Assessing data gathering of chatbot based symptom checkers - a clinical vignettes study.

Background: The burden on healthcare systems is mounting continuously owing to population growth and aging, overuse of medical services, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This overload is also causing reduced healthcare quality and outcomes. One solution gaining momentum is the integration of intelligent self-assessment tools, known as symptom-checkers, into healthcare-providers' systems.

Toward a new taxonomy of obstetrical disease: improved performance of maternal blood biomarkers for the great obstetrical syndromes when classified according to placental pathology.

Background: The major challenge for obstetrics is the prediction and prevention of the great obstetrical syndromes. We propose that defining obstetrical diseases by the combination of clinical presentation and disease mechanisms as inferred by placental pathology will aid in the discovery of biomarkers and add specificity to those already known.

Objective: To describe the longitudinal profile of placental growth factor (PlGF), soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), and the PlGF/sFlt-1 ratio throughout gestation, and to determine whether the association between abnormal biomarker profiles and obstetrical syndromes is strengthened by information derived from placental examination, eg, the presence or absence of placental lesions of maternal vascular malperfusion.

Use of near-infrared spectroscopy for the classification of medicinal cannabis cultivars and the prediction of their cannabinoid and terpene contents.

Cannabis sativa L. is used to treat a wide variety of medical conditions, in light of its beneficial pharmacological properties of its cannabinoids and terpenes. At present, the quantitative chemical analysis of these active compounds is achieved through the use of laborious, expensive, and time-consuming technologies, such as high-pressure liquid-chromatography- photodiode arrays, mass spectrometer detectors (HPLC-PDA or MS), or gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).

Maternal insomnia and depressive symptoms and early childhood sleep among Arab and Jewish families in Israel.

Objectives: The present study explored the links between maternal insomnia symptoms, maternal depressive symptoms, and young children's sleep quality among two major cultural groups in Israel: Arab and Jewish. We also assessed the prevalence of maternal insomnia and depressive symptoms, in both cultural groups.

Methods: Mothers of 497 healthy, typically developing infants and toddlers, ranging in age from 3-36 months, participated in the study: 253 of the mothers were Arab and 244 were Jewish.

Management of chromium(VI)-contaminated soils through synergistic application of vermicompost, chromate reducing rhizobacteria and Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) reduced plant toxicity and improved yield attributes in Ocimum basilicum L.

An integrated approach involving vermicompost, chromate reducing bacteria and AMF was tested to manage the toxic impacts of Cr(VI) on Ocimum basilicum as a model plant. Pot experiments were conducted on O. basilicum plants in an artificially Cr(VI)-contaminated soil in two phases of experiment as bioinoculants experiment and vermicompost experiment.

Incidence and Predictors of New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation After Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair of the Mitral Valve (from the Nationwide Readmissions Database).

Patients who underwent transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) for mitral regurgitation with atrial fibrillation (AF) at baseline have higher mortality than those without AF. Data on new-onset AF (NOAF) after TEER are limited. Using the 2016 to 2018 Nationwide Readmissions Database, we identified a cohort of patients who underwent TEER and classified them into 3 groups based on AF presence during the study period.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Parents and their Adolescent Children in Relation to Science Learning.

With the transition to distance-learning at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, several countries required parents and their children to remain at home, under lockdown. Many parents found themselves taking on additional responsibilities regarding their children's education. However, children do not always interpret their parents' intentions as they intended.

Automated nystagmus detection: Accuracy of slow-phase and quick-phase algorithms to determine the presence of nystagmus.

Purpose: To verify the accuracy of automated nystagmus detection algorithms.

Method: Video-oculography (VOG) plots were analyzed from consecutive patients with dizziness presenting to a neurology clinic. Data were recorded for 30 s in upright position with fixation block.

Visualization of frequent temporal patterns in single or two populations.

Temporal knowledge discovery in clinical problems, is crucial to investigate problems in the data science era. Meaningful progress has been made computationally in the discovery of frequent temporal patterns, which may store potentially meaningful knowledge. However, for temporal knowledge discovery and acquisition, effective visualization is essential and still stores much room for contributions.

An N-linked tetrasaccharide from Halobacterium salinarum presents a novel modification, sulfation of iduronic acid at the O-3 position.

Halobacterium salinarum, a halophilic archaeon that grows at near-saturating salt concentrations, provided the first example of N-glycosylation outside Eukarya. Yet, almost 50 years later, numerous aspects of such post-translational protein processing in this microorganism remain to be determined, including the architecture of glycoprotein-bound glycans. In the present report, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to define a tetrasaccharide N-linked to both archaellins, building blocks of the archaeal swimming device (the archaellum), and the S-layer glycoprotein that comprises the protein shell surrounding the Hbt.

Root system architecture in rice: impacts of genes, phytohormones and root microbiota.

To feed the continuously expanding world's population, new crop varieties have been generated, which significantly contribute to the world's food security. However, the growth of these improved plant varieties relies primarily on synthetic fertilizers, which negatively affect the environment and human health; therefore, continuous improvement is needed for sustainable agriculture. Several plants, including cereal crops, have the adaptive capability to combat adverse environmental changes by altering physiological and molecular mechanisms and modifying their root system to improve nutrient uptake efficiency.

Clinical improvement of a toddler with COVID-19 focal cerebral arteriopathy possibly due to intra-arterial nimodipine.

