Articles Related to poly

Covid-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which hit the world in December 2019 is one of the worst medical emergencies people have ever encountered. Human angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the entry path of this virus to the host that regulates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Hypothesis: Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection may be affected by ACE rs4646994 and ACE2 rs2285666 polymorphisms.

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Tunisian mill wastewater analyzed for the first time prove high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and high Turbidity values and deserve treatment. The biodegradability index determined by the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)/chemical oxygen demand (COD) ratio was only 0.072, suggesting its limited biodegradability. Primarily, settling tank showed a positive effect in COD values reduced from 2490 to 448.2 mg/L. In addition, turbidity was reduced from 140 to 65.8 NTU. The coagulation-flocculation process using chemical coagulants-flocculants prior treatment equilibrate this ratio in range 1-2 promises a feasible biological treatment

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Introduction: Obesity is a multifactorial condition influenced by environment and genetic factors. Controlling appetite and satiety involves complex interactions between the hypothalamus, which is responsible for homeostasis regulation energy, and hormones that regulate appetite including leptin and ghrelin. Leptin plays an important role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure, generating an increase in energy burning and decreasing food intake. And ghrelin is directly involved in the regulation of short-term energy balance. Objectives: To verify frequency, biochemical profile and Body Mass Index (BMI) variations according to SNPs in LEPR and GHRL gene. Subjects and Methods: 163 both genders subjects were classified into Study Group (SG): 103 subjects with obesity; Control Group (CG): 60 non-obese. Blood samples were collected to perform DNA extraction and biochemical profile analysis. Statistical significance was established at p < 0.05. Results: The genotype and allele frequency were similar between groups for both polymorphisms. The _/A genotype of the GHRL rs696217 polymorphism was associated to increased BMI in SG compared CG (p = 0.003) and increased triglycerides (TG) and very low density lipoprotein (VLDLc) values in CG (p < 0, 05). The _/A genotype was also associated with increased fasting glucose compared to CC genotype only in CG (p = 0.031). Considering the LEPR rs1137101 polymorphism, AA genotype subjects presented higher BMI compared to _/G genotype subjects (p = 0.024). No difference between biochemical profile variables related to LEPR rs1137101 polymorphism was found. Conclusion: AA genotypes of the LEPR rs1137101 polymorphism and _/A of the GHRL rs696217 polymorphism suggest being risk factors for BMI and the latter is associated with fasting glucose, VLDLc and TG variation.

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Aim: Palm oil processing generally generates lots of wastewater (palm oil mill effluent), this is usually discharged into the environment in the untreated form and subsequently causes several environmental issues. There is therefore need to isolate microorganisms that can be used to clean up the palm oil contaminated environment especially the soil. Methods and Results: Palm oil contaminated soil was obtained from Oba Adeyemi palm oil mill in Oyo, Oyo State, Nigeria, other soil samples which were purposely contaminated with palm oil, were obtained from Ajayi Crowther University Oyo, Oyo State. Isolation, characterization and identification of microorganisms were carried out using morphological and biochemical characterization. The isolates were preliminarily screened for lipolytic activities, this was confirmed by growth on the mineral salt medium after 7 days, signifying hydrolysis. One of the prominent isolates was further identified by sequences analysis of 16S rRNA genes. Forty-one bacterial isolates were identified, which included species of Bacillus (80 %), Pseudomonas (20 %) in the oil mill contaminated soil sample and Bacillus spp. (100 %) in the purposely contaminated soils. Twenty-nine fungal isolates including species of Aspergillus, Oidiodendron, Geotrichum, Penicillum, Saccharomyces were isolated with Aspergillus fumigatus having the highest frequency of occurrence (37.5 %) in artificially contaminated soil and Saccharomyces spp. having the highest frequency of occurrence (91 %) in palm oil contaminated soil from the palm oil mill. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA of one of the prominent isolates showed that it was identified as MN607220 Saccharomyces cerevisae. All the bacterial and fungal isolates had lipolytic activities except Bacillus mycoides and Oidiodendron sp. respectively. Nine of the ten Saccharomyces sp. had lipolytic activities. Conclusion: These screened organisms could therefore be employed for the cleanup of palm oil contamination in the environment. Significance and Impact of Study: Thereby ridding the environment of possible toxic effects especially in areas of need like Malaysia

