Detection and genomic characterization of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli harboring tet(X4) in black kites (Milvus migrans) in Pakistan.

The emergence of plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance gene tet(X4) among clinically relevant bacteria has promoted significant concerns, as tigecycline is considered a last-resort drug against serious infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. We herein focused on the isolation and molecular characterization of tet(X4)-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) in wild bird populations with anthropogenic interaction in Faisalabad, Pakistan. A total of 150 birds including black kites (Milvus migrans) and house crows (Corvus splendens) were screened for the presence of tigecycline resistance K. pneumoniae and E. coli. We found two K. pneumoniae and one E. coli isolate carrying tet(X4) originating from black kites. A combination of short- and long-read sequencing strategies showed that tet(X4) was located on a broad host range IncFII plasmid family in K. pneumoniae isolates whereas on an IncFII-IncFIB hybrid plasmid in E. coli. We also found an integrative and conjugative element ICEKp2 in K. pneumoniae isolate KP8336. We demonstrate the first description of tet(X4) gene in the WHO critical-priority pathogen K. pneumoniae among wild birds. The convergence of tet(X4) and virulence associated ICEKp2 in a wild bird with known anthropogenic contact should be further investigated to evaluate the potential epidemiological implications. The potential risk of global transmission of tet(X4)-positive K. pneumoniae and E. coli warrant comprehensive evaluation and emphasizes the need for effective mitigation strategies to reduce anthropogenic-driven dissemination of AMR in the environment.

Exploring the scientific research on coal fly ash and agriculture: knowledge mapping and future research directions.

This paper aims at synthesizing the scientific research on coal fly ash and agriculture using bibliometric analysis. The research on fly ash and agriculture has grown at 6.7% annually during 1973-2022, where much attention has been received after 2007. The number of publications on coal fly ash and agriculture reached above 100 in the year 2010, which further increased to 299 by 2020. The research productivity has been assessed as the most influential countries, journals, and documents in terms of a number of publications and citations on fly ash and agriculture. India is the most productive country in terms of knowledge on coal fly ash and agriculture with 38% of the global publications, while Environmental Science and Pollution Research is the leading journal with 19 publications. The article on assessing the impact of fly ash incorporation in soil systems by Pandey and Singh (2010), having 349 citations with 26.85 citations per year is one of the leading publications globally. Further, science mapping has been conducted to comprehend the current research focus and discover the emerging themes for future research. The finding of the thematic map based on the level of development and importance indicate that FA can be effectively explored as soil-additive for improved physical, chemical and biological properties and enhanced plant nutrients. The findings provide several aspects of fly ash and suggest future research directions to study the potential of using coal fly ash in agriculture to gain an agronomic advantage.

Mapping scientific knowledge discovery on COVID-19 pandemic and agriculture: a bibliometric analysis and future research directions.

This paper aims at analyzing the research productivity and scientific knowledge discovery of the COVID-19 pandemic in agriculture using a bibliometric analysis approach. A total of 1514 research papers indexed in the Scopus database, covering a period of 2020 to 2022, are processed using VOSviewer and R-Studio software. The analysis of research productivity indicates that the number of research publications on COVID-19 and agriculture has exponentially increased globally, and about 80% of the research papers have been published in the top 10 countries led by the USA, India, and China. The countries are increasingly collaborating in undertaking research on COVID-19 and agriculture. Furthermore, major journals and articles with citations have been extracted to analyze the leading publication avenues and focused areas of research. The science mapping is done using co-occurrence and thematic map. With the help of co-occurrence analysis, six clusters are identified depicting major research themes, i.e., COVID-19 and agricultural supply chain disruption, COVID-19 and human health issues and coping strategies, COVID-19 and non-human and animal health, COVID-19 pandemic and environment and pollution, COVID-19 and healthcare and treatment, and COVID-19 and food nutrition from dairy and meat products. The thematic map analysis identifies potential research areas such as mental health, anxiety, and depression in the agricultural system, which may help in setting future research agenda and help devising policy supports for managing the agriculture sector better during crisis. The paper also highlights the theoretical and practical implications.

Demographic, social and economic factors affecting the adoption of green toilets among rural households in India.

This study investigates the demographic, social and economic factors as key determinants of green toilet adoption among rural households in India. The Rural Impact Survey data of the World Bank have been used for this study, covering 2731 rural households from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The chi-square test and regression analysis with marginal estimate have been used to analyze the data. Result of the analysis indicates that about 36.2 percent surveyed rural households have reported access to green toilets having proper effluent discharge systems as per the environmental norms. Further, there is a significant association between the adoption of green toilets and demographic, social and economic characteristics of rural households. Finally, the regression analysis indicates that a number of demographic, social and economic factors i.e., age, education, income, social category, access to information, access to drinking water, and asset ownership have a significant marginal effect on the adoption of green toilets in rural India. Considering the importance of ensuring total sanitation and commitment under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations for eradicating open defecation for all by 2030 in the country, the results of the study provide useful policy directions for enhancing the adoption of green toilets among the rural households in India.

