The vision of the End TB strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO) is of a world free of tuberculosis by the year 2035. However, extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (i.e. tuberculosis with resistance to isoniazid, rifampin, any fluoroquinolone, and at least one injectable drug…
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
The aggressiveness of prostate cancers ranges from indolent to highly lethal. Low-grade prostate cancer (i.e. grade group 1) has been shown in large trials to be associated with a very low risk of cancer-specific death. In contrast, cancers of grade groups 3 through 5 have significantly higher…
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
Η τρίτη ηλικία έχει συνδεθεί με τη μοναξιά για πλείστους λόγους: παιδιά και εγγόνια αποκτούν τη δική τους ζωή, ο κοινωνικός κύκλος συρρικνώνεται λόγω βιολογικών ή κοινωνικών παραγόντων, προβλήματα υγείας καθιστούν την κοινωνική ζωή δυσκολότερη… Πώς όμως επηρεάζει αυτή η μοναξιά τους ανθρώπους και ιδίως τους ηλικιωμένους; Αμερικανική μελέτη σε ενήλικες άνω των 50 ετών οι οποίοι απεβίωσαν κατά το διάστημα 2004-2014 και για τους οποίους είχε διαπιστωθεί μέσω έρευνας πως βίωναν μοναξιά, έδειξε πως,...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 17:21
Τα βοηθήματα ακοής ενδέχεται να μπορούν να καθυστερήσουν τη γνωστική φθορά στους γηραιότερους ενήλικες και να βελτιώσουν την εγκεφαλική τους λειτουργία, υποστηρίζει νέα πολλά υποσχόμενη έρευνα που δημοσιεύθηκε στο Journal of Clinical Medicine. Η γνωστική φθορά σχετίζεται με την απώλεια ακοής, η οποία επηρεάζει περίπου το 32% των ανθρώπων άνω των 55 ετών και περισσότερο από το 70% εκείνων άνω των 70, ενώ έχει αναγνωριστεί και ως τροποποιητικός παράγοντας για την άνοια. Στη σχετική μελέτη, λοιπόν,...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 13:18
Μια νέα τεχνολογία που αναπτύχθηκε στις ΗΠΑ και διασυνδέει τα εναπομένοντα νεύρα με ένα προσθετικό ρομποτικό χέρι, επιτρέπει στους ακρωτηριασμένους ασθενείς να ελέγχουν με το νου τους και να κουνάνε σε πραγματικό χρόνο τα τεχνητά δάχτυλα τους με μεγάλη ταχύτητα, ακρίβεια και πολυπλοκότητα. Πρόκειται για ένα σημαντικό βήμα προόδου στο πεδίο της ελεγχόμενης από το νου νευροπροσθετικής. Η νέα διεπαφή εγκεφάλου-μηχανής αξιοποιεί τα αχνά λανθάνοντα σήματα από τα νεύρα του μπράτσου του ασθενούς και τα...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:42
Το αυξημένο άγχος έχει συνδεθεί με την κακή ψυχολογία και, επιπλέον, έχει αποδειχθεί πως δρα βλαπτικά σε σχέση με την ψυχική μας υγεία, σχετιζόμενο άμεσα με περιπτώσεις όπως η αγχώδης διαταραχή, η κατάθλιψη και η σχιζοφρένεια, ενώ έχουν υπάρξει περιπτώσεις που άνθρωποι με άγχος βρέθηκαν στα πρόθυρα του απονενοημένου. Σύμφωνα με τους επιστήμονες ωστόσο, υπάρχει ένας πολύ απλός τρόπος να αμβλυνθεί η επίδραση του άγχους και να καταπολεμηθεί αυτός ο τόσο διαδεδομένος εχθρός της ψυχικής μας υγείας. Πλήθος...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:35
*Γράφει η Μίνα Αγγελίνη Η διεθνής κοινότητα δεν έχει καταφέρει μέχρι τώρα να χαλιναγωγήσει τον κορωνοϊό με τον κορυφαίο Βρετανό επιστήμονα του Imperial College του Λονδίνου Νιλ Φέργκιουσιον να προειδοποιεί ότι έχουμε χάσει τη μάχη για να καταπολεμήσουμε τον Covid – 19. Την ίδια ώρα, ο Γερμανός υπουργός Υγείας Γενς Σπαν λέει πως η επιδημία του κορωνοϊού στην Κίνα έχει εξελιχθεί σε πανδημία και η γερμανική κυβέρνηση δηλώνει ότι λαμβάνει «πολύ σοβαρά» υπόψη την κατάσταση καθώς ο αριθμός των ασθενών...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:06
Η κατανάλωση εξαιρετικά παρθένου ελαιολάδου έχει αποδειχθεί ότι λειτουργεί προστατευτικά για την υγεία, κυρίως λόγω της αντιοξειδωτικής του δράσης. Ωστόσο, ελάχιστες μελέτες έχουν ασχοληθεί με το αν αποτελεί την ιδανική επιλογή για το μαγείρεμα. Έρευνα από το Πανεπιστήμιο της Βαρκελώνης έδειξε ότι αυτός ο τύπος ελαιόλαδου διατηρεί ακέραιη την αντιοξειδωτική του ιδιότητα κατά το μαγείρεμα. Η χρήση έξτρα παρθένου ελαιόλαδου στη μαγειρική, ένα βασικό χαρακτηριστικό της μεσογειακής κουζίνας, φαίνεται...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 08:54
Αποτελέσματα πενταετούς παρακολούθησης από τη μελέτη Φάσης 3 CheckMate -025 συνεχίζουν να καταδεικνύουν ότι η θεραπεία με nivolumab προσφέρει υπεροχή στην συνολική επιβίωση και στα ποσοστά αντικειμενικής ανταπόκρισης σε ασθενείς με προθεραπευμένο στο παρελθόν προχωρημένο ή μεταστατικό νεφροκυτταρικό καρκίνωμα (RCC), σε σύγκριση με ασθενείς που έλαβαν θεραπεία με everolimus. Τα δεδομένα παρουσιάστηκαν στις 15 Φεβρουαρίου στο πλαίσιο του Συμποσίου για τον Καρκίνο του Ουρογεννητικού Συστήματος που...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 08:50
Η λήψη αντιβιοτικών κατά τη διάρκεια της κύησης δεν φαίνεται να επηρεάζει το μελλοντικό σωματικό βάρος του παιδιού. Τι συμβαίνει όμως στην περίπτωση που η λήψη των αντιβιοτικών γίνεται κατά τη διάρκεια της βρεφικής ηλικίας; Μελέτη που δημοσιεύεται στο Obesity υποστηρίζει ότι τα παιδιά που έχουν λάβει αντιβιοτικά σε βρεφική ηλικία διατρέχουν αυξημένο κίνδυνο να εξελιχθούν σε υπέρβαρα ή παχύσαρκα άτομα. Επιστημονική ομάδα του Διασυνδεδεμένου Νοσοκομείου Ιατρικού Πανεπιστημίου Southwest στην Κίνα,...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 07:58
