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In this thesis the peculiarities of world detective fiction were explained and analyzed with examples.

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Background Malaria transmission is highly seasonal in Niger. Despite the introduction of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in the Magaria District, malaria incidence remains high, and the epidemiology of malaria in the community is not well-understood. Methods Four cross-sectional, household-based malaria prevalence surveys were performed in the Magaria District of Niger between October 2016 and February 2018. Two occurred during the peak malaria season and two during the low malaria season. Individuals in each of three age strata (3–59 months, 5–9 years, and 10 years and above) were sampled in randomly-selected households. Capillary blood was collected by fingerprick, thick and thin blood films were examined. Microscopy was performed at Epicentre, Maradi, Niger, with external quality control. The target sample size was 396 households during the high-season surveys and 266 households during the low-season surveys. Results Prevalence of parasitaemia was highest in children aged 5–9 years during all four surveys, ranging between 53.6% (95%CI 48.8–63.6) in February 2018 and 73.2% (66.2–79.2) in September 2017. Prevalence of parasitaemia among children aged 3–59 months ranged between 39.6% (33.2–46.4) in February 2018 and 51.9% (45.1–58.6) in October 2016. Parasite density was highest in children aged 3–59 months during all four surveys, and was higher in high season surveys than in low season surveys among all participants. The prevalence of gametocytaemia in children aged 3–59 months ranged between 9.9% (6.5–14.8) in February 2018 and 19.3% (14.6–25.2) in October 2016. The prevalence of gametocytaemia in children aged 5–9 years ranged between 6.3% (3.5–11.1) in February 2018 and 18.5% (12.7–26.1) in October 2016. Conclusions Asymptomatic malaria infection is highly prevalent in this area, even during the season with low incidence of clinical malaria. The high prevalence of parasitaemia in children aged 5–9 years warrants considering their inclusion in SMC programmes in this context.

AimsTo analyse the prevalence of visual impairment (VI), compare it to certification of visual impairment (CVI) and analyse VI associations in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR).MethodsRetrospective cohort study, which included 8007 patients with DR referred from the English diabetic eye screening programme to a tertiary referral eye hospital. Main outcome measure was VI, defined as vision in the best eye of ResultsMean age was 64.5 (SD 13.6) years; 61% of patients were men; and 31% of South Asian ethnicity. There were 68 patients with CVI during the study period, and 84% (272/325) of patients with VI did not have CVI after a mean follow-up of 1.87 (SD ±0.86) years. Older age showed a positive association with VI (OR per decade rise 1.88, 95% CI 1.70 to 2.08; p=1.8×10–34). Men had a lower risk of VI (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.79, p=6.0×10–5), and less deprivation had a graded inverse association with VI (OR per IMD category increase 0.83, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.93, p value for linear trend 0.002).ConclusionThe majority of people with vision impairment are not registered at the point of care, which could translate to underestimation of diabetes-related VI and all-cause VI at a national level if replicated at other centres. Further work is needed to explore rates of VI and uptake of registration.

This article describes the methods, theoretical and practical aspects of improving the effectiveness of marketing services by evaluating the effectiveness of marketing activities, as well as the effectiveness of marketing services. In addition, the article discusses the possibilities of evaluating the effectiveness of marketing activities by analysing the economic performance of the enterprise.

Mazkur maqolada Mustaqilligimizni baland pardalarda kuylagan, betakror ijodkor, О‘zbekiston xalq shoiri Muhammad Yusuf ijodiga haqida fikrlar yuritilgan. Muhammad Yusuf kо‘nglidan el qalbiga yо‘l olgan sо‘z karvonining har bir satrida ona Vatan - О‘zbekistonga beqiyos mehr-muhabbat, el xizmatiga kamarbastalik, zahmatkash va ulug‘ о‘zbek xalqiga chin farzandlik ehtiromi, samimiyat va jо‘shqin ehtiros bilan uyg‘unlashgan ma’no, ohang, rang va joziba mujassam.

