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Osteoporosis and sarcopenia are major health issues which are going to have a significant impact in an aging global population. Osteoporosis, which reduces bone density and increases fracture risk, and sarcopenia, which causes muscle loss and strength loss, have a complicated risk profile with consequences that go beyond bone and muscle health. This chapter illuminates the complex link between osteoporosis and sarcopenia, including overlapping causes, clinical consequences, and new treatments. This chapter covers bone and muscle biology, age-related changes that cause osteoporosis and sarcopenia, and the importance of physical exercise and diet in their prevention and management. It also discusses clinical evaluation methods, risk assessment and diagnostic criteria for early diagnosis and intervention. Novel therapies and continuing research in the management of osteoporosis and sarcopenia are also discussed. Medications, exercise, and nutrition can promote bone and muscle health. This chapter aims to explore the recent concepts by elucidating the complex relationship between osteoporosis and sarcopenia and advocating for integrated care paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the software industry, 85% of development tasks involve maintenance. A developer's typical job involves more code reading and less code writing. Since code reading is an integral part of comprehension, efficient code reading emphasizes a better understanding of code execution. The more efficiently a code is read, the more it reduces maintenance time. Thus, the developer's reading pattern can help to estimate how efficiently a developer can read and comprehend code that can improve software productivity. Quantifying the comprehension effort spent while reading a code can help to explore the developer's efficiency. The primary goal of this study is to quantify the comprehension effort using code reading patterns. An eye-tracking sensor tracks the developer's eye movements while reading the code. The backward gaze transitions and internal navigation are identified from the reading pattern of the code and used to compute program comprehension effort. An experiment was to collect the data where 41 subjects were asked to read five short C programs. The findings of the study infer a significant correlation between comprehension effort and fixation points. This study explores the involvement of non-experts in higher comprehension efforts than expert ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male fertility in farm animals is considered as an important economic trait. The phenomenon of spermatogenesis plays a dynamic functional role in determining the viability of sperm and thereby can impact on fertility-driven complications. The process of spermatogenesis is controlled by numerous molecular factors and requires a precisely regulated pattern of gene expression. The role of small noncoding RNAs in altering gene expression has been extensively studied. However, limited information is available apropos their role in yak spermatogenesis. The present study aimed to evaluate the assessment of some significant microRNAs and their expression pattern in the body tissues and sperm of fertile and subfertile yak from Arunachal Pradesh besides identified a novel class of sperm enriched small RNA ‘mature-sperm-enriched small RNA’ (mse-tsRNA) in Yak spermatozoa. The RNA was extracted from tissue and sperm using 27 gauge needles and subsequently reverse transcribed into small RNA cDNAs. The PCR positive sperm-predominant miRNAs were validated by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) for their expression in fertile and subfertile yak. Of the 22 microRNAs, the miRNA19a, miRNA142 and miRNA143 showed higher expression in the subfertile yak, whereas expression of miRNA7d, miRNA23a and miRNA23b were found elevated in the fertile animal. The presence of these small noncoding RNAs in yak sperm and testis indicated the legitimate involvement of their role in yak bull fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the 0.5Go (Go = 2e2/h) conductance plateau and the accompanying hysteresis loop in a series of asymmetrically biased InAs based quantum point contacts (QPCs) in the presence of lateral spin-orbit coupling (LSOC) is studied using a number of QPCs with varying lithographic channel width but fixed channel length. It is found that the size of the hysteresis loops is larger for QPCs of smaller aspect ratio (QPC channel width/length) and gradually disappears as their aspect ratio increases. The physical mechanisms responsible for a decrease in size of the hysteresis loops for QPCs with increasing aspect ratio are: (1) multimode transport in QPCs with larger channel width leading to spin-flip scattering events due to both remote impurities in the doping layer of the heterostructure and surface roughness and impurity (dangling bond) scattering on the sidewalls of the narrow portion of the QPC, and (2) an increase in carrier density resulting in a screening of the electron-electron interactions in the QPC channel. Both effects lead to a progressive disappearance of the net spin polarization in the QPC channel and an accompanying reduction in the size of the hysteresis loops as the lithographic width of the QPC channel increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly polymorphic BCR-ABL kinase domains have been reported to harbor more than a hundred mutations, and among these, 40–60% have been identified as influencers of imatinib mesylate (IM) resistance. The emergence of IM resistance poses a significant challenge in the management of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). M351T (rs121913457), E255K (rs387906517), and Y253H (rs121913461) are of particular clinical significance due to their association with high-level imatinib resistance. This study was conducted to investigate the potential role of three significant SNPs in CML progression due to IM resistance. During