The potential for High-performance computing (HPC) opportunities in the areas of health, environment, energy, climate change, business and livelihood are immense in Africa. However, the lack of sufficient HPC facilities and capacity skills deficiencies continue to curtail its growth. This paper maps the status of HPC facilities in Africa. Thereafter based on a review of various business and funding models, it suggests a hybridization model as a way for building HPC infrastructures across the continent. The main contribution of this paper is the anchoring of hybridization as a business model for improving the access and establishment of HPC infrastructure in Africa.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are of great interest in cell therapies due to their immunomodulatory properties and other effects they have on recipients after autologous or allogeneic transplantation. In the majority of clinical applications, a high number of MSCs is required; for this reason, isolated MSCs have to be expanded in the cell culture until the desired number is reached. Determining the MSC count from different tissue origins preceding cell expansion is not widely implemented. Phenotyping using flow cytometry and MSCs enumeration is usually performed only during or after their expansion. Counting freshly isolated cells is challenging due to their rareness and heterogeneity. Heterogeneity is noticeable among donors, tissues, and cell subpopulations. The identification of MSCs from different tissues is also complex because there is no consensus on the uniform cell surface marker panel. There are also differences in the concentration of cells which may be influenced by donor age, health status, isolation methods, and various other factors. As MSC applicability is continuously growing and developing, there is a need to implement and standardise counting methods for freshly isolated MSCs. With the introduction of a uniform procedure to count MSCs right after tissue harvest, we could predict the number of passages needed for cell expansion and reduce overall cell manufacturing costs. For new methodologies, where uncultured cells are used in therapy with what are referred to as one-step procedures, determining the number of freshly isolated MSCs is even more important

The global sulfur cycle has implications for human health, climate change, biogeochemistry, and bioremediation. The organosulfur compounds that participate in this cycle not only represent a vast reservoir of sulfur, but are also used by prokaryotes as sources of energy and/or carbon. Closely linked to the inorganic sulfur cycle, it involves the interaction of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and chemical processes. However, ecological and evolutionary studies of the conversion of organic sulfur compounds are hampered by the poor conservation of the relevant pathways and their variation even within strains of the same species. In addition, several proteins involved in the conversion of sulfonated compounds are related to proteins involved in sulfur dissimilation or turnover of other compounds. Therefore, the enzymes involved in the metabolism of organic sulfur compounds are usually not correctly annotated in public databases. To address this challenge, we have developed HMSS2, a profiled Hidden Markov Model-based tool for rapid annotation and synteny analysis of organic and inorganic sulfur cycle proteins in prokaryotic genomes. Compared to its previous version (HMS-S-S), HMSS2 includes several new features. HMM-based annotation is now supported by non-homology criteria and covers the metabolic pathways of important organosulfur compounds, including dimethylsulfpopropionate, taurine, isethionate, and sulfoquinovose. In addition, the calculation speed has been increased by a factor of four and the available output formats have been extended to include iTol compatible datasets, and customised sequence FASTA files

Burnout among healthcare professionals can lead to poor quality of patient care and performance. However, previous research has largely ignored how organizational and individual aspects can together reduce physicians' burnout. This study, which is based on self-determination theory and uses a sample of medical specialists, examines the mediating role of resilience and the moderating role of communication in the relationship between engaging leadership and physicians' burnout. First, engaging leadership was found to reduce burnout levels among medical specialists. Second, resilience positively mediated the effect of engaging leadership on physicians' burnout. Third, communication interacted positively with engaging leadership in increasing physicians' resilience. Therefore, engaging leaders and organizational communication policies seem to be crucial factors which have an impact on physicians' burnout as they increase individual resilience.

Rationale: There are significant differences in Sinomenii Caulis (SC) obtained from different geographical regions and medicinal plant parts. This study aims to explore potential quality markers that are correlated with clinical efficacy in SC by a comprehensive strategy that integrates chemical profiling, chemometrics, and network pharmacology. Methods: First, an alkaloid database was created through the utilization of the UNIFI system to qualitatively analyze of alkaloids in SC. Then, differential compounds in SC collected from various geographic regions were screened by applying multivariate data analysis. Subsequently, the support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) algorithms are adopted to calculate the grouping accuracy of different components. Finally, network pharmacology was conducted to analyze the pharmacological properties and potential associations of these target compounds. Results: A total of 81 alkaloids were identified from SC samples, including 13 aporphine alkaloids, 18 protoberberine alkaloids, 32 morphine alkaloids, 10 benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, and 8 other types of alkaloids. Notably, palmatine, sinoracutine, and magnoflorine are active ingredients with the ability to differentiate the different regions of SC samples. And thus should be prioritized when selecting quality markers. Additionally, it was observed that the RF algorithms demonstrated higher classification accuracy than the SVM model. Conclusion: This comprehensive strategy may prove to be a powerful technique for screening the quality markers components, which could be used for the quality control of SC, and can serve as reference for design of quality control of other herbs.

