Do Teachers Treat Their Students Differently? An Observational Study on Teacher-Student Interactions as a Function of Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Do Teachers Treat Their Students Differently? An Observational Study on Teacher-Student Interactions as a Function of Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Through classroom interactions, teachers provide their students with different opportunities to learn. Some kinds of interactions elicit more learning activities than others. With differential treatment of students, teachers may exacerbate or reduce achievement differences in their classroom. In addition, differential interactions may contribute to teacher expectation effects, with teachers treating their high-expectation students more favourably. This study investigated how differential teacher-student interactions are related to students' mathematics achievement and teachers' expectations. In eight fourth-grade classrooms in the Netherlands, interactions between teachers and students (N = 152) were observed in maths lessons. Data regarding teachers' expectations about their students and mathematics achievement tests scores were collected. Analyses indicated that there were relations between teacher expectations and teachers' classroom interactions. Teachers gave m ore direct turns and more directive feedback to their low-expectation students, who were also the students who performed low in maths. After controlling for actual achievement, it appeared that students for whom the expectations were lower than could be expected based on their performance received more direct turns and directive task-related feedback. These results point to the existence of teacher expectation effects. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Fungus- (Alternaria sp.) Mediated Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis, Characterization, and Screening of Antifungal Activity against Some Phytopathogens

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Fungus- (Alternaria sp.) Mediated Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis, Characterization, and Screening of Antifungal Activity against Some Phytopathogens Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation The scientific consensus is now on developing a biocontrol agent that can cause cellular metabolic reprogramming against agricultural pathogens. Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles was performed by using phytopathogenic fungi (Alternaria sp.) isolated from banana cultivated soil. Alternaria sp. can grow very fast and produce high enough bioactive compounds. This study aims to biosynthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using fungal Alternaria sp.'s metabolites as a safe antifungal agent against plant pathogenic fungi (Fusarium spp. and Alternaria sp.). To visualize the formation of AgNPs, analytical instruments were used, such as ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and elem ental mapping. The UV-visible spectra showed a peak at 435 nm. Analysis of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) micrographs evidenced that the size of synthesized silver nanoparticles ranged between 3 and 10 nm. The resulting AgNPs showed distinct antifungal activity against selected plant pathogenic fungi. Synthesized AgNPs have demonstrated remarkable potential for the use of antifungal compounds to combat plant diseases. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Microbial Predominance and Antimicrobial Resistance in a Tertiary Hospital

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Microbial Predominance and Antimicrobial Resistance in a Tertiary Hospital in Northwest China: A Six-Year Retrospective Study of Outpatients and Patients Visiting the Emergency Department Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Background. With the wide use of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance becomes a serious issue. Timely understanding of microbial pathogen profiles and the change of antimicrobial resistance provide an important guidance for effective and optimized use of antibiotics in local healthcare systems. The aim was to investigate the characteristics of microbial species and their antimicrobial resistances in a tertiary hospital with an Emergency Department and outpatient clinics for a period of six years. Methodology. A retrospective study was conducted using the HIS database of a tertiary hospital between 2013 and 2018. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by automated systems and/or the Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion method. The data were analyzed using the WHONET 5.6 software. The Cochran-Armitage test w as used to study the trends over the period of research. Results. In a total of 19,028 specimens submitted for microbial tests during the period from 49 units of the hospital, only the samples from the Emergency Department and Kidney Transplantation Clinic showed an annually significant increase (). More than 200 species with 46.4% gram-positive cocci and 45.3% gram-negative bacilli were identified in the 3,849 nonrepetitive isolates. The methicillin-resistant S. aureus and S. epidermidis rates were 25.1% and 74.6%, respectively. 60.9% E. coli and 33.5% K. pneumonia samples carried extended-spectrum-β-lactamase. All Staphylococci and Enterococci samples were not resistant to linezolid, vancomycin, and tigecycline. In addition, only 0.01% E. coli, 1.1% K. pneumonia, and 18.7% P. aeruginosa isolates showed resistance to carbapenems. Conclusions. Vancomycin, linezolid and tigecycline were the most effective antibiotics for outpatients with gram-positive infection. Carbapenems were the most effective antibiotics for gram-negative infection. There was no significant annual increase of common multidrug resistances. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Optimizing the Catheter Care and Maintenance Strategy of Short-Term Catheterization among Hospitalized Patients in Microbiological Approach

