Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Transport Crate Reuse and of Catching and Processing on Campylobacter and Salmonella Contamination of Broiler Chickens

ABSTRACT The influence of transport, catching, and processing on contamination of broiler chickens with Salmonella and Campylobacter was investigated. Transport crates were reused with high frequency and were often still contaminated with Salmonella and Campylobacter when they arrived at the farm despite the fact that they were washed at the factory, and thus they were a potential route of infection. These organisms contaminated the feathers of previously Campylobacter- and Salmonella-negative birds going to the processing plant and were isolated from processed carcasses, albeit at a low frequency. The Campylobacter types which were the predominant organisms on the live birds when they arrived at the processing plant were not necessarily the types that were most frequently isolated from processed carcasses. This finding may reflect cross-contamination that occurred during processing or differences in the tolerance of the strains to the hostile environments that the bacteria experienced. The process of catching and putting the birds in crates significantly increased the chance of contamination with Campylobacter (P < 0.001).
Clinical practice guidelines for Geriatric Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms seen in the elderly. Sub-syndromal anxiety is more prevalent than depression and cognitive disorders. The commonest anxiety disorder seen in the clinical practice is Generalised Anxiety Disorder(GAD)(7.3%) followed by phobias(3.1%), the panic disorder(1%) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD)(0.6%). Two relatively recent Indian studies have demonstrated an overall prevalence of anxiety disorders to be10.8% and 10.7%, respectively. Thus anxiety is quite common in the elder, among all the disorders of the geriatric population.
Epsilon toxin: a fascinating pore‐forming toxin

Epsilon toxin (ETX) is produced by strains of Clostridium perfringens classified as type B or type D. ETX belongs to the heptameric β‐pore‐forming toxins including aerolysin and Clostridium septicum alpha toxin, which are characterized by the formation of a pore through the plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells consisting in a β‐barrel of 14 amphipatic β strands. By contrast to aerolysin and C. septicum alpha toxin, ETX is a much more potent toxin and is responsible for enterotoxemia in animals, mainly sheep. ETX induces perivascular edema in various tissues and accumulates in particular in the kidneys and brain, where it causes edema and necrotic lesions. ETX is able to pass through the blood–brain barrier and stimulate the release of glutamate, which accounts for the symptoms of nervous excitation observed in animal enterotoxemia. At the cellular level, ETX causes rapid swelling followed by cell death involving necrosis. The precise mode of action of ETX remains to be determined. ETX is a powerful toxin, however, it also represents a unique tool with which to vehicle drugs into the central nervous system or target glutamatergic neurons.
Sex change towards female in dying Acer rufinerve trees.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Sex changes within the genus Acer (Aceraceae) may occur because of associations of sex expression and plant health. In this study, a natural population of Acer rufinerve was monitored to clarify the sex change patterns, the relationship between sex expression and plant health, and the causal environmental conditions that precede sex changes. METHODS Sex expression, growth rate and mortality of A. rufinerve trees in a natural population were monitored from 1992 to 1997. KEY RESULTS Three types of sex expression were observed among A. rufinerve: male, female and bisexual. Among the three types of sex expression, sex changes occurred in all directions. In the growing season of 1994, precipitation was reduced. Stem growth rate decreased and mortality was high in 1994. In the spring of 1995, a drastic sex change from male to female or to bisexual occurred. As a result, the sex ratio became female-biased in 1995, although it had been male-biased from 1992 to 1994. In 1996 and 1997, the proportion of males in the population increased, partly as a result of female mortality and partly as a result of female-to-male sex changes. Sex expression of A. rufinerve was associated with their growth rate and mortality. The growth rate decreased for trees whose sex changed from male to female or to bisexual, and increased for trees whose sex changed from female to male or to bisexual. Dead trees reproduced as females before they died, except for those that died as males in 1994. CONCLUSIONS One explanation for the sex change towards increasing femaleness for this A. rufinerve population in 1995 was the deterioration of plant health in the previous growing season, because of reduced precipitation. Sex changes of unhealthy and dying A. rufinerve towards femaleness may facilitate re-occupancy by offspring in gaps created by the death of A. rufinerve trees.
Outcomes of a Quality Improvement Project Implementing Stroke Discharge Advocacy to Reduce 30-Day Readmission Rates

