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Drosophila is a valuable paradigm for studying tumorigenesis and cancer. Mutations causing hematopoietic aberrations and melanotic-blood-tumors found in Drosophila mutants are vastly studied. Clear understanding about the blood cells, signaling pathways and the tissues affected during hematopoietic tumor formation provide an opportunity to delineate the effects of cancer therapeutics. Using this simple hematopoietic archetype, we elucidated the effects of the anti-cancer drug, Methotrexate (MTX) on immune responses in two scenarios i.e. against wasp infection and in hematopoietic mutant, hop Tum-l . Through this in vivo study we show that MTX impedes the immune responses against wasp infection including the encapsulation response. We further observed that MTX reduces the tumor penetrance in gain-of-function mutants of JAK/STAT pathway, hop Tum-l . MTX is anti-inflammatory as it hinders not only the immune responses of acute inflammation as observed after wasp infestation, but also chronic inflammatory responses associated with constitutively activated JAK/STAT pathway mutant (hop Tum-l ) carrying blood tumors. • MTX treatment results in delayed pupariation, eclosion, reduced climbing ability and fusion of ommatidia in Drosophila. • MTX downregulates the expression of the JAK / STAT pathway components activated upon wasp infestation. • MTX inhibits the tumor penetrance and expressivity in hopTum-l mutants. • MTX reduces the gene expression of upd3 , hop, Stat92E, Tep2 and Tep4 in hopTum-l mutants. • MTX affects the lamellocytes formed in response to both the acute and the chronic inflammatory conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient face recognition system is essential for security and authentication-based applications. However, real-time face recognition systems have a few significant concerns, including face pose orientations. In the last decade, numerous solutions have been introduced to estimate distinct face pose orientations. Nevertheless, these solutions must be adequately addressed for the three main face pose orientations: Yaw, Pitch, and Roll. This paper proposed a novel deep transfer learning-based multitasking approach for solving three integrated tasks, i.e., face detection, landmarks detection, and face pose estimation. The face pose variation vulnerability has been intensely investigated here underlying three modules: image preprocessing, feature extraction module through deep transfer learning, and regression module for estimating the face poses. The experiments are performed on the well-known benchmark dataset Annotated Faces in the Wild (AFW). We evaluate the outcomes of the experiments to reveal that our proposed approach is superior to other recently available solutions.

Content-based medical image retrieval (CBMIR) systems can assist and help doctors and radiologists in reliable diagnosis by retrieving relevant medical cases from past cases that share similarities with the current case. Therefore, there is a need for improved retrieval accuracy in CBMIR systems. Retrieving similar Brain Tumor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slices from the same class as the query is inherently challenging. For different types of tumors, there is no class-specific structure, size or shape. Further, MRIs being present in multiple views increase discrepancy in interview retrieval. This leads to high inter-class similarity but at the same time high intra-class variations. Skewed data quantities for Brain Tumor types like Meningioma further add to another challenge. It is necessary to formulate rich and generic MRI representations to address these issues. Toward the same, it is essential to model spatial contexts on a multi-scale across the tumor-affected regions and enhances the feature representational learning by extracting generic features. Hence, we propose a Weight Initialization Framework with Densely Connected Networks to improve generalization for Brain Tumor MRI retrieval. The proposed framework uplifts DenseNet-based models for feature extraction as they incorporate feature reuse and feature learning in a multi-scale manner. Further, a weight Initialization Framework (WIF) is used for improvising the representational learning. Specifically, WIF initializes weights of the DenseNet model by transfer learning-based adaptation, which then involves freezing the initial few layers. The freezing step ensures rich low-level features, even for long-tailed classes like Meningioma, while the remaining trainable layers are fine-tuned to incorporate domain-inherent feature learning. The proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art by a margin of 1.70% and 1.69% on standard mAP and p@10, respectively. Concretely, when DenseNet and WIF are jointly employed, a stark increment in performance for the Meningioma class is observed, suggesting the generalizability of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From recent past, shoplifting has become a serious concern for business in both small/big shops and stores. It customarily involves the buyer concealing store items inside clothes/bags and then leaving the store without payment. Unfortunately, no cost-effective solution is available to overcome this problem. We, therefore intend to build an expert monitoring system to automatically recognize shoplifting events in megastores/shops by recognizing object-stealing actions of humans. The method proposed utilizes a deep convolutional-based InceptionV3 architecture to mine the prominent features from video clips. These features are used to custom Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) network to discriminate human stealing actions in video sequences. Optimizing recurrent learning classifier using different modeling parameters such as sequence length and batch size is a genuine contribution of this work. The experiments demonstrate that the system proposed has achieved an accuracy of 89.36% on the synthesized dataset, which comparatively outperforms other existing methods.

