Determining Key Residues of the Lyt-R Domain in the Streptococcal CpsA Protein

Streptococcus agalactiae or Group B Streptococcus (GBS), is a Gram-positive commensal bacterium that is harmless in healthy adults, yet causes systemic diseases in neonates, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. Neonates are at risk of GBS infection in utero or during delivery due to the colonization of the organism in the vaginal canal of between 15-30% of adult females. GBS can cause severe neonatal sepsis and meningitis, as well as chorioamnionitis, which can cause premature birth and stillbirth. GBS infection is greatly facilitated by the presence of a bacterial capsule; a protective, polysaccharide matrix surrounding the cell that plays a key role in the pathogen’s ability to evade host immune responses. Antibiotics are effective in reducing the chances of neonatal infection by GBS; however, they also increase the likelihood of the organism developing antibiotic resistance. An approach to manipulate GBS and reduce its functionality would be beneficial to counter the potential of antibiotic resistance developments, while avoiding the cytotoxic effects that antibiotics can impose on the host. The GBS CpsA protein, a putative transcriptional regulator of the capsule locus within the GBS genome, plays a significant role in capsule production. Without CpsA, GBS displays reduced capsule production, and thus, reduced virulence. In this study Aspartic Acid-375 and Arginine-378 were targeted in the LytR domain of CpsA, a domain proposed to be responsible for the ligation of capsule to the cell wall of GBS. This work will provide insight into which amino acids are the key residues required for the function of CpsA

Pneumonia detection in chest X-ray images using compound scaled deep learning model

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death worldwide for children under 5 years of age. For pneumonia diagnosis, chest X-rays are examined by trained radiologists. However, this process is tedious and time-consuming. Biomedical image diagnosis techniques show great potential in medical image examination. A model for the identification of pneumonia, trained on chest X-ray images, has been proposed in this paper. The compound scaled ResNet50, which is the upscaled version of ResNet50, has been used in this paper. ResNet50 is a multilayer layer convolution neural network having residual blocks. As it was very difficult to obtain a sufficiently large dataset for detection tasks, data augmentation techniques were used to increase the training dataset. Transfer learning is also used while training the models. The proposed model could help in detecting the disease and can assist the radiologists in their clinical decision-making process. The model was evaluated and statistically validated to overfitting and generalization errors. Different scores, such as testing accuracy, F1, recall, precision and AUC score, were computed to check the efficacy of the proposed model. The proposed model attained a test accuracy of 98.14% and an AUC score of 99.71 on the test data from the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center pneumonia dataset

Waqf as a Financing Tool and Its Role in Achieving SDGs and Foreseeing the Future

The significance of Waqf goes beyond being an act of worship that has been ordained to fulfill society’s welfare in many fronts, spiritual and material, individual and social, as well as here and hereafter. It is characterized as being one of the most pertinent tools of Islamic economics. This is due to its autonomy, flexibility, sustainability, and continuity, and its ability to achieve socioeconomic development for contemporary and future generations alike. The Waqf system have witnessed various stages of development in the light of the Islamic civilization to encompass all socioeconomic sectors; education, culture, healthcare, housing, services, politics, military, energy, infrastructure, food and water security, clean and affordable energy, and more. Proving itself to be capable of achieving high and advanced potentials of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter aims at investigating the capacity and flexibility of Waqf, and its ability to achieve advanced progress towards various SDGs. The challenges facing Waqf and hindering it from achieving its great potentials are analyzed and solutions and policy recommendations would be presented

