Occupational and Environmental Health Concerns on Unsafe Acts and Conditions in Poultry Production Sites in Ido-Osi, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Aim: Many food animal production facilities are sited close to human residence. This research work seeks to establish the occupational and environmental burdens of unsafe acts and conditions in backyard poultry production sites in the area of study in order to validate the compliance level of poultry farmers to common safety regulations. Place and Duration of Study: Microbiology Department, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, from February 2017 to December 2019. Methodology: A well-structured questionnaire was administered to farm managers and residents within the area of study. Data on poultry management attitudes and history of water use were collected. The coordinates of the poultry sites, natural water bodies, source area and their relative distances were determined using the Geographical System Information Software, Mapit GIS. Fecal droppings from poultry birds were randomly sampled with a sterile swab stick and transferred into a factory-packed polythene bag. The suspension of the fecal droppings was streaked on Eosin Methylene Blue agar plates and incubated at 37°C for 18-24 hours. Waste-water, soil from disposal sites, and poultry feed samples were also collected in sterile universal bottles, serially diluted and cultured. E. coli isolates were characterized using relevant biochemical tests. The modified paper disc-diffusion method was used to determine the isolates’ sensitivity to nine tested antibiotics. The results were interpreted based on the procedures of the clinical and laboratory standard institutes. Results: Majority of the poultry farms under survey, 83% adopted the intensive ranging system of farming while few adopted the free range system. Layers were the most reared, 50%. There was no documented health, safety and regulatory protocols used on all the farms leading to variations in poultry management practices. Accumulated poultry droppings were periodically disposed between 3-4 days into open fields, flowing water bodies and pits. Among the three adopted waste disposal options, disposal into open field was rampant, 67%. Also, some of the poultry farmers, 42% applied the collected poultry droppings as farm yard manure. Family members constitute the major labor force, 92% on the farm. There were contacts between few of the farmers and their clients during routine farm activities. Majority of the farmers, 83.3% were not kitted with commonly-used personal protective equipment while coverall was only used by few. The five natural water bodies found within the area of study were majorly used for agricultural, domestic, and, recreational purposes. There was history of diarrhea in respondents, 12% with exposure to the water bodies. Socio-demographic data show that young, married-males with tertiary education comprise the major farming population. The relative distance of poultry farms to residential site is ≤ 6 meters while the proximity of poultry farms to natural water sources is between 160 meters to 4,596 meters. Antibiotic sensitivity test shows that multiple antibiotic-resistant bacteria were present in poultry droppings, waste water and soil from poultry waste disposal sites. Bacterial resistance to the fluoroquinolones, sulphonamide, tetracycline, aminoglycoside and penicillin was high. Conclusion: The findings on unsafe act audit of the poultry production sites assert that safety of public health is dependent on the quality of water and soil found in human environment. Unsafe acts and conditions with the inherent occupational hazards in poultry production sites are attributed to non-functional health, safety and environment management system. Antibiotic resistant bacteria in poultry droppings constitute biological hazard to humans. Exposure to these biological hazards predisposes the public to infections. Human and environmental health can be improved by reviewing the national guidelines and standards for environmental pollution control.

Rest in Peace Post-Earnings Announcement Drift

This paper revisits price formation following earnings announcements. In modern financial markets, stock prices fully reflect earnings surprises on the announcement date, leading to the disappearance of post-earnings announcement drifts (PEAD). For large stocks, PEAD have been non-existent since 2006 but has only disappeared recently for microcap stocks. PEAD remain a prevalent area of study in finance and accounting despite having largely disappeared. This paper concludes with a set of recommendations for researchers who conduct such studies to better assess the existence of PEAD and suggests future research avenues to examine price formation following earnings news.

Timing of resin-tapping operations in maritime pine forests in Northern Spain

Aim of study: To optimize the timing of resin-tapping activities for maximizing the economic efficiency of resin tapping in Atlantic maritime pine forests. Area of study: Northern Spain. Material and methods: We conducted three small experiments in a mature maritime pine forest aimed to test: i) the impact of groove frequency on resin production, ii) the effect of previous grooves as a driver of temporal patterns of resin production along the seasons and iii) the impact of previous tapping on resin production in the following campaign. Main results: The resin produced decreased as groove frequency decreased, but the reduction was low. Considering that the number of trees that a worker can tap increases with more spaced grooves, higher tapping efficiency can be achieved with monthly grooves. Previous tapping increased resin yield during the following campaign but resin production was not affected by the previous grooves during the current tapping campaign. Research highlights: Responses to wounding seem to require time to be effective and temporal patterns of resin production appear to be driven by weather conditions alone.

