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Objectives: Current data suggests that Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination contributes to nonspecific enhancement of resistance to various infections. Thus, BCG vaccination induces both specific immunity against mycobacteria and non-specific "trained immunity" against various pathogens. To understand the fundamental mechanisms of "trained" immunity, studies of transcriptome changes occurring during BCG vaccination in innate immunity cells, as well as in their precursors, are necessary. Furthermore, this data possesses important significance for practical applications associated with the development of recombinant BCG strains aimed to enhance innate immunity against diverse infectious agents. Data description: We performed RNA sequencing of innate immune cells derived from murine bone marrow and spleen three days after subcutaneous BCG vaccination. Using fluorescence-activated cell sorting we obtained three cell populations for each mouse from both control and BCG vaccinated groups: bone marrow monocytes and neutrophils and splenic NK-cells. Then double-indexed cDNA libraries for Illumina sequencing from the collected samples were prepared, the resulting cDNA library mix was subjected to NovaSeq 6000 sequencing. This paper describes the collection of 24 RNA sequencing samples comprising 4 sets of immune cell populations obtained from subcutaneously BCG-vaccinated and control mice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a co-transcriptional process that leads to isoform diversity in the 3' ends of mRNAs. APA is known to occur during differentiation, and its dysregulation is observed in diseases like cancer and autoimmune disorders. It has been previously reported that differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells to adipocytes leads to an overall lengthening of mRNAs, but the proteins involved in this regulation have not been identified. The expression levels of subunits of the cleavage and polyadenylation (C/P) complex can regulate the choice of poly(A) site, which in turn can affect different cellular activities. In this paper, we studied the change in levels of C/P proteins during 3T3-L1 differentiation. Results: We observed that while the RNA expression of these proteins is unchanged during differentiation, the protein levels of some subunits do change, including a decrease in levels of CPSF73, the nuclease that cuts at the poly(A) site. However, overexpression of CPSF73 alone does not affect the efficiency and rate of differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear time-fractional partial differential equations (NTFPDEs) play a great role in the mathematical modeling of real-world phenomena like traffic models, the design of earthquakes, fractional stochastic systems, diffusion processes, and control processing. Solving such problems is reasonably challenging, and the nonlinear part and fractional operator make them more problematic. Thus, developing suitable numerical methods is an active area of research. In this paper, we develop a new numerical method called Yang transform Adomian decomposition method (YTADM) by mixing the Yang transform and the Adomian decomposition method for solving NTFPDEs. The derivative of the problem is considered in sense of Caputo fractional order. The stability and convergence of the developed method are discussed in the Banach space sense. The effectiveness, validity, and practicability of the method are demonstrated by solving four examples of NTFPEs. The findings suggest that the proposed method gives a better solution than other compared numerical methods. Additionally, the proposed scheme achieves an accurate solution with a few numbers of iteration, and thus the method is suitable for handling a wide class of NTFPDEs arising in the application of nonlinear phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Opportunistic infections (OIs) are more common and severe among people with suppressed immunity like those living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH). This study aimed to assess the prevalence of OIs and associated factors among PLWH attending antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics in the Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: A facility based retrospective cohort study was conducted from April to June 2018 among PLWH attending ART clinics in Gedeo zone, Ethiopia from November 2016 – November 2017. A simple random sampling method was used to select the both paper based and electronic study participants' charts. Adjusted odds ratios were calculated using multivariable logistic regression analysis for variables statistically significant at 95% confidence interval under bivariable logistic regression analysis, and significance was declared at P < 0.05. Results: a total of 266 PLWH attended the selected ART clinics of Gedeo zone during the one year period were participated in the current study. The majority 104(39.1%) were within