Publications by authors named "Dalal S"

Chondroitin sulphate (CS) is a sulphated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) polysaccharide found on proteoglycans (CSPGs) in extracellular and pericellular matrices. Chondroitinase ABC (CSase ABC) derived from Proteus vulgaris is an enzyme that has gained attention for the capacity to cleave chondroitin sulphate (CS) glycosaminoglycans (GAG) from various proteoglycans such as Aggrecan, Neurocan, Decorin etc. The substrate specificity of CSase ABC is well-known for targeting various structural motifs of CS chains and has gained popularity in the field of neuro-regeneration by selective degradation of CS GAG chains.

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Former studies have established that individuals with a cochlear implant (CI) for treating single-sided deafness experience improved speech processing after implantation. However, it is not clear how each ear contributes separately to improve speech perception over time at the behavioural and neural level. In this longitudinal EEG study with four different time points, we measured neural activity in response to various temporally and spectrally degraded spoken words presented monaurally to the CI and non-CI ears (5 left and 5 right ears) in 10 single-sided CI users and 10 age- and sex-matched individuals with normal hearing.

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Aging significantly increases the incidence and severity of infections, with individuals aged 65 and above accounting for 65% of sepsis cases. Innate immune training, known as "trained immunity" or "innate immune memory", has emerged as a potential strategy to enhance infection resistance by modulating the aging immune system. We investigated the impact of β-glucan-induced trained immunity on aged mice (18-20 months old) compared to young adult mice (10-12 weeks old).

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Nanozymes, constituting of inorganic nanomaterials, are the sustainable and cost-effective alternatives of the naturally abundant enzymes. For more than a decade, nanozymes have shown astonishingly enhanced enzymatic activity as compared to its naturally occurring counterpart and emerged as a potential platform in biomedical science. The current study reports a novel flower shaped gold-iron oxide nanocomposite prepared via a facile and green solution phase redox mediated synthesis.

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A significant clinical challenge in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), which adversely impacts patient survival, is the development of therapy resistance leading to a relapse. Therapy resistance and relapse in CRC is associated with the formation of lipid droplets (LD) by stimulating de novo lipogenesis (DNL). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the increase in DNL and the susceptibility to DNL-targeted therapies remain unclear.

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Article Synopsis
  • Engaging adolescents as active partners in research is vital for amplifying diverse voices and driving social change.
  • A youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) study in Ontario involved teams of young researchers identifying and exploring issues related to adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights.
  • The YPAR approach not only empowered youth by centering their experiences but also highlighted significant barriers to sexual health services, informing policy and practice improvements on accessibility and education.
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Climate change has become a major source of concern to the global community. The steady pollution of the environment including our waters is gradually increasing the effects of climate change. The disposal of plastics in the seas alters aquatic life.

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Background: A national database is used to evaluate pediatric burn survivor outcomes, but the generalizability to the United States pediatric burn injury population is unclear, as only 60% of enrollees are U.S. residents.

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  • Sepsis is a serious condition caused by an uncontrolled immune response to infection, significantly increasing the risk of death in hospitals, making early detection vital, especially outside ICUs where traditional methods often fail.
  • A new deep learning model was developed using data from over 83,000 patients, designed specifically for non-ICU environments, achieving high accuracy in predicting sepsis 24, 12, and 6 hours prior to onset with reduced false alarms.
  • The model's effectiveness was confirmed by external validation, demonstrating a significant decrease in false positives, which could lead to better resource allocation in hospitals and more timely patient care.
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The epidermis is a stratified epithelium that functions as the first line of defense against pathogenic invasion and acts as a barrier preventing water loss. In this study, we aimed to decipher the role of 14-3-3ε in the development of the epidermis. We report that loss of 14-3-3ε in the epidermis of juvenile and adult mice reduces cell division in the basal layer and increases the percentage of cells with multiple centrosomes, leading to a reduction in the thickness of the basal and stratified layers.

