Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Inc FII Plasmid and its Contribution in the Transmission of bla NDM ‐ 1 and bla KPC ‐ 2 in Klebsiella pneumoniae in Egypt

: The emergence of bla KPC ‐ 2 and bla NDM ‐ 1 producing Klebsiella pneumoniae represents a great problem in many Egyptian hospitals. One hundred and twenty ‐ six K . pneumoniae isolates from patients admitted to Assiut University Hospital were identified by an API20E kit. Carbapenemase ‐ producing K . pneumoniae (CPKP) was detected by the modified carbapenem inactivation method (mCIM), the EDTA ‐ modified carbapenem inactivation method (eCIM), and an E ‐ test. Based on the polymerase chain reaction, all isolates were negative for bla ‐ VIM ‐ 1 and bla ‐ IMP ‐ 1 , fifteen of these isolates were positive for both bla KPC ‐ 2 and bla NDM ‐ 1 , two isolates were positive for bla KPC ‐ 2 only, and twenty ‐ eight isolates were positive for bla ‐ NDM ‐ 1 only. Although one isolate was positive for the string test, all CPKP isolates were negative for capsular genes. Only 71.1% of CPKP transferred their plasmids to their corresponding transconjugants ( E. coli J53). The resistance patterns of the clinical isolates and their transconjugates were similar, except for 12 isolates, which showed differences with their transconjugates in the resistance profile of four antibiotics. Molecular typing of the plasmids based on replicon typing showed that Inc FIIK and FII plasmids predominated in isolates and their transconjugants carrying bla KPC ‐ 2 and/or bla NDM ‐ 1 . Conjugative Inc FII plasmids play an important role in the spread of CPKP, and their recognition is essential to limit their spread.
Journal of Turkish Science Education/2014, 11(1),3-23

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) can be viewed as a new concept for the educational technology world. However, there are many studies related to TPACK and TPACK cannot be considered out of context. Instead, researchers should have a deep understanding about how the results of a TPACK study may change due to its context. This study demonstrates the importance of context. The Survey of TPACK was utilized to identify 591 pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs) TPACK levels and examine the validity and reliability of data obtained from 591 PSTs. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for validity. After factor analyses a TPACK model with four factors (technological knowledge, content knowledge, knowledge of pedagogy, knowledge of teaching with technology) were obtained. There were, however, seven factors in the original form of the survey. This change was interpreted as the effect of the context, because the participants in the original survey and in this survey were different in terms of their teacher preparation programs and the opportunities that the teacher preparation programs provided for them. In addition, pre-service science teachers’ TPACK levels were investigated on the basis of demographic variables (gender, owning computer, computer usage level and grade level). An important result obtained from the demographic variables is that pre-service science teachers’ TPACK levels develop in direct proportion to their grade level. This finding supports the idea that experiences with technology and in teaching have a positive impact on TPACK.
Fatigue of systemic lupus erythematosus in china: contributors and effects on the quality of life

Objective: Fatigue is a very common symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which significantly impairs patients’ quality of life. The purpose of this study is to evaluate contributors of fatigue and effects of fatigue on the quality of life in Chinese SLE patients. Methods: A survey of 119 SLE patients using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) to assess the severity of fatigue was carried out. SLE patients completed the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Short Form 36 health survey and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Meanwhile, 105 healthy individuals completed FSS, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Short Form 36 health survey. We used chi-squared analysis, independent samples t -tests and logistic regression models to analyze data. Results: Our results found that the FSS score of patients with SLE was higher than that of healthy controls. The disease duration, anxiety, depression, subjective sleep quality and sleep disorders significantly correlated with fatigue in SLE patients. Moreover, logistic regression models showed depression and sleep disorders as predictors of fatigue. In SLE patients, fatigued patients had lower quality of life than those who were non-fatigued. Conclusion: This is the first time to explore contributors of fatigue and the influence of fatigue on SLE patients’ quality of life in China. Our study showed that depression and sleep disorders were predictors of fatigue, and fatigue seriously damaged SLE patients’ quality of life. The results indicate that it is necessary to conduct holistic assessment and effective intervention, such as systemic psychiatric screening, psychological care and practical sleep guidance, to relieve symptoms of fatigue and finally improve their quality of life in SLE patients.
Mindsets and ERPs in Children 1 Neural evidence for enhanced attention to mistakes among school-aged children with a growth mindset

