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The bacterium Acinetobacter haemolyticus, with a genome size of 3.4 Mb, was isolated from a pus swab of a wound on the left lower limb above the ankle joint of a female patient. This strain carries the antimicrobial resistance genes cephalosporinase blaADC-25, oxallinase blaOXA-264, floR, and sul2 and other resistance and virulence genes.
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Thermal approaches have played a dominant role in driving chemical reactions within the chemicals and fuels industries, benefiting from ongoing enhancements in efficiency via heat integration, catalyst development, and process intensification. Nevertheless, these traditional thermal approaches remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels, and there exists an urgent demand for the implementation of renewable energy technologies to synthesize fuels, commodity chemicals, and specialty chemicals. Nonthermal plasmas have gained considerable attention in recent years as a promising solution, and the prospects of combining plasmas with suitable catalysts have become even more appealing. Moreover, the evolution of nonthermal plasma catalysis approaches for the generation of clean hydrogen could be transformative in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This comprehensive review highlights the influential contributions in plasma catalysis for hydrogen production, discusses recent advancements, and provides future prospects for researchers aiming to advance the production of clean hydrogen.
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Classification-based myoelectric control has attracted significant interest in recent years, leading to prosthetic hands with advanced functionality, such as multi-grip hands. Thus far, high classification accuracies have been achieved by increasing the number of surface electromyography (sEMG) electrodes or adding other sensing mechanisms. While many prescribed myoelectric hands still adopt two-electrode sEMG systems, detailed studies on signal processing and classification performance are still lacking. In this study, nine able-bodied participants were recruited to perform six typical hand actions, from which sEMG signals from two electrodes were acquired using a Delsys Trigno Research+ acquisition system. Signal processing and machine learning algorithms, specifically, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), and support vector machines (SVM), were used to study classification accuracies. Overall classification accuracy of 93 ± 2%, action-specific accuracy of 97 ± 2%, and F1-score of 87 ± 7% were achieved, which are comparable with those reported from multi-electrode systems. The highest accuracies were achieved using SVM algorithm compared to LDA and KNN algorithms. A logarithmic relationship between classification accuracy and number of features was revealed, which plateaued at five features. These comprehensive findings may potentially contribute to signal processing and machine learning strategies for commonly prescribed myoelectric hand systems with two sEMG electrodes to further improve functionality.
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Algoritmos , Eletrodos , Eletromiografia , Mãos , Aprendizado de Máquina , Processamento de Sinais Assistido por Computador , Máquina de Vetores de Suporte , Humanos , Eletromiografia/métodos , Mãos/fisiologia , Masculino , Adulto , Feminino , Análise Discriminante , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Many publications lack sufficient background information (e.g. location) to be interpreted, replicated, or reused for synthesis. This impedes scientific progress and the application of science to practice. Reporting guidelines (e.g. checklists) improve reporting standards. They have been widely taken up in the medical sciences, but not in ecological and agricultural research. Here, we use a community-centred approach to develop a reporting checklist (AgroEcoList 1.0) through surveys and workshops with 23 experts and the wider agroecological community. To put AgroEcoList in context, we also assessed the agroecological community's perception of reporting standards in agroecology. A total of 345 researchers, reviewers, and editors, responded to our survey. Although only 32% of respondents had prior knowledge of reporting guidelines, 76% of those that had said guidelines improved reporting standards. Overall, respondents agreed on the need of AgroEcolist 1.0; only 24% of respondents had used reporting guidelines before, but 78% indicated they would use AgroEcoList 1.0. We updated AgroecoList 1.0 based on respondents' feedback and user-testing. AgroecoList 1.0 consists of 42 variables in seven groups: experimental/sampling set-up, study site, soil, livestock management, crop and grassland management, outputs, and finances. It is presented here, and is also available on github (https://github.com/AgroecoList/Agroecolist). AgroEcoList 1.0 can serve as a guide for authors, reviewers, and editors to improve reporting standards in agricultural ecology. Our community-centred approach is a replicable method that could be adapted to develop reporting checklists in other fields. Reporting guidelines such as AgroEcoList can improve reporting standards and therefore the application of research to practice, and we recommend that they are adopted more widely in agriculture and ecology.
