Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vaginal Colonization by papG Allele II+ Escherichia coli Isolates from Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women as Predisposing Factor to Pyelonephritis

Vaginal (61) and fecal (61) Escherichia coli isolates from pregnant and nonpregnant women (18–45 years old) were surveyed for papG alleles by PCR technique. papG allele II was the most prevalent among both vaginal (32.7%) and fecal (3.2%) isolates, whereas other alleles were found only among vaginal isolates (1.6% for alleles I and III and 3.2% for alleles II + III). papG + pregnant women's isolates did not differ significantly from those of nonpregnant in possession of papG allele II (90% versus 73.3%), whereas both (32.7%) differed significantly (P ≤ 0.05) in comparison with fecal isolates (3.2%). The vast majority of papG allele II+ vaginal isolates were clustered in group B2 (81.8%) and much less in group D (18.1%). Also, most of them were positive for fimH (100%), papC (100%), iucC (90.9%), and hly (72.7%), and about half of them were positive for sfa/foc (45.4%). In addition, the mean of VFs' gene possession was 3.5 (range from 2 to 5). It can be concluded that vaginal colonization by papG allele II+ E. coli is possibly one of the predisposing factors of both pregnant and nonpregnant women to pyelonephritis, but its potential may be modified by other factors especially host factors.
Associations of tobacco control policies with birth outcomes.

IMPORTANCE It is unclear whether the benefits of tobacco control policies extend to pregnant women and infants, especially among racial/ethnic minority and low socioeconomic populations that are at highest risk for adverse birth outcomes. OBJECTIVE To examine the associations of state cigarette taxes and the enactment of smoke-free legislation with US birth outcomes according to maternal race/ethnicity and education. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Using a quasi-experimental approach, we analyzed repeated cross sections of US natality files with 16,198,654 singleton births from 28 states and Washington, DC, between 2000 and 2010. We first used probit regression to model the associations of 2 tobacco control policies with the probability that a pregnant woman smoked (yes or no). We then used linear or probit regression to estimate the associations of the policies with birth outcomes. We also examined the association of taxes with birth outcomes across maternal race/ethnicity and education. EXPOSURES State cigarette taxes and smoke-free restaurant legislation. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Birth weight (in grams), low birth weight (<2500 g), preterm delivery (<37 weeks), small for gestational age (<10th percentile for gestational age and sex), and large for gestational age (>90th percentile for gestational age and sex). RESULTS White and black mothers with the least amount of education (0-11 years) had the highest prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy (42.4% and 20.0%, respectively) and the poorest birth outcomes, but the strongest responses to cigarette taxes. Among white mothers with a low level of education, every $1.00 increase in the cigarette tax reduced the level of smoking by 2.4 percentage points (-0.0024 [95% CI, -0.0004 to -0.0001]), and the birth weight of their infants increased by 5.41 g (95% CI, 1.92-8.89 g). Among black mothers with a low level of education, tax increases reduced smoking by 2.1 percentage points (-0.0021 [95% CI, -0.0003 to -0.0001]), and the birth weight of their infants increased by 3.98 g (95% CI, 1.91-6.04 g). Among these mothers, tax increases also reduced the risk of having low-birth-weight, preterm, and small-for-gestational-age babies, but increased the risk of having large-for-gestational-age babies. Associations were weaker among higher-educated black women and largely null among higher educated white women and other groups. We did not find evidence for an association of smoke-free restaurant legislation with birth outcomes. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Increases in the cigarette tax are associated with improved health outcomes related to smoking among the highest-risk mothers and infants. Considering that US states increase cigarette taxes for reasons other than to improve birth outcomes, these findings are welcome by-products of state policies.
A Model for Implementing Responsiveness to Intervention

identifying children with learning disabilities (LD) has involved documenting a discrepancy between a student’s IQ and achievement. With this approach, however, identification typically occurs at fifth grade, so children must “wait-tofail” before intervention can occur. For this reason, along with technical difficulties associated with the IQ-achievement discrepancy (see Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003 for a summary), the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (P.L. 108-446) permits states to discontinue use of IQ-achievement discrepancy in favor of Response to Intervention (RTI) for LD identification. Advantages of RTI include earlier identification, a stronger focus on prevention, and assessment with clearer implications for academic programming (Vaughn & Fuchs). The premise behind RTI is that students are identified as LD when their response to validated intervention is dramatically inferior to that of peers. The inference is that these children who respond poorly to generally effective interventions have a disability that requires specialized treatment to produce successful learning outcomes. In this way, a central assumption is that RTI can differentiate between two explanations for low achievement: inadequate instruction versus disability. If the child responds poorly to instruction that benefits most students, then the assessment eliminates instructional quality as a viable explanation for poor academic growth and instead provides evidence of disability. Also, because most children respond nicely to validated intervention, RTI serves an important prevention function.
Cardiovascular risk in type 1 diabetes mellitus

