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Introduction: Interproximal contacts between primary teeth have traditionally been reported as broad and flat. A new system of classification for contacts called OXIS- O (open contact), X (point contact), I (straight contact), and S (curved contact) was introduced in 2018, based on the shapes observed occlusally. Understanding interproximal contacts in primary teeth is essential to comprehend the caries risk of the individual. Aim: To assess the prevalence of OXIS contact areas between non carious primary molars in 3 to 9 years old children and to determine the most common type of contact before and after the eruption of the first permanent molar. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of the types of contacts between primary teeth through direct observation in a sample size of 260 contact areas. The study was carried out in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Navi Mumbai, India, between August 2022 to February 2023. Ethical clearance from the university was obtained. A single calibrated examiner examined photographs of the interproximal contacts between primary molars. The contacts were assessed as O (open contact), X (point contact), I (straight contact), and S (curved contact) using the OXIS classification system. The prevalence of each contact type was recorded. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 18.0 software. The prevalence of contact types was recorded in numbers and percentages. A comparison of contact types before and after the eruption of the first permanent molar was conducted using the Chi-square test. Result: The most common contact type was I (65.00%) both before and after the eruption of the first permanent molar. This was followed by S (19.62%), X (11.15%), and O (4.23%) in the primary dentition. After the eruption of the first permanent molars, I contact was the highest at 66.41%, followed by S (20.90%), X (12.68%), and O (0%). Conclusion: This study confirms the presence of O, X, I, and S types of interproximal contact areas in caries-free primary molars in 3 to 9 years old children.

Aim: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder that makes self-care challenging for T1DM individuals and their caregivers. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perceived benefits of the Back to Basics-Diabesties (B2B) session among T1DM individuals and their caregivers in India. Materials and Methods: The B2B session is a structured intervention provided through telephonic peer counseling, aimed at enhancing the understanding of T1DM that provides practical knowledge of diabetes management, insulin administration, blood glucose monitoring, diet, exercise, and psychosocial aspects of living with T1DM. Overall, more than 1560 participants (T1DM/caregivers/family/friends) have opted for B2B session. A qualitative telephonic interview was conducted (n = 96) using a semistructured open-ended questionnaire to collect data on the perceived benefits of B2B session. The information obtained was then coded, and grouped to form themes. Results: According to T1DM individuals, B2B sessions enhanced diabetes knowledge and confidence, self-management abilities, increased sense of community and peer support, and easy accessibility. Caregivers reported that the B2B session provided emotional support, disease knowledge, shared experiences, practical ideas, and coping strategies. Most widely appreciated salient feature of B2B session was the peer counselors were themselves with T1DM or caregivers of T1DM, which created unbreakable trust among the study participants. Clinical evidence after B2B session showed a 23% of improvement in the glycated hemoglobin (

A previous report demonstrated the strong association between the presence of antibodies binding to an epitope region from SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid, termed Ep9, and COVID-19 disease severity. Patients with anti-Ep9 antibodies (Abs) had hallmarks of antigenic interference (AIN), including early IgG upregulation and cytokine-associated injury. Thus, the immunological memory of a prior infection was hypothesized to drive formation of suboptimal anti-Ep9 Abs in severe COVID-19 infections. This study identifies a putative primary antigen capable of stimulating production of cross-reactive, anti-Ep9 Abs. Binding assays with patient blood samples directly show cross-reactivity between Abs binding to Ep9 and only one bioinformatics-derived, homologous putative antigen, a sequence derived from the neuraminidase protein of H3N2 influenza A virus. This cross-reactive binding is highly influenza strain specific and sensitive to even single amino acid changes in epitope sequence. The neuraminidase protein is not present in the influenza vaccine, and the anti-Ep9 Abs likely resulted from the widespread influenza infection in 2014. Therefore, AIN from a previous infection could underlie some cases of COVID-19 disease severity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over two million deaths worldwide. Despite efforts to fight the virus, the disease continues to overwhelm hospitals with severely ill patients.

Abstract: Unlocking the potential of personalized medicine in point‐of‐care settings requires a new generation of biomarker and proteomic assays. Ideally, assays could inexpensively perform hundreds of quantitative protein measurements in parallel at the bedsides of patients. This goal greatly exceeds current capabilities. Furthermore, biomarker assays are often challenging to translate from benchtop to clinic due to difficulties achieving and assessing the necessary selectivity, sensitivity, and reproducibility. To address these challenges, we developed an efficient (70 %) immunoassay method. Specifically, the immunoblot membrane is dotted with the sample and then developed in a vortex fluidic device (VFD) reactor. All assay steps—blocking, binding, and washing—leverage the unique thin‐film microfluidics of the VFD. The approach can accelerate direct, indirect, and sandwich immunoblot assays. The applications demonstrated include assays relevant to both the laboratory and the clinic.