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Agricultura , Lista de Checagem , Animais , Solo , Conhecimento , GadoRESUMO
Multidimensionality and hierarchical data structure are common in assessment data. These design features, if not accounted for, can threaten the validity of the results and inferences generated from factor analysis, a method frequently employed to assess test dimensionality. In this article, we describe and demonstrate the application of the multilevel bifactor model to address these features in examining test dimensionality. The tool for this exposition is the Child Observation Record Advantage 1.5 (COR-Adv1.5), a child assessment instrument widely used in Head Start programs. Previous studies on this assessment tool reported highly correlated factors and did not account for the nesting of children in classrooms. Results from this study show how the flexibility of the multilevel bifactor model, together with useful model-based statistics, can be harnessed to judge the dimensionality of a test instrument and inform the interpretability of the associated factor scores.
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INTRODUCTION: Recent evidence suggests that rates of drug use and abuse in Nigeria exceed the global average. There is a strong treatment demand for psychoactive drug use disorders in Nigeria; however, it is not known whether available treatment facilities are attending to the array of treatment needs. This audit compares the pattern of presentations at a tertiary facility with a community-based survey. METHODS: A review of cases (n = 212) seen at a regional drug treatment facility over a 4-year period, using local data retrieved from the Nigerian Epidemiological Network of Drug Use (NENDU) and comparison with data from the recently published national drug use survey. RESULTS: Nine out of ten clients seen were male (93.4%). About half (49.5%) of the clients used psychoactive substances for the first time between ages 10 and 19 years. Cannabis was the primary drug of use overall and also among males, while females were more likely to present with opiate abuse. Over half had a co-occurring physical or mental disorder, and a minority had received testing for hepatitis C in the past 12 months. CONCLUSION: Although patterns of drug abuse presentations were consistent with findings from a national community-based survey, there was an under-representation of females in treatment. Implications for policy development and practice are discussed.
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Drogas Ilícitas/efeitos adversos , Transtornos Mentais/epidemiologia , Pacientes/estatística & dados numéricos , Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Substâncias/terapia , Adolescente , Adulto , Distribuição por Idade , Alcoolismo/epidemiologia , Alcoolismo/reabilitação , Criança , Comorbidade/tendências , Estudos Transversais , Feminino , Hospitais Psiquiátricos , Humanos , Tempo de Internação/estatística & dados numéricos , Tempo de Internação/tendências , Masculino , Abuso de Maconha/epidemiologia , Transtornos Mentais/reabilitação , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Nigéria/epidemiologia , Pacientes/psicologia , Fatores de Risco , Distribuição por Sexo , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Substâncias/epidemiologia , Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Substâncias/psicologia , Inquéritos e Questionários , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Keel bone damage may be painful to birds and affect their production. In order to better understand the frequency, position, and timepoint of keel bone damage that occur during production, the integrity of W-36 laying hen keel bones housed in enriched colony cages at 748.4 cm2 (116 in2) was evaluated. At four time points, 120 birds (10 per cage; three cages per each of four rooms) had keel bones evaluated. Each hen was placed in a motion limiting restraint, scanned using computed tomography (CT), fitted in vests containing tri-axial accelerometers, and placed back in their cages for 21 d. After 21 d, the hens were rescanned and returned to their cages. This process was repeated after 133 d. The CT scans were imported into Mimics analysis software (Materialise, Plymouth, MI, USA); 3D models were made of each keel bone at each time point and exported to 3-matic analysis software (Materialise, Plymouth, MI, USA). Each laying hen's keel bone model was superimposed onto scans from multiple time points resulting in four bone pairings representative of each 21-d period, the 133-d period, and the entire duration of the project. Next, the proximal portion of each bone pairing was edited to normalize bone shape according to a strict protocol. Additionally, each pairing was divided into three portions: distal aspect (3 cm), proximal aspect (2 cm), and middle portion (remaining). Whole bone pairing and each bone portion was analyzed using the Part Comparison tool in 3-matic. Raw data were compiled into three datasets and analyzed in SAS 9.3 using the GLIMMIX procedure using a three-level random intercept model. The model controlled for time, part, part(time), and system with random intercepts of bird(cage) and cage. Overall, results revealed that the greatest morphological changes occurred during the first 21-d period with regards to time (P = 0.03) and in the distal aspect of the keel with regards to part (P < 0.0001).
