Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Raw Meat and Meat Handlers in Onitsha, Nigeria

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major human pathogen, causing severe morbidity and mortality worldwide both in hospitals and the community. Recent reports of isolation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from food animals, their meats as well as animal keepers have raised concern about the potential for food borne and zoonotic transmission. This study, evaluated the prevalence of MRSA in meat and meat handlers in Onitsha, Nigeria. A total of 274 samples were collected and analyzed using standard microbiological techniques. Staphylococcus aureus isolates were properly identified using standard procedures and confirmed as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus using Oxacillin-Resistance Screening Agar Base (ORSAB), supplemented with 2 g/l oxacillin. MRSA prevalence rates of 11(14.3%), 6(85.7%), 4(57.1%) and 12(63.2%) were observed in Beef, Pork, Donkey and Goat meats respectively. There was a significant difference in MRSA prevalence among the meat types (X2= 107.936; P<0.05). The Butchers’ tables showed MRSA prevalence of 3(50%), 8(100%), 2(100%) and 4(100%) for Beef, Goat, Pork and Donkey respectively, while the recovery rates of the organism from cutting knives were 2(33.33%), 7(100%), 2(100%) and 4(100%) for Beef, Goat, Pork and Donkey respectively; no MRSA was recovered from carcass dressing water. Out of 5 MRSA isolates from the body of live cows, 1(20%) was from the nostril, 2(40%) from the ear and 2(40%) from the groin. Over-all, the occurrence of MRSA in butchers was 51%. Out of 29 MRSA isolates from butchers, 12(41.38%) were from butchers 1-10 years in business, 9(31.03%) from 11-20 years, 5(17.24%) from 21-30 years. Two (6.9%) were observed in butchers 31-40 years in business, while 1(3.44%) was from 41-50 years in business. The high prevalence of MRSA in meat and its handlers tends to be of public health concern as it may play a potential role in disseminating the organism between animals and humans as well as to the community. Therefore, proper hygienic practices, control of indiscriminate use of antibiotics, and frequent screening of the risk population for MRSA, are hereby recommended both for prevention and control of meat borne infections and other community-acquired MRSA infections.
Estimation of thrusting trajectories in 3D from a single fixed passive sensor

The problem of estimating the state of thrusting/ballistic endo-atmospheric projectiles moving in three-dimensional space for the purpose of impact point prediction (IPP) using two-dimensional measurements from a single passive sensor (stationary or moving with constant velocity) is investigated. The location of a projectile's launch point (LP) is generally unavailable, and this could significantly affect the performance of the estimation and the IPP. However, if the altitude of the LP is known, the launch position can be obtained with negligible error from the first line of sight measurement intersected with the terrain map. The estimability is analyzed based on the Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) of the target parameter vector that determines its trajectory: the initial launch (azimuth and elevation) angles, drag coefficient, and thrust. Lack of knowledge about the LP altitude makes the problem substantially more difficult, since this altitude is then an additional unknown target parameter and must be included into the target parameter vector that needs estimability analysis. The full rank of the FIM, with/without the LP altitude, ensures that one has estimable target parameters. The corresponding Craḿer-Rao lower bound quantifies the estimation performance of the estimator that is statistically efficient and can be used for the IPP accuracy evaluation. In view of the inherent nonlinearity of the problem, the maximum likelihood estimate of the target parameter vector can be found by using a suitable numerical approach. A search strategy with two stages-a mixed (partially grid-based) search followed by a continuous search-is proposed. For even a coarse grid, this approach is shown to have reliable estimation performance and leads to an IPP of good accuracy. Due to its parallelizable nature, the mixed search allows the two-stage strategy to be implementable in real time.
Iterative algorithm for autonomous star identification

An autonomous star identification algorithm is described in this study. This algorithm iteratively determines a catalog star, the distances of which to its neighbors are similar to those of a given sensor star and its neighboring stars, until a unique match is found. In each iteration, only the catalog stars that receive sufficient votes are used in the subsequent steps. We also develop a useful probabilistic model for performance prediction and evaluation. Analysis indicates that spurious star pairings are decreased exponentially after each iteration. The simulation and real sky image results show that the proposed approach is more robust than conventional algorithms and requires fewer resources.
Social networking tools for academic libraries

This is an exploratory study investigating the use of social networking tools in academic libraries, examining the extent of their use, library staff’s perceptions of their usefulness and challenges, and factors influencing decisions to use or not to use such tools. Invitations to participate in a web-based survey were sent to 140 university libraries from Asia, North America and Europe. Responses were received from 38 libraries (response rate: 27.1%). Twenty-seven libraries (71.1%) used social networking tools, five (13.1%) were potential users and six (15.8%) did not plan to use them at all. Facebook and Twitter were the most commonly adopted tools in university libraries. Most library staff had positive perceptions on the usefulness of social networking tools, but hesitancy among library staff and limited participation of users (i.e. students) were perceived to be hindrances. This study offers insights for academic librarians to make informed decisions in applying social networking tools.
A Gift from Knowledge Distillation: Fast Optimization, Network Minimization and Transfer Learning

