Framing Research Question and Formulating Hypothesis for Testing: Critical Step in Research

Science is so dynamic that every moment some new advances are happening in each and every field. Medical science is also one of them. To keep pace with the advancements, we always need to update our knowledge to improve our decisions and actions relating to various aspects of medical science. A successful research will largely depend upon how well an investigator frames the research question. To comment upon the research with a degree of certainty, we need to develop a hypothesis, so that, it can be tested statistically by applying required tests of significance

Prevalence of Indian Culture over Western Culture in 21st Century

Indian culture is not only one of the oldest and richest cultures in the world, but also serves as a base for the development of other cultures time and again. On the other hand, western culture is considered as one of the contemporary yet most advanced cultures that is influencing various other cultures across the globe. In this world of technological advancement, intermixing of various cultures is not new. Infact, it helps one adopt the positives of multiple cultures. But sometimes it becomes slightly far-fetched when one starts comparing and disregarding their own culture. A similar situation can be observed in India. Many complain about the influence of western culture over Indians to a great extent, especially in the 21st century, based on what is visible. But one needs to understand that it is just the tip of an iceberg, a superficial observation. The influence of any situation is determined by its impact on the psychology of a person. The following research conducted gives a deeper insight on the same. Roots are the beliefs, and customs of the family and culture that are carried on from generation to generation. Some rituals considered as ancient superstitions turn out to have actual benefits. For generations things were handed down from Father to Son, and Mother to Daughter. Hence, parents wish for their kids to be grounded to their cultural/familial roots. Though the changes are prevalent in various domains, such as political, social, economic, industrial and technological, the new generation still stick to their roots and prefer living in a joint family while celebrating Indian culture compared to western culture

Maternal and newborn health behaviors in rural Uttar Pradesh: Findings from learning phase baseline survey 2013

The Uttar Pradesh Community Mobilization Project (2011–16) aims to develop and scale up evidence-based interventions to improve reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health and nutrition health behaviors by an average of 10 percentage points among marginalized populations in Uttar Pradesh, India. The goal is to reduce neonatal mortality by improving maternal and child health behaviors through developing and scaling up a package of family health interventions and strengthening the management of Behavior Change Communication using self-help groups as the platform. The project is being carried out in two phases—a learning phase covering 10 blocks and a scale-up phase covering 100 additional blocks. It is being implemented by a consortium led by the Public Health Foundation of India (and including the Population Council), and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As part of the project’s monitoring, learning, and evaluation system, a baseline survey for ten learning phase blocks was planned to measure the project’s key maternal and newborn health indicators of currently married women aged 15–49 years who had delivered a baby during the last one year. This report contains findings from the 2013 Learning Phase Baseline Survey

In-silico molecular docking for Potential herbal leads from Withaniasomnifera L. Dunal for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses a significant global health challenge, necessitating novel therapeutic interventions. Withaniasomnifera L. Dunal, commonly known as Ashwagandha, has been historically utilized in traditional medicine for its neuroprotective properties. This study employs computational techniques to explore the potential of W. somnifera compounds in targeting key proteins associated with AD. The reported phytoconstituents of W. somnifera were identified and subjected to molecular docking studies against 5NUU (Torpedo californica acetylcholinesterase in complex with a chlorotacrine-tryptophan hybrid inhibitor), as crucial targets. The results revealed several phytoconstituents of W. somnifera exhibiting favorable binding affinities and promising interactions with the target proteins. These findings provide a valuable foundation for further experimental validation and the development of novel therapeutic agents derived from natural sources for the treatment of Alzheimer's

Molecular Docking studies of chemical constituents of Rauwolfia serpentina on hypertension

Hypertension is still a prevalent cardiovascular disorder which remains a major global health concern. Rauwolfia serpentina, renowned for its therapeutic potential in managing hypertension, harbors a diverse array of bioactive compounds. This study aimed to elucidate the molecular interactions of chemical constituents derived from Rauwolfia serpentina with key hypertensive targets through molecular docking simulations. Utilizing computational tool, a comprehensive library of phytoconstituents obtained from Rauwolfia serpentina was constructed and subjected to molecular docking analyses against human angiotensin receptor (4ZUD) as target protein. The results revealed significant binding affinities between the chemical constituents of Rauwolfia serpentina and the active sites of these molecular targets. This study bridges the knowledge gap regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying the antihypertensive effects of Rauwolfia serpentina's constituents through computational simulations. The identified compounds exhibiting strong binding affinities and favorable interactions serve as promising candidates for further in vitro and in vivo studies, offering avenues for the development of novel therapeutic agents for hypertension management

Comparison between the conventional method and molecular line probe assay for identification and drug sensitivity of mycobacteria tuberculosis from clinical specimens

Rapid susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains is imperative for therapy selection but traditional drug susceptibility tests take weeks or are expensive. Classical drug susceptibility (DST) may take up to 2 to 4 months. The line probe assay is a commercially available line-probe assay that rapidly detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) complex, as well as the most common mutations associated with rifampicin and isoniazid. In this study we assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the rapid molecular method in comparison with the conventional method

