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Congenital Anterior Urethral Diverticulum (CAUD) and Anterior Urethral Valve (AUV) are rare but well-described causes of urinary obstruction in male children. The clinical presentation can range from isolated poor urinary stream with normal bladder and upper tracts to severe obstructive uropathy with renal failure. In the present case series, six children with anterior urethral obstruction managed between June 2014 and June 2024 were retrospectively identified. Age at presentation, clinical features, investigations, management and long-term follow-up were studied. The age at presentation ranged from newborn to seven years. Severe disease, as evidenced by progressive renal failure, was present in 1 of the 6 children (16.6%). One child had undergone foetal intervention by valve ablation but had progressive renal failure on follow-up. Three children (50%) underwent diverticulum excision with urethroplasty, of which one child developed a postoperative urethrocutaneous fistula. One child with AUV had a dorsal urethral fold causing obstruction, unlike the ventral pathology observed in the other children. CAUD and AUV are rare yet important causes of obstructive uropathy. Careful assessment is crucial for making the correct diagnosis. Temporary diversion may be essential when cystoscopy or primary repair is not feasible or in cases of urosepsis.

Light concentrators are widely used to address the challenges of solar radiation's limited energy density. However, traditional light concentrators suffer from bulkiness, higher focal length, low solar acceptance, and cost factor due to the usage of large imaging optics elements. Waveguide-based planar light concentrators (PLC) have been engineered as a solution to these challenges. They work by collecting light at the incident face and channeling it to the lateral face of the waveguides. However, the existing PLC designs mostly consist of multiple optics elements, resulting in the need for precise positioning and point-to-point solar tracking. Addressing these complexities, a new design for waveguide-based PLC is presented. It features a simplified array of skewed V-grooves within an optical slab, essentially creating a single elemental optics. This novel skewed V-groove-based PLC (SV-PLC) introduces a low-concentration (i.e.,

Background: Breast cancer is the second most common malignancy in Indian women. The role of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR) is well established in predicting the prognosis and management of therapy. However, the role of androgen receptor (AR) expression is unclear in the Indian context. This study aims to evaluate the expression of AR in breast cancer and to find its association with clinicopathological parameters and hormone receptor status like ER, PR, HER2/neu and Ki 67 and also molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study included 64 patients of histopathologically proven breast cancer with known hormone receptor and Ki 67 status. Demographic and histopathologic details were retrieved. Immunohistochemistry for AR was done and was correlated with clinicopathological parameters and hormone receptor status, Ki 67 status and molecular subtypes of breast cancer to find its association. P value

Southeast Asia has recently seen a number of developments and transformations that requires one to adjust to as the region’s skill requirements are evolving. For some these new changes brings new opportunities, however, for some greater levels of career adaptability is need to manage these new developments and transformations. The necessity of systematically reviewing articles on career adaptability in Southeast Asian nations is made apparent by this particular instance. A systematic review of career adaptability in Southeast Asia was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. About 22 eligible studies were identified. The findings indicated that the most prevalent groups in career adaptability studies were students, followed by working adults. Antecedents such as role modeling and cultural intelligence were identified. Four categories of predictors were identified such as personal, educational, career behavior, and environmental factor. Two categories were identified for the outcomes of career adaptability, namely, personal and career outcomes. Findings revealed that career adaptability offers several beneficial outcomes such as improved employability skills and life satisfaction. Discussion includes conditions faced in Southeast Asian countries and cultural differences. The dearth of studies within multicultural settings calls for further research in exploring career adaptability, as this broaden cultural understanding and awareness of educational and career behaviors pertaining to one’s career adaptability. This study offers important practical implications and recommendations for career counseling practices and policymakers in Southeast Asia that would potentially benefit students and working adults.

Parabens are the most prevalent ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products (PCPs). They are colorless and tasteless and exhibit good stability when combined with other components. Because of these unique physicochemical properties, they are extensively used as antimicrobial and antifungal agents. Their release into the aquatic ecosystem poses potential threats to aquatic organisms, including fish. We conducted an electronic search in PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) using the search term parabens and fish and sorted 93 articles consisting of methyl paraben (MTP), ethyl paraben (ETP), propyl paraben (PPP), butyl paraben (BTP), and benzyl paraben (BNP) in several fish species. Furthermore, we confined our search to six fish species (common carp, Cyprinus carpio; fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas; Japanese medaka, Oryzias latipes; rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss; Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus; and zebrafish, Danio rerio) and four common parabens (MTP, ETP, PPP, and BTP) and sorted 48 articles for review. Our search indicates that among all six fish, zebrafish was the most studied fish and the MTP was the most tested paraben in fish. Moreover, depending on the alkyl chain length and linearity, long-chained parabens were more toxic than the parabens with short chains. Parabens can be considered endocrine disruptors (EDs), targeting estrogen-androgen-thyroid-steroidogenesis (EATS) pathways, blocking the development and growth of gametes, and causing intergenerational toxicity to impact the viability of offspring/larvae. Paraben exposure can also induce behavioral changes and nervous system disorders in fish. Although the USEPA and EU limit the use of parabens in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, their prolonged persistence in the environment may pose an additional health risk to humans.

