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Background: Melanocytes in the hair and melanocytes in the stria vascularis of the inner ear have common origins. Many congenital and acquired disorders of cutaneous pigmentation have auditory abnormalities. There is a paucity of studies on the auditory associations of early graying. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine the association between early graying and auditory system abnormalities. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was done on 100 patients with early graying and 100 controls. Pure tone audiometry was done at 0.25 to 4 kHz for bone conduction, conventional and high frequencies from 0.25 to 8 kHz for air conduction, and extended high frequencies from 9 kHz to 20 kHz for air conduction in both ears. Results: Bilateral hearing loss >25 dB was present in three patients with early graying based on the four-frequency average of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. Patients with early graying had significantly higher thresholds for hearing except at 0.25 kHz in the right ears and 0.25, 2, 10, and 11 kHz in the left ears. Limitations: We did not assess cochlear function with otoacoustic emissions, and our study design did not allow us to assess causality and temporal association. Conclusion: Our study found that early graying may be a visible marker of changes in auditory thresholds. Patients with early graying need periodic auditory evaluations and health education to prevent further hearing loss.

Context: SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19 by infecting nasal and oral cavities primarily by attaching its spike proteins to ACE 2 receptors expressed in epithelial cells. Aim: This study was done to evaluate the micronucleated cell count, metanuclear abnormalities, and genotoxic factor in exfoliated buccal mucosal cell among the COVID-19 suspected patients. Settings and Design: This cross-sectional study was conducted at AIIMS, Mangalagiri, between August and October 2022. Methods: One hundred COVID-19 suspected patients were recruited for this study after obtaining informed and written consent; buccal smear was obtained and stained for papanicolaou test (PAP). The PAP-stained slides were analyzed for micronuclei (MN), pyknotic, karyolytic, and karyorrhexic cell count, respectively. Based on their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) report, the patients were grouped into COVID-19 positive and negative groups. Statistical Analysis: The genotoxicity factor was calculated using the micronucleated cell count from both the groups using mean and standard deviation. Results: The MN, micronucleated cell, pyknotic, karyolitic, and karyorrhexic cell count in COVID-19 positive patients were 24.12, 15.24, 3.08, 2.88 and 4.40, respectively, than COVID-19 negative patients 5.69, 8.17, 1.08, 1.00 and 2.43, respectively. The genotoxicity factor for SARS-CoV-2 was 2.68 which is a positive genotoxic effect on buccal mucosal cells. Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 increases the expression of micronucleated cells, pyknotic cells, karyolytic cells, and karyorhexic cells and concludes SARS-CoV-2 is having cytogenotoxic effect on the buccal mucosal cells. This can be used as a reliable marker in identifying the early carcinogenic effects of virus causing COVID-19.

In order to reduce carbon emissions, a growing reliance on renewable energy sources such as solar energy is required. As a result of their ability to store excess solar electricity that may be used at a later time to reduce waste and increase utility profits, battery energy storage systems (BESSs) have emerged as a factor for power systems that integrates solar power system. BESSs are traditionally put on buses in solar farms, allowing extra electricity via solar to be stored instantaneously and transmission line losses to be kept to an absolute minimum. According to this placement strategy, BESS is exclusively built in the proximity of solar power plants. In this way, deployment of BESS without network topology consideration, and collaboration among BESSs is limited with capacity pooling to store excess electricity from photo voltaic (PV) panels. In this paper, we develop an optimal deployment of BESSs and it is associated with the estimation of the capacity using a multi-objective constraint modelling. The soft margin classifier minimize the curtailment associated with solar energy that considers both the power flow constraint and network topology. The results of entire model shows that the proposed soft margin classifier is efficient in storing the surplus power in the batter devices than other methods.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impeded the provision of public healthcare within a healthcare system that was already under considerable strain. Routine patient care services were impacted during that time, leading to the promotion of telemedicine as a means of maintaining uninterrupted healthcare services. Telemedicine involves the utilization of electronic technology and communication to provide health-related information and medical care to individuals who are physically separated from healthcare professionals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To assess the feasibility of utilizing telemedicine for providing women's health services, we conducted a six-month analysis of data collected from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology's teleconsultation application at AIIMS, Mangalagiri. Our objective was to evaluate the practicality of telemedicine in delivering diverse healthcare services to women. Our institution offered two types of telehealth services: a “call-based”approach and an “app-based”approach. We examined several parameters within the data, including the distribution of ages, the geographic locations of teleconsultation registrations, whether the registrations were new or follow-up cases, the various presenting complaints, the recommended treatments, the number of consultations (single or multiple), and whether cases required in-person or hospital visits. Additionally, we also compared patient responses between these two modalities. RESULTS: The “call-based”consultation method was preferred by the majority of our patients (94%). The registered cases included both related to obstetrics and gynecology, with a higher proportion of complaints relating to gynecological issues (82.5%). We were able to make a diagnosis in 77% of cases, while in 20% of cases, additional physical examinations and diagnostic tests were necessary. Follow-up appointments were recommended for 53% of patients. The success rate of consultations for patients seeking obstetrics and gynecology services showed a statistically significant difference (P value < 0.001). The vast majority of patients (99%) expressed high satisfaction with the consultation process. CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine proved to be an effective approach in mitigating the overcrowding of hospitals and preventing the spread of infection. Its success suggests that telemedicine can be a viable option for managing elective gynecology matters and low-risk obstetric cases in the future, thereby alleviating the strain on healthcare systems.