Multi-drug resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains are increasingly becoming a cause for global concern, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) listing P. aeruginosa as one of the critical pathogens in urgent need of new antibiotics. Colistin is a last resort drug for Gram negative infections; however the nephrotoxicity of colistin and emerging resistance to it are a deterrent for treatment. Resistance to colistin by P. aeruginosa can be mediated via chromosomal mutations: including modification of lipid A and loss of lipopolysaccharides (LPS). One method to prevent the spread of resistance is to employ reliable and practical antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) methods for colistin. Currently, the broth microdilution method (BMD) is considered the gold standard for AST, however this method is relatively labour intensive, slow and impractical. Several commercial products are now available, which work to the same principle as the BMD, but in a more convenient and user-friendly format. There are a number of difficulties encountered specifically in colistin susceptibility testing: such as the use of different susceptibility breakpoints applied in different studies, the cationic nature of colistin, its large molecular size, and heteroresistance. Another method of slowing the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is to consider compartments of infection in clinical situations where the bacteria are receiving sub-inhibitory levels of colistin. The effects of such exposure on virulence and related traits such as biofilm formation and serum resistance after exposure are underexplored. Biofilm formation is one of the antibiotic-resistance mechanisms in P. aeruginosa, enabling persistence and survival, and low penetration of antibiotics into the bacterial community. Evolution experiments in combination with next generation sequencing (NGS) can uncover molecular mechanisms behind development of colistin resistance, and novel devices such as morbidostats can considerably speed up the process of generating resistant isolates. The aims of this study were two fold. In order to accurately measure the level of resistance to colistin developing within the morbidostat, it was necessary to select an AST method, which can account for difficult isolates straddling the MIC breakpoint, and results in higher number of errors. Thus, we aimed to generate a comprehensive collection of colistin resistant P. aeruginosa strains with a range of MICs using the morbidostat, and to compare and evaluate five colistin susceptibility testing methods: three commercial BMD products, the gradient Etest, and the colorimetric reaction based Rapid Polymyxin Pseudomonas test (Rapid PP) against the reference BMD method, using these morbidostat generated isolates. The second aim of the study was to generate P. aeruginosa isolates cultivated with exposure to colistin, metronidazole and a combination of the two antibiotics for 21 days, and complete RNA-Seq to uncover the transcriptional changes over time. The changes in the virulence related phenotypes were measured with isolates at four key time points. For the first aim, a total of 131 P. aeruginosa isolates were used for colistin susceptibility test evaluation (100 colistin susceptible, 31 colistin resistant). The 31 colistin resistant isolates are derived from 18 colistin susceptible P. aeruginosa strains that evolved resistance in the morbidostat at different MIC ranges. The categorical agreement (CA) rates for MICRONAUT-S, SensiTest and Rapid Polymxyin Pseudomonas were 94.7%, 93.9%, 92.4%, respectively. The Sensititre achieved the highest CA score (96.9%), while the Etests had the lowest CA score (84%). The very major discrepancies (VMD) rates for all tests were between 3.2-67.4%. We concluded that the commercial BMD methods are a suitable alternative to the gold standard BMD method, with the Micronaut MIC strip tests providing a wide range of MICs for testing. To investigate effects of antibiotic pressure, we cultivated P. aeruginosa in a semi-automated morbidostat device with colistin, metronidazole and a combination of the two antibiotics for 21 days, and completed RNA-Seq to compare differential gene expression over time. The susceptibility of isolates to colistin was measured using the commercial BMD method Micronaut MIC strip. Within 21 days, strains developed resistance to colistin. After seven days of colistin exposure, strains developed an ability to grow in serum, indicating that colistin is a driver of bacterial modifications which protect against serum complement factors. At Day 21, we saw the biggest increase in serum resistance, with no significant changes in susceptibility to serum found in isolates exposed to only metronidazole or in the control condition, with LB medium. Colistin-resistant strains also show significantly increased biofilm formation: the cell density in biofilm increases under exposure to colistin, while metronidazole modulates this effect. Notably, strains exposed to colistin showed a decrease in virulence, when measured using the Galleria mellonella infection model. After 21 days there was a significant attenuation of virulence potential compared to the baseline strain. This effect was not seen in the combination drug condition, with metronidazole seemingly having a modulatory effect on the impact of colistin exposure on virulence. These phenotypic changes were underlined by a series of differential gene expression changes, in particular LPS modifications, spermidine synthesis (via speH and speE) and the major stress response regulator rpoS. Our results suggest a clinically important bacterial evolution under sub-lethal antibiotic concentration leading to potential for significant changes in the clinical course of infection.