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to determine whether use of aspects of a transitional care model by nurse navigators would affect 30-day readmission rates in hospitalized ischemic stroke patients discharged home with self-care. Thirty-day readmission rates and emergency department (ED) visits were compared before, during, and after the implementation of the revised discharge process. Comparative analysis demonstrated reductions in readmissions and in ED visits. Thirty-day readmission rates to our hospital decreased from 9.39% to 3.24% when comparing pre- with postintervention data. Thirty-day ED visit rates to all state hospitals decreased from 16.36% to 12.08% when comparing pre- with postintervention data.
Study on drug costs associated with COPD prescription medicine in Denmark

Spirometric studies of the general population estimate that 430 000 Danes have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is mainly caused by smoking, and smoking cessation is the most important intervention to prevent disease progression. Cost‐of‐illness studies conclude that the costs associated with COPD in Denmark are significant, but costs of prescription medicine for COPD were not analysed.
The chaotic status of so-called “Colloidal Silver”, that is not a colloid, as well the many ‘Myths’ surrounding Silver’s aqueous vehicle ‘water’ and how best to test it for purity, other hidden properties and related anomalies of this science

It is a sad situation when science and technology are being subjected to an almost religious dogma as easy explanations are not sought. Instead the opinions and statements of perhaps biased individuals are taken as ‘gospel truth’. All this without verification. Such complacency in Science and technology has resulted in no attempts being made to introduce a standard for silver as a biocide. Since production and trials were initiated during the early 1900 s little progress has been recorded. Neither have any official clinical trials been done ‘in vivo’. Today little more is known than the initial findings conducted decades ago. This paper will demonstrate that finding answers, setting standards and the creation of a proper nomenclature as well as scientific description of this material must be of the highest priority. No longer must vague identification and descriptions such as AGNPs, nano particles etc. be tolerated in any scientific papers. The names and descriptions given to the material so far are technically and scientifically meaningless. In addition, the HYPE and erroneous claims of ‘a cure for all’ for nano metre sized silver clusters should be avoided. Simultaneously increased attention must be paid to appropriate technical and scientific testing for hazardous contamination of both the silver and the water used and a thorough quality control exercised. Such strategies are seriously missing at present. *Correspondence to: Hans Laroo, Independent Researcher, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, E-mail: hlaroo@bigpond.com
Qualitative convergence of three nursing concepts: art of nursing, presence and caring.

AIM This paper is a report of the development of a theoretical framework of nursing practice based on the convergence of the concepts art of nursing, presence and caring. BACKGROUND Convergence of similar concepts to form broad yet useful theories is a relatively unexplored area, despite the fact that systematically examining and integrating nursing concepts can help to build theory and leads to enhanced understanding of the discipline. Research results suggest that unarticulated similarities exist among the art of nursing, presence and caring; thus, qualitative convergence of these concepts is justified. DATA SOURCES Findings from qualitative studies of the art of nursing (published between 1993 and the third quarter of 2006) and meta-syntheses of presence and caring (published in 2006 and 2007 respectively) were inductively analysed and integrated. RESULTS A theoretical framework of nursing practice was developed to illustrate the areas of convergence among the concepts art of nursing, presence and caring. Nursing involves an intimate relationship-centred partnership between the nurse and patient. Situation-specific nursing actions result from multiple forms of personal and professional knowledge and are based on a value system of holistic beneficence and patient empowerment. Nursing actions are promoted by a conducive work environment and result in enhanced well-being among patients and nurses. CONCLUSION Results of this concept convergence provide an enhanced understanding of nursing practice and offer insight into areas of nursing practice that are not encompassed within the concepts art of nursing, presence and caring. Further work is recommended to expand the proposed framework, especially in terms of the wide variety of nurse-patient relationships that exist.
Rethinking a Right Hemisphere Deficit in ADHD

Introduction: Early observations from lesion studies suggested right hemisphere (RH) dysfunction in ADHD. However, a strictly right-lateralized deficit has not been well supported. An alternatively view suggests increased R > L asymmetry of brain function and abnormal interhemispheric interaction. If true, RH pathology in ADHD should reflect interhemispherically networked and overactivated functioning. The authors evaluated these assertions. Method: Four elements of lateralized brain function were measured: LH specialized, RH specialized, LH with interhemispheric processing (LH/IH), and RH with interhemispheric processing (RH/IH). Next, the authors tested their association with cognitive ability, psychiatric comorbidity, and sibling correlations in 79 children with ADHD. Results: RH/IH processing was uniquely associated with other outcome measures. There were no associations for independent RH or LH function alone. Conclusion: Interhemispherically networked RH processing is critical in ADHD. In addition, lack of association between LH specialized processing and cognitive ability (especially for verbal cognitive tasks) supports increased RH mediation of task processing.
Preferring diagnoses by abduction