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Background: Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds (E-VOCs) may help to early detection of colonic polyps Objective: Assess whether a new ambulatory device is able to detect specific E-VOCs in patients recently diagnosed with colonic polyps. Material and Methods: All data were collected during routine consultations for Small Intestinal Bowel Overgrowth. A breath test was performed by X-PID 9500®. Results: 203 patients older than 45 years of age were included. 31patients (15.3%) reported colonic polyps. 74 patients presented with gastroduodenal or jejunal (GDJ) liquid at ultrasound examination despite fasting. 96 patients (47.3%) exhaled numerous E-VOCs with a retention time between 12 to 45s (E-VOCs 12 to 45s). All patients of the polyp group exhaled E-VOCs 12 to 45s. 69 patients with GDJ liquid exhaled E-VOCS 12 to 45s. 11 patients out of these 69 cases (15.9%) present with polyps. 27 patients exhaled E-VOCs 12 to 45s and did not have GDJ, 20 of whom (74.1%) presented with polyps. When GDJ liquid is not objectivized after fasting, the sensitivity of the E-VOCs 12 to 45s to identify patients with colonic polyps is equal to 100.0% and the specificity is 93.6%. The positive predictive value is 74.1% and the negative predictive value is 100%. Conclusion: After fasting, X-PID 9500® is able to detect E-VOCs associated with colonic polyps, when GDJ liquid is excluded.

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Objective: To determine the prevalence of minority drug resistance variants in the protease and Gag regions among patients failing a protease inhibitor (PI) based regimen with or without a susceptible genotype based on Sanger sequencing technology. Methods: Samples were obtained from patients who were failing on a protease inhibitor-based regimen (n = 500). Sanger based sequencing was performed as part of the standard of care. Mutation analysis was performed using the Stanford HIV drug Resistance database. A subset of these patient samples was grouped into two categories: those failing a PI based with mutations in the protease region (n = 100) and those failing on a PI based regimen without mutations in the protease region (n = 128). These samples were then analyzed in the protease and Gag regions using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology and analysis of the drug resistance mutations was performed at the 20% and 1% cutoffs. Results: An initial analysis of the protease region for patients failing with drug resistance mutations revealed that most patients harbored mutations that confer resistance to Lopinavir and Atazanavir, but these mutations had little effect on Darunavir. Furthermore, NGS revealed that in patients failing with and without drug resistance mutations, minority drug resistance mutations were present at each of the drug resistance codons and at codons that confer multi-drug resistance to protease inhibitors. Further analysis of the Gag gene revealed more genetic diversity among patients failing with no mutations in the protease as evidenced by the proportion of polymorphisms at each codon. Conclusion: Based on Sanger sequencing, a proportion of patients fail a PI based regimen with a susceptible genotype. However, these patients harbor minority variants in the protease and numerous polymorphisms in the Gag region which when combined these could explain their poor response to therapy. Therefore, in order to improve patient care in low resource settings, there is need to adapt NGS as the standard genotyping technique so that minority variants are captured much earlier. In addition, since mutations in the Gag region also play a role in response to PIs, this region should be included in the routine monitoring for response to therapy in patients on a PI based regimen.