Pituitary adenomas account for approximately 15% of intracranial tumors. Management of these benign tumors requires diagnosis of the specific intrasellar disease and comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment of local mass effects and peripheral endocrinopathies. Since tumors can produce different…
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
Loss of hand function following high level spinal cord injury (SCI) is perceived as a high priority area for rehabilitation. Following discharge, it is often impractical for the specialist care centre to provi...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
In this systematic review we investigate which instrumented measurements are available to assess motor impairments, related activity limitations and participation restrictions in children and young adults with...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
Abstract Purpose We aimed to examine the association between leukocyte-related parameters and the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in community-dwelling older Chinese adults, with a special focus on assessing the diagnostic ability of leukocyte-related parameters in detecting MetS and the potential interaction effect of sex in the leukocyte–MetS relationship. Methods ...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
A 50-year-old man with cryptogenic cirrhosis presented to the gastroenterology clinic with a 2-year history of progressive shortness of breath on exertion. Findings on physical examination included ascites and pedal edema, splenomegaly, spider nevi, and finger clubbing. No abnormal sounds were…
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
A 42-year-old man who had received multiple treatments for rhinosinusitis over the preceding 4 years presented to the clinic with a 3-month history of worsening cough, shortness of breath, and fever. He had no history of cocaine use. Physical examination showed a saddle-nose deformity (Panel A)…
Thu Mar 05, 2020 02:00
Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation, where methyl groups are added to cytosine base pairs, have the potential to impact phenotypic variation and gene expression, and could influence plant response to changing environments. One way to test this impact is through the application of chemical demethylation agents, such as 5-Azacytidine, which inhibit DNA methylation and lead to a partial reduction in DNA methylation across the genome. In this study, we treated 5-month-old seedlings of the...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Plant breeders regularly evaluate multiple traits across multiple environments, which opens an avenue for using multiple traits in genomic prediction models. We assessed the potential of multi-trait (MT) genomic prediction model through evaluating several strategies of incorporating multiple traits (eight agronomic and malting quality traits) into the prediction models with two cross-validation schemes (CV1, predicting new lines with genotypic information only and CV2, predicting partially phenotyped...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Bacillus firmus nematicidal bacterial strains are used to control plant parasitic nematode infestation of crops in agricultural production. Proteases are presumed to be the primary nematode virulence factors in nematicidal B. firmus degrading the nematode cuticle and other organs. We determined and compared the whole genome sequences of two nematicidal strains. Comparative genomics with a particular focus on possible virulence determinants revealed a wider range of possible virulence factors in a...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
A major research goal in evolutionary genetics is to uncover loci experiencing positive selection. One approach involves finding ‘selective sweeps’ patterns, which can either be ‘hard sweeps’ formed by de novo mutation, or ‘soft sweeps’ arising from recurrent mutation or existing standing variation. Existing theory generally assumes outcrossing populations, and it is unclear how dominance affects soft sweeps. We consider how arbitrary dominance and inbreeding via self-fertilization affect hard and...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The Drosophila obscura species group is one of the most studied clades of Drosophila and harbors multiple distinct karyotypes. Here we present a de novo genome assembly and annotation of D. bifasciata, a species which represents an important subgroup for which no high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly currently exists. We combined long-read sequencing (Nanopore) and Hi-C scaffolding to achieve a highly contiguous genome assembly approximately 193 Mb in size, with repetitive elements constituting...