Reflections on Attacks on Linking and the Thinking-Function in the Writings of W. R. Bion.

This article revisits W. R. Bion's theory of thinking by highlighting how thinking and linking are attacked.

Clinical Course and Outcomes of Severe Covid-19: A National Scale Study.

Unlabelled: Knowledge of the outcomes of critically ill patients is crucial for health and government officials who are planning how to address local outbreaks. The factors associated with outcomes of critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) who required treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU) are yet to be determined.

Methods: This was a retrospective registry-based case series of patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 who were referred for ICU admission and treated in the ICUs of the 13 participating centers in Israel between 5 March and 27 April 2020.

Inferiorly Based Preauricular Flap for Anterior Ear Reconstruction.

Background: The anterior aspect of the auricle is a complex 3-dimensional structure. Each anatomical component in this region has an essential role in the aesthetic appearance of the ear and face. The reconstruction of defects in this region is challenging because of the lack of mobile, excess skin for primary closure, and the inability to skin graft overexposed cartilage.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Preconditioning Can Reduce Postabdominoplasty Complications: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can improve wound healing and has been found to have positive preconditioning effects in animal models. Among esthetic surgical procedures, abdominoplasty poses the highest rate of postoperative complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of preoperative HBOT as a preconditioning treatment for expected postsurgical complications.

Efficacy of Silver-based Gel Compared With Fusidic Acid Cream in Topical Treatment Following Trichloroacetic Acid Facial Skin Peeling: A Pilot Study.

Background: Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is a nontoxic chemical that has been used for more than 20 years in skin rejuvenation treatments for various skin conditions. Currently, there is no single accepted protocol for local burn care following TCA peeling.

Objective: This pilot study assesses the efficacy and tolerability of a silver-based gel compared with fusidic acid cream as a complementary topical treatment for burns following TCA peeling.

EDoP Distance Between Sets of Incomplete Permutations: Application to Bacteria Classification Based on Gene Order.

In this work, we extend measures of distance between permutations to support incomplete permutations. Modeling and comparing incomplete permutations are a challenging computational problem of practical importance in many applications in bioinformatics and social science. We show that the proposed distance measure admits a closed-form expression and can be efficiently computed on sets of permutations involving several missing elements.

Suction drains in esthetic breast implant exchange are associated with surgical site infections: A retrospective cohort study.

Background And Objective: Surgical site infection (SSI) following esthetic breast implant exchange occurs in up to 2% of procedures. The effect of suction drains on SSI risk in these cases remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the SSI risk in the presence of suction drains after esthetic exchange of breast implants.

Testing of Junctional Tourniquets by Medics of the Israeli Defense Force in Control of Simulated Groin Hemorrhage.

Background: Junctional hemorrhage is a common cause of battlefield death but little is known about testing of junctional tourniquet models by medics. The purpose of the testing described herein is to assess military experience in junctional tourniquet use in simulated prehospital care.

Methods: Fourteen medics were to use the following four junctional tourniquets: Combat Ready Clamp (CRoC), Abdominal Aortic Junctional Tourniquet (AAJT), Junctional Emergency Treatment Tool (JETT), and SAM Junctional Tourniquet (SJT).

ExpaRNA-P: simultaneous exact pattern matching and folding of RNAs.

Background: Identifying sequence-structure motifs common to two RNAs can speed up the comparison of structural RNAs substantially. The core algorithm of the existent approach ExpaRNA solves this problem for a priori known input structures. However, such structures are rarely known; moreover, predicting them computationally is no rescue, since single sequence structure prediction is highly unreliable.

β-Alanine ingestion increases muscle carnosine content and combat specific performance in soldiers.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of β-alanine (BA) ingestion on tissue carnosine levels and the impact such changes would have on combat specific activity. Eighteen soldiers (19.9 ± 0.

Fast computation of a string duplication history under no-breakpoint-reuse.

In this paper, we provide an O(n log(2) n log log n log* n) algorithm to compute a duplication history of a string under no-breakpoint-reuse condition. The motivation of this problem stems from computational biology, in particular, from analysis of complex gene clusters. The problem is also related to computing edit distance with block operations, but, in our scenario, the start of the history is not fixed, but chosen to minimize the distance measure.

β-alanine supplementation improves tactical performance but not cognitive function in combat soldiers.

Background: There are no known studies that have examined β-alanine supplementation in military personnel. Considering the physiological and potential neurological effects that have been reported during sustained military operations, it appears that β-alanine supplementation may have a potential benefit in maintaining physical and cognitive performance during high-intensity military activity under stressful conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of 28 days of β-alanine ingestion in military personnel while fatigued on physical and cognitive performance.

Local Exact Pattern Matching for Non-Fixed RNA Structures.

