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Abstract Background Critical illness is associated with an altered gut microbiota, yet its association with poor outcomes remains unclear. This study evaluates the early gut microbiota diversity changes in intensive care unit patients and its association with mortality. Additionally, it explores fecal pH as a potential biomarker for these changes. Methods In this prospective observational cohort study, fecal samples were collected at two time points: S1, the first stool passed upon intensive care unit admission, and S2, the first stool passed at least 24 h after S1. Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed for gut microbiota analysis, with α-diversity measured using the Shannon index. Bayesian joint models were used to estimate the association between time-varying changes in gut microbiota diversity and 60-day mortality, as well as the association between daily changes in stool pH and in diversity. Results Twenty-four of 96 patients overall died during follow-up. Daily Shannon index decreased on average by −0.1 points [95% Credible Intervals (CrI) −0.20 to −0.10]. Every point decrease in Shannon index was associated with a 1.99-fold increase in the hazard of death (95% CrI, 1.04 to 4.51). Time-varying fecal pH levels were not associated with changes in Shannon index. Conclusions Gut microbiota diversity decreased over time, associated with increased mortality. Fecal pH is an unreliable marker of gut microbiota change. Future studies on gut microbiota and related biomarkers should focus on the initial days in the intensive care unit to detect and mitigate a decline in gut microbiota diversity.

Teak, known for its high-quality timber and economic value, holds significant potential as the major component of an agroforestry system to combat climate change and support sustainable development goals. The challenge of slow teak growth can be addressed by introducing fast-growing teak varieties amenable to vegetative propagation. Furthermore, the improvement of teak through somatic cell genetics, such as inducing polyploidy, can result in more vigorous, faster-growing, and drought-tolerant trees. While a report exists on a tetraploid teak accession with enhanced less water tolerance, information on the induction and characterization of tetraploid teak is lacking. In this study, we report the induction of polyploid teak by immersing 1 – 1.5 cm nodal stem segments and shoot tips obtained from teak shoot cultures in a modified MS liquid medium containing 5 − 30 µM oryzalin for one week, followed by subculture for 6 passages. The resulting shoots were acclimatized and grown in the nursery for 10 months. Based on flow cytometry for ploidy analysis of pre-selected plants having morphologies typical of polyploid followed by chromosome counting, we identified two tetraploid plants from one accession and 18 mixoploid teak plants from four accessions. Chromosome counting analysis confirmed that a diploid plant had a chromosome number of 2n = 2x = 36, tetraploid plant had a chromosome number of 2n = 4x = 72, and mixoploid plant exhibited both chromosome number of 2n = 2x = 36 and 2n = 4x = 72 in root tip cells. Morphological characterization revealed that tetraploid and mixoploid teak plants displayed typical polyploid characteristics, such as larger, thicker, and greener leaves, increased root diameter, increased cell size in root tip region, and larger stomata size but with reduced density. The development of tetraploid teak holds the potential to provide faster-growing and more drought-tolerant varieties, facilitating breeding efforts, including the development of triploid varieties.

This paper is aimed at studying the impact of life perspective on the formation of psychological readiness for professional activity in psychology students who have chosen to work in the educational system. We present materials of an empirical study obtained on a sample of 2—4-year students of the Faculty of Psychology of the Pedagogical Institute of the Belgorod State National Research University. The sample consisted of 80 undergraduate students of the Educational Psychology program, aged from 20 to 23 years, 56 females and 24 males. The following techniques were used: “Motivation for Professional Activity” (by K.Zamfir, modified by A.A.Rean), “Professional Readiness” (by A.P.Chernyavskaya), “The Method of Motivational Induction” (by J.Nütten, adapted by D.A.Leontiev) and “Life-Purpose Orientations Test” (by J.Crumbaugh, L.Maholik, adapted by D.A. Leontiev).The study showed that meaningful perception of life perspective determines the development of motivational, cognitive and emotional components of readiness for professional activity in psychology students.

At present, the increasing importance of "green" zones in combination with "universal cycling boom" and humanization of the environment in large cities leads to the formation of new structural elements – the recreational pedestrian frameworks of the urban environment.

Despite showing the greatest primate diversity on the planet, genomic studies on Amazonian primates show very little representation in the literature. With 48 geolocalized high coverage whole genomes from wild uakari monkeys, we present the first population-level study on platyrrhines using whole genome data. In a very restricted range of the Amazon rainforest, eight uakari species (Cacajao genus) have been described and categorized into the bald and black uakari groups, based on phenotypic and ecological differences. Despite a slight habitat overlap, we show that posterior to their split 0.92 Mya, bald and black uakaris have remained independent, without gene flow. Nowadays, these two groups present distinct genetic diversity and group-specific variation linked to pathogens. We propose differing hydrology patterns and effectiveness of geographic barriers have modulated the intra-group connectivity and structure of bald and black uakari populations. With this work we have explored the effects of the Amazon rainforests dynamism on wild primates genetics and increased the representation of platyrrhine genomes, thus opening the door to future research on the complexity and diversity of primate genomics.

