An Intra-Operatively Diagnosed Case of Hemorrhagic Cholecystitis in a 43-year-old Patient: Case Report.

BACKGROUND Hemorrhagic cholecystitis is an uncommon occurrence in the setting of gallbladder pathology. It is a rare complication of acute cholecystitis that may have a misleading presentation and workup, making it challenging to diagnose pre-operatively. CASE REPORT We report the case of a 43-year-old female who presented for severe epigastric pain with nausea and vomiting and whose imaging was in favor of acute cholecystitis.

An Unusual Case of Left Spigelian Hernia Containing Part of a Fibroid Uterus and the Left Adnexa in a 66-Year-Old Woman.

BACKGROUND Spigelian hernia, or lateral ventral hernia, is rare and represents between 0.1-2% of all hernias of the abdominal wall. The presentation is variable, and the diagnosis may be challenging.

Catheter-directed thrombolysis versus suction thrombectomy in the management of acute pulmonary embolism.

Background: Catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) is increasingly performed for acute pulmonary embolism (PE) because it is presumed to provide similar therapeutic benefits to systemic thrombolysis, while decreasing the dose of thrombolytic required and the associated risks. Contemporary suction thrombectomy (ST) devices have entered the market as minimal or no-lytic alternatives, but there is no evidence on their comparative effectiveness. This study aims to compare clinical outcomes of these two interventional alternatives.

Outcomes and predictors of failure of iliac vein stenting after catheter-directed thrombolysis for acute iliofemoral thrombosis.

Objective: Iliac vein stenting is recommended to treat venous outflow obstruction after catheter-directed thrombolysis for acute iliofemoral deep venous thrombosis (DVT). Data on the outcome of proximal and distal stent extension are limited. Proximal stent extension to the vena cava may obstruct the contralateral iliac vein, whereas distal extension below the inguinal ligament contradicts common practice for arterial stents.

An analysis and evaluation of the WeFold collaborative for protein structure prediction and its pipelines in CASP11 and CASP12.

Every two years groups worldwide participate in the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) experiment to blindly test the strengths and weaknesses of their computational methods. CASP has significantly advanced the field but many hurdles still remain, which may require new ideas and collaborations. In 2012 a web-based effort called WeFold, was initiated to promote collaboration within the CASP community and attract researchers from other fields to contribute new ideas to CASP.

Leishmania in a Patient with Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma/Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

BACKGROUND Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection spread by the bite of infected sand flies that are usually present in the Middle East, Africa, and some parts of Asia and Europe. Leishmaniasis manifests in 3 different forms: Visceral (also known as Kala Azar), which is the most serious type; cutaneous, which is the most common type; and mucocutaneous. The symptoms of this infection range from a silent infection to fever, enlargement of the liver and spleen, weight loss, and pancytopenia.

Outcomes of infrageniculate retrograde versus transfemoral access for endovascular intervention for chronic lower extremity ischemia.

Objective: Retrograde infrageniculate access is an alternative treatment strategy for patients who have failed to respond to antegrade endovascular intervention. This study compares the outcomes of infrageniculate retrograde arterial access with the conventional transfemoral access for the endovascular management of chronic lower extremity ischemia.

Methods: This was a retrospective single-center review of retrograde endovascular intervention (REI) from 2012 to 2016.

Foreign Body Ingestion Causing Recurrent Diverticulitis.

BACKGROUND Ingested foreign bodies (IFBs) are usually asymptomatic and are excreted uneventfully. IFBs become a major concern in elderly patients due to the increase number of diverticuloses where the foreign body can lodge and cause severe complications. CASE REPORT We report a case of an elderly patient who ingested a chicken bone that caused recurrent diverticulitis.

Princeton_TIGRESS 2.0: High refinement consistency and net gains through support vector machines and molecular dynamics in double-blind predictions during the CASP11 experiment.

Protein structure refinement is the challenging problem of operating on any protein structure prediction to improve its accuracy with respect to the native structure in a blind fashion. Although many approaches have been developed and tested during the last four CASP experiments, a majority of the methods continue to degrade models rather than improve them. Princeton_TIGRESS (Khoury et al.

Impact of inferior vena cava thrombus extension on thrombolysis for acute iliofemoral thrombosis.

Background: Inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombosis may occur in patients with iliofemoral deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and its impact on thrombolysis outcomes is poorly defined. This study compared outcomes of patients undergoing thrombolysis for acute iliofemoral DVT with and without IVC involvement.

Methods: Patients who underwent thrombolysis for iliofemoral DVT between May 2007 and March 2014 were identified from a prospectively maintained database and divided into two groups: those with IVC involvement and those without.

Trauma in CT: The Role of Severe Injury on Satisfaction of Search Revised.

Purpose: The satisfaction-of-search (SOS) effect occurs when an abnormality on an image is missed because another is found. The aim of this experiment was to test whether severe distracting fractures control the magnitude of SOS on other fractures when both appear in a single CT image.

Methods: The institutional review board approved this study.

conSSert: Consensus SVM Model for Accurate Prediction of Ordered Secondary Structure.

