In a recent preprint, Matherne, Morales and Selover conjectured that two different representations of unit interval posets are related by the famous zeta map in $q,t$-Catalan combinatorics. This ...conjecture was proved recently by G\'elinas, Segovia and Thomas using induction. In this short note, we provide a bijective proof of the same conjecture with a reformulation of the zeta map using left-aligned colored trees, first proposed in the study of parabolic Tamari lattices.
Initiated by Davis, Nelson, Petersen and Tenner (2018), the enumerative study
of pinnacle sets of permutations has attracted a fair amount of attention
recently. In this article, we provide a ...recurrence that can be used to compute
efficiently the number $|\mathfrak{S}_n(P)|$ of permutations of size $n$ with a
given pinnacle set $P$, with arithmetic complexity $O(k^4 + k\log n)$ for $P$
of size $k$. A symbolic expression can also be computed in this way for
pinnacle sets of fixed size. A weighted sum $q_n(P)$ of $|\mathfrak{S}_n(P)|$
proposed in Davis, Nelson, Petersen and Tenner (2018) seems to have a simple
form, and a conjectural form is given recently by Flaque, Novelli and Thibon
(2021+). We settle the problem by providing and proving an alternative form of
$q_n(P)$, which has a strong combinatorial flavor. We also study admissible
orderings of a given pinnacle set, first considered by Rusu (2020) and
characterized by Rusu and Tenner (2021), and we give an efficient algorithm for
their counting.
Academic procrastination has been a widespread problem behavior among undergraduates. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of academic procrastination among undergraduates in health ...professions, and explore the mediation effects of self-efficacy for self-regulation and fear of failure in the relationship between self-esteem and academic procrastination. A cross-sectional design was used to study 1184 undergraduates in health professions from China. Participants completed measures of academic procrastination, self-esteem, self-efficacy for self-regulation and fear of failure. We used Pearson product-moment correlation to examine the bivariate correlations between study variables, and path analysis to examine mediation. Among the 1184 undergraduates, 877 (74.1%) procrastinated on at least one type of academic task. The total score for academic procrastination was negatively correlated with scores for self-esteem and self-efficacy for self-regulation, and positively correlated with the score for fear of failure. Moreover, the relationship between self-esteem and academic procrastination was fully mediated by self-efficacy for self-regulation (indirect effect: β = − .15, 95% bootstrap CI − .19 to − .11) and fear of failure (indirect effect: β = − .06, 95% bootstrap CI − .09 to − .04). These findings suggest that interventions targeting the enhancement of self-efficacy for self-regulation and the conquest of fear of failure may prevent or reduce academic procrastination among undergraduates in health professions, especially for those with lower self-esteem.
The global burden of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) has shown an upsurge in recent years due to the higher load of immunocompromised patients suffering from various diseases. The role of early and ...accurate diagnosis in the aggressive containment of the fungal infection at the initial stages becomes crucial thus, preventing the development of a life-threatening situation. With the changing demands of clinical mycology, the field of fungal diagnostics has evolved and come a long way from traditional methods of microscopy and culturing to more advanced non-culture-based tools. With the advent of more powerful approaches such as novel PCR assays, T2 Candida, microfluidic chip technology, next generation sequencing, new generation biosensors, nanotechnology-based tools, artificial intelligence-based models, the face of fungal diagnostics is constantly changing for the better. All these advances have been reviewed here giving the latest update to our readers in the most orderly flow.
A detailed literature survey was conducted by the team followed by data collection, pertinent data extraction, in-depth analysis, and composing the various sub-sections and the final review. The review is unique in its kind as it discusses the advances in molecular methods; advances in serology-based methods; advances in biosensor technology; and advances in machine learning-based models, all under one roof. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no review covering all of these fields (especially biosensor technology and machine learning using artificial intelligence) with relevance to invasive fungal infections.
The review will undoubtedly assist in updating the scientific community's understanding of the most recent advancements that are on the horizon and that may be implemented as adjuncts to the traditional diagnostic algorithms.
Development and validation of a single-step and accurate reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification technique (RT-LAMP) for rapid identification of SARS-CoV-2 relative to commercial ...quantitative reverse transcriptase real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays to allow prompt initiation of proper medical care and containment of virus spread.
Primers showing optimal
features were subjected to analytical sensitivity and specificity to assess the limit of detection (LOD) and cross-reaction with closely- and distantly-related viral species, and clinically prominent bacterial and fungal species. In order to evaluate the clinical utility, our RT-LAMP was subjected to a large number of clinical samples, including 213 negative and 47 positive patients, relative to two commercial quantitative RT-PCR assays.
The analytical specificity and sensitivity of our assay was 100% and 500 copies/ml when serial dilution was performed in both water and sputum. Subjecting our RT-LAMP assay to clinical samples showed a high degree of specificity (99.5%), sensitivity (91.4%), positive predictive value (97.7%), and negative predictive value (98.1%) when used relative to qRT-PCR. Our RT-LAMP assay was two times faster than qRT-PCR and is storable at room temperature. A suspected case that later became positive tested positive using both our RT-LAMP and the two qRT-PCR assays, which shows the capability of our assay for screening purposes.