Rationale: By applying RF (radio frequency) and DC (direct current) voltages to corresponding ring electrodes, ion funnel (IF) can efficiently focus and transmit ions. However, IF has an inherent mass discrimination problem that will greatly limit ion focusing and transmission. In order to improve the transmission efficiency (TE) of the IF and remove this limitation, this paper explores the new quadrupole ion funnel (QIF). Methods: Computer simulations of the potential field distributions of QIF and conventional IF were performed to assess their focusing characteristics. To compare the TE, using the ion optics simulation programmes SIMION and AXSIM, a series of simulations were carried out. Toroidal, cylindrical and hyperbolic configurations are used to improve ion TE. And compare transmission and focus performance with conventional IF. Results: By simulating the trajectories of low m/z ions in the IF with SIMION and AXISM software, in this paper, the optimum electrical parameters for three new QIFs are obtained, and compared them with the conventional IF, which can improve the TE of m/z < 100 by about 16%, 20% and 13%, respectively. Conclusions: The results indicate that the study of these three new configuration IF has great research significance for improving the sensitivity of low m/z ions in mass spectrometer instruments.

The primary objective of this digital platform is to provide an opportunity for abused children to present their problems online. Basically, you can present your problem under 4 types of grants: Physical Abuse, Mental Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Other. Users can choose which of these four types of violence users have suffered and contact the relevant parties. After submitting the user problem, an expert can be contacted for it. For example, legal action can be taken if the user has faced physical abuse. If further assistance is required, it can be done by system administrators.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to a persistent public health crisis and has become one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Due to its high transmissibility, scientists have been researching vaccines and effective treatments while also investigating its pathogenicity to better understand and dissect the virus. This understanding will help determine the appropriate preventive measures needed to protect human health and collectively combat the pandemic. The statistical analysis data used in this study are primarily sourced from the Kaggle platform (Note: Kaggle is a data modeling and analysis competition platform where companies and researchers can post data, and statisticians and data mining experts can compete to generate the best models), ensuring its credibility. In the mathematical models developed for this study, key concepts from the field of statistics such as the Poisson process and normal distribution were employed. Calculations and graphical representations were carried out using Matlab software.

Over the past two decades, there has been increasing research into the molecular composition and function of small extracellular vesicles in the central nervous system. This is due in part to the recognition that small extracellular vesicles likely contribute to the pathogenesis of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, but also an understanding that small extracellular vesicles are a source of potential biomarkers. Small extracellular vesicles carry specific cargo that reflects their biogenesis and cellular origins, including protein, RNA and lipid. While the protein and RNA content of small extracellular vesicles in the central nervous system diseases and have been studied extensively, our understanding of the lipidome of small extracellular vesicles in the central nervous system is still in its infancy. Lipids play a significant role in maintaining central nervous system structure and function, and the dysregulation of lipid metabolism is known to occur in many neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Here we review what is currently known about lipid dyshomeostasis in Alzheimer's disease. We propose that small extracellular vesicle lipids may provide insight into the pathophysiology and progression of Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders, and, in the future perhaps, aid in disease monitoring and detection.

Telomeres are chromosome protectors that shorten during cell replication and in stressful conditions. Developing individuals are susceptible to telomere erosion when their growth is fast and resources limited. This is critical because the rate of telomere attrition in early life is linked to health and life span of adults. The metabolic telomere attrition hypothesis (MeTA) suggests that telomere dynamics can respond to biochemical signals conveying information about the organism’s energetic state. Among these signals are glucocorticoids (hormones that promote catabolic processes, potentially impairing costly telomere maintenance) and nucleotides, which activate anabolic pathways though the cellular enzyme target of rapamycin (TOR) preventing telomere attrition. During the energetically demanding growth phase, the regulation of telomeres in response to two contrasting signals—one promoting telomere maintenance and the other inducing attrition—provides an ideal experimental setting to test MeTa. We studied nestlings of a rapidly developing free-living passerine, the great tit (Parus major), that either received glucocorticoids (Cort-chicks), nucleotides (Nuc-chicks), or a combination of both (NucCort-chicks) all compared with controls (Cnt-chicks). Contrary to Cort-chicks, which showed telomere attrition, NucCort-chicks, did not. NucCort-chicks was the only group showing increased gene expression of telo2 (proxy for TOR activation), of mitochondrial enzymes linked to ATP production (atp5f1a-atp5f1b-cox6a1-cox4) and a higher efficiency in aerobically producing ATP. NucCort-chicks had also a higher expression of telomere maintenance genes (trf2) and of enzymatic antioxidant genes (gpx4-sod1). The findings show that nucleotides availability is crucial for preventing telomere erosion during fast growth in stressful environments.

