The SandS Ecosystem, a True Instance of WEB4.0

We introduce a peculiar ecosystem aimed at ruling in remote the household appliances of the members of a special social network. The keen feature of the social network is a networked intelligence, equipped with cognitive tools that enable it to provide services fully compliant with the members\u2019 needs. The scheme is the following: The appliances are internet-connected through the home Wi-Fi router. The user asks the social network for a task to be executed by his appliance (for instance, washing three kilos of woollen coloured laundry), the network, in the role of an electronic super-mom, sends directly to the washing machine an optimal sequence of commands the recipes (such as: warm the water at 34\ub0, soak for 57 minutes, etc.) to execute the task in a way that matches the user preferences, possibly green goals included. Feedbacks are sent by user and appliances themselves to the network intelligence to close the permanent recipe optimization loop, with offline advice on the part of appliance manufacturers. A properly devised user interface allows a friendly and accurate management of all interactions between the user and the social network, constituting the user-centric support of the cognitive driven services representing a genuine instance of WEB 4.0

A36 Prevalence of HIV-1 subtypes in Slovenia with an emphasis on molecular and phylogenetic investigation of subtype A

21st International BioInformatics Workshop on Virus Evolution and Molecular EpidemiologyIn Slovenia, a small country in Central Europe, less than 1 per 1,000 inhabitants are estimated to be infected with HIV-1. As in most of the Central and Western European countries, the majority of patients diagnosed with HIV-1 are infected with subtype B. However, due to migration, other subtypes can become more prevalent in the country. The aim of this study was to determine HIV-1 subtypes circulating in Slovenia and to further examine the molecular epidemiology of subtype A. A total of 367 Slovenian HIV-1 sequences were included in the study, representing 58% of all patients diagnosed in Slovenia until the end of the year 2013. Subtype was assigned by employing different HIV subtyping tools coupled with Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis. The latter was performed to examine the molecular epidemiology of subtype A as well. Identified clusters of Slovenian subtype A sequences were further analyzed for the determination of the time of the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) by using Monte Carlo Markov chain (MCMC) method available in BEAST 2.1.3 software. We determined the prevalence of subtype B to be 85.3%, while subtype A was the most prevalent non-B subtype found in 18 patients (4.9%), followed by CRF02_AG (2.4%), subtype C (1.1%), subtypes D, G and CRF01_AE (0.8% each) and subtypes F1 and CRF22_01A1 (0.3% each). Subtypes could not be assigned to 12 sequences (3.3%). The phylogenetic tree obtained by ML analysis of the subtype A and subtype A related recombinants revealed that Slovenian sequences were part of 6 major international clusters. Two clusters consisting only of Slovenian sequences were identified and thus additional MCMC analysis was employed. Results of a Slovenian cluster of 4 subtype A sequences showed a posterior probability value of 1 and a tMRCA between the years 1985 and 2008, with a mean in the year 2001. In conclusion, in a Central European country, where subtype B predominates, the second most common subtype was found to be subtype A. Non-B subtypes were observed in one out of seven patients in Slovenia, a fraction that is not negligible, thus proving importance of surveillance of HIV subtype diversity and corresponding molecular epidemiology of non-B subtypes.publishersversionpublishe

A novel technique for the treatment of post operative retro-rectal haematoma: two case reports

Rectal bleeding following any form of rectal surgery is a well recognised complication 1, 2, 3 & 4. However retro-rectal bleeding and tracking which then presents as rectal bleeding has not been reported in the literature. We describe a novel way of dealing with this technically difficult post-operative complication

Prophylactic Embolization of the Cystic Artery Before Radioembolization: Feasibility, Safety, and Outcomes

