Browse Articles

A public opinion propagation model for technological disasters

The integration of health equity into policy to reduce disparities: Lessons from California during the COVID-19 pandemic

Racial and ethnic minoritized groups and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities experience longstanding health-related disparities in the United States and were disproportionately affected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. How departments of public health can explicitly address these disparities and their underlying determinants remains less understood. To inform future public health responses, this paper details how California strategically placed health equity at the core of its COVID-19 reopening and response policy, known as the Blueprint for a Safer Economy . In effect from August 2020 to June 2021, “the Blueprint” employed the use of the California Healthy Places Index (HPI), a place-based summary measure of 25 determinants of health constructed at the census tract level, to guide activities. Using California’s approach, we categorized the state population by HPI quartiles at the state and within-county levels (HPIQ1 representing the least advantaged, HPIQ4, the most advantaged) from HPI data available to demonstrate how the state monitored crude COVID-19 test, case, mortality, and vaccine rates and unadjusted rate ratios (RR) using equity metrics developed for the Blueprint. Notable patterns emerged. Testing disparities disappeared during the summer and winter surges but resurfaced between surges. Monthly case RR peaked in May 2020 for HPIQ1 compared to HPIQ4 (RR 6.61, 95%CI: 6.41–6.81), followed by mortality RR peaking in June 2020 (RR 5.06, 95% CI: 4.34–5.91). As the pandemic wore on, disparities in unadjusted case and mortality RRs between lower HPI quartiles relative to HPIQ4 reduced but remained. Utilizing a place-based index, such as HPI, enabled a data-driven approach that used a determinants of health lens to identify priority communities, allocate resources, and monitor outcomes based on need during a large-scale public health emergency.

Bioinformatic analysis indicated that LINC01150 might be a novel neutrophil extracellular traps-related biomarker of gastric cancer

Genetic diversity and population structure of Ethiopian Sweet Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] germplasms using SSR markers

Sweet sorghum is a cereal crop in the grass family belonging to the genus Sorghum bicolor L. Moench. It is known in its sugary juice that is accumulated in its stalk and efficient C4 photosynthetic pathway. Only few molecular genetic diversity studies of Ethiopian sweet sorghum have been carried out. Understanding the genetic diversity of plants is the basis for genetic improvement, effective conservation and efficient utilization of genetic resources. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity and population structure of Ethiopian sweet sorghum genotypes collected from major growing areas of Ethiopia. In the present study, thirteen SSR markers produced a total of 136 alleles across all the 91 sweet sorghum accessions with an average of 10.46 alleles per marker. The major allele frequency per marker ranged from 0.16 to 0.41 with an average of 0.25. The number of alleles per marker ranged from 6 to 15. The mean PIC value was 0.80. The pair-wise genetic differentiation among the five studied sweet sorghum populations ranged from 0.07 to 0.19. The highest Fst (0.19) and the lowest Fst (0.07) population differentiation were observed between sweet sorghum population of South Wollo and Oromia Liyu Zone, and North Shewa and East Gojam sweet sorghum populations, respectively. The analysis of gene flow across populations showed that the highest gene flow was recorded between North Shewa and East Gojam (2.879), whereas the least gene flow was observed between South Wollo and Oromia Liyu Zone (0.618). The analysis of molecular variance revealed that 16% variation was observed among populations and 84% variation has been observed within populations. Meanwhile, the STRUCTURE and UPGMA methods of clustering suggested that the sampled sweet sorghum populations were clustered into two main groups (K =  2). This comprehensive study of genetic diversity and population structure of sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) in Ethiopia suggests that future sweet sorghum improvement and utilization strategies should take the magnitude and pattern of genetic diversity into consideration.

