Challenges in controlling viral diseases of poultry

As in many countries including Malaysia, poultry industry has become a major contributor to the country’s economy primarily due to the rapid revolutionary of the industry and advances made in poultry management, nutrition, genetics and better diagnosis and control of diseases. As the poultry industry is expanding, much is needed to be done to improve the efficiency of production, which directly depends on the control and prevention of diseases. Infectious diseases are one of the major causes of economic losses in poultry industries. In many instances, no specific signs are associated with a particular disease. Besides clinical signs and findings from post mortem examinations, diagnostic tools based on serological and molecular detection are used to confirm the causative agents. However, the identification of causative agents and the detection of specific antibody responses in relation to a clinical problem are complicated due to the concurrent infections and improper use of vaccines. Currently, the poultry industry is threatened by more virulent viruses of endemic diseases or by exotic and emerging diseases that can cause major economic losses to this sector. The emergence and re-emergence of avian influenza virus (AIV), particularly the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, the presence of endemic low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) H9N2 in poultry flock and recently the detection of novel H7H9 posed significant threat to the poultry industry and public health sector. Catastrophic diseases such as HPAI H5N1 is not easy to overlook, the real challenge is to confront H7N9, H9N2 and other LPAI which act in concert with other factors such as management, environment, nutrition and concurrent infections which form continuous threat to the entire poultry production system. The repeated outbreaks of diseases caused by variant strains of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), velogenic Newcastle disease viruses (NDV) and more virulent viruses of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) and Marek’s disease virus (MDV) in well managed poultry flocks have prompted the need to evaluate the underlying factors contributing to the failure of vaccination to provide complete protection against clinical infections and transmission of disease. Vaccination failure can be classified as primary vaccination failure where the chickens do not develop adequate antibody titer and succumbed to a field disease outbreak. However, in secondary vaccination failure, the chickens develop adequate immune response but then immunity wanes over time. In the field, vaccination failure is complex involving various factors associated with the vaccine strains and vaccination program, the virulence of field pathogens and the host immune competence. In many situations, immunosuppressive agents primarily MDV, IBDV, and chicken anemia virus play an important role in increasing the susceptibility of chickens to opportunistic infections and/or suppressing effective vaccine induced responses.There is no doubt diagnostic tools, vaccines and vaccination equipment have improved over the years. However, despite these advancements, conventional laboratory diagnosis using serological tests and conventional live and killed vaccines are used extensively in health and disease management of poultry. As the poultry industry become more intensive, accurate, economical and practical laboratory diagnostic tools are important for effective control of disease outbreaks. The advancements in the use of molecular detection method using real-time PCR approach, highly automated instruments for antibody detection and development of rapid on site antigen capture assays for virus antigen detection may have significant impact in the field of disease prevention and control. In the area of vaccinology, most of the advances in the development of the so called recombinant vaccines against poultry disease are based on the development of recombinant protein or synthetic peptide vaccines, recombinant vector vaccines using selected virus or bacteria as carriers and DNA plasmids as genetic vaccines. However, very few recombinant vaccines are available commercially. The majority of these newer vaccines are live recombinant viral vectors based on fowlpox virus and herpesvirus designed to deliver specific gene(s) to stimulate the host’ immune system. Recently, a few new live recombinant viral vector vaccines based on avian adenovirus and reverse genetic NDV and AIV are making their way in several countries. However, the use of vaccines against field viruses also contribute to the emergence of variant or more virulent viruses that are able to escape existing vaccine induced immunity as what have been reported for several RNA viruses namely AIV, IBV and IBDV. Similar phenomenon was also reported for DNA viruses such as MDV and ILT, where the use of different live attenuated ILT vaccine strains contribute to the emergence of new pathogenic ILT strain affecting poultry. It is clear that progress has been made in the control and prevention of viral diseases of poultry. However, a comprehensive approach is needed for disease control requiring consideration of the interactions between management, nutrition, poultry genetics and immune functions against infectious disease. It is envisioned that the progress in functional characterization of the chicken genome, avian transgenic technology and further improvement of poultry vaccines and therapeutics will further increase the global competitiveness of poultry industry