India has one of the largest higher education system in the world having over 1013 universities, about 45000 degree colleges and around 1500 top institutes. The emancipatory and transformative potential of Information and Communication Technology in higher education has helped to increase the country's requirement for higher education through distance learning schemes. The increasing implementation of ICT in the education was already in progress with the global edtech investments in information technology reaching US 18.66 billion dollars in 2019 and the world becoming crippled with COVID-19 further accelerated the speed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were closed all over the world, due to which about 1.2 billion students were deprived from physical education. With this view, the educational institutions of Assam including Universities, colleges, schools have played their role to promote digital learning to maintain their academic activities. The sudden shift to online learning from the traditional means became obligatory to comprehend what increasing experiences could have emerged from the sudden change in the teaching-learning process. But, for successful implementation of online learning in Assam, the digital divide stood as the major barrier, making it essential to understand the difficulties, choices and strategies in education and adaptation of the students with the virtual teaching-learning mode. It became crucial to know whether the students are better adapted to the transition to online education or whether probability of sustained virtual teaching-learning in the post-pandemic scenario is high. Even though poor internet connection, overburdening, and stressful experiences have exacerbated the education process during the lockdown, the majority of the participants advocated for the adoption of a blended mode of learning in a post-COVID19 world. This switchover though encouraged further use of ICT in education; a question of accessibility arises, as the study is limited to participants with internet access thereby exposing the digital divide in education. The transformation from conventional teaching to online teaching has been flawless for those students who could afford the ICT tools or technology, but for those students belonging to poor families it did not worked well and thus they are left behind.

