Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The gut microbiota composition is linked to subsequent occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients

ABSTRACT Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent nosocomial infection in critically ill-ventilated patients. Oropharyngeal and lung microbiota have been demonstrated to be associated with VAP occurrence, but the involvement of gut microbiota has not been investigated so far. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the composition of the gut microbiota between patients who subsequently develop VAP and those who do not. A rectal swab was performed at admission of every consecutive patient into the intensive care unit (ICU) from October 2019 to March 2020. After DNA extraction, V3-V4 and internal transcribed spacer 2 regions deep-sequencing was performed on MiSeq sequencer (Illumina) and data were analyzed using Divisive Amplicon Denoising Algorithm 2 (DADA2) pipeline. Among 255 patients screened, 42 (16%) patients with invasive mechanical ventilation for more than 48 h were included, 18 (43%) with definite VAP and 24 without (57%). Patients who later developed VAP had similar gut bacteriobiota and mycobiota α-diversities compared to those who did not develop VAP. However, gut mycobiota was dissimilar (β-diversity) between these two groups. The presence of Megasphaera massiliensis was associated with the absence of VAP occurrence, whereas the presence of the fungal genus Alternaria sp. was associated with the occurrence of VAP. The composition of the gut microbiota, but not α-diversity, differs between critically ill patients who subsequently develop VAP and those who do not. This study encourages large multicenter cohort studies investigating the role of gut-lung axis and oropharyngeal colonization in the development of VAP in ICU patients. Trial registration number: NCT04131569, date of registration: 18 October 2019. IMPORTANCE The composition of the gut microbiota, but not α-diversity, differs between critically ill patients who subsequently develop ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and those who do not. Investigating gut microbiota composition could help to tailor probiotics to provide protection against VAP. The composition of the gut microbiota, but not α-diversity, differs between critically ill patients who subsequently develop ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and those who do not. Investigating gut microbiota composition could help to tailor probiotics to provide protection against VAP.
HIV co-infection is associated with reduced Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmissibility in sub-Saharan Africa

Persons living with HIV are known to be at increased risk of developing tuberculosis (TB) disease upon infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). However, it has remained unclear how HIV co-infection affects subsequent Mtb transmission from these patients. Here, we customized a Bayesian phylodynamic framework to estimate the effects of HIV co-infection on the Mtb transmission dynamics from sequence data. We applied our model to four Mtb genomic datasets collected in sub-Saharan African countries with a generalized HIV epidemic. Our results confirm that HIV co-infection is a strong risk factor for developing active TB. Additionally, we demonstrate that HIV co-infection is associated with a reduced effective reproductive number for TB. Stratifying the population by CD4+ T-cell count yielded similar results, suggesting that, in this context, CD4+ T-cell count is not a better predictor of Mtb transmissibility than HIV infection status. Together, our genome-based analyses complement observational household studies, and firmly establish the negative association between HIV co-infection and Mtb transmissibility. Author summary Many sub-Saharan African countries have seen a considerable rise in TB incidence since the introduction of HIV, suggesting a strong interaction between HIV and TB epidemics. HIV infection is recognized as an important risk factor for developing TB, but the contribution of HIV-infected TB patients to further Mtb transmission is poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed four sets of Mtb genomic sequences collected in different countries, including sequences from HIV-negative and HIV-positive TB patients. We applied a phylodynamic model to these sequences, aimed at inferring transmission dynamics within and between different host populations. While our findings support that HIV is a strong risk factor for TB, we show that HIV-positive TB patients generate a significantly lower number of secondary TB cases than HIV-negative patients. This suggests that HIV-positive patients often act as sinks in Mtb transmission chains, while HIV-negative patients are a major source of transmission.
In Situ Formed Phosphoric Acid/Phosphosilicate Nanoclusters in the Exceptional Enhancement of Durability of Polybenzimidazole Membrane Fuel Cells at Elevated High Temperatures