With the advancement in technological world, the technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL) are gaining more popularity in many applications of computer vision like object classification, object detection, Human detection, etc., ML and DL approaches are highly compute-intensive and require advanced computational resources for implementation. Multicore CPUs and GPUs with a large number of dedicated processor cores are typically the more prevailing and effective solutions for the high computational need. In this manuscript, we have come up with an analysis of how these multicore hardware technologies respond to DL algorithms. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model have been trained for three different classification problems using three different datasets. All these experimentations have been performed on three different computational resources, i.e., Raspberry Pi, Nvidia Jetson Nano Board, & desktop computer. Results are derived for performance analysis in terms of classification accuracy and hardware response for each hardware configuration.

Shoplifting is a troubling and pervasive aspect of consumers, causing great losses to retailers. It is the theft of goods from the stores/shops, usually by hiding the store item either in the pocket or in carrier bag and leaving without any payment. Revenue loss is the most direct financial effect of shoplifting. Therefore, this article introduces an Expert Shoplifting Activity Recognition (ESAR) system to reduce shoplifting incidents in stores/shops. The system being proposed seamlessly examines each frame in video footage and alerts security personnel when shoplifting occurs. It uses dual-stream convolutional neural network to extract appearance and salient motion features in the video sequences. Here, optical flow and gradient components are used to extract salient motion features related to shoplifting movement in the video sequence. Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) based deep learner is modeled to learn the extracted features in the time domain for distinguishing person actions (i.e., normal and shoplifting). Analyzing the model behavior for diverse modeling environments is an added contribution of this paper. A synthesized shoplifting dataset is used here for experimentations. The experimental outcomes show that the proposed approach attains better consequences up to 90.26% detection accuracy compared to the other prevalent approaches.

