bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Microbial Production Of Ellagic Acid From Mango Pulp Processing Waste
Authors: Rubavathi Anandan , Murugan Athiappan , Visali Kannan 
Published: March 2020

AbstractEllagic acid has gained momentum recently due to its various properties like anti-mutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-oxidant, and anti-viral and many other benefits to human health. The present study focused on the microbial production of ellagic acid from mango pulp processing industrial waste an alternate method for conventional chemical extraction. Our experiments demonstrated that the 100 μg/ml of ellagic acid was produced byMicrococcus luteusfrom 9% of mango pulp waste and the optimization of ellagic acid production with Pontecorvo medium supplemented with 5.0 g of ellagitannin has yielded 37.80 ± 0.30 mg/g at pH 5.0, temperature 30 °C, ammonium nitrate (nitrogen source), glucose (carbon source), with 1.5% of inoculums after 24 h of incubation. Ellagic acid synthesized was further confirmed with the standard ellagic acid. Applications like drought resistant in plants, anti-microbial activity, anti-parasitic activity and anti-cancer activities have been proven. Ellagic acid exhibited potential applications and further research in product development is promising.
Genetics of recombination rate variation in the pig
Authors: Johnsson Martin , Whalen Andrew , Ros-Freixedes Roger , Gorjanc Gregor , Chen Ching-Yi , Herring William O. , de Koning Dirk-Jan , Hickey John M. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundIn this paper, we estimated recombination rate variation within the genome and between individuals in the pig using multiocus iterative peeling for 150,000 pigs across nine genotyped pedigrees. We used this to estimate the heritability of recombination and perform a genome-wide association study of recombination in the pig.ResultsOur results confirmed known features of the pig recombination landscape, including differences in chromosome length, and marked sex differences. The recombination landscape was repeatable between lines, but at the same time, the lines also showed differences in average genome-wide recombination rate. The heritability of genome-wide recombination was low but non-zero (on average 0.07 for females and 0.05 for males). We found three genomic regions associated with recombination rate, one of them harbouring theRNF212gene, previously associated with recombination rate in several other species.ConclusionOur results from the pig agree with the picture of recombination rate variation in vertebrates, with low but nonzero heritability, and a major locus that is homologous to one detected in several other species. This work also highlights the utility of using large-scale livestock data to understand biological processes.
The protector within: Comparative genomics of APSE phages across aphids reveals rampant recombination and diverse toxin arsenals
Authors: Rouïl Jeff , Jousselin Emmanuelle , d’acier Armelle Coeur , Cruaud Corinne , Manzano-Marín Alejandro 
Published: March 2020

ABSTRACTPhages can fundamentally alter the physiology and metabolism of their hosts. While ubiquitous in the bacterial world, they have seldom been described among endosymbiotic bacteria. One notable exception in the APSE phage that is found associated with the gammaproteobacterialHamiltonella defensa, hosted by several insect species. This secondary facultative endosymbiont is not necessary for the survival of its hosts but can infect certain individuals or even whole populations. Its infection in aphids is often associated with protection against parasitoid wasps. This protective phenotype has actually been linked to the infection of the symbiont strain with an APSE, which carries a toxin cassette that varies among so-called ”types”. In the present work, we seek to expand our understanding of the diversity of APSE phages as well as the relations of theirHamiltonellahosts. For this, we assembled and annotated the full genomes of 16 APSE phages infectingHamiltonellasymbionts across 10 insect species. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses suggest that recombination has occurred repeatedly among lineages. Comparative genomics of the phage genomes revealed two variable regions that are useful for phage typing. Additionally, we find that mobile elements could play a role in the acquisition of new genes in the toxin cassette. Altogether, we provide an unprecedented view of APSE diversity and their genome evolution across aphids. This genomic investigation will provide a valuable resource for the design and interpretation of experiments aiming at understanding the protective phenotype these phages confer to their insect hosts.
Bioconversion of Mango Pulp Industrial Waste into Ellagic acid UsingAspergillus niger
Authors: Murugan Athiappan , Rubavathi Anandan , Kannan Visali , Parthiban Aurumugam 
Published: March 2020

