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Protein phosphorylation is one of the essential posttranslation modifications playing a vital role in the regulation of many fundamental cellular processes. We propose a LightGBM‐based computational approach that uses evolutionary, geometric, sequence environment, and amino acid‐specific features to decipher phosphate binding sites from a protein sequence. Our method, while compared with other existing methods on 2429 protein sequences taken from standard Phospho.ELM (P.ELM) benchmark data set featuring 11 organisms reports a higher F1 score = 0.504 (harmonic mean of the precision and recall) and ROC AUC = 0.836 (area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristics). The computation time of our proposed approach is much less than that of the recently developed deep learning‐based framework. Structural analysis on selected protein sequences informs that our prediction is the superset of the phosphorylation sites, as mentioned in P.ELM data set. The foundation of our scheme is manual feature engineering and a decision tree‐based classification. Hence, it is intuitive, and one can interpret the final tree as a set of rules resulting in a deeper understanding of the relationships between biophysical features and phosphorylation sites. Our innovative problem transformation method permits more control over precision and recall as is demonstrated by the fact that if we incorporate output probability of the existing deep learning framework as an additional feature, then our prediction improves (F1 score = 0.546; ROC AUC = 0.849). The implementation of our method can be accessed at http://cse.iitkgp.ac.in/~pralay/resources/PPSBoost/ and is mirrored at https://cosmos.iitkgp.ac.in/PPSBoost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To determine the need of contemporary immersive approaches (Virtual Reality) in teaching and training at medical sector. The main objective of this study was to explore the effects of text, video and immersive technologies learning methodologies for participants' learning in public and private medical colleges and universities of Pakistan. Methods: In this quantitative research 87 medical students of 4th year from three public and five private medical colleges and universities participated. A laparoscopy operation was selected in consultation with senior medical consultants for this experiment. The experimental material was arranged in virtual reality, video and text based learning. At completion of each of which, participants completed a questionnaire about learning motivation and learning competency through the different mediums. Results: Statistical t-test was selected for the analysis of this study. By comparing the mean values of virtual reality, video, and text based learning methodologies in medical academics; result of virtual reality is at top of others. All performed model are statistically significant (P=0.000) and results can be applied at all population. Conclusion: Through this research, we contribute to medical students learning methodologies. In medical studies, both theoretical and practical expertise has a vital role, while repetition of hands-on practice can improve young doctors' professional competency. Virtual reality was found best for medical students in both learning motivation and learning competency. Medical students and educationist may select virtual reality as new learning methodology for curriculum learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an emergent global consensus that students' evaluation (feedback) of university teaching is fundamentally controversial. Few would argue that a system that tells the "satisfactory" teaching of faculty members could be biased, for example; lenient faculty behavior may get a high percentage of feedback and may compromise quality of teaching. Similarly, strict behavior of faculty may get low percentage of feedback despite good quality of teaching. In this way, there is a possibility of relationship between quality of teaching and positive students' feedback. In order to examine the relationship between faculty behavior, student satisfaction and teaching quality, this study aimed to provide a cross-country analysis. The study employs focus group methodology. Focus group used in this research study has been operated under participant observation method. In each country (Pakistan, Philippines), in depth group interviews were conducted in two separate sessions, including focus group with students and faculty members. Four distinct focus group sessions were conducted to ensure the validity and reliability of the collected data. First stage of students' focus group inferred that a majority of the students like lenient teachers and they definitely give positive feedback if a faculty member gives less complicated and not so challenging assignments and other activities. They further stated that if a teacher remained strict throughout the class, students usually give a low score in their evaluation. Therefore, student feedback may not be an accurate reflection of the student satisfaction and is not a good indicator of effective teaching. In the second stage of faculty's focus group, opinion of faculty is consistent with the view of student's focus group discussion about lenient and strict faculty behavior and its relationship with students' satisfaction and teaching quality with few alterations. They further added that scale of students' feedback should be re-validated for more accuracy. Results showed a good consistency for both Pakistani and Philippines sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The burden and prognostic significance of coronary artery disease (CAD) in adults with peripheral artery disease and chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) is unknown., Methods: Temporal trends in prevalence of significant CAD (history of myocardial infarction or coronary revascularizations) in hospitalizations for CLTI were determined using the 2000 to 2018 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. A multivariable regression analysis of outcomes was performed based on presence or absence of CAD., Results: Among 13 575 099 hospitalizations for CLTI (41% female, 69% white, mean age 69 years), 23% had concomitant CAD, of which 11% underwent lower extremity arterial revascularization (43.6% endovascular and 56.4% surgical). The prevalence of concomitant CAD with CLTI increased from 15.3% in 2000 to 23.1% in 2018. Furthermore, the frequency of endovascular revascularization in adults with CAD and CLTI increased from 15.1% to 48.3%, while there was a decreasing trend of surgical revascularization, from 84.9% to 51.7%. After multivariate adjustments, CLTI with CAD was associated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.32-1.47; P less than .0001) and bleeding requiring transfusion (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.06-1.12; P less than .0001) compared with patients with CLTI without CAD. As compared with surgical revascularization, endovascular revascularization was associated with lower risk of in-hospital mortality in both patients with CLTI with CAD (OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.63-0.76; P less than .001) and CLTI without CAD (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.67-0.76; P less than .001)., Conclusions: Prevalence of CAD has increased in adults presenting with CLTI and is associated with poor outcomes, warranting the need for effective interventions and secondary prevention in this high-risk population.

We assessed previously undiagnosed thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis in 11 testosterone (T)-taking men, five of whom developed deep venous thrombosis (DVT), four pulmonary embolism, one spinal cord infarction, and one osteonecrosis 3.5 months (median) after starting T gel (50-160 mg/day) or T intramuscular (50-250 mg/week). In the order of referral because of thrombosis after starting T, thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis was studied in 11 men, and, separately, in two control groups without thrombosis - 44 healthy normal male controls and 39 healthy men taking T. Nine men had DVT or DVT-pulmonary embolism after 3.5 months (median) on T, one spinal cord infarction after 5 days on T, and one had osteonecrosis (knee and then hip osteonecrosis after 6 and 18 months on T). Four of the 11 men (36%) had high factor VIII (≥150%) vs. one of 42 (2%) controls (P = 0.005), and vs. one of 25 (4%) T-controls, (P = 0.023). Of the 11 men, two (18%) had factor V Leiden heterozygosity vs. none of 44 controls, (P = 0.04) and vs. none of 39 T-controls(P = 0.045). Of the 11 men, three had 4G4G plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 homozygosity, one prothrombin G20210A heterozygosity, one low protein S, and one high factor XI. When T was continued, second DVT-pulmonary embolism recurred in three of 11 men despite adequate anticoagulation. T interacts with thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis leading to thrombosis. Men sustaining DVT-pulmonary embolism-osteonecrosis on T should be studied for thrombophilia. Continuation of T in thrombophilic men appears to be contraindicated because of recurrent thrombosis despite adequate anticoagulation. Before starting T, to prevent T-associated thrombosis, we recommend measures of factor V Leiden, factor VIII, and the prothrombin gene.