Common carotid intima-media thickness IMT represents a functional and structural marker of early, precocious, and subclinical atherosclerosis, independently from the carotid plaque Macrophage cells, which have been detected in adipose tissue and atherosclerotic plaques, are regulated by interleukin-15 IL-15 At the light of the conflicting results concerning the role of IL-15 in atherosclerosis, the aim of the study was to retrospectively evaluate in a population of 80 obese patients, with median age of 46 years IQR 34-53 years, with a low rate of comorbidities but with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease NAFLD or hepatic steatosis HS, the relationship between IMT and serum concentrations of IL-15 Anthropometric measures, metabolic profile, and serum inflammatory markers, as well as the levels of IL-15, MCP-1, b FGF, and GM-CSF, were analyzed by a bead-based assay IMT, HS, subcutaneous, and visceral adipose tissues were detected by ultrasonography The IL-15 levels of the obese patients were increar age  https//wwwselleckchemcom/products/hmpl-504-azd6094-volitinibhtml  Age is resulted to be the main factor in the prediction of IMT and thus of early atherosclerosis The prediction of IMT by IL-15 coupled with the lack of prediction by the well-known CAD risks is in agreement with recent data, which emphasizes the main role of the immune system in the onset/worsening of atherosclerosis, even though the role of visceral adiposity should be further deepened Age and IL-15 levels were both predictors of early atherosclerosis in this population of obese patients with NAFLD, suggesting a possible role of this cytokine in the atherosclerosis processBackground Bloodstream infection BSI is one of the most common serious bacterial infections worldwide and also a major contributor to in-hospital mortality Determining the predictors of mortality is crucial for prevention and improving clinical prognosis in patients with nosocomial BSI Methods A nationwide prospective cohort study was conducted from 2007 until 2016 in 16 teaching hospitals across China Microbiological results, clinical information, and patient outcomes were collected to investigate the pathogenic spectrum and mortality rate in patients with BSI and identify outcome predictors using multivariate regression, prediction model, and Kaplan-Meier analysis Results No significant change was observed in the causative pathogen distribution during the 10-year period and the overall in-hospital mortality was 1283 480/3,741 An increased trend was found in the mortality of patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Acinetobacter baumannii, while a decreased mortality rate was noted in Staphylococcus aureus-related BSI In multivariable-adjusted models, higher mortality rate was significantly associated with older age, cancer, sepsis diagnosis, ICU admission, and prolonged hospital stay prior to BSI onset, which were also determined using machine learning-based predictive model achieved by random forest algorithm with a satisfactory performance in outcome prediction Conclusions Our study described the clinical and microbiological characteristics and mortality predictive factors in patients with BSI These informative predictors would inform clinical practice to adopt effective therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomesBackground Blood cultures BC have a high clinical relevance and are a priority specimen for surveillance of antimicrobial resistance Manual BC are still most frequently used in resource-limited settings Data on automated BC performance in Africa are scarce We implemented automated BC at a surveillance site of the African Network for improved Diagnostics, Epidemiology and Management of Common Infectious Agents ANDEMIA Methods Between June 2017 and January 2018, pairs of automated BC BacT/ALERT®FA Plus and manual BC brain-heart infusion broth were compared at a University hospital in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire BC were inoculated each with a target blood volume of 10 ml from the same venipuncture Automated BC were incubated for up to 5 days, manual BC for up to 10 days Terminal subcultures were performed for manual BC only The two systems were compared regarding yield, contamination, and turnaround time For quality assurance, isolates were retested in a German routine microbiological laboratory Resucrobiological method Retesting highlighted that manual identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing can be of good quality and sustainable The implementation of automated tools should be decided individually according to economic considerations, number of samples, stable supply chain of consumables, and technical sustainabilityIntroduction The efficacy of conventional treatments for treating postherpetic neuralgia PHN remains unsatisfactory Thus, this multicentre, randomized controlled, assessor-blinded trial aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture EA therapy in patients with PHN Methods and Analysis This multicentre randomized controlled trial will enroll 132 patients with PHN from 3 hospitals All patients will be randomly assigned to either the EA combined with medication group or medication group through a computerized central randomization system in a 11 ratio Outcome measures will be assessed before intervention, at 2, 4, 6 weeks after intervention and at the end of 8-week follow-up Primary outcomes will be sensory thresholds and pain intensity Secondary outcomes will include dosage of analgetic, quality of life, anxiety, and depression severity and sleep quality All adverse effects will be assessed during the trial Conclusions This study will provide evidence to ascertain whether EA is effective and safe for treating PHN Ethics and Dissemination Ethics approval NoZSLL-KY-2017-025 has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University Informed consent will be signed prior to subject