Mushroom: A Review on Multipurpose Fungi and its Commercial Utilization

This paper reviews multifunctional nature of mushrooms. Besides being an essential source of nutrition, they are being extensively exploited by man in various ways. Not only are they admired for their exceptional flavor and texture but this fungus can replace a number of resources that we are currently utilizing. Higher mushrooms contain bioactive components that show antibacterial, antitumor, immunostimulator, antiparasitic, antidiabetic, anticarcinogenic properties. Simultaneously they are useful for people and woodlands by recycling nutrients, managing plastic waste and agricultural residues as  they can act as natural decomposers . Mushroom farming is the best method to meet sustainable development goals set up by UNO. Mushrooms play an important role in biofuel generation, textile, footwear, furniture, dying and tanning industries.  It is hoped that this paper would add to existing information on versatile attributes of mushrooms to make it feasible for humans to utilize mushrooms to a more prominent extent other than just a food ingredient, which makes them not just edible but a multi-functional fungi. View Article DOI: 10.47856/ijaast.2022.v09i05.00

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Leprosy in Pregnancy: Obstetric Diligence is the Key

Leprosy in pregnancy is a rarely encountered event. Out of the 2000 patients detected of leprosy annually, two to three are pregnant women and majority of them are diagnosed in the third trimester. We, hereby, report a case of borderline tuberculoid leprosy with Type I lepromatous reaction in a 26-year-old pregnant woman in early second trimester with a large raised red coloured lesion over the forehead and six other small lesions involving the trunk and limbs with reduced sensory perception over involved skin. Occurrence of leprosy in an obstetric patient belonging to low prevalence area of India is infrequent especially in the post elimination era. However, we do need to have a high index of suspicion in lesions suggestive of the disease

Dexmedetomidine for monitored anesthesia care in patients undergoing liberation procedure for multiple sclerosis: An observational study

Background: It has been postulated that Multiple sclerosis (MS) stems from a narrowing in the veins that drain blood from the brain, known medically as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI. It has been proposed that balloon angioplasty should alleviate the symptoms of MS. This procedure is also known as "The Liberation Procedure." Accordingly, a clinical study was undertaken to determine the effects of dexmedetomidine in patients undergoing the liberation procedure. Aims: To assess the effectiveness of dexmedetomidine in providing adequate sedation and pain relief for patients undergoing the liberation procedure. Settings and design: A prospective, nonrandomized observational study of 60 consecutive adult patients undergoing the liberation procedure under monitored anesthesia care (MAC) who will receive dexmedetomidine as an anesthetic agent. Methods: A total of 60 adult patients were enrolled in the study. Dexmedetomidine was administered to all patients in a loading dose of 1 mcg/kg, which was followed by a maintenance dose of 0.2-0.5 mcg/kg/h. The evaluation of quality of sedation was based on Ramsay Sedation and the quality of analgesia was assessed using the visual analog scale. The following parameters were measured continuously: heart rate, mean arterial pressure and hemoglobin oxygen saturation. Patients were asked to answer the question, "How would you rate your experience with the sedation you have received during surgery?" using a seven-point Likert-like verbal rating scale. Statistical analysis: Repeated measurements were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA for HR and BP. Results: Most of our patients were satisfied with their sedation. In most of the patients, MAP and HR dropped after the bolus dose of dexmedetomidine, and the drop was statistically significant. Conclusions: Dexmedetomidine can be used as a sole sedative agent in patients undergoing the liberation procedure

Solitary Fibrous Tumor of the Parotid Gland in a Young Female: A Rare Case Report and Review of the Literature

Solitary fibrous tumor is a rare tumor of the salivary gland. To date, 27 cases have been reported. The clinical and radiological features are the same as other lesions of the parotid gland. Hence, light microscopy and immunostaining is important to confirm the diagnosis. Fine needle aspiration cytology yield depends on the area sampled and can be inconclusive in many cases. Treatment of choice is complete surgical excision with regular long-term follow up. Most cases are benign, however three malignant cases have been reported. Here, we report a case of solitary fibrous tumor in the parotid gland seen in a 14-year old female diagnosed by histopathological examination and immunohistochemistry analysis

COVID-19 infected ST-Elevation myocardial infarction in India (COSTA INDIA)

Objective: To find out differences in the presentation, management and outcomes of COVID-19 infected STEMI patients compared to age and sex-matched non-infected STEMI patients treated during the same period. Methods: This was a retrospective multicentre observational registry in which we collected data of COVID-19 positive STEMI patients from selected tertiary care hospitals across India. For every COVID-19 positive STEMI patient, two age and sex-matched COVID-19 negative STEMI patients were enrolled as control. The primary endpoint was a composite of in-hospital mortality, re-infarction, heart failure, and stroke. Results: 410 COVID-19 positive STEMI cases were compared with 799 COVID-19 negative STEMI cases. The composite of death/reinfarction/stroke/heart failure was significantly higher among the COVID-19 positive STEMI patients compared with COVID-19 negative STEMI cases (27.1% vs 20.7% p value = 0.01); though mortality rate did not differ significantly (8.0% vs 5.8% p value = 0.13). Significantly lower proportion of COVID-19 positive STEMI patients received reperfusion treatment and primary PCI (60.7% vs 71.1% p value=< 0.001 and 15.4% vs 23.4% p value = 0.001 respectively). Rate of systematic early PCI (pharmaco-invasive treatment) was significantly lower in the COVID-19 positive group compared with COVID-19 negative group. There was no difference in the prevalence of high thrombus burden (14.5% and 12.0% p value = 0.55 among COVID-19 positive and negative patients respectively) Conclusions: In this large registry of STEMI patients, we did not find significant excess in in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 co-infected patients compared with non-infected patients despite lower rate of primary PCI and reperfusion treatment, though composite of in-hospital mortality, re-infarction, stroke and heart failure was higher