Effects of gender, education, contact with older adults and health-related jobs on memory control beliefs across the lifespan

Implementing a new patient navigator model of care within the emergency department for older adults in Ontario, Canada

A Patient Navigator (PN) role was introduced in the Emergency Department (ED) in a large metropolitan hospital in Southern Ontario (Canada) to assist with care transitions. The purpose of this study was to describe the new PN program and type of services provided for older adults in the ED. Given the novelty of the program, it is critical to better understand how a PN ED model of care may help improve the discharge process and ED-community transitions for older adults. This retrospective observational cohort study includes data between November 2020 and October 2021. In this study, the clinical data collected by the PN were analyzed to describe the patient socio-demographics, types of services provided, and outcomes. The PN contacted 95% patients (n = 125) referred to the service in which the median age was 80 (SD = 9.0) consisting of mostly females (74%; n = 92). The PN provided consultations to 79 patients (≤7 days) and 46 patients were admitted to the PN’s caseload. For the 46 admitted cases, the PN connected to 52% of the patients on the same day, facilitated 83% of the patients in returning home or supportive setting and provided follow-up care (i.e., phone calls or home visits) for 67 days (median) in the community. This study provides a preliminary depiction of the scope of practice of a PN within an ED setting, and important considerations for decision-makers and/or administrators interested in implementing a PN role in the ED.

Neural representation of consciously seen and unseen information

Maize monoculture supported pre-Columbian urbanism in southwestern Amazonia

Abstract The Casarabe culture (500–1400 ce), spreading over roughly 4,500 km2 of the monumental mounds region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia, is one of the clearest examples of urbanism in pre-Columbian (pre-1492 ce) Amazonia. It exhibits a four-tier hierarchical settlement pattern, with hundreds of monumental mounds interconnected by canals and causeways1,2. Despite archaeological evidence indicating that maize was cultivated by this society3, it is unknown whether it was the staple crop and which type of agricultural farming system was used to support this urban-scale society. Here, we address this issue by integration of remote sensing, field survey and microbotanical analyses, which shows that the Casarabe culture invested heavily in landscape engineering, constructing a complex system of drainage canals (to drain excess water during the rainy season) and newly documented savannah farm ponds (to retain water in the dry season). Phytolith analyses of 178 samples from 18 soil profiles in drained fields, farm ponds and forested settings record the singular and ubiquitous presence of maize (Zea mays) in pre-Columbian fields and farm ponds, and an absence of evidence for agricultural practices in the forest. Collectively, our findings show how the Casarabe culture managed the savannah landscape for intensive year-round maize monoculture that probably sustained its relatively large population. Our results have implications for how we conceive agricultural systems in Amazonia, and show an example of a Neolithic-like, grain-based agrarian economy in the Amazon.

A novel oncolytic vaccinia virus with multiple gene modifications involved in viral replication and maturation increases safety for intravenous administration while maintaining proliferative potential in cancer cells

To generate a novel oncolytic vaccinia virus with improved safety and productivity, the genome of smallpox vaccine strain LC16m8 was modified by a bacterial artificial chromosome system. By using LC16m8, a replicating virus homologous to the target virus, as a helper virus for the bacterial artificial chromosome system, we successfully recovered genome-edited infectious viruses. Oncolytic viruses with limited growth in normal cells were obtained by deleting the genes for vaccinia virus growth factor (VGF), extracellular signal-regulated kinase-activating protein (O1L), and ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) present in the viral genome. Furthermore, the amino acid residues of seven proteins involved in extracellular enveloped virus virion formation were replaced to the IHD-J strain sequence, which is known to highly express extracellular enveloped virus. In cultured cancer cells (HeLa), these modified viruses showed cytotoxicity and increased productivity, but it was confirmed that the cytotoxicity was suppressed in normal cells (normal human dermal fibroblasts). For in vivo safety evaluation, a modified virus (MD-RVV-ΔRR-EEV6) in which the VGF, O1L, and RNR genes of LC16m8 were deleted and the genes of six extracellular enveloped virus-associated proteins were replaced with sequences derived from IHD-J strain, and another modified virus (MD-RVV) lacking only the VGF and O1L were administered intravenously to severe combined immunodeficiency mice. In the MD-RVV administration, animals in all dose groups died by 40 days after virus administration. On the other hand, after MD-RVV-ΔRR-EEV6 administration, 3 out of 5 animals in the high and medium dose groups and all animals in the low dose group were still alive by day 71, the end of the observation period. These results demonstrate that genome editing of oncolytic vaccinia virus can delete genes involved in viral replication to improve safety in normal cells, while replacing genes involved in maturation improves proliferative potential in cancer cells.

