The current wealth of genomic variation data identified at nucleotide level presents the challenge of understanding by which mechanisms amino acid variation affects cellular processes. These effects ...may manifest as distinct phenotypic differences between individuals or result in the development of disease. Physical interactions between molecules are the linking steps underlying most, if not all, cellular processes. Understanding the effects that sequence variation has on a molecule's interactions is a key step towards connecting mechanistic characterization of nonsynonymous variation to phenotype. We present an open access resource created over 14 years by IMEx database curators, featuring 28,000 annotations describing the effect of small sequence changes on physical protein interactions. We describe how this resource was built, the formats in which the data is provided and offer a descriptive analysis of the data set. The data set is publicly available through the IntAct website and is enhanced with every monthly release.
In the original HTML version of this Article, the order of authors within the author list was incorrect. The IMEx Consortium contributing authors were incorrectly listed as the last author and should ...have been listed as the first author. This error has been corrected in the HTML version of the Article; the PDF version was correct at the time of publication.
The proficiency of nursing professionals in the infection prevention and control (IPC) practices is a core component of the strategy to mitigate the challenge of healthcare associated infections.
To ...test knowledge of nurses working in intensive care units (ICU) in South Asia and Middle East countries on IPC practices.
An online self-assessment questionnaire based on various aspects of IPC practices was conducted among nurses over three weeks.
A total of 1333 nurses from 13 countries completed the survey. The average score was 72.8% and 36% of nurses were proficient (mean score > 80%). 43% and 68.3% of respondents were from government and teaching hospitals, respectively. 79.2% of respondents worked in < 25 bedded ICUs and 46.5% in closed ICUs. Statistically, a significant association was found between the knowledge and expertise of nurses, the country's per-capita income, type of hospitals, accreditation and teaching status of hospitals and type of ICUs. Working in high- and upper-middle-income countries (β = 4.89, 95%CI: 3.55 to 6.22) was positively associated, and the teaching status of the hospital (β = -4.58, 95%CI: -6.81 to -2.36) was negatively associated with the knowledge score among respondents.
There is considerable variation in knowledge among nurses working in ICU. Factors like income status of countries, public
private and teaching status of hospitals and experience are independently associated with nurses' knowledge of IPC practices.
In the present study, Al-4%SiC nanocomposite was manufactured with homogeneous and uniform distribution of SiC particles in Al matrix using accumulative roll bonding (ARB) technique. In addition high ...strength Al sheets were manufactured using ARB technique with the aim of comparison. Tensile test and microhardness were used to characterize the produced nanocomposite. Moreover, 3D FE model is presented to predict microhardness of the manufactured nanocomposite. The results show that at the initial stages of ARB process, particle free zones as well as particle clusters were observed in the microstructure of the nanocomposite. After 9 ARB passes, Al-4%SiC nanocomposite with uniform distribution of particles was produced. The tensile strength for ARBed Al and Al-4%SiC nanocomposite after nine passes is 3.19 and 4.09 times of the annealed Al 1050, respectively. Moreover, microhardness of ARBed Al and Al-4%SiC nanocomposite after nine passes is 3.63 and 4.76 times of the annealed Al 1050, respectively. Interestingly, the main strengthening mechanism is the grain refinement and dislocation strengthening due to rolling process, while the addition of SiC nanoparticles acts as a secondary strengthening source. Finally, the microhardness results predicted by the presented 3D FE model correlate well with the experimental results.
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•ARB technique is used to produce highly uniform Al-SiC nanocomposites.•Novel 3D FE model is presented to predict microhardness of Al-SiC nanocomposite.•Tensile strength and microhardness became 4 and 4.7 times larger than Al.•Grain refinement, dislocation strengthening are the main strengthening mechanisms.
In this paper, copper matrix nanocomposites reinforced by 5 and 10 wt% ZrO2 particles were produced by mechanical milling technique at different milling times. The produced nanocomposite powders were ...investigated by X-ray diffraction technique and transmission electron microscopy. The effect of high energy ball milling on the morphology, microstructure and microhardness of the produced composites has been investigated. After that cold compaction was applied to the prepared powders under a pressure of 700 MPa and sintered at 950 °C for 2 h in hydrogen atmosphere. The results showed that increasing milling time improves microhardness of the prepared nanocomposites. The microhardness of Cu-10%ZrO2 after 20 h milling is 3.76 times larger than pure Cu. This improvement is attributed firstly to the presence of ZrO2 nanoparticles in addition to the improvement coming from the grain refinement and crystallite size reduction occurred due to mechanical alloying. So, in spite of the crystallite size of Cu-10%ZrO2 nanocomposite is reduced to 10.75 nm compared to 105.5 nm for pure Cu, the presence of ZrO2 nanoparticles plays a major role on mechanical properties improvement.
The activation and differentiation of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) are involved in tumor progression. Here, we show that the tumor-promoting lipid mediator prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) plays a ...paradoxical role in CAF activation and tumor progression. Restricting PGE2 signaling via knockout of microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1) in PyMT mice or of the prostanoid E receptor 3 (EP3) in CAFs stunted mammary carcinoma growth associated with strong CAF proliferation. CAF proliferation upon EP3 inhibition required p38 MAPK signaling. Mechanistically, TGFβ-activated kinase-like protein (TAK1L), which was identified as a negative regulator of p38 MAPK activation, was decreased following ablation of mPGES-1 or EP3. In contrast with its effects on primary tumor growth, disruption of PGE2 signaling in CAFs induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cancer organoids and promoted metastasis in mice. Moreover, TAK1L expression in CAFs was associated with decreased CAF activation, reduced metastasis, and prolonged survival in human breast cancer. These data characterize a new pathway of regulating inflammatory CAF activation, which affects breast cancer progression.