Health awareness of rural households towards COVID-19 pandemic in India: Evidence from Rural Impact Survey of the World Bank.

This paper aims at analysing the level of awareness of the symptoms and the methods of protection from COVID-19 based on the Rural Impact Survey of the World Bank, collected from 5200 households belonging to six states in India that is, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Data has been analysed using chi-square test and regression analysis. Results of the analysis indicate that about 70.8% rural households are aware of the symptom of coronavirus, and 81.9% are aware of the preventive measures for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Analysis indicates a significant association between awareness level on symptoms and prevention of COVID-19 and socio-demographics and location. The study further analyses the key determinants of awareness of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive measures using the logistics regression model, indicating that age, gender, education, income, poverty status, access to information, cash relief and medical services are the determining factors of health awareness on COVID-19 pandemic among rural households in India. Considering the importance of self-protecting measures in fighting the pandemic, this paper highlights the importance of strengthening public awareness for containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factors affecting access to clean cooking fuel among rural households in India during COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper investigates the factors affecting access to clean cooking fuel among rural Indian households during the COVID-19 outbreak, based on World Bank's rural impact survey, covering 2731 rural households. Our analysis shows a significant decline in access to clean fuel among rural households from 35% in 2018 i.e. before COVID-19 to 19.7% during the COVID-19 pandemic. This implies that in order to meet their cooking needs, many rural households have switched from conventional fuels, which have numerous health and environmental concerns. The association between states and socio-demographic profiles of rural households with access to sources of cooking fuel shows a significant difference. The analysis results further indicate that socio-demographic characteristics and asset holdings of the rural households are the key factors that determine access to clean cooking fuel during COVID-19. Among the socio-demographic variables, age, gender, family size, social category, and income level are estimated to be significant factors that affect the access to clean fuel for cooking. Similarly, ownership of assets such as exclusive kitchen room, refrigerator, pressure cooker, television, and furniture are significant factors affecting access to clean cooking fuel among Indian rural households. Additionally, this study provides policy insights on developing mechanisms to ensure that rural households have an access to clean cooking fuel during crisis situations such as COVID-19.

Does economic complexity lead to global carbon emissions convergence?

This study examines how economic complexity, along with human capital, total factor productivity, foreign direct investment, and trade openness, leads to per capita CO2 emissions (PCO2Es) convergence at club level in the case of 42 countries for the period of 1998-2019. To do so, first, this study implements the Phillips and Sul novel club convergence approach, and results show the existence of three clubs implying the distinct transition paths. Secondly, to examine how the economic complexity affects the PCO2Es in each club, this study applies a panel data model. This study finds the divergence in PCCO2Es when all 42 countries are considered together. However, there is existence of three clubs that are converging to their steady states due to economic complexity along with control variables. Further, the impact of economic complexity on PCO2Es is found to be different for the three clubs. For instance, a positive and significant relationship has been noted for clubs 1 and 2 (high and moderate PCO2Es). This implies that economic shifts in these countries degrade the environment. While in the case of club 3, we find a negative and significant relationship suggesting an improvement in the environmental quality. From the policy point of view, it can be suggested that environmental policies should be designed at the club level by targeting economic complexity. Further, club 1 and club 2 may improve the environmental quality by adopting some of the successful environmental policies from club 3 countries.

Global disparities of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture sector: panel club convergence analysis.

A lot has been discussed about the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the existing studies; the study on the club convergence of GHG emissions is limited particularly for the agriculture sector. This study tries to investigate the convergence hypothesis across 93 countries spanning 1980-2017. To examine the convergence hypothesis, we implement the novel Phillips and Sul test. Results obtained from this test show the evidence of divergence when we consider all 93 countries as a group. This implies that GHG emissions across the countries are following different convergence paths. To capture this, we further apply clustering algorithms and results show the existence of five clubs of convergence and one group stating the need for altering the policies at the club level to achieve a single steady state in GHG emissions. Moreover, our findings recommend that the mitigation policies should be considered in the presence of different clubs of regions with different convergence paths in terms of GHG emissions and account for the distributional effect of transfers across countries.

