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BACKGROUND: Post-extubation dysphagia is associated with an increased incidence of nosocomial pneumonias, longer hospitalizations, and higher re-intubation rates. The purpose of this study was to determine if it is necessary to delay swallow evaluation for 24 hours post-extubation., METHODS: A prospective investigation of swallowing was conducted at 1, 4, and 24 hours post-extubation to determine if it is necessary to delay swallow evaluation following intubation. Participants were 202 adults from 5 different intensive care units (ICU)., RESULTS: A total of 166 of 202 (82.2%) passed the Yale Swallow Protocol at 1 hour post-extubation, with an additional 11 (177/202; 87.6%) at 4 hours, and 8 more (185/202; 91.6%) at 24 hours. Only intubation duration >=4 days was significantly associated with nonfunctional swallowing., CONCLUSIONS: We found it is not necessary to delay assessment of swallowing in individuals who are post-extubation. Specifically, the majority of patients in our study (82.2%) passed a swallow screening at 1 hour post-extubation.

Rolf Brandt (1886-1953) was a German journalist, author, and political commentator. His first work was as a war reporter on the Eastern Front during the opening months of the Great War (World War I). His reports appeared in several important German newspapers (Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankfurter Zeitung) and were compiled and published in 1915 as Fünf Monate an der Ostfront: Kriegsberichte (Five months on the Eastern Front: War reports). Brandt's reports were more than just army-approved press releases. He wrote in a way that constructed a bridge between the home front and the front lines. In the process he employed techniques now associated with literary journalism. With a clear point of view, he told his story through a sequence of scenes, instead of a simple historical narrative, and included genuine dialogue and status details. While scholars of German literary journalism point to Egon Erwin Kisch as the originator of German literary journalism, this study suggests Brandt should be considered an early practitioner of literary journalism in the German language. More interestingly, Brandt's particular brand of literary journalism had an unmistakably conservative nationalist perspective, thus suggesting that it is possible to have a conservative form of literary journalism. © 2019 Literary Journalism Studies. All Rights Reserved.

Free, online language translation services are being used by people around to the world to facilitate communication. However, it takes time and effort for a person to load the Web page in a browser, copy and paste text into the site, and translate words. The process quickly becomes tiresome. Instead, some computer programs are providing automated translation. However, no studies have been conducted to determine the efficiency or effectiveness of such an approach. In this study, we compare how students used an English-based chatbot with and without German automatic translation. Results show that students took nearly 1.5 times longer than their stated upper time limit to manually translate. In contrast, the automated translation was at least 30 times faster. In addition, the students were significantly more satisfied with the automated than the manual system.

Adolescent violence is a significant public health problem. The goal of this evaluation was to determine whether communication skills, relationships with adults, and relationships with peers were enhanced through participating in an after-school program aimed at reducing violence-related behaviors among urban middle school youth. Elements that helped to foster success among our population were providing a program that enabled consistent choice in recreational activities in a safe place, and also providing busing home to increase safety. A non-experimental study was conducted with 115 students who participated in the program. Bivariate, ANOVA analysis, and Kruskal–Wallis tests were carried out. Results indicated that participating in the program significantly impacted student relationships with adults and their peers as well as positively impacted their communication skills. The program was designed with purposeful activities that would address pro-social behaviors, enhance youth interest, and increase attendance. The program specifically used recreation to help foster relationships with their peers and the adults in the program, with the intention of reducing conflict, and therefore violence among the students.

Increased fitness in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) is attributed to infection by Epichloë coenophiala. However, plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria also increase the fitness of many host plants, and PGP bacteria have been shown to dominate the phyllosphere and rhizosphere microbiome of E. coenophiala-infected (E+) tall fescue. Because E. coenophialum lives endophytically in tall fescue seeds, we hypothesized that PGP bacteria also live within the seeds and could provide fitness advantages to the host. Endophyte-infected (E+) and endophyte-free (E−) Kentucky-31 tall fescue seeds were surface sterilized to remove epiphytic bacteria. Surface sterilized and non-surface sterilized control plants of each type were cultivated for 6 weeks before withholding water to simulate drought. Normal watering was resumed after 4 days. Plant recovery of each group was measured by assigning a numerical value to tillers based on the state of decline. Surface-sterilized E+ plants were unable to recover as efficiently as E+ controls but outperformed both E− groups. Additionally, total 16S amplified DNA extracted from each seed type was analyzed with Illumina sequencing to assess the internal microbial communities from E+ and E− seeds as well as the seed coat microbiome. E+ seeds have lower diversity of endophytic bacterial species and are dominated by Pseudomonadaceae. Further, several of the seed endophytes are PGP bacterial strains.

Reading as Democracy in Crisis: Interpretation, Theory, History explores the dialectic between historical conditions and the reading strategies that arise from them. It explores the relationship...

Graphene oxide (GO)/MnO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by adding KMnO4 in a solution of water and ethanol (3:1), containing 10 mg of GO. Brown precipitates were obtained after a continuous stirring for 1 hr. The precipitates were then washed with deionized water (DI) water and dried to obtain the MnO2-GO nanocomposites. Pure MnO2 was also synthesized using the same method without GO for the comparison. X-ray diffraction pattern confirm δ-MnO2 type of MnO2 with birnessite type MnO2 structure. The TEM images show the average diameter of MnO2 nanorods as 15 nm. Electrochemical characterizations were carried out in an aqueous solution of 3M KOH. Charge-discharge studies were carried out between 1A/g to 20 A/g current range. The MnO2-GO nanocomposites showed improved electrochemical performances. The capacitance of MnO2 and MnO2-GO electrodes was found to be as 300 F/g, and 350 F/g, respectively at a current of 0.5 A/g. © 2019 Materials Research Society.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the orientation learning needs of adjunct clinical faculty as they transition from expert clinicians to novice educators. Background: Schools of nursing are increasingly using adjunct clinical faculty because of the nurse faculty shortage. Retention is a concern. Method: This descriptive quantitative study used the Needs Assessment Survey for Topic Inclusion in a Guide to Orientation. Adjunct clinical faculty rated the level of importance of orientation topics and if they received needed information. Results: The majority of topics were found to be rated very important or important. Several items deemed very important or important were either not discussed or not sufficiently discussed in orientation. Conclusion: The information obtained demonstrates the vast amount of information that adjunct clinical faculty want and need in an orientation. © 2019 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

We report results of speckle-interferometric monitoring of visual hierarchical systems using the newly commissioned instrument NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet and Stellar Speckle Imager at the 3.5 m WIYN telescope. During one year, 390 measurements of 129 resolved subsystems were made, while some targets were unresolved. Using our astrometry and archival data, we computed 36 orbits (27 for the first time). Spectro-interferometric orbits of seven pairs are determined by combining positional measurements with radial velocities measured, mostly, with the Center for Astrophysics digital speedometers. For the hierarchical systems HIP 65026 (periods 49 and 1.23 yr) and HIP 85209 (periods 34 and 1.23 yr) we determined both the inner and the outer orbits using astrometry and radial velocities and measured the mutual orbit inclinations of 11.°3 ± 1.°0 and 12.°0 ± 3.°0, respectively. Four bright stars are resolved for the first time; two of those are triple systems. Several visual subsystems announced in the literature are shown to be spurious. We note that subsystems in compact hierarchies with outer separations less than 100 au tend to have less eccentric orbits compared to wider hierarchies. © 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) vector pathogenic trypanosomes (Trypanosoma spp.) in sub-Saharan Africa. These parasites cause human and animal African trypanosomiases, which are debilitating diseases that inflict an enormous socio-economic burden on inhabitants of endemic regions. Current disease control strategies rely primarily on treating infected animals and reducing tsetse population densities. However, relevant programs are costly, labor intensive and difficult to sustain. As such, novel strategies aimed at reducing tsetse vector competence require development. Herein we investigated whether Kosakonia cowanii Zambiae (Kco_Z), which confers Anopheles gambiae with resistance to Plasmodium, is able to colonize tsetse and induce a trypanosome refractory phenotype in the fly. Kco_Z established stable infections in tsetse's gut and exhibited no adverse effect on the fly's survival. Flies with established Kco_Z infections in their gut were significantly more refractory to infection with two distinct trypanosome species (T. congolense, 6% infection; T. brucei, 32% infection) than were age-matched flies that did not house the exogenous bacterium (T. congolense, 36% infected; T. brucei, 70% infected). Additionally, 52% of Kco_Z colonized tsetse survived infection with entomopathogenic Serratia marcescens, compared with only 9% of their wild-type counterparts. These parasite and pathogen refractory phenotypes result from the fact that Kco_Z acidifies tsetse's midgut environment, which inhibits trypanosome and Serratia growth and thus infection establishment. Finally, we determined that Kco_Z infection does not impact the fecundity of male or female tsetse, nor the ability of male flies to compete with their wild-type counterparts for mates. We propose that Kco_Z could be used as one component of an integrated strategy aimed at reducing the ability of tsetse to transmit pathogenic trypanosomes.