Malonylation, which has recently emerged as an important lysine modification, regulates diverse biological activities and has been implicated in several pervasive disorders, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. However, conventional global proteomics analysis using tandem mass spectrometry can be time-consuming, expensive and technically challenging. Therefore, to complement and extend existing experimental methods for malonylation site identification, we developed two novel computational methods for malonylation site prediction based on random forest and deep learning machine learning algorithms, RF-MaloSite and DL-MaloSite, respectively. DL-MaloSite requires the primary amino acid sequence as an input and RF-MaloSite utilizes a diverse set of biochemical, physiochemical and sequence-based features. While systematic assessment of performance metrics suggests that both 'RF-MaloSite' and 'DL-MaloSite' perform well in all metrics tested, our methods perform particularly well in the areas of accuracy, sensitivity and overall method performance (assessed by the Matthew's Correlation Coefficient). For instance, RF-MaloSite exhibited MCC scores of 0.42 and 0.40 using 10-fold cross-validation and an independent test set, respectively. Meanwhile, DL-MaloSite was characterized by MCC scores of 0.51 and 0.49 based on 10-fold cross-validation and an independent set, respectively. Importantly, both methods exhibited efficiency scores that were on par or better than those achieved by existing malonylation site prediction methods. The identification of these sites may also provide important insights into the mechanisms of crosstalk between malonylation and other lysine modifications, such as acetylation, glutarylation and succinylation. To facilitate their use, both methods have been made freely available to the research community at https//github.com/dukkakc/DL-MaloSite-and-RF-MaloSite. © 2020 The Authors.In recent decades, neuropeptides have been found to play a major role in communication along the gut-brain axis. Various neuropeptides are expressed in the central and peripheral nervous systems, where they facilitate the crosstalk between the nervous systems and other major body systems. In addition to being critical to communication from the brain in the nervous systems, neuropeptides actively regulate immune functions in the gut in both direct and indirect ways, allowing for communication between the immune and nervous systems. In this mini review, we discuss the role of several neuropeptides, including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and phoenixin (PNX), in the gut-brain axis and summarize their functions in immunity and stress. We choose these neuropeptides to highlight the diversity of peptide communication in the gut-brain axis. © 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Research Network of Computational and Structural Biotechnology.Background/purpose The development of dentists in Taiwan has been over a century. This study tried to explore the dentist manpower development and the current status of geographical distribution of dentists in Taiwan. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/8-cyclopentyl-1-3-dimethylxanthine.html Materials and methods This study used the secondary data analysis to survey the changes of total dentist number from 1986 to 2018 and the geographic distribution of dentists in different levels of dental institutions in 2019. Results The total number of dentists increased from 3739 in 1986 to 14,717 in 2018. The total number of hospital dentists increased from 809 in 1986 to 2121 in 2018. However, the proportion of hospital dentists in the total number of dentists decreased from 21.64% in 1986 to 14.41% in 2018. On the contrary, the total number of dental clinic dentists increased from 2930 in 1986 to 12,596 in 2018. The proportion of dental clinic dentists in the total number of dentists increased from 78.36% in 1986 to 85.59% in 2018. The northern region of Taiwan and Taipei City had 52.81% (7829/14,825) and 22.29% (3304/14,825) of the total number of dentists in 2019, respectively. Hospital dentists showed a significantly greater imbalance in geographic distribution than overall dentists. Conclusion Our results indicate that Taiwan has the problems of oversupply of dentists and imbalance in geographical distribution of dentists. Because continuation of the current dentist manpower development may accelerate the oversupply and geographical imbalance of dentists, a mechanism for controlling the total dentist manpower should be implemented to prevent the deterioration of the problems. © 2020 Association for Dental Sciences of the Republic of China. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.Background International medical graduates (IMGs) form a significant portion of the physician workforce in the United States and are vital in filling training slots due to a shortage of American medical graduates. Most often, IMGs require visa sponsorship, which must be solidified before applying for a residency or fellowship. Objective We examined the association of H-1B visa sponsorship on retention of physician trainees within the state of Ohio. Methods This was a single institutional study that examined all visa-sponsored residency and fellowship graduates who entered fully licensed clinical practice between 2006 and 2015. Practice location was ascertained immediately upon completion of training and at follow-up to determine which visa group (H-1B or J-1) were more likely to initially practice in Ohio after graduation and remain within the state. Results Of 103 visa-sponsored residency and fellowship graduates, 42 were H-1B sponsored and 61 were J-1-sponsored. Fifty-two percent (22) of H-1B visa-sponsored trainees and 31% (19) of J-1 visa-sponsored trainees were retained in Ohio after graduation. At follow-up, 40% (17) of H-1B and 26% (16) of J-1 visa holders remained in the state. Conclusions H-1B visa-sponsored trainees were more likely than those with J-1 visas to practice in the state of Ohio after graduation. Regardless of visa status, graduates tended not to change their geographical location over time. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education 2020.