Background: The circadian clock is a central driver of many biological and behavioral processes, regulating the levels of many genes and proteins, termed clock controlled genes and proteins (CCGs/CCPs), to impart biological timing at the molecular level. While transcriptomic and proteomic data has been analyzed to find potential CCGs and CCPs, multi-omic modeling of circadian data, which has the potential to enhance the understanding of circadian control of biological timing, remains relatively rare due to several methodological hurdles. To address this gap, a dual-approach co-expression analysis framework (D-CAF) was created to perform co-expression analysis that is robust to Gaussian noise perturbations on time-series measurements of both transcripts and proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative ailment that is becoming increasingly common, making it a major worldwide health concern. Effective care depends on an early and correct diagnosis, but traditional diagnostic techniques are frequently constrained by subjectivity and expensive costs. This study proposes a novel Vision Transformer-equipped Convolutional Neural Networks (VECNN) that uses three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging to improve diagnosis accuracy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe circadian clock is a central driver of many biological and behavioral processes, regulating the levels of many genes and proteins, termed clock controlled genes and proteins (CCGs/CCPs), to impart biological timing at the molecular level. While transcriptomic and proteomic data has been analyzed to find potential CCGs and CCPs, multi-omic modeling of circadian data, which has the potential to enhance the understanding of circadian control of biological timing, remains relatively rare due to several methodological hurdles. To address this gap, a Dual-approach Co-expression Analysis Framework (D-CAF) was created to perform perturbation-robust co-expression analysis on time-series measurements of both transcripts and proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Surgical-site infection following open appendicectomy for perforated appendicitis increases length of hospital stay and treatment costs while compromising patients' quality of life. Data from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) evaluating the role of super-oxidized solution in perforated appendicitis are lacking. The study objective was to determine the effect of peritoneal and wound lavage with super-oxidized solution in reducing risk of surgical-site infection following open appendicectomy for perforated appendicitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the presence of misfolded and aggregated proteins which are thought to contribute to the development of the disease. In one form of inherited blinding disease, retinitis pigmentosa, a P23H mutation in the light-sensing receptor, rhodopsin causes rhodopsin misfolding resulting in complete vision loss. We investigated whether a xenogeneic protein-unfolding ATPase (unfoldase) from thermophilic Archaea, termed PANet, could counteract the proteotoxicity of P23H rhodopsin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe unconventional type I interferons IFNε and IFNω and type III interferon IFNλ are gradually emerging as tissue-specific cytokines in defence of mucosal tissues. This review provides an overview of the distinct features and functions that define these IFNs as protective factors in the respiratory, gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts, highlighting their immunoregulatory roles against pathogens while maintaining tolerance against commensal microbes. In particular, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of the constitutively expressed IFNε and its role in protecting against mucosal infections, inflammation and cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity pharmacists (CPs) are vital as primary healthcare providers, particularly in the screening and management of mental health issues. This study aimed to explore CPs' views on mental health support for patients and the potential challenges in delivering mental health services. Malaysian CPs were recruited through purposive and snowballing sampling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnhancing proteasome function has been a long-standing but challenging target of interest for the potential treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, emphasizing the importance of understanding proteasome activation mechanisms. Most proteasome activator complexes use the C-terminal HbYX motif to bind and trigger gate-opening in the 20S proteasome. This study defines a critical molecular interaction in the HbYX mechanism that triggers gate opening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Laparoscopic totally extraperitoneal (TEP) inguinal hernia repair has become increasingly favored over open Lichtenstein tension-free mesh repair owing to its associated benefits, including reduced postoperative pain, early return to normal activities, and a comparable recurrence rate. In recent years, emphasis has been placed on patient-reported outcomes, particularly health-related quality of life (QOL), as a critical metric for evaluating surgical success. This study aimed to evaluate the overall QOL following laparoscopic TEP repair of unilateral inguinal hernia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are inter-individual differences in susceptibility to the influence of early life experiences for which the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Microglia play a role in environmental surveillance and may influence individual susceptibility to environmental factors. As an index of neurodevelopment, we estimated individual slopes of mean white matter fractional anisotropy (WM-FA) across three time-points (age 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGDS) is the most common diagnostic procedure for upper gastrointestinal diseases. It often causes discomfort and anxiety, which are only mitigated by systemic sedation. However, sedation poses additional risks of adverse cardiopulmonary events, increased medical costs, and prolonged recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Limited data exists on Charlson's weighted index of comorbidity (WIC) predictability for postoperative outcomes following perforated peptic ulcer (PPU) surgery. This study assesses the utility of WIC and other predictive scores in forecasting both postoperative mortality and morbidity in PPU.