Most recently, we developed a phosphotungstic acid impregnated mesoporous silica (PWA-meso-silica) and phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PA/PBI) composite membrane for use in high temperature fuel cells and achieved exceptional durability under a constant current load of 200 mA cm(-2) at 200 degrees C for over 2700 h. In this work, the fundamental role of PWA-meso-silica in enhancing the stability of the PA/PBI membrane has been investigated. The microstructure, the PA uptake, swelling ratio, mechanical property and conductivity of PA/PBI/PWA-meso-silica composite membranes depend on the loading of PWA-meso-silica. The results indicate that the optimum limit of PWA-meso-silica loading in the PA/PBI membranes is 15 wt%. Detaled analysis indicates that the mesoporous structure of the PWA-meso-silica framework disintegrates, forming phosphosilicate phases within the PBI polymeric matrix during fuel cell operation at 200 degrees C. The in situ formed phosphosilicates can immobilize a significant amount of PA, forming PA/phosphosilicate nanoclusters that possess high proton conductivity (e.g., 7.2 x 10(-2) S cm(-1) at 250 degrees C) and stability and substantially inhibits acid leaching out of themembrane. The substantially reduced acid leaching also alleviates the excess acid in the catalyst layer, reducing the detrimental effect of excess acid on the agglomeration of Pt catalysts especially in the cathode catalyst layer. These phenomena are responsible for the exceptional stability in proton conductivity as well as the significantly reduced agglomeration of Pt nanoparticles in the anode and cathode catalyst layers of PA/PBI/PWA-meso-silica composite membrane fuel cells. (c) 2017 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.
Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy

It may sound crazy to pay people an income whether or not they are working or looking for work. But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to every individual, rich or poor, active or inactive, has been advocated by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith. For a long time, it was hardly noticed and never taken seriously. Today, with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in the world. Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght present the most comprehensive defense of this radical idea so far, advocating it as our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity and social exclusion in the twenty-first century. The authors seamlessly combine philosophy, politics, and economics as they compare the idea of a basic income with rival ideas past and present for guarding against poverty and unemployment. They trace its history, tackle the economic and ethical objections against an unconditional income--including its alleged tendency to sap incentives and foster free riding--and lay out how such an apparently implausible idea might be viable financially and achievable politically. Finally, they consider the relevance of the proposal in an increasingly globalized economy. In an age of growing inequality and divided politics, when old answers to enduring social problems no longer inspire confidence, Basic Income presents fresh reasons to hope that we might yet achieve a free society and a sane economy.
Comptes Rendus Mathématique

Let ℓ m be a sequence of m points on a line with consecutive points at distance one. Answering a question raised by Fox and the first author and independently by Arman and Tsaturian, we show that there is a natural number m and a red/blue-colouring of E n for every n that contains no red copy of ℓ 3 and no blue copy of ℓ m .
Knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of the Greek population regarding the COVID-19 pandemic during the national lock-down (March 23 - May 03, 2020): A web-based cross-sectional study

Objective: The study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions toward the COVID-19 pandemic during the total lockdown of spring 2020 in Greece. Methods: A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 13 to May 5, 2020. Adult residents of Greece anonymously completed an online survey that was distributed through email and social media. A total of 1396 fully complete questionnaires were collected. Demographic questions, questions regarding the knowledge about the disease etiology, diagnosis and prevention, and questions related to the respondents' attitude and perception toward the restriction measures and the confidence in different kinds of institutions providing information were included in the survey items. The appropriate statistical analyses were conducted according to the type of variable and the research question. Results: The highest knowledge scores were found in females (74.8%, p = 0.015), individuals over 60 years old (77.3%, p<0.001) and individuals having completed post-secondary or tertiary education (76.5%, p<0.001). Five attitude patterns toward the pandemic were identified: 'trust in institutions', 'trust in the restriction measures', 'trust in media and the internet', 'trust in traditional institutions', and 'measures deniers'. Age, education, and knowledge score were the factors defining the attitudinal patterns revealed. Conclusions: Education and public awareness of scientifically accurate information are the means for eliminating individually and socially irresponsible and dangerous behaviors and protecting public health in periods of health crises.
FBI: Fingerprinting models with Benign Inputs

Recent advances in the fingerprinting of deep neural networks detect instances of models, placed in a black-box interaction scheme. Inputs used by the fingerprinting protocols are specifically crafted for each precise model to be checked for. While efficient in such a scenario, this nevertheless results in a lack of guarantee after a mere modification (like retraining, quantization) of a model. This paper tackles the challenges to propose i) fingerprinting schemes that are resilient to significant modifications of the models, by generalizing to the notion of model families and their variants, ii) an extension of the fingerprinting task encompassing scenarios where one wants to fingerprint not only a precise model (previously referred to as a detection task) but also to identify which model family is in the black-box (identification task). We achieve both goals by demonstrating that benign inputs, that are unmodified images, for instance, are sufficient material for both tasks. We leverage an information-theoretic scheme for the identification task. We devise a greedy discrimination algorithm for the detection task. Both approaches are experimentally validated over an unprecedented set of more than 1,000 networks.
University of Southern Denmark Comparison of cognitive and physical functioning of Europeans in 2004-05 and 2013