The neurophysiological mechanism of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) remains poorly understood. EEG was examined during a sustained submaximal contraction (SC) task to further understand our prior research findings of greater central contribution to early fatigue during SC in CRF. Advanced cancer patients and matched healthy controls performed an elbow flexor SC until task failure while undergoing neuromuscular testing and EEG recording. EEG power changes over left and right sensorimotor cortices were analyzed and correlated with brief fatigue inventory (BFI) score and evoked muscle force, a measure of central fatigue. Brain electrical activity changes during the SC differed in CRF from healthy subjects mainly in the theta (4-8 Hz) and beta (12-30 Hz) bands in the contralateral (to the fatigued limb) hemisphere; changes were correlated with the evoked force. Also, the gamma band (30-50 Hz) power decrease during the SC did not return to baseline after 2 min of rest in CRF, an effect correlated with BFI score. In conclusion, altered brain electrical activity during a fatigue task in patients is associated with central fatigue during SC or fatigue symptoms, suggesting its potential contribution to CRF during motor performance. This information should guide the development and use of rehabilitative interventions that target the central nervous system to maximize function recovery.

The interaction of stearic acid with non-polar benzene along polar co-solvent (amyl alcohol) is revealed in the present study. The dielectric nature of complex mixture examined in the frequency regime of 10 MHz to 30 GHz over a various temperature and concentration using time domain reflectometry(TDR). Dielectric parameters (static dielectric constant, dielectric loss, relaxation time, dielectric permittivity) were estimated from the obtained complex spectra. The excess dielectric values validate the molecular interaction between the solute and solvents. The obtained dielectric and relaxation parameter reveals the fluctuating electrostatic type interaction among the complex mixture. Thermal parameters are determined from the obtained relaxation time, in which the negative Gibb's free energy indicates the formation of high ordered complex. The FT-IR spectrums and their assignments confirm the molecular interaction between the mixture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Limited data exist in India regarding burden of musculoskeletal pain (MSP) in school children. Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence and patterns of MSP, to find out the association of sociodemographic and contextual factors with MSP, and to report the association of MSP-related characteristics and bag weight with school attendance. Material and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted among 7th and 8th grade students of a private school in urban Puducherry. Students who could ambulate independently and stand on the weighing scale were included in this study. Previously diagnosed self-reported pathological causes of MSP were excluded from the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Height and weight were measured along with weight of student's backpack. Results: A total of 327 students were enrolled, majority (67%) being boys. Mean age of participants was 12.7 (standard deviation ±0.7) years. About 86% (282 out of 327) participants had experienced MSP in the preceding 2 weeks. Shoulders, neck, and knees were the parts reported to have maximum pain, i.e., in 43.6%, 39%, and 34.8% of the participants, respectively. A high proportion, i.e., 96% of the school bags weighed more than 10% of body weight. Significant association of MSP was found with participants' grade of study (P = 0.04), perception of bag weight (P = 0.01), comfort level of carrying bag (P < 0.01), and duration of carrying bag (P < 0.01). Factors such as pain affecting daily activities (P < 0.01) and number of health-care consultations (P < 0.01) were significantly associated with school attendance (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of MSP in school children was high. Associated sociodemographic and contextual factors should be addressed urgently.

