Automated Identification of Acute Hepatitis B Using Electronic Medical Record Data to Facilitate Public Health Surveillance

Automatic identification of notifiable diseases from electronic medical records can potentially improve the timeliness and completeness of public health surveillance. We describe the development and implementation of an algorithm for prospective surveillance of patients with acute hepatitis B using electronic medical record data.Initial algorithms were created by adapting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention diagnostic criteria for acute hepatitis B into electronic terms. The algorithms were tested by applying them to ambulatory electronic medical record data spanning 1990 to May 2006. A physician reviewer classified each case identified as acute or chronic infection. Additional criteria were added to algorithms in serial fashion to improve accuracy. The best algorithm was validated by applying it to prospective electronic medical record data from June 2006 through April 2008. Completeness of case capture was assessed by comparison with state health department records.A final algorithm including a positive hepatitis B specific test, elevated transaminases and bilirubin, absence of prior positive hepatitis B tests, and absence of an ICD9 code for chronic hepatitis B identified 112/113 patients with acute hepatitis B (sensitivity 97.4%, 95% confidence interval 94-100%; specificity 93.8%, 95% confidence interval 87-100%). Application of this algorithm to prospective electronic medical record data identified 8 cases without false positives. These included 4 patients that had not been reported to the health department. There were no known cases of acute hepatitis B missed by the algorithm.An algorithm using codified electronic medical record data can reliably detect acute hepatitis B. The completeness of public health surveillance may be improved by automatically identifying notifiable diseases from electronic medical record data

The Cyprinodon variegatus genome reveals gene expression changes underlying differences in skull morphology among closely related species

Genes in durophage intersection set at 15 dpf. This is a comma separated table of the genes in the 15 dpf durophage intersection set. Given are edgeR results for each pairwise comparison. Columns indicating whether a gene is included in the intersection set at a threshold of 1.5 or 2 fold are provided. (CSV 13 kb

Three-dimensional structure of β-cell-specific zinc transporter, ZnT-8, predicted from the type 2 diabetes-associated gene variant SLC30A8 R325W

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We examined the effects of the R325W mutation on the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the β-cell-specific Zn²⁺(zinc) transporter ZnT-8.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A model of the C-terminal domain of the human ZnT-8 protein was generated by homology modeling based on the known crystal structure of the <it>Escherichia coli </it>(<it>E. coli</it>) zinc transporter YiiP at 3.8 Å resolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The homodimer ZnT-8 protein structure exists as a Y-shaped architecture with Arg325 located at the ultimate bottom of this motif at approximately 13.5 Å from the transmembrane domain juncture. The C-terminal domain sequences of the human ZnT-8 protein and the <it>E. coli </it>zinc transporter YiiP share 12.3% identical and 39.5% homologous residues resulting in an overall homology of 51.8%. Validation statistics of the homology model showed a reasonable quality of the model. The C-terminal domain exhibited an αββαβ fold with Arg325 as the penultimate N-terminal residue of the α2-helix. The side chains of both Arg325 and Trp325 point away from the interface with the other monomer, whereas the ε-NH₃⁺group of Arg325 is predicted to form an ionic interaction with the β-COO^-group of Asp326 as well as Asp295. An amino acid alignment of the β2-α2 C-terminal loop domain revealed a variety of neutral amino acids at position 325 of different ZnT-8 proteins.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our validated homology models predict that both Arg325 and Trp325, amino acids with a helix-forming behavior, and penultimate N-terminal residues in the α2-helix of the C-terminal domain, are shielded by the planar surface of the three cytoplasmic β-strands and hence unable to affect the sensing capacity of the C-terminal domain. Moreover, the amino acid residue at position 325 is too far removed from the docking and transporter parts of ZnT-8 to affect their local protein conformations. These data indicate that the inherited R325W abnormality in SLC30A8 may be tolerated and results in adequate zinc transfer to the correct sites in the pancreatic islet cells and are consistent with the observation that the <it>SLC30A8 </it>gene variant R325W has a low predicted value for future type 2 diabetes at population-based level.</p

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Use of a Generalized Additive Model to Investigate Key Abiotic Factors Affecting Microcystin Cellular Quotas in Heavy Bloom Areas of Lake Taihu

Lake Taihu is the third largest freshwater lake in China and is suffering from serious cyanobacterial blooms with the associated drinking water contamination by microcystin (MC) for millions of citizens. So far, most studies on MCs have been limited to two small bays, while systematic research on the whole lake is lacking. To explain the variations in MC concentrations during cyanobacterial bloom, a large-scale survey at 30 sites across the lake was conducted monthly in 2008. The health risks of MC exposure were high, especially in the northern area. Both Microcystis abundance and MC cellular quotas presented positive correlations with MC concentration in the bloom seasons, suggesting that the toxic risks during Microcystis proliferations were affected by variations in both Microcystis density and MC production per Microcystis cell. Use of a powerful predictive modeling tool named generalized additive model (GAM) helped visualize significant effects of abiotic factors related to carbon fixation and proliferation of Microcystis (conductivity, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), water temperature and pH) on MC cellular quotas from recruitment period of Microcystis to the bloom seasons, suggesting the possible use of these factors, in addition to Microcystis abundance, as warning signs to predict toxic events in the future. The interesting relationship between macrophytes and MC cellular quotas of Microcystis (i.e., high MC cellular quotas in the presence of macrophytes) needs further investigation

Coexisting Cyclic Parthenogens Comprise a Holocene Species Flock in Eubosmina

Background: Mixed breeding systems with extended clonal phases and weak sexual recruitment are widespread in nature but often thought to impede the formation of discrete evolutionary clusters. Thus, cyclic parthenogens, such as cladocerans and rotifers, could be predisposed to ‘‘species problems’ ’ and a lack of discrete species. However, species flocks have been proposed for one cladoceran group, Eubosmina, where putative species are sympatric, and there is a detailed paleolimnological record indicating a Holocene age. These factors make the Eubosmina system suitable for testing the hypotheses that extended clonal phases and weak sexual recruitment inhibit speciation. Although common garden experiments have revealed a genetic component to the morphotypic variation, the evolutionary significance of the morphotypes remains controversial. Methodology/Principal Findings: In the present study, we tested the hypothesis of a single polymorphic species (i.e., mixing occurs but selection maintains genes for morphology) in four northern European lakes where the morphotypes coexist. Our evidence is based on nuclear DNA sequence, mitochondrial DNA sequence, and morphometric analysis of coexisting morphotypes. We found significant genetic differentiation, genealogical exclusivity, and morphometric differentiation for coexisting morphotypes. Conclusions: We conclude that the studied morphotypes represent a group of young species undergoing speciation wit

Search for High-Mass Resonances Decaying to τν in pp Collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

A search for high-mass resonances decaying to τν using proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV produced by the Large Hadron Collider is presented. Only τ-lepton decays with hadrons in the final state are considered. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. No statistically significant excess above the standard model expectation is observed; model-independent upper limits are set on the visible τν production cross section. Heavy W′ bosons with masses less than 3.7 TeV in the sequential standard model and masses less than 2.2–3.8 TeV depending on the coupling in the nonuniversal G(221) model are excluded at the 95% credibility level

Measurement of the cross section for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at √s=13TeV using the ATLAS detector

Inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeVis studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb−1. The cross section is measured as a function of the photon transverse energy above 125GeVin different regions of photon pseudorapidity. Next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD and Monte Carlo event-generator predictions are compared to the cross-section measurements and provide an adequate description of the data

Measurement of differential cross sections and W + /W − cross-section ratios for W boson production in association with jets at √s =8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the W boson production cross section and the W + /W − cross-section ratio, both in association with jets, in proton--proton collisions at s √ =8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in final states containing one electron and missing transverse momentum using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb −1 . Differential cross sections for events with one or two jets are presented for a range of observables, including jet transverse momenta and rapidities, the scalar sum of transverse momenta of the visible particles and the missing transverse momentum in the event, and the transverse momentum of the W boson. For a subset of the observables, the differential cross sections of positively and negatively charged W bosons are measured separately. In the cross-section ratio of W + /W − the dominant systematic uncertainties cancel out, improving the measurement precision by up to a factor of nine. The observables and ratios selected for this paper provide valuable input for the up quark, down quark, and gluon parton distribution functions of the proto