Purpose: To determine the incidence of vitreous loss and visual outcome after a vitreous loss during cataract surgery performed by surgeons with various levels of experience in adults >40 years of age at a tertiary eye care center in North India.Methods: The study was conducted at a tertiary eye care center in North India. This was an observational, retrospective, cross-sectional study of patients who underwent cataract surgery from August 1, 2011 to July 31, 2014. All adult cataract cases who were operated on from August 1, 2011 to July 31, 2014 and who experienced vitreous loss during their surgery were included in the study. The visual outcomes of these patients who experienced vitreous loss during cataract surgery in uncomplicated cataract and were managed using standard automated vitrectomy techniques were assessed for different cataract surgical techniques (extracapsular, small-incision, and phacoemulsification) as well as at different levels of skill of the operative surgeon (consultant, short term fellow, and long-term fellow). Details of the postoperative period and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were collected from patient records by the principal investigator on day 1, 1 week, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 3 months post cataract surgery.Results: Vitreous loss occurred in 374 out of 18,430 patients who underwent cataract surgery from August 1, 2011 to July 31, 2014. The overall incidence of vitreous loss in our study was found to be 2.03% with consultants having a rate of 1.66%, short-term fellows at 5.19%, and long-term fellows at 2.02%. Two hundred eighty-eight patients of the 374 cases followed up for 3 months at the hospital and 75.69% of these patients had a final visual acuity of ≥6/18.Conclusion: In an institute with a structured training program for residents/trainees, the vitreous loss rate is low during cataract surgery. Early intervention and proper management with the standard microsurgical technique by experienced hands can improve the final visual outcome in eyes with vitreous loss. Cystoid macular edema and corneal edema were the most common causes of poor postoperative vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Perforation peritonitis is a fairly common surgical problem. Despite recent advances in surgical practice, postoperative minor and major complications are common in patients of peritonitis. Intraoperative peritoneal lavage is an important operative management and the choice of fluid can affect the outcome. Aim: To compare the outcomes of peritoneal lavage using normal saline versus metronidazole in cases of perforation peritonitis in patients undergoing laparotomy, with respect to surgical site infections, sepsis, wound dehiscence, hospital stay. Materials and Methods: The present study was a longitudinal study done on 80 patients, divided in two groups with 40 cases in each group. In Group A, peritoneal cavity was lavaged with two litre of normal saline and closed after putting drains. In Group B peritoneal cavity was lavaged with two litre normal saline mixed with 100 mL (500 mg) of metronidazole and abdomen was closed in layers after placing two drains, kept closed for one hour after abdominal closure. Chi-square test was used, and p<0.05 was considered as level of significance. Results: The mean age of patients in metronidazole group was 47.72±15.64 years, and was comparable to mean age 45.92±15.26 years in saline group, difference was not significant (p=0.6039). Male/Female in both groups were 31/9 and 30/10, respectively. It was observed that the patients in metronidazole group had less surgical site infections (22.5%) compared to saline group 42.5% (p=0.056), less sepsis (20% vs 62.5%) (p<0.001), less wound dehiscence (5% vs 15%) (p=0.136), and shorter hospital stay with a mean±SD of 9.975±2.25 and 11.82±2.85 days (p=0.0019). Conclusion: The metronidazole lavage is better than saline lavage. However, larger multicentric randomised controlled trials need to be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endocannabinoids are well‐known regulators of neurotransmission by activating the cannabinoid (CB) receptors. Endocannabinoids are being used extensively for the treatment of various neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Although endocannabinoids are well studied in cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation in various neurological disorders and several cancers, the functional role in the regulation of blood cell development is less examined. In the present study, virodhamine, which is an agonist of CB receptor‐2, was used to examine its effect on megakaryocytic development from a megakaryoblastic cell. We observed that virodhamine increases cell adherence, cell size, and cytoplasmic protrusions. Interestingly, we have also observed large nucleus and increased expression of megakaryocytic marker (CD61), which are the typical hallmarks of megakaryocytic differentiation. Furthermore, the increased expression of CB2 receptor was noticed in virodhamine‐induced megakaryocytic cells. The effect of virodhamine on megakaryocytic differentiation could be mediated through CB2 receptor. Therefore, we have studied virodhamine induced molecular regulation of megakaryocytic differentiation; mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) activity, mitochondrial function, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production were majorly affected. The altered mitochondrial functions and ROS production is the crucial event associated with megakaryocytic differentiation and maturation. In the present study, we report that virodhamine induces megakaryocytic differentiation by triggering MAPK signaling and ROS production either through MAPK effects on ROS‐generating enzymes or by the target vanilloid receptor 1‐mediated regulation of mitochondrial function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A female German Shepherd dog aged 10 years was presented to the Referral Veterinary Polyclinic, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, with the chief complaint of facial swelling for the last 7 days. Physical examination revealed a painless, soft swelling of the maxilla and mandible. Radiographic examination showed fibrous osteodystrophy. Serum biochemistry revealed hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia and azotemia. Based on the clinical, laboratory and imaging studies, the case was diagnosed as renal osteodystrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The coat protein (CP) subunits of bean common mosaic virus oligomerize through N -terminal residues. • The C-terminal 46 amino acid deletion mutant of CP failed to bind with viral RNA. • First thirty seven N-terminal residues are crucial for oligomerization. The coat protein (CP) is the only structural protein present in the polyprotein of bean common mosaic virus. The well known characteristics of the CP are self-oligomerization and nucleic acid binding activity. The studies of the coat protein mutants revealed that the oligomeric property of CP solely depends on the amino-terminal residues and the nucleic acid binding domain present at the 194–202 residue position. The 3′UTR RNA of the virus showed high binding affinity with the RNA binding domain as compared to the 5′UTR RNA. Further, the intrinsic fluorescence study of the CP also suggested that the N- and C-terminal of CP contains a highly disordered region. The present study also illustrates that the coat protein contains a conserved RNA binding pocket among the potyviruses, but displays divergent oligomerization propensities due to the difference in residue at the N- and