Pediatric stroke is considered an infrequent complication of COVID-19. Focal cerebral arteriopathy (FCA) is one of the most common causes of arterial ischemic stroke in a previously healthy child. The present report describes a toddler with FCA most likely induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection who showed significant clinical improvement that may be related to injection of intra-arterial nimodipine.

A first order-based model for the kinetics of formation of Pickering emulsions.

Motivation And Background: Many physical systems are composed of two immiscible fluids containing solid particles whose role is to emulsify the two fluids. Such emulsions are called Pickering emulsions (PE). The present study introduces a theoretical framework for a first order kinetics of the creation of such emulsions and continues to verify the model experimentally using water and oil where water is the majority, or continuous, phase and oil is the minority, or dispersed, phase.

The influence of refractive state and heterophorias on visual acuity and stereoacuity in healthy young adults.

Purpose: To evaluate associations of refractive error and heterophoria with best-corrected visual acuity and stereoacuity in a population of healthy young adults.

Methods: Data extracted from the Israeli Defense Forces Air Force candidates database was analyzed retrospectively. Myopia and hyperopia were defined as spherical equivalent of ≤ -0.

Personalized insulin dose manipulation attack and its detection using interval-based temporal patterns and machine learning algorithms.

Many patients with diabetes are currently being treated with insulin pumps and other diabetes devices which improve their quality of life and enable effective treatment of diabetes. These devices are connected wirelessly and thus, are vulnerable to cyber-attacks which have already been proven feasible. In this paper, we focus on two types of cyber-attacks on insulin pump systems: an overdose of insulin, which can cause hypoglycemia, and an underdose of insulin, which can cause hyperglycemia.

Determining the internal orientation, degree of ordering, and volume of elongated nanocavities by NMR: Application to studies of plant stem.

This study investigates the fibril nanostructure of fresh celery samples by modeling the anisotropic behavior of the transverse relaxation time (T) in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Experimental results are interpreted within the framework of a previously developed theory, which was successfully used to model the nanostructures of several biological tissues as a set of water filled nanocavities, hence explaining the anisotropy the T relaxation time in vivo. An important feature of this theory is to determine the degree of orientational ordering of the nanocavities, their characteristic volume, and their average direction with respect to the macroscopic sample.

The soil bacterium, Corynebacterium glutamicum, from biosynthesis of value-added products to bioremediation: A master of many trades.

Ever since its discovery in 1957, Corynebacterium glutamicum has become a well-established industrial strain and is known for its massive capability of producing various amino acids (like L-lysine and L-glutamate) and other value-added chemicals. With the rising demand for these bio-based products, the revelation of the whole genome sequences of the wild type strains, and the astounding advancements made in the fields of metabolic engineering and systems biology, our perspective of C. glutamicum has been revolutionized and has expanded our understanding of its strain development.

Safety and long-term efficacy of tonsillectomy versus subtotal tonsillectomy in children with sleep disordered breathing.

Objectives: to compare safety and long-term symptoms after TE compared to Subtotal Tonsillectomy (STT).

Methods: A retrospective review data of 412 patients, one to twelve years old that underwent either TE or STT, as treatment for sleep disorder breathing, at two different medical centers. Symptoms were assessed by a questionnaire 3-5 years post-surgery.

Protective actions of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) and downstream pathways against environmental stressors.

Environmental risk factors, including noise, air pollution, chemical agents, ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and mental stress have a considerable impact on human health. Oxidative stress and inflammation are key players in molecular pathomechanisms of environmental pollution and risk factors. In this review, we delineate the impact of environmental risk factors and the protective actions of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) in connection to oxidative stress and inflammation.

Predicting the rate of adjuvant postoperative chemo/radiation in cervical cancer with tumor size ≥2 cm and <4 cm: An Israeli Gynecologic Oncology Group study.

Objective: Women with cervical cancer who undergo radical hysterectomy are often treated postoperatively with chemoradiation. Patient selection that minimizes adjuvant treatment is valuable. We compared two methods for predicting postoperative adjuvant treatment of women with tumor size ≥2 cm and <4 cm.

Barriers and facilitators of implementing interventions to improve appropriate antibiotic use in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.

Background: Behavior change interventions that aim to improve rational antibiotic use in prescribers and users have been widely conducted in both high- and LMICs. However, currently, no review has systematically examined challenges unique to LMICs and offered insights into the underlying contextual factors that influence these interventions. We adopted an implementation research perspective to systematically synthesize the implementation barriers and facilitators in LMICs.

Continuous monitoring of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) transformations along the waste-vadose zone - groundwater path of an uncontrolled landfill, using multiple N-species isotopic analysis.

Landfill leachates contain a heavy load of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), posing a threat to water resources. Therefore, it is highly important to understand the processes that control its evolution (speciation, accumulation, or attenuation) during the percolation of leachates through the unsaturated zone, finally affecting the groundwater. However, tracking DIN transformations in this complex and inaccessible environment is challenging, and knowledge concerning this important topic under field conditions is scarce.

Sensitive enzymatic determination of neurotransmitters in artificial sweat.

Dopamine (DA) and epinephrine (EN) are two phenolic molecules that are used in the human body and secreted in the brain actuating as neurotransmitters. As both molecules are highly important in the brain and the central nervous system, monitoring of their concentrations would enable better understanding of their importance and role in different physiological conditions. Copper efflux oxidase from Escherichia coli was shown in the past to have the ability of oxidizing polyphenolic compounds.