One Health: a perspective from the human health sector.

Despite emerging consensus that the One Health concept involves multiple stakeholders, the human health sector has continued to view it from a predominantly human health security perspective. It has often ignored the concerns of other sectors, e.g. concerns that relate to trade, commerce, livelihoods and sustainable development, all of which are important contributors to societal well-being. In the absence of a culture of collaboration, clear One Health goals, conceptual clarity and operating frameworks, this disconnect between human health and One Health efforts has often impeded the translation of One Health from concept to reality, other than during emergency situations. If there are to be effective and sustainable One Health partnerships we must identify clear operating principles that allow flexible approaches to intersectoral collaborations. To convince technical experts and political leaders in the human health sector of the importance of intersectoral cooperation, and to make the necessary structural adjustments, we need examples of best practice models and trans-sectoral methods for measuring the risks, burden and costs across sectors. Informal collaborations between researchers and technical experts will play a decisive role in developing these methods and models and instilling societal well-being into the human health sector's view of One Health.

Distortions to the passage of time for annual events: Exploring why Christmas and Ramadan feel like they come around more quickly each year.

BACKGROUND: Commonly heard statements such as "Christmas comes around more quickly each year" suggest that the passage of time between annual events can become distorted, leading to the sensation of time passing more quickly than normal. At present however, it is unclear how prevalent such beliefs are and, what factors are predictive of it. AIM: To explore the prevalence of beliefs that annual events such as Christmas (Study 1 UK sample) and Ramadan (Study 2 Iraqi sample) feel like they come around more quickly each year. To establish the association between distortions to the passage of time between annual events and emotional wellbeing, event specific enjoyment, memory function and self-reported attention to time. METHODS: Participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their subjective experience of time in relation to Christmas and Ramadan. In addition, measures of attention to time, memory function, quality of life and event specific emotion were also taken. FINDINGS: There was widespread agreement that Christmas and Ramadan appeared to come around more quickly each year. In both countries, this belief was associated with greater prospective memory errors, greater attention to time and greater enjoyment of the event. Furthermore, in the UK greater belief that Christmas comes around more quickly was associated with lower social quality of life and in Iraq, greater belief that Ramadan comes around more quickly each year was associated with lower age and female gender. CONCLUSIONS: Distortions to the passage of time for annual events are widespread, occur across multiple cultures and are consistently predicted by prospective function, event enjoyment and attention to time. The absence of an association between older age (above 55 years) and a faster passage of time suggests that caution should be taken when concluding that time passes more quickly with increasing age.

A cross-sectional analysis of the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy in Iraq.

BACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy poses a significant risk to global recovery from COVID-19. To date however, there is little research exploring the psychological factors associated with vaccine acceptability and hesitancy in Iraq. AIM: To explore attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in Iraq. To establish the predictors of vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy in an Iraqi population. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, 7,778 participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their vaccination status, likelihood of infection, perceived severity infection, benefits of vaccine, barriers to vaccine, anticipated regret, subjective norms, and trust in government. FINDINGS: Vaccination rates increased with age and were greater in males, those who were married, divorced or widowed, those with children and those with underlying conditions. Vaccine hesitancy was widespread with 61.40% of unvaccinated individuals reported an unwillingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In unvaccinated groups, vaccine hesitancy was associated with lower trust in the government, more negative social norms, greater perceived barriers to vaccination and reduced perceived benefits. CONCLUSIONS: There is significant COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Iraq. Public health institutions should be aware of the influence of demographic factors, as well as personal beliefs and social norms, on individuals' decisions to vaccinate. Public health messaging should therefore aim to be tailored to address the concerns of citizens.

The passage of time in Iraq during the covid-19 pandemic.

The covid-19 global pandemic has influenced the day-to-day lives of people across the world. One consequence of this has been significant distortion to the subjective speed at which people feel like time is passing. To date, temporal distortions during covid-19 have mainly been studied in Europe. The current study therefore sought to explore experiences of the passage of time in Iraq. An online questionnaire was used to explore the passage of time during the day, week and the 11 months since the first period of covid-19 restrictions were imposed in Iraq. The questionnaire also measured affective and demographic factors, and task-load. The results showed that distortions to the passage of time were widespread in Iraq. Participants consistently reported a slowing of the passage of time for the day and the week during the pandemic in comparison to normal (i.e. before the pandemic). Participants also reported that it felt like longer than 11-months since the first lockdown began. The passage of time during the day and week were not predicted by any demographic, affective or task-load measures taken in the study. The perceived length of time since the first lockdown was however predicted by stress and change of life due to covid, with greater stress and greater change of life being associated with greater subjective lengthening of the pandemic. The findings indicate that whilst distortions to the passage of time during covid-19 appear to be a global phenomenon, the factors which predict temporal experience during the pandemic differ between countries and cultures.

Stability indicating method for determination of nortriptyline hydrochloride using 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone (MBTH).

A spectrophotometric procedure is described for determination of nortriptyline hydrochloride in pure and dosage form as well as in the presence of its degradate. 3-Methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone (MBTH) has been used as the chromogenic reagent, where aqueous solutions of the drug and reagent are treated with cerium(IV) ammonium sulphate in an acidic medium. Nortriptyline hydrochloride reacts to give a blue coloured product having two absorption maxima at 619 and 655 nm. Various parameters affecting the reaction have been studied. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range of 24-216 microg ml(-1) of nortriptyline hydrochloride, with mean percentage recoveries of 100.22+/-0.870 and 100.66+/-0.642% for both maxima, 619 and 655 nm, respectively. Results were statistically analyzed and compared with those obtained by applying the British Pharmacopoeia (1993) method.

Comparison of immunity and resistance to diseases in male and female poultry breeders in Lebanon.

The immune responses following vaccination and resistance to diseases were compared in male and female meat poultry breeders of the same flock. Female poultry breeders maintained antibody titres to Newcastle disease virus and infectious bronchitis virus up to the fifty-fifth day following vaccination, whereas those of the males declined significantly over the same period of time (P < 0.05). In the same flock, outbreaks of Gumboro disease (60 to 62 days of age), coccidiosis (68 to 74 days of age) and aortic rupture (99 to 112 days of age) produced significantly higher losses in males. Following vaccination against fowl pox by the wing web method, 96.7% of females had a vaccine reaction (vaccine take) compared to none of the males. Immune injuries, following vaccination, were observed in 85% of the males compared to none of the females. The immune injuries included appearance of facial papules, vesicles, and reddish brown to black scabs.