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The big-eye mandarin fish (Siniperca knerii) is an endemic species of southern China. It belongs to the family Sinipercidae, which is closely related to the well-known North American sunfish family Centrarchidae. Determining the genome sequence of S. knerii would provide a foundation for better examining its genetic diversity and population history. A novel sequenced genome of the Sinipercidae also would help in comparative study of the Centrarchidae using Siniperca as a reference. Here, we determined...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Aphids are an economically important insect group due to their role as plant disease vectors. Despite this economic impact, genomic resources have only been generated for a small number of aphid species. The soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) was the third aphid species to have its genome sequenced and the first to use long-read sequence data. However, version 1 of the soybean aphid genome assembly has low contiguity (contig N50 = 57 Kb, scaffold N50 = 174 Kb), poor representation of conserved...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
In bacteria and archaea, several distinct types of CRISPR-Cas systems provide adaptive immunity through broadly similar mechanisms: short nucleic acid sequences derived from foreign DNA, known as spacers, engage in complementary base pairing with invasive genetic elements setting the stage for nucleases to degrade the target DNA. A hallmark of type I CRISPR-Cas systems is their ability to acquire spacers in response to both new and previously encountered invaders (naïve and primed acquisition, respectively)....
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The genus Oryzias consists of 35 medaka-fish species each exhibiting various ecological, morphological and physiological peculiarities and adaptations. Beyond of being a comprehensive phylogenetic group for studying intra-genus evolution of several traits like sex determination, behavior, morphology or adaptation through comparative genomic approaches, all medaka species share many advantages of experimental model organisms including small size and short generation time, transparent embryos and genome...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Limited lifespan and senescence are near-universal phenomena. These quantitative traits exhibit variation in natural populations due to the segregation of many interacting loci and from environmental effects. Due to the complexity of the genetic control of lifespan and senescence, our understanding of the genetic basis of variation in these traits is incomplete. Here, we analyzed the pattern of genetic divergence between long-lived (O) Drosophila melanogaster lines selected for postponed reproductive...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Forward genetics in model organisms has boosted our knowledge of the genetic bases of development, aging, and human diseases. In this experimental pipeline, it is crucial to start by inducing a large number of random mutations in the genome of the model organism to search for phenotypes of interest. Many chemical mutagens are used to this end because most of them display particular reactivity properties and act differently over DNA. Here we report the use of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) as a mutagen...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Tardigrades are microscopic animals known to withstand unfavorable abiotic conditions. These animals are also constantly exposed to biotic stresses, including parasites and internal microbiomes. However, the tardigrade immune mechanisms against these biotic stresses are largely uncharacterized. Due to the contentious phylogenetic position of tardigrades, it is not intuitive whether they possess an immune system more similar to that of arthropods (e.g., Toll, Imd, and JNK pathways of the Drosophila...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
With recent advances in sequencing technologies, the scientific community has begun to probe the potential genetic bases behind complex phenotypes in humans and model organisms. In many cases, the genomes of genetically distinct strains of model organisms, such as the mouse (Mus musculus), have not been fully sequenced. Here, we report on a tool designed to use single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and insertion-deletion (indel) data to predict gene, mRNA, and protein sequences for up to 36 genetically...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The compound eyes of insects exhibit striking variation in size, reflecting adaptation to different lifestyles and habitats. However, the genetic and developmental bases of variation in insect eye size is poorly understood, which limits our understanding of how these important morphological differences evolve. To address this, we further explored natural variation in eye size within and between four species of the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. We found extensive variation in eye size...