Nicole Sumida and Alex Yu Interview

Bio: Nicole Sumida is a co-founder and co-publisher of Riksha Magazine, an online magazine featuring creative work by and about Asian Americans. Alex Yu is a co-publisher of Riksha and both have been involved in community arts organizing since the 1990s in Chicago. “Riksha provides a space for capturing the Asian American experience through compelling writing, commentary, and artistic expression. We curate an online magazine that presents poetry, fiction, non-fiction, fine arts, and video and audio pieces. We also comment on and curate the bric-a-brac and ephemera of Asian American life.

Frequency of Subdural and Epidural Hematoma in Brain Injury Via Computed Tomography in Trauma Center of DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha

At least 10 million TBIs serious enough to result in death or hospitalization occur annually. The mortality associated with acute subdural hematoma has been reported to range from 36-79%. Epidural hematoma occurs in approximately 2% of patients with head injuries and 5–15% of patients with fatal head injuries. Both can be caused by fall, motor vehicle crashes, assaults, blasts and sports activities. CT is best modality for diagnosis of brain injury. Objective:To measure the frequency of subdural and epidural hematoma in brain injury via computed tomography in trauma center of DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha.Methodology:In this descriptive study, among 137 patients of traumatic brain injury (TBIs) were selected with age and gender discrimination by convenient sampling, at Department of Radiology, DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha. Single slice Computed Tomography Toshiba asteion machine was used.Results:Out of 137 patients collected, 35 were females and 102 were males who visited emergency department due to brain Injury. It shows 25.5% were females and males were 74.5%.Out of 137 patients, 63.5% were injured with RTA and 35.8% came with the history of fall. 67.2% patients present with loss of consciousness, 67.9% patients with skull fractures and 73% with swelling. Out of 137 patients 85.4% develop SDH and 14.6% develop EDH. Conclusion:In this study we conclude that male develop larger number of brain injuries than females. Most patients with history of RTA had epidural hematoma. Females most likely develop subdural hematoma. Most patients with brain injury later develop subdural hematoma. Keywords: Subdural Hematoma, Epidural Hematoma, Traumatic Brain Injury(TBI), Road Traffic Accident(RTA) DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/71-01 Publication date: February 29th 202

Alevin efficiently estimates accurate gene abundances from dscRNA-seq data.

We introduce alevin, a fast end-to-end pipeline to process droplet-based single-cell RNA sequencing data, performing cell barcode detection, read mapping, unique molecular identifier (UMI) deduplication, gene count estimation, and cell barcode whitelisting. Alevin's approach to UMI deduplication considers transcript-level constraints on the molecules from which UMIs may have arisen and accounts for both gene-unique reads and reads that multimap between genes. This addresses the inherent bias in existing tools which discard gene-ambiguous reads and improves the accuracy of gene abundance estimates. Alevin is considerably faster, typically eight times, than existing gene quantification approaches, while also using less memory

Prophylactic mesh placement for the prevention of incisional hernia in high-risk patients after abdominal surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background and objectives: In high-risk populations, the efficacy of mesh placement in incisional hernia (IH) prevention after elective abdominal surgeries has been supported by many published studies. This meta-analysis aimed at providing comprehensive and updated clinical implications of prophylactic mesh placement (PMP) for the prevention of IH as compared to primary suture closure (PSC).Materials and methods: PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane, and Google Scholar were systematically searched until March 3, 2020, for studies comparing the efficacy of PMP to PSC in abdominal surgeries. The main outcome of interest was the incidence of IH at different follow-up durations. All statistical analyses were carried out using Review Manager version 5.3 (The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, 2014) and Stata 11.0 (Stata Corporation LP, College Station, TX). The data were pooled using the random-effects model, and odds ratio (OR) and weighted mean differences (WMD) were calculated with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI).Results: A total of 3,330 were identified initially and after duplicate removal and exclusion based on title and abstract, 26 studies comprising 3,000 patients, were included. The incidence of IH was significantly reduced for PMP at follow-up periods of one year (OR= 0.16 [0.05, 0.51]; p=0.002; I2=77%), two years (OR= 0.23 [0.12, 0.45]; p\u3c0.0001; I2=68%), three years (OR= 0.30 [0.16, 0.59]; p=0.0004; I2= 52%), and five years (OR=0.15 [0.03, 0.85]; p=0.03; I2=87%). However, PMP was associated with an increased risk of seroma (OR=1.67 [1.10, 2.55]; p= 0.02; I2=19%) and chronic wound pain (OR=1.71 [1.03, 2.83]; p= 0.04; I2= 0%). No significant difference between the PMP and PSC groups was noted for postoperative hematoma (OR= 1.04 [0.43, 2.50]; p=0.92; I2=0%), surgical site infection (OR=1.09 [0.78, 1.52]; p= 0.62; I2=12%), wound dehiscence (OR=0.69 [0.30, 1.62]; p=0.40; I2= 0%), gastrointestinal complications (OR= 1.40 [0.76, 2.58]; p=0.28; I2= 0%), length of hospital stay (WMD= -0.49 [-1.45, 0.48]; p=0.32; I2=0%), and operating time (WMD=9.18 [-7.17, 25.54]; p= 0.27; I2=80%).Conclusions: PMP has been effective in reducing the rate of IH in the high-risk population at all time intervals, but it is associated with an increased risk of seroma and chronic wound pain. The benefits of mesh largely outweigh the risk, and it is linked with positive outcomes in high-risk patients

