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Early development of the microbiome has been shown to affect general health and physical development of the infant and, although some studies have been undertaken in high-income countries, there are few studies from low- and middle-income countries. As part of the BARNARDS study, we examined the rectal microbiota of 2,931 neonates (term used up to 60 d) with clinical signs of sepsis and of 15,217 mothers screening for bla CTX-M-15 , bla NDM , bla KPC and bla OXA-48 -like genes, which were detected in 56.1%, 18.5%, 0% and 4.1% of neonates’ rectal swabs and 47.1%, 4.6%, 0% and 1.6% of mothers’ rectal swabs, respectively. Carbapenemase-positive bacteria were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and showed a high diversity of bacterial species (57 distinct species/genera) which exhibited resistance to most of the antibiotics tested. Escherichia coli , Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae / E. cloacae complex, the most commonly found isolates, were subjected to whole-genome sequencing analysis and revealed close relationships between isolates from different samples, suggesting transmission of bacteria between neonates, and between neonates and mothers. Associations between the carriage of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and healthcare/environmental factors were identified, and the presence of ARGs was a predictor of neonatal sepsis and adverse birth outcomes. Analysis of gut microbiota of mothers and its neonates—as part of the BARNARDS study—reveals associations between β-lactamase gene carriage and neonatal sepsis risk in low-income settings.

The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of land cover change on the hydrological responses of the Mahanadi river basin, a large river basin in India. Commonly, such assessments are accomplished by using distributed hydrological models in conjunction with different land use scenarios. However, these models, through their complex interactions among the model parameters to generate hydrological processes, can introduce significant uncertainties to the hydrological projections. Therefore, we seek to further understand the uncertainties associated with model parameterization in those simulated hydrological responses due to different land cover scenarios. We performed a sensitivity-guided model calibration of a physically semi-distributed model, the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model, within a Monte Carlo framework to generate behavioural models that can yield equally good or acceptable model performances for subcatchments of the Mahanadi river basin. These behavioural models are then used in conjunction with historical and future land cover scenarios from the recently released Land-Use Harmonization version 2 (LUH2) dataset to generate hydrological predictions and related uncertainties from behavioural model parameterization. The LUH2 dataset indicates a noticeable increase in the cropland (23.3 % cover) at the expense of forest (22.65 % cover) by the end of year 2100 compared to the baseline year, 2005. As a response, simulation results indicate a median percent increase in the extreme flows (defined as the 95th percentile or higher river flow magnitude) and mean annual flows in the range of 1.8 % to 11.3 % across the subcatchments. The direct conversion of forested areas to agriculture (of the order of 30 000 km2) reduces the leaf area index, which subsequently reduces the evapotranspiration (ET) and increases surface runoff. Further, the range of behavioural hydrological predictions indicated variation in the magnitudes of extreme flows simulated for the different land cover scenarios; for instance, uncertainty in scenario labelled “Far Future” ranges from 17 to 210 m3 s−1 across subcatchments. This study indicates that the recurrent flood events occurring in the Mahanadi river basin might be influenced by the changes in land use/land cover (LULC) at the catchment scale and suggests that model parameterization represents an uncertainty which should be accounted for in the land use change impact assessment.

