“Acquired epidermodysplasia verruciformis” in kidney transplant patients

AbstractBackgroundEpidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV) is a well known inherited autosomal recessive skin disease associated with numerous early onset viral warts on the sun exposed parts of the body that usually progress into skin malignancies. Kidney transplant patients are also commonly associated with viral warts that might change into skin cancers.ObjectiveTo describe the clinical pictures of extensive viral warts with skin malignancies in kidney transplant patients in comparison with inherited (EV) features.Patients and methodsThis case controlled study that included 130 patients with kidney transplantation was done in kidney transplantation centers in Baghdad and Al-Karma Teaching Hospitals during December 2002 to September 2004. All recruited patients were receiving multiple immunosuppressive drugs like methyl prednisolone succinate, oral prednisolone, azathioprine and cyclosporine. History was taken from all patients including all the relevant points. These patients were divided into three groups according to the duration of kidney transplant: group A 1–10years, group B 11–20years and group C more than 20years. Biopsies were performed from the viral warts lesions and the associated tumors.Two hundred and sixty apparently healthy individuals, 206 males and 54 females had been examined as control cases for the presence of viral warts and tumors. These control cases had been taken randomly from general population in multiple regions in Baghdad.ResultsSixty-five patients out of 130 with kidney transplantation had viral warts. Their ages ranged from 20 to 71 (45.49±SD 10.82) years, 51 males and 14 females, while the duration of the warts ranged from 0.5 to 10 (3.74±SD 2.67) years. The distribution of patients with viral warts among the groups was as follows: group A 28 (43.1%), group B 30 (46.2%) and group C 7 (10.7%) cases. Viral warts were seen in 10 (3.8%) of the control group. There were statistically significant differences between patients and control cases (P value <0.001). Most of the viral warts in patients with kidney transplantation were multiple and of the verrucae vulgaris type. They were mainly located on the exposed areas of the body, mostly on the face and dorsa of hands.Skin malignancies were observed in 6 (9.2%) cases: five squamous cell carcinomas and one case of basal cell carcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma was mainly located on the lower lips in 3 cases and 2 on the dorsa of hands, while basal cell carcinoma was observed on the nose. Two cases (7.1%) of squamous cell carcinoma were seen in group A, 2 (6.6%) in group B and 1 (14%) in group C. One case of basal cell carcinoma was noted in group B .No skin malignancy was observed in the control group.ConclusionKidney transplant patients have an increased susceptibility to infection with human papilloma virus and have served as a model for viral induced carcinogenesis. This collection of features deserves the term “acquired epidermodysplasia verruciformis”

Modified use of thoracic and iliac branch endografts to treat an abdominal aortic aneurysm with an unusually narrow neck

Abdominal aortic aneurysms with hostile anatomy are a recognized hindrance to the continuing application of endovascular aortic interventions. Narrowed aneurysm necks pose technical difficulties, particularly in the absence of customized endografts. There are multiple suggested approaches to overcome shortened and angulated necks endovascularly; however, none of these address narrowed necks. We present a case where an endograft was used outside of its “instruction for use” by combining the thoracic and iliac branch technologies to overcome this problem. Expanding the use of commercially available endografts for aortic aneurysms with hostile anatomy could have significant practical and financial benefits

Unifying linguistic annotations and ontologies for the Arabic Quran

The WACL’2 Second Workshop on Arabic Corpus Linguistics was held in conjunction with the Corpus Linguistics 2013 conference. Following on from the successful first WACL in 2011, as well as the related LRE-REL event in 2012, WACL-2 again took place at Lancaster University. The aim of this series of workshops is to create a venue for exploring progress in the field of research into the Arabic language using corpora, from across the many areas of corpus linguistics and computational linguistics where the analysis of Arabic structure and usage is an active issue. The scope of the workshop encompasses both (a) the design, construction and annotation of Arabic corpora, and (b) the use of corpora in research on the Arabic language – in any relevant area, including (but not limited to!) lexis and lexicography, syntax, collocation, NLP systems and analysis tools, contrastive and historical studies, stylistics, and discourse analysis. All varieties of Arabic – including the different Colloquial Arabics as well as Classical/Qur’anic and Modern Standard forms of the language – are within the workshop's purview

The role of social networks in students’ learning experiences

The aim of this research is to investigate the role of social networks in computer science education. The Internet shows great potential for enhancing collaboration between people and the role of social software has become increasingly relevant in recent years. This research focuses on analyzing the role that social networks play in students’ learning experiences. The construction of students’ social networks, the evolution of these networks, and their effects on the students’ learning experience in a university environment are examined

Cyanobacteria—From the Oceans to the Potential Biotechnological and Biomedical Applications

