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Background: As part of the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile handwashing stations (mHWS) were deployed in healthcare facilities in low-resource settings. We assessed mHWS in hospitals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for contamination with Gram-negative bacteria. Methods: Water and soap samples of in-use mHWS in hospitals in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi were quantitatively cultured for Gram-negative bacteria which were tested for antibiotic susceptibility. Meropenem resistant isolates were assessed for carbapenemase enzymes using inhibitor-based disk and immunochromatographic tests. Mobile handwashing stations that grew Gram-negative bacteria at counts > 10,000 colony forming units/ml from water or soap were defined as highly contaminated. Results: In 26 hospitals, 281 mHWS were sampled; 92.5% had the "bucket with hand-operated tap" design, 50.5% had soap available. Overall, 70.5% of mHWS grew Gram-negative bacteria; 35.2% (in 21/26 hospitals) were highly contaminated. Isolates from water samples (n = 420) comprised 50.3% Enterobacterales (Klebsiella spp., Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter cloacae), 14.8% Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 35.0% other non-fermentative Gram-negative bacteria (NFGNB, including Chromobacterium violaceum and Acinetobacter baumannii). Isolates from soap samples (n = 56) comprised Enterobacterales (67.9%, including Pluralibacter gergoviae (n = 13)); P. aeruginosa (n = 12) and other NFGNB (n = 6). Nearly one-third (31.2%, 73/234) of Enterobacterales (water and soap isolates combined) were multi-drug resistant; 13 isolates (5.5%) were meropenem-resistant including 10 New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) producers. Among P. aeruginosa and the other NFGNB, 7/198 (3.5%) isolates were meropenem resistant, 2 were NDM producers. Bacteria listed as critical or high priority on the World Health Organization Bacterial Priority Pathogens List accounted for 20.3% of isolates and were present in 12.0% of all mHWS across 13/26 hospitals. Half (50.5%) of highly contaminated mHWS were used by healthcare workers and patients as well as by caretakers and visitors. Conclusions: More than one third of in-use mobile handwash stations in healthcare facilities in a low resource setting were highly contaminated with clinically relevant bacteria, part of which were multidrug resistant. The findings urge a rethink of the place of mobile handwash stations in healthcare facilities and to consider measures to prevent their contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anyone who has attended an academic conference is most likely familiar with its implicit educational logic. Applied to the conference format, it would mean a conference that does not move from intention, to research, to analysis, and to the distribution of findings in the form of conference reports. In short, we were concerned with creating a conference that was studious in terms of its form (not just its content) ... a conference that would not just be about study but be studious ... a conference that would be strange and senseless and thus subvert expectations of learning from or about or toward a predetermined goal/outcome. [Extracted from the article]

