Doddparsons0199

Review guidelines were varying by journals and publishers. This calls for more research to determine the need to use uniform review standards for transparent and standardized peer review.

The protocol for this study has been registered at Research Registry (www.researchregistry.com) reviewregistry881.

The protocol for this study has been registered at Research Registry (www.researchregistry.com) reviewregistry881.β-lactam resistance represents a worldwide problem and a serious challenge for antimicrobial treatment. Hence this research was conducted to recognize several mechanisms mediating β-lactam resistance in E. coli and K. pneumoniae clinical isolates collected from Mansoura University hospitals, Egypt. A total of 80 isolates, 45 E. coli and 35 K. pneumoniae isolates, were collected and their antibiotic susceptibility was determined by the Disc diffusion method followed by phenotypic and genotypic detection of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), AmpC β-lactamase, carbapenemase enzymes. The outer membrane protein porins of all isolates were analyzed and their genes were examined using gene amplification and sequencing. Also, the resistance to complement-mediated serum killing was estimated. A significant percentage of isolates (93.8%) were multidrug resistance and showed an elevated resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. The presence of either ESBL or AmpC enzymes was high among isolates (83.75%). Also, 60% of the isolated strains were carbapenemase producers. The most frequently detected gene of ESBL among all tested isolates was blaCTX-M-15 (86.3%) followed by blaTEM-1 (81.3%) and blaSHV-1 (35%) while the Amp-C gene was present in 83.75%. For carbapenemase-producing isolates, blaNDM1 was the most common (60%) followed by blaVIM-1 (35%) and blaOXA-48 (13.8%). Besides, 73.3% and 40% of E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates respectively were serum resistant. Outer membrane protein analysis showed that 93.3% of E. coli and 95.7% of K. pneumoniae isolates lost their porins or showed modified porins. Furthermore, sequence analysis of tested porin genes in some isolates revealed the presence of frameshift mutations that produced truncated proteins of smaller size. β-lactam resistance in K. Fingolimod in vivo pneumoniae and E. coli isolates in our hospitals is due to a combination of β-lactamase activity and porin loss/alteration. Hence more restrictions should be applied on β-lactams usage to decrease the emergence of resistant strains.

Child tuberculosis (TB) contact management is recommended for preventing TB in children but its implementation is suboptimal in high TB/HIV-burden settings. The PREVENT Study was a mixed-methods, clustered-randomized implementation study that evaluated the effectiveness and acceptability of a community-based intervention (CBI) to improve child TB contact management in Lesotho, a high TB burden country.

Ten health facilities were randomized to CBI or standard of care (SOC). CBI holistically addressed the complex provider-, patient-, and caregiver-related barriers to prevention of childhood TB. Routine TB program data were abstracted from TB registers and cards for all adult TB patients aged >18 years registered during the study period, and their child contacts. Primary outcome was yield (number) of child contacts identified and screened per adult TB patient. Generalized linear mixed models tested for differences between study arms. CBI acceptability was assessed via semi-structured in-depth interviews wsimilar across study arms but yield was marginally higher at CBI compared with SOC health facilities. CBI scale-up may enhance the ability to reach and engage child TB contacts, contributing to efforts to improve TB prevention among children.Microbial communities are of considerable significance for biogeochemical processes, for the health of both animals and plants, and for biotechnological purposes. A key feature of microbial interactions is the exchange of nutrients between cells. Isotope labelling followed by analysis with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) can identify nutrient fluxes and heterogeneity of substrate utilisation on a single cell level. Here we present a novel approach that combines SIMS experiments with mechanistic modelling to reveal otherwise inaccessible nutrient kinetics. The method is applied to study the onset of a synthetic mutualistic partnership between a vitamin B12-dependent mutant of the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the B12-producing, heterotrophic bacterium Mesorhizobium japonicum, which is supported by algal photosynthesis. Results suggest that an initial pool of fixed carbon delays the onset of mutualistic cross-feeding; significantly, our approach allows the first quantification of this expected delay. Our method is widely applicable to other microbial systems, and will contribute to furthering a mechanistic understanding of microbial interactions.

Little research has explored the influence of social context on health of Indian adolescents. We conceptualized community-level women's education (proxy for value placed on women's wellbeing) as exerting contextual influence on adolescent hemoglobin level and body mass index (BMI).

We derived our sample of more than 62,000 adolescent aged 15 through 17 years from the Indian National Family Health Survey 2015-16. The sample consisted of a total of 62648 adolescents (54232 girls and 8416 boys) for the hemoglobin, and 62846 adolescents (54383 girls and 8463 boys) for the BMI analysis. We fitted multilevel random intercepts linear regression models to test the association of village- and urban-ward-level-women's education with hemoglobin level and BMI of adolescents, accounting for their own and their mother's education; as well as relevant covariates.

