James M

I started relying on an assistant to scaffold unit tests for a medium-sized service: generate test...

I was using an LLM-assisted workflow to speed up a data-cleaning sprint and it repeatedly suggested...

We started using model-assisted test generation to speed up coverage for a legacy service. At first...

We started using a language model to generate unit tests for an internal service to speed up coverage...

We were using a multi-turn code assistant to help with a cross-cutting rename: changing a frequently...

At some point, Safaricom quietly changed the M-Pesa Daraja C2B callback payload. The MSISDN field —...

Brucellosis is one of the most widespread zoonoses globally. The disease is associated with significant human illnesses and livestock production losses, particularly among pastoralist communities. Despite its recognition as a significant zoonotic disease, reliable estimates of the health burden of brucellosis in humans and animals are limited. This study aimed to determine the annual seroincidence of Brucella spp. in humans and animals in a pastoralist community and to explore risk factors associated with exposure. We conducted a one-year, household-based longitudinal study in Isiolo County, northern Kenya. Households within a 20 km radius of Kinna town were eligible for enrollment if they owned at least one livestock species (cattle, goats, or sheep). All consenting humans and five animals per species were included. Quarterly blood sampling was performed, and Brucella immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). A structured questionnaire was administered to collect data on potential risk factors for human and animal exposures. An incident case was defined as any human or animal that seroconverted during follow-up. Counts of incident cases were used to estimate exact incidence rates, with human- and animal-years at risk serving as the denominators. The data were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards model, which allowed for type I right censoring. Crude and adjusted hazard rate ratios were estimated using univariable and multivariable models. The study enrolled 814 individuals (median age, 21.5 years; range, 2–90 years). A total of 1938 animals were recruited, comprising 687 cattle (35.5%), 622 sheep (32.1%), and 629 goats (32.4%). We identified 25 human incident cases over 435 person-years, resulting in an incidence rate of 0.057 (95% CI 0.035–0.080). The standard multivariable Cox regression analysis (with right censoring) revealed significant associations with age (p = 0.005), placenta removal (p = 0.031), and the occurrence of an incident case in livestock (p = 0.026). We identified 22 animal incidents across 1143 animal years, yielding an annual incidence of 0.019 cases per year (95% CI 0.011–0.027). Incidence was higher among younger animals and goats. The population-based incidence of Brucella spp. in humans and livestock indicates active transmission in this pastoralist community. Age, placenta removal, and household livestock infection were independently associated with human seroconversion, while goats and younger animals had significantly higher exposure rates than other livestock species and older animals, respectively. This highlights the human–livestock interface as a key pathway for transmission. Future studies should investigate the link between seroconversion and active infection in humans and livestock.

On March 12, 2025 I hit a wall. I was knee‑deep in a side project that scrapes academic PDFs to...

The King has been pleased to approve the following appointments:

Properties of AlN/GaN surfaces are important for realizing the tunability of devices, as the presence of surface states contributes to Fermi level pinning. This pinning can influence the performance of high electron mobility transistors and is also important for passivation of the surface when developing high-power electronic devices. It is widely understood that both AlN and GaN surfaces oxidize. Since there are many possible reconstructions for each surface, it is a challenge to identify the relevant surface reconstructions in advance of a detailed simulation. Because of this, different approaches are often employed to down select initial structures to reduce the computational load. These approaches usually rely on either electron counting rules or oxide stoichiometry, as both of these models tend to lead to structures that are energetically favorable. Here we explore models from these approaches but also explore a reconstruction of the (0001) surface directly observed using scanning transmission electron microscopy with predictive density functional theory simulations. Two compositions of the observed surface reconstruction—one which obeys oxide stoichiometry and one which is cation deficient and obeys electron counting—are compared to reconstructions from the previous work. Furthermore, surface states are directly calculated using hybrid exchange-correlation functionals that correct for the underestimation of the bandgaps in AlN and GaN and improve the predicted positions of surface states within the gap. It is found that cation deficiency in the observed reconstruction yields surface states consistent with the experiment. Based on all of these results, we provide insight into the observed properties of oxidized AlGaN surfaces.