ZIP

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is a need for effective anti-COVID-19 treatments, mainly for individuals at risk of severe disease such as the elderly and the immunosuppressed. Drug repositioning has proved effective in identifying drugs that can find a new application for the control of coronavirus disease, in particular COVID-19. The purpose of the present study was to find synergistic antiviral combinations for COVID-19 based on lethal mutagenesis. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: The effect of combinations of remdesivir and ribavirin on the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture has been tested...

INTRODUCTION: Socioeconomic status (SES) has been demonstrated to be an important prognostic risk factor among patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. We evaluated patients living near neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic risk undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and if they were associated with differences in: 1) medical complications; 2) emergency department (ED) utilizations; 3) readmissions; and 4) costs of care. METHODS: A query of a national database from 2010 to 2020 was performed for primary TKAs...

INTRODUCTION: As worldwide utilization of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) broadens, demographic trends can help make projections to inform access to care. This study aimed to assess the temporal trends in the socioeconomic and medical demographics of patients undergoing TKA. METHODS: A retrospective review of 15,848 patients who underwent primary, elective TKA at an urban, New York City-based, academic medical center between January 2013 and September 2022 was performed...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between ambient heat and all-cause and cause-specific emergency department (ED) visits and acute hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries in the conterminous United States. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Conterminous US from 2008 and 2019. PARTICIPANTS: 2% random sample of all Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries eligible for Parts A, B, and D. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All-cause and cause-specific (cardiovascular, renal, and heat-related) ED visits and unplanned hospitalizations were identified using primary ICD-9 or ICD-10 diagnosis codes...

BACKGROUND: Cancer screening is effective in reducing the burden of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers, but not all communities have appropriate access to these services. In this study, we aimed to identify under-resourced communities by assessing the association between the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) with screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers in ZIP-code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in Rhode Island. METHODS: This study leveraged deidentified health insurance claims data from HealthFacts RI, the state's all-payer claims database, to calculate screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers using Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures...

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome spondylodysplastic type 3 (EDSSPD3, OMIM 612350) is an inherited recessive connective tissue disorder that is caused by loss of function of SLC39A13/ZIP13, a zinc transporter belonging to the Slc39a/ZIP family. We previously reported that patients with EDSSPD3 harboring a homozygous loss of function mutation (c.221G > A, p.G64D) in ZIP13 exon 2 (ZIP13G64D ) suffer from impaired development of bone and connective tissues, and muscular hypotonia. However, whether ZIP13 participates in the early differentiation of these cell types remains unclear...

OBJECTIVES: Studies have demonstrated socioeconomic status, insurance, race, and distance impact clinical outcomes in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The purpose of this study was to assess if these factors also impact clinical outcomes in patients with thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAA). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of patients with TAAAs confirmed by CT imaging between 2009 to 2019 at a single institution. Patients' zip codes were mapped to American Community Survey Data to obtain geographic poverty rates...

Drought stress is one of the dominating challenges to the growth and productivity in crop plants. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of plants responses to drought stress is fundamental to improve fruit quality. However, such molecular mechanisms are poorly understood in apple (Malus domestica Borkh.). In this study, we explored that the BTB-BACK-TAZ protein, MdBT2, negatively modulates the drought tolerance of apple plantlets. Moreover, we identified a novel Homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factor, MdHDZ27, using a yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screen with MdBT2 as the bait...

New York City (NYC) was the epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic for a long time, and the government introduced a city-wide lockdown policy to mitigate the spread of virus. Minority communities, however, suffered disproportionally high percentage of infection and mortality rates, a disturbing phenomenon that deserves scrutiny. Adopting a spatial and temporal perspective, this study aims to investigate health disparities in this pandemic by focusing on mobility in the city. Considering both public transit and the lockdown policy essential factors that impact infection and mortality, this study introduced a measure indicating mobility-restricted transit as the spatial factor...

BACKGROUND: To address the pandemic, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) expanded its TRICARE civilian provider network by 30.1%. In 2022, the DHA Annual Report stated that TRICARE's provider directories were only 80% accurate. Unlike Medicare, the DHA does not publicly reveal National Provider Identification (NPI) numbers. As a result, TRICARE's 9.6 million beneficiaries lack the means to verify their doctor's credentials. Since 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has excluded 17,706 physicians and other providers from federal health programs due to billing fraud, neglect, drug-related convictions, and other offenses...