Some dienyl complexes of iron

The work is based on the fast that cyclohexadiene and cycloheptadiene may be bonded to the transition metals like cyclopentadiena by losing one hydrogen atom to give the respective dienyl complexes. It is mainly concerned with studies of six and seven membered rings forming dienyl complexes with iron. Tricarbonyl-cyclohexadienyl iron II O6H7Fe(CO)3 and trioarbonyl-cycloheptadienyliron C7H9Fe(CO)3, (cations), iso-electronic with tricarbonyl cyclohexadienylmanganese(O), were treated with different nucleophilic agents, while efforts have also been made to prepare 'sandwich' type dienyl complexes of iron by nucleophilic hydride ion attack on cationic arena complexes. Tricarbonyl-cycloheptadienyliron(II) tetrafluoroborate reacts with potassium iodide to give iododicarbonyl-cycloheptadienyliron. This known neutral compound gave tetracarbonyl-di-cycloheptadienyldiiron when treated with sodium. The related bridged compound, i.e. tetracarconyk- cyclohoptadienyl-cyclopentadienyl-di-iron was obtained by reaction of the same iodide with sodium cyclopentadienide. Cyanide ion also replaced the iodine and yielded cyanodicarbonyl-cycloheptadienyliron. The reactions were applied to tricarbonyl-cyclohexadienyliron (II) tetrafluoroborate. They gave iodo-dicerbonyl-cyolohexadienylron which was further treated with sodiun amalgam giving tetracarbonyl-di-cyclohexadienyl-di-iron, with sodium cyclopentadienide yielding tetracarbonyl cyclohexadienyl-cyclopentadienyl-di-iron and with potassium cyanide giving cyanodicarbonyl-cyclohexadienyliron. In an attempt to find out the electrophilicity of the ligand, tricarbonyl-cyclohexadienyliron(II) tetrafluoroborate was reacted with phenyl-lithium, under different conditions. It gave only tetracarbonyl-di-cyclohexadienyl-di-iron and an unstable oil. This oil yielded tricarbonyl-cyolohexadienyliron(II) tetrafluoroborate on reaction with tritylfluoroborate. Further reactions of the cations with sodium methoxide and with the sodium salt of diethyl malonate afforded tricarbonyl-methoxy-cyclohexa-1,3-diene iron and tricarbonyl-di (ethoxylcarbonyl)methyl-cyclohexa-1,3-diene iron respectively. The same cation when treated with potassium cyanide in acetone gave tricarbonyl-cyanoeyclohexa-1,3-diene-iron. All the above-mentioned nucleophiles are abstracted by trityl fluoroborate except the di(ethoxycarbonyl) methyl group. The same reaction scheme was followed with tricarbonyl-cyclo-heptadienyliron(II) tetrafluoroborate in the preparations of tricarbonyl-ethoxycyclohepta-1,3-diene iron, tricarbonyl (ethoxycarbonyl)methyl-cyclo heptadiena-iron and cyanocyclohepta-1,3-diene-iron. The structure of all these compounds have been fully discussed. Iododioarbonyl-cycloheptadenyliron when refluxed in mesitylene in the presence of aluminium chloride gave the cycloheptadienyl-mesitylene-iron cation isolated as a reineckate and hexafluorophosphate. The di-mesityleneiron cation was reduced by lithium aluminium hydride and sodium borohydride. It gave bis(trimethyl-cyclohexadienyl) iron This method of production was tried on dibenzene-iron cation which is unstable in water. An orange crystalline compound was obtained but could not be fully cheraoterised due to the small yield Both lithium aluminium hydride and sodium borohydride reduced mesitylene-cyclopentadienyliron triiodide yielding (trimethyl-cyclohexadienyl)-cyclopentadienyliron. Benzene-cyclopentadieayliron iodide did not react with sodium methoxide, the sodium salt of diethyl malonate or potassium tertiary but-oxide. However it does react with sodium borohydride and methyl lithium yielding cyclohexadienyl-cyclopentadienyliron and methyl -cyclohexadienyl-cyclopentadisnyliron respectively. Certain electrophilic substitution reactions have also been attempted with cyclohexadienyl-cyclepentadienyl iron. Dicarbonyl-cyclopentadienylcyclohexeneironhexafluorophoaphate has been treated with different nucleophilic agents. Cyclohexyl-dicarbonyl-cyclopentadienyliron is produced when the cation is reduced with sodium borohydride. The compound is again converted into the original cation when reacted with trityl fluoroborate and into iododioarbonyl-cyclopentadienyliron and cyanodicarbonyl-cyclopentadienyl-iron when the cation is treated with potassium iodide and potassium cyanide respectively. The effect of other nucleophilic agents on this cation has also been studied

Surface Electromyography and Artificial Intelligence for Human Activity Recognition - A Systematic Review on Methods, Emerging Trends Applications, Challenges, and Future Implementation