The effect of spouses on the mortality of older people in rural Bangladesh

This paper uses prospective data to show that older widowed and divorced individuals in rural Bangladesh have significantly higher mortality than their currently married peers. In contrast to Western societies however, women suffer more from widowhood (in terms of decreased survival) than men. This disparity can plausibly be attributed to the greater poverty associated with widowhood for women than for men. However the effect of adverse selection into widowhood on the basis of poor health for both men and women cannot be ruled out nor can the effects of adverse changes in lifestyle

Systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): from bench to bedside

AbstractPrimary liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer mortality. For patients with early resectable disease, surgical resection or transplantation is considered a potentially curative modality for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); on the other hand, for patients with unresectable or metastatic disease, treatment is essentially palliative and prior to the approval of sorafenib, there was no globally approved systemic treatment for patients presenting with unresectable or metastatic HCC. Sorafenib is the only systemic treatment to demonstrate a statistically significant but modest overall survival benefit in a large phase III trial. Thus, novel systemic approaches represent a high unmet medical need in advanced HCC. In this review article, we will try to take a journey through the history of systemic therapeutic options for HCC passing through the current standard options and exploring the potential new systemic options for this disease

Actinobacillosis of the omentum in A Cow

Satu kes actinobacillosis luar biasa menglibatkan omentum lembu dihuraikan. Walaupun pendapatan histologi lesi adalah menyerupai penyakit ini dengan tepat, bakteria penyebabnya Actinobacillus lignieresi tidak diperolehi dalam kajian kultura. Perimustahaknya penyakit ini dalam segi pemeriksaan daging praktik dibincangkan

An Investigation of Arab Students’ Motivation for Learning English

This study investigated what factors motivate L1 Arab learners of English at the University of Huddersfield, whether Arab students‘ motivation changes during their university course, and, if there is any change, how it influences students‘ second language proficiency level. In particular, this study aimed to examine the relationship between students‘ level of motivation and their proficiency level in English. In order to investigate these factors, I adopted the mixed method represented by the quantitative and qualitative research techniques which have been applied sequentially at two points (1) at the start of their English language course (2) and at the end of the course. The data were collected from Arab students enrolled on the ESUS Course, English Skills for University Study, at the International Study Centre at University of Huddersfield (N=42). The findings showed that of the multiple factors which motivate L1 Arab students to learn English, the first among them are an interest in foreign languages and instrumental motivation to find a job and pass exams. This research introduced a new definition of Integrativeness. The traditional concept of integrativeness states that the L2 student learns English because they have a positive attitude towards the native speakers or want to be a part of the native community. This was not reflected in the research as the students were learning English to become a part of the international community (whose members speak English). Students in this research were learning English to become a part of the international community whose members speak English. The data collected in this research showed that there was no correlation between students‘ L2 motivation and their proficiency level. Students‘ motivation scores at the beginning and the end of their English course were compared to their entry and final exam results and no statistically significant correlation was found. In addition, students‘ change in motivation was compared with their entry, final and change in exam performance and no statistically significant correlation was found here either. This suggests that the traditional role of L2 motivation in learning a target language has changed over the last few decades. The traditional role played by motivation in learning a second language has been minimized during the last few decades. The considerations of more important factors such as the personal differences, teaching style in schools and universities and the openness of some closed regions to the English civilization and lifestyle have limited the influence of motivation on the L2 learning process

Transforming noun phrase structure form into heuristics and rules for detecting compound noun in Malay sentence

