IntroductionUndernutrition is an underlying cause of mortality in children under five (CU5) years of age. Animal-source foods have been shown to decrease malnutrition in CU5. Livestock are important ...reservoirs for Campylobacter bacteria, which are recognised as risk factors for child malnutrition. Increasing livestock production may be beneficial for improving nutrition of children but these benefits may be negated by increased exposure to Campylobacter and research is needed to evaluate the complex pathways of Campylobacter exposure and infection applicable to low-income and middle-income countries. We aim to identify reservoirs of infection with Campylobacter spp. of infants in rural Eastern Ethiopia and evaluate interactions with child health (environmental enteric dysfunction and stunting) in the context of their sociodemographic environment.Methods and analysisThis longitudinal study involves 115 infants who are followed from birth to 12 months of age and are selected randomly from 10 kebeles of Haramaya woreda, East Hararghe zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Questionnaire-based information is obtained on demographics, livelihoods, wealth, health, nutrition and women empowerment; animal ownership/management and diseases; and water, sanitation and hygiene. Faecal samples are collected from infants, mothers, siblings and livestock, drinking water and soil. These samples are analysed by a range of phenotypic and genotypic microbiological methods to characterise the genetic structure of the Campylobacter population in each of these reservoirs, which will support inference about the main sources of exposure for infants.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was obtained from the University of Florida Internal Review Board (IRB201903141), the Haramaya University Institutional Health Research Ethics Committee (COHMS/1010/3796/20) and the Ethiopia National Research Ethics Review Committee (SM/14.1/1059/20). Written informed consent is obtained from all participating households. Research findings will be disseminated to stakeholders through conferences and peer-reviewed journals and through the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems.
The state of Florida reports a high burden of non-typhoidal
with approximately two times higher than the national incidence. We retrospectively analyzed the population structure and molecular ...epidemiology of 1,709 clinical isolates from 2017 and 2018. We found 115 different serotypes. Rarefaction suggested that the serotype richness did not differ between children under 2 years of age and older children and adults and, there are ~22 well-characterized dominant serotypes. There were distinct differences in dominant serotypes between Florida and the USA as a whole, even though
. Enteritidis and
. Newport were the dominant serotypes in Florida and nationally.
. Javiana,
. Sandiego, and
. IV 50:z4, z23:- occurred more frequently in Florida than nationally. Legacy Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST) was of limited use for differentiating clinical
isolates beyond the serotype level. We utilized core genome MLST (cgMLST) hierarchical clusters (HC) to identify potential outbreaks and compared them to outbreaks detected by Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) surveillance for five dominant serotypes (Enteritidis, Newport, Javiana, Typhimurium, and Bareilly). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) phylogenetic-analysis of cgMLST HC at allelic distance 5 or less (HC5) corroborated PFGE detected outbreaks and generated well-segregated SNP distance-based clades for all studied serotypes. We propose "combination approach" comprising "
as efficient tool to trigger
outbreak investigations, and "
for higher resolution phylogeny to confirm an outbreak. We also applied this approach to identify case clusters, more distant in time and place than traditional outbreaks but may have been infected from a common source, comparing 176 Florida clinical isolates and 1,341 non-clinical isolates across USA, of most prevalent serotype Enteritidis collected during 2017-2018. Several clusters of closely related isolates (0-4 SNP apart) within HC5 clusters were detected and some included isolates from poultry from different states in the US, spanning time periods over 1 year. Two SNP-clusters within the same HC5 cluster included isolates with the same multidrug-resistant profile from both humans and poultry, supporting the epidemiological link. These clusters likely reflect the vertical transmission of
clones from higher levels in the breeding pyramid to production flocks.
High
prevalence during early childhood has been associated with stunting and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), especially in low resource settings. This study assessed the prevalence, ...diversity, abundance, and co-occurrence of
spp. in stools from children in a rural area of eastern Ethiopia and their association with microbiome, diarrhea, and EED in children. Stool samples (
= 100) were collected from randomly selected children (age range: 360-498 days) in five kebeles in Haramaya District, Ethiopia. Diarrhea, compromised gut permeability, and gut inflammation were observed in 48, 45, and 57% of children, respectively.