Previous research on children's knowledge about the mind has primarily focused on their comprehension of false beliefs, leaving the conceptualization of thoughts and thinking less explored. To address this gap, we developed a new assessment tool, the interview about the mind (IaM), to assess children's understanding of the mind. Two studies involving Polish preschool and early school-aged children were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the tool: a cross-sectional study with 212 preschoolers aged three to 6 years (106 boys, M = 59 months) followed by a longitudinal study with approximately 200 children (110 boys) assessed at ages 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 years. We found that the IaM possesses robust psychometric properties and a one-factor structure. Younger children recognize that thoughts are imperceptible to the senses and identified the mind's location as the head. Older children exhibited difficulties with analogical or abstract definitions of thoughts. As expected, a linear developmental trajectory was evident from ages 5.5-7.5, with children's language abilities showing a positive correlation with IaM scores. Future research should explore the relationship between knowledge about the mind and theory of mind (ToM), as well as cross-cultural differences in children's mind conceptualization.

Statutory grounds for the activity of German archives. Federal and national laws on archives Laws on archives lay down the purposes and tasks of archives. Modern archival legislation began to develop as early as at the time of the French Revolution. According to Elanie Goh, the development of archives and the enactment of archival law was either revolutionary or evolutionary. The federal political system of Germany is also reflected in its law on archives, in the organisation of archives, in record management and in its archival fonds. This results, for example, from the variety of archive traditions and from the past political systems in Germany, which is why the country archival legislation relies on both enactment trends. Up until the 1980s, the issue of archival fonds and archives in the Federal Republic of Germany, a democratic state, was not regulated by laws on archives (Archivgesetze) but by other regulations instead, usually administrative orders. This changed due to personal data protection and confidentiality legislation. The first domestic law on archives was adopted by Baden-Württemberg in 1987, and the federal act (Bundesarchivgesetz) was signed in January 1988. By 1997, all the states received archival legislation, which was either amended or re-enacted over the next two decades. A new federal law on archives was announced in 2017. German laws on archives are concise documents that address the main aspects of archival fonds, record management (also for electronic records) and archive organisation. Being so laconic, the legislation does not require vast modifications during the creation of other laws that influence archives (for example, personal data protection laws).

The paper focuses on factors influencing deviant behaviour in adolescents and presents outcomes of a study that involved 60 adolescents from a youth detention center and 60 school students aged 15 years. Functional asymmetry of the brain is one of the key integrative features in the brain organization that plays an important role in personality development and, for instance, in the development of personality traits associated with delinquency. We explored time perspective and personality traits of the adolescent subjects as well as their inclination towards various forms of deviant behaviour and the levels of neurotisation and psychopathisation and found significant correlations between deviant behavior and personality traits determined by functional brain asymmetry. As we show, the specifics of the lateral organization of mental processes determines the specifics of time orientation in the adolescents, which, in turn, affects the individual’s behavioural regulation in situations of social orientation and promotes either socially accepted or deviant behaviour.Such studies open up possibilities for a better understanding of deviant behaviour as well as for its prevention and early interventions.

The high level of heavy metals is one of the main indicators of soil contamination, which is a significant risk to ecological and health safety. Lack of regulations requiring the examination of the level of contamination in the areas where recreational facilities for children are located directly translate into the lack of preventive or corrective actions and leads to the persistence of a permanent threat connected with a high level of heavy metals concentration in soils. The aim of the study was to identify significant sources of exposure of children to heavy metals depending on the location of recreational areas (sports fields). The results show a high concentration of cadmium, lead and zinc in the analysed soils. Of all samples, more than 70% of them have values exceeding the limit values of cadmium in soils. In the case of lead and zinc, the normative values were exceeded, respectively, in 44% and 64% of soil samples. Practical solutions introduced in the framework of regulations related to environmental protection do not correlate in practice with an extensive obligation to protect the health of children and adolescents, whose performance is clearly focused on medical problems, disregarding the risk resulting from environmental factors.

This article presents a new algorithm for recognizing defects and discontinuities. It is a neural classification algorithm of the SVM class used for the vision system in the technological sequence. At the basis of the used method of Support Vector Machines (SVM) lies the concept of decision-making space, which is divided by building boundaries separating objects with different class affiliation, that is, defects and discontinuities. The Support Vector Machines method is supposed to perform classification tasks by constructing in a multidimensional space hyperplane separating cases belonging to different classes.

