Analysis of the Effects of H328N Mutation on Beta-Glucosidase B Catalytic Efficiency and Thermostability

This research project is a contribution to the Design2Data (D2D) database. Based at UC Davis, D2D is a nationwide project with the goal of teaching an AI system to predict protein function based on structure using data from hundreds of b-Glucosidase B (BglB) mutants. We analyzed the histidine to asparagine mutation at position 328 through kinetic and thermostability assays, as well as SDS-PAGE and Western blotting to assess purity. Preliminary modeling using Rosetta software suggests the H328N BglB mutant will have little difference when compared to the wild-type enzyme

The impact of gender on difficulty of classical open cholecystectomy

Background: Cholecystectomy demands attention, and expectation of abnormal anatomy in the veins, arteries or ducts. Prediction of difficult cholecystectomy does not only helpin patient counseling but also helps the surgeon to prepare better for the technical difficulties that may be encountered1-3.The aim: To find out whether there is impact of gender on the difficulty of surgery during open cholecystectomy.Patients and methods: This is a prospective hospital based study. Patients who presented to Ibn Sina Hospital for open cholecystectomy during the period from April 2011 to April 2012 were included in this study. Special emphasis was put on gender, the operative time, difficulty of surgeryand complications of open cholecystectomy. A pre-tested questionnaire was filled during interview of patients and operating surgeons.Results: A total 327 operations were included in the study. Of them there were 34(64.2%) males and 99(36.1%) females presented early i.e. after the first diagnosis was made. The mean operative time was 44.6 min for males and 43.57 min for females. Difficult surgery was described in 6(11.3%) of male and 23(8.4%) females.Conclusion: There was no significant statistical difference in the operative time, difficulty of operation and complication rate between males and females.Key words: Open cholecystectomy, difficulty, gender

Bisindolylmaleimide IX: a Novel Anti-SARS-CoV2 Agent Targeting Viral Main Protease 3CLpro Demonstrated by Virtual Screening Pipeline and In-Vitro Validation Assays

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 consists of several enzymes with essential functions within its proteome. Here, we focused on repurposing approved and investigational drugs/compounds. We targeted seven proteins with enzymatic activities known to be essential at different stages of the viral cycle including PLpro, 3CLpro, RdRP, Helicase, ExoN, NendoU, and 2′-O-MT. For virtual screening, energy minimization of a crystal structure of the modeled protein was carried out using the Protein Preparation Wizard (Schrodinger LLC 2020-1). Following active site selection based on data mining and COACH predictions, we performed a high-throughput virtual screen of drugs and investigational molecules (n = 5903). The screening was performed against viral targets using three sequential docking modes (i.e., HTVS, SP, and XP). Virtual screening identified ∼290 potential inhibitors based on the criteria of energy, docking parameters, ligand, and binding site strain and score. Drugs specific to each target protein were further analyzed for binding free energy perturbation by molecular mechanics (prime MM-GBSA) and pruning the hits to the top 32 candidates. The top lead from each target pool was further subjected to molecular dynamics simulation using the Desmond module. The resulting top eight hits were tested for their SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral activity in-vitro. Among these, a known inhibitor of protein kinase C isoforms, Bisindolylmaleimide IX (BIM IX), was found to be a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2. Further, target validation through enzymatic assays confirmed 3CLpro to be the target. This is the first study that has showcased BIM IX as a COVID-19 inhibitor thereby validating our pipeline

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Random Forest Algorithm for the Strength Prediction of Geopolymer Stabilized Clayey Soil

Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) can be used to assess the applicability of geopolymer binders as ecologically friendly materials for geotechnical projects. Furthermore, soft computing technologies are necessary since experimental research is often challenging, expensive, and time-consuming. This article discusses the feasibility and the performance required to predict UCS using a Random Forest (RF) algorithm. The alkali activator studied was sodium hydroxide solution, and the considered geopolymer source material was ground-granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash. A database with 283 clayey soil samples stabilized with geopolymer was considered to determine the UCS. The database was split into two sections for the development of the RF model: the training data set (80%) and the testing data set (20%). Several measures, including coefficient of determination (R), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE), were used to assess the effectiveness of the RF model. The statistical findings of this study demonstrated that the RF is a reliable model for predicting the UCS value of geopolymer-stabilized clayey soil. Furthermore, based on the obtained values of RMSE = 0.9815 and R2 = 0.9757 for the testing set, respectively, the RF approach showed to provide excellent results for predicting unknown data within the ranges of examined parameters. Finally, the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis was implemented to identify the most influential inputs and to quantify their behavior of input variables on the UCS

A Systematic Literature Review of Enabling IoT in Healthcare: Motivations, Challenges, and Recommendations

Internet of things (IoT) has revolutionized how we utilize technology over the past decade. IoT’s rapid growth affects several fields, including the healthcare sector. As a result, the concept of smart healthcare or electronic healthcare (e-healthcare) has emerged. Smart healthcare promises to enhance people’s lives and wellbeing by monitoring them, offering an efficient connection, improving mobility, gathering medical data, and decreasing hospital and patient costs. IoT in healthcare is still one of the hot and trendy topics that needs in-depth investigation. No recent review has been conducted to elucidate the extent of research in the area, features of published papers, motives, and challenges in enabling IoT in healthcare systems. This study presents a comprehensive systematic review of the screened articles published between 2015 and 2022 pertaining to enabling IoT in healthcare services and applications. A total of 106 papers fulfilled the final inclusion criteria and were analyzed using systematic literature review (SLR). Two procedures were used to review the final articles: First, publications are examined in terms of study designs, publishing journals, and topics/study objectives. In the second approach, motives, challenges, and recommendations for enabling IoT in healthcare systems are explored. This article summarizes published studies on IoT in healthcare systems and its usage in smart healthcare service delivery. Based on the reviewed studies, recommendations for future research to enable the effective application of IoT in healthcare and service delivery are proposed

A Systematic Literature Review of Enabling IoT in Healthcare: Motivations, Challenges, and Recommendations

Internet of things (IoT) has revolutionized how we utilize technology over the past decade. IoT’s rapid growth affects several fields, including the healthcare sector. As a result, the concept of smart healthcare or electronic healthcare (e-healthcare) has emerged. Smart healthcare promises to enhance people’s lives and wellbeing by monitoring them, offering an efficient connection, improving mobility, gathering medical data, and decreasing hospital and patient costs. IoT in healthcare is still one of the hot and trendy topics that needs in-depth investigation. No recent review has been conducted to elucidate the extent of research in the area, features of published papers, motives, and challenges in enabling IoT in healthcare systems. This study presents a comprehensive systematic review of the screened articles published between 2015 and 2022 pertaining to enabling IoT in healthcare services and applications. A total of 106 papers fulfilled the final inclusion criteria and were analyzed using systematic literature review (SLR). Two procedures were used to review the final articles: First, publications are examined in terms of study designs, publishing journals, and topics/study objectives. In the second approach, motives, challenges, and recommendations for enabling IoT in healthcare systems are explored. This article summarizes published studies on IoT in healthcare systems and its usage in smart healthcare service delivery. Based on the reviewed studies, recommendations for future research to enable the effective application of IoT in healthcare and service delivery are proposed

Proceedings of First Conference for Engineering Sciences and Technology: Vol. 2

This volume contains contributed articles of Track 4, Track 5 & Track 6, presented in the conference CEST-2018, organized by Faculty of Engineering Garaboulli, and Faculty of Engineering, Al-khoms, Elmergib University (Libya) on 25-27 September 2018. Track 4: Industrial, Structural Technologies and Science Material Track 5: Engineering Systems and Sustainable Development Track 6: Engineering Management Other articles of Track 1, 2 & 3 have been published in volume 1 of the proceedings at this lin