Cerebrospinal Fluid Cytokine and Chemokine Analysis in Dogs With Meningoencephalitis of Unknown Origin or Idiopathic Epilepsy.

Background: Current diagnosis of brain disease in dogs is dependent on imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, including total nucleated cell counts and albumin concentrations.

Hypothesis/objectives: To determine whether multiplex cytokine/chemokine (Ct/Cm) analysis can differentiate among dogs with meningoencephalitis of unknown origin (MUE), idiopathic epilepsy (IE), and brain neoplasia.

Animals: Client owned dogs diagnosed with brain disease with MRI and CSF diagnostics.

Correction: A randomised controlled feasibility trial of a BabyWASH household playspace: The CAMPI study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.

Realities of using self-administered smartphone surveys to solve sustainability challenges.

To fill data gaps in human-environment systems, especially in difficult-to-access locations, novel tools are needed to collect (near) real-time data from diverse populations across the globe. Here we discuss the practicalities, constraints, and lessons learnt from six field studies using high spatial and temporal smartphone surveys in six different countries. We suggest that high spatiotemporal, self-administered smartphone surveys will produce novel insights into human behaviour, attitudes, and socio-economic characteristics that, when matched with high spatiotemporal resolution environmental data (e.

Evaluation of an Interactive, Educational Website Developed for Adolescents to Learn About Pediatric Clinical Trials: DigiKnowIt News.

Introduction: Pediatric clinical trials are important for advancing treatments for youth; however, recruitment remains a challenge. This study examines the effectiveness of DigiKnowIt News, a website designed to educate adolescents about clinical trials.

Method: Parent-adolescent pairs were randomly assigned to intervention (N = 83) or wait-list control (N = 96) groups.

Comparative sanitation data from high-frequency phone surveys across 3 countries.

With less than half of the world's urban population having safely managed sanitation due to the high cost and difficulty of building sewers and treatment plants, many rely on off-grid options like pit latrines and septic tanks, which are hard to empty and often lead to illegal waste dumping; this research focuses on container-based sanitation (CBS) as an emerging off-grid solution. Off-grid sanitation refers to waste management systems that operate independently of centralized infrastructure and CBS is a service providing toilets that collect human waste in sealable containers, which are regularly emptied and safely disposed of. These data relate to a project investigating CBS in Kenya, Peru, and South Africa, focusing on how different user groups access and utilize sanitation - contrasting CBS with other types.

Sand dam contributions to year-round water security monitored through telemetered handpump data.

Sand dams are a form of rainwater harvesting, prolific in arid and semi-arid lands. Water is provided partly via handpumps, which, as the only improved method of abstraction from sand dams, are important for drinking water security. Accelerometers and cellular transmitters were fitted to 30 handpumps by the Africa Sand Dam Foundation (ASDF) in 2019 to monitor the use and reliability of the handpumps by recording hourly water volume abstracted.

Efficacy of DigiKnowItNews: Teen, a multimedia educational website for adolescents about pediatric clinical trials: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Pediatric research is crucial for the development of new scientific advancements, treatments, and therapies for adolescents. Yet relatively few pediatric clinical trials are conducted due to barriers to successful recruitment and retention, including knowledge and attitudes about clinical trials. Adolescents tend to experience greater autonomy to make decisions and have expressed interest in being part of the decision to participate in clinical trials.

Sand dams for sustainable water management: Challenges and future opportunities.

Sand dams are impermeable water harvesting structures built to collect and store water within the volume of sediments transported by ephemeral rivers. The artificial sandy aquifer created by the sand dam reduces evaporation losses relative to surface water storage in traditional dams. Recent years have seen a renaissance of studies on sand dams as an effective water scarcity adaptation strategy for drylands.

Evaluation of a specialist antenatal nutrition clinic for women with a body mass index ≥ 40kg/m: A qualitative study.

Objective: To explore the views of women who attended a specialist antenatal nutrition clinic that was specifically developed and piloted for pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 40 kg/m.

Design: A phenomenological approach, using individual interviews, was employed. Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and scrutinised using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.

A randomised controlled feasibility trial of a BabyWASH household playspace: The CAMPI study.

Background: Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions should support infant growth but trial results are inconsistent. Frequently, interventions do not consider behaviours or transmission pathways specific to age. A household playspace (HPS) is one intervention component which may block faecal-oral transmission.

: Educating youth about pediatric clinical trials using an interactive, multimedia educational website.

Pediatric clinical trials allow for the testing of appropriate and effective treatments for children. However, some challenges exist with recruitment. This study examined the effectiveness of , an interactive, multimedia website (which includes activities, videos, and comic books) designed to educate children about clinical trials.

Multi-Sectoral Participatory Design of a BabyWASH Playspace for Rural Ethiopian Households.

Growing evidence suggests current water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions do not improve domestic hygiene sufficiently to improve infant health, nor consider the age-specific behaviors which increase infection risk. A household playspace (HPS) is described as one critical intervention to reduce direct fecal-oral transmission within formative growth periods. This article details both the design and development (materials and methods), and testing (results) of a HPS for rural Ethiopian households.

A Qualitative Study of NIMBYism for Waste in Smaller Urban Areas of a Low-Income Country, Mzuzu, Malawi.

When waste management infrastructure is built, there can be resistance from the local affected populations, often termed the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon. This study aims to understand the forms of resistance that may develop in such contexts, focusing on 2 solid waste and 1 liquid waste management site within Mzuzu City, Malawi. At the newest solid waste site, community resistance had grown to the extent that the site was reportedly destroyed by the local community.

