Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Sepsis/Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, Acute Kidney Injury, and RIFLE Criteria in Two Tertiary Hospital Intensive Care Units in Turkey

Sepsis is a common cause of acute renal failure in intensive care units (ICU) with mortality rates as high as 60%. In this study, the clinical and laboratory predictors of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill Turkish patients with sepsis/systemic inflammatory response syndrome were identified. We studied 139 (67 females/72 males) patients admitted to our ICUs with sepsis/systemic inflammatory response syndrome without renal failure. The clinical and laboratory parameters and treatments were recorded. Patients were classified as those without AKI (n = 60; 43.20%) and those with AKI (n = 79; 56.80%) based on the RIFLE (Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, End-stage renal disease) criteria. Those with AKI were further classified as: risk in 27 (19%), injury in 25 (17.9%), failure in 25 (17.9%), and loss in 2 (1.4%). We found that the mortality rate increased with the severity of renal involvement: 56% in risk, 68% in injury, 72% in failure, and 100% in loss categories. Patients with AKI had a more positive fluid balance, higher central venous pressure, more vasopressor use, and lower systolic blood pressure. In multivariate analysis, the sequential organ failure assessment score, blood pressure, serum creatinine, and fluid balance were risk factors for the development of AKI. In this population, the incidence of AKI was higher and contrary to previous knowledge. A positive fluid balance also carries a risk for AKI and mortality in septic ICU patients. The RIFLE criteria were found to be applicable to our ICU population.
Clostridium botulinum Strains Producing BoNT/F4 or BoNT/F5

ABSTRACT Botulinum neurotoxin type F (BoNT/F) may be produced by Clostridium botulinum alone or in combination with another toxin type such as BoNT/A or BoNT/B. Type F neurotoxin gene sequences have been further classified into seven toxin subtypes. Recently, the genome sequence of one strain of C. botulinum (Af84) was shown to contain three neurotoxin genes (bont/F4, bont/F5, and bont/A2). In this study, eight strains containing bont/F4 and seven strains containing bont/F5 were examined. Culture supernatants produced by these strains were incubated with BoNT/F-specific peptide substrates. Cleavage products of these peptides were subjected to mass spectral analysis, allowing detection of the BoNT/F subtypes present in the culture supernatants. PCR analysis demonstrated that a plasmid-specific marker (PL-6) was observed only among strains containing bont/F5. Among these strains, Southern hybridization revealed the presence of an approximately 242-kb plasmid harboring bont/F5. Genome sequencing of four of these strains revealed that the genomic backgrounds of strains harboring either bont/F4 or bont/F5 are diverse. None of the strains analyzed in this study were shown to produce BoNT/F4 and BoNT/F5 simultaneously, suggesting that strain Af84 is unusual. Finally, these data support a role for the mobility of a bont/F5-carrying plasmid among strains of diverse genomic backgrounds.
Structure of the acceptor stem of Escherichia coli tRNA Ala: role of the G3.U70 base pair in synthetase recognition.

The fidelity of translation of the genetic code depends on accurate tRNA aminoacylation by cognate aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Thus, each tRNA has specificity not only for codon recognition, but also for amino acid identity; this aminoacylation specificity is referred to as tRNA identity. The primary determinant of the acceptor identity of Escherichia coli tRNAAlais a wobble G3.U70 pair within the acceptor stem. Despite extensive biochemical and genetic data, the mechanism by which the G3.U70 pair marks the acceptor end of tRNAAla for aminoacylation with alanine has not been clarified at the molecular level. The solution structure of a microhelix derived from the tRNAAla acceptor end has been determined at high precision using a very extensive set of experimental constraints (approximately 32 per nt) obtained by heteronuclear multidimensional NMR methods. The tRNAAla acceptor end is overall similar to A-form RNA, but important differences are observed. The G3.U70 wobble pair distorts the conformation of the phosphodiester backbone and presents the functional groups of U70 in an unusual spatial location. The discriminator base A73 has extensive stacking overlap with G1 within the G1.C72 base pair at the end of the double helical stem and the -CCA end is significantly less ordered than the rest of the molecule.
Scope for alternative avenues to promote financial access to MSMEs in developing nation evidence from India

Purpose The purpose of this study is to highlight the key challenges and opportunities that lie with some of the alternative avenues/tools to promote financial access to MSME in India. Design/methodology/approach Initially, the study discusses the scope of various alternative avenues/tools for MSME financing along with traditional bank SME credits, highlighting some of the factors that will boost the high performance and growth of MSME in future. Findings There is a dominance of domestic banks in the MSME financing over cross-border banks in India. The study finds several opportunities lie in the MSME financing for the banks and other alternative avenues/tools: friendly government policies and improving the legal system make the business environment suitable for MSME financing business. There are several obstacles like discrete presence of clients, high operating cost and low profitability, lack of proper risk management and low literacy rate that make MSME financing difficult for the SME finance business. Active government initiatives and other supporting factors will act as the game changer and promoter for the banks and other alternative avenues/tools for MSME financing. Originality/value The paper is original and brings out some valuable findings that will help the SME business clients to choose alternative access to finance.
Energy Cooperation for Sustainable Base Station Deployments: Principles and Algorithms

