Key Features of SARS-CoV-2 and Available Therapies for COVID-19

The disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV2) is highly pathogenic and communicable infection, progressed in Wuhan city of China and then goes viral around the globe. The Genomic investigations exposed that Phylogenetically SARS-CoV2 resembles the other SARS-like bat viruses, therefore bats were also considered as the possible potential reservoir for SARS-CoV2. There are 2 prevalent types of SARS-CoV2, L type (~70%) and S type (~30%).The L strains are considered more infectious and virulent than the ancestral S strain. The positive sense single-stranded RNA genetic material contains 29891 nucleotides which codes for 9860 amino acids. The ORF1a/b is involved in carrying the translation of two (2) polyproteins, pp1a and pp1ab as well as the encoding of 16 NSPs (Non-structural proteins), and the leftover ORFS can bring about the encoding of non-essential and structural proteins. The origination source and transmission to humankinds is still not clear, but the intermediate hosts are supposed to have a significant role in the transfer and emergence of SARS-CoV2 from bats to humans. There is still no approved drug or vaccine available for Covid-19. In the current review, we condense and fairly evaluate the emergence and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Moreover, we also discuss the treatment and vaccine developments strategies for Covid-19

Upper-Extremity Injuries are the 2nd Most Common Workplace Injuries from 1992 to 2018

Musculoskeletal injuries occur frequently in the workplace, yet it is unclear whether upper-extremity, lower-extremity, or trunk injuries are the most prevalent. We hypothesize that: (1) trunk injuries are the most common in the overall workplace, and (2) upper-extremity injuries are more common in labor-based industries than non-labor industries. Workplace related injury data from 1992 to 2018 was collected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Workplace Injuries & Illnesses” database. Occurrence of trunk, upper-extremity, and lower-extremity injuries in major industries (agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and healthcare) were aggregated during this time period and compared. Overall workplace related injury occurrence in major industries from 1992 to 2018 for the following body regions were tabulated as follows: upper-extremity (4,471,340 cases), lower-extremity (3,296,547 cases), and trunk (5,889,940 cases) (p\u3c.05). Upper-extremity injury incidence was observed to be significantly higher than lower-extremity injury incidence in the manufacturing industry (p\u3c.001) and significantly lower than trunk injury incidence in the healthcare industry (p\u3c.001). However, differences between upper-extremity injury incidence and both lower-extremity and trunk injury incidence were not significant for the other industries. When comparing the occurrence of upper-extremity injuries across industries from 1992 to 2018, significant differences were determined between all industries except for healthcare (p\u3c.001). When identifying changes in injury occurrence in each respective industry across this time span, manufacturing was shown to have the largest decrease (x=-5,432, r=-.91) followed by construction (x=-966, r=-.87) and then agriculture (x=-270, r=-.79). Weak correlation was observed for healthcare (x=118, r=.15)

On-call emergency workload of a general surgical team

ABSTRACT Background: To examine the on-call emergency workload of a general surgical team at a tertiary care teaching hospital to guide planning and provision of better surgical services. Patients and Methods: During six months period from August to January 2007; all emergency calls attended by general surgical team of Surgical Unit II in Accident and Emergency department (A and E) and in other units of Civil, Hospital Karachi, Pakistan were prospectively recorded. Data recorded includes timing of call, diagnosis, operation performed and outcome apart from demography. Results: Total 456 patients (326 males and 130 females) were attended by on-call general surgery team during 30 emergency days. Most of the calls, 191 (41.9%) were received from 8 am to 5 pm. 224 (49.1%) calls were of abdominal pain, with acute appendicitis being the most common specific pathology in 41 (9.0%) patients. Total 73 (16.0%) calls were received for trauma. Total 131 (28.7%) patients were admitted in the surgical unit for urgent operation or observation while 212 (46.5%) patients were discharged from A and E. 92 (20.1%) patients were referred to other units with medical referral accounts for 45 (9.8%) patients. Total 104 (22.8%) emergency surgeries were done and the most common procedure performed was appendicectomy in 34 (32.7%) patients. Conclusion: Major workload of on-call surgical emergency team is dealing with the acute conditions of abdomen. However, significant proportion of patients are suffering from other conditions including trauma that require a holistic approach to care and a wide range of skills and experience. These results have important implications in future healthcare planning and for the better training of general surgical residents

Socio – Political Context and Inferences from Remote Sensing in South Asia: A Study of Tectonic Induced Surface Deformation in SE-IKSZ

