270 research outputs found
Visual abstract - Supplemental material for Robotic Off-Pump Totally Endoscopic Coronary Artery Bypass in Patients With Low Ejection Fraction
No full textVisual abstract, Supplemental material for Robotic Off-Pump Totally Endoscopic Coronary Artery Bypass in Patients With Low Ejection Fraction by Miroslav P. Peev, Sarah Nisivaco, Gianluca Torregrossa, Aliasghar Arastu, Sajid Shahul and Husam H. Balkhy in Innovations: Technology and Techniques in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery</p
Evolution of apoptosis-like programmed cell death in unicellular protozoan parasites
Get PDFApoptosis-like programmed cell death (PCD) has recently been described in multiple taxa of unicellular protists, including the protozoan parasites Plasmodium, Trypanosoma and Leishmania. Apoptosis-like PCD in protozoan parasites shares a number of morphological features with programmed cell death in multicellular organisms. However, both the evolutionary explanations and mechanisms involved in parasite PCD are poorly understood. Explaining why unicellular organisms appear to undergo 'suicide' is a challenge for evolutionary biology and uncovering death executors and pathways is a challenge for molecular and cell biology. Bioinformatics has the potential to integrate these approaches by revealing homologies in the PCD machinery of diverse taxa and evaluating their evolutionary trajectories. As the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis in model organisms are well characterised, and recent data suggest similar mechanisms operate in protozoan parasites, key questions can now be addressed. These questions include: which elements of apoptosis machinery appear to be shared between protozoan parasites and multicellular taxa and, have these mechanisms arisen through convergent or divergent evolution? We use bioinformatics to address these questions and our analyses suggest that apoptosis mechanisms in protozoan parasites and other taxa have diverged during their evolution, that some apoptosis factors are shared across taxa whilst others have been replaced by proteins with similar biochemical activities
Hepatitis A in Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman districts, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Get PDFCITATION: Newman, H., et al. 2018. Hepatitis A in Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman districts, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases, 33(5):1-4, doi:10.4102/sajid.v33i5.148.The original publication is available at https://sajid.co.zaBackground: Hepatitis A is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis, not only in South Africa, but in many other countries.
In South Africa, there is a lack of data regarding the true incidence of hepatitis A, and even fewer data regarding hepatitis A cases
requiring hospitalisation. In the Eastern Cape province of South Africa in particular, there is a paucity of published data that could
be used to guide public health officials. An analysis of all the laboratory-confirmed cases in the area over a period of time may
help to better describe the extent of the problem.
Methods: This was a retrospective study analysing the laboratory-confirmed cases of hepatitis A in the Nelson Mandela Bay and
Sarah Baartman districts of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa for the three-year period from 2015 to 2017.
Results: A total of 194 laboratory-confirmed cases of hepatitis A were identified for the three-year period from 2015 to 2017. Of
these, 138 (71%) cases were children 16 years old or younger, with adults accounting for 56 cases (29%). There was no overall
seasonality associated with laboratory-confirmed cases of hepatitis A.
Conclusions: Hepatitis A is a serious problem in the Eastern Cape region. More studies are needed to determine the exact cause
of the continuing epidemic.https://sajid.co.za/index.php/sajid/article/view/148Publisher's versio
Label-free electrochemical aptasensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein based on carbon cloth sputtered gold nanoparticles
Get PDFThe proliferation and transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), or the (COVID-19) disease, has become a threat to worldwide biosecurity. Therefore, early diagnosis of COVID-19 is crucial to combat the ongoing infection spread. In this study we propose a flexible aptamer-based electrochemical sensor for the rapid, label-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SP). A platform made of a porous and flexible carbon cloth, coated with gold nanoparticles, to increase the conductivity and electrochemical performance of the material, was assembled with a thiol functionalized DNA aptamer via S–Au bonds, for the selective recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 SP. The various steps for the sensor preparation were followed by using scanning electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The proposed platform displayed good mechanical stability, revealing negligible changes on voltammetric responses to bending at various angles. Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 SP was performed by DPV and chronopotentiometry (CP), exploiting the changes of the electrical signals due the [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- redox probe, when SARS-CoV-2 SP binds to the aptamer immobilized on the electrode surface. Current density, in DPV, and square root of the transition time, in CP, varied linearly with the log[ SARS-CoV-2 SP], providing lower limits of detection (LOD) of 0.11 ng/mL and 37.8 ng/mL, respectively. The sensor displayed good selectivity, repeatability, and was tested in diluted human saliva, spiked with different SARS-CoV-2 SP concentrations, providing LODs of 0.167 ng/mL and 46.2 ng/mL for DPV and CP, respectively
