Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of three phenotypic and deoxyribonucleic acid extraction methods for isolation and Identification of Nocardia spp

Background: The aerobic Actinomycetes are a large group of soil-indwelling bacteria that are distributed in world-wide. These Gram-positive bacteria are most commonly associated with opportunistic infections in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent hosts. Materials and Methods: In this study, three phenotypic and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction methods for isolation and identification of Nocardia genus were compared. Samples were taken in five different locations of Isfahan′s suburb from hospitals area, parks, agricultural lands, gardens, arid lands with different soil temperature and pH. Results: In this study, showed that slip-buried-method was better than two other phenotypic methods; 14 out of 70 soil samples (20%) were positive for Nocardia spp. DNA of positive samples were extracted with three techniques and DNA extraction by microwave technique was better than others. This technique was confirmed with observation of DNA bands on 1% agarose gel. Conclusions: These bacteria are important in immune deficient patients such as cancer patients, transplant recipients, tuberculosis; acquired immunodeficiency syndrome etc., Their affluence is unsteady in different zones of the world. In this study, among the three phenotypic methods for the isolation of Nocardia slip-buried method was better than other methods. Among DNA extraction techniques, DNA extraction by microwave method would be selective method for DNA extraction of Nocardia spp. compared with others techniques.
Multiscale Reinforcing Interlayers of Self-same P(St-co-GMA) Nanofibers Loaded with MCF for Polymer Composites and Nanocomposites

Electrospinning has become a proven technique to introduce polymeric sub-phases into composites. The sub-phases such as nanofibers can also be used as a carrier platform for reinforcing particles at different scales, enabling a multiscale reinforcement approach. However, the polymeric nanofibers may lose their intended fibrous morphology during the composite curing at elevated temperature. As such, polymeric sub-phase can not contribute effectively as fibers to the mechanical properties of the composite. This paper exemplifies introduction of milled carbon fibers (MCF) carried by electrospun polymeric nanofibers and the use of the resultant multi-scale reinforcement as interlayer within conventional structural composites. The issue of polymeric nanofibers exposed to elevated temperature curing is circumvented by implementing a novel self-same nanofibrous strategy. While a base polymer for the nanofibers is chosen as epoxy compatible P(St-co-GMA), its derivative by a cross-linker Phthalic Anhydrate, P(St-co-GMA)/PA is also incorporated by dual-electrospining, i.e. simultaneous electrospinning of the two polymers. It was shown that the nanofibers of the base polymer melt and fuse over the cross-linkable nanofibers forming the self-same nanofibrous morphology during the heat treatment in accordance with the cure cycle of the epoxy resin in this study. MCFs were mixed into the cross-linkable polymer solution and electrospun with the P(St-coGMA)/PA nanofibers. The dual polymer and MCF loaded nanofibrous structures were analyzed morphologically before and after heat treatment. Homogenous distribution of particles in the fibrous structures, melting of the neat copolymer, crosslinking of the polymer mix, and selfsame fibrous structure were characterized. The nanofiber mats were used as the reinforcement to epoxy resin films and as interlayers for carbon fiber-reinforced composites. In the case of nanocomposites, MCF enhanced the elastic modulus by about 9%. In the use of multiscale nanofibrous mats as interlayers of continuous carbon fiber composites, they improved the ultimate tensile strength of a cross-ply laminate by 9%.
Earnings Announcements are Full of Surprises

We study the drift in returns of portfolios formed on the basis of the stock price reaction around earnings announcements. The Earnings Announcement Return (EAR) captures the market reaction to unexpected information contained in the company's earnings release. Besides the actual earnings news, this includes unexpected information about sales, margins, investment, and other less tangible information communicated round the earnings announcement. A strategy that buys and sells companies sorted on EAR produces an average abnormal return of 7.55% per year, 1.3%more than a strategy based on the traditional measure of earnings surprise, SUE. The post earnings announcement drift for EAR strategy is stronger than post earnings announcement drift for SUE. More importantly, unlike SUE, the EAR strategy returns do not show a reversal after 3 quarters. The EAR and SUE strategies appear to be independent of each other. A strategy that exploits both pieces of information generates abnormal returns of about 12.5% on an annual basis.
Development of groupware systems with the COPSE infrastructure

For a long time now, infrastructure technologies for the development of groupware applications have been proposed. However, the task of developing groupware is still complex, since it involves not only technical, but also social issues. As a consequence, current technologies represent limited solutions for supporting important aspects of cooperative work. Focused on what we consider essential issues in the development og groupware, we propose an infrastructure to support this development. The infrastructure was developed in the context of the COPSE project, aiming the development of a Collaborative Project Support Environment.
Linear Operators Preserving Generalized Numerical Ranges and Radii on Certain Triangular Algebras of Matrices

