Meredithchang6788

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methyltransferase has been shown to be an oncogene in a variety of cancers. Nevertheless, the relationship between the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains elusive. We integrated the gene expression data of 371 HCC and 50 normal tissues from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differentially expressed protein-coding genes (DE-PCGs)/lncRNAs (DE-lncRs) analysis and univariate regression and Kaplan-Meier (K-M) analysis were performed to identify m6A methyltransferase-related lncRNAs. Three prognostic lncRNAs were selected by univariate and LASSO Cox regression analyses to construct the m6A methyltransferase-related lncRNA signature. Multivariate Cox regression analyses illustrated that this signature was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) prediction. The Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) suggested that the m6A methyltransferase-related lncRNAs were involved in the immune-related biological processes (BPs) and pathways. Besides, we discovered that the lncRNAs signature was correlated with the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the expression of critical immune checkpoints. Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) analysis revealed that the lncRNAs could predict the clinical response to immunotherapy. Our study had originated a prognostic signature for HCC based on the potential prognostic m6A methyltransferase-related lncRNAs. The present study had deepened the understanding of the TME status of HCC patients and laid a theoretical foundation for the choice of immunotherapy.Isolated innominate artery trauma after blunt thoracic contusion is rare and occurs mostly at its origin. We report a case of a post-traumatic distal innominate artery pseudoaneurysm presenting with Horner's syndrome treated by conventional surgical approach.

I use Benford's law to assess whether there is misreporting of coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) deaths in the USA.

I use three statistics to determine whether the reported deaths for US states are consistent with Benford's law, where the probability of smaller digits is greater than the probability of larger digits.

My findings indicate that there is under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in the USA, although the evidence for and the extent of under-reporting does depend on the statistic one uses to assess conformity with Benford's law.

Benford's law is a useful diagnostic tool for verifying data and can be used before a more detailed audit or resource intensive investigation.

Benford's law is a useful diagnostic tool for verifying data and can be used before a more detailed audit or resource intensive investigation.

Alcohol is hypothesized to have effects on the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan catabolism, a potential mechanism for alcohol-induced depression and aggression. A biomarker of this pathway, the plasma kynurenine to tryptophan ratio (K/T ratio), has been associated with HIV progression, mortality and depression. Our aim was to assess whether hazardous alcohol consumption is associated higher K/T ratio among people with HIV.

Participants were a subset of the Uganda Alcohol Research Collaboration on HIV/AIDS Cohort. Alcohol consumption was categorized (abstinent, moderate and hazardous alcohol use) using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption and phosphatidylethanol (PEth). K/T ratio was the primary outcome. We used linear regression adjusted for age, sex, FIB-4, hepatitis B surface antigen, log (HIV viral load) to estimate the association between alcohol consumption and K/T ratio.

Compared to abstinent participants, hazardous drinkers and moderate drinkers had higher K/T ratio but these differences did not reach statistical significance.

Our results suggest that hazardous alcohol consumption, in the context of untreated HIV infection, may not significantly alter kynurenine to tryptophan ratio as a measure of activity of the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism.

