Intra-cluster Variations Research Articles

Receiving antenatal care components and associated factors in Northwestern Tanzania.

Tanzania had an estimated 5.400 maternal deaths in 2020. Suboptimal quality of antenatal care (ANC) presents a major challenge. It is not known what precisely the uptake of the various ANC components is, such as counseling on birth preparedness and complication readiness, preventive measures and screening tests. We assessed the level of receiving the various ANC components and associated factors in order to identify opportunities to improve ANC. A cross-sectional household survey using a structured questionnaire through face-to-face interviews, was conducted in April 2016 in Mara and Kagera regions, Tanzania, applying a two-stage, stratified-cluster sampling design. The analysis included 1,162 women aged 15-49 years who attended ANC during their last pregnancy and had given birth not longer than two years prior to the survey. To account for inter- and intra-cluster variations, we used mixed-effect logistic regression to examine factors associated with receiving essential ANC components: counseling around birth preparedness and complication readiness (with presumed effects on knowledge about danger signs) and preventive measures. About In 878 (76.1%) women preparedness for birth and its complications was observed to exist. Overall counseling was low where 902 (77.6%) women received adequate counseling. Overall knowledge of danger signs was low in 467 women (40.2%). Uptake of preventive measures was low, with presumptive malaria treatment in 828 (71.3%) and treatment of intestinal worms in 519 (44.7%) women. Screening test levels varied for HIV in 1,057 (91.2%), any blood pressure measurement in 803 (70.4%), syphilis in 367 (32.2%) and tuberculosis in 186 (16.3%) women. After adjusting for age, wealth and parity, the likelihood of receiving adequate counseling on essential topics was less in women without education versus primary education (aOR 0.64; 95% CI 0.42-0.96) and in women who had <4 ANC visits versus ≥4 visits (aOR 0.57; 95% CI 0.40-0.81). Receiving care in privacy or not (aOR 2.01; 95% CI 1.30-3.12) and having secondary education as compared to primary education (aOR 1.92; 95% CI 1.10-3.70) were associated with receiving adequate counseling. Odds of receiving adequate care in at least one ANC visit were lower in women with joint decision making on major purchases versus decision making by male partner or other family members alone (aOR 0.44; 95% CI 0.24-0.78), similar to being less knowledgeable on danger signs (aOR 0.70; 95% CI 0.51-0.96). Overall uptake of various essential ANC components was low. Frequent ANC visits and ensuring privacy are all essential to improve the uptake of ANC.

Phylogenetic and biological characterizations of a GI.3 norovirus.

Noroviruses (NoVs) are a major cause of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. In this study, we report the isolation, near-complete genome sequencing, and expression and biological characterization of the major capsid protein (VP1) of a GI.3 NoV isolated from a child presenting acute gastroenteritis. The genome of the GI.3 NoV is 7746bp in length, not including the poly-adenylation tail. Phylogenetic analysis based on the complete VP1 nucleotide sequences indicates that GI.3 NoVs could be divided into four clusters, with 4.6%, 5.3%, 6.6%, 1.9% intracluster variations in nucleotide and 4.8%, 3.8%, 6.1%, 1.7% intracluster variations in amino acid sequences, respectively. A Bayesian evolutionary analysis showed that GI.3 NoVs evolved at 2.44×10-3, 2.78×10-3, and 3.04×10-3 nucleotide substitutions/site/year using a strict clock model, an uncorrelated log-normal model (UCLN), and an uncorrelated exponential derivation model (UCED), respectively. VP1 protein expression using a recombinant baculovirus expression system leads to the successful assembly of virus-like particles (VLPs). In vitro VLP-Histo-blood group antigen (HBGA) binding assay indicates that GI.3 NoV VLPs strongly bind to blood type A salivary HBGAs, moderately bind to blood type O salivary HBGAs, and weakly bind or do not bind to blood type B and AB salivary HBGAs. In vitro VLP-HBGA binding blockade assay indicated that the binding of GI.3 NoV VLPs to blood type A salivary HBGAs could only be blocked by anti-GI.3 NoV VLPs serum but not non-GI.3 NoV genotype-specific hyperimmune sera (GI.2, GI.7, GII.4, GII.6, GII.7, and GII.17). The detailed characterization of GI.3 NoV in this study provides evidence that GI.3 NoV undergoes rapid evolution and exhibits no cross-blocking effects, suggesting that GI.3 NoV may potentially be utilized in the development of multivalent NoV vaccines.