We introduce a novel technique for knowledge transfer, where knowledge from a pretrained deep neural network (DNN) is distilled and transferred to another DNN. As the DNN performs a mapping from the input space to the output space through many layers sequentially, we define the distilled knowledge to be transferred in terms of flow between layers, which is calculated by computing the inner product between features from two layers. When we compare the student DNN and the original network with the same size as the student DNN but trained without a teacher network, the proposed method of transferring the distilled knowledge as the flow between two layers exhibits three important phenomena: (1) the student DNN that learns the distilled knowledge is optimized much faster than the original model, (2) the student DNN outperforms the original DNN, and (3) the student DNN can learn the distilled knowledge from a teacher DNN that is trained at a different task, and the student DNN outperforms the original DNN that is trained from scratch.
Information literacy in Oman’s higher education: A descriptive-inferential approach

This study aims to identify the current status of information literacy among the students at Sultan Qaboos University in their final year through using the Big6 model for solving information problems. The study utilizes self-assessment survey approach, with the questionnaire as a tool for data collection. It surveyed undergraduate students of Sultan Qaboos University, enrolled in their final year for the academic year 2010/2011. Collected data from 550 valid questionnaires were processed using SPSS. The results indicated high rates of information literacy skills. Among the Big6 skills synthesis, including the ability of respondents in summarizing, combining and linking, using consistent style of organization, and using a variety of ways to display information was ranked first, while the skill of location and access scored the lowest. Significant statistical differences attributed to specialization, gender, English fluency, and computer skills were also indicated at minor levels. The amount of literature relating to information literacy in the Arab World is comparatively less than that in the developed countries. No empirical studies that investigate the competencies of information literacy among university students have previously been conducted in Oman.
Daily Functioning and Quality of Life of Patients One Year Post Stroke: A Comparison of Two Different Follow-Up Care Programmes

Background: An observational study to examine whether a new follow-up care programme (ATC) specifically aimed at conservation of daily functioning, quality of life and activities realizes better outcomes in stroke patients compared to conventional (ORP) follow-up care. Methods: A total of 93 stroke patients who followed the ATC follow-up care programme or had conventional follow-up care were interviewed at home one-year post stroke using the Barthel Index and RAND-36 questionnaires and a questionnaire about their way of life and medication use. People aged under 60, Barthel < 10 or with haemorrhage were excluded. Results: In this study 25% (ATC) and 29% (ORP) of patients experienced more limitations in activities after one year. In the ATC group the decrease is related to ADL independence and loss of social contacts. ADL independence is correlated with a better quality of life. Health-related quality of life was identical in the two groups. It was observed in both groups that quitting or doing less activities is significantly related to a diminished quality of life. There is no significant difference between the groups in terms of medicine use or follow-up care. More patients visit day centres in the ATC group. Conclusions : No major differences in outcome could be found between the two groups. A relationship between doing diverse activities and quality of life was found in both groups. Perhaps studying the individual needs of stroke patient would be more effective than a standard follow-up care programme. T his needs further investigation. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.4021/jnr182e
MorphNet: Fast & Simple Resource-Constrained Structure Learning of Deep Networks

We present MorphNet, an approach to automate the design of neural network structures. MorphNet iteratively shrinks and expands a network, shrinking via a resource-weighted sparsifying regularizer on activations and expanding via a uniform multiplicative factor on all layers. In contrast to previous approaches, our method is scalable to large networks, adaptable to specific resource constraints (e.g. the number of floating-point operations per inference), and capable of increasing the network's performance. When applied to standard network architectures on a wide variety of datasets, our approach discovers novel structures in each domain, obtaining higher performance while respecting the resource constraint.
Cataloguing government documents using the MARC 21: A case study of materials from the AP Vojvodina government sessions

The paper provides suggestions for cataloguing session materials (especially minutes of sessions) using the MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data and MARC 21 Format for Authority Data. The suggested solution is shown on the example of materials from the government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia (APV) sessions. Two business applications were developed on the basis of this MARC 21 cataloguing of the materials: a web application for searching government materials and a web application for generating various reports for the APV government. The web application supports searching metadata as well as the full text of the material and search criteria may include all of the given words or exact phrase. The examples of the reports supported by the application are: total number of sessions; total number of agenda items and sub-items; session attendance by the government members.
Physiotherapy and management in early whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) – A review