Materials & Methods: Patients with PPUs operated between 2018 and 2021 in a Malaysian tertiary referral center were included.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry
September 2024
Background And Objectives: Mirror gazing has been linked to poor body image. Cognitive-behavioral models propose that mirror gazing induces self-focused attention. This activates appearance-related imagery, increases body dissatisfaction, and promotes further mirror gazing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The scientific revolution in the treatment of many illnesses has been significantly aided by stem cells. This paper presents an optimal control on a mathematical model of chemotherapy and stem cell therapy for cancer treatment.
Objective: To develop effective hybrid techniques that combine the optimal control theory (OCT) with the evolutionary algorithm and multi-objective swarm algorithm.
Facial nerve neuromas rarely occur in the intra-parotid segment of the facial nerve and when they do, masquerade as a parotid lump. The imaging and clinical features of the intra-parotid facial neuroma overlaps with the more commonly encountered salivary gland neoplasms and is thus overlooked. However, if not recognized, may result in serious and avoidable adverse events for the patient if biopsied or surgically removed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotobiomodul Photomed Laser Surg
August 2023
Carpal tunnel release (CTR) is widely accepted as an effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. However, the recovery is often delayed and incomplete. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) produces a nonthermal effect on living tissues; it promotes healing, remodels and reduces inflammation of an injured nerve.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsidering the link between neurodegenerative diseases and impaired proteasome function, and the neuro-protective impact of enhanced proteasome activity in animal models, it's crucial to understand proteasome activation mechanisms. A hydrophobic-tyrosine-any residue (HbYX) motif on the C-termini of proteasome-activating complexes independently triggers gate-opening of the 20S core particle for protein degradation; however, the causal allosteric mechanism remains unclear. Our study employs a structurally irreducible dipeptide HbYX mimetic to investigate the allosteric mechanism of gate-opening in the archaeal proteasome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe implication of reduced proteasomal function in neurodegenerative diseases combined with studies showing the protective effects of increasing proteasome activity in animal models highlight the need to understand the capacity for proteasome activation by small molecules. The C-terminal HbYX motif is present on many proteasome binding proteins and functions to tether activators to the 20S core particle. Previous studies have shown that peptides with a HbYX motif can autonomously activate 20S gate-opening to allow protein degradation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study aims to determine the most accurate appendicitis scoring system and optimal cut-off points for each scoring system.
Methods: This single-centred prospective cohort study was conducted from January-to-June 2021, involving all patients admitted on suspicion of appendicitis. All patients were scored according to the Alvarado score, Appendicitis Inflammatory Response (AIR) score, Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPASA) score and Adult Appendicitis score (AAS).
Oil palm is a key agricultural resource in Malaysia. However, palm disease, most prominently basal stem rot caused at least RM 255 million of annual economic loss. Basal stem rot is caused by a fungus known as .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe implication of reduced proteasomal function in neurodegenerative diseases combined with numerous studies showing the protective effects of increasing proteasome activity in animal models justify the need to understand how the proteasome is activated for protein degradation. The C-terminal HbYX motif is present on many proteasome binding proteins and functions to tether activators to the 20S core particle. Peptides with a HbYX motif can also autonomously activate 20S gate-opening to allow protein degradation, but the underlying allosteric molecular mechanism is not clear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have become popular channels for people to record and express their feelings, opinions, and feedback in the last decades. With proper extraction techniques such as sentiment analysis, this information is useful in many aspects, including product marketing, behavior analysis, and pandemic management. Sentiment analysis is a technique to analyze people's thoughts, feelings and emotions, and to categorize them into positive, negative, or neutral.
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