Analyzing the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission in select regions of the Philippines: A modeling approach to assess the impact of various tiers of community quarantines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted communities worldwide, and effective management strategies are critical to reduce transmission rates and minimize the impact of the disease. In this study, we modeled and analyzed the COVID-19 transmission dynamics and derived relevant epidemiological values for three regions of the Philippines, namely, the National Capital Region (NCR), Davao City, and Baguio City, under different community quarantine implementations. The unique features and differences of these regions-of-interest were accounted for in simulating the disease spread and in estimating key epidemiological parameters fitted to the reported COVID-19 cases.

Chronic active lesions preferentially localize in watershed territories in multiple sclerosis.

Objective: Paramagnetic rim lesions (PRLs) are a biomarker of chronic active lesions (CALs), and an important driver of neurological disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). The reason subtending some acute lesions evolvement into CALs is not known. Here we ask whether a relatively lower oxygen content is linked to CALs.

Paramagnetic rim lesions and the central vein sign: Characterizing multiple sclerosis imaging markers.

Background And Purpose: Paramagnetic rims and the central vein sign (CVS) are proposed imaging markers of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions. Using 7 tesla magnetic resonance imaging, we aimed to: (1) characterize the appearance of paramagnetic rim lesions (PRLs); (2) assess whether PRLs and the CVS are associated with higher levels of MS pathology; and (3) compare the characteristics between subjects with and without PRLs in early MS.

Methods: Prospective study of 32 treatment-naïve subjects around the time of diagnosis who were assessed for the presence of PRLs and the CVS.

The reference genome and abiotic stress responses of the model perennial grass Brachypodium sylvaticum.

Perennial grasses are important forage crops and emerging biomass crops and have the potential to be more sustainable grain crops. However, most perennial grass crops are difficult experimental subjects due to their large size, difficult genetics, and/or their recalcitrance to transformation. Thus, a tractable model perennial grass could be used to rapidly make discoveries that can be translated to perennial grass crops.

A model-based strategy for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in the Philippines.

COVID-19 has affected millions of people worldwide, causing illness and death, and disrupting daily life while imposing a significant social and economic burden. Vaccination is an important control measure that significantly reduces mortality if properly and efficiently distributed. In this work, an age-structured model of COVID-19 transmission, incorporating an unreported infectious compartment, is developed.

A framework for deriving analytic steady states of biochemical reaction networks.

The long-term behaviors of biochemical systems are often described by their steady states. Deriving these states directly for complex networks arising from real-world applications, however, is often challenging. Recent work has consequently focused on network-based approaches.

Use of a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System in High-Risk Hospitalized Noncritically Ill Patients With Diabetes After Cardiac Surgery and During Their Transition of Care From the Intensive Care Unit During COVID-19: A Pilot Study.

Objective: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) has demonstrated benefits in managing inpatient diabetes. We initiated this single-arm pilot feasibility study during the COVID-19 pandemic in 11 patients with diabetes to determine the feasibility and accuracy of real-time CGM in patients who underwent cardiac surgery and whose care was being transitioned from the intensive care unit.

Methods: A Clarke error grid analysis was used to compare CGM and point-of-care measurements.

Independent Decompositions of Chemical Reaction Networks.

A chemical reaction network (CRN) is composed of reactions that can be seen as interactions among entities called species, which exist within the system. Endowed with kinetics, CRN has a corresponding set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). In chemical reaction network theory, we are interested with connections between the structure of the CRN and qualitative properties of the corresponding ODEs.

Phenotypic Examination of (L.) Crantz Accessions from the USDA-ARS National Genetics Resource Program.

(L.) Crntz. is a hardy self-pollinated oilseed plant that belongs to the family; widely grown throughout the northern hemisphere until the 1940s for production of vegetable oil but was later displaced by higher-yielding rapeseed and sunflower crops.

Screening for Victims of Sex Trafficking in the Emergency Department: A Pilot Program.

Introduction: Estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of sex trafficking victims live in the United States. Several screening tools for healthcare professionals to identify sex trafficking victims have been proposed, but the effectiveness of these tools in the emergency department (ED) remains unclear. Our primary objective in this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a screening survey to identify adult victims of sex trafficking in the ED.

Accurate measurement of transgene copy number in crop plants using droplet digital PCR.

Genetic transformation is a powerful means for the improvement of crop plants, but requires labor- and resource-intensive methods. An efficient method for identifying single-copy transgene insertion events from a population of independent transgenic lines is desirable. Currently, transgene copy number is estimated by either Southern blot hybridization analyses or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) experiments.

A mathematical model of the interaction of abscisic acid, ethylene and methyl jasmonate on stomatal closure in plants.

Stomatal closure is affected by various stimuli such as light, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, humidity and phytohormones. Our research focuses on phytohormones, specifically: abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene (ET) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) that are responsible for the regulation of several plant processes, especially in guard cell signalling. While several studies show that these three phytohormones cause stomatal closure in plants, only two studies are notable for establishing a mathematical model of guard cell signalling involving phytohormones.

Use of Agrobacterium rhizogenes Strain 18r12v and Paromomycin Selection for Transformation of Brachypodium distachyon and Brachypodium sylvaticum.

The genetic transformation of monocot grasses is a resource intensive process, the quality and efficiency of which is dependent in part upon the method of DNA introduction, as well as the ability to effectively separate transformed from wildtype tissue. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Brachypodium has relied mainly on Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain AGL1. Currently the antibiotic hygromycin B has been the selective agent of choice for robust identification of transgenic calli in Brachypodium distachyon and Brachypodium sylvaticum but few other chemicals have been shown to work as well for selection of transgenic Brachypodium cells in tissue culture.

Pan-cancer patterns of somatic copy number alteration.

Determining how somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) promote cancer is an important goal. We characterized SCNA patterns in 4,934 cancers from The Cancer Genome Atlas Pan-Cancer data set. Whole-genome doubling, observed in 37% of cancers, was associated with higher rates of every other type of SCNA, TP53 mutations, CCNE1 amplifications and alterations of the PPP2R complex.

Modifications of microvascular EC surface modulate phototoxicity of a porphycene anti-ICAM-1 immunoconjugate; therapeutic implications.

Inflammation and shear stress can upregulate expression of cellular adhesion molecules in endothelial cells (EC). The modified EC surface becomes a mediating interface between the circulating blood elements and the endothelium, and grants opportunity for immunotherapy. In photodynamic therapy (PDT), immunotargeting might overcome the lack of selectivity of currently used sensitizers.

Mutational heterogeneity in cancer and the search for new cancer-associated genes.

Major international projects are underway that are aimed at creating a comprehensive catalogue of all the genes responsible for the initiation and progression of cancer. These studies involve the sequencing of matched tumour-normal samples followed by mathematical analysis to identify those genes in which mutations occur more frequently than expected by random chance. Here we describe a fundamental problem with cancer genome studies: as the sample size increases, the list of putatively significant genes produced by current analytical methods burgeons into the hundreds.

Mapping the hallmarks of lung adenocarcinoma with massively parallel sequencing.

Lung adenocarcinoma, the most common subtype of non-small cell lung cancer, is responsible for more than 500,000 deaths per year worldwide. Here, we report exome and genome sequences of 183 lung adenocarcinoma tumor/normal DNA pairs. These analyses revealed a mean exonic somatic mutation rate of 12.