Energy self-sufficiency is of prime importance for future mobile networks. The design of energy efficient and possibly self-sustainable base stations is key to reduce their impact on the environment, and diminish their operating expense. As a solution to this, we advocate base station deployments featuring energy harvesting and storage capabilities. Each base station can acquire energy from the environment, promptly use it to serve the local traffic or keep it in its storage for later use. In addition, a power packet grid (DC power lines and switches) is utilized to enable energy transfer (energy routing) across base stations, compensating for imbalance in the harvested energy or in the load. Most of the base stations are offgrid, i.e., they can only use the locally harvested energy and that transferred from other network elements, whereas some of them are ongrid, i.e., they can also purchase energy from the electrical grid. We formulate the optimal energy allocation and routing as a convex optimization problem with the goals of improving the energy self-sustainability of the network, while achieving high energy transfer efficiencies under dynamic load and energy harvesting processes. An optimal assignment based on the Hungarian method is also presented. Our numerical results reveal that the proposed convex policy: (i) substantially improves the energy self-sustainability of the system, (ii) decreases its outage probability to nearly zero, even when a small number of base stations are connected to the electrical grid, and (iii) the amount of energy purchased from the electrical grid per served user is respectively decreased of three and eight times with respect to using the Hungarian policy and a scenario where the energy exchange among base stations is not permitted.
Optimal Trend Inflation

Sticky price models featuring heterogeneous firms and systematic firm-level productivity trends deliver radically different predictions for the optimal inflation rate than their popular homogenous-firm counterparts: (i) the optimal steady-state inflation rate generically differs from zero and (ii) inflation optimally responds to productivity disturbances. We show this by aggregating a heterogeneous-firm model with sticky prices in closed form. Using firm-level data from the US Census Bureau, we estimate the historically optimal inflation path for the US economy: the optimal inflation rate ranges between 1 percent and 3 percent per year and displays a downward trend over the period 1977–2015. (JEL C51, D24, D25, E31, E52)
Ultralow Latency HIL Platform for Rapid Development of Complex Power Electronics Systems

Prototyping and verification of complex power electronics (PE) systems and control algorithms is a laborious and time-consuming process. Even when a low-power hardware model is assembled, it enables only a limited insight into the large number of operating points; changes in system parameters regularly demand hardware modifications and always there is the risk of hardware damage. The ultralow-latency Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) platform proposed in this paper combines the flexibility, accuracy, and ease of use of state-of-the-art-simulation packages, with the response speed of small power-hardware models. In this way, PE systems-optimization, code-development, and laboratory-testing can be combined into one step, which dramatically accelerates the pace of product prototyping. Low-power hardware-models also suffer from nonscalability, because some parameters such as electrical machine inertia cannot be properly scaled. However, HIL enables control prototyping that covers all operational conditions. In order to demonstrate HIL-based rapid development, the verification of an active damping algorithm for a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) cascade is performed. Two goals are set in this paper: to verify the developed HIL platform by means of comparison with a low-power hardware setup and then to emulate the real, high-power system in order to test the active damping algorithm.
Psychotropic Drugs Associated With Corrected QT Interval Prolongation

Aims: To study whether listed putative corrected QT (QTc)-prolonging psychotropic drugs indeed prolong the QTc interval under everyday circumstances and to evaluate whether this is a class effect or an individual drug effect, we conducted a prospective population-based cohort study. Methods: This study was conducted as part of the Rotterdam Study and included 3377 men and 4845 women (≥55 years) who had triennial electrocardiograms (ECGs). The primary end points of the study were the length of the QTc interval at each ECG, the difference in QTc interval between consecutive ECGs within one person, and the risk of an abnormally prolonged QTc interval. Drug use at the index date was obtained from automated dispensing records. The associations were examined by means of a repeated measurement analysis, adjusted for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and use of class 1 QTc-prolonging drugs. Results: Of the 8222 participants, 813 participants (9.9%) developed QTc prolongation during follow-up and 492 participants (74.4% women) used psychotropic drugs at the time of an ECG. Starting tricyclic antidepressants increased the QTc interval significantly with 6.9 milliseconds (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.1-10.7 milliseconds) between consecutive ECGs in comparison with consecutive ECGs of participants not using tricyclic antidepressants, in particular starting amitriptyline (8.5 milliseconds; 95% CI, 2.8-14.2 milliseconds), maprotiline (13.9 milliseconds; 95% CI, 3.6-24.3 milliseconds), and nortriptyline (35.3 milliseconds; 95% CI, 8.0-62.6 milliseconds). Starting lithium also increased the QTc interval significantly (18.6 milliseconds; 95% CI, 4.8-32.4 milliseconds). Conclusions: In this population-based prospective cohort study, we confirmed the importance of antidepressants and antipsychotics as potential contributors to QTc prolongation. Especially, starting tricyclic antidepressant drugs (as a class) is associated with a significant intraindividual increase in the QTc interval in comparison to the change in nonusers. The tricyclic antidepressants seem to prolong the QTc interval as a class effect.
Enhancing Substainability: Psychological Capital, Perceived Employability, and Job Insecurity in Different Work Contract Conditions