the age group 30–39, 106(60.2%) male, 184(69.2%) married, and 167(62.9%) urban residents. The study revealed the prevalence of OIs was 113(42.5%) with oral candidiasis 28(24.5%) the most prevalent followed by pulmonary tuberculosis 22(19.5%) and herpes zoster 15(13.4%). Further, study participants with ambulatory [AOR = 2.40(95% CI: 1.14, 5.03)], and bedridden [AOR = 3.27(95% CI:1.64, 6.52)] working functional status; with lower CD4 count: less than 200cells/mm3 [AOR = 9.14(95% CI: 2.75, 30.39)], 200–350cells/mm3 [AOR = 9.45(95% CI: 2.70,33.06)], 351-500cells/mm3 [AOR = 5.76(95% CI: 1.71, 19.39)]; being poor in ART adherence level [AOR = 10.05(95% CI: 4.31,23.46)]; being in stage III/IV WHO clinical stage of HIV/AIDS [AOR = 2.72(95% CI: 1.42, 5.20)]; and being chewing khat [AOR = 2.84(95% CI: 1.21, 6.65)] were found positively predicting the occurrence of OIs. Conclusion: This study speckled a high prevalence of OIs with several predicting factors. Therefore, the study acmes there should be interventional means which tackles the higher prevalence of OIs with focus to the predicting factors like lower CD4 count level, less/bedridden working functional status, poor ART adherence level, advanced stage of HIV/AIDS stage and chewing khat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Nordic register data are not collected for research purposes, and various dimensions of working conditions are typically missing in register-based research. One way to address the issue of missing information on the work environment in register data is to utilize a job exposure matrix (JEM). The purpose of this paper is to document and provide access to a Mechanical Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) and a validated Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index based on the constructed JEM, allowing researchers to utilize the index in register-based research. The JEM and the Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index were created using data from five nationwide Surveys of Living Conditions on work environment conducted in Norway in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2019, encompassing a total of 43,977 respondents. The index can be merged to register data using occupational codes (STYRK-98) and gender, which is information collected by the registries. The ultimate aim of constructing the index was to create a comprehensive measure of mechanical job exposures for use in future analyses of Norwegian register data. Data description: This paper provides the scripts documenting the construction of the Mechanical Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) and the Occupational Mechanical Job Exposure Index, as well as a data file including the matrix and the index. A script for merging the matrix and index to register data is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The choice of an appropriate similarity measure plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of clustering algorithms. However, many conventional measures rely solely on feature values to evaluate the similarity between objects to be clustered. Furthermore, the assumption of feature independence, while valid in certain scenarios, does not hold true for all real-world problems. Hence, considering alternative similarity measures that account for inter-dependencies among features can enhance the effectiveness of clustering in various applications. Methods: In this paper, we present the Inv measure, a novel similarity measure founded on the concept of inversion. The Inv measure considers the significance of features, the values of all object features, and the feature values of other objects, leading to a comprehensive and precise evaluation of similarity. To assess the performance of our proposed clustering approach that incorporates the Inv measure, we evaluate it on simulated data using the adjusted Rand index. Results: The simulation results strongly indicate that inversion-based clustering outperforms other methods in scenarios where clusters are complex, i.e., apparently highly overlapped. This showcases the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed approach, making it a valuable choice for applications that involve complex clusters across various domains. Conclusions: The inversion-based clustering approach may hold significant value in the healthcare industry, offering possible benefits in tasks like hospital ranking, treatment improvement, and high-risk patient identification. In social media analysis, it may prove valuable for trend detection, sentiment analysis, and user profiling. E-commerce may be able to utilize the approach for product recommendation and customer segmentation. The manufacturing sector may benefit from improved quality control, process optimization, and predictive maintenance. Additionally, the approach may be applied to traffic management and fleet optimization in the transportation domain. Its versatility and effectiveness make it a promising solution for diverse fields, providing