Much research has been devoted to diagnosis, where two main approaches have been pointed out: the empirical association-based diagnostic approach and the model-based diagnostic one. Both approaches can be characterized by the kind of knowledge that has to be specified and the diagnostic method that has to be used. However, it seems particularly difficult in real-world applications to obtain a complete description of the faulty (dually, correct) behavior of a system. This incompleteness of description is the reason why deductive reasoning alone is generally insufficient to point out the actual diagnosis. Deduction only allows one to generate some possible partial diagnoses. The latter must be selected and completed to get closer to the actual diagnosis. Both selection and completion require hypothetical reasoning and can be characterized by some preference criteria. The authors' contribution is twofold. A new diagnostic method based on deduction and abduction is then proposed, which is sufficiently flexible to deal with multiple knowledge representations. >
The moderating effect of subjective age on the association between depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning in Korean older adults

ABSTRACT Objectives: Depressive symptoms are greatly associated with cognitive impairment in older adults. Recent growing body of literature has reported that the subjective perception of one's own age (subjective age) predicts both cognitive performance and mental well-being in old age. This study aims to examine whether subjective age moderates the association between depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning in a representative sample of Korean older adults. To address this research question, we employed the Stereotype-Embodiment Theory as a theoretical guide. Method: Data are from the 2016 Dementia Literacy Survey collected by Kyung Hee University, and 526 community-dwelling Korean older adults (ages 60–79) completed the questionnaire about depressive symptoms, cognitive functioning, and subjective age. Results: According to the hierarchical regression analysis, both higher levels of depressive symptoms and older subjective age were associated with poorer cognitive functioning. Further analyses showed that subjective age attenuated the effect of depressive symptoms on cognitive functioning: when older adults have a higher level of depression, those with younger subjective age reported a higher level of cognitive functioning than those with older subjective age. Conclusion: Based on the findings from this study, both theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Temperature effects on photovoltaic properties of hole- transport- free perovskite solar cells

In this research, two-step deposition technique was used to fabricate and modify perovskite solar cells. In first step, PbI2 solution deposited on TiO2 nanostructure by spin coating method. Then the substrate dipped in Formamidine iodide solution at different temperatures to form HC(NH2)2PbI3 perovskite. The photovoltaic characterization of solar cell such as the power conversion efficiency (PCE), Fill Factor (FF), Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) and Short Circuit Current (Jsc) were analyzed to obtain the optimum dip-coating temperature.
Platelet P2Y12 receptor inhibition by thienopyridines: status and future

Thienopyridines have a well-established role in the treatment of coronary artery disease, especially in the setting of acute coronary syndromes and percutaneous coronary interventions. Ticlopidine, the first FDA-approved thienopyridine, was shown to be effective in reducing coronary events in high risk patients, but the original enthusiasm was hampered by concerns about its serious bone marrow toxicity. Clopidogrel a second generation thienopyridine with lesser side effects, is not only at least as effective as ticlopidine, but in combination with a low dose of aspirin, has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events in acute coronary syndrome patients in large-scale, randomised trials. Recent studies have highlighted major flaws in clopidogrel pharmacokinetics due to its delayed onset of action, and much attention has been devoted to the phenomenon of clopidogrel ‘resistance’. Among the novel, third generation thienopyridines, prasugrel as compared to clopidogrel has demonstrated lower inter-patient response variability and a reduced incidence of ischaemic events, but at an increased risk of major bleeding. Currently, several studies are continuing to test new direct P2Y12 receptor antagonists, such as cangrelor and AZD6140, characterised by a faster reversal of platelet inhibition.
Increasing the reliability of wireless sensor networks with a distributed testing framework

Designing Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has proven to be a slow, tedious and error-prone process due to the inherent intricacies of designing a distributed, wireless, and embedded system. A systematic design approach accompanied by a test methodology supports the development of WSN software conforming to all design requirements including robustness and reliability. In this paper, we propose the fundamentals of such a test methodology. We present essential features of a framework for testing a broad range of WSN applications. We demonstrate with a case study that our test methodology is a feasible approach by integrating a number of existing design-tools for the TinyOS operating system. While we target TinyOS in the case study the proposed test methodology is general and not tailored to a specific WSN platform or operating system.
Structural basis of divergent cyclin‐dependent kinase activation by Spy1/RINGO proteins