Florian D Zepf,1,2 Pradeep Rao,1,3 Kevin Runions,3,4 Richard M Stewart,1 Julia K Moore,1,5 Janice WY Wong,1,4 Maike Linden,1,2,6 Idil Sungurtekin,7 Franziska Glass,8 Linda Gut,8 Dirk Peetz,9,10 Gudrun Hintereder,11 Michael Schaab,12 Fritz Poustka,8 Lars Wöckel8,13 1Centre and Discipline of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Western Australia, 2Specialised Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Department of Health in Western Australia, 3Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Department of Health in Western Australia, 4Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, 5Paediatric Consultation-Liaison Program, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Department of Health in Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia; 6Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, 7Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, 8Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 9Institute of Laboratory Medicine, HELIOS Klinikum Berlin-Buch, Berlin, 10Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, 11Department of Laboratory Medicine, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 12Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; 13Center of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Clienia Littenheid AG, Littenheid, Switzerland Background: Research has implicated that changes in zinc (Zn) metabolism may be associated with the biological underpinnings of eating disorders, in particular anorexia nervosa. However, to date research on the role of Zn in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) is scarce.Objective: We aimed to explore serum Zn concentrations in young patients with BN, with a focus on the stage of the disorder, comparing acutely ill and recovered patients with BN with healthy controls.Methods: Serum Zn concentrations were obtained from healthy controls and from acutely ill and remitted young patients with BN. Mean duration of remission was 4.0±3.5 years.Results: Remitted patients showed elevated serum Zn concentrations when compared to controls (Cohen’s d=2.022), but concentrations were still in the normal range. Acutely ill patients also had higher serum Zn levels when compared to controls (all values still being within the reference range, Cohen’s d=0.882). There was no difference between acutely ill and remitted patients with BN in serum Zn concentrations. Of note, remitted patients had a significantly higher body weight when compared to the other two groups. Overall, there were no significant differences in dietary preferences with regard to Zn containing foods between the groups.Conclusion: The present study provides preliminary evidence that the underlying factors for changes in Zn serum concentrations in young patients with BN do not vary with regard to the stage of illness (acute versus remitted BN). Further prospective research is needed in order to disentangle the possible interplay between serum Zn status and bulimic eating behaviors. Keywords: bulimia nervosa, zinc, serum concentrations, remission, eating disorders

BackgroundThere has recently been exponential growth in the development and use of health apps on mobile phones. As with most mobile apps, however, the majority of users abandon them quickly and after minimal use. One of the most critical factors for the success of a health app is how to support users’ commitment to their health. Despite increased interest from researchers in mobile health, few studies have examined the measurement of user engagement with health apps. ObjectiveUser engagement is a multidimensional, complex phenomenon. The aim of this study was to understand the concept of user engagement and, in particular, to demonstrate the applicability of a user engagement scale (UES) to mobile health apps. MethodsTo determine the measurability of user engagement in a mobile health context, a UES was employed, which is a psychometric tool to measure user engagement with a digital system. This was adapted to Ada, developed by Ada Health, an artificial intelligence–powered personalized health guide that helps people understand their health. A principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was conducted on 30 items. In addition, sum scores as means of each subscale were calculated. ResultsSurvey data from 73 Ada users were analyzed. PCA was determined to be suitable, as verified by the sampling adequacy of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin=0.858, a significant Bartlett test of sphericity (χ2300=1127.1; P

In this paper, we present a battery of empirical findings on the relationship between cultural context and theory of mind that show great variance in the onset and character of mindreading in different cultures; discuss problems that those findings cause for the largely-nativistic outlook on mindreading dominating in the literature; and point to an alternative framework that appears to better accommodate the evident cross-cultural variance in mindreading. We first outline the theoretical frameworks that dominate in mindreading research, then present the relevant empirical findings, and finally we come back to the theoretical approaches in a discussion of their explanatory potential in the face of the data presented. The theoretical frameworks discussed are the two-systems approach; performance-based approach also known as modularity-nativist approach; and the social-communicative theory also known as the systems, relational-systems, dynamic systems and developmental systems theory. The former two, which both fall within the wider modular-computational paradigm, run into a challenge with the cross-cultural data presented, and the latter - the systemic framework - seems to offer an explanatorily potent alternative. The empirical data cited in this paper comes from research on cross-cultural differences in folk psychology and theory-of-mind development; the influence of parenting practices on the development of theory of mind; the development and character of theory of mind in deaf populations; and neuroimaging research of cultural differences in mindreading.

