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Computational and Structural... 2021About fifty times more data has been created than there are stars in the observable universe. Current trends in data creation and consumption mean that the devices and... (Review)
Review
About fifty times more data has been created than there are stars in the observable universe. Current trends in data creation and consumption mean that the devices and storage media we use will require more physical space. Novel data storage media such as DNA are considered a viable alternative. Yet, the introduction of new storage technologies should be accompanied by an evaluation of user requirements. To assess such needs, we designed and conducted a survey to rank different storage properties adapted for visualization. That is, accessibility, capacity, usage, mutability, lifespan, addressability, and typology. Withal, we reported different storage devices over time while ranking them by their properties. Our results indicated a timeline of three distinct periods: magnetic, optical and electronic, and alternative media. Moreover, by investigating user interfaces across different operating systems, we observed a predominant presence of bar charts and tree maps for the usage of a medium and its file directory hierarchy, respectively. Taken together with the results of our survey, this allowed us to create a customized user interface that includes data visualizations that can be toggled for both user groups: Experts and Public.
PubMed: 34527195
DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2021.08.031 -
Biomolecules Apr 2021Exosomes, small membrane-bound organelles formed from endosomal membranes, represent a heterogenous source of biological and pathological biomarkers capturing the... (Review)
Review
Exosomes, small membrane-bound organelles formed from endosomal membranes, represent a heterogenous source of biological and pathological biomarkers capturing the metabolic status of a cell. Exosomal cargo, including lipids, proteins, mRNAs, and miRNAs, can either act as inter-cellular messengers or are shuttled for autophagic/lysosomal degradation. Most cell types in the central nervous system (CNS) release exosomes, which serve as long and short distance communicators between neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia. Lysosomal storage disorders are diseases characterized by the accumulation of partially or undigested cellular waste. The exosomal content in these diseases is intrinsic to each individual disorder. Emerging research indicates that lysosomal dysfunction enhances exocytosis, and hence, in lysosomal disorders, exosomal secretion may play a role in disease pathogenesis. Furthermore, the unique properties of exosomes and their ability to carry cargo between adjacent cells and organs, and across the blood-brain barrier, make them attractive candidates for use as therapeutic delivery vehicles. Thus, understanding exosomal content and function may have utility in the treatment of specific lysosomal storage disorders. Since lysosomal dysfunction and the deficiency of at least one lysosomal enzyme, glucocerebrosidase, is associated with the development of parkinsonism, the study and use of exosomes may contribute to an improved understanding of Parkinson disease, potentially leading to new therapeutics.
Topics: Animals; Biological Transport; Exosomes; Humans; Lysosomal Storage Diseases
PubMed: 33920837
DOI: 10.3390/biom11040576 -
Trends in Molecular Medicine Feb 2017Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are rare inherited debilitating and often fatal disorders. Caused by mutations affecting lysosomal proteins, LSDs are characterized by... (Review)
Review
Lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are rare inherited debilitating and often fatal disorders. Caused by mutations affecting lysosomal proteins, LSDs are characterized by the accumulation of undegraded material in lysosomes and by lysosomal dysfunction. Although LSDs are multisystemic diseases, the majority display neurologic symptoms and neurodegeneration. Only recently has a role emerged for mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathophysiology of LSDs, suggesting an impact of lysosomal dysfunction on mitochondria. Moreover, mitochondrial damage may also cause lysosomal dysfunction, further supporting the activity of common signaling pathways and crosstalk between the two organelles. In this review we explore the mechanisms linking lysosomal and mitochondrial dysfunction to assess whether specific mitochondrial pathways represent a new therapeutic frontier in the management of LSDs.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Lysosomal Storage Diseases; Lysosomes; Mitochondria; Mutation; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Proteins
PubMed: 28111024
DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2016.12.003 -
Cureus Jan 2022Background Large amounts of medicines are wasted during procurement, storage, distribution, and utilization. Proper procurement, storage, dispensing, and documentation...