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  • A study was conducted to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) performed with patients in a prone position, comparing it to the traditional lateral position.
  • The study included 20 patients who underwent LLIF while prone, with findings showing no intraoperative complications, but some patients experienced transient weakness and other postoperative issues.
  • Overall, patient-reported outcomes improved significantly after the procedure, and while there were some complications in the prone group, they were not statistically different from those in the lateral group.
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The lack of explainability in using relevant clinical knowledge hinders the adoption of artificial intelligence-powered analysis of unstructured clinical dialogue. A wealth of relevant, untapped Mental Health (MH) data is available in online communities, providing the opportunity to address the explainability problem with substantial potential impact as a screening tool for both online and offline applications. Inspired by how clinicians rely on their expertise when interacting with patients, we leverage relevant clinical knowledge to classify and explain depression-related data, reducing manual review time and engendering trust.

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  • * A study reviewed the use of a balloon guide catheter (BGC) in 22 patients undergoing VSS, effectively aiding in stent delivery without complications.
  • * The findings suggest that BGCs enhance safety and efficiency in VSS, particularly in navigating complex venous structures.
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  • - The study examined the use of the modified pouchitis disease activity index (mPDAI) to assess symptoms and endoscopic findings among different pouchitis phenotypes in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
  • - A total of 103 IBD patients were analyzed, revealing that patients with normal pouches had a median mPDAI of 0, while those with cuffitis had the highest median score of 4.0, indicating more severe symptoms.
  • - The findings suggested that the mPDAI may have limited effectiveness in differentiating between various inflammatory phenotypes, prompting the need for further research to identify which symptoms should be monitored.
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Importance: Pessaries are commonly used to manage pelvic organ prolapse. Pessary management can be done by a medical professional or the patient themselves. Pessary complications are rare.

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Background: Differentiating risk for HIV infection is important for providing focussed prevention options to individuals. We conducted a longitudinal study to validate a risk-differentiation tool for predicting HIV or HSV-2 acquisition among HIV-negative youth.

Setting: Population-based household survey in east Zimbabwe.

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  • Metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes involve insulin resistance, particularly in neurons of the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus that help regulate metabolism.
  • The study highlights how the perineuronal net, an extracellular matrix that surrounds these neurons, becomes altered during metabolic diseases, contributing to insulin resistance.
  • Disrupting this protective net in obese mice improves brain insulin access, reverses insulin resistance in neurons, and boosts metabolic health, revealing extracellular matrix changes as critical to understanding metabolic diseases.
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Protein-protein interaction (PPI) prediction is vital for interpreting biological activities. Even though many diverse sorts of data and machine learning approaches have been employed in PPI prediction, performance still has to be enhanced. As a result, we adopted an Aquilla Influenced Shark Smell (AISSO)-based hybrid prediction technique to construct a sequence-dependent PPI prediction model.

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  • * Researchers analyzed 52 adults who underwent MIS laminectomy, grouping them into balanced or unbalanced PI-LL categories, and assessed changes in PROMs, specifically the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI).
  • * Findings indicate no significant differences in long-term clinical outcomes between patients with balanced and unbalanced PI-LL, suggesting that preoperative sagittal imbalance may not impact MIS surgery results, pointing to the need for further research with larger samples.
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14-3-3σ functions as an oncogene in colorectal cancer and is associated with therapy resistance. However, the mechanisms underlying these observations are not clear. The results in this report demonstrate that loss of 14-3-3σ in colorectal cancer cells leads to a decrease in tumor formation and increased sensitivity to chemotherapy.

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Context: Naloxone nasal spray is recommended for patients with risk factors for opioid overdose. However, cancer patients' perceptions and beliefs regarding naloxone prescriptions and their self-perceived risks for overdose are understudied.

Objective: To determine the proportion of cancer patients at risk for overdose who perceived naloxone as beneficial.

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Efforts to enhance the accuracy of protein sequence classification are of utmost importance in driving forward biological analyses and facilitating significant medical advancements. This study presents a cutting-edge model called ProtICNN-BiLSTM, which combines attention-based Improved Convolutional Neural Networks (ICNN) and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) units seamlessly. Our main goal is to improve the accuracy of protein sequence classification by carefully optimizing performance through Bayesian Optimisation.

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