Clostridioides difficile (CD) is a spore-forming bacterium that causes life-threatening intestinal infections in humans. Although formerly regarded as exclusively nosocomial, there is increasing genomic evidence that person-to-person transmission accounts for only <25% of cases, supporting the culture-based hypothesis that foods may be routine sources of CD-spore ingestion in humans. To synthesize the evidence on the risk of CD exposure via foods, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting the culture prevalence of CD in foods between January 1981 and November 2019. Meta-analyses, risk-ratio estimates, and meta-regression were used to estimate weighed-prevalence across studies and food types to identify laboratory and geographical sources of heterogeneity. In total, 21886 food samples were tested for CD between 1981 and 2019 (96.4%, n = 21084, 2007–2019; 232 food-sample-sets; 79 studies; 25 countries). Culture methodology, sample size and type, region, and latitude were sources of heterogeneity (p < 0.05). Although non-strictly-anaerobic methods were reported in some studies, and we confirmed experimentally that improper anaerobiosis of media/sample-handling affects CD recovery in agar (Fisher, p < 0.01), most studies (>72%) employed the same (one-of-six) culture strategy. Because the prevalence was also meta-analytically similar across six culture strategies reported, all studies were integrated using three meta-analytical methods. At the study level (n = 79), the four-decade global cumulative-prevalence of CD in the human diet was 4.1% (95%CI = −3.71, 11.91). At the food-set level (n = 232, mean 12.9 g/sample, similar across regions p > 0.2; 95%CI = 9.7–16.2), the weighted prevalence ranged between 4.5% (95%CI = 3–6%; all studies) and 8% (95%CI = 7–8%; only CD-positive-studies). Risk-ratio ranking and meta-regression showed that milk was the least likely source of CD, while seafood, leafy green vegetables, pork, and poultry carried higher risks (p < 0.05). Across regions, the risk of CD in foods for foodborne exposure reproducibly decreased with Earth latitude (p < 0.001). In conclusion, CD in the human diet is a global non-random-source of foodborne exposure that occurs independently of laboratory culture methods, across regions, and at a variable level depending on food type and latitude. The latitudinal trend (high CD-food-prevalence toward tropic) is unexpectedly inverse to the epidemiological observations of CD-infections in humans (frequent in temperate regions). Findings suggest the plausible hypothesis that ecologically-richer microbiomes in the tropic might protect against intestinal CD colonization/infections despite CD ingestion.

Percolation properties of two-component mixtures are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Objects are deposited onto a substrate according to the random sequential adsorption model. Various shapes making the mixtures are made by self-avoiding walks on a triangular lattice. Percolation threshold for mixtures of objects covering the same number of sites is always lower than for the more compact object, and it can be even lower than for both components. Mixtures of percolating and non-percolating objects almost always percolate, but the percolation threshold is higher than for the percolating component. Adding a shape of high connectivity to a system of compact non-percolating objects, makes the deposit percolate. Lowest percolation thresholds are obtained for mixtures with elongated angled objects. Dependence of on the object length exhibits a minimum, so it could be estimated that the angled objects of length give the largest contribution to the percolation.

The Editors' Network of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) provides a dynamic forum for editorial discussions and endorses the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to improve the scientific quality of biomedical journals. Authorship confers credit and important academic rewards. Recently, however, the ICMJE emphasized that authorship also requires responsibility and accountability. These issues are now covered by the new -(fourth) criterion for authorship. Authors should agree to be accountable and ensure that questions regarding the accuracy and integrity of the entire work will be appropriately addressed. This review discusses the implications of this paradigm shift on authorship requirements with the aim of increasing awareness on good scientific and editorial practices.

We propose an integral Nash equilibrium seeking control (I-NESC) law which steers the multi-agent system composed of a special class of linear agents to the neighborhood of the Nash equilibrium in noncooperative strongly monotone games. First, we prove that there exist parameters of the integral controller such that the system converges to the Nash equilibrium in the full-information case, in other words, without the parameter estimation scheme used in extremum seeking algorithms. Then we prove that there exist parameters of the I-NESC such that the system converges to the neighborhood of the Nash equilibrium in the limited information case where parameter estimation is used. We provide a simulation example that demonstrates that smaller perturbation frequencies and amplitudes are needed to attain similar convergence speed as the existing state-of-the-art algorithm.

The growth of an extended supramolecular network using dipolar molecules as the building blocks is of great technological interest. We investigated the self-assembly of a dipolar molecule on an Au(111) surface. The formation of an extended two-dimensional network was demonstrated by scanning tunnelling microscopy under ultra-high vacuum and explained in terms of molecule–molecule interactions. This 2D-network is still stable under the pressure of one atmosphere of nitrogen, which demonstrated its interest for the development of submolecular-precisely polyfunctional smart surfaces.

