Hypophosphatemia and Metabolic Bone Disease Associated With the Use of Elemental Formula: Case Report and Review

A small percentage of infants and children develop cow’s milk protein allergy which is usually treated with exclusive breastfeeding or extensively hydrolyzed formulas. Some children might still be reactive to hydrolyzed formulas and would need elemental amino acid-based formulas. Elemental formulas are also frequently employed in treating very low birth weight babies with significant intolerance to regular preterm formulas and the resulting poor growth. All pediatric formulas are usually prepared as per international guidelines to fulfill the macro- and micronutrient requirements of growing children across a wide range of volume intakes. However, an interesting correlation is being reported recently, between the use of a specific elemental formula and the development of hypophosphatemia and significant metabolic bone disease. We discuss this phenomenon by exploring the available evidence and report 2 similar cases that we managed in our practice.

Flavored leptogenesis and neutrino mass with A4 symmetry

We propose a minimal A4 flavor symmetric model, assisted by Z2× Z3 symmetry, which can naturally takes care of the appropriate lepton mixing and neutrino masses via Type-I seesaw. It turns out that the framework, originated due to a specific flavor structure, favors the normal hierarchy of light neutrinos and simultaneously narrows down the range of Dirac CP violating phase. It predicts an interesting correlation between the atmospheric mixing angle and the Dirac CP phase too. While the flavor structure indicates an exact degeneracy of the right-handed neutrino masses, renormalization group running of the same from a high scale is shown to make it quasi-degenerate and a successful flavor leptogenesis takes place within the allowed parameter space obtained from neutrino phenomenology.

Simplified Method to Optimize Enzymatic Esters Syntheses in Solvent-Free Systems: Validation Using Literature and Experimental Data

The adoption of biocatalysis in solvent-free systems is an alternative to establish a greener esters production. An interesting correlation between the acid:alcohol molar ratio and biocatalyst (immobilized lipase) loading in the optimization of ester syntheses in solvent-free systems had been observed and explored. A simple mathematical tool named Substrate-Enzyme Relation (SER) has been developed, indicating a range of reaction conditions that resulted in high conversions. Here, SER utility has been validated using data from the literature and experimental assays, totalizing 39 different examples of solvent-free enzymatic esterifications. We found a good correlation between the SER trends and reaction conditions that promoted high conversions on the syntheses of short, mid, or long-chain esters. Moreover, the predictions obtained with SER are coherent with thermodynamic and kinetics aspects of enzymatic esterification in solvent-free systems. SER is an easy-to-handle tool to predict the reaction behavior, allowing obtaining optimum reaction conditions with a reduced number of experiments, including the adoption of reduced biocatalysts loadings.

Presence of Cheek Dimples and Absence of Palmaris Longus - An Anatomical Correlation from Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka

BACKGROUND Palmaris longus (PL) tendon agenesis varies from 5 % to 30 % in different ethnic groups worldwide. Its agenesis is associated with decreased wrist grip, pinch grip, presence of cheek dimples, difference of prevalence of agenesis with gender and handedness and with flexor carpi superficialis tendon. Student and general population surveys done in previous studies shows the association between these variables. The purpose of this study was to find out the association between the presence of cheek dimples with absence of palmaris long tendon. METHODS We examined 1200 medical and allied health students (600 males, 600 females) aged 18 - 24 years to assess the incidence of palmaris longus absence and the presence of cheek and chin dimples. The presence or absence of palmaris longus was assessed by clinical inspection using standard tests. The effectiveness of these’ standard tests’ is also tested along with wrist strength and pinch strength. RESULTS 163 students had PL agenesis. One hundred and twenty-one subjects had unilateral absence of palmaris longus (13.5 %). The tendon was absent bilaterally in 42 subjects (3.5) 77 students had either unilateral or bilateral cheek dimples out of 163 PL agenesis. The Mishra’s test is found to be most effective for properly defining the PL at wrist. CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of absence of palmaris longus is around 13.5 %. Unilateral agenesis of PL is 10 %. Absence of palmaris longus has strong association to presence of cheek dimples. Up to 45 % of PL agenesis will show either unilateral or bilateral cheek dimples. Studies on cheek dimples, panniculus carnosus are very scanty in literature; more studies might reveal interesting correlation. The grip strength of the wrist is unaffected due to palmaris longus agenesis; however, the pinch grip of 4th finger with thumb appears to be certainly decreased. Mishra’s test proves to be the best in demonstrating the PL. A radiant smile displaying the cheek dimples, has 50 % possibility of absence of PL. KEYWORDS Palmaris Longus Agenesis, Cheek Dimples, Bifid Zygomaticus Major, Panniculus Carnosus, Chin Dimples

COVID-19 during Early Phase of Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation

We present one of few cases of COVID-19 occurrence during the early phase of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We observed an interesting correlation between the patient’s rapid clinical deterioration and myeloid reconstitution that cannot be assigned to engraftment syndrome. Our report emphasizes the need to investigate whether timely steroid therapy upon neutrophil engraftment in the setting of COVID-19 could limit the extent of lung injury and prevent ARDS. Furthermore, we discuss a significant issue of possible prolonged incubation of the virus in heavily pretreated hematological patients.

