Normal Mode Analysis is a fast and inexpensive approach that is largely used to gain insight into functional protein motions, and more recently to create conformations for further computational studies. However, when the protein structure is unknown, the use of computational models is necessary. Here, we analyze the capacity of normal mode analysis in internal coordinate space to predict protein motion, its intrinsic flexibility and atomic displacements, using protein models instead of native structures, and the possibility to use it for model refinement. Our results show that normal mode analysis is quite insensitive to modelling errors, but that calculations are strictly reliable only for very accurate models. Our study also suggests that internal normal mode analysis is a more suitable tool for the improvement of structural models, and for integrating them with experimental data or in other computational techniques, such as protein docking or more refined molecular dynamics simulations.

A document by Kaitlyn Merrill, written on Authorea.

ABSTRACTMany articles clearly state that the birth rate is expected to drop under the covid-19 pandemic. Based on the past study, after the Spanish flu pandemic there was a surge called, Spanish flu baby boom. The strength of economy after the pandemic determined the size of the surge.Meredith Wadman wrote a short article on the birth rate of the covid-19 pandemic1. Döring described a commentary article on how the covid-19 pandemic affecting our sexualities2. Miriam also mentioned how the covid-19 pandemic is affecting birthrates worldwide3. Brookings institution predicts the followings4:the covid-19 episode will likely lead to a large, lasting baby bust,the pandemic has thrust the country into an economic recession,economic reasoning and past evidence suggest that this will lead people to have fewer children,the decline in births could be on the order of 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births next year.All articles1,2,3,4clearly state that the birth rate is expected to drop under the covid-19 pandemic.We can sometimes learn from the past study. According to CDC on the Spanish flu pandemic (H1N1 virus), lasting from February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people–about a third of the world’s population at the time5. Over three waves of infections, the Spanish flu killed at least 50 million worldwide5. Based on the past study of the Spanish influenza pandemic, the birth rate was dropped during the pandemic6,7,8. After the pandemic there was a surge called, Spanish flu baby boom6,7,8. However, we don’t know when the covid-19 pandemic will be ended. The world population in 1918 was less than 2 billion while it is now nearly 7.8 billion. By the summer of 1919, the flu pandemic in US came to an end, as those that were infected either died or developed immunity9. We know the fact that the U.S. fertility rate is proportional to the strength of economy which can be generalized worldwide10. Based on the fact, the birth rate may be strongly influenced by the strength of economy after the pandemic. In other words, it will surge after the pandemic where the birth rate spike may be depending on the state of economy.This research did not receive any specific funding. The authors declare no conflict of interest.References:Meredith Wadman, COVID-19 unlikely to cause birth defects, but doctors await fall births, Science 07 Aug 2020: Vol. 369, Issue 6504, pp. 607Döring, N. How Is the COVID-19 Pandemic Affecting Our Sexualities? An Overview of the Current Media Narratives and Research Hypotheses.Arch Sex Behav (2020).https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01790-zMiriam Berger, Coronavirus baby boom or bust? How the pandemic is affecting birthrates worldwide, the Washington Post, July 15, 2020.https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/07/15/coronavirus-baby-boom-or-bust-how-pandemic-is-affecting-birthrates-worldwide/4. Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip B. Levine, “Half a million fewer children? The coming COVID baby bust”, June 15 2020.https://www.brookings.edu/research/half-a-million-fewer-children-the-coming-covid-baby-bust/5.https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html6. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/articles/trendsinbirthsanddeathsoverthelastcentury/2015-07-157. Mamelund, Svenn-Erik. “Can the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 Explain the Baby Boom of 1920 in Neutral Norway?” Population (English Edition, 2002-) , vol. 59, no. 2, 2004, pp. 229–260.JSTOR ,www.jstor.org/stable/3654904.8. Siddharth Chandra et al., The 1918 influenza pandemic and subsequent birth deficit in Japan, DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH, vol.33, 11, pp. 313−326, 6 AUGUST 2015.9. Spanish flu, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic10. Mark Mather, The Decline in U.S. Fertility, July 18, 2012. https://www.prb.org/us-fertility/

