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In this review, we highlight the most recent advances in the nucleic acid detection of viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa in a portable fashion using colorimetric-based microfluidic devices.

Monkeypox virus is an infectious agent that causes fever, Pneumonitis encephalitis, rash, lymphadenopathy and bacterial infection. The current outbreak of monkeypox has reawakened the global health concern. In the current situation of increasing viral infection, no vaccine or drug is available for monkeypox. Thus, there is an urgent need for viable vaccine development to prevent viral transmission by boosting human immunity. Herein, using immunoinformatics approaches, a multi-epitope vaccine was constructed for the Monkeypox virus. In this connection, B-Cell and T-cell epitopes were identified and joined with the help of adjutants and linkers. The vaccine construct was selected based on promising vaccine candidates and immunogenic potential. Further epitopes were selected based on antigenicity score, non-allergenicity and good immunological properties. Molecular docking reveals strong interactions between TLR-9 and the predicted vaccine construct. Finally, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to evaluate the stability and compactness of the constructed vaccine. The MD simulation results demonstrated the significant stability of the polypeptide vaccine construct. The predicted vaccine represented good stability, expression, immunostimulatory capabilities and significant solubility. Design vaccine was verified as efficient in different computer-based immune response investigations. Additionally, the constructed vaccine also represents a good population coverage in computer base analysis.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are defined by their ability to self-renew and the potential to differentiate into all tissues of the developing organism. We previously demonstrated that deleting the catalytic SET domain of the Set1A/complex of proteins associated with SET1 histone methyltransferase (Set1A/COMPASS) in mouse ESCs does not impair their viability or ability to self-renew; however, it leads to defects in differentiation. The precise mechanisms by which Set1A executes these functions remain to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrate that mice lacking the SET domain of Set1A are embryonic lethal at a stage that is unique from null alleles. To gain insight into Set1A function in regulating pluripotency, we conducted a CRISPR/Cas9-mediated dropout screen and identified the MOZ/MORF (monocytic leukaemia zinc finger protein/monocytic leukaemia zinc finger protein-related factor) and HBO1 (HAT bound to ORC1) acetyltransferase complex member ING5 as a synthetic perturbation to Set1A. The loss of Ing5 in Set1AΔSET mouse ESCs decreases the fitness of these cells, and the simultaneous loss of ING5 and in Set1AΔSET leads to up-regulation of differentiation-associated genes. Taken together, our results point toward Set1A/COMPASS and ING5 as potential coregulators of the self-renewal and differentiation status of ESCs.

Background and objectives: To determine the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and the associated risk factors among healthy blood donors from Peshawar Pakistan, during the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted on 4047 healthy (with no history or symptoms of COVID-19) blood donors attending regional blood center Peshawar between Nov 2020 and June 2021. Demographic data was collected and donors were screened for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Results: The mean age of the participants was 27.27±7.13 and the majority (99%) were males. Overall, 59% (2391/4047) of the blood donors were reactive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. An increasing trend in seropositivity was observed from 45.5% to 64.8% corresponding to the second and third wave of the pandemic in Pakistan. Logistic regression analysis revealed significantly higher odds of seropositivity among male donors compared to females. Similarly, in multivariable analysis, the odds ratio for seropositivity among blood types AB, A, and B were, 1.6, 1.4, and 1.3 (CI 95%) times higher compared to blood group O (P-value ≤0.0001). Conclusions: Seropositivity of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among blood donors gradually increased during the second and third wave of the pandemic in Pakistan indicating a widespread prevalence of Covid-19 in the general population. Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 varies with ABO blood types, with blood group O associated with low risk of infection.

It was Thomas Laqueur who stated that women have commandeered 'gender', whereas masculinity was seen to exist in a 'cultural tradition where no such history was necessary' (1990. 22). Thought to dominate literary and cultural discussion, masculinity became less studied as critics sought to give voice to the female character and experience. Recently however masculinity is coming to the fore of literary and historical criticism, the focus being on understanding masculinity beyond the 'standard', looking at the complexities and contradictions in masculine identity.\ud Yet despite this recent attention on masculinity there remains a male character type that is overlooked in literary criticism: the whoremonger. Seducers are a regular trope in eighteenth-century literature and have been the subject of extensive study. The notorious Lovelace in Richardson's Clarissa; Lothario in The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe; and Mr. B, another of Richardson's constructs in Pamela are all recognised characters that feature in the genre of the seduction narrative. They are recognised characters and yet little work has been done on the whoremonger as a trope; they are largely looked at within the confines of their text. I however have examined the whoremonger as an archetypal character type.\ud Through the portrayal of the whoremonger in mid eighteenth-century literature, I have attempted to understand how illicit sexual conduct conformed to or contradicted contemporary ideals of masculinity. In particular, I have focused on how whoremongering was reconciled with the traditionally acceptable facets of masculine identity including work, sociability and marriage, looking at the tension between refined, sociable qualities of male identity and the base, sordid aspect that is sexuality. I have argued that despite cultural discourses that counselled to the contrary, whoremongering was a regular pursuit of the eighteenth-century gentleman. Furthermore, sexuality constructed masculinity and remained on the eighteenth century peripheral conscience as an accepted aspect of male conduct. I have done so through close analysis of three eighteenth-century texts that imitate memoir form; Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748); Boswell's London Journal (1762-3); and the anonymously authored The Histories of Some of the Penitents of the Magdalen House (1760).