Hybrid feature optimized CNN for rice crop disease prediction

Abstract The agricultural industry significantly relies on autonomous systems for detecting and analyzing rice diseases to minimize financial and resource losses, reduce yield reductions, improve processing efficiency, and ensure healthy crop production. Advances in deep learning have greatly enhanced disease diagnostic techniques in agriculture. Accurate identification of rice plant diseases is crucial to preventing the severe consequences these diseases can have on crop yield. Current methods often struggle with reliably diagnosing conditions and detecting issues in leaf images. Previously, leaf segmentation posed challenges, and while analyzing complex disease stages can be effective, it is computationally intensive. Therefore, segmentation methods need to be more accurate, cost-effective, and reliable. To address these challenges, we propose a hybrid bio-inspired algorithm, named the Hybrid WOA_APSO algorithm, which merges Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (APSO) with the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA). For disease classification in rice crops, we utilize a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Multiple experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model using benchmark datasets (Plantvillage), with a focus on feature extraction, segmentation, and preprocessing. Optimizing feature selection is a critical factor in enhancing the classification algorithm’s accuracy. We compare the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of our model against industry-standard techniques such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and conventional CNN models. The experimental results indicate that the proposed hybrid approach achieves an impressive accuracy of 97.5% (Refer Table 8), which could inspire further research in this field.

The effect of IL-1β inhibitor canakinumab (Ilaris®) on IL-6 production in human skeletal muscle cells

Muscle inflammation is one of the hallmarks of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Dystrophin-deficient skeletal muscle cells produce higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in response to toll-like receptor stimulation compared to normal muscle skeletal cells. IL- 1β induces the human skeletal muscle secretion of the myokine Interleukin-6 (IL-6). Here, we evaluated the effect of a human IgG1κ monoclonal antibody (canakinumab (Ilaris®)) that specifically blocks the IL-1β effect on IL-6 secretion by human skeletal muscle cells. Canakinumab is an excellent candidate for therapeutic repositioning to treat DMD because it is an FDA-approved drug to treat periodic fever syndromes and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Unlike previous generations of IL-1 inhibitors, canakinumab is highly specific for the IL-1β ligand, has a longer half-life, and does not interfere with other IL-1-activated inflammatory pathways. Following cell culture optimization and viability assays to assess toxicity, skeletal muscle cells were stimulated with IL-1β (10 ng/mL) for 48 hours in the presence of nine concentrations of canakinumab ranging from 0.001 nM to 1000 nM, and IL-6 production was measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Pre-incubation of myoblasts with canakinumab before IL-1β-stimulation, significantly reduced IL-6 production at concentrations of 1, 10, 100, 250, and 1000 nM relative to controls, yielding an IC50 of 0.264 nM. On the other hand, co-incubation of canakinumab with IL-1β before addition to myoblasts resulted in a significant inhibition with the IC50 reducing to 0.126 nM, less than half of the previous method. Canakinumab also did not affect myotube viability at 10 nM and was also able to significantly reduce the production of IL-6, when the cells were stimulated with IL-1β (10 ng/ml). Taken together, our results show that canakinumab is a potent inhibitor of IL-1β signaling in muscle cells. These results align with previously published pre-clinical work with other IL-1 inhibitors in the mdx mouse model and support further investigation into the clinical utility of repositioning canakinumab to treat DMD.

Developmental and toxicological effects of butylated hydroxytoluene metabolites on zebrafish larvae

Contrasting drought sensitivity of Eurasian and North American grasslands

Dealing with radiation risks in systemic cancer treatment: Perspectives of practitioners and patients in French hospitals

Systemic radionuclide therapy (SRT) using substances such as 177Lu is an approach in cancer treatment that aims to destroy malign tissues by injecting radionuclides directly into patients’ bodies via the bloodstream. This treatment connects benefits of care with risks related to radioactivity. Our research conducted in French hospitals shows that managing risk is an integral part of SRT, spanning from implementation, hospitals’ protocols, specific management, hospital settings, and training, to the individual experiences of health professionals and patients who are both exposed to radioactivity. This article argues that understanding how risks are managed in SRT not only requires making them identifiable, quantifiable, and calculable through medical devices in the context of evidence-based medicine, but also necessitates fostering trust throughout the treatment. This article explores and provides insights into three intertwined dimensions of trust in risk management: epistemic, (inter)-organizational, and interpersonal.