Oral health- a luxury or a necessity

No Abstract [Med-Science 2018; 7(1.000): 245-245

Neonatal outcomes in intrapartum pathological CTG in low-risk pregnancies

Background: Cardiotocography (CTG) is extensively utilized during labor to monitor fetal well-being. Pathological CTG patterns can indicate fetal distress, potentially leading to adverse neonatal outcomes. However, the significance of pathological CTG in low-risk pregnancies is not well-defined. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the neonatal outcomes of intrapartum pathological CTG patterns in low-risk women during labor. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 120 low-risk pregnant women who experienced pathological CTG patterns during labor. The research was conducted over the phase of 12 months, from May 2023 to April 2024, in the tertiary care hospital. Low-risk women were defined as those without pre-existing medical conditions or obstetric complications. Pathological CTG patterns were identified and categorized based NICE guideline [NG229]. Data on neonatal outcomes, including Apgar scores, neonatal resuscitation, admission to NICU, and perinatal mortality, were collected from medical records. Statistical analysis was performed to determine the association between pathological CTG patterns and neonatal outcomes. Results: The study population comprised 120 low-risk females having the mean age of 28.4 ± 4.2 years. Pathological CTG patterns were classified into three categories: bradycardia, tachycardia, and variable decelerations. Among the study cohort, 45% (n=54) exhibited bradycardia, 30% (n=36) exhibited tachycardia, and 25% (n=30) exhibited variable decelerations. Neonatal outcomes revealed that 20% (n=24) of neonates had an Apgar score of <7 at 1 minute, while 10% (n=12) had an Apgar score of <7 at 5 minutes. Neonatal resuscitation was required in 15% (n=18) of cases. Admission to the NICU occurred in 25% (n=30) of neonates, with the most common reasons being respiratory distress and suspected neonatal sepsis. There was one case of perinatal mortality, accounting for 0.8% of the study population. Statistical analysis showed that bradycardia was significantly related with low Apgar scores at 1 minute (p=0.03) and 5 minutes (p=0.04). Tachycardia was significantly associated with the need for neonatal resuscitation (p=0.02) and NICU admission (p=0.01). Conclusion: Intrapartum pathological CTG patterns in low-risk women were found to be associated with low Apgar scores, the need for neonatal resuscitation, and NICU admission. Bradycardia and tachycardia, in particular, were significant predictors of these adverse outcomes. Keywords: Pathological CTG, low-risk pregnancy, neonatal outcomes, bradycardia, tachycardia, neonatal resuscitation, NICU admission, perinatal mortality

RTA Occupancy of the Origin of Lytic Replication during Murine Gammaherpesvirus 68 Reactivation from B Cell Latency

RTA, the viral Replication and Transcription Activator, is essential for rhadinovirus lytic gene expression upon de novo infection and reactivation from latency. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/toll-like receptor (TLR)4 engagement enhances rhadinovirus reactivation. We developed two new systems to examine the interaction of RTA with host NF-kappaB (NF-κB) signaling during murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) infection: a latent B cell line (HE-RIT) inducible for RTA-Flag expression and virus reactivation; and a recombinant virus (MHV68-RTA-Bio) that enabled in vivo biotinylation of RTA in BirA transgenic mice. LPS acted as a second stimulus to drive virus reactivation from latency in the context of induced expression of RTA-Flag. ORF6, the gene encoding the single-stranded DNA binding protein, was one of many viral genes that were directly responsive to RTA induction; expression was further increased upon treatment with LPS. However, NF-κB sites in the promoter of ORF6 did not influence RTA transactivation in response to LPS in HE-RIT cells. We found no evidence for RTA occupancy of the minimal RTA-responsive region of the ORF6 promoter, yet RTA was found to complex with a portion of the right origin of lytic replication (oriLyt-R) that contains predicted RTA recognition elements. RTA occupancy of select regions of the MHV-68 genome was also evaluated in our novel in vivo RTA biotinylation system. Streptavidin isolation of RTA-Bio confirmed complex formation with oriLyt-R in LPS-treated primary splenocytes from BirA mice infected with MHV68 RTA-Bio. We demonstrate the utility of reactivation-inducible B cells coupled with in vivo RTA biotinylation for mechanistic investigations of the interplay of host signaling with RTA