According to the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, even though there are numerous challenges within the current labor market, it is possible to establish meaningful lives and meaningful work experiences through optimizing the use of personal resources and regenerating them. In line with this assumption, the present study aims to test the moderation effect of the type of worker contracts on the relationship between psychological capital, perceived employability, and job insecurity. Participants were N = 190 Italian young workers (self-employed, permanent employees, or temporary employees). Results showed that perceived employability mediated the relationship between psychological capital and job insecurity, and that this relationship was moderated by the workers’ type of contract. Specifically, a higher level of psychological capital corresponded to a higher perception of employability, and consequently a lower job insecurity for temporary and self-employed workers, but not for permanent ones. These findings are in line with the assumptions of the psychology of sustainability, and encourage preventive interventions aimed to foster personal resources in order to reduce job insecurity, especially in cases of non-standard employment.
Copy number variation in the human genome and its implication in autoimmunity

The causes of autoimmune disease remain poorly defined. However, it is known that genetic factors contribute to disease susceptibility. Hitherto, studies have focused upon single nucleotide polymorphisms as both tools for mapping and as probable causal variants. Recent studies, using genome‐wide analytical techniques, have revealed that, in the genome, segments of DNA ranging in size from kilobases to megabases can vary in copy number. These changes of DNA copy number represent an important element of genomic polymorphism in humans and in other species and may therefore make a substantial contribution to phenotypic variation and population differentiation. Furthermore, copy number variation (CNV) in genomic regions harbouring dosage‐sensitive genes may cause or predispose to a variety of human genetic diseases. Several recent studies have reported an association between CNV and autoimmunity in humans such as systemic lupus, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes. The use of novel analytical techniques facilitates the study of complex human genomic structures such as CNV, and allows new susceptibility loci for autoimmunity to be found that are not readily mappable by single nucleotide polymorphism‐based association analyses alone.
Uncaring Nurses: An Exploration of Faculty-to-Faculty Violence in Nursing Academia

This study examined faculty violence in nursing academia by focusing on aspects of the social and cultural work environment. Factors contributing to violence in the academic setting were explored. The study was framed by concepts of violence, power, knowledge, difference, and resistance. Critical-ethnography strategies were used to identify assumptions, values, and benefits of the group and the hidden relations of power contributing to the existence and management of violence in nursing academia. Interviews with 29 participants resulted in identification of the themes of academic apparatus, experiencing academia, and coping mechanisms.
Tuberculosis Screening in the Long-term Care Setting

Abstract Tuberculosis (TB) skin-testing practices in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in North Carolina (NC) were assessed from a 56% (148/263) response to a comprehensive TB screening questionnaire. TB skin tests were administered to employees on initial employment by 98% and annually by 97% of the LTCFs, generally (74%) by the Mantoux method. Employee skin tests were read at the appropriate time interval of 48 to 72 hours by 91%, but less than half used diameter of induration when interpreting reactive tests. The booster test was performed on new employees at eight (6%) of the LTCFs. TB skin tests were routinely performed on newly admitted residents by 56% or conditionally required by 18%, generally (73%) by the Mantoux method. Resident skin tests were read at the appropriate time interval of 48 to 72 hours by 92%, but again only half correctly interpreted reactive tests as significant. Residents received routine annual skin tests at 71% of the LTCFs, generally (80%) by the Mantoux method. Eight (6%) facilities routinely performed the booster test on newly admitted residents. TB infection prevalence in new employees during 1983 was 8.1% (47/578) in seven LTCFs and in newly admitted residents was 6.4% (7/110) in three LTCFs supplying this data. The five-year mean TB skin test conversion rate among employees was 1.1% (101/9545) in 12 LTCFs and among residents was 0.9% (46/5216) in nine LTCFs supplying this data. Lack of compliance to established TB skin-testing guidelines in NC LTCF was prevalent. In recognition of described endemic and epidemic spread of TB in LTCFs, residents and employees of LTCFs should be screened for TB utilizing established skin-testing practices.
Multiple approaches and participation rate for a community based smoking cessation intervention trial in rural Kerala, India.

