Monomer structure fingerprints: an extension of the monomer composition version for peptide databases.

Previously a fingerprint based on monomer composition (MCFP) of nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) has been introduced. MCFP is a novel method for obtaining a representative description of NRP structures from their monomer composition in a fingerprint form. An effective screening and prediction of biological activities has been obtained from Norine NRPs database. In this paper, we present an extension of the MCFP fingerprint. This extension is based on adding few columns into the fingerprint; representing monomer clusters, 2D structures, peptide categories, and peptide diversity. All these data have been extracted from the NRP structure. Experiments with Norine NRPs database showed that the extended MCFP, that can be called Monomer Structure FingerPrint (MSFP) produced high prediction accuracy (> 95%) together with a high recall rate (86%) obtained when MSFP was used for prediction and similarity searching. From this study it appeared that MSFP mainly built from monomer composition can substantially be improved by adding more columns representing useful information about monomer composition and 2D structure of NRPs.

The emerging pandemic of obesity and diabetes: are we doing enough to prevent a disaster?

Obesity is growing into a global epidemic and alarming trends are seen in Asian countries. Although obesity is defined by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference has emerged as a more specific marker of metabolic risk. BMI and waist circumference thresholds vary between ethnicities and values are lower for Asian populations. Asians are at an increased risk of developing diabetes and early death from cardiovascular complications at lower levels of BMI and waist circumference. Obesity, especially central obesity is strongly associated with development and worsening of type 2 diabetes. The developing countries may find it difficult to face a surge in diabetes with early death and loss of productivity. Therefore, early action to contain an epidemic of obesity should be considered an urgent global priority.

Pets, allergy and respiratory symptoms in children living in a desert country.

The aim of this paper was to study the effect of pets and other domestic animals effect on allergic respiratory symptoms among United Arab Emirates primary school children. A cross-sectional survey of 2200 school children living in both urban and rural areas was conducted using self-administered questionnaires between November 1993 and June 1994. The age range of the children studied was 6-12 years, with a mean of 9.23 and standard deviation of 2.14 years; 51% were girls and 49% were boys. Pet ownership was defined by the presence of birds, cats, camels, dogs, goats, poultry and rabbits in the home. One thousand and thirty-six (1036/2090 = 49.6%) of the 2090 families studied had at least one animal at home. However, respiratory symptoms, pet allergy, chronic cough, chronic wheeze, breathlessness or chest tightness, doctor-diagnosed asthma, rhinitis and eczema was reported by 633 families (30.3%) from 2090 studied families. The highest prevalence of reported respiratory allergy and symptoms was found in children who had pets in the past and currently. The lowest prevalence of reported respiratory allergy and symptoms was found in children who never had pets in their lives. Past pets ownership was generally associated with a higher prevalence of pets allergy and respiratory symptoms. No less than 218 (10.4%) reported removing pets in the past because of an allergy or other health problems in the child or in other family members. The risk of having pet allergy in children with animals was found to be twice than that of children without (RR: 2.13; 95% CI: 1.53-2.97; p < 0.0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)