Analyzing the Environmental Impacts and Potential Health Challenges Resulting From Artisanal Gold Mining in Shango Area of Minna, North-Central, Nigeria

The environmental impact and potential health challenges resulting from artisanal mining in Shango area of Minna, North Central Nigeria was put into perspective. The methodology adopted for the research includes field work and laboratory analysis. Results of field observation reveal that mining activity resulted in physical environmental impact such as land degradation, destruction of vegetation, erosion of soils and degrading water quality. Results from the laboratory analyses show that soils are contaminated with elements such as Cu (27.7ppm), Cd (0.6 ppm), Hg (0.62 ppm) and Ag (0.35 ppm) and generally show high status when compared to published standard for upper continental crust. While, Zn (14.8ppm), Ni (7.17ppm), Mn (207ppm), Pb (0.58ppm), As (0.4ppm), Co (0.55ppm), Mo (0.16ppm), and Zr (129.8ppm) are rated low in line with the published standard; other determined elements such as Cr (37.8ppm), Fe (31.1ppm) and Au (0.2ppm) are high. These elements can easily be absorbed by plants and subsequently accumulate in their tissues. When such plants are eventually eaten by man, it may lead to different health problems such as slow growth rate, liver and kidney problem. High concentration of these elements in plant tissues may causes different problems

Classification supporting COVID-19 diagnostics based on patient survey data

Distinguishing COVID-19 from other flu-like illnesses can be difficult due to ambiguous symptoms and still an initial experience of doctors. Whereas, it is crucial to filter out those sick patients who do not need to be tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in the event of the overwhelming increase in disease. As a part of the presented research, logistic regression and XGBoost classifiers, that allow for effective screening of patients for COVID-19, were generated. Each of the methods was tuned to achieve an assumed acceptable threshold of negative predictive values during classification. Additionally, an explanation of the obtained classification models was presented. The explanation enables the users to understand what was the basis of the decision made by the model. The obtained classification models provided the basis for the DECODE service (decode.polsl.pl), which can serve as support in screening patients with COVID-19 disease. Moreover, the data set constituting the basis for the analyses performed is made available to the research community. This data set consisting of more than 3,000 examples is based on questionnaires collected at a hospital in Poland.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figure

Loss of smell and taste can accurately predict COVID-19 infection: a machine-learning approach

The COVID-19 outbreak has spread extensively around the world. Loss of smell and taste have emerged as main predictors for COVID-19. The objective of our study is to develop a comprehensive machine learning (ML) modelling framework to assess the predictive value of smell and taste disorders, along with other symptoms, in COVID-19 infection. A multicenter case-control study was performed, in which suspected cases for COVID-19, who were tested by real-time reversetranscription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), informed about the presence and severity of their symptoms using visual analog scales (VAS). ML algorithms were applied to the collected data to predict a COVID-19 diagnosis using a 50-fold cross-validation scheme by randomly splitting the patients in training (75%) and testing datasets (25%). A total of 777 patients were included. Loss of smell and taste were found to be the symptoms with higher odds ratios of 6.21 and 2.42 for COVID-19 positivity. The ML algorithms applied reached an average accuracy of 80%, a sensitivity of 82%, and a specificity of 78% when using VAS to predict a COVID-19 diagnosis. This study concludes that smell and taste disorders are accurate predictors, with ML algorithms constituting helpful tools for COVID-19 diagnostic prediction.Junta de Andalucí

Metabolic dyshomeostasis induced by SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins reveals immunological insights into viral olfactory interactions

One of the most common symptoms in COVID-19 is a sudden loss of smell. SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in the olfactory bulb (OB) from animal models and sporadically in COVID-19 patients. To decipher the specific role over the SARS-CoV-2 proteome at olfactory level, we characterized the in-depth molecular imbalance induced by the expression of GFP-tagged SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins (M, N, E, S) on mouse OB cells. Transcriptomic and proteomic trajectories uncovered a widespread metabolic remodeling commonly converging in extracellular matrix organization, lipid metabolism and signaling by receptor tyrosine kinases. The molecular singularities and specific interactome expression modules were also characterized for each viral structural factor. The intracellular molecular imbalance induced by each SARS-CoV-2 structural protein was accompanied by differential activation dynamics in survival and immunological routes in parallel with a differentiated secretion profile of chemokines in OB cells. Machine learning through a proteotranscriptomic data integration uncovered TGF-beta signaling as a confluent activation node by the SARS-CoV-2 structural proteome. Taken together, these data provide important avenues for understanding the multifunctional immunomodulatory properties of SARS-CoV-2 M, N, S and E proteins beyond their intrinsic role in virion formation, deciphering mechanistic clues to the olfactory inflammation observed in COVID-19 patients.This work was funded by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Ref. PID2019-110356RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) to JF-I. and ES), the Department of Economic and Business Development from Government of Navarra (Ref. 0011-1411-2020-000028 to ES), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)-FEDER project grants (Ref. FIS PI17/02119, FIS PI20/00010; COV20-00237 to DE), the Department of Health of the Government of Navarre (Ref: BMED 050-2019 to DE) and the European Project Horizon 2020 (ref: ID: 848166; Improved vaccination for older adults-ISOLDA to DE)