SARS-CoV2 virus, COVID-19, was first reported in Wuhan, China in 2019. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are dry cough, fever, and diarrhea that occur within 2-14 days of exposure. Primary infection from COVID-19 develops in the respiratory tract. Cardiovascular disease has become a more prominent manifestation of COVID-19 infection however very little is known regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the cardiac conduction system. We present a young patient with COVID-19 who developed a permanent third-degree Atrioventricular (AV) heart block. This report is the first documentation of COVID-19 induced permanent third-degree heart block in a young male.

Background The ‘public versus private healthcare’ debate has never stopped, and the empirical evidence is inconclusive and limited in developing countries. This study tries to examine the impacts of delivery structure on the efficiency of healthcare services as well as whether the impacts vary among markets with different characteristics in China. Methods We use panel data at China’s provincial level from 2010 to 2019, and conduct a DEA-Tobit model to investigate the impacts. More concretely, first we apply a DEA model to calculate the efficiency of healthcare services, then examine the impacts of delivery structure on it with a Tobit model. Results Our results indicate that after considering the factors of service quality in the outputs of healthcare services, the efficiency of healthcare services decreased by 20.47% since 2010 because of the overuse of healthcare services and blind expansion of hospitals. However, the large entry of private hospitals does have a significantly positive impact on the efficiency, because the competition pressure pushes them to reduce costs. Moreover, this effect is more effective in the market of primary care which social capital mainly enter. Conclusions This study provides new and reliable evidence on the positive effects of absorbing private capital into the healthcare market, which provides beneficial implications for China and other developing countries to promote and improve market-oriented reform of healthcare services.

Objective: To analyze the spatial patterns of distribution of Specialized Rehabilitation Centers(CERs). Methods: An ecological-level study design, descriptive and Bayesian spatial regression analyses was carried out using the 438 Brazilian Health Regions. Main outcome is the “presence or absence of CER” and as covariates the rate of PWD, health funding and socioeconomic indicators. Modeling considered a binomial probability distribution and spatial randomness in the Besag-York-Mollié model. Neighborhood relationships between Health Regions were constructed using Queen-type contiguity matrix. Results:Considering four types of disability(hearing, intellectual, physical and visual) alone, the rate of PWD and transfers of financial resources increase the chances of implementing an CER. In joint analysis of disabilities, implementation of CERs doesn’t correspond to regions with higher rates of PWD. Conclusions:Prioritize the CER implementation according to territorial distribution of needs is essential to improve equitable access. Use of qualified data to identify PWD is essential for the creation of public policies.

Medical laboratory technicians (MLTs) play an essential role in healthcare and the profession has to deal increasingly with staff shortage. Consequently, retention becomes a crucial issue. So far little attention has been paid to generational differences in factors regarding job satisfactions of MLTs and comparatively few studies in general have included the youngest cohort of Generation Z. The aim of this study was to analyze aspects of MLTs job satisfaction from a generational perspective and to identify potential for improvement responding to the different generations. A cross sectional online survey study design was used. A total of 382 MLTs completed the online survey of which 371 were assigned to one of the three generational cohorts. The analysis focused on the satisfaction with several aspects of job satisfaction, the gap between the relevance and realization if these aspects and the influencing factors for job satisfaction according to the respective generation. The results showed that recognition represents the most important influencing factor for job satisfaction, but other aspects are mainly relevant for one of the three generations, such as relationships for Generation X, meaningful contribution for Generation Y and income for Generation Z. Employers and professional associations can draw on these findings to positively influence job satisfaction, to support this essential healthcare workforce.

We study the long time behaviour of the solutions for a weakly damped forced nonlinear fractional Klein-Gordon-Schrödinger system i u t + i ν u - ( - Δ ) α u + v u - | u | 2 u = f , v tt + γ v t + ( - Δ ) α v + v + v 3 - | u | 2 = g , for a given α ∈ ( 1 2 , 1 ) considered in the whole space R. We prove that this system provides an infinite dimensional dynamical system in H α ( R ) × H α ( R ) × L 2 ( R ) that possesses a global attractor A α in the same space and more particularly that this attractor is in fact a compact subset of H 2 α ( R ) × H 2 α ( R ) × H α ( R ) .

