In the 21st century, three highly pathogenic betacoronaviruses have emerged, with an alarming rate of human morbidity and case fatality. Genomic information has been widely used to understand the ...pathogenesis, animal origin and mode of transmission of coronaviruses in the aftermath of the 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks. Furthermore, genome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis have had an unprecedented relevance in the battle against the 2019-2020 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the newest and most devastating outbreak caused by a coronavirus in the history of mankind. Here, we review how genomic information has been used to tackle outbreaks caused by emerging, highly pathogenic, betacoronavirus strains, emphasizing on SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. We focus on shared genomic features of the betacoronaviruses and the application of genomic information to phylogenetic analysis, molecular epidemiology and the design of diagnostic systems, potential drugs and vaccine candidates.
North-western Arabia is marked by thousands of prehistoric stone structures. Of these, the monumental, rectilinear type known as mustatils has received only limited attention. Recent fieldwork in ...AlUla and Khaybar Counties, Saudi Arabia, demonstrates that these monuments are architecturally more complex than previously supposed, featuring chambers, entranceways and orthostats. These structures can now be interpreted as ritual installations dating back to the late sixth millennium BC, with recent excavations revealing the earliest evidence for a cattle cult in the Arabian Peninsula. As such, mustatils are amongst the earliest stone monuments in Arabia and globally one of the oldest monumental building traditions yet identified.
To evaluate the effect of UV germicidal irradiation of the air on the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) in kittens in a nursery.
4- to 8-week-old kittens admitted to a kitten ...nursery in 2016 and 2018.
2 UV germicidal irradiation systems (1 within the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system and 1 attached to the ceiling) were installed in a kitten nursery. Data were collected on the number of kittens in which a URI was diagnosed by means of a physical examination. The incidence of URIs was compared between 2016, when no UV systems were used, and 2018, when the UV systems were used.
The overall incidence of URIs in 2016 was 12.4 cases/100 kitten admissions and in 2018 was 1.6 cases/100 kitten admissions, a significant decrease of 87.1% between the years.
A significant reduction in the incidence of URIs in kittens in a nursery was noted when the UV germicidal irradiation systems were used. Therefore, airborne transmission of feline respiratory pathogens may be more important than has been previously recognized. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation systems that disinfect the air may be an effective adjunct to standard infection prevention and control protocols in reducing the risk of the transmission of respiratory pathogens among kittens in nurseries and shelters. However, additional studies are needed to confirm the findings reported here.
This book reveals the economic motivations underpinning colonial, neocolonial and neoliberal eras of global capitalism that are represented in critiques of inequality in postcolonial fiction. Today's ...economic inequality, suffered disproportionately by indigenous and minority groups of postcolonial societies in both developed and developing countries, is a direct outcome of the colonial-era imposition of capitalist structures and practices. The longue durée, world-systems approach in this study reveals repeating patterns and trends in the mechanics of capitalism that create and maintain inequality. As well as this, it reveals the social and cultural beliefs and practices that justify and support inequality, yet equally which resist and condemn it. Through analysis of narrative representations of wealth accumulation and ownership, structures of internal inequality between the rich and the poor within cultural communities, and the psychology of capitalism that engenders particular emotions and behaviour, this study brings postcolonial literary economics to the neoliberal debate, arguing for the important contribution of the imaginary to the pressing issue of economic inequality and its solutions.
Since the 1970s, monumental stone structures now called mustatil have been documented across Saudi Arabia. However, it was not until 2017 that the first intensive and systematic study of this ...structure type was undertaken, although this study could not determine the precise function of these features. Recent excavations in AlUla have now determined that these structures fulfilled a ritual purpose, with specifically selected elements of both wild and domestic taxa deposited around a betyl. This paper outlines the results of the University of Western Australia's work at site IDIHA-0008222, a 140 m long mustatil (IDIHA-F-0011081), located 55 km east of AlUla. Work at this site sheds new and important light on the cult, herding and 'pilgrimage' in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia, with the site revealing one of the earliest chronometrically dated betyls in the Arabian Peninsula and some of the earliest evidence for domestic cattle in northern Arabia.
Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) have the potential to act as disease reservoirs for wildlife and are important sentinels for common circulating pathogens. Therefore, the infectious disease ...seroprevalence among domestic dogs in northern Botswana may be indicative of pathogen exposure of various wildlife species. The objective of this study was to assess the seroprevalence of Ehrlichia spp., Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma spp., Dirofilaria immitis, canine adenovirus, canine parvovirus, and canine distemper virus in domestic dogs as proxies of disease prevalence in the local wildlife in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana. Statistical analysis assessed crude and factor-specific seroprevalence proportions in relation to age, sex, and geographical location as predictors of seropositivity. Logistic regression was used to identify adjusted predictors of seropositivity for each of the pathogens of interest.
Samples from 233 dogs in a total of seven locations in Maun, Botswana, and surrounding villages were collected and serologically analyzed. No dogs were seropositive for B. burgdorferi, while low seroprevalence proportions were observed for Anaplasma spp. (2.2%) and D. immitis (0.9%). Higher seroprevalence proportions were observed for the tick-borne pathogen Ehrlichia spp. (21.0%), and 19.7% were seropositive for canine adenovirus (hepatitis). The highest seroprevalence proportions were for canine parvovirus (70.0%) and canine distemper virus (44.8%). The predictors of seropositivity revealed that adults were more likely to be seropositive for canine adenovirus, canine distemper virus, and canine parvovirus than juveniles, and location was a risk factor for canine adenovirus, canine distemper virus, canine parvovirus, and Ehrlichia spp.
Results indicate that increasing tick control and vaccination campaigns for domestic dogs may improve the health of domestic animals, and potentially wildlife and humans in the Okavango Delta since viral and vector-borne bacterial pathogens can be transmitted between them.
Abstract
Intricate adaptations to visual systems have allowed amphipods to thrive in extreme habitats like caves. In addition to rearranging ocular dioptric elements, adaptations have also been made ...to photobehaviors to accommodate the environmental conditions of their habitats. Given the prevalence or absence of discernible eyes or photoreceptors across species, phototaxis is a commonly used behavior to assess light sensing mechanisms. Amphipod photobehaviors have increasingly been utilized within neuroethological and ecotoxicological studies but the quality of light used during laboratory experiments is often overlooked. We describe a novel experimental chamber that allows for accurate and efficient measurement of phototaxis under precisely controlled light conditions. We used this experimental chamber to test phototaxis in two related amphipod species, one subterranean (Stygobromus tenuis potomacusHolsinger, 1967) and one surface dwelling (Crangonyx shoemakeriHubricht & Mackin, 1940). Our results confirm that the behaviors of these species are indicative of natural photopreferences and that in certain populations, these preferences vary with light quality. This low cost and efficient method could easily be applied to a variety of animal models and light conditions, allowing for a reproducible and high throughput method to measure phototaxis in laboratory trials.
This article reflects on a research project that has mapped the ways in which social enterprises in regional Australian cities produce wellbeing for their employees. The majority of enterprises in ...this study offer supported work opportunities to people with a disability while also running commercially viable enterprises delivering goods and services to regional communities. These enterprises demonstrate the challenges and the potential for organisations in regional settings to contribute in meaningful ways, not only to the wellbeing of the workers they support, but to the wellbeing of the broader community. This article considers how social enterprises are understood to be contributing to regional communities and situates them as key actors in a community economy that contributes to wider community wellbeing as distinct from individual wellbeing.
The desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula and Levant are criss-crossed by innumerable pathways. Across large areas of north-west Arabia, many of these pathways are flanked by stone monuments, the ...vast majority of which are ancient tombs. Recent radiometric dating indicates that the most abundant of these monuments, elaborate and morphologically diverse ‘pendant’ structures, were constructed during the mid-to-late third millennium BCE. Thousands of kilometres of these composite path and monument features, ‘funerary avenues’, can be traced across the landscape, especially around and between major perennial water sources. By evidencing routes of human movement during this period, these features provide an emerging source for reconstructing important aspects of ancient mobility and social and economic connectivity. They also provide significant new evidence for human/environment interactions and subsistence strategies during the later Middle Holocene of north-west Arabia, and suggest the parallel existence of mobile pastoralist lifeways and more permanent, oasis-centred settlement. This paper draws upon the results of recent excavations and intensive remote sensing, aerial and ground surveys in Saudi Arabia to present the first detailed examination of these features and the vast cultural landscape that they constitute.
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