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Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of gabapentin enacarbil (GEn) on sleep EEG, heart rate (HR), blood presssure, anterior tibialis EMG activity (PLMs power) and subjective complaints in subjects with moderate to severe RLS and disturbed sleep. Methods: This was a single site, single-blind, placebo run-in, fixed dose single group polysomnography (PSG) study. Eligible subjects (age 24-66 years) were treated with placebo for one week and GEn (600 mg/day) for 4 weeks. Two in-laboratory PSGs were collected for adaptation and baseline at the end of the placebo run-in period and for re-adaptation and efficacy assessment at the end of the 4-week treatment period. The primary endpoint was the difference in PSG derived cortical arousal intensity (arousal scale, 0-9) associated with PLMs between 4 weeks of treatment with GEn and placebo. Secondary endpoints included changes in HR responses (ΔHR), nocturnal systolic blood pressure (SBP) changes (>10 mmHg) secondary to PLMs and PLMs power. Other PSG and subjective measures were assessed. Results: Of 20 subjects enrolled, 18 completed the study. Subjects treated with GEn did not show significant improvements in cortical arousal intensity and ΔHR. However, subjects showed reduced PLMs power (p= 0.013) and associated reductions in nocturnal SBP per hour of sleep (p= 0.041) GEn showed significant improvement in other PSG parameters and subjective endpoints. Conclusion: The data suggests that GEn reduces the frequency and power of PLMs and the corresponding SBP changes in subjects with RLS. Despite reducing the total number of PLM associated arousals and nocturnal HR, the study did not demonstrate consistent effects of GEn on cortical arousal intensity and corresponding HR changes associated with PLMs. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02424695

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Biofilms are complex sessile microbial community extremely resistant to antibiotics. They typically form on both biotic and abiotic surfaces and are usually associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity in patients in hospital settings. Nosocomial infections are the major cause of infections seen worldwide. Bacterial Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) represent the most common type of nosocomial infection that affect different parts of the urinary tract in both males and females.

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The genomic asymmetry in the nonrandom retention and expression of controlling genes for some traits from one parental diploid is obvious in some natural and synthetic allopolyploids, and has the evolutionary implications. Here we review the genomic asymmetry for the morphological performance in three cultivated Brassica allotetraploids and some intergeneric allopolyploids within Brassicaceae species. For the phenotypic biases of Brassica allotetraploids, Brassica oleracea (genomes CC) is dominant over B. nigra (BB) and B. rapa (AA) in B. carinata (CCBB) and B. napus (CCAA), respectively, and B. nigra is dominant over B. rapa in B. juncea (BBAA), showing the C>B>A dominance hierarchy.

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Patients with Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (PN-MPN) are at a higher risk for venous thrombosis. Thromboelastometry may prove efficient to evaluate the patient’s thrombotic risk. In this study, based on data from 114 patients with PN-MPN from a single center in Greece, hemostatic profile was assessed with routine coagulation tests, Rotational Thromboelastometry (ROTEM® ), and Platelet Function Analyzer (PFA)-100 and correlated with clinical, laboratory, treatment characteristics, gene mutations and polymorphisms of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1)

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Lack of degradability and the closing of landfill sites as well as growing water and land pollution problems have led to concern about plastics. In the past few decades, the use of plastics has enormously increased, mostly used for food packaging. Ironically, the most preferred property of plastics – durability – exerts also the major environmental threat. With the excessive use of plastics and increasing pressure being placed on capacities available for plastic waste disposal, the need for biodegradable plastics and biodegradation of plastic wastes has assumed increasing importance in the last few years.

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Distraction Osteogenesis (DO) is an established method for correction of developmental anomaly of the facial skeleton. The early beginning of urgent surgical corrections are allowed in smaller age as even small children suffering from bilateral severe mandibular deficiency who are often associated with breathing and swallowing disorder caused by glossoptosis.

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The application of electronic-nose (E-nose) technologies in forensic science is a recent new development following a long history of progress in the development of diverse applications in the related biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. Data from forensic analyses must satisfy the needs and requirements of both the scientific and legal communities. The type of data collected from electronic-nose devices provides a means of identifying specific types of information about the chemical nature of evidentiary objects and samples under investigation using aroma signature profiles of complex gaseous mixtures containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from manufactured products and parts of the human body. E-nose analyses also provide useful qualitative information about the physicochemical characteristics and metabolic conditions of human subjects without the need for time-consuming analyses to identify all chemical components in human-derived volatile mixtures.

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The collection of human odor volatiles is of interest to forensic applications as a path to investigate canine scent discriminations in legal investigations. A study using a selected array of previously identified human odor compounds has been conducted to determine the retention and release capabilities of five (5) natural and synthetic fabric types, cotton (mercerized fabric and gauze matrix), polyester, rayon and wool.

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