Individuals who believe intelligence is malleable (a growth mindset) are better able to bounce back from failures than those who believe intelligence is immutable. Event-related potential (ERPs) studies among adults suggest this resilience is related to increased attention allocation to errors. Whether this mechanism is present among young children remains unknown, however. We therefore evaluated error-monitoring ERPs among 123 school-aged children while they completed a child-friendly go/no-go task. As expected, higher attention allocation to errors (indexed by larger error positivity, Pe) predicted higher post-error accuracy. Moreover, replicating adult work, growth mindset was related to greater attention to mistakes (larger Pe) and higher post-error accuracy. Exploratory moderation analyses revealed that growth mindset Mindsets and ERPs in Children 2 increased post-error accuracy for children who did not attend to their errors. Together, these results demonstrate the combined role of growth mindset and neural mechanisms of attention allocation in bouncing back after failure among young children.
The Radio-Frequency Birefringence of Polar Ice

Abstract Radio-echo observations have shown that polar ice in situ is birefringent. The most likely explanation of the birefringence is an anisotropy in the radio-frequency dielectric constant of the ice single crystal, combined with the ordering of the orientations of the ice crystals in polar ice. It is possible to calculate the birefringence of ice which has a distribution of crystal orientations using a technique similar to that used to derive the dielectric properties of heterogeneous media. The experimentally observed birefringence may then be shown to be consistent with the crystal orientation fabric at the site of the observations if the anisotropy of the dielectric constant is slightly less than 1%, that is, slightly less than the accuracy of the laboratory measurements which have failed to detect any anisotropy. Further experimental observations might be used to obtain information on not only the level of anisotropy of the single crystal but also on the crystal orientation fabric of the ice.
Management of drought in ICRISAT cereal and legume mandate crops improvement

This chapter reviews the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)'s research achievements in the domain of crop drought tolerance and presents future perspectives in the genetic enhancement of crop water use and drought adaptation in the semiarid tropics (Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India). Exploration of crop genetic variability and genotype-environment interactions has contributed significantly to developing suitable screening methods for specific drought-tolerant traits. Genetic sources of drought tolerance were also identified at ICRISAT for all mandate crops (viz., pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), groundnut and pigeon pea), and some of the associated traits have been well characterized. A large spectrum of genotype duration is now available, from long to short and extra-short duration, and matching genotype duration with likely period of soil water availability is the first strategy used against terminal-drought stress. Identification and genetic mapping of quantitative trait loci for specific drought-tolerant traits using molecular markers are currently receiving greater research focus. This approach provides a powerful tool for dissecting the genetic basis of drought tolerance. If validated with accurate phenotyping and properly integrated in marker-assisted breeding programmes, this approach will accelerate the development of drought-tolerant genotypes. Overall, the progress made at ICRISAT during the last three decades proves that it is realistic to develop varieties that have increased yield under drought-prone conditions. Further multidisciplinary research integrating plant breeding, simulation modelling, physiology and molecular genetics will realize the potential of these approaches and increase the efficiency of crop improvement in drought-prone environments.
Safety and efficacy of cervical disc arthroplasty in preventing the adjacent segment disease: a meta-analysis of mid- to long-term outcomes in prospective, randomized, controlled multicenter studies

Objectives: Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) has become an alternative treatment for cervical radiculopathy and myelopathy. This technique preserves appropriate motion at both the index and adjacent disc levels and consequently may prevent adjacent segment degeneration (ASD). The authors performed a meta-analysis to compare the safety and efficacy of CDA to those of the gold standard, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). Both surgical and clinical parameters were employed to verify the hypothesis that CDA can reduce the risk of ASD. Methods: The meta-analysis comprised high-quality randomized controlled trials that compared CDA and ACDF treatments of cervical degenerative disc disease. Included papers reported data for at least one of the following outcomes: 1) surgical parameters, 2) questionnaire clinical indices (pre- and postoperative values), and 3) complication rates at 24 months; in addition, for ASD we analyzed 60 month or longer follow-ups. We used mean differences (MDs) or ORs to compare treatment effects between CDA and ACDF. Results: Twenty studies with 3,656 patients (2,140 with CDA and 1,516 with ACDF) met the inclusion criteria. CDA surgery, with mean duration longer than that of ACDF, was associated with higher blood loss. Visual analog scale neck pain score was significantly smaller for CDA (mean difference =- 2.30, 95% CI [ - 3.72; - 0.87], P = 0.002). The frequency of dysphagia/ dysphonia (OR = 0.69, 95% CI [0.49; 0.98], P = 0.04) as well as the long-term ASD rate for CDA was significantly smaller (OR = 0.33, 95% CI [0.21; 0.50], P , 0.0001). Conclusion: A significantly lower probability of ASD reoperations in the CDA cohort after a 60-month or longer follow-up was the most important finding of this study. Despite the moderate quality of this evidence, the pooled data corroborated for the very first time that CDA was efficacious in preventing ASD.
Referrals: Loan Screening and Enforcement in a Consumer Credit Field Experiment