C-terminal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a complex physiological network involved in creating homeostasis and maintaining human health. Studies of the last 40 years have shown that endocannabinoids (ECs), a group of bioactive lipids, together with their set of receptors, function as one of the most important physiologic systems in human body. ECs and cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) are found throughout the body: in the brain tissues, immune cells, and in the peripheral organs and tissues as well. In recent years, ECs have emerged as key modulators of affect, neurotransmitter release, immune function, and several other physiological functions. This modulatory homoeostatic system operates in the regulation of brain activity and states of physical health and disease. In several research studies and patents the ECS has been recognised with neuro-protective properties thus it might be a target in neurodegenerative diseases. Most immune cells express these bioactive lipids and their receptors, recent data also highlight the immunomodulatory effects of endocannabinoids. Interplay of immune and nervous system has been recognized in past, recent studies suggest that ECS function as a bridge between neuronal and immune system. In several ongoing clinical trial studies, the ECS has also been placed in the anti-cancer drugs spotlight. This review summarizes the literature of cannabinoid ligands and their biosynthesis, cannabinoid receptors and their distribution, and the signaling pathways initiated by the binding of cannabinoid ligands to cannabinoid receptors. Further, this review highlights the functional role of cannabinoids and ECS in blood cell development, neuroimmune interactions and associated disorders. Moreover, we highlight the current state of knowledge of cannabinoid ligands as the mediators of neuroimmune interactions, which can be therapeutically effective for neuro-immune disorders and several diseases associated with neuroinflammation. • Endocannabinoids are known to have therapeutic potential in neuroinflammation and immune disorders. • Cannabinoid receptors are expressed in brain tissue, immune cells and blood cells. • Endocannabinoid system could be an effective target for the treatment of different blood disorders. • Endocannabinoid system regulates neuroimmune axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neurotransmitter dopamine has central roles in mood, appetite, arousal and movement 1 . Despite its importance in brain physiology and function, and as a target for illicit and therapeutic drugs, the human dopamine transporter (hDAT) and mechanisms by which it is inhibited by small molecules and Zn 2+ are without a high-resolution structural context. Here we determine the structure of hDAT in a tripartite complex with the competitive inhibitor and cocaine analogue, (-)-2-β-carbomethoxy-3-β-(4-fluorophenyl)tropane 2 (β-CFT), the non-competitive inhibitor MRS7292 3 and Zn 2 + (ref. 4 ). We show how β-CFT occupies the central site, approximately halfway across the membrane, stabilizing the transporter in an outward-open conformation. MRS7292 binds to a structurally uncharacterized allosteric site, adjacent to the extracellular vestibule, sequestered underneath the extracellular loop 4 (EL4) and adjacent to transmembrane helix 1b (TM1b), acting as a wedge, precluding movement of TM1b and closure of the extracellular gate. A Zn 2+ ion further stabilizes the outward-facing conformation by coupling EL4 to EL2, TM7 and TM8, thus providing specific insights into how Zn 2+ restrains the movement of EL4 relative to EL2 and inhibits transport activity., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: We evaluated whether an abundance of first-trimester plasma mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) fragments could predict the risk for the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) by the late second or early third trimester., Methods: It was a prospective study wherein we enrolled 150 women in their first trimester of gestation. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was administered both in the first and second trimesters to diagnose GDM., Results: Among our cohort, 23 women were diagnosed with GDM in the first trimester and excluded from the study. Of the remaining 127, 29 women were diagnosed with GDM in the second trimester, and 98 women who did not develop GDM served as controls. We amplified blood drawn from each participant during the first trimester for three distinct mtDNA gene sequences: COX, ND4, and D-loop. An abundance of each mtDNA sequence, estimated by the ΔCt method between mtDNA and 18S rRNA, correlated with GDM occurrence in the late second or early third trimester. There was a significant difference in ΔCt COX between controls and those with GDM occurrence in the second trimester (p = .006). These levels were not associated with age or fasting plasma glucose levels in the first trimester. ΔCt COX could predict GDM with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 40%. Though ΔCt ND4 was higher in the GDM-positive group, the levels did not reach statistical significance. ΔCt D-loop was similar in GDM-positive cases and controls who did not develop GDM during pregnancy., Conclusions: These results were in plasma samples collected 3 to 4 months before overt hyperglycemia diagnosis suggestive of GDM. The abundance of plasma mtDNA fragments represents a promising cost-effective, convenient early-stage biomarker for predicting GDM development. Importantly, it can be administered irrespective of the fasting status of the subject. Further assessment of the predictive capacity of these biomarkers within large, diverse populations is needed for effective clinical utility., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Diabetes published by Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: Cement dust is a significant source of occupational exposure affecting lung function and respiratory health. A higher burden of respiratory morbidity is known among factory workers involved in cement production. Globally or from India, there are no estimates of this burden from informal workers exposed to cement dust., Objective: To assess difference in lung function and respiratory symptoms among informal workers exposed to cement and those unexposed, using a comparative community based cross-sectional study from purposively selected areas in Delhi, India., Methods: Using a portable spirometer we measured lung function and collected respiratory symptoms from conveniently sampled informal workers (n = 100) exposed to cement dust, 50 indoor informal workers (tailors), and 50 outdoor (vegetable) vendors. Regression analyses were performed to compare respiratory symptom score and lung function parameters, adjusted for age, body mass index, smoking, socioeconomic status, and years of occupational exposure., Findings: Exposed workers had significantly lower lung function (PEF = -750 ml/s and -810 ml/s and FEV1/FVC (%) = -3.87 and -2.11) compared to indoor and outdoor groups, with three times higher chronic respiratory symptoms when compared to the unexposed groups. The cement dust exposure was observed to be associated with PEF (mean difference (MD) = -0.75L, 95%CI = -1.36 to -0.15, p = 0.01), %FEV1/FVC (MD = -3.87, 95%CI = -6.77 to -0.96, p = 0.03) and respiratory symptoms (p < 0.001)., Conclusion: This study generates evidence regarding the respiratory burden of occupational exposure among vulnerable informal workers. There is an urgent need for policy reforms to safeguard health from occupational exposures, especially among informal workers., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s).)

