Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Contribution of Women to Food Security and Livelihoods through Urban Agriculture in the City of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

This is a journal article,This research explores the contribution, which is made by women to food security and livelihoods of families in the city of Bulawayo through urban agriculture. Women constitute the marginalised group in human society and their contribution to the society and well-being is slowly being realised as evidenced by campaigns to put them in positions of power. Rapid urbanization in Zimbabwe coupled with the economic crisis, which rocked the country between 2000 and 2012 had resulted in unemployment, which in turn created poverty and food shortages. In this research, primary data was collected through observations and interviews from people who practice urban agriculture in the city of Bulawayo. Interviews of key informants were carried out with the Bulawayo City Council staff members, government officials and other stakeholders who are concerned with the practice of urban agriculture in the city. Random and purposive sampling procedures were chosen to select residents who practice urban farming and stakeholders for interviews. Secondary data sources were used to review literature on the practice of agriculture in African cities of Accra in Uganda and Nairobi in Kenya. Responses were coded and analysed quantitatively, using statistical package SPSS. The research showed that women practice urban agriculture more than their male counterparts as they play a crucial role of ensuring food security at the household level. The research also found out that it is the women who make decisions on the types of crops to be grown, time of harvesting the crops and the market to which they can sell their surplus produce. In efforts to contribute to the food security, women usually face challenges of land ownership, money to finance their agricultural pursuits and to secure markets to sell their produce. These challenges tend to negatively affect their agricultural activities. It is recommended in this paper that if women are supported by providing them with land and money, they can actually positively contribute to the livelihoods of urban families through practicing urban farming. However, while this research has focused on the contribution of women to the livelihoods of families through urban farming, further research can look into the capitalisation of sewage to promote urban agriculture in the city of Bulawayo.
How Can National Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions in Primary Care Be Improved? A Stakeholder Consultation

Many antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions have been implemented in England, facilitating decreases in antibiotic prescribing. Nevertheless, there is substantial variation in antibiotic prescribing across England and some healthcare organizations remain high prescribers of antibiotics. This study aimed to identify ways to improve AMS interventions to further optimize antibiotic prescribing in primary care in England. Stakeholders representing different primary care settings were invited to, and 15 participated in, a focus group or telephone interview to identify ways to improve existing AMS interventions. Forty-five intervention suggestions were generated and 31 were prioritized for inclusion in an online survey. Fifteen stakeholders completed the survey appraising each proposed intervention using the pre-defined APEASE (i.e., Affordability, Practicability, Effectiveness, Acceptability, Safety, and Equity) criteria. The highest-rated nine interventions were prioritized as most promising and feasible, including: quality improvement, multidisciplinary peer learning, appointing AMS leads, auditing individual-level prescribing, developing tools for prescribing audits, improving inductions for new prescribers, ensuring consistent local approaches to antibiotic prescribing, providing online AMS training to all patient-facing staff, and increasing staff time available for AMS work with standardizing AMS-related roles. These prioritized interventions could be incorporated into existing national interventions or developed as stand-alone interventions to help further optimize antibiotic prescribing in primary care in England.
Azole antifungals and new targeted therapies for hematological malignancy.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW With the introduction of new targeted therapies for hematological malignancies comes the challenges of both assessing the risk of developing an IFD while being treated with these agents, as well as managing the drug--drug interactions between azole antifungals and the agents. RECENT FINDINGS New targeted therapies for hematological malignancy include chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T cells), Bi-specific T-cell Engager (BiTE) blinatumomab, and the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) of calicheamicin inotuzumab ozogamicin for acute lymphoblasic leukemia (ALL) and lymphoma; the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3Kδ) inhibitor idelalisib for lymphoma and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD); FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitors, such as midostaurin, sorafenib and gilteritinib for acute myeloid leukemia (AML); and the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax for a range of hematological malignancies including lymphoma and leukemia. This review summarizes recommendations for IFD prophylaxis using these therapies and evidence for managing concomitant azole administration. SUMMARY Whilst some evidence exists to guide IFD prophylaxis using new targeted therapies for hematological malignancies, there is an overall lack of descriptive, robust studies specifically describing IFD risk and management. With the emergence of novel agents, clinical judgment must be used to assess the risk of developing an IFD. Care must also be taken when administering azoles with drug--drug interactions, often requiring dose adjustment of the cancer therapies.
Immune exclusion by naturally-acquired secretory IgA to the pneumococcal pilus-1

