Nevin Manimala

Chemotherapy. 2021 Mar 23:1-9. doi: 10.1159/000515344. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms are the predominant clinical manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Infecting intestinal epithelial cells, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 may impact on host’s microbiota and gut inflammation. It is well established that an imbalanced intestinal microbiome can affect pulmonary function, modulating the host immune response (“gut-lung axis”). While effective vaccines and targeted drugs are being tested, alternative pathophysiology-based options to prevent and treat COVID-19 infection must be considered on top of the limited evidence-based therapy currently available. Addressing intestinal dysbiosis with a probiotic supplement may, therefore, be a sensible option to be evaluated, in addition to current best available medical treatments. Herein, we summed up pathophysiologic assumptions and current evidence regarding bacteriotherapy administration in preventing and treating COVID-19 pneumonia.

PMID:33756475 | DOI:10.1159/000515344

Dermatology. 2021 Mar 23:1-6. doi: 10.1159/000514634. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: No epidemiologic study has previously reported on the associations among Behçet’s disease (BD) and autoimmune disorders.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between BD and the autoimmune disorders multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

METHODS: Medical records of patients newly diagnosed with BD (n = 6,214) in 2012-2017 were analyzed using data entered into a large, nationwide database from 2007 to 2017. An age- and sex-matched control population of individuals without BD was sampled at a ratio of controls:BD cases of 3:1 (n = 18,642). Both cohorts were analyzed for the presence of multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis within a minimum of 5 years prior to their BD diagnosis.

RESULTS: Patients with BD had significantly higher odds ratios (ORs) for multiple sclerosis (8.85 [95% CI 2.36-33.17]) and rheumatoid arthritis (4.62 [95% CI 3.35-6.35]) than the control group after adjustment for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. BD patients aged <40 years had a higher proportion of rheumatoid arthritis (OR 23.91, 95% CI 5.50-103.9) than older patients (OR 3.96, 95% CI 2.83-5.54).

CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that BD is associated with multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

PMID:33756455 | DOI:10.1159/000514634

ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec. 2021 Mar 23:1-6. doi: 10.1159/000513752. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this work was to assess the type and site of the 35delG gene mutation in patients presenting with profound SNHL and scheduled for cochlear implantation. The secondary objectives were to determine their geographical distribution throughout Egypt, screening of the parents for the mutation, and to correlate the type of mutation with clinical severity and outcomes after surgery.

METHODS: The study was carried out on 100 consecutive patients scheduled for cochlear implantation. Patients with syndromic hearing loss or noncongenital hearing loss (trauma, infections, and ototoxicity) were excluded. All patients were subjected to detailed history taking including geographic tagging for their origins in Egypt, imaging (CT and MRI cochlear implantation protocols), full audiological evaluation (PTA, ABR, and TEOAE), and genetic screening for GJB2 mutation using Invitrogen PCR mix and ApaI restriction enzyme (North America, CA, 10572-014). The parents of mutation-positive patients were also subjected to audiological and genetic analysis. All patients were subjected to postimplantation evaluation of hearing after 6 and 12 months.

RESULTS: There were 64 males and 36 females from 98 families. Ages ranged between 1.9 and 7 years (mean 3.72 years). They originated from all over Egypt but the majority came from the Giza and Cairo areas. The 35delG mutations were found in exon 2 in 31% of the cases and all were heterozygous. In the parents, 18 mothers and 13 fathers were positive but only 8 had mild to moderate SNHL. Hearing evaluation by pure tone and speech discrimination scores at 6 and 12 months showed that the 35delG children had a statistically better result compared to the children without this mutation.

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of the 35delG mutation in nonsyndromic children in this sample was 31% which is different from previous studies in the Egyptian population but close to the values found in other populations in the Mediterranean basin.