prevalence and species diversity were assessed using PCR and meta-total RNA sequencing (MeTRS). The prevalence of
spp. in the children's stools was 50% (41-60%) by PCR and 88% (80-93.6%) by MeTRS (
< 0.01). Further, seven
species (
sp. RM6137, uncultured
sp., and
sp. RM12175) were detected by MeTRS in at least 40% of children stools in high abundance (>1.76-log read per million per positive stool sample). Four clusters of
species (5-12 species per cluster) co-occurred in the stool samples, suggesting that
colonization of children may have occurred through multiple reservoirs or from a reservoir in which several
species may co-inhabit. No associations between
spp., EED, and diarrhea were detected in this cross-sectional study; however, characteristic microbiome profiles were identified based on the prevalence of
spp., EED severity, and diarrhea. Forty-seven bacterial species were correlated with
, and 13 of them also correlated with gut permeability, gut inflammation and/or EED severity. Forty-nine species not correlated with
were correlated with gut permeability, gut inflammation, EED severity and/or diarrhea. This study demonstrated that (1) in addition to
and
, multiple non-thermophilic
spp. (i.e.,
, and
) were frequently detected in the children's stools and (2) the
, gut permeability, gut inflammation, EED severity, and diarrhea were associated with characteristic microbiome composition. Additional spatial and longitudinal studies are needed to identify environmental reservoirs and sources of infection of children with disparate
species and to better define their associations with EED in low-income countries.
Livestock farming provides a possible mechanism by which smallholder farmers can meet their household need for animal source foods (ASF), which may reduce the risk of stunting. However, ...direct/indirect contacts with domestic animals may increase colonization by
spp., which has been associated with Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED) and stunting. A cross-sectional study involving 102 randomly selected children between 12 and 16 months of age was conducted in rural eastern Ethiopia to establish prevalence rates of
colonization, EED, and stunting, and evaluate potential risk factors. Data were collected between September and December 2018. The prevalence of EED and stunting was 50% (95% CI: 40-60%) and 41% (95% CI: 32-51%), respectively. Among enrolled children, 56% had consumed some ASF in the previous 24 h; 47% had diarrhea and 50% had fever in the past 15 days. 54, 63, 71 or 43% of households owned at least one chicken, cow/bull, goat, or sheep; 54 (53%) households kept chickens indoors overnight and only half of these confined the animals. Sanitation was poor, with high levels of unimproved latrines and open defecation. Most households had access to an improved source of drinking water. The prevalence of
colonization was 50% (95% CI: 41-60%) by PCR. In addition to the thermotolerant species
and
, non-thermotolerant species related to
and
were frequently detected by Meta-total RNA sequencing (MeTRS). Current breastfeeding and ASF consumption increased the odds of
detection by PCR, while improved drinking water supply decreased the odds of EED. No risk factors were significantly associated with stunting. Further studies are necessary to better understand reservoirs and transmission pathways of
spp. and their potential impact on child health.
Non-typhoidal
infections cause a high disease burden in the United States with an estimated 1.2 million illnesses annually. The state of Florida consistently has a relatively high incidence compared ...to other states in the United States. Nevertheless, studies regarding the epidemiology of nontyphoidal salmonellosis and its spatial and temporal patterns in Florida were rarely reported. We examined the spatial and temporal patterns of 62,947 salmonellosis cases reported to FL Health Charts between 2009 and 2018. Dominant serotypes circulating in Florida were also explored using whole genome sequencing (WGS) based serotype-prediction for 2,507
isolates sequenced by the Florida Department of Health during 2017 and 2018. The representativeness of laboratory-sequenced isolates for reported cases was determined by regression modeling. The annual incidence rate of salmonellosis decreased from 36.0 per 100,000 population in 2009 to 27.8 per 100,000 in 2016, and gradually increased in 2017 and 2018. Increased use of culture-independent testing did not fully explain this increase. The highest incidence rate was observed in children, contributing 40.9% of total reported cases during this period. A seasonal pattern was observed with the incidence peaking in September and October, later than the national average pattern. Over these 10 years, the Northeast and Northwest regions of the state had higher reported incidence rates, while reported rates in the Southeast and South were gradually increasing over time. Serotypes were predicted based on WGS data in the EnteroBase platform. The top-five most prevalent serotypes in Florida during 2017-2018 were Enteritidis, Newport, Javiana, Sandiego and Braenderup. The highest percentage of isolates was from children under 5 years of age (41.4%), and stool (84.7%) was the major source of samples. A zero-inflated negative binomial regression model showed that the reported case number was a strong predictor for the number of lab-sequenced isolates in individual counties, and the geospatial distribution of sequenced isolates was not biased by other factors such as age group. The spatial and temporal patterns identified in this study along with the prevalence of different serotypes will be helpful for the development of efficient prevention and control strategies for salmonellosis in Florida.