Our results suggest that hazardous alcohol consumption, in the context of untreated HIV infection, may not significantly alter kynurenine to tryptophan ratio as a measure of activity of the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism.International social and behavior change communication (SBCC) programs often include capacity strengthening (CS). Quality evaluations of CS can help justify investing in these activities and guide the design of future CS activities. To inform and improve future CS efforts, a comprehensive examination of ways in which activities aimed at strengthening capacity for improved SBCC are assessed is needed. Unfortunately, systematic literature reviews about the assessment of CS activities in SBCC programs are rare. This systematic review helped fill this gap and explored ways in which CS interventions for improved SBCC in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) evaluated their success. A search of electronic research databases yielded a total of 1033 potentially eligible publications. Reviewers identified 19 eligible publications that assessed the effects of activities for improved SBCC capacity. Reviewers identified seven findings, including the fact that evaluating CS for improved SBCC is rare, with only three publications having focused exclusively on evaluating SBCC capacity. This current review also identified several shortcomings around the quality of writing as well as sufficient detail to support certain claims and conclusions, especially around issues of sustainability. Until quality evaluations of CS activities are better documented, future CS activities for SBCC will find it difficult to identify effective CS approaches and demonstrate their contribution to improved SBCC in LMICs. The review discusses several implications and offers practical recommendations regarding ways to improve the evaluation of CS activities in SBCC.The authors' previous study suggested that a simple standing-type whole-body counter called FASTSCAN (Canberra, Meriden, CT, USA), widely installed throughout Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident in March 2011, could be used for thyroid measurements in internal dose assessment after a future radiological incident accompanied by the release of 131I into the environment. The present study performed Monte-Carlo simulations using a computational human phantom with several patterns of body surface contamination and used the results to formulate a method for probabilistic analyses of 131I thyroid activity in persons with surface contamination. The major advantage of this method is that the upper limit of the thyroid activity can be determined from the relative frequency distribution without identifying where body surface contamination remains. Therefore, this method is especially effective for use in the early phase of a radiological incident when time and resources are limited, making it difficult to physically remove all body surface contamination for the purpose of gaining more accurate population-wide thyroid screening measurements. As a case study of the FDNPP accident, the proposed method was applied to the results of in vivo measurements for a male subject with body surface contamination. In comparing the probabilistic analyses before and after removal of the subject's contaminated work clothes, the uncertainty of the relative frequency distribution of 131I thyroid activity was reduced by their removal. Therefore, in terms of accurate estimates and avoidance of radiation exposure from their contaminated clothes, efforts to remove body surface contamination still should be made as much as possible in the chaotic situation of the early phase of a radiological incident.Many plant processes occur in the context of and in interaction with a surrounding matrix such as soil (e.g. root growth and root-microbe interactions) or surrounding tissues (e.g. pollen tube growth through the pistil), making it difficult to study them with high-resolution optical microscopy. Over the past decade, microfabrication techniques have been developed to produce experimental systems that allow researchers to examine cell behavior in microstructured environments that mimic geometrical, physical and/or chemical aspects of the natural growth matrices and that cannot be generated using traditional agar plate assays. These microfabricated environments offer considerable design flexibility as well as the transparency required for high-resolution, light-based microscopy. In addition, microfluidic platforms have been used for various types of bioassays, including cellular force assays, chemoattraction assays, and electrotropism assays. Here, we review the recent use of microfluidic devices to study plant cells and organs, including plant roots, root hairs, moss protonemata, and pollen tubes. The increasing adoption of microfabrication techniques by the plant science community may transform our approaches to investigating how individual plant cells sense and respond to changes in the physical and chemical environment.Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, HP) is a universal toxin that organisms deploy to kill competing or invading cells. Bactericidal action of H2O2 presents several questions. First, the lethal H2O2 concentrations in bacterial cultures are 1000x higher than, for example, those calculated for the phagosome. Second, H2O2-alone kills bacteria in cultures either by mode-one, via iron-mediated chromosomal damage, or by mode-two, via unknown targets, but the killing mode in phagosomes is unclear. Third, phagosomal H2O2 toxicity is enhanced by production of nitric oxide (NO), but in vitro studies disagree some show NO synergy with H2O2 antimicrobial action, others instead report alleviation. Seliciclib To investigate this "NO paradox," we treated Escherichia coli with various concentrations of H2O2-alone or H2O2+NO, measuring survival and chromosome stability. We found that all NO concentrations make sublethal H2O2 treatments highly lethal, via triggering catastrophic chromosome fragmentation (mode-one killing). Yet, NO-alone is not lethal, potentiating H2O2 toxicity by blocking H2O2 scavenging in cultures. Catalases represent obvious targets of NO inhibition, and catalase-deficient mutants are indeed killed equally by H2O2-alone or H2O2+NO treatments, also showing similar levels of chromosome fragmentation. Interestingly, iron chelation blocks chromosome fragmentation in catalase-deficient mutants without blocking H2O2-alone lethality, indicating mode-two killing. In fact, mode-two killing of WT cells by much higher H2O2 concentrations is transiently alleviated by NO, reproducing the "NO paradox." We conclude that NO potentiates H2O2 toxicity by promoting mode-one killing (via catastrophic chromosome fragmentation) by otherwise static low H2O2 concentrations, while transiently suppressing mode-two killing by immediately lethal high H2O2 concentrations.In situ revascularization of the subclavian artery can be challenging in the context of emergency situations, a large aortic aneurysm with a posteriorly displaced left subclavian artery, a complex redo procedure or in the presence of an aberrant subclavian artery. A transthoracic aorto-axillary extra-anatomical bypass is a low risk alternative to in situ revascularization or carotid to subclavian bypass. We herein describe the surgical steps during a single-stage surgery complex aortic arch surgery. We report a 95.3% graft patency for 77 consecutive transthoracic aorto-axillary extra-anatomical bypass performed to 66 patients at the mean follow-up of 2.9 ± 2.4 years. We encountered 3 early (before 180 days postop) graft failures and no late graft failure. Graft failure had no clinical significance.