Abstract Let $c\,=\,\left( {{c}_{1}},\ldots ,{{c}_{n}} \right)$ be such that ${{c}_{1}}\,\ge \,\cdots \,\ge \,{{c}_{n}}$ . The $c$ -numerical range of an $n\,\times \,n$ matrix $A$ is defined by $${{W}_{c}}\left( A \right)\,=\,\left\{ \sum\limits_{j=1}^{n}{{{c}_{j}}\left( A{{x}_{j}},\,{{x}_{j}} \right)\,:\,\left\{ {{x}_{1}},\ldots ,{{x}_{n}} \right\}\,\text{an}\,\text{orthonormal basis for }{{\mathbf{C}}^{n}}} \right\}\,,$$ and the $c$ -numerical radius of $A$ is defined by ${{r}_{c}}\left( A \right)\,=\,\max \left\{ \left| z \right|\,:\,z\,\in \,{{W}_{c}}\left( A \right) \right\}$ . We determine the structure of those linear operators $\phi$ on algebras of block triangular matrices, satisfying $${{W}_{c}}\left( \phi \left( A \right) \right)={{W}_{c}}\left( A \right)\text{for}\,\,\text{all}\,\,A\,\text{or}\,\,{{r}_{c}}\left( \phi \left( A \right) \right)={{r}_{c}}\left( A \right)\text{for}\,\,\text{all}\,A. $$
Viral etiology of respiratory infections in children under 5 years old living in tropical rural areas of Senegal: The EVIRA project

Acute respiratory infection is one of the leading causes of child morbidity, especially in developing countries. Viruses are recognized as the predominant causative agents of acute respiratory infections. In Senegal, few data concerning the causes of respiratory infections are available, and those known relate mainly to classical influenza infections. Clinical and virological surveillance of acute respiratory infections was carried out in a rural community in children less than 5 years old. A standardized questionnaire was used and a nasopharyngeal swab sample was collected from each patient. These samples were tested for the detection of 20 respiratory viruses by multiplex RT‐PCR or by viral culture. A total of 82 acute respiratory episodes were included, and 48 (58.5%) were found to be positive, with a total of 55 viral detections; several samples were positive for two (n = 5) or 3 (n = 1) viruses. Ten different viruses were identified: influenza viruses A, B, and C (n = 25), human respiratory syncytial virus type A (n = 13), rhinoviruses (n = 8), human coronaviruses type 229E and NL63 (n = 6), parainfluenza viruses 3 and 4 (n = 2), and bocavirus (n = 1). These results provide evidence on the importance and the diversity of viruses as causative agents of acute respiratory infections in children living in a rural community in Senegal. The establishment of sentinel surveillance sites could help estimate the burden of acute respiratory infection in the pediatric population and should help prepare the health care systems to identify and respond to new viral respiratory emergencies. J. Med. Virol. 82:866–872, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Tubo-Ovarian Abscess Management Options for Women Who Desire Fertility

Tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA), a serious sequela of pelvic inflammatory disease, occurs usually in women of ages 20 to 40. Up to 59% of these women are nulliparous. Traditionally, pregnancy rates after TOA are estimated to be 15% or less. Current proposed management algorithms for TOA do not include a separate pathway for women of reproductive age who may desire future pregnancies. A MEDLINE search and extensive review of published literature was undertaken to study management options for patients with TOA, and to compare rates of responders, pregnancies and complications associated with each management option. If intra-abdominal rupture is suspected, and patients are treated with fertility-preserving, conservative surgery, reported pregnancy rate is 25%. If no rupture is suspected and patients are treated with medical management alone, reported pregnancy rates vary between 4% and 15%. If no rupture is suspected, and the treatment is medical management with immediate laparoscopic drainage within 24 hours, reported pregnancy rates vary between 32% and 63%. Laparoscopy should be considered to all patients with TOA who desire future conception. Overall, the advantages of immediate laparoscopy allow for an accurate diagnosis, effective treatment under magnification with minimal complications, possibly faster response rates with shorter hospitalization times and decreased infertility. Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives: After completion of this educational activity, the participant should be better able to create an active management plan for patients presenting with acute tubo-ovarian abscess, identify cases of women with pelvic inflammatory disease and tubo-ovarian abscess with increased frequency, and describe outcomes of various management strategies for women with tubo-ovarian abscess.
Association between periodontitis needing surgical treatment and subsequent diabetes risk: a population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND It is well known that patients with diabetes have higher extent and severity of periodontitis, but the backward relationship is little investigated. The relationship between periodontitis needing dental surgery and subsequent type 2 diabetes mellitus (DMT2) in those individuals without diabetes was assessed. METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study using data from the national health insurance system of Taiwan. The periodontitis cohort involved 22,299 patients, excluding those with diabetes already or those diagnosed with diabetes within 1 year from baseline. Each study participant was randomly frequency matched by age, sex, and index year with one individual from the general population without periodontitis. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to estimate the influence of periodontitis on the risk of diabetes. RESULTS The mean follow-up period is 5.47 ± 3.54 years. Overall, the subsequent incidence of DMT2 was 1.24-fold higher in the periodontitis cohort than in the control cohort, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.19 (95% confidence interval = 1.10 to 1.29) after controlling for sex, age, and comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS This is the largest nation-based study examining the risk of diabetes in Asian patients with periodontitis. Those patients with periodontitis needing dental surgery have increased risk of future diabetes within 2 years compared with those participants with periodontitis not requiring dental surgery.
Determinants of nutritional status of women and children in Ethiopia.

