58 research outputs found

    Food and Beverage Marketing to Children and Adolescents: What Changes Are Needed to Promote Healthy Eating Habits?

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    Provides an overview of research on media use by children and youth, the channels and marketing techniques food and beverage companies use to market to them, and the influence on their diets. Outlines recommendations for improving marketing regulations

    16S rRNA Gene Sequence-Based Identification of Bacteria in Automatically Incubated Blood Culture Materials from Tropical Sub-Saharan Africa.

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    BACKGROUND: The quality of microbiological diagnostic procedures depends on pre-analytic conditions. We compared the results of 16S rRNA gene PCR and sequencing from automatically incubated blood culture materials from tropical Ghana with the results of cultural growth after automated incubation. METHODS: Real-time 16S rRNA gene PCR and subsequent sequencing were applied to 1500 retained blood culture samples of Ghanaian patients admitted to a hospital with an unknown febrile illness after enrichment by automated culture. RESULTS: Out of all 1500 samples, 191 were culture-positive and 98 isolates were considered etiologically relevant. Out of the 191 culture-positive samples, 16S rRNA gene PCR and sequencing led to concordant results in 65 cases at species level and an additional 62 cases at genus level. PCR was positive in further 360 out of 1309 culture-negative samples, sequencing results of which suggested etiologically relevant pathogen detections in 62 instances, detections of uncertain relevance in 50 instances, and DNA contamination due to sample preparation in 248 instances. In two instances, PCR failed to detect contaminants from the skin flora that were culturally detectable. Pre-analytical errors caused many Enterobacteriaceae to be missed by culture. CONCLUSIONS: Potentially correctable pre-analytical conditions and not the fastidious nature of the bacteria caused most of the discrepancies. Although 16S rRNA gene PCR and sequencing in addition to culture led to an increase in detections of presumably etiologically relevant blood culture pathogens, the application of this procedure to samples from the tropics was hampered by a high contamination rate. Careful interpretation of diagnostic results is required

    E-book Use and Value in the Humanities: Scholars’ Practices and Expectations

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    This research is a part of Values, Outcomes, and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries (“Lib-Value”), a three-year study funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services IMLS grant # LG-06-09-0152-09. We gratefully acknowledge this support. In addition, the authors wish to thank Jean-Louise Zancanella, our graduate research assistant on this project, for her careful work. Portions of the survey results were presented at the Library Assessment Conference in Seattle, Washington, in August 2014 and will be published in those proceedings; other prepublication presentations took place at the Charleston Conference in November 2013 and 2014 (no proceedings publications are available; this paper represents the sole published culmination of this research)

    Factors in the Decision-Making of North Carolina Probation Officers

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    A questionnaire on eight revocation cases selected from state files revealed some discernible differences in decisions and ra tionalizations among 108 field officers of the North Carolina Probation Department. Lambda and Q measures of cross-tabu lated characteristics of the officers, decisions, and rationalizations showed that values tended to concentrate in cases characterized by a revoking pattern or extenuating circumstances and in case situations where the police or courts were holding the proba tioner or acting upon his violation. Most officers gave officer- oriented or social order reasons for their decisions rather than reasons that were probationer-oriented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68483/2/10.1177_002242786600300205.pd

    Handling imbalance in an extended PLAID

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    Predictive model for acute myocardial infarction in working-age population: a machine learning approach

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    Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in Latin America, particularly acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which is the primary cause of atherosclerotic cardiovascular morbidity. This study aims to develop a predictive model for the probability of AMI occurrence in the working-age population, based on atherogenic indices, paraclinical variables, and anthropometric measures. The research conducted a cross-sectional study involving 427 workers aged 40 years or older in Popayán, Colombia. Out of this population, 202 individuals were screened with a 95% confidence interval and a 5% error margin. Epidemiological, anthropometric, and paraclinical data were collected. A binary logistic regression model was employed to identify variables directly associated with the probability of AMI. Predictive classification models were generated using statistical software JASP and the programming language Python. During the training stage, JASP produced a model with an accuracy of 87.5%, while Python generated a model with an accuracy of 90.2%. In the validation stage, JASP achieved an accuracy of 93%, and Python reached 95%. These results establish an effective model for predicting the probability of AMI in the working population
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