Klebsiella variicola dataset

This dataset of Klebsiella variicola contains 715 genome files categorised as human, animal, plant or environmental-associated strains. This dataset was used to study the population structure, evolutionary dynamics, resistance and virulence profiles of Klebsiella variicola

Design of variable-radius kinematic metastructures for the control of belt drive transmission ratios

This paper seeks to address a gap in technology in belt pulley systems by applying kinematic metastructures (Hoberman rings) to develop mechanisms for variable transmission. Here, we describe a design process to enable antagonistic expansion and contraction in dual Hoberman ring belt pulleys. Our design process considers the complex aspects of geometry, component-size, tolerances and wireless motoric actuation

Limited sex differences in spatial language in parent-child dyads

Background: There is a complex pattern of sex differences in spatial abilities, yet there is limited knowledge of sex differences in children's exposure to, and children's use of, spatial language. The aim of this study was to directly compare mother-child and father-child interactions to investigate differences by child and parent sex in spatial language. Methods: The first 3-min of mother-child and father-child DUPLO® play sessions were coded for spatial language when the child was 24 months (N = 187 families; 105:82 boys:girls) and two years later at 48 months (N = 115 families; 66:49 boys:girls). Results: There were no sex differences in children's or parents' spatial language use at 24 months or 48 months. Regardless of socioeconomic status or parent talkativeness, parents showed more variety of spatial language (quality) with their daughters than their sons, but a similar quantity of spatial language with their daughters and sons. Associational analyses revealed a concurrent association between parent and child spatial language use at 48 months, but parent spatial language at 24 months did not predict child spatial language 2 years later. No direct sex effects were observed for cross-sectional or longitudinal associational analyses. Conclusions: Higher spatial language quality with daughters could reflect a higher (perceived) need to provide conceptual support to daughters than sons. Beyond this, we found limited evidence of sex effects. Our findings represent an important contribution, demonstrating comparable levels of exposure to spatial language to sons and daughters, and comparable elicitation of spatial language from young boys and girls.</p

Person-centred research supervision:Facilitating encounter with researchers and enquiry

AimsDrawing upon Schmid's invitation to develop congruence in practice, training and research within the person-centred approach, this study presents a theoretical model for counselling and psychotherapy research supervision. This is contextualised through the author's early-career academic experiences, particularly a lack of training, literature or guidance in pedagogical frameworks underpinning research supervision for psychotherapists.MethodThis study conceptualises research supervision using person-centred theories, in line with critical realist methodologies. Two case studies are presented in which person-centred research supervision model is implemented.FindingsThemes emerged that corroborated the person-centred research supervision model proposed and its underpinning literature, which had growthful and challenging dimensions. This highlighted the aspects of vulnerability in supervisory relationships, abdicating expertise as research supervisor and integral congruence between researcher and research project.ConclusionThese findings indicate there is merit in further research being conducted evaluating this person-centred research supervision model, in order to further develop or challenge its efficacy in practice

A newly developed 20K SNP array reveals QTLs for disease resistance to Cryptocaryon irritans in tiger pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes)

This study describes the development and application of a 20 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array in fugu (Takifugu rubripes). The main goal of this newly developed SNP array is to enhance selective breeding practice via the incorporation of genomic information. Fugu is one of the economic aquaculture species and mainly threatened by parasite disease. The performance of the array was evaluated in a farmed pufferfish population challenged with Cryptocaryon irritans and benchmarked against whole-genome sequencing of a subset of the animals. The array showed very high call rates, consistency between technical replicates, and concordance with genome-resequencing data. Heritability estimates using pedigree and SNP datasets demonstrated a significant genetic component of resistance to C. irritans, with heritability estimates ranging from 0.53 to 0.67, and prediction accuracies were significantly improved with the use of genomic data. Genome-wide association study identified two putative quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on chromosomes 3 and 17. Our findings suggest resistance to C. irritans can be rapidly increased in fugu populations by selective breeding, further expedited via the application of genetic markers. Therefore, they represent a valuable resource for selective breeding programmes aimed at enhancing disease resistance in fugu aquacultur

Preliminary feasibility and efficacy of a brief behavioural treatment for Insomnia after Acquired Brain Injury:A case series