AbstractEllagic acid was considered as the potential bioactive compound with many therapeutical applications. Bioconversion of tannin present in the mango pulp processing waste in to ellagic acid using fungi would be better alternate than the chemical as well as extraction from plant sources. A total of three different fungi were isolated from the soil sample and it was confirmed asAspergillus niger. Further, the isolated strains ofA. nigerwere identified to produce ellagic acid from ellagitannin of mango waste. Quantification of the ellagic acid production was carried out by solid-state fermentation using 3% of mango waste as substrate. Ellagic acid enzyme activity was calculated and found to be 17.6 U ml−1The ellagic acid production was optimized to fix the various factors, that is, pH and temperature, nitrogen and carbon source. The maximum production (200 μg/g) of ellagic acid was achieved at pH 5.5, temperature 30 °C, Ammonium nitrate as nitrogen source, 0.2% of NaCl and carbon source (0.2% of sugar) with 3% of mango pulp waste. Ellagic acid produced was characterized by UV–vis spectrophotometer and by FT-IR analysis.
High transmissibility of COVID-19 near symptom onset
Authors: Cheng Hao-Yuan , Jian Shu-Wan , Liu Ding-Ping , Ng Ta-Chou , Huang Wan-Ting ,   for Taiwan COVID-19 outbreak investigation team, Lin Hsien-Ho 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundThe dynamics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmissibility after symptom onset remains unknown.MethodsWe conducted a prospective case-ascertained study on laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and their contacts. Secondary clinical attack rate (considering symptomatic cases only) was analyzed for different exposure windows after symptom onset of index cases and for different exposure settings.ResultsThirty-two confirmed patients were enrolled and 12 paired data (index-secondary cases) were identified among the 1,043 contacts. The secondary clinical attack rate was 0.9% (95% CI 0.5–1.7%). The attack rate was higher among those whose exposure to index cases started within five days of symptom onset (2.4%, 95% CI 1.1–4.5%) than those who were exposed later (zero case from 605 close contacts, 95% CI 0–0.61%). The attack rate was also higher among household contacts (13.6%, 95% CI 4.7–29.5%) and non- household family contacts (8.5%, 95% CI 2.4–20.3%) than that in healthcare or other settings. The higher secondary clinical attack rate for contacts near symptom onset remained when the analysis was restricted to household and family contacts. There was a trend of increasing attack rate with the age of contacts (p for trend < 0.001).ConclusionsHigh transmissibility of COVID-19 near symptom onset suggests that finding and isolating symptomatic patients alone may not suffice to contain the epidemic, and more generalized social distancing measures are required. Rapid reduction of transmissibility over time implies that prolonged hospitalization of mild cases might not be necessary in large epidemics.
Diagnostic performance of multifocal photopic negative response, pattern electroretinogram and optical coherence tomography in glaucoma
Authors: Al-Nosairy Khaldoon O. , Thieme Hagen , Hoffmann Michael B. 
Published: March 2020