Acidic activation domains are intrinsically disordered regions of the transcription factors that bind coactivators. The intrinsic disorder and low evolutionary conservation of activation domains have made it difficult to identify the sequence features that control activity. To address this problem, we designed thousands of variants in seven acidic activation domains and measured their activities with a high-throughput assay in human cell culture. We found that strong activation domain activity requires a balance between the number of acidic residues and aromatic and leucine residues. These findings motivated a predictor of acidic activation domains that scans the human proteome for clusters of aromatic and leucine residues embedded in regions of high acidity. This predictor identifies known activation domains and accurately predicts previously unidentified ones. Our results support a flexible acidic exposure model of activation domains in which the acidic residues solubilize hydrophobic motifs so that they can interact with coactivators. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.

A previous report demonstrated the strong association between the presence of antibodies binding to an epitope region from SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid, termed Ep9, and COVID-19 disease severity. Patients with anti-Ep9 antibodies (Abs) had hallmarks of antigenic interference (AIN), including early IgG upregulation and cytokine-associated injury. Thus, the immunological memory of a prior infection was hypothesized to drive formation of suboptimal anti-Ep9 Abs in severe COVID-19 infections. This study identifies a putative primary antigen capable of stimulating production of cross-reactive, anti-Ep9 Abs. Binding assays with patient blood samples directly show cross-reactivity between Abs binding to Ep9 and only one bioinformatics-derived, homologous putative antigen, a sequence derived from the neuraminidase protein of H3N2 influenza A virus. This cross-reactive binding is highly influenza strain specific and sensitive to even single amino acid changes in epitope sequence. The neuraminidase protein is not present in the influenza vaccine, and the anti-Ep9 Abs likely resulted from the widespread influenza infection in 2014. Therefore, AIN from a previous infection could underlie some cases of COVID-19 disease severity.

UNLABELLED: A previous report demonstrated the strong association between the presence of antibodies binding to an epitope region from SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid, termed Ep9, and COVID-19 disease severity. Patients with anti-Ep9 antibodies (Abs) had hallmarks of antigenic imprinting (AIM), including early IgG upregulation and cytokine-associated injury. Thus, the immunological memory of a previous infection was hypothesized to drive formation of suboptimal anti-Ep9 Abs in severe COVID-19 infections. This study identifies a putative primary antigen capable of stimulating production of cross-reactive, anti-Ep9 Abs. Binding assays with patient blood samples directly show cross-reactivity between Abs binding to Ep9 and only one bioinformatics-derived, homologous potential antigen, a sequence derived from the neuraminidase protein of H3N2 Influenza A virus. This cross-reactive binding is highly influenza strain specific and sensitive to even single amino acid changes in epitope sequence. The neuraminidase protein is not present in the influenza vaccine, and the anti-Ep9 Abs likely resulted from the widespread influenza infection in 2014. Therefore, AIM from a previous infection could underlie some cases of COVID-19 disease severity. IMPORTANCE: Infections with SARS-COV-2 result in diverse disease outcomes, ranging from asymptomatic to fatal. The mechanisms underlying different disease outcomes remain largely unexplained. Previously, our laboratory identified a strong association between the presence of an antibody and increased disease severity in a subset of COVID-19 patients. Here, we report that this severity-associated antibody cross-reacts with viral proteins from an influenza A viral strain from 2014. Therefore, we speculate that antibodies generated against previous infections, like the 2014 influenza A, play a significant role in directing some peoples’ immune responses against SARS-COV-2. Such understanding of the sources and drivers of COVID-19 disease severity can help early identification and pre-emptive treatment.

Effective methods for predicting COVID-19 disease trajectories are urgently needed. Here, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and coronavirus antigen microarray (COVAM) analysis mapped antibody epitopes in the plasma of COVID-19 patients (n = 86) experiencing a wide range of disease states. The experiments identified antibodies to a 21-residue epitope from nucleocapsid (termed Ep9) associated with severe disease, including admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), requirement for ventilators, or death. Importantly, anti-Ep9 antibodies can be detected within 6 days post-symptom onset and sometimes within 1 day. Furthermore, anti-Ep9 antibodies correlate with various comorbidities and hallmarks of immune hyperactivity. We introduce a simple-to-calculate, disease risk factor score to quantitate each patient's comorbidities and age. For patients with anti-Ep9 antibodies, scores above 3.0 predict more severe disease outcomes with a 13.42 likelihood ratio (96.7% specificity). The results lay the groundwork for a new type of COVID-19 prognostic to allow early identification and triage of high-risk patients. Such information could guide more effective therapeutic intervention.IMPORTANCE The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over two million deaths worldwide. Despite efforts to fight the virus, the disease continues to overwhelm hospitals with severely ill patients. Diagnosis of COVID-19 is readily accomplished through a multitude of reliable testing platforms; however, prognostic prediction remains elusive. To this end, we identified a short epitope from the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein and also a disease risk factor score based upon comorbidities and age. The presence of antibodies specifically binding to this epitope plus a score cutoff can predict severe COVID-19 outcomes with 96.7% specificity.