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Galinhas/anatomia & histologia , Esterno/anatomia & histologia , Tomografia Computadorizada por Raios X/veterinária , Bem-Estar do Animal , Animais , Feminino , Abrigo para Animais , Esterno/diagnóstico por imagem , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
Freshwater fish populations are rapidly declining globally due to the impacts of rapid climate change and existing non-climatic anthropogenic stressors. In response to these drivers, freshwater fishes are responding by shifting their distribution range, altering the timing of migration and spawning and through demographic processes. By 2050, the mean daily air temperature is predicted to increase by 2 to 3 degrees C in insular Newfoundland and by 3 to 4 degrees C in Labrador. Mean daily precipitation is also projected to increase in all locations, with increased intensity projected for several regions. To mitigate negative consequences of these changes, managers require analytical approaches that describe the vulnerability of fish to climate change. To address this need, the current study adopts the National Marine Fisheries Service vulnerability assessment framework to characterize the vulnerability of freshwater fishes in Newfoundland and Labrador. Twelve vulnerability indicators were developed from an extensive literature review and applied to the assessment. Experts were solicited using an online questionnaire survey and scores for exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity were collated and analyzed to derive a final vulnerability score and rank for each species. The analysis showed one species to be of high-very high vulnerability, two species were highly vulnerable while four species were moderately vulnerable to climate change. The result provides insight into the factors that drive vulnerability of freshwater fishes in the region, this information is significant to decision-makers and other stakeholders engaged in managing freshwater fish resources in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Mudança Climática , Conservação dos Recursos Naturais , Monitorização de Parâmetros Ecológicos/métodos , Peixes/fisiologia , Água Doce , Migração Animal/fisiologia , Animais , Tomada de Decisões , Terra Nova e Labrador , Reprodução/fisiologia , Inquéritos e QuestionáriosRESUMO
AIMS: Although many mental health care systems provide care interventions that are not related to direct health care, little is known about the interfaces between the latter and core health care. 'Core health care' refers to services whose explicit aim is direct clinical treatment which is usually provided by health professionals, i.e., physicians, nurses, psychologists. 'Other care' is typically provided by other staff and includes accommodation, training, promotion of independence, employment support and social skills. In such a definition, 'other care' does not necessarily mean being funded or governed differently. The aims of the study were: (1) using a standard classification system (Description and Evaluation of Services and Directories in Europe for Long Term Care, DESDE-LTC) to identify 'core health' and 'other care' services provided to adults with mental health problems; and (2) to investigate the balance of care by analysing the types and characteristics of core health and other care services. METHODS: The study was conducted in eight selected local areas in eight European countries with different mental health systems. All publicly funded mental health services, regardless of the funding agency, for people over 18 years old were identified and coded. The availability, capacity and the workforce of the local mental health services were described using their functional main activity or 'Main Types of Care' (MTC) as the standard for international comparison, following the DESDE-LTC system. RESULTS: In these European study areas, 822 MTCs were identified as providing core health care and 448 provided other types of care. Even though one-third of mental health services in the selected study areas provided interventions that were coded as 'other care', significant variation was found in the typology and characteristics of these services across the eight study areas. CONCLUSIONS: The functional distinction between core health and other care overcomes the traditional division between 'health' and 'social' sectors based on governance and funding. The overall balance between core health and other care services varied significantly across the European sites. Mental health systems cannot be understood or planned without taking into account the availability and capacity of all services specifically available for this target population, including those outside the health sector.
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Serviços Comunitários de Saúde Mental/estatística & dados numéricos , Transtornos Mentais/terapia , Adulto , Europa (Continente) , Pesquisa sobre Serviços de Saúde , Humanos , Transtornos Mentais/psicologia , Saúde Mental , População UrbanaRESUMO
This note is concerned with examining the relationship between within-group and between-group variances in two-level nested designs. A latent variable modeling approach is outlined that permits point and interval estimation of their ratio and allows their comparison in a multilevel study. The procedure can also be used to test various hypotheses about the discrepancy between these two variances and assist with their relationship interpretability in empirical investigations. The method can also be utilized as an addendum to point and interval estimation of the popular intraclass correlation coefficient in hierarchical designs. The discussed approach is illustrated with a numerical example.
