Epigenetic Aging and Cognitive Health: A Pilot Study

Chronological age is the strongest risk factor for disease, disability, and death. However, same-aged individuals may be differentially at risk because chronological time is an imperfect proxy of a person’s biological age. One promising approach to quantify biological aging is epigenetic biomarkers that use DNA methylation data to derive a person’s “epigenetic age”. Older epigenetic age, above and beyond chronological age, has been associated with increased risk of premature mortality and morbidity, however, links between epigenetic and cognitive aging are less well characterized, despite the burden of cognitive decline and dementia. The proposed pilot study aims to gather preliminary data in support of an external grant application that examines the longitudinal associations between epigenetic and cognitive aging across midlife, while addressing previous limitations in measuring epigenetic and cognitive aging. This project will leverage an existing longitudinal cohort of midlife adults with two waves of data collected 10-16 years apart to test whether accelerated epigenetic aging is predictive of future cognitive decline. In order to be competitive for this larger grant, preliminary data are needed to establish whether and to what degree (1) cognitive function and (2) epigenetic age change over the length of the 10-16 year follow-up provided by this cohort, and (3) to provisionally test in a subset of participants whether changes in epigenetic age are associated with changes in cognitive function over the follow-up interval. This pilot study, designed to provide the needed preliminary data, will examine cognitive and epigenetic aging using an extreme groups approach to identify two subgroups of individuals with different cognition trajectories over 10-16 years, and will use stored blood samples to quantify DNA methylation to estimate epigenetic age. A final aim of this project is to provide a rich training experience for undergraduates by immersing them in cutting-edge, hypothesis-driven health and aging research

Colostrum provision and care of calves among smallholder farmers in the Kaziranga region of Assam, India.

Smallholder cattle farming in Assamese villages is sub-optimal in terms of calf survivability, growth, age at first service, and milk yield. Proper understanding of the local situation is essential to formulate appropriate, locally driven, livestock keeper education to sustainably improve animal health, welfare and productivity. In-depth interviewing and direct observation were used to understand the farming strategies, husbandry practices and challenges to health and productivity in a cluster of typical villages in the Kaziranga region of Assam, India, where resource use is balanced between the needs of humans and livestock, with competition from wild species. Knowledge of the importance of colostrum consumption by calves is poor. Timely consumption of sufficient colostrum (locally called "phehu") by calves was clearly sub-optimal in the majority of households. The reasons behind this are nuanced, but the practice of collecting colostrum from newly calved cows to make confectionery for human consumption is an important contributory factor. Care of the umbilicus of the newborn is not routine practice in the locality. Local women are the key group assisting with young and sick animals, including cases of simple dystocia and retained foetal membranes. Cows are usually milked once daily, to attempt to balance the needs for milk of household with those of the calf, which can result in suboptimal nutrition for calves. There are clear opportunities to improve animal health and productivity through locally provided farmer education, particularly with reference to colostrum provision, and the engagement of women farmers in any such programme is key to success

Animal health perceptions and challenges among smallholder farmers around Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India: a study using participatory epidemiological techniques.

Improvements to smallholder farming are essential to improvements in rural prosperity. Small farmers in the Kaziranga region of Assam operate mixed farming enterprises in a resource limited environment, which is subject to seasonal flooding. Participatory techniques, were used to elucidate the animal health challenges experienced in this landscape in order to inform and guide future animal health education and interventions. The flooding is essential for agricultural activities, but is a source of major losses and disruption. Farmers experience significant losses to their crops due to raiding by wild species such as elephants; predation of livestock by wild carnivores is also of concern. Access to veterinary services and medicines is limited by both financial and geographic constraints. Interviewees discussed nutritional and management issues such as poor availability of fodder and grazing land, while meeting attendees preferred to concentrate discussions on animal health issues. Livestock keepers were adept and consistent at describing disease syndromes. The key challenges identified by farmers were: foot-and-mouth disease; Newcastle disease; haemorrhagic septicaemia; chronic fasciolosis; diarrhoea; bloating diseases; goat pox; and sarcoptic mange. Improvements in the efficiency of farming in this region is a prerequisite for the local achievement of United Nations Sustainable development goals. There exist clear opportunities to increase productivity and prosperity among farmers in this region through a combination of vaccination programmes and planned animal management schemes, driven by a programme of participatory farmer education

Delivery and Evaluation of Participatory Education for Animal Keepers Led by Veterinarians and Para-Veterinarians around the Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India.