AbstractObjectivesTo optimize stimulation parameters for electroretionographic recordings of the multifocal photopic negative response (mfPhNR) for the detection of glaucoma and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of electrophysiological, structural and functional measures of glaucoma.MethodsIn 24 healthy controls, 10 glaucoma suspects (GLAS) and 16 glaucoma participants (GLAG), mfPhNR for 6 different stimulation rates were assessed to compare their discrimination performance. Subsequently, a cross-modal comparison of the mfPhNR/b-wave ratio was performed with pattern electroretinogram (PERG), and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness. These analyses were based on area under curves (AUC) obtained from receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) analyses and step-wise regression analyses.ResultsCompared to the other mfPhNR-conditions, the PhNR/b-wave ratio for the fastest stimulation condition had the highest AUC for GLAS(0.84, P = 0.008, 95%CI: 0.71-0.98); the other modalities, i.e., PERG-amplitude and pRNFL had AUCs of 0.77, and 0.74 respectively. pRNFL was the significant predictor for mfPhNR/b-wave ratio [t (48) = 4, P 0.0002].ConclusionsFast mfPhNR protocols outperform other mf-protocols in the identification of glaucomatous damage especially for GLASand thus aid the early detection of glaucoma.SignificancemfPhNR recordings might serve as surrogate marker of ganglion cell dysfunction especially in glaucoma suspects.
Estimating Preventable COVID-19 Infections Related to Elective Outpatient Surgery in Washington State: A Quantitative Model
Authors: Zhang Yuemei , Cheng Sheng-Ru 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundAs the number of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US continues to rise, the US surgeon general, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and several specialty societies have issued recommendations to consider canceling elective surgeries. However, these recommendations have also faced controversy and opposition.MethodsUsing previously published information and publicly available data on COVID-19 infections, we calculated a transmission rate and generated a mathematical model to predict a lower bound for the number of healthcare-acquired COVID-19 infections that could be prevented by canceling or postponing elective outpatient surgeries in Washington state.ResultsOur model predicts that over the course of 30 days, at least 75.9 preventable patient infections and at least 69.3 preventable healthcare worker (HCW) infections would occur in WA state alone if elective outpatient procedures were to continue as usual.ConclusionCanceling elective outpatient surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic could prevent a large number of patient and healthcare worker infections.
Chinese Public Attention to COVID-19 Epidemic: Based on Social Media
Authors: Zhao Yuxin , Xu Huilan 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundSince the new coronavirus epidemic in China in December 2019, information and discussions about COVID-19 have spread rapidly on the Internet and have quickly become the focus of worldwide attention, especially on social media.ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate and analyze the public’s attention to COVID-19-related events in China at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in China (December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020) through the Sina Microblog hot search list.MethodsWe collected topics related to the COVID-19 epidemic on the Sina Microblog hot search list from December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020 and described the trend of public attention on COVID-19 epidemic-related topics. ROST CM6.0 (ROST Content Mining System Version 6.0) was used to analyze the collected text for word segmentation, word frequency, and sentiment analysis. We further described the hot topic keywords and sentiment trends of public attention. We used VOSviewer to implement a visual cluster analysis of hot keywords and build a social network of public opinion content.ResultsThe study has four main findings. First, we analyzed the changing trend of the public’s attention to the COVID-19 epidemic, which can be divided into three stages. Second, the hot topic keywords of public attention at each stage are slightly different. In addition, the emotional tendency of the public toward the COVID-19 epidemic-related hot topics has changed from negative to neutral, with negative emotions weakening and positive emotions increasing as a whole. Finally, we divided the COVID-19 topics with the most public concern into five categories: new COVID-19 epidemics and their impact; (2) frontline reporting of the epidemic and prevention and control measures; (3) expert interpretation and discussion on the source of infection; (4) medical services on the frontline of the epidemic; and (5) focus on the global epidemic and the search for suspected cases.ConclusionsThis is the first study of public attention on the COVID-19 epidemic using a Chinese social media platform (i.e., Sina Microblog). Our study found that social media (e.g., Sina Microblog) can be used to measure public attention to public health emergencies. During the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, a large amount of information about the COVID-19 epidemic was disseminated on Sina Microblog and received widespread public attention. We have learned about the hotspots of public concern regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. These findings can help the government and health departments better communicate with the public on health and translate public health needs into practice to create targeted measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.
Age-Sex based estimates of risk of death from COVID Infection in Adult Cancer Patients
Authors: Williams Matt , Mi Ella , Calvez Kerlann Le , Chen Jiarong , Pakzad-Shahabi Lillie , Dadhania Seema , Wang James , L.K.Ho Andrew , Rabinowicz Simon 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundDuring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID) pandemic, various organisations have produced management guidance for cancer patients and the delivery of cytotoxic chemotherapy, but none offer estimates of risk, or the potential impact across populations.MethodsWe combine data from four countries to produce pooled age-banded Case Fatality Rates (CFRs), calculate the sex-difference in survival and use data from four recent studies to convert CFRs into age-sex stratified Infection Fatality Rates (IFRs). We estimate the additional risk of death in cancer patients, and in those receiving chemotherapy. We illustrate the impact of these by considering the impact on a national incident cancer cohort and present some clinical scenarios.ResultsWe obtained data based on 412,985 cases and 41,854 deaths. The pooled estimate for IFR was 0.92%. Age-related IFRs for patients with cancer range from 0.01% to 29%, and higher in patients receiving chemotherapy. The risk is significantly higher in men than women. 40% of all male and 32% of all female patients with a new diagnosis of cancer this year have an IFR of ≥ 5%.ConclusionsOlder male patients are at a higher risk of death with COVID infection. Patients with cancer are also at higher risk, as are those who have recently received chemotherapy. We provide well-founded estimates to allow patients and clinicians to better balance these risks, and illustrate the wider impact in a national incident cohort.FUNDING & DISCLOSURESMW receives funding from the Imperial/ NIHR BRC; SD receives funding from the IC/ICR CRUK Major Centre; LPS receives funding from Brain Tumour Research and the Brain Tumour Research Campaign. JC is supported by the Guangdong International Young Research Talents Training Programme for Postdoctoral Researchers. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. Code, data and appendicies are available at:https://gitlab.com/computational.oncology/covidcancerriskHIGHLIGHTSWe report case and infection fatality rates based on a large multi-national cohortWe provide sex and age-specific estimates of riskWe provide estimates of additional risk for patients with cancer to allow patients and clinicians to balance risk and benefit
Virome of New York Presbyterian Hospital pediatric emergency
Authors: Ud-Dean Minhaz , Filip Ioan , Galanti Marta , Birger Ruthie , Comito Devon , Freyer Gregory , Ibrahim Sadiat , Lane Benjamin , Ligon Chanel , Matienzo Nelsa , Morita Haruka , Shittu Atinuke , Tagne Eudosie , Dayan Peter , Shaman Jeffrey 
Published: March 2020

