Since its first appearance in Wuhan, China, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has rapidly spread throughout the world and has become a global pandemic. Several medical ...comorbidities have been identified as risk factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). However, it remains unclear whether people living with human immunodefeciency virus (PLWH) are at an increased risk of COVID‐19 and severe disease manifestation, with controversial suggestion that HIV‐infected individuals could be protected from severe COVID‐19 by means of antiretroviral therapy or HIV‐related immunosuppression. Several cases of coinfection with HIV and SARS‐CoV‐2 have been reported from different parts of the globe. This review seeks to provide a holistic overview of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in PLWH.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 has fast spread around the world to become a global pandemic.
Despite the potentially poor prognosis, data on HIV/SARS‐CoV‐2 co‐infection is still scarce.
HIV‐related immunosuppression may predispose them to severe forms of COVID‐19.
Analysis of available data did not show excess morbidity and mortality among PLWH.
Distributed generators (DGs) are currently extensively used to reduce power losses and voltage deviations in distribution networks. The optimal location and size of DGs achieve the best results. This ...study presents a novel hybridization of new metaheuristic optimizations in the last two years, namely, salp swarm algorithm (SSA) and whale optimization algorithm (WOA), for optimal placement and size of multi-DG units in radial distribution systems to minimize total real power losses (kW) and solve voltage deviation. This hybrid algorithm is implemented on IEEE 13- and 123-node radial distribution test systems. The OpenDSS engine is used to solve the power flow to find the power system parameters, such power losses, and the voltage profile through the MATLAB coding interface. Results describe the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid WOA-SSA algorithm compared with those of the IEEE standard case (without DG), repeated load flow method, and WOA and SSA algorithms applied independently. The analysis results via the proposed algorithm are more effective for reducing total active power losses and enhancing the voltage profile for various distribution networks and multi-DG units.
Annually, urinary tract infections (UTIs) affect over a hundred million people worldwide. Early detection of high-risk individuals can help prevent hospitalization for UTIs, which imposes significant ...economic and social burden on patients and caregivers. We present two methods to generate risk score models for UTI hospitalization. We utilize a sample of patients from the insurance claims data provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop and validate the proposed methods. Our dataset encompasses a wide range of features, such as demographics, medical history, and healthcare utilization of the patients along with provider quality metrics and community-based metrics. The proposed methods scale and round the coefficients of an underlying logistic regression model to create scoring tables. We present computational experiments to evaluate the prediction performance of both models. We also discuss different features of these models with respect to their impact on interpretability. Our findings emphasize the effectiveness of risk score models as practical tools for identifying high-risk patients and provide a quantitative assessment of the significance of various risk factors in UTI hospitalizations such as admission to ICU in the last 3 months, cognitive disorders and low inpatient, outpatient and carrier costs in the last 6 months.
Cell division, endocytosis, and viral budding would not function without the localization and assembly of protein complexes on membranes. What is poorly appreciated, however, is that by localizing to ...membranes, proteins search in a reduced space that effectively drives up concentration. Here we derive an accurate and practical analytical theory to quantify the significance of this dimensionality reduction in regulating protein assembly on membranes. We define a simple metric, an effective equilibrium constant, that allows for quantitative comparison of protein-protein interactions with and without membrane present. To test the importance of membrane localization for driving protein assembly, we collected the protein-protein and protein-lipid affinities, protein and lipid concentrations, and volume-to-surface-area ratios for 46 interactions between 37 membrane-targeting proteins in human and yeast cells. We find that many of the protein-protein interactions between pairs of proteins involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis in human and yeast cells can experience enormous increases in effective protein-protein affinity (10-1000 fold) due to membrane localization. Localization of binding partners thus triggers robust protein complexation, suggesting that it can play an important role in controlling the timing of endocytic protein coat formation. Our analysis shows that several other proteins involved in membrane remodeling at various organelles have similar potential to exploit localization. The theory highlights the master role of phosphoinositide lipid concentration, the volume-to-surface-area ratio, and the ratio of 3D to 2D equilibrium constants in triggering (or preventing) constitutive assembly on membranes. Our simple model provides a novel quantitative framework for interpreting or designing in vitro experiments of protein complexation influenced by membrane binding.