Mülteci konusu küresel bir sorun haline gelmektedir. Bu sorunun temel kaynağı, bölgesel ve küresel istismarcı güçlerinin çıkar çatışlamları, menfaatler uğruna veya yerel yöneticilerin adaletsizliği yüzünden kimi ülkelerde meydana gelen savaşlar ve bunun neticesinde insanları can ve mal güvenliğinin ortadan kaldırılmasıdır. Afganistan yıllardır bu küresel ve bölgesel çıkarlarcıların ve yerel yöneticilerinin siyasi başarızlıklarının ve adaletsizliklerinin kurbanıdır. Bu yüzden Afganistan mülteci hususunda özellikle son kırk yılda önde gelen ülkeler arasında yer almaktadır. Afganistan’dan göç etmek zorunda kalan kimi Afganistan halkı, başta İran, Pakistan olmak üzere dünyanın birçok ülkelerine sığınmaktadırlar. Bu ülkeler arasında Türkiye de son yıllarda Afgan mültecilerinin yöneldikleri malumdur. Bunun ana sebebi, İran’ın ekonomik sıkıntıları, Afgan mültecilerinin Avrupa’ya gitme hayali ve Türkiye’nin de Avrupa sınırında yer almasıdır.Türkiye’de bulunan Afgan mültecilerinin “uydu kent uygulaması”yla farklı şehirlerde bulunmaktadırlar. Son açıklamaya göre Konya oniki bin Afgan mülteciyi ev sahipliği yapmaktadır. Bu mültecilerinin durumları ve sorunları merak konusudur. Dolayısıyla bunların durumları ve olası sorunlarının değerlendirikmesi çalışmamızın konusu olması büyük önem arz etmektedir. Çalışmamızın amacı da Afgan mültecilerinin durumlarını ele alması ve sorunları sosyolojik olarak değerlendirilmesidir. Bu konunun ele alındığı çalışmada ilk iki bölümde mülteci kavramı, güç kuramları, Afgan mültecilerin uluslararası bazındaki hakları, Türkiye’de mülteci hakları ve detayları gibi önemli konular ele alınmıştır. Çalışmanın üçüncü bölümünde ise Konya’daki Afgan mültecilerinin üzerinde yapılan bir anket çalışmasıyla onların durumları incelenmiş ve tespit edilen sorunları sosyolojik olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Anketlerde elde edilen veriler frikans ve çepraz analizlere tabi tutulmuş ve her tablonun altında yorumlar yapılmıştır. Çalışmamız sonuç ve öneriler kısmıyla sonlandırılmıştır, The refugee issue is becoming a global problem. The major source of this problem is the conflicting interests of the regional and global abusive powers, wars in some countries for the sake of interests or because of the injustice of local authorities, and as a result of this, the destruction of people's safety of life and property. Afghanistan has been a victim of the political failures and injustices of these global and regional politics and local authorities for years. Therefore, Afghanistan has been one of the leading countries in refugee issues, especially in the last forty decades. Some Afghan people, who had to emigrate from Afghanistan, take refuge in many countries of the globe, especially Iran and Pakistan. Among these countries, it is certain that Afghan refugees have turned towards Turkey in recent years. The primary reason for this is economic difficulties of Iran, poverty of Pakistan and its harsh policy towards Afghan refugees, Afghan refugees' dreaming of going to Europe, and location of Turkey on the European border. Afghan refugees in Turkey are in different cities through the "satellite city application". According to the final statement, Konya hosts twelve thousand Afghan refugees. The situations and problems of these refugees are an issue of concern. Therefore, it is of great importance that the evaluation of their situations and probable problems is the subject of our study. Our study aims to address the situation of Afghan refugees and to evaluate their problems sociologically. In this study, in which this subject is discussed, important issues such as the concept of refugee, power theories, the rights of Afghan refugees on an international basis, refugee rights in Turkey and their details are discussed in the first two parts. In the third part of the study, the situation of Afghan refugees in Konya was examined with a questionnaire study and their problems were assessed sociologically. The data obtained in the questionnaires were subjected to frequency and cross-analysis and comments were made under each table. Our study is ended with the conclusion and recommendations part.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive molecular subtype of BC, with no targeted therapeutics currently available and poor systemic treatment response among certain patient groups. Cytokines, chemokines and adipokines are cell signaling molecules that play significant roles in mediation of inflammation/immune response in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Relative systemic levels of these molecules secreted from the BC tumor microenvironment may be developed as prognostic liquid biopsy biomarkers. At present, we have investigated race-specific and TNBC-specific differences in circulating biomarker profiles of AA (n = 65) and EA (n = 88) BC patients. The International Center for the Study of Breast Cancer Subtypes (ICSBCS) maintains a prospective cohort biorepository of African and US patients, including patients from Detroit, MI (Henry Ford Health System) and New York City, NY (NewYork Presbyterian Hospitals). Using a multiplexed bead-based ELISA platform (Luminex®) we quantified the relative plasma levels of 45 different biomarkers per manufacturer’s protocols. Normalization of plate/batch effect was completed using MDimnNormn, and statistical tests were completed with JMP Pro 16. There were no significant differences between groups across most clinicopathological variables; including, age (p = 0.86), tumor histology (p = 0.45), subtype (p = 0.4039) or stage (p = 0.20). However, BMI was significantly higher among AA patients compared to EA patients (AA mean 31.5, EA mean 28.7, p = 0.016), and multivariate analyses were adjusted for BMI. Histological subtypes and stage represented a cross section of the cohort, with the majority being invasive ductal (AA 70.8%, EA 71.6%), and early-stage (Stage I and II) disease (AA 83.1%, EA 80.7%). The predominant intrinsic subtype is LumA (AA 69.2%, EA 67%), with a relatively higher proportion of TNBC disease among AA (20%) compared to EA patients (10.2%) (p = 0.086). Our univariate/unadjusted SRR-association models identified four biomarkers: IFNg (p = 0.022), I-TAC/CXCL11 (p = 0.003), MDC/CCL22 (p = 0.041) and MIPa/CCL3 (p = 0.038), which were higher among AA compared to EA patients. After controlling for BMI as a covariate in our model, all markers retained significance, with IFNg, I-TAC/CXCL11 and MIPa/CCL3 being p < 0.05, and MDC/CCL22 with slightly lower significance (p = 0.054). To determine TNBC-specific profiles we compared biomarkers between TNBC (n = 22) and non-TNBC (n = 131) patients. The unadjusted/univariate analysis yielded no associations. However, after adjusting for BMI and SRR, 10 circulating biomarkers were significantly higher among patients with TNBC: IL16, MIF, TNFa, MPIF1/CCL23, IL1b, Gro-a/CXCL1, SCYB16/CXCL16, ENA-78/CXCL5, Fractalkine/CX3CL1 and Leptin (p < 0.05). Taken together, these findings highlight that there are distinct SRR- and TNBC- circulating biomarker profiles, that may elucidate functional distinctions across TNBC patients to provide biomarkers for novel prognostic or therapeutic opportunities for patients. Citation Format: Rachel Martini, Millicent Amankwah, Julie Sahler, Brian Stonaker, Mumina Sadullozoda, Peter Radzio, Avery August, Lisa Newman, Melissa Davis. Race- and TNBC-specific circulating biomarker profiles among breast cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr C009.