Parthenocarpy allows fruit set independently of fertilization. In parthenocarpic-prone tomato genotypes, fruit set can be achieved under pollen-limiting environmental conditions and in sterile mutants. Parthenocarpy is also regarded as a quality-related trait, when seedlessness is associated with positive fruit quality aspects. Among the different sources of genetic parthenocarpy described in tomato, the parthenocarpic fruit ( pat ) mutation is of particular interest because of its strong expressivity, high fruit set, and enhanced fruit quality...

BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status (SES) is a major determinant of quality of life and outcomes. However, SES remains difficult to measure comprehensively. Distress communities index (DCI), a composite of seven socioeconomic factors, has been increasingly recognized for its correlation with poor outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To determine the predictive value of DCI on outcomes following intracranial tumor surgery. METHODS: A single institution, retrospective review was conducted to identify adult intracranial tumor patients undergoing resection (2016-2021)...

OBJECTIVE: Patients who miss screening mammogram (SM) appointments without notifying the healthcare system (no-show) risk care delays. We investigate sociodemographic characteristics of patients who experience SM no-shows at a community health center and whether and when the missed exams are completed. METHODS: We included patients with SM appointments at a community health center between 1/1/2021-12/31/2021. Language, race, ethnicity, insurance type, residential ZIP code tabulation area (ZCTA) poverty, appointment outcome (no-show, same-day cancellation, completed), and dates of completed SMs after no-show appointments with ≥ 1-year follow-up were collected...

OBJECTIVES: To identify predictors of referral and completion of germline genetic testing among newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients, with a focus on geographic social deprivation, oncologist-level practices, and time between diagnosis and completion of testing. METHODS: Clinical and sociodemographic data were abstracted from medical records of patients newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer between 2014 and 2019 in the University of North Carolina Health System...

PURPOSE: Gender and sexually diverse adolescents and young adults in Baltimore City, Maryland, are disproportionately impacted by HIV. The Virtual and Online Integrated Sexual Health Services for Youth program is a health navigation program which combines virtual sexual health service delivery and health navigation to link youth at risk for HIV acquisition to HIV testing/prevention and sexual healthcare services. METHODS: Youth between 13 and 26 years old and residing in the Baltimore area were eligible to participate in the program...

The homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) gene family plays a pivotal role in plant development and stress responses. Nevertheless, a comprehensive characterization of the HD-Zip gene family in kiwifruit has been lacking. In this study, we have systematically identified 70 HD-Zip genes in the Actinidia chinensis (Ac) genome and 55 in the Actinidia eriantha (Ae) genome. These genes have been categorized into four subfamilies (HD-Zip I, II, III, and IV) through rigorous phylogenetic analysis. Analysis of synteny patterns and selection pressures has provided insights into how whole-genome duplication (WGD) or segmental may have contributed to the divergence in gene numbers between these two kiwifruit species, with duplicated gene pairs undergoing purifying selection...

HD-Zip (Homeodomain-Leucine Zipper) is a family of transcription factors unique to higher plants and plays a vital role in plant growth and development. Increasing research results show that HD-Zip transcription factors are widely involved in many life processes in plants. However, the HD-Zip transcription factor for cannabis, a valuable crop, has not yet been identified. The sequence characteristics, chromosome localization, system evolution, conservative motif, gene structure, and gene expression of the HD-Zip transcription factor in the cannabis genome were systematically studied...

Many experimental and computational efforts have sought to understand DNA origami folding, but the time and length scales of this process pose significant challenges. Here, we present a mesoscopic model that uses a switchable force field to capture the behavior of single- and double-stranded DNA motifs and transitions between them, allowing us to simulate the folding of DNA origami up to several kilobases in size. Brownian dynamics simulations of small structures reveal a hierarchical folding process involving zipping into a partially folded precursor followed by crystallization into the final structure...

The study objective was to evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on pediatric blood lead testing in the United States. Clinical laboratory pediatric (ages <6 years) blood lead level (BLL) tests performed by Quest Diagnostics, January 2019-March 2022, were analyzed. Patients were categorized by age, by sex, and, through matching by ZIP code with US Census data, for race, ethnicity, pre-1950 housing, and poverty estimates. Over 2.8 million results from children (<6 years old) from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were included...

BACKGROUND: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder and symptoms may be sensitive to environmental stressors. Although it has been hypothesized that exposure to outdoor air pollution could trigger acute SCD events, evidence is limited. METHODS: We obtained SCD administrative data on hospital encounters in South Carolina from 2002 to 2019. We estimated outdoor air pollutant (particulate matter<2.5 μm (PM2.5 ), ozone (O3 ), and PM2.5 elemental carbon (EC) concentrations at residential zip codes using spatio-temporal models...