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Optimizing the Catheter Care and Maintenance Strategy of Short-Term Catheterization among Hospitalized Patients in Microbiological Approach Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Objective. To optimize the allocation of nursing resources, we investigate an alternative strategy for indwelling catheter cleaning. Methods. The present study involved a total of 117 male patients and 54 female patients, who were catheterized after urinary surgery from Aug 2018 to Feb 2019. The samples of indwelling catheter cleaning solutions were divided by two parts for microbiological culture and microbiome analysis. Results. No pathogenic bacteria were observed in the microbiological culture of the indwelling catheter cleaning samples from 24 h-uncleaned group and 48 h-uncleaned group. The microbiome analysis also showed no significant difference in bacterial diversity and quantity of the indwelling catheter cleaning solutions between the two groups. Conclusion. The indwelling catheter cleaning f or male after urinary surgery can be prolonged to 48 h. The result of this study provided reliable basis for optimizing the allocation of clinical nursing resources. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Reference Intervals of Total Testosterone

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Reference Intervals of Total Testosterone in Adult Filipino Men Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Background. The reference range of total testosterone needs to be established locally as ethnic differences in adiposity, insulin sensitivity, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels may affect total testosterone levels. The aim of this study is to establish the reference intervals of total testosterone from healthy, young adult Filipino males. Methods. The study included 110 healthy, Filipino male volunteers aged 21–40, studying or working at the University of the Philippines Manila. Clinical history, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and blood pressure (BP) were obtained, and blood for total testosterone, SHBG, albumin, insulin, fasting blood sugar (FBS), and total cholesterol was collected. Free testosterone was calculated using Vermeulen's formula. The 2.5th to 97.5th percentiles of subjects for total testosterone were used as the normative range for Filipino men. Results. The reference range of total testosterone is 7.33–53.01 nmol/L. Conclusion. The pr esent study derived reference ranges of total testosterone using data from apparently healthy, young adult men to support clinical services. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Moderately Hypofractionated Radiotherapy with Simultaneous Integrated Boost in Prostate Cancer: A Comparative Study with Conventionally Fractionated Radiation

