Organochlorinated pesticides expedite the enzymatic degradation of DNA

Extracellular DNA in the environment may play important roles in genetic diversity and biological evolution. However, the influence of environmental persistent organic contaminants such as organochlorinated pesticides (e.g., hexachlorocyclohexanes [HCHs]) on the enzymatic degradation of extracellular DNA has not been elucidated. In this study, we observed expedited enzymatic degradation of extracellular DNA in the presence of α-HCH, β-HCH and γ-HCH. The HCH-expedited DNA degradation was not due to increased deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) activity. Our spectroscopic and computational results indicate that HCHs bound to DNA bases (most likely guanine) via Van der Waals forces and halogen bonds. This binding increased the helicity and accumulation of DNA base pairs, leading to a more compact DNA structure that exposed more sites susceptible to DNase I and thus expedited DNA degradation. This study provided insight into the genotoxicity and ecotoxicity of pesticides and improved our understanding of DNA persistence in contaminated environments

Tetra­aqua­tetra­kis{μ3-3,3′-[(E,E)-ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilo­methyl­idyne)]benzene-1,2-diolato}octa­zinc(II) N,N-dimethyl­formamide hexa­solvate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound [Zn8(C16H12N2O4)4(H2O)4]·6C3H7NO, consists of eight ZnII cations, four tetra­valent anionic ligands, L 4− (L 4− = 3,3′-(1E,1′E)-(ethane-1,2-diylbis(azan-1-yl-1-yl­idene))bis­(methan-1-yl-1-yl­idene)dibenzene-1,2-bis­(olate), four coordinated water mol­ecules and six N,N-dimethyl­formamide solvate mol­ecules. The coordination complex comprises an octa­nuclear ZnII unit with its ZnII centers coordinated in two discrete distorted square-pyramidal geometries. Four ZnII atoms each coordinate to two nitro­gen atoms and two phenolate oxygen atoms from an individual L 4− ligand and one coordinated water mol­ecule. The other four ZnII atoms each bind to five phenolate oxygen atoms from three different L 4− ligands. In the crystal structure, the ZnII complex unit, coordinated water mol­ecules and dimethyl­formamide solvate mol­ecules are linked via O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. Mol­ecules are connected by additional inter­molecular O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming an extensive three dimensional framework

Mask-free OVIS: Open-Vocabulary Instance Segmentation without Manual Mask Annotations

Existing instance segmentation models learn task-specific information using manual mask annotations from base (training) categories. These mask annotations require tremendous human effort, limiting the scalability to annotate novel (new) categories. To alleviate this problem, Open-Vocabulary (OV) methods leverage large-scale image-caption pairs and vision-language models to learn novel categories. In summary, an OV method learns task-specific information using strong supervision from base annotations and novel category information using weak supervision from image-captions pairs. This difference between strong and weak supervision leads to overfitting on base categories, resulting in poor generalization towards novel categories. In this work, we overcome this issue by learning both base and novel categories from pseudo-mask annotations generated by the vision-language model in a weakly supervised manner using our proposed Mask-free OVIS pipeline. Our method automatically generates pseudo-mask annotations by leveraging the localization ability of a pre-trained vision-language model for objects present in image-caption pairs. The generated pseudo-mask annotations are then used to supervise an instance segmentation model, freeing the entire pipeline from any labour-expensive instance-level annotations and overfitting. Our extensive experiments show that our method trained with just pseudo-masks significantly improves the mAP scores on the MS-COCO dataset and OpenImages dataset compared to the recent state-of-the-art methods trained with manual masks. Codes and models are provided in https://vibashan.github.io/ovis-web/.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 2023. Project site: https://vibashan.github.io/ovis-web

Baseline CD4 Cell Counts of Newly Diagnosed HIV Cases in China: 2006–2012

Background: Late diagnosis of HIV infection is common. We aim to assess the proportion of newly diagnosed HIV cases receiving timely baseline CD4 count testing and the associated factors in China. Methods: Data were extracted from the Chinese HIV/AIDS Comprehensive Response Information Management System. Adult patients over 15 years old who had been newly diagnosed with HIV infection in China between 2006 and 2012 were identified. The study cohort comprised individuals who had a measured baseline CD4 count. Results: Among 388,496 newly identified HIV cases, the median baseline CD4 count was 294 cells/µl (IQR: 130–454), and over half (N = 130,442, 58.8%) were less than 350 cells/µl. The median baseline CD4 count increased from 221 (IQR: 63–410) in 2006 to 314 (IQR: 159–460) in 2012. A slight majority of patients (N = 221,980, 57.1%) received baseline CD4 count testing within 6 months of diagnosis. The proportion of individuals who received timely baseline CD4 count testing increased significantly from 20.0% in 2006 to 76.9% in 2012. Factors associated with failing to receiving timely CD4 count testing were: being male (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.15–1.19), age 55 years or older (OR:1.03, 95% CI: 1.00–1.06), educational attainment of primary school education or below (OR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.28–1.32), infection with HIV through injection drug use (OR: 2.07, 95% CI: 2.02–2.12) or sexual contact and injection drug use (OR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.76–1.99), diagnosis in a hospital (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.88–1.95) or in a detention center (OR: 1.75, 95% CI: 1.70–1.80), and employment as a migrant worker (OR:1.55, 95% CI:1.53–1.58). Conclusion: The proportion of newly identified HIV patients receiving timely baseline CD4 testing has increased significantly in China from 2006–2012. Continued effort is needed for further promotion of early HIV diagnosis and timely baseline CD4 cell count testing