A Perspective: Integrating Dental and Medical Research Improves Overall Health

The past decade has seen marked increases in research findings identifying oral-systemic links. Yet, much of dental research remains poorly integrated with mainstream biomedical research. The historic separation of dentistry from medicine has led to siloed approaches in education, research and practice, ultimately depriving patients, providers, and policy makers of findings that could benefit overall health and well-being. These omissions amount to lost opportunities for risk assessment, diagnosis, early intervention and prevention of disease, increasing cost and contributing to a fragmented and inefficient healthcare delivery system. This perspective provides examples where fostering interprofessional research collaborations has advanced scientific understanding and yielded clinical benefits. In contrast are examples where failure to include dental research findings has limited progress and led to adverse health outcomes. The impetus to overcome the dental-medical research divide gains further urgency today in light of the coronavirus pandemic where contributions that dental research can make to understanding the pathophysiology of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and in diagnosing and preventing infection are described. Eliminating the research divide will require collaborative and trans-disciplinary research to ensure incorporation of dental research findings in broad areas of biomedical research. Enhanced communication, including interoperable dental/medical electronic health records and educational efforts will be needed so that the public, health care providers, researchers, professional schools, organizations, and policymakers can fully utilize oral health scientific information to meet the overall health needs of the public

En quête des chefs de dépôt, au temps des compagnies

Cet article aborde un objet négligé de l’histoire sociale des chemins de fer à l’époque des compagnies : la figure du chef de dépôt (dont les fonctions varient considérablement d’un dépôt à un autre). Avant de présenter et d’étudier un certain nombre de sources, l’auteur présente l’enjeu du recrutement des responsables de la Traction et du Matériel en évoquant, derrière les apparences maintenues d’un large recrutement « sur le tas », la rivalité prépondérante entre ingénieurs d’État et ingénieurs civils, les premiers accaparant les plus hauts postes des compagnies dès le milieu du XIXe siècle. Une approche sociologique des chefs de dépôts est ensuite esquissée à partir de la source constituée par les annuaires professionnels. Cette analyse synchronique montre clairement la domination des anciens élèves des Arts et Métiers (Gadz’arts) parmi les chefs de dépôt diplômés, tous réseaux confondus. Cette prépondérance est alors interrogée grâce aux premiers annuaires d’anciens élèves de l’école, qui révèlent des parcours contrastés (au sein d’une même compagnie ou non). Particulièrement forte au PLM, la place des gadz’arts à la Traction et au Matériel témoigne de compétences techniques et humaines reconnues par les compagnies au sein desquelles des carrières, dures mais parfois brillantes, sont même « balisées » en fonction du rang de sortie de l’école. Enfin, l’article présente une source originale permettant d’envisager une approche longitudinale des carrières ferroviaires des diplômés des écoles à la Traction du réseau Est, parfois jusqu’au rang d’ingénieur. Appelant à une poursuite de l’enquête, l’auteur conclut sur l’intérêt d’affiner notre connaissance des trajectoires professionnelles au sein du Matériel ou de la Traction en recourant notamment aux dossiers personnels conservés au centre d’archives SNCF de Béziers.This article addresses a neglected topic in the social history of the railways at the time of the companies, the figure of the head of depot (whose functions vary considerably from one depot to another). Before presenting and investigate a number of sources, the author introduces the issue of the recruitment of Traction and Equipment officials, pointing – behind maintained appearances of a large recruitment "on the job" – the predominant rivalry between State engineers and civil engineers, the first grabbing the highest positions of the companies from the mid-19th Century. An initial sociological approach of Heads of depots is then sketched from the source constituted by professional directories. This synchronic analysis clearly shows the dominance of former students of the Arts et Métiers school (Gadz’Arts) among the graduates, in all networks. This balance is then questionned thanks to the first alumni directories of the school, which reveal contrasted careers within a same company or not. Particularly strong for PLM, the positions of the Gadz’Arts in the Traction and Equipment demonstrate technical and human skills recognized by the companies in which careers, hard but sometimes brilliant, are even "marked" according to the rank of graduation. Finally, the paper presents an original source to consider a longitudinal approach to the rail careers of graduates of the schools in the Traction of the Réseau Est, sometimes to the rank of engineer. Calling for a continuation of the investigation, the article concludes on the interest to refine our knowledge of career trajectories within the Equipement or Traction, including through personal records kept at the SNCF Archival Centre of Béziers