Will the '10x Economy' work for Northern Ireland

This article introduces NI's 10X economy strategy, provides preliminary investigation of the performance of the 10X priority clusters and considers obstacles to the strateg

Does the Indication for Breast Surgery Impact Surgical Outcomes? A Contemporary Analysis of the ACS-NSQIP Database

Background. There is limited data about whether perioperative outcomes differ based on the indication for breast surgery. Herein we aim to assess if breast surgery for prophylaxis, compared to that for malignancy, impacts surgical outcomes. Methods. All women who underwent simple or subcutaneous mastectomy were identified from the 2007-2012 ACS-NSQIP database. Patients were identified by their ICD-9 codes and categorized into two groups. Group 1 consisted of patients diagnosed with breast cancer or carcinoma in situ; group 2 consisted of patients diagnosed with a genetic predisposition to malignant neoplasm of the breast (i.e., BRCA mutation). Demographic and preoperative variables were compared between groups and outcome variables. Outcome variables were analyzed using age- and operative time-adjusted logistic regression models. Results. 30,803 patients were identified. Group 1 consisted of 30,644 (99.5%) patients diagnosed with malignancy; group 2 consisted of 159 (0.5%) who underwent prophylactic surgery. In univariate analyses, those undergoing prophylactic surgery were significantly younger (p \u3c 0.01). There were no other preoperative differences between groups. When adjusted, the prophylactic group demonstrated a greater risk of DVT (p = 0.03). There were no differences in mortality, superficial/deep/organ space infections, UTI, wound dehiscence, or MI. Conclusion. In this analysis of a national cohort of breast surgery patients, those undergoing prophylactic surgery due to a genetic predisposition had a greater risk of perioperative DVT, compared to those who underwent surgery for a diagnosis of malignancy. This data may allow for improved perioperative management of patients to prevent DVT development and their devastating consequences

Oropharyngeal Microbiome Profiled at Admission is Predictive of the Need for Respiratory Support Among COVID-19 Patients [preprint]

The clinical course of infection due to respiratory viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is thought to be influenced by the community of organisms that colonizes the upper respiratory tract, the oropharyngeal microbiome. In this study, we examined the oropharyngeal microbiome of suspected COVID-19 patients presenting to the Emergency Department and an inpatient COVID-19 unit with symptoms of acute COVID-19. Of 115 enrolled patients, 74 were confirmed COVID-19+ and 50 had symptom duration of 14 days or less; 38 acute COVID-19+ patients (76%) went on to require respiratory support. Although no microbiome features were found to be significantly different between COVID-19+ and COVID-19-patients, when we conducted random forest classification modeling (RFC) to predict the need of respiratory support for the COVID-19+ patients our analysis identified a subset of organisms and metabolic pathways whose relative abundance, when combined with clinical factors (such as age and Body Mass Index), was highly predictive of the need for respiratory support (F1 score 0.857). Microbiome Multivariable Association with Linear Models (MaAsLin2) analysis was then applied to the features identified as predicative of the need for respiratory support by the RFC. This analysis revealed reduced abundance of Prevotella salivae and metabolic pathways associated with lipopolysaccharide and mycolic acid biosynthesis to be the strongest predictors of patients requiring respiratory support. These findings suggest that composition of the oropharyngeal microbiome in COVID-19 may play a role in determining who will suffer from severe disease manifestations. Importance: The microbial community that colonizes the upper airway, the oropharyngeal microbiome, has the potential to affect how patients respond to respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV2, the causative agent of COVID-19. In this study, we investigated the oropharyngeal microbiome of COVID-19 patients using high throughput DNA sequencing performed on oral swabs. We combined patient characteristics available at intake such as medical comorbidities and age, with measured abundance of bacterial species and metabolic pathways and then trained a machine learning model to determine what features are predicative of patients needing respiratory support in the form of supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation. We found that decreased abundance of some bacterial species and increased abundance of pathways associated bacterial products biosynthesis was highly predictive of needing respiratory support. This suggests that the oropharyngeal microbiome affects disease course in COVID-19 and could be targeted for diagnostic purposes to determine who may need oxygen, or therapeutic purposes such as probiotics to prevent severe COVID-19 disease manifestations

Engaging Youth in Agriculture Career Exploration: 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge

The Minnesota 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge is a new youth development program that focuses on engaging youth in hands-on agriculture exploration while increasing agricultural literacy, enhancing STEM skills, and educating youth about career opportunities that exist within agricultural sciences. 4-H members identify an agricultural issue within their community and work with a business and industry mentor to apply STEM concepts to develop a potential solution. Teams share their research and results in their communities and at the state contest. The inaugural Science of Agriculture event was held June 17-19, of 2015 with 12 teams participating. There were a total of 44 youth participants with an average age of 15 years old. Twenty five (57%) of the participants were female and 19 (43%) were male. The youth were asked to complete a post event survey to determine the exposure to agriculture they experienced during the program and there interest in pursuing an agricultural career at the programs completion. The final survey response rate was 100% (N=44). Forty youth (92%) indicated that they had met with an agriculture community leader. Thirty nine youth (89%) planned to pursue a career in agriculture science and 35 youth (79%) wanted to study agriculture in college. The Minnesota 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge has the potential to fill the hole that currently exists in the agricultural career pipeline while teaching youth that their participation in 4-H can lead them to college and/or trade school and into a viable career in agricultural sciences

Evolution combined with genomic study elucidates genetic bases of isobutanol tolerance in Escherichia coli

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Isobutanol is a promising next-generation biofuel with demonstrated high yield microbial production, but the toxicity of this molecule reduces fermentation volumetric productivity and final titer. Organic solvent tolerance is a complex, multigenic phenotype that has been recalcitrant to rational engineering approaches. We apply experimental evolution followed by genome resequencing and a gene expression study to elucidate genetic bases of adaptation to exogenous isobutanol stress.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The adaptations acquired in our evolved lineages exhibit antagonistic pleiotropy between minimal and rich medium, and appear to be specific to the effects of longer chain alcohols. By examining genotypic adaptation in multiple independent lineages, we find evidence of parallel evolution in <it>marC</it>, <it>hfq</it>, <it>mdh</it>, <it>acrAB, gatYZABCD</it>, and <it>rph </it>genes. Many isobutanol tolerant lineages show reduced RpoS activity, perhaps related to mutations in <it>hfq </it>or <it>acrAB</it>. Consistent with the complex, multigenic nature of solvent tolerance, we observe adaptations in a diversity of cellular processes. Many adaptations appear to involve epistasis between different mutations, implying a rugged fitness landscape for isobutanol tolerance. We observe a trend of evolution targeting post-transcriptional regulation and high centrality nodes of biochemical networks. Collectively, the genotypic adaptations we observe suggest mechanisms of adaptation to isobutanol stress based on remodeling the cell envelope and surprisingly, stress response attenuation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We have discovered a set of genotypic adaptations that confer increased tolerance to exogenous isobutanol stress. Our results are immediately useful to further efforts to engineer more isobutanol tolerant host strains of <it>E. coli </it>for isobutanol production. We suggest that <it>rpoS </it>and post-transcriptional regulators, such as <it>hfq</it>, RNA helicases, and sRNAs may be interesting mutagenesis targets for future global phenotype engineering.</p

Incident vertebral fractures in children with leukemia during the four years following diagnosis

Objectives: The purpose of this article was to determine the incidence and predictors of vertebral fractures (VF) during the 4 years after diagnosis in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Patients and Methods: Children were enrolled within 30 days of chemotherapy initiation, with incident VF assessed annually on lateral spine radiographs according to the Genant method. Extended Cox models were used to assess the association between incident VF and clinical predictors. Results:Atotal of 186 children with ALL completed the baseline evaluation (median age, 5.3 years; interquartile range, 3.4 -9.7 years; 58% boys). The VF incidence rate was 8.7 per 100 person-years, with a 4-year cumulative incidence of 26.4%. The highest annual incidence occurred at 12 months (16.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 11.2-22.7), falling to 2.9% at 4 years (95% CI, 1.1-7.3). Half of the children with incident VF had a moderate or severe VF, and 39% of those with incident VF were asymptomatic. Every 10 mg/m2 increase in average daily glucocorticoid dose (prednisone equivalents) was associated with a 5.9-fold increased VF risk (95% CI, 3.0 -11.8; P \u3c .01). Other predictors of increased VF risk included VF at diagnosis, younger age, and lower spine bone mineral density Z-scores at baseline and each annual assessment. Conclusions: One quarter of children with ALL developed incident VF in the 4 years after diagnosis; most of the VF burden was in the first year. Over one third of children with incident VF were asymptomatic. Discrete clinical predictors of a VF were evident early in the patient\u27s clinical course, including a VF at diagnosis