Cognitive Computing supported Medical Decision Support System for Patient’s Driving Assessment

To smartly utilize a huge and constantly growing volume of data, improve productivity and increase competitiveness in various fields of life; human requires decision making support systems that efficiently process and analyze the data, and, as a result, significantly speed up the process. Similarly to all other areas of human life, healthcare domain also is lacking Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solution. A number of supervised and unsupervised Machine Learning and Data Mining techniques exist to help us to deal with structured data. However, in a real life, we pretty much deal with unstructured data that hides useful knowledge and valuable information inside human-readable plain texts, images, audio and video. Therefore, such IT giants as IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Facebook, etc., as well as variety of SMEs are actively elaborating different Cognitive Computing services and tools to get a value from unstructured data. Thus, the paper presents feasibility study of IBM Watson cognitive computing services and tools to address the issue of automated health records processing to support doctor’s decision for patient’s driving assessment

(1R*,2R*,4S*,5R*,6R*,8S*)-4,8-Dimethyl-2,6-diphenyl­bicyclo­[3.3.1]nonane-2,6-diol

The racemic title compound, C23H28O2, crystallizes in the space group C2/c as a layered structure in which a centrosymmetric three hydrogen bond sequence links four molecules. Both hydroxy groups are involved in this arrangement, but they differ in that one participates in two hydrogen bonds while the other takes part in only one. Between layers, the aromatic rings take part in edge-face interactions [shortest C—H⋯C distances 3.04, 3.10 and 3.12 Å and angle between normal to planes 86.7(2)°], forming a centrosymmetric dimer. The lattice is further stabilized by C—H⋯π interactions involving both methyl (shortest C⋯C 3.82 and 3.97 Å) and methylene (shortest C⋯C 3.60 Å) groups

Taylor-made production of pyrimidine nucleoside-5′-monophosphate analogues by highly stabilized mutant uracil phosphoribosyltransferase from Toxoplasma gondii

Nowadays, enzymatic synthesis of nucleotides is an efficient and sustainable alternative to chemical methodologies. In this regard, after the biochemical characterization of wild-type and mutant uracil phosphoribosyltransferases from Toxoplasma gondii (TgUPRT, TgUPRT2, and TgUPRT3), TgUPRT2 was selected as the optimal candidate (69.5 IU mg−1, UMP synthesis) for structure-guided immobilization onto Ni2+ chelate (MNiUPRT2) and onto glutaraldehyde-activated microparticles (MGlUPRT2). Among resulting derivatives, MNiUPRT23 (6127 IU g−1biocat; 92% retained activity; 3–5 fold enhanced stability at 50–60 °C) and MGlUPRT2N (3711 IU g−1biocat; 27% retained activity; 8–20 fold enhanced stability at 50–60 °C) displayed the best operability. Moreover, the enzymatic synthesis of different pyrimidine NMPs was performed. Finally, the reusability of both derivatives in 5-FUMP synthesis (MNiUPRT23, 80% retained activity after 7 cycles, 5 min; MGlUPRT2N, 70% retained activity after 10 cycles, 20 min) was carried out at short times. © 2021 Elsevier Lt

Serially connected forward osmosis membrane elements of pressure-assisted forward osmosis-reverse osmosis hybrid system: Process performance and economic analysis

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Due to the improved dilution of draw streams, employing pressure-assisted forward osmosis (PAFO) to the hybrid system of forward osmosis (FO) followed by reverse osmosis (RO) for seawater desalination has been expected to reduce the overall economics. However, replacing FO with PAFO causes an additional energy cost in the seawater dilution step which inevitably leads to a question that PAFO-RO hybrid is truly an economically beneficial option. More importantly, though serial connection of FO elements improves the dilution of initial draw water, this economic benefit is also compensated with the additional membrane. To rationalize its overall performance and economic benefit, thorough performance and economic evaluations were conducted based on actual pilot-scale PAFO operations for serial connection of up to three 8040 FO elements. The results showed the FO-RO hybrid is not an economically feasible option unless a significant unit FO element cost cut-down is guaranteed. Meanwhile, PAFO-RO showed benefits with regards to target RO recovery and unit FO element cost, particularly when two FO elements are serially connected (SE2). It was found that PAFO-RO, indeed, has higher economic potential than FO-RO. A graphical overlapping method suggested in this work can help determine optimal serial configuration and operating conditions of PAFO-RO

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta limits the expansion of pathogenic Th cells during central nervous system autoimmunity.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs; PPAR-alpha, PPAR-delta, and PPAR-gamma) comprise a family of nuclear receptors that sense fatty acid levels and translate this information into altered gene transcription. Previously, it was reported that treatment of mice with a synthetic ligand activator of PPAR-delta, GW0742, ameliorates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), indicating a possible role for this nuclear receptor in the control of central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune inflammation. We show that mice deficient in PPAR-delta (PPAR-delta(-/-)) develop a severe inflammatory response during EAE characterized by a striking accumulation of IFN-gamma(+)IL-17A(-) and IFN-gamma(+)IL-17A(+) CD4(+) cells in the spinal cord. The preferential expansion of these T helper subsets in the CNS of PPAR-delta(-/-) mice occurred as a result of a constellation of immune system aberrations that included higher CD4(+) cell proliferation, cytokine production, and T-bet expression and enhanced expression of IL-12 family cytokines by myeloid cells. We also show that the effect of PPAR-delta in inhibiting the production of IFN-gamma and IL-12 family cytokines is ligand dependent and is observed in both mouse and human immune cells. Collectively, these findings suggest that PPAR-delta serves as an important molecular brake for the control of autoimmune inflammation