Isolation and characterization of a novel methanogen Methanosarcina hadiensis sp. nov. from subsurface Boom Clay pore water.

Safe geological disposal of radioactive waste requires a thorough understanding of geochemical conditions in the host formation. Boom Clay is a potential candidate in Belgium, where active methanogenesis has been detected in its deep subsurface, influencing the local geochemistry. However, the pathways driving this process and the characteristics of the methanogenic archaea involved remain unclear.

Performance of SARS-CoV-2 Antigen-Detecting Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Omicron and Other Variants of Concern.

The SARS-CoV-2 antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDTs) is an easy-to-use diagnostic tool to identify the contagious individuals and reduce the new infections. However, to be effective, Ag-RDTs require the detection of distinct variants of concern (VOC) with high analytical sensitivity. Here, we found that the VOC diverge at the nucleocapsid protein used by four commercial Ag-RDTs for the viral detection.

[Cardiac compromise in patients recovered from COVID-19 without troponin elevation assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging].

Background: The disease caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) affects the cardiovascular system, whether by direct viral aggression or indirectly through systemic inflammation and multiple organ compromise. A widely used method to determine cardiac injury is troponin measurement. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of cardiac involvement (CINV) in a population recovered from COVID-19, referred to cardiac MRI (CMR), who did not present troponin elevation.

Hiatus hernia with gastric volvulus and duodenum component: a case report.

Gastric volvulus is a rare condition defined as an abnormal stomach rotation around its axis, which usually presents in children under a year or in adults in their fifth decade. Cases over 70-year-old are rare and only 30% of cases of this disease present with mesenteric-axial rotation of the stomach. In this article, we report a rare case of mesenteroaxial gastric volvulus associated with hiatal hernia, in an 88-year-old woman, who presented to the Emergency Department of our institution with bowel obstruction symptoms.

Stabilometric Analysis of Parkinson's Disease Patients.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is considered a movement disease; it is a progressive and degenerative neurological disorder, causing disabling motor dysfunctions. Investigate the body instability of PD patients through the stabilometry test is the aim of this study. A sample of 40 participants with PD were staged between the stages of the disease using Hoehn and Yahr Modified Scale 1.

Time Constraint Increases Mental Load and Influences in the Performance in Small-Sided Games in Basketball.

: In team sports like basketball, small-sided games have received much scientific attention because of their capacity to simulate competitive environments. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of different task constraints on mental load, and its consequences for individual and team performance in basketball small-sided games. : Twenty-four university students voluntarily took part in this study (M = 20.

A symbiotic bacterium of shipworms produces a compound with broad spectrum anti-apicomplexan activity.

Apicomplexan parasites cause severe disease in both humans and their domesticated animals. Since these parasites readily develop drug resistance, development of new, effective drugs to treat infection caused by these parasites is an ongoing challenge for the medical and veterinary communities. We hypothesized that invertebrate-bacterial symbioses might be a rich source of anti-apicomplexan compounds because invertebrates are susceptible to infections with gregarines, parasites that are ancestral to all apicomplexans.

Natural Language Generation Model for Mammography Reports Simulation.

Extending the size of labeled corpora of medical reports is a major step towards a successful training of machine learning algorithms. Simulating new text reports is a key solution for reports augmentation, which extends the cohort size. However, text generation in the medical domain is challenging because it needs to preserve both content and style that are typical for real reports, without risking the patients' privacy.

A Probabilistic Model to Support Radiologists' Classification Decisions in Mammography Practice.

We developed a probabilistic model to support the classification decisions made by radiologists in mammography practice. Using the feature observations and Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) classifications from radiologists examining diagnostic and screening mammograms, we modeled their decisions to understand their judgments. Our model could help improve the decisions made by radiologists using their own feature observations and classifications while maintaining their observed sensitivities.

Analyses of Baropodometry Protocols Through Bibliometric Research.

The posture of the foot is an important and complex aspect of the human body that implies a constant and coherent adaptation, and keeps the body segments in alignment. Baropodometry is a quantitative exam that evaluates the distribution of pressures at different points in the plantar region and the foot contact area. The objective of the study was to know evaluation protocols that used Barapodometry and to verify which variables were observed after the examination.

Multiple-plane image formation by Walsh zone plates.

A radial Walsh filter is a phase binary diffractive optical element characterized by a set of concentric rings that take the phase values 0 or π, corresponding to the values + 1 or -1 of a given radial Walsh function. Therefore, a Walsh filter can be re-interpreted as an aperiodic multifocal zone plate, capable to produce images of multiple planes simultaneously in a single output plane of an image forming system. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate for the first time the focusing capabilities of these structures.

Differential Data Augmentation Techniques for Medical Imaging Classification Tasks.

Data augmentation is an essential part of training discriminative Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). A variety of augmentation strategies, including horizontal flips, random crops, and principal component analysis (PCA), have been proposed and shown to capture important characteristics of natural images. However, while data augmentation has been commonly used for deep learning in medical imaging, little work has been done to determine which augmentation strategies best capture medical image statistics, leading to more discriminative models.

In vitro growth inhibition of Theileria equi by bumped kinase inhibitors.

Introduction: Theileria equi, an etiologic agent of equine piroplasmosis, is a tick-transmitted hemoprotozoan of the phylum Apicomplexa. Recent outbreaks of piroplasmosis in the United States have renewed interest in safe and effective treatment options. Although imidocarb dipropionate (IMD) is the drug of choice for clearance of T.