Introduction: Paediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (PARDS) remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity in Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICU) despite various advanced management strategies. The management and outcome of PARDS depend on the severity of the disease. Aim: To study the clinical profile in terms of aetiology and outcome of paediatric patients with moderate to severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in the PICU. Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at the PICU in Dr. BC Roy Postgraduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, from July 2018 to June 2019. A total of 120 children aged between two months and 12 years who developed moderate to severe ARDS according to Paediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference (PALICC) criteria were included. Demographic details, different risk factors, morbidity patterns, and outcomes were recorded. Patients were categorised into three groups based on Positive End Expiratory Pressure (PEEP): 5-8 cm of H2O, 9-12 cm of H2O, and >12 cm of H2O. Based on Peak Inspiratory Pressure (PIP), patients were divided into two groups: 12 cm of H2O group and 84.4% in the PIP 30-35 cm of H2O group. Conclusion: The majority of ARDS cases are due to direct lung injury caused by pneumonia, and the outcome is better than in cases of indirect lung injury. Mortality is nearly twice as high in severe ARDS as in moderate ARDS.

Abstract Introduction: The advent of newborn screening across India has led to an increase in the early diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolisms (IEMs). Aminoacidopathies, the group of inherited disorders of amino acid metabolisms are of particular important because of the ease of early diagnosis and the availability of effective treatment options. Unfortunately, the biological reference intervals for amino acids vary widely between different ethnic groups and geographical locations, thereby necessitating the need to establish a population specific reference interval for optimal diagnosis. Aims and objectives: Establishment of the biological reference interval for all amino acids in the Dried Blood Spots (DBS) of term neonates belonging to coastal Karnataka using High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Methods: Heel prick blood samples were collected from 175 healthy, term neonates on a filter paper. After safe transport to the laboratory, the amino acids were extracted using an appropriate solution, derivatized, and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Mean, standard deviation, and 95% confidence interval of the mean were used to establish the reference interval. Students T-test was used to compare the differences in amino acids levels among different groups. Conclusions: The biological reference intervals obtained in this study was found to have significant variations from studies conducted elsewhere in the world. This puts into perspective the need to establish a population specific reference interval for these parameters to avoid potential misdiagnosis. This reference interval may also be adopted by other labs catering to new-born screening in the same geographical area.

Abstract Background The study aimed to investigate the association between maternal cocaine abuse during pregnancy and the prevalence of cleft lip/palate (CL/P) in offspring, synthesizing existing evidence through a systematic review and meta-analysis. CL/P is a congenital craniofacial anomaly with complex etiology, and prior research has suggested potential links between maternal cocaine use and CL/P. However, these associations remain inconclusive. Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify relevant studies published up to the study’s cutoff date in September 2021. Several databases were systematically searched using predefined search terms. Inclusion criteria were set to encompass studies reporting on the prevalence of CL/P in infants born to mothers with a history of cocaine use during pregnancy, with a comparison group of non-cocaine-using mothers. Data were extracted, and a meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model to calculate pooled odds ratios (OR) and relative risks (RR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results The review included data from 4 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The combined OR from two studies was 0.05 (95% CI: 0.00, 4.41), which does not suggest a statistically significant association between prenatal cocaine exposure and the incidence of CL/P due to the confidence interval crossing the null value. Additionally, the combined RR was 0.17 (95% CI: 0.04, 0.66), indicating a statistically significant decrease in the risk of CL/P associated with prenatal cocaine exposure. These results, with an OR that is not statistically significant and an RR suggesting decreased risk, should be interpreted with caution due to considerable heterogeneity and variability among the included studies’ findings. Further research is needed to clarify these associations. Conclusion The findings from this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that maternal cocaine use during pregnancy is not a statistically significant independent risk factor for the development of CL/P in offspring. These results underscore the multifactorial nature of CL/P etiology and emphasize the importance of considering other genetic, environmental, and nutritional factors in understanding the condition’s origins. While the study provides important insights, limitations such as data heterogeneity and potential confounders should be acknowledged. Future research should adopt rigorous study designs and explore a broader range of potential risk factors to comprehensively elucidate CL/P development.