A document by Amir Moradi. Click on the document to view its contents.

Narrow-bandgap n-type polymers are essential for advancing the development of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). Herein, we developed a novel polymer acceptor PNT with π-extended 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-cyclopenta[b]naphthalen-1-ylidene) malononitrile (CPNM) end groups. Compared to commonly used 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-cyclopenta[b]naphthalen-1ylidene) malononitrile (IC) units, CPNM units have a further extended fused ring, providing the PNT polymer with extended absorption into the near-IR region (903 nm) and exhibiting a narrow optical bandgap (1.37 eV). Furthermore, PNT exhibits high electron mobility (6.79 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 S−1) and a relatively high-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level of −3.80 eV. When blended with PBDB-T, all-PSC achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.7% and a high short-circuit current density (JSC) of 24.4 mA cm−2, mainly attributed to broad absorption (600-900 nm) and efficient charge separation and collection. Our study provides a promising polymer acceptor for all-PSCs and demonstrates that π-extended CPNM units are important to achieve high-performance for all-PSCs.

Purpose TransCelerate BioPharma conducted a survey of biopharmaceutical companies to evaluate current practice and identify opportunities to complement safety signal assessment with rapid real-world data (RWD) analysis. Methods A voluntary 30-question survey regarding use of RWD in safety signal assessment was disseminated to subject matter experts at all TransCelerate member companies in July 2022. Responses were blinded, aggregated, summarized, and presented. Results Eighteen of 20 member companies participated in the survey. Sixteen (89%) companies reported actively leveraging RWD in their signal assessment processes. Of 18 respondent companies, 8 (44%) routinely use rapid approaches to RWD analysis, 7 (39%) utilize rapid RWD analysis non-routinely or in a pilot setting, 2 (11%) are considering using rapid RWD analysis, and 1 (6%) has no plans to use rapid RWD analysis for their signal assessment. Most companies reported that RWD adds context to and improves quality of signal assessments. To conduct RWD analysis for signal assessment, 16 of 17 (94%) respondent companies utilize or plan to utilize internally available data, 8 (47%) utilize both internal and external data, and 3 (18%) utilize data networks. Respondents identified key challenges to rapidly performing RWD analyses, including data access/availability, time for analysis execution, and uncertainties regarding acceptance of minimal or non-protocolized approaches by health authorities. Conclusion Biopharmaceutical companies reported that they see value in the use of rapid RWD analyses for complementing signal assessments. Future work is recommended to offer a framework and process for use of rapid use of RWD analyses in signal assessment.

A document by Seyed Amir Miratashi Yazdi. Click on the document to view its contents.

Objective: To evaluate changes in multimodal retinal imaging of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Methods: Observational case series study. All patients underwent a complete ophthalmic examination and were imaged with multimodal imaging before and after therapy for CML. Results: Mean age at diagnosis was 15 years old. All patients were male. The retinal findings at diagnosis were foveal infiltrates in 66.6%, retinal infiltration in 66.6%, venous dilation and arterial tortuosity in 66.6%, retinal hemorrhages in 100%, pre-retinal hemorrhages 33.3%, cotton-wool spots in 66.6%, Roth’s spots in 100%. Mean follow-up was 94.6 weeks (range 20-150 weeks). Regression of LR was completed after 100 days (range 56-170 days), and regression of macular infiltrates, at day 19 (range 17-21 days). Conclusion: MRI can provide relevant information when monitoring clinical response for systemic conditions affecting the eyes. At first, foveal infiltrates tend to disappear once the induction therapy has started. Retinal hemorrhages, vascular dilation, retinal infiltrates, and cotton wool spots tend to gradually disappear associated to the reduction of mature cells into the blood stream and the achievement of a major molecular response (MMR) assessed by TR-PCR.

Aesthetic appreciation is a complex process that needs a cognitive explanation for understanding perceivers’ neural processes while experiencing beauty. The challenge in studying aesthetics lies in integrating neural activity dynamics with source localization to establish a neurophysiological framework of aesthetics experience. This study examines the neural mechanisms that govern aesthetic appreciation of static images and compares the mechanisms involved in the appreciation of images rated as beautiful and not beautiful by participants. In the study, participants rated a series of images on an aesthetic scale while their neural activity was recorded. The Leders’ model (2004) was used as a theoretical framework. Results showed that beautiful images elicited higher cognitive affordance compared to not beautiful images during the early stage of cognition. The analysis of ERP waveforms revealed greater perceptual processing for not beautiful compared to beautiful images. Source localization exhibited activation of the dorsal stream followed by the ventral stream irrespective of the aesthetic content of an image. Aesthetic appreciation of not beautiful images engaged the ventrodorsal stream and local processing, which resulted in a slower Response Time (RT). Evaluative categorization utilized attentional load allocation in frontal and central regions, which was higher in beautiful images. It implies that cognitive evaluation for categorizing higher aesthetic value requires more integrative neural processing compared to categorizing lower aesthetic value. These results suggest that the cognitive processes involved in aesthetic appreciation differ depending on the content of the stimuli and occur in distinct time frames.