Commonly cardiovascular risk (CVR) is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus as this type is known to be part of the metabolic syndrome, which includes other cardiovascular factors such as hypertension, dyslipidemia. Inversely, CVR of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is currently being debated apart from the occurrence of diabetic nephropathy (DN). For this, we did a review of CVR in patients with T1DM complicated or not with DN. The place of novel non-invasive techniques in screening of subclinical vascular damage is also discussed in this review.
A research agenda for distributed software development

In recent years, a number of business reasons have caused software development to become increasingly distributed. Remote development of software offers several advantages, but it is also fraught with challenges. In this paper, we report on our study of distributed software development that helped shape a research agenda for this field. Our study has identified four areas where important research questions need to be addressed to make distributed development more effective. These areas are: collaborative software tools, knowledge acquisition and management, testing in a distributed set-up and process and metrics issues. We present a brief summary of related research in each of these areas, and also outline open research issues.
Controversy goes online: Schizophrenia genetics on Wikipedia

Scientific controversy is increasingly played out via the internet, a technology that is simultaneously content, medium and research infrastructure. Here we analyse material from Wikipedia, focusing on schizophrenia genetics. We find that citation and curation of scientific resources follow a negotiated, ad hoc adherence to Wikipedia rules, are based on limited access to scientific literature, and thus lead to a partially constructed ‘review’ of the science that excludes non-professionals. Given its policies and systems for developing neutral, evidence-based articles, one would not expect to find controversy on Wikipedia, yet we find traces. Scientific ambiguity about schizophrenia genetics lends itself to multiple ways of curating resources, and the infrastructure of online spaces enables the practices behind curation work to become visible in new ways. We argue that not only does Wikipedia make scientific controversy visible to a wider range of people, it is also involved in the production of knowledge.
Introduction: The politics of the list

This articles introduces the special issue on ‘The Politics of the List. ’ We observe that lists proliferate as a technique of governance across multiple domains, including health, security, and commerce. We argue that it is important to take seriously the form and technique of the list itself and engage the knowledge practices, governance effects and ways of ordering the world that the list format enables. In other words, the special issue seeks to ‘remain in the register of the list,’ to unpack its technological arrangements and juridical power. This introduction sets out the key themes of this special issue, through discussing, in turn, the list as a technology of knowledge, the list as a technique of law and governance, the list's complex relation to space and the relation between the list and the digital. We draw on these four elements to characterise what we call the politics of the list in an era of complexity.
Detection of Amp C genes encoding for beta-lactamases in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

PURPOSE Amp C beta-lactamase are Ambler class C enzymes that confer resistance to extended spectrum cephalosporins and are not inhibited by beta-lactamase inhibitors. Their detection is crucial, since the phenotypic tests are not standardised leading to ambiguity in interpretation of results. This study was done to detect the types of Amp C prevalent in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventy-seven consecutive cefoxitin resistant clinical isolates of E. coli (n = 25) and K. pneumoniae (n = 52) were included in the study. Antibiotic susceptibility testing to various classes of antibiotics was performed by disc diffusion using Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to cefoxitin, imipenem and meropenem were determined by broth microdilution method. Isolates were screened for production of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL). Multiplex PCR was performed for the detection of Amp C genes after phenotypic testing (Hodge test and inhibitor based test). RESULTS Cefoxitin Hodge test was positive in 40 isolates which included 20 E. coli and 20 K. pneumoniae. There was zone enhancement with boronic acid in 55 isolates, of which 36 were K. pneumoniae and 19 were E. coli. Multiplex PCR detected Amp C in 11/25 E. coli and 12/52 K. pneumoniae isolates. The Amp C genes detected were CIT (Amp C origin - Citrobacter freundii), DHA (Dhahran Hospital, Saudi Arabia), ACC (Ambler class C), EBC (Amp C origin - Enterobacter cloacae) groups. ESBL was co-produced in 54 isolates. CONCLUSIONS Amp C was detected in 29.87% of the study isolates. Majority of them co-produced ESBL. The most common Amp C was the CIT family. Screen tests for cefoxitin resistance may be falsely positive due to production of carbapenamases.
The impact of physical attractiveness on achievement and psychological well-being.

