julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Knowledge of health workers relating to sepsis awareness and management in Lambaréné, Gabon
2021-04-05

Background In 2016, the third international consensus definitions for sepsis and septic shock (Sepsis-3) task force provided revised definitions for sepsis and septic shock. This study explores knowledge regarding sepsis among health workers in Lambaréné, Gabon. Methods We conducted a self-administered questionnaire-based survey about sepsis among health workers from the referral regional hospital, the research center, and primary care health facilities in the Lambaréné region. Participants were from the referral regional hospital, the research center, and primary health care facilities. A score of one was given to each correct answer. The global score out of a possible score of twenty was calculated, and the proportion of correct responses was determined. Results A total of 115 health workers (physicians, nurses and assistant nurses) completed the questionnaire, of which 48.7% (56/115) provided a valid definition of sepsis, but 74% (85/115) had never heard about the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score. The proportion of correct answers was comparable across the three health profession categories. The median global score across all health workers was 11 [IQR, 9-14.5] out of 20. Physicians attained higher global scores [14 (IQR, 11-15)] than assistant nurses [11 (IQR, 8-13), P=0.007]; their global score was comparable to that of nurses. Conclusion There are considerable knowledge gaps regarding sepsis among health workers in Lambaréné, potentially impairing the prompt recognition and management of sepsis. There is a need to establish periodic up-to-date training to improve sepsis knowledge.
Neurofilament light chain is a cerebrospinal fluid biomarker in hereditary spastic paraplegia
2021-04-05

Abstract Objective Despite the need for diagnostics and research, data on fluid biomarkers in hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) are scarce. We, therefore, explore Neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with hereditary spastic paraplegia and provide information on the influence of demographic factors. Methods The study recruited 59 HSP cases (33 genetically confirmed) and 59 controls matched in age and sex. Neurofilament light chain levels were assessed by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The statistical analysis included the effects of age, sex, and genetic status (confirmed vs. not confirmed). Results Levels of CSF NfL were significantly increased in patients with hereditary spastic paraplegia compared to controls (median 741 pg/mL vs. 387 pg/mL, p &lt; 0.001). Age (1.4% annual increase) and male sex (81% increase) impacted CSF NfL levels in patients. The age‐dependent increase of CSF NfL levels was steeper in controls (2.6% annual increase). Thus, the CSF NfL ratio of patients and matched controls—expressing patients’ fold increases in CSF NfL—declined considerably with age. Interpretation CSF NfL is a reliable cross‐sectional biomarker in hereditary spastic paraplegia. Sex is a relevant factor to consider, as male patients have remarkably higher CSF NfL levels. While levels also increase with age, the gap between patients and controls is narrowing in older subjects. This indicates distinct temporal dynamics of CSF NfL in patients with hereditary spastic paraplegia, with a rise around phenotypic conversion and comparatively static levels afterward.
Using Clickstream Data Mining Techniques to Understand and Support First-Generation College Students in an Online Chemistry Course
2021-04-05

Although online courses can provide students with a high-quality and flexible learning experience, one of the caveats is that they require high levels of self-regulation. This added hurdle may have negative consequences for first-generation college students. In order to better understand and support students' self-regulated learning, we examined a fully online Chemistry course with high enrollment (N = 312) and a high percentage of first-generation college students (65.70%). Using students' lecture video clickstream data, we created two indicators of self-regulated learning: lecture video completion and time management. Performing a k-means clustering on these indicators uncovered four distinct self-regulated learning patterns: (1) Early Planning, (2) Planning, (3) Procrastination, and (4) Low Engagement. Early Planning behaviors were especially important for course success—they consistently predicted higher final course grades, even after controlling for important demographic variables. Interestingly, first-generation college students classified as Early Planners achieved at similar levels as their non-first-generation peers, but first-generation students in the Low Engagement group had the lowest average grades among students. Overall, our results show that self-regulation may be an important skill for determining first-generation students' STEM achievement, and targeting these skills may serve as a useful way to support their specific learning needs.
Pterosaur remains from the Lower Cretaceous Lianmuxin Formation (upper Tugulu Group) of the southern Junggar Basin (NW China)
2021-04-05

