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Background:Most of the Veterans Administration (VA) population is either overweight or obese, which is a serious health concern. Medical weight management visits have traditionally occurred through in-person clinics. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced care delivery to virtual platforms. Methods:We compared weight loss with in-person versus telephone-based medical weight management (lifestyle counseling coupled with pharmacotherapy) delivered by physician and nurse practitioner visits during the pandemic. We designed a program evaluation utilizing a naturalistic (pragmatic) observational study structure, including both newly enrolled and previously established participants in the Minneapolis VA MOVE! program between 2017 and 2021. A "transition" cohort (n = 74) received in-person care from March 2019 to March 2020, and then transitioned to virtual care. A "new start" virtual care cohort (n = 149) enrolled after March 2020 was compared to a separate historical group (n = 180) that received in-person care between January 2017 and December 2019. Weight loss was accessed over a 9-month period in both cohorts. Results:Mean weight loss over 9 months was −6.5 ± 18.2 and −2.5 ± 13.3 lbs in the in-person and virtual phases of the transition cohort, respectively, without significant difference between the two phases (p = 0.22). Mean weight loss over 9 months in the new start (virtual) cohort was −14.4 ± 17.0 lbs compared to −16.7 ± 21.0 lbs in the historical cohort, without significant difference between groups (p = 0.44). Conclusions:In our naturalistic study in a single-site VA clinic setting, weight loss with telephone-based medical weight management during the pandemic was comparable to in-person care. These findings are important for veterans living in rural and/or underserved areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The glymphatic system suggests the convective bulk flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through perivascular spaces and the interstitial spaces of the brain parenchyma for the rapid removal of toxic waste solutes from the brain. However, the presence of convective bulk flow within the brain interstitial spaces is still under debate. We first addressed this argument to determine the involvement of the glymphatic system in brain waste clearance utilizing contrast-enhanced 3D T1-weighted imaging (T1WI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and confocal microscopy imaging. Furthermore, perivascular macrophages (PVMs), which are immune cells located within perivascular spaces, have not been thoroughly explored for their association with the glymphatic system. Therefore, we investigated tracer uptake by PVMs in the perivascular spaces of both the arteries/arterioles and veins/venules and the potential association of PVMs in assisting the glymphatic system for interstitial waste clearance. Our findings demonstrated that both convective bulk flow and diffusion are responsible for the clearance of interstitial waste solutes from the brain parenchyma. Furthermore, our results suggested that PVMs may play an important function in glymphatic system-mediated interstitial waste clearance. The glymphatic system and PVMs could be targeted to enhance interstitial waste clearance in patients with waste-associated neurological conditions and aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1984, Sikhs were massacred following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Cultural expressions attempt to foreground the haunting legacies of this genocide. This paper explores Harpreet Kaur's documentary, The Widow Colony- India's Unsettled Settlement which unfolds as trauma testimony of the understudied conflict, contextualizing the spectral wounds of Sikh widows and their struggle for survival. Using hauntology and postmemory as critical lens, this article examines the spectral wounds of 1984 Sikh genocide. It also focuses on the gendered dimensions of violence against Sikh women by enunciating their doubly victimized sensibility through their experiences of shame, trauma and suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider an autonomous heat engine in simultaneous contact with a hot and a cold reservoir and describe it within a linear irreversible framework. In a tight-coupling approximation, the rate of entropy generation is effectively written in terms of a single thermal flux that is a homogeneous function of the hot and cold fluxes. The specific algebraic forms of the effective flux are deduced for scenarios containing internal and external irreversibilities for the typical example of a thermoelectric generator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study of a six-month-old male Pug with pyodemodicosis, a parasitic skin disease, complicated by ulcerative keratitis. The dog was successfully treated with fluralaner, cephalexin, and topical antimicrobial shampoo, as well as ophthalmic treatments. After eight weeks of treatment, there was a reduction in mite count and complete clinical recovery. The article provides a detailed account of the case history, observations, and treatment protocol, highlighting the effectiveness of fluralaner and autologous serum in managing pyodemodicosis and ulcerative keratitis in dogs. [Extracted from the article]

Medical records are one of the crucial documents and a significant asset for anyone seeking treatment. Electronic health records (EHRs) have made a dynamic shift by making them easier to manage, facilitate and share among various stakeholders such as doctors, lab technicians, and insurance agents. EHRs are vulnerable to hacker, cybercriminal attacks, and data breaches. Once compromised, health records cannot be retrieved. As a result, patients must have control over who gets their EHRs, when they get them, and where they get them. To address the aforementioned issue, this paper proposes a blockchain-based secure record-keeping and trustworthy sharing system. In order to do this, a distributed off-chain storage architecture for large-scale medical data storage is developed, which overcomes the drawbacks of on-chain data storage and enhances scalability. The distributed storage, i.e., InterPlanetary File System, is a content-addressable storage that ensures the integrity of the content such that a slight modification in the stored EHR records results in a change in the obtained hash value. Furthermore, a Ciphertext Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) algorithm integrated with blockchain technology is designed for fine-grained access control, allowing only authorized users to access specific EHR data based on their attributes. The combination of CP-ABE with blockchain technology provides a tamper-proof and verifiable audit trail of all data access and updations made to EHRs. This enhances accountability and ensures that the patients or owners can track and verify all actions taken on the data. To implement the proposed system, the Remix-Ethereum IDE is used. Smart contracts (SCs) are designed with access permissions so patients have complete control over their records. The scalability and immutability of the system is ensured by storing the hash of the encrypted EHRs on the blockchain and the actual encrypted records on IPFS. The security analysis of the proposed system is carried out by evaluating its resistance to various attacks. Additionally, potential security flaws in the proposed SCs are investigated using the Oyente tool. Different test cases are presented to demonstrate the functionality and cost analysis of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Millets are ancient grains, following wheat, that have been a fundamental source of human sustenance. These are nutrient-rich small-seeded grains that have gained prominence and admiration globally due to their super resilience in diverse climates and significant nutritional benefits. As millets are renowned for their nutritional richness, the demand for millet-based products increases. Hence, this paper aims in identifying the growing need for innovative processing techniques that not only preserve their nutritional content but also extend their shelf life. Design/methodology/approach: In traditional times, heat was the only means of