Cyclin‐dependent kinases (Cdks) are principal drivers of cell division and are an important therapeutic target to inhibit aberrant proliferation. Cdk enzymatic activity is tightly controlled through cyclin interactions, posttranslational modifications, and binding of inhibitors such as the p27 tumor suppressor protein. Spy1/RINGO (Spy1) proteins bind and activate Cdk but are resistant to canonical regulatory mechanisms that establish cell‐cycle checkpoints. Cancer cells exploit Spy1 to stimulate proliferation through inappropriate activation of Cdks, yet the mechanism is unknown. We have determined crystal structures of the Cdk2‐Spy1 and p27‐Cdk2‐Spy1 complexes that reveal how Spy1 activates Cdk. We find that Spy1 confers structural changes to Cdk2 that obviate the requirement of Cdk activation loop phosphorylation. Spy1 lacks the cyclin‐binding site that mediates p27 and substrate affinity, explaining why Cdk‐Spy1 is poorly inhibited by p27 and lacks specificity for substrates with cyclin‐docking sites. We identify mutations in Spy1 that ablate its ability to activate Cdk2 and to proliferate cells. Our structural description of Spy1 provides important mechanistic insights that may be utilized for targeting upregulated Spy1 in cancer.
Gain in sensitivity and loss in temporal contrast of STDP by dopaminergic modulation at hippocampal synapses

Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is considered a physiologically relevant form of Hebbian learning. However, behavioral learning often involves action of reinforcement or reward signals such as dopamine. Here, we examined how dopamine influences the quantitative rule of STDP at glutamatergic synapses of hippocampal neurons. The presence of 20 μM dopamine during paired pre- and postsynaptic spiking activity expanded the effective time window for timing-dependent long-term potentiation (t-LTP) to at least −45 ms, and allowed normally ineffective weak stimuli with fewer spike pairs to induce significant t-LTP. Meanwhile, dopamine did not affect the degree of t-LTP induced by normal strong stimuli with spike timing (ST) of +10 ms. Such dopamine-dependent enhancement in the sensitivity of t-LTP was completely blocked by the D1-like dopamine receptor antagonist SCH23390, but not by the D2-like dopamine receptor antagonist sulpiride. Surprisingly, timing-dependent long-term depression (t-LTD) at negative ST was converted into t-LTP by dopamine treatment; this conversion was also blocked by SCH23390. In addition, t-LTP in the presence of dopamine was completely blocked by the NMDA receptor antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid, indicating that D1-like receptor-mediated modulation appears to act through the classical NMDA receptor-mediated signaling pathway that underlies STDP. These results provide a quantitative and mechanistic basis for a previously undescribed learning rule that depends on pre- and postsynaptic ST, as well as the global reward signal.
Twofold Porosity and Surface Functionalization Effect on Pt–Porous GaN for High-Performance H2-Gas Sensors at Room Temperature

The achievement of H2 detection, up to 25 ppm, at room temperature using sulfur-treated, platinum (Pt)-decorated porous GaN is reported in this study. This achievement is attributed to the large lateral pore size, Pt catalyst, and surface treatment using organic sulfide. The performance of H2-gas sensors is studied as a function of the operating temperature by providing an adsorption activation energy of 22 meV at 30 ppm H2, confirming the higher sensitivity of the sulfide-treated Pt–porous GaN sensor. Furthermore, the sensing response of the sulfide-treated Pt–porous GaN gas sensor increases with the increase in porosity (surface-to-volume ratio) and pore radii. Using the Knudsen diffusion–surface reaction equation, the H2 gas concentration profile is simulated and fitted within the porous GaN layer, revealing that H2 diffusion is limited by small pore radii because of its low diffusion rate. The simulated gas sensor responses to H2 versus the pore diameter show the same trend as observed for the experimental data. The sulfide-treated Pt–porous GaN sensor achieves ultrasensitive H2 detection at room temperature for 125 nm pore radii.
A Generalization of the Calendar Time Portfolio Approach and the Performance of Private Investors

We present a regression-based generalization of the calendar time portfolio approach which allowsfor the inclusion of continuous and multivariate investor or firm characteristics in the analysis. Ourmethod is simple to apply and it ensures that the statistical results are heteroscedasticity consistentand robust to very general forms of cross-sectional and temporal dependence. Furthermore, ourregression-based technique also remedies several well-known weaknesses of the traditional calendartime portfolio approach. By considering a new, unique dataset on more than 40,000 Europeanprivate investors, we illustrate empirically that erroneously ignoring cross-sectional dependenceinherent in microeconometric panel data can lead to severely biased statistical results. Moreoverwe use our method to validate some of the most popular hypotheses on the performance of privateinvestors.