Physical attractiveness has been linked to mental health, intelligence, ability and performance. Most of the studies on attractiveness have been experimental in nature and focused on perceptions of mental health and achievement rather than actual mental health and achievement. Operating within a status characteristics framework, we analyze the impact of attractiveness on the actual achievement and mental health of individuals in a national sample. We find consistently significant and monotonic relationships of attractiveness with four measures of achievement and eight measures of psychological well-being. Based on these analyses, we conclude that survey research findings corroborate experimental findings on attractiveness; that one's attractiveness does impinge on achievement and psychological well-being; and that status characteristics theory can be used to explain the effects of attractiveness on well-being and achievement.
The Effect of Customer Empowerment on Adherence to Expert Advice

Customers often receive expert advice related to their health, finances, taxes or legal procedures, to name just a few. A noble stance taken by some is that experts should empower customers to make their own decisions. In this article, we distinguish informational from decisional empowerment and study whether empowerment leads customers to adhere more or less to expert advice. We empirically test our model using a unique dataset involving 11,735 respondents in 17 countries on four continents. In the context of consumer adherence to doctors’ therapy advice (patient non-adherence to doctor advice may cost about $564 billion globally to the pharmaceutical industry every year), we find that decisional empowerment lowers adherence to expert advice. The effect of informational empowerment varies predictably across cultures and is only universally beneficial when initiated by the customer. These findings have important implications for professional service providers.
Microbial contamination of toothbrushes with different principles of filament anchoring.

BACKGROUND The retention and growth of cariogenic microorganisms on toothbrushes pose a threat of recontamination. The authors to studied three species of oral microorganisms found at different places on toothbrush filaments. METHODS The authors tested on patients 30 toothbrushes each of three different toothbrush types made by a single manufacturer. The toothbrushes were divided into three groups by type of construction: staple-set tufting (toothbrush A); in-mold tufting (toothbrush B); individual in-mold placement of filaments (toothbrush C). Subjects used the toothbrushes once under standardized conditions; the authors subsequently examined the brushes for the presence of Streptococcus mutans, lactobacilli and Candida species. The inspection was carried out at three time intervals after use. RESULTS S. mutans was retained to the highest degree, followed by lactobacilli and finally by C. albicans. The authors found that the number of microorganisms on toothbrush types A and B did not reveal a significant difference either on examination immediately after use or after the toothbrushes had been dried for two hours or eight hours. The technique of individual in-mold placement of filaments made retention of microorganisms more difficult. The difference between the number of germs retained on toothbrush types A and C, as well as that between the number of germs retained on types B and C, was significant or even highly significant. CONCLUSIONS The results show that toothbrushes made with the technique of individual in-mold placement of filaments appear to retain the least amount of microbial material. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Owing to the fact that toothbrushes always are a possible source of microbial reinfection, the arrangement of the filaments within the head of the toothbrush is of great importance with regard to hygiene.
An Evaluation of the Measurement of Perceived Classroom Assessment Environment.

A classroom assessment environment is a classroom context experienced by students as the teacher determines assessment purposes, develops assessment tasks, defines assessment criteria and standards, provides feedback, and monitors outcomes (Brookhart, 1997). It is usually a group experience varying from class to class dependent upon the teacher‟s assessment practices (Brookhart, 2004). As such, the measurement of class-level perception of the assessment environment should deserve recognition and investigation. This study aimed at evaluating the measurement of the perceived classroom assessment environment by comparing the psychometric properties of the scale at the student level and class level. Using a multi-stage random sampling process, data were collected from 4088 students nested within 236 classes of the second cycle of the basic education in the Sultanate of Oman. Students responded to the 18-items of Alkharusi's (2011) Perceived Classroom Assessment Environment Scale. Results of the principal axis factoring yielded two factors, learning-oriented and performance-oriented assessment environment, at both levels. However, the two factors explained about 38% of the variance at the class level compared to about 20% of the variance at the student level. Reliability coefficients in terms of Cronbach alpha ranged between . 79 and . 83 at the class level compared to . 65 and . 67 at the student level.
A Comprehensive Survey on Sampling‐Based Image Matting