Background and Purpose. Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is widely recognized as one of the most common symptoms and side effects of cancer and/or its treatment. However, neuropathological mechanisms contributing to CRF are largely unknown, and the lack of knowledge makes CRF difficult to treat. Recent research has shown dissociation between changes in the brain and muscle signals during voluntary motor performance in cancer survivors with CRF, and this dissociation may be caused by an interruption in functional coupling (FC) of the two signals. The goal of this study was to assess the FC between EEG (cortical signal) and EMG (muscular signal) in individuals with CRF and compare the FC with that of healthy controls during a motor task that led to progressive muscle fatigue. Method. Eight cancer survivors with CRF and nine healthy participants sustained an isometric elbow flexion contraction (at 30% maximal level) until self-perceived exhaustion. The entire duration of the EEG and EMG recordings was divided into the first-half (less-fatigue stage) and second-half (more-fatigue stage) artifact-free epochs without overlapping. The EEG-EMG coupling (measured by coherence of the two signals) in each group and stage was computed. Coherence values at different frequencies were statistically analyzed using a repeated-measure general linear model. Results. The results demonstrated that compared to healthy controls, CRF participants sustained the contraction for a significantly shorter time and exhibited robust and significantly lower EEG-EMG coherence at the alpha (8~14 Hz) and beta (15~35 Hz) frequency bands. Both the CRF and healthy control groups exhibited significantly decreased EEG-EMG coherence from the less-fatigue to more-fatigue stages at the alpha and beta frequency bands, indicating fatigue-induced weakening of functional corticomuscular coupling. Conclusion. Impaired functional coupling between the brain and muscle signals could be a consequence of cancer and/or its treatment, and it may be one of the contributing factors to the abnormal feeling of fatigue that caused the early failure of sustaining a prolonged motor task.

Digital autopsy is the future of postmortem examination of the human body through digital visualization. Imaging modalities such as CT scanners and MRI scanners use X rays and magnetic fields to visualize the structures within the human body. The outputs from these modalities are obtained in a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications of Medicine) format. They are in gray-scale consisting of information in every slice taken during the scan. This is rendered and visualized as the full body in a digital format during the digital autopsy procedure. The visualization rendering produces a three-dimensional body, further presented in colour format based on each structure of the human organ system. Digital autopsy is a technology which allows pathologists to navigate and explore deeper into the human body. It allows analysis to be done in both two-dimensional and three dimensional perspectives. Digital autopsy involves analysis of human pathology and anatomical findings for diagnostic purposes. It can also be used for education and research purposes. Another advantage of digital autopsy is the availability of information and data that can be easily and securely transferred to a different digital autopsy facility at a different location. Thus, digital autopsy provides an efficient, fast, cheaper and accurate post-mortem data enabling a forensic pathologists to play a more effective role in the criminal justice system.

Newcastle disease (ND) causes severe economic loss to poultry industry worldwide. Frequent outbreaks of ND in commercial chickens vaccinated with live vaccines suggest a need to develop improved vaccines that are genetically matched against circulating Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strains. In this study, the fusion protein cleavage site (FPCS) sequence of NDV strain Banjarmasin/010 (Banj), a genotype VII NDV, was individually modified using primer mutagenesis to those of avian paramyxovirus (APMV) serotypes 2, 7 and 8 and compared with the recombinant Banjarmasin (rBanj) with avirulent NDV LaSota cleavage site (rBanj-LaSota). These FPCS mutations changed the in vitro cell-to-cell fusion activity and made rBanj FPCS mutant viruses highly attenuated in chickens. When chickens immunized with the rBanj FPCS mutant viruses and challenged with the virulent Banj, there was reduced challenge virus shedding observed compared to chickens immunized with the heterologous vaccine strain LaSota. Among the genotype VII NDV Banj vaccine candidates, rBanj-LaSota and rBanj containing FPCS of APMV-8 induced highest neutralizing antibody titers and protected chickens with reduced challenge virus shedding. These results show the effect of the F protein cleavage site sequence in generating genotype VII matched NDV vaccines.