Publications by authors named "Levi H"

Article Synopsis
  • Inhalation exposure to dihydroxyacetone (DHA), found in spray tans and e-cigarette aerosols, was studied for its potential health effects, particularly its cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in various cell models.
  • Low millimolar doses of DHA were harmful to bronchial, lung, heart, and liver cells, causing cell cycle arrest in most, while also leading to the formation of DNA adducts and chromosomal abnormalities.
  • The study concludes that DHA is a clastogen, indicating that inhalation exposure may pose health risks, especially for vapers, and highlights the need for further research on its effects.
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In recent decades, the development of new drugs has become increasingly expensive and inefficient, and the molecular mechanisms of most pharmaceuticals remain poorly understood. In response, computational systems and network medicine tools have emerged to identify potential drug repurposing candidates. However, these tools often require complex installation and lack intuitive visual network mining capabilities.

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  • Frontline hospitals in conflict zones face significant challenges in providing emergency care due to threats to personnel and infrastructure; existing research often overlooks the practical aspects of operating under fire.
  • This study focuses on Barzilai University Medical Center in Israel during heightened conflict, analyzing 232 patient cases to understand triage methods, surge capacity, and continuity of care amidst hazardous conditions.
  • Findings reveal a direct correlation between missile attacks and patient surges, highlighting the need for improved trauma response strategies in frontline hospitals to enhance emergency care delivery during conflict.
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Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are a group of connective tissue disorders caused by mutations in collagen and collagen-interacting genes. We delineate a novel form of EDS with vascular features through clinical and histopathological phenotyping and genetic studies of a three-generation pedigree, displaying an apparently autosomal dominant phenotype of joint hypermobility and frequent joint dislocations, atrophic scarring, prolonged bleeding time and age-related aortic dilatation and rupture. Coagulation tests as well as platelet counts and function were normal.

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Motivation: Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) predict individuals' genetic risk of developing complex diseases. They summarize the effect of many variants discovered in genome-wide association studies (GWASs). However, to date, large GWASs exist primarily for the European population and the quality of PRS prediction declines when applied to other ethnicities.

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In modeling vision, there has been a remarkable progress in recognizing a range of scene components, but the problem of analyzing full scenes, an ultimate goal of visual perception, is still largely open. To deal with complete scenes, recent work focused on the training of models for extracting the full graph-like structure of a scene. In contrast with scene graphs, humans' scene perception focuses on selected structures in the scene, starting with a limited interpretation and evolving sequentially in a goal-directed manner [G.

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The epidermis is a constantly renewing stratified epithelial tissue that provides essential protective barrier functions. The major barrier is located at the outermost layers of the epidermis, formed by terminally differentiated keratinocytes reinforced by proteins of their cornified envelope and sequestered intercellular lipids. Disruptions to epidermal differentiation characterize various skin disorders.

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Objectives: This paper explores definitions, incidences, and outcomes of workplace abuse - a widespread, worldwide social phenomenon impinging on the well-being of workers in a developing labor market - and possible directions for delineating and standardizing classifications of the phenomenon that facilitate workers' protection. Furthermore, we employ Tepper's Abusive Supervision Survey Questionnaire [ASSQ] to identify managerial abuse in organizations regarding the type of organization (public/private), gender of the perpetrator, gender of the target, and the managerial role, of each of the abuse items. Finally, we suggest directions for further research and practical measures designed to facilitate the diminution of behavioral abuse in the workplace in the foreseeable future.

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Article Synopsis
  • Polygenic risk scores (PRSs), derived from genome-wide association studies (GWASs), can enhance breast cancer risk evaluation but are primarily based on European populations.
  • This study analyzed the effectiveness of European-based PRS models in identifying breast cancer risk among Ashkenazi Jewish women in Israel using data from two cohorts.
  • Results indicated that these PRS models successfully identified Ashkenazi Jewish women at high risk for breast cancer, suggesting they could improve risk assessment in this group.
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  • The drug development process has become costly and inefficient due to poorly understood molecular mechanisms and the complexity of existing computational tools.
  • Drugst.One is a new platform designed to simplify drug repurposing by converting systems biology software into user-friendly web applications with minimal coding.
  • With successful integration into 21 computational systems medicine tools, Drugst.One aims to enhance the drug discovery process and help researchers concentrate on important aspects of developing pharmaceutical treatments.
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Skin pigmentation is paused after sun exposure; however, the mechanism behind this pausing is unknown. In this study, we found that the UVB-induced DNA repair system, led by the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) protein kinase, represses MITF transcriptional activity of pigmentation genes while placing MITF in DNA repair mode, thus directly inhibiting pigment production. Phosphoproteomics analysis revealed ATM to be the most significantly enriched pathway among all UVB-induced DNA repair systems.

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Purpose: To report outcome of planned oocyte cryopreservation (POC) in the first 8 years of this treatment in our center.

Methods: A retrospective study in a university-affiliated medical center.

Results: A total of 446 women underwent POC during 2011-2018.

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Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a novel human pathogen causing Coronavirus Disease 2019 that has caused widespread global mortality and morbidity. Since health workers in Israel were among the first to be vaccinated, we had a unique opportunity to investigate the post-vaccination level of IgG anti-S levels antibodies (Abs) and their dynamics by demographic and professional factors. Methods: Prospective Serological Survey during December 2020−August 2021 at Barzilai Medical Center among 458 health care workers (HCW) followed for 6 months after the second BNT162b2 vaccine dose.

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Unlabelled: Aneuploidy is a hallmark of cancer with tissue-specific prevalence patterns that suggest it plays a driving role in cancer initiation and progression. However, the contribution of aneuploidy to tumorigenesis depends on both cellular and genomic contexts. Whole-genome duplication (WGD) is a common macroevolutionary event that occurs in more than 30% of human tumors early in tumorigenesis.

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Motivation: Active module identification (AMI) is an essential step in many omics analyses. Such algorithms receive a gene network and a gene activity profile as input and report subnetworks that show significant over-representation of accrued activity signal ('active modules'). Such modules can point out key molecular processes in the analyzed biological conditions.

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  • Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the ATM gene, resulting in symptoms like progressive ataxia, immunodeficiency, and increased cancer risk.
  • Researchers hypothesize that the degeneration of cerebellar cells in A-T is linked to specific vulnerabilities of cerebellar microglia, the immune cells in the brain.
  • Their findings indicate that microglia from A-T affected mice show impaired functions such as phagocytosis and neurotrophic factor secretion, highlighting the critical roles of these cells in the disease's progression.
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Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a hereditary disease of the retina that results in complete blindness. Currently, there are very few treatments for the disease and those that exist work only for the recessively inherited forms. To better understand the pathogenesis of RP, multiple mouse models have been generated bearing mutations found in human patients including the human Q344X rhodopsin knock-in mouse.

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The ability to encode the direction of image motion is fundamental to our sense of vision. Direction selectivity along the four cardinal directions is thought to originate in direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) because of directionally tuned GABAergic suppression by starburst cells. Here, by utilizing two-photon glutamate imaging to measure synaptic release, we reveal that direction selectivity along all four directions arises earlier than expected at bipolar cell outputs.

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Algorithms for active module identification (AMI) are central to analysis of omics data. Such algorithms receive a gene network and nodes' activity scores as input and report subnetworks that show significant over-representation of accrued activity signal ("active modules"), thus representing biological processes that presumably play key roles in the analyzed conditions. Here, we systematically evaluated six popular AMI methods on gene expression and GWAS data.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to evaluate how personal, ward, and organizational factors influence hospital staff performance during missile attacks, particularly in Israel during the summer of 2014.
  • - Research involved qualitative focus groups and quantitative surveys with 409 hospital workers, examining aspects like decision-making involvement, clarity of communication, and overall coping strategies during emergencies.
  • - Results indicated that clear directives and strong executive leadership significantly enhance hospital staff functioning during crises, suggesting that effective management is crucial for maintaining operations in emergency situations.
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Magnetotactic bacteria are Gram-negative bacteria that navigate along geomagnetic fields using the magnetosome, an organelle that consists of a membrane-enveloped magnetic nanoparticle. Magnetite formation and its properties are controlled by a specific set of proteins. MamC is a small magnetosome-membrane protein that is known to be active in iron biomineralization but its mechanism has yet to be clarified.

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One of the leading theories for dyslexia suggests that it is the result of a difficulty in auditory temporal processing (ATP). This theory, as well as others, is supported by studies showing group differences and correlation between phonological awareness and ATP. However, these studies do not provide causal relationship.

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