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Abstract The human DEAD-box protein 3 (DDX3) has been reported as a positive regulator and functions in the induction of type I interferon signaling. We elucidated the function of DDX3 in the positive regulation of IFNB production in non-pDC cells. We found that DDX3 regulates virus-induced activation of IFNB at the level of IRF-3. However, it does not affect conventional innate signaling, including IRF-3 phosphorylation, dimerization, or nuclear translocation of IRF-3, but has some downstream events after IRF-3 phosphorylation. Co-immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that DDX3 interacts with IRF-3 through its DNA-binding domain and promotes IRF-3-mediated IFNB promoter activation. DDX3 does not affect the formation of the IRF-3/p300/CBP complex. Instead, ChIP and EMSA assay revealed that DDX3 promotes the recruitment of IRF-3 and transcriptional co-activator p300/CBP to the IFNB promoter. The ATP binding pocket of DDX3 is involved in this association and is essential for the transcriptional activation. Taken together, our study demonstrates that DDX3 plays an important role in guiding a transcription factor complex formed by antiviral signaling to the target gene promoter.

We report the impact of fluorophore-quencher labelling on the thermodynamics of hairpin opening by testing five fluorophores and two quenchers labelled at the end and/or internal positions. Two counter strategies were introduced, i.e. label the hairpin probe at an internal position or append an external hairpin stem on the trigger strand to promote coaxial stacking hybridization. The observations remained valid for complex hairpin opening operations such as hybridization chain reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation and enrichment can be targeted to enrich in fly ash and reduce the cost of leaching and recovering of fly ash. Regarding their different properties, the single-component separation was used to obtain uncompleted burned carbon, glass microbeads, minerals, and other characteristic components from the ash. Also, the mineral composition of each component was analyzed by electron microscopy. The metal minerals were mainly concentrated in the mineral components. Besides, the electron probe microanalysis shows that the Pt content in the minerals of fly ash was significantly correlated with the metal contents of Ni and Cu. After the obtainment of the characteristics of fly ash metal enrichment, the heavy minerals with Cu, Ni, Pt, Pd, and other target metal elements were enriched by gravity separation and flotation. The enrichment coefficients of Cu, Ni, Pt, and Pd were 1.45, 1.33, 1.90, and 1.60, respectively, and the recovery rates were 77%, 81%, 97%, and 88%, respectively. Since the yield of heavy minerals obtained by separation was 62.24%, it indicated the physical separation method could significantly reduce the cost of leaching and recovering of fly ash metal resources.

Introduction: High users of hospital services require targeted healthcare services planning for effective resource allocation due to their high costs. This study aims to segmentize the population in the "Ageing In Place-Community Care Team" (AIP-CCT), a programme for complex patients with high inpatient service use, and examine the association of segment membership and healthcare utilisation and mortality. Methods: We analysed 1,012 patients enrolled between June 2016 and February 2017. To identify patient segments, a cluster analysis was performed based on medical complexity and psychosocial needs. Next, multivariable negative binomial regression was performed using patient segments as the predictor, with healthcare and programme utilisation over the 180-day follow-up as outcomes. Multivariate cox proportional hazard regression was applied to assess the time to first hospital admission and mortality between segments within the 180-day follow-up. All models were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, ward class, and baseline healthcare utilisation. Results: Three distinct segments were identified (Segment 1 (n = 236), Segment 2 (n = 331), and Segment 3 (n = 445)). Medical, functional, and psychosocial needs of individuals were significantly different between segments (p-value<0.001). The rates of hospitalisation in Segments 1 (IRR = 1.63, 95%CI:1.3–2.1) and 2 (IRR = 2.11, 95%CI:1.7–2.6) were significantly higher than in Segment 3 on follow-up. Similarly, both Segments 1 (IRR = 1.76, 95%CI:1.6–2.0) and 2 (IRR = 1.25, 95%CI:1.1–1.4) had higher rates of programme utilisation compared to Segment 3. Patients in Segments 1 (HR = 2.48, 95%CI:1.5–4.1) and 2 (HR = 2.25, 95%CI:1.3–3.6) also had higher mortality on follow-up. Conclusions: This study provided a data-based approach to understanding healthcare needs among complex patients with high inpatient services utilisation. Resources and interventions can be tailored according to the differences in needs among segments, to facilitate better allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2006, Care Corner Educational Therapy Service has been running the KidsBright multimodal intervention programme for children aged 5 - 13 with specific learning difficulties and developmental delays. The programme is a novel integration of mental, movement, and dietary approaches, and is aimed at enhancing the neurodevelopmental, learning and academic abilities of children. In this study, the purported effectiveness and feasibility of the programme is examined through test-retest analysis of 368 parent-rated forms of their child's ability level on ten outcomes over a six-month period in the programme - (i) Reading; (ii) Spelling; (iii) Handwriting; (iv) Verbal Skill; (v) Concentration; (vi) Ability to Sit Still; (vii) Memory; (viii) Motor Coordination; (ix) Social Interaction; (x) Mathematics. Findings indicated that there was indeed a significant improvement in the average ability level of children enrolled in the programme over time according to parental ratings. Subsequent analyses revealed that while parents' facilitation of home-based movement exercises were associated with improvements in many ability domains, there were no improvements associated with the child's consumption of fish oil supplements. The