Introduction: Fractures of the zygomatic-maxillary complex (ZMC) are common facial fractures. Annually 5.8 million people die from trauma worldwide. According to WHO data, head and face injuries can account for half of traumatic deaths. Objective: To analyze the success rates of fracture stability of the ZMC, incidences of complications and aesthetic satisfaction after 1-point fixation. Methods: This study followed the rules of PRISMA, with publications from 2010 to 2020. The Chi-Square Test and the Poisson's Probability Test were performed in relation to the occurrence of complications Low = 1, Moderate = 2 and NO = 0, adopting the α-level less than 0.05 with a statistical difference for 95% CI. The R-sq (R2) value was also analyzed among the complications variables. Results: The results of these studies showed in a general way that the use of 1-point fixation presented good results in the short, medium and long term, showing fracture stability, with or without open reduction. Complication rates were low and patients' satisfaction with aesthetics was considerable. Conclusion: The success rate of the 1-point fixation procedure for the zygomatic-maxillary complex is high, with minimal complications. Keywords: Zygomatic-maxillary complex. 1-point fixation. Fracture stability. Complications. Aesthetics.

We present an unusual case of a 67-year-old woman with an incidental finding of a cardiac mass on a chest-computed tomography. Coronary angiotomography confirmed the diagnosis of a right coronary artery aneurysm, with 5.7x5.7 cm. Patient underwent aneurysm resection and coronary artery bypass graft surgery, with subsequent histologic study suggestive of arteritis sequela. Patients with giant coronary artery aneurysms are at high risk of complications and must benefit from aneurysm exclusion. This is a rare condition that can also be part of a systemic inflammatory disease.

Background: Discrimination of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and other gastrointestinal diseases in pediatric patients is highly important and the definitive diagnosis of IBD is established by endoscopic examination. the use of noninvasive methods (clinical symptoms and laboratory tests) allows an early and accurate referral of patients from first step health centers to advanced health centers. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of fecal calprotectin (FC) in the discrimination of IBD and other gastrointestinal diseases in children. Methods: The retrospective study included the patients that underwent FC testing and colonoscopy. Demographic characteristics, Alarm symptoms (AS), and abnormal laboratory findings (ALF) were recorded for each patient. A negative calprotectin result was considered to be less than 50 μg/g, and a second cutoff value for FC was accepted as 150 µg/g. Definitive diagnosis was established by colonoscopy in each patient. Results: The study included 88 consecutive patients (mean age, 10.2 ± 6.1 years; 51.1% female). Of these, 20 (22.7%) patients were diagnosed with IBD. No significant difference was found between IBD and non-IBD patients with regard to AS except for involuntary weight loss (p=<0.001). The incidence of increased CRP and hypoalbuminemia was significantly higher in IBD patients (p=0.002 and p=0.026, respectively). AS combined with ALF and FC >150 µg/g had the highest specificity (95.12%). Conclusions: Although primary care clinicians often use AS and laboratory parameters in the discrimination of IBD and non-IBD diseases, FC was found to have a relatively higher diagnostic value.

Studying soil water dynamics and water balance on coral islands is important to utilize and manage the limited freshwater resources of these islands. In this study, we investigated the soil water dynamics of Zhaoshu Island, Xisha Archipelago, using observed data and the Richards equation and analyzed the water balance of this island from October 2018 to September 2019. We found a dry soil layer at depths between 40 cm and 160 cm of the soil profile from November 2018 to April 2019 (dry season) which prevented the exchange of water between upper soil layers and groundwater. Therefore, the vegetation developed deep roots to take up water from the groundwater. Precipitation is the only source of the freshwater, while approximately 38% of the precipitation infiltrated into the groundwater, 22% of the precipitation was taken up by vegetation, and 39% of the precipitation evaporated from the land surface during the entire observed year. In the dry season, evapotranspiration (ETa) was only 44 mm/month, which was 94% greater than the amount of precipitation, and approximately 14 mm/month of water was taken up from the groundwater by plants. However, in wet season, infiltration dominated the processes of soil water movement. Approximately 56% of the precipitation infiltrated into the groundwater and 37% of the precipitation was consumed by ETa. This study can help us to better understand the process of water movement on coral islands and provide references for further management to protect coral island ecology.

