Data-Driven Surveillance: Effective Collection, Integration, and Interpretation of Data to Support Decision Making

The biggest change brought about by the “era of big data” to health in general, and epidemiology in particular, relates arguably not to the volume of data encountered, but to its variety. An increasing number of new data sources, including many not originally collected for health purposes, are now being used for epidemiological inference and contextualization. Combining evidence from multiple data sources presents significant challenges, but discussions around this subject often confuse issues of data access and privacy, with the actual technical challenges of data integration and interoperability. We review some of the opportunities for connecting data, generating information, and supporting decision-making across the increasingly complex “variety” dimension of data in population health, to enable data-driven surveillance to go beyond simple signal detection and support an expanded set of surveillance goals.

Macrophage Function and the Role of GSK3

Macrophages are present in nearly all vertebrate tissues, where they respond to a complex variety of regulatory signals to coordinate immune functions involved in tissue development, metabolism, homeostasis, and repair. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is a ubiquitously expressed protein kinase that plays important roles in multiple pathways involved in cell metabolism. Dysregulation of GSK3 has been implicated in several prevalent metabolic disorders, and recent findings have highlighted the importance of GSK3 activity in the regulation of macrophages, especially with respect to the initiation of specific pathologies. This makes GSK3 a potential therapeutic target for the development of novel drugs to modulate immunometabolic responses. Here, we summarize recent findings that have contributed to our understanding of how GSK3 regulates macrophage function, and we discuss the role of GSK3 in the development of metabolic disorders and diseases.

More Sustainable Supply Chains

Management efforts to design, develop, and operate more sustainable supply chains encompass an increasingly complex variety of social and environmental issues. More sustainable supply chains must now consider how product, operations, natural resources, technologies, and multiple tiers of organizations collectively create value for a diverse set of stakeholders. For multiple reasons, research and practice have tended to adopt an outcome-based perspective, whereby these efforts focus on a sustainability “destination,” which suffers from several shortcomings. Drawing from research in operations management, stakeholder theory, institutional theory, and innovation, this chapter posits how more sustainable supply chains might be co-defined and co-developed by emphasizing a journey that engages multiple stakeholders beyond supply chain partners. Design thinking is a very promising approach, with its iterative steps of empathy, defining the problem, ideate, prototype, and test. This journey-based perspective provides a framework for structuring engagement and encouraging openness to new observations and insights. Finally, the breadth and depth of collaboration with stakeholders, the nature of governance mechanisms, and the form and scale of resource investment all provide the means to assess the journey as it occurs.

Reconstruction of a homogeneous polynomial from its additive decompositions when identifiability fails

Let X⊂ℙr be an integral and non-degenerate complex variety. For any q∈ℙr let rX(q) be its X-rank and S(X,q) the set of all finite subsets of X such that |S|=rX(q) and q ∈ 〈S〉, where 〈〉 denotes the linear span. We consider the case |S(X,q)|>1 (i.e. when q is not X -identifiable) and study the set W(X)q:=∩ S∈S(X,q)〈S〉, which we call the non-uniqueness set of q. We study the case dimX=1 and the case X a Veronese embedding of ℙn. We conclude the paper with a few remarks concerning this problem over the reals.

A comprehensive overview of substrate specificity of glycoside hydrolases and transporters in the small intestine

The human body is able to process and transport a complex variety of carbohydrates, unlocking their nutritional value as energy source or as important building block. The endogenous glycosyl hydrolases (glycosidases) and glycosyl transporter proteins located in the enterocytes of the small intestine play a crucial role in this process and digest and/or transport nutritional sugars based on their structural features. It is for these reasons that glycosidases and glycosyl transporters are interesting therapeutic targets to combat sugar related diseases (such as diabetes) or to improve drug delivery. In this review we provide a detailed overview focused on the molecular structure of the substrates involved as a solid base to start from and to fuel research in the area of therapeutics and diagnostics.

Unfinished Business

There is compelling evidence of the use by the booktrade from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries of partly-completed sewn bindings with permanent structures, with or without boards, but without permanent covers. They allowed books to be held together as they went through the booktrade, added little extra weight and would have been relatively inexpensive. Evidence for their use can be found in archival sources, trade regulations and depictions in art, but mostly in the 82 sewn bookblocks without boards that have so far been recorded. They can be identified by a careful examination of their various and varied physical features, which present a complex variety of options. The survival of composite volumes raises the question of who commissioned the bindings. What is not in doubt, however, is that they were an established feature of the booktrade, though the extent to which they were used is as yet unknown.

A technology of experimental studies on the xenobiotic element sorption characteristics of representatives of the intestinal normal flora

Modern views on the general level of intoxication of an organism by heavy metals are based solely on the extent of effects on organs and organ systems of macroorganisms while the impacts on representatives of the normal flora and their role in the organism’s mechanisms of detoxification as a whole are not taken into account. We proposed technology of experimental studies based on a complex variety of methods. The technology allows estimating the degree of effects of xenobiotic elements on representatives of the intestinal normal flora and their sorption characteristics, which is an important factor in the assessment of mechanisms of detoxification in oral intoxication. The obtained experimental data indicate high sorption characteristics of lead cations in the studied microorganisms, which, in our view, is primarily associated with microorganisms’ mechanisms of detoxification. The study found that the most pronounced bioaccumulative characteristics for lead were registered in Escherichia coli (65% of the total volume of the elements introduced in the substrate) and, in the case of cadmium, – Enterococcus faecium (33.2%). The minimal accumulation scores were revealed for Lactobacillus acidophilus (42.3% and 5.3%, respectively).

I-THS-1908 A Big Data Electronic Health Record for Patient Care Management and Analytics

The I-THS-1908, a big data electronic health record platform, is capable of establishing its capability as an electronic health record to tackle the large volume of data with high velocity and complex variety of patient data by providing the value to the patient care management and analytics. The further development of I-THS-1908 opens the opportunity to use the electronic health record for patient care management and analytics for all type of health conditions.

A 25-Year-Old Female with Unusually Large Complex Odontoma in Mandibular Molar Area Associated with Unerupted Tooth

Odontomas are benign tumours of odontogenic origin consisting of different dental tissues. Usually they are tooth size or smaller, but occasionally complex variety can exhibit considerable growth. They are usually asymptomatic and often are discovered during routine radiograph. Morphologically odontoma can be classified as complex when present as irregular masses containing different types of dental tissues, or as compound if there is superficial anatomic similarity to even rudimentary teeth known as denticles. We report a case of large complex odontoma that causes pain, infection and facial asymmetry. J Enam Med Col 2019; 9(1): 57-59