Generation of a Virtual Cell using a Phase Field Approach to Model Amoeboid Crawling.

The process of chemotaxis of living cells is complex. Cells follow gradients of an external signal because the interior of the cells gets polarized. The description of the exterior and the interior of the cell together with its motion for the convenient realization of the computational modeling of the whole process is a complex technical problem.

Mathematical modeling of SARS-CoV-2 variant substitutions in European countries: transmission dynamics and epidemiological insights.

Background: Countries across Europe have faced similar evolutions of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants.

Materials And Methods: We used data from GISAID and applied a robust, automated mathematical substitution model to study the dynamics of COVID-19 variants in Europe over a period of more than 2 years, from late 2020 to early 2023. This model identifies variant substitution patterns and distinguishes between residual and dominant behavior.

A semi-empirical risk panel to monitor epidemics: multi-faceted tool to assist healthcare and public health professionals.

Introduction: Bronchiolitis, mostly caused by Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and influenza among other respiratory infections, lead to seasonal saturation at healthcare centers in temperate areas. There is no gold standard to characterize the stages of epidemics, nor the risk of respiratory infections growing. We aimed to define a set of indicators to assess the risk level of respiratory viral epidemics, based on both incidence and their short-term dynamics, and considering epidemical thresholds.

Predictive performance of multi-model ensemble forecasts of COVID-19 across European nations.

Background: Short-term forecasts of infectious disease burden can contribute to situational awareness and aid capacity planning. Based on best practice in other fields and recent insights in infectious disease epidemiology, one can maximise the predictive performance of such forecasts if multiple models are combined into an ensemble. Here, we report on the performance of ensembles in predicting COVID-19 cases and deaths across Europe between 08 March 2021 and 07 March 2022.

Black and gray box learning of amplitude equations: Application to phase field systems.

We present a data-driven approach to learning surrogate models for amplitude equations and illustrate its application to interfacial dynamics of phase field systems. In particular, we demonstrate learning effective partial differential equations describing the evolution of phase field interfaces from full phase field data. We illustrate this on a model phase field system, where analytical approximate equations for the dynamics of the phase field interface (a higher-order eikonal equation and its approximation, the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation) are known.

SARS-CoV-2 transmission in teenagers and young adults in Fútbol Club Barcelona's Multidisciplinary Sports Training Academy.

Most studies, aimed at determining the incidence and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in children and teenagers, have been developed in school settings. Our study conducted surveillance and inferred attack rates focusing on the practice of sports. Prospective and observational study of those attending the sports facilities of Fútbol Club Barcelona (FCB), in Barcelona, Spain, throughout the 2020-2021 season.

Corrigendum: Transmissibility, hospitalization, and intensive care admissions due to omicron compared to delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Catalonia: A cohort study and ecological analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.

Spontaneous transitions between amoeboid and keratocyte-like modes of migration.

The motility of adherent eukaryotic cells is driven by the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. Despite the common force-generating actin machinery, different cell types often show diverse modes of locomotion that differ in their shape dynamics, speed, and persistence of motion. Recently, experiments in have revealed that different motility modes can be induced in this model organism, depending on genetic modifications, developmental conditions, and synthetic changes of intracellular signaling.

Assessing wastewater-based epidemiology for the prediction of SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Catalonia.

While wastewater-based epidemiology has proven a useful tool for epidemiological surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic, few quantitative models comparing virus concentrations in wastewater samples and cumulative incidence have been established. In this work, a simple mathematical model relating virus concentration and cumulative incidence for full contagion waves was developed. The model was then used for short-term forecasting and compared to a local linear model.

Transmissibility, hospitalization, and intensive care admissions due to omicron compared to delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Catalonia: A cohort study and ecological analysis.

Purpose: We aim to compare the severity of infections between omicron and delta variants in 609,352 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases using local hospitalization, vaccination, and variants data from the Catalan Health Care System (which covers around 7. 8 million people).

Methods: We performed a substitution model to establish the increase in transmissibility of omicron using variant screening data from primary care practices (PCP) and hospital admissions.

Unravelling the role of the mandatory use of face covering masks for the control of SARS-CoV-2 in schools: a quasi-experimental study nested in a population-based cohort in Catalonia (Spain).

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of mandatory use of face covering masks (FCMs) in schools during the first term of the 2021-2022 academic year.

Design: A retrospective population-based study.

Setting: Schools in Catalonia (Spain).

Postural analysis of side impact WorldSID 50 ATD in highly reclined seats.

Objective: The anthropomorphic test device (ATD) used in NCAP frontal impact, the Thor 50, has undergone substantial changes for safety restraint systems testing of upcoming autonomous vehicles (AVs), resulting in the Thor-AV 50 M. Likewise, a deep analysis of the ATD for lateral impacts, the WorldSID 50, is needed to determine the requirements it has to fulfill to accurately replicate the human body response under lateral impact. This study sets out general considerations regarding the WorldSID 50 ATD design in order to assess its suitability for AV testing scenarios.

Psychometric properties of the Nursing Intensive Care Satisfaction Scale: A multicentre cross-sectional study.

Background: Patient satisfaction with nursing care is an indicator of patient satisfaction with the hospital stay in general. The Nursing Intensive Care Satisfaction Scale is the only scale about patient satisfaction with nursing care received in an intensive care unit that incorporates the critically ill patient's perspective into its design and validation. We validated the scale nationally, incorporating intensive care units at public and private hospitals of different levels of complexity in Spain.

