Procalcitonin, but not D-dimer, is an Inapplicable Biomarker for Severe COVID-19

Pro-calcitonin and D-dimer are among predictive biomarkers for the severity and mortality of COVID-19. The application of these parameters in the clinical setting of Indonesian hospitals is less documented. This study aims to evaluate the association between procalcitonin and D-dimer with COVID-19. This research is part of a retrospective study evaluating 249 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Bandung, Indonesia. Patients who were positive for procalcitonin or D-dimer were selected. Clinical data of age, sex, comorbid condition, peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), and death were assessed. There were 39 and 28 patients tested for procalcitonin and D-dimer respectively. The level of procalcitonin was not associate with the severity of COVID-19 (p=0.442), death (p=0.506), comorbid condition (p=0.601) or the use of the antibiotics. However, the level of D-dimer in patients with severe COVID-19 was significantly higher than those with non-severe COVID-19 (p=0.0468). Our study shows that procalcitonin levels are not associated with COVID-19. However, D-dimer is associated with the severity of COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19, D-dimer, procalcitonin, severit

In vitro culture of Piper attenuatum Ham. (Piperaceae): Callus induction and plant regeneration

Callus induction and plant regeneration of Piper attenuatum was achieved from stem explants in Murashige and Skoog and Gamborg's basal media supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, Kinetin, benzyladenine and palmyarh (Borassus flabelliferl endosperm extract. Root induction was obtained from stem explants in Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with a-naphthaleneacetic acid, b-naphthoxyacetic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, benzyladenine, kinetin and coconut water. Shoot development was achieved in in vitro rooted stem segments planted in Murashige and Skoog's medium supplemented with indole-3-acetic acid, benzyladenine and also in indole-3-acetic acid and kinetin. The plantlets were successfully established in soil. This is the first report of in vitro culture of P. attenuatum. &nbsp

The opportunity of magnetic induction tomography modality in breast cancer detection

The needs for non-invasive technique in breast cancer detection could enhance and preserve the future of medical field in Malaysia as well as countries around the world. Breast cancer has become the main concern nowadays not only for women but for man as well. In overall, the risk of women getting breast cancer is higher than man due to the denser tissue of breast in women compare to man. Beside the unawareness for the disease, the reason which contributes to this increasing number of breast cancer reported is also due to the limitations arising from modalities such as MRI, Mammography, ultrasound and other modalities. An alternative to current technologies should be improved for early detection and treatment which causes no physical harm to patients if possible. Thus, non-invasive and better technology in detecting breast cancer is very much needed in the current market. This paper will be discussing the insights of Magnetic Induction Tomography techniques in breast cancer detection

Innovative procurement adoption for Industrialised Building System (IBS) projects

Industrialised Building System [IBS] is a new method that used prefabrication components in building construction as an alternative towards enhancing construction performance. The Construction Industry Development Board [CIDB] embraced the IBS method to enhance productivity and building quality, reduce wastage on site, increase occupational safety and health, and reduce overall cost of construction. Currently, most of the IBS project developments in Malaysia are still adopting traditional procurement system. How-ever, traditional procurement system has been criticised for its fragmented procedure to project delivery in terms of integration and collaboration of the project team. As a result of that problem, a number of issues have recently arisen such as reworks, time delay, rising costs, lack of communication and coordination, and wastages. The purpose of this research is to identify challenges of the current procurement system and to investigate the possibilities of implementing innovative type of procurement method for IBS im-plementation. A deductive research approach was adopted. Reviewing relevant literature before embarking into any academic re-search project is one way of exploring a known theory in a holistic manner. It also appears to be one of an essential feature to create a firm foundation for the research. Based on extensive literature reviews; this paper describes what are initiatives that have been taken from developed nations which are known as earlier IBS adopters and through the findings these experiences may shed some light on the type of procurement that have been adopted. This study was conducted among Grade 7 IBS contractors in Malaysia to gain further clarification on the immensity of the issues as well as assessing the research instrument. The findings from this study reveal that financial matters, lack of early involvement, lack of integration and coordination, knowledge and understanding, role and responsibility, risk liability, communication and information, attitude and relationship matters are challenges embedded in the existing procurement approach in adopting IBS. Suggestion on how innovative type of procurement method such as Separation of IBS from Main Contract, Partnering and Integrated Project Delivery [IPD] will be able to minimise the fragmentation gaps will be concluded

Human Protein Reference Database—2009 update

Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD—http://www.hprd.org/), initially described in 2003, is a database of curated proteomic information pertaining to human proteins. We have recently added a number of new features in HPRD. These include PhosphoMotif Finder, which allows users to find the presence of over 320 experimentally verified phosphorylation motifs in proteins of interest. Another new feature is a protein distributed annotation system—Human Proteinpedia (http://www.humanproteinpedia.org/)—through which laboratories can submit their data, which is mapped onto protein entries in HPRD. Over 75 laboratories involved in proteomics research have already participated in this effort by submitting data for over 15 000 human proteins. The submitted data includes mass spectrometry and protein microarray-derived data, among other data types. Finally, HPRD is also linked to a compendium of human signaling pathways developed by our group, NetPath (http://www.netpath.org/), which currently contains annotations for several cancer and immune signaling pathways. Since the last update, more than 5500 new protein sequences have been added, making HPRD a comprehensive resource for studying the human proteome

A comprehensive manually curated reaction map of RANKL/RANK-signaling pathway

Receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) is a member of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily that plays a key role in the regulation of differentiation, activation and survival of osteoclasts and also in tumor cell migration and bone metastasis. Osteoclast activation induced by RANKL regulates hematopoietic stem cell mobilization as part of homeostasis and host defense mechanisms thereby linking regulation of hematopoiesis with bone remodeling. Binding of RANKL to its receptor, Receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B (RANK) activates molecules such as NF-kappa B, mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) and phosphatidyl 3-kinase (PI3K). Although the molecular and cellular roles of these molecules have been reported previously, a systematic cataloging of the molecular events induced by RANKL/RANK interaction has not been attempted. Here, we present a comprehensive reaction map of the RANKL/RANK-signaling pathway based on an extensive manual curation of the published literature. We hope that the curated RANKL/RANK-signaling pathway model would enable new biomedical discoveries, which can provide novel insights into disease processes and development of novel therapeutic interventions

THE GENUS PIPER LINN. IN KARNATAKA INDIA

Volume: 84Start Page: 66End Page: 8

Using Neural Network Classifier Support Vector Machine Regression for the prediction of Melting Point of Drug – like compounds

In our study we use a kernel based classification technique, Support Vector Machine Regression for predicting the Melting Point of Drug – like compounds in terms of Topological Descriptors, Topological Charge Indices, Connectivity Indices and 2D Auto Correlations. The Machine Learning model was designed, trained and tested using a dataset of 100 compounds and it was found that an SVMReg model with RBF Kernel could predict the Melting Point with a mean absolute error 15.5854 and Root Mean Squared Error 19.7576Cochin University of Science & TechnologyPROCEEDINGS OF ICETECT 201