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among oral health care workers with natural seroconversion: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Conservative endometrioma surgery: The combined technique versus CO2-laser vaporization only (BLAST: Belgium LAser STudy): Clinical protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background The surgical management of endometrioma(s) remains challenging. Although laparoscopic surgery is a well-established treatment of endometrioma(s), caution is required to minimize ovarian damage. Several surgical techniques have been described to treat endometrioma(s): classical cystectomy, ablative techniques, or a combination of both. As cystectomy is strongly associated with a reduction in ovarian reserve, this randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to determine to what extent the two other surgical procedures may affect ovarian reserve by comparing changes in serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels concentrations after each type of surgery. Methods This is a multicenter, non-blinded, RCT with parallel groups (group 1 (combined technique) versus group 2 (CO2 laser vaporization only)) and allocation 1:1. Four Belgian centers will be involved. Main inclusion criteria are symptomatic patients (pain and/or infertility), 18–40 years (both inclusive) with an endometriotic cyst (mean diameter of ≥ 2.5 cm and ≤ 8 cm) and AMH level ≥ 0.7 ng/mL. Suspicion of malignancy, a contralateral endometrioma of > 2 cm, use of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues around timing of surgery or previous oophorectomy are exclusion criteria. The primary aim is the evaluation of the difference in serum AMH levels between baseline and 3 months postoperatively (or delta AMH). The secondary outcomes include differences in AMH levels at 6 and 12 months postoperatively, cyst recurrence rate, evolution of pain pattern and fertility outcomes. Discussion The present study will help us to answer the question on which surgical technique for endometrioma(s) has the most favorable outcome in patients wishing to preserve their reproductive potential. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04151433. Registered on November 5th, 2019.

Author Correction: The effect of Polygonum hyrcanicum Rech. f. hydroalcoholic extract on oxidative stress and nephropathy in alloxan-induced diabetic mice

Prediction of drug target interaction based on under sampling strategy and random forest algorithm

Drug target interactions (DTIs) play a crucial role in drug discovery and development. The prediction of DTIs based on computational method can effectively assist the experimental techniques for DTIs identification, which are time-consuming and expensive. However, the current computational models suffer from low accuracy and high false positive rate in the prediction of DTIs, especially for datasets with extremely unbalanced sample categories. To accurately identify the interaction between drugs and target proteins, a variety of descriptors that fully show the characteristic information of drugs and targets are extracted and applied to the integrated method random forest (RF) in this work. Here, the random projection method is adopted to reduce the feature dimension such that simplify the model calculation. In addition, to balance the number of samples in different categories, a down sampling method NearMiss (NM) which can control the number of samples is used. Based on the gold standard datasets (nuclear receptors, ion channel, GPCRs and enzymes), the proposed method achieves the auROC of 92.26%, 98.21%, 97.65%, 99.33%, respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields significantly higher performance than that of state-of-the-art methods in predicting drug target interaction.

Gallic acid alleviates ferroptosis by negatively regulating APOC3 and improves nerve function deficit caused by traumatic brain injury

Mapping the value of commercial fishing and potential costs of offshore wind energy on the U.S: West Coast: Towards an assessment of resource use tradeoffs

The West Coast of the U.S. has a vast offshore wind energy (OWE) electricity generation potential with value on the order of billions of USD, and pressure is mounting to develop large OWE projects. However, this seascape has numerous existing resource extraction uses, including a multi-billion dollar commercial fishing industry, which create the potential for conflict. To date, spatially explicit comparisons of OWE and commercial fisheries value have not been done, but are essential for marine spatial planning and for investigating the tradeoffs of OWE development on existing marine uses. In this analysis, we generate maps of OWE levelized cost of energy and of total economic activity generated by the top eight commercial fishing targets that account for the vast majority (~84%) of landed revenue off the U.S. West Coast. We quantify spatial overlap between these two ocean uses and use multiobjective optimization to develop tradeoff frontiers to investigate implications for both sectors from established state goals or mandates for OWE power generation capacity. There are clear differences in the exposure of each fishery in their traditional fishing grounds as a function of differing OWE capacity goals and outcomes vary depending on whether OWE development goals are achieved at a state-by-state level or a region-wide level. Responsible siting of OWE projects includes careful consideration of existing commercial fishing activities, and responsible transition to renewable energies on the West Coast and elsewhere accounts for the socio-economic consequences of the total economic activity associated with each fishery.