Abstract: Background: Vaccines are considered one of the milestones of modern medicine that promoted health and curbed morbidity and mortality. However, with the rapid development and approval of different vaccines, various thrombotic events have been reported. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of vaccine-associated stroke and other thrombotic events is not well-characterized. Methods: We utilized the vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) database from 1990-2021 to examine the association between vaccines and thrombotic events. We analyzed the data by sex and age, and vaccine type, and COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer. Disproportionality signal analysis was conducted by measuring reporting odds ratio (ROR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Out of over 1.3 million adverse events reported in VAERS, more than 6000 were strokes between 1990-2021. Most strokes (70%) COVID-19 vaccines accounted for over 80% of all vaccine-related strokes with ROR (CI 95%) of 13.3 (CI 12.4-14.3, p<0.0001). Among COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer/Biotech was associated with 46%, Moderna with 40%, and Janssen with 12% of strokes. Finally, our data revealed that prothrombic diseases of various vascular territories were reported the most among patients who have received COVID-19 vaccines with ROR (CI 95%) of 19.32 (CI 18.17-20.54; p <0.0001). Among these thrombotic events myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis were the most predominant. Conclusion: Our data suggest a link between COVID-19 vaccines and thrombotic events, especially strokes. This retrospective study highlights the urgent need for further longitudinal studies to examine the safety of vaccines in patients with high risk for thrombosis.

The synergy activity of the heterojunctions photocatalyst can be improved further by including the surface plasmon resonance of single metal atoms. For this aim, a simple calcination and hydrothermal method was used to dope single atom Co on top of the Z-type 10 wt% g-C3N4/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions which we had tested previously. The optimal Co doping was determined at 0.2 wt% Co/10 wt% g-C3N4/Bi2WO6, that it most efficiently degraded (100 mg/L) RhB under visible light irradiation (99.7% in 30 min, kinetic rate constant 0.182 min -1). This single-atom doped catalysts (Co/g-C3N4/Bi2WO6) should be most favorably used in treating practical wastewater in EC (electro-chemical)-MFC (microbial fuel cell) system. Its remarkable performance was recorded (96% COD removal and 92.8% TOC removal). The reactive oxidizing species include h+, 1O2, ·O2-, e-, and ·OH, they act together leading to the rapid degradation of pollutants. The developed Co-doped ternary catalyst has promising application prospects in pollution control in real world wastewater treatment.

INTRODUCTION: Exacerbations in preschool wheezers increase the risk of impaired lung function and asthma persistence at school age. Bronchial remodelling-based latent classes identify severe preschool wheezers at increased risk of frequent exacerbations (>3) but failed to distinguish those without exacerbation from those with low exacerbations rate (1-2 exacerbations) in the year following bronchoscopy. We thus aimed to identify further independent factors associated with no, low or high exacerbation rates. METHODS: In this post-hoc analysis, 80 severe preschool wheezers from the “P’tit Asthme” and “RESPIRE” studies were divided into 3 groups: No-Ex (0 exacerbation in the year following the bronchoscopy, n=20), Low-Ex (1-2 exacerbations, n=27) and High-Ex (≥3 exacerbations, n=33). Associations between variables and groups were assessed using multinomial logistic regressions. RESULTS: Atopic dermatitis, age at the first wheezing episode, Haemophilus and Streptococcus genera in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), bronchial smooth muscle (BSM) area, reticular basement membrane (RBM) thickness and RBM-BSM distance were all significantly different between No-Ex and/or Low-Ex and/or High-Ex. However, only atopic dermatitis, age at first episode of wheezing, Haemophilus genus in the BALF, RBM-BSM distance and BSM area were significantly and independently associated with exacerbation frequency. Among them, the BSM area was the sole parameter independently associated with each group. CONCLUSION: While atopic dermatitis, age at the first episode of wheezing, Haemophilus in BALF, RBM-BSM distance and BSM area appeared to be relevant independent parameters associated with exacerbation susceptibility in severe preschool wheezers, only the increased BSM area discriminated between each of the three-exacerbation frequency-based groups.