A phylogenetic model for understanding the effect of gene duplication on cancer progression

As biotechnology advances rapidly, a tremendous amount of cancer genetic data has become available, providing an unprecedented opportunity for understanding the genetic mechanisms of cancer. To understand the effects of duplications and deletions on cancer progression, two genomes (normal and tumor) were sequenced from each of five stomach cancer patients in different stages (I, II, III and IV). We developed a phylogenetic model for analyzing stomach cancer data. The model assumes that duplication and deletion occur in accordance with a continuous time Markov Chain along the branches of a phylogenetic tree attached with five extended branches leading to the tumor genomes. Moreover, coalescence times of the phylogenetic tree follow a coalescence process. The simulation study suggests that the maximum likelihood approach can accurately estimate parameters in the phylogenetic model. The phylogenetic model was applied to the stomach cancer data. We found that the expected number of changes (duplication and deletion) per gene for the tumor genomes is significantly higher than that for the normal genomes. The goodness-of-fit test suggests that the phylogenetic model with constant duplication and deletion rates can adequately fit the duplication data for the normal genomes. The analysis found nine duplicated genes that are significantly associated with stomach cancer

Modified Technique of Pancreaticogastrostomy for Soft Pancreas with Two Continuous Hemstitch Sutures: A Single-Center Prospective Study

Postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) remains a persistent problem after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD), especially in the presence of a soft, nonfibrotic pancreas. To reduce the risk of POPF, pancreaticogastrostomy (PG) is an optional reconstruction technique for surgeons after PD. This study presents a new technique of PG for a soft, nonfibrotic pancreas with double-binding continuous hemstitch sutures and evaluates its safety and reliability. From January 2011 to June 2012, 92 cases of patients with periampullary malignancy with a soft pancreas underwent this technique. A modified technique of PG was performed with two continuous hemstitch sutures placed in the mucosal and seromuscular layers of the posterior gastric wall, respectively. Then the morbidity and mortality was calculated. This technique was applied in 92 patients after PD all with soft pancreas. The median time for the anastomosis was 12 min (range, 8–24). Operative mortality was zero, and morbidity was 16.3 % (n = 15), including hemorrhage (n = 2), biliary fistula (n = 2), pulmonary infection (n = 1), delayed gastric emptying (DGE; n = 5, 5.4 %), abdominal abscess (n = 3, one caused by PF), and POPF (n = 2, 2.2 %). Two patients developed a pancreatic fistula (one type A and one type B) classified according to the International Study Group on Pancreatic Fistula. The described technique is a simple and safe reconstruction procedure after PD, especially for patients with a soft and fragile pancreas. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11605-013-2183-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

In-situ electrical and thermal transport properties of FeySe1-xTex films with ionic liquid gating

We combine in-situ electrical transport and Seebeck coefficient measurements with the ionic liquid gating technique to investigate superconductivity and the normal state of FeySe1-xTex (FST) films. We find that the pristine FST films feature a non-Fermi liquid temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient, i.e., S/T ~ AS lnT, and AS is strongly correlated with the superconducting transition temperature (Tc). Ionic liquid gating significantly raises Tc of FST films, for which the Seebeck coefficient displays a novel scaling behavior and retains the logarithmic temperature dependence. Moreover, a quantitative relationship between the slope of T-linear resistivity (A\r{ho}) and Tc for gated films is observed, i.e., (A\r{ho})1/2 ~ Tc, consistent with previous reports on cuprates and FeSe. The scaling behaviors of AS and A\r{ho} point to a spin-fluctuation-associated transport mechanism in gated FeySe1-xTex superconductors.Comment: 12 pages,5 figure

Modifiable lifestyle factors for primary prevention of chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing incidence of CKD, no evidence-based lifestyle recommendations for CKD primary prevention apparently exist. METHODS: To evaluate the consistency of evidence associating modifiable lifestyle factors and CKD incidence, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and references from eligible studies from database inception through June 2019. We included cohort studies of adults without CKD at baseline that reported lifestyle exposures (diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and tobacco smoking). The primary outcome was incident CKD (eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)). Secondary outcomes included other CKD surrogate measures (RRT, GFR decline, and albuminuria). RESULTS: We identified 104 studies of 2,755,719 participants with generally a low risk of bias. Higher dietary potassium intake associated with significantly decreased odds of CKD (odds ratio [OR], 0.78; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.65 to 0.94), as did higher vegetable intake (OR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.90); higher salt intake associated with significantly increased odds of CKD (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.38). Being physically active versus sedentary associated with lower odds of CKD (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.98). Current and former smokers had significantly increased odds of CKD compared with never smokers (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.10 to 1.27). Compared with no consumption, moderate consumption of alcohol associated with reduced risk of CKD (relative risk, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.79 to 0.93). These associations were consistent, but evidence was predominantly of low to very low certainty. Results for secondary outcomes were consistent with the primary finding. CONCLUSIONS: These findings identify modifiable lifestyle factors that consistently predict the incidence of CKD in the community and may inform both public health recommendations and clinical practice