Since the Eastern Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWD-ERP) officially began operation, it was found that the concentrations of sulfate rapidly increased after water transfer from Jiangsu Province to Shandong Province, especially in Nansi Lake (NSL). The direct and original sources of sulfate in NSL and its surrounding inflowing rivers were investigated by analyzing the hydrochemical properties of the water bodies and sulfur and oxygen isotope compositions of dissolved sulfate during nondiversion and diversion water periods. During the diversion water period, the largest direct source of high SO42- concentrations in NSL was evaporite dissolution, accounting for 52.18% of the total contribution. In contrast, during the nondiversion water period, the maximum contribution of SO42- came from inflowing river inputs. To ensure the safety of the water supply of the SNWD-ERP, some measures must be taken to decrease the sulfate inputs from inflowing rivers, such as formulating strict discharge standards to reduce the direct discharge of sewage into the inflowing rivers around NSL.

Specific electrical conductivity (SC) is a basic, effective indicator of water quality. The recent increase in SC data collected with high-frequency sensors has created a strong need for algorithms that can aid interpretation of these data. This study presents an algorithm that finds and quantifies SC temporal patterns and applies that algorithm to a data set from a forested catchment. During and after rain events, we show three patterns that emerge in SC time series: a solute flush, resulting in an initial increase in SC, followed by a dilution, followed by the SC’s recovery toward pre-rain conditions. We compared these SC patterns to precipitation amount and intensity, antecedent wetness, and seasonality. Our results indicate that the magnitude of the flush was driven primarily by precipitation intensity and total rainfall during a storm, and secondarily by antecedent moisture conditions. The magnitude of the dilution was driven mainly by precipitation amount. The rate of SC recovery was driven by precipitation amount and was correlated with the dilution. Overall, the algorithm successfully extracted event-driven characteristics in the SC time series, allowing the development of functional relationships with hydrologic drivers. Applying similar methodologies to more catchments in the future will help identify functional relationships at more sites and use these relationships to identify catchments most sensitive to future precipitation changes.

Objective: Hyperuricemia increases the risk of gout and cardiovascular diseases. Obesity increase the risk of hyperuricemia while weight loss (>5 kg) has been reported to decrease urate. The effects of orlistat on serum uric acid is still controversial. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the influence of orlistat on serum uric acid level in adults. Methods: Relevant studies, published up to May 2020, were searched systematically through PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar. All relevant randomized controlled clinical trials were included. Meta-analysis was performed using random-effect model. Subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and meta-regression were also carried out Results: Overall 7 trials (9 dataset) that enrolled 1786 subjects were included. Orlistat showed in significant change in serum uric acid level (Difference in means: -17.661μmol, 95% CI: -31.615 to -3.707, P=0.01). A low heterogeneity observed across the studies (I^2 = 25.119%). After categorizing studies on the basis of duration and sample size the effect of orlistat on serum uric acid was significant. The results of meta-regression were showed that significant relationships were not found between orlistat and serum uric acid in duration of intervention. Conclusion: We found a significant reduction in serum uric acid following orlistat therapy in adults.

In the mechanisms of stomatal opening, the transports of osmotic materials between the guard cell cytoplasm and vacuole have not been studied much. There were also important lacks of understanding about tonoplast transport proteins and channels. Tonoplast has been found to have many types of channels related to K+ transport, among which are inward-K+ channels/FV, outward-K+ channels/FV, outward-TPK/VK channels and TPC1/SV channels. The two H+ transport enzymes in tonoplast, H+-ATPase and H+-PPase, transport H+ from the cytoplasm to vacuole very actively. They serve to create an ideal pH condition between vacuole and cytoplasm to facilitate the many metabolisms in the cell. The cytosolic K+ cannot easily enter the vacuole to fill the charge balances, because vacuole is too full of positive charges. Therefore, in order to increase the osmotic pressure of the guard cell vacuole, it is necessary to transport solute that can replace K+. Tonoplast contains sucrose-H+ antiports, an active transport protein that can transport cytoplasmic sucrose to vacuole. Although various solutes including K+ are required for stomata to open, sucrose is believed to be the most important substance that can increase the vacuole’s osmotic pressure.

The present study evaluated three wheat genotypes (SD-28, SD-32 and Chirya-1) were evaluated for physiological attributes like Relative Water Content, Proline Content, Membrane Stability Index and Chlorophyll Content where Opata was used as a control check under three different levels of drought stress (100% FC, 80% FC and 60% FC). Results revealed that chlorophyll content was significantly affected under stressed conditions in all the studied genotypes and genotypes. Molecular diagnosis of the selected wheat genotypes and genotypes was carried out with RT-PCR using expression profile of 06 genes (TaLhca1, TaLhca2, TaLhca3, TaLhcb1, TaLhcb4 and TaLhcb6) that encodes for LHCI and LHCII proteins. RT–PCR indicated variable expression of the selected genes in response to different level of drought stress. The results obtained clearly showed the relation between genotypes and severity of drought stress condition. Among the studied genotypes Chirya-1 and SD-28 performed well with higher level of gene expression under drought stress condition; and may be considered drought tolerant genotypes with potential to enrich the genetic background of locally adapted wheat lines against drought stress.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of using uterine fundal pressure during the second stage of delivery on obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI), among primiparous women using three-dimensional transperineal ultrasonography. Design: Case control study Setting: Tertiary Urogynecology Unit Population: Nulliparous women with term, singleton, cephalic presentation gestation delivered with fundal pressure in second stage of labour. Main Outcome Measure: Complete, incomplete IAS and EAS defect in transperineal tomographic ultrasound imaging Method: A total of 73 women who had their first vaginal birth were included in the study, 37 of them applied fundal pressure and 36 of them delivered spontaneously without fundal pressure. Tomographic ultrasound imaging with 3D transperineal assessment was performed within 48 h of delivery, IAS and EAS defect were determined. Results: Five (13.5%) women in the fundal pressure group, 7 (20%) women in the control group had complete EAS (p = 0.4). Complete IAS was observed in 1 (2.7%) women in the fundal pressure group and 2 (5.7%) women in the control group (p = 0.5). Half-moon sign was observed in 1 woman in both groups (p = 0.9). The rate of other signs were similar in both groups. Multivariate regression models revealed that none of, age, episiotomy, length of second stage of labour, fundal pressure application status and number were independent predictor of complete IAS or EAS defect. Conclusions: Fundal pressure during the second stage of delivery is not cause increase in rate of OASI detected with ultrasonography.

Study Objective: To examine the correlation between the occurrence of adenomyosis and the outcome of vaginal repair of cesarean scar defects (CSD). Design: A retrospective observational cohort study. Setting: University hospital. Patients: A total of 278 women with CSD were enrolled at the Shanghai First Maternity & Infant Hospital between January 2013 and August 2017. Interventions: Vaginal excision and suture of CSD. Measures and Main Results: According to preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, patients were divided into two groups, the adenomyosis group (group A) and the non-adenomyosis group (group B). For group A patients, the mean duration of menstruation at 3- and 6-months follow-up was shorter and the TRM at the median-month follow-up was significantly thinner than those in group B patients (p < 0.05). There were more patients with class-A healing in group B compared with group A (44.7% vs 30.0%; p < 0.05). Furthermore, 59.3% (32/54) of women tried to conceive after vaginal repair. The pregnancy rates of women with and without adenomyosis were 66.7% (8/12) and 61.9% (26/42), respectively. The duration of menstruation decreased significantly from 13.4 ± 3.3 days to 7.6 ± 2.3 days after vaginal repair in 25 patients (p < 0.001). The TRM increased significantly from 2.3 ± 0.8 mm to 7.6 ± 2.9 mm after vaginal repair (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Vaginal repair reduced postmenstrual spotting and improve fertility in patients with CSD. Adenomyosis might be an adverse factor in the repair of uterine incisions.

