Swarming Transition in Super-Diffusive Self-Propelled Particles.

A super-diffusive Vicsek model is introduced in this paper that incorporates Levy flights with exponent α. The inclusion of this feature leads to an increase in the fluctuations of the order parameter, ultimately resulting in the disorder phase becoming more dominant as α increases. The study finds that for α values close to two, the order-disorder transition is of the first order, while for small enough values of α, it shows degrees of similarities with the second-order phase transitions.

Apelin Association with Hepatic Fibrosis and Esophageal Varices in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Virus.

Portal hypertension and esophageal varices complicating hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related chronic liver diseases are some of the most devastating sequelae. Angiogenesis is the hallmark of their pathogenesis. Apelin is one of the recently identified angiogenic and fibrogenic peptides.

Multijurisdictional outbreak of COVID-19 associated with a wake/funeral event in a northern Saskatchewan First Nations community.

Background: Sixty-eight laboratory-confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (12 in Alberta [AB], 56 in Saskatchewan [SK]) were linked to a gathering at a hospital in Alberta on June 1-4, 2020, and a wake/funeral in a First Nations community in northern Saskatchewan on June 9-11, 2020.

Objective: The objectives were to provide a comprehensive description of the epidemiology of the outbreak and describe the chains of transmission to inform the hypothesis that there were multiple introductions of COVID-19 at the wake/funeral.

Methods: Case investigation and contact tracing was conducted by local public health in AB and SK.

Bioprocesses optimization and anticancer activity of camptothecin from Aspergillus flavus, an endophyte of in vitro cultured Astragalus fruticosus.

Background: Emerging of endophytic fungi as potent camptothecin producers raise the hope for its commercial production, due to their rapid growth and feasibility of metabolic engineering, nevertheless, their loss of productivity with the fungal storage and subculturing is the challenge. Thus, screening for unique fungal isolate with sustainable camptothecin productivity is the objective of this work.

Results: The camptothecin productivity of the fungal endophytes of wild and in vitro cultured Astragalus fruticosus was evaluated.