Combinatorial Loss of the Enzymatic Activities of Viral Uracil-DNA Glycosylase and Viral dUTPase Impairs Murine Gammaherpesvirus Pathogenesis and Leads to Increased Recombination-Based Deletion in the Viral Genome

Unrepaired uracils in DNA can lead to mutations and compromise genomic stability. Herpesviruses have hijacked host processes of DNA repair and nucleotide metabolism by encoding a viral UNG that excises uracils and a viral dUTPase that initiates conversion of dUTP to dTTP. To better understand the impact of these processes on gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis, we examined the separate and collaborative roles of vUNG and vDUT upon MHV68 infection of mice. Simultaneous disruption of the enzymatic activities of both vUNG and vDUT led to a severe defect in acute replication and establishment of latency, while also revealing a novel, combinatorial function in promoting viral genomic stability. We propose that herpesviruses require these enzymatic processes to protect the viral genome from damage, possibly triggered by misincorporated uracil. This reveals a novel point of therapeutic intervention to potentially block viral replication and reduce the fitness of multiple herpesviruses.Misincorporation of uracil or spontaneous cytidine deamination is a common mutagenic insult to DNA. Herpesviruses encode a viral uracil-DNA glycosylase (vUNG) and a viral dUTPase (vDUT), each with enzymatic and nonenzymatic functions. However, the coordinated roles of these enzymatic activities in gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis and viral genomic stability have not been defined. In addition, potential compensation by the host UNG has not been examined in vivo. The genetic tractability of the murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) system enabled us to delineate the contribution of host and viral factors that prevent uracilated DNA. Recombinant MHV68 lacking vUNG (ORF46.stop) was not further impaired for acute replication in the lungs of UNG−/− mice compared to wild-type (WT) mice, indicating host UNG does not compensate for the absence of vUNG. Next, we investigated the separate and combinatorial consequences of mutating the catalytic residues of the vUNG (ORF46.CM) and vDUT (ORF54.CM). ORF46.CM was not impaired for replication, while ORF54.CM had a slight transient defect in replication in the lungs. However, disabling both vUNG and vDUT led to a significant defect in acute expansion in the lungs, followed by impaired establishment of latency in the splenic reservoir. Upon serial passage of the ORF46.CM/ORF54.CM mutant in either fibroblasts or the lungs of mice, we noted rapid loss of the nonessential yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) reporter gene from the viral genome, due to recombination at repetitive elements. Taken together, our data indicate that the vUNG and vDUT coordinate to promote viral genomic stability and enable viral expansion prior to colonization of latent reservoirs

A systematic review of mental health literacy in Pakistan

Individual mental health has become a primary global concern. In Pakistan, the prevalence of mental health issues is still unclear, as not many studies have assessed the level of mental health literacy (MHL) in the country. This systematic review aims to bridge this gap by encouraging the early detection of mental disorders, lessening stigma, and improving help‐seeking behavior. Nine electronic databases were searched to identify empirical literature in this area. Only studies that evaluated MHL efficacy and those published in English were selected. Non‐peer reviewed articles and gray literature were excluded. From 613 studies retrieved, 59 studies met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Forty‐three of the included studies mentioned mental health outcome measures (of which only four mentioned reliability indices), 13 discussed stigma, 18 examined help‐seeking approaches to mental illness treatments, and 47 discussed mental health knowledge. Additionally, the outcome of the MHL measures had considerable heterogeneity and limited validity. Meta‐analysis was not conducted due to a lack of MHL operationalization. Besides, the measurement tools in the studies lacked consistency and standardization. This review compiled the available studies on MHL to assist researchers currently studying the various dimensions of MHL, as well as those designing new studies or investigating effective methods to increase MHL. This review highlights the need for well‐designed controlled intervention studies. Further implications for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are mentioned