Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is known to cause human infections and since the late 1990s, community-onset antibiotic resistant infections (methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA)) continue to ...cause significant infections in the United States. Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) still account for the majority of these in the outpatient setting. Machine learning can predict the location-based risks for community-level S. aureus infections. Multi-year (2002-2016) electronic health records of children <19 years old with S. aureus infections were queried for patient level data for demographic, clinical, and laboratory information. Area level data (Block group) was abstracted from U.S. Census data. A machine learning ecological niche model, maximum entropy (MaxEnt), was applied to assess model performance of specific place-based factors (determined a priori) associated with S. aureus infections; analyses were structured to compare methicillin resistant (MRSA) against methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) infections. Differences in rates of MRSA and MSSA infections were determined by comparing those which occurred in the early phase (2002-2005) and those in the later phase (2006-2016). Multi-level modeling was applied to identify risks factors for S. aureus infections. Among 16,124 unique patients with community-onset MRSA and MSSA, majority occurred in the most densely populated neighborhoods of Atlanta's metropolitan area. MaxEnt model performance showed the training AUC ranged from 0.771 to 0.824, while the testing AUC ranged from 0.769 to 0.839. Population density was the area variable which contributed the most in predicting S. aureus disease (stratified by CO-MRSA and CO-MSSA) across early and late periods. Race contributed more to CO-MRSA prediction models during the early and late periods than for CO-MSSA. Machine learning accurately predicts which densely populated areas are at highest and lowest risk for community-onset S. aureus infections over a 14-year time span.
In bioinformatics, network alignment algorithms have been applied to protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks to discover evolutionary conserved substructures at the system level. However, most ...previous methods aim to maximize the similarity of aligned proteins in pairwise networks, while concerning little about the feature of connectivity in these substructures, such as the protein complexes.
In this paper, we identify the problem of finding conserved protein complexes, which requires the aligned proteins in a PPI network to form a connected subnetwork. By taking the feature of connectivity into consideration, we propose ConnectedAlign, an efficient method to find conserved protein complexes from multiple PPI networks. The proposed method improves the coverage significantly without compromising of the consistency in the aligned results. In this way, the knowledge of protein complexes in well-studied species can be extended to that of poor-studied species.
We conducted extensive experiments on real PPI networks of four species, including human, yeast, fruit fly and worm. The experimental results demonstrate dominant benefits of the proposed method in finding protein complexes across multiple species.
The youngest generation of students prefers a more active learning style. Sandwich teaching may suit their learning style by alternating between active individual learning and passive collective ...learning. Sandwich teaching has been rarely applied to the Community Nursing Course for nursing students, and its teaching effects on this course remain unclear. This study applied Sandwich teaching to the Community Nursing Course for Chinese nursing undergraduates and investigated its effects on students' critical thinking, self-learning ability, course experience, and academic performance. This is a quasi-experimental study with 72 Chinese nursing undergraduates. Students receiving traditional teaching were enrolled in the control group (n = 36), and those who received Sandwich teaching were recruited into the experimental group (n = 36). Both groups received the 12-week, 90-min Community Nursing Course. Our main outcome variable, including students' critical thinking, self-learning ability, and course experience, was assessed by specific questionnaire. The paired t-tests were applied to compare the differences of the same group in the pre-test and the post-test, and the independent-sample t-tests were used to compare the differences between the two groups. We observed that nursing students' critical thinking ability and self-learning ability were significantly improved after receiving Sandwich teaching. Students' course experience of Sandwich teaching was significantly better than that of traditional teaching. The final exam score in the experimental group was not significantly higher than that in the control group. These results suggest that Sandwich teaching in Community Nursing Course improved Chinese nursing undergraduates' critical thinking, self-learning ability, and course experience, but failed in improving academic performance.
Drug discovery and development is not only a time-consuming and labor-intensive process but also full of risk. Identifying targets of small molecules helps evaluate safety of drugs and find new ...therapeutic applications. The biotechnology measures a wide variety of properties related to drug and targets from different perspectives, thus generating a large body of data. This undoubtedly provides a solid foundation to explore relationships between drugs and targets. A large number of computational techniques have recently been developed for drug target prediction. In this paper, we summarize these computational methods and classify them into structure-based, molecular activity-based, side-effectbased and multi-omics-based predictions according to the used data for inference. The multi-omicsbased methods are further grouped into two types: classifier-based and network-based predictions. Furthermore， the advantages and limitations of each type of methods are discussed. Finally, we point out the future directions of computational predictions for drug targets.