A curated mammography data set for use in computer-aided detection and diagnosis research.

Published research results are difficult to replicate due to the lack of a standard evaluation data set in the area of decision support systems in mammography; most computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) and detection (CADe) algorithms for breast cancer in mammography are evaluated on private data sets or on unspecified subsets of public databases. This causes an inability to directly compare the performance of methods or to replicate prior results. We seek to resolve this substantial challenge by releasing an updated and standardized version of the Digital Database for Screening Mammography (DDSM) for evaluation of future CADx and CADe systems (sometimes referred to generally as CAD) research in mammography.

Analysis of Adverse Events during Intrahospital Transportation of Critically Ill Patients.

Purpose: To describe adverse events occurring during intrahospital transportation of adult patients hospitalized in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and to evaluate the association with morbidity and mortality.

Method: Prospective cohort study from July 2014 to July 2015. Data collection comprised clinical data, prognostic scores, length of stay, and outcome at hospital discharge.

Azacytidine Treatment Inhibits the Progression of Herpes Stromal Keratitis by Enhancing Regulatory T Cell Function.

Ocular infection with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) sets off an inflammatory reaction in the cornea which leads to both virus clearance and chronic lesions that are orchestrated by CD4 T cells. Approaches that enhance the function of regulatory T cells (Treg) and dampen effector T cells can be effective to limit stromal keratitis (SK) lesion severity. In this report, we explore the novel approach of inhibiting DNA methyltransferase activity using 5-azacytidine (Aza; a cytosine analog) to limit HSV-1-induced ocular lesions.

Generalized Molecular Descriptors Derived From Event-Based Discrete Derivative.

In the present study, a generalized approach for molecular structure characterization is introduced, based on the relation frequency matrix (F) representation of the molecular graph and the subsequent calculation of the corresponding discrete derivative (finite difference) over a pair of elements (atoms). In earlier publications (22- 24), an unique event, named connected subgraphs, (based on the Kier-Hall's subgraphs) was systematically employed for the computation of the matrix F. The present report is a generalization of this notion, in which eleven additional events are introduced, classified in three categories, namely, topological (terminal paths, vertex path incidence, quantum subgraphs, walks of length k, Sach's subgraphs), fingerprints (MACCs, E-state and substructure fingerprints) and atomic contributions (Ghose and Crippen atom-types for hydrophobicity and refractivity) for F generation.

Using automatically extracted information from mammography reports for decision-support.

Objective: To evaluate a system we developed that connects natural language processing (NLP) for information extraction from narrative text mammography reports with a Bayesian network for decision-support about breast cancer diagnosis. The ultimate goal of this system is to provide decision support as part of the workflow of producing the radiology report.

Materials And Methods: We built a system that uses an NLP information extraction system (which extract BI-RADS descriptors and clinical information from mammography reports) to provide the necessary inputs to a Bayesian network (BN) decision support system (DSS) that estimates lesion malignancy from BI-RADS descriptors.

Robo 4 Counteracts Angiogenesis in Herpetic Stromal Keratitis.

The cornea is a complex tissue that must preserve its transparency to maintain optimal vision. However, in some circumstances, damage to the eye can result in neovascularization that impairs vision. This outcome can occur when herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) causes the immunoinflammatory lesion stromal keratitis (SK).

The inflammasome NLRP3 plays a protective role against a viral immunopathological lesion.

Herpes simplex 1 infection of the eye can cause blindness with lesions in the corneal stroma largely attributable to inflammatory events that include components of both adaptive and innate immunity. Several innate immune responses are triggered by herpes simplex 1, but it is unclear how such innate events relate to the subsequent development of stromal keratitis. In this study, we compared the outcome of herpes simplex 1 ocular infection in mice unable to express NLRP3 because of gene knockout (NLRP3(-/-)) to that of wild-type mice.

Bifractal focusing and imaging properties of Thue-Morse Zone Plates.

We present a new family of Zone Plates (ZPs) designed using the Thue-Morse sequence. The focusing and imaging properties of these aperiodic diffractive lenses coined Thue-Morse Zone Plates (TMZPs) are examined. It is demonstrated that TMZPs produce a pair of self-similar and equally intense foci along the optical axis.

Role of miR-155 in the pathogenesis of herpetic stromal keratitis.

Ocular infection with herpes simplex virus 1 can result in a chronic immunoinflammatory stromal keratitis (SK) lesion that is a significant cause of human blindness. A key to controlling SK lesion severity is to identify cellular and molecular events responsible for tissue damage and to manipulate them therapeutically. Potential targets for therapy are miRNAs, but these are minimally explored especially in responses to infection.

Adherence to prophylaxis and quality of life in children and adolescents with severe haemophilia A.

Treatment adherence in adolescents with chronic diseases is around 50%, and failure is more common in preventive therapy. In haemophilia, contradictory results are reported by the published studies. The objective of this study was to evaluate adherence with factor VIII (FVIII) prophylaxis in Spanish patients with severe haemophilia A between age 6 and 20 years.

Critical role of microRNA-155 in herpes simplex encephalitis.

HSV infection of adult humans occasionally results in life-threatening herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) for reasons that remain to be defined. An animal system that could prove useful to model HSE could be microRNA-155 knockout (miR-155KO) mice. Thus, we observe that mice with a deficiency of miR-155 are highly susceptible to HSE with a majority of animals (75-80%) experiencing development of HSE after ocular infection with HSV-1.