Abstract Background Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) is a severe cutaneous adverse drug reaction associated with human herpesvirus reactivation. However, the risk factors for viral reactivation and their impact on outcomes remain unclear.We aimed to explore the impact of viral reactivation on DRESS outcomes and potential risk factors for reactivation. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study in an academic medical center. Cases were validated in-hospital cases of DRESS from 2009 to 2017. Results Overall, 100 patients fulfilled the case criteria. Ninety-three patients had at least one viral marker tested. HHV6, EBV and CMV reactivation occurred in 24 out of 85 cases (28%), 15 out of 87 (17%) cases, and 18 out of 89 (20%) cases respectively. Viral reactivation cases were associated with higher 1-year mortality, dialysis initiation, recurrent flares of disease, and longer hospital stay (all p<0.05). Risk of inpatient mortality (OR, 5.8; 95% CI, 1.7-20.7; p<0.01) and 1-year mortality (OR, 10.0, 95% CI, 2.9-34.9; p<0.01) increased with multiple viral reactivations. Viral reactivation was independent of demographics, comorbidities, treatment or causative drug. Conclusion Human herpesviridae viral reactivation in DRESS, particularly multiple viral reactivations, is associated with poorer clinical outcomes.

Identification of carriers of fragile X syndrome (FXS) with the subsequent prenatal diagnosis, and knowledge of FXS-associated genetic profiles are essential for intervention in specific populations. We report the results of carrier screening of 39,458 East Asian adult women and prenatal diagnosis from 87 FXS carriers. The prevalence of FXS carriers and incidence of full mutation fetuses in carrier pregnancies were found to be 1/556 and 11.0%, respectively. We confirmed the validity of the current threshold of CGG repeats for FMR1 categorization; the integral risks of full mutation expansion were approximately 6.0%, 43.8%, and 100% for premutation alleles with 55-74, 75-89, and ≥90 CGG repeats, respectively. The protective effect of AGG interruption in East Asian populations was validated, which is important in protecting premutation alleles with 75-89 CGG repeats from full mutation expansion. Lastly, family history was shown not an effective indicator for FXS carrier screening in East Asian populations and population-based screening was more cost-effective. This study provides an insight into the largest carrier screening and prenatal diagnosis for FXS in East Asian populations to date. The FXS-associated genetic profiles of East Asian populations are delineated and population-based carrier screening is shown to be promising for FXS intervention.

Familial Colorectal Cancer Type X (FCCTX) is a term used to describe a group of families with an increased predisposition to colorectal and other related cancers, but an unknown genetic basis. Whole-exome sequencing in two cancer-affected and one healthy members of a FCCTX family revealed a truncating germline mutation in PTPRT [c.4090dup, p.(Asp1364GlyfsTer24)]. PTPRT encodes a receptor phosphatase and is a tumor suppressor gene found to be frequently mutated at somatic level in many cancers, having been proven that these mutations act as drivers that promote tumor development. This germline variant shows a compatible cosegregation with cancer in the family and results in the loss of a significant fraction of the second phosphatase domain of the protein, which is essential for PTPRT’s activity. In addition, the tumors of the carriers exhibit epigenetic inactivation of the wild-type allele and an altered expression of PTPRT downstream target genes, consistent with a causal role of this germline mutation in the cancer predisposition of the family. Although PTPRT’s role cancer initiation and progression has been well studied, this is the first time that a germline PTPRT mutation is linked with cancer susceptibility and hereditary cancer, which highlights the relevance of the present study.

Bi-allelic loss-of-function variants of OTOA are a well-known cause of mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Whereas non-allelic homologous recombination-mediated deletions of the gene are well known, gene conversions to pseudogene OTOAP1 have been reported in the literature but never fully described nor their pathogenicity assessed. Here, we report two unrelated patients with mild-to-moderate hearing-loss, who were compound heterozygotes for a converted allele and a deletion of OTOA. The conversions were initially detected through sequencing depths anomalies at the OTOA locus after exome sequencing, then confirmed with long range PCRs. Both conversions lead to loss-of-function by introducing a premature stop codon in exon 22 (p.Glu787*). Using genomic alignments and long read nanopore sequencing, we found that the two probands carry converted alleles of widely different lengths, suggesting that they originated from different mechanisms of gene conversion.