The human face is considered the prime entity in recognizing a person's identity in our society. Henceforth, the importance of face recognition systems is growing higher for many applications. Facial recognition systems are in huge demand, next to fingerprint-based systems. Face-biometric has a highly dominant role in various applications such as border surveillance, forensic investigations, crime detection, access management systems, information security, and many more. Facial recognition systems deliver highly meticulous results in every of these application domains. However, the face identity threats are evenly growing at the same rate and posing severe concerns on the use of face-biometrics. This paper significantly explores all types of face recognition techniques, their accountable challenges, and threats to face-biometric-based identity recognition. This survey paper proposes a novel taxonomy to represent potential face identity threats. These threats are described, considering their impact on the facial recognition system. State-of-the-art approaches available in the literature are discussed here to mitigate the impact of the identified threats. This paper provides a comparative analysis of countermeasure techniques focusing on their performance on different face datasets for each identified threat. This paper also highlights the characteristics of the benchmark face datasets representing unconstrained scenarios. In addition, we also discuss research gaps and future opportunities to tackle the facial identity threats for the information of researchers and readers., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestsThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022.)

TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) is an RNA-regulating protein that carries out many cellular functions through liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). The LLPS of TDP-43 is mediated by its C-terminal low-complexity domain (TDP43-LCD) corresponding to the region 267-414. In neurodegenerative disorders amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia, pathological inclusions of the TDP-43 are found that are rich in the C-terminal fragments of ∼25 and ∼35 kDa, of which TDP43-LCD is a part. Thus, understanding the assembly process of TDP43-LCD is essential, given its involvement in the formation of both functional liquid-like assemblies and solid- or gel-like pathological aggregates. Here, we show that the solution pH and salt modulate TDP43-LCD LLPS. A gradual reduction in the pH below its isoelectric point of 9.8 results in a monotonic decrease of TDP43-LCD LLPS due to charge-charge repulsion between monomers, while at pH 6 and below no LLPS was observed. The addition of heparin to TDP43-LCD solution at pH 6, at a 1:2 heparin-to-TDP43-LCD molar ratio, promotes TDP43-LCD LLPS, while at higher concentration, it disrupts LLPS through a reentrant phase transition. Upon incubation at pH 6, TDP43-LCD undergoes gelation without phase separation. However, in the reentrant regime in the presence of a high heparin concentration, it forms thick amyloid aggregates that are significantly more SDS resistant than the gel. The results indicate that the material nature of the TDP43-LCD assembly products can be modulated by heparin which is significant in the context of liquid-to-solid phase transition observed in TDP-43 proteinopathies. Our findings are also crucial in relation to similar transitions that could occur due to alteration in the molecular level interactions among various multivalent biomolecules involving other LCDs and RNAs., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: India has over 50 million workers employed in industries with exposure to very high sound levels, predisposing them to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)., Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis by using the following criteria: (1) Observational or experimental studies conducted in India; (2) English language studies; (3) Published during January 2010-December 2019; (4) Primary outcome: proportion of participants detected with NIHL. We reviewed bibliographic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and DOAJ) and Google Scholar, and extracted the relevant data., Results: A total of 160 documents were identified after removing duplicates, and 33 full texts were screened, of which 22 studies were included. The mean (SD) effective sample size of the studies was 107.1 (78.9). The pooled proportion of participants with NIHL irrespective of the category was 0.49 (95%CI: 0.22-0.76) and that of hearing loss was 0.53 (95%CI: 0.28- 0.78). Most studies reported that none of the workers, especially in the informal sectors, used auditory protection., Conclusions: NIHL is a major neglected public health occupational health challenge in India linked with adverse social determinants of health. Sustained advocacy for implementation of legislative and behavior change communication for protecting the hearing of workers is warranted., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2022 Indian Journal of Community Medicine.)