While a range of miRNAs have been shown to be dysregulated in the circulation of patients with breast cancer, little is known about the relationship between circulating levels and tumour characteristics. The aim of this study was to analyse alterations in circulating miRNA expression during tumour progression in a murine model of breast cancer, and to detemine the clinical relevance of identified miRNAs at both tissue and circulating level in patient samples. Athymic nude mice received a subcutaneous or mammary fat pad injection of MDA-MB-231 cells. Blood sampling was performed at weeks 1, 3 and 6 following tumour induction, and microRNA extracted. MicroRNA microArray analysis was performed comparing samples harvested at week 1 to those collected at week 6 from the same animals. Significantly altered miRNAs were validated across all murine samples by RQ-PCR (n = 45). Three miRNAs of interest were then quantified in the circulation(n = 166) and tissue (n = 100) of breast cancer patients and healthy control individuals. MicroArray-based analysis of murine blood samples revealed levels of 77 circulating microRNAs to be changed during disease progression, with 44 demonstrating changes >2-fold. Validation across all samples revealed miR-138 to be significantly elevated in the circulation of animals during disease development, with miR-191 and miR-106a levels significantly decreased. Analysis of patient tissue and blood samples revealed miR-138 to be significantly up-regulated in the circulation of patients with breast cancer, with no change observed in the tissue setting. While not significantly changed overall in breast cancer patients compared to controls, circulating miR-106a and miR-191 were significantly decreased in patients with basal breast cancer. In tissue, both miRNAs were significantly elevated in breast cancer compared to normal breast tissue. The data demonstrates an impact of tumour epithelial subtype on circulating levels of miRNAs, and highlights divergent miRNA profiles between tissue and blood samples from breast cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the signal processing logic, firmware, and software for a frequency-domain multiplexed biasing and demodulation system that reads out transition-edge-sensor bolometer arrays for millimeter-wavelength cosmology telescopes. This system replaces a mixed-signal readout back end with a much smaller and more power-efficient system relying on field-programmable gate arrays for control, computation, and signal processing. The new system is sufficiently robust, automated, and power efficient to be flown on stratospheric balloon-borne telescopes and is being developed further for satellite applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A number of studies have compared general medical practices in rural locations with those in urban locations. Some of these studies have concentrated on the reasons why a GP might choose to work in a rural or urban setting. Others have examined the type of work required to be undertaken by medical professionals. Increasing use of information and communications technology (ICT) in medical practices has led to some studies examining their use in rural as well as urban settings. However, little if any research has examined whether ICT adoption drivers differ between rural and urban GPs based on their organisational characteristics. This paper presents a study of 198 GPs (122 rural, 76 urban) in Australia. The results show that organisational characteristics are associated with the importance of the drivers for ICT adoption and that these characteristics differ between rural and urban GPs. These findings have important practical and theoretical contributions because it shows that ICT adoption decisions must be contextualised and that it is unlikely that universal adoption drivers will apply to all general practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimetry has the potential to provide revolutionary advances in cosmology. Future experiments to detect the very weak B-mode signal in CMB polarization maps will require unprecedented sensitivity and control of systematic errors. Bolometric interferometry may provide a way to achieve these goals. In a bolometric interferometer (or other adding interferometer), phase shift sequences are applied to the inputs in order to recover the visibilities. Noise is minimized when the phase shift sequences corresponding to all visibilities are orthogonal. We present a systematic method for finding sequences that produce this orthogonality, approximately minimizing both the length of the time sequence and the number of discrete phase shift values required. When some baselines are geometrically equivalent, we can choose sequences that read out those baselines simultaneously, which has been shown to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many existing training programs for Health Information Systems (HIS) do not adequately satisfy end users' needs nor meet training objectives. This is because they do not envisage the problems that users may encounter when performing specific tasks. Therefore the first priority for the development of an effective training program is to precisely assess the end users' training needs, a process called Training Needs Assessment (TNA). Applying traditional approaches for TNA, such as interviews or surveys alone, however, may be insufficient because they are limited in their capacity to reveal the cognitive processes of end users. Usability testing, with its ability to gather data about human computer interaction, overcomes the deficiencies of these traditional approaches. This paper proposes a multi-method approach, which combines usability testing together with traditional methods, such as interviews or questionnaire surveys to assess HIS end users' training needs. This innovative method is able to precisely reveal the training needs for different levels of HIS users. A case study, which applied this method to assess the training needs for users of a nursing information system demonstrates its feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the development of Web Service technology has made significant progress, there is still a lack of a well-established mechanism for ensuring reliable service composition. Unlike a traditional software module, which runs within a predictable domain, Web Services are autonomous software agents running in a heterogeneous execution environment. These characteristics of autonomy and heterogeneity are fundamental to service oriented computing but make it inherently difficult to avoid service conflicts. To reason about and adapt to a changing environment, we propose extensions to current OWL-S by introducing service assumptions which allow reasoning with incomplete information. Furthermore, together with the proposed service assumptions, a sequence of rules is developed to describe and perform all permitted behaviors in service composition context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the association of the film "Face/Off" with the plays "John a Kent and John a Cumber" and "Look About You." Observations on the acting of actors Nicholas Cage and John Travolta in the film; Main plot of the play "John a Kent and John a Cumber"; Presence of disguisers in the play "Look About You."

Focuses on the use of multidimensional databases and online analytical processing (OLAP). Top-down approach; Bottom-up approach; Middle-out approach; Identification and fixing of dirty data.

The article discusses the significance regarding the context of the works of Ben Jonson compared to the works of William Shakespeare. According to Augustus Ralli, the plays of Jonson were thought to owe more to art than inspiration. He added that Jonson has envied the popular success of Shakespeare. Moreover, Ralli stresses that Jonson was a scholar in the technical sense, which Shakespeare was not.

This paper is part of an ongoing study into the use of statistical data from external sources such as ABS, government departments and so on. It describes a study of how one local council makes use of this type of data for planning and decision making. The study confirms the importance of such data and reveals a number of significant problems that may affect other local councils in their use of external statistical data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

States that the uses of CD-ROM databases by library patrons is important for the librarian. Reason; Study carried out at Wollongong University; How can patrons be categorised; Number of simple characteristics; Usage of CD-ROM databases; Type of patron.

Deals with the subject of dramatic disguise and Renaissance drama. Distinction between disguise as a theatrical event and the related but different act of role-playing; Questions to be considered if to take the hypothesis that disguise was seen to be a device appropriate for comedy rather than tragedy.

Every year, government agencies, financial institutions, and other businesses spend millions of dollars gathering and publishing statistical data, presumably intended for use by other organizations in planning. From the point of view of the end user, these data are external statistical data (ESD) because they are provided by external sources over which the end user has little control. Typical sources of ESD include national statistical agencies, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), regional information services, and various state and national government departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the play “Twelfth Night,” by William Shakespeare is presented. The author looks particularly at the possible meanings of the phrase "the whirligig of time," which the character Feste uses when speaking of Malvolio. The author argues that Feste's use of the phrase is not light-hearted but it indicates the grudge that he has against Malvolio because a whirligig is a torture device.

The article focuses on Ben Jonson's "Epigram 89: To Edward Alleyn." It cites that the epigram is generally accepted as a compliment paid to a man who is Jonson's friend and the outstanding actor of the age. In the epigram, Jonson compares Alleyn to his ancestors Roscius and Aesop. It explains Jonson's resentment of actors. It emphasizes that Jonson exhibited a kind of self-empowering gesture in the epigram.