On the Complexity of SomeMax–Min Clustering Problems

Two similar problems of searching for a family of disjoint subsets (clusters) in a finite set of points in Euclidean space are considered. In these problems, the size of the smallest cluster should be maximized so that in each cluster the intracluster quadratic variation of the points with respect to the center of the cluster would not exceed a given (constant) fraction of the total quadratic variation of the points of the input set with respect to its centroid. In the first problem, the centers of intracluster variations are arbitrary points of the space given at the input. In the second problem, the centers of the intracluster variation are unknown (to be found) but must lie in the input set. Both problems are proved to be NP-hard even on the real line both in the general case when the number of the clusters is a part of the input and in the parametric case when the number of the clusters is fixed.

Interspecific hybridization between cultivated morels Morchella importuna and Morchella sextelata by PEG-induced double inactivated protoplast fusion.

The commercial production of Morchella mushrooms calls for urgent breeding of excellent varieties or strains with appropriate tools, such as protoplast fusion. However, the protoplast fusion in morels has not been studied. In this paper, interspecific hybridization between cultivated morels of M. importuna and M. sextelata by PEG-induced protoplast fusion was conducted. Apart from functional complementation of double inactivated protoplasts, the fusants were characterized by cultural and cultivated characters and molecular markers of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The results suggested that the hybrids and their parents showed significant difference in their inoculum recovery time, mycelial growth rate, yield of cultivation and total amino acid content of ascocarps. Moreover, positive barrage reactions were observed between parental strains as well as between each parent and a hybrid line. A dendrogram created on the basis of RAPD fingerprints exhibited three major clusters, in which morel hybrids showed intra-cluster variations, M. sextelata #6 formed an out group, while M. importuna #4 was phylogenetically closer to morel hybrids. All the results demonstrated that real fusants were obtained in our study. Protoplast fusion may provide an ideal alternative for new strain selection, and thus will promote the healthy development of morel industry.

Competing endogenous RNA network profiling reveals novel host dependency factors required for MERS-CoV propagation

ABSTRACT Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are an integral component of the host competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network. These noncoding RNAs are characterized by their unique splicing reactions to form covalently closed loop structures and play important RNA regulatory roles in cells. Recent studies showed that circRNA expressions were perturbed in viral infections and circRNAs might serve as potential antiviral targets. We investigated the host ceRNA network changes and biological relevance of circRNAs in human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial (Calu-3) cells infected with the highly pathogenic Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). A total of ≥49337 putative circRNAs were predicted. Among the 7845 genes which generated putative circRNAs, 147 (1.9%) of them each generated ≥30 putative circRNAs and were involved in various biological, cellular, and metabolic processes, including viral infections. Differential expression (DE) analysis showed that the proportion of DE circRNAs significantly (P < 0.001) increased at 24 h-post infection. These DE circRNAs were clustered into 4 groups according to their time-course expression patterns and demonstrated inter-cluster and intra-cluster variations in the predicted functions of their host genes. Our comprehensive circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network identified 7 key DE circRNAs involved in various biological processes upon MERS-CoV infection. Specific siRNA knockdown of two selected DE circRNAs (circFNDC3B and circCNOT1) significantly reduced MERS-CoV load and their target mRNA expression which modulates various biological pathways, including the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and ubiquitination pathways. These results provided novel insights into the ceRNA network perturbations, biological relevance of circRNAs, and potential host-targeting antiviral strategies for MERS-CoV infection.

Classification of medicinal plants: An approach using modified LBP with symbolic representation

In this work, a symbolic approach for classification of plant leaves based on texture features is proposed. Modified Local binary patterns (MLBP) is proposed to extract texture features from plant leaves. Texture of plant leaves belonging to same plant species may vary due to maturity levels, acquisition and environmental conditions. Hence, the concept of clustering is used to choose multiple class representatives and the intra-cluster variations are captured using interval valued type symbolic features. The classification is facilitated using a simple nearest neighbor classifier. Extensive experiments have been carried out on newly created UoM Medicinal Plant Dataset as well as publically available Flavia, Foliage and Swedish plant leaf datasets. Results obtained by proposed methodology are compared with the contemporary methodologies. The Outex dataset is also considered for experiments and the results are promising even on this synthetic dataset.