All of the national surveys on child nutrition and small-scale studies on women nutrition were descriptive in nature and limited to analysis of associations between nutritional status with certain nutrition-related variables. Few local studies have been done on risk factors of malnutrition in children and most of these studies are based on small-scale survey data concentrated in certain regions. The present study is based on national data from the 2000 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) with reference to the 13447 women age 15-49 years and 9768 children under five. The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of socioeconomic and demographic factors on maternal and child nutritional status using multivariate analysis. This study also examines the association of exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding with stunting among children under age five. (excerpt)
Alternative Macroautophagic Pathways

Macroautophagy is a bulk degradation process that mediates the clearance of long-lived proteins, aggregates, or even whole organelles. This process includes the formation of autophagosomes, double-membrane structures responsible for delivering cargo to lysosomes for degradation. Currently, other alternative autophagy pathways have been described, which are independent of macroautophagic key players like Atg5 and Beclin 1 or the lipidation of LC3. In this review, we highlight recent insights in indentifying and understanding the molecular mechanism responsible for alternative autophagic pathways.
Rényi Entropies and Large Deviations for the First Match Function

We define the first match function Tn : C<sup>n</sup> → {1, . , n} where C is a finite alphabet. For two copies of x<sub>1</sub><sup>n</sup> ∈ C<sup>n</sup>, this function gives the minimum number of steps one has to slide one copy of x<sub>1</sub><sup>n</sup> to get a match with the other one. For ergodic positive entropy processes, Saussol and coauthors proved the almost sure convergence of T<sub>n</sub>/n. We compute the large deviation properties of this function. We prove that this limit is related to the Rényi entropy function, which is also proved to exist. Our results hold under a condition easy to check which defines a large class of processes. We provide some examples.
Mutation Analysis of COQ2 in Chinese Patients with Cerebellar Subtype of Multiple System Atrophy

Recently, mutations in COQ2 encoding para‐hydroxybenzoate‐polyprenyl transferase have been identified to increase the risk of multiple system atrophy (MSA) in multiplex families and sporadic cases. The prevalence of COQ2 mutations was showed to be higher in cerebellar subtype (MSA‐C) than parkinsonism subtype (MSA‐P). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between COQ2 mutations and MSA‐C in Chinese patients.
Comorbidity and survival of Danish cirrhosis patients: A nationwide population‐based cohort study

Patients with liver cirrhosis have a high mortality, not just from cirrhosis‐related causes, but also from other causes. This observation indicates that many patients with cirrhosis have other chronic diseases, yet the prognostic impact of comorbidities has not been examined. Using data from a nationwide Danish population‐based hospital registry, we identified patients who were diagnosed with cirrhosis between 1995 and 2006 and computed their burden of comorbidity using the Charlson comorbidity index. We compared survival between comorbidity groups, adjusting for alcoholism, sex, age, and calendar period. We also examined the risks of cirrhosis‐related and non–cirrhosis‐related death using data from death certificates and identified a matched comparison cohort without cirrhosis from the Danish population. We included 14,976 cirrhosis patients, 38% of whom had one or more comorbidities. The overall 1‐year survival probability was 65.5%; the 10‐year survival probability was 21.5%. Compared with patients with a Charlson comorbidity index of 0, the mortality rate was increased 1.17‐fold in patients with an index of 1 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.11–1.23], 1.51‐fold in patients with an index of 2 (95% CI, 1.42–1.62), and two‐fold in patients with an index of 3 or higher (95% CI, 1.85–2.15). In the first year of follow‐up, but not later, comorbidity increased the risk of cirrhosis‐related death, and this was consistent with an apparent synergy between the cirrhosis and comorbidity effects on mortality in the same period. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that comorbidity is an important prognostic factor for patients with cirrhosis. Successful treatment of comorbid diseases in the first year after diagnosis may substantially reduce the mortality rate. (HEPATOLOGY 2008.)
The effect of antidepressant treatment on HIV and depression outcomes: results from a randomized trial

