This review summarises the extant literature investigating the relation between traffic-related air pollution levels in and around schools and executive functioning in primary-school-aged children. An electronic search was conducted using Web of Science, Scopus, and Education Literature Datasets databases (February 2020). Review articles were also searched, and forwards and backwards searches of identified studies were performed. Included papers were assessed for quality. We included 9 separate studies (published in 13 papers). Findings suggest that indoor and outdoor particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM_2.5) negatively influences executive function and academic achievement and that indoor and outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) adversely affects working memory. Evidence for the effects of particulate matter with a diameter of 10 μm or less (PM₁₀) is limited but suggests potential wide-ranging negative effects on attention, reasoning, and academic test scores. Air pollution in and around schools influences executive function and appears to impede the developmental trajectory of working memory. Further research is required to establish the extent of these effects, reproducibility, consequences for future attainment, and place within the wider context of cognitive development.

The prevalence of consanguineous marriage and genetic disorders are high in Saudi Arabia. There were records on the practices of Saudis toward prenatal diagnosis (PND) and termination of pregnancy (TOP), however the sample sizes are small. This study has targeted the Saudi Arabian community and family history of genetic disorders to determine the practices toward PND and TOP. The cross-sectional survey was conducted among Saudis (n = 2761) to determine their practices toward reproductive-decision making. Regression analysis was conducted to identify the association of the limiting factors, relative merits and family history on the outcomes. Total of 2507 participants returned completed questionnaire. The practice towards PND (68%) were more favorable than TOP (33%). PND was found to be a good opportunity for early diagnosis and gives parent’s choice. Education, history with affected baby, prior knowledge and religious belief were significant deciding factors of PND and TOP. Down syndrome (n = 161) and sickle cell anemia (n = 152) were commonly available genetic disorder among participant’s family. Respondents with autistic cases in their family have higher acceptance rate for TOP. Non-consanguineous are more willing to consider TOP than consanguineous. Participants with abnormal fetus, aged of > 36 years, married and educated Saudis were more likely consider TOP. Though, religion is the most influencing factor for not accepting TOP, comparatively willingness to PND and TOP have increased recently. Awareness campaigns about PND and TOP may increase the chances of accepting prenatal genetic diagnosis.

Autism is a complex disease with genetic predisposition factors. Real factors for treatment and early diagnosis are yet to be defined. This study integrated transcriptome and exome genotyping for identifying functional variants associated with autism spectrum disorder and their impact on gene expression to find significant variations. More than 1800 patients were screened, and 70 (47 male/23 female) with an average age of 7.56 ± 3.68 years fulfilled the DSM-5 criteria for autism. Analysis revealed 682 SNPs of 589 genes significantly (p < 0.001) associated with autism among the putative functional exonic variants (n = 243,345) studied. Olfactory receptor genes on chromosome 6 were significant after Bonferroni correction (α = 0.05/243345 = 2.05 × 10⁻⁷) with a high degree of linkage disequilibrium on 6p22.1 (p = 6.71 × 10⁻⁹). The differentially expressed gene analysis of autistic patients compared to controls in whole RNA sequencing identified significantly upregulated (foldchange ≥0.8 and p-value ≤ 0.05; n = 125) and downregulated (foldchange ≤−0.8 and p-value ≤ 0.05; n = 117) genes. The integration of significantly up- and downregulated genes and genes of significant SNPs identified regulatory variants (rs6657480, rs3130780, and rs1940475) associated with the up- (ITGB3BP) and downregulation (DDR1 and MMP8) of genes in autism spectrum disorder in people of Arab ancestries. The significant variants could be a biomarker of interest for identifying early autism among Arabs and helping to characterize the genes involved in the susceptibility mechanisms for autistic subjects.