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Moderately Hypofractionated Radiotherapy with Simultaneous Integrated Boost in Prostate Cancer: A Comparative Study with Conventionally Fractionated Radiation Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Background. To report 5-year clinical outcomes and toxicity in organ-confined prostate cancer (PCa) for low- and intermediate-risk patients treated with a moderately hypofractionated schedule of radiotherapy (RT) delivered with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) compared to a conventionally fractionated RT regimen. Methods. Data of 384 patients with PCa treated between August 2006 and June 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. The treatment schedule consisted of hypofractionated RT (HYPO FR) with SIB up to 70 Gy to the prostate gland and 63 Gy to seminal vesicles delivered in 28 fractions or in conventionally fractionated RT (CONV FR) up to a total dose of 80 Gy in 40 fractions. Patient allocation to treatment was based on the time period considered. For intermediate-risk patients, androgen deprivation was given for a median duration of 6 months. The 5-year biochemical relapse-free survival (bRFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) were assessed. Furthermore, we evaluated gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) toxicities. Uni- and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to test the impact of clinical variables on both outcome and toxicity. Results. A total of 198 patients was treated with hypofractionated RT and 186 with the conventional schedule. At a median follow-up of 5 years, no significant differences were observed in terms of GI toxicity and outcome between the two groups. Early GU toxicity was significantly increased in HYPO FR, while late GU toxicity was significantly higher in CONV FR. In HYPO FR, a biochemical relapse occurred in 12 patients (6.1%), and 9 patients (4.5%) reported a clinical relapse (4 local, 2 locoregional, and 3 systemic recurrence). In CONV FR, 15 patients (8.1%) experienced a biochemical relapse and 11 patients (5.9%) showed a clinical relapse (5 local, 4 locoregional, and 3 systemic recurrences). Early grades 1-2 GU and GI toxicities were observed in 60 (30.3%) and 37 (18.7%) pa tients, respectively, in the hypofractionated group and in 33 (17.7%) and 27 (14.5%) patients, respectively, in the conventionally fractionated RT group. Late GU and GI toxicities occurred in 1 (0.51%) and 8 (4.1%) patients, respectively, in HYPO FR. In CONV FR, 5 (2.7%) and 6 (3.2%) patients experienced late GU and GI toxicities, respectively. The 5-year OS, bRFS, and CSS were 98.9%, 94.1%, and 99.5%, respectively, in HYPO FR, and 94.5%, 92.1%, and 99.0%, respectively, in CONV FR. Conclusions. Results obtained in this study showed that moderately hypofractionated RT employing SIB can be an effective approach providing valuable clinical outcomes with an acceptable toxicity profile. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Impact of Commercialized Genomic Tests on Adjuvant Treatment Decisions in Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Impact of Commercialized Genomic Tests on Adjuvant Treatment Decisions in Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Introduction. Advances in genomic techniques have been valuable in guiding decisions regarding the treatment of early breast cancer (EBC) patients. These multigene assays include Oncotype DX, Prosigna, and Endopredict. There has generally been a tendency to overtreat or undertreat patients, and having reliable prognostic factors could significantly improve rates of appropriate treatment administration. In this study, we showcase the impact of genomic tests on adjuvant treatment decisions in EBC patients. Materials and Methods. This is a retrospective study that includes EBC patients treated between December 2016 and February 2018. The physician's choice of treatment was recorded before and after obtaining the results of the genomics tests. Baseline demographics and pathological data were collected from medical records. Results. A total of 75 patients were included. Fifty patients underwent Oncotype DX genomic analysis, 11 patients underwent Prosigna analysis, and 14 patients underwent Endopredict analysis. A total of 21 physicians' plans (28%) were initially undecided and then carried out after obtaining genomic test results. 13 patients were planned to undergo endocrine therapy alone, while 8 were planned to undergo both endocrine therapy and chemotherapy. Treatment was changed in 26 patients (34.67%). The decision to deescalate therapy was taken in 19 patients (25.33%). The decision to escalate treatment was made in 7 patients (9.33%). Conclusion. Our study demonstrates the importance of genomics testing, as it assisted physicians in avoiding unnecessary adjuvant chemotherapy in 25.33% of patients, thus reducing side effects of chemotherapy and the financial burden on patients. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Chemotherapy Options beyond the First Line in HER-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Chemotherapy Options beyond the First Line in HER-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Despite the recent advances in the biological understanding of breast cancer (BC), chemotherapy still represents a key component in the armamentarium for this disease. Different agents are available as mono-chemotherapy options in patients with locally advanced or metastatic BC (MBC) who progress after a first- and second-line treatment with anthracyclines and taxanes. However, no clear indication exists on what the best option is in some populations, such as heavily pretreated, elderly patients, triple-negative BC (TNBC), and those who do not respond to the first-line therapy. In this article, we summarize available literature evidence on different chemotherapy agents used beyond the first-line, in locally advanced or MBC patients, including rechallenge with anthracyclines and taxanes, antimetabolite and antimicrotubule agents, such as vinorelbine, capecitabine, eribulin, ixabepilone, and the newest developed agents, such as vinflunine, irinotecan, and etirinotecan. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Tetrandrine Inhibits Titanium Particle-Induced Inflammatory Osteolysis through the Nuclear Factor-κB Pathway

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Tetrandrine Inhibits Titanium Particle-Induced Inflammatory Osteolysis through the Nuclear Factor-κB Pathway Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Peri-implant osteolysis (PIO) and the subsequent aseptic loosening are the main reasons for artificial joint implant failure. Existing methods for treating aseptic loosening are far from satisfactory, necessitating advanced drug exploration. This study is aimed at investigating the effect and underlying mechanism of tetrandrine (Tet) on inflammatory osteolysis. We established a Ti particle-induced inflammatory osteolysis mouse model and administered Tet or an equal volume of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Two weeks later, specimens were collected. Histological staining showed that Tet administration inhibited Ti-stimulated osteolysis. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphate (TRAP) staining and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrated that osteoclast formation was remarkably inhibited in the groups treated with Tet in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, relevant inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6) were also significant ly reduced in the calvaria of the Tet-treated groups. Exposure of receptor activator for nuclear factor-κB ligand- (RANKL-) induced bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) and RAW264.7 cells to Tet significantly reduced osteoclast formation, F-actin ring formation, bone resorption, and the expression of relevant genes (matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9), TRAP, and nuclear factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic 1 (NFATc1)) during osteoclastogenesis in vitro. Mechanistic studies using Western blotting demonstrated that Tet inhibited the nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling pathway by decreasing the phosphorylation of inhibitor of NF-κB α (IκBα) and p65, which play important roles in osteoclast formation. Collectively, our data indicate that Tet suppressed Ti-induced inflammatory osteolysis and osteoclast formation in mice, suggesting that Tet has the potential to be developed to treat and prevent wear particle-induced inflammatory osteolysis. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Driver Distraction Detection Method Based on Continuous Head Pose Estimation

