Fatal melioidosis in a captive elephant trunk snake (Acrochordus javanicus) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An adult female Elephant Trunk Snake (Acrochordus javanicus) was reported to have been weak and inappetent for five days. The following morning the snake found dead, while in the process of shedding its skin. On post mortem examination, there were multiple circumscribed caseous nodules of various sizes distributed all over the liver, along the respiratory tract and on the lungs. Bacteriological analysis of the lungs and liver swab samples yielded Burkholderia pseudomallei, which was confirmed by PCR amplification of specific 16S rRNA. The condition was diagnosed as melioidosis and the organism was genotypically characterized as sequence type 51, a genotype that has been previously characterized in humans in Malaysia. Antibiotic susceptibility by both Disc diffusion or Kirby Bauer and E-test minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) showed that the organism exhibited susceptibility to meropenem, imipenem, ceftazidime, cotrimoxazole and co-amoxyclav; the antibiotics recommended in the treatment of melioidosis

Assessment of Selected Health Determinants among Almajiri Students in Gwadabawa Local Government, Sokoto State, Nigeria

Health determinants are factors that can influence our health either positively or negatively. This paper determined the factors that affect the health of Almajiri in their system of study in Gwadabawa local government of Sokoto state, Nigeria. Interview and visual observation were used to collect data, which was analyzed by thematic networks method. The result of this study was shown. Most (50.0%) of the Almajiri live in buildings own by school,whereas, 33.5% of them in donated buildings .There were three types of houses / classes where Almajiri live.Most (50.0%) were made of cement/modern style ,then (33.3%) the mud houses / classes, and (16.7%) were the ones from zinc .There were toilets for urination only ,no one was slated for defecation . In 75% of the schools there was no water, whereas 33.3% have water source from unprotected wells. In 33.3 % of the schools there was refuse dumps .In 33.3% there were no any source of risk. Whereas, in 16.7% there were gutters, and in 16.7% there were roads nearby. Personal hygiene was observed. 75.0% of Almajiri wore dirty garments.25.0% wore cleaned garments, 12.5% wore torn garments, and 87.5% wore untorn garments. 62.5% wore shoes and 37.5% have no shoes. 62.5% take bath weekly, 37.7% take bath daily. Interms of livelihood, most of them relied on begging for food; 25.0% do domestic work to get food and other needs. 70.0% of them eat twice in a day, 25.0% thrice, whereas, 5.0% once; in most cases. The result revealed many health determinants which can negatively affect the health of Almajiri.Keywords: health determinants, open defecation, overcrowding, begging, child labou

Coherent states for polynomial su(1,1) algebra and a conditionally solvable system

In a previous paper [{\it J. Phys. A: Math. Theor.} {\bf 40} (2007) 11105], we constructed a class of coherent states for a polynomially deformed $su(2)$ algebra. In this paper, we first prepare the discrete representations of the nonlinearly deformed $su(1,1)$ algebra. Then we extend the previous procedure to construct a discrete class of coherent states for a polynomial su(1,1) algebra which contains the Barut-Girardello set and the Perelomov set of the SU(1,1) coherent states as special cases. We also construct coherent states for the cubic algebra related to the conditionally solvable radial oscillator problem.Comment: 2 figure

Design and Characterization of an Ultrasonic Surgical Tool Using d₃₁ PMN-PT Plate

AbstractAn ultrasonic surgical tool for tissue incision and dissection has been designed and characterized. The surgical tool is based on a simple geometry to which PMN-PT d31 plates are bonded directly. The performance of the surgical tool has been defined numerically with the Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) package and practically with laser vibrometer and impedance spectroscopy. The results show the ability of FEA to accurately predict the behaviors of an ultrasonic device as numerical and practical analysis were found to be in a good agreement. The design of the tool presented has the ability to generate displacement amplitude high enough to carry out soft tissue incision with relatively low driving voltage

The Impact of Lameness on Dairy Cattle Welfare: Growing Need for Objective Methods of Detecting Lame Cows and Assessment of Associated Pain

