Passive maternal antibody transfer to eggs and larvae of tiger grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus)

The immune response of Tiger grouper (E. fuscoguttatus) broodstocks and its passive transfer of maternal antibodies to eggs and larvae were evaluated following vaccination with an inactivated V.harveyi. Tiger grouper broodstock (mean BW 8.66 ± 0.09 kg, n=19) were vaccinated intraperitoneally (IP) and followed by a booster two weeks post vaccination, while Controlled Non-vaccinated (CG) broodstock were IP injected with PBS. The serum antibody level against V.harveyi was monitored for two weeks on post-vaccination and monthly up to 5 months post-vaccination. This study showed that the Vaccinated Group (VG) broodstock induced significantly (P<0.05) higher in specific IgM antibody level against V.harveyi as compared to the CG, which in turn induced a marked increased (P<0.05) in specific IgM in eggs and larvae produced from VG broodstock at 14 weeks post vaccination. The findings from this study suggested that inactivated V.harveyi vaccines were able to stimulate the immune response in broodstock and passively transferred the maternal antibody to their eggs and larvae

Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh’s Media

Muslims have been the primary targets of Daesh’s attacks since 2014 in different countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. These attacks were based on its takfiri ideology. As Daesh official media and documents indicate, kufr (unbelief, infidelity) in Daesh’s approach is not limited to non-Muslims (original disbelievers), but Muslims are the most significant parts of kuffar (unbelievers) in its view and defined as incidental disbelievers. Through studying Daesh’s official documents and various Arabic, English, and Persian media productions, in an explanatory research, this article attempts to display Daesh’s takfiri approach toward Muslims and explains its historical and ideological roots, difference with Al-Qaeda’s takfiri approach, different approaches to takfir inside Daesh, main targets of Daesh’s takfir, and the reasons behinds its takfiri view. This article displays that for Daesh, the Muslims are limited only to Sunni Muslims who are accepting and following its approach. Other Sunni and non-Sunni Muslims are thus kuffar. This study also shows that the assertion of takfir has become a method for Daesh to discredit its opponents, such as Shi’a Muslims and other Muslim groups

The First Outbreak of Autochthonous Zika Virus in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo.

Background: Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is a public health concern. The first ZIKV outside Africa was detected in mosquito in Malaysia. More than six decades ago, serological surveys indicated the presence of human infection with ZIKV in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah. It has also been demonstrated that orangutans in Sabah have antibodies against ZIKV. Several years ago, a case of human ZIKV infection was reported in a traveler who visited Sabah. Therefore, it is thought that ZIKV is endogenous to Sabah and is widely distributed. During the recent global epidemic of ZIKV, the first autochthonous case and two subsequent autochthonous cases were detected in Sabah. Because ZIKV infection is mainly asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, the extent of ZIKV infection in the population of Sabah is not known. Furthermore, the presence of ZIKV in vector mosquitoes and animals has not been investigated. Therefore, the present study was performed to analyze the outbreak cases of ZIKV infection and to determine their relationship with the burden of ZIKV infection in the local population, mosquitoes, and wild nonhuman primates in Sabah. Methods: Serum and urine samples were collected from two local patients with ZIKV infection, their household members, and those who resided within 400m of the patients’ residences. Serum samples were also collected from four wild Maca fascicularis. Mosquito samples, mostly female Aedes albopictus, were collected from 30 sites in Kota Kinabalu. The presence of ZIKV was assessed by RT-qPCR and RT-PCR. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using the neighbor-joining method. Results: Two cases of ZIKV infection were identified by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in residents of Kota Kinabalu, and the Taiwanese health authorities reported one case in an individual who visited Kota Kinabalu during the study period. All household members of both local patients and people living within a 400 m radius of the patients were negative for ZIKV. Furthermore, mosquitoes collected from the surroundings of the residences and places visited by the patients and four serum samples from M. fascicularis were also negative for ZIKV. A phylogenetic tree constructed using the nucleotide sequences of the envelope genes of ZIKV showed that the strains from Sabah formed a cluster with strains from Thailand and Cambodia, and belong to the Asian lineage. Conclusions: Our study revealed that ZIKVs in Sabah is of Asian lineage and are not related to the recent outbreak strains in the Americas and Singapore. ZIKV infection in Sabah is sporadic, possibly because of limited transmission of the virus. Further studies are needed to characterize the evolutionary history of ZIKV in Sabah to understand the epidemiology of this infection in Borneo