Exploring the Potential of Chemical Constituents of Datura metel in Breast Cancer from Molecular Docking Studies

Breast cancer remains a pervasive health challenge worldwide, prompting the exploration of novel therapeutic prospects. Datura metel has long been recognized for its pharmacological properties, particularly in containing various bioactive compounds like alkaloids, flavonoids, and terpenoids. This review focuses on the potential of chemical constituents sourced from Datura metel, a traditional medicinal plant, in combating breast cancer, primarily through molecular docking studies. The review meticulously scrutinizes the chemical composition of Datura metel, emphasizing the identified compounds known for their therapeutic attributes. Through an extensive analysis of molecular docking studies, the interactions between these Datura metel constituents and crucial molecular targets associated with breast cancer are elucidated. The phytoconstituents (compound 1-13) were found to be more potent as compare to Tomoxifen citrate as standard anticancer drug. The findings presented herein beckon for further exploration, highlighting a promising avenue in the pursuit of effective and targeted treatments for breast cancer. In conclusion, this review emphasizes the synergistic integration of computational approaches with traditional knowledge, accelerating the discovery and development of innovative breast cancer therapies

Case Report: Multiple atherosclerotic plaques at its extreme in synchrony [version 3; peer review: 2 approved]

Peripheral artery (PAD) disease in association with renal artery stenosis is an important association which predicts the severity of the disease. An increase in the number of vessels affected by peripheral artery disease increases the chances of renal artery stenosis. In our case, the patient had primarily presented with anginal chest pain with complaints of claudication which on further investigation was diagnosed to be a triple vessel coronary artery disease along with bilateral subclavian and bilateral renal stenosis. On detailed history taking, risk factors like hypertension and chronic smoking was found to be present in our case which predisposed to peripheral artery disease secondary to atherosclerosis which was diagnosed on further investigations. Although the association of renal artery stenosis is not very rare in cases of severe peripheral vascular diseases, the presence of a triple vessel coronary artery disease in synchrony is what makes it unique. Take away lesson from this case report is importance of early diagnosis of dyslipidemia causing atherosclerosis and its complications. Multiple atherosclerotic lesions in synchrony i.e, bilateral renal artery stenosis with bilateral subclavian artery stenosis with coronary artery triple vessel atherosclerotic disease like in our case and its severity should create awareness among health care individuals and early treatment measures including lifestyle modifications should be considered to avoid such drastic events

Primary aneurysmal bone cyst of coronoid process

BACKGROUND: Aneurysmal bone cysts are relatively uncommon in the facial skeleton. These usually affect the mandible but origin from the coronoid process is even rarer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a coronoid process aneurysmal bone cyst presenting as temporal fossa swelling. CASE PRESENTATION: A 17 year old boy presented with a progressively increasing swelling in the left temporal region developed over the previous 8 months. An expansile lytic cystic lesion originating from the coronoid process of the left mandible and extending into the infratemporal and temporal fossa regions was found on CT scan. It was removed by a superior approach to the infratemporal fossa. CONCLUSION: Aneurysmal bone cyst of the coronoid process can attain enormous dimensions until the temporal region is also involved. A superior approach to the infratemporal fossa is a reasonable approach for such cases, providing wide exposure and access to all parts of the lesion and ensuring better control and complete excision

Reference-free biomarker mining in metagenomic data using language embedding

Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) presents a promising avenue to generate massive volume of sequence reads in a short period of time. This has opened opportunities for disease diagnosis based on individual variations and mutations by considering the microbiome profile of each patient. However, the effective use of this data requires the design of appropriate algorithms which can closely represent the metagenomic data in an accurate and condensed manner.In this work, we acknowledged the efficiency of current approaches such as reference based methods and frequency encoding. However, we also recognized the limitations of current methods, such as limiting findings to pre-existing knowledge and inadequate representation of reads and metagenomic samples. Accordingly, we explored a naturallanguage embedding technique, called Doc2vec, as a potential embedding approach for metagenomic study and phenotype prediction.We introduced some modifications in the original Doc2Vec architecture to remove a bottleneck in analysing long reads. This was done by replacing k-mer-level encoding with nucleotide-level representation. We used the embeddings obtained from this method as input to logistic classifier and ridge regression models. We compared the results with Kraken2 on colorectal cancer and type-2 diabetes classification, and for regression tasks on type-2 diabetes-related measures.The results suggest a comparable performance between the proposed method and reference-based method for colorectal cancer classification. For type-2 diabetes dataset, reference-based method performs significantly better. In regression tasks to predict various metrics associated with type-2 diabetes, the proposed representation was comparable to reference-based method for some phenotypes, but lacked flexibility in others, indicating that the applicability of proposed approach strongly depends on the objective, dataset, and target phenotype.Computer Scienc