Although uncertainty avoidance is identified as an important concept for understanding intrapreneurial intentions, empirical findings have not been consistent in portraying a broader picture of how uncertainty avoidance shapes intrapreneurial intentions. This study bridges this gap through a four-level conceptual model of the role of uncertainty avoidance in the formation of employees’ intrapreneurial intentions, differentiating among unit- and country-level uncertainty avoidance. Using the established relationship between behavioral control and intentions, we consider how employee creativity and self-efficacy influence intrapreneurial intentions. Following the person-environment fit paradigm and the resulting fit traditions of complementarity and supplementarity, we narrow in on how these processes operate within specific (stimulating or inhibiting) cultural settings in terms of uncertainty avoidance at both the unit and country levels. Using data from 787 employees on the first level nested into 73 units on the second level, 19 organizations on the third level, and eight countries on the fourth level, study shows evidence for a beneficial interplay between unit-level uncertainty avoidance and creativity or self-efficacy when there is a supplementary or complementarity fit. The interplay between behavioral and contextual factors is negative, however, when neither type of fit applies. Finally, country-level uncertainty avoidance seems to be irrelevant to intrapreneurial intentions.

Solar exposure of streets and parking spaces in dense urban areas varies significantly due to the infrastructure: buildings, parks, tunnels, multistorey car parks. This variability leaves space for both real-time and offline route and parking optimization for solar-powered vehicles. In this chapter we present Solar Car Optimized Route Estimation (SCORE), our optimization system based on historic and current solar radiance measurements. In addition to the comprehensive review of SCORE, we offer a new perspective on it by embedding it in the bigger picture of smart cities (SC): we analyze SCORE's relationship with the smart power generation and distribution systems (smart grid), novel transportation paradigms and communication advancements. While the previous work on SCORE was focused on technical challenges which are described in the first part of this chapter (optimization, communication, sensor data collection and fusion), here we proceed with a systemic approach and observe a SCORE-equipped unit in the near-future society, examine the sustainability of the model and possible business models based on it. We consider the problem of vehicle routing and congestion avoidance using incentives for users on non-critical journeys and co-existence of SCORE and non-SCORE using vehicles. Realistic pointers for SCORE-aware design of infrastructure are also given, both for improved data collection and improved solar exposure while considering trade-offs for non-SCORE users.

This chapter presents the pioneering work in applying reversible computation paradigms to wireless communications. These applications range from developing reversible hardware architectures for underwater acoustic communications to novel distributed optimisation procedures in large radio-frequency antenna arrays based on reversing Petri nets. Throughout the chapter, we discuss the rationale for introducing reversible computation in the domain of wireless communications, exploring the inherently reversible properties of communication channels and systems formed by devices in a wireless network.

: The implementation of the fourth industrial revolution Industry 4.0 is based on the following technologies: internet of tings , cloud computing, big data, robotics & automation, intelligent sensors, 3D printers and radio frequency identification – RFID. The robotics is considered as the core technology. Second-generation industrial robots – collaborative robots have been implemented in the last two years. Their implementation is increasing every year and has reached about 3% of the total application of industrial robots in the world. The development of new technologies has contributed to the development and implementation of collaborative service robots AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), which is one of the most significant qualitative shifts in the automation of logistic in production processes, assembly lines, warehouses and all other operations where transport is necessary. Their application is motivated by technical and economic reasons, such as: improving the quality of finished products, reducing the production of the finished product, increasing the homogeneity rate - constant quality, reducing the number of workers to carry out tedious transport, increasing the safety of workers in the work process, minimizing production costs and overall maintenance. The paper describes the trend of implementing service robots for professional use, with particular reference to collaborative service robots in logistics. Some design solutions for collaborative service robots in logistics already implemented in the industry are presented.

When planning oil wells with stainless steel components, two possible reasons for depassivation have to be considered—chemical depassivation caused by acidizing jobs and mechanical depassivation caused by various tools and hard particles. The study explores conditions causing chemical activation of investigated steels and circumstances under which repassivation occurs after activation. The main focus of the study is to determine, how quickly various steels can repassivate under different conditions and to find pH values where repassivation will occur after depassivation. The investigated steels were ferritic (martensitic or bainitic) in the cases of 13Cr, 13Cr6Ni2Mo, and 17Cr4Ni2Mo, austenitic in the case of 17Cr12Ni2Mo, and duplex (austenitic and ferritic) in the case of 22Cr5Ni3Mo. Potentiodynamic experiments were employed to obtain electrochemical properties of investigated steels, followed by immersion tests to find ultimate conditions, where the steels still retain their passivity. After obtaining this information, scratch tests were performed to study the repassivation kinetics. It was found that repassivation times are similar for nearly all investigated steels independent of their chemical composition and microstructure.

Growing popularity of recreational skiing and snowboarding in this region has directed this corpus-based study towards getting an insight into standardization requirements of the ski register in Serbian within the framework of today’s angloglobalized world of sport. The corpus consists of 292 ski terms in English and Serbian. After a brief overview of the creation of ski terms, the paper deals with a contrastive analysis of the corpus from the aspect of adaptation of English terms into the system of Serbian at the level of form, i.e. respelling and at the level of content, i.e. translation. Guided by the results of this analysis, the following sections deal with the requirements related to the standardization of ski terms in Serbian.