BACKGROUND: Prescribing of potentially harmful medications has not been well documented in hospitals. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the rate of and factors associated with potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) prescribing in a large inpatient sample. DESIGN: The study was a retrospective cohort of the period between September 1, 2002, and June 30, 2005. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify patient, physician, and hospital characteristics associated with PIM prescribing. SETTING: The study collected data from 384 US hospitals. PATIENTS: The sample was composed of patients aged ≥65 years admitted with 1 or more of 7 common medical diagnoses. MEASUREMENTS: The percentage of patients prescribed PIMs as defined using a modified Beers list was measured. Multivariable‐adjusted odds ratios for PIM use were computed. RESULTS: Of the 493,971 patients, 49% received at least 1 PIM, and 6% received 3 or more, most commonly promethazine, diphenhydramine, and propoxyphene. Patient, physician, and hospital characteristics were all associated with PIM use. Patients with myocardial infarction or heart failure were most likely (61% and 52% vs. 46% for pneumonia), men (47% vs. 49% for women) and those in managed care plans (44% vs. 49% for other plans) were less likely, and patients ≥85 years were least likely (42% vs. 53% for patients aged 65–74 years) to receive PIMs (P < .0001 for all comparisons). For high‐severity PIMs, internists and hospitalists had similar prescribing rates (33%), cardiologists had a higher rate (48%), and geriatricians had the lowest rate (24%). The proportion of elders receiving PIMs ranged from 34% in the Northeast to 55% in the South, and variation at the individual hospital level was extreme. At 7 hospitals, PIMs were never prescribed. CONCLUSIONS: Wide variation in the use of PIMs is associated with hospital and physician characteristics. Care may be improved by minimizing this non‐patient‐centered variation. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2008;3:91–102. © 2008 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) were first coated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and then encapsulated into porous metal-organic frameworks of ZIF-8 by the protein-mediated biomineralization process. Unexpectedly, the fluorescence intensities of the yielded AgNCs-BSA@ZIF-8 nanocomposites were discovered to be continuously enhanced during each of the BSA coating and ZIF-8 encapsulation steps. Compared to common AgNCs, greatly improved photostability and storage stability of AgNCs could also be expected. More importantly, having benefited from the ZIF-8 shells, the prepared nanocomposites could possess the specific accumulation and sensitive response to Cu ions, resulting in the rational quenching of their fluorescence intensities. Moreover, AgNCs-BSA@ZIF-8 nanocomposites were coated onto the hydrophobic arraying slides toward a microdots array-based fluorimetric method for the fast and sensitive evaluation of Cu ions. It was discovered that the developed fluorimetric strategy could ensure the high-throughput analysis of Cu ions in wide pH range, and especially some harsh and high-salt media. It can allow for the detection of Cu ions in blood with the concentrations ranging from 4.0 × 10 to 160 μM, thus serving as a new copper detection candidate to be widely applied in clinical test, food safety, and environmental monitoring fields.

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important legume crop grown mainly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This underutilized legume can withstand harsh environmental conditions including drought and flooding. During drought-induced famines, this protein-rich legume serves as a food source for poor farmers when other crops fail under harsh environmental conditions; however, its use is limited because of the presence of an endogenous neurotoxic nonprotein amino acid β-N-oxalyl-l-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP). Long-term consumption of Lathyrus and β-ODAP is linked to lathyrism, which is a degenerative motor neuron syndrome. Pharmacological studies indicate that nutritional deficiencies in methionine and cysteine may aggravate the neurotoxicity of β-ODAP. The biosynthetic pathway leading to the production of β-ODAP is poorly understood, but is linked to sulfur metabolism. To date, only a limited number of studies have been conducted in grass pea on the sulfur assimilatory enzymes and how these enzymes regulate the biosynthesis of β-ODAP. Here, we review the current knowledge on the role of sulfur metabolism in grass pea and its contribution to β-ODAP biosynthesis. Unraveling the fundamental steps and regulation of β-ODAP biosynthesis in grass pea will be vital for the development of improved varieties of this underutilized legume.

