Herein, we report the presence of a plant paleocommunity, dominated by ferns of the family Osmundaceae, structurally preserved from the only known Mesozoic, fossiliferous geothermal deposits, from the La Matilde Formation (Middle-Upper Jurassic) in the Deseado Massif of Southern Patagonia, Argentina. A total of 13 siliceous chert blocks sampled in an area of approximately 250 m, preserving a monotypic assemblage dominated by Osmundaceae embedded within its original swampy substrate, are documented. Additional Osmundaceae and fewer ferns and conifers are present in the stratigraphically continuous, adjacent chert levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere asthma burdens patients and presents clinical management challenges for healthcare professionals. Biologics are crucial interventions for severe type two (T2) patients with high eosinophil counts. We conducted a Delphi consensus in seven developing or typically underrepresented countries to understand expert agreement on managing severe asthma with type two (T2) inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe royal ferns (Osmundales) are a morphologically diverse group of leptosporangiate ferns, the fossil record of which dates back to the Permian. Despite there being numerous described permineralized species, the phylogenetic relationships between extinct species remain contentious. Although several analytical approaches have been applied to infer well-resolved phylogenetic hypotheses-even methods that are arguably conceived to be better at dealing with data conflict and uncertainty, many taxa have not been assigned to specific taxonomic categories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBy coupling long-range polymerase chain reaction, wastewater-based epidemiology, and pathogen sequencing, we show that adenovirus type 41 hexon-sequence lineages, described in children with hepatitis of unknown origin in the United States in 2021, were already circulating within the country in 2019. We also observed other lineages in the wastewater, whose complete genomes have yet to be documented from clinical samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViral proteins that evade the host's innate immune response play a crucial role in pathogenesis, significantly impacting viral infections and potential therapeutic strategies. Identifying these proteins through traditional methods is challenging and time-consuming due to the complexity of virus-host interactions. Leveraging advancements in computational biology, we present VirusHound-II, a novel tool that utilizes machine learning techniques to predict viral proteins evading the innate immune response with high accuracy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViral oncoproteins play crucial roles in transforming normal cells into cancer cells, representing a significant factor in the etiology of various cancers. Traditionally, identifying these oncoproteins is both time-consuming and costly. With advancements in computational biology, bioinformatics tools based on machine learning have emerged as effective methods for predicting biological activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFK accumulation in plant tissues is a crucial factor for plant growth and development. The tomato high-affinity K transporter SlHAK5 is essential for root K acquisition from low external concentrations. It is also involved in K accumulation in pollen and plant fertility as slhak5 KO plants show a low rate of pollen germination, impaired pollen tube growth and parthenocarpic fruits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioengineering (Basel)
October 2024
Axons of dopaminergic neurons express gamma-aminobutyric acid type-A receptors (GABARs) and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) which are both independently positioned to shape striatal dopamine release. Using electrophysiology and calcium imaging, we investigated how interactions between GABARs and nAChRs influence dopaminergic axon excitability. Direct axonal recordings showed that benzodiazepine application suppresses subthreshold axonal input from cholinergic interneurons (CINs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most disabling mental health problems worldwide. The Recovery Model emphasizes peer support to empower individuals with MDD, improve self-management, and patients' quality of life. Despite the demonstrated efficacy of peer-led interventions, further research is needed due to methodological limitations and variability in interventions across studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Homelessness is a phenomenon of social exclusion and poverty that has increased alarmingly during recent years. Homeless people (HP) experience violations of several basic human rights or needs that impact their well-being. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess the health status and self-perceived health of HP and examining the impact of homelessness on their health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 2010, the United States Human and Health Services (US HHS) and the European Union's (EU) Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology signed a memorandum of understanding to stimulate cooperation surrounding health-related information communications technology. The key project that emerged from this agreement is the (IPS), intended to provide succinct clinically relevant patient summaries, which are generalizable and condition-independent, that can be readily used by all clinicians for the care of patients. Although allergies are included in the main information required by the IPS library and framework, it is misrepresented which leads to underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of patients suffering from allergic and hypersensitivity conditions (A/H).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic resulted in a scale-up of viral genomic surveillance globally. However, the wet lab constraints (economic, infrastructural, and personnel) of translating novel virus variant sequence information to meaningful immunological and structural insights that are valuable for the development of broadly acting countermeasures (especially for emerging and re-emerging viruses) remain a challenge in many resource-limited settings. Here, we describe a workflow that couples wastewater surveillance, high-throughput sequencing, phylogenetics, immuno-informatics, and virus capsid structure modeling for the genotype-to-serotype characterization of uncultivated picornavirus sequences identified in wastewater.