Successful infection by mucosal pathogens requires overcoming the mucus barrier. To better understand this key step, we performed a survey of the interactions between human respiratory mucus and the human pathogen S. pneumoniae. Pneumococcal adherence to adult human nasal fluid was seen only by isolates expressing pilus-1. Robust binding was independent of pilus-1 adhesive properties but required Fab-dependent recognition of RrgB, the pilus shaft protein, by naturally-acquired secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). Pilus-1 binding by specific sIgA led to bacterial agglutination, but adherence required interaction of agglutinated pneumococci and entrapment in mucus particles. To test the effect of these interactions in vivo, pneumococci were preincubated with human sIgA prior to intranasal challenge in a mouse model of colonization. sIgA-treatment resulted in rapid immune exclusion of pilus-expressing pneumococci. Our findings predict that immune exclusion would select for non-piliated isolates in individuals who acquired RrgB-specific sIgA from prior episodes of colonization with piliated strains. Accordingly, genomic data comparing isolates carried by mothers and their children showed that mothers are less likely to be colonized with pilus-expressing strains. Our study provides a specific example of immune exclusion involving naturally-acquired antibody in the human host, a major factor driving pneumococcal adaptation. Research Microbiology
Uncertainty and Teachers’ Organizational Commitment in Egyptian Public Schools

Ranging from daily to strategic decisions, uncertainty is an integral part of the decision making process in all schools. Regardless of their experience, teachers are suffering from the lack of information and unpredictable future events that their schools face. Given the fact that Egypt has tried to use education as a mechanism for attaining economic soundness and organizational effectiveness, the present study explores the effect of the different types of uncertainty (strategic, structural, and job-related) on teachers’ organizational commitment approaches (affective, continuance, and normative). Upon collecting 150 out of 200 distributed questionnaire sets, the researchers used correlation and regression to test the hypotheses. The analysis of the collected data showed a negative correlation between uncertainty types (strategic, structural, and job-related) and two approaches of organizational commitment (affective and continuance). No relationship was found between uncertainty types and teachers’ normative commitment. Keywords : uncertainty; strategic uncertainty; structural uncertainty; job- related uncertainty; organizational commitment; Egypt
The relationship between familism and suicide attempts among Latina adolescents: Prevention and intervention efforts

Latina adolescents have the highest rates of suicidal behavior among ethnic and racial minority youth in the United States. The Latino population represents the largest minority group in the United States; thus, this is an important issue to address. Familism, a value central to the Latino culture, emphasizes the centrality of the family as a primary unit, in contrast to Western tradition that places the individual at the core. During adolescent development, Latinas may struggle with balancing their families' needs with their own needs for autonomy, creating a conflict between Latina adolescents and their families. A better understanding of familial factors that predict and protect against suicidal behaviors among Latina adolescents is necessary to identify alterable factors and develop culturally responsive prevention and intervention approaches. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between familism and suicide attempts among Latina youth through an examination of the existing literature. Preventative strategies and interventions to address suicidal behavior for Latina youth will also be discussed.
Dual barrier InAlN/AlGaN/GaN‐on‐silicon high‐electron‐mobility transistors with Pt‐ and Ni‐based gate stacks

In this work, we report the performance of 3 µm gate length “dual barrier” InAlN/AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si substrates with gate–drain contact separations in the range 4–26 µm. Devices with Pt‐ and Ni‐based gates were studied and their leakage characteristics are compared. Maximum drain current IDS of ∼1 A mm−1, maximum extrinsic transconductance gm ∼203 mS mm−1 and on‐resistance Ron ∼4.07 Ω mm for gate to drain distance LGD = 4 µm were achieved. Nearly ideal sub‐threshold swing of ∼65.6 mV dec−1 was obtained for LGD = 14 µm. The use of Pt‐based gate metal stacks led to a two to three orders of magnitude gate leakage current decrease compared to Ni‐based gates. The influence of InAlN layer thickness on the transistor transfer characteristics is also discussed.
circadian variation of pain as a measure of the analgesia requirements during the first 24 postoperative hours in patients using an opioid patient controlled analgesia delivery system

Circadian rhythms have governed the everyday life of every single organism that has lived on Earth. The present study addresses the rhythms of cortisol and melatonin, their analgesic properties and the potential circadian rhythm of pain as a driver of the frequency of self-administered analgesia in postoperative patients with an opioid Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) delivery system. It aims to determine if acute 24-hour post-operative pain displays a circadian variation by analysing the number of times that patients self-administered morphine for pain relief and incidentally to determine if gender has any association with the frequency of self-administered analgesia. For that purpose, the frequencies of self-administered analgesia were divided into four periods of six hours each (three of them approximately corresponded to the day, and 1 to the night). A Multi-level Poisson regression analysis compared frequencies during period 4 (night) to all others (1, 2 and 3). The results show that there was a statistically significant difference between the frequencies of self-administered opioids in the night period compared to any other day period (p-value of <0.001, for periods 1, 2 and 3 respectively compared to period 4). Differences in terms of gender were also statistically significant (p < 0.001) with menâ€™s opioid consumption almost double that of womenâ€™s but with much steeper rate of decline (p<0.001). These results may be partly explained by the rhythms of melatonin, cortisol and AŸ-endorphine, morphineâ€™s chronopharmacology and possibly by oestrogen and progesterone.
Study of Vibrio Cholerae with its Virulence Factors Isolated from Diarrheal Patients in Babylon Province

