Evidence-based decision making and covid-19: what a posteriori probability distributions speak

Background: In the absence of any pharmaceutical interventions, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic is based on public health measures. The present study fosters evidence-based decision making by estimating various “a posteriori probability distributions" from COVID-19 patients.  Methods: In this retrospective observational study, 987 RT-PCR positive COVID-19 patients from SMS Medical College, Jaipur, India, were enrolled after approval of the institutional ethics committee. The data regarding age, gender, and outcome were collected. The univariate and bivariate distributions of COVID-19 cases with respect to age, gender, and outcome were estimated. The age distribution of COVID-19 cases was compared with the general population's age distribution using the goodness of fit c2 test. The independence of attributes in bivariate distributions was evaluated using the chi-square test for independence. Results: The age group ‘25-29’ has shown highest probability of COVID-19 cases (P [25-29] = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.12- 0.16). The men (P [Male] = 0.62, 95%CI: 0.59-0.65) were dominant sufferers. The most common outcome was recovery (P [Recovered] = 0.79, 95%CI: 0.76-0.81) followed by admitted cases (P [Active]= 0.13, 95%CI: 0.11-0.15) and death (P [Death] = 0.08, 95%CI: 0.06-0.10). The age distribution of COVID-19 cases differs significantly from the age distribution of the general population (c2  =399.04, P < 0.001). The bivariate distribution of COVID-19 across age and outcome was not independent (c2 =106.21, df = 32, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The knowledge of disease frequency patterns helps in the optimum allocation of limited resources and manpower. The study provides information to various epidemiological models for further analysis

Evidence-based decision making and covid-19: what a posteriori probability distributions speak

Background: In the absence of any pharmaceutical interventions, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic is based on public health measures. The present study fosters evidence-based decision making by estimating various “a posteriori probability distributions" from COVID-19 patients.  Methods: In this retrospective observational study, 987 RT-PCR positive COVID-19 patients from SMS Medical College, Jaipur, India, were enrolled after approval of the institutional ethics committee. The data regarding age, gender, and outcome were collected. The univariate and bivariate distributions of COVID-19 cases with respect to age, gender, and outcome were estimated. The age distribution of COVID-19 cases was compared with the general population's age distribution using the goodness of fit c2 test. The independence of attributes in bivariate distributions was evaluated using the chi-square test for independence. Results: The age group ‘25-29’ has shown highest probability of COVID-19 cases (P [25-29] = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.12- 0.16). The men (P [Male] = 0.62, 95%CI: 0.59-0.65) were dominant sufferers. The most common outcome was recovery (P [Recovered] = 0.79, 95%CI: 0.76-0.81) followed by admitted cases (P [Active]= 0.13, 95%CI: 0.11-0.15) and death (P [Death] = 0.08, 95%CI: 0.06-0.10). The age distribution of COVID-19 cases differs significantly from the age distribution of the general population (c2  =399.04, P < 0.001). The bivariate distribution of COVID-19 across age and outcome was not independent (c2 =106.21, df = 32, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The knowledge of disease frequency patterns helps in the optimum allocation of limited resources and manpower. The study provides information to various epidemiological models for further analysis

Evaluating interactions between hyperglycemia and clotting factors in patients suffering with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Background. With coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), patients with diabetes mellitus are dealing with two pandemics and are at a higher risk of mortality. The present study was undertaken to evaluate interactions between hyperglycemia and clotting factors in COVID-19 patients. Methods. In this retrospective observational study,  53 real-time RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in 40 to 70 years of age, representing both sexes, were enrolled in the study from SMS Medical College, Jaipur (Rajasthan, India). Based on their history of diabetes mellitus and exclusion criterion, patients were divided into diabetics (N = 11) and non-diabetics (N = 17) groups. The data on clinical profile and coagulation profile was recorded along with the markers of inflammation and infection. The two groups were compared using the Mann-Whitney test and the Fisher’s exact test. Correlation coefficients between clotting factors were compared between two groups using Student t test. Results. There was no significant difference in age  (p = 0.25) or gender (p = 0.12) between the two groups.The coagulation indicators FDP (p = 0.79), D-dimer  (p = 0.30), APPT (p = 0.96), PT (p = 0.79), INR (p = 1.00)  PLT (p = 0.17) and the markers of inflammation and infection did not differ significantly between the two groups. There was no significant difference in correlation coefficients among coagulation indicators between the two groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion. The study concludes that pathogenesis in clotting system is not significantly different in stud-ied groups. Further research is needed to explain the higher mortality in diabetic patients suffering from COVID-19.

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Citrulline and Arginine Content of Taxa of Cucurbitaceae

Watermelon is the most significant, natural plant source of L-citrulline, a non-proteinaceous amino acid that benefits cardiovascular health and increases vasodilation in many tissues of the body. Watermelon is a member of the Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, melon, pumpkin, and cucumber. It is possible that other cucurbits could be good sources of citrulline or of arginine, its direct precursor. Twenty-one cultigens were evaluated in triplicate at two locations in North Carolina to estimate citrulline and arginine amounts and variation due to cultigen, replication, and environment. Cultigens containing the highest amount of citrulline (based on LS means) in g/kg fresh weight were ’Crimson Sweet’ watermelon (2.85), ’Dixielee’ watermelon (2.43), casaba-type melon (0.86), mouse melon (0.64), and horned melon rind (0.45). Additionally, mouse melon, horned melon, and bitter gourd (arils) may be interesting sources of arginine-family amino acids, perhaps because of their large seed and aril content relative to mesocarp

Data from: Molecular mapping and candidate gene analysis for numerous spines on the fruit of cucumber

Number of spines on the fruit is an important quality trait in cucumber. The inheritance and identification of molecular markers for fruit spine density gene can provide a basis for breeding and lay the foundation for gene cloning. Cucumber inbred lines NCG-122 with numerous spines and NCG-121 with few spines were used for genetic analysis and gene mapping in this study. Genetic analysis showed that the numerous spines trait in NCG-122 was qualitative, and a single recessive nuclear gene (ns) controlled this trait. The few spines trait was dominant over the numerous spines trait. In the preliminary genetic mapping of the ns gene, 8 SSR markers were found to be linked to ns, which mapped to chromosome 2 (Chr.2) of cucumber. The closest flanking markers SSR22338 and SSR11596 were linked to the ns gene, with genetic distances of 10.2 and 1.7cM, respectively. One-hundred and thirty pairs of new SSR primers and 28 pairs of Indel primers were developed based on sequence information in the preliminary mapping region of ns. Fifteen SSR markers and 2 Indel markers were identified to be linked to the ns gene after analysis on the F2 mapping population using the new molecular markers. The 2 closest flanking markers, SSRns-127 and SSR04219, were 0.7 and 2.4 cM from ns, respectively. The physical distance between SSRns-127 and SSR04219 was 266.1kb, containing 27 predicted genes. Csa2G285390 was speculated as the probable candidate gene for numerous spines. The accuracy of the closest linked marker to the ns gene, SSRns-127, for MAS breeding was 95.0%