Dietary restriction (DR), which is defined as a reduction of particular or total nutrient intake without causing malnutrition, has been proved to be a robust way to extend both lifespan and ...health-span in various species from yeast to mammal. However, the molecular mechanisms by which DR confers benefits on longevity were not yet fully elucidated. The forkhead box O transcription factors (FOXOs), identified as downstream regulators of the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway, control the expression of many genes regulating crucial biological processes such as metabolic homeostasis, redox balance, stress response and cell viability and proliferation. The activity of FOXOs is also mediated by AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), sirtuins and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Therefore, the FOXO-related pathways form a complex network critical for coordinating a response to environmental fluctuations in order to maintain cellular homeostasis and to support physiological aging. In this review, we will focus on the role of FOXOs in different DR interventions. As different DR regimens or calorie (energy) restriction mimetics (CRMs) can elicit both distinct and overlapped DR-related signaling pathways, the benefits of DR may be maximized by combining diverse forms of interventions. In addition, a better understanding of the precise role of FOXOs in different mechanistic aspects of DR response would provide clear cellular and molecular insights on DR-induced increase of lifespan and health-span.
Hand.-Mazz is a valuable ornamental tree and timber source, whose seedling breeding and large-scale cultivation are restricted by low seed germination and seedling rates. The regulatory mechanisms ...underlying seed germination and seedling establishment in
remain unknown. This study conducted metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of seed germination and seedling establishment in
. Regular expression of genes and metabolite levels has been observed in plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. The reduction in abscisic acid during seed germination may lead to seed release from dormancy. After the seed is released from dormancy, the metabolic levels of auxin, cytokinins, brassinolide, and various sugars are elevated, and they are consumed in large quantities during the seedling establishment stage. Linoleic acid metabolism is gradually activated during seedling establishment. Transcriptome analysis showed that a large number of genes in different metabolic pathways are upregulated during plant establishment, and material metabolism may be accelerated during seedling establishment. Genes regulating carbohydrate metabolism are altered during seed germination and seedling establishment, which may have altered the efficiency of carbohydrate utilization. In addition, the syntheses of lignin monomers and cellulose have different characteristics at different stages. These results provide new insights into the complex mechanisms underlying seed germination and seedling establishment in
and other woody plants.
Surgical Nursing is a core subject for nursing undergraduates that requires active and effective learning strategies to cultivate students' autonomous learning competencies and critical thinking. The ...effects of BOPPPS (Bridge-in, Objectives, Pretest, Participatory Learning, Post-test and Summary) model combined with team-based learning (TBL) have rarely been explored in Surgical Nursing courses.
To explore the effects of BOPPPS combined with TBL in Surgical Nursing for nursing undergraduates.
A mixed research method of quasi-experimental study design and descriptive qualitative research was used. The control group included 27 nursing undergraduates who had finished the Surgical Nursing course using traditional learning. The experimental group included 36 nursing undergraduates were enrolled in to receive the Surgical Nursing course in the teaching mode of BOPPPS combined with TBL. The quantitative data of students' Surgical Nursing final scores, autonomous learning competencies and critical thinking ability of the two groups were collected and compared by t-test. Qualitative results were obtained through semi-structured interviews and data were analyzed by thematic analysis method.
Compared with the traditional learning mode, BOPPPS combined with TBL significantly improved nursing students' final examination scores, autonomous learning competencies and critical thinking ability (p < 0.05). Qualitative results from 14 undergraduate nursing students' interviews were summarized into five themes: (1) stimulating learning interest; (2) improving autonomous learning ability; (3) improving the sense of teamwork; (4) exercising critical thinking; and (5) suggestions for improvement.
The combination of BOPPPS and TBL positively impacted nursing students by improving their autonomous learning competencies and critical thinking ability. The study suggests BOPPPS combined with TBL learning as an effective, alternative learning mode.
Purpose
Colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in the USA. We sought to better characterize colon cancer among a predominantly Black cohort with and without HIV.
...Methods
We retrospectively reviewed all patients (
n
= 1482) diagnosed with colon cancer between 2015 and 2019 at a large urban tertiary teaching hospital using ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. In this cohort, 114 (7.7%) of the patients also had HIV. Descriptive summaries were performed for gender, age, race/ethnicity, insurance status, tobacco/alcohol use, and BMI.
Results
Among patients with colon cancer only, 50.51% (
n
= 691) were men and 49.49% (
n
= 677) were women. Among patients with both HIV and colon cancer, 78.95% (
n
= 90) were men and 21.05% (
n
= 24) were women (p-value < 0.001). The mean age of the colon cancer patient sample was 61.62 years for those without HIV and 51.31 years for those with HIV (
p
-value < 0.001). Persons with both HIV and colon cancer were more likely to have a lower BMI (
p
-value < 0.001) and a history of smoking and alcohol use (
p
-value < 0.001), compared to patients with colon cancer only. When accounting for BMI, tobacco, and alcohol use, those with HIV were 10 years younger than those without HIV, 95% CI, 7.3–13;
p
< 0.001.
Conclusions
In this study, HIV positive status was a risk factor for developing colon cancer at a younger age. Larger observational studies with multivariable analysis should be done to better describe the risk of colon cancer and HIV.
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