Sampling‐based image matting is currently playing a significant role and showing great further development potentials in image matting. However, the consequent survey articles and detailed classifications are still rare in the field of corresponding research. Furthermore, besides sampling strategies, most of the sampling‐based matting algorithms apply additional operations which actually conceal their real sampling performances. To inspire further improvements and new work, this paper makes a comprehensive survey on sampling‐based matting in the following five aspects: (i) Only the sampling step is initially preserved in the matting process to generate the final alpha results and make comparisons. (ii) Four basic categories including eight detailed classes for sampling‐based matting are presented, which are combined to generate the common sampling‐based matting algorithms. (iii) Each category including two classes is analysed and experimented independently on their advantages and disadvantages. (iv) Additional operations, including sampling weight, settling manner, complement and pre‐ and post‐processing, are sequentially analysed and added into sampling. Besides, the result and effect of each operation are also presented. (v) A pure sampling comparison framework is strongly recommended in future work.
Neuropsychological functioning and delusions in dementia:A pilot study

The present pilot study investigated the pattern of neuropsychological functioning associated with the presence of delusions in mild-to-moderate dementia. Participants, all of whom met criteria for dementia, were divided into two groups, delusional (n = 9) and non-delusional (n = 9). Individuals with hallucinations were excluded. Participants completed a neuropsychological test battery. Global cognitive functioning (MMSE) and behavioral disturbance (BEHAVE-AD) were also assessed. Differences between the delusional and non-delusional group were most marked for immediate recall of stories, which was higher in the non-delusional group. Scores on semantic fluency, attention (mental control), and overall cognitive functioning (MMSE) were also lower in the delusional group. Conversely, simple attention span (Digit Span) was within normal limits in both groups. Floor effects were noted on measures of delayed recall and alternating attention. This study supports previous findings of greater neuropsychological impairment in delusional as compared to non-delusional individuals with dementia. However, some areas of cognitive functioning may be relatively preserved. Future research should examine semantic processing in persons with dementia with and without delusions.
College Binge Drinking and Its Association with Depression and Anxiety: A Prospective Observational Study.

OBJECTIVE Binge drinking is a significant public health problem across college campuses in the United States. Despite substantial research and the use of evidence-based methods, the binge drinking culture remains an obstinate health crisis on campuses. This study examined the current binge drinking rate on a selected college campus, the association between binge drinking and anxiety and depression as well as the associated consequences of students' alcohol use. METHODS A sample of 201 students from a small, private Mid-Atlantic college completed validated scales as well as demographics and questionnaires. Primary outcome measures were the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire, 7-item Generalised Anxiety Questionnaire, and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Secondary measures were the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire, questionnaires, and demographics. Descriptive outcomes, frequencies and percentages, and separate Chi-square tests methodologies were utilised for analyses. RESULTS According to the AUDIT, 93% of students engaged in hazardous drinking, with a binge drinking rate of 38.8%. No significant associations were found between hazardous drinking and depression (p = 0.20) or anxiety (p = 0.68) levels in students. A significant relationship was found between their amount of drinking and negative consequences (p < 0.001). A substantial number of students reported moderate and severe levels of anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS Our student sample engaged in binge drinking, suffered negative consequences, and presented with anxiety and depression issues along with gender implications as females had higher rates of depression and anxiety. Males drank significantly more and binged more often than females. The majority of students who binged experienced memory loss. Both females and males reported taking foolish risks and being impulsive when drinking. Students are vulnerable to harmful consequences when binging and have poor insight regarding binge drinking.
Climatic Prediction of an Invasive Plant in California : Ulex europaeus ( Gorse )

Invasive plants reduce the biological diversity and productivity of all ecosystems. However, not all introduced exotic plants become problems. Climate modeling can be used in predicting which of these exotic plants have the potential to become problems. Also, once introduced, climate models can be used to predict which areas are susceptible to invasion. This information can be used in deciding where to concentrate management efforts.
Trust, Cheating, and Dating Violence in Mexican American Adolescent Romantic Relationships

Many adolescents experience some aspect of cheating in their romantic relationships, yet developmental and cultural influences on this experience are not well understood. A grounded theory approach was used to uncover the processes through which cheating resulted in dating violence among 64 Mexican American adolescents (15 to 17 years old). Focus groups, separated by level of acculturation and gender (N = 20), revealed paradoxical expectations for trust and cheating in romantic relationships. Low acculturated youth, particularly males, held broader definitions of cheating behaviors, used peers to monitor cheating behaviors, and took breaches of cheating more seriously. Males were perceived as more likely to cheat, to cheat because of their diminished desire for commitment, and to use violence in reaction to cheating behavior. It is recommended that teen dating violence prevention programs use culturally attuned curricula that incorporate the integral role of peers and gendered norms and expectations within adolescents’ dating relationships.