The Lower Cretaceous Lianmuxin Formation (upper Tugulu Group) of the southern Junggar Basin has yielded a vertebrate assemblage of relatively low diversity that is dominated by sinemydid turtles. The assemblage currently includes a single pterosaur taxon, the dsungaripterid Lonchognathosaurus, known from a partial cranium and a partial left wing. Here two additional pterosaur specimens are reported, a well-preserved right distal carpal and a nearly complete but slightly crushed right femur. The carpal almost certainly belongs to a dsungaripterid pterosaur, which is distinct from Lonchognathosaurus. The femur shows many similarities to dsungaripterid femora and is probably also assignable to a dsungaripterid, although it possesses unusually thin bone-walls for the group. Due to a lack of overlapping skeletal material, it cannot be compared to Lonchognathosaurus. These specimens shed new light on the diversity of pterosaurs in the poorly known Lower Cretaceous Lianmuxin Formation of the southern Junggar Basin, indicating that probably more than one dsungaripterid taxon was present in the local assemblage.
Thin film growth of phase-separating phthalocyanine-fullerene blends: A combined experimental and computational study
2021-04-05

Blended organic thin films have been studied during the last decades due to their applicability in organic solar cells. Although their optical and electronic features have been examined intensively, there is still a lack of detailed knowledge about their growth processes and resulting morphologies, which play a key role in the efficiency of optoelectronic devices such as organic solar cells. In this study, pure and blended thin films of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and the Buckminster fullerene (C<sub>60</sub>) were grown by vacuum deposition onto a native silicon oxide substrate at two different substrate temperatures, 310 and 400 K. The evolution of roughness was followed by <em>in situ</em> real-time x-ray reflectivity. Crystal orientation, island densities, and morphology were examined after the growth by x-ray diffraction experiments and microscopy techniques. The formation of a smooth wetting layer followed by rapid roughening was found in pure CuPc thin films, whereas C<sub>60</sub> shows a fast formation of distinct islands at a very early stage of growth. The growth of needlelike CuPc crystals losing their alignment with the substrate was identified in co-deposited thin films. Furthermore, the data demonstrate that structural features become larger and more pronounced and that the island density decreases by a factor of four when going from 310 to 400 K. Finally, the key parameters roughness and island density were well reproduced on a smaller scale by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of a generic, binary lattice model with simple nearest-neighbor interaction energies. A weak molecule-substrate interaction caused a fast island formation and weak interaction between molecules of different species was able to reproduce the observed phase separation. The introduction of different same-species and cross-species Ehrlich-Schwoebel barriers for interlayer hopping was necessary to reproduce the roughness evolution in the blend and showed the growth of CuPc crystals on top of the thin film in agreement with the experiment.
Polyglutamine-expanded ataxin-3: a target engagement marker for Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 in peripheral blood
2021-04-05

<title>Abstract</title> Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 is a rare neurodegenerative disease, caused by a CAG repeat expansion leading to polyglutamine elongation in the ataxin-3 protein. While no curative therapy is yet available, preclinical gene silencing approaches to reduce polyglutamine-toxicity demonstrate promising results. In view of upcoming clinical trials, quantitative and easily accessible molecular markers are of critical importance as pharmacodynamic and particularly as target engagement markers. We developed a novel ultrasensitive immunoassay to measure specifically polyQ-expanded ataxin-3 in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid. Statistical analyses revealed a correlation with clinical parameters and a stability of polyglutamine-expanded ataxin-3 during conversion from the pre-ataxic to the ataxic phase.
Teaching Patient-Centred Communication Skills During Clinical Procedural Skill Training - A Pre-Post Study Comparing International and Local Medical Students
2021-04-05

Abstract Background: International medical students are frequently confronted with intercultural, psychosocial, and language barriers and often receive lower marks in written, oral, and clinical-practical examinations than fellow local students. Training communication competence in procedural skills, such as blood sampling, is further challenge in this particular group of medical students. This pre-post comparative intervention study aimed to investigate the effects of training communication skills during the performance of procedural skills (taking blood samples from a silicone model) in international and local students as part of their clinical practical medical training. Methods: Study participants performed blood sampling on an arm prosthesis model (part-task trainer) before and after the communication skills training, focusing on accompanying communication with a simulation patient sitting next to the arm model. The pre and post-evaluation video was assessed by two independent evaluators using a binary checklist, the Integrated Procedural Performance Instrument (IPPI) and global assessments of clinical professionalism in terms of procedural and communication performance. Linear models with mixed effects were used. Group differences regarding global competence levels were analysed with χ2-tests. Results: International medical students did not perform as well as their local counterparts in the pre- and post-examinations. Both groups improved their performance significantly, whereby the international students improved more than their local counterparts in terms of their communication performance, assessed via binary checklist. Clinical professionalism evaluated via global assessments of procedural and communication performance highlights the intervention's impact insofar as no international student was assessed as clinically not competent after the training. Conclusions: Our results suggest that already a low-dose intervention can lead to improved communication skills in medical students performing procedural tasks and significantly increase their confidence in patient interaction.
Diurnal Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycling and enhanced O2 production in a simulated Archean marine oxygen oasis
2021-04-06

