Epidemiological Profile and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients and Its Comparison Between the First and Second Wave at a Tertiary-Level COVID Care Facility in North India.

Background: In December 2019, COVID-19 emerged in China and spread rapidly throughout the world, including India. So far, India has witnessed three spells of the disease, termed the first, second, and third waves; although the first two waves were significant in terms of severity, mortality, and need for respiratory support, the third wave had no significant impact and most people recovered without being admitted to the hospital. The present study aimed to discuss the clinical demographic characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of COVID-19 patients and their comparisons between the first and second waves.

A Network Map of Intracellular Alpha-Fetoprotein Signalling in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Alpha fetoprotein (AFP) is a glycoprotein of foetal origin belonging to the albumin protein family. Serum AFP is a long-conceived early-diagnostic biomarker for HCC with its elevated expression in different liver pathologies ranging from hepatitis viral infections to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and HCC. Beyond their utility as biomarkers, in support of its contribution to these clinical outcomes, the function of AFP as an immune suppressor and inducer of malignant transformation in HCC patients is well reported.

Assessing the role of Osteopontin in prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma- A systematic review.

Background: Oral cancer is always a global burden. It is the sixteenth most common cancer. It leads to metastasis since it is often diagnosed at late stages.

Tips versus Holes: ×10 Higher Scattering in FIB-made Plasmonic Nanoscale Arrays for Spectral Imaging.

Plasmonic nanostructure arrays, designed for performance as pixels in an advanced SERS imaging device, were fabricated by gallium focused ion beam (FIB). Though the FIB is best suited for etching holes and negative structures, our previously reported simulations favor protrusions. Herein, we report on the FIB methodology to "sculpt" positive structures by "ion-blasting" away the surrounding material.

Sm-site containing mRNAs can accept Sm-rings and are downregulated in Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Sm-ring assembly is important for the biogenesis, stability, and function of uridine-rich small nuclear RNAs (U snRNAs) involved in pre-mRNA splicing and histone pre-mRNA processing. Sm-ring assembly is cytoplasmic and dependent upon the Sm-site sequence and structural motif, ATP, and (SMN) protein complex. While RNAs other than U snRNAs were previously shown to associate with Sm proteins, whether this association follows Sm-ring assembly requirements is unknown.

Ocular biometric parameters in South-Indian children with myopia - A hospital-based retrospective descriptive analysis.

Aim: This study aims to profile the ocular biometric parameters in a large group of children of South-Indian ethnicity who visited our outpatient children's department and were diagnosed with myopia.

Methods: Children <15 years old diagnosed with myopia (Jan 2022-Oct 2023) and who had ocular biometry readings recorded were included. Their demographics, axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), spherical equivalent (SE), corneal radius of curvature (CR), and AL/CR ratio were analyzed.

Uterine Biosynthesis through Tissue Engineering: An Overview of Current Methods and Status.

In the last few decades, the rates of infertility among women have been on the rise, usually due to complications with the uterus and related tissue. A wide variety of reasons can cause uterine factor infertility and can be congenital or a result of disease. Uterine transplantation is currently used as a means to enable women with fertility issues to have a natural birth.

Utility of Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs) study in the evaluation of visual pathway dysfunction in diabetics without retinopathy: correlations with diabetic peripheral neuropathy and other clinical findings.

Visual dysfunction in diabetes mellitus (DM) is multifactorial and can be due to vascular disease, and metabolic abnormalities that can affect the retina, optic nerve, and visual pathways. Visual evoked potential (VEP) is an electrophysiological test that can quantify the functional integrity of the visual pathways from the retina via the optic nerves, and optic tracts to the visual cortices. In this study, we aimed to investigate the visual pathway dysfunction among diabetics without retinopathy compared with healthy controls and to look for any correlation with diabetic neuropathy, duration of diabetes, or HbA1c level.

Edema India: Executive Summary of Screening, Diagnosis, and Management of Edema.