PurposeTo evaluate the safety and efficacy of two different methods of proximal cystic artery embolization in patients undergoing yttrium-90 radioembolization.Materials and methodsForty-six patients had cystic artery embolization performed immediately before yttrium-90 radioembolization, either by using Gelfoam pledgets (n = 35) or coils (n = 11). Clinical symptomatology during the admission and angiographic findings at 1-month follow-up were retrospectively reviewed. Rates of collateralization or recanalization of the cystic artery were compared, as well as the frequency of postprocedural abdominal pain and need for cholecystectomy.ResultsTechnical success was achieved in all patients, and there were no procedural complications related to cystic artery embolization. Of the 11 coil-embolized patients, 5 (45%) demonstrated collateralization of the cystic artery at 1 month, and 1 (9%) demonstrated recanalization of the cystic artery. Of the 35 Gelfoam-embolized cases, 2 (6%) had collateralized at 1 month, and 14 (40%) had recanalized. Two patients (one from each group) had self-limited right upper quadrant pain after the procedure, and one patient in the coil embolization group required cholecystectomy.ConclusionProximal cystic artery embolization is safe and feasible and may be performed during liver-directed embolotherapy to minimize the exposure of the gallbladder to particulate, chemoembolic, or radioembolic agents

Presence of activating KRAS mutations correlates significantly with expression of tumour suppressor genes DCN and TPM1 in colorectal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite identification of the major genes and pathways involved in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC), it has become obvious that several steps in these pathways might be bypassed by other as yet unknown genetic events that lead towards CRC. Therefore we wanted to improve our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of CRC development.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used microarrays to identify novel genes involved in the development of CRC. Real time PCR was used for mRNA expression as well as to search for chromosomal abnormalities within candidate genes. The correlation between the expression obtained by real time PCR and the presence of the <it>KRAS </it>mutation was investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We detected significant previously undescribed underexpression in CRC for genes <it>SLC26A3</it>, <it>TPM1 </it>and <it>DCN</it>, with a suggested tumour suppressor role. We also describe the correlation between <it>TPM1 </it>and <it>DCN </it>expression and the presence of <it>KRAS </it>mutations in CRC. When searching for chromosomal abnormalities, we found deletion of the <it>TPM1 </it>gene in one case of CRC, but no deletions of <it>DCN </it>and <it>SLC26A3 </it>were found.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study provides further evidence of decreased mRNA expression of three important tumour suppressor genes in cases of CRC, thus implicating them in the development of this type of cancer. Moreover, we found underexpression of the <it>TPM1 </it>gene in a case of CRCs without <it>KRAS </it>mutations, showing that <it>TPM1 </it>might serve as an alternative path of development of CRC. This downregulation could in some cases be mediated by deletion of the <it>TPM1 </it>gene. On the other hand, the correlation of <it>DCN </it>underexpression with the presence of <it>KRAS </it>mutations suggests that <it>DCN </it>expression is affected by the presence of activating <it>KRAS </it>mutations, lowering the amount of the important tumour suppressor protein decorin.</p

Comparative Analysis of Dengue and Zika Outbreaks Reveals Differences by Setting and Virus.

The pacific islands of Micronesia have experienced several outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases over the past decade. In outbreaks on small islands, the susceptible population is usually well defined, and there is no co-circulation of pathogens. Because of this, analysing such outbreaks can be useful for understanding the transmission dynamics of the pathogens involved, and particularly so for yet understudied pathogens such as Zika virus. Here, we compared three outbreaks of dengue and Zika virus in two different island settings in Micronesia, the Yap Main Islands and Fais, using a mathematical model of transmission dynamics and making full use of commonalities in disease and setting between the outbreaks. We found that the estimated reproduction numbers for Zika and dengue were similar when considered in the same setting, but that, conversely, reproduction number for the same disease can vary considerably by setting. On the Yap Main Islands, we estimated a reproduction number of 8.0-16 (95% Credible Interval (CI)) for the dengue outbreak and 4.8-14 (95% CI) for the Zika outbreak, whereas for the dengue outbreak on Fais our estimate was 28-102 (95% CI). We further found that the proportion of cases of Zika reported was smaller (95% CI 1.4%-1.9%) than that of dengue (95% CI: 47%-61%). We confirmed these results in extensive sensitivity analysis. They suggest that models for dengue transmission can be useful for estimating the predicted dynamics of Zika transmission, but care must be taken when extrapolating findings from one setting to another

Differential cell line susceptibility to the emerging Zika virus: implications for disease pathogenesis, non-vector-borne human transmission and animal reservoirs

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