Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subtilase Cytotoxin-Encoding subAB Operon Found Exclusively among Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Strains

ABSTRACT The presence of subAB was investigated for 3,453 Escherichia coli strains of various pathogenic categories. The occurrence of other virulence genes in subAB-positive strains was investigated. The subAB operon was detected among some Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) serotypes devoid of eae and carrying ehxA. Most subAB-positive strains also harbored stx 2, iha, saa, and lpfA O113.
A General Approach to Spatiotemporal Calibration in Multisensor Systems

With growing demands for accuracy in sensor fusion, increasing attention is being paid to temporal offsets as a source of deterministic error when processing data from multiple devices. Established approaches for the calibration of temporal offsets exploit domain-specific heuristics of common sensor suites and utilize simplifications to circumvent some of the challenges arising when both temporal and spatial parameters are not accurately known a priori. These properties make it difficult to generalize the work to other applications or different combinations of sensors. This work presents a general and principled approach to joint estimation of temporal offsets and spatial transformations between sensors. Our framework exploits recent advances in continuous-time batch estimation and thus exists within the rigorous theoretical framework of maximum likelihood estimation. The derivation is presented without relying on unique properties of specific sensors and, therefore, represents the first general technique for temporal calibration in robotics. The broad applicability of this approach is demonstrated through spatiotemporal calibration of a camera with respect to an inertial measurement unit as well as between a stereo camera and a laser range finder. The method is shown to be more repeatable and accurate than the current state of the art, estimating spatial displacements to millimeter precision and temporal offsets to a fraction of the fastest measurement interval.
Proprioceptive Actuator Design in the MIT Cheetah: Impact Mitigation and High-Bandwidth Physical Interaction for Dynamic Legged Robots

Designing an actuator system for highly dynamic legged robots has been one of the grand challenges in robotics research. Conventional actuators for manufacturing applications have difficulty satisfying design requirements for high-speed locomotion, such as the need for high torque density and the ability to manage dynamic physical interactions. To address this challenge, this paper suggests a proprioceptive actuation paradigm that enables highly dynamic performance in legged machines. Proprioceptive actuation uses collocated force control at the joints to effectively control contact interactions at the feet under dynamic conditions. Modal analysis of a reduced leg model and dimensional analysis of DC motors address the main principles for implementation of this paradigm. In the realm of legged machines, this paradigm provides a unique combination of high torque density, high-bandwidth force control, and the ability to mitigate impacts through backdrivability. We introduce a new metric named the “impact mitigation factor” (IMF) to quantify backdrivability at impact, which enables design comparison across a wide class of robots. The MIT Cheetah leg is presented, and is shown to have an IMF that is comparable to other quadrupeds with series springs to handle impact. The design enables the Cheetah to control contact forces during dynamic bounding, with contact times down to 85 ms and peak forces over 450 N. The unique capabilities of the MIT Cheetah, achieving impact-robust force-controlled operation in high-speed three-dimensional running and jumping, suggest wider implementation of this holistic actuation approach.
Dignity and older people: The voice of professionals

Professionals' views concerning the importance of dignity and how this can best be maintained is important for the planning and provision of appropriate services, especially for older people.Dignity was described as an integral part of being human and closely related to respect. Overall, participants painted a negative image of the lives of older people, although clear distinctions were drawn between fit and frail older people. Indignities associated with old age arose from ill health, dependency, vulnerability, frailty and loss of competence. It was considered that technological advances and information technology had left many older people behind. However, many described working with older people as an enjoyable experience offering variety, intellectual challenge and satisfaction, while recognising that working with older people was often given low status.Professionals identified the following factors as essential to dignified care: promotion of autonomy and independence; a person‐centred and holistic approach; maintenance of identity and encouragement of involvement, participation and empowerment; effective communication and respect. Undignified care was associated with: invisibility; de‐personalisation and treatment of the individual as an object; humiliation and abuse; narrow and mechanistic approaches to care.Policy development and professional education should give greater prominence to dignity and a greater emphasis ought to be placed on living with dignity in old age rather than solely dying with it.
Single and Multi-metric Trust Management Frameworks for Use in Underwater Autonomous Networks

In this paper, we demonstrate the need for multi-metric trust assessment in Underwater Autonomous Networks (UAN). Many UANs use MANET architectures, however the marine environment presents new challenges for trust management frameworks that have been developed for use in conventional (i.e. Terrestrial RF) MANETs. We investigate the operation of a selection of traditional MANET TMFs in this environment. We characterise these challenges and present results that demonstrate a multi-metric approach to Trust greatly enhances the effectiveness of TMFs in these environments.
The impact of perceived social support and sense of coherence on health-related quality of life in multimorbid primary care patients