Insomnia after Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is common and can negatively impact individuals’ rehabilitation, recovery and quality of life. The present study investigated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a Brief Behavioural Treatment for Insomnia (BBTI) in a community sample following ABI. Ten participants were recruited. Seven participants attended four weekly sessions of BBTI and kept a daily sleep diary. Participants completed a semi-structured sleep interview at baseline and self-report measures of sleep, anxiety and depression pre- and post-treatment as well as a treatment acceptability questionnaire post-treatment. Follow-up data were collected at one, two- and three-months post-treatment. Visual analyses of the data were performed on a case-by-case basis. Five of the seven participants (71%) no longer met criteria for insomnia disorder on the Sleep Condition Indicator (SCI) post-treatment. Treatment effects on sleep outcomes were either maintained or augmented at follow-ups. BBTI was found to be well-tolerable, as evidenced by high overall retention rates (70%) and positive feedback on the treatment acceptability questionnaire. These results provide preliminary evidence of BBTI being both feasible to use and potentially efficacious in individuals with post-brain-injury insomnia. Larger-scale randomised controlled trials are needed to establish the effectiveness of BBTI following ABI

A Digital Tool for Clinical Evidence-Driven Guideline Development:Studying Properties of Trial Eligible and Ineligible Populations

Background: Clinical guideline development preferentially relies on evidence from randomisedcontrolled trials (RCTs). RCTs are the gold-standard method to evaluate the efficacy of treatments with the highest internal validity but limited external validity, in the sense that their findings may not always be applicable to or generalisable to clinical populations/population characteristics. The external validity of RCTs for the clinical population is constrained by the lack of tailored epidemiological data analysis designed for this purpose due to data governance, consistency of disease/condition definitions, re-duplicated effort in analysis code, etc.Objective: To develop a digital tool that characterises the overall population and differences between clinical trial eligible and ineligible populations from the clinical populations of a disease/condition regarding demography (in terms of groupings for e.g., age, sex, ethnicity), comorbidity, co-prescription, hospitalisation and mortality. Currently, the process is complex, onerous, and time-consuming, whereas a real-time tool may be used to rapidly inform a guideline developer’s judgement about the applicability of evidence.Methods: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – particularly the gout guideline development group - and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline developers were consulted to gather their requirements and evidential data needs when developing guidelines. An R shiny tool was designed and developed using electronic primary healthcare data linked with hospitalisation and mortality data built upon an optimised data architecture. Disclosure control mechanisms were built into the tool to ensure data confidentiality. The tool was deployed within the Trusted Research Environment (TRE), allowing only trusted pre-approved researchers to conduct analysis.Results: The tool supports 128 chronic health conditions as index conditions and 161 conditions as comorbidities (33 in addition to the 128 index conditions). It enables two types of analyses via the graphic interface: overall population and stratified by user-defined eligibility criteria. The analyses produce overview statistical tables(on, e.g., age, gender) of the index condition population and, within the overview groupings, produce details on e.g., electronic Frailty Index (eFI), comorbidities, and co-prescriptions. The disclosure control mechanism is integral to the tool, limiting tabular counts to meet local governance needs. An exemplary result for gout as an index condition is presented to demonstrate the tool's functionality. Guideline developers from NICE and SIGN provided positive feedback on the tool.Discussion: The tool is a proof-of-concept, and the user feedback has demonstrated that this is a step towards computer interpretable guideline development.Conclusions: Using the digital tool can potentially improve evidence-driven guideline development through the availability of real-world data in real time.Keywords: Multimorbidity, clinical practice guideline, gout, Trusted Research Environment (TRE), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN

Rough Path Theory

The theory of rough paths arose from a desire to establish continuity properties of ordinary differential equations involving terms of low regularity. While essentially an analytic theory, its main motivation and applications are in stochastic analysis, where it has given a new perspective on Ito calculus and a meaning to stochastic differential equations driven by irregular paths outside the setting of semi-martingales. In this survey, we present some of the main ideas that enter rough path theory. We discuss complementary notions of solutions for rough differential equations and the related notion of path signature, and give several applications and generalisations of the theory.<br/