Cultural & region-specific adaptation of KAP (Knowledge, attitude, and practice) tool to capture healthy lifestyle within primary care settings.

Background: Non-communicable diseases contribute to a significant global burden of disease and are associated with modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, tobacco use and excessive alcohol consumption. These risk factors are closely related with lifestyles and eating patterns which are often culturally embedded and managed differently in various health care settings.

Aim Of The Study: To assesses the applicability and feasibility of the KAPS (Knowledge, attitude, and practice) survey in generating data about knowledge, attitudes, and practices about healthy lifestyles within eastern Mediterranean settings and providing foundations for testing other models or development of a newer model in this area which captures and influence behavior changes towards healthy lifestyles.

Optimisation of cryopreservation conditions, including storage duration and revival methods, for the viability of human primary cells.

Background: Cryopreservation is a crucial procedure for safeguarding cells or other biological constructs, showcasing considerable potential for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of different cryopreservation conditions on human cells viability.

Methods: A set of cryopreserved data from Department of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (DTERM) cell bank were analyse for cells attachment after 24 h being revived.

Fibrillar adhesives with unprecedented adhesion strength, switchability and scalability.

Bio-inspired fibrillar adhesives have received worldwide attention but their potentials have been limited by a trade-off between adhesion strength and adhesion switchability, and a size scale effect that restricts the fibrils to micro/nanoscales. Here, we report a class of adhesive fibrils that achieve unprecedented adhesion strength (∼2 MPa), switchability (∼2000), and scalability (up to millimeter-scale at the single fibril level), by leveraging the rubber-to-glass (R2G) transition in shape memory polymers (SMPs). Moreover, R2G SMP fibrillar adhesive arrays exhibit a switchability of >1000 (with the aid of controlled buckling) and an adhesion efficiency of 57.

Proteomic Networks and Related Genetic Variants Associated with Smoking and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Background: Studies have identified individual blood biomarkers associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and related phenotypes. However, complex diseases such as COPD typically involve changes in multiple molecules with interconnections that may not be captured when considering single molecular features.

Methods: Leveraging proteomic data from 3,173 COPDGene Non-Hispanic White (NHW) and African American (AA) participants, we applied sparse multiple canonical correlation network analysis (SmCCNet) to 4,776 proteins assayed on the SomaScan v4.

Significant Subgraph Detection in Multi-omics Networks for Disease Pathway Identification.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. COPD represents one of many areas of research where identifying complex pathways and networks of interacting biomarkers is an important avenue toward studying disease progression and potentially discovering cures. Recently, sparse multiple canonical correlation network analysis (SmCCNet) was developed to identify complex relationships between omics associated with a disease phenotype, such as lung function.

SUMOylation Regulates Transcription by the Progesterone Receptor A Isoform in a Target Gene Selective Manner.

Luminal breast cancers express estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors, and respond to endocrine therapies. However, some ER+PR+ tumors display intrinsic or acquired resistance, possibly related to PR. Two PR isoforms, PR-A and PR-B, regulate distinct gene subsets that may differentially influence tumor fate.

Intensive care unit patients with lower respiratory tract nosocomial infections: the ENIRRIs project.

The clinical course of intensive care unit (ICU) patients may be complicated by a large spectrum of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), defined by specific epidemiological, clinical and microbiological aspects. A European network for ICU-related respiratory infections (ENIRRIs), supported by the European Respiratory Society, has been recently established, with the aim at studying all respiratory tract infective episodes except community-acquired ones. A multicentre, observational study is in progress, enrolling more than 1000 patients fulfilling the clinical, biochemical and radiological findings consistent with a LRTI.

Mathematical probit and logistic mortality models of the Khapra beetle fumigated with plant essential oils.

In the current study, probit and logistic models were employed to fit experimental mortality data of the Khapra beetle, Trogoderma granarium (Everts) (Coleoptera: Dermestidae), when fumigated with three plant oils of the gens Achillea. A generalized inverse matrix technique was used to estimate the mortality model parameters instead of the usual statistical iterative maximum likelihood estimation. As this technique needs to perturb the observed mortality proportions if the proportions include 0 or 1, the optimal perturbation in terms of minimum least squares (L2) error was also determined.

Liver function disturbances following laparoscopic cholecystectomy: incidence and significance.

Background: Unexplained disturbances of liver function parameters after laparoscopic cholecystectomy have been reported in a few previous studies. We aimed to assess the incidence of these disturbances, and their relation to age, sex, duration of surgery, and type of gallbladder inflammation, as well as their clinical significance.

Patients And Methods: All patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy at Dallah Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the year 2001 were prospectively evaluated.