Recently non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes have been found to serve many important functions in the cell such as regulation of gene expression at the transcriptional level.Potentially there are more ncRNA molecules yet to be found and their possible functions are to be revealed.The discovery of ncRNAs is a difficult task because they lack sequence indicators such as the start and stop codons displayed by protein-coding RNAs.Current methods utilize either sequence motifs or structural parameters to detect novel ncRNAs within genomes.Here,we present an ab initio ncRNA finder,named ncRNAscout,by utilizing both sequence motifs and structural parameters.Specifically,our method has three components:(i) a measure of the frequency of a sequence,(ii) a measure of the structural stability of a sequence contained in a t-score,and (iii) a measure of the frequency of certain patterns within a sequence that may indicate the presence of ncRNA.Experimental results show that,given a genome and a set of known ncRNAs,our method is able to accurately identify and locate a significant number of ncRNA sequences in the genome.The ncRNAscout tool is available for downloading at http://bioinformatics.njit.edu/ncRNAscout.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Considering the high number of deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Latin American countries, together with multiple factors that increase the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, we aimed to determine 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels and its association with mortality in patients with critical COVID-19. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This was a prospective observational study including adult patients with critical COVID-19. Data, including clinical characteristics and 25(OH)D levels measured at the time of intensive care unit admission, were collected. All patients were followed until hospital discharge or in-hospital death. The patients were divided into those surviving and deceased patient groups, and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine independent predictors of in hospital mortality. RESULTS: The entire cohort comprised 94 patients with critical COVID-19 (males, 59.6%;median age, 61.5 years). The median 25(OH)D level was 12.7 ng/mL, and 15 (16%) and 79 (84%) patients had vitamin D insufficiency and vitamin D deficiency, respectively. The median serum 25(OH)D level was significantly lower in deceased patients compared with surviving (12.1 vs. 18.7 ng/mL, P < 0.001). Vitamin D deficiency was present in 100% of the deceased patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age, body mass index, other risk factors, and 25(OH)D level were independent predictors of mortality. CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D deficiency was present in 84% of critical COVID-19 patients. Serum 25(OH)D was independently associated with mortality in critical patients with COVID-19.