The novel role of fungal intracellular laccase: used to screen hybrids between Hypsizigus marmoreus and Clitocybe maxima by protoplasmic fusion

Laccase has been proved important in decolorization of Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBBR), oxidation of 2, 2'-Azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt, lignin degradation and fruiting-body formation. The decolorization of RBBR by laccase was firstly used to screen protoplast fusants. Fusants were obtained by protoplast fusion between the strains of Hypsizigus marmoreus and Clitocybe maxima, and two fusants (IM1 and IIIM5) were screened on PDA medium containing RBBR. These fusants were significant higher in laccase activity than H. marmoreus, nearly 413 and 395 times, respectively. Their hyphal growth rates were also remarkable higher than H. marmoreus, nearly 1.5 and 1.4 times, respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis showed these fusants contained the laccase, and the molecular mass of the laccase was consistent with the laccase of C. maxima, nearly 62 kDa. The pileus color of the IM1 and IIIM5 also showed partial recombined characteristics comparing to the parental strains, while biological efficiency ratios were prominent higher than that of H. marmoreus, up to 14.58 and 10.87 %, respectively. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA bands of fusants not only were similar to parental bands, but presented new non-parental bands. Using the Unweighted pair-group method together with mathematic averages method to gain a dendrogram, in which the fusants showed intra-cluster variations. Significantly, H. marmoreus was the dominant parent, while C. maxima were distant from the fusants. The differences among IM1, IIIM5 and H. marmoreus, and the similarities among IM1, IIIM5 and C. maxima indicated IM1 and IIIM5 were somatic hybrids of H. marmoreus and C. maxima. Accordingly, it is feasible to use laccase to screen fusants of H. marmoreus and C. maxima.

Intergeneric protoplast fusion between Calocybe indica (milky mushroom) and Pleurotus florida aids in the qualitative and quantitative improvement of sporophore of the milky mushroom

This article primarily focuses on the production of somatic hybrid sporophores through PEG-mediated protoplast fusion between Calocybe indica var. APK2 and Pleurotus florida. To screen the hybrid strains a selection strategy was followed based on the differential tolerance of NaCl level by the two parental genera. Basidiocarps could be successfully generated from eight out of fourteen hybrid lines that were maintained in culture. Hybridity of the fusant lines was established on the basis of their colony morphology, mycelial growth rate and hyphal traits, while the fruit-body-generating lines were demarcated on the basis of nature of sporophores, isozyme and RAPD markers. The degree to which the hybrid population differed among themselves and from their parents was assessed by analysing each of these morphological variables by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). RAPD bands of the fusant lines were similar to either parental bands or were new non-parental bands, which classified them into the microgenome and macrogenome insertion types. A dendrogram created with the help of UPGMA method of clustering and Euclidean distance exhibited three major clusters, in which the Pleurotus–Calocybe hybrids showed intra-cluster variations. Notably, P. florida was genetically distant from the hybrid lines, while C. indica was phylogenetically the dominant parent. Significant increase in bio-efficiency and γ-linoleic acid content in these hybrid lines indicated quantitative as well as qualitative improvement of the newly developed somatic hybrids.

Zero-Inflated Poisson Regression to Analyze Lengths of Hospital Stays Adjusting for Intra-Center Correlation

ABSTRACT In the anti-infective clinical trials, in addition to the efficacy and safety outcomes, health economic outcomes such as length of hospital stays (LOS) and number of hours missed from work are usually compared between treatment groups. Since excess zeros are often exhibited in the LOS data, a zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model is adopted to model such data. In a multi-center trial, as patients from the same center are often treated by the same doctor and have similar socioeconomic backgrounds, correlation among subjects’ LOS within centers may exist, and is commonly termed the intracluster correlation (ICC). Ignoring such intracluster correlation in statistical analysis leads to erroneous parameter estimates and usually inflated Type I error. To adjust for the intracluster variations, the generalized estimating equations (GEE) method is introduced to the ZIP model. The GEEs have consistent solutions even when the dependence is misspecified. The proposed model in this study provides an extension to the regular ZIP model when analyzing correlated LOS data.

The chemical compositions and ages of globular clusters

Recent technological advances have led to a dramatic improvement in the quality of photometric and spectroscopic data obtainable on stars in globular clusters. Evidence from CCD-based colour magnitude diagrams points to clear differences in age between some clusters. High dispersion spectra show that abundance variations cannot explain the observed differences. In particular, it seems that NGC 288 must be 2–3 Gyr older than NGC 362. The same spectra show that although there is a spread in some molecular band strengths in NGC 362, the total C+N+O abundance remains constant, indicating that the material has undergone varying amounts of nuclear processing. No variations are seen in the abundances of iron group elements. Lower dispersion spectra for a large sample of faint stars in 47 Tucanae, obtained with a multi-object optical fibre system, show that unevolved main sequence stars in that cluster share the same CNO variations as the bright giants. The conclusion from all these data is that the intra-cluster CNO variations are neither truly primordial nor due to evolutionary mixing. It may be that there was a sufficiently extended period of star formation for material from first generation stars to be used in later generations, or that some pollution has occurred due to mass loss. Finally, it is noted that if ‘prehistoric’ clusters exist with ages of around 50 Gyr, as hypothesised in some cosmological models, these should probably still be rather obvious and readily recognised.