Mattering, social support, resilience and sense of empowerment during the pandemic

The sense of empowerment had always been reported as contingent upon resilience, the sense of financial security, and perceived social support (PSS). In the context of the Malaysian urban population, the outbreak shifted social dynamics through the enforcement of movement control order (MCO), a partial-to-full lockdown policy enforced by the government to curb the virus. Studies in the local context suggested that the implementation of MCO led to a sense of uncertainty towards social support and financial security among the population, as well as the decline of resilience and the sense of mattering. This sparked a question, whether the significance of PSS, resilience, mattering, and income levels are still significant in predicting the sense of empowerment among our population. Through open social media pages, 405 adults between 18 and 62 years of age (M=25.44) living in urban areas of Malaysia to respond to the scales of empowerment, resilience, PSS, and mattering with some financial compensation in the form of e-wallet credits. Our findings suggested that PSS was no longer a significant predictor of empowerment after controlling for resilience, mattering, and income, which was opposed to other predictors in the equation that were still significant even after controlling for each other. Further relationships among the variables, implications and suggestions are discussed

The Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of Murray Valley Encephalitis Virus: Recent Emergence of Distinct Sub-lineages of the Dominant Genotype 1

© 2015 Williams et al. Background: Recent increased activity of the mosquito-borne Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) in Australia has renewed concerns regarding its potential to spread and cause disease. Methodology/Principal Findings: To better understand the genetic relationships between earlier and more recent circulating strains, patterns of virus movement, as well as the molecular basis of MVEV evolution, complete pre-membrane (prM) and Envelope (Env) genes were sequenced from sixty-six MVEV strains from different regions of the Australasian region, isolated over a sixty year period (1951–2011). Phylogenetic analyses indicated that, of the four recognized genotypes, only G1 and G2 are contemporary. G1 viruses were dominant over the sampling period and found across the known geographic range of MVEV. Two distinct sub-lineages of G1 were observed (1A and 1B). Although G1B strains have been isolated from across mainland Australia, Australian G1A strains have not been detected outside northwest Australia. Similarly, G2 is comprised of only Western Australian isolates from mosquitoes, suggesting G1B and G2 viruses have geographic or ecological restrictions. No evidence of recombination was found and a single amino acid substitution in the Env protein (S332G) was found to be under positive selection, while several others were found to be under directional evolution. Evolutionary analyses indicated that extant genotypes of MVEV began to diverge from a common ancestor approximately 200 years ago. G2 was the first genotype to diverge, followed by G3 and G4, and finally G1, from which subtypes G1A and G1B diverged between 1964 and 1994. Conclusions/Significance: The results of this study provides new insights into the genetic diversity and evolution of MVEV. The demonstration of co-circulation of all contemporary genetic lineages of MVEV in northwestern Australia, supports the contention that this region is the enzootic focus for this virus

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Mattering, social support, resilience and sense of empowerment during the pandemic

The sense of empowerment had always been reported as contingent upon resilience, the sense of financial security, and perceived social support (PSS). In the context of the Malaysian urban population, the outbreak shifted social dynamics through the enforcement of movement control order (MCO), a partial-to-full lockdown policy enforced by the government to curb the virus. Studies in the local context suggested that the implementation of MCO led to a sense of uncertainty towards social support and financial security among the population, as well as the decline of resilience and the sense of mattering. This sparked a question, whether the significance of PSS, resilience, mattering, and income levels are still significant in predicting the sense of empowerment among our population. Through open social media pages, 405 adults between 18 and 62 years of age (M=25.44) living in urban areas of Malaysia to respond to the scales of empowerment, resilience, PSS, and mattering with some financial compensation in the form of e-wallet credits. Our findings suggested that PSS was no longer a significant predictor of empowerment after controlling for resilience, mattering, and income, which was opposed to other predictors in the equation that were still significant even after controlling for each other. Further relationships among the variables, implications and suggestions are discussed.</jats:p

ASEAN Marine Water Quality: Monitoring Manual

[Extract] ASEAN environment ministers adopted the ASEAN Marine Water Quality Criteria (AMWQC) for 17 parameters in 2002. Part One of this Handbook outlines the history behind the criteria and steps towards their implementation under the ASEAN Marine water Quality Project. Part Three of the Handbook [this section] consists of a Monitoring Manual wherein recommended methods for the implementation of monitoring programs suitable for the AMWQC are documented

ASEAN Marine Water Quality: Monitoring Manual

[Extract] ASEAN environment ministers adopted the ASEAN Marine Water Quality Criteria (AMWQC) for 17 parameters in 2002. Part One of this Handbook outlines the history behind the criteria and steps towards their implementation under the ASEAN Marine water Quality Project. Part Three of the Handbook [this section] consists of a Monitoring Manual wherein recommended methods for the implementation of monitoring programs suitable for the AMWQC are documented