Quantification and Trends of Antimicrobial Use in Commercial Broiler Chicken Production in Pakistan.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health challenge and antimicrobial use (AMU) in the livestock sector has been considered as one of the contributing factors towards the development of AMR in bacteria. This study summarizes the results of a point prevalence survey conducted to monitor farm-level AMU in commercial broiler chicken farms in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) provinces of Pakistan. A cross-sectional study was conducted to quantify AMU and to check seasonal variations of AMU in 12 commercial broiler chicken farms (six from each province) during the summer and winter seasons of the year 2020-2021. AMU was recorded using three AMU metrics: kg, mg per population correction unit (mg/PCU), and mg/kg of final flock weight. A total of 22 antimicrobial drugs (348.59 kg) were used for therapeutic or prophylactic purposes in surveyed broiler chicken farms. The total combined AMU for all the broiler chicken farms was 462.57 mg/PCU. The use of most of the antimicrobials increased during winter flocks compared to summer. The top three antimicrobial drugs used during the summer were neomycin (111.39 mg/PCU), doxycycline (91.91 mg/PCU), and tilmicosin (77.22 mg/PCU), whereas doxycycline (196.81 mg/PCU), neomycin (136.74 mg/PCU), and amoxicillin (115.04 mg/PCU) during the winter. Overall, 60% of the antibiotics used in broiler chicken were critically important antimicrobial classes (CIA) for human medicine as characterized by the World Health Organization. Our findings showed high AMU in broiler chicken production and a call for urgent actions to regulate CIA use in food animals in Pakistan. This baseline survey is critical for the design and implementation of a subsequent national level AMU surveys that can include additional farming types, animals' species, and geographical locations over a longer period of time.

Does biomass material footprint converge? Evidence from club convergence analysis.

Although several studies explored the issue of CO2/Ecological footprint convergence across the countries, study on biomass material footprint (BMF) convergence is scant. This study bridges this research gap by examining the "BMF convergence hypothesis" across 172 countries for the period from 1990 to 2017. To attain our objective, we use the novel Phillips and Sul (J Appl Econom 24(7):1153-1185, 2007a; Econometrica 75:1771-1855, 2007b) approach. We find that there is no evidence of convergence, while 172 countries are taken together. This implies that all the countries together are having different transition paths. Thus, Phillips and Sul test implements the clustering algorithms to identify the club convergence. Our results show the existence of six different steady-state (or club convergence) equilibriums for BMF. Thus, our findings show that climate change policies are required to be designed as per the existing clubs of the sample countries.

First Case Report on Quantification of Antimicrobial Use in Corporate Dairy Farms in Pakistan.

Intensive livestock farming has become indispensable to meet the rapidly increasing demand for animal-based nutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where antimicrobials are frequently used for treatment and prophylactic or metaphylactic purposes. However, very little is known about the trends of antimicrobial use (AMU) in dairy animals in LMICs. The objective of this study was to quantify AMU in two large commercial dairy farms in Pakistan. A retrospective study was conducted at two large corporate commercial dairy farms located in Punjab province for the year 2018. AMU was calculated using three metrics: active ingredient (AI; kg) and milligrams per population unit (mg/PU; mg/kg), which quantifies the amount of AI used, and antimicrobial treatment incidence (ATI; DDDA/1,000 cow-days), which estimates the per-day number of treatments to 1,000 cows. Total on-farm AMU was found to be 138.34 kg, 65.88 mg/kg, and 47.71 DDDA/1,000 cow-days. Measured in ATI, aminoglycosides (11.05 DDDA/1,000 cow-days), penicillins (8.29 DDDA/1,000 cow-days), and tetracyclines (8.1 DDDA/1,000 cow-days) were the most frequently used antimicrobial classes. A total of 42.46% of all the antimicrobials used belonged to the critically important antimicrobials for human medicine as defined by the World Health Organization. Considerably high AMU was found compared to other farm-level studies across the world. This was the first study to quantify AMU in the dairy industry in Pakistan. Our results showed that corporate commercial dairy management practices are associated with increased antimicrobial consumption and highlight the need for antimicrobial stewardship programs to encourage prudent use of antimicrobials in commercial dairy.

Predicting performance in contracting of basic health care to NGOs: experience from large-scale contracting in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Escalating costs and increasing pressure to improve health services have driven a trend toward contracting with the private sector to provide traditionally state-run services. Such contracting is seen as an opportunity to combine theorized advantages of contracting with the efficiency of the private sector. There is still a limited understanding of the preconditions for successful use of contracting and the resources needed for their appropriate use and sustainability. This study assesses the large-scale contracting of 294 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for delivery of basic health services in Uttar Pradesh, a state with almost 170 million in India. Due to high rates of discontinuation or non-renewal of contracts based on poor performance in the project, a better method for selecting partners was requested. Data on characteristics of the NGOs (intake data) and performance/outcome monitoring indicators were combined to identify correlations. The results showed that NGOs selected were generally small but well-established, had implemented at least two large projects, and had more non-health experience than health experience. Bivariate regressions of outcome score on each input variable showed that training experience, proposal quality and having 'health' contained in the objectives of the organization were statistically significant predictors of good performance. Factors relating to financial capacity, staff qualification, previous experience with health or non-health projects, and age of establishment were not. A combined training plus proposal score was highly predictive of outcome score (ß = 1.37, P < 0.001). The combined score was found to be a much better predictor of outcome scores than a total score used to select NGOs (ß = 0.073, P = 0.539). The study provides valuable information from large-scale contracting. Conclusions on criteria for selecting NGOs for providing basic health care could guide other governments choosing to contract for such services.