Purpose: We sought to evaluate the incidence, natural history, and management of cystic spinal lesions following myelomeningocele/myeloschisis closure. Methods: We performed a single-center retrospective review of all patients who underwent myelomeningocele/myeloschisis closure from 2013 to 2018 with follow-up to 5 years old. Results: We analyzed 100 fetal repairs and 81 postnatal closures from 305 total surgeries. Patients within this cohort systematically underwent serial MRI scans of the lumbar spine and had clinical follow-up until at least 5 years of age. Ninety-three (51.2%) developed radiographic evidence of cystic lesions with 28 (30.1%) requiring surgical intervention. Presence of cysts was higher in fetal repair (67/100, 67%) compared with postnatal (26/81, 32.1%; p < 0.01). Of the 93 patients with radiographic cysts, 28 (30.1%) underwent surgical resection at a median age of 27.6 months old ([Q1, Q3], [13.0, 48.6 months]). Fetal repair patients had a higher rate (26/67, 38.8%) of cysts requiring surgical resection compared with postnatal closure (2/26, 7.7%, p value < 0.01). Pathology demonstrated 18 of resected cysts were dermoid, 8 were epidermoid, and 2 were fibrous tissue. Post-operatively, no patients experienced a worsened ambulation status. Bladder compliance showed a non-significant trend toward improvement. Conclusions: Cystic lesions in myelomeningocele/myeloschisis patients are common findings that result in nerve root tethering. We propose regular screening in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients to circumvent nerve injury. Most cystic lesions do not require surgical resection though fetal repair is associated with a higher incidence of operative cysts. However, these lesions can be safely surgically resected with maintenance of ambulation and urologic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Interproximal contacts between primary teeth have traditionally been reported as broad and flat. A new system of classification for contacts called OXIS-O (open contact), X (point contact), I (straight contact), and S (curved contact) was introduced in 2018, based on the shapes observed occlusally. Understanding interproximal contacts in primary teeth is essential to comprehend the caries risk of the individual. Aim: To assess the prevalence of OXIS contact areas between non carious primary molars in 3 to 9 years old children and to determine the most common type of contact before and after the eruption of the first permanent molar. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of the types of contacts between primary teeth through direct observation in a sample size of 260 contact areas. The study was carried out in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Navi Mumbai, India, between August 2022 to February 2023. Ethical clearance from the university was obtained. A single calibrated examiner examined photographs of the interproximal contacts between primary molars. The contacts were assessed as O (open contact), X (point contact), I (straight contact), and S (curved contact) using the OXIS classification system. The prevalence of each contact type was recorded. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 18.0 software. The prevalence of contact types was recorded in numbers and percentages. A comparison of contact types before and after the eruption of the first permanent molar was conducted using the Chi-square test. Result: The most common contact type was I (65.00%) both before and after the eruption of the first permanent molar. This was followed by S (19.62%), X (11.15%), and O (4.23%) in the primary dentition. After the eruption of the first permanent molars, I contact was the highest at 66.41%, followed by S (20.90%), X (12.68%), and O (0%). Conclusion: This study confirms the presence of O, X, I, and S types of interproximal contact areas in caries-free primary molars in 3 to 9 years old children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear programming Problem (LPP) is intended to assist executives in making decisions. It is a mathematical technique to determine the best allocation of resources such as labour, employees, components, machinery, and other facilities in order to achieve a specific goal. The parameters in our reallife situations are hazy and imprecise. The Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set (IFS) is a tool for dealing with decision-making issues under uncertainty. Due to various types of complexity, determining the accurate Membership Function (MF) by an ordinary fuzzy set is not always possible. Interval numbers are thus used to describe the unpredictability. LPP is resolved in this study using novel interval arithmetic operations with Trapezoidal Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers (TrIFNs) as parameters. In order to obtain the optimal solution, LPP is solved using three methods: Simplex Method (SM), Robust Two Step Method (RTSM) and Alternative Solution Method (SOM-2). Additionally, the proposed methods are numerically shown, and results are compared and represented diagrammatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Internet addiction (IA) is a rising issue, particularly among university students. The presence of comorbid psychiatric distress can worsen the impact of IA on academic and social functioning. Alexithymia, difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions may play a role in this relationship. Aims: This study aimed to assess the severity and association of IA, psychological distress, and alexithymia among undergraduate medical students in India. Settings and Design: This was a cross-sectional study of 380 undergraduate medical students following convenience sampling, studying in Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMCRI), Mysuru. Subjects and Methods: Sociodemographic details were collected, and participants completed the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT-20), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS-20. Descriptive statistics expressed as frequencies, means, and percentages. Qualitative data were analyzed using the Chi-square test to find out the association between two categorical variables. Spearman's rank correlation test was used to find the correlation involving ordinal variables. Statistical significance was set at p