Two Cell-Bound Keratinases of Trichophyton Mentagrophytes

Two cell-bound keratinases, II and III, of Trichophyton mentagrophytes were extracted from mycelium and purified. The purified keratinases, II and III, had a specific keratinolytic activity of 36.4 and 39.4 KU/mg respectively. The molecular weights of keratinases II and III were 440,000 and 20,300 respectively. Immunodiffusion analysis showed that these two cell-bound keratinases, II and III, were not identical to each other nor to extracellular keratinase I of the same species

Reasons for hormonal contraceptive use in a cohort of African-American women living in the Detroit area

Objectives: To characterize reasons for hormonal contraceptive (HC) use in 1,455 African-American women, aged 23–35 years. Study design: The community-based cohort members were recruited from the Detroit, Michigan area in 2010–2012. HC history was collected via telephone interview. Results: Seven percent reported HC use exclusively for non-contraceptive purposes, and 49% reported non-contraceptive reasons in addition to contraception. Non-contraceptive reasons were reported for all HC types, but were most common for combined oral contraceptives. Primary reasons were for irregular cycles, heavy bleeding, and pain. Conclusions: In this large cohort of Black women, HC use to treat menstrual problems was common. Implications: HCs were commonly used for both pregnancy prevention and management of menstrual symptoms, but some women used HCs exclusively for menstrual symptom relief. The importance for women of non-contraceptive reasons for HC use may not be adequately recognized, and published data on Black women's reasons for HC use remain limited

Software tools in medical genetics : a systematic mapping study

Kaupallisten geenitestien tarjonnan kasvu ja kokonaisten genomien sekvensoinnin muuttuminen yhä helpommaksi ja halvemmaksi mahdollistavat geneettisen tiedon hyödyntämisen lääketieteessä. Tästä on paljon hyötyä terveydenhoidossa, mutta siihen liittyy myös haasteita. Haasteita tuovat mm. geeniteknologian tuottamien suurten datamäärien varastointi, jakaminen ja käsittely, geneettisen datan analysointi niin, että oleellinen tieto saadaan selville ja monimutkaisen geneettisen datan tulkitseminen ja visualisointi ymmärrettävässä muodossa. Geneettisen datan suojaaminen on myös yksi suuri haaste lääketieteellisessä genetiikassa. Tehokkaat ja hyvin suunnitellut digitaaliset työkalut voivat auttaa näissä haasteissa, ja uusille työkaluille onkin kasvava tarve, kun lääketieteellinen genetiikka yleistyy. Tässä tutkimuksessa pyrin tekemään systemaattisen kartoituksen lääketieteellisen genetiikan digitaalisista työkaluista ja vastaamaan kysymyksiin siitä, millaisia tutkimuksia aiheesta on, millainen teknologinen fokus niissä on, onko datan suojaamista käsitelty artikkeleissa ja minkä tyyppisissä tieteellisissä lehdissä artikkeleita on julkaistu. Tuloksista selviää, että suurin osa artikkeleista on validointitutkimuksia. Tämä tulos johtuu luultavasti osittain siitä, miten kriteerit artikkelin mukaan ottamiseen on määritetty ja miten kategorisointi on tehty. Suurin osa artikkeleista käsittelee geneettisen datan esikäsittelyä ja analysointia, mikä johtuu luultavasti siitä, että geneettistä dataa on niin monenlaista ja sen analysointi on vaikeaa, jolloin on tarvetta monille erilaisille digitaalisille työkaluille auttamaan siinä. Datan suojaamista ei käsitellä suurimmassa osassa artikkeleita, mutta se johtunee ainakin osittain siitä, että datan suojaamisen ei katsota olevan oleellista kaiken tyyppisissä digitaalisissa työkaluissa. Suurin osa artikkeleista oli julkaistu lehdissä, jotka liittyvät lääketieteelliseen genetiikkaan (genetiikka, lääketiede ja bioinformatiikka) ja julkaisuja ei ollut juurikaan yleisemmin tietotekniikkaa käsittelevissä lehdissä. Tämä johtunee siitä että, lääketieteellisen genetiikan digitaalisia työkaluja käyttävät luultavasti lähinnä alan ammattilaiset, jotka lukevat enemmän genetiikkaan liittyviä julkaisuja kuin yleisesti ohjelmistoihin keskittyviä lehtiä.Rise of commercial gene tests and whole-genome sequencing becoming easier and cheaper brings many benefits to health care, but also challenges. The challenges include storing, sharing and managing huge amounts of data, analyzing genetic data to find rele-vant information, and interpreting and visualizing complex genetic data. The issue of data privacy is also a major concern in medical genetics. Efficient and well-designed software can help with these challenges. In my thesis, I strive to provide a systematic mapping of the literature on medical genetics software and answer questions about what types of re-search approaches and technological focuses there are in scientific articles on the subject, is data privacy addressed in the articles, and what types of journals the articles are published in. The results show that validation is the most common research approach. This result is possibly partly due to the inclusion criteria and categorization approach used. Preprocessing and analysis of genetic data is the most common technological focus in the papers, likely due to genetic data and analysis of it being very complex and requiring dif-ferent kinds of software to help with it. Data privacy is not addressed in most of the papers, which could partly be due to it not deemed an issue in all types of software. Most of the articles were published in journals related to medical genetics, which is probably due to the genetics professionals using the software reading more journals related to their field

Plasma Diagnostics of the Interstellar Medium with Radio Astronomy

Contains fulltext : 119335.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

Surveillance testing for SARS-COV-2 infection in an asymptomatic athlete population: A prospective cohort study with 123 362 tests and 23 463 paired RT-PCR/antigen samples

Objective To assess the diagnostic accuracy of antigen compared with reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR testing in an asymptomatic athlete screening programme and to monitor infection in college athletes. Methods Quidel Sofia-2 SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Tests were performed daily before sports participation for football, basketball, wrestling and water polo from 29 September 2020 to 28 February 2021. Paired RT-PCR and antigen tests were performed at least once a week. Positive antigen tests were confirmed with RT-PCR. Results 81 175 antigen and 42 187 RT-PCR tests were performed, including 23 462 weekly paired antigen/RT-PCR screening tests in 1931 athletes. One hundred and seventy-two athletes had a positive screening RT-PCR (0.4%), of which 83 (48%) occurred on paired testing days. The sensitivity of antigen tests varied with the frequency of RT-PCR testing and prevalence of COVID-19. The sensitivity of antigen testing was 35.7% (95% CI: 17% to 60%) and specificity 99.8% (95% CI: 99.7% to 99.9%) with once-a-week RT-PCR testing after adjusting for school prevalence. Daily antigen testing was similar to RT-PCR testing two to three times a week in identifying infection. Antigen testing identified infection before the next scheduled PCR on 89 occasions and resulted in 234 days where potentially infectious athletes were isolated before they would have been isolated with RT-PCR testing alone. Two athletic-related outbreaks occurred; 86% of total infections were community acquired. Conclusion Antigen testing has high specificity with a short turnaround time but is not as sensitive as RT-PCR. Daily antigen testing or RT-PCR testing two to three times a week is similar. There are benefits and drawbacks to each testing approach. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]