Astaxanthin, a red-orange liposoluble carotenoid, has been the centre of considerable attention in recent years for its numerous biological activities, notably its potent antioxidant activity. It is ...reported that astaxanthin elicits these biological activities via a number of cellular pathways. The Nrf2/Keap1 pathway is a major regulator of the antioxidant defence system of cells; it modulates the expression of a plethora of genes related to redox homeostasis as well as cellular detoxification. The pathway has received lots of attention as a prospective therapeutic target for diseases related to oxidative stress and inflammation. Several reports have shown that the pathway is inducible by many natural compounds. This present work reviews the Nrf2/Keap1 pathway, its regulation and involvement in diseases, provides a brief overview of naturally occurring compounds as activators of the pathway as well as discusses the effect of astaxanthin on the pathway.
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•Nrf2 is a chief regulator of redox homeostasis.•Oxidative stress and inflammation contribute to several noncommunicable diseases.•Modulating Nrf2-Keap1 pathway can improve disease phenotype.•Astaxanthin can activate the Nrf2-Keap1 pathway.
Abstract Postural stability is crucial in maintaining body balance during quiet standing, locomotion, and any activities that require a high degree of balance performance, such as participating in ...sports and dancing. Research has shown that there is a relationship between stability and body mass. The aims of this study were to examine the impact that two variables had on static postural control: body mass index (BMI) and gender. Eighty healthy young adults (age=21.7±1.8 yr; height=1.65±0.09 m; mass=67.5±19.0 kg) participated in the study and the static postural control was assessed using the Biodex Balance System, with a 20 Hz sampling rate in the bipedic stance (BLS) and unipedic stance (ULS) for 30 s. Five test evaluations were performed for each balance test. Postural control was found to be negatively correlated with increased adiposity, as the obese BMI group performed significantly poorer than the underweight, normal weight and overweight groups during BLS and ULS tests. The underweight, normal weight and overweight groups exhibited greater anterior–posterior stability in postural control during quiet stance. In addition, female displayed a trend of having a greater postural sway than male young adults, although it was evidenced in only some BMI groups. This study revealed that BMI do have an impact on postural control during both BLS and ULS. As such, BMI and gender-specific effects should be taken into consideration when selecting individuals for different types of sporting activities, especially those that require quiet standing.
Agricultural product residues must be included in production because they are nutrient-rich. In this study, the unused parts of the pumpkin (waste) were dried in a convective dryer (60 and 70 °C) and ...carrier material rates (0, 10, 20%) were used to pulverize. After drying, the effect of pumpkin waste on the powdering processes was investigated. This study of the powder produced from pumpkin waste, moisture-dry matter ratios, effective diffusion, colour, total phenolic substance, total flavonoid, total antioxidant activity, drying-moisture ratios of drying processes, specific moisture absorption rate (SMER), specific energy consumption (SEC), evaporating energy parameters were investigated. It was determined that the average drying rates of pumpkin purees were determined for 60 and 70 °C drying temperatures and carrier agent ratios, varying between 2.8 × 10
–3
–1.9 × 10
–2
and 5.8 × 10
–3
–1.2 × 10
–2
g moisture/g drying material.minute. The effective diffusion value varied between 4.16 × 10
–6
and1.06 × 10
–5
m
2
/s. The SMER and SEC values of the drying processes were calculated to vary between 0.010–0.0034 kg/kWh and 88.78–669.70 kWh/kg, respectively. The steam energy values varied between 1.86–11.69 kWh. Dry matter, moisture and encapsulation success rates changed between 5.25–26.95%, 0.21–4.57% and 98.51–99.64%, respectively. The most suitable colour values for both drying temperatures were determined in the control samples. Total phenolic content (TPC) values varied between 1074.5 and 7421.1 µg GAE/g dw, total flavonoids (TF) 191.85–869.63 mg KE/kg dw, and total antioxidant activity (TAA) values between 9.06 and 36.27 µmol TE/g dw. The group that best preserved the phytochemical properties of pumpkin powders was determined in the control group samples dried at 70 °C. When the findings are examined, it has been suggested to the producers for the production of pumpkin powder that 70 °C-20% carrier agent process in terms of drying kinetics and physical properties of the powder, and 70 °C-control processes in terms of quality properties.
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