Background: Three rounds of a repeated cross-sectional serosurvey to estimate the change in seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were conducted from August to October 2020 in the state of Delhi, India, in the general population ≥5 y of age., Methods: The selection of participants was through a multistage sampling design from all 11 districts and 280 wards of the city-state, with multistage allocation proportional to population size. The blood samples were screened using immunoglobulin G (IgG) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits., Results: We observed a total of 4267 (N=150 46), 4311 (N=17 409) and 3829 (N=15 015) positive tests indicative of the presence of IgG antibody to SARS-CoV-2 during the August, September and October 2020 serosurvey rounds, respectively. The adjusted seroprevalence declined from 28.39% (95% confidence interval [CI] 27.65 to 29.14) in August to 24.08% (95% CI 23.43 to 24.74) in September and 24.71% (95% CI 24.01 to 25.42) in October. On adjusted analysis, participants with lower per capita income, living in slums or overcrowded households and those with diabetes comorbidity had significantly higher statistical odds of having antibody positivity (p<0.01)., Conclusions: Nearly one in four residents in Delhi, India ≥5 y of age had the SARS-CoV-2 infection during August-October 2020., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.)

Background We report the findings of a large follow-up, community-based, cross-sectional serosurvey and correlate it with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test-positivity rate and the caseload observed between the peaks of the first and the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi, India. Methodology Individuals aged five and above were recruited from 274 wards of the state (population approximately 19.6 million) from January 11 to January 22, 2021. A total of 100 participants each were included from all wards for a net sample size of approximately 28,000. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select participants for the household serosurvey. Anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies were detected by using the VITROS® (Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Raritan, NJ, USA) assay (90% sensitivity, 100% specificity). Results Antibody positivity was observed in 14,298 (50.76%) of 28,169 samples. The age, sex, and district population-weighted seroprevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 IgG was 50.52% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 49.94-51.10), and after adjustment for assay characteristics, it was 56.13% (95% CI = 55.49-56.77). On adjusted analysis, participants aged ≥50 years, of female gender, housewives, having ever lived in containment zones, urban slum dwellers, and diabetes or hypertensive patients had significantly higher odds of SARS-CoV-2 antibody positivity. The peak infection rate and the test-positivity rate since October 2020 were initially observed in mid-November 2020, with a subsequent steep declining trend, followed by a period of persistently low case burden lasting until the first week of March 2021. This was followed by a steady increase followed by an exponential surge in infections from April 2021 onward culminating in the second wave of the pandemic. Conclusions The presence of infection-induced immunity from SARS-CoV-2 even in more than one in two people can be ineffective in protecting the population. Despite such high seroprevalence, population susceptibility to COVID-19 can be accentuated by variants of concern having the ability for rapid transmission and depletion of antibody levels with the threat of recurrent infections, signifying the need for mass vaccination., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2021, Sharma et al.)

Hematopoiesis is a continuous phenomenon involving the formation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) giving rise to diverse functional blood cells. This developmental process of hematopoiesis is evolutionarily conserved, yet comparably different in various model organisms. Vertebrate HSCs give rise to all types of mature cells of both the myeloid and the lymphoid lineages sequentially colonizing in different anatomical tissues. Signal transduction in HSCs facilitates their potency and specifies branching of lineages. Understanding the hematopoietic signaling pathways is crucial to gain insights into their deregulation in several blood-related disorders. The focus of the review is on hematopoiesis corresponding to different model organisms and pivotal role of indispensable hematopoietic pathways. We summarize and discuss the fundamentals of blood formation in both invertebrate and vertebrates, examining the requirement of key signaling nexus in hematopoiesis. Knowledge obtained from such comparative studies associated with developmental dynamics of hematopoiesis is beneficial to explore the therapeutic options for hematopoietic diseases., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