Systematic Profiling of mRNA Splicing Reveals the Prognostic Predictor and Potential Therapeutic Target for Glioblastoma Multiforme

Despite many changes in alternative splicing events (ASEs) are frequently involved in various cancers, prognosis-related ASEs and drug treatment targets in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) have not been well explored. ASEs participate in many biological behaviors in the initiation and progression of tumors, the aberrant ASE has been considered another hallmark of cancer, and the systematic study of alternative splicing may provide potential biomarkers for malignancies. In this study, we carried out a systematic analysis to characterize the ASE signatures in GBM cohort. Through comparing GBM tissues and nontumor tissues, a total of 48,191 differently expressed ASEs from 10,727 genes were obtained, and these aberrant ASEs play an important role in the oncogenic process. Then, we identified 514 ASEs independently associated with patient survival in GBM by univariate and multivariate Cox regression, including exon skip in CD3D, alternate acceptor site in POLD2, and exon skip in DCN. Those prognostic models built on ASEs of each splice type can accurately predict the outcome of GBM patients, and values for the area under curve were 0.97 in the predictive model based on alternate acceptor site. In addition, the splicing-regulatory network revealed an interesting correlation between survival-associated splicing factors and prognostic ASE corresponding genes. Moreover, these three hub splicing factors in splicing regulation network are the potential targets of some drugs. In conclusion, a systematic analysis of ASE signatures in GBM could serve as an indicator for identifying novel prognostic biomarkers and guiding clinical treatment.

An Assessment of Indoor Air Quality in the Arrivals Hall of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport: Monitoring of VOCs and NO2

In Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport (RHIA), airport employees stay at least 12 h inside the airport’s buildings and suffer from respiratory symptoms. Additionally, direct openings exist between the apron and the arrivals hall providing a pathway for contaminated air to enter the buildings. Hence, we study the impact of Beirut–RHIA’s activities on the indoor air of the arrivals hall (impact on employees and passengers) during June, November, and October 2014. Due to their impacts on air quality and human health, assessing of the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) was the target of our study by using gas chromatographic techniques (GC-MS and GC-FID) for VOCs and calorimetric methods for NO2 concentrations. NO2 levels indicated a probable hazard to the health of passengers and employees, while measured VOC levels did not present any risks except for acrolein. This is the first study to assess the speciation of a large number of VOCs (46 VOCs) for airport indoor air while revealing a very interesting correlation between aircraft number and the concentrations of VOC groups (namely heavy alkanes, aldehydes and ketones, and monoaromatics). Moreover, this is the first study in Lebanon to assess the speciation of a large number of VOCs in indoor air.

A Within-Sample Comparison of Two Innovative Neuropsychological Tests for Assessing ADHD

New innovative neuropsychological tests in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD have been proposed as objective measures for diagnosis and therapy. The current study aims to investigate two different commercial continuous performance tests (CPT) in a head-to-head comparison regarding their comparability and their link with clinical parameters. The CPTs were evaluated in a clinical sample of 29 adult patients presenting in an ADHD outpatient clinic. Correlational analyses were performed between neuropsychological data, clinical rating scales, and a personality-based measure. Though inattention was found to positively correlate between the two tests (r = 0.49, p = 0.01), no association with clinical measures and inattention was found for both tests. While hyperactivity did not correlate between both tests, current ADHD symptoms were positively associated with Nesplora Aquarium’s motor activity (r = 0.52 to 0.61, p < 0.05) and the Qb-Test’s hyperactivity (r = 0.52 to 0.71, p < 0.05). Conclusively, the overall comparability of the tests was limited and correlation with clinical parameters was low. While our study shows some interesting correlation between clinical symptoms and sub-scales of these tests, usage in clinical practice is not recommended.

The Extension of the Jurisdiction of Constitutional Court in Assessing the Constitutional Amendments – the Case of Slovakia and Kosovo

Summary This paper examines the jurisprudence of the constitutional courts of Slovakia and Kosovo regarding their assessment of the constitutionality of constitutional amendments. The rationale for the selected countries stands behind the practices of their Constitutional Courts of, in terms of the jurisdiction expansion in assessing constitutional amendments. Considering the fact that these courts have been recently established, the Slovak Constitutional Court with the Constitution of 1992 and the Constitutional Court of Kosovo with the Constitution of 2008, it is the purpose of this paper to further analyze their initial work in assessing the constitutionality of constitutional amendments in the light of the impact of the German jurisprudence. Regardless the lack of experience in this regard, these courts have shown an interesting correlation between scientific doctrines and jurisprudences, which have served the judges to justify their decisions. In this direction, this paper frames its discussion in two key segments. Firstly, is the manner in which these courts have expanded their jurisdiction, an expansion that provided an assess to the constitutionality of constitutional amendments that goes beyond confronting the amendment with the explicit nature of the unamendability of the constitution. Secondly, on the impact of the German jurisprudence, especially in the case of the Slovak Constitutional court.

Extended photometric survey of near-Earth objects

Context. The near-Earth objects (NEOs), whose proximity makes them the most accessible bodies in the Solar System, allow us to sample asteroids from tens of kilometers down to objects of a few meters in size. However, while the physical properties for the largest bodies are mostly known, we have very little physical information regarding the small NEOs. These objects today represent the overall majority among the ~2500 new discoveries each year, but they are usually only bright enough to be observable during their close approaches. Aims. Our aim was to extend our survey that started in 2015 on the NEO population, using ground-based observations to characterize the fainter (and typically smaller) NEOs observable each night. Methods. We performed BVRIz photometry of NEOs, making use of the DOLORES instrument at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG, La Palma, Spain) and the Asiago Schmidt telescope (Italy), in order to derive visible color indexes and the taxonomic classification for each target in our sample. Results. We taxonomically classified 51 new NEOs for the first time. Together with data obtained in our previous work and collected by other surveys available online, we analyzed an extended sample of 1081 individual NEOs. While the overall majority of them belong to the S-complex, our analysis of the taxonomic distribution found a larger contribution for dark bodies going toward larger H, suggesting that they could be more abundant among the fainter NEOs. Moreover, we find an interesting correlation between semi-major axis and diameter, which could be in part related to the Yarkovsky effect. Rapid characterization of the fainter NEO population shortly after their discovery will be crucial in the future, before those bodies become too faint to be observed, or lost forever.