) were males and 391 (64%) were females. The majority of the respondents had high level of knowledge, and attitude and perception of rabies, and has a positive attitude towards the prevention and control of rabies. Multivariable logistic regression model showed that better knowledge about rabies was predicted by gender, educational level and dog ownership status of the respondents, whilst health-seeking behaviours of animal bite injuries were predicted by dog ownership status, presence of children in the household and occupation of the respondents. The majority of the respondents believed that stray dogs are a problem in the community and felt that it was important to control the dog population in Gelephu. These findings also indicate that there exists a knowledge gap about rabies in the community that could be improved by creating an awareness education programme. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Perception, Rabies, Cross-sectional survey, Bhuta

Spousal migration and human papillomavirus infection among women in rural western Nepal

In April 2014 we investigated the association of migration of a woman's husband with her high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection status and her abnormal cervical cytology status in the Achham district of rural Far-Western Nepal

Probing seed black holes using future gravitational-wave detectors

Identifying the properties of the first generation of seeds of massive black holes is key to understanding the merger history and growth of galaxies. Mergers between ~100 solar mass seed black holes generate gravitational waves in the 0.1-10Hz band that lies between the sensitivity bands of existing ground-based detectors and the planned space-based gravitational wave detector, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). However, there are proposals for more advanced detectors that will bridge this gap, including the third generation ground-based Einstein Telescope and the space-based detector DECIGO. In this paper we demonstrate that such future detectors should be able to detect gravitational waves produced by the coalescence of the first generation of light seed black-hole binaries and provide information on the evolution of structure in that era. These observations will be complementary to those that LISA will make of subsequent mergers between more massive black holes. We compute the sensitivity of various future detectors to seed black-hole mergers, and use this to explore the number and properties of the events that each detector might see in three years of observation. For this calculation, we make use of galaxy merger trees and two different seed black hole mass distributions in order to construct the astrophysical population of events. We also consider the accuracy with which networks of future ground-based detectors will be able to measure the parameters of seed black hole mergers, in particular the luminosity distance to the source. We show that distance precisions of ~30% are achievable, which should be sufficient for us to say with confidence that the sources are at high redshift.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, accepted for proceedings of 13th GWDAW meetin

Static Test on Full Scale Rammed Earth Building with Mesh-Wrap Retrofitting Strategy

This paper reports the experimental campaign for static tests performed on unreinforced (URE) and mesh retrofitted (RRE) full scale rammed earth building. Amongst varying building patterns of traditional rammed earth houses found in Bhutan, a two-storied building with a full solid wall (small openings) on the first floor and larger opening in the front facade of the second floor was chosen. The proposed mesh–wrap retrofitting of the walls involved the use of standard mild steel welded mesh as the main mesh, M–Mesh (Ø 1.8 mm and 34 mm c/c spacing) and light and galvanized welded mesh as a lapping mesh, L–Mesh (Ø 1.45 mm and 28 mm c/c spacing) provided at the corners and along the height of the walls. The static test loading protocol involved the displacement controlled loading with drift-control over the building. Cracks and damage observations were made at the storey drift ratios of: 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/750, 1/500 for URE building. The same URE building was retrofitted afterward and retested as RRE to storey drift ratios of: 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/750, 1/500, 1/250, 1/150, 1/100 and 1/75. The mesh retrofitting is found effective in both damage control as well as strength enhancement over the unreinforced one. The URE specimen showed a clear opening of shear and vertical cracks in the in-plane loaded walls near the openings and Jugshing holes. For the RRE specimen, cracks dispersed over a large region of the in–plane loaded walls. No delamination of mesh–wrap was observed, showing the effectiveness of the proposed technique. The RRE specimen showed enhancement in base shear by 2.5 times, ductility 2.3 times, and energy absorption 12 times the URE counterpart

Standard operating procedure for curation and clinical interpretation of variants in cancer

Manually curated variant knowledgebases and their associated knowledge models are serving an increasingly important role in distributing and interpreting variants in cancer. These knowledgebases vary in their level of public accessibility, and the complexity of the models used to capture clinical knowledge. CIViC (Clinical Interpretation of Variants in Cancer - www.civicdb.org) is a fully open, free-to-use cancer variant interpretation knowledgebase that incorporates highly detailed curation of evidence obtained from peer-reviewed publications and meeting abstracts, and currently holds over 6300 Evidence Items for over 2300 variants derived from over 400 genes. CIViC has seen increased adoption by, and also undertaken collaboration with, a wide range of users and organizations involved in research. To enhance CIViC\u27s clinical value, regular submission to the ClinVar database and pursuit of other regulatory approvals is necessary. For this reason, a formal peer reviewed curation guideline and discussion of the underlying principles of curation is needed. We present here the CIViC knowledge model, standard operating procedures (SOP) for variant curation, and detailed examples to support community-driven curation of cancer variants

Cell size is a determinant of stem cell potential during aging

Stem cells are remarkably small. Whether small size is important for stem cell function is unknown. We find that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) enlarge under conditions known to decrease stem cell function. This decreased fitness of large HSCs is due to reduced proliferation and was accompanied by altered metabolism. Preventing HSC enlargement or reducing large HSCs in size averts the loss of stem cell potential under conditions causing stem cell exhaustion. Last, we show that murine and human HSCs enlarge during aging. Preventing this age-dependent enlargement improves HSC function. We conclude that small cell size is important for stem cell function in vivo and propose that stem cell enlargement contributes to their functional decline during aging.Peer reviewe