A significant proportion of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) require timely hospitalization to reduce the risk of complications and mortality. We describe the trends of the age and gender stratified outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe illness at the largest dedicated tertiary care COVID-19 government hospital in New Delhi, India. A retrospective cohort study through secondary data analysis from in-patient hospital data of patients admitted from April 1 to November 15, 2020 was conducted. The data of 10,314 laboratory-confirmed patients with COVID-19 was analyzed, of which 8899 (86.28%) were discharged after recovery, and 1415 (13.72%) died. The mean (SD) age of the hospitalized patients was 46.43 (18.74) years (n = 10,309) including 6031 (58.50%) male and 4278 (41.50%) female patients (n = 10,309). On bivariate analysis, increasing age was associated with significantly higher odds of mortality in both gender (p < .001). The mortality rate in female patients was lower (11.92%) compared with male patients (15.75%) (p = .675). However, elderly women had the highest odds of mortality (p < .001), indicating the possible role of delayed health seeking behavior, secondary to familial, and social neglect. Mortality in the patients with COVID-19 also occurred early after admission suggesting rapid deterioration, delayed reporting by patients, or their late referral from other health facilities. However, the overall statewide recovery rate showed steady improvement since the onset of the pandemic. In contrast, the recovery rate among the moderate-severe cases that were hospitalized at this tertiary care center during the same period reflected a lower nonspecific zigzag pattern indicating limited effectiveness of the COVID-19 treatment regimens., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Bovine tuberculosis is an economically important disease with very high zoonotic potential. Single intradermal cervical tuberculin test (SICT) is considered a gold standard assay for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis. However, bovines especially buffaloes may produce a false negative result when the animal becomes cell-mediated immune (CMI) anergic in the advanced stage of the disease. In the present study, ELISA and PCR assays were successfully demonstrated to be useful in diagnosing tuberculosis especially in the CMI anergic buffaloes infected with Mycobacterium bovis. ELISA and PCR assays are able to detect 8.94% and 8.13%, respectively, more animals as positive in comparison to standard SICT assay in a selected population of 123 buffaloes. The moderate agreement between SICT and ELISA (k: 0.528; 0.249-0.807), a substantial agreement between SICT and PCR (k: 0.648; 0.364-0.931), and high agreement between ELISA and PCR (k: 0.856; 0.697-1.0) highlight that ELISA and PCR, if used in parallel with SICT, will provide better sensitivity over single assay. Reduction of false negative reactors may help in minimizing the zoonotic threat from bovine tuberculosis especially in disease endemic region where human and livestock interface is quite high.

Asf1 is a highly conserved histone chaperone that regulates tightly coupled nucleosome assembly/disassembly process. We observed that Plasmodium falciparum Asf1 (PfAsf1) is ubiquitously expressed in different stages of the life cycle of the parasite. To gain further insight into its biological activity, we solved the structure of N-terminal histone chaperone domain of PfAsf1 (1-159 amino acids) by X-ray crystallography to a resolution of 2.4 Å. The structure is composed of two beta-sheet to form a beta-sandwich, which resembles an immunoglobulin-like fold. The surface-charge distribution of PfAsf1 is distinct from yAsf1 and hAsf1 although the core-structure shows significant similarity. The crystal-structure indicated that PfAsf1 may exist in a dimeric-state which was further confirmed by solution cross-linking experiment. PfAsf1 was found to specifically interact with Plasmodium histone H3 and H4 and was able to deposit H3/H4 dimer onto DNA-template to form disomes, showing its characteristic histone chaperone activity. We mapped the critical residues of PfAsf1 involved in histone H3/H4 interaction and confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis. Further analysis indicates that histone interacting surface of Asf1 is highly conserved while the dimerization interface is variable. Our results identify the role of PfAsf1 as a mediator of chromatin assembly in Plasmodium falciparum, which is the causative agent of malignant malaria in humans., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society.)

COVID-19 is a severe epidemic that has put the world in a global crisis. Over 42 Million people are infected, and 1.14 Million deaths are reported worldwide as on Oct 23, 2020. A deeper understanding of the epidemic suggests that a person's negligence can cause widespread harm that would be difficult to negate. Since no vaccine is yet developed, social distancing must be practiced to detain COVID-19 spread. Therefore, we aim to develop a framework that tracks humans for monitoring the social distancing being practiced. To accomplish this objective of social distance monitoring, an algorithm is developed using object detection method. Here, CNN based object detector is explored to detect human presence. The object detector's output is used for calculating distances between each pair of humans detected. This approach of social distancing algorithm will red mark the persons who are getting closer than a permissible limit. Experimental results prove that CNN based object detectors with our proposed social distancing algorithm exhibit promising outcomes for monitoring social distancing in public areas., (© Bharati Vidyapeeth's Institute of Computer Applications and Management 2021.)

