The Impact of Treatment of Organic Manures on Future Soil Carbon Sequestration Under Different Tillage Systems in Pakistan

Funds provided by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for carrying out this Ph.D. research work under “Indigenous 5000 Fellowship Program” and “International Research Support Initiative Program” are highly acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Imagined Child

This PhD comprises a work of fiction and a dissertation, both of which explore childhood, children and parenthood. The Imagined Child, the novel, closely examines the nature of parenthood, the expectations inherent in the parent-child relationship, and the responsibilities that society imposes on parents. It explores the strains of guilt and blame that surround all primary relationships: every child is damaged in some way – through nature and nurture. How they deal with that damage determines the kinds of adults – and ultimately the kinds of parents – they become. The dissertation approaches childhood as a literary device. It explores the ways in which four novelists from different historical periods have characterised and thematised childhood. It presents ‘childhood’ as a social construct and considers the ways in which childhood and parenting have changed in recent, Western history. It then focuses on the research into and literary representations of children in Africa to explore the versions of childhood inherited by African, and particularly South African, children and how this differs from American or European models. Textual analysis was employed to examine the representation of childhood in four texts: Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield (1850), L.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between (1953), Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), and Michiel Heyns’s The Children’s Day (2002). An examination of research and literature shows a very different trajectory for childhood in Africa than in Europe, and reveals that childhood on the continent has never been consistent, in life or literature. There is, in other words, no universal “African childhood”. The literary children of South Africa are examined not only to show how differently childhood is experienced in diverse segments of society, but also to measure the temperature of the times. The differing versions of literary childhood, and their varying treatments, provide a gauge for the zeitgeist in South African society from the 1990s. The dissertation argues that an examination of literary children provides insight into the development of a new democracy. The dissertation and the novel, taken together, suggest that through the real and imagined children of literature can be gained a sense of ourselves

Insights into Diversity in the Environmental Health Science Workforce

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 LicenseEnvironmental Health Science (EHS) professionals protect the public from environmental threats by conducting risk assessments and recommending preventative measures based on scientific findings. The EHS field itself is diverse in scientific areas (eg, air quality, water quality, food safety, healthy homes, preparedness, climate change, vectors/pests, tracking/informatics, occupational health, industrial hygiene) studied and evaluated by researchers and practitioners (https://www.neha.org/eh-topics). Scientific findings discovered in the EHS field help health leaders analyze and develop policies to protect health based on practical knowledge.1 Diversity is currently a wide-ranging societal topic, and this issue impacts the EH field. Many aspects related to diversity in EH involve the communities affected by environmental exposures and the EHS workforce serving these communities.OA publication support through Carolina Consortium agreement with Sag

Potential for sublethal insecticide exposure to impact vector competence of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) for dengue and Zika viruses

Presented for World Environmental Health Day, September 26, 2016 in Greenville, North Carolina.Dengue and Zika viruses (DENV and ZIKV, Family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus) are arboviruses that cause human epidemics. Due to lack of vaccines for many mosquito borne diseases, there is a need for mosquito control. In the United States and other regions, residual barrier insecticide sprays applied to foliage where female mosquitoes rest and/or sugar feed between blood meals are an important control method for anthropogenic day-active mosquitoes such as Aedes albopictus (vector of DENV and ZIKV). These mosquitoes are difficult to control using traditional sprays applied only at dusk or dawn when these mosquitoes are not active. In this exploratory study, we analyzed the extent to which ingestion of a sublethal dose of the active ingredient bifenthrin affected vector competence (i.e. infection, dissemination, and transmission) of Ae. albopictus for DENV and ZIKV