Human activity recognition (HAR) has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its potential to meet the growing needs of various industries. Electromyography (EMG) is essential in various clinical and biological settings. It is a metric that helps doctors diagnose conditions that affect muscle activation patterns and monitor patients’ progress in rehabilitation, disease diagnosis, motion intention recognition, etc. This review summarizes the various research papers based on HAR with EMG. Over recent years, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has catalyzed remarkable advancements in the classification of biomedical signals, with a particular focus on EMG data. Firstly, this review meticulously curates a wide array of research papers that have contributed significantly to the evolution of EMG-based activity recognition. By surveying the existing literature, we provide an insightful overview of the key findings and innovations that have propelled this field forward. It explore the various approaches utilized for preprocessing EMG signals, including noise reduction, baseline correction, filtering, and normalization, ensure that the EMG data is suitably prepared for subsequent analysis. In addition, we unravel the multitude of techniques employed to extract meaningful features from raw EMG data, encompassing both time-domain and frequency-domain features. These techniques are fundamental to achieving a comprehensive characterization of muscle activity patterns. Furthermore, we provide an extensive overview of both Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) classification methods, showcasing their respective strengths, limitations, and real-world applications in recognizing diverse human activities from EMG signals. In examining the hardware infrastructure for HAR with EMG, the synergy between hardware and software is underscored as paramount for enabling real-time monitoring. Finally, we also discovered open issues and future research direction that may point to new lines of inquiry for ongoing research toward EMG-based detection.publishedVersio

Ventricular depolarisation vectors in exercise induced myocardial ischaemia

Ischaemia reduces membrane excitability and conduction of myocardial depolarisation. This would alter the synergy of electromotive forces that contribute to a resultant force at any instant. Changes in magnitude and direction of resultant forces are reflected in electrocardiographic signals. Here we show a method for obtaining the coordinates of resultant electrical forces during exercise derived from a bipolar orthogonal lead system for calculation of electrical vectors in three planes. In a trial, analysis of changes in vectors indicated that the extent of reduction in magnitude with exercise was significantly greater in groups of patients categorized by impaired effort tolerance and signs of ischaemia. Measurement of changes in the spectrum of depolarisation vectors during exercise has the potential for non-invasive assessment of myocardial ischaemia. This could be the basis of a portable, low-cost tool for investigation of patients with symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease

FREQUENCY GENERATOR DEMONSTRATION USING HALF MODE SUBSTRATE INTEGRATED WAVEGUIDE (SIW) STRUCTURES FOR CHIPLESS RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) READER

A frequency generator based on the forward coupler principle is proposed. The proposed design, intended for high-frequency applications, uses Half-Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide structure to realise the forward coupler. It thus achieves compactness, requiring approximately half the area compared to Substrate Integrated Waveguide structures, and supports non Transverse Electromagnetic (TEM) functionality. The non-TEM environment provides the flexibility to use the frequency generator for chipless Radio Frequency Identification readers in the sub-GHz band and mm-wave range. Full-wave simulations and the subsequent measurements on a prototype developed on Rogers 3006 substrate performed for the forward coupler resonators and frequency generator validate the proposed design concept

Does more testing in routine preoperative evaluation benefit the orthopedic patient? Case control study from a resource-constrained setting

Background: Routine preoperative tests in healthy patients not only cause extra anxiety, but may delay treatment without influencing surgical plan. This has worse impact in resource-constrained settings where fee for service rather than health insurance is the usual norm. Investigators aim to determine if routine pre-operative tests are justified in healthy orthopedic patients.Methods: We conducted a non-commercialized, non-funded matched case control study in tertiary care university hospital and a level-1 trauma centre for healthy patients (ASA-1&2) admitted from January 2014-December 2016 for elective orthopedic intermediate and major procedures. Cases (patient who had a change in his/her surgical plan after admission) and controls were selected independently of the exposure of interest then matched randomly to cases on age, gender and procedure type. Primary exposure was the routine preoperative lab tests, as defined by the American Society of Anesthesiologist, which included 13 blood tests. Analysis was done using Principle Component Analysis and Conditional logistic regression at univariate and multivariable levels reporting matched adjusted Odds Ratios. The data was reported in line with STROCSS criteria.Results: Overall, 7610 preoperative tests were done for 670 patients with 62% men among cases and 53% men among controls with mean age of 49.9 ± role= presentation style= box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; line-height: 0; font-size: 18.08px; overflow-wrap: normal; word-spacing: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0px; position: relative; \u3e±± 22.5 years and 41.1 ± role= presentation style= box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; line-height: 0; font-size: 18.08px; overflow-wrap: normal; word-spacing: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 0px; position: relative; \u3e±± 23.0 years, respectively. There were 1076 (14%) abnormal result that influenced surgical plan in 0.96% cases only. Matched adjusted OR with 95% confidence interval of primary exposure was insignificant.Conclusion: Routine preoperative tests were superfluous and did not influence the surgical plan when adjusted for other variables in the model as well as after matching on potential confounders. This study would be amongst first steps to move towards an evidence based surgical practice for preoperative evaluation