Background: In the emerging field of nanotechnology, copper oxide (CuO) nanomaterials are considered to be one of the most important transition metal oxides owing to its fascinating properties. Its synthesis from green chemistry principles is gaining importance as next-generation antibiotics due to its simplicity, eco-friendliness, and cost-effectiveness. In the present study, CuO nanorods (CuO NRs) were synthesized from the aqueous fruit extract of Momordica charantia and characterized using different analytical techniques. Further, the biomedical therapeutic potential was evaluated against multi-drug resistant microbial strains., Materials and Methods: To synthesize CuO NRs, 0.1M of CuSO 4 .5H 2 O solution was added to aqueous extract of Momordica charantia in a 1:3 (v/v) ratio (pH=11) and heated at 50°C followed by washing and drying. The synthesized CuO NRs were subjected to characterization using different analytical techniques such as UV visible spectroscopy, zeta sizer equipped with zeta potential, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Further, the application as a biomedical therapeutic potential was evaluated in vitro using well diffusion method against eleven multidrug-resistant clinical bacterial strains, a fungus- Trichophyton rubrum and in ovo against the R 2 B virus using haemagglutination (HA) test., Results: Characterization was preliminarily done by the spectral study that confirms the absorbance band at 245nm. FTIR analysis at 628 cm -1 peak identified copper oxide vibration. SEM analysis revealed agglomerated particle clusters. However, with TEM clear nanorods of average diameter of 61.48 ± 2 nm were observed. EDAX confirmed CuO formation while XRD showed a typical monoclinic structure with 6 nm crystallite size. Biological screening of CuO NRs showed significant results against both in vitro and in ovo methods. Significant inhibitory activity (p<0.0001) was noted against most of the resistant human pathogenic strains including both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The highest efficacy was observed against Bacillus cereus with a 31.66 mm zone of inhibition. Besides, the therapeutic potential of CuO NRs against Corynebacterium xerosis, Streptococcus viridians and R 2 B strain of Newcastle disease is reported for the first time., Conclusion: Based on the present results, it could be expected that green synthesized CuO NRs would find potential applications in the field of nanomedicine., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2020 Qamar et al.)

The roles of Plant Homeodomain (PHD) fingers in catalysis of histone modifications are unknown. We demonstrated that the PHD finger of Ubiquitin Protein Ligase E3 Component N-Recognin7 (UBR7) harbors E3 ubiquitin ligase activity toward monoubiquitination of histone H2B at lysine120 (H2BK120Ub). Purified PHD finger or full-length UBR7 monoubiquitinated H2BK120 in vitro, and loss of UBR7 drastically reduced H2BK120Ub genome-wide binding sites in MCF10A cells. Low UBR7 expression was correlated with occurrence of triple-negative breast cancer and metastatic tumors. Consistently, UBR7 knockdown enhanced the invasiveness, induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and promoted metastasis. Conversely, ectopic expression of UBR7 restored these cellular phenotypes and reduced tumor growth. Mechanistically, UBR7 loss reduced H2BK120Ub levels on cell adhesion genes, including CDH4, and upregulated the Wnt/β-Catenin signaling pathway. CDH4 overexpression could partially revert UBR7-dependent cellular phenotypes. Collectively, our results established UBR7 as a histone H2B monoubiquitin ligase that suppresses tumorigenesis and metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer.

Transcription factor 19 (TCF19) has been reported as a type 1 diabetes-associated locus involved in maintenance of pancreatic β cells through a fine-tuned regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis. TCF19 also exhibits genomic association with type 2 diabetes, although the precise molecular mechanism remains unknown. It harbors both a plant homeodomain and a forkhead-associated domain implicated in epigenetic recognition and gene regulation, a phenomenon that has remained unexplored. Here, we show that TCF19 selectively interacts with histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation through its plant homeodomain finger. Knocking down TCF19 under high-glucose conditions affected many metabolic processes, including gluconeogenesis. We found that TCF19 overexpression represses de novo glucose production in HepG2 cells. The transcriptional repression of key genes, induced by TCF19, coincided with NuRD (nucleosome-remodeling-deacetylase) complex recruitment to the promoters of these genes. TCF19 interacted with CHD4 (chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4), which is a part of the NuRD complex, in a glucose concentration-independent manner. In summary, our results show that TCF19 interacts with an active transcription mark and recruits a co-repressor complex to regulate gluconeogenic gene expression in HepG2 cells. Our study offers critical insights into the molecular mechanisms of transcriptional regulation of gluconeogenesis and into the roles of chromatin readers in metabolic homeostasis., (© 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.)