Dairy cows are the major animals reared for milk production worldwide. Lameness is a manifestation of painful condition due to injury or disease in the foot, regarded as a major welfare problem in dairy cows. An effective lameness management requires prompt identification of lame cows. The objectives of this systematic review were to discuss the various techniques of detecting lameness, assessment of the associated pain, and the impact of lameness on dairy cow welfare. Results from the literature search yielded 534 papers, with 102 papers meeting the inclusion criteria. The eligible studies were discussed in two sections which were; (1) lameness detection systems and their application in pain assessment using four methods: gait and behavioral variables, physiological parameters, pressure nociceptive threshold and blood biomarkers; (2) impact of lameness on animal-based welfare measures. Despite the limitations in the use of automated locomotion scoring systems, results showed the technique remains a promising tool for the prompt detection of lame cows compared with manual systems (MLSS). More investigation of such systems could aid the validation of pain in cows with various degree of lameness. Further studies are required for early lameness detection and minimizing the welfare implications in dairy herds

Effect of Climate Change on Arable Crop Farmers Productivity in Ibarapa Centra Local Government Area of Oyo State Nigeria

The study was an analysis of the Effect of climate change on arable crop farmers’ productivity in ibarapa central local government of Oyo state, Nigeria.  Primary data were collected using structured interview guide, administered on 100 arable crop farmers using multistage sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and inferential (partial correlation) statistical tools. The result showed that the mean age was 47.6years while 97% were married. However 97.00% of the arable crop farmers reported to have had malaria attack occasionally within the last10 years and 83.00% in the last five years  while 64% reported malaria occurrence within the last one year.Majority (83.00%) of the respondent stated that erratic rainfall as compared to other causes  had more effect on their productivity while just a few (7.00%) of the respondent claimed that low heat was the cause of their low productivity. The hypothesis tested revealed that the socioeconomic characteristics of the arable crop farmers such as age (0.7490), sex (0.3200), household size (0.4580), income (0.5500) and educational status (0.3240) had significant positive relationship with their levels of productivity. It was recommended that the arable crop farmers should form farmers association to pool resources together to acquire irrigation gadgets so as to alleviate the problem of erratic nature of rainfall in the area and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) should be more alive to her weather forecast responsibilities in the area of using diverse languages of the people in the Nigerian agricultural zones. Keywords:Climate Change, Arable crop, Farmers, Productivity

Evolutionary algorithms for state justification in sequential automatic test pattern generation

Sequential circuit test generation using deterministic, fault-oriented algorithms is highly complex and time consuming. New approaches are needed to enhance the existing techniques, both to reduce execution time and improve fault coverage. Evolutionary algorithms have been effective in solving many search and optimization problems. A common search operation in sequential Automatic Test Pattern Generation is to justify a desired state assignment on the sequential elements. State justification using deterministic algorithms is a difficult problem and is prone to many backtracks, which can lead to high execution times. In this work, a hybrid approach which uses a combination of evolutionary and deterministic algorithms for state justification is proposed. A General Algorithm is employed, to engineer state justification sequences vector by vector. This is in contrast to previous approaches where GA is applied to the whole sequence. The proposed method is compared with previous GA-based approaches. Significant improvements have been obtained for ISCAS benchmark circuits in terms of state coverage and CPU time. Furhtermore, it is demonstrated that the state justification sequence generated, helps the ATPG in detecting a large number of hard to detect faults

Evolutionary algorithms for state justification in sequential automatic test pattern generation

Sequential circuit test generation using deterministic, fault-oriented algorithms is highly complex and time consuming. New approaches are needed to enhance the existing techniques, both to reduce execution time and improve fault coverage. Evolutionary algorithms have been effective in solving many search and optimization problems. A common search operation in sequential Automatic Test Pattern Generation is to justify a desired state assignment on the sequential elements. State justification using deterministic algorithms is a difficult problem and is prone to many backtracks, which can lead to high execution times. In this work, a hybrid approach which uses a combination of evolutionary and deterministic algorithms for state justification is proposed. A General Algorithm is employed, to engineer state justification sequences vector by vector. This is in contrast to previous approaches where GA is applied to the whole sequence. The proposed method is compared with previous GA-based approaches. Significant improvements have been obtained for ISCAS benchmark circuits in terms of state coverage and CPU time. Furhtermore, it is demonstrated that the state justification sequence generated, helps the ATPG in detecting a large number of hard to detect faults

An Iterative Heuristic for State Justi�cation in Sequential Automatic Test Pattern Generation

State justifcation is one of the most time-consuming tasks in sequential Automatic Test Pattern Generation (ATPG). For states that are difficult to justify, deterministic algorithms take significant CPU time without much success most of the time. In this work, we adopt a hybrid approach for state justification. A new method based on Genetic Algorithms is proposed, in which we engineer state justifcation sequences vector by vector. The proposed method is compared with previous GA-based approaches. Significant improvements have been obtained for ISCAS benchmark circuits in terms of state coverage and CPU time