Background Large amounts of medicines are wasted during procurement, storage, distribution, and utilization. Proper procurement, storage, dispensing, and documentation of medicines are important aspects of pharmacy management. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) have developed guidelines for the storage and dispensing of medicines by pharmacists. This study was conducted to assess the storage and dispensing facilities of medicines in public healthcare pharmacies of Puducherry province in south India. Methodology A one-time survey was conducted in 10 public healthcare pharmacies by filling the checklist which was prepared based on the WHO and IPA guidelines. Results Facilities such as adequate surface area, storage area, reception area, and availability of water supply in dispensing area were available in 90% of surveyed pharmacies. The most common system used for the arrangement of medicines was alphabetical order (70%). In 80% of pharmacies, a sufficient number of shelves was available for storage of medicine, and in 90% of pharmacies, shelves were properly labeled. None of the pharmacies had separate storage facilities for expired medicines and narcotic drugs. Conclusions In Puducherry, pharmacy services are provided by qualified and experienced pharmacists. Although most of the surveyed pharmacies had all the required infrastructure and equipment facilities, few pharmacies need to improve their facilities to promote good drug-dispensing practices.
PubMed: 35198298
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.21389 -
Biology Dec 2020Professional athletes are expected to continuously improve their performance, and some might also use illegal methods-e.g., autologous blood doping (ABD)-to achieve... (Review)
Review
Professional athletes are expected to continuously improve their performance, and some might also use illegal methods-e.g., autologous blood doping (ABD)-to achieve improvements. This article applies a systematic literature review to investigate differences in the ABD methods and the related performance and blood parameters owing to different storage conditions-cryopreservation (CP) and cold storage (CS)-and different storage durations. The literature research resulted in 34 original articles. The majority of currently published studies employed CS during ABD. This contrasts to the applied storage technique in professional sports, which was mainly reported to be CP. The second outcome of the literature research revealed large differences in the storage durations applied, which were in the range of one day to 17 weeks between blood sampling and re-infusion, which might affect recovery of the red blood cell mass and thus performance outcome related to ABD. Data revealed that performance parameters were positively affected by ABD when a minimal storage duration of four weeks was adhered. This article identified a need for further research that reflect common ABD practice and its real effects on performance parameters, but also on related blood parameters in order to develop valid and reliable ABD detection methods.
PubMed: 33383643
DOI: 10.3390/biology10010014 -
Frontiers in Bioinformatics 2023DNA, as the storage medium in organisms, can address the shortcomings of existing electromagnetic storage media, such as low information density, high maintenance power...
DNA, as the storage medium in organisms, can address the shortcomings of existing electromagnetic storage media, such as low information density, high maintenance power consumption, and short storage time. Current research on DNA storage mainly focuses on designing corresponding encoders to convert binary data into DNA base data that meets biological constraints. We have created a new Chinese character code table that enables exceptionally high information storage density for storing Chinese characters (compared to traditional UTF-8 encoding). To meet biological constraints, we have devised a DNA shift coding scheme with low algorithmic complexity, which can encode any strand of DNA even has excessively long homopolymer. The designed DNA sequence will be stored in a double-stranded plasmid of 744bp, ensuring high reliability during storage. Additionally, the plasmid's resistance to environmental interference ensuring long-term stable information storage. Moreover, it can be replicated at a lower cost.
PubMed: 37900965
DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2023.1276934 -
Frontiers in Endocrinology 2023To assess the prevalence of pancreatic steatosis and iron overload in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and their correlation with liver histology severity and...
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of pancreatic steatosis and iron overload in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and their correlation with liver histology severity and the risk of cardiometabolic diseases.
METHOD
A prospective, multicenter study including NAFLD patients with biopsy and paired Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was performed. Liver biopsies were evaluated according to NASH Clinical Research Network, hepatic iron storages were scored, and digital pathology quantified the tissue proportionate areas of fat and iron. MRI-biomarkers of fat fraction (PDFF) and iron accumulation (R2*) were obtained from the liver and pancreas. Different metabolic traits were evaluated, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk was estimated with the atherosclerotic CVD score, and the severity of iron metabolism alteration was determined by grading metabolic hiperferritinemia (MHF). Associations between CVD, histology and MRI were investigated.
RESULTS
In total, 324 patients were included. MRI-determined pancreatic iron overload and moderate-to severe steatosis were present in 45% and 25%, respectively. Liver and pancreatic MRI-biomarkers showed a weak correlation (r=0.32 for PDFF, r=0.17 for R2*). Pancreatic PDFF increased with hepatic histologic steatosis grades and NASH diagnosis (<0.001). Prevalence of pancreatic steatosis and iron overload increased with the number of metabolic traits (<0.001). Liver R2* significantly correlated with MHF (AUC=0.77 [0.72-0.82]). MRI-determined pancreatic steatosis (OR=3.15 [1.63-6.09]), and iron overload (OR=2.39 [1.32-4.37]) were independently associated with high-risk CVD. Histologic diagnosis of NASH and advanced fibrosis were also associated with high-risk CVD.