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Bottlenecks often occur during data analysis when studying microbial growth in liquid culture at large scale. A researcher can collect thousands of growth curves, repeated measures of a microbial liquid culture, at once in multiple micro titer plates by purpose-built robotic instruments. However, it can be difficult and time-consuming to inspect and analyze these data. This is especially true for researchers without programming experience. To enable this researcher, we created and describe an interactive...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9) system has been successfully adopted as a versatile genetic tool for functional manipulations, due to its convenience and effectiveness. Genetics lesions induced by single guide RNA (gRNA) are usually small indel (insertion-deletion) DNA mutations. The impact of this type of CRISPR-induced DNA mutation on the coded mRNA transcription processing and protein translation can be complex. Unexpected...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The etiology of many human complex diseases or traits involves interactions between chemicals and genes that regulate important physiological processes. It has been well documented that chemicals can contribute to disease development through affecting gene expression in vivo. In this study, we developed a flexible tool CGSEA for scanning the candidate chemicals associated with complex diseases or traits. CGSEA only need genome-wide summary level data, such as transcriptome-wide association studies...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are important vectors for a number of human pathogens including the Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses. Capable of displacing Aedes aegypti populations, this mosquito adapts to cooler environments which increases its geographical range and transmission potential. There are limited control strategies for Aedes albopictus mosquitoes which is likely attributed to the lack of comprehensive biological studies on this emerging vector. To fill this void, here using RNAseq...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
There has been extensive discussion of the "Replication Crisis" in many fields, including genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We explored replication in a mouse model using an advanced intercross line (AIL), which is a multigenerational intercross between two inbred strains. We re-genotyped a previously published cohort of LG/J x SM/J AIL mice (F34; n = 428) using a denser marker set and genotyped a new cohort of AIL mice (F39-43; n = 600) for the first time. We identified 36 novel genome-wide...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The mechanisms of sequence divergence in angiosperm mitochondrial genomes have long been enigmatic. In particular, it is difficult to reconcile the rapid divergence of intergenic regions that can make non-coding sequences almost unrecognizable even among close relatives with the unusually high levels of sequence conservation found in genic regions. It has been hypothesized that different mutation and repair mechanisms act on genic and intergenic sequences or alternatively that mutational input is...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Examining cross-tissue interactions is important for understanding physiology and homeostasis. In animals, the female gonad produces signaling molecules that act distally. We examine gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster female head tissues in 1) virgins without a germline compared to virgins with a germline, 2) post-mated females with and without a germline compared to virgins, and 3) post-mated females mated to males with and without a germline compared to virgins. In virgins, the absence...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
The tracheal epithelium in fruit fly larvae is a popular model for multi- and unicellular migration and morphogenesis. Like all epithelial cells, tracheal cells use Rab GTPases to organize their internal membrane transport, resulting in the specific localization or secretion of proteins on the apical or basal membrane compartments. Some contributions of Rabs to junctional remodelling and governance of tracheal lumen contents are known, but it is reasonable to assume that they play important further...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Enhancers activate gene transcription in spatial and temporal patterns by interactions with gene promoters. These elements typically reside distal to their target promoter, with which they must interact selectively. Additional elements may contribute to enhancer-promoter specificity, including remote control element sequences within enhancers, tethering elements near promoters, and insulator/boundary elements that disrupt off-target interactions. However, few of these elements have been mapped, and...
Thu Mar 05, 2020 18:53
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου