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by Thassanai Sitthiyotha, Rath Pichyangkura, Surasak Chunsrivirot Produced by levansucrase, levan and levan oligosaccharides (GF n ) have potential applications in food and pharmaceutical industries such as prebiotics, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory agents. Previous study reported that Bacillus licheniformis RN-01 levansucrase could produce levan oligosaccharides and long-chain levan. However, its N251A and N251Y mutants could effectively produce short-chain oligosaccharides upto GF 3, but they could not produce long-chain levan. We hypothesized that these mutations probably reduced GF 3 binding affinity in levansucrase active site that contains fructosyl-Asp93 intermediate and caused GF 3 to be in an unfavorable orientation for transfructosylation; therefore, levansucrase could not effectively extend GF 3 by one fructosyl residue to produce GF 4 and subsequently long-chain levan. However, these mutations probably did not significantly reduce binding affinity or drastically change o ...

by Reiko Kinouchi, Satoshi Ishiko, Kazuomi Hanada, Hiroki Hayashi, Daiki Mikami, Tomofumi Tani, Tatsuya Zenimaru, Motofumi Kawai, Seigo Nakabayashi, Motoshi Kinouchi, Akitoshi Yoshida Background Studies identifying modifiable lifestyle risk factors related to open-angle glaucoma (OAG) are limited, especially from Asian countries. This study aimed to identify lifestyle risk factors for OAG in a Japanese population. Methods and findings This population-based, cross-sectional study recruited Japanese participants aged 40 years or older from January 2013 to March 2015. We took fundus photographs for OAG screening, determined lifestyle and health characteristics through a questionnaire and performed physical examinations. The participants who had suspect findings in the fundus photographs were sent for a detailed ophthalmic examination to diagnose OAG. Lifestyle and heath characteristics were statistically compared between the OAG and non-OAG participants. A total of 1583 participants were ...

by Treepradab Norkaew, Janine L. Brown, Pakkanut Bansiddhi, Chaleamchat Somgird, Chatchote Thitaram, Veerasak Punyapornwithaya, Khanittha Punturee, Preeyanat Vongchan, Nopphamas Somboon, Jaruwan Khonmee Studies in western zoo elephants have found relationships between body condition and physiological function, and identified mitigating management strategies to optimize health and welfare. A similar methodological approach was used in this study, which evaluated a body condition score (BCS; 1 = thinnest, 5 = fattest) every other month and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations twice monthly in 33 tourist camp elephants in Thailand for a 1-year period to assess seasonal variations, and determine how lipid profiles [total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoproteins (LDL), high density lipoproteins (HDL), triglycerides (TG)] and metabolic parameters [insulin, glucose, fructosamine, glucose to insulin ratio (G:I)] related to measures of body condition and adrenal function. The ...

by Derek Stewart, Binny Thomas, Katie MacLure, Kerry Wilbur, Kyle Wilby, Abdulrouf Pallivalapila, Andrea Dijkstra, Cristin Ryan, Wessam El Kassem, Ahmed Awaisu, James S. McLay, Rajvir Singh, Moza Al Hail Background There is a need for theory informed interventions to optimise medication reporting. This study aimed to quantify and explain behavioural determinants relating to error reporting of healthcare professionals in Qatar as a basis of developing interventions to optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of error reporting. Methods A sequential explanatory mixed methods design comprising a cross-sectional survey followed by focus groups in Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar. All doctors, nurses and pharmacists were invited to complete a questionnaire that included items of behavioural determinants derived from the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), an integrative framework of 33 theories of behaviour change. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify components, with ...

by Kara C. Hoover Humans have a comparatively higher rate of more polymorphisms in regulatory regions of the primate CCR5 gene, an immune system gene with both general and specific functions. This has been interpreted as allowing flexibility and diversity of gene expression in response to varying disease loads. A broad expression repertoire is useful to humans—the only globally distributed primate—due to our unique adaptive pattern that increased pathogen exposure and disease loads (e.g., sedentism, subsistence practices). The main objective of the study was to determine if the previously observed human pattern of increased variation extended to other members of our genus, Homo . The data for this study are mined from the published genomes of extinct hominins (four Neandertals and two Denisovans), an ancient human (Ust’-Ishim), and modern humans (1000 Genomes). An average of 15 polymorphisms per individual were found in human populations (with a total of 262 polymorphisms). Ther ...