We present a rapid RT-LAMP assay that could extend the capacity of laboratories to process two times more clinical samples relative to qRT-PCR and potentially could be used for high-throughput screening purposes when demand is increasing at critical situations.
For solving the problem of the abandonment of the career in nursing undergraduates, it is important to understand their motivation to choose nursing as a career and its associated personal and ...situational factors.
To examine the relationships between optimism, educational environment, career adaptability, and career motivation in nursing undergraduates using the career construction model of adaptation.
This study adopted a cross-sectional design.
A convenience sample of 1060 nursing undergraduates from three universities completed questionnaires for measuring optimism, educational environment, career adaptability, and career motivation. Confirmatory factor analyses, descriptive analyses, comparison analyses, correlation analyses, and mediation analyses were performed accordingly.
Nursing undergraduates' career motivation was positively correlated with their career adaptability (r = 0.41, P < 0.01), the educational environment (r = 0.60, P < 0.01), and optimism (r = 0.26, P < 0.01). In addition, the effects of optimism and educational environment on career motivation were partially mediated by career adaptability in nursing undergraduates.
In nursing undergraduates, the educational environment had a relatively strong positive association with career motivation, while optimism had a weak one. Career adaptability played a mediating role in the relationships. Targeted interventions may improve nursing undergraduates' career motivation.
Self-care can improve heart failure outcomes. Self-care confidence is associated with self-care behaviors and may serve as a mediator between potential influencing factors (e.g. functional capacity, ...knowledge, and health literacy) and self-care behaviors. However, evidence is limited on these relationships. The COM-B model (consisting of capability, opportunity, and motivation) may be an appropriate framework to understand the above relationships.
The purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with self-care behaviors and to examine the mediating role of self-care confidence.
Three hundred and twenty-one patients (mean age 64 years, 51% male) with chronic heart failure completed measures of functional capacity, knowledge, health literacy, social support, socioeconomic status, self-care, and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
The scores for self-care maintenance and management were 48.4±15.9 and 54.3±19.3, respectively. The revised model showed good fit (root mean square error of approximation=0.029; comparative fit index=0.989). Functional capacity and knowledge were directly associated with self-care management, and health literacy and social support were directly related to self-care maintenance. Moreover, self-care confidence mediated the relationships between knowledge, health literacy, social support and self-care behaviors.
Chinese patients with chronic heart failure have poor self-care behaviors. Factors associated with self-care behaviors are confidence, functional capacity, knowledge, health literacy and social support. Self-care confidence appears to be a mediator between knowledge, health literacy, social support and self-care behaviors. Targeted interventions are required to optimize self-care behaviors in patients with chronic heart failure.
Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, and Candida parapsilosis are three prevalent causes of candidiasis, worldwide. These species are considered as nine medically important complex species. Limited ...knowledge about these newly recognized species prompted us to develop a one-step, multiplex PCR to detect and identify them in clinical settings.
Primers targeting Hyphal Wall Protein I gene for the C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. africana, Intergenic Spacer for the C. glabrata, C. nivariensis, C. bracarensis, and Intein and ITS rDNA for the C. parapsilosis, C. orthopsilosis, and C. metapsilosis were designed. Using 168 CBS reference strains and 280 clinical isolates, the specificity and reproducibility of the developed assay were evaluated.
Our developed assay successfully identified and distinguished all the nine species. No cross-reaction with closely- and distantly-related yeast species, Aspergillus species and human DNA was observed, resulting in 100% specificity. The ambiguous results obtained by MALDI-TOF for C. albicans and C. africana were corrected by our 9-plex PCR assay. This assay identified all the cryptic complex species from two test sets from Iran and China, correctly.
Our developed multiplex assay is accurate, specific, cost/time-saving, and works without the tedious DNA extraction steps. It could be integrated into routine clinical laboratories and as a reliable identification tool and has the potential to be implemented into epidemiological studies to broaden the limited knowledge of cryptic species complexes.
The enumeration of linear λ-terms has attracted quite some attention recently, partly due to their link to combinatorial maps. Zeilberger and Giorgetti (2015) 19 gave a recursive bijection between ...planar linear normal λ-terms and planar maps, which, when restricted to 2-connected λ-terms (i.e., without closed sub-terms), leads to bridgeless planar maps. Inspired by this restriction, Zeilberger and Reed (2019) 20 conjectured that 3-connected planar linear normal λ-terms have the same counting formula as bipartite planar maps. In this article, we settle this conjecture by giving a direct bijection between these two families. Furthermore, using a similar approach, we give a direct bijection between planar linear normal λ-terms and planar maps, whose restriction to 2-connected λ-terms leads to loopless planar maps. This bijection seems different from that of Zeilberger and Giorgetti, even after taking the map dual. We also explore enumerative consequences of our bijections.
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