Our fully adjusted model estimated that if the 52% of communities with less than 20 percent of women having a tenth-grade education in our sample were to acht anemia and undernutrition prevention efforts, which are currently focused heavily on individual-level biomedical determinants of the problem.

Addressing contextual determinants of adolescent undernutrition might be the missing link in India's adolescent anemia and undernutrition prevention efforts, which are currently focused heavily on individual-level biomedical determinants of the problem.

Local protein structure is usually described via classifying each peptide to a unique class from a set of pre-defined structures. These classifications may differ in the number of structural classes, the length of peptides, or class attribution criteria. Most methods that predict the local structure of a protein from its sequence first rely on some classification and only then proceed to the 3D conformation assessment. However, most classification methods rely on homologous proteins' existence, unavoidably lose information by attributing a peptide to a single class or suffer from a suboptimal choice of the representative classes.

To alleviate the above challenges, we propose a method that constructs a peptide's structural representation from the sequence, reflecting its similarity to several basic representative structures. For 5-mer peptides and 16 representative structures, we achieved the Q16 classification accuracy of 67.9%, which is higher than what is currently reported in the literature. link2 Our predicequired conditions under various geometric constraints.Distal axonopathy is seen in a broad range of species including equine patients. In horses, this degenerative disorder of the recurrent laryngeal nerve is described as recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN). The dysfunctional innervation of the cricoarytenoideus dorsalis muscle (CAD) leads to a loss of performance in affected horses. In general, ex vivo models of the larynx are rare and for equine patients, just one short report is available. To allow for testing new therapy approaches in an isolated organ model, we examined equine larynges in a constant pressure perfused setup. In order to check the vitality and functionality of the isolated larynx, the vessels´ reaction to norepinephrine (NE) and sodium nitroprusside (NP) as vasoactive agents was tested. Additionally, the contractility of the CAD was checked via electrical stimulation. To determine the extent of hypoxic alterations, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and lactate were measured and an immunofluorescent analysis of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α), a key transcription factor in hypoxia, was performed. For this, a hypoxia-induced cell culture for HIF-1α was developed. The application of NE led to an expected vasoconstriction while NP caused the expected vasodilation. During a perfusion period of 352 ±20.78 min, LDH values were in the reference range and lactate values slightly exceeded the reference range at the end of the perfusion. HIF-1α nuclear translocation could reliably be detected in the hypoxia-induced cell cultures, but not in sections of the perfused CAD. With the approach presented here, a solid basis for perfusing equine larynges was established and may serve as a tool for further investigations of equine larynx disorders as well as a transferrable model for other species.Coordinating the charging scheduling of electric vehicles for dynamic dial-a-ride services is challenging considering charging queuing delays and stochastic customer demand. We propose a new two-stage solution approach to handle dynamic vehicle charging scheduling to minimize the costs of daily charging operations of the fleet. link3 The approach comprises two components daily vehicle charging scheduling and online vehicle-charger assignment. A new battery replenishment model is proposed to obtain the vehicle charging schedules by minimizing the costs of vehicle daily charging operations while satisfying vehicle driving needs to serve customers. In the second stage, an online vehicle-charger assignment model is developed to minimize the total vehicle idle time for charges by considering queuing delays at the level of chargers. An efficient Lagrangian relaxation algorithm is proposed to solve the large-scale vehicle-charger assignment problem with small optimality gaps. The approach is applied to a realistic dynamic dial-a-ride service case study in Luxembourg and compared with the nearest charging station charging policy and first-come-first-served minimum charging delay policy under different charging infrastructure scenarios. Our computational results show that the approach can achieve significant savings for the operator in terms of charging waiting times (-74.9%), charging times (-38.6%), and charged energy costs (-27.4%). A sensitivity analysis is conducted to evaluate the impact of the different model parameters, showing the scalability and robustness of the approach in a stochastic environment.The present work gives insight into the internal heat management of the respiratory system in the terrestrial snail Xeropicta derbentina, which has to cope with extreme climate conditions in its habitat. A realistic model of the lung´s vein system was constructed and the active diffusive surface of capillaries and main vein was calculated and confirmed by geometrical measurements. We here present a model that is able to validate the measured oxygen consumption by the use of the Colburn analogy between mass and momentum transfer. By combining basic diffusion laws with the momentum transfer, i.e. wall shear stress, at the inner wall of the lung capillaries and the main vein, the progression of the oxygen mass fraction in the hemolymph can be visualized.