With increasing global exposure, organisations have started to witness supply chain risks that they traditionally were not exposed to. This article therefore attempts to answer the research question ...of how environmental uncertainty within a firm's supply chain, impacts firm financial performance. We further evaluate the role of supply chain risk management practices in mitigating the negative impact of such disruption events. To answer the research question, we conduct a literature review and develop the corresponding hypothesis. We test our hypothesis using both primary and secondary data. The results show that environmental uncertainty has a negative impact on firm financial performance, with entrepreneurial managerial capitalism mediating the impact. However, organisations that adopt macro and network supply chain risk management practices are able to improve managerial decision making frame, and mitigate the negative impact of environmental uncertainty on firm financial performance. The article concludes with our findings, along with managerial and practitioner implications of the research.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
To improve patient outcomes after trauma, the need to decrypt the post-traumatic immune response has been identified. One prerequisite to drive advancement in understanding that domain is the ...implementation of surgical biobanks. This paper focuses on the outcomes of patients with one of two diagnoses: post-traumatic arthritis and osteomyelitis. In creating surgical biobanks, currently, many obstacles must be overcome. Roadblocks exist around scoping of data that is to be collected, and the semantic integration of these data. In this paper, the generic component model and the Semantic Web technology stack are used to solve issues related to data integration. The results are twofold: (a) a scoping analysis of data and the ontologies required to harmonize and integrate it, and (b) resolution of common data integration issues in integrating data relevant to trauma surgery.
Agriculture, and particularly livestock and animal source foods, has been closely linked to improvements in human nutrition. Production, income, and women's empowerment improve household food ...security and child nutritional outcomes in interacting ways. Khat production in Eastern Ethiopia is changing the economic and livelihood landscape for communities that have traditionally relied upon small-scale mixed agriculture and livestock production. How this shifting livelihood landscape and the empowerment of women in these communities are affecting nutritional outcomes has not been investigated. Using cross-sectional data collected during formative research for the Campylobacter Genomics and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) project, we developed models to examine the roles of livelihood activities, including livestock production, staple crop production, and khat production, and women's empowerment in child nutrition outcomes. Survey participants were randomly selected mothers of children aged 10-15 months from Haramaya district, Eastern Hararghe, Oromia, Ethiopia. Nested logistic regression models were performed for each nutrition outcome: children's animal source food consumption, children's dietary diversity, and child stunting, wasting, and underweight. Explanatory variables included those for livelihood (tropical livestock unit, crop production, and khat production ladder) and women's empowerment (as indicated by domains of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index), and covariates including child sex, mother's age, mother's education, assets, income, and kebele. Results indicated that khat production and tropical livestock units were not significantly associated with any of the child nutrition outcomes. However, results did indicate that the odds of reporting child animal source food consumption in households where the mother was empowered in the leadership domain was 3.33 times that in households where the mother wasn't (
< 0.05). In addition, the odds of having a stunted child in households where the mother was empowered in the time domain was 2.68 times that in households where the mother wasn't (
< 0.05). The results from this study both support and complicate the existing literature on the associations between women's empowerment in agriculture and child nutrition outcomes, underscoring the important role that livelihood, contextual factors, and location may have on the complex relationship between empowerment domains and nutritional outcomes.
(1) Background: To examine miR-429-meditated DEAD (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) box polypeptide 53 (DDX53) function in endometrial cancer (EC). (2) Methods: DDX53 and miR-429 levels were measured using ...quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting assays, cell invasion and migration using Transwell invasion and wound healing assays, and cell proliferation using colony-forming/proliferation assays. A murine xenograft model was also generated to examine miR-429 and DDX53 functions in vivo. (3) Results: DDX53 overexpression (OE) promoted key cancer phenotypes (proliferation, migration, and invasion) in EC, while in vivo, DDX53 OE hindered tumor growth in the murine xenograft model. Moreover, miR-429 was identified as a novel miRNA-targeting DDX53, which suppressed EC proliferation and invasion. (4) Conclusions: DDX53 and miR-429 regulatory mechanisms could provide novel molecular therapies for EC.
This article presents a research model that defines how external drivers impact financial performance outcomes, and the role played by strategic practices (especially CSR) in reducing the negative ...impact of such external influences. Applying strategic orientation theory, risk management theory, and CSR theory as the encompassing theoretical rationale, the conceptual framework defines the research idea and the research model provides the empirically testable model that identifies key variables with valid instrument measures. The results indicate that although external supply chain risk drivers do negatively impact a firm’s financial performance, the influence of these risk events can be mitigated if firms adopt focused strategic practices. The results highlight the significant role played by CSR strategic practices in enabling firms to develop resilience from disruption events. In our research model, CSR, as an organizational linkage practice, is positioned in between upfront strategic flow and back-end performance flow. It suggests that CSR success is only possible when CSR is implemented broadly throughout organizational processes. Based on the empirical results, lessons and implications are presented for theoretical and managerial insights and future research.
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