cooking and processing of the foods, but the amount of damage they used to cause to the sensorial and nutritional properties was huge. Millets' sensitivity toward heat poses a challenge, as their composition is susceptible to disruption during various heat treatments and manufacturing processes. To cater to this drawback while ensuring the prolonged shelf life and nutrient preservation, various innovative approaches such as cold plasma, infrared technology and high hydrostatic pressure (HPP) processing are being widely used. These new methodologies aim on inactivating the microorganisms that have been developed within the food, providing the unprocessed, raw and natural form of nutrients in food products. Findings: Among these approaches, nonthermal technology has emerged as a key player that prioritizes brief treatment periods and avoids the use of high temperatures. Nonthermal techniques (cold plasma, infrared radiation, HPP processing, ultra-sonication and pulsed electric field) facilitate the conservation of millet's nutritional integrity by minimizing the degradation of heat-sensitive nutrients like vitamins and antioxidants. Acknowledging the potential applications and processing efficiency of nonthermal techniques, the food industry has embarked on substantial investments in this technology. The present study provides an in-depth exploration of the array of nonthermal technologies used in the food industry and their effects on the physical and chemical composition of diverse millet varieties. Originality/value: Nonthermal techniques, compared to conventional thermal methods, are environmentally sound processes that contribute to energy conservation. However, these conveniences are accompanied by challenges, and this review not only elucidates these challenges but also focuses on the future implications of nonthermal techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained much popularity, increasing the flow of sensitive user data across the web. In addition, the adoption of fog and edge technologies for latency-sensitive applications aggravates the privacy issues in the scenario as the sensitive data are processed in the user vicinity. Furthermore, the presence of the processing layer near the user end increases the attack surface and thus attracts malicious or curious intruders. In this light, the authors present a stacked-ensemble privacy-preserving attack detection framework, P2ADF. The framework detects the popular man-in-the-middle (MiTM) and denial-of-service (DoS)/distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks in the fog-IoT setup with a maximum accuracy of about 99.98 percent. The proposed model is trained over benchmark datasets, say, IoTID20, TON_IoT, N-BaIoT, UNSW-NB15, and CICDDoS19. The performance of the proposed model is also compared to existing state-of-the-art approaches, and P2ADF outperforms them all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucagon is secreted by the pancreatic alpha cell and has long been known to oppose insulin action. A lyophilized form of the hormone has been available to treat episodes of insulin-induced hypoglycemia in insulin-treated people with diabetes for decades, but the difficulty of use was a barrier to widespread utilization. Newer formulations of glucagon are stable at room temperature in single-use devices that many caregivers find are easier to use than the original glucagon emergency kit. In this review, we will review what is known about the role of glucagon in normal physiology and diabetes and then discuss how the research in this area has been translated into treatment for metabolic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tumours in dogs are increasing day by day and the mainstay of treatment is surgery. Wide surgical resection of soft tissue tumour in dogs is mandatory to prevent recurrence but it leads to the formation of a large skin defect requiring skin reconstruction. Among the various skin reconstruction techniques, subdermal skin flap is a simple reconstruction technique which can be performed by harvesting full-thickness skin from the surrounding skin without using special instruments. The current study was aimed to evaluate the healing and recurrence of tumours in dogs after wide surgical resection of tumour and subdermal skin flap reconstruction. Methods: 20 dogs with soft tissue tumours presented to MSVH, GADVASU, Ludhiana, Punjab, during the period 2019-2020 were treated by wide surgical resection and subdermal skin flap technique. Routine clinico-physical, Hematobiochemical, Radiographic examinations, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Histopathology and Culture Sensitivity Test were performed. Different types of flap were created according to the location of tumour and availability of the loose skin and wound healing was evaluated and complications recorded. Result: Healing of subdermal flap was seen in 15 dogs (75%) while necrosis of subdermal flap was recorded in 5 dogs (25 %) of the cases of which 4 of them had mobility of flap base and were located in ventral abdomen (n=4) and limb (n=1). Overall tumour recurrence was recorded in 3 dogs (15%) which were located in limbs of which 2 dogs had lung metastasis and the tumours were malignant. It can be concluded that single pedicle advancement flaps for thoracic region; bipedicle advancement flap for thoracic and abdominal regions; rotational flaps for lateral thoracic region and transposition flap for proximal limb region are feasible skin reconstruction techniques for the repair of large skin defects in dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoglycaemia, which occurs when blood levels of glucose fall below what is considered a normal range, is a well-known complication of insulin therapy in individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Despite advances in diabetes mellitus management, hypoglycaemia has continued to affect the majority of these individuals, leading to suboptimal care and decreased quality of life. Multiple epidemiological studies have demonstrated the risks associated with hypoglycaemic events. With this understanding, various advances have been made in therapeutics for diabetes mellitus management. Diabetes mellitus education continues to form the foundation for management and prevention of hypoglycaemia. The advent of newer diabetes mellitus technologies and newer insulins herald improvements in management strategies and hypoglycaemia prevention. Improved understanding of these newer approaches is needed to ensure delivery of safe and effective care to individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus, leading to reductions in both the short-term and long-term morbidity and mortality associated with hypoglycaemic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum coherence is a prime resource in quantum computing and quantum communication. Quantum coherence of an arbitrary qubit can be created at a remote location using maximally entangled state, local operation and classical communication. However, if there is a noisy channel acting on one side of the shared resource, then it is not possible to create perfect quantum coherence remotely. Here, we present a method for the creation of quantum coherence at a remote location via the use of entangled state and indefinite causal order. We show this specifically for the superposition of two completely depolarizing channels, two partially depolarizing channels and one completely depolarizing channel along with a unitary operator. We find that when the indefinite causal order of channels acts on one half of the entangled pair, then the shared state loses entanglement, but can retain nonzero quantum discord. This finding may have some interesting applications on its own where discord can be consumed as a resource. Our results suggest that the indefinite causal order along with a tiny amount of quantum discord can act as a resource in creating nonzero quantum coherence in the absence of entanglement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet-enabled devices are deployed by individuals for almost every task. The concept of cloud computing has proven to be beneficial for users as the processing, storage and analysis of data are performed at the cloud level. However, in the case of latency-sensitive