BACKGROUND To illustrate multiple approaches and to assess participation rates adopted for a community based smoking cessation intervention programme in rural Kerala. MATERIALS AND METHODS Resident males in the age group 18-60 years who were 'current daily smokers' from 4 randomly allocated community development blocks of rural Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala (2 intervention and 2 control groups) were selected. Smoking status was assessed through house-to-house survey using trained volunteers. Multiple approaches included awareness on tobacco hazards during baseline survey and distribution of multicolour anti-tobacco leaflets for intervention and control groups. Further, the intervention group received a tobacco cessation booklet and four sessions of counselling which included a one-time group counselling cum medical camp, followed by proactive counselling through face-to-face (FTF) interview and mobile phone. In the second and fourth session, motivational counselling was conducted. RESULTS Among 928 smokers identified, smokers in intervention and control groups numbered 474 (mean age: 44.6 years, SD: 9.66 years) and 454 respectively (44.5 years, SD: 10.30 years). Among the 474 subjects, 75 (16%) had attended the group counselling cum medical camp after completion of baseline survey in the intervention group, Among the remaining subjects (n=399), 88% were contacted through FTF and mobile phone (8.5%). In the second session (4-6 weeks time period), the response rate for individual counselling was 94% (78% through FTF and 16% through mobile phone). At 3 months, 70.4% were contacted by their mobile phone and further, 19.6% through FTF (total 90%) while at 6 months (fourth session), the response rate was 74% and 16.4% for FTF and mobile phone respectively, covering 90.4% of the total subjects. Overall, in the intervention group, 97.4% of subjects were being contacted at least once and individual counselling given. CONCLUSION Proactive community centred intervention programmes using multiple approaches were found to be successful to increase the participation rate for intervention.
Assessing investors’ earnings expectations: the contextual usefulness of composite forecasts

ABSTRACT This study constructs composite forecasts and evaluates their contextual usefulness as a proxy for investors’ expectations of annual earnings. Our empirical tests utilize composites of three forecast sources: financial analysts’, time-series and security-price based forecasts. Our full sample results support the incremental usefulness of composite forecasts, over and above that of any of the three forecast sources. Moreover, results from partitioned subsamples show that the usefulness of composite forecasts is contextual. Composite forecasts are a better proxy for investors’ earnings expectations when (1) the information environment is relatively poor; or (2) firms experience negative performance in the prior year.
Urban ageing, spatial agency : generating creative agency through the medium of cohousing

Population ageing and urbanisation are two of the defining social changes of the 21st century, but many older people experience a loss of agency within society. Cohousing presents a potential medium for older citizens to increase their agency, but this is limited by the current conception of the architect-cohouser relationship. Spatial Agency provides an alternative approach to architectural practice in cohousing, based on the inclusion of citizens in architectural processes. This thesis investigates the limitations and opportunities of using spatial agency as the basis of the architect’s role in older people’s cohousing across two parts; a theoretical expansion of spatial agency in relation to existing examples of cohousing, and a practical testing of this expanded approach through a live collaboration. The first part of the thesis develops a hybrid theoretical framework for spatial agency that marries Bourdieu’s theories of ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ with Giddens’ concept of ‘structuration’. This interprets agency as the capability to act creatively, produced by conceiving design as a mutually enabling discourse. The second part of the thesis tests this expanded interpretation of spatial agency through a two-year design-research collaboration with Manchester Urban Cohousing (MUCH), an older people’s cohousing group. This identifies barriers to spatial agency in cohousing and proposes how they may be overcome. This is achieved through practices that develop a spatial discourse between architect and cohouser, empowering all parties to act creatively through the exposure to ideas and knowledge that is otherwise unavailable to them. This enables the architect and cohouser to negotiate and realise their social, political and ethical vision through creative action.
Group diversity's influence on sport teams and organizations: a meta-analytic examination and identification of key moderators

ABSTRACT Research question: The purpose of this study was to examine how group diversity was associated with subsequent outcomes, and whether these associations varied by the type of diversity, setting, sport role, or type of outcome. Research method: The authors implemented a meta-analytic technique to examine the influence of group diversity on a variety of outcomes. Results and findings: Results showed that overall group diversity has a positive effect on group outcomes (rc = .05; z-value = 4.53, p < .001; 95% CI: .03, .07). Sport role (administrator or coaches and players or exercisers), setting type (college athletics, professional sports, or non-profit sports), outcome type (organizational effectiveness, affective outcomes, or team performance) all served to moderate the relationship between team diversity and subsequent outcomes. Implications: The study found group diversity has positive effects on group effectiveness, though the effects are small. The findings are nevertheless instructive because they provide an effect size estimated across a wide range of investigations and suggest that group diversity is positively associated with important group outcomes. The pattern of results might encourage practitioners in sport organizations and professional teams to welcome diverse individuals in their groups by demonstrating this positive link between group diversity and group outcomes.