This paper addresses the process of transforming noun phrase structure form into a list of suitable heuristic used for detecting compound noun word in Malay sentence.The heuristic is used to obtain the syntax sentence structure for finding a compound noun pair of words in Malay sentence. To obtain the list of these rules, the noun phrase structure form must be created first, so that we know the possibility of the words' combination as a compound noun.The noun phrase structure form is grouped based on three different noun categories, such as i) noun and noun ii) noun and noun modifier, and iii) noun and non-noun modifier.However, in our research work, we focus on the category of noun and noun modifier.The heuristic rules and noun phrase structure form are important to understand because they help to clarify the concept of finding compound noun pair of words in Malay sentence.This compound noun output will use an input in our next research named head modifier detector

Heuristics-based method for head and modifier detection in Malay sentences from the cultural heritage domain

The process of detection for the head and modifier in Malay sentences from the cultural heritage domain is difficult to identify. This is due to the position of head and modifier which varies in sentences depending on the sentence structures. Hence, there are different point of views about the theory and concept of detection for the head and modifier in a compound noun that have been discussed by language experts. Additionally, the existing research is also limited especially in the areas of computational linguistics. Therefore, research should be conducted to identify appropriate methods especially used in the detection of head and modifier which appear in Malay setences from the cultural heritage domain. The aim of this study is to construct a list of heuristic rules to be used for detecting the position of compound nouns in Malay sentences from cultural heritage domain. By using 15 rules, the position of head and modifier that exist in a compound noun can also be detected. These rules are called heuristic rules. The purpose of formulating these 15 rules is to detect the head and modifier that exist in the Malay sentences from the cultural heritage domain. To measure the accuracy of the results, precision, recall and F1-score values are used. Based on the results of the experiments, Sentence Structure of Malay Cultural Heritage Domain (SADWBM) have an F1-score of 80.4% compared to Noun Phrase Structure (SFN) which is 56%. Consequently, SADWBM shows better scores compared to SFN. Therefore it is clear that the approach used in this study is effective in resolving the identified problems

An ecotoxicological approach to microplastics on terrestrial and aquatic organisms: A systematic review in assessment, monitoring and biological impact

Marine and land plastic debris biodegrades at micro- and nanoscales through progressive fragmentation. Oceanographic model studies confirm the presence of up to ~2.41 million tons of microplastics across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian subtropical gyres. Microplastics distribute from primary (e.g., exfoliating cleansers) and secondary (e.g., chemical deterioration) sources in the environment. This anthropogenic phenomenon poses a threat to the flora and fauna of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as ingestion and entanglement cases increase over time. This review focuses on the impact of microplastics across taxa at suggested environmentally relevant concentrations, and advances the groundwork for future ecotoxicological-based research on microplastics including the main points: (i) adhesion of chemical pollutants (e.g., PCBs); (ii) biological effects (e.g., bioaccumulation, biomagnification, biotransportation) in terrestrial and aquatic organisms; (iii) physico-chemical properties (e.g., polybrominated diphenyl ethers) and biodegradation pathways in the environment (e.g., chemical stress, heat stress); and (iv) an ecotoxicological prospect for optimized impact assessments

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN PRE-SCHOOL AGE

This paper presents a study investigating the use of digital technology - tablets and mobile phones by six pre-school children in Požega, Croatia and the way this technology facilitated the English language learning process through its content. The children involved were two boys and four girls aged between four to five. The paper’s introduction reflects on today’s widespread use of digital technology amongst the young learners. The study itself was conducted using two quantitative research methods – contextual interviews with the pre-school children and interviews with the children’s parents. The study findings indicated that the children preferred multimodal content such as cartoons and video games with colourful themes or characters, that prompt or ask questions, i.e. encourage participation. A strong preference for English speakers changing pitch and tone within the content was also indicated in the findings. The findings pointed to children’s preference towards music videos – nursery rhymes teaching letters, numbers or colours. Finally, gaming videos and tutorials were a common choice of content for all six children, where they were mostly exposed to visual and aural prompts. In conclusion, the children independently selected multimodal content: cartoons, videos games, tutorials, gaming videos and nursery rhymes which all shared visual, aural, linguistic and spatial modes of communication. The research provided a valuable insight into the type of digital content that pre-school children opt for in non-educational environment and how they acquire basic communication skills in English as a result