Publications by authors named "Walia N"

Background: CT-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy is the primary method for diagnosing lung lesions. Widely accepted validated risk prediction models are yet to be developed. A recently published study conducted at Grampians Health Services (GHS) developed two risk prediction models for predicting pneumothorax and intercostal catheter (ICC) insertion.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study isolated a selenate-reducing bacterium, Azospira sp. A9D-23B, to explore its ability to convert toxic selenium oxyanions into extracellular selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs).
  • The bioelectrochemical (BEC) reactor setup produced significantly more SeNPs (99%) compared to a conventional bioreactor (65%), attributed to differences in selenate reductase activity.
  • The findings highlight the potential of Azospira sp. A9D-23B for effective selenium detoxification, which could inform future sustainable environmental cleanup methods.
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Escherichia coli NADPH-dependent assimilatory sulfite reductase (SiR) reduces sulfite by six electrons to make sulfide for incorporation into sulfur-containing biomolecules. SiR has two subunits: an NADPH, FMN, and FAD-binding diflavin flavoprotein and a siroheme/Fe4S4 cluster-containing hemoprotein. The molecular interactions that govern subunit binding have been unknown since the discovery of SiR over 50 years ago because SiR is flexible, thus has been intransigent for traditional high-resolution structural analysis.

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NADPH-dependent assimilatory sulfite reductase (SiR) from Escherichia coli performs a six-electron reduction of sulfite to the bioavailable sulfide. SiR is composed of a flavoprotein (SiRFP) reductase subunit and a hemoprotein (SiRHP) oxidase subunit. There is no known high-resolution structure of SiR or SiRFP, thus we do not yet fully understand how the subunits interact to perform their chemistry.

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African Americans (AAs) have a higher risk for postpercutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) ischemic events and worse Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related events than non-AAs. Race and gender-related post-PCI events before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a community hospital setup are unknown. Demographics and one-year adverse events in patients undergoing PCI immediately before (2018-2020) and during (2020-2021) pandemic were compared.

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Stress is adverse experience that require constant adaptation to reduce the emotional and physiological burden, or "allostatic load", of an individual. Despite their everyday occurrence, a subpopulation of individuals is more susceptible to stressors, while others remain resilient with unknown molecular signatures. In this study, we investigated the contribution of the DNA modifications, 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), underlying the individual differences in stress susceptibility and resilience.

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Olfactory Reference syndrome (ORS) is characterized by patients falsely believing that they exude a foul body odor, which is embarrassing and disturbing to the patient. The increased anxiety due to this belief leads to compulsive behaviors, social anxiety, and functional impairment. ORS poses enormous challenges in its diagnosis and treatment.

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Background And Aims: Neurodegeneration underpins the pathological processes of younger-onset dementia (YOD) and has been implicated in primary psychiatric disorders (PSYs). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light (NfL) has been used to investigate neurodegeneration severity through correlation with structural brain changes in various conditions, but has seldom been evaluated in YOD and PSYs.

Methods: This retrospective study included patients with YOD or PSYs with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and CSF NfL analysis.

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Background: Telomerase is a cellular enzyme that prevents telomere shortening and promoting viability. The literature has reported shortened telomere length in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Methods: 35 patients with diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) fulfilling DMS-5 criteria in the age range of 18-60 years, treatment-naïve after assessing the severity on HAM-D and HAM-A and 35 age and sex matched healthy controls were included in the study.

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Lewy Body Dementia is the second most frequent neurodegenerative illness proven to cause dementia, after Alzheimer's disease (AD). It is believed to be vastly underdiagnosed, as there is a significant disparity between the number of cases diagnosed clinically and those diagnosed via neuropathology at the time of postmortem autopsy. Strikingly, many of the pharmacologic treatments used to treat behavioral and cognitive symptoms in other forms of dementia exacerbate the symptoms of DLB.

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Precursor molecules for biomass incorporation must be imported into cells and made available to the molecular machines that build the cell. Sulfur-containing macromolecules require that sulfur be in its S oxidation state before assimilation into amino acids, cofactors, and vitamins that are essential to organisms throughout the biosphere. In α-proteobacteria, NADPH-dependent assimilatory sulfite reductase (SiR) performs the final six-electron reduction of sulfur.

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Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) or more commonly known as Long COVID-19, is the term given to persistent symptoms 12 weeks from the initial presentation of COVID-19 infection. Several multi-organ symptoms have been reported by patients. Some common symptoms include headaches, fatigue, memory impairment and mental health complications such as anxiety and depression.

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The number of overdose deaths are on the rise all over the world. An estimate of 93,000 drug overdose deaths have been estimated in the United States in 2020. COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the drug crisis.

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Introduction: Many patients with cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms face diagnostic delay and misdiagnosis. We investigated whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light (NfL) and total-tau (t-tau) could assist in the clinical scenario of differentiating neurodegenerative (ND) from psychiatric disorders (PSY), and rapidly progressive disorders.

Methods: Biomarkers were examined in patients from specialist services (ND and PSY) and a national Creutzfeldt-Jakob registry (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease [CJD] and rapidly progressive dementias/atypically rapid variants of common ND, RapidND).

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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with a greater risk of COVID-19 and an increased mortality when the disease is contracted. Metformin use in patients with DM is associated with less COVID-19-related mortality, but the underlying mechanism behind this association remains unclear. Our aim was to explore the effects of metformin on markers of inflammation, oxidative stress, and hypercoagulability, and on clinical outcomes.

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Introduction: Determining disease severity and predicting prognosis in younger onset-dementia (YOD) remains challenging. Whether CSF biomarkers neurofilament light (NfL), tau and amyloidβ 42 (Aβ42) can help provide such information has been underexplored.

Methods: Patients with YOD and CSF analysis were identified.

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St. John's wort (SJW) has been researched and clinically used for treating various psychiatric disorders, including depression. Few clinical trials have studied its use in smoking cessation.

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Background: The use of proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) has been associated with an increased risk of developing spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with cirrhosis. Whether PPI use confers a similar risk in developing peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients remains unclear.

Aim: To assess whether PPI use is associated with an increased risk of PD peritonitis.

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The present study examines the existing knowledge and intellectual structure on contagious diseases and tourism to map the development of the concept through collaborative networks. Utilising the Scopus and Web of Science bibliometric databases, 328 research records were extracted through keyword searching and forward referencing approaches. Based on these records, the study conducted bibliometric and content analysis to diagnose core themes in the field.

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Introduction: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are complex interactions between various genetic, environmental, developmental, and social factors. Yoga is recommended as a nonmainstream treatment for many health conditions, including SUDs.

Methods: Five databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated yoga as an intervention in adults with any type of substance use disorder.

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Standard biomarkers have been widely used for COVID-19 diagnosis and prognosis. We hypothesize that thrombogenicity metrics measured by thromboelastography will provide better diagnostic and prognostic utility versus standard biomarkers in COVID-19 positive patients. In this observational prospective study, we included 119 hospitalized COVID-19 positive patients and 15 COVID-19 negative patients.

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Purpose: The objective of this analysis was to find an association between employment status, psychological distress, and alcohol consumption.

Methods: Data from the 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data was used. Patient health questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) data and an average number of drinks per week were used to assess psychological distress and drinking status.

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Urine 11-dehydro-thromboxane B (u11-dh-TxB), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), and liver-type fatty acid binding protein levels (L-FABP) at the time of hospitalization were higher in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with adverse events vs without events. Higher u11-dh-TxB and L-FABP levels were associated with longer hospitalization, more thrombotic events, and greater mortality, providing evidence for potential utility as early prognostic biomarkers for COVID-19.

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