The role of perioperative warming in surgery: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review was to systematically analyze the trials on the effectiveness of perioperative warming in surgical patients. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Clinical trials on perioperative warming were selected according to specific criteria and analyzed to generate summative data expressed as standardized mean difference (SMD). RESULTS: Twenty-five studies encompassing 3,599 patients in various surgical disciplines were retrieved from the electronic databases. Nineteen randomized trials on 1785 patients qualified for this review. The no-warming group developed statistically significant hypothermia. In the fixed effect model, the warming group had significantly less pain and lower incidence of wound infection, compared with the no-warming group. In the random effect model, the warming group was also associated with lower risk of post-anesthetic shivering. Both in the random and the fixed effect models, the warming group was associated with significantly less blood loss. However, there was significant heterogeneity among the trials. CONCLUSION: Perioperative warming of surgical patients is effective in reducing postoperative wound pain, wound infection and shivering. Systemic warming of the surgical patient is also associated with less perioperative blood loss through preventing hypothermia-induced coagulopathy. Perioperative warming may be given routinely to all patients of various surgical disciplines in order to counteract the consequences of hypothermia.

The role of perioperative warming in surgery: a systematic review / O papel do aquecimento perioperatório em cirurgia: uma revisão sistemática

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review was to systematically analyze the trials on the effectiveness of perioperative warming in surgical patients. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Clinical trials on perioperative warming were selected according to specific criteria and analyzed to generate summative data expressed as standardized mean difference (SMD). RESULTS: Twenty-five studies encompassing 3,599 patients in various surgical disciplines were retrieved from the electronic databases. Nineteen randomized trials on 1785 patients qualified for this review. The no-warming group developed statistically significant hypothermia. In the fixed effect model, the warming group had significantly less pain and lower incidence of wound infection, compared with the no-warming group. In the random effect model, the warming group was also associated with lower risk of post-anesthetic shivering. Both in the random and the fixed effect models, the warming group was associated with significantly less blood loss. However, there was significant heterogeneity among the trials. CONCLUSION: Perioperative warming of surgical patients is effective in reducing postoperative wound pain, wound infection and shivering. Systemic warming of the surgical patient is also associated with less perioperative blood loss through preventing hypothermia-induced coagulopathy. Perioperative warming may be given routinely to all patients of various surgical disciplines in order to counteract the consequences of hypothermia.

OBJETIVO: O objetivo desta revisão é analisar sistematicamente os ensaios sobre a eficácia do aquecimento perioperatório em pacientes cirúrgicos. MÉTODOS: Uma revisão sistemática da literatura foi realizada. Ensaios clínicos sobre aquecimento perioperatório foram selecionados segundo critérios específicos e analisados para gerar dados sumativo expresso na diferença média padronizada (standardized mean difference, SMD). RESULTADOS: Vinte e cinco estudos englobando 3.599 pacientes de várias disciplinas de cirurgia foram obtidos a partir de bases de dados eletrônicas. Dezenove ensaios aleatórios em 1.785 pacientes qualificados para esta revisão. Nenhum grupo de aquecimento desenvolveu estatisticamente significativa hipotermia. No modelo de efeito fixo, grupo de aquecimento tiveram significativamente menos dor e menor incidência de infecção na ferida quando comparado com o grupo de não-aquecimento. No modelo de efeito aleatório, grupo de aquecimento também foi associado a um menor risco de tremores pós-anestesia. Em ambos os modelos de efeitos fixos e aleatórios, o aquecimento foi significativamente associado com menor perda de sangue. No entanto, houve significativa heterogeneidade entre os ensaios. CONCLUSÃO: O aquecimento perioperatório de pacientes cirúrgicos é eficaz na redução da dor pós-operatória ferida, infecção ferida, e tremores. O aquecimento sistêmico do paciente cirúrgico também está associado com menor perda de sangue no perioperatório prevenindo hipotermia e induzindo coagulopatia. O aquecimento perioperatório pode ser administrado rotineiramente a todos os pacientes cirúrgicos de diversas disciplinas, a fim de neutralizar as consequências da hipotermia.