Programmed cell death and apoptosis — where it came from and where it is going: From Elie Metchnikoff to the control of caspases

The story of cell death began with the origins of cell biology, including important observations by Elie (Ilya) Metchnikoff, who realized that phagocytes engulfed dying cells. Most of the early studies were observational. By the middle of the 20th C, researchers were beginning to explore how cells died, had recognized that cell death was a physiologically controlled process, that the most common mode of death (“shrinkage necrosis”, later apoptosis) was tightly controlled, and were speculating whether lysosomes were “suicide bags”. Just prior to 1990 several discoveries led to rapid expansion of interest in the field and elucidation of the mechanisms of apoptosis. Closer to the beginning of the 21st C comprehensive analysis of the molecules that controlled and effected apoptosis led to the conclusion that autophagic processes were linked to apoptosis and could serve to limit or increase cell death. Today, realizing that knowledge of the components of cell death has not yet produced pharmaceuticals of therapeutic value, research is turning to questions of what metabolic or other mechanisms indirectly control the activation or suppression of the cell death positive feedback loop. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Apoptosis: Four Decades Later”

What’s in Toronto’s drug supply? Results from samples checked by Toronto’s drug checking service October 10, 2019 - March 31, 2020.

On 22 August 2018 amendments to the Northern Territory Liquor Act 1978 (the Act) were passed in the NT Legislative Assembly, introducing a minimum alcohol unit price MUP, commonly referred to as a minimum floor price. On 1 October 2018 the MUP was set at $1.30 per standard drink contained in the alcohol product, where the meaning of 'a standard drink is the volume of a liquor product that contains 10g of ethyl alcohol when measured at 20°C'. The legislative amendment prohibits selling alcohol below the price of$1.30 per standard drink (as compared to the $1.50 recommended by the Riley Review), and imposes the minimum price as an automatic condition of a liquor licence

Large-scale demonstration of machine learning for the detection of volcanic deformation in Sentinel-1 satellite imagery

Radar (SAR) satellites systematically acquire imagery that can be used for volcano monitoring, characterising magmatic systems and potentially forecasting eruptions on a global scale. However, exploiting the large dataset is limited by the need for manual inspection, meaning timely dissemination of information is challenging. Here we automatically process ~ 600,000 images of > 1000 volcanoes acquired by the Sentinel-1 satellite in a 5-year period (2015–2020) and use the dataset to demonstrate the applicability and limitations of machine learning for detecting deformation signals. Of the 16 volcanoes flagged most often, 5 experienced eruptions, 6 showed slow deformation, 2 had non-volcanic deformation and 3 had atmospheric artefacts. The detection threshold for the whole dataset is 5.9 cm, equivalent to a rate of 1.2 cm/year over the 5-year study period. We then use the large testing dataset to explore the effects of atmospheric conditions, land cover and signal characteristics on detectability and find that the performance of the machine learning algorithm is primarily limited by the quality of the available data, with poor coherence and slow signals being particularly challenging. The expanding dataset of systematically acquired, processed and flagged images will enable the quantitative analysis of volcanic monitoring signals on an unprecedented scale, but tailored processing will be needed for routine monitoring applications

BALL - biochemical algorithms library 1.3

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Biochemical Algorithms Library (BALL) is a comprehensive rapid application development framework for structural bioinformatics. It provides an extensive C++ class library of data structures and algorithms for molecular modeling and structural bioinformatics. Using BALL as a programming toolbox does not only allow to greatly reduce application development times but also helps in ensuring stability and correctness by avoiding the error-prone reimplementation of complex algorithms and replacing them with calls into the library that has been well-tested by a large number of developers. In the ten years since its original publication, BALL has seen a substantial increase in functionality and numerous other improvements.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we discuss BALL's current functionality and highlight the key additions and improvements: support for additional file formats, molecular edit-functionality, new molecular mechanics force fields, novel energy minimization techniques, docking algorithms, and support for cheminformatics.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>BALL is available for all major operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and MacOS X. It is available free of charge under the Lesser GNU Public License (LPGL). Parts of the code are distributed under the GNU Public License (GPL). BALL is available as source code and binary packages from the project web site at <url>http://www.ball-project.org</url>. Recently, it has been accepted into the debian project; integration into further distributions is currently pursued.</p

Milk and dairy products: good or bad for human health? An assessment of the totality of scientific evidence

Background: There is scepticism about health effects of dairy products in the public, which is reflected in an increasing intake of plant-based drinks, for example, from soy, rice, almond, or oat. Objective: This review aimed to assess the scientific evidence mainly from meta-analyses of observational studies and randomised controlled trials, on dairy intake and risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, cancer, and all-cause mortality. Results: The most recent evidence suggested that intake of milk and dairy products was associated with reduced risk of childhood obesity. In adults, intake of dairy products was shown to improve body composition and facilitate weight loss during energy restriction. In addition, intake of milk and dairy products was associated with a neutral or reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke. Furthermore, the evidence suggested a beneficial effect of milk and dairy intake on bone mineral density but no association with risk of bone fracture. Among cancers, milk and dairy intake was inversely associated with colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, gastric cancer, and breast cancer, and not associated with risk of pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, or lung cancer,while the evidence for prostate cancer risk was inconsistent.Finally,consumption of milk and dairy products was not associated with all-cause mortality. Calcium-fortified plant-based drinks have been included as an alternative to dairy products in the nutrition recommendations in several countries. However, nutritionally, cow’s milk and plant-based drinks are completely different foods,and an evidence-based conclusion on the health value of the plant-based drinks requires more studies in humans. Conclusion: The totality of available scientific evidence supports that intake of milk and dairy products contribute to meet nutrient recommendations, and may protect against the most prevalent chronic diseases, whereas very few adverse effects have been reported

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

Upstream Supply Chain Visibility and Complexity Effect on Focal Company’s Sustainable Performance: Indian Manufacturers’ Perspective

Understanding supply chain sustainability performance is increasingly important for supply chain researchers and managers. Literature has considered supply chain sustainability and the antecedents of performance from a triple bottom line (economic, social, and environmental) perspective. However, the role of supply chain visibility and product complexity contingency in achieving sustainable supply chain performance has not been explored in depth. To address this gap, this study utilizes a contingent resource-based view theory perspective to understand the role of product complexity in shaping the relationship between upstream supply chain visibility (resources and capabilities) and the social, environmental, and economic performance dimensions. We develop and test a theoretical model using survey data gathered from 312 Indian manufacturing organizations. Our findings indicate that supply chain visibility (SCV) has significant influence on social and environmental performance under the moderation effect of product complexity. Hence, the study makes significant contribution to the extant literature by examining the impact of SCV under moderating effect of product complexity on social performance and environmental performance