Performance evaluation of nine reference centers and comparison of DNA extraction protocols for effective surveillance of Leishmania-infected Phlebotomine sand flies: Basis for technical recommendations.

Background: Leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania protozoan parasites transmitted by Phlebotomine sand flies, is a significant public health concern in the Mediterranean basin. Effective monitoring of Leishmania-infected sand flies requires standardized tools for comparing their distribution and infection prevalence. Consistent quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) parameters and efficient DNA extraction protocols are crucial for reliable results over time and across regions.

A welfare analysis of Medicaid and recidivism.

We present conservative estimates for the marginal value of public funds (MVPF) associated with providing Medicaid to inmates exiting prison. The MVPF measures the ratio between a policy's social benefits and its governmental costs. Our MVPF estimates suggest that every additional $1 the government spends on providing inmates exiting prison with Medicaid coverage can result in social benefits ranging between $3.

Genomic Alterations of Signaling and DNA Damage Repair Pathways in Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer.

The aim of the study was to demonstrate the most common genetic alterations and evaluate possible targets involving phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase (PIK3)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling and DNA damage repair (DDR) pathways for personalized treatment in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Alterations of these pathways were observed in 89.5% and 100% of patients, respectively.

FunARTS, the Fungal bioActive compound Resistant Target Seeker, an exploration engine for target-directed genome mining in fungi.

There is an urgent need to diversify the pipeline for discovering novel natural products due to the increase in multi-drug resistant infections. Like bacteria, fungi also produce secondary metabolites that have potent bioactivity and rich chemical diversity. To avoid self-toxicity, fungi encode resistance genes which are often present within the biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) of the corresponding bioactive compounds.

Anna Karenina principle in personalized treatment of bladder cancer according to oncogram: which drug for which patient?

To evaluate the efficacy of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted agents with the oncogram method in patients with bladder cancer and determine the most appropriate personalized treatment agent using immune markers. Bladder cancer tissues were obtained from each patient. After cultivation, cell cultures were divided into 12 groups for each patient and 11 drugs were administered.

Mapping out the glassy landscape of a mesoscopic elastoplastic model.

We develop a mesoscopic model to study the plastic behavior of an amorphous material under cyclic loading. The model is depinning-like and driven by a disordered thresholds dynamics that is coupled by long-range elastic interactions. We propose a simple protocol of "glass preparation" that allows us to mimic thermalization at high temperatures as well as aging at vanishing temperature.

Secondary Metabolite Transcriptomic Pipeline (SeMa-Trap), an expression-based exploration tool for increased secondary metabolite production in bacteria.

For decades, natural products have been used as a primary resource in drug discovery pipelines to find new antibiotics, which are mainly produced as secondary metabolites by bacteria. The biosynthesis of these compounds is encoded in co-localized genes termed biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). However, BGCs are often not expressed under laboratory conditions.

Cooperative effects driving the multi-periodic dynamics of cyclically sheared amorphous solids.

When subject to cyclic forcing, amorphous solids can reach periodic, repetitive states, where the system behaves plastically, but the particles return to their initial positions after one or more forcing cycles, where the latter response is called multi-periodic. It is known that plasticity in amorphous materials is mediated by local rearrangements called "soft spots" or "shear transformation zones." Experiments and simulations indicate that soft spots can be modeled as hysteretic two-state entities interacting via quadrupolar displacement fields generated when they switch states and that these interactions can give rise to multi-periodic behavior.

Metastability as a Mechanism for Yielding in Amorphous Solids under Cyclic Shear.

We consider the yielding behavior of amorphous solids under cyclic shear deformation and show that it can be mapped into a random walk in a confining potential with an absorbing boundary. The resulting dynamics is governed by the first passage time into the absorbing state and suffices to capture the essential qualitative features recently observed in atomistic simulations of amorphous solids. Our results provide insight into the mechanism underlying yielding and its robustness.

ARTS-DB: a database for antibiotic resistant targets.

As a result of the continuous evolution of drug resistant bacteria, new antibiotics are urgently needed. Encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), antibiotic compounds are mostly produced by bacteria. With the exponential increase in the number of publicly available, sequenced genomes and the advancements of BGC prediction tools, genome mining algorithms have uncovered millions of uncharacterized BGCs for further evaluation.

A candidate antineoplastic herbal agent for bladder cancer: Ankaferd Blood Stopper.

Background And Aims: Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS) was used for in vitro studies of osteosarcoma and colon carcinoma cancer cell lines to reveal the apoptotic and antineoplastic effects. The aim of this study is to evaluate the antineoplastic effect of ABS on bladder cancer cell cultures.

Methods: We prospectively collected minimum 0.

Topology of the energy landscape of sheared amorphous solids and the irreversibility transition.

