A study published in BMCMicrobiol highlights the impact of Irinotecan on gut microbiota composition and the role of probiotics in limiting Irinotecan-associated diarrhea and suppressing gut bacterial β-glucuronidase enzymes.
]. Generally, the CFS was added as 50% proportions in 20 mL final volume of double-strength BHI . To prepare a mixture of metabolites from the three testedspp., the CFS of each bacteria was mixed equally with an equal volume of double strength BHI to form 20 ml final volume.either untreated or treated withand their metabolites using the Fast Q RNA extraction kits according to the manufacturer's instructions.
]. The change in expression of each gene was recorded as the fold change in expression . The results reflect a logarithmic fold increase relative to the control samples.
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Personalized hypertension treatment recommendations by a data-driven model - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision MakingBackground Hypertension is a prevalent cardiovascular disease with severe longer-term implications. Conventional management based on clinical guidelines does not facilitate personalized treatment that accounts for a richer set of patient characteristics. Methods Records from 1/1/2012 to 1/1/2020 at the Boston Medical Center were used, selecting patients with either a hypertension diagnosis or meeting diagnostic criteria (≥ 130 mmHg systolic or ≥ 90 mmHg diastolic, n = 42,752). Models were developed to recommend a class of antihypertensive medications for each patient based on their characteristics. Regression immunized against outliers was combined with a nearest neighbor approach to associate with each patient an affinity group of other patients. This group was then used to make predictions of future Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) under each prescription type. For each patient, we leveraged these predictions to select the class of medication that minimized their future predicted SBP. Results The proposed model, built with a distributionally robust learning procedure, leads to a reduction of 14.28 mmHg in SBP, on average. This reduction is 70.30% larger than the reduction achieved by the standard-of-care and 7.08% better than the corresponding reduction achieved by the 2nd best model which uses ordinary least squares regression. All derived models outperform following the previous prescription or the current ground truth prescription in the record. We randomly sampled and manually reviewed 350 patient records; 87.71% of these model-generated prescription recommendations passed a sanity check by clinicians. Conclusion Our data-driven approach for personalized hypertension treatment yielded significant improvement compared to the standard-of-care. The model implied potential benefits of computationally deprescribing and can support situations with clinical equipoise.
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A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association of dietary diversity with undernutrition in school-aged children - BMC PediatricsBackground Malnutrition in childhood has lasting consequences; its effects not only last a lifetime but are also passed down from generation to generation such as short stature, school-aged children are the most vulnerable section of the population and require special attention, including nutrition. Method We searched Medline through PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify all observational studies published before Jun 2022. Observational studies with a pediatric population aged 5–18 years that evaluated risk estimate with 95% confidence intervals the relationship between dietary diversity and undernutrition (wasting, stunting, and thinness) were included. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) were followed. Results This is a first systematic review and meta-analysis with a total of 20 studies were eligible (n = 18 388). Fourteen data evaluated stunting resulting in a pooled effect size estimated odds ratio of 1.43 (95% CI: 1.08–1.89; p = 0.013). Ten data evaluated Thinness resulting in a pooled effect size estimated odds ratio of 1.10 (95% CI: 0.81–1.49; P = 0.542). Two studies were revealed wasting with a odds ratio of 2.18 (95% CI: 1.41–3.36; p-value | 0.001). Conclusion According to the conclusions of this meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies, inadequate dietary diversity increases the risk of undernutrition in growth linear but not in thinness in school-aged children. The findings of this analysis suggest that initiatives that support improvements to the diversity of children’s diets to reduce the risk of undernutrition may be warranted in LMICs.
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Genofunc: genome annotation and identification of genome features for automated pipelining analysis of virus whole genome sequences - BMC BioinformaticsBackground Viral genomics and epidemiology have been increasingly important tools for analysing the spread of key pathogens affecting daily lives of individuals worldwide. With the rapidly expanding scale of pathogen genome sequencing efforts for epidemics and outbreaks efficient workflows in extracting genomic information are becoming increasingly important for answering key research questions. Results Here we present Genofunc, a toolkit offering a range of command line orientated functions for processing of raw virus genome sequences into aligned and annotated data ready for analysis. The tool contains functions such as genome annotation, feature extraction etc. for processing of large genomic datasets both manual or as part of pipeline such as Snakemake or Nextflow ready for down-stream phylogenetic analysis. Originally designed for a large-scale HIV sequencing project, Genofunc has been benchmarked against annotated sequence gene coordinates from the Los Alamos HIV database as validation with downstream phylogenetic analysis result comparable to past literature as case study. Conclusion Genofunc is implemented fully in Python and licensed under the MIT license. Source code and documentation is available at: https://github.com/xiaoyu518/genofunc .
