Search

Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), which is the only member of the Morbillivirus caprinae species and belongs to the genus Morbillivirus within the Paramyxoviridae family, causes the highly contagious viral sickness “Peste des petits ruminants (PPR).” PPR is of serious economic significance for small ruminant production, particularly in Africa. Control of this critical disease depends highly on successful vaccination against the PPRV. An in-depth understanding of the genetic evolution of the live-attenuated PPR vaccine Nigeria 75/1 strain used in Africa is essential for the successful eradication of this disease by 2030. Therefore, this study investigated the possible genetic evolution of the PPR vaccine produced by various African laboratories compared with the master seed available at AU-PANVAC. RT-PCR was performed to amplify a segment of the hypervariable C-terminal part of the nucleoprotein (N) from commercial batches of PPR vaccine Nigeria 75/1 strain. The sequences were analyzed, and 100% nucleotide sequence identity was observed between the master seed and vaccines produced. The results of this study indicate the genetic stability of the PPR vaccine from the Nigeria 75/1 strain over decades and that the vaccine production process used by different manufacturers did not contribute to the emergence of mutations in the vaccine strain.

The topic of two-dimensional steady laminar MHD boundary layer flow across a wedge with non-Newtonian hybrid nanoliquid (CuO-TiO2/C2H6O2) with viscous dissipation and radiation is taken into consideration. The controlling partial differential equations have been converted to non-linear higher-order ordinary differential equations using the appropriate similarity transformations. It is demonstrated that a number of thermo-physical characteristics govern the transmuted model. The issue is then mathematically resolved. When the method’s accuracy is compared to results that have already been published, an excellent agreement is found. While the thermal distribution increases with an increase in Eckert number, radiation and porosity parameters, the velocity distribution decreases as porosity increases.

Nowadays, the Internet of Things (IoT) has a wide impact on many potential applications. The impact of IoT on performing demand-side management (DSM) in an Indian educational institution has not been researched in depth before. In this research work, an IoT-enabled SDSMS (Smart DSM System) has been deployed with the main objective of minimizing electricity tariff and also to tweak the quality of user comfort. It can be feasible by prioritizing available renewable PV solar energy during peak hours in an Indian educational institution. DSM has been performed using day-ahead load shifting and rescheduling the different classes of institutional loads by applying hybrid BPSOGSA (Binary Particle Swarm Optimization and Gravitational Search Algorithm). The BPSOGSA performance on DSM has been evaluated based on electricity tariff, peak demand range, and PAR and compared with the outcomes of both binary conventional algorithms BPSO and BGSA, respectively. The proposed method enhances the degree of user comfort (DUC) by tripping the operation of non-critical institutional loads. Simulation results obtained using MATLAB corroborate that BPSOGSA outperforms both BPSO and BGSA under both DSM scenarios. Before DSM, Peak demand, PAR, and Electricity tariffs were found to be 1855.47 kW, 4.1286, and $2030.67 while after DSM, they reduced to 1502.24 kW, 3.263, and $1314.40 respectively. This indicates a 35.273% reduction in electricity tariff, a 19.037% scale down in peak demand, and a 20.97% reduction in PAR. Finally, the real-time IoT-based SDSMS hardware is implemented at the Renewable energy laboratory for real monitoring of energy consumption via the Blynk application.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with symptoms such as affect dysregulation, impaired sense of self, and self-harm behaviors. Neuroimaging research on BPD has revealed structural and functional abnormalities in specific brain regions and connections. However, little is known about the topological organizations of brain networks in BPD. We collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 20 patients with BPD and 10 healthy controls, and constructed frequency-specific functional brain networks by correlating wavelet-filtered fMRI signals from 82 cortical and subcortical regions. We employed graph-theory based complex network analysis to investigate the topological properties of the brain networks, and employed network-based statistic to identify functional dysconnections in patients. In the 0.03–0.06 Hz frequency band, compared to controls, patients with BPD showed significantly larger measures of global network topology, including the size of largest connected graph component, clustering coefficient, small-worldness, and local efficiency, indicating increased local cliquishness of the functional brain network. Compared to controls, patients showed lower nodal centrality at several hub nodes but greater centrality at several non-hub nodes in the network. Furthermore, an interconnected subnetwork in 0.03–0.06 Hz frequency band was identified that showed significantly lower connectivity in patients. The links in the subnetwork were mainly long-distance connections between regions located at different lobes; and the mean connectivity of this subnetwork was negatively correlated with the increased global topology measures. Lastly, the key network measures showed high correlations with several clinical symptom scores, and classified BPD patients against healthy controls with high accuracy based on linear discriminant analysis. The abnormal topological properties and connectivity found in this study may add new knowledge to the current understanding of functional brain networks in BPD. However, due to limitation of small sample sizes, the results of the current study should be viewed as exploratory and need to be validated on large samples in future works.

