Gender Contribution in Household Management of Water and its Impact on Residents of Dholak Basti (Slum) in Haldwani City of India

The paper explores water and gender sensitivity in one of the slum areas of Haldwani City, one of the fastest growing and least studied cities of Uttarakhand. The study is intended to contextualise the analysis of household water management and role of gender with respect to water management in the city. First, a city-wide ward wise analysis was conducted to identify wards with low socio-economic profile and high illiteracy based on Census of India, 2011 data and analysed spatially in Geographical Information System (GIS). The spatial analysis was followed by primary surveys in one of the identified wards and statistical data analysis. The results point out that lower social strata are not sufficiently covered by municipal water supply systems and women play a major role in household water management. Children are the worst affected by water-borne diseases in comparison to adults; this is in contrast to earlier studies where adult males were found more prone to water related diseases in comparison to females. Strategic interventions were worked out to find possible solutions related to health concerns and equitable water accessibility

Bibliometric analysis of emerging technologies in the field of computer science helping in ovarian cancer research

This study is carried out to provide an analysis of the literature available at the intersection of ovarian cancer and computing. A comprehensive search was conducted using Scopus database for English-language peer-reviewed articles. The study administers chronological, domain clustering and text analysis of the articles under consideration to provide high-level concept map composed of specific words and the connections between them

Androgen Activity Is Associated With PD-L1 Downregulation in Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer is the most prevalent endocrine malignancy in the United States with greater than 53,000 new cases in 2020. There is a significant gender disparity in disease incidence as well, with women developing thyroid cancer three times more often than men; however, the underlying cause of this disparity is poorly understood. Using RNA-sequencing, we profiled the immune landscape of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and identified a significant inverse correlation between androgen receptor (AR) levels and the immune checkpoint molecule PD-L1. The expression of PD-L1 was then measured in an androgen responsive-thyroid cancer cell line. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) treatment resulted in significant reduction in surface PD-L1 expression in a time and dose-dependent manner. To determine if androgen-mediated PD-L1 downregulation was AR-dependent, we treated cells with flutamide, a selective AR antagonist, and prior to DHT treatment to pharmacologically inhibit AR-induced signaling. This resulted in a \u3e 90% restoration of cell surface PD-L1 expression, suggesting a potential role for AR activity in PD-L1 regulation. Investigation into the AR binding sites showed AR activation impacts NF-kB signaling by increasing IkBalpha and by possibly preventing NF-kB translocation into the nucleus, reducing PD-L1 promoter activation. This study provides evidence of sex-hormone mediated regulation of immune checkpoint molecules in vitro with potential ramification for immunotherapies

Differential co-expression network analysis for identification of functional modules in HIV infection and tubercolosis-HIV co-infection

Co-infection with tuberculosis (TB) is the preeminent cause of demise in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals. However, diagnosis of TB, particularly in the presence of an HIV co-infection, can be limiting owing to the high inaccuracy associated with conventional diagnostic strategies. Here we determine dysregulated pathways in TB-HIV co-infection and HIV infection utilizing coexpression networks. Primarily, we utilized preservation statistics to identify gene modules that exhibit a weak conservation of network topology within HIV infected and TB-HIV co-infected networks. Raw data was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE50834) and duly pre-processed. Co-expression networks for each condition (HIV infected and TB-HIV co-infected) were constructed independently. Preservation of HIV infected network edges was evaluated with respect to TB-HIV co-infected and vice versa using weighted correlation network analysis. Two out of the 22 modules were identified as exhibiting weak preservation in both conditions. Functional enrichment analysis identified that weakly preserved modules were pertinent to the condition under study. For instance, weakly preserved TBHIV co-infected module T1 enriched for genes associated with mitochondrion exhibited the highest fraction of gene interaction pairs exclusive to TB-HIV co-infection. Concisely, we illustrated the application of using preservation statistics to detect modules functionally linked with dysregulated pathways in disease, as exemplified by the mitochondrion module T1. Our analyses discovered gene clusters that are non-randomly linked with the disease. Highly specific gene pairs pointed to interactions between known markers of disease and favoured identification of possible markers that are likely to be associated with the disease

Organ Involvement in COVID-19: A Molecular Investigation of Autopsied Patients

Precise reasons for severe manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 remain unanswered, and efforts have been focused on respiratory system management. Demonstration of unequivocal presence of SARS-CoV-2 in vital body organs by cadaver autopsy was the only way to prove multi-organ involvement. Hence, the primary objective of the study was to determine presence of the SARS-CoV-2 in various organs of patients succumbing to SARS-CoV-2 infection. A total of 246 samples from different organs of 21 patients who died due to severe COVID-19 illness were investigated by qRT-PCR, and SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 181 (73.57%) samples and highest positivity of SARS-CoV-2 being (expectedly) found in nasopharynx (90.4%) followed by bilateral lungs (87.30%), peritoneal fluid (80%), pancreas (72.72%), bilateral kidneys (68.42%), liver (65%) and even in brain (47.2%). The deceased patients were categorized to three subgroups based upon the extent of organs in which SARS-CoV-2 was detected by qRT-PCR (high intensity ≥80%, intermediate intensity = 65–80% and low intensity ≤65% organs involvement). It was conclusively established that SARS-CoV-2 has the property of invasion beyond lungs and even crosses the blood–brain barrier, resulting in multi-system disease; this is probably the reason behind cytokine storm, though it is not clear whether organ damage is due to direct injury caused by the virus or result of inflammatory assault. Significant inverse correlation was found between the Ct value of lung samples and number of organs involved, implying that higher viral load in lungs is directly proportionate to involvement of extrapulmonary organs and patients with higher viral load in respiratory secretions should be monitored more closely for any warning signs and the treatment strategies should also address involvement of other organs for better outcome, because lungs, though the primary site of infection, are not the only organ system responsible for pathogenesis of systemic illness

Evaluation of Xpert MTB/RIF Assay on Stool Samples for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis among the Pediatric Population

Objective Microbiological confirmation of tuberculosis (TB) in pediatric cases is challenging due to its paucibacillary nature and difficulty in specimen collection. This study aimed to validate stool as an alternative sample for the diagnosis of pediatric pulmonary TB via Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) assay

Integration of pan-omics technologies and three-dimensional in vitro tumor models: an approach toward drug discovery and precision medicine

Abstract Despite advancements in treatment protocols, cancer is one of the leading cause of deaths worldwide. Therefore, there is a need to identify newer and personalized therapeutic targets along with screening technologies to combat cancer. With the advent of pan-omics technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics, the scientific community has witnessed an improved molecular and metabolomic understanding of various diseases, including cancer. In addition, three-dimensional (3-D) disease models have been efficiently utilized for understanding disease pathophysiology and as screening tools in drug discovery. An integrated approach utilizing pan-omics technologies and 3-D in vitro tumor models has led to improved understanding of the intricate network encompassing various signalling pathways and molecular cross-talk in solid tumors. In the present review, we underscore the current trends in omics technologies and highlight their role in understanding genotypic-phenotypic co-relation in cancer with respect to 3-D in vitro tumor models. We further discuss the challenges associated with omics technologies and provide our outlook on the future applications of these technologies in drug discovery and precision medicine for improved management of cancer. Graphical Abstrac