by Irene León, Laura Tascón, Juan José Ortells-Pareja, José Manuel Cimadevilla Far space and near space refer to different spatial features in which we unfold our behaviour. On the one hand, classical visuospatial neuropsychological tests assess spatial abilities in the near space; on the other, far space typically involves new spatial memory tasks in which participants display their behaviour in an environment, either interacting with objects or searching for targets. The Boxes Room Task is a virtual test that assesses spatial memory in the far space. Based upon this task, a new test was developed in which participants could not move about within the context, but they could actually perceive it from a specific viewpoint. In this work, both versions of the task were compared with one another. Furthermore, they were also compared with the results of 10/36 spatial recall test, a task assessing spatial memory in the near space. Two conditions were applied in all tasks, both in stable ...

by Brandon Brown, Logan Marg, Segundo Leon, Cynthia Chen, Junice Ng Yi Siu, Gino Calvo, Hugo Sánchez, Jerome T. Galea Although it is known that individuals living with HIV have a higher HPV prevalence, the impact of individual HPV types on HIV acquisition is less clear. In this prospective cohort study we investigated the relationship between HPV types and incident HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW) in Lima, Peru. Six hundred HIV-negative Peruvian MSM and TW participated in a 2-year study with biannual visits. At baseline, participants completed a computerized, self-administered questionnaire on sexual behavior and HPV knowledge and underwent a physical exam including anogenital swabs for HPV DNA (37 genotypes via linear array testing) and HIV testing; follow-up visits included the questionnaire and HIV testing. Participant mean age was 25 years (range = 18–40), with 48.9% self-identifying as gay and 86.5% reporting having sex exclusively ...

by Won Seob Oh, Sanghyun Yoon, Juhwan Noh, Jungwoo Sohn, Changsoo Kim, Joon Heo Geographical variations and influential factors of disease prevalence are crucial information enabling optimal allocation of limited medical resources and prioritization of appropriate treatments for each regional unit. The purpose of this study was to explore the geographical variations and influential factors of cardiometabolic disease prevalence with respect to 230 administrative districts in South Korea. Global Moran’s I was calculated to determine whether the standardized prevalences of cardiometabolic diseases (hypertension, stroke, and diabetes mellitus) were spatially clustered. The CART algorithm was then applied to generate decision tree models that could extract the diseases’ regional influential factors from among 101 demographic, economic, and public health data variables. Finally, the accuracies of the resulting model–hypertension (67.4%), stroke (62.2%), and diabetes mellitus (56.5%) ...

by Fernanda de Oliveira Bottino, Noemi Rovaris Gardinali, Sarah Beatriz Salamene Salvador, Andreza Soriano Figueiredo, Lynn Barwick Cysne, Juliane Siqueira Francisco, Jaqueline Mendes de Oliveira, Marcelo Pelajo Machado, Marcelo Alves Pinto Hepatitis E virus (HEV) transmission through infected blood and blood products has already been described. However, little is known about the bone marrow (BM) as source of HEV infection. Our study aimed to investigate the presence of HEV antigen (Ag) and histological changes in BM of cynomolgus monkeys ( Macaca fascicularis ) experimentally and naturally infected with HEV. Four cynomolgus monkeys with acute, and two with chronic hepatitis E ─ after immunosuppressive therapy with tacrolimus ─ were compared with one colony-bred animal naturally infected. Both, natural and experimental infections were characterized by anti-HEV IgG seroconversion detected by ELISA, and viral RNA isolation confirmed by RT-qPCR and qualitative nested RT-PCR. BM biops ...

by Martin Mamach, Mariella Kessler, Jens P. Bankstahl, Florian Wilke, Lilli Geworski, Frank M. Bengel, Simone Kurt, Georg Berding Activation studies with positron emission tomography (PET) in auditory implant users explained some of the mechanisms underlying the variability of achieved speech comprehension. Since future developments of auditory implants will include studies in rodents, we aimed to inversely translate functional PET imaging to rats. In normal hearing rats, activity in auditory and non-auditory regions was studied using 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 F-FDG) PET with 3 different acoustic conditions: sound attenuated laboratory background, continuous white noise and rippled noise. Additionally, bilateral cochlea ablated animals were scanned. 3D image data were transferred into a stereotaxic standard space and evaluated using volume of interest (VOI) analyses and statistical parametric mapping (SPM). In normal hearing rats alongside the auditory pathway consistent activation ...