results also suggested that issues of service user attrition and their compliance to programme requirements may also need to be worked on in order for the programme to be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new type of curvature flow for curves in 2D and surfaces in 3D. The flow is inspired by the mathematical morphology opening and closing operations. These operations are classically defined by composition of dilation and erosion operations. In practice, existing methods implemented this way will result in re-discretizing the entire shape, even if some parts of the surface do not change. Instead, our surface-only curvature-based flow moves the surface selectively in areas that should be repositioned. In our triangle mesh discretization, vertices in regions unaffected by the opening or closing will remain exactly in place and do not affect our method's complexity, which is output-sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to quantify health-related quality of life (HRQoL) loss associated with first episode of stroke by comparing patient-reported HRQoL before and after stroke onset. The impact of stroke in local population was also evaluated by comparing the pre- and post-stroke HRQoL with that of the general population. Methods: The HRQoL of stroke survivors was assessed with the EQ-5D-3L index score at recruitment, for recalled pre-stroke HRQoL, and at 3 and 12 month post-stroke. Change in HRQoL from pre-stroke to 3 and 12 month was self-reported by 285 and 238 patients, respectively. Mean EQ index score at each time point (baseline: 464 patients; 3 month post-stroke: 306 patients; 12 month post-stroke: 258 patients) was compared with published population norms for EQ-5D-3L. Results: There was a significant decrease in HRQoL at 3 (0.25) and 12 month (0.09) post-stroke when compared to the retrospectively recalled patients’ mean pre-stroke HRQoL level (0.87). The reduction at 3 month was associated with the reduction in all EQ-5D-3L health dimensions; reductions remaining at 12 month were limited to dimensions of mobility, self-care, usual activities, and anxiety/depression. Stroke patients had a lower mean EQ index than the general population by 0.07 points pre-stroke (0.87 vs. 0.94), 0.33 points at 3 month (0.61 vs. 0.94) and 0.18 points at 12 month (0.76 vs. 0.94) post-stroke. Conclusions: Stroke has a substantial impact on HRQoL in Singapore, especially in the first three months post-stroke. Compared to the general population, stroke survivors have lower HRQoL even before stroke onset. This pre-stroke deficit in HRQoL should be taken into account when quantifying health burden of stroke or setting goals for stroke rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We established four-point guidelines for the sequence design of hairpin monomers in hybridization chain reaction (HCR). This enabled greater flexibility to customize specific hairpin sequences for use with the readout platform of interest. Using shorter hairpin stem length, a one-pot signal amplification system was demonstrated by incorporating distance-sensitive Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) readout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stature estimation from a footprint has important value in forensic investigation. The present study aims to estimate stature from bilateral footprints and foot outlines collected from 200 consenting Malaysian Chinese (100 males, 100 females) in Malaysia and to generate population-specific equations. Ten length measurements were taken from each foot i.e. five from footprints and five from foot outlines. The results indicated a high significant positive correlation between height and footprint and foot outline lengths. The correlation coefficients (R) in the pooled sample footprint (0.86–0.88) and foot outline (0.87–0.88) are comparatively higher than those of an individual male foot print (0.67–0.68), foot outline (0.72–0.73), and female footprint (0.65–0.69), and foot outline (0.66–0.69). Multiple regression analysis provided a smaller error of estimate and higher correlation coefficient than linear regression analysis. Thus, regression equations were derived for stature estimation from footprint and foot outlines lengths among Malaysian Chinese even when sex remains unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bivalent vaccines stimulated higher antibody titres than multivalent vaccines. • Antigenic competition was avoided with a two-month inter-vaccination interval. • Cure rates and improvement rates varied with the number of virulent strains present. Virulent footrot is a significant economic and animal welfare concern. The disease can be treated, controlled, and eliminated with vaccine, but selecting the appropriate vaccination strategy can be challenging. There are two main strategies: outbreak (serogroup)-specific univalent or bivalent vaccination, or use of a multivalent vaccine containing up to nine of the most common serogroups. The objective of this study was to compare these approaches in sheep flocks infected with multiple Dichelobacter nodosus serogroups. In the first phase, we undertook an immunogenicity trial in which we compared four pre-commercial multivalent recombinant fimbrial vaccines containing six (A, B, C, G, H, I) or nine (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I) serogroups, and compared them to commercial bivalent vaccines. Two multivalent vaccines stimulated significantly higher antibody responses than two other multivalent vaccines but the number of serogroups included in the multivalent vaccine formulations did not have a significant effect. In the first phase, we also compared inter-vaccination intervals of two- and three-months between sequential bivalent vaccines, and found that a two-month interval was sufficient to avoid antigenic competition. In the second phase, the most immunogenic multivalent vaccine (nine serogroups) was compared to sequential bivalent vaccines and monthly foot-bathing in a field trial in four commercial Merino flocks. The duration of protection afforded by the multivalent vaccine was likely to be less than that of the bivalent vaccines, as the antibody titres stimulated were lower and less persistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]