Background:Depression is a major barrier to HIV treatment outcomes. Objective:To test whether antidepressant management decision support integrated into HIV care improves antiretroviral adherence and depression morbidity. Design:Pseudo-cluster randomized trial. Setting:Four US infectious diseases clinics. Participants:HIV-infected adults with major depressive disorder. Intervention:Measurement-based care (MBC) – depression care managers used systematic metrics to give HIV primary-care clinicians standardized antidepressant treatment recommendations. Measurements:Primary – antiretroviral medication adherence (monthly unannounced telephone-based pill counts for 12 months). Primary time-point – 6 months. Secondary – depressive severity, depression remission, depression-free days, measured quarterly for 12 months. Results:From 2010 to 2013, 149 participants were randomized to intervention and 155 to usual care. Participants were mostly men, Black, non-Hispanic, unemployed, and virally suppressed with high baseline self-reported antiretroviral adherence and depressive severity. Over follow-up, no differences between arms in antiretroviral adherence or other HIV outcomes were apparent. At 6 months, depressive severity was lower among intervention participants than usual care [mean difference −3.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) −5.6, −1.7], probability of depression remission was higher [risk difference 13%, 95% CI 1%, 25%), and suicidal ideation was lower (risk difference −18%, 95% CI −30%, −6%). By 12 months, the arms had comparable mental health outcomes. Intervention arm participants experienced an average of 29 (95% CI: 1–57) more depression-free days over 12 months. Conclusion:In the largest trial of its kind among HIV-infected adults, MBC did not improve HIV outcomes, possibly because of high baseline adherence, but achieved clinically significant depression improvements and increased depression-free days. MBC may be an effective, resource-efficient approach to reducing depression morbidity among HIV patients.
Cutaneous freckling: Possible new clinical marker for the diagnosis of Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome in Indian Asian patients with oculocutaneous albinism

Visiting Volunteer Faculty, Pediatric Ophthalmology and Ocular Genetics, Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India; Senior Consultant and International Faculty, Pediatric Ophthalmology & Ocular Genetics, CMER (Shenzhen) Dennis Lam Hospital, Shenzhen, China; Honorary Consultant, Lumbini Eye Institute, Siddarthanagar, Nepal; Department of Genetics, Aravind Medical Research Foundation, Madurai, India; Certified Genetic Counselor, North Wales, Pennsylvania, USA; BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China; Albrecht Kossel Institute for Neuroregeneration, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany; Centogene AG, Institute for Rare Diseases, Rostock, Germany; Constultant Dermatologist, Madurai, India; Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India
Perceived barriers and facilitators to HIV testing in South African communities

We interviewed 15 South Africans seeking HIV testing to understand the factors that influenced their seeking an HIV test. Reasons in favour of testing included having had unprotected sex, availability of social support if testing HIV positive and modelling test-seeking behaviour to others. Reasons against seeking testing included fear testing HIV positive, the possibility of receiving treatment too late, HIV-related stigma and long distances to testing sites. Participants also discussed ways to increase the uptake of HIV testing, such as workplace testing, the role of the media and the role of cultural rituals such as male circumcision.
Chemical Patterning of High‐Mobility Semiconducting 2D Bi2O2Se Crystals for Integrated Optoelectronic Devices

Patterning of high‐mobility 2D semiconducting materials with unique layered structures and superb electronic properties offers great potential for batch fabrication and integration of next‐generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, a facile approach is used to achieve accurate patterning of 2D high‐mobility semiconducting Bi2O2Se crystals using dilute H2O2 and protonic mixture acid as efficient etchants. The 2D Bi2O2Se crystal after chemical etching maintains a high Hall mobility of over 200 cm2 V−1 s−1 at room temperature. Centimeter‐scale well‐ordered arrays of 2D Bi2O2Se with tailorable configurations are readily obtained. Furthermore, integrated photodetectors based on 2D Bi2O2Se arrays are fabricated, exhibiting excellent air stability and high photoresponsivity of ≈2000 A W−1 at 532 nm. These results are one step towards the practical application of ultrathin 2D integrated digital and optoelectronic circuits.
Debating personal health budgets

Summary Personal health budgets (PHBs) were piloted in the National Health Service (NHS) in England between 2009 and 2012 and were found to have greater positive effects on quality of life and psychological well-being for those with mental health problems than commissioned service, as well as reducing their use of unplanned care. The government intends to extend PHBs in England for long-term conditions, including mental health, from April 2015. Given the importance of engaging clinicians in the next phase of PHB development, we provide an overview of the approach, synthesise the evidence from the national pilot and debate some of the opportunities and challenges. Balancing individual choice and recovery with concerns for risk, equity and the sustainability of existing community services is the central tension underpinning this innovation in mental health service delivery.