Privacy in a time of Covid-19: how concerned are you?

We introduce a study examining people’s privacy concerns in a time of Covid-19 and we reflect on people’s willingness to share their personal data in the interest of controlling the spread of the virus and save lives

Public attitudes towards privacy in COVID-19 times in the Republic of Ireland: a pilot study

This research focuses on designing methods aimed at assessing Irish public attitudes regarding privacy in COVID-19 times and their influence on the adoption of COVID-19 spread control technology such as the COVID tracker app. The success of such technologies is dependent on their adoption rate and privacy concerns may be a factor delaying or preventing thus adoption. An online questionnaire was built to collect: demographic data, participant's general privacy profile using the Privacy Segmentation Index (PSI) which classifies individuals into 3 groups (privacy fundamentalists, pragmatists, and unconcerned), and the attitudes toward privacy in COVID-19 times. The questionnaire was shared via websites and social networks. The data was collected between 27/08/2020 to 27/9/2020. We received and analysed 258 responses. The initial pilot study found that almost 73% of the respondents were pragmatists or unconcerned about privacy when it came to sharing their private data. Comparable results were obtained with other privacy studies that have employed PSI. The pilot indicates a huge increase, from 12% pre-pandemic to 61% during the pandemic, of people willing to share their data. The questionnaire developed following this study is further used in a national survey on privacy in COVID-19 times

Histoplasmosis in Sri Lanka - a masquerader in a strange land: A Case Report

We present a patient with an oral mucosal ulcer who was diagnosed with disseminated histoplasmosis. This fungal infection is endemic in the United States, and thus may be not considered in the differential diagnosis of oral ulcers in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, it may mimic many common diseases found in Sri Lanka. It is therefore important to be aware of this entity, since it is potentially curable if diagnosed and treated early.</p

Sepsis with cerebral lupus…. or is it? A case report on Cryptococcaemia

We present a patient with SLE, with multiple comorbidities, whose blood cultures yielded Cryptococcus neoformans. Blood cultures became positive only after twelve days of hospital admission. The patient died within two days of starting Amphotericin B. Cryptococci are an important cause of infection in SLE. Only about 10% to 30% of those with cryptococcal disease have the organism isolated by blood cultures. Due to its non-specific clinical presentation, cryptococcal infection in SLE can be misdiagnosed as psychosis due to steroids, cerebral lupus and infections due to other non-fungal pathogens. This may lead to inappropriate therapy and delays in administration of antifungal agents. Therefore, cryptococcal infection should be considered when SLE patients present with sepsis irrespective of the presence of features of meningis

Frequency of natural out-crossing in partially cleistogamous pigeonpea lines in diverse environments

Natural out-crossing is the major cause of loss of varietal purity in pegeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]. The frequency of natural out-crossing of partially cleistogamous mutant lines, characterized by a modified keel and filamentous anthers, was studied at two locations in Sri Lanka and three locations in India. Indeterminate growth habit and normal floral morphology were used as dominant markers and the frequency of anural out-crossing was estimated as percentage of the observed hybrid plants. Natural out-crossing in the mutant lines in Sri Lanka ranged from 0.14 to 1.33% in comparison to 6.34 to 19.64% in the controls. In the Indian environments, natural outcrossing ranged from 0.16 to 2.67%. The mutant was higly stable over diverse environments, and may be of considerable economic importance in pigeonpea improvement and seed-production programs

Primary coronary artery bypass surgery in the presence of decreasing preoperative renal function: effect on short-term outcomes

Background: This study evaluated the impact of decreasing renal function on short-term outcomes in patients undergoing primary coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods: The study period was from February 1999 to February 2009. Data on 4050 patients undergoing primary CABG were prospectively collected and analyzed retrospectively. The study population was divided into 3 groups: the CABG:N group, patients with preoperative serum creatinine levels 2 mg/dL (n = 87); and the CABG:D group, patients on dialysis (n = 16). Results: The significant differences between the groups (CABG:D > CABG:RF > CABG:N) in short-term outcomes were with respect to blood product use (P < .001), postoperative acute myocardial infarction (P < .001), pulmonary complications (P .001), infection (P < .001), and death (P < .001). The risk of short-term death (30 days) in the CABG:D group (4/16, 25%) was 25 times greater than that in the CABG:N group (38/3947, 0.96%). Conclusion: CABG in the presence of renal failure is associated with significant morbidity and mortality

Does ligament balancing technique affect kinematics in rotating platform, PCL retaining knee arthroplasties?: A prospective randomized study

The goal of this prospective, randomized, blinded trial was to determine if ligament balancing techniques for rotating platform TKA affect postoperative knee kinematics. Sixteen patients with unilateral rotating platform TKA consented to participate in this institutional review board approved study. Eight patients were randomly selected to receive ligament balancing with an instrumented joint spreader device and eight patients received ligament balancing using fixed thickness spacer blocks. A single plane shape matching technique was used for kinematic analysis of static deep knee flexion and dynamic stair activities. There were no differences in knee kinematics between groups during static deep flexion activities. The spreader group demonstrated kinematics more similar to the normal knee during the ascending phase of the dynamic stair activity. Knee kinematics in static knee flexion were unaffected by ligament balancing technique, while knees balanced with the spreader demonstrated a medial pivot motion pattern during stair ascent. This medial pivot motion pattern may improve long-term results by more closely replicating normal knee kinematics

A multiorganism pipeline for antiseizure drug discovery:Identification of chlorothymol as a novel γ-aminobutyric acidergic anticonvulsant

OBJECTIVE:Current medicines are ineffective in approximately one-third of people with epilepsy. Therefore, new antiseizure drugs are urgently needed to address this problem of pharmacoresistance. However, traditional rodent seizure and epilepsy models are poorly suited to high-throughput compound screening. Furthermore, testing in a single species increases the chance that therapeutic compounds act on molecular targets that may not be conserved in humans. To address these issues, we developed a pipeline approach using four different organisms. METHODS:We sequentially employed compound library screening in the zebrafish, Danio rerio, chemical genetics in the worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, electrophysiological analysis in mouse and human brain slices, and preclinical validation in mouse seizure models to identify novel antiseizure drugs and their molecular mechanism of action. RESULTS:Initially, a library of 1690 compounds was screened in an acute pentylenetetrazol seizure model using D rerio. From this screen, the compound chlorothymol was identified as an effective anticonvulsant not only in fish, but also in worms. A subsequent genetic screen in C elegans revealed the molecular target of chlorothymol to be LGC-37, a worm γ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA ) receptor subunit. This GABAergic effect was confirmed using in vitro brain slice preparations from both mice and humans, as chlorothymol was shown to enhance tonic and phasic inhibition and this action was reversed by the GABAA receptor antagonist, bicuculline. Finally, chlorothymol exhibited in vivo anticonvulsant efficacy in several mouse seizure assays, including the 6-Hz 44-mA model of pharmacoresistant seizures. SIGNIFICANCE:These findings establish a multiorganism approach that can identify compounds with evolutionarily conserved molecular targets and translational potential, and so may be useful in drug discovery for epilepsy and possibly other conditions