COVID-19: An Epidemiological Puzzle

Pneumonia of unknown etiology was reported from Wuhan, Hubei province of China on 31th December, 2019. WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on 30th January, 2020. Thereafter, it has spread throughout China and reached the level of a pandemic expanding to 210 countries with 9,653,048 confirmed cases and 491,128 deaths as per COVID-19 Situation Report issued by WHO based on data received upto 27th June, 2020. Manifold questions remain unanswered regarding pathogen associated variables for amplification dynamics, host environment and agent interaction. Multidimensional issues regarding the epidemiological spectrum have cropped up but still unresolved. This study makes an effort to analyse the information gathered from published articles of renowned journals and newsletters to explore the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 disease. Hereby, we have tried to assemble the questions epidemiological lacunae created by the divergent demographic characteristics, long incubation period, secondary attack rate and puzzling transmission dynamics of COVID-19 that remain unanswered

Affinity Classification Problem by Stochastic Cellular Automata

This work introduces a new problem, named as, affinity classification problem which is a generalization of the density classification problem. To solve this problem, we introduce temporally stochastic cellular automata where two rules are stochastically applied in each step on all cells of the automata. Our model is defined on 2-dimensional grid having affection capability. We show that this model can be used in several applications like modeling self-healing systems

Human detection in surveillance videos and its applications - a review

Detecting human beings accurately in a visual surveillance system is crucial for diverse application areas including abnormal event detection, human gait characterization, congestion analysis, person identification, gender classification and fall detection for elderly people. The first step of the detection process is to detect an object which is in motion. Object detection could be performed using background subtraction, optical flow and spatio-temporal filtering techniques. Once detected, a moving object could be classified as a human being using shape-based, texture-based or motion-based features. A comprehensive review with comparisons on available techniques for detecting human beings in surveillance videos is presented in this paper. The characteristics of few benchmark datasets as well as the future research directions on human detection have also been discussed

Cholesterol Promotes Hemifusion and Pore Widening in Membrane Fusion Induced by Influenza Hemagglutinin

Cholesterol-specific interactions that affect membrane fusion were tested for using insect cells; cells that have naturally low cholesterol levels (<4 mol %). Sf9 cells were engineered (HAS cells) to express the hemagglutinin (HA) of the influenza virus X-31 strain. Enrichment of HAS cells with cholesterol reduced the delay between triggering and lipid dye transfer between HAS cells and human red blood cells (RBC), indicating that cholesterol facilitates membrane lipid mixing prior to fusion pore opening. Increased cholesterol also increased aqueous content transfer between HAS cells and RBC over a broad range of HA expression levels, suggesting that cholesterol also favors fusion pore expansion. This interpretation was tested using both trans-cell dye diffusion and fusion pore conductivity measurements in cholesterol-enriched cells. The results of this study support the hypothesis that host cell cholesterol acts at two stages in membrane fusion: (1) early, prior to fusion pore opening, and (2) late, during fusion pore expansion

DECIPHERING THE PHARMACOLOGICAL INSIGHTS OF FRACTIONATED ELATOSTEMA PAPILLOSUM WED. AND HOLIGARNA LONGIFOLIA ROXB. THROUGH IN VITRO AND IN VIVO STUDIES

The present research intended to explore the biological activities, namely acute toxicity test and hypoglycemic as well as&nbsp;in vitro&nbsp;anti-arthritic along with the antibacterial activity of crude methanol extracts with its different soluble fractions like petroleum ether (PESF), carbon tetrachloride (CTCSF), chloroform (CSF) and aqueous soluble fraction (AQSF) of&nbsp;Holigarna longifolia&nbsp;and&nbsp;Elatostema papillosum.&nbsp;Phytochemical screening was performed by established protocols. Acute toxicity and hypoglycemic effects were performed in experimental and alloxan-induced diabetic rats.&nbsp;In vitro&nbsp;anti-arthritic and antibacterial activity were conducted by protein denaturation inhibitory and disc diffusion methods. It was observed that no rats exhibit any lethality types, which reveal the safety of plant fractionates. It was also seen that both plants' fractionates showed significant (p &lt; 0.01) activity on hyperglycemia compared to standard. Upon investigation, it was observed that crude methanol and its CS fraction of&nbsp;E. papillosum&nbsp;and only CS fraction of&nbsp;H. longifolia&nbsp;significantly (p &lt; 0.05) inhibited denaturation of bovine serum albumin protein compared to standard diclofenac sodium. Moreover, it was observed that crude methanol extract and its CS fraction of&nbsp;E. papillosum&nbsp;showed significant inhibitory action on all Gram-positive bacteria's growth. In contrast, the PES fraction highlighted an inhibitory zone of 26.7 and 24.7 mm, respectively, towards&nbsp;B. subtilis&nbsp;and&nbsp;S. aureus.&nbsp;This study provides some support to explain the traditional uses of&nbsp;H. longifolia&nbsp;and&nbsp;E. papillosum.&nbsp

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Cause-specific Mortality: A Primer for Clinicians

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is perceived to harbor significant morbidity but limited excess mortality, thought to be driven by colon cancer, compared with the general population. Recent studies suggest mortality rates seem higher than previously understood, and there are emerging threats to mortality. Clinicians must be up to date and able to clearly convey the causes of mortality to arm individual patients with information to meaningfully participate in decisions regarding IBD treatment and maintenance of health. Methods: A MEDLINE search was conducted to capture all relevant articles. Keyword search included: “inflammatory bowel disease,” “Crohn's disease,” “ulcerative colitis,” and “mortality.” Results: CD and UC have slightly different causes of mortality; however, malignancy and colorectal cancer–associated mortality remains controversial in IBD. CD mortality seems to be driven by gastrointestinal disease, infection, and respiratory diseases. UC mortality was primarily attributable to gastrointestinal disease and infection. Clostridium difficile infection is an emerging cause of mortality in IBD. UC and CD patients have a marked increase in risk of thromboembolic disease. With advances in medical and surgical interventions, the exploration of treatment-associated mortality must continue to be evaluated. Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware that conventional causes of death such as malignancy do not seem to be as significant a burden as originally perceived. However, emerging threats such as infection including C. difficile are noteworthy. Although CD and UC share similar causes of death, there seems to be some differences in cause-specific mortality

Engineering multifunctional adhesive hydrogel patches for biomedical applications

Traditional patches, such as sticking plaster or acrylic adhesives used for over a hundred years, lack functionality. To address this issue of poor functionality, adhesive hydrogel patches have emerged as an efficient bioactive multifunctional alternative. Hydrogels are three-dimensional, water-swellable, and polymeric materials closely resembling the native tissue architecture. The physicochemical properties of hydrogels can be modified easily, allowing them to be suitable for various biomedical applications. Moreover, adhesive properties can be imparted to hydrogels through physicochemical manipulations, making them ideal candidates for supplementing or replacing traditional sticking plaster. As a result, sticky hydrogel patches are widely used for transdermal drug delivery and have even found commercial purposes. Beyond transdermal delivery, such hydrogel patches have also found applications in cardiac therapy, cancer research, and biosensing, among other applications. In this mini-review, we critically discuss the challenges of fabricating multifunctional adhesive hydrogel patches. Furthermore, we introduce some of the chemical strategies involved with fabricating the patches. We also review their emerging biomedical applications. Finally, we explore their potential future in the flourishing field of tissue engineering and drug delivery