This study explores the impact of perceived social support and sense of coherence as positive resources for health-related quality of life in multimorbid primary care patients. We analysed cross-sectional survey data on health-related quality of life (EQ-5D), perceived social support (FSozU-K22), sense of coherence (SOC-L9), social demographics and self reported morbidity of 103 multimorbid patients from 10 general practices in Germany. A multiple linear regression model was used to determine the impact of social support and sense of coherence on the health-related quality of life while controlling for age, sex, educational level, marital status and number of chronic conditions. In the final regression model, higher sense of coherence scores were associated with higher health-related quality of life scores (standardized ß 0.34, p < 0.001) whereas a higher number of chronic conditions was associated with lower health-related quality of life scores (standardized ß −0.41, p < 0.001). In the bivariate model, higher perceived social support was associated with higher health-related quality of life scores (standardized ß 0.35, p < 0.001), whereas the model failed to show a significant association after controlling for sense of coherence which is a potential resource for improving health-related quality of life in multimorbid primary care patients. It emerged as a significant element contributing to the prediction of health-related quality of life. This issue may indicate the importance of internal resources for multimorbid patients.
Living with diabetes on Buffalo, New York’s culturally diverse West Side

Objectives: This study explores the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that inform how people live with diabetes in a high poverty, ethnically diverse neighborhood with a growing population of refugees. The specific research objective was to examine participants’ explanations of how their diabetes began, understandings about the illness, description of symptoms, as well as physical and emotional reactions to the diagnosis. Methods: Qualitative design using semi-structured interviews. The transcripts were analyzed using an immersion–crystallization approach. Results: Thirty four individuals diagnosed with diabetes for at least 1 year participated. The sample included 14 refugees (from Somalia, Sudan, Burma, or Cuba), eight Puerto Ricans, six non-Hispanic Caucasians, six African-Americans, and two Native Americans. Three broad themes were identified across ethnic groups: (a) the diagnosis of diabetes was unexpected; (b) emotional responses to diabetes were similar to Kubler-Ross’s stages of grief; (c) patients’ understanding of diabetes focused on symptoms and diet. Conclusions: Patients were frequently stunned by the diagnosis of diabetes, and expressed emotions associated with the stages of grief including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Our findings suggest that clinicians might consider addressing the patients’ emotions or grief reaction as an early priority to promote acceptance as a first step to self-management.
Comparison of Two Nucleic Acid Amplification Assays, the Xpert MTB/RIF Assay and the Amplified Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Direct Assay, for Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Respiratory and Nonrespiratory Specimens

ABSTRACT We compared the performance of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay, a new real-time tuberculosis (TB) PCR test, with that of the Amplified Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Direct (MTD) assay using 162 respiratory and nonrespiratory specimens. Based on culture as the gold standard, the overall sensitivity and specificity for all sample types for the Xpert MTB/RIF assay were 90.9 and 89%, respectively, while for the MTD assay, the overall sensitivity and specificity were 97.3 and 87.1%, respectively. A higher proportion of total equivocal results were obtained for the MTD assay, at 10.5% (17/162), while the Xpert MTB/RIF assay generated 5.5% (9/162) of invalid reads.
Diarrhea Burden Due to Natural Infection with Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in a Birth Cohort in a Rural Egyptian Community

ABSTRACT Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is commonly associated with diarrhea in Egyptian children. Children less than 3 years old in Abu Homos, Egypt, had approximately five diarrheal episodes per child every year, and at least one of these episodes was due to ETEC. The epidemiology of ETEC diarrhea among children living in a rural Egyptian community was further evaluated in this study. Between January 2004 and April 2007, 348 neonates were enrolled and followed for 2 years. Children were visited twice weekly, and a stool sample was obtained every 2 weeks regardless of symptomatology. A stool sample was obtained whenever a child had diarrhea. From the routine stool culture, five E. coli-like colonies were selected and screened for heat-labile and heat-stable toxins by GM1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and further typed for colonization factor antigens by dot blot assay. Incidence of ETEC infection was estimated among children with diarrhea (symptomatic) and without diarrhea (asymptomatic). Incidence of diarrhea and ETEC-associated diarrhea was 7.8 and 1.48 per child-year, respectively. High risk of repeated ETEC diarrhea was associated with being over 6 months of age, warm season, male gender, and crowded sleeping conditions. Exclusive breast-feeding was protective for repeated ETEC infection. ETEC-associated diarrhea remains common among children living in the Nile Delta. The protective role of breast-feeding demonstrates the importance of promoting exclusive breast-feeding during, at least, the first 6 months of life.
Tobacco Use among NYC Muslims: Results of the Nafis Salaam Community Survey

DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5915/43-1-6053 Based in New York City, Nafis Salaam is an innovative smoking prevention and cessation program for Muslims developed by the Muslim Consultative Network (MCN) in partnership with the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). Funded by the American Legacy Foundation, Nafis Salaam launched in early 2009 and broke new ground in providing quantitative information about behaviors and attitudes among Muslims towards tobacco use. Results of a community survey among Muslims in New York City and surrounding areas (n=408) show the complexity of tobacco use, including cigarette and water pipe smoking (shisha/hookah), as well as chewing tobacco (pan/gutka). Findings include age and gender-related differences in tobacco use as well as high exposure to second-hand smoke. Beliefs about religious prohibitions are also associated with smoking behavior as nonsmokers are more likely to believe that smoking is disliked or forbidden in Islam. Participants' interests in mosque-based tobacco education suggest new avenues for partnerships between health-care providers and community religious institutions, as well as the possibility of including faith-based and culturally appropriate messaging in antismoking educational initiatives. Based in New York City (NYC), Nafis Salaam (NS) is an innovative smoking prevention and cessation program for Muslims developed by Muslim Consultative Network (MCN) in partnership with Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). Funded by American Legacy Foundation, Nafis Salaam launched in early 2009 and breaks new ground in providing quantitative information about tobacco use behaviors among Muslims and their understanding of religious prohibitions against smoking. Results of a community survey among Muslim New Yorkers (n=408) show the complexity of tobacco use, including cigarettes, shisha/hookah, as well as pan/gutka. Findings also include age and gender-related differences in tobacco use as well as high exposure to second-hand smoke. Beliefs about religious prohibitions are associated with smoking behavior. Participants’ interests in mosque-based tobacco education suggest new avenues for partnerships between providers and community religious institutions, as well as the possibility of including faith-based and culturally appropriate messaging in education initiatives.
Gammaglutamyltransferase, aspartate and alanine aminotransferases and their ratio, mean cell volume and urinary dolichol in pregnant alcohol abusers

Objective To study the activities of serum gammaglutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate and alanine aminotransferases (AST, ALT), and their ratio (AST/ALT), mean erythrocyte cell volume (MCV) and urinary dolichol output in alcohol‐abusing pregnant women, and compare the results to those of abstinent pregnant women.
The Potential Role of Daucus carota Aqueous and Methanolic Extracts on Inflammation and Gastric Ulcers in Rats

Daucus carota (DC) is among commonly used plants in folk medicine in Lebanon and the region. The present investigation was undertaken to examine the effects of the aqueous and extracts of Daucus carota umbels against acute and chronic inflammation, gastric ulcer and antibacterial activity on rats. The effects of DC aqueous extract (DCAE) on glycemia, lipemia, hepatic, renal and pancreatic function were also examined. Results on acute inflammation showed that the aqueous and methanolic extracts (DCME) produced maximum anti-inflammatory activity at doses of 400 and 140 mg/kg body weight with 90.9 and 58.6 % inhibition, respectively. In chronic inflammation, the same doses showed maximum anti-inflammatory activity with 58 and 44.1 % inhibition, respectively. DCME showed significant protection against ethanol induced gastric ulcer with a curative ratio of 46.8 and 68.7%, respectively, at a dose of 250 mg/kg body weight. None of the extracts showed significant antibacterial activity. DCAE intake (250 mg/kg body weight) for one month period did not show adverse effects on lipemia, glycemia, hepatic and liver function except for a slight decrease in HDL cholesterol (p<0.05). In conclusion, both DCAE and DCME exhibited promising anti-inflammatory and anti-ulcerogenic potentials while showing no negative influence on liver, kidney and pancreas function.
In Vitro Susceptibility Testing of Tedizolid against Nontuberculous Mycobacteria

ABSTRACT Tedizolid is a new oxazolidinone with improved in vitro and intracellular potency against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including multidrug-resistant strains, and some species of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) compared with that of linezolid. Using the current Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)-recommended method of broth microdilution, susceptibility testing of 170 isolates of rapidly growing mycobacteria showed equivalent or lower (1- to 8-fold) MIC50 and/or MIC90 values for tedizolid compared with that for linezolid. The tedizolid MIC90 values for 81 isolates of M. abscessus subsp. abscessus and 12 isolates of M. abscessus subsp. massiliense were 8 μg/ml and 4 μg/ml, respectively, compared with linezolid MIC90 values of 32 μg/ml for both. The MIC90 values for 20 isolates of M. fortuitum were 2 μg/ml for tedizolid and 4 μg/ml for linezolid. Twenty-two isolates of M. chelonae had tedizolid and linezolid MIC90s of 2 μg/ml and 16 μg/ml, respectively. One hundred forty-two slowly growing NTM, including 7/7 M. marinum, 7/7 M. kansasii, and 7/11 of other less commonly isolated species, had tedizolid MICs of ≤1 μg/ml and linezolid MICs of ≤4 μg/ml. One hundred isolates of Mycobacterium avium complex and eight M. simiae isolates had tedizolid MIC50s of 8 μg/ml and linezolid MIC50s 32 and 64 μg/ml, respectively. Nine M. arupense isolates had MIC50s of 4 μg/ml and 16 μg/ml for tedizolid and linezolid, respectively. These findings demonstrate a greater in vitro potency of tedizolid than linezolid against NTM and suggest that an evaluation of tedizolid as a potential treatment agent for infections caused by selected NTM is warranted.
An evaluation of Intensive Interaction in community living settings for adults with profound intellectual disabilities