Stool specimens were collected from (136) patients with watery diarrhea aged (from 5 months to 80 years) prior administration to antimicrobial agents who were referred to Hilla teaching hospital (Emergency department) during a period from (September to December 2008). This study found that 44 (32.35%) suspected isolates of Vibrio cholerae 23(52.3%) male and 21 (47.7%) female. All isolates were proven to be Vibrio cholerae in central public health laboratory in Baghdad. Regarding to the serotyping of Vibrio cholerae this study found that all isolates have only Inaba serotype. The virulence factors were detected in all isolates was produce siderophores and colonization factor antigens. ةصلاخلا
Older Hypertensive Patients’ Adherence to Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors

Abstract Non-pharmacological treatment including diet, body weight reduction, smoking cessation and physical activity, is very important part of hypertension treatment. The objective of this study was to investigate the adherence to healthy lifestyle behavior in the representative sample of the older hypertensive patients, and to investigate factors associated with adherence in the studied older population. The study was conducted on random sample of 362 long term hypertensive (> five years) patients older than 65 years of age, at Health Care Center of Kragujevac. Adherence was assessed using the structured questionnaire for the analysis of the implementation of both hypertension and diabetes guidelines in the primary care. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Nearly 35% of examined patients were highly adherent; they exercised regularly, avoided smoking for at least five years and consumed special healthy diet prescribed for hypertension. Another 35.6% of the cases reported exercising regularly, 39.5% followed the recommended diet for the hypertension, while 23.4% of the patients have still consumed cigarettes. Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that received counseling on healthy lifestyle behaviors by physicians and lack of education predicted high adherence to healthy lifestyle behavior. In order to improve adherence of elderly hypertensive patients to healthy lifestyle, strengthening patient-physician relationships through efforts to enhance communication may be a promising strategy to enhance patients’ engagement in healthy lifestyle behaviors for hypertension. Such an improvement could be achieved through the education of both the physicians and patients.
Hyper‐Palatable Foods: Development of a Quantitative Definition and Application to the US Food System Database

Extensive research has focused on hyper‐palatable foods (HPF); however, HPF are defined using descriptive terms (e.g., fast foods, sweets), which are not standardized and lack specificity. The study purpose was to develop a quantitative definition of HPF and apply the definition to the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) to determine HPF prevalence in the US food system.
The Generalized Conditional Autoregressive Wishart Model for Multivariate Realized Volatility

It is well known that in finance variances and covariances of asset returns move together over time. Recently, much interest has been aroused by an approach involving the use of the realized covariance (RCOV) matrix constructed from high-frequency returns as the ex-post realization of the covariance matrix of low-frequency returns. For the analysis of dynamics of RCOV matrices, we propose the generalized conditional autoregressive Wishart (GCAW) model. Both the noncentrality matrix and scale matrix of the Wishart distribution are driven by the lagged values of RCOV matrices, and represent two different sources of dynamics, respectively. The GCAW is a generalization of the existing models, and accounts for symmetry and positive definiteness of RCOV matrices without imposing any parametric restriction. Some important properties such as conditional moments, unconditional moments, and stationarity are discussed. Empirical examples including sequences of daily RCOV matrices from the New York Stock Exchange illustrate that our model outperforms the existing models in terms of model fitting and forecasting.
Gefitinib Alone Versus Gefitinib Plus Chemotherapy for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer With Mutated Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor: NEJ009 Study.