Agata Czarnywojtek,1,2,* Maria Teresa Płazińska,3,* Małgorzata Zgorzalewicz-Stachowiak,4 Kosma Woliński,1 Adam Stangierski,1 Izabela Miechowicz,5 Joanna Waligórska-Stachura,1 Paweł Gut,1 Leszek Królicki,3 Maja Zioncheck,6 Marek Ruchała1 1Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Internal Medicine, 2Department of Pharmacology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, 3Nuclear Medicine Department, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, 4Department of Health Prophylaxis, Laboratory of Medical Electrodiagnostics, 5Department of Computer Science and Statistics, 6Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland *These authors contributed equally to this work Aim: This study aims to explore and compare the efficacy of radioiodine treatment (RIT) in hyperthyroid and euthyroid patients who have been treated with amiodarone (AM) in the past or are currently undergoing AM treatment. Clinical observation of a group of patients with amiodarone-induced hypothyroidism during a 12-month follow-up period was used for comparison.Design: This was a observational, two-centered study. Patients were assessed at baseline and at 2 months, 6 months, 8 months, and 12 months after RIT.Patients: Group A: At baseline (61 males [M] and 17 females [F], mean age 50±19 years), there were 78 euthyroid patients with cardiac arrhythmias, who were treated with AM and developed amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis, and currently require retreatment with AM. Group B: Hyperthyroid patients (92 M and 26 F, mean age 72±11.8 years) after AM therapy in the past. Group C: Hyperthyroid patients (66 M and 13 F, mean age 63.9±13.2 years) currently treated by AM. Group D: Hypothyroid patients (6 M and 16 F, mean age 61.4±10.4 years) after AM therapy. The patients from Groups A, B, and C were retreated with AM after ~3–6 weeks of RIT.Results: In Group A, after 12 months of RIT therapy, recurrent thyrotoxicosis was observed in six (7.7%) cases, and persistent hypothyroidism was diagnosed in 42 (53.8%) cases. In Group B, hyperthyroidism occurring during treatment with AM was found in 40 (33.9%) patients, and permanent hypothyroidism was observed in eleven (12.5%) cases. After annual follow-up in Group C, nine (11.4%) patients were diagnosed with hypothyroidism, while 27 (34.1%) patients were diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. In Group D, all patients had permanent hypothyroidism and when the concentration of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone was >10 µIU/mL, l-thyroxine was applied.Conclusion: Our study showed that radioiodine administration is advisable in certain circumstances, even in euthyroid patients. It allows for continuation of further long-term AM treatment. Additionally, RIT allows for the reintroduction of AM therapy that was previously terminated. Hence, it can help control life-threatening tachyarrhythmias and decrease episodes of thyrotoxicosis. Keywords: amiodarone, amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis, amiodarone-induced hypothyroidism, radioactive iodine, radioiodine treatment, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia

The article is devoted to the theoretical and empirical study of the relationship between the moral normativity of a professional teacher and the motivation for success. The article analyzes the concept of moral normativity (from the point of view of the proposed conventional approaches) as a predictor of the teacher's professional activity. In the context of the study of the influence of moral normativity on the success of professional activity, the authors turn to the phenomenon of "macchiavelism", which reflects the existence of a high correlation of the need to achieve goals with a low moral normativity of the individual.The empirical part of the study presents the results of the correlation analysis of the indicator of moral normativity with various indicators that determine the motivation for success, on a sample of 150 future teachers of physical culture and sports profile (graduates of the Volga State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kazan). The results obtained indicate the ambiguity of the relationship between moral normativity and motivation for success in the context of professional pedagogical activity.

There is a scarcity of research into the relationship between speech perception and production from a multilingual perspective. The present exploratory study investigates longitudinally the acquisition of rhotic sounds in 24 adolescent learners who have the same language repertoires (English, German, Polish), with English being their L2, and German and Polish their L1 or L3. The design involved a forced-choice goodness task (for perception) and a delayed repetition task (for production) administered in both L2 and L3 at two testing times. The overall results show better performance in perception than production of L2/L3 rhotics at both testing points, although the relationship between the two domains was modulated by the L1 background and universal learnability of the target rhotics. A major effect of language proficiency was found, as overall a stronger link between the two modalities was found for the L2 than the L3 of the learner groups. However, detailed analyses demonstrate different types of perception-production link for individual learners over time.

We present a genome assembly from an individual female Lycaena helle (the Violet Copper; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Lycaenidae). The genome sequence is 547.31 megabases in span. The entirety of the genome sequence was assembled into 25 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules with no gaps, including the Z and W sex chromosomes. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.5 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly identified 20,122 protein coding genes.