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Inibidores da Angiogênese/efeitos adversos , Anticorpos Monoclonais Humanizados/efeitos adversos , Surtos de Doenças , Endoftalmite/epidemiologia , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Positivas/epidemiologia , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Inibidores da Angiogênese/uso terapêutico , Anticorpos Monoclonais Humanizados/uso terapêutico , Bevacizumab , Carnobacteriaceae/isolamento & purificação , Contaminação de Medicamentos , Endoftalmite/microbiologia , Feminino , Georgia/epidemiologia , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Positivas/microbiologia , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Positivas/transmissão , Humanos , Indiana/epidemiologia , Degeneração Macular/tratamento farmacológico , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Uso Off-Label , Corpo Vítreo/microbiologiaRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was digitally determined for transport operators, passengers, and pedestrians in a southern Nigeria city. METHODS: The subjects were screened with a digital breathalyzer, Alco Scan CA 2000, for BAC along major accident-prone highways, resting spots, and hospitals. The mouthpieces were complemented with disposable straws for rapid and hygienic screening of the subjects. RESULTS: Based on convenience sampling, a significant proportion of Nigerians has a BAC level above 0.06 on accident-prone highways (44.60%), at resting spots (54.50%), and in hospitals (47.80%). CONCLUSION: This research confirms that digital breathalyzer BAC levels are reliable and empirical means for determining incidents of alcohol-impaired driving.
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Acidentes de Trânsito , Condução de Veículo , Testes Respiratórios/instrumentação , Etanol/sangue , Humanos , NigériaRESUMO
Hypertonia, which results from motor pathway defects in the central nervous system (CNS), is observed in numerous neurological conditions, including cerebral palsy, stroke, spinal cord injury, stiff-person syndrome, spastic paraplegia, dystonia and Parkinson disease. Mice with mutation in the hypertonic (hyrt) gene exhibit severe hypertonia as their primary symptom. Here we show that hyrt mutant mice have much lower levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA(A)) receptors in their CNS, particularly the lower motor neurons, than do wild-type mice, indicating that the hypertonicity of the mutants is likely to be caused by deficits in GABA-mediated motor neuron inhibition. We cloned the responsible gene, trafficking protein, kinesin binding 1 (Trak1), and showed that its protein product interacts with GABA(A) receptors. Our data implicate Trak1 as a crucial regulator of GABA(A) receptor homeostasis and underscore the importance of hyrt mice as a model for studying the molecular etiology of hypertonia associated with human neurological diseases.
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Proteínas de Transporte/genética , Proteínas de Transporte/metabolismo , Homeostase , Hipertonia Muscular/metabolismo , Mutação/genética , Receptores de GABA-A/metabolismo , Proteínas Adaptadoras de Transporte Vesicular , Animais , Células do Corno Anterior/patologia , Cromossomos de Mamíferos/genética , Diazepam/farmacologia , Eletromiografia , Expressão Gênica , Homozigoto , Humanos , Corpos de Inclusão/patologia , Corpos de Inclusão/ultraestrutura , Camundongos , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Hipertonia Muscular/genética , Hipertonia Muscular/patologia , Músculo Esquelético/efeitos dos fármacos , Mapeamento Físico do Cromossomo , Ponte/patologia , Ponte/ultraestrutura , RNA Mensageiro/genética , RNA Mensageiro/metabolismoRESUMO
Mice that are homozygous for the autosomal recessive hydrocephaly with hop gait (hyh) mutation on Chromosome (Chr) 7 have congenital hydrocephalus characterized by an interhemispheric cyst arising from the third ventricle and agenesis of the corpus callosum. Analysis of more than 500 backcross and intercross progeny maps the hyh locus to proximal Chr 7, approximately 13 cM centromeric to its originally reported map position. Analysis of recombinants at several MIT microsatellite markers localized the hyh locus between D7Mit75 and D7Mit56. Development of several new SSLP markers allowed us to refine the hyh candidate interval to a region defined by the cone-rod homeobox ( Crx) gene proximally and D7Mit56 distally. A contig of yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) clones and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones spanning this entire region has been developed, and a number of potential candidate genes for hyh within this interval have been identified. Gene content is conserved between this region of mouse Chr 7 and human Chr 19q13.3. Physical mapping of the regions around D7Mit75 and D7Mit56 has also determined the order of a number of MIT markers that remain unresolved on the Mouse Genome Database (MGD) map. Our physical map and transcript map may be useful for positional cloning of genes in this unusually gene-rich region of the genome.
