Patient perspectives on the use of digital medical devices and health data for AI-driven personalised medicine in Parkinson's Disease.

Introduction: Parkinson's Disease (PD) affects around 8.5 million people currently with numbers expected to rise to 12 million by 2040. PD is characterized by fluctuating motor and non-motor symptoms demanding accurate monitoring.

Prediction of prostate cancer biochemical recurrence by using discretization supports the critical contribution of the extra-cellular matrix genes.

Due to its complexity, much effort has been devoted to the development of biomarkers for prostate cancer that have acquired the utmost clinical relevance for diagnosis and grading. However, all of these advances are limited due to the relatively large percentage of biochemical recurrence (BCR) and the limited strategies for follow up. This work proposes a methodology that uses discretization to predict prostate cancer BCR while optimizing the necessary variables.

Meropenem allergy testing performed at the bedside of hospitalized patients labelled with a penicillin allergy.

Background: Meropenem is a widely prescribed beta-lactam for hospitalized patients. There are few data on meropenem allergy assessments in inpatients with a reported history of penicillin allergy who require a treatment with meropenem. This can lead to the use of less effective second-line antibiotics that may increase antibiotic resistances.

Multicriteria Decision Analysis for Updating of Quality Indicators for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Comprehensive Care Units in Spain.

Background And Aims: Management of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] is complex and IBD Comprehensive Care Units [ICCUs] facilitate the delivery of quality care to IBD patients. The objective of this study was to update the existing set of quality indicators [QIs] for ICCUs, based on a nationwide quality certification programme carried out in Spain, from a multi-stakeholder perspective and using multicriteria decision analysis [MCDA] methodology.

Methods: An MCDA comprising three different phases was conducted.

Dairy Products with Certification Marks: The Role of Territoriality and Safety Perception on Intention to Buy.

Over the years, the territorial origins of agri-food products have become a consolidated marketing model which stand as an alternative to mass production. References to territory, whether on packaging or in advertising, have become an increasingly popular way for marketers to differentiate products, by attributing specific characteristics to them, derived from specific cultural identities and traditions. The aim of this study is to capture the possible differences between two groups, Italian and French, in the perception and intention to buy products with certification marks.

De novo biosynthesis of garbanzol and fustin in Streptomyces albus based on a potential flavanone 3-hydroxylase with 2-hydroxylase side activity.

Flavonoids are important plant secondary metabolites, which were shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or antiviral activities. Heterologous production of flavonoids in engineered microbial cell factories is an interesting alternative to their purification from plant material representing the natural source. The use of engineered bacteria allows to produce specific compounds, independent of soil, climatic or other plant-associated production parameters.

Patient-Evaluated Quality of Care is Related to Better Inflammatory Bowel Disease Outcomes: The IQCARO II Project.

Background: Measuring quality of care (QoC) from a patient's perspective is becoming increasingly important in inflammatory bowel disease.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether patients' evaluations of QoC correlate with better inflammatory bowel disease outcomes.

Methods: A survey including patients' characteristics, a decalogue of QoC indicators, and self-reported disease outcomes was completed by Spanish patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Regulation of zinc homeostatic genes by environmental pH in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus.

Aspergillus fumigatus can grow over a broad range of pH values even though zinc availability is greatly conditioned by ambient pH. It has been previously shown that regulation of zinc homeostatic genes in this fungus relies on the transcription factor ZafA. In addition, their expression is further modulated by the transcription factor PacC depending on ambient pH, which allows this fungus to grow in diverse types of niches, including soils and the lungs of immunosuppressed hosts.

Treatment Adherence and Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease on Biological Agents During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

Background: The outbreak of COVID19 evolved rapidly into a global pandemic, forcing hospitals, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) referral units, to change their practices to ensure quality of care.

Aims: To describe the clinical outcomes and the fulfilment of the treatment schedule of patients with IBD treated with biological agents in a single-center of a red-zone of the pandemic, and to report the patients' perceptions about COVID-19 and the measures adopted at our center.

Methods: Therapeutic adherence and clinical outcomes were collected for all patients undergoing treatment with intravenous biologicals and subcutaneous biologicals at our center.

The effect of tocilizumab on cytokine release syndrome in COVID-19 patients.

Background: This study was aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab (TCZ) and to investigate the factors related to the progress and mortality of patients with a secondary cytokine release syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: A retrospective descriptive observational study of hospitalised patients with a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result for SARS-CoV-2 and whose clinical evolution required the administration of one or more doses of TCZ was conducted. Demographic variables, clinical evolution, radiologic progress and analytical parameters were analysed on days 1, 3 and 5 after administration the first dose of TCZ.

Prognostic Value of Lung Ultrasonography in Older Nursing Home Residents Affected by COVID-19.

Objectives: Lung ultrasonographic (LUS) imaging may play an important role in the management of patients with COVID-19-associated lung injury, particularly in some special populations. However, data regarding the prognostic role of the LUS in nursing home residents, one of the populations most affected by COVID-19, are not still available.

Design: Retrospective.

COVID-19 and inflammatory bowel disease: questions arising from patient care and follow-up during the initial phase of the pandemic (February-April 2020).

COVID-19 is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was described in China in late 2019. There are currently more than three million diagnosed cases, constituting a pandemic which has caused a worldwide crisis. The devastating effects of this infection are due to its highly contagious nature and although mild forms predominate, in absolute values, the rates for severe forms and mortality are very high.

Long-term normalization of cognitive and psychopathological alterations in a juvenile Niemann-Pick type C case.

Niemann-Pick type C (NP-C) disease is a neurovisceral atypical lysosomal lipid storage disorder with a poor prognosis. We present the 5-year neuropsychological follow-up of a patient with juvenile onset NP-C, spanning the pre-diagnostic stage to the period after treatment with miglustat (Actelion Pharmaceuticals Inc., CA, US).

Improving Quality of Care in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Through Patients' Eyes: IQCARO Project.

Background: Quality improvement is a major topic in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care, and measuring quality of care (QoC) is necessary for QoC improvement. Most QoC projects or consensus statements are designed from the health care professional point of view. Having QoC indicators designed for and fully evaluable by patients may provide a key tool for external evaluation of QoC improvement measures.

Impact of pain associated with the subcutaneous administration of adalimumab.

Background: There is limited information regarding the impact of patients' perception of injection pain on adherence to treatments, specifically in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Therefore, we aimed to determine the impact of the pain associated with the subcutaneous administration of adalimumab in patients with IBD treated with the old formulation and the new low-volume/citrate-free formulation.

Methods: A specifically-designed questionnaire was completed by 76 patients with IBD, who started treatment with adalimumab before the availability of the low-volume/citrate-free formulation and were switched to this new formulation.

Development and validation of the QUECOMIICAT questionnaire: a tool to assess disease-related knowledge in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Introduction: adequate knowledge of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is essential for a successful patient-centered management of IBD.

Objective: due to the scarcity of up-to-date tools for measuring IBD literacy, this single-center, prospective study aimed to develop and validate a new questionnaire to assess IBD-related knowledge.

Material And Methods: the study included patients followed up at the Crohn-Colitis Care Unit (UACC) at the Hospital Vall d'Hebron (Barcelona, Spain).

Association between Salivary Alpha-Amylase and Executive Functioning in Healthy Children.

The main aim of this study was to confirm the relationship between executive performance and salivary alpha-amylase (SAA) activity in a sample of 64 healthy children (39 boys), and compare it to the association of SAA output and salivary flow rate (SFR). Executive functioning was assessed via fluency, trail-making, rings and inhibition tasks from the Batería de Evaluación Neuropsicológica de la Función Ejecutiva en Niños [Battery of Neuropsychological Assessment for Executive Function in Children] (ENFEN), merged into an ENFEN total score. SAA activity, output, and SFR were measured at baseline, one minute before, and one minute after the end of a neuropsychological testing session.

Association of salivary alpha-amylase and salivary flow rate with working memory functioning in healthy children.

The aim of this study was to examine the association between auditory and visual working memory (WM) performance and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and salivary flow rate (SFR) in a sample of 63 children (38 boys). WM was assessed by means of WISC-V subtests: four auditory subtests ( and ) and one visual subtest (). SAA activity, output, and SFR were measured at baseline (10 min prior to testing), one minute prior to testing, one minute after the end of the auditory WM subtests and one minute after the end of the visual WM subtest.

The interplay between zinc and iron homeostasis in Aspergillus fumigatus under zinc-replete conditions relies on the iron-mediated regulation of alternative transcription units of zafA and the basal amount of the ZafA zinc-responsiveness transcription factor.

Aspergillus fumigatus is a saprophyte fungus that typically grows on organic decaying matter but can also parasitize immunosuppressed hosts. This is explained, in part, by its great ability to take up Zn ions from living tissues, which is induced by the ZafA transcription factor. This study shows that the ZafA-mediated regulation of fungal growth is also influenced by iron availability and that A.

Research, Innovation, and Policy: An Alliance Combating Antimicrobial Resistance.

The surge in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has created a crisis that has become top priority for public health and global policy. Researchers, developers, innovators, funders, and policymakers need to curb AMR's rising trend by acting synergistically, boosting investment in developing solutions. This science-policy interface is now taking shape.

Enterovirus A71 Infection and Neurologic Disease, Madrid, Spain, 2016.

We conducted an observational study from January 2016 through January 2017 of patients admitted to a reference pediatric hospital in Madrid, Spain, for neurologic symptoms and enterovirus infection. Among the 30 patients, the most common signs and symptoms were fever, lethargy, myoclonic jerks, and ataxia. Real-time PCR detected enterovirus in the cerebrospinal fluid of 8 patients, nasopharyngeal aspirate in 17, and anal swab samples of 5.

De novo biosynthesis of myricetin, kaempferol and quercetin in Streptomyces albus and Streptomyces coelicolor.

Flavonols are a flavonoid subfamily widely distributed in plants, including several ones of great importance in human and animal diet (apple, tomato, broccoli, onion, beans, tea). These polyphenolic nutraceuticals exert potent antimicrobial (membrane potential disruptors), antioxidant (free-radical scavengers), pharmacokinetic (CYP450 modulators), anti-inflammatory (lipoxygenase inhibitors), antiangiogenic (VEGF inhibitors) and antitumor (cyclin inhibitors) activities. Biotechnological production of these nutraceuticals, for example via heterologous biosynthesis in industrial actinomycetes, is favored since in plants these polyphenols appear as inactive glycosylated derivatives, in low concentrations or as part of complex mixtures with other polyphenolic compounds.

The Transcription Factor ZafA Regulates the Homeostatic and Adaptive Response to Zinc Starvation in .

One of the most important features that enables to grow within a susceptible individual and to cause disease is its ability to obtain Zn ions from the extremely zinc-limited environment provided by host tissues. Zinc uptake from this source in relies on ZIP transporters encoded by the , and genes. The expression of these genes is tightly regulated by the ZafA transcription factor that regulates zinc homeostasis and is essential for virulence.