Abstract The oxygenation of early Earth’s atmosphere during the Great Oxidation Event, is generally accepted to have been caused by oceanic Cyanobacterial oxygenic photosynthesis. Recent studies suggest that Fe(II) toxicity delayed the Cyanobacterial expansion necessary for the GOE. This study investigates the effects of Fe(II) on two Cyanobacteria, Pseudanabaena sp. PCC7367 and Synechococcus sp. PCC7336, in a simulated shallow-water marine Archean environment. A similar Fe(II) toxicity response was observed as reported for closed batch cultures. This toxicity was not observed in cultures provided with continuous gaseous exchange that showed significantly shorter doubling times than the closed-culture system, even with repeated nocturnal addition of Fe(II) for 12 days. The green rust (GR) formed under high Fe(II) conditions, was not found to be directly toxic to Pseudanabaena sp. PCC7367. In summary, we present evidence of diurnal Fe cycling in a simulated shallow-water marine environment for two ancestral strains of Cyanobacteria, with increased O 2 production under anoxic conditions.
Phosphoproteome Study of Escherichia coli Devoid of Ser/Thr Kinase YeaG During the Metabolic Shift From Glucose to Malate
2021-04-06

Understanding phosphorylation-mediated regulation of metabolic enzymes, pathways, and cell phenotypes under metabolic shifts represents a major challenge. The kinases associated with most phosphorylation sites and the link between phosphorylation and enzyme activity remain unknown. In this study, we performed stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC)-based proteome and phosphoproteome analysis of Escherichia coli Δ yeaG , a strain lacking a poorly characterized serine/threonine kinase YeaG, to decipher kinase-substrate interactions and the effects on metabolic phenotype during shifts from glucose to malate. The starting point of our analysis was the identification of physiological conditions under which Δ yeaG exhibits a clear phenotype. By metabolic profiling, we discovered that Δ yeaG strain has a significantly shorter lag phase than the wild type during metabolic shift from glucose to malate. Under those conditions, our SILAC analysis revealed several proteins that were differentially phosphorylated in the Δ yeaG strain. By focusing on metabolic enzymes potentially involved in central carbon metabolism, we narrowed down our search for putative YeaG substrates and identified isocitrate lyase AceA as the direct substrate of YeaG. YeaG was capable of phosphorylating AceA in vitro only in the presence of malate, suggesting that this phosphorylation event is indeed relevant for glucose to malate shift. There is currently not enough evidence to firmly establish the exact mechanism of this newly observed regulatory phenomenon. However, our study clearly exemplifies the usefulness of SILAC-based approaches in identifying proteins kinase substrates, when applied in physiological conditions relevant for the activity of the protein kinase in question.
The effect of platelet G proteins on platelet extravasation and tumor growth in the murine model of ovarian cancer
2021-04-06

Abstract We and other investigators have shown that platelets promote metastasis and the growth of tumors. Our rationale for conducting this study is that platelets’ prometastatic and progrowth effects depend on a close encounter between platelets and cancer cells. This interaction occurs inside blood vessels with circulating tumor cells and outside blood vessels with cancer cells residing in the tumor parenchyma. Our hypothesis was that platelet extravasation is required for the effect of platelets on tumor growth. Platelets respond to environmental stimuli by activation of G protein–coupled receptors on their surface. We investigated the impact of various platelet G proteins on the growth of ovarian cancer tumors and platelet extravasation. We used mice with platelet-specific deficiency of Gαi2 (Gi), Gα13 (G13), or Gαq (Gq) in a syngeneic ovarian cancer model. We measured the total weight of tumor nodules resected from tumor-bearing mice. We developed methods for automated whole-slide image acquisition and unbiased computerized image analysis to quantify extravasated platelets. We compared the number of platelets inside tumor nodules of platelet G protein–deficient tumor-bearing mice. We found that deficiency of Gi and G13, but not Gq, in platelets resulted in smaller tumors compared with those in corresponding littermates. Deficiency of Gi and G13 in platelets reduced the number of extravasated platelets by &amp;gt;90%, but deficiency of Gq did not reduce the number of extravasated platelets significantly. The lack of Gi or G13 in platelets reduced platelet extravasation into the tumor and tumor growth.
Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity by a Rapid Antigen Detection Test
2021-04-06