CONCLUSION
Pancreatic steatosis and iron overload could be of utility in clinical decision-making and prognostication of NAFLD.
Topics: Humans; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; Cardiovascular Diseases; Prospective Studies; Risk Factors; Lipid Metabolism Disorders; Pancreatic Diseases; Iron Overload; Iron; Heart Disease Risk Factors
PubMed: 37600695
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1213441 -
Materials (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2019Numerous reviews on hydrogen storage have previously been published. However, most of these reviews deal either exclusively with storage materials or the global hydrogen... (Review)
Review
Numerous reviews on hydrogen storage have previously been published. However, most of these reviews deal either exclusively with storage materials or the global hydrogen economy. This paper presents a review of hydrogen storage systems that are relevant for mobility applications. The ideal storage medium should allow high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities, quick uptake and release of fuel, operation at room temperatures and atmospheric pressure, safe use, and balanced cost-effectiveness. All current hydrogen storage technologies have significant drawbacks, including complex thermal management systems, boil-off, poor efficiency, expensive catalysts, stability issues, slow response rates, high operating pressures, low energy densities, and risks of violent and uncontrolled spontaneous reactions. While not perfect, the current leading industry standard of compressed hydrogen offers a functional solution and demonstrates a storage option for mobility compared to other technologies.
PubMed: 31248099
DOI: 10.3390/ma12121973 -
Computing and Software For Big Science 2022A common task in scientific computing is the data reduction. This workflow extracts the most important information from large input data and stores it in smaller derived...
A common task in scientific computing is the data reduction. This workflow extracts the most important information from large input data and stores it in smaller derived data objects. The derived data objects can then be used for further analysis. Typically, these workflows use distributed storage and computing resources. A straightforward setup of storage media would be low-cost tape storage and higher-cost disk storage. The large, infrequently accessed input data are stored on tape storage. The smaller, frequently accessed derived data is stored on disk storage. In a best-case scenario, the large input data is only accessed very infrequently and in a well-planned pattern. However, practice shows that often the data has to be processed continuously and unpredictably. This can significantly reduce tape storage performance. A common approach to counter this is storing copies of the large input data on disk storage. This contribution evaluates an approach that uses cloud storage resources to serve as a flexible cache or buffer, depending on the computational workflow. The proposed model is explored for the case of continuously processed data. For the evaluation, a simulation tool was developed, which can be used to analyse models related to storage and network resources. We show that using commercial cloud storage can reduce on-premises disk storage requirements, while maintaining an equal throughput of jobs. Moreover, the key metrics of the model are discussed, and an approach is described, which uses the simulation to assist with the decision process of using commercial cloud storage. The goal is to investigate approaches and propose new evaluation methods to overcome future data challenges.
PubMed: 36620727
DOI: 10.1007/s41781-021-00076-w -
Materials (Basel, Switzerland) Oct 2022A combined solar phase-change thermal-storage heating system is proposed, wherein erythritol is used as the phase-change material (PCM) used to fill the thermal-storage...
A combined solar phase-change thermal-storage heating system is proposed, wherein erythritol is used as the phase-change material (PCM) used to fill the thermal-storage device, and the storage cavity is heated and stored with a disc concentrator. The Solidification/Melting, Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) model of ANSYS Fluent software was used to simulate the phase-change process of erythritol inside the thermal-storage device. The thermal-storage device was designed based on our numerical calculations, and its performance was tested. We found that larger PCM-volume fractions correlated with lower PCM volume-expansion rates and longer total melting times during the heat storage process. When the value equaled 80%, the PCM solid-liquid-phase interface and temperature distribution were most uniform and showed the best heat storage. In addition, the size of the heat-storage device affected the heat-exchange area, and the total melting time of the PCM decreased and then increased as the width-to-height ratio (I) increased. With this design capacity, the late stage of the charging process of the heat-storage device accounted for 70% of the total time, and the heat energy-utilization rate during the boiling process was 66.3%. Overall, this combined heating system can be considered a very efficient solar energy-utilization terminal for basic domestic energy needs.
PubMed: 36363089
DOI: 10.3390/ma15217497