The snow cover plays an important role in Himalayan region as it contributes a useful amount to the river discharge. So, besides estimating rainfall runoff, proper assessment of snowmelt runoff for efficient management and water resources planning is also required. A Land Surface Model, VIC (Variable Infiltration Capacity) is used at a high resolution grid size of 1 km. Beas river basin up to Thalot in North West Himalayas (NWH) have been selected as the study area. At first model setup is done and VIC has been run in its energy balance mode. The fluxes obtained from VIC has been routed to simulate the discharge for the time period of (2003-2006). Data Assimilation is done for the year 2006 and the techniques of Data Assimilation considered in this study are Direct Insertion (D.I) and Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) that uses observations of snow covered area (SCA) to update hydrologic model states. The meteorological forcings were taken from 0.5 deg. resolution VIC global forcing data from 1979-2006 with daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature from Climate Research unit (CRU), rainfall from daily variability of NCEP and wind speed from NCEP-NCAR analysis as main inputs and Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) data of 0.25 °. NBSSLUP soil map and land use land cover map of ISRO-GBP project for year 2014 were used for generating the soil parameters and vegetation parameters respectively. The threshold temperature i.e. the minimum rain temperature is -0.5°C and maximum snow temperature is about +0.5°C at which VIC can generate snow fluxes. Hydrological simulations were done using both NCEP and IMD based meteorological Forcing datasets, but very few snow fluxes were obtained using IMD data met forcing, whereas NCEP based met forcing has given significantly better snow fluxes throughout the simulation years as the temperature resolution as given by IMD data is 0.5°C and rainfall resolution of 0.25°C. The simulated discharge has been validated using observed data from BBMB (Bhakra Beas Management Board) and coefficient of Correlation(R2) measured for (2003-2006) was 0.67 and 0.61 for the year 2006.But as VIC does not consider snowmelt runoff as a part of the total discharge, snowmelt runoff has been estimated for the simulation both with and without D.A. The snow fluxes as generated from VIC gives basin average estimates of Snow Cover, SWE, Snow Depth and Snow melt. It has been observed to be overestimated when model predicted snow cover is compared with MODIS SCA of 500 m resolution from MOD10A2 for each year. So MODIS 8-day snow cover area has been assimilated directly into the model state as well as by using EnKF after every 8 days for the year 2006.D.I Technique performed well as compared to EnKF. R2 between Model SCA and MODIS SCA is estimated as 0.73 after D.I with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of +0.19. After direct Insertion of D.A, SCA has been reduced comparatively which resulted in 7% reduction of annual snowmelt contribution to total discharge.The assimilation of MODIS SCA data hence improved the snow cover area (SCA) fraction and finally updated other snow components.

In this paper, we reveal the real picture of a parametric study designed to test key hypotheses regarding the impact of ballast parameters on Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) life. Here, samples of 5 W to 14 W CFL lamps from different lamp manufacturers were operated on duty cycles of 5 min on and 5 min off. The results indicate which parameters seem to have the biggest effect on lamp life and can be used in establishing new performance standards for CFL. The changes made during the life cycle test are remarkable.

This study presents a comparison between the Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) and the sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique for the induction motor drive application. For this purpose, MATLAB/SIMULINK-based simulation was used. Also, a study of steady-state and transient performance characteristics was carried out for both the cases. Different methods for PWM generation and SVPWM were broadly classified to reduce the switching losses and harmonic content in the system. The simulation results indicate that the transient response is similar for both schemes, but the SVPWM technique has the advantage because it has less harmonic content, which is useful in real-time applications of SVPWM. In addition, due to the low harmonic content, the SVPWM system can avoid overheat and malfunction in the proper system operation. Total harmonic distortion-and continuous wavelet transform-based techniques were used for this purpose to analyze the performance of the PWM and SVPWM techniques for the induction motor drive application.

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) on the front lines against COVID-19 may face increased workload and stress. Understanding HCPs' risk for burnout is critical to supporting HCPs and maintaining the quality of healthcare during the pandemic. To assess exposure, perceptions, workload, and possible burnout of HCPs during the COVID-19 pandemic we conducted a cross-sectional survey. The main outcomes and measures were HCPs' self-assessment of burnout, indicated by a single item measure of emotional exhaustion, and other experiences and attitudes associated with working during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 2,707 HCPs from 60 countries participated in this study. Fifty-one percent of HCPs reported burnout. Burnout was associated with work impacting household activities (RR = 1·57, 95% CI = 1·39-1·78, P<0·001), feeling pushed beyond training (RR = 1·32, 95% CI = 1·20-1·47, P<0·001), exposure to COVID-19 patients (RR = 1·18, 95% CI = 1·05-1·32, P = 0·005), and making life prioritizing decisions (RR = 1·16, 95% CI = 1·02-1·31, P = 0·03). Adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was protective against burnout (RR = 0·88, 95% CI = 0·79-0·97, P = 0·01). Burnout was higher in high-income countries (HICs) compared to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (RR = 1·18; 95% CI = 1·02-1·36, P = 0·018). Burnout is present at higher than previously reported rates among HCPs working during the COVID-19 pandemic and is related to high workload, job stress, and time pressure, and limited organizational support. Current and future burnout among HCPs could be mitigated by actions from healthcare institutions and other governmental and non-governmental stakeholders aimed at potentially modifiable factors, including providing additional training, organizational support, and support for family, PPE, and mental health resources.