Whither regulation, risk and water safety plans? Case studies from Malaysia and from England and Wales.

We explore the interplay between preventative risk management and regulatory style for the implementation of water safety plans in Malaysia and in England and Wales, two jurisdictions with distinct philosophies of approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 water safety professionals in Malaysia, 23 in England and Wales, supported by 6 Focus Group Discussions (n = 53 participants). A grounded theory approach produced insights on the transition from drinking water quality surveillance to preventative risk management.

Membrane distillation of concentrated blackwater: Effect of temperature, solids concentration and membrane pore size.

This study has elucidated the mechanisms governing water recovery from blackwater using membrane distillation, and has clarified the role of the organic particle fraction on membrane performance. Whilst fecal pathogen growth was initially observed at lower temperatures, pathogen inactivation was demonstrated over time, due to urea hydrolysis which liberated ammonia in excess of its toxic threshold. During the growth phase, membrane pore size <0.

Faeces - Urine separation via settling and displacement: Prototype tests for a novel non-sewered sanitation system.

The development of novel, non-sewered sanitation systems like the Nano Membrane Toilet requires thorough investigation of processes that may seem well-understood. For example, unlike the settling of primary sludge, the separation of solids from liquids in a small-volume container at the scale of a household toilet has not been studied before. In two sets of experiments, the settling of real faeces and toilet paper in settling columns and the settling of synthetic faeces in a conical tank are investigated to understand the factors affecting the liquid quality for downstream treatment processes.

Evaluating the circular economy for sanitation: Findings from a multi-case approach.

Addressing the lack of sanitation globally is a major global challenge with 700 million people still practicing open defecation. Circular Economy (CE) in the context of sanitation focuses on the whole sanitation chain which includes the provision of toilets, the collection of waste, treatment and transformation into sanitation-derived products including fertiliser, fuel and clean water. After a qualitative study from five case studies across India, covering different treatment technologies, waste-derived products, markets and contexts; this research identifies the main barriers and enablers for circular sanitation business models to succeed.

Genetic Characterization of the Giant Liver Fluke, Fascioloides magna (Platyhelminthes: Fasciolidae) From the Adirondack Region of Northern New York.

Purpose: The giant liver fluke, Fascioloides magna, is an important parasite of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginanus), a commercially important game species in the northeastern United States. However, the parasite has never been genetically characterized from this region and so its genetic interrelationships with other enzootic populations on the continent are unknown. The purpose of this study was to genetically characterize F.

Risk factors and transmission pathways associated with infant Campylobacter spp. prevalence and malnutrition: A formative study in rural Ethiopia.

Early infection from enteropathogens is recognised as both a cause and effect of infant malnutrition. Specifically, evidence demonstrates associations between growth shortfalls and Campylobacter infection, endemic across low-income settings, with poultry a major source. Whilst improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) should reduce pathogen transmission, interventions show inconsistent effects on infant health.

Planning and communicating prototype tests for the Nano Membrane Toilet: A critical review and proposed strategy.

Urban sanitation in growing cities of the Global South presents particular challenges. This led to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent The Toilet Challenge, which sparked the development of various non-sewered sanitation technologies like the Nano Membrane Toilet. Complex disruptive technologies like this entail an extensive product development process, including various types of prototype tests.

Do domestic animals contribute to bacterial contamination of infant transmission pathways? Formative evidence from Ethiopia.

Child stunting is associated with poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), partly due to the effect of infection on intestinal nutrient absorption. WASH interventions, however, show little effect on growth. A hypothesis is that bacterial contamination of hands and floors from domestic animals and their faeces, and subsequent ingestion via infant hand-to-mouth behaviours, may explain this.

A framework for targeting water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in pastoralist populations in the Afar region of Ethiopia.

Globally, many populations face structural and environmental barriers to access safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Among these populations are many of the 200 million pastoralists whose livelihood patterns and extreme environmental settings challenge conventional WASH programming approaches. In this paper, we studied the Afar pastoralists in Ethiopia to identify WASH interventions that can mostly alleviate public health risks, within the population's structural and environmental living constraints.

Field testing of a prototype mechanical dry toilet flush.

A prototype of a non-fluid based mechanical toilet flush was tested in a semi-public, institutional setting and in selected peri-urban households in eThekwini municipality, Republic of South Africa. The mechanism's functionality and users' perception of the flush were assessed. User perception varied depending on background: Users accustomed to porcelain water flush toilets were open to, yet reserved about the idea of using a waterless flush in their homes.

Environmental enteric dysfunction and child stunting.

In 2017, an estimated 1 in every 4 (23%) children aged < 5 years were stunted worldwide. With slow progress in stunting reduction in many regions and the realization that a large proportion of stunting is not due to insufficient diet or diarrhea alone, it remains that other factors must explain continued growth faltering. Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a subclinical state of intestinal inflammation, can occur in infants across the developing world and is proposed as an immediate causal factor connecting poor sanitation and stunting.

Menstrual Hygiene Management and Waste Disposal in Low and Middle Income Countries-A Review of the Literature.

Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) has gained some attention and several literature reviews have been published. However, both original papers and reviews tend to focus on absorbent access and use and not on the disposal of menstrual waste. This review aims to fill a gap in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector by bringing a focus specifically on menstrual hygiene safe disposal in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).