Hepatology. 2021 May 22. doi: 10.1002/hep.31916. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
We read with great interests the study by Dr. John et al. In this retrospective study using national data on USA Veterans, multivariate competing risk analysis identified that male gender was independently associated with a higher risk of death/transplantation, and liver-related death/transplantation for patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and cirrhosis.
PMID:34021935 | DOI:10.1002/hep.31916
Mol Biol Rep. 2021 May 22. doi: 10.1007/s11033-021-06413-x. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
The rhizosphere of a plant is an important interface for the plant-microbe interaction that plays a significant role in the uptake and removal of heavy metal from contaminated sites. Eichhornia crassipes is a free-floating macrophyte and a well-known metal hyperaccumulator. It is a promising plant, which harbors a diverse microbial community in its rhizosphere. Therefore it is hypothesized that it can be a good habitat for microorganisms that supports plant growth and increases its phytoremediation potential. The rhizospheric DNA was extracted from the procured plant samples. The library was prepared and sequenced using the Illumina platform. 16S rRNA data from the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform was analyzed using the QIIME software package. Alpha diversity was estimated from statistical indices i.e. Shannon index, Chao1 index, and observed species. The rarefaction plots, rank abundance curve, krona graph, and heat map were generated to study the rhizospheric community in detail. Metagenome consisted of 225,408 flash reads, 185,008 non-chimeric sequences with 17,578 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTU’s), and 4622 OTU’s without singletons. The data of present study are available at NCBI Bioproject (PRJNA631882). The taxonomic analysis of OTU’s showed that the sequences belonged to major Phyla revealing the dominance of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia. The most abundant Genera in the sampled rhizosphere recorded were Thiothrix and Flavobacterium.
PMID:34021896 | DOI:10.1007/s11033-021-06413-x
Acta Ortop Mex. 2020 Nov-Dec;34(6):226-432.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Intraarticular distal radius fractures are a therapeutic challenge for the orthopedist surgeon there are studies that support the use of fluoroscopy, and others promote arthroscopy, with this work we try to summarize the evidence, to determine whether arthroscopic assistance provides additional benefits to avoid joint incongruities compared to results obtained under fluoroscopic assistance.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Systematic search for prospective, retrospective, cohort, follow-up, clinical trials on PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Scielo, Embase, Google Scholar and other national sources, including as keywords the terms: “intra-articular distal radius fracture”, “wrist arthroscopy”, “arthroscopy”, “fluoroscopy”. The average values and standard offsets for each characteristic, obtained from the selected works, were analyzed using descriptive statistics and illustrative graphs.
RESULTS: 463 patients (256 women and 207 men) were evaluated, with an average age of 48.29 years and range from 39 to 64 years. The two treatments (A and F) were homogeneous in terms of the age of the patients reporting (p = 0.5820) and the average follow-up time (p = 0.9597). Only the ulnar deviation and DASH score, for which the arthroscopy group performed best, in the remaining variables the differences were not significant.
CONCLUSION: The evidence available to date is conflicting, and does not allow recommendations to be made for or against these interventions, finding other factors that could influence decision-making.
PMID:34020525
Acta Ortop Mex. 2020 Nov-Dec;34(6):388-398.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: A comparative clinical study has been conducted on patients involved using lateral intersomatic arthrodesis for the treatment of adjacent segment disease using titanium and PEEK intersomatic devices.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Clinical (EVA and oswestry disability index ODI) and radiological (alignment and fusion), complications (major and minor) and quality of life (EQ5D) of 32 patients intervened from September 2015 to September 2018 have been analyzed and compared, with an average follow-up of 25 months (46-18). The average age in surgery was 66 years (39-89) and 68% of patients were women.
RESULTS: The most common segment involved was L3-L4 (62%) right retroperitoneal approach 86%. Lumbar EVA improved from 6.2 ± 2.12 to 4.1 ± 1.71 (p = 0.028). The LEG EVA descended from 5.3 ± 2.26 to 1.9 ± 1.58 (p = 0.02). The ODI scales improved from 50.2 ± 18.9 to 33.3 ± 10.2 (p = 0.025) and the EQ5D went from 0.52 to 0.73 (p = 0.039) with no statistically significant differences between the groups (ODI p = 0.18, EQ5D p = 0.293). Radiologically increased intervertebral height, lumbar and segmental lordosis, decreased Cobb’s angle and the overall melting rate was 84.3% (88% Ti/82% PEEK), with no differences between the groups.
CONCLUSION: Lateral lumbar interbody fusion is an effective method for treating adjacent segment disease with clinical-radiological results and literature-like complications. No differences have been found between Ti and PEEK implants.
