Gastrointestinal nematode infestations remain one of the main constraints to goat productivity. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate the perceptions of goat farmers on the infestation and control of gastrointestinal nematode infestation. A total of 282 goat farmers from two villages of Mbizana local municipality in Alfred Nzo district were interviewed. Higher prevalence of diseases, parasites and feed availability were among the major constraints to goat productivity. Gastrointestinal parasites were ranked as the major constraint by farmers in the grassland than those in the forestland. Ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed that farmers in the grassland were 3.2 times more likely to experience gastrointestinal nematode infestation than those in the forestland (P  less then  0.05). On both vegetation types, tethered goats were perceived to have higher (P  less then  0.05) GIN infestation compared with free browsing goats. Poor farmers were 3.1 times more (P  less then  0.05) likely to experience high GIN infestation compared with less poor farmers. Farmers in the grassland were 2.1 times more likely to control GI nematode infestation than to those in the forestland (P  less then  0.05). Intervention strategies to control gastrointestinal nematodes should mainly target farmers from the grassland vegetation since they experience higher infestation rates of gastrointestinal nematodes.The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is believed to share similar characteristics with SARS in 2003 and Mediterranean East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012. We hypothesized that countries with previous exposure to SARS and MERS were significantly more likely to have fewer cases and deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We retrieved the incidence of COVID-19 per 100,000 population within 30 days since the first confirmed case was reported from the 2019 Novel COVID-19 data repository by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Systems Science and Engineering for 94 countries. The association between previous exposure to SARS and/or MERS and the 30-day COVID-19 incidence rate was examined by multivariable linear regression analysis, whilst controlling for potential confounders including the INFORM COVID-19 Risk Index, Testing Policies, Democracy Index, Scientific Citation Index, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI) and the population density of each country. We found that countries with previous exposure to SARS and/or MERS epidemics were significantly more likely to have lower incidence of COVID-19 (β coefficient - 225.6, 95% C.I. - 415.8,- 35.4, p = 0.021). However, countries being classified as having "full democracy" using Democracy Index had higher incidence of COVID-19 (reference authoritarian regime; β coefficient 425.0, 95% C.I. 98.0, 752.0, p = 0.011). This implies that previous exposure to global epidemics and Democracy Index for a country are associated its performance in response to COVID-19. We recommend future studies should evaluate the impact of various pandemic control strategies at individual, community, and policy levels on mitigation of the disease.We examined the correlation between interviewer-administered Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale II (VABS-II) and the parent-rated Adaptive Behavior Assessment System II (ABAS-II) questionnaire in 352 participants (ages 1.5-20.8 years) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to determine if ABAS could be used as a screen to reduce the number of VABS interviews. Corresponding domain scores between the two measures were highly correlated but scores were significantly lower on the ABAS-II. Screening with ABAS-II significantly reduced the number of VABS-II interviews required with little cost to overall accuracy. The ABAS-II provides a cost- and time-saving alternative to the VABS-II to rule out functional impairment; however, scores are not strictly comparable between the two measures.The amount of research concerned with the values of health professionals (HPs) is steadily growing. Around the world HPs face similar challenges when patients express their existential and spiritual views. How HPs engage these views, and the degree of embedment into consultations, differ across cultures. Today, more than ever before, researchers in this field need to share experiences and build new knowledge upon local findings. To meet this demand, we founded the international collaboration "Network for Research on Spirituality and Health" ( https//NERSH.org ). One of the central projects of our network has been to build a large international data pool of health professionals' attitudes toward religiosity and spirituality. Today the data pool hosts answers from more than 6,000 health professionals from 17 separate surveys derived from 12 countries. Data were gathered by either the questionnaire "Religion and Spirituality in Medicine, Perspectives of Physicians" (RSMPP) or its successor 'NERSH Questionnaire'. In this article we describe the methodology behind the construction of the data pool. We also present an overview of five available scales related to HP religiosity and spirituality, including a description of scale reliability and dimensionality. Zinc is an important essential micronutrient with anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties in humans. CX-5461 ic50 The role of zinc in signalling has been characterized in the nervous, endocrine, gastrointestinal, renal and reproductive systems. Relatively little is known regarding its role in the vascular system, but the role of zinc homeostasis in augmenting vascular health and vasorelaxation is emerging. Zinc transport proteins are integral to the protective function of zinc, but knowledge of their expression in vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells is lacking. Human coronary artery endothelial cells and pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells were assessed for gene expression (RT-PCR) of SLC39A (ZIP), SLC30A (ZnT) and metallothionein (MT) families of Zn transporters and storage proteins. Protein expression (fluorescence confocal microscopy) was then analysed for the proteins of interest that changed mRNA expression ZIP2, ZIP12, ZnT1, ZnT2 and MT1/2. Endothelial and smooth muscle cell mRNA expression of ZnT1, ZnT2 and MT1 was significantly downregulated by low and high Zn conditions, while ZIP2 and ZIP12 expression was induced by Zn depletion with the Zn chelator, TPEN.