Natural or man‐made disasters are dreadful incidents that devastate lives, disturb the socioeconomic and socio-political structure of a society and preserve or erase developments and gains based on decades, within few minutes. A catastrophe has the capacity to affect existing general population to their base, parting an occasion for self-investigation and reassessment of their framework and composition. This study signifies the Radar Digital Elevation Model centered pattern of drainage network to appraise the catastrophic landslide events due to the 2005 earthquake in Neelum-Jhelum Valley in SE-Indus Kohistan Zone north of Pakistan. This investigation highlights zones affected by the earthquake and vulnerable to landslides by utilizing Hypsometric integrals (HI values) and Hack SL-gradient techniques that are proficient in detecting erosion, land mass and tectonic movements. Dataset principally includes “Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)” Digital Elevation Model having pixel resolution of 90 meters. Hypsometric investigation brings evidence related to the deformation periods of a geographical stage. To accomplish this objective, D8 method was used, 355 subbasins of 4th Strahler order, from 5th Strahler order 75 subbasins and from 6th Strahler order 15 subbasins were delineated. To appraise the indentations of erosional scarps, Hypsometric curves (HC) and Hypsometric integrals (HI) for all distinct subbasins were computed. Variable topographic elevations (Maximun, minimum and mean) were determined to decipher the HI values. The HCs are characterized as convex up, S shaped and concave down curves. Curvature of convex up symbolizes a lesser amount of eroded or deformed subbasins (comparatively young geography), and are located in conjunction of the North-Eastern anticline side of the Muzaffarabad that indicates the tectonic behavior of HKS, however S-shaped curvatures denote the transitional stage between the convex up and concave down deformational stage. The curvatures of concave down represents extreme deformation phase and are located west and eastern side of HKS

Early postoperative risk stratification in patients with pancreatic fistula after pancreaticoduodenectomy

Background: Early stratification of postoperative pancreatic fistula according to severity and/or need for invasive intervention may improve outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy. This study aimed to identify the early postoperative variables that may predict postoperative pancreatic fistula severity.Methods: All patients diagnosed with biochemical leak and clinically relevant-postoperative pancreatic fistula based on drain fluid amylase >300 U/L on the fifth postoperative day after pancreaticoduodenectomy were identified from a consecutive cohort from Birmingham, UK. Demographics, intraoperative parameters, and postoperative laboratory results on postoperative days 1 through 7 were retrospectively extracted. Independent predictors of clinically relevant-postoperative pancreatic fistula were identified using multivariable binary logistic regression and converted into a risk score, which was applied to an external cohort from Verona, Italy. Results: The Birmingham cohort had 187 patients diagnosed with postoperative pancreatic fistula (biochemical leak: 99, clinically relevant: 88). In clinically relevant-postoperative pancreatic fistula pa-tients, the leak became clinically relevant at a median of 9 days (interquartile range: 6-13) after pan-creaticoduodenectomy. Male sex (P = .002), drain fluid amylase-postoperative day 3 (P < .001), c-reactive protein postoperative day 3 (P < .001), and albumin-postoperative day 3 (P = .028) were found to be sig-nificant predictors of clinically relevant-postoperative pancreatic fistula on multivariable analysis. The multivariable model was converted into a risk score with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.78 (standard error: 0.038). This score significantly predicted the need for invasive intervention (postoperative pancreatic fistula grades B3 and C) in the Verona cohort (n = 121; area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.68; standard error = 0.06; P =.006) but did not predict clinically relevant -postoperative pancreatic fistula when grades B1 and B2 were included (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.52; standard error = 0.07; P = .802). Conclusion: We developed a novel risk score based on early postoperative laboratory values that can accurately predict higher grades of clinically relevant-postoperative pancreatic fistula requiring invasive intervention. Early identification of severe postoperative pancreatic fistula may allow earlier intervention. Crown Copyright (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Role of non-coding RNA networks in leukemia progression, metastasis and drug resistance.

Early-stage detection of leukemia is a critical determinant for successful treatment of the disease and can increase the survival rate of leukemia patients. The factors limiting the current screening approaches to leukemia include low sensitivity and specificity, high costs, and a low participation rate. An approach based on novel and innovative biomarkers with high accuracy from peripheral blood offers a comfortable and appealing alternative to patients, potentially leading to a higher participation rate.Recently, non-coding RNAs due to their involvement in vital oncogenic processes such as differentiation, proliferation, migration, angiogenesis and apoptosis have attracted much attention as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in leukemia. Emerging lines of evidence have shown that the mutational spectrum and dysregulated expression of non-coding RNA genes are closely associated with the development and progression of various cancers, including leukemia. In this review, we highlight the expression and functional roles of different types of non-coding RNAs in leukemia and discuss their potential clinical applications as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets