Simultaneous recycling of waste solar panels and treatment of persistent organic compounds via supercritical water technology.

The study addresses the application of the supercritical water technology in the simultaneous recycling of obsolete solar panels and treatment of persistent organic compounds. The obsolete solar panels samples were characterized by TEM-EDS, SEM, TG-DTA, XRD, WDXRF, MP-AES and elemental analysis. Initially, the optimized parameters for the degradation of solid organic polymers present in residual solar panels via oxidation in supercritical water were defined by an experimental design.

Prognosis and oncogenomic profiling of patients with tropomyosin receptor kinase fusion cancer in the 100,000 genomes project.

Introduction: Neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusions are oncogenic drivers in various tumor types. Limited data exist on the overall survival (OS) of patients with tumors with NTRK gene fusions and on the co-occurrence of NTRK fusions with other oncogenic drivers.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study included patients enrolled in the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project who had linked clinical data from UK databases.

Mental Health of Medical Students Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic: a 3-Year Prospective Study.

Background: Very few studies prospectively analyzed medical students' mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to prospectively evaluate mental health in medical students in 2018, 2019, and 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Methods: All students from first to fourth year were invited to participate in 2018.

Mental health in medical students during COVID-19 quarantine: a comprehensive analysis across year-classes.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic brought abrupt changes when quarantine measures were implemented. Most medical students had distance learning as their main content delivery mode, but in clerkship (fifth and sixth years), in-person activities were maintained under new protocols. These different modes may have affected student mental health.

Genome-wide plasma DNA methylation features of metastatic prostate cancer.

Tumor DNA circulates in the plasma of cancer patients admixed with DNA from noncancerous cells. The genomic landscape of plasma DNA has been characterized in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) but the plasma methylome has not been extensively explored. Here, we performed next-generation sequencing (NGS) on plasma DNA with and without bisulfite treatment from mCRPC patients receiving either abiraterone or enzalutamide in the pre- or post-chemotherapy setting.

EPILAT-IRA Study: A contribution to the understanding of the epidemiology of acute kidney injury in Latin America.

Introduction: Epidemiology of acute kidney injury (AKI) is highly dependent on patient characteristics, context and geography. Considering the limited information in Latin America and the Caribbean, we performed a study with the aim to contribute to improve its better understanding.

Methods: Observational, prospective, longitudinal, multinational cohort study addressed to determine risk factors, clinical profile, process of care and outcomes of AKI in the region.

The differences between observed and self-reported food safety practices: A study with food handlers using structural equation modeling.

Every year, studies about food handlers' food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices are published. Some results of these papers have been rather controversial, especially those related to food safety practices. The two most common methods for evaluating food safety practices - self-assessment and observation - are generally treated as interchangeable, but they can have different meanings.

Systematic review of pathways to mental health care in Brazil: narrative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative studies.

Background: Pathways to care are actions and strategies employed by individuals in order to get help for health-related distress and the related processes of care providers. On several systematic reviews regarding pathways to mental health care (PMHC), studies regarding South American countries were not present. This review synthesizes qualitative and quantitative research about PMHC in Brazil.

Accurate and Sensitive Analysis of Minimal Residual Disease in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Using Deep Sequencing of Single Nucleotide Variations.

Minimal residual disease (MRD) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is of major prognostic importance. The genetic landscape of AML is characterized by numerous somatic mutations, which constitute potential MRD markers. Leukemia-specific mutations can be identified with exome sequencing at diagnosis and assessed during follow-up at low frequencies by using targeted deep sequencing.

Transcriptional characterization of immunological infiltrates and their relation with glioblastoma patients overall survival.

: Several cell populations from the peripheral immune system interact to create a complex immunologic status during glioblastoma growth and response to therapy. The aim of this study was to integrate the impact of different immune cell populations present in glioblastoma tumor microenvironment on overall survival. : Gene expression and clinical data were generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas and previously reported meta-signatures representing cells of the immune system were used.

Comparison of normalization methods for the analysis of metagenomic gene abundance data.

Background: In shotgun metagenomics, microbial communities are studied through direct sequencing of DNA without any prior cultivation. By comparing gene abundances estimated from the generated sequencing reads, functional differences between the communities can be identified. However, gene abundance data is affected by high levels of systematic variability, which can greatly reduce the statistical power and introduce false positives.

Roles of OCT4 in tumorigenesis, cancer therapy resistance and prognosis.

OCT4 (POU5F1) is a major regulator of cell pluripotency and plays an important role not only during embryogenesis but also in tumorigenesis. It has been studied in various types of cancers, since stemness is an important factor for cancer growth and therapy. Here we present basic information about the OCT4 gene, its isoforms and pseudogenes besides discussing the current literature in which OCT4 is linked to cancer, emphasizing its roles in tumorigenesis and therapy.

The Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition-Like Process in Glioblastoma: An Updated Systematic Review and In Silico Investigation.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive form of brain cancer due to its highly invasive nature that impedes the surgical removal of all tumor cells, making relapse inevitable. However, the mechanisms used by glioma cells to invade the surrounding tissue are still unclear. In this context, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has emerged as a key regulator of this invasive state and although the real relevance of this program in malignant glioma is still controversial, it has been strongly associated with GBM malignancy.

Strategies to improve usability and preserve accuracy in biological sequence databases.

Biology is increasingly dependent on large-scale analysis, such as proteomics, creating a requirement for efficient bioinformatics. Bioinformatic predictions of biological functions rely upon correctly annotated database sequences, and the presence of inaccurately annotated or otherwise poorly described sequences introduces noise and bias to biological analyses. Accurate annotations are, for example, pivotal for correct identification of polypeptide fragments.

HattCI: Fast and Accurate attC site Identification Using Hidden Markov Models.

Integrons are genetic elements that facilitate the horizontal gene transfer in bacteria and are known to harbor genes associated with antibiotic resistance. The gene mobility in the integrons is governed by the presence of attC sites, which are 55 to 141-nucleotide-long imperfect inverted repeats. Here we present HattCI, a new method for fast and accurate identification of attC sites in large DNA data sets.

[Star fruit as a cause of acute kidney injury].

The star fruit belongs to the family Oxalidacea, species Averrhoa carambola. It is rich in minerals, vitamin A, C, B complex vitamins and oxalic acid. Recent studies show that the toxicity of the fruit differs between the patients and may be explained by single biological responses, age, and the intake quantity of the neurotoxin in each fruit in addition to glomerular filtration rate given by each patient.

A novel method to discover fluoroquinolone antibiotic resistance (qnr) genes in fragmented nucleotide sequences.

Background: Broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone antibiotics are central in modern health care and are used to treat and prevent a wide range of bacterial infections. The recently discovered qnr genes provide a mechanism of resistance with the potential to rapidly spread between bacteria using horizontal gene transfer. As for many antibiotic resistance genes present in pathogens today, qnr genes are hypothesized to originate from environmental bacteria.

The real importance of pre-existing comorbidities on long-term mortality after acute kidney injury.

Background: The causes of death on long-term mortality after acute kidney injury (AKI) have not been well studied. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of comorbidities and the causes of death on the long-term mortality after AKI.

Methodology/principal Findings: We retrospectively studied 507 patients who experienced AKI in 2005-2006 and were discharged free from dialysis.