Somatic symptom disorder in dermatology

Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) is defined by the prominence of somatic symptoms associated with abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to the symptoms, resulting in significant distress and impairment. Individuals with these disorders are more commonly encountered in primary care and other medical settings, including dermatology practice, than in psychiatric and other mental health settings. What defines the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as abnormal is that they are excessive, that is, out of proportion to other patients with similar somatic symptoms, and that they result in significant distress and impairment. SSD may occur with or without the presence of a diagnosable dermatologic disorder. When a dermatologic disorder is present, SSD should be considered when the patient is worrying too much about his or her skin, spending too much time and energy on it, and especially if the patient complains of many nondermatologic symptoms in addition. The differential diagnosis includes other psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, delusions of parasitosis, and body dysmorphic disorder

Rhizosphere competence of native Rhizobium rhizogenes strain and its use in management of crown gall

Native Rhizobium rhizogenes strain UHFBA-212 [141/1A (NCBI: KC488174)]was isolated from rhizosphere soil of peach nursery plant of wild peach collected from Himachal Pradesh. In addition to this,159 isolates were also collected and were screened in vitro for their biocontrol potential against Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Out of these strain, UHFBA-212 showed maximum zone of inhibition i.e. 4.16 and 3.57cm without and after exposure to chloroform against C58.Sequence analysis (16SrDNA) of the strain showed nucleotide homology similar to Rhizobium sp. Amplification of total genomic DNA of the strain with Vir D2 andipt primers didn’t showed amplification with these virulence genes suggesting the absence of tumorigenic factors. In the field conditions, maximum population (329.33x106 cfu/g of soil) was observed in antibiotic resistant mutant of R. rhizogenes strain K84 applied on cherry rootstock Colt followed by 285.33 (x 106 ) cfu/g of soil in UHFBA-212 after 9 months at the time of uprooting of plants when applied alone as root dip. Minimum incidence of crown gall (2.00%) was observed in strain UHFBA- 212 co inoculated with strain C58 as seed treatment on behmi seeds. The data on population indices in rhizosphere and incidence of crown gall further suggested that for better management of disease R. Rhizogenes isolates should be either equal or more in population than that of A. tumefaciens isolates. Strain UHFBA-212 controls crown gall as effectively as strain K84 and can be exploited against tumorigenic isolates under field conditions

A Survey on Android Malware Detection

Malwares are spreading around the world and infecting not only the end users but also large organizations and service providers. Android operating system seems to have attracted the most attention from Malicious code writer due to its popularity. Earlier, Signature based detection techniques were used to detect unknown malwares. But it was insufficient because these techniques were not able to detect unknown malwares (0-day attack). To analyze the malwares, static and dynamic techniques are used. Static analysis has advantage of being undetectable, as malware cannot modify its behavior during analysis. Despite number of detections and analysis techniques are in place, high detection accuracy of new malwares are still a critical issue. This survey paper highlights the existing detection and existing analysis methods used for the android Malicious code

Estimation of uncertainty of effective area of a pneumatic pressure reference standard using Monte Carlo method

The current paper presents a comparative investigation of the experimental as well as simulated evaluation of effective area and the associated uncertainties, of a pneumatic pressure reference standard (NPLI-4) of CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, India, (NPLI). The experimental evaluation has been compared to the simulated estimation of the effective area obtained through Monte Carlo method (MCM). The Monte Carlo method has been applied by taking fixed number of trials (FMCM) and also by trials chosen adaptively (AMCM). The measurement uncertainties have been calculated using the conventional method, i.e., law of propagation of uncertainty (LPU) as well as MCM. Experimentally, the NPLI-4 has cross-floated against our newly established pneumatic primary pressure standard (NPLI-P10), which is a large diameter piston gauge. An excellent agreement in effective area and measurement uncertainty has been observed between these approaches

Iron deficiency anaemia: Pathophysiology, assessment, practical management

© 2022 The Authors. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/9/1/e000759The WHO has recognised iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) as the most common nutritional deficiency in the world, with 30% of the population being affected with this condition. Although the most common causes of IDA are gastrointestinal bleeding and menstruation in women, decreased dietary iron and decreased iron absorption are also culpable causes. Patients with IDA should be treated with the aim of replenishing iron stores and returning the haemoglobin to a normal level. This has shown to improve quality of life, morbidity, prognosis in chronic disease and outcomes in pregnancy. Iron deficiency occurs in many chronic inflammatory conditions, including congestive cardiac failure, chronic kidney disease and inflammatory bowel disease. This article will provide an updated overview on diagnosis and management of IDA in patients with chronic conditions, preoperative and in pregnancy. We will discuss the benefits and limitations of oral versus intravenous iron replacement in each cohort, with an overview on cost analysis between the different iron formulations currently on the market.Published versio

Assessing COVID-19 Booster Hesitancy and Its Correlates: An Early Evidence from India