The aim of the current review was to examine which management physiotherapists in primary healthcare should provide patients with early whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) grades I–III, to minimize chronic pain and disability. Pub Med, Medline, PEDro, CINAHL and EIRA, were searched from 1980 and forward, using combinations of keywords. In all, eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical trials (CTs) were accepted. The results in the majority of the accepted studies showed that instruction and advice to act as usual and active treatment are preferred in the early WAD grades I–III. The pain decreased and the cervical range of movement increased. A deficiency in the studies is that there are no measurements used for disability due to neck pain. The studies suggest that active intervention, and advice to “act as usual” is preferred and the use of a soft collar should be avoided in WAD grades I–III. An appropriate and effective physiotherapy in the early WAD management should comprise pain relief, home exercises to maintain cervical movement, posture and coping strategies to handle disability due to neck pain and outcome follow-up.
A Closer Look at Spatiotemporal Convolutions for Action Recognition

In this paper we discuss several forms of spatiotemporal convolutions for video analysis and study their effects on action recognition. Our motivation stems from the observation that 2D CNNs applied to individual frames of the video have remained solid performers in action recognition. In this work we empirically demonstrate the accuracy advantages of 3D CNNs over 2D CNNs within the framework of residual learning. Furthermore, we show that factorizing the 3D convolutional filters into separate spatial and temporal components yields significantly gains in accuracy. Our empirical study leads to the design of a new spatiotemporal convolutional block "R(2+1)D" which produces CNNs that achieve results comparable or superior to the state-of-the-art on Sports-1M, Kinetics, UCF101, and HMDB51.
Radiation doses from chest X-ray examinations for pediatrics in some hospitals of Khartoum State

Introduction: Paediatrics patients deserve special attention because of the higher radiation risks compared with adults. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine diagnostic reference level through entrance surface dose (ESD) calculations. The overall data consisted of patients doses collected from three major hospitals in Khartoum state. Results: 400 patients were subjected to this study. They are classified into four age groups, 0->1 year, 1->5 years, 5->10 years and 10->15 years old. Anteroposterior (AP) chest X-ray examination is done for them. The ESD calculated using Dose Cal software. The x-ray tube output for each equipment is measured using calibrated ionization chamber (RAD - Check Plus model 06-526). The results obtained are high compared to international diagnostic reference levels for chest. These results will also serve as a base line data for future settings.
Systemic lupus erythematosus patients have increased number of circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells, but decreased myeloid dendritic cells with deficient CD83 expression

Abstract Dendritic cells (DCs) are functionally abnormal in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, previous studies have involved in-vitro cytokine-induced DCs. In this investigation, directly isolated circulating plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and myeloid DCs (mDCs) in SLE were studied. Blood dendritic cell antigen (BDCA)-4 and BDCA-1 magnetic isolation kits were used to isolate blood pDCs and mDCs from 30 SLE patients and 36 controls. Their number and surface markers, and their relationship with lupus disease activity were evaluated. The percentage of pDCs per peripheral blood mononuclear cells was higher in SLE (0.33 ± 0.14) than in controls (0.16 ± 0.09, P < 0.01), but that of mDCs was lower in SLE (0.43 ± 0.14) than in controls (0.63 ± 0.32; P < 0.01). In controls, both pDCs and mDCs expressed high levels of MHC-II, however, the expression of CD86, CD83 and CCR7 on pDCs were significantly lower than that on mDCs (all P < 0.05). mDCs from patients with SLE, particularly those with active disease, expressed lower CD83 than controls. In health, circulating mDCs may be more efficient than pDCs in stimulating T cells. In SLE, the increased number of circulating pDCs supports a pathogenic role for these cells, and the decreased mDC number and CD83 expression may explain the susceptibility to infections in these patients.
Self-assessment of competence in a community pharmacy setting

Background:The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is currently introducing continuing professional development(CPD) as a means of ensuring the competence of its members. An investigation into the influences of pharmacists’characteristics on self-assessed competence will help identify pharmacists who may need support with CPD. The aim of thisstudy was to explore the influences on the self-assessed competence of community pharmacists. Methods:A piloted postal questionnaire measuring self-assessed competence was sent to 179 community pharmacists. Results:Groups of pharmacists based in demographics were identified (K means cluster analysis). ANOVA and post hoc tests revealed that pharmacists who were female, younger and working for national chains of pharmacies assessed themselves to be more competent than male owners of independent pharmacies in the “Patient Care” (F=3.710, p,0.05, Scheffe p<0.05) and “Personal” competency clusters (F=4.360,p<0.05, Scheffe p<0.05). Discussion:Male, older pharmacists, who own their own pharmacy, need support to increase their confidence in their skills,knowledge and abilities.
Efficacy of enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium in patients with resistant-type lupus nephritis: a prospective study