applications, the notion is called-off as the overall response time is high. In this situation, fog computing outperforms the cloud. With fog computing, the necessary computations are performed at the edge of the network, and thus, latency is highly reduced. In parallel, the increase in smart devices around the globe has led to a considerable increase in sensitive user data across the Web, which needs to be secured. Furthermore, multidimensional security depends on various factors whose prioritization plays an important role in addressing security issues. In this context, the authors identify various fog computing security factors and their corresponding subfactors. The identified factors are evaluated for their impact on security at the fog level through the neutrosophic-analytical hierarchy process. Moreover, to corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, the results obtained are compared to the results from conventional approaches such as Fuzzy-AHP and Classical-AHP and are found to be statistically correlated. The proposed mechanism can be used by security practitioners to systematically manage fog computing security factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem degradation is a major environmental threat. Beyond conservation, restoration of degraded ecosystems is a prerequisite to reinstate their ability to provide essential services and benefits. Most of the restoration efforts focus on aboveground restoration, that is, plants, under the assumption that establishment of plant species will reestablish the faunal and microbial species. While this may be true for some cases, it is not a general rule. Reestablishment of microbial communities by dedicated efforts is also necessary for successful restoration, as cycling of essential nutrients for plant growth and decomposition of organic matter is dependent on them. The role of microbial fertilizers and efficient organisms used in agriculture needs to be explored in restoration. Testing of symbiotic interactions between potential plant growth‐promoting Rhizobacteria and plants native to a degraded ecosystem can be conducted and utilized for successful establishment of plant species. However, utmost care must be taken while introducing new microbial species or non‐native plant species to an area, as they can adversely affect the resident microbial community. Techniques like phospholipid fatty‐acid analysis can be used for taxonomic identification of large microbial groups in non‐degraded reference ecosystems before introducing microbial species into a degraded ecosystem. For use of microbes in restoration, more studies on microbe‐plant interactions need to be conducted. For use of Soil Microbial Community (SMC) as indicators of restoration, their role and function in the ecology of the area need to be elucidated by employing all the available techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exact power optimization of a thermoelectric generator is performed under the simultaneous presence of internal and external irreversibilities—modeled as nonideal thermal contacts and Joule heating, respectively. We consider a modification of the constant properties model whereby thermal conductivity of the thermoelectric material has spatial dependence, giving an asymmetric fraction of the Joule heat dumped in each reservoir. In particular, with a linear form of this dependence, the heat leakage term drops out as well as Joule heat is dumped only on one side. Exact expressions for efficiency at maximum power in each of these regimes are derived and are compared at thermal impedance matching and close to equilibrium, where interesting, stepwise changes in efficiency at maximum power are observed. The present analysis leads to the inference that higher values of efficiency at maximum power are obtained when both internal and external irreversibilities are taken on the hot side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to develop topical combinatorial therapy of nisin and 5-fluorouracil in a single nanosized formulation against skin cancer. Nisin and 5-fluorouracil were encapsulated in an organogel system (NF-OG) and investigated for morphology, physicochemical properties, cytotoxicity, encapsulation and release. NF-OG was evaluated against DMBA/TPA murine skin cancer in terms of tumour statistics, histoarchitecture, TUNEL and M1/M2 macrophages. The optimised NF-OG formulation exhibited particle size of 185.1 ± 11.24 nm, zeta potential of −7.93 ± 0.60 mV, offered substantial drug loading and temporal release. NF-OG therapy led to improved cytotoxicity of nisin and 5-FU against B16-F10 cells, significant decrease in tumour volume (84.983 mm3) in treated group as compared to untreated group (490.482 mm3) accompanied by restoration of histoarchitecture and repolarization of macrophages. The study yielded a promising delivery system exhibiting potent anticancer activity and forms the bases for further applications in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance is a global health and development threat which is caused by the excess and prolonged usage of antimicrobial compounds in agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. Resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to the already existing drugs represent a serious risk to public health. Plant sources such as cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables are potential substrates for the isolation of antimicrobial peptides (AMP) with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi and viruses with novel immunomodulatory activities. Thus, in the quest of new antimicrobial agents, AMPs have recently gained interest. Therefore, AMP can be used in agriculture, pharmaceutical and food industries. This review focuses on various explored and unexplored plant based food sources of AMPs, their isolation techniques and antimicrobial mechanism of peptides. Therefore, the literature discussed in this review paper will prove beneficial the research purposes for agriculture, pharmaceutical and food industries. Practical applications: Isolation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can be done on industrial scale.AMP isolated from food sources can be used in pharmaceutical and agriculture industries.AMP from natural sources mitigate the problem of antimicrobial resistance.AMP isolated from food products can be used as nutraceutical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a case of a 15-year-old female with a congenital deformity of the right pinna, specifically macrotragus with cupped ear appearance. Topics include different types of congenital ear malformations, treatment options such as ear reshaping surgeries, and the importance of a multidisciplinary approach involving Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialists, plastic surgeons, geneticists, and audiologists for accurate diagnosis and comprehensive management.

Giant cell tumour (GCT), also known as osteoclastoma, is an osteolytic tumour. It involves the epiphyseal and metaphyseal regions of long bones in adults. On rare occasions, these may occur in paediatric patients, and may involve uncommon locations such as the sternum, pelvis and, particularly infrequently, rib bones. We present a rare case of GCT in the rib of a child, diagnosed on fine needle aspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective is to compare the difference in preschool teachers' understanding of the five competencies of social-emotional learning (SEL) in India. The purpose is to assist teachers in reflecting on their emotions and knowledge about SEL, which is important for their personal and professional development. However, the research on preschool teachers' own SEL is very limited in the state of Punjab in India. Therefore, this study examined 90 teachers' understanding of SEL via a survey and a self-reported questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and parametric t -test in SPSS. The results revealed that private preschool teachers of the Ludhiana and Patiala districts of Punjab have better knowledge about the competencies of SEL than public preschool teachers. The findings highlight the need to improve the SEL of both public and private preschool teachers, focusing on public preschool teachers through continuous and effective training interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis is a common occurrence in developing countries. Drug resistance, co-morbidities, and limited availability of new rapid tests such as the GeneXpert/MTB Rif assay make diagnosis and treatment of extrapulmonary tuberculosis burdensome. A cross-sectional study was carried out at Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Medical College and Hospital, Faridabad, Haryana of patients treated for tubercular cervical lymphadenopathy from December 2021 to March 2023 in the department of ENT. This study included 58 patients. The clinicopathological profile of patients and the outcome of treatment with antitubercular therapy were noted. The majority of patients had level V (39.6%) involvement. Incidental diagnosis of diabetes mellitus was seen in 2 cases (3.4%). Fever was the commonest constitutional symptom observed in 27.5% of cases. FNAC was suggestive of tubercular abscess in 48.2% and the GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay detected Mycobacterial tuberculosis in all the cases with rifampicin resistance in only one case. 56 cases (96.5%) had complete resolution after completion of antitubercular therapy including patients with rifampicin resistance and patients with diabetes mellitus. In the remaining two cases, treatment was prolonged for a few months before the resolution of the disease was observed. Timely diagnosis, patient compliance to antitubercular therapy, and adequate management of comorbidities lead to successful treatment outcomes in tubercular cervical lymphadenitis. Delayed response to treatment in a few cases needs further research into factors like immune status, nutrition, living conditions, and quality of drugs available to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss some aspects of the energetics of a quantum Brownian particle placed in a harmonic trap, also known as the dissipative quantum oscillator. Based on the fluctuation–dissipation theorem, we analyze two distinct notions of thermally-averaged energy that can be ascribed to the oscillator. These energy functions, respectively dubbed hereafter as the mean energy and the internal energy, are found to be inequivalent for arbitrary system–bath coupling strength when the dissipation kernel has a non-zero memory timescale, as in the case of a Drude bath. Remarkably, both the energy functions satisfy the quantum counterpart of energy equipartition theorem, but with different probability distributions on the frequency domain of the heat bath. Moreover, the Gibbs approach to thermodynamics provides us with yet another thermally-averaged energy function. In the weak-coupling limit, all the above-mentioned energy expressions reduce to ϵ = ħ ω 0 2 coth ( ħ ω 0 2 k B T ) , which is the familiar result. We generalize our analysis to the case of the three-dimensional dissipative charged oscillator placed in a spatially-uniform magnetic field. • We describe the notions of mean energy and internal energy of a dissipative quantum oscillator. • The energy functions differ from one another when the bath-induced friction has a non-zero memory. • The analysis is generalized to three dimensions in the presence of an applied magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mastitis is responsible for heavy economic loss to dairy industry. It affects the public health because of pathogenic bacteria, their toxins and due to antibiotic resistance among mastitogens. A total of 233 quarter milk samples from 60 cows of livestock farm, LUVAS, Hisar were investigated in this study. The bacterial isolates obtained were identified by VITEK 2 Compact automated identification system. It was found that, the most prevalent isolates were Staphylococcus aureus (22%)and Staphylococcus chromogens (22%), followed by Leuconostoc mesenteroides cremoris (14%)and Staphylococcus epidermidis (10%). The antibiotic sensitivity patterns of the isolates were revealed that, the Staphylococcus isolates were resistant to methicillin, oxytetracycline and streptomycin. The Leuconostoc mesenteroides cremoris isolate was resistant to oxytetracycline (85.72%) and streptomycin (100%). The isolates, Aerococcus viridans, Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus avium were also found cent per cent resistant for methicillin, oxytetracycline and streptomycin. The Streptococcus infantarius coli isolate was resistant for amikacin, enrofloxacin, gentamicin, levofloxacin, neomycin and streptomycin. Pediococcus pentosaceus and Granulicatella elegans exhibited complete resistance to oxytetracycline and streptomycin. The pathogens responsible for mastitis may change over time, therefore regular monitoring of herd must be carried out. This is evident from the different bacterial isolates obtained from our study. The possibility of cross contamination of microbes with the employees of livestock farm cannot be neglected. The regular monitoring of mastitogens and their antibiogram surveillance is the need of hour to reduce the antibiotic resistance among bovines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently Mobile adhoc networks (MANETs) have received the great attention of researchers as these models provide a wide range of applications. But MANET nodes are prone to various security threats. To overcome this issue, many trust management frameworks have been implemented in the literature. It has been found that the use of machine learning can predict trust values more efficiently. However, machine learning performance suffers from the hyper-parameters tuning and over-fitting issues. Therefore, in this paper, novel trust management is proposed. initially, the Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used to train the trust prediction model. Thereafter, a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-III (NSGA-III) is used to tune the hyper-parameters of the ANFIS model. Precision, recall, and root mean squared error metrics are used to design a multi-objective fitness function. Optimized link state routing (OLSR) protocol is used for comparative analyses purpose. Three different attacks are applied on the designed network i.e., link spoofing, jellyfish, and gray hole attacks to obtain the dataset. Comparative analysis reveals that the proposed trust evaluation model outperforms the competitive trust evaluation models in terms of various performance metrics such as routing overheads, average end to end latency, packet delivery ratio, and throughput. Thus, the proposed protocol is more secure against various security threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of multidrug resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa necessitates the exploration of novel therapeutic intervention (s). The present study aimed to develop a nisin loaded carbopol gel formulation (NLCG) and explore its therapeutic efficacy against P. aeruginosa infected burn wounds. The formulation was prepared using Carbopol 940 as a polymer and characterized in terms of its appearance, stability, pH, rheology, spreadability, release, and permeation profiles. Disc diffusion assay and field emission scanning electron microscopy were carried out to establish in vitro antibacterial activity while the in vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated by hemolytic and trypan blue exclusion assay. Furthermore, in vivo efficacy was investigated by developing P. aeruginosa infected third‐degree murine burn wound model followed by evaluation of parameters like bacterial loads, skin restoration, histopathological architecture, levels of hydroxyproline, myeloperoxidase and cytokines. Our studies yielded a stable formulation with pH, viscosity and drug release flux values as 6.5 ± 0.02, 382.4 p and 160.55 ± 3.64 μg h−1 cm−2, respectively. Approximately, 84.02 ± 1.63% of nisin was found to permeate into murine skin, further, affirmed by confocal microscopic observations. Interestingly, no in vitro cytotoxicity of NLCG (to erythrocytes and/or to peritoneal macrophages) could be observed. The log units decrease (s) in CFUs of Pseudomonas in skin were found to be 1.5137, 4.2257, 6.456 after 12, 24 and 72 h of topical gel therapy, respectively. Percentage wound closure, tensile strength, histological, and scanning electron microscopic studies further provided a healing