A cross-sectional study of factors affecting seasonality in bipolar disorder

Background. Researchers have evinced interest in the effect of seasonal variations on mood and behavioural patterns in affective disorders.  Objective. To study seasonality in bipolar disorder (BD) patients and also the factors affecting this seasonality.  Method. Forty-nine patients with BD in euthymic phase were recruited and analysed using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire.  Results. Most of the patients were morning types but chronotype had no influence on seasonality. Age of patient and number of episodes were the most important factors affecting seasonality in BD.  Conclusion. Seasonality and its influencing factors must be considered while managing bipolar disorder

Precession of timelike bound orbits in Kerr spacetime

Astrometric observations of S-stars provide a unique opportunity to probe the nature of Sagittarius-A* (Sgr-A*). In view of this, it has become important to understand the nature and behavior of timelike bound trajectories of particles around a massive central object. It is known now that whereas the Schwarzschild black hole does not allow the negative precession for the S-stars, the naked singularity spacetimes can admit the positive as well as negative precession for the bound timelike orbits. In this context, we study the perihelion precession of a test particle in the Kerr spacetime geometry. Considering some approximations, we investigate whether the timelike bound orbits of a test particle in Kerr spacetime can have negative precession. In this paper, we only consider low eccentric timelike equatorial orbits. With these considerations, we find that in Kerr spacetimes, negative precession of timelike bound orbits is not allowed.Comment: 12 pages, 18 figure

Incidence of colonization of preterm neonates’ gastric aspirate and its correlation with neonatal, maternal and environmental risk factors

Background: Infants born with Very Low Birth Weight (< 1500 grams) and Extremely Low Birth Weight (< 1000 grams) are at a high risk of pre-discharge morbidities. Aim of our study was to know the incidence of colonization of the preterm neonates’ gastric aspirate and to co-relate it with the various neonatal, maternal and environmental risk factors. Material and Methods: This was a prospective, observational study in 100 neonates conducted over a period of two years at Pediatrics Department of a teaching hospital of Western Gujarat region. All pre-term newborns who did not have any clinical features for sepsis were included in the study. Results: In our study, most common organisms isolated were enterococcus (41%) followed by bacteroids (26%) and staphylococcus (14%) in 24 hours & 72 hours of gastric aspirate sample. Lower gestation age and low birth weight were significantly associated with colonization of the preterm neonatal gut (p<0.05). The positive colonization was also significantly correlated to low APGAR score. Highest incidence of neonatal sepsis was seen with enterococci organism (14.6%), where six newborns with enterococci isolates in gastric aspirate had developed neonatal sepsis, followed by E. coli isolates (12.5%). Conclusions: We found a high incidence of colonization of the preterm neonates’ gut, with enterococcus being the most common isolate. A significant association was observed between gut colonization and development of neonatal sepsis. Significant factors for development of gut colonization were: lower gestation age, multiple per-vaginal examinations and low birth weight of the newborns

Understanding the feasibility of chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic targets against non-small cell lung cancers: an update of resistant responses and recent combinatorial therapies

Despite consistent progress in prompt diagnosis and curative therapies in the last decade, lung cancer (LC) continues to threaten mankind, accounting for nearly twice the casualties compared to prostate, breast, and other cancers. Statistics associate ~25% of 2021 cancer-related deaths with LC, more than 80% of which are explicitly caused by tobacco smoking. Prevailing as small and non-small cell pathologies, with respective occurring frequency of nearly 15% and 80–85%, non-small cell LCs (NSCLCs) are prominently distinguished into lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), subtypes. Since the first use of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor gefitinib for NSCLC treatment in 2002, immense progress has been made for targeted therapies with the next generation of drugs spanning across the chronological generations of small molecule inhibitors. The last two years have overseen the clinical approval of more than 10 therapeutic agents as first-line NSCLC medications. However, uncertain mutational aberrations as well as systemic resistant responses, and abysmal overall survival curtail the combating efficacies. Of late, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) against various molecules including programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) have been demonstrated as reliable LC treatment targets. Keeping these aspects in mind, this review article discusses the success of NSCLC chemo and immunotherapies with their characteristic effectiveness and future perspectives

Cor triatriatum with mitral stenosis: A diagnostic dilemma

Cor triatriatum sinister is an extremely rare congenital heart defect. Very few cases have been reported for cor triatriatum associated with mitral regurgitation. We are reporting an exceptional case of cor triatriatum associated with calcified mitral valve resulting mitral stenosis. Preoperatively, mitral stenosis was underestimated due to the presence of restricted communication between two chambers of the left atrium. The patient was operated for cor triatriatum repair with mitral valve replacement

Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery in Adulthood: Challenges and Outcomes

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is an extremely rare, potentially fatal, congenital anomaly with a high mortality rate in the first year of life. It occurs rarely in ad ulthood and may a ppear with m alignant v entricular a rrhythmia or s ud d e n d eath. W e report a c ase of a 49-year-old woman with ALCAPA who presented with dyspnea on exertion. Management was coronary artery bypass grafting to the left anterior descending artery and obtuse marginal arteries, closure of the left main coronary artery ostium, and reestablishment of the dual coronary artery system

Shadows and precession of orbits in rotating Janis–Newman–Winicour spacetime

In this paper, we construct the rotating Janis–Newman–Winicour (JNW) naked singularity spacetime using Newman–Janis Algorithm (NJA). We analyse NJA with and without complexification methods and find that the energy conditions do satisfied when we skip the complexification step. We study the shadows cast by rotating JNW naked singularity and compare them with the shadows cast by the Kerr black hole. We find that the shadow of the rotating naked singularity can be distinguished from the shadow of the Kerr black hole. While we analyse the precession of timelike bound orbits in rotating JNW spacetime, we find that it can have a negative (or opposite) precession, which is not present in the Kerr black hole case. These novel signatures of the shadow and orbital precession in rotating JNW naked singularity spacetime could be important in the context of the recent observation of the shadow of the M87 galactic center and the stellar dynamics of ‘S-stars’ around Milkyway galactic center