enrolment The results will be submitted to international peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences Trial Registration Number The study protocol has been registered in the clinicaltrials registry with the identification code NCT04594226Background Few ontological attempts have been reported for conceptualizing the bioethics domain In addition to limited scope representativeness and lack of robust methodological approaches in driving research design and evaluation of bioethics ontologies, no bioethics ontologies exist for pandemics and COVID-19 This research attempted to investigate whether studying the bioethics research literature, from the inception of bioethics research publications, facilitates developing highly agile, and representative computational bioethics ontology as a foundation for the automatic governance of bioethics processes in general and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular Research Design The iOntoBioethics agile research framework adopted the Design Science Research Methodology Using systematic literature mapping, the search space resulted in 26,170 Scopus indexed bioethics articles, published since 1971 iOntoBioethics underwent two distinctive stages 1 Manually Constructing Bioethics MCB ontology from selected biethics processes These ontologies will be regularly and semi-automatically enriched as iOntoBioethics is proposed as an open platform for scientific and healthcare communities, in their infancy COVID-19 learning stage iOntoBioethics not only it contributes to better understanding of bioethics processes, but also serves as a bridge linking these processes to healthcare systems Such big data analytics platform has the potential to automatically inform bioethics governance adherence given the plethora of developing bioethics and COVID-19 pandemic knowledge Finally, iOntoBioethics contributes toward setting the first building block for forming the field of "Bioethics Informatics"Behçet's disease BD is a chronic multi-systemic inflammatory disorder characterised by oro-genital ulcers, cutaneous manifestations, ocular, vascular, neurologic and gastrointestinal involvement Complex interactions operating on the genetic background egHLA51, of infectious and other environmental agents, together with immune dysregulation impacts on the pathogenesis of BD This suggests that the environmental factors triggering immune responses may activate clinical manifestations in genetically susceptible individuals Since oral health forms the basis of all general health both dental and systemic, it is an important component of both Dentistry and Medicine Oral ulcers are the most common clinical manifestation of oral mucosal health Changes in the oral environment consequently acts as an infective and immune trigger In this review, complex interactions between the oral ulcers, the oral microbiome and immune responses together with the course of oral and systemic disease manifestations in BD are discussed in the context of the aetiologic role of oral healthLoss of bone and muscle mass and strength i e, osteosarcopenia is a highly prevalent clinical condition in older adults, associated with an increased risk of fragility fractures and unfavorable clinical outcomes Although sarcopenia is a potential risk factor for osteoporosis and subsequent fracture, and the management of this hazardous duet is the key to preventing osteoporotic fracture, evidence pertaining to the treatment of sarcopenia for the purpose of preventing fragile fractures remains insufficient Given this scenario we aimed at prospectively compare the long-term effectiveness of bisphosphonates vs denosumab, on bone and muscle, in a cohort of old age hip fractured patients by virtue of a timely osteo-metabolic and sarcopenic assessment Ninety-eight patients consecutively enrolled at the IRCCS Hospital San martino, Genoa, Italy, received at baseline comprehensive geriatric assessment and Bone Densitometry DXA with the quantitative and quantitative bone analysis and evaluation of relative skeletal muscle index RSMI and longitudinally after 1 year form hip surgery The results showed a slightly and non-significant osteo-metabolic improvement in the Alendronate group compared to the Denosumab group, and a positive trend of RSMI measurements in the Denosumab group Although preliminary in nature, this is the first report to longitudinally analyze osteosarcopenia in a real-world cohort of very old age patients after hip fracture and moved a step forward in the understanding of the best osteo-metabolic therapy for long- term treatment, exploring as well the potential dual role of denousumab as antiresorptive and muscle strength specific drug for osteosarcopenia in this vulnerable populationIn addition to providing a macromolecular scaffold, the extracellular matrix ECM is a critical regulator of cell function by virtue of specific physical, biochemical, and mechanical properties Collagen is the main ECM component and hence plays an essential role in the pathogenesis and progression of chronic lung disease It is well-established that many chronic lung diseases, eg, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis IPF primarily manifest in the elderly, suggesting increased susceptibility of the aged lung or accumulated alterations in lung structure over time that favour disease Here, we review the main steps of collagen biosynthesis, processing, and turnover and summarise what is currently known about alterations upon lung ageing, including changes in collagen composition, modification, and crosslinking Recent proteomic data on mouse lung ageing indicates that, while the ER-resident machinery of collagen biosynthesis, modification and triple helix formation appears largely unchanged, there are specific changes in levels of type IV and type VI as well as the two fibril-associated collagens with interrupted triple helices FACIT, namely type XIV and type XVI collagens