Recent experiments and simulations of amorphous solids plastically deformed by an oscillatory drive have found a surprising behavior-for small strain amplitudes the dynamics can be reversible, which is contrary to the usual notion of plasticity as an irreversible form of deformation. This reversibility allows the system to reach limit cycles in which plastic events repeat indefinitely under the oscillatory drive. It was also found that reaching reversible limit cycles can take a large number of driving cycles and it was surmised that the plastic events encountered during the transient period are not encountered again and are thus irreversible.

Prognostic value of intraductal carcinoma for adjuvant radiotherapy candidates after radical prostatectomy.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic significance of intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P) in radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens and predictive value of IDC-P for biochemical recurrence and adjuvant therapy decision.

Method: We retrospectively evaluated patients who were performed RP between 2000 and 2014. Among, 67 patients who had stage pT3a tumour with negative surgical margin (Group 1, n = 35) and who had stage pT2 tumour with positive surgical margin (Group 2, n = 32) were included in the study.

SYN-View: A Phylogeny-Based Synteny Exploration Tool for the Identification of Gene Clusters Linked to Antibiotic Resistance.

The development of new antibacterial drugs has become one of the most important tasks of the century in order to overcome the posing threat of drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Many antibiotics originate from natural products produced by various microorganisms. Over the last decades, bioinformatical approaches have facilitated the discovery and characterization of these small compounds using genome mining methodologies.

Access to substance use disorder treatment during COVID-19: Implications from reduced local jail populations.

Many states have responded to the spread of COVID-19 by implementing policies which have led to a dramatic reduction in jail populations. We consider the benefits associated with providing the population of individuals who would, but for these policies, be incarcerated with substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. We discuss problems that may prevent this population from receiving SUD treatment as well as policies which may mitigate these problems.

State transition graph of the Preisach model and the role of return-point memory.

The Preisach model has been useful as a null model for understanding memory formation in periodically driven disordered systems. In amorphous solids, for example, the athermal response to shear is due to localized plastic events (soft spots). As shown recently by Mungan et al.

Myomectomy During Cesarean Section: Why Do We Abstain From?

Objectives: To assess the intra- and postoperative results of cesarean myomectomy.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to collect the results of cesarean myomectomy procedures performed in our tertiary center between June 2013 and December 2018. The subjects were 2219 pregnant women undergoing cesarean section at these units.

Transcriptomic analysis of selenium accumulation in Puccinellia distans (Jacq.) Parl., a boron hyperaccumulator.

Selenium (Se) is present in a wide variety of natural and man-made materials on Earth. Plants are able to tolerate and (hyper)accumulate Se to different extents. In fact, some species can tolerate and accumulate multiple elements.

Networks and Hierarchies: How Amorphous Materials Learn to Remember.

We consider the slow and athermal deformations of amorphous solids and show how the ensuing sequence of discrete plastic rearrangements can be mapped onto a directed network. The network topology reveals a set of highly connected regions joined by occasional one-way transitions. The highly connected regions include hierarchically organized hysteresis cycles and subcycles.

Cyclic annealing as an iterated random map.

Disordered magnets, martensitic mixed crystals, and glassy solids can be irreversibly deformed by subjecting them to external deformation. The deformation produces a smooth, reversible response punctuated by abrupt relaxation "glitches." Under appropriate repeated forward and reverse deformation producing multiple glitches, a strict repetition of a single sequence of microscopic configurations often emerges.

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Pediatric Patients in a Single Tertiary Hospital in Ankara.

Objective: Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease that is caused by a protozoan parasite of the Leishmania genus and that occurs worldwide. Leishmaniasis is endemic in southeastern Turkey and the neighboring Middle Eastern countries. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of patients admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL).

Detection and identification of cutaneous leishmaniasis isolates by culture, Polymerase chain reaction and sequence analyses in Syrian and Central Anatolia patients.

To characterize the cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) isolates of Syrian and Central Anatolia patients at species levels. Methods: Skin scrapings of 3 patients (2 Syrian, 1 Turkish) were taken and examined by direct examination, culture in Novy-MacNeal-Nicole (NNN) medium, internal transcribed spacer polymerase chain reaction and sequence analysis (PCR). Results:According to microscopic examination, culture and PCR methods, 3 samples were detected positive.

Seroprevalance of Leishmaniasis in Dogs from Hatay and Burdur Provinces of Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalance of leishmaniasis in dogs from Hatay and Burdur provinces of Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

Methods: Blood was collected from a total of 278 dogs, including 124 from Hatay, 49 from Burdur, and 105 from Northern Cyprus. Dilutions of serum samples were prepared, and the presence of anti-Leishmania antibodies was investigated by indirect fluorescent antibody technique (IFAT).