The goal of achieving herd immunity to the coronavirus requires high vaccination acceptance levels on the part of the population. The objectives of this study were to: 1) Measure individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for a COVID-19 vaccine in Kenya; 2) evaluate the effect of vaccine characteristics (duration of protection and efficacy) and individuals' socioeconomic variables on WTP, and 3) estimate the aggregate demand and economic value of a COVID-19 vaccine. The contingent valuation (CV) method was used as the basis for the analyses. Data for this study were obtained from a survey of 1,050 individuals in Kenya conducted from April 7 to April 15, 2020. The survey included CV questions using a double-bounded dichotomous choice format. Results reveal that most of the individuals in Kenya (at least 96%) were willing to accept a COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately 80% of individuals were willing to pay a positive amount. Conservative estimates of individuals' mean WTP for the vaccine range from USD 49.81 to USD 68.25 (depending on vaccine characteristics). Both vaccine duration of protection and efficacy were found to influence WTP (p

This article is about the legendary designer Coco Chanel, a unique talent who is known and popular to many, who was able to influence the world of fashion, search for herself in spite of all the difficulties and amazed the fashion lovers of that time. For the fans of fashion, Chanel’s role in the fashion world has been overshadowed by the fact that she has left an indelible mark on success despite her poor lifestyle.

Colistin is a last resort antibiotic against the critical status pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Virulence and related traits such as biofilm formation and serum resistance after exposure to sub-inhibitory levels of colistin have been underexplored. We cultivated P. aeruginosa in a semi-automated morbidostat device with colistin, metronidazole and a combination of the two antibiotics for 21 days, and completed RNA-Seq to uncover the transcriptional changes over time. Strains became resistant to colistin within this time period. Colistin-resistant strains show significantly increased biofilm formation: the cell density in biofilm increases under exposure to colistin, while the addition of metronidazole can remove this effect. After 7 days of colistin exposure, strains develop an ability to grow in serum, suggesting that colistin drives bacterial modifications conferring a protective effect from serum complement factors. Of note, strains exposed to colistin showed a decrease in virulence, when measured using the Galleria mellonella infection model. These phenotypic changes were characterized by a series of differential gene expression changes, particularly those related to LPS modifications, spermidine synthesis (via speH and speE) and the major stress response regulator rpoS. Our results suggest a clinically important bacterial evolution under sub-lethal antibiotic concentration leading to potential for significant changes in the clinical course of infection.

Objectives: This study’s goal was to determine the perceived risks of infection as well as the perceived risks of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 in Ecuador and Kenya. It also assessed the factors associated with the risk-related perceptions. Methods: Cross-sectional studies with samples from the adult populations in both countries were conducted to assess the perceived risks of contracting COVID-19. Data were collected online using the Qualtrics platform (Qualtrics, Provo, Utah, United States) from samples of 1050 heads of households, aged 18 years or older, in each country. A total of 3 statistical analyses were conducted: summary statistics, correlation, and linear regression. Results: The average perceived risks of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death in the Kenyan sample were 27.1%, 43.2%, and 17.2%, respectively, and the values for the Ecuadorian sample were 34%, 32.8%, and 23.3%, respectively. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients between the risk measures in each country were less than 0.38. Risk measures were associated with several sociodemographic variables (e.g., income, gender, location), but not with age. Conclusions: The perceived risks of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death in Kenya and Ecuador were significantly higher relative to the statistics reported; however, no strong association existed between perceived risk and age, which is a key factor in adverse health outcomes, including death, among COVID-19 infected individuals.