Implementing a Patient Portal for the Remote Follow-Up of Self-Isolating Patients With COVID-19 Infection Through Patient and Stakeholder Engagement (the Opal-COVID Study): Mixed Methods Pilot Study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedent challenge to public health systems, with 95% of cases in Quebec sent home for self-isolation. To ensure continuous care, we implemented an intervention supported by a patient portal (Opal) to remotely monitor at-home patients with COVID-19 via daily self-reports of symptoms, vital signs, and mental health that were reviewed by health care professionals.

Objective: We describe the intervention's implementation, focusing on the (1) process; (2) outcomes, including feasibility, fidelity, acceptability, usability, and perceived response burden; and (3) barriers and facilitators encountered by stakeholders.

Optimization of Automated Dimethylmethylene Blue Assay for Quantification of Pediatric Urine Samples.

The metachromatic dye dimethylmethylene blue is used to quantify total glycosaminoglycans in urine. Understanding the interaction of dimethylmethylene blue with glycosaminoglycans is pertinent to optimize the assay procedure depending on the type of sample and interpret the findings meaningfully. The present spectrophotometric study determined the optimum sample-to-dye ratio, primary wavelength for measuring absorbance, after studying the interaction of two different chondroitin sulfate species (unfractionated chondroitin sulfate from bovine trachea vs.

Complexmodels positioned for impact to drug testing in pharma: a review.

Recent years have seen the creation and popularization of various complexmodels (CIVMs), such as organoids and organs-on-chip, as a technology with the potential to reduce animal usage in pharma while also enhancing our ability to create safe and efficacious drugs for patients. Public awareness of CIVMs has increased, in part, due to the recent passage of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0.

Human health risk attributed to consumption of seafood and recreation swimming in Negombo Lagoon, Sri Lanka: An assessment on lagoon water and inhabitant oysters (Crassostrea cucullata Born, 1778).

The Negombo Lagoon is a coastal lagoon influenced by local communities that introduce waste into its ecosystem. This study examined seven sewage entry points, out of which five sites were chosen for oyster sampling based on availability. Physicochemical and microbiological parameters of water (measured in triplicate at each site, n = 84) and oyster samples (total length, TL > 6 cm, n = 30) were assessed.

Explaining Dark Matter Halo Density Profiles with Neural Networks.

We use explainable neural networks to connect the evolutionary history of dark matter halos with their density profiles. The network captures independent factors of variation in the density profiles within a low-dimensional representation, which we physically interpret using mutual information. Without any prior knowledge of the halos' evolution, the network recovers the known relation between the early time assembly and the inner profile and discovers that the profile beyond the virial radius is described by a single parameter capturing the most recent mass accretion rate.

Erratum: New Semiclassical Picture of Vacuum Decay [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 031601 (2019)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.

Selected Liver Markers in Predicting the Severity of Organophosphate and Carbamate Poisoning.

Background: Intentional ingestion of organophosphate (OP) and carbamate is a significant health issue worldwide. It causes adverse health effects on the liver. This study aimed to determine liver transaminases (AST and ALT) and bilirubin levels to assess the severity of poisoning in patients with acute OP and carbamate poisoning.

Diagnosing autism in low-income countries: Clinical record-based analysis in Sri Lanka.

Use of autism diagnosing standards in low-income countries (LICs) are restricted due to the high price and unavailability of trained health professionals. Furthermore, these standards are heavily skewed towards developed countries and LICs are underrepresented. Due to such constraints, many LICs use their own ways of assessing autism.

Limits on the Light Dark Matter-Proton Cross Section from Cosmic Large-Scale Structure.

We set the strongest limits to date on the velocity-independent dark matter (DM)-proton cross section σ for DM masses m=10  keV to 100 GeV, using large-scale structure traced by the Lyman-alpha forest: e.g., a 95% lower limit σ<6×10^{-30}  cm^{2}, for m=100  keV.

A Multi-Point Identification Approach for the Recognition of Individual Leopards ().

Visual leopard identifications performed with camera traps using the capture-recapture method only consider areas of the skin that are visible to the equipment. The method presented here considered the spot or rosette formations of either the two flanks or the face, and the captured images were then compared and matched with available photographs. Leopards were classified as new individuals if no matches were found in the existing set of photos.

Sequential occurrence of recurrent Sweet syndrome and erythema nodosum without an underlying secondary cause: a case report.

Background: Sweet syndrome is a rare cause of acute fever and painful erythematous skin plaques. Erythema nodosum is acute or chronic tender erythematous skin nodules of bilateral shins. The concurrent presence of both dermatoses is rare but reported in the literature.

A comparative study on fatty acid profile in selected vessels of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).

Atherosclerosis is one of the leading non-communicable diseases in Sri Lanka. Analysis of fatty acid composition in blood vessels is important in understanding the development of atherosclerosis. Here, analyses of fatty acid profiles in major arteries which are commonly used in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery (CABG) were subjected to investigation.

Proteomic profiling of plasma-derived small extracellular vesicles: a novel tool for understanding the systemic effects of tick burden in cattle.