the study period from 2018 to 2022 (48 months), the blood samples from 219 Reverse transcriptase-PCR-confirmed CML patients following RNA extraction and cDNA preparation were subjected to M351T, E255K, and Y253H mutation analysis by PCR–RFLP. After agarose gel visualization, the samples were subjected to Sanger sequencing to confirm the nucleotide change at the polymorphic loci. The wild-type genotype of all three ABL1 SNPs under investigation exhibits a significant reduction in frequency among IM non-responders compared to the responder group. The CGT haplotype frequency exhibits a significant difference between IM responder (4.2%) and non-responder (11.8%) (p = 0.002 < 0.05). Further, CGC haplotype was observed solely among the imatinib non-responder patients with a frequency percentage of 3.3% (p = 0.004), whereas the said genotype was absent among the responder group. A reduced overall survival rate was observed with deviation from wild-type genotype (M351T loci (T > C) with 1.217 times, E255K (G > A) with 1.485 and Y253H (T > C) with 1.399 times increase in hazard ratio) thereby enhancing mortality risk due to disease progression. The significant increase in the frequency of M351T, E255K, and Y253H loci among the IM non-responder group indicated their probable association with the development of IM resistance among CML patients. A haplotype frequency distribution pattern analysis of ABL1 loci further identified the CGC haplotype as an independent predictor for IM resistance. As such the study highlights the importance of patient characteristics, genotype distribution, and haplotype frequency distribution in predicting the response to IM treatment and clinical outcomes of CML patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the COVID-19 infection continues to ravage the world, the advent of an efficient as well as the economization of the existing RT-PCR based detection assay essentially can become a blessing in these testing times and significantly help in the management of the pandemic. This study demonstrated an innovative and rapid corroboration of COVID-19 test based on innovative multiplex PCR. An assessment of optimal PCR conditions to simultaneously amplify the SARS-CoV-2 genes E, S and RdRp has been made by fast-conventional and HRM coupled multiplex real-time PCR using the same sets of primers. All variables of practical value were studied by amplifying known target-sequences from ten-fold dilutions of archived positive samples of COVID-19 disease. The multiplexing with newly designed E, S and RdRp primers have shown an efficient amplification of the target region of SARS-CoV-2. A distinct amplification was observed in 37 min using thermal cycler while it took 96 min in HRM coupled real time detection using SYBR green over a wide range of template concentrations. Our findings revealed decent concordance with other commercially available detection kits. This fast HRM coupled multiplex real-time PCR with SYBR green approach offers rapid and sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 in a cost-effective manner apart from the added advantage of primer compatibility for use in conventional multiplex PCR. The highly reproducible novel approach can propel extended applicability for developing sustainable commercial product besides providing relief to a resource limited setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are one of the widely studied biological control agents. The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two EPNs species, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Poinar) (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae) and Steinernema aciari (Qui, Yan, Zhou, Nguyen and Pang) (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae), isolated locally from soils of Majuli river island, Assam, India against two important subterrenean pests; Odontotermes obesus (Rambur) (Isoptera: Termitidae) and Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) under laboratory conditions. Results: In case of O. obesus, mortality percent was recorded by H. bacteriophora after 72 h. at 300 IJs/termite and by S. aciari at 250 and 300 IJs/termite after 96 h. The lowest LD50 and LT50 values obtained for H. bacteriophora were 13.054 IJs/termite and 26.639 h., respectively, while those of S. aciari were 42.040 IJs/termite and 31.761 h., respectively. With respect to A. ipsilon, H. bacteriophora registered a highest mortality rate at 300 IJs/larvae after 144 h. S. aciari showed 100 percent mortality at 300 IJs/larva after 168 h. The lowest values of LD50 and LT50 for H. bacteriophora were 35.711 IJs/larva and 83.050 h., respectively. The lowest values of LD50 and LT50 for S. aciari were 71.192 IJs/larvae and 97.921 h., respectively. Overall, H. bacteriophora displayed more virulence toward O. obesus and A. ipsilon than S. aciari. Conclusion: Both native EPNs were found effective against O. obesus and A. ipsilon. However, H. bacteriophora was more virulent toward O. obesus and A. ipsilon than S. aciari under the laboratory conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a de-identification system which runs in a standalone mode. The system takes care of the de-identification of radiation oncology patient's clinical and annotated imaging data including RTSTRUCT, RTPLAN, and RTDOSE. The clinical data consists of diagnosis, stages, outcome, and treatment information of the patient. The imaging data could be the diagnostic, therapy planning, and verification images. Archival of the longitudinal radiation oncology verification images like cone beam CT scans along with the initial imaging and clinical data are preserved in the process. During the de-identification, the system keeps the reference of original data identity in encrypted form. These could be useful for the re-identification if necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is presented to the article "De-Identification of Radiomics Data Retaining Longitudinal Temporal Information" which appeared in previous issue.