Newly formulated, protein quality-enhanced, extruded sorghum-, cowpea-, corn-, soya-, sugar- and oil-containing fortified-blended foods lead to adequate vitamin A and iron outcomes and improved growth compared with non-extruded CSB+ in rats
Get PDFCitation: Delimont, N. M., Fiorentino, N. M., Opoku-Acheampong, A. B., Joseph, M. V., Guo, Q., Alavi, S., & Lindshield, B. L. (2017). Newly formulated, protein quality-enhanced, extruded sorghum-, cowpea-, corn-, soya-, sugar- and oil-containing fortified-blended foods lead to adequate vitamin A and iron outcomes and improved growth compared with non-extruded CSB+ in rats. Journal of Nutritional Science. doi:10.1017/jns.2017.15Corn and soyabean micronutrient-fortified-blended foods (FBF) are commonly used for food aid. Sorghum and cowpeas have been suggested as alternative commodities because they are drought tolerant, can be grown in many localities, and are not genetically modified. Change in formulation of blends may improve protein quality, vitamin A and Fe availability of FBF. The primary objective of this study was to compare protein efficiency, Fe and vitamin A availability of newly formulated extruded sorghum-, cowpea-, soya- and corn-based FBF, along with a current, non-extruded United States Agency for International Development (USAID) corn and soya blend FBF (CSB+). A second objective was to compare protein efficiency of whey protein concentrate (WPC) and soya protein isolate (SPI) containing FBF to determine whether WPC inclusion improved outcomes. Eight groups of growing rats (n 10) consumed two white and one red sorghum–cowpea (WSC1 + WPC, WSC2 + WPC, RSC + WPC), white sorghum–soya (WSS + WPC) and corn–soya (CSB14 + WPC) extruded WPC-containing FBF, an extruded white sorghum–cowpea with SPI (WSC1 + SPI), non-extruded CSB+, and American Institute of Nutrition (AIN)-93G, a weanling rat diet, for 4 weeks. There were no significant differences in protein efficiency, Fe or vitamin A outcomes between WPC FBF groups. The CSB+ group consumed significantly less food, gained significantly less weight, and had significantly lower energy efficiency, protein efficiency and length, compared with all other groups. Compared with WSC1 + WPC, the WSC1 + SPI FBF group had significantly lower energy efficiency, protein efficiency and weight gain. These results suggest that a variety of commodities can be used in the formulation of FBF, and that newly formulated extruded FBF are of better nutritional quality than non-extruded CSB+. Copyright © The Author(s) 2017 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
The management of antisocial behaviour in childhood
Get PDFAntisocial behaviour is the most common reason for referral to child mental health services (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2013). It is a clinical problem of considerable importance, because there is a marked tendency for it to persist, and the long-term outcome includes antisocial personality disorder and criminality. Longitudinal studies have shown that children with conduct disorder at the age of 7 are ten times more likely to be criminals in adulthood (Fergusson et al, 2005). Effective treatments are now available, although not yet widely used in the UK. We use the term ‘antisocial behaviour’ to include children who do not necessarily meet the strict definitions of conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder, for which DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1993) have quite similar diagnostic criteria. For both schemes, the diagnosis of conduct disorder requires a repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate social norms are violated. DSM-5 stresses that the disturbance must cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational or academic functioning, which is implicit in ICD-10. DSM-5 requires that three of the symptoms/behaviours in Box 5.1 be present during the preceding 12 months and one during the preceding 6 months, whereas ICD-10 merely specifies that three symptoms must be present, but requires one symptom to have been present within the previous month. For oppositional defiant disorder, both DSM-5 and ICD-10 require four symptoms/behaviours from the list in Box 5.2 to have been present for the preceding six months. Although DSM-5 views oppositional defiant disorder as a common precedent to conduct disorder, ICD-10 regards it as a milder form of conduct disorder, and stipulates that no more than two of the symptoms in Box 5.1 should be present. The one major change from DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) to DSM-5 is the inclusion of a specifier to designate youths ‘with limited prosocial emotions’ (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). To meet this criterion, individuals must show two or more characteristics of callous-unemotional traits, such as shallow affect, lack of empathy, lack of remorse or guilt, or lack of concern about their performance at school or work during the preceding 12 months
Effect of solar irradiation on forced convective heat transfer through a nanofluid based direct absorption solar collector
No full textChronic headaches
No full textAbstract, volume, issue, and pagination are not provided by the author/publishe
Singular values of two-parameter families λ((bz−1)/z)μ and λ(z/(bz−1))η
No full textAbstractThe singular values of two kinds of two-parameter families of functions (i) fλ,μ(z)=λ((bz−1)/z)μ and fλ,μ(0)=λ(lnb)μ, μ>0, (ii) gλ,η(z)=λ(z/(bz−1))η and gλ,η(0)=λ/(lnb)η, η>0; λ∈ℝ∖{0}, z∈ℂ, b>0, b≠1 are described. It is shown that all the critical values of fλ,μ(z) and gλ,η(z) lie interior and exterior of the disk centered at origin and having radii |λ(lnb)μ| and |λ/(lnb)η| respectively. Further, it is proved that both the functions fλ,μ(z) and gλ,η(z) have infinitely many singular values for all b>0, b≠1
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