A Mixed Methods Exploration of Young Women's Agency and Mental Health during COVID-19 in Low-Income Communities in Mumbai, India.

Introduction: Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in India face additional health inequities compared to their male peers, as gender norms constrain agency for prevention and self-care. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns deepened health inequities and often worsened mental health, but the impacts on agency are unclear. This exploratory sequential mixed methods paper examined mental health and COVID-19 elements that exacerbated or mitigated adverse consequences for AGYW in low-income communities in Mumbai.

Use of Kirschner wire for immediate interim reconstruction of continuity defect of mandible in resource poor setting: Our experience.

Background: Reconstruction of continuity defect of mandible is challenging, and there has been a lot of advancement in this field with variety of options for restoration. However, choice often becomes restricted in resource limited settings due to lack of trained manpower, time, infrastructure, supply of graft materials, etc. In this context, we aim to test the reliability of Kirschner wire (K-wire) with adaptation of looped-end for immediate interim reconstruction of continuity defect of mandible.

Bone Alkaline Phosphatase and Urine Hydroxyproline Assay in Pre and Postmenopausal Women in the State of Sikkim and its Correlation with Bone Mineral Density.

Introduction: Osteoporosis could be viewed as a metabolic disease. The WHO guidelines for diagnosing osteoporosis reflect structural damage only and not the metabolic imbalance that leads to it. Biochemical markers of bone turnover have been shown to provide valuable information for diagnosing and monitoring metabolic bone disease.

Molecular diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in Sikkim, India and prediction of dominant spoligotypes using artificial intelligence.

In India, tuberculosis is an enormous public health problem. This study provides the first description of molecular diversity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) from Sikkim, India. A total of 399 Acid Fast Bacilli sputum positive samples were cultured on Lőwenstein-Jensen media and genetic characterisation was done by spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRU-VNTR typing.

Oxidative stress in metabolic syndrome & its association with DNA-strand break.

Background & Objectives: Oxidative stress (OS) is associated with numerous components of metabolic syndrome (MetS). This study was aimed to investigate if hydrogen peroxide (HO) as the reactive oxygen species was capable of depicting OS in MetS, and If MetS patients showed DNA damage in the form of DNA strand breaks (DSB).

Methods: A total of 160 participants (90 males, 70 females) ≥20 yr of age were categorized into four groups based on the number of MetS risk parameters (n=40 in each group).