Abstract The identification and isolation of highly infectious SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals is an important public health strategy. Rapid antigen detection tests (RADT) are promising candidates for large-scale screenings due to timely results and feasibility for on-site testing. Nonetheless, the diagnostic performance of RADT in detecting infectious individuals is yet to be fully determined. Two combined oro- and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from individuals at a routine SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic center. Side-by-side evaluations of RT-qPCR and RADT as well as live virus cultures of positive samples were performed to determine the sensitivity of the Standard Q COVID-19 Ag Test (SD Biosensor/Roche) in detecting SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals with cultivable virus. A total of 2,028 samples were tested and 118 virus cultures inoculated. SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected in 210 samples by RT-qPCR, representing a positive rate of 10.36%. The Standard Q COVID-19 Ag Test yielded a positive result in 92 (4.54%) samples resulting in an overall sensitivity and specificity of 42.86% and 99.89%. For adjusted Ct values &lt;20, &lt;25, and &lt;30 the RADT reached sensitivities of 100%, 98.15%, and 88.64%, respectively. All 29 culture positive samples were detected by RADT. While overall sensitivity was low, Standard Q COVID-19 RADT reliably detected patients with high RNA loads. Additionally, negative RADT results fully corresponded with the lack of viral cultivability in Vero E6 cells. These results indicate that RADT can be a valuable tool for the detection of individuals that are likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2. RADT testing could therefore guide public health testing strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. One Sentence Summary Standard Q COVID-19 Ag test reliably detects individuals with high RNA loads and negative results correspond with lack of viral cultivability of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 cells.
The intention was good: How promoting strategy use does not improve multimedia learning for secondary students
2021-04-06

Background It is well established that successful learning with multimedia is challenging, especially for younger learners. Aims It was investigated whether students would profit from instructional support regarding the use of multimedia learning strategies. Sample Participants were high school students in 8 th , 9 th , and 10 th grade ( N = 168). Methods Participants were assigned to a no‐support control group or one of four experimental groups. In the experimental groups, students received either only a multimedia strategy training before learning (training group) or the training was enriched by prompts (prompts before or during learning) or if‐then plans (implementation intentions). In the training, multimedia learning strategies were introduced (e.g., linking information from text and picture). The prompts and implementation intentions were aimed at enhancing the application of the multimedia strategies conveyed through the training. Students learned about the process of mitosis by studying multimedia instructions and were tested regarding the acquired knowledge. It was expected that solely training students to use adequate multimedia learning strategies would not promote learning compared with the control group, rather, that additional support like prompts or implementation intentions would be necessary to enhance learning. Results Although in the experimental groups, multimedia learning strategies were used more frequently especially in the beginning of the instructional unit, there were no effects on learning outcome. Conclusions Promoting multimedia strategy use did not improve learning. The quality of the different instructional support measures and their suitability for the target groups are discussed as possible explanations for these findings.
Comment on gchron-2021-6
2021-04-06

Detrital tracer thermochronology exploits the relationship between bedrock thermochronometric age-elevation profiles and a distribution of detrital grain-ages collected from river, glacial, or other sediment to study spatial changes in the distribution of catchment erosion. If ages increase linearly with elevation, spatially uniform erosion is expected to yield a detrital age distribution that mirrors the catchment's hypsometric curve. Alternatively, a mismatch between detrital and hypsometric distributions may indicate non-uniform erosion within a catchment. For studies seeking to identify the pattern of erosion, measured grain-age populations rarely exceed 100 grains due largely to the time and costs related to individual measurements. With sample sizes of this order, discerning between two detrital age distributions produced by different catchment erosion scenarios can be difficult at a high statistical confidence level. However, there is no established method to quantify the sample-size-dependent uncertainty inherent to detrital tracer thermochronology, and practitioners are often left wondering how many grains is enough?. Here, we investigate how sample size affects the uncertainty of detrital age distributions and how such uncertainty affects the ability to uniquely infer the erosional pattern of the upstream area. We do this using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic as metric of dissimilarity among distributions, based on which the statistical confidence of detecting an erosional pattern is determined through Monte Carlo sampling. The techniques are implemented in a new tool (ESD_thermotrace) to consistently report confidence levels as a function of sample size and application-specific variables. The proposed tool is made available as a new open-source Python-based script along with test data. Testing between different hypothesized erosion scenarios with this tool provides thermochronologists with the minimum sample size (i.e. number of bedrock and detrital grain-ages) required to answer their specific scientific question, at their desired level of statistical confidence. Furthermore, in cases of unavoidably small sample size (e.g., due to poor grain quality or low sample volume), we provide a means to calculate the confidence level of interpretations made from the data.