AbstractBackgroundViral infection of the respiratory tract is one of the major causes of hospital visits for young children. In this study, we report the occurrence and co-occurrence of different virus types and subtypes among the patients arriving at the pediatric emergency room of New York Presbyterian Hospital, a major urban hospital.MethodsWe collected nasal swabs from the patients and their accompanying persons. We also recorded the levels (None, Mild, High, and Severe) of their symptoms (Fever, Chill, Muscle Pain, Watery Eye, Runny Nose, Sneezing, Sore throat and Cough). The collected swabs were tested for the presence of common viruses infecting the respiratory tract.ResultsHuman Rhinovirus was the most common virus among the patients, followed Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Human Rhinovirus was most common in summer, autumn and spring. In contrast, influenza was more common in winter. Further, Influenza A virus was more likely to co-occur with Corona Virus 229E. In comparison, Influenza was less likely to co-occur with Human Rhinovirus. Moreover, Influenza, Parainfluenza and Corona virus were associated with more severe symptoms, while Human Rhinovirus was associated with less severe symptoms. In addition, we observed that Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus were more likely to infect a patient when these viruses also infected the accompanying person. We also found that it was difficult to distinguish among viruses based on the symptoms. The inability to distinguish among different virus types and subtypes is explained by the fact that multiple viruses lead to similar symptoms.ConclusionsThe findings of this study provide a better understanding of respiratory viral infections in small children presenting at a pediatric emergency room in New York.
Assessing the Global Tendency of COVID-19 Outbreak
Authors: Liu Qinghe , Liu Zhicheng , Zhu Junkai , Zhu Yuhao , Li Deqiang , Gao Zefei , Zhou Liuling , Tang Yuanbo , Zhang Xiang , Yang Junyan , Wang Qiao 
Published: March 2020

ABSTRACTCOVID-19 is now widely spreading around the world as a global pandemic. In this report, we estimate the global tendency of COVID-19 and analyze the associated global epidemic risk, given that the status quo is continued without further measures being taken.The results show that the global R0, excluding China, is estimated to be 2.49 (95% CI: 2.15 – 2.92). The United States, Germany, Italy and Spain have peak values over 100,000. According to dynamical model and cluster analysis, we category the globe into four type regional epicenters of the outbreak: Southeast Asia extending southward to Oceania, the Middle East, Western Europe and North America. Among them, Western Europe will become the major center of the outbreak. The peak values in Germany, Italy and Spain are estimated to be 105,903, 127,283 and 152,539, respectively. The United States is the country with the most serious outbreak trend. Based on the current control measures by Mar. 27, 2020, the peak value in the United States will reach 400,892. Above all, if the current control measures are maintained, the cumulative number of patients worldwide will be 1,442,523 (95% CI: 1,052,577 – 8,981,440). We also estimated the diagnosis rate, recovery rate and infection degree of each country or region, and use clustering algorithm to retrieve countries or regions with similar epidemic characteristics. Different suggestions are proposed for countries or regions in different clusters.
Socio-economic and environmental patterns behind H1N1 spreading in Sweden
Authors: Bóta András , Holmberg Martin , Gardner Lauren , Rosvall Martin 
Published: March 2020

AbstractThe first influenza pandemic in our century started in 2009, spreading from Mexico to the rest of the world, infecting a noticeable fraction of the world population. The outbreak reached Europe in late April, and eventually, almost all countries had confirmed H1N1 cases. On 6 May, Swedish authorities reported the first confirmed influenza case. By the time the pandemic ended, more than 10 thousand people were infected in the country. In this paper, we aim to discover critical socio-economic, travel, and environmental factors contributing to the spreading of H1N1 in Sweden covering six years between 2009 and 2015, focusing on 1. the onset and 2. the peak of the epidemic phase in each municipality.We apply the Generalized Inverse Infection Method (GIIM) to identify these factors. GIIM represents an epidemic spreading process on a network of nodes corresponding to geographical objects, connected by links indicating travel routes, and transmission probabilities assigned to the links guiding the infection process. The GIIM method uses observations on a real-life outbreak as a training dataset to estimate these probabilities and construct a simulated outbreak matching the training data as close as possible.Our results show that the influenza outbreaks considered in this study are mainly driven by the largest population centers in the country. Also, changes in temperature have a noticeable effect. Other socio-economic factors contribute only moderately to the epidemic peak and have a negligible effect on the epidemic onset. We also demonstrate that by training our model on the 2009 outbreak, we can predict the timing of the epidemic onset in the following five seasons with good accuracy.The model proposed in this paper provides a real-time decision support tool advising on resource allocation and surveillance. Furthermore, while this study only considers H1N1 outbreaks, the model can be adapted to other influenza strains or diseases with a similar transmission mechanism.