Empirical evidence on peer intermediation lags behind a large body of theory and lending practice suggesting that lenders can harness peers to mitigate adverse selection and moral hazard. We develop and implement a two-stage field experiment that permits separate identification of peer screening and enforcement effects using a simple referral incentive mechanism under individual liability. We start by formalizing the conditions needed for two-stage experiments to separately identify ex-ante selection from ex-post incentive effects when there is selection on incentive effects. Next we test whether these identifying assumptions hold in our implementation setting, and find evidence that they do. Then we estimate peer effects on loan repayment in our setting, and find no evidence of screening (albeit with an imprecisely estimated zero) and large effects on enforcement. The results illustrate the potential utility and portability of both our methodological innovation (the identification tests) and our practical innovation (the referral scheme). JEL Codes: C93 D12 D14 D82 O12 O16
Effects of High CO_2 Pretreatment on the Quality of Fresh-Cut Potatoes

: Effects of short-term high CO 2 pretreatment on quality of fresh-cut potatoes were studied. Potatoes were treated under 90% CO 2 for 18 h, peeled, cut, dipped in 1% ascorbic acid or distilled water for 3 min, packed in polyethylene bags and stored for 12 d at 4 °C. Non-treated potatoes were used as the control. High CO 2 pretreatments ensured maintenance of a high level of CO 2 in headspace of packages containing fresh-cut potatoes. Both the growth of total aerobic bacteria in initial stages of post-cut storage and browning index of the cut surface were lower in high CO 2 treated cut potato. Anti-browning effect of high CO 2 pretreatment was decreased when applied in combination with ascorbic acid. Soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity and flesh firmness of fresh-cut potatoes were not affected by high CO 2 treatment. Therefore, high CO 2 treatment before slicing could be effective method to maintain quality of fresh-cut potatoes.
Paleoenvironmental analysis of Middle Jurassic (Callovian) ammonoids from Poland: trace elements and stable isotopes

Mineralogical and microstructural analyses of Quenstedtoceras shells (Callovian, Poland) show that the outer shell material is preserved as nacreous aragonite, while the septal material shows different degrees of alteration. The septa in part are pyritized or show signs of cementation by equant/acicular calcite cement; paleoenvironmental interpretation of the least-altered outer shell material using the Sr/Na ratio suggests that the shell material was deposited in seawater which had a salinity of about 33 ppt and a range of about 32–35 ppt. Other data, such as Mn and Fe, imply that the oxygen level of the seawater was normal. The paleotemperature, using δ18O values with a salinity correction, was calculated to be about 11.0–14.5°C with an average water temperature of about 12.5°C. These paleoenvironmental parameters, in part, account for the faunal character of the Boreal Realm of the Jurassic.
COSMIC: the Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer

Abstract COSMIC, the Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer (https://cancer.sanger.ac.uk) is the most detailed and comprehensive resource for exploring the effect of somatic mutations in human cancer. The latest release, COSMIC v86 (August 2018), includes almost 6 million coding mutations across 1.4 million tumour samples, curated from over 26 000 publications. In addition to coding mutations, COSMIC covers all the genetic mechanisms by which somatic mutations promote cancer, including non-coding mutations, gene fusions, copy-number variants and drug-resistance mutations. COSMIC is primarily hand-curated, ensuring quality, accuracy and descriptive data capture. Building on our manual curation processes, we are introducing new initiatives that allow us to prioritize key genes and diseases, and to react more quickly and comprehensively to new findings in the literature. Alongside improvements to the public website and data-download systems, new functionality in COSMIC-3D allows exploration of mutations within three-dimensional protein structures, their protein structural and functional impacts, and implications for druggability. In parallel with COSMIC’s deep and broad variant coverage, the Cancer Gene Census (CGC) describes a curated catalogue of genes driving every form of human cancer. Currently describing 719 genes, the CGC has recently introduced functional descriptions of how each gene drives disease, summarized into the 10 cancer Hallmarks.
An Integrative Review

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a chronic illness affecting more than 5 million Americans, and it continues to lead healthcare-related expenditures in the United States. Hospitalization rates remain high and are caused by many factors, including poor self-care behaviors. Self-care research is growing, and a situation-specific theory for the HF population is now published. Self-care management, which is part of self-care, includes a series of responses and actions that the individual living with HF assumes in response to a change in baseline health. A critical aspect of enacting a self-care management plan is the ability to recognize changes in baseline health as being related to HF. Purpose: This integrative review examined research to date on self-reported patterns of symptom recognition, an antecedent to self-care management, and treatment-seeking behaviors in HF patients. Conclusions: Descriptive research strategies were predominantly used to examine symptom recognition, interpretation, and response in HF patients. Seven studies used retrospective approaches, such as chart review or patient recall, to collect data, and 7 studies collected data from the patient prospectively. The quantitative portion of 2 mixed-methods study was also analyzed. Dyspnea was the most frequently reported symptom across all studies reviewed. Dyspnea was characterized in terms of duration and was defined inconsistently across studies. In some studies, duration of dyspnea was associated with treatment-seeking delays. Elderly patients and newly diagnosed HF patients are more likely to delay treatment seeking for onset of symptoms. Clinical Implications: Research is limited on symptom recognition and treatment-seeking behaviors in HF patients. Evidence suggests that symptom recognition may be impaired in the elderly population. Research studies to date on symptom recognition have largely been descriptive; no studies in this review followed patients’ ability to recognize and respond to symptoms prospectively in their home environment. Symptoms may vary and their pattern may influence patients’ recognition and/or response patterns.
Epileptogenic zone localization using magnetoencephalography predicts seizure freedom in epilepsy surgery