valuable insights and optimization opportunities for complex and dynamic data analysis tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The study evaluated sub-microscopic malaria infections in pregnancy using two malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (mRDTs), microscopy and RT-PCR and characterized Plasmodium falciparum dihydrofolate reductase (Pfdhfr) and Plasmodium falciparum dihydropteroate synthase (Pfdhps) drug resistant markers in positive samples. Methods: This was a cross sectional survey of 121 pregnant women. Participants were finger pricked, blood drops were collected for rapid diagnosis with P. falciparum histidine-rich protein 11 rapid diagnostic test kit and the ultra-sensitive Alere Pf malaria RDT, Blood smears for microscopy and dried blood spots on Whatman filter paper for molecular analysis were made. Real time PCR targeting the var acidic terminal sequence (varATS) gene of P. falciparum was carried out on a CFX 96 real time system thermocycler (BioRad) in discriminating malaria infections. For each run, laboratory strain of P. falciparum 3D7 and nuclease free water were used as positive and negative controls respectively. Additionally, High resolution melt analyses was employed for genotyping of the different drug resistance markers. Results: Out of one hundred and twenty-one pregnant women sampled, the SD Bioline™ Malaria Ag P.f HRP2-based malaria rapid diagnostic test (mRDT) detected eight (0.06%) cases, the ultra-sensitive Alere™ malaria Ag P.f rapid diagnostic test mRDT had similar outcome in the same samples as detected by the HRP2-based mRDT. Microscopy and RT-PCR confirmed four out of the eight infections detected by both rapid diagnostic tests as true positive and RT-PCR further detected three false negative samples by the two mRDTs providing a sub-microscopic malaria prevalence of 3.3%. Single nucleotide polymorphism in Pfdhps gene associated with sulphadoxine resistance revealed the presence of S613 mutant genotypes in three of the seven positive isolates and isolates with mixed wild/mutant genotype at codon A613S. Furthermore, four mixed genotypes at the A581G codon were also recorded while the other Pfdhps codons (A436G, A437G and K540E) showed the presence of wild type alleles. In the Pfdhfr gene, there were mutations in 28.6%, 28.6%, and 85.7% at the I51, R59 and N108 codons respectively. Mixed wild and mutant type genotypes were also observed in 28.6% each of the N51I, and C59R codons. For the Pfcrt, two haplotypes CVMNK and CVIET were observed. The SVMNT was altogether absent. Triple mutant CVIET 1(14.3%) and triple mutant + wild genotype CVIET + CVMNK 1(14.3%) were observed. The Pfmdr1 haplotypes were single mutants YYND 1(14.3%); NFND 1(14.3%) and double mutants YFND 4(57.1%); YYDD 1(14.3%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In this paper, a uniformly convergent numerical scheme is proposed for solving a singularly perturbed Fredholm integro-differential equation with an integral initial condition. The equation involves a left boundary layer which makes it difficult to solve it using the standard numerical methods. A fitted operator finite difference method is used to approximate the differential part of the equation and the composite Simpson 1 3 rule is used for the integral parts of the equation and the initial condition. Result: The stability bound and error estimation of the approximated solution are performed, to show the uniform convergence of the scheme with order one in the maximum norm. Numerical test examples are provided to calculate the maximum absolute errors, thrgence, and the uniform error for a couple of examples to support theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this paper is to investigate the geographic distribution of participants in Mayi Kuwayu, the National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing. The Mayi Kuwayu Study is the largest national longitudinal study of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults (aged 16 years and over) in Australia. It is an Aboriginal-led and governed Study with embedded community engagement. The Study collects data through self-report questionnaires, using multiple sampling approaches: (1) a large-scale mail-out based on stratified random sampling; (2) convenience sampling; (3) snowball sampling; (4) voluntary sampling. A comparison of the geographic distribution of Mayi Kuwayu Study participants to that of the total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was also conducted. Results: A total of 9,843 people participated in the Mayi Kuwayu Study baseline survey from 2018 to 2022. Participants resided in all Australian States and Territories. The geographic distribution of participants broadly matched the total population distribution, with participants generally located on the east and south-east coast of Australia. Apparent differences in the geographic distribution were identified by sex and age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]