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 mutants, waning immunity, and breakthrough infections prompted the use of booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to fight against the pandemic. India started booster doses in January 2022 and it is critical to determine the intention of booster dose uptake and its correlates. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study aimed to investigate booster dose acceptability and associated predictors among the Indian population. A convenience sampling technique was utilized to recruit a sample of 687 Indian residents. A 55-item psychometric validated survey tool was used to assess booster dose acceptability, vaccine literacy and vaccine confidence. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Over 50% of participants reported their willingness to take the booster dose. Among the group not willing to take the booster dose (n = 303, 44.1%), a significantly larger proportion of respondents were unvaccinated with the primary series (12.2% vs. 5.2%, p \u3c 0.001), had an annual income below 2.96 lacs/annum (52.8% vs. 33.1, p \u3c 0.001), were residents of rural areas (38.0% vs. 23.2%, p \u3c 0.001), were not living with vulnerable individuals (78.5% vs. 65.2%, p \u3c 0.001) and did not have family/friends who had tested positive for COVID-19 (54.6% vs. 35.1%, p = 0.001). Demographic, vaccine variables and multi-theory model subscales to predict the initiation of booster dose among hesitant participants were statistically significant, R2 = 0.561, F (26, 244) = 11.978, p \u3c 0.001; adjusted R2 = 0.514. Findings of this study highlight the need to develop evidence-based interventions to promote vaccine uptake, particularly among hard-to-reach communities living in developing countries

The state of adolescent menstrual health in low- and middle-income countries and suggestions for future action and research

In recognition of the opportunity created by the increasing attention to menstrual health at global, regional, and national levels, the World Health Organization’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research and the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction convened a global research collaborative meeting on menstrual health in adolescents in August 2018. Experts considered nine domains of menstrual health (awareness and understanding; stigma, norms, and socio-cultural practices; menstrual products; water and sanitation; disposal; empathy and support; clinical care; integration with other programmes; and financing) and answered the following five questions: (1) What is the current situation? (2) What are the factors contributing to this situation? (3) What should the status of this domain of adolescent menstrual health be in 10 years? (4) What actions are needed to achieve these goals? (5) What research is needed to achieve these goals? This commentary summarizes the consensus reached in relation to these questions during the expert consultation. In doing so, it describes the state of adolescent menstrual health in low- and middle-income countries and sets out suggestions for action and research that could contribute to meeting the holistic menstrual health needs of adolescent girls and others who menstruate worldwide

A comprehensive curated resource for follicle stimulating hormone signaling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is an important hormone responsible for growth, maturation and function of the human reproductive system. FSH regulates the synthesis of steroid hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, proliferation and maturation of follicles in the ovary and spermatogenesis in the testes. FSH is a glycoprotein heterodimer that binds and acts through the FSH receptor, a G-protein coupled receptor. Although online pathway repositories provide information about G-protein coupled receptor mediated signal transduction, the signaling events initiated specifically by FSH are not cataloged in any public database in a detailed fashion.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We performed comprehensive curation of the published literature to identify the components of FSH signaling pathway and the molecular interactions that occur upon FSH receptor activation. Our effort yielded 64 reactions comprising 35 enzyme-substrate reactions, 11 molecular association events, 11 activation events and 7 protein translocation events that occur in response to FSH receptor activation. We also cataloged 265 genes, which were differentially expressed upon FSH stimulation in normal human reproductive tissues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We anticipate that the information provided in this resource will provide better insights into the physiological role of FSH in reproductive biology, its signaling mediators and aid in further research in this area. The curated FSH pathway data is freely available through NetPath (<url>http://www.netpath.org</url>), a pathway resource developed previously by our group.</p

Comprehensive analysis of temporal alterations in cellular proteome of bacillus subtilis under curcumin treatment

Curcumin is a natural dietary compound with antimicrobial activity against various gram positive and negative bacteria. This study aims to investigate the proteome level alterations in Bacillus subtilis due to curcumin treatment and identification of its molecular/cellular targets to understand the mechanism of action. We have performed a comprehensive proteomic analysis of B. subtilis AH75 strain at different time intervals of curcumin treatment (20, 60 and 120 min after the drug exposure, three replicates) to compare the protein expression profiles using two complementary quantitative proteomic techniques, 2D-DIGE and iTRAQ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive longitudinal investigation describing the effect of curcumin treatment on B. subtilis proteome. The proteomics analysis revealed several interesting targets such UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 1-carboxyvinyltransferase 1, putative septation protein SpoVG and ATP-dependent Clp protease proteolytic subunit. Further, in silico pathway analysis using DAVID and KOBAS has revealed modulation of pathways related to the fatty acid metabolism and cell wall synthesis, which are crucial for cell viability. Our findings revealed that curcumin treatment lead to inhibition of the cell wall and fatty acid synthesis in addition to differential expression of many crucial proteins involved in modulation of bacterial metabolism. Findings obtained from proteomics analysis were further validated using 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC) assay for respiratory activity, resazurin assay for metabolic activity and membrane integrity assay by potassium and inorganic phosphate leakage measurement. The gene expression analysis of selected cell wall biosynthesis enzymes has strengthened the proteomics findings and indicated the major effect of curcumin on cell division