Background: Adult mortality has been postponed over time to increasingly high ages. However, evidence on past and current health trends has been mixed, and little is known about European disability trends. Methods: In a cross-sectional setting, we compared cognitive and physical functioning in same-aged Europeans aged 50þbetween 2004–05 (wave 1; n1⁄418 757) and 2013 (wave 5 refresher respondents; n1⁄4 16 696), sourced from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Results: People in 2013 had better cognitive function compared with same-aged persons in 2004–05, with an average difference of approximately one-third standard deviation. The same level of cognitive function in 2004–05 at age 50 was found in 2013 for people who were 8 years older. There was an improvement in cognitive function in all European regions. Mean grip strength showed an improvement in Northern Europe of 1.00 kg [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65; 1.35] and in Southern Europe of 1.68 kg (95% CI 1.14; 2.22), whereas a decrease was found in Central Europe (-0.80 kg; 95% CI 1.16; 0.44). We found no overall differences in activities of daily living (ADL), but small improvements in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) in Northern and Southern Europe, with an improvement in both ADL and IADL from age 70 in Northern Europe. Conclusions: Our results indicate that later-born Europeans have substantially better cognitive functioning than earlier-born cohorts. For physical functioning, improvements were less clear, but for Northern Europe there was an improvement in ADL and IADL in the oldest age groups.
Perceptual uncertainty explains activation differences between audiovisual congruent speech and McGurk stimuli

Face-to-face communication relies on the integration of acoustic speech signals with the corresponding facial articulations. While the McGurk illusion is widely used as an index of audiovisual speech integration, critics argue that it arises from perceptual processes that differ categorically from natural speech recognition. Conversely, Bayesian theoretical frameworks suggest that both the illusory McGurk and the veridical audiovisual congruent speech percepts result from probabilistic inference based on noisy sensory signals. According to these models, the inter-sensory conflict in McGurk stimuli may only increase observers’ perceptual uncertainty. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study presented participants (20 male and 24 female) with audiovisual congruent, incongruent, and McGurk stimuli along with their unisensory counterparts in a syllable categorization task. Behaviorally, observers’ response entropy was greater for McGurk compared to congruent audiovisual stimuli. At the neural level, McGurk stimuli increased activations in a widespread neural system, extending from the inferior frontal sulci (IFS) to the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and insulae, typically involved in cognitive control processes. Crucially, in line with Bayesian theories these activation increases were fully accounted for by observers’ perceptual uncertainty as measured by their response entropy. Our findings suggest that McGurk and congruent speech processing rely on shared neural mechanisms, thereby supporting the McGurk illusion as a valid measure of natural audiovisual speech perception. Significance Statement Effective face-to-face communication relies on integrating acoustic speech signals with the corresponding facial articulations. While McGurk illusion is extensively used to study audiovisual speech perception, recent critiques argue that it may be categorically different from typical speech recognition because of the conflict between the audiovisual inputs. This study demonstrates that McGurk stimuli increase activations in a network of regions typically involved in cognitive control. Crucially, the activation differences between McGurk and normal speech stimuli could be fully accounted for by the variation in observers’ perceptual uncertainties. Our results suggest that McGurk and congruent audiovisual speech stimuli rely on shared neural mechanisms – thereby supporting the validity of the McGurk illusion as a tool for studying natural audiovisual speech perception.
Systematic effects in the measurement of vertical aerosol profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory, located on the high plains of western Argentina, is the result of an international effort to measure the properties of the highest energy cosmic rays with an unprecedented level of precision and statistical significance. The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector, consisting of a surface array detecting shower particles reaching ground level, as well as a fluorescence detector which observes the longitudinal development of showers in the atmosphere. One of the distinct advantages of using a hybrid method to detect cosmic ray air showers is that events detected and reconstructed by the fluorescence detector can be used to calibrate the energy determination of the nearly 100% duty cycle surface detector. As such, the fluorescence detector sets the energy scale of the entire Observatory, and it is essential that its energy determination and associated uncertainties are well understood. In this thesis we investigate a number of systematic uncertainties in the determination of the aerosol loading in the atmosphere above the Observatory. Accurate knowledge of the vertical distribution of aerosols at the Auger site is essential for the accurate reconstruction of shower energy deposit profiles using the fluorescence technique. In this work we focus on three independent systematic effects that have a non-negligible impact on the reconstructed aerosol loading above the Observatory: the determination of nights on which the atmosphere is completely aerosol free, the aerosol scattering of light out of a vertically directed laser beam, and the multiple scattering of that laser light on molecules and aerosol particles on its way to the detector.
Personality and Individual Differences Running head : PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY AND SELF-CONCEALMENT Psychological Flexibility Mediates the Relations between Self-Concealment and Negative Psychological Outcomes