Intensive Interaction is an approach to enhancing the communication and social abilities of people with profound intellectual disabilities using principles from caregiver—infant interaction. Use of Intensive Interaction by novice practitioners with four women with profound intellectual disabilities living in a supported housing service in England was evaluated. It was hypothesized that staff could learn the principles of Intensive Interaction sufficiently to have a positive impact on the participants' abilities (during five sessions per week over 20 weeks) and that they would experience a better relationship. A quasi-experimental interrupted time-series multiple-baseline design was used with data collected via video observations, assessment schedules and staff questionnaires. Practitioners learned to use mirroring and contingent responding, and participants' abilities to look at faces and become engaged in interaction and joint focus developed. There was less volume of evidence for improved quality of relationship. Embedding practitioner reflection on interactions was a difficult part of the intervention to implement.
The benefits of breastfeeding for the infant

There is some evidence that ingestion of breast milk protects the infant against certain infectious and non-infectious conditions. Evidence of protection against other conditions and conferred intellectual advantage is inconclusive. It is important that midwives are aware of current evidence to inform the advice they give to women on infant feeding. A narrative review of the evidence was carried out following a critical assessment of the literature. Studies published within the last 10years were selected and included if they fulfilled specified checklist criteria. Following critical assessment of the literature, study results were categorized as either ‘established benefit’ or ‘possible benefit’. Established benefits of ingestion of breast milk include protection against gastrointestinal infection, otitis media and necrotising enterocolitis. Further evidence is required of a protective benefit against urinary tract and lower respiratory tract infection, childhood diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and.
Reducing the barriers to relationships and sexuality education for persons with intellectual disabilities

Opportunities for persons with intellectual disabilities to participate in relationships and sexuality education (RSE) are often constrained by the attitudes and perceptions of family carers, frontline support workers and professional staff. In order to understand how the barriers might be reduced, a study was undertaken in Northern Ireland with samples drawn from these three stakeholder groups, involving nearly 100 persons and using group and individual interviews. Although there was agreement on the need for RSE, four barriers were commonly reported: the need to protect vulnerable persons; the lack of training; the scarcity of educational resources; and cultural prohibitions. The impact of these barriers could be lessened through partnership working across these groups involving the provision of training and information about RSE, the development of risk management procedures and the empowerment of people with intellectual disabilities.
Potency of Anidulafungin Compared to Nine Other Antifungal Agents Tested against Candida spp., Cryptococcus spp., and Aspergillus spp.: Results from the Global SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program (2008)

ABSTRACT The SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program regularly monitors global susceptibility rates for a spectrum of both novel and established antifungal agents. Anidulafungin and the other echinocandins displayed sustained, excellent activity against Candida spp. and Aspergillus fumigatus, with ≥98% of MIC results at ≤2 μg/ml. Six yeast isolates (all Candida glabrata) showing caspofungin MIC values of ≥0.5 μg/ml were further analyzed for potential fks hot spot (HS) mutations; three isolates had confirmed mutations in the fks1 HS1 region (S645P), and three exhibited mutations in the fks2 HS1 region (S645F and S645P).
The identification of costs associated with emergency department attendances

Aims To calculate the cost of patient attendances to an emergency department and to identify the cost drivers of those attendances. Setting The Emergency Department, Flinders Medical Centre, a metropolitan teaching hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. Methods A prospective analysis of all attendances presenting over a five month period, incorporating detailed costings of staff and resource usage. The effects of four cost drivers were evaluated: urgency, outcome, age and diagnosis. Results The mean measured cost for each patient attendance was $103.79, varying from $36 for discharged category 5 patients to $429 for admitted category 1 patients. The mean total cost was $191.29, which included non-measured and overhead components of $87.50. Conclusion This study identifies the costs associated with treating emergency department patients. We believe this study will be reproducible in other emergency departments. The variables that we predicted would influence the cost of clinical activities (urgency, outcome, age and diagnosis) were all found to be important determinants of the cost of emergency department attendances.