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Dance on: a mixed-method study into the feasibility and effectiveness of a dance programme to increase physical activity levels and wellbeing in adults and older adults - BMC GeriatricsBackground Physical activity (PA) has beneficial effects on physical and mental health outcomes in older adults. However, a consistent decline in PA participation has been noted with increasing age, with older adults consistently being reported as the least physically active population. Previous evidence showed that dance is an appropriate form of PA in older adults as it integrates the body’s movement with physical, cognitive, and social elements. This study investigated the feasibility and efficacy of a weekly dance programme over a 12-month period on PA levels and wellbeing. Methods A mixed-method intervention design was used. Community-dwelling older adults aged 55 + years were recruited from local community groups in Yorkshire (UK). The programme comprised of a 60-min mixed genre dance class per week. Changes with carried forward data in self-reported measures of PA (min/week) and wellbeing with EuroQol visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) across four different time points (baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months) were assessed using the Friedman test. Feasibility was also assessed through class attendance and focus groups (N = 6–9) with participants. A thematic analysis of qualitative data was conducted. Results A total of 685 participants (589–89.1% females and 72–10.9% males) took part in the study. The mean age was 75 ± 10 years, and 38% of the participants were classed as highly deprived as per the index of multiple deprivation. There was a statistically significant increase in both PA (X2(3) = 192.42, P | 0.001) and EQ VAS scores across the four time points (X2(3) = 19.66, P | 0.001). The mean adherence rate was consistent across the 12-month period of intervention (70%). Themes from the focus groups included reasons for participating in the programme, perceptions of how the dance programme affected the participants, and facilitators to participation in the programme. Conclusions The good adherence and favourability indicate that the dance programme is feasible as an inte
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The correlation between caregiver burden with depression and quality of life among informal caregivers of hemodialysis and thalassemia patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study - BMC NursingBackground Lifelong provision of care to chronically ill patients increase the risk of physical and mental diseases in informal caregivers and adversely affects their quality of life. The present study examined the correlation between caregiver burden, depression, and quality of life among the informal caregivers of thalassemia and hemodialysis patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in southeastern Iran. Methods This cross-sectional correlational study used convenience sampling to select 200 informal caregivers involved in providing direct care for patients undergoing hemodialysis (n = 70) and patients with thalassemia (130) for at least 6 months. A demographic questionnaire, Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), the Quality-Of-Life Questionnaire (SF-36), and the Zarit Burden Interview were used to collect data in 2021. The data were analyzed with SPSS software (version 19) using frequency, percentage, independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and multivariate regression analysis. Results Most of the informal caregivers of the thalassemia and hemodialysis patients (58% and 43%) reported moderate levels of caregiver burden. There were significant correlations between the caregiver burden and depression (P | 0.0001) and between the caregiver burden and the quality of life (P | 0.009). The level of depression in informal caregivers of patients undergoing hemodialysis was higher than that of the informal caregivers of patients with thalassemia, but the quality of life in the informal caregivers of the patient’s undergoing hemodialysis was higher than that of the informal caregivers of the patients with thalassemia. Conclusion Considering the significant correlations between caregiver burden, depression, and quality of life in this study, healthcare providers are recommended to develop educational and supportive interventions to meet informal caregivers’ needs, mitigate their emotional distress, fears, and concerns, and prevent caregiver burden in times of greater uncertainty.
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Working from home and intimate partner violence among cis-women during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a global, cross-sectional study - BMC Public HealthBackground Intimate partner violence (IPV) may have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis aimed to determine how employment disruption during COVID-19, including working from home, was associated with IPV experience among cis-gendered women. Methods The International Sexual Health and Reproductive health (I-SHARE) study is a cross-sectional online survey implemented in 30 countries during the pandemic. Samples used convenience, online panel, and population-representative methods. IPV was a pre-specified primary outcome, measured using questions from a validated World Health Organisation instrument. Conditional logistic regression modelling was used to quantify the associations between IPV and changes to employment during COVID-19, adjusted for confounding. Results 13,416 cis-gender women, aged 18–97, were analysed. One third were from low and middle income countries, and two thirds from high income countries. The majority were heterosexual (82.7%), educated beyond secondary-level (72.4%) and childless (62.7%). During COVID-19 33.9% women worked from home, 14.6% lost employment, and 33.1% continued to work on-site. 15.5% experienced some form of IPV. Women working from home experienced greater odds of IPV than those working on-site (adjusted OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.12–1.74, p = 0.003). This finding was robust independent of sampling strategy and country income. The association was primarily driven by an increase in psychological violence, which was more prevalent than sexual or physical violence. The association was stronger in countries with high gender inequality. Conclusions Working from home may increase IPV risk globally. Workplaces offering working from home should collaborate with support services and research interventions to strengthen resiliency against IPV.
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