COVIDomic: A multi-modal cloud-based platform for identification of risk factors associated with COVID-19 severity.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute infection of the respiratory tract that emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. It was quickly established that both the symptoms and the disease severity may vary from one case to another and several strains of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified. To gain a better understanding of the wide variety of SARS-CoV-2 strains and their associated symptoms, thousands of SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been sequenced in dozens of countries.

A regional massive hemorrhage protocol developed through a modified Delphi technique.

Background: A massive hemorrhage protocol (MHP) enables rapid delivery of blood components in a patient who is exsanguinating pending definitive hemorrhage control, but there is variability in MHP implementation rates, content and compliance owing to challenges presented by infrequent activation, variable team performance and patient acuity. The goal of this project was to identify the key evidence-based principles and quality indicators required to develop a standardized regional MHP.

Methods: A modified Delphi consensus technique was performed in the spring and summer of 2018.

Massive hemorrhage protocol survey: Marked variability and absent in one-third of hospitals in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Massive hemorrhage protocols (MHP) are critical to standardized delivery of timely, safe, and resource-effective coordinated care for patients with life-threatening bleeding.

Methods: A standardized MHP survey was sent to all hospitals (n = 150) in Ontario with a transfusion service. This study aim was to determine the proportion of hospitals with an MHP and assess for variability.

Ensuring that 'hard to reach' young people agree to health assessments.

Statutory guidance for promoting the health and wellbeing of looked after children stipulates that children and young people in the care system should receive health assessments on entry to care, and thereafter at six-monthly intervals for children aged under five and annually for those aged five to 18 years. Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust works in partnership with the local authority and clinical commissioners to meet the needs of local looked after children. It was found that many of these children and young people were refusing to have health assessments.

Slow Internal Dynamics and Charge Expansion in the Disordered Protein CGRP: A Comparison with Amylin.

We provide the first direct experimental comparison, to our knowledge, between the internal dynamics of calcitonin-gene-related peptide (CGRP) and amylin (islet amyloid polypeptide, IAPP), two intrinsically disordered proteins of the calcitonin peptide family. Our end-to-end contact formation measurements reveal that in aqueous solution (i.e.

Cyclic N-terminal loop of amylin forms non amyloid fibers.

We report for the first time, to our knowledge, that the N-terminal loop (N_loop) of amylin (islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) residues 1-8) forms extremely long and stable non-β-sheet fibers in solution under the same conditions in which human amylin (hIAPP) forms amyloid fibers. This observation applies to the cyclic, oxidized form of the N_loop but not to the linear, reduced form, which does not form fibers. Our findings indicate a potential role of direct N_loop-N_loop interactions in hIAPP aggregation, which has not been previously explored, with important implications for the mechanism of hIAPP amyloid fiber formation, the inhibitory action of IAPP variants, and the competition between ordered and disordered aggregation in peptides of the calcitonin peptide family.

Hydrophobicity of methylated DNA as a possible mechanism for gene silencing.

AFM images show that chromatin reconstituted on methylated DNA (meDNA) is compacted when imaged under water. Chromatin reconstituted on unmethylated DNA is less compacted and less sensitive to hydration. These differences must reflect changes in the physical properties of DNA on methylation, but prior studies have not revealed large differences between methylated and unmethylated DNA.

Studies of inactivation of encephalomyocarditis virus, M13 bacteriophage, and Salmonella typhimurium by using a visible femtosecond laser: insight into the possible inactivation mechanisms.

We report experimental results on the inactivation of encephalomyocarditis virus, M13 bacteriophage, and Salmonella typhimurium by a visible femtosecond laser. Our results suggest that inactivation of virus and bacterium by a visible femtosecond laser involves completely different mechanisms. Inactivation of viruses by a visible femtosecond laser involves the breaking of hydrogen∕hydrophobic bonds or the separation of the weak protein links in the protein shell of a viral particle.