evidence with skin showing restoration of the epithelium. The gel therapy also led to a significant modulation (p ≤ 0.05) in hydroxyproline content, myeloperoxidase levels, and serum levels of IL‐1, IL‐10, and TNF‐α. Our formulation revealed anti‐Pseudomonas, wound healing, and immunomodulatory efficacy of NLCG. Further investigations are warranted to determine the underlying mechanism (s) of these displayed antibacterial and immunomodulatory effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Hair loss is a common problem with multifactorial aetiologies and poor response to treatment making it more tormenting for psychosocial well-being. Diagnosis and treatment of hair disorders is of utmost importance. Trichoscopy serves as an easy office tool that aids in the early diagnosis and monitoring of the disease progression and treatment response. Methods A total of 200 patients presenting with the complaints of hair loss were diagnosed on the basis of history and clinical examination for non-cicatricial alopecia. Dermatoscopic examination was done with dermlite DL4 dermatoscope. The various hair follicle and hair shaft patterns were studied and pictures were taken. The results were tabulated and expressed as percentages. Results Out of 200 patients, 103 were females and 97 were males. The mean age of the presentation in the current study was 36.26 years±13.49 years. The various hair follicle patterns observed were black dots and yellow dots. The hair shaft patterns observed included broken hair, tapering hair, hair thickness heterogeneity, split ends and upright regrowing hair. Conclusion Trichoscopy has a definite role in the diagnosis of hair and scalp disorders. It also aids in evaluation of disease activity, it's severity and guides the clinician for the treatment plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lichen planus is an immune-mediated disorder affecting the skin, mucous membranes, scalp, and nails.Objective: We sought to evaluate dermatoscopic nail patterns in patients with lichen planus.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational study performed in the outpatient dermatology department of a tertiary care hospital. Thirty-one patients with skin biopsy-proven lichen planus with nail changes were included. An evaluation of clinical nail patterns and dermoscopic assessment of nail patterns were performed.Results: Longitudinal ridging with splitting, longitudinal melanonychia and splinter hemorrhages were the most commonly found nail patterns in patients with lichen planus. Pterygium has been found to be most pathognomic feature of nail lichen planus.Conclusion: Dermatoscopy has been demonstrated to be a valuable, noninvasive tool to identify subsurface nail bed changes and subclinical surface findings to facilitate early diagnosis and timely management of lichen planus to avoid long-term sequelae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Lymphangioma is a malformation of superficial lymphatic vessels. Tongue lymphangiomas are relatively uncommon. Multiple treatment modalities have been reported, with variable treatment responses. Most of the traditional treatment modalities have a high recurrence rate. Case Report: We describe the use of coblation in the management of lymphangioma circumscriptum of the dorsum of tongue in two patients. Radiofrequency ablation of oral lymphangiomas showed early postoperative oral intake and minimal postoperative pain. There was no recurrence of disease on 1 year follow up. Conclusion: Improved wound healing, early postoperative oral intake and minimal postoperative pain, make radiofrequency ablation a highly valuable treatment modality for oral lymphangiomas and may be recommended as the treatment of choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health emergency. Complementary to developing new drugs, AMR can be monitored and controlled through cost-effective active surveillance of resistance. As an initiative to monitor resistance, countries all across the globe are collecting data using a variety of surveillance tools. Moreover, hospitals routinely collect the AMR data for treatment which is being stored in their Laboratory and Hospital Information systems (LIS-HIS). The generated clinical data is collected & stored in various formats, making it very difficult to analyze and generate national reports. To integrate the stored clinical data for predictive modeling and analysis, there is an immediate need for a one-stop data repository capable of importing and exporting data in simple data exchange formats (CSV/Excel). The paper highlights the design & development of i-DIA, a python-based web API to facilitate the interoperability of AMR data by automatically importing the bulk of medical data from CSV files into generic data management and analysis system. The i-DIA has been integrated and tested with the ICMR's AMR surveillance network on in-house developed software, i-AMRSS. The i-AMRSS is presently collecting data from 31 laboratories across India and i-DIA has been used to import data generated from LIS & HIS of a few hospitals directly into the system. The paper also proposes the complete web-based framework (an extension of i-DIA) integrated with peer-to-peer system architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infantile nephrotic syndrome is a rare disorder which is frequently caused by genetic defects. A 7-month-old girl presented with fever, loose stools and anasarca and was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome. Work-up for a genetic cause was negative. Cytomegalovirus polymerase chain reaction (CMV PCR) was positive and the infant was treated with ganciclovir for 6 weeks, followed by valganciclovir for 10 weeks. All symptoms resolved within 2 weeks of commencing treatment and she attained complete remission within 4 weeks. CMV PCR was negative within 4 weeks of antiviral therapy. At 18 months follow-up she remained well. Appropriate treatment of infantile nephrotic syndrome secondary to CMV should result in recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sinapic acid (SA), a widely prevalent hydroxycinnamic acid, possess numerous biological activities owing to its antioxidant property. The present study was aimed to prepare colon targeted polysaccharidic/polymeric ester prodrug of SA (a microbially triggered system) using Leucaena leucocephala galactomannan (LLG) as a polysaccharidic carrier. The polymeric conjugates of SA-LLG were found to exhibit an increase in % yield and DS with increase in amount of SA and volume of thionyl chloride. The degree of depolymerization of SA-LLG prodrug batches were evaluated using optimized concentration of galactomannase. The SA-LLG prodrug was characterized employing UV and FTIR spectroscopy, 1H NMR and XRD. In vitro release study of the optimized prodrug batch (SL10) suggested stable nature of SA-LLG conjugate under acidic (pH 1.2) and alkaline conditions (pH 6.8). The treatment of prodrug with galactomannase (15 mg/mL) followed by esterase (10 U/mL) enzyme released approximately 81% of SA after 24 h. The cell viability results revealed that free SA and SA-LLG were found to have similar antiproliferative potential against human colon cancer cell lines (HCT-116 cells). Our investigation revealed that polysaccharidic prodrug, SA-LLG, has the potential for colon targeting of SA and thus can be employed for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs). • SA-LLG remained stable in stomach (pH 1.2) and small intestine (pH 6.8). • SA release was 81% after 24 h in the presence of galactomannase and esterase enzymes. • Enzymatically triggered release of SA revealed colon targeting potential of SA-LLG. • No change in cytotoxicity of SA was observed even after its conjugation with LLG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the geometry of lightlike hypersurfaces of an indefinite Kaehler statistical manifold and investigates their structural properties with respect to the dual connections. Some conditions for the integrability and parallelism of the almost complex distribution have been derived. Further, the induced local lightlike parallel vector fields in the lightlike hypersurfaces have been characterized. It is also shown that a Lie-recurrent structure tensor field in the lightlike hypersurface of an indefinite Kaehler statistical manifold is Lie-parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Though many treatment options are available for treating post-acne scars, optimized treatment still does not exist. Till date, comparative split-face studies, analyzing the efficacy of combined treatment modalities for acne scars with adequate sample size and with statistically significant results, are still lacking. Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the combined use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and fractional ablative CO2 laser (FACL) versus FACL in the management of acne scars and to study the safety of autologous PRP and FACL in the treatment of post-acne scars. Settings and Design: This was a randomized split-face trial study. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 30 patients having Goodman and Baron's grade 3 and 4 acne scars. The efficacy of PRP in combination with FACL was compared to FACL alone in the treatment of post-acne scars. Right half of the patient's face was taken as the study side where FACL was performed followed by PRP injections. The left half of the same patient's face was taken as the control side where FACL was performed followed by normal saline injections. Statistical Analysis: Results were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, Chicago). Results: At the time of enrollment, mean Goodman and Baron Acne Qualitative Grading Scale on study and control side was 3.80 with standard deviation (SD) of 0.40 at baseline. After completion of four treatment sessions, it was reduced to 2.43 (SD = 0.76) and 2.76 (SD = 0.49) on the study and control side, respectively. Improvement on both sides was statistically significant (P = 0.000). Conclusion: There is no single proven modality for the effective treatment of post-acne scars. Combination of FACL with newer adjuvants such as PRP has definitive role in managing post-acne scars with better safety profile than FACL alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth in ad hoc devices, mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are extensively employed to realize different kinds of real-time applications. However, ad hoc devices suffer from numerous kinds of security attacks such as blackhole, grayhole, wormhole, etc. Therefore, an efficient trust management protocol is preferable. In this paper, a novel gradient boost classifier is proposed. Additionally, the hyper-parameters of gradient boost classifier are tuned using θ -non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-III (θ NSGA-III). Optimized link state routing (OLSR) protocol is employed for experimental analysis. A multi-class dataset is collected by implementing the blackhole, grayhole, and wormhole attacks on the OLSR. Comparative analysis reveals that the proposed θ NSGA-III-based gradient boost classifier outperforms the competitive attack classification models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motorized vehicles are the most important means of transport in which the vehicles with air conditioners play an important role. The number of unexpected death incidents as a result of enormous intake of carbon monoxide (CO) has currently increased. This paper focuses on the design and development of SmartCOdetect - an arduino based intelligent embedded device for a vehicle cabin that detects CO gas and displays it on the LCD screen. If the CO measure surpasses the specific threshold limit, an alarm automatically rings and, if necessary, the window for ventilation is activated immediately. A notification via GSM is sent to the owner's number registered with the SmartCOdetect system and after receiving the response from the owner, the control unit sends the signal immediately to the control circuit of the vehicle's window to provide ventilation. It also provides the safety and assistance to an occupant in the car cabin. The advantage of this automated CO detection system compared to the manual method is that it provides fast response time and accurate detection of an emergency situation. The system is evaluated by different categories of users to gather the information about the level of satisfaction with SmartCOdetect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potent concept of fog computing is currently attracting many researchers as it brings cloud services closer to the end-user. It also roots out some of the major limitations of the cloud scenario where there exists the need for extremely low latency. Despite its compelling advantages, fog computing is still an evolving paradigm that demands further research. Among all the other issues prevalent in fog computing, security is one of the burning issues. Fog nodes, being at the edge of the network, pose several security threats. The authors have thus conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) on security issues in fog computing scenario. Initially, the prevalent security issues are identified through an in-depth survey and then the available literature per security issue is analyzed systematically. This SLR reveals that the security in/through fog scenario is being addressed by the researchers all over the globe. But, the approaches with respect to fog environment still lack methods to evaluate security aspects. Though most of the researchers are prioritizing the consideration of security aspects at fog level, there still exists a need to consider fog computing security as an area of serious concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Rare co-existance of disease or pathology Background: Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifests primarily as a lung infection, its involvement in acute kidney injury (AKI) is gaining recognition and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Concurrent infection, which may require administration of a potentially nephrotoxic agent, can worsen AKI and lead to poor outcomes. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacillus associated with nosocomial infections, especially in severely immunocompromised and debilitated patients. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole combination (TMP/SMX) is considered the treatment of choice but can itself lead to AKI, posing a significant challenge in the management of patients with concomitant COVID-19 and S. maltophilia pneumonia. Case Report: A 64-year-old male with end-stage renal disease and post renal transplant presented with severe respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 and was intubated upon admission. His renal functions were normal at the time of admission. The patient subsequently developed superimposed bacterial pneumonia with S. maltophilia requiring administration of TMP/SMX. However, TMP/SMX led to the development of AKI, which continued to worsen despite appropriate management including hemodialysis. This coincided with and most likely resulted in the patient's clinical deterioration and ultimate death. Conclusions: The etiology of kidney disease involvement in patients with COVID-19 is still evolving and appears to be multifactorial. The condition can significantly worsen especially when nephrotoxic agents are given, probably due to a cumulative or synergistic effect. Great caution should be taken when administering nephrotoxic agents in the setting of COVID-19 as it can lead to adverse patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the presented study is to understand the effect of the structure of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) on its piezoelectric behavior. Various nanostructures, including 0D, 1D, and 2D of ZnO, were synthesized by using the hydrothermal method, and these nanostructures were utilized for the fabrication of piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG). These ZnO nanostructures were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Diffraction Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy. Piezoelectric current, voltage, and power of the nanogenerator fabricated from all three nanostructures were measured. The maximum power output of 2.4μW/m2 was observed in the case of a 2D structure-based PENG. Simulation models were also designed to mimic the synthesized nanostructures, and their voltage response for the stress applied is compared with their corresponding experimental results. These results show that PENG output can be varied by altering the ZnO structure, which has enormous potential in the battery-less portable electronics and biosensors industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the contributory factors of external apical root resorption. Materials and Methods: Sixty subjects who had undergone complete orthodontic treatment were selected. The difference of the root length between pre and post-treatment was measured. The degree of root resorption was scored according to the index proposed by Levander and Malmgren. 