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotic organisms which represent a significantsource of novel, bioactive, secondary metabolites, and they are also considered an abundant source ofbioactive compounds/drugs, such as dolastatin, cryptophycin 1, curacin toyocamycin, phytoalexin,cyanovirin-N and phycocyanin. Some of these compounds have displayed promising results insuccessful Phase I, II, III and IV clinical trials. Additionally, the cyanobacterial compounds applied tomedical research have demonstrated an exciting future with great potential to be developed into newmedicines. Most of these compounds have exhibited strong pharmacological activities, includingneurotoxicity, cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against HCMV, HSV-1, HHV-6 and HIV-1, so thesemetabolites could be promising candidates for COVID-19 treatment. Therefore, the effective large-scale production of natural marine products through synthesis is important for resolving the existingissues associated with chemical isolation, including small yields, and may be necessary to betterinvestigate their biological activities. Herein, we highlight the total synthesized and stereochemicaldeterminations of the cyanobacterial bioactive compounds. Furthermore, this review primarilyfocuses on the biotechnological applications of cyanobacteria, including applications as cosmetics,food supplements, and the nanobiotechnological applications of cyanobacterial bioactive compoundsin potential medicinal applications for various human diseases are discussed.Stockholm UniversityPeer Reviewe

Is there a role for melatonin in fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia, characterised by persistent pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance and cognitive dysfunction, is a central sensitivity syndrome that also involves abnormality in peripheral generators and in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Heterogeneity of clinical expression of fibromyalgia with a multifactorial aetiology has made the development of effective therapeutic strategies challenging. Physiological properties of the neurohormone melatonin appear related to the symptom profile exhibited by patients with fibromyalgia and thus disturbance of it’s production would be compatible with the pathophysiology. Altered levels of melatonin have been observed in patients with fibromyalgia which are associated with lower secretion during dark hours and higher secretion during daytime. However, inconsistencies of available clinical evidence limit conclusion of a relationship between levels of melatonin and symptom profiles in patients with fibromyalgia. Administration of melatonin to patients with fibromyalgia has demonstrated suppression of many symptoms and an improved quality of life consistent with benefit as a therapy for the management of this condition. Further studies with larger samples, however, are required to explore the potential role of melatonin in the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia and determine the optimal dosing regimen of melatonin for the management of fibromyalgia

Four Lessons in Versatility or How Query Languages Adapt to the Web

Exposing not only human-centered information, but machine-processable data on the Web is one of the commonalities of recent Web trends. It has enabled a new kind of applications and businesses where the data is used in ways not foreseen by the data providers. Yet this exposition has fractured the Web into islands of data, each in different Web formats: Some providers choose XML, others RDF, again others JSON or OWL, for their data, even in similar domains. This fracturing stifles innovation as application builders have to cope not only with one Web stack (e.g., XML technology) but with several ones, each of considerable complexity. With Xcerpt we have developed a rule- and pattern based query language that aims to give shield application builders from much of this complexity: In a single query language XML and RDF data can be accessed, processed, combined, and re-published. Though the need for combined access to XML and RDF data has been recognized in previous work (including the W3C’s GRDDL), our approach differs in four main aspects: (1) We provide a single language (rather than two separate or embedded languages), thus minimizing the conceptual overhead of dealing with disparate data formats. (2) Both the declarative (logic-based) and the operational semantics are unified in that they apply for querying XML and RDF in the same way. (3) We show that the resulting query language can be implemented reusing traditional database technology, if desirable. Nevertheless, we also give a unified evaluation approach based on interval labelings of graphs that is at least as fast as existing approaches for tree-shaped XML data, yet provides linear time and space querying also for many RDF graphs. We believe that Web query languages are the right tool for declarative data access in Web applications and that Xcerpt is a significant step towards a more convenient, yet highly efficient data access in a “Web of Data”

Artificial intelligence-assisted loop mediated isothermal amplification (AI-LAMP) for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2

Until vaccines and effective therapeutics become available, the practical solution to transit safely out of the current coronavirus disease 19 (CoVID-19) lockdown may include the implementation of an effective testing, tracing and tracking system. However, this requires a reliable and clinically validated diagnostic platform for the sensitive and specific identification of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we report on the development of a de novo, high-resolution and comparative genomics guided reverse-transcribed loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay. To further enhance the assay performance and to remove any subjectivity associated with operator interpretation of results, we engineered a novel hand-held smart diagnostic device. The robust diagnostic device was further furnished with automated image acquisition and processing algorithms and the collated data was processed through artificial intelligence (AI) pipelines to further reduce the assay run time and the subjectivity of the colorimetric LAMP detection. This advanced AI algorithm-implemented LAMP (ai-LAMP) assay, targeting the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene, showed high analytical sensitivity and specificity for SARS-CoV-2. A total of ~200 coronavirus disease (CoVID-19)-suspected NHS patient samples were tested using the platform and it was shown to be reliable, highly specific and significantly more sensitive than the current gold standard qRT-PCR. Therefore, this system could provide an efficient and cost-effective platform to detect SARS-CoV-2 in resource-limited laboratories.BBSRC (repurposing the LAMP prototypes produced in the grant BB/R012695/1 to be used for SARS-CoV-2 laboratory testing at The University of Lancaster); BBSRC (BB/M008681/1 and BBS/E/I/00001852); British Council (172710323 and 332228521); Brunel University London; University of Surrey