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPremise: Bracken (Pteridium, Dennstaedtiaceae) is a cosmopolitan genus of aggressive disturbance colonizers that are toxic to agricultural livestock. The taxonomy of Pteridium has been treated in multiple schemes, ranging from one to six species worldwide, with numerous subspecies and varieties. Recent work has focused on the worldwide distribution and systematics of the bracken fern, but South America has been poorly represented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContact tracing played a crucial role in minimizing the onward dissemination of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the recent pandemic. Previous studies had also shown the effectiveness of preventive measures such as mask-wearing, physical distancing, and exposure duration in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, there is still a lack of understanding regarding the impact of various exposure settings on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within the community, as well as the most effective preventive measures, considering the preventive measures adherence in different daily scenarios.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Diabetic Nephropathy is one of the most severe complications of Diabetes Mellitus and the main cause of end-stage kidney disease worldwide. Despite the therapies available to control blood glucose and blood pressure, many patients continue to suffer from progressive kidney damage. Chronic hyperglycemia is the main driver of changes observed in diabetes; however, it was recently discovered that inflammation and oxidative stress contribute to the development and progression of kidney damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe innate immune response in , mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), is crucial for defending against pathogens. This study examined DDX41 protein functions as a cytosolic/nuclear sensor for cyclic dinucleotides, RNA, and DNA from invasive intracellular bacteria. The investigation determined the existence, conservation, and functional expression of the gene in .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPotassium (K) selectivity of high-affinity K uptake systems is crucial for plant growth under low K and in the presence of inhibitors of K uptake that are toxic to plants such as Na or Cs. Here, we express a mutated version of the Arabidopsis AtHAK5 high-affinity K transporter consisting on a change of phenylalanine 130 to serine (F130S) in athak5 akt1 double mutant plants. F130S-expressing plants show better growth, increased K uptake from low external concentrations and higher K contents when grown at low K (10 μM) and when grown at low K in the presence of Na (15 mM) or Cs (1 μM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD, 2020 diagnostic criteria) and glomerular hyperfiltration share common risk factors, including obesity, insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension.
Aims: To assess the prevalence of MAFLD and its association with glomerular hyperfiltration and age-related worsening of kidney function in subjects with normoglycemia, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Methods: We analysed data recorded during occupational health visits of 125,070 Spanish civil servants aged 18-65 years with a de-indexed glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimated with the chronic-kidney-disease-epidemiological (CKD-EPI) equation (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]) ≥60 mL/min.
Aims And Objectives: To assess the prevalence of malnutrition in hospitalised adult patients, and to evaluate the accuracy of the most commonly used nutritional screening tools for identifying individuals at risk of malnutrition.
Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 248 hospitalised patients in internal medicine wards (mean age: 75.2 years; 39.
Inflammatory responses must be tightly coordinated with the activation of emergency myelopoiesis to produce potent myeloid cells that fight infection without causing excessive host damage. Here, we show that granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) programs myeloid-committed progenitors to produce trained macrophages (increased cytokine response), but programs the upstream noncommitted LKS+ progenitors (defined as Lin- c-Kit+ Sca-1+ cells) to produce tolerized macrophages (decreased cytokine response). In myeloid progenitors, GM-CSF strongly activates signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5), Ras-Raf-extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), and Akt-mTOR signaling pathways, which are essential to establish a training program, whereas in LKS+ progenitors, GM-CSF induces NF-κB translocation to the nucleus to establish a tolerization program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackgrounds & Aims: Malnutrition is prevalent among hospitalized patients in developed countries, contributing to negative health outcomes and increased healthcare costs. Timely identification and management of malnutrition are crucial. The lack of a universally accepted definition and standardized diagnostic criteria for malnutrition has led to the development of various screening tools, each with varying validity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObes Surg
April 2024
Introduction: Iron has different physiological processes and is regulated by hepcidin that is also an acute phase reactant, which increases with inflammation. Obesity produces a pro-inflammatory state, affecting directly the normal regulation of iron, causing ferritin (FER) deficiency. FER is used as the only indicator of the status of iron in patients with obesity, so the majority of them would be underdiagnosed, leading to a high prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) and anemia.
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