PMID:34020519
Planta Med. 2021 May 21. doi: 10.1055/a-1499-7829. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Cocoa bean shell is one of the main by-products of chocolate manufacturing and possesses several compounds with biofunctionalities. It can function as an antibacterial agent, and its action is mostly reported against Streptococcus mutans. However, only a few studies have investigated the cocoa bean shell compounds responsible for this activity. This study aimed to evaluate several extracts of cocoa bean shells from different geographical origins and cocoa varieties and estimate their antimicrobial properties against different fungal and bacterial strains by determining their minimal inhibitory concentration. The results demonstrated antimicrobial activity of cocoa bean shell against one of the tested strains, S. mutans. Cocoa bean shell extracts were further analysed via LC-HRMS for untargeted metabolomic analysis. LC-HRMS data were analysed (preprocessing and statistical analyses) using the Workflow4Metabolomics platform. The latter enabled us to identify possible compounds responsible for the detected antimicrobial activity by comparing the more and less active extracts. Active extracts were not the most abundant in polyphenols but contained higher concentrations of two metabolites. After tentative annotation of these metabolites, one of them was identified and confirmed to be 7-methylxanthine. When tested alone, 7-methylxanthine did not display antibacterial activity. However, a possible cocktail effect due to the synergistic activity of this molecule along with other compounds in the cocoa bean shell extracts cannot be neglected. In conclusion, cocoa bean shell could be a functional ingredient with benefits for human health as it exhibited antibacterial activity against S. mutans. However, the antimicrobial mechanisms still need to be confirmed.
PMID:34020491 | DOI:10.1055/a-1499-7829
J AOAC Int. 2021 May 21;104(2):466-471. doi: 10.1093/jaoacint/qsaa112.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Physicochemical and microbiological methods are found in the literature for the analysis of daptomycin, an antimicrobial.
OBJECTIVE: This paper brings a miniaturized turbidimetric microbiological method for analysis of daptomycin in lyophilized powder.
METHODS: The method was performed using 96-well microplates, 4-h incubation, 2, 4 and 8 μg/mL, 7% Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 IAL 2082, and BHI broth.
RESULTS: Linearity was proven by obtaining analytical curves with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.99 and statistical evaluation by ANOVA. The method was also selective, since the standard and sample analytical curves were parallel, proving that the excipient does not interfere with daptomycin analysis. Intraday, interday and inter-analyst precision presented RSDs of 2, 2.27, and 1.08%, respectively. Accuracy was assessed by the recovery test, where known quantities of standard solution are added to the sample and an average recovery value of 100.73% (RSD = 0.71%) was obtained. The present method was robust when minor changes were made in the parameters of used antimicrobial volume, inoculum volume and incubation time.
CONCLUSIONS: This work is an innovative and ecological proposal and has advantages such as (i) less waste generation, (ii) miniaturized quantities of sample, culture media and inoculum, (iii) no need to use formaldehyde as in the traditional turbidimetric method, (iv) lower volume of glassware used and (v) shorter incubation time compared to other methods as agar diffusion requiring approximately 24 h.
HIGHLIGHTS: This work is focuses on a current, innovative and sustainable theme for pharmaceutical analysis around the world.
PMID:34020456 | DOI:10.1093/jaoacint/qsaa112
J Phys Condens Matter. 2021 May 21. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ac03d2. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Equilibrium statistical mechanics rests on the assumption of ergodic dynamics of a system modulo the conservation laws of local observables: extremization of entropy immediately gives Gibbs’ ensemble (GE) for energy conserving systems and a generalized version of it (GGE) when the number of local conserved quantities (LCQ) is more than one. Through the last decade, statistical mechanics has been extended to describe the late-time behavior of periodically driven (Floquet) quantum matter starting from a generic state. The structure built on the fundamental assumptions of ergodicity and identification of the relevant “conservation laws” in this inherently non-equilibrium setting. More recently, it has been shown that the statistical mechanics has a much richer structure due to the existence of {it emergent} conservation laws: these are approximate but stable conservation laws arising {it due to the drive}, and are not present in the undriven system. Extensive numerical and analytical results support the perpetual stability of these emergent (though approximate) conservation laws, probably even in the thermodynamic limit. This banks on the recent finding of a sharp ergodicity threshold for Floquet thermalization in clean, interacting non-integrable Floquet systems. This opens up a new possibility of stable Floquet engineering in such systems. This review intends to give a theoretical overview of these developments. We conclude by briefly surveying the experimental scenario.
PMID:34020440 | DOI:10.1088/1361-648X/ac03d2
Phys Med Biol. 2021 May 21. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ac03ca. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
We propose a novel Prompt-Gamma (PG) imaging modality for real-time monitoring in proton therapy: PG Time Imaging (PGTI). By measuring the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) between a beam monitor and a PG detector, our goal is to reconstruct the PG vertex distribution in 3D. In this paper, a dedicated, non-iterative reconstruction strategy is proposed (PGTI reconstruction). Here, it was resolved under a 1D approximation to measure a proton range shift along the beam direction. In order to show the potential of PGTI in the transverse plane, a second method, based on the calculation of the Centre-Of-Gravity (COG) of the TIARA pixel detectors’ counts was also explored. The feasibility of PGTI was evaluated in two different scenarios. Under the assumption of a 100 ps (rms) time resolution (achievable in single proton regime), MC simulations showed that a millimetric proton range shift is detectable at 2σ with 108incident protons in simplified simulation settings. With the same proton statistics, a potential 2 mm sensitivity (at 2σ with 108incident protons) to beam displacements in the transverse plane was found using the COG method. This level of precision would allow to act in real-time if the treatment does not conform to the treatment plan. A worst case scenario of a 1 ns (rms) TOF resolution was also considered to demonstrate that a degraded timing information can be compensated by increasing the acquisition statistics: in this case, a 2 mm range shift would be detectable at 2σ with 109incident protons. By showing the feasibility of a time-based algorithm for the reconstruction of the PG vertex distribution for a simplified anatomy, this work poses a theoretical basis for the future development of a PG imaging detector based on the measurement of particle TOF.
PMID:34020438 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6560/ac03ca
J Breath Res. 2021 May 21. doi: 10.1088/1752-7163/ac0414. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Current diagnostic testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is based on detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in nasopharyngeal swab samples by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). However, this test is associated with increased risks of viral dissemination and environmental contamination and shows relatively low sensitivity, attributable to technical deficiencies in the sampling method. Given that COVID-19 is transmitted via exhaled aerosols and droplets, and that exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is an established modality for sampling exhaled aerosols, detection of SARS-CoV-2 in EBC offers a promising diagnostic approach. However, current knowledge on the detection and load of the virus in EBC collected from COVID-19 patients remains limited and inconsistent. The objective of the study was to quantify the viral load in EBC collected from COVID-19 patients and to validate the feasibility of SARS-CoV-2 detection from EBC as a diagnostic test for the infection.
METHOD: EBC samples were collected from 48 COVID-19 patients using a collection device, and viral loads were quantified by RT-PCR targeting the E gene. Changes in detection rates and viral loads relative to patient characteristics and days since disease onset were statistically evaluated.
RESULTS: Need for mechanical ventilation was significantly associated with higher viral load (p<0.05). Need for oxygen administration or mechanical ventilation, less than 3 days since onset, and presence of cough or fever were significantly associated with higher detection rates (p<0.05). Among spontaneously breathing patients, viral load in EBC attenuated exponentially over time. The detection rate was 86% at 2 days since onset and deteriorated thereafter. In mechanically ventilated patients, detection rate and viral load were high regardless of days since onset.
CONCLUSION: These results support the feasibility of using RT-PCR to detect SARS-CoV-2 from EBC for COVID-19 patients within 2 days of symptom onset.
PMID:34020435 | DOI:10.1088/1752-7163/ac0414
Phys Med Biol. 2021 May 21. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ac03cb. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Online ion range monitoring in hadron therapy can be performed via detection of secondary radiation, such as prompt γ-rays, emitted during treatment. The prompt γ emission profile is correlated with the ion depth-dose profile and can be reconstructed via Compton imaging. The line-cone reconstruction, using the intersection between the primary beam trajectory and the cone reconstructed via a Compton camera, requires negligible computation time compared to iterative algorithms. A recent report hypothesised that time of flight (TOF) based discrimination could improve the precision of the γ fall-off position measured via line-cone reconstruction, where TOF comprises both the proton transit time from the phantom entrance until γ emission, and the flight time of the γ-ray to the detector. The aim of this study was to implement such a method and investigate the influence of temporal resolution on the precision of the fall-off position. Monte Carlo simulations of a 160 MeV proton beam incident on a homogeneous PMMA phantom were performed using GATE. The Compton camera consisted of a silicon-based scatterer and CeBr3 scintillator absorber. The temporal resolution of the detection system (absorber + beam trigger) was varied between 0.1 and 1.3 ns RMS and a TOF-based discrimination method applied to eliminate unlikely solution(s) from the line-cone reconstruction. The fall-off position was obtained for varying temporal resolutions and its precision obtained from its shift across 100 independent γ emission profiles compared to a high statistics reference profile. The optimal temporal resolution for the given camera geometry and 108 primary protons was 0.2 ns where a precision of 2.30 ± 0.15 mm (1σ) on the fall-off position was found. This precision is comparable to current state of-the-art Compton imaging using iterative reconstruction methods or 1D imaging with mechanically collimated devices, and satisfies the requirement of being smaller than the clinical safety margins.
PMID:34020434 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6560/ac03cb