PURPOSE Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy is highly effective for the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR mutations; however, little is known about the efficacy and safety of this combination compared with that of standard therapy with EGFR- tyrosine kinase inhibitors alone. METHODS We randomly assigned 345 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic NSCLC with EGFR mutations to gefitinib combined with carboplatin plus pemetrexed or gefitinib alone. Progression-free survival (PFS), PFS2, and overall survival (OS) were sequentially analyzed as primary end points according to a hierarchical sequential testing method. Secondary end points were objective response rate (ORR), safety, and quality of life. RESULTS The combination group demonstrated a better ORR and PFS than the gefitinib group (ORR, 84% v 67% [P < .001]; PFS, 20.9 v 11.9 months; hazard ratio for death or disease progression, 0.490 [P < .001]), although PFS2 was not significantly different (20.9 v 18.0 months; P = .092). Median OS in the combination group was also significantly longer than in the gefitinib group (50.9 v 38.8 months; hazard ratio for death, 0.722; P = .021). The rate of grade ≥ 3 treatment-related adverse events, such as hematologic toxicities, in the combination group was higher than in the gefitinib group (65.3% v 31.0%); there were no differences in quality of life. One treatment-related death was observed in the combination group. CONCLUSION Compared with gefitinib alone, gefitinib combined with carboplatin plus pemetrexed improved PFS in patients with untreated advanced NSCLC with EGFR mutations with an acceptable toxicity profile, although its OS benefit requires further validation.
Cladistics and mass extinctions: the example of conulariids (Scyphozoa, Cnidaria) and the End Ordovician Extinction Event

The End Ordovician Extinction Event (EOEE) had little impact on supra-specific diversity and disparity within the order Conulariida (Scyphozoa, Cnidaria). With two possible exceptions (Exoconularia and Glyptoconularia), all eight genera currently known from strata of middle or late Katian age survived the crisis, and nearly all of the discontinuous gross morphological features present in Ordovician and older genera are present in at least one of the surviving genera. A cladistic parsimony analysis of 17 genera, 12 of which occur in Ordovician strata, produced 3 major subclades and 7 less inclusive subclades within Conulariida. With one possible exception, the clade Anaconularia+Baccaconularia, all other monophyletic groups within Conulariida survived the EOEE. Moreover, additional, ghost lineages in the clade Climacoconus+Holoconularia+Notoconularia+Paraconularia+Reticulaconularia must have crossed the Ordovician–Silurian boundary. The minor impact of the EOEE on diversity and disparity within Conulariida probably reflects the eurytopic character and simple but efficient metabolism (possibly glycolysis-based) of this group.
Factors Enhancing Household Nutrition Outcomes in Potato Value Chain in South-Western Uganda

In Uganda, agricultural commercialization has been promoted to reduce poverty and improve household food security. South-western Uganda, the major producer of potato, has been considered the food basket of the country but it has one of the highest prevalence rates of stunting in children under 5. This study considered potato enterprise as a key pathway for enhancing household food and nutrition security because it has become a major income source and staple in the diets of many households in the area and most urban areas in the country. The objective was to determine factors that influence farm household nutrition and food security outcomes. Through a survey, data were collected from 434 randomly selected potato farmer households. Descriptive and econometric methods were used in data analysis. Results show that household dietary diversity score was low (3.2) for most (57%) of the households. Only 38% were food secure. The main factors enhancing household nutrition outcomes were size of land, livestock units owned, proportion of household income spent on food, and education of household head, while farmer’s experience in potato production had a negative effect. The size of land owned, crop diversification, income from potato, age and education of household head, and a famer being male enhanced household food security outcomes. The study recommends promoting improved production practices to maximize land productivity, integration of livestock in potato production, and training women and men in household food and nutrition and related use of income.
Non-invasive monitoring of adrenocortical physiology in a threatened Australian marsupial, the western quoll (Dasyurus geoffroii)

We monitored faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) in 53 western quolls following capture. Using this stressor, we validated an assay for monitoring FGM in quolls. On average, FGM peak 24 hours after capture. Females exhibit higher baseline and peak FGM levels than males. Individuals vary in their physiological response to capture.
Fisher Information Lower Bounds with Applications in Hardware-Aware Nonlinear Signal Processing

We discuss the problem of deriving compact and tractable lower bounds for the Fisher information matrix. To motivate our particular approach towards such expressions, we first examine the structure of the exact Fisher information matrix in the context of exponential family models. Then, by replacing an arbitrary data model by an equivalent distribution within the exponential family of distributions, we derive a lower bound for the Fisher information measure of probabilistic models with multivariate output and multiple parameters. The pessimistic information matrix allows a tractable quantitative analysis of the parameter-specific information flow through nonlinear random systems. Therefore, the technique is exploited for the performance analysis concerning direction-of-arrival estimation of wireless source signals with a binary radio sensor array. Further, by the example of a sensing device exhibiting amplifier saturation, we outline how the information bound can be used to learn compression schemes which preserve the parameter-specific information within the data while the probabilistic model is unknown. We also show that the conservative estimation performance characterized by the pessimistic Fisher information matrix is asymptotically achieved by a consistent estimator operating on compressed data. A reformulation of the estimation algorithm turns out to be reminiscent of Hansen's generalized method of moments while the pessimistic Fisher information matrix shows a vivid interpretation within a particular Gaussian modeling framework.