<div><p>Aim</p><p>We aim to investigate local perceptions of animal health challenges; current animal health knowledge; and methods to provide effective, relevant education to animal keepers in the Kanha Tiger Reserve area.</p><p>Materials and methods</p><p>A farmer education programme was undertaken in the Kanha Tiger Reserve area. Local animal health priorities were investigated through participatory village meetings (n = 38), individual animal keeper questionnaires (n = 100) and a written survey of local paravets (n = 16). Educational interventions were: veterinary surgeon led education meeting (VE); paravet led education meeting (PVE); distribution of printed materials (PM). 230 village meetings were carried out across 181 villages, contacting 3791 animal keepers. 20 villages received printed materials. Information was gathered on perceptions of local animal health challenges and current remedies. Efficacy of knowledge transfer was assessed four to five months later using a purposeful sample of 38 villages.</p><p>Results</p><p>Group meetings identified ticks (35/38), foot and mouth disease (FMD) (31/38) and diarrhoea (30/38) as the greatest animal health challenges. Individual interviews identified haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) (87/100), blackquarter (BQ) (66/100) and plastic ingestion (31/100). Paravets identified FMD (7/16), BQ (6/16) and HS (6/16), and also indicated that animal husbandry and socio-economic factors were important. Current treatments were primarily home remedies and herbalism, but also included contacting a paravet, use of pharmaceuticals and faith healing. Animal treatment knowledge prior to intervention was not significantly different between groups (P = 0.868). Following intervention animal health knowledge was assessed: PVE performed better than controls (P = 0.001) and PM (P = 0.003); VE performed better than controls (P = 0.009). There was no significant difference between VE and PVE (P = 0.666) nor PM and controls (P = 0.060).</p><p>Conclusions and recommendations</p><p>Open access participatory village meetings are an effective way to provide animal health education. In this region distribution of posters and leaflets did not appear to be an effective way to contact animal keepers. Meetings led by paravets can be as effective as those led by veterinarians and paravets can rapidly and sustainably contact large numbers of animal keepers. Investigation of the local animal health situation is essential to ensure education is relevant and accessible to intended recipients. Interventions must be carefully planned to maximise engagement of all sections of the community, particularly women.</p></div

Ethnographic malaria : the uses of medical knowledge in Tanzania

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Community Participation the Tanzanian Way: Conceptual Contiguity or Power Struggle?

In Tanzania, at least two contradictory meanings of participation are circulating amongst development workers. One, concerning “empowerment” and the facilitation of local decision-making, is associated with international development discourse; the other, concerning the obligation of Tanzanian citizens to contribute to the development of the nation, can be traced back to the philosophy of Julius Nyerere. This article explores these meanings through an ethnographic study of a community malaria control project in the south-west of Tanzania. The practices of Tanzanian and expatriate development workers are distanced enough for these disparate versions of participation to run together without difficulty; but, when the two versions were brought together, tensions between community and local politics resulted, as there was competition to gain control and take the credit for the commodities associated with development. Nevertheless, this fissure did not prevent the project volunteers from taking on the locally prevailing discourse of development experts, which disparages local knowledge.

Complaint in Scotland c. 1424 - c. 1500

This thesis provides the first account of complaint in Older Scots literature. It argues for the coherent development of a distinctively Scottish complaining voice across the fifteenth century, characterised by an interest in the relationship between amatory and ethical concerns, between stasis and narrative movement, and between male and female voices. Chapter 1 examines the literary contexts of Older Scots complaint, and identifies three paradigmatic texts for the Scottish complaint tradition: Ovid’s Heroides; Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae; and Alan of Lille’s De Planctu Naturae. Chapter 2 concentrates on the complaints in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden. B. 24 (c. 1489-c. 1513). It considers afresh the Scottish reception of Lydgate’s Complaint of the Black Knight and Chaucer’s Anelida and Arcite, and also offers original readings of three Scottish complaints preserved uniquely in this manuscript: the Lay of Sorrow, the Lufaris Complaynt, and the Quare of Jelusy. Chapter 3 focuses on the relationship between complaint and narrative, arguing that the complaints included in the Buik of Alexander (c. 1438), Lancelot of the Laik (c. 1460), Hary’s Wallace (c. 1476-8), and The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour (c. 1460-99) act as catalysts for narrative movement and subvert the complaint’s traditional identity as a static form. Chapter 4 is a study of complaint in Robert Henryson’s three major works: the Morall Fabillis (c. 1480s); the Testament of Cresseid (c. 1480-92); and Orpheus and Eurydice (c. 1490-2), and argues that Henryson consistently connects the complaint form with the concept of self-knowledge as part of wider discourses on effective governance. Chapter 5 presents the evidence that a text’s identity as a complaint influenced its presentation in both manuscript and print witnesses. The witnesses under discussion date predominantly from the sixteenth century; the chapter thus also uses them to explore the complaints’ later reception history.</p