Cattle ticks pose a significant threat to the health and profitability of cattle herds globally. The investigation of factors leading to natural tick resistance in cattle is directed toward targeted breeding strategies that may combat cattle tick infestation on the genetic level. Exosomes (EXs), small extracellular vesicles (EVs) of 50 to 150 nm diameter, are released from all cell types into biofluids such as blood plasma and milk, have been successfully used in diagnostic and prognostic studies in humans, and can provide essential information regarding the overall health state of animals.

Differentially Expressed Extracellular Vesicle, Exosome and Non-Exosome miRNA Profile in High and Low Tick-Resistant Beef Cattle.

Heavy tick burden on beef cattle account for huge economic losses globally, with an estimated value of US$22-30 billion per annum. In Australia, ticks cost the northern beef industry approximately A$170-200 million. Methods to evaluate and predict tick resistance would therefore be of great value to the global cattle trade.

A complete proteomic profile of human and bovine milk exosomes by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.

Background: The present study investigates the proteomic content of milk-derived exosomes. A detailed description of the content of milk exosomes is essential to improve our understanding of the various components of milk and their role in nutrition.

Methods: The exosomes used in this study were isolated as previously described and characterized by their morphology, particle concentration, and the presence of exosomal markers.

On timeline of enhancing testing-capacity of COVID-19: A case study via an optimal replacement model.

Process of enhancing testing-capacity regarding COVID-19 is a topic of interest. This task of enhancing is constrained by socio-economic background of a country either in favorable or unfavorable ways. In this paper, we investigate timing of enhancing testing-capacity as an optimal problem, where the enhancement is quantified via number of tests as an instant measure and recovered portion as a long-term measure.

Prospects for Measuring the Hubble Constant with Neutron-Star-Black-Hole Mergers.

Gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) observations of neutron-star-black-hole (NSBH) mergers can provide precise local measurements of the Hubble constant (H_{0}), ideal for resolving the current H_{0} tension. We perform end-to-end analyses of realistic populations of simulated NSBHs, incorporating both GW and EM selection for the first time. We show that NSBHs could achieve unbiased 1.

Sulfur amino acid metabolism and related metabotypes of autism spectrum disorder: A review of biochemical evidence for a hypothesis.

There are multiple lines of evidence for an impaired sulfur amino acid (SAA) metabolism in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For instance, the concentrations of methionine, cysteine and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) in body fluids of individuals with ASD is significantly lower while the concentration of S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) is significantly higher as compared to healthy individuals. Reduced methionine and SAM may reflect impaired remethylation pathway whereas increased SAH may reflect reduced S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase activity in the catabolic direction.

Strong Bound on Canonical Ultralight Axion Dark Matter from the Lyman-Alpha Forest.

We present a new bound on the ultralight axion (ULA) dark matter mass m_{a}, using the Lyman-alpha forest to look for suppressed cosmic structure growth: a 95% lower limit m_{a}>2×10^{-20}  eV. This strongly disfavors (>99.7% credibility) the canonical ULA with 10^{-22}  eV View Article and Find Full Text PDF

SIX2 and SIX3 coordinately regulate functional maturity and fate of human pancreatic β cells.

The physiological functions of many vital tissues and organs continue to mature after birth, but the genetic mechanisms governing this postnatal maturation remain an unsolved mystery. Human pancreatic β cells produce and secrete insulin in response to physiological cues like glucose, and these hallmark functions improve in the years after birth. This coincides with expression of the transcription factors SIX2 and SIX3, whose functions in native human β cells remain unknown.

The Role(s) of Eicosanoids and Exosomes in Human Parturition.

The roles that eicosanoids play during pregnancy and parturition are crucial to a successful outcome. A better understanding of the regulation of eicosanoid production and the roles played by the various end products during pregnancy and parturition has led to our view that accurate measurements of a panel of those end products has exciting potential as diagnostics and prognostics of preterm labor and delivery. Exosomes and their contents represent an exciting new area for research of movement of key biological factors circulating between tissues and organs akin to a parallel endocrine system but involving key intracellular mediators.

The Role of Exosomal Epigenetic Modifiers in Cell Communication and Fertility of Dairy Cows.

Abnormal uterine function affects conception rate and embryo development, thereby leading to poor fertility and reproduction failure. Exosomes are a nanosized subclass of extracellular vesicles (EV) that have important functions as intercellular communicators. They contain and carry transferable bioactive substances including micro RNA (miRNA) for target cells.

Prostaglandin and prostamide concentrations in amniotic fluid of women with spontaneous labor at term with and without clinical chorioamnionitis.

Objective: Prostaglandins (PGs) are considered universal mediators for the process of physiological parturition. This is based on observations that amniotic fluid concentrations of PGs are elevated prior to and during the onset of labor (mostly utilizing immunoassays). Distinguishing PGs from similarly structured molecules (i.

Molecular and genetic regulation of pig pancreatic islet cell development.

Reliance on rodents for understanding pancreatic genetics, development and islet function could limit progress in developing interventions for human diseases such as diabetes mellitus. Similarities of pancreas morphology and function suggest that porcine and human pancreas developmental biology may have useful homologies. However, little is known about pig pancreas development.