The management of edema requires a systematic approach to screening, diagnosis, and treatment, with an essential initial assessment to differentiate between generalized and localized edema. The Association of Physicians of India (API) aimed to develop the first Indian Edema Consensus (Edema India), offering tailored recommendations for screening, diagnosing, and managing edema based on the insights from the expert panel. The panel suggested when evaluating edema symptoms, important factors to consider include the patient's current illness, medical history, risk factors, family history, and medications.

Tyr352 as a Predominant Phosphosite in the Understudied Kinase and Molecular Target, HIPK1: Implications for Cancer Therapy.

Homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 1 (HIPK1) is majorly found in the nucleoplasm. HIPK1 is associated with cell proliferation, tumor necrosis factor-mediated cellular apoptosis, transcription regulation, and DNA damage response, and thought to play significant roles in health and common diseases such as cancer. Despite this, HIPK1 remains an understudied molecular target.

A global phosphosite-correlated network map of Thousand And One Kinase 1 (TAOK1).

Thousand and one amino acid kinase 1 (TAOK1) is a sterile 20 family Serine/Threonine kinase linked to microtubule dynamics, checkpoint signaling, DNA damage response, and neurological functions. Molecular-level alterations of TAOK1 have been associated with neurodevelopment disorders and cancers. Despite their known involvement in physiological and pathophysiological processes, and as a core member of the hippo signaling pathway, the phosphoregulatory network of TAOK1 has not been visualized.

MD simulations indicate Omicron P132H of SARS-CoV-2 M is a potential allosteric mutant involved in modulating the dynamics of catalytic site entry loop.

The SARS-CoV-2 main protease M, essential for viral replication is an important drug target. It plays a critical role in processing viral polyproteins necessary for viral replication assembly. One of the predominant SARS-CoV-2 M mutations of Omicron variant is Pro132His.

ChatGPT and Beyond: An overview of the growing field of large language models and their use in ophthalmology.

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot built on large language models (LLMs), has rapidly gained popularity. The benefits and limitations of this transformative technology have been discussed across various fields, including medicine. The widespread availability of ChatGPT has enabled clinicians to study how these tools could be used for a variety of tasks such as generating differential diagnosis lists, organizing patient notes, and synthesizing literature for scientific research.

Coronavirus infection and ABO blood grouping: Correlation or coincidence?

Background: Association between the ABO blood group and patient outcomes in COVID-19 patients is still unexplored. A known association may help to understand possible risks in advance to the management of such COVID-19 patients. The present study was designed to test such association if there is any, between the ABO blood group and the severity of COVID-19 patients.

Over-representation analysis of angiogenic factors in immunosuppressive mechanisms in neoplasms and neurological conditions during COVID-19.

Background: Recent studies emphasized the necessity to identify key (human) biological processes and pathways targeted by the Coronaviridae family of viruses, especially Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) caused up to 33-55 % death rates in COVID-19 patients with malignant neoplasms and Alzheimer's disease. Given this scenario, we identified biological processes and pathways involved in various diseases which are most likely affected by COVID-19.

Demographic Characteristics and Disease Pattern Among Non-COVID-19 Patients Admitted to Medical Units of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Sri Lanka During Lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison During and Before Lockdown.

Background: The COVID-19 infection was rapidly spreading almost all over the world, and the first case was confirmed on 27th January 2020 by a foreign tourist in Sri Lanka. The first Sri Lankan citizen with COVID-19 was confirmed on 11th March 2020. Soon after the confirmation of the disease, long days of lockdown were imposed in almost all parts of the world, including Sri Lanka, to control the spread of the disease.

Near-field projection optical microscope (NPOM) as a new approach to nanoscale super-resolved imaging.

A new super-resolution method, entitled Near-field Projection Optical Microscopy (NPOM), is presented. This novel technique enables the imaging of nanoscale objects without the need for surface scanning, as is usually required in existing methods such as NSOM (near-field scanning optical microscope). The main advantage of the proposed concept, besides the elimination of the need for a mechanical scanning mechanism, is that the full field of regard/view is imaged simultaneously and not point-by-point as in scanning-based techniques.