Consisting of two cross-sectional studies, the present study investigated whether psychological flexibility mediates the relations between self-concealment and negative psychological outcomes. Study 1 examined whether psychological flexibility mediates the relations between self-concealment and emotional distress in stressful interpersonal situations. In addition to replicating results of Study 1, Study 2 investigated whether psychological flexibility mediates the relationship between self-concealment and general psychological ill-health. Psychological flexibility was found to mediate the relation between self-concealment and emotional distress in stressful interpersonal settings and to partially mediate the relationship between self-concealment and general psychological illhealth.
The Impact of Organizational Coordination and Climate on Marketing Executives' Satisfaction with Information Systems Services

Information system (IS) managers rely on a number of devices to improve performance and the perception of performance on the part of the user. These techniques can be a variety of tools and organizational structures put in place by various levels of management. Horizontal coordination activities are such a device, one that is intended to improve the communication between users and IS developers. Past research has found an impact of coordination on IS success. However, the climate, general attitudes about the IS function in an organization in which the developers and users operate, can serve as an important moderator. Analysis of a sample of marketing executives indicates that the climate is an important moderator and may impact the ability of structural features to improve perceived performance. Managers must consider the climate as an important feature.
Motivation of Remittances and the Potential for Diaspora Philanthropy: Empirical Studies of Rural Bangladesh, and the US-Bangladeshi Diaspora

International remittances are flowing in large amounts into developing countries and have been shown to have positive impacts at both household and aggregate levels. Yet there is still no widely applicable explanation for why migrants remit. In this paper, we conduct a primary study on households in the rural areas of Mirzapur, Bangladesh, to derive migrant and household level data. We employ a series of nested regression models to determine the impact of several different variables on the likelihood and importance of remittances received and to further determine the possibility of migrants remitting out of altruism, self-interest, or family-contract insurance or investment models. We find that lower-income households are more likely to receive remittances and conclude that it is unlikely that migrants in Mirzapur are remitting out of pure self-interest, with any intention of inheriting family wealth. This paper also introduces a relatively newer area of research for remittances in Bangladesh, diaspora philanthropy. We conduct a smaller primary study on members of the Bangladeshi diaspora in the United States to determine the potential of this diaspora to offer useful services and funds to support development in Bangladesh.
Burnout syndrome in nursing personnel working in the critical care and hospitalization units

Introduction: The objective of the study was to identify the prevalence of the Burnout Syndrome and its dimensions in the nursing personnel working in the critical care and hospitalization units. Methodology: A descriptive, observational, and cross-sectional study was performed in 90 nurses. The Maslach Burnout Inventory for health personnel was used. An exploratory, descriptive, and inferential analysis was carried out; the Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests statistics were used. Results: A medium level regarding the burnout syndrome, 82.2%, was found; emotional exhaustion decreased by 62.2%; low level of depersonalization, 57.8%, and low level of lack of personal accomplishment, 40%. There was a statistically significant difference between burnout syndrome and work shift, double work shift per month, vacation periods per year, and workload; between emotional exhaustion and type of service, two-week income, double work shift, vacation periods, type of procurement, and workload; between depersonalization and workload; and between lack of personal accomplishment and type of service, work shift, two-week income, rest period during the shift, vacation periods per year, and type of procurement. Conclusions: A higher percentage of nursing personnel had a mild burnout syndrome. No statistically significant difference between burnout syndrome and its dimensions and the sociological characteristics of the nursing personnel was found. Evidence that job characteristics are those that show more influence in the development of the burnout syndrome was found.
A Price Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration under Productivity Heterogeneity

Organizational design (firm boundaries) is an important aspect of a firm's internal structure and is affected by market conditions. Our main focus in this paper is on firm boundaries - firms' integration decisions - and how these decisions interact with product market competition, in a setting where firms in the market are heterogeneous with respect to their productivity. Existing research in the organizational industrial organization (OIO) literature has highlighted a price effect, which affects firms' integration incentives. We identify a second effect (revenue share effect) which works in the opposite direction from the price effect. The revenue share effect arises,very naturally, to ensure a stable equilibrium, when heterogeneous firms match endogenously in the market, and has profound implications for organizational design. We show that integration decisions can be non-monotonic with respect to firm productivity. Moreover, depending on the market distribution of firm productivities, a higher market price can induce more or fewer firms to integrate. In the latter case, the industry supply curve can be backward-bending. Market equilibria can be ownership inefficient, with 'too much' or 'too little' integration. These results are in contrast to existing literature and generate new empirical and policy implications.