Aim: An investigation on ticks and haemoparasites of dogs that belonged to Maiduguri metropolis (Borno State) was conducted. Materials and Methods: Survey of ticks and haemo-parasites on 400 stray dogs was conducted in Maiduguri from December 2009 to November 2011, using a stratified random sampling technique from different locations of the town. The town was divided into 10 districts out of which a total of 40 dogs were sampled at random from each district. Results: Four genera of ticks were identified on the infested dogs 384 (96.0), all of which belonged to the family Ixodidae (hard ticks). The genus Boophilus was predominant with a prevalence of 88.0%, Rhipicephalus 10.8%, Hyalomma 0.9% and Amblyomma 0.3% at (p ˂ 0.05). Dogs within the age-group of 6-12 months were the most infested, while those within the age-group of 24 –120 months were the least infested. Sex appeared to have a less significant influence (p > 0.05) on the prevalence of ticks among the dog population as females were more infested than the males. The perineum and the ear were the most commonly infested areas, with 328 (85.4%) and 252 (65.4%) respectively, while the scrotal and abdominal regions were the least infested areas 12 (3.1%) each. The month of August showed the highest mean tick burden of 462.5±3.2 ranging from 450-475, while the month of February showed the least number of ticks with a mean of 244.5±3.8 ranging from 239-250. Dogs found to be infected with Babesia canis are all harboring ticks of the genus Rhipicephalus. Female dogs were more infected (66.7%) with Babesia canis than their male counterparts (33.3%) (p ˂ 0.05) and dogs within the age group of 1-6 months were more infected. Conclusion: Prevalence of ticks on dogs in this study area is relatively high and the occurrence of Babesia species is vector dependent, with ticks of the genus Rhipicephalus sanguineous being the most common vector in transmission of the parasite. Seasons also play a vital role in the prevalence of ticks and their associated haemoparasites.

The brain is a vastly interconnected organ and methods are needed to investigate its long range structure(S)–function(F) associations to better understand disorders such as Schizophrenia that are hypothesized to be due to distributed disconnected brain regions. In previous work we introduced a methodology to reduce the whole brain S–F correlations to a histogram and here we reduce the correlations to brain clusters. The application of our approach to sMRI (gray matter concentration maps) and fMRI data (GLM activation maps during Encode and Probe epochs of a working memory task) from patients with schizophrenia (SZ, n=100) and healthy controls (HC, n=100) presented the following results. In HC the whole brain correlation histograms for gray matter(GM)–Encode and GM–Probe overlap for Low and Medium loads and at High the histograms separate, but in SZ the histograms do not overlap for any of the load levels and Medium load shows the maximum difference. We computed GM–F differential correlation clusters using activation for Probe Medium, and they included regions in the left and right superior temporal gyri, anterior cingulate, cuneus, middle temporal gyrus and the cerebellum. Inter-cluster GM–Probe correlations for Medium load were positive in HC but negative in SZ. Within group inter-cluster GM–Encode and GM–Probe correlation comparisons show no differences in HC but in SZ differences are evident in the same clusters where HC versus SZ differences occurred for Probe Medium, indicating that the S–F integrity during Probe is aberrant in SZ. Through a data-driven whole brain analysis approach we find novel brain clusters and show how the S–F differential correlation changes during Probe and Encode at three memory load levels. Structural and functional anomalies have been extensively reported in schizophrenia and here we provide evidences to suggest that evaluating S–F associations can provide important additional information.

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental - Agriambi is the property of Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agricola e Ambiental and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Simple Summary: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease affecting small ruminants, posing significant economic challenges, especially in Africa. This study focused on understanding the genetic stability of the live-attenuated Peste des petits ruminant's vaccine Nigeria 75/1 strain, which is an essential tool for the eradication program. A nucleotide sequence comparison of the hypervariable region (C-terminus domain) of the nucleoprotein of the PPR vaccine from 10 different African vaccine manufacturers was conducted. Data analysis revealed 100% nucleotide homology between vaccine samples and the master seed, indicating the genetic stability of the PPR vaccine Nigeria 75/1 over decades. This research contributes to ongoing efforts to control Peste des petits ruminants outbreaks and ensures the efficacy of vaccination programs, ultimately benefiting animal health and agricultural sustainability. Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), which is the only member of the Morbillivirus caprinae species and belongs to the genus Morbillivirus within the Paramyxoviridae family, causes the highly contagious viral sickness "Peste des petits ruminants (PPR)." PPR is of serious economic significance for small ruminant production, particularly in Africa. Control of this critical disease depends highly on successful vaccination against the PPRV. An in-depth understanding of the genetic evolution of the live-attenuated PPR vaccine Nigeria 75/1 strain used in Africa is essential for the successful eradication of this disease by 2030. Therefore, this study investigated the possible genetic evolution of the PPR vaccine produced by various African laboratories compared with the master seed available at AU-PANVAC. RT-PCR was performed to amplify a segment of the hypervariable C-terminal part of the nucleoprotein (N) from commercial batches of PPR vaccine Nigeria 75/1 strain. The sequences were analyzed, and 100% nucleotide sequence identity was observed between the master seed and vaccines produced. The results of this study indicate the genetic stability of the PPR vaccine from the Nigeria 75/1 strain over decades and that the vaccine production process used by different manufacturers did not contribute to the emergence of mutations in the vaccine strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]