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most commonly used clinical imaging modalities. There have recently been many reports of novel contrast agents for CT imaging. In particular, the development of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) as CT contrast agents is a topic of intense interest. AuNP have favorable characteristics for this application such as high payloads of contrast generating material, strong X-ray attenuation, excellent biocompatibility, tailorable surface chemistry, and tunable sizes and shapes. However, there have been conflicting reports on the role of AuNP size on their contrast generation for CT. We therefore sought to extensively investigate the AuNP size-CT contrast relationship. In order to do this, we synthesized AuNP with sizes ranging from 4 to 152 nm and capped them with 5 kDa m-PEG. The contrast generation of AuNP of different sizes was investigated with three clinical CT, a spectral photon counting CT (SPCCT) and two micro CT systems. X-ray attenuation was quantified as attenuation rate in Hounsfield units per unit concentration (HU/mM). No statistically significant difference in CT contrast generation was found among different AuNP sizes via phantom imaging with any of the systems tested. Furthermore, in vivo imaging was performed in mice to provide insight into the effect of AuNP size on animal biodistribution at CT dose levels, which has not previously been explored. Both in vivo imaging and ex vivo analysis with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) indicated that AuNP that are 15 nm or smaller have long blood circulation times, while larger AuNP accumulated in the liver and spleen more rapidly. Therefore, while we observed no AuNP size effect on CT contrast generation, there is a significant effect of size on AuNP diagnostic utility.

This study aims to examine the relationship between work competency factors—namely knowledge, skills, traits, motives, and self-concepts—and job performance among university counsellors in China. Data were collected from 310 university counsellors using multiple sampling techniques. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), via Smart-PLS version 3.3.2, was employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that four competency factors—knowledge, skills, traits, and motives—were significantly related to job performance among university counsellors in Hunan Province. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the impact of work competencies on job performance. It can provide valuable insights for administrators and policymakers aiming to improve the competencies and performance of university counsellors, as well as to enhance the overall development of the counselling team.

A new prototype spectral photon-counting computed tomography (SPCCT) based on a modified clinical CT system has been developed. SPCCT analysis of the energy composition of the transmitted x-ray spectrum potentially allows simultaneous dual contrast agent imaging, however, this has not yet been demonstrated with such a system. We investigated the feasibility of using this system to distinguish gold nanoparticles (AuNP) and an iodinated contrast agent. The contrast agents and calcium phosphate were imaged in phantoms. Conventional CT, gold K-edge, iodine and water images were produced and demonstrated accurate discrimination and quantification of gold and iodine concentrations in a phantom containing mixtures of the contrast agents. In vivo experiments were performed using New Zealand White rabbits at several times points after injections of AuNP and iodinated contrast agents. We found that the contrast material maps clearly differentiated the distributions of gold and iodine in the tissues allowing quantification of the contrast agents’ concentrations, which matched their expected pharmacokinetics. Furthermore, rapid, repetitive scanning was done, which allowed measurement of contrast agent kinetics with high temporal resolution. In conclusion, a clinical scale, high count rate SPCCT system is able to discriminate gold and iodine contrast media in different organs in vivo .

Historians of modern India have emphasized the reflexivity of men and women in the making of womanhood, paying attention to notions of gender difference emerging from both primordial, restrictive codes of behaviour and contrarian impulses towards what was popularly called progress. There have been relatively few attempts to trace gender interaction in outdoor leisure activities, public displays of femininity, and male regulatory anxieties in the post-colonial context. By studying the symbolism of women's presence in the Eden Gardens, the international cricket stadium in Calcutta, from the 1960s to the 1990s, this article reflects on the nature of power, authority, and gender hierarchy in urban Indian society. This study of questions of gender hierarchy, women's mannerisms, social identity, and informal resistance through a historical lens will enable us to understand the trajectory of women's outsider status in urban public spaces. Through a reading of the mediated parti pris impressions of female spectators, it will also map the transition in society's approach to sport from a structured homosocial community activity to a relatively unstructured field of shared experience.