In this research, we offer two new quantum integral equalities for recently defined $q^{b}$-integral and derivative, the derived equalities then used to prove quantum integral inequalities of Simpson’s and Newton’s type for preinvex functions. We also considered the special cases of established results and offer several new and existing results inside the literature of Simpson’s and Newton’s type inequalities.

Background: Immune rejection is still the main cause of transplant failure of corneal transplantation which mechanism is not fully understood. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differential expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in corneal allograft rejection and to construct a network diagram of the interaction between lncRNAs and microRNAs(miRNAs). Methods: The lncRNAs expression profile of rat corneal transplantation was constructed by high throughput sequencing. The co-expressed mRNA was analyzed by gene ontology (GO), gene and genomic Kyoto encyclopedia (KEGG). An interaction network diagram of lncRNAs, miRNA and rejection related target genes was constructed. Part of the prediction was verified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Results: A total of 285 lncRNAs expressions were detected between the normal group and the autograft group, with 239 lncRNAs significantly upregulated and 46 lncRNAs downregulated, while 162 lncRNAs were upregulated and 20 downregulated between the allograft group and the autograft group. Go and KEGG were used to enrich and analyze the co-expression of mRNA. By analyzing the interaction between lncRNAs, miRNAs and target genes related to corneal allograft rejection, 56 upregulated lncRNAs,7 downregulated lncRNAs, 6 upregulated miRNAs and 4 downregulated miRNAs were found in allograft and autograft group. Three of the possible pathways were confirmed and verified by qPCR . Conclusions: The results showed that there was a difference in lncRNA expression between normal ,autograft and allograft group. LncRNAs may be a new molecular target in the treatment of corneal injury and corneal allograft rejection by interact with miRNAs.

In this article, imperssive exact solutions and hence effective regulations to the non-fractional order and the time-fractional order of the biological population models are achevied for the first time in the framwork of the Paul-Painlevé approach. When the variables appearing in the exact solutions take specific values, the solaitry wave solutions will be easily satisfied.The realized results prove the efficiency of this technique.

In this paper, we consider a region occupied by viscous or inviscid compressible magnetohydrodynamic fluids, and surrounded by vacuum. It is shown that the fluid region will expand at least linearly in time as soon as there are no singularities. The expanding rate is proportional to initial total energy and is inversely proportional to initial mass. The result indicates an interesting fact that the expansion of the viscous monatomic fluids seems similar to the inviscid fluids.

This paper provides a further understanding of the peak load effect on the damage mechanics and residual stress relaxation. The comprehensive numerical simulations using the finite element method are applied to take into account simultaneously the effect of the surface roughness and residual stresses on the crack formation in sandblasted S690 high strength steel surface under peak load condition. A ductile fracture criterion is introduced for the prediction of damage initiation and evolution. This study investigates especially the influences of compressive peak load, effective parameters on fracture locus, surface roughness, and residual stress on damage mechanism and the formed crack size. Results indicate that under peak load conditions, surface roughness has a far more important influence on microcrack formation than residual stress. Moreover, it is shown that the effect of peak load range on damage formation and crack size is significantly higher in comparison with the influence of residual stress. It is found the crack size has been developed exponentially with increasing peak load magnitudes.

Surfactant, which was first identified in the 1920s is pivotal to lower the surface tension in alveoli of the lungs and helps to lower the work of breathing and prevents atelectasis. Surfactant proteins, such as surfactant protein B and surfactant protein C contribute to normal functioning of surfactant. Additionally, Adenosine Triphosphate Binding Cassette 3 and Thyroid Transcription Factor-1 are also integral for the normal structure and functioning of pulmonary surfactant. Through the study and improved understanding of surfactant over the decades, there is increasing interest into the study of childhood interstitial lung diseases (chILD) in the context of surfactant protein deficiencies. Surfactant protein deficiency syndrome (SPDS) is a group of rare diseases within the chILD group that is caused by genetic mutations of SFTPB, SPTPC, ABCA3 and TTF1 genes. This review article seeks to provide an overview of surfactant protein deficiencies in the context of chILD.