The Neurobiology of Trust

Trust is essential for establishing and maintaining cooperative behaviors between individuals and institutions in a wide variety of social, economic, and political contexts. This book explores trust through the lens of neurobiology, focusing on empirical, methodological, and theoretical aspects. Written by a distinguished group of researchers from economics, psychology, human factors, neuroscience, and psychiatry, the chapters shed light on the neurobiological underpinnings of trust as applied in a variety of domains. Researchers and students will discover a refined understanding of trust by delving into the essential topics in this area of study outlined by leading experts.

Special Issue “Researching Sports Biomechanics for Disabled People”

Disabled people compete at high levels in several sport disciplines and physical activity for this population has become a high interest area of study in biomechanics [...]

Differentially private partition selection

Many data analysis operations can be expressed as a GROUP BY query on an unbounded set of partitions, followed by a per-partition aggregation. To make such a query differentially private, adding noise to each aggregation is not enough: we also need to make sure that the set of partitions released is also differentially private. This problem is not new, and it was recently formally introduced as differentially private set union [14]. In this work, we continue this area of study, and focus on the common setting where each user is associated with a single partition. In this setting, we propose a simple, optimal differentially private mechanism that maximizes the number of released partitions. We discuss implementation considerations, as well as the possible extension of this approach to the setting where each user contributes to a fixed, small number of partitions.

Slant Helices of (k,m)-Type According to the ED-Frame in Minkowski 4-Space

In differential geometry, relations between curves are a large and important area of study for many researchers. Frame areas are an important tool when studying curves, specially the Frenet–Serret frame along a space curve and the Darboux frame along a surface curve in differential geometry. In this paper, we obtain slant helices of k-type according to the extended Darboux frame (or, for brevity, ED-frame) field by using the ED-frame field of the first kind (or, for brevity, EDFFK), which is formed with an anti-symmetric matrix for ε1=ε2=ε3=ε4∈{−1,1} and the ED-frame field of the second kind (or, for brevity, EDFSK), which is formed with an anti-symmetric matrix for ε1=ε2=ε3=ε4∈{−1,1} in four-dimensional Minkowski space E14. In addition, we present some characterizations of slant helices and determine (k,m)-type slant helices for the EDFFK and EDFSK in Minkowski 4-space.

The Opening of the Great Bush, 1869-1881: a Social History of the Bush Settlements of Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Wellington

<p>In undertaking this study I had the two-fold object of investigating an area of our history which appears to me to have been too long neglected, and, in presenting my results, of grappling with the problems of writing colonial social history. So far we have only had limited studies of selected aspects of the bush settlement era of North Island history. I believe we cannot properly understand this great colonising effort unless we endeavour both to view it whole and to place it in the larger context of colonial history. I have therefore taken the whole southern half of the North Island as my area of study, and have endeavoured to show how the assault on the Great Bush relates to the aftermath of the Maori Wars, the larger social history of the colony as a whole, and the agrarian history of the Old World from which so many of the bush settlers came. I had hoped originally to carry the story through at least three decades, but it became apparent that my broad canvas required some kind of narrowing, and I reluctantly decided to limit myself to the period 1869-1881, which seemed to have a sufficient political and economic unity to stand on its own. I have, however, done a good deal of research on through the 1880s and 1890s, and this, I trust, has enabled me to see the significance of the 1870s with a sense of perspective.</p>

The Opening of the Great Bush, 1869-1881: a Social History of the Bush Settlements of Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Wellington

<p>In undertaking this study I had the two-fold object of investigating an area of our history which appears to me to have been too long neglected, and, in presenting my results, of grappling with the problems of writing colonial social history. So far we have only had limited studies of selected aspects of the bush settlement era of North Island history. I believe we cannot properly understand this great colonising effort unless we endeavour both to view it whole and to place it in the larger context of colonial history. I have therefore taken the whole southern half of the North Island as my area of study, and have endeavoured to show how the assault on the Great Bush relates to the aftermath of the Maori Wars, the larger social history of the colony as a whole, and the agrarian history of the Old World from which so many of the bush settlers came. I had hoped originally to carry the story through at least three decades, but it became apparent that my broad canvas required some kind of narrowing, and I reluctantly decided to limit myself to the period 1869-1881, which seemed to have a sufficient political and economic unity to stand on its own. I have, however, done a good deal of research on through the 1880s and 1890s, and this, I trust, has enabled me to see the significance of the 1870s with a sense of perspective.</p>

Corporate Sustainability, Ethics and Employee Satisfaction

Corporate sustainability has emerged as an important area of study recently [...]