The role of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is still controversial in the treatment of cyclophosphamide-resistant proliferative lupus nephritis (PLN). Enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium (EC-MPS) has less gastrointestinal adverse effects than MMF and is, therefore, increasingly utilised in organ transplantation. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of EC-MPS versus an extended-course of intravenous cyclophosphamide (ED-IVCY) in resistant-type PLN. Thirty-one, biopsy-proven PLN, patients who failed to respond to an induction of IVCY were enrolled in a prospective, open-labelled, historically controlled study. Patients received 6 month of EC-MPS (720 mg b.i.d.) treatment. The patients in the ED-IVCY group, collected from a database, received a repeated 6-month course of monthly IVCY 0.5–1 g/m2 of body surface area. Both groups received 0.5–1 mg/kg/day of prednisolone. Primary outcomes were partial or complete responses. A repeated kidney biopsy was performed to evaluate the histological response. No serious adverse events or patient deaths were observed during the study. Both groups had comparable baseline characteristics. At 6 months, the EC-MPS group had a comparable response rate with the ED-IVCY group. There were significantly less adverse events in the EC-MPS group. Repeated biopsies showed significant improvement in the EC-MPS group. EC-MPS provides salutary efficacy and safety in the treatment of resistant-type PLN and can be a suitably alternative treatment to ED-IVCY.
Computational science. Materials scientists look to a data-intensive future.

C R E D IT : A . J A IN E T A L . , J O U R N A L O F T H E E L E C T R O C H E M IC A L S O C IE T Y 1 5 9 ( 5 M A R C H 2 0 1 2 ) © T H E E L E C T R O C H E M IC A L S O C IE T Y When the Human Genome Project took off in 1990, the goal of sequencing all 3 billion letters of DNA in a single genome in 15 years seemed a daunting task. Ultimately, advances in sequencing technology enabled researchers to f inish the job early. And today, sequencing a single genome seems almost pedestrian. Now, materials researchers are hoping that a similar technological ramp-up will help them with a Herculean task of their own: using computers to calculate the properties of a near-infi nite variety of solids to identify potential materials breakthroughs for batteries, solar cells, and many other applications. Today’s machines aren’t yet able to simulate all types of materials. But a broad array of researchers think steady progress in technology has now made supercomputers powerful and available enough to make the task worth starting. “The scaling of computing is really making this possible,” says Gerbrand Ceder, a materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Richard Hennig, a computational materials scientist at Cornell University, agrees. “The fi eld of computational materials science is ready to take off,” Hennig says. To help launch it, the White House announced a new federal effort last June to promote the use of high-performance computing to cut in half the time it takes to develop a new material. Known as the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), the effort promised $100 million just this year to drastically accelerate materials discovery— particularly in alternative energy, a field heavily reliant on advanced materials. Since then, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy have offered new grant programs in the area. That initiative has been a long time coming. Ever since the advent of quantum mechanics in the early 1900s, researchers have known how to compute the properties of materials, at least in principle. But most materials are so complex that only those with a small number of electrons can be fully analyzed at the quantum level. Because complex materials have on the order of 10 electrons, researchers must rely heavily on computational methods to simplify the problem. These include a wide array of simulation techniques, such as density functional theory calculations, fi nite-element methods, and Monte Carlo simulations, all of which have been around for years. “The codes really haven’t changed that much”
Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Central Role for the Hippocampus—A Theoretical Construct

Objective: A growing body of evidence implicates the central nervous system as playing a primary role in the diverse phenomena associated with fibromyalgia, including hyperactivity of stress systems and enhanced nociception. The objective of this review is to propose a unifying theory to explain a majority of these. Findings: Stress exposure causes deleterious changes within the central nervous system, the hippocampus being particularly vulnerable. The hippocampus is perhaps best known for its role in memory and cognition, two functions which are impacted by elevated glucocorticoid levels such as occur in prolonged stress. The hippocampus also provides inhibitory drive to brain centers associated with the stress response, i.e., the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, central amygdala, and locus coeruleus. In addition, the hippocampus has been demonstrated to participate in nociception, a function positively correlated with the activity of hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate [NMDA] subtype glutamate receptors. A variety of stress-related hormones are known to enhance the activity of hippocampal NMDA receptors, thereby increasing excitatory neuro-transmission within the hippocampus. While the impact of stress-related hormones on hippocampal NMDA receptor function is adaptive in the acute scenario, exposure to chronic stress eventually leads to hippocampal dysfunction and atrophy secondary to excessive excitatory neurotransmission [i.e., excitotoxicity]. Conclusion: Fibromyalgia is characterized by abnormalities that appear to be related to hippocampal dysfunction, including hyperactivity of both corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons and the sympathetic nervous system, impaired declarative memory, and enhanced NMDA receptor-mediated nociception. It is therefore postulated that stress-induced, NMDA receptor-mediated dysfunction within the hippocampus plays a central role in the etiopathogenesis and clinical phenomena of fibromyalgia.