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Mapeamento de Sequências Contíguas , Hidrocefalia/genética , Camundongos Mutantes/genética , Animais , Cromossomos Artificiais Bacterianos/genética , Cromossomos Artificiais de Levedura/genética , Cruzamentos Genéticos , Feminino , Masculino , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos C3H , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Repetições de Microssatélites/genética , Polimorfismo GenéticoRESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To describe the first nosocomial outbreak of ampicillin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (ARE) in Norway, where a few vancomycin-resistant strains have also been identified. METHODS: All cases of ARE and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) diagnosed by the medical microbiological laboratories in a region inhabited by approximately 1 million people were registered. Isolates obtained during the period 1 January 1995 to 31 December 1996 were characterized by pulsed field-gel electrophoresis and the clinical data were recorded. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-nine patients (64 males, 85 females, mean age 70.5 years) were infected with ARE. Isolates from 115 cases were genomically related to the outbreak strain. Infections included bacteremia (14), wound infections (31), urinary tract infections (97) and other infections (seven). Most had a severe underlying disease and 93% of the patients had received antibiotics for a mean time of 23 days. Twenty-four patients (16.1%) died during hospitalization. Four infections were caused by a vanB-type VRE that was genomically related to the ARE outbreak strain. The prescription rate for vancomycin was low, but an increase in vancomycin use paralleled the appearance of VRE. The highest monthly incidence rate was 2.5 per 1000 patient admissions in July 1996 declining to 0.5 in December 1996. CONCLUSIONS: The first nosocomial outbreak caused by ARE was observed in 1995 in Norway and is still ongoing. One year after the onset, VRE occurred in wards which had a relatively high consumption of vancomycin.
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Resistência a Ampicilina , Infecção Hospitalar/epidemiologia , Surtos de Doenças , Enterococcus faecium/efeitos dos fármacos , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Positivas/epidemiologia , Resistência a Vancomicina , Idoso , Ampicilina/farmacologia , Antibacterianos/farmacologia , Infecção Hospitalar/tratamento farmacológico , Eletroforese em Gel de Campo Pulsado , Enterococcus faecium/genética , Feminino , Genótipo , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Positivas/tratamento farmacológico , Humanos , Incidência , Masculino , Testes de Sensibilidade Microbiana , Noruega/epidemiologia , Penicilinas/farmacologia , Vancomicina/farmacologiaRESUMO
Neisseria elongata ssp. nitroreducens, a commensal of the human upper respiratory tract, is a newly recognized cause of endocarditis. We report the isolation of the organism from blood cultures of a 30-y-old man with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. The patient was successfully treated with benzylpenicillin and netilmicin in combination, followed by ceftriaxone and amoxicillin.
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Bacteriemia/diagnóstico , Cardiomiopatia Hipertrófica/microbiologia , Endocardite Bacteriana/diagnóstico , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Negativas/diagnóstico , Neisseria/isolamento & purificação , Adulto , Antibacterianos , Bacteriemia/complicações , Bacteriemia/tratamento farmacológico , Cardiomiopatia Hipertrófica/etiologia , Quimioterapia Combinada/uso terapêutico , Endocardite Bacteriana/complicações , Endocardite Bacteriana/tratamento farmacológico , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Negativas/complicações , Infecções por Bactérias Gram-Negativas/tratamento farmacológico , Humanos , Masculino , Testes de Sensibilidade Microbiana , Neisseria/classificação , Resultado do TratamentoRESUMO
1. Real time, in vivo microvoltammetric studies were performed, using miniature carbon-based sensors, to concurrently detect norepinephrine (NE) release and serotonin (5-HT) release, in 2 separate electrochemical signals, within CA1 region of hippocampus in the freely moving and behaving, male, Sprague Dawley laboratory rat. 2. Concurrently, four parameters of open-field behavior, i.e. Ambulations, Rearing, Fine Movements and Central Ambulatory behavior (a measure of anxiety reduction behavior), were assayed by infrared photobeam detection. 3. Time course studies showed that the mechanism of action of the triazolobenzodiazepine (TBZD), adinazolam, (Deracyn) is dramatically different from that of the classical benzodiazepine (BZD), diazepam (Valium, i.e., adinazolam increased, whereas diazepam decreased, 5-HT release within CA1 region of hippocampus in the freely moving and behaving rat. 4. Adinazolam initially increased NE release and then decreased NE release in CA1 region of hippocampus in the freely moving and behaving rat whereas diazepam only decreased the electrochemical signal for NE; the decrease in NE produced by adinazolam was greater than the decrease in NE release produced by diazepam. 5. The Behavioral Activity Patterns, derived from same animal controls, simultaneously with detection of in vivo microvoltammetric signals for NE release and 5-HT release, showed that the BZD, diazepam, exhibited more potent sedative properties than did the TBZD adinazolam. 6. Hippocampal 5-HT and NE release effects of the TBZD, adinazolam, concomitant with behavioral effects lends explanation to the dual anxiolytic/antidepressant properties of the TBZDs.