PMID:33756453 | DOI:10.1159/000513752

Accid Anal Prev. 2021 Mar 20;154:106094. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.106094. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Motorcycles and motorcyclists have a variety of attributes that have been found to be a potential contributor to the high liability of vulnerable road users (VRUs). Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) that include pedestrians, bicyclists, cycle-rickshaw occupants, and motorcyclists constitute by far the highest share of road traffic accidents in developing countries. Motorized three-wheeled Rickshaws (3W-MR) is a popular public transport mode in almost all Pakistani cities and is used primarily for short trips to carry passengers and small-scale goods movement. Despite being an important mode of public transport in the developing world, little work has been done to understand the factors affecting the injury severity of three-wheeled motorized vehicles. Crash injury severity prediction is a promising research target in traffic safety. Traditional statistical models have underlying assumptions and predefined associations, which can yield misleading results if flouted. Machine learning(ML) is an emerging non-parametric method that can effectively capture the non-linear effects of both continuous and discrete variables without prior assumptions and achieve better prediction accuracy. This research analyzed injury severity of three-wheeled motorized rickshaws (3W-MR) using various machine learning-based identification algorithms, i.e., Decision jungle (DJ), Random Forest (RF), and Decision Tree (DT). Three years of crash data (from 2017 to 2019) was collected from Provincial Emergency Response Service RESCUE 1122 for Rawalpindi city, Pakistan. A total of 2,743 3W-MR crashes were reported during the study period that resulted in 258 fatalities. The predictive performance of proposed ML models was assessed using several evaluation metrics such as overall accuracy, macro-average precision, macro-average recall, and geometric means of individual class accuracies. Results revealed that DJ with an overall accuracy of 83.7 % outperformed the DT and RF-based on a stratified 10-fold cross-validation approach. Finally, Spearman correlation analysis showed that factors such as the lighting condition, crashes involving young drivers (aged 20-30 years), facilities with high-speed limits (over 60 mph), weekday, off-peak, and shiny weather conditions were more likely to worsen injury severity of 3W-MR crashes. The outcomes of this study could provide necessary and essential guidance to road safety agencies, particularly in the study area, for proactive implementation of appropriate countermeasures to curb road safety issues pertaining to three-wheeled motorized vehicles.

PMID:33756425 | DOI:10.1016/j.aap.2021.106094

Nurs Open. 2021 Mar 23. doi: 10.1002/nop2.773. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: The aim of this study was to determine what kinds of unmet information needs people with COPD have and whether there are differences in information needs between genders or based on the time since COPD diagnosis.

DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional study.

METHODS: Data on people with COPD (N = 169) were collected from a two-part questionnaire distributed via website. On the first part, information needs concerning the medical aspects of self-management were measured by the Lung Information Needs Questionnaire (LINQ). On the second part, which was developed specifically for this study, a more holistic view of self-management counselling was sought. Statistical methods were used to analyse the data.

RESULTS: The respondents had wide-ranging information needs in many areas of COPD self-management. The most often reported areas of unmet information needs included exacerbations, diet, fatigue, stress and anxiety, palliative care and sexual life. The information needs varied by gender and time since COPD diagnosis.

PMID:33755324 | DOI:10.1002/nop2.773

ChemSusChem. 2021 Mar 23. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202100294. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

A cross-laboratory study on microbial fuel cells (MFC) is presented, which involved different institutions around the world is presented. The study aimed to assess the development of autochthone microbial pool enriched from domestic wastewater from different locations, cultivated in identical single chamber MFCs, operated the same way, thereby approaching the idea of developing common standards for MFCs. The MFCs were inoculated with domestic wastewater in different geographic locations. The acclimation stage and consequently the startup time, was longer or shorter depending on the inoculum, but all MFCs reached similar maximum power outputs (55±22 μWcm-2) and COD removal efficiencies (87±9%), despite the diversity of the bacterial communities. It is inferred that the MFCs performance starts when the syntrophic interaction of fermentative and electrogenic bacteria stabilizes under anaerobic conditions at the anode. The generated power is mostly limited by electrolytic conductivity, electrode overpotentials and an unbalanced external resistance. The enriched microbial consortia, although composed of different bacterial groups, share similar functions both on anode and cathode of the different MFCs resulting in similar electrochemical output.

PMID:33755321 | DOI:10.1002/cssc.202100294

FEBS J. 2021 Mar 23. doi: 10.1111/febs.15831. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Cancer progresses due to changes in the dynamic interactions of multidimensional factors associated with gene mutations. Cancer research has actively adopted computational methods, including data- and mathematical model-driven approaches, to identify causative factors and regulatory rules that can explain the complexity and diversity of cancers. A data-driven, statistics-based approach revealed correlations between gene alterations and clinical outcomes in many types of cancers. A model-driven mathematical approach has elucidated the dynamic features of cancer networks and identified the mechanisms of drug efficacy and resistance. More recently, machine learning methods have emerged that can be used for mining omics data and classifying patient. However, as the strengths and weaknesses of each method becoming apparent, new analytical tools are emerging to combine and improve the methodologies and maximize their predictive power for classifying cancer subtypes and prognosis. Here, we introduce recent advances in cancer systems biology aimed at personalized medicine, with focus on the receptor tyrosine kinase signaling network.

PMID:33755310 | DOI:10.1111/febs.15831

Health Info Libr J. 2021 Mar 23. doi: 10.1111/hir.12365. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Indications on the development of the health library and knowledge workforce (LKS) in England suggest that more staff may need to shift into clinical librarian (CL) roles. Anecdotal evidence suggested that CL roles have changed recently.

OBJECTIVES: To examine perceptions of CL tasks and required personal characteristics of CLs, amongst both practising CLs and other LKS staff in England.

METHODS: An online survey was followed by descriptive statistical and content analysis to identify any differences in perceptions between the CL and non-CL staff groups.

RESULTS: Response rate: 10% (123/1181). Both staff groups identified literature searching as the top core task and agreed on the main CL roles. Perceptions on the necessary personal characteristics were also similar. Ranking differed for a few tasks: non-CL staff may ascribe more importance to some tasks (evidence synthesis, critical appraisal training and attending ward rounds/team meetings) than the CL staff state. CLs spent more time on staff management, and less time on study skills training than non-CL staff perceived.

DISCUSSION: Results indicated that CL roles are continuing to develop, but that CLs are more integrated into library administration than some non-CL staff believe.

CONCLUSION: Shared perceptions around CL roles should help workforce development.

PMID:33755303 | DOI:10.1111/hir.12365

Chemphyschem. 2021 Mar 23. doi: 10.1002/cphc.202100150. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The computed fluoride ion affinity (FIA) is a widely applied descriptor to gauge Lewis acidity. Like every other single-parameter Lewis acidity scale, the FIA metric suffers from the one-dimensionality, that prohibits addressing Lewis acidity by the multidimensionality it inherently requires (i.e., reference Lewis base dependency). However, a systematic screening of computed affinities other than the FIA is much less developed. Herein, we extended our CCSD(T)/CBS benchmark of different density functionals and the DLPNO-CCSD(T) method for chloride (CIA), methide (MIA), hydride (HIA), water (WA), and ammonia (AA) affinities. The best performing methods are subsequently applied to yield nearly 800 affinities for 183 p-block element compounds of group 13 – 16 with an estimated accuracy of <10 kJ mol -1 . The study’s output serves as a consistent library for qualitative analyses and a training set for future statistical approaches. A first holistic correlation analysis underscores the need for a multidimensional description of Lewis acidity.

PMID:33755288 | DOI:10.1002/cphc.202100150

Hum Brain Mapp. 2021 Mar 23. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25423. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Currently, it is still unknown whether human immune deficiency virus (HIV)-related structural alterations in the brain are dependent on age. With people living with HIV at different ages, we aim to investigate age-specific structural alterations in HIV patients. Eighty-three male HIV patients and eighty-three age-matched male controls were enrolled, and high-resolution T1 weighted images were collected and analyzed with four morphological metrics. Then, statistical analyses were respectively conducted to ascertain HIV effects, age effects, and medication effects in brain structure of HIV patients, and the relationship with neuropsychological evaluations were further explored. Finally, discriminative performances of these structural abnormalities were quantitatively testified with three machine learning models. Compared with healthy controls, HIV patients displayed lower gray matter volumes (GMV), lower gyrification index, deeper sulcus depth, and larger cortical thickness (CTH). Age-specific differences were found in GMV and CTH: young-aged HIV patients displayed more obvious morphological alterations than middle-aged HIV patients when comparing corresponding age-matched healthy controls. Furthermore, age-specific long-term medication effect of combination antiretroviral therapy were also presented. Additionally, several subcortical structural changes were negatively associated with language, attention and motor functions. Finally, three machine learning models demonstrated young-aged HIV patients were easier to be recognized than middle-aged HIV patients. Our study indicated young-aged HIV patients were more vulnerable to HIV infection in brain structure than middle-aged patients, and future studies should not ignore the age effect in studying the HIV-related abnormalities.

PMID:33755269 | DOI:10.1002/hbm.25423