Cancer is one of the most dangerous diseases to human health. The accurate prediction of anticancer peptides (ACPs) would be valuable for the development and design of novel anticancer agents. Current deep neural network models have obtained state-of-the-art prediction accuracy for the ACP classification task. However, based on existing studies, it remains unclear which deep learning architecture achieves the best performance. Thus, in this study, we first present a systematic exploration of three important deep learning architectures: convolutional, recurrent, and convolutional-recurrent networks for distinguishing ACPs from non-ACPs. We find that the recurrent neural network with bidirectional long short-term memory cells is superior to other architectures. By utilizing the proposed model, we implement a sequence-based deep learning tool (DeepACP) to accurately predict the likelihood of a peptide exhibiting anticancer activity. The results indicate that DeepACP outperforms several existing methods and can be used as an effective tool for the prediction of anticancer peptides. Furthermore, we visualize and understand the deep learning model. We hope that our strategy can be extended to identify other types of peptides and may provide more assistance to the development of proteomics and new drugs.

The aims were to clarify the effect of placental trophoblasts on T lymphocytes by assessing production of cytokines and expression of transcription factors regulating Th1, Th2, and Th17 immunity in T lymphocytes. Placental trophoblasts were isolated and conditioned medium was made after trophoblast cultivation for 72 h. T lymphocytes were cultured in presence or absence of conditioned medium. ELISA was used to detect concentration of IL-2, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-17 in supernatants of T cell and real-time PCR was used to detect the status of Th1 (T-bet, STAT-4), Th2 (GATA-3, STAT-6), and Th17 (RORC) immunity in T lymphocyte. We found that the level of IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-17 was significantly decreased when T lymphocytes were cultured in conditioned medium compared with control, while IL-10 and IL-4 level were not significantly changed. The presence of conditioned medium significantly decreased the ratio of Th1/Th2. The expression of GATA-3 and STAT-6 were significantly increased and STAT-4 was reduced when T lymphocyte was cultured in conditioned medium, while the expression of T-bet and RORC was not significantly different. We concluded that placental trophoblast-induced shift of Th1/Th2 balance toward Th2 and inhibition of Th17 might be among the mechanisms involved in maternal tolerance to fetus.

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We report a ductile Fe-Mo-P-C-B bulk metallic glass (BMG) with good soft-magnetic properties. The Fe-Mo-P-C-B BMG with high Poisson's ratio of 0.325 and low glass transition temperature of 708 K exhibits plastic strain up to 5.5% before final failure and high fracture strength of 3280 MPa in compression. The Fe-based BMG possesses high saturation magnetization of 1.1 T, low coercive force of 1.8 Am À1 and high permeability of 55300. The Fe-Mo-P-C-B BMG with this combination of noticeable ductility, high strength and good soft-magnetic properties previously not observed simultaneously in Fe-based glassy alloys has promising potential in functional and structural applications.

This study investigated the effects of heat treatment (hot air at 38 degrees C) and antagonistic yeast (Pichia guilliermondii) alone or in combination against postharvest diseases (Botrytis cinerea, Alternaria alternata and Rhizopus nigricans) on cherry tomato fruit, and evaluated the elicitation of active defense responses. Results showed that heat treatment at 38 degrees C for 24 h in combination with P. guilliermondii at 1 x 10(8) CFU mL(-1) was the most effective approach to reduce various infections on cherry tomato fruit's wounds. Moreover, the combined heat and P. guilliermondii treatment stimulated a rapid increase of H(2)O(2) and higher lignin deposition in cherry tomato fruit showing that the oxidative burst and biological synthesis of lignin might play important roles in the fruit's active defense responses. In addition, the reduction of the fruit's susceptibility to pathogens by the combined treatment was positively correlated with higher activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and beta-1,3-glucanase in cherry tomato fruits, both of which are associated with plant defense responses.