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Driver Distraction Detection Method Based on Continuous Head Pose Estimation Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation In view of the fact that the detection of driver's distraction is a burning issue, this study chooses the driver's head pose as the evaluation parameter for driving distraction and proposes a driver distraction method based on the head pose. The effects of single regression and classification combined with regression are compared in terms of accuracy, and four kinds of classical networks are improved and trained using 300W-LP and AFLW datasets. The HPE_Resnet50 with the best accuracy is selected as the head pose estimator and applied to the ten-category distracted driving dataset SF3D to obtain 20,000 sets of head pose data. The differences between classes are discussed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis of variance shows that there is a statistically significant difference in head posture between safe driving and all kinds of distracted driving at 95% and 90% confidence levels, and the postures of all kinds of driving movements are distributed in a specific Eul er angle range, which provides a characteristic basis for the design of subsequent recognition methods. In addition, according to the continuity of human movement, this paper also selects 90 drivers' videos to analyze the difference in head pose between safe driving and distracted driving frame by frame. By calculating the spatial distance and sample statistics, the results provide the reference point, spatial range, and threshold of safe driving under this driving condition. Experimental results show that the average error of HPE_Resnet50 in AFLW2000 is 6.17° and that there is an average difference of 12.4° to 54.9° in the Euler angle between safe driving and nine kinds of distracted driving on SF3D. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Chronic Urticaria and Its Impact on the Quality of Life

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Chronic Urticaria and Its Impact on the Quality of Life of Nepalese Patients Via Hindawi Publishing Corporation Chronic urticaria (CU) is a skin condition characterized by sudden and recurrent episodes of wheals, angioedema, or both and commonly associated with itching for a duration of more than six weeks. The available data indicate that urticaria markedly affects both objective functioning and subjective well-being of patients. A review of patients' records with chronic urticaria attending Civil Service Hospital from January 2018 to December 2019 was done. A detailed demographic data of all patients with chronic urticaria was also retrieved. Dermatology Life Quality Index questionnaire (DLQI) Nepalese version was used for the assessment of the impact of disease on life quality. Mann–Whitney U-test was applied to compare means, and principle component analysis for factor analysis was used. A total of 149 patients were included, with a male-to-female ratio of 1 : 1.9. The mean age of the study population was 32.86  12.837 years. The mean DLQI score was 8.30  6.73 with men having a significantly greater score than women (). DLQI scores negatively correlated with age (). There was a high internal consistency among items (Cronbach's alpha 0.89), and all items had satisfactory correlation with each other as well. Principle component extraction revealed that there were two underlying factors in the DLQI questionnaire on measuring quality of life in chronic urticaria. Males had a greater impairment in quality of life than females due to chronic urticaria. Most severe impairment was seen in symptoms/feelings subdomain. It also revealed that there were two different underlying factors in DLQI questionnaire. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Vaccines, Vol. 8, Pages 709: Bacterial Immunogenicity Prediction by Machine Learning Methods

alkiviadis.1961 shared this article with you from Inoreader Vaccines, Vol. 8, Pages 709: Bacterial Immunogenicity Prediction by Machine Learning Methods Via Vaccines Vaccines, Vol. 8, Pages 709: Bacterial Immunogenicity Prediction by Machine Learning Methods Vaccines doi: 10.3390/vaccines8040709 Authors: Ivan Dimitrov Nevena Zaharieva Irini Doytchinova The identification of protective immunogens is the most important and vigorous initial step in the long-lasting and expensive process of vaccine design and development. Machine learning (ML) methods are very effective in data mining and in the analysis of big data such as microbial proteomes. They are able to significantly reduce the experimental work for discovering novel vaccine candidates. Here, we applied six supervised ML methods (partial least squares-based discriminant analysis, k nearest neighbor (kNN), random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), random subspace method (RSM), and extreme gradient boosting) on a set of 317 known bacterial immunogens and 317 bacterial non-immunogens and derived models for immunogenicity prediction. The models were validated by internal cross-validation in 10 groups from the training set and by the external test set. All of them showed good predictive ability, but the xgboost model displays the most prominent ability to identify immuno gens by recognizing 84% of the known immunogens in the test set. The combined RSM-kNN model was the best in the recognition of non-immunogens, identifying 92% of them in the test set. The three best performing ML models (xgboost, RSM-kNN, and RF) were implemented in the new version of the server VaxiJen, and the prediction of bacterial immunogens is now based on majority voting. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.