Detecting local common sequence-structure regions of RNAs is a biologically important problem. Detecting such regions allows biologists to identify functionally relevant similarities between the inspected molecules. We developed dynamic programming algorithms for finding common structure-sequence patterns between two RNAs.

Detection of oxidative damage in response to protein misfolding in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Disulfide bond formation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) requires the sequential transfer of electrons from thiol residues to protein disulfide isomerase and ER oxidase 1, with the final reduction of molecular oxygen to form hydrogen peroxide. Conditions that perturb correct protein folding lead to accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER lumen, which induce ER stress and oxidative stress. Oxidative damage of cellular macromolecules is a common marker of aging and various pathological conditions including diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease.

Expression profiling and biochemical analysis suggest stress response as a potential mechanism inhibiting proliferation of polyamine-depleted cells.

Polyamines are small organic polycations that are absolutely required for cell growth and proliferation; yet the basis for this requirement is mostly unknown. Here, we combined a genome-wide expression profiling with biochemical analysis to reveal the molecular basis for inhibited proliferation of polyamine-depleted cells. Transcriptional responses accompanying growth arrest establishment in polyamine-depleted cells or growth resumption following polyamine replenishment were monitored and compared.

Haplotype inference constrained by plausible haplotype data.

The haplotype inference problem (HIP) asks to find a set of haplotypes which resolve a given set of genotypes. This problem is important in practical fields such as the investigation of diseases or other types of genetic mutations. In order to find the haplotypes which are as close as possible to the real set of haplotypes that comprise the genotypes, two models have been suggested which are by now well-studied: The perfect phylogeny model and the pure parsimony model.

The role of polyamines in supporting growth of mammalian cells is mediated through their requirement for translation initiation and elongation.

Polyamines are essential cell constituents whose depletion results in growth cessation. Here we have investigated potential mechanisms of action of polyamines in supporting mammalian cell proliferation. We demonstrate that polyamines regulate translation both at the initiation and at the elongation steps.

Yeast antizyme mediates degradation of yeast ornithine decarboxylase by yeast but not by mammalian proteasome: new insights on yeast antizyme.

Mammalian antizyme (mAz) is a central element of a feedback circuit regulating cellular polyamines by accelerating ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) degradation and inhibiting polyamine uptake. Although yeast antizyme (yAz) stimulates the degradation of yeast ODC (yODC), we show here that it has only a minor effect on polyamine uptake by yeast cells. A segment of yODC that parallels the Az binding segment of mammalian ODC (mODC) is required for its binding to yAz.

Altered glycosylation of recombinant NKp30 hampers binding to heparan sulfate: a lesson for the use of recombinant immunoreceptors as an immunological tool.

NKp30 is a natural cytotoxicity receptor expressed by human NK cells and involved in NK lytic activity. We previously published that membranal heparan sulfate serves as a coligand for human NKp30. In the present study, we complement our results by showing direct binding of recombinant NKp30 to immobilized heparin.

Locality and gaps in RNA comparison.

Locality is an important and well-studied notion in comparative analysis of biological sequences. Similarly, taking into account affine gap penalties when calculating biological sequence alignments is a well-accepted technique for obtaining better alignments. When dealing with RNA, one has to take into consideration not only sequential features, but also structural features of the inspected molecule.

Characterization of the recognition of tumor cells by the natural cytotoxicity receptor, NKp44.

NKp44 is a natural cytotoxicity receptor expressed by human NK cells upon activation. In this study, we demonstrate that cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), expressed by target cells, are involved in the recognition of tumor cells by NKp44. NKp44 showed heparan sulfate-dependent binding to tumor cells; this binding was partially blocked with an antibody to heparan sulfate.

On the complexity of sparse exon assembly.

Gene structure prediction is one of the most important problems in computational molecular biology. It involves two steps: the first is finding the evidence (e.g.

Lethal influenza infection in the absence of the natural killer cell receptor gene Ncr1.

The elimination of viruses and tumors by natural killer cells is mediated by specific natural killer cell receptors. To study the in vivo function of a principal activating natural killer cell receptor, NCR1 (NKp46 in humans), we replaced the gene encoding this receptor (Ncr1) with a green fluorescent protein reporter cassette. There was enhanced spread of certain tumors in 129/Sv but not C57BL/6 Ncr1(gfp/gfp) mice, and influenza virus infection was lethal in both 129/Sv and C57BL/6 Ncr1(gfp/gfp) mice.

Gene proximity analysis across whole genomes via PQ trees.

Permutations on strings representing gene clusters on genomes have been studied earlier by Uno and Yagiura (2000), Heber and Stoye (2001), Bergeron et al. (2002), Eres et al. (2003), and Schmidt and Stoye (2004) and the idea of a maximal permutation pattern was introduced by Eres et al.