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

Qaḍiyyatul Waṭān fī Dīwāni “at-Tajawwāl fī al-Mawāni-i al-Ba’īdah” li ‘Ārif Khuḍairī wa Dīwāni “Damai dalam Sentuhan” li Syukrī Zain (Dirāsah Tahlīliyyah Muqāranah)

AbstractThis article tries to compare the issue of homeland in these two collection of poems entitled “at-tajawwal fī al-mawāni-i al-ba’īdah” by the Egyptian poet ‘Arif Khudairiy and “Damai dalam Sentuhan” by Syukri Zeyn from Brunei Darussalam. Those two poets chosen for comparative study in this research, because their impressions such as the extensive cultural experience of ‘Arif Khudairiy in the Malay countries as Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia, that we will see how Malay environment affected his poetic work. For the Syukri Zeyn as the pioneer of modern Islamic poetry in Brunei Darussalam he has Arabic language culture as he graduated from Al-Azhar University. However, the important reason is a close relationship between those two poets. In this comparison, we have relied on comparative descriptive analytical methodology. The methodology covers clarifying the issue of homeland in Arabic and Malay poetry, describing the information about those two poets and their collection of poems and analyzing the issue of homeland according to the poets followed by highlighting the similarities and differences in their discussion of the issue of homeland. The result is that there are similarities between the poets in several aspects, such as: the ease of language used, the use of symbols and rhetorical images and some locations where the poets wrote their poems. Then, the differences which can be seen in those two poets are the purpose of poems, the language fluency, and the number of stanzas and lines of poems.Keywords: The issue, Homeland, Poems, The Lines of Poem, Comparative. قضية الوطن في ديوان "التجوال في الموانئ البعيدة" لعارف خضيريوديوان "دامي دالم سنتوهن" لشكري زين(دراسة تحليلية مقارنة) بقلم: رحمة بنت أحمد الحاج عثمانالجامعة اﻹسلامية العالمية ماليزيا[email protected]ورفيدة بنت الحاج عبد اللهالجامعة السلطان الشريف علي برونايمُلخَّص تُقارن المقالة بين قضية الوطن في الديوانين؛ ديوان "التجوال في الموانئ البعيدة" للشاعر المصري عارف خضيري، وديوان "دامي دالم سنتوهن" للشاعر الملايوي البروناوي شكري زين, وقد اخترا الشاعرين لدراستهما دراسة مقارنة لأن لعارف خضيري خبرة ثقافية واسعة في بلاد الملايو من مثل بروناي دار السلام وماليزيا، لذا سنرى مدى تأثره بالبيئة الملايوية في عمله الشعري, أما شكري زين فيُعدُّ رائد الشعر الإسلامي الحديث في بروناي دار السلام، وله ثقافة لغوية عربية إذ تخرج من جامعة الأزهر, ومن ثم هناك علاقة وثيقة بين الشاعرين المذكورين, وقد اعتمدنا في هذه المقارنة على المنهج الوصفي التحليلي المقارن، ففي البداية توضيح قضية الوطن في الشعر العربي والملايوي، ثم التعريف بالشاعرين وديوانيهما, ثم تحليل قضية الوطن عند الشاعرين، وإبراز التشابه والاختلاف في مناقشتهما قضية الوطن, والنتيجة أن التشابه بين الشاعرين في عدة أمور, منها: سهولة اللغة المستخدمة، واستخدام الرموز والصور البلاغية، وبعض الأماكن التي كتب فيها الشاعران قصائدهما, أما الاختلاف فنراه في أغراض القصائد، واستخدام اللغة الفصيحة، وعدد المقاطع والسطور القصائد.الكلمة الرئيسية: القضية، الوطن، الشعر، القصيدة، المقارنة