Evaluation of Barrier Sprays in Eastern North Carolina

Presented for World Environmental Health Day, September 26, 2016 in Greenville, North Carolina.Suspend® Polyzone® (deltamethrin) and Bifen Insecticide/Termiticide (bifenthrin) were evaluated in two eastern North Carolina neighborhoods from May 18 – Oct 19, 2015 (23 weeks). Lots were sprayed every 21 days. At 17 fixed locations (13 treatment, four control), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) CO2-baited traps were deployed overnight, once/week. Oviposition traps were also deployed weekly and remained for seven days to measure Aedes albopictus abundance. Mosquitoes were identified to species and tabulated by location and week. Adult and egg abundance was generally significantly higher in control versus treatment traps. The abundance of Psorophora columbiae and Ae. vexans was significantly higher in control versus treatment traps. Bifenthrin and deltamethrin showed differences in efficacy (e.g. Ae. vexans, An. punctipennis, and Ps. ferox abundance was higher in bifenthrin traps compared to deltamethrin and control traps), but this varied across neighborhoods and species.This study was funded by Bayer Crop Science and The Mosquito Authorit

Estimating the effect of nitrogen fertilizer on the greenhouse gas balance of soils in Wales under current and future climate

This work was supported by a Grant from the Welsh Government (Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Project—GMEP).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Development and Evaluation of Cognitive Analytic Guided Self-Help (CAT-SH) for Use in IAPT Services.

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of treatment plurality at step 2 of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services. This project therefore sought to develop and pilot a cognitive analytic informed guided self-help treatment for mild-to-moderate anxiety for delivery by Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs). METHOD: Medical Research Council treatment development guidelines were used. Phase I included development of the six-session treatment manual using practice guidelines, small-scale modelling (n = 3) and indicated manual iterations. Phase II consisted of a mixed methods case series design (n = 11) to index feasibility, uptake and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Cognitive analytic guided self-help (CAT-SH) met established quality parameters for guided self-help. A high treatment completion rate was observed, with 10/11 patients who attended the first treatment session subsequently completing full treatment. Six out of ten patients completing full treatment met reliable recovery criteria at follow-up. Effect sizes and recovery rates equate with extant PWP outcome benchmarks. Practitioner feedback indicated that delivery of CAT-SH was feasible. CONCLUSION: CAT-SH shows promise as a low-intensity treatment for anxiety, and so further, larger and more controlled evaluations are indicated

Current Status of Mosquito Control Programs in North Carolina: The Need for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

2013 Online Presentations RCA

Decision-making about HPV vaccination in parents of boys and girls:A population-based survey in England and Wales

BACKGROUND School-based HPV vaccination in the UK will soon be extended to boys. Based on other countries’ experience, uptake may initially be lower in boys than girls. We assessed HPV vaccine attitudes and decision-making in parents of boys and girls, to explore sex differences and inform public health messages. METHODS We carried out a cross-sectional population-based survey using home-based interviews in spring 2019. Participants were adults in England and Wales, with a child in school years 5–7 (aged 9–12 and eligible for HPV vaccination within 3 years). Measures included awareness of HPV and the vaccine, demographic factors, previous vaccine refusal and (after exposure to brief information) whether participants would allow their child to have the HPV vaccine (decided to vaccinate; decided not to vaccinate; undecided). We also assessed vaccine attitudes. Data were weighted to adjust for non-response. Multinomial logistic regression was used to explore predictors of deciding to (or not to) vaccinate compared with being undecided. RESULTS Among 1049 parents (weighted n = 1156), 55% were aware of HPV and the girls’ vaccination programme, but only 23% had heard of plans to vaccinate boys. After information exposure, 62% said they would vaccinate their child, 10% would not, and 28% were undecided. Parents of girls were more willing to vaccinate than parents of boys (adjusted odds ratio: 1.80 (1.32–2.45)). Positive attitudes and HPV/vaccine awareness were significantly independently associated with deciding to vaccinate. Previous vaccine refusal for a child was the strongest predictor of not wanting the HPV vaccine. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest a need for public health campaigns to raise awareness of plans to extend HPV vaccination to boys. Reassuringly only 10% of all parents were unwilling to vaccinate and our data suggest further information, including about safety and efficacy, may be important in supporting undecided parents to make the decision to vaccinate