Background:Cases of the re-emergence of Zika virus in 2015 were associated with severe neurologic complications, including Gillien-Barre syndrome in adults and congenital Zika syndrome in newborns. The major structural determinant of immunity to the Zika virus is the E protein. Although B-cell epitopes of Zika E protein were recently identified, data regarding epitope variations among Zika strains in pre-epidemic and epidemic periods are lacking. Methods:Here, we conducted systematic bioinformatics analyses of Zika strains isolated between 1968 and 2017. Multiple sequence alignment of E protein as well as B-cell epitopes annotations were performed. In addition, homology-based approach was utilized to construct three-dimensional structures of monomeric E glycoproteins to annotate epitope variations. Lastly, prediction of ofN-glycosylation patterns and prediction of protein stability upon mutations were also investigated. Results:Our analyses indicates that epitopes recognized by human mAbs ZIKV-117, ZIKV-15, and ZIKV-19 were highly conserved, suggesting as attractive targets for the development of vaccines and immunotherapeutics directed against diverse Zika strains. In addition, the epitope recognized by ZIKV-E-2A10G6 mAb derived from immunized mice was mostly conserved across Zika strains. Conclusions:Our data provide new insights regarding antigenic similarities between Zika strains circulating worldwide. These data are essential for understanding the impact of evolution on antigenic cross-reactivity between Zika lineages and strains. Furtherin-vitroanalyses are needed to determine how mutationsat predefined epitopes could impact the development of vaccines that can effectively neutralize Zika viruses.

Low-cost personal exposure monitors (PEMs) to measure personal exposure to air pollution are potentially promising tools for health research. However, their adoption requires robust validation. This study evaluated the performance of twenty-one Plume Lab Flow2s (PLFs) by comparing its air pollutant measurements, particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM_2.5), 10 μm or less (PM₁₀), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), against several high-quality air pollution monitors under field conditions (at indoor, outdoor, and roadside locations). Correlation and regression analysis were used to evaluate measurements obtained by different PLFs against reference instrumentation. For all measured pollutants, the overall correlation coefficient between the PLFs and the reference instruments was often weak (r < 0.4). Moderate correlation was observed for one PLF unit at the indoor location and two units at the roadside location when measuring PM_2.5, but not for PM₁₀ and NO₂ concentration. During periods of particularly higher pollution, 11 PLF tools showed stronger regression results (R² values > 0.5) with one-hour and 9 PLF units with one-minute time interval. Results show that the PLF cannot be used robustly to determine high and low exposure to poor air. Therefore, the use of PLFs in research studies should be approached with caution if data quality is important to the research outputs.

Background:Cases of the re-emergence of Zika virus in 2015 were associated with severe neurologic complications, including Gillien-Barre syndrome in adults and congenital Zika syndrome in newborns. The major structural determinant of immunity to the Zika virus is the E protein. Although B-cell epitopes of Zika E protein were recently identified, data regarding epitope variations among Zika strains in pre-epidemic and epidemic periods are lacking. Methods:Here, we conducted systematic bioinformatics analyses of Zika strains isolated between 1968 and 2017. Multiple sequence alignment of E protein as well as B-cell epitopes annotations were performed. In addition, homology-based approach was utilized to construct three-dimensional structures of monomeric E glycoproteins to annotate epitope variations. Lastly, ofN-glycosylation patterns and prediction of protein stability upon mutations were also investigated. Results:Our analyses indicates that epitopes recognized by human mAbs ZIKV-117, ZIKV-15, and ZIKV-119 were highly conserved, suggesting as attractive targets for the development of vaccines and immunotherapeutics directed against diverse Zika strains. In addition, the epitope recognized by ZIKV-E-2A10G6 mAb derived from immunized mice was highly conserved across Zika strains. Conclusions:Our data provide new insights regarding antigenic similarities between Zika strains circulating worldwide. These data are essential for understanding the impact of evolution on antigenic cross-reactivity between Zika lineages and strains. Furtherin-vitroanalyses are needed to determine how mutations could impact the development of vaccines that can effectively neutralize Zika viruses.