Accurate prediction of protein secondary structure remains a crucial step in most approaches to the protein-folding problem, yet the prediction of ordered secondary structure, specifically beta-strands, remains a challenge. We developed a consensus secondary structure prediction method, conSSert, which is based on support vector machines (SVM) and provides exceptional accuracy for the prediction of beta-strands with QE accuracy of over 0.82 and a Q2-EH of 0.

Fibro-osseous lesion of the cranium in an adolescent patient.

Background: Fibrous dysplasia, ossifying fibroma, and desmoplastic fibroma are rare benign calvarial lesions, which can have local aggressive behavior. These tumors can present with similar clinical and radiologic characteristics making diagnosis difficult at times.

Case Description: A 16-year-old male presents after noting an indentation of his skull.

New compstatin peptides containing N-terminal extensions and non-natural amino acids exhibit potent complement inhibition and improved solubility characteristics.

Compstatin peptides are complement inhibitors that bind and inhibit cleavage of complement C3. Peptide binding is enhanced by hydrophobic interactions; however, poor solubility promotes aggregation in aqueous environments. We have designed new compstatin peptides derived from the W4A9 sequence (Ac-ICVWQDWGAHRCT-NH2, cyclized between C2 and C12), based on structural, computational, and experimental studies.

De novo design and experimental characterization of ultrashort self-associating peptides.

Self-association is a common phenomenon in biology and one that can have positive and negative impacts, from the construction of the architectural cytoskeleton of cells to the formation of fibrils in amyloid diseases. Understanding the nature and mechanisms of self-association is important for modulating these systems and in creating biologically-inspired materials. Here, we present a two-stage de novo peptide design framework that can generate novel self-associating peptide systems.

Forcefield_NCAA: ab initio charge parameters to aid in the discovery and design of therapeutic proteins and peptides with unnatural amino acids and their application to complement inhibitors of the compstatin family.

We describe the development and testing of ab initio derived, AMBER ff03 compatible charge parameters for a large library of 147 noncanonical amino acids including β- and N-methylated amino acids for use in applications such as protein structure prediction and de novo protein design. The charge parameter derivation was performed using the RESP fitting approach. Studies were performed assessing the suitability of the derived charge parameters in discriminating the activity/inactivity between 63 analogs of the complement inhibitor Compstatin on the basis of previously published experimental IC50 data and a screening procedure involving short simulations and binding free energy calculations.

WeFold: a coopetition for protein structure prediction.

The protein structure prediction problem continues to elude scientists. Despite the introduction of many methods, only modest gains were made over the last decade for certain classes of prediction targets. To address this challenge, a social-media based worldwide collaborative effort, named WeFold, was undertaken by 13 labs.

Forcefield_PTM: Charge and AMBER Forcefield Parameters for Frequently Occurring Post-Translational Modifications.

In this work, we introduce Forcefield_PTM, a set of AMBER forcefield parameters consistent with ff03 for 32 common post-translational modifications. Partial charges were calculated through calculations and a two-stage RESP-fitting procedure in an ether-like implicit solvent environment. The charges were found to be generally consistent with others previously reported for phosphorylated amino acids, and trimethyllysine, using different parameterization methods.

Synovitis in knee osteoarthritis assessed by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is associated with radiographic tibiofemoral osteoarthritis and MRI-detected widespread cartilage damage: the MOST study.

Objective: To examine the cross-sectional association of whole-knee synovitis assessed by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CEMRI) with radiographic tibiofemoral osteoarthritis (OA), non-CEMRI-assessed cartilage damage, and meniscal status.

Methods: Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) is a cohort study of people with or at high risk of knee OA. Subjects are a subset of MOST who volunteered for both CEMRI and non-CEMRI.

Protein folding and de novo protein design for biotechnological applications.

In the postgenomic era, the medical/biological fields are advancing faster than ever. However, before the power of full-genome sequencing can be fully realized, the connection between amino acid sequence and protein structure, known as the protein folding problem, needs to be elucidated. The protein folding problem remains elusive, with significant difficulties still arising when modeling amino acid sequences lacking an identifiable template.

Princeton_TIGRESS: protein geometry refinement using simulations and support vector machines.

Protein structure refinement aims to perform a set of operations given a predicted structure to improve model quality and accuracy with respect to the native in a blind fashion. Despite the numerous computational approaches to the protein refinement problem reported in the previous three CASPs, an overwhelming majority of methods degrade models rather than improve them. We initially developed a method tested using blind predictions during CASP10 which was officially ranked in 5th place among all methods in the refinement category.

Protein WISDOM: a workbench for in silico de novo design of biomolecules.

The aim of de novo protein design is to find the amino acid sequences that will fold into a desired 3-dimensional structure with improvements in specific properties, such as binding affinity, agonist or antagonist behavior, or stability, relative to the native sequence. Protein design lies at the center of current advances drug design and discovery. Not only does protein design provide predictions for potentially useful drug targets, but it also enhances our understanding of the protein folding process and protein-protein interactions.