The efficacy of epilepsy surgery depends critically upon successful localization of the epileptogenic zone. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) enables noninvasive detection of interictal spike activity in epilepsy, which can then be localized in three dimensions using magnetic source imaging (MSI) techniques. However, the clinical value of MEG in the presurgical epilepsy evaluation is not fully understood, as studies to date are limited by either a lack of long‐term seizure outcomes or small sample size.
The synergistic effect of concatenation in phylogenomics: the case in [i]Pantoea[i]

1 Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) and Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa 2 Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 3 Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Justus Liebig Universität Gießen, Giessen, Germany
Health economic evaluation of peritoneal dialysis based on cost-effectiveness in Japan: a preliminary study

Background In Japan, the medical expenditures associated with dialysis have garnered considerable interest; however, a cost-effectiveness evaluation of peritoneal dialysis (PD) is yet to be evaluated. In particular, the health economics of the “PD first” concept, which can be advantageous for clinical practice and healthcare systems, must be evaluated. Methods This multicenter study investigated the cost-effectiveness of PD. The major effectiveness indicator was quality-adjusted life year (QALY), with a preference-based utility value based on renal function, and the cost indicator was the amount billed for a medical service at each medical institution for qualifying illnesses. In comparison with hemodialysis (HD), a baseline analysis of PD therapy was conducted using a cost-utility analysis (CUA). Continuous ambulatory PD (CAPD) and automated PD (APD) were compared based on the incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) and propensity score (PS) with a limited number of cases. Results The mean duration since the start of PD was 35.0±14.4 months. The overall CUA for PD (179 patients) was USD 55,019/QALY, which was more cost effective (USD/monthly utility) compared with that for HD for 12–24 months (4,367 vs. 4,852; p<0.05). The CUA reported significantly better results in the glomerulonephritis group than in the other diseases, and the baseline CUA was significantly age sensitive. The utility score was higher in the APD group (mean age, 70.1±3.5 years) than in the CAPD group (mean age, 70.6±4.2 years; 0.987 vs. 0.860; p<0.05, 9 patients). Compared with CAPD, APD had an overall ICUR of USD 126,034/QALY. Conclusion The cost-effectiveness of PD was potentially good in the elderly and in patients on dialysis for <24 months. Therefore, the prevalence of PD may influence the public health insurance system, particularly when applying the “PD first” concept.
Functional Cramér–Rao bounds and Stein estimators in Sobolev spaces, for Brownian motion and Cox processes

We investigate the problems of drift estimation for a shifted Brownian motion and intensity estimation for a Cox process on a ﬁnite interval [0 , T ], when the risk is given by the energy functional associated to some fractional Sobolev space H 10 ⊂ W α, 2 ⊂ L 2 . In both situations, Cram´er–Rao lower bounds are obtained, entailing in particular that no unbiased estimators (not necessarily adapted) with ﬁnite risk in H 10 exist. By Malliavin calculus techniques, we also study super-eﬃcient Stein type estimators (in the Gaussian case).
Hunter-Gatherer Societies: their Diversity and Evolutionary Processes

It is argued that attributes which have been widely used to typify hunter-gatherer societies are inadequate for several reasons. One is that they fail to capture the full extent of the diversity of these societies. We suggest some additional attributes which should be taken into account in characterizing these societies. Linear (unidirectional) models of the development of prehistoric societies are criticized and multi-linear models are discussed. Currently, three main stereotypes of the nature of hunter-gatherer societies exist. While these indicate that they were diverse, they fail to capture the full extent of their diversity. It is suggested that this diversity increased with the passage of time and was shaped by the varied local eco-geographic conditions (local resource endowments) in which these societies existed. This raises the question of whether this development had the same basis as speciation in the biological theory of natural selection. This is discussed and then particular attention is given to Adam Smith’s vision of the evolution of human societies. In conclusion, it is suggested that the evolutionary path of modern societies has diverged from that of prehistoric societies.