Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Reduced boron diffusion under interstitial injection in fluorine implanted silicon

Point defect injection studies are performed to investigate how fluorine implantation influences the diffusion of boron marker layers in both the vacancy-rich and interstitial-rich regions of the fluorine damage profile. A 185 keV, 2.3?1015 cm?2 F+ implant is made into silicon samples containing multiple boron marker layers and rapid thermal annealing is performed at 1000 °C for times of 15–120 s. The boron and fluorine profiles are characterized by secondary ion mass spectroscopy and the defect structures by transmission electron microscopy ?TEM?. Fluorine implanted samples surprisingly show less boron diffusion under interstitial injection than those under inert anneal. This effect is particularly noticeable for boron marker layers located in the interstitial-rich region of the fluorine damage profile and for short anneal times (15 s). TEM images show a band of dislocation loops around the range of the fluorine implant and the density of dislocation loops is lower under interstitial injection than under inert anneal. It is proposed that interstitial injection accelerates the evolution of interstitial defects into dislocation loops, thereby giving transient enhanced boron diffusion over a shorter period of time. The effect of the fluorine implant on boron diffusion is found to be the opposite for boron marker layers in the interstitial-rich and vacancy-rich regions of the fluorine damage profile. For marker layers in the interstitial-rich region of the fluorine damage profile, the boron diffusion coefficient decreases with anneal time, as is typically seen for transient enhanced diffusion. The boron diffusion under interstitial injection is enhanced by the fluorine implant at short anneal times but suppressed at longer anneal times. It is proposed that this behavior is due to trapping of interstitials at the dislocation loops introduced by the fluorine implant. For boron marker layers in the vacancy-rich region of the fluorine damage profile, suppression of boron diffusion is seen for short anneals and then increased diffusion after a critical time, which is longer for inert anneal than interstitial injection. This behavior is explained by the annealing of vacancy-fluorine clusters, which anneal quicker under interstitial injection because the injected interstitials annihilate vacancies in the clusters

Виготовлення та характеристика поліанілінових нановолоконних плівок різними методиками

У роботі поліанілінові нановолокна (PAni NFs) були успішно синтезовані методом хімічного окислення та гідротермальним методом. Були досліджені структурні, поверхневі морфологічні, оптичні та електричні властивості плівок PAni NFs, нанесених методом центрифугування. Результати XRD показали, що плівки PAni мають кристалічну природу. Середні розміри кристалітів складали 7,5 та 9,9 нм для плівок PAni, отриманих відповідно гідротермальним та хімічним методами. FESEM зображення PAni чітко вказували на те, що він має структуру, подібну до нановолокон. Наявність характерних функціональних груп у спектрі FTIR підтвердила утворення PAni. Оптична характеристика показала, що в забороненій зоні допускається прямий електронний перехід. Значення ширини забороненої зони для PAni NFs становлять відповідно 2,46 еВ та 2,63 еВ при гідротермальному та хімічному методах окислення. Поглинання швидко зменшується при коротких довжинах хвиль, що відповідають ширині забороненої зони плівки. Електричні властивості змінного струму показали, що PAni NFs, приготовлені хімічним методом, мають більш високу провідність змінного струму, ніж ті, що готуються гідротермальним методом, тоді як ємність плівок зменшується при збільшенні частоти. Значення показника частоти (s) досліджуваних тонких плівок лежать відповідно між 1,15 та 0,16 при гідротермальному та хімічному методах окислення. Виявилося, що метод приготування плівок впливає на діелектричну константу (ε1) та діелектричні втрати (ε2).In this paper, the polyaniline nanofibers (PAni NFs) were successfully synthesized by chemical oxidation and hydrothermal methods. The structural, surface morphological, optical, and electrical properties were investigated for PAni NFs films deposited by spin coating technique. The XRD results showed that PAni films have crystalline nature. The average crystallite sizes were 7.5 and 9.9 nm for PAni prepared by hydrothermal and chemical methods, respectively. The FESEM images of PAni clearly indicated that it has nanofiber like structure. The presence of characteristic functional groups in FTIR spectrum confirmed the formation of PAni. Optical characterization showed that the direct electronic transition is allowed in the energy gap. The values of energy gap for PAni NFs are 2.46 eV and 2.63 eV at hydrothermal and chemical oxidation methods, respectively. The absorbance decreases rapidly at short wavelengths corresponding to the energy gap of the film. AC electrical properties showed that the PAni NFs prepared by chemical method have higher AC conductivity than those prepared by hydrothermal method, whereas the capacitance decreases when frequency increases. The values of frequency exponent (s) of the investigated thin films lie between 1.15 and 0.16 at hydrothermal and chemical oxidation methods, respectively. The dielectric constant (ε1) and dielectric loss (ε2) were found to be influenced by preparation method

Understanding the social drivers of antibiotic use during COVID-19 in Bangladesh: Implications for reduction of antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health crisis that is now impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Little is known how COVID-19 risks influence people to consume antibiotics, particularly in contexts like Bangladesh where these pharmaceuticals can be purchased without a prescription. This paper identifies the social drivers of antibiotics use among home-based patients who have tested positive with SARS-CoV-2 or have COVID-19-like symptoms. Using qualitative telephone interviews, the research was conducted in two Bangladesh cities with 40 participants who reported that they had tested positive for coronavirus (n = 20) or had COVID-19-like symptoms (n = 20). Our analysis identified five themes in antibiotic use narratives: antibiotics as ‘big’ medicine; managing anxiety; dealing with social repercussions of COVID-19 infection; lack of access to COVID-19 testing and healthcare services; and informal sources of treatment advice. Antibiotics were seen to solve physical and social aspects of COVID-19 infection, with urgent ramifications for AMR in Bangladesh and more general implications for global efforts to mitigate AMR