The inflammatory lipid prostaglandin E2 suppresses cancer-associated fibroblast expansion and activation to limit primary mammary tumor growth while promoting metastasis.
Recently, social networks have shown huge potential in terms of collaborative web services and the study of peer influence as a result of the massive amount of data, datasets, and interrelations ...generated. These interrelations cannot guarantee the success of online social networks without ensuring the existence of trust between nodes. Detecting influential nodes improves collaborative filtering (CF) recommendations in which nodes with the highest influential capability are most likely to be the source of recommendations. Although CF-based recommendation systems are the most widely used approach for implementing recommender systems, this approach ignores the mutual trust between users. In this paper, a trust-based algorithm (TBA) is introduced to detect influential spreaders in social networks efficiently. In particular, the proposed TBA estimates the influence that each node has on the other connected nodes as well as on the whole network. Next, a Friend-of-Friend recommendation (FoF-SocialI) algorithm is addressed to detect the influence of social ties in the recommendation process. Finally, experimental results, performed on three large scale location-based social networks, namely, Brightkite, Gowalla, and Weeplaces, to test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, are presented. The conducted experiments show a remarkable enhancement in predicting and recommending locations in various social networks.
Background:
Recent studies in the general stroke population treated with endovascular treatment (EVT) reported that higher pre-treatment lesional volumes were independently associated with poor ...neurological outcome and functional dependence after stroke. However, it has been not evaluated in older patients.
Aim:
We test the association between the pre-treatment lesional volume on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and relevant outcome measures in older adults with stroke treated with EVT.
Methods:
We included consecutive older adults with stroke (⩾80 years old) treated with EVT in two academic comprehensive stroke centers. The association between pre-treatment lesional volume and relevant outcome measures (poor outcome (modified Rankin scale 4–6), 3-month mortality and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH)) was evaluated using univariate and multivariable models.
Results:
Five hundred seventy-nine patients were included (mean age: 85.6 ± 4.1, median lesional volume was 10 ml; interquartile range: 3–30 ml). Pre-treatment lesional volume was associated with poor functional outcome (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.87, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.60–2.20, for +1 logarithmic increase of lesional volume), 3-month mortality (aOR: 1.50, CI: 1.28–1.76), and sICH (aOR: 1.67, CI: 1.27–2.20). A threshold lesional volume >35 ml predicted 90% of patients with poor functional outcome and a cut-off >51 ml predicted 90% of patients dead at 3 months.
Conclusions:
Pre-treatment lesional volume might contribute, in association with other relevant clinical features, to the selection of older stroke patients who will benefit from EVT.
Determine if early venous filling (EVF) after complete successful recanalization with mechanical thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke is an independent predictor of symptomatic intracranial ...hemorrhage (sICH) and integrate EVF into a risk score for sICH prediction.
Consecutive patients with anterior acute ischemic stroke treated by mechanical thrombectomy issued from patients enrolled in the THRACE trial (Thrombectomie des Artères Cérébrales) and from 2 prospective registries were included and divided into a derivation (Center I; n=402) and validation cohorts (THRACE and center 2; n=507). EVF was evaluated by 2 blinded readers. sICH was defined according to the modified European cooperative acute stroke study II. Clinical and radiological data were analyzed in the derivation cohort (C1) to identify independent predictors of sICH and construct a predictive score test on the validation cohort (THRACE + C2).
Symptomatic ICH rate was similar between the two cohorts (9.9% and 8.9% respectively,
=0.9). Time from onset-to-successful recanalization >270 minutes (odds ratio OR, 7.8 95% CI, 2.5-24), Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (≤5 OR, 2.49 (95% CI, 1.8-8.1) or 6-7 OR, 1.15 (95% CI, 1.03-4.46)), glucose blood level >7 mmol/L (OR, 2.92 95% CI, 1.26-6.7), and EVF presence (OR, 11.9 95% CI, 3.8-37.5) were independent predictors of sICH and constituted the Time-Alberta Stroke Program Early CT-Glycemia-EVF score. Time-Alberta Stroke Program Early CT-Glycemia-EVF score was associated with an increased risk of sICH in the derivation cohort (OR increase per unit, 1.99 95% CI, 1.53-2.59;
<0.001) with area under the curve, 0.832 95% CI, 0.767-0.898. The score had good performance in the validation cohort (area under the curve, 0.801 95% CI, 0.69-0.91).
Time-Alberta Stroke Program Early CT-Glycemia-EVF score is a simple tool with readily available clinical variables with good performances for sICH prediction after mechanical thrombectomy.
URL: https://www.
gov; Unique identifier: NCT01062698.
Background: COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has affected millions of people all over the world since 2019. Infection with COVID-19 initiates a humoral immune response that produces antibodies ...against specific viral antigens, which in turn is supposed to provide immunity against reinfection for a period of time. The aim of this research was to study the kinetics of IgM and IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
Methods: One hundred and seventeen post-COVID-19 participants were enrolled in the study. Qualitative assessment of IgM and IgG antibodies over six months (three visits) post recovery was conducted.
Results: The current study revealed a significant reduction in IgM and IgG titers between the first and second visits (p <0.001). After six months, the antibody titer had declined by 78.8% from the first visit for IgM and by 49.2% for IgG antibodies. Regarding younger age and male sex, statistically significant persistence of IgM antibodies was noticed at the six months follow up. Also, statistically significant persistent IgG immunity was found in male patients and diabetics by the end of the six months follow up.
Conclusions: We observed a significant waning of IgM and IgG titers over a period of six months follow up.. The persistence of positive IgM and IgG antibodies by the end of six months was variable due to differences in age, gender and presence of diabetes mellitus.
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