Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) use and dosing in Canadian practice: Insights from the optimising pharmacotherapy in the management approach to lowering risk in atrial fibrillation (OPTIMAL AF) Programme.

Aims: To estimate the rate of non-vitamin K oral anticoagulant (NOAC) dosing that is lower- and higher-than-recommended and to describe the reasons for NOAC dose discordance with Health Canada prescribing information.

Methods: The OPTIMAL AF Programme was an observational cohort quality assessment initiative in which primary and specialty care physicians in eight provinces provided a snapshot of their anticoagulated non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) patients through either an electronic medical record (EMR) system or standardised, paper-based data collection methods.

Results: Data on 1681 NVAF patients receiving oral anticoagulation (OAC) for stroke prevention was provided by 102 physicians.

Analysis of N-Acy-L-homoserine lactones (AHLs) in wastewater treatment systems using SPE-LLE with LC-MS/MS.

The occurrence and distribution of N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) treating wastewater has garnered much attention as they have been shown to play critical role in biofouling. There is a need to develop a single method capable of analysing AHLs in various wastewater with comparable and reliable performance. A novel and robust method was proposed for trace analysis of 11 AHLs in wastewater treatment systems treating domestic and industrial wastewater.

Feasibility of isolated novel facultative quorum quenching consortiums for fouling control in an AnMBR.

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology is being recognized as an appealing strategy for wastewater treatment, however, severity of membrane fouling inhibits its widespread implementations. This study engineered novel facultative quorum quenching consortiums (FQQs) coping with membrane fouling in AnMBRs with preliminary analysis for their quorum quenching (QQ) performances. Herein, Acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs)-based quorum sensing (QS) in a lab-scale AnMBR initially revealed that N-Hexanoyl-dl-homoserine lactone (C6-HSL), N-Octanoyl-dl-homoserine lactone (C8-HSL) and N-Decanoyl-dl-homoserine lactone (C10-HSL) were the dominant AHLs in AnMBRs in this study.

Heterogeneous ZIF-L membranes with improved hydrophilicity and anti-bacterial adhesion for potential application in water treatment.

Although different metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes have been widely studied for gas separation, their application for water treatment is still in its infancy. MOF membranes with improved hydrophilicity and stability are particularly essential for water/wastewater treatment. Herein, we have successfully developed heterogeneous membranes (Zn/Co-ZIF-L) composed of vertically standing leaf-like crystals of Zn-ZIF-L grown onto porous ceramic supports, followed by the subsequent heterogeneous growth of Co-ZIF-L.

Beta-Barrel Detection for Medium Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy Density Maps Using Genetic Algorithms and Ray Tracing.

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a technique that produces three-dimensional density maps of large protein complexes. This allows for the study of the structure of these proteins. Identifying the secondary structures within proteins is vital to understanding the overall structure and function of the protein.

Human mesenchymal stem cells promote CD34 hematopoietic stem cell proliferation with preserved red blood cell differentiation capacity.

Studies showed that co-transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and cord blood-derived CD34 hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) offered greater therapeutic effects but little is known regarding the effects of human Wharton's jelly derived MSCs on HSC expansion and red blood cell (RBC) generation in vitro. This study aimed to investigate the effects of MSCs on HSC expansion and differentiation. HSCs were co-cultured with MSCs or with 10% MSCs-derived conditioned medium, with HSCs cultured under standard medium served as a control.

Resumption of work or studies after first-episode psychosis: the impact of vocational case management.

Background: Psychosis compromises the educational and professional projects of young patients. Vocational case management (VCM) offers comprehensive support for reintegration into work or studies within an early psychosis intervention programme.

Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of VCM in resumption of work or school and to identify the predictive factors of occupational outcome.

Polarizable protein packing.

To incorporate protein polarization effects within a protein combinatorial optimization framework, we decompose the polarizable force field AMOEBA into low order terms. Including terms up to the third-order provides a fair approximation to the full energy while maintaining tractability. We represent the polarizable packing problem for protein G as a hypergraph and solve for optimal rotamers with the FASTER combinatorial optimization algorithm.

Greater auricular nerve neuropraxia with beach chair positioning during shoulder surgery.

Neuropraxia of the greater auricular nerve is an uncommon complication of shoulder surgery, with the patient in the beach chair position. The greater auricular nerve, a superficial branch of the cervical plexus, is vulnerable to neuropraxia due to its superficial anatomical location. In this case series, we present three cases of neuropraxia associated with direct compression by a horseshoe headrest, used in routine positioning for uncomplicated shoulder surgery.

Comparing the reactivity of alkynes and alkenes on silicon (100) surfaces.

The relative reactivities of alkynes to alkenes on hydrogen-terminated silicon (100) surfaces, under conditions where a monolayer will be produced via hydrosilylation, were measured using two different approaches. The first approach was to form monolayers from a series of solutions containing different mole fractions of an alkyne, with a trifluorothioacetate distal moiety and an alkene with a terminal carboxylic acid functional. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis of the resultant surfaces showed that the mole fraction of alkyne on the surface was larger than that in the respective alkyne/alkene mixture.

SHARPEN-systematic hierarchical algorithms for rotamers and proteins on an extended network.

Algorithms for discrete optimization of proteins play a central role in recent advances in protein structure prediction and design. We wish to improve the resources available for computational biologists to rapidly prototype such algorithms and to easily scale these algorithms to many processors. To that end, we describe the implementation and use of two new open source resources, citing potential benefits over existing software.

Seroprevalence of antibody to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus among health care workers in SARS and non-SARS medical wards.

The seroprevalence of antibody to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in cohorts of health care workers (HCWs) with subclinical infection in SARS and non-SARS medical wards was 2.3% (3 of 131 HCWs) and 0% (0 of 192 HCWs), respectively. Rates for clinical SARS-CoV infection among 742 HCWs on these wards were highest among nurses (11.