Memory B-cell like chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is associated with specific methylation profile of promoter and undetectable expression of gene.

Genome methylation profiles define naïve-like (n-CLL), memory-like (m-CLL), and intermediate (i-CLL) subsets of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). The profiles can be easily determined by the analysis of the five-CpG signature. m-CLL, i-CLL, and n-CLL with the good, intermediate, and poor prognoses, respectively, differ by the somatic hypermutation status of the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable gene (IGHV), a widely used prognostic predictor in CLL.

HOXD8 hypermethylation as a fully sensitive and specific biomarker for biliary tract cancer detectable in tissue and bile samples.

Background: Biliary tract cancers (BTC) are rare but highly aggressive tumours with poor prognosis, usually detected at advanced stages. Herein, we aimed at identifying BTC-specific DNA methylation alterations.

Methods: Study design included statistical power and sample size estimation.

Individual prevention and containment measures in schools in Catalonia, Spain, and community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 after school re-opening.

Background: Despite their clear lesser vulnerability to COVID-19, the extent by which children are susceptible to getting infected by SARS-CoV-2 and their capacity to transmit the infection to other people remains inadequately characterized. We aimed to evaluate the role of school reopening and the preventive strategies in place at schools in terms of overall risk for children and community transmission, by comparing transmission rates in children as detected by a COVID-19 surveillance platform in place in Catalonian Schools to the incidence at the community level.

Methods And Findings: Infections detected in Catalan schools during the entire first trimester of classes (September-December 2020) were analysed and compared with the ongoing community transmission and with the modelled predicted number of infections.

Somatic Hypomethylation of Pericentromeric SST1 Repeats and Tetraploidization in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells.

Somatic DNA hypomethylation and aneuploidy are hallmarks of cancer, and there is evidence for a causal relationship between them in knockout mice but not in human cancer. The non-mobile pericentromeric repetitive elements SST1 are hypomethylated in about 17% of human colorectal cancers (CRC) with some 5-7% exhibiting strong age-independent demethylation. We studied the frequency of genome doubling, a common event in solid tumors linked to aneuploidy, in randomly selected single cell clones of near-diploid LS174T human CRC cells differing in their level of SST1 demethylation.

A panoramic view and swot analysis of artificial intelligence for achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030: progress and prospects.

The17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations Agenda 2030 constitute a global blueprint agenda and instrument for peace and prosperity worldwide. Artificial intelligence and other digital technologies that have emerged in the last years, are being currently applied in virtually every area of society, economy and the environment. Hence, it is unsurprising that their current role in the pursuance or hampering of the SDGs has become critical.

Selective Segmental Pulmonary Angiography: Anatomical, Technical and Safety Aspects of a Must-Learn Technique in Times of Balloon Pulmonary Angioplasty for Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension.

With the advent of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) for non-surgical chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) patients, there is renewed interest in the pulmonary angiography technique. This technique is still the standard imaging modality to confirm CTEPH, which, in addition, helps to determine the most appropriate treatment. Furthermore, learning this technique fulfills two main purposes: to identify BPA candidates and to provide the operator with the catheter handling needed to perform BPA.

Age-dependency of the Propagation Rate of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Inside School Bubble Groups in Catalonia, Spain.

Background: We analyzed contagions of coronavirus disease 2019 inside school bubble groups in Catalonia, Spain, in the presence of strong nonpharmaceutical interventions from September to December 2020. More than 1 million students were organized in bubble groups and monitored and analyzed by the Health and the Educational departments.

Methods: We had access to 2 data sources, and both were employed for the analysis, one is the Catalan school surveillance system and the other of the educational department.

Monitoring and Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Need for an Empirical Approach.

The current worldwide pandemic produced by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed the paradigm of mathematical epidemiology due to the high number of unknowns of this new disease. Thus, the empirical approach has emerged as a robust tool to analyze the actual situation carried by the countries and also allows us to predict the incoming scenarios. In this paper, we propose three empirical indexes to estimate the state of the pandemic.

Risk Diagrams Based on Primary Care Electronic Medical Records and Linked Real-Time PCR Data to Monitor Local COVID-19 Outbreaks During the Summer 2020: A Prospective Study Including 7,671,862 People in Catalonia.

Monitoring transmission is a prerequisite for containing COVID-19. We report on effective potential growth (EPG) as a novel measure for the early identification of local outbreaks based on primary care electronic medical records (EMR) and PCR-confirmed cases. Secondly, we studied whether increasing EPG precedes local hospital and intensive care (ICU) admissions and mortality.

Multidisciplinary Consensus for the Management of Pulmonary Thromboembolism.

We have updated recommendations on 12 controversial topics that were published in the 2013 National Consensus on the diagnosis, risk stratification and treatment of patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). A comprehensive review of the literature was performed for each topic, and each recommendation was evaluated in two teleconferences. For diagnosis, we recommend against using the Pulmonary Embolism Rule Out Criteria (PERC) rule as the only test to rule out PE, and we recommend using a D-dimer cutoff adjusted to age to rule out PE.

Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Among Children in Summer Schools Applying Stringent Control Measures in Barcelona, Spain.

Background: Understanding the role of children in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission is critical to guide decision-making for schools in the pandemic. We aimed to describe the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children and adult staff in summer schools.

Methods: During July 2020, we prospectively recruited children and adult staff attending summer schools in Barcelona who had SARS-CoV-2 infection.