1 The mean root resorption score (MRRS) was calculated. Mann Whitney test was done to compare the groups. Pearson correlation was applied. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in root resorption among males and females. Tooth extraction was correlated with MRRS. Except for upper posterior teeth, the duration of treatment was positively correlated with MRRS. For overjet, there was a positive correlation between upper and lower anterior teeth and MRRS. Conclusion: Orthodontic treatment should be carefully performed in patients who need extraction, great retraction of maxillary incisors and prolonged therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, immunotherapeutic agents such as inotuzumab ozogamicin (INO), blinatumomab (BLIN), and tisagenlecleucel (TISA) have been approved for treatment of relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). No head to head trials have compared these agents. Thus, various factors influence the decision to choose an appropriate treatment for R/R ALL. INO may be preferred in patients with high tumor burden; BLIN is preferred in patients with low tumor burden or to eradicate minimal residual disease (MRD). Both INO and BLIN, compared to standard chemotherapy, increase the probability of receiving subsequent hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). TISA, approved for patients ≤25 years of age, is effective regardless of tumor burden or prior receipt of HSCT and can be used as a definite treatment in some patients. Further studies comparing the efficacy, safety, and other outcomes related to different immunotherapeutic options in combination with other treatment modalities and among themselves are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocardiogram (ECG) changes suggestive of cardiac ischemia are frequently demonstrated in patients with ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage. However, little is known of such changes particularly acute ST segment myocardial infarction (STEMI) in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), especially after neurosurgery. We present a patient with intraparenchymal hemorrhage due to cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) who exhibited acute STEMI after neurosurgery. Serial cardiac biomarkers and echocardiograms were performed which did not reveal any evidence of acute myocardial infarction. The patient was managed conservatively from cardiac stand point with no employment of anticoagulants, antiplatelet therapy, fibrinolytic agents, or angioplasty and recovered well with minimal neurological deficit. This case highlights that diffuse cardiac ischemic signs on the ECG can occur in the setting of an ICH after neurosurgery, potentially posing a difficult diagnostic and management conundrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD) is frequently present in advanced stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with high risk of fracture and elevated socioeconomic burden. Denosumab, an injectable human monoclonal antibody with affinity for nuclear factor-kappa ligand (RANKL), is an effective treatment for osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and men. Unlike the bisphosphonates, the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of denosumab are not influenced by the renal function and are being increasingly used for patients having CKD-MBD with low bone mineral density (BMD) to reduce the risk of fragility fractures. Hypocalcemia is a known side effect of this drug along with compensatory increase in parathyroid hormone (PTH). However, limited information is available in the literature regarding this potentially life-threatening side effect with denosumab in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on dialysis. We present a patient with ESRD on peritoneal dialysis who developed severe symptomatic hypocalcemia and dramatic increase in PTH following denosumab therapy. She was conservatively managed with calcium supplementation and appropriate adjustment in calcium dialysate. We have also reviewed the literature on the use of denosumab in dialysis patients and looked at additional factors that may precipitate severe hypocalcemia in these patients. We believe that denosumab should be used with caution in dialysis patients since it may lead to profound hypocalcemia. Clinicians should ensure special attention in recognizing patients at risk of developing this serious adverse effect, so that prompt treatment and preventive strategies can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze dissipative diamagnetism, arising due to dissipative cyclotron motion in two dimensions, in the light of the quantum counterpart of energy equipartition theorem. We consider a charged quantum particle moving in a harmonic well, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field, and coupled to a quantum heat bath which is taken to be composed of an infinite number of independent quantum oscillators. The quantum counterpart of energy equipartition theorem tells us that it is possible to express the mean kinetic energy of the dissipative oscillator as a two-fold average, where, the first averaging is performed over the Gibbs canonical state of the heat bath while the second one is governed by a probability distribution function P k (ω). We analyze this result further, and also demonstrate its consistency in the weak-coupling limit. Following this, we compute the equilibrium magnetic moment of the system, and reveal an interesting connection with the quantum counterpart of energy equipartition theorem. The expressions for kinetic energy and magnetic moment are reformulated in the context of superstatistics, i.e. the superposition of two statistics. A comparative study of the present results with those obtained from the more traditional Gibbs approach is performed and a perfect agreement is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic leading to decreased quality of life, higher medical expenses and significant morbidity. Enhancing energy expenditure and substrate utilization in adipose tissues through dietary constituents and polypharmacological approaches is gaining importance for the prevention and therapeutics of obesity. An important factor in this regard is Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channel modulation and resultant activation of "brite" phenotype. Various dietary TRP channel agonists like capsaicin (TRPV1), cinnamaldehyde (TRPA1), and menthol (TRPM8) have shown anti-obesity effects, individually and in combination. We aimed to determine the therapeutic potential of such combination of sub-effective doses of these agents against diet-induced obesity, and explore the involved cellular processes. The combination of sub-effective doses of capsaicin, cinnamaldehyde and menthol induced "brite" phenotype in differentiating 3T3-L1 cells and subcutaneous white adipose tissue of HFD-fed obese mice. The intervention prevented adipose tissue hypertrophy and weight gain, enhanced the thermogenic potential, mitochondrial biogenesis and overall activation of brown adipose tissue. These changes observed in vitro as well as in vivo, were linked to increased phosphorylation of kinases, AMPK and ERK. In the liver, the combination treatment enhanced insulin sensitivity, improved gluconeogenic potential and lipolysis, prevented fatty acid accumulation and enhanced glucose utilization. We report on the discovery of therapeutic potential of TRP-based dietary triagonist combination against HFD-induced abnormalities in metabolic tissues. Our findings indicate that a common central mechanism may affect multiple peripheral tissues. This study opens up avenues of development of therapeutic functional foods for obesity. In 3T3L1 cells the triagonist combination reduced lipid accumulation and adipocyte differentiation from preadipocytes. This also promotes effective glucose utilization along with enhanced thermogenic activities mediated through intracellular calcium uptake leading to phosphorylation on AMPK and enhanced UCP-1 expression. This possibly could be due to increased mitochondrial biogenesis and its activities. In in-vivo settings as a therapeutic approach in HFD-induced mice it promotes browning of white adipose tissue and enhanced the activity of brown adipose tissue by factors modulating the lipid metabolism such as PPAR-γ, PGC1α, PRDM16, SIRT-1 which mechanistically upregulated upon increased phosphorylation of ERK and AMPK in mitochondria. The mitochondrial thermogenic capacity by increased UCP-1 protein expression by CB treatment also affects the overall energy expenditure capacity. In liver this promotes the glucose utilization and effective handling of glucose by enhanced gluconeogenesis and lipolysis for ectopic fat deposition. This also promotes the insulin sensitivity by modifying the disease progression factors. [Display omitted] • Dietary components based polypharmacological approaches gaining interest to counter obesity and associated complications. • Transient Receptor potential (TRP) channels agonists and their combinations from food origin could provide novel intervention strategies against obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate how socioeconomically privileged students at a private school in India understood social issues in their communities, and it explored whether their understanding of and discourse about working against social and economic oppression changed after they took a field trip to a nearby under-resourced village. The sample included 75 youth from high-income backgrounds in Bhubaneswar, India, most of whom reported never having spent time in a poverty-stricken village. Students responded in writing to reflection prompts before and after the field trip. Participants' responses were thematically coded to capture their perspectives of social injustice and ideas of change. A codebook of participants' reflections was then developed, consisting of thirty-five themes and seven overarching domains: (1) positionality; (2) discrimination; (3) structural issues; (4) village-level issues; (5) strategies for problem solving; (6) experiences of helping; and (7) reasons for or barriers to problem solving. Descriptive frequencies revealed the prevalence of themes before and after the field trip. Implications and limitations of the study and directions for future research on enhancing awareness of privilege and social oppression are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bronchogenic cysts are rare congenital malformations which arise from abnormal budding of the primitive tracheobronchial tube and can localize to either the mediastinum or lung parenchyma. They remain clinically silent in most adults unless they become infected or are large enough to compress adjacent structures. Infections involving bronchogenic cysts are often polymicrobial. Gram-positive, Gram-negative, and mycobacterial infections have been reported, though frequently a pathogen is not identified. We present the case of a 46-year-old female with known history of bronchogenic cyst who presented with suspected postobstructive pneumonia. She underwent cyst excision with culture positive for Salmonella enteritidis, an extremely rare finding on review of the literature. The patient recovered following a three-week course of antibiotics for extraintestinal salmonellosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency and reliability of radio over free space optical communication may be significantly degraded by different weather conditions, thus leading to decrease and increase of signal to noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER) of the recovered signal respectively. Therefore, real time optical performance estimation is of utmost importance to enable the awareness of channel conditions and for achieving high quality of service. In this work, a terrestrial radio over free space optics (RoFSO) system has been investigated by employing 32-QAM and 64-QAM OFDM modulation schemes under rain, haze and clear weather conditions. Performance of the system is further estimated by employing artificial neural networks (ANN), k-nearest neighbours (KNN) and decision tree (DT) machine learning (ML) techniques with root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) as performance metrices. Atmospheric attenuation and different internal system parameters act as input features with BER and SNR of the received signal as the modelling targets. The best performing model has been found to be by applying an ANN approach with lower RMSE values for SNR and BER as 1.87 and 1.26 respectively. The value of R2 predicted by the model are 0.97139 and 0.97802 for SNR and BER data sets respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alopecia areata (AA) and trichotillomania (TTM) belong to non-cicatricial alopecia. These disorders may have similar clinical features with different therapeutic protocols and prognoses. Trichoscopy has proved to be an office-based tool that helps in the diagnosis and differentiation of different types of alopecia. Objective: Our objective is to differentiate and diagnose AA and TTM based on trichoscopic features. Methods: The present cross-sectional and observational study was conducted on 86 patients presenting with complaints of hair loss in the outpatient department from January 2019 to September 2020. A scalp examination was done, followed by the dermatoscopic examination with a Dermlite DL4 dermatoscope. Results: The percentage of black dots was higher in AA as compared to TTM. Broken hair at equal lengths was observed in AA, whereas broken hair at varying lengths was seen in TTM. Coiled hair, V-sign, and flame hair were only seen in TTM. Conclusion: The combination of black dots, broken hair, and exclamation mark favored the diagnosis of AA. Hair breaking at varying lengths, the V sign, flame hair, and coiled hair were exclusively seen in TTM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DO3A-based macrocycles serve as attractive templates from which clinically useful theranostic agents can be obtained after coupling with molecular targeted therapeutic drugs. In this study, we describe the chemical synthesis, relaxation, and cytotoxicity studies of a new DO3A conjugate of chlorambucil ( CHL) as a magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) theranostic agent. A convenient route of synthesis is reported, which allowed conjugation of the macrocyclic ligand ( DO3A) to the chemotherapeutic drug ( CHL) via tyrosine for the preparation of an attractive chelate-drug ensemble ( DO3A- TR- CHL). The structures of all intermediates and final compound have been determined by 1H, 13C NMR, and MS. The efficacy of DO3A- TR- CHL as a non-ionic magnetic contrast agent was tested by performing relaxometric studies on its gadolinium complex. The complex exhibited relaxivities (7.11 m m−1/s) higher than that of currently used MR contrast agents and showed enhanced contrast in T1-weighted images. MTT assays revealed that both DO3A- TR- CHL and Gd( III)- DO3A- TR- CHL conjugates exhibited dose-dependent toxicity and an enhanced antiproliferative activity against tumor (A549 and HeLa) cell lines compared to that of parent drug ( CHL), thereby demonstrating their potential to be used as a magnetic resonance imaging theranostic for improved molecular imaging and therapy of human cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off late, many complicated procedures are being performed throughout the globe in cardiothoracic surgery departments. Many of these advancements can be attributed to advancements in anesthesia techniques, availability of newer and safer anesthetic drugs. However, such role has never been stressed upon whereby advancements became possible in cardiothoracic surgeries. However the journey of advancements and refining of surgical and anesthetic techniques is never ending. The current narrative review throws light on the facts due to which cardiothoracic surgery has become highly safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]