Disaster Med Public Health Prep
May 2024
Objective: Not all scientific publications are equally useful to policy-makers tasked with mitigating the spread and impact of diseases, especially at the start of novel epidemics and pandemics. The urgent need for actionable, evidence-based information is paramount, but the nature of preprint and peer-reviewed articles published during these times is often at odds with such goals. For example, a lack of novel results and a focus on opinions rather than evidence were common in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) publications at the start of the pandemic in 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(peanut) is a potential source of bioactive compounds including flavonols and proanthocyanidins, which have gained particular interest of metabolic engineering owing to their significance in the growth, development and defense responses in plants. To gain insight of proanthocyanidins and flavonols production in , and enzymes responsible for their production, have been structurally, transcriptionally and functionally characterized. Structural and functional analysis of putative protein sequence of indicated two functional motifs 2OG-FeII_Oxy and DIOX_N while six functional motifs belonging to the families of NAD-dependent dehydratase, 3, and NmrA-like family were observed in case of Promoter sequence analysis unraveled several promoter elements related to the development regulation, environmental stress responses and hormonal signaling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
February 2019
Cadmium and mercury are among the most toxic and dangerous environmental pollutants that may cause fatal implications. Vitamin C is an important chain-breaking antioxidant and enzyme co-factor against heavy metals. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the toxicological effects of cadmium chloride, mercuric chloride, and their co-administration on biochemical parameters of blood serum and metal bioaccumulation in kidneys and also to elucidate the protective effect of vitamin C in rabbits against these metals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is no consensus regarding the minimum number of joints that should be included in an ultrasound (US) scoring system to reliably assess for disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Purpose: To assess whether simplified US protocols for hand examination are as informative as the examination of 22 joints in patients with RA, and to correlate the US parameters with disease activity (DAS-28).
Material And Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 224 RA patients stratified based on their DAS-28 scores and assessed using eight preselected US examination protocols, including 22, 18, 16, 14, ten, eight, and two different combinations of four joints, respectively.
This is the first study to investigate the usefulness of a standardized ultrasound (US) examination protocol in diagnosing hand osteoarthritis (OA). We conducted a cross-sectional study including 62 patients, ultimately diagnosed with hand OA based on imaging evidence of osteoarthritic changes with the particular distribution required for fulfilment of American College of Radiology diagnosis criteria. We compared a 32-joint US score (wrists, metacarpophalangeal [MCP], proximal interphalangeal [PIP] or distal interphalangeal [DIP] and carpometacarpal [CMC]-1 joints), with smaller, predefined joint scores, assessing 22 joints (wrists, MCPs and PIPs or PIPs, DIPs and CMC-1), 10 joints (MCP 2-3, PIP 2-3 and CMC-1 or PIP 2-3, DIP 2-3 and CMC-1) and 6 joints (DIP 2-3, CMC-1), respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe chance discovery of a 1.5-3.5 years old mummified girl presents a unique opportunity to further our understanding of health and disease among children in 19th Century San Francisco.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: A recent review of ultrasound (US) studies in osteoarthritis (OA) showed very limited data about hand OA. Previous US studies in patients with OA described a degree of overlap between the US appearance of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and OA joints. The present study aimed to assess the US features of subclinical inflammation in RA and hand OA, using the same US examination protocol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOpen Access J Sports Med
October 2015
Travel to high altitude is increasingly popular. With this comes an increased incidence of high-altitude illness and therefore an increased need to improve our strategies to prevent and accurately diagnose these. In this review, we provide a summary of recent advances of relevance to practitioners who may be advising travelers to altitude.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA significant proportion of enzymes display cooperativity in binding ligand molecules, and such effects have an important impact on metabolic regulation. This is easiest to understand in the case of positive cooperativity. Sharp responses to changes in metabolite concentrations can allow organisms to better respond to environmental changes and maintain metabolic homeostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF