Explore the vast range of titles available.

Organisations are challenged when meeting the computational requirements of large-scale bioinformatics analyses using their own resources. Cloud computing has democratised large-scale resources, and to reduce the barriers of working with large-scale compute, leading cloud vendors offer serverless computing, a low-maintenance and low-cost model that provides ample resources for highly scalable software applications. While serverless computing has broad use, its adoption in bioinformatics remains poor. Here, we demonstrate the most extensive use of high-performance serverless computing for bioinformatics by applying the available technologies to CRISPR-Cas9 guide RNA (gRNA) design. Our adaptation of the established gRNA design tool, named Crackling, implements a novel, cloud-native and serverless-based, high-performance computing environment using technologies made available by Amazon Web Services (AWS). The architecture, compatible with technologies from all leading cloud vendors, and the AWS implementation, contributes to an effort of reducing the barrier to large computational capacity in bioinformatics and for CRISPR-Cas9 gRNA design. Crackling Cloud can be deployed to any AWS account, and is freely available on GitHub under the BSD 3-clause license: https://github.com/bmds-lab/Crackling-AWS

Background Angiokeratoma is a rare cutaneous presentation with unknown etiology. Case presentation A case of a 10-year male, who was presented to the ENT OPD with a swelling over the posterior aspect of the tongue. The chief complaints included growth on the right side of the posterior third of the tongue which was extending up to the base of the tongue on the same side. Conclusion Excisional biopsy was taken and sent for histopathology which was suggestive of inflamed angiokeratoma. Post-excision there is no recurrence till date.

This study was conducted to describe the videonystagmography findings in dizziness patients with background anxiety disorders. It was a hospital-based, descriptive analytical study, conducted among 64 adult patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders presenting with complaint of dizziness attending the vertigo clinic run by the Department of ENT at St. John’s Medical College and Hospital, Bangalore, over a period of 24 months. Data was collected from consenting patients using a structured pre-validated proforma, which included history taking, general examination and videonystagmography. Severity of anxiety was assessed using Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). Data analysis was done using MS Excel and SPSS. (71.9%) of the patients had a psychiatric diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and reported sudden onset of vertigo. Saccade test, smooth pursuit test and optokinetic test; spontaneous nystagmus and gaze nystagmus with fixation,normal for most of the patients. Abnormal gaze nystagmus without fixation affected 23.4% of the patients. Dix-Hallpike test was positive in 36 patients (56.3%). 37.5% of the patients had right peripheral vestibulopathy, while 20.3% had left peripheral vestibulopathy, with statistically significant association between anxiety disorders and VNG impression. Findings of the present study have shown an association between vestibular dysfunction and severity of anxiety in all patients as well as among those patients with rotatory giddiness. It has facilitated an understanding of the clinic-epidemiological aspects of vestibular changes in patients with anxiety disorders the disease helpful in further management.

Introduction: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) constitutes most cases of endocrine disorder among females. Objectives: This study was done to assess the proportion of university students with PCOS and to study its risk factors. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from students of a private medical, dental, and nursing college using a self-administered questionnaire. Height and weight of all participants were recorded by standard procedures. Results: The mean age of students was 20.4 ΁ 1.5 years. Of the 480 participants, 39 (8.1%) were already diagnosed with PCOS. Out of the remaining 441 participants, 40 (9.1%) were at high risk, and 401 (90.9%) were at low risk for PCOS. Greater proportion of PCOS cases was seen in the age group 23-25 years (P = 0.026), among those with family history of PCOS (P = 0.002), among those who were permanent residents of urban areas (P = 0.048), and among those who were overweight or obese (P = 0.004). About 90% of PCOS cases and those at high risk for PCOS, each had difficulty in controlling excess weight or were experiencing difficulty in maintaining ideal weight. About 36 (92.3%) of PCOS cases and all those at high risk had emotional problems such as feeling moody or experiencing fatigability over the previous 2 weeks. Conclusion: PCOS is a common disorder among young women in this settings and this warrants periodic screening activities. A multidisciplinary approach is required to bring about lifestyle modification and help those with emotional problems due to this endocrine disorder.

Gene editing has been revolutionised by the CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The versatility and ease-of-use of the technology far exceeds its predecessors, however, the selection of a high-quality guide RNA (gRNA) is critical to directing it to a target site. Selecting gRNA calls upon high-performance algorithms that evaluate nuclease activity at on-target and off-target sites. While there are a suite of programs available, many struggle to analyse the largest genomes, or their predictive accuracy is low. We have previously published a program, named Crackling that is amongst the fastest and most accurate tools available, however, it requires an end-user to have access to a traditional high-performance computing environment. Here, we present an adaptation of Crackling, named Crackling Cloud, that takes advantage of modern serverless cloud technologies that are widely available to anyone, and do not consume resources and incur costs when sitting idle, but can scale to use large volumes of resources when analyses require that. Crackling Cloud is provided as a templated solution using technologies of Amazon Web Services, and is available for free on GitHub under the terms of the BSD 3-clause licence: https://github.com/bmds-lab/Crackling-AWSCompeting Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

[...]that the plant lights up not just the houses, but also the school, the community hall and anganwadi (a 'courtyard shelter', anganwadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care centre in India), the villagers can hold cultural activities and other festivities even during the evenings. A village elderly and one among the most respected in the village, Panda Maharaj is also the Solar Plant Operator of the village, a responsibility that he gleefully delivers to a T. He manages the village youth in handling the routine operations of the plant, day-to-day maintenance, and preliminary trouble shooting in case of any technical snag. [...]it supplements the grid power, thus ensuring all day long power supply.

Background Black pepper ( Piper nigrum L.) is rich in bioactive compounds that make it an imperative constituent in traditional medicines. Although the unripe fruits have long been used in different Ayurvedic formulations, the mechanism of gene regulation resulting in the production of the bioactive compounds in black pepper is not much investigated. Exploring the regulatory factors favouring the production of bioactive compounds ultimately help to accumulate the medicinally important content of black pepper. The factors that enhance the biosynthesis of these compounds could be potential candidates for metabolic engineering strategies to obtain a high level production of significant biomolecules. Results Being a non-model plant, de novo sequencing technology was used to unravel comprehensive information about the genes and transcription factors that are expressed in mature unripe green berries of P. nigrum from which commercially available black pepper is prepared. In this study, the key gene regulations involved in the synthesis of bioactive principles in black pepper was brought out with a focus on the highly expressed phenylpropanoid pathway genes. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis of critical genes and transcription factors in the different developmental stages from bud to the mature green berries provides important information useful for choosing the developmental stage that would be best for the production of a particular bioactive compound. Comparison with a previous study has also been included to understand the relative position of the results obtained from this study. Conclusions The current study uncovered significant information regarding the gene expression and regulation responsible for the bioactivity of black pepper. The key transcription factors and enzymes analyzed in this study are promising targets for achieving a high level production of significant biomolecules through metabolic engineering.

Spanish mackerel S. commerson belonging to family Scombridae, represent a group of highly commercial marine fisheries with an ever-growing demand world over. Analysing the genetic diversity of this species is of utmost importance and necessary for conservation purposes. Microsatellites are molecular tools with advantages that are ideal for population analyses. This study provides the first multiplex panel set of species-specific microsatellite loci for S. commerson that can be applied when assessing both intra- and inter population genetic variation. Microsatellite marker panels were developed in S. commerson , using Third Generation Sequencing technology in PacBio RSII, based on Single-Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) . Thirty- two microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for S. commerson , by genotyping 20 individuals each obtained from the Kochi and Veraval in the Arabian sea and Chennai along Bay of Bengal coast (n = 3). The number of alleles per locus in S. commerson varied from 4 to 17, while the mean observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.656 to 0.753. The Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) were highly informative, 85% loci with PIC value 0 > 0.75. This suite of markers provides the first species specific nuclear multiplex microsatellite marker panels (32 loci) for S. commerson and thus allows assessment of different populations structures of the species across its distribution range, with more specificity. These newly developed loci have also been validated for cross transferability in another scomberid fish Scomberomorus guttatus .

Locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (LAHNSCC) unresectable at presentation has a dismal survival when radical surgery or definitive chemoradiation is not possible. This ambispective cohort study evaluated the addition of low-dose nivolumab to induction chemotherapy (IC) for locally advanced, unresectable or borderline resectable HNSCC. 111 patients with stage III-IVB disease received IC with low-dose nivolumab (< 240 mg or < 3 mg kg −1 biweekly). The median nivolumab dose was 0.51 mg kg −1 biweekly, with a median of 3 doses. Overall response rate per RECIST v1.1 was 75.3% among evaluable patients. 31.6% of oral cavity tumours were rendered resectable, with 32% achieving pathological complete response (pCR). In other sites, the conversion rate to radical chemoradiation was 68.8%. One-year progression-free survival and overall survival were 67% and 83%, respectively, with post-induction radical therapy ( p  < 0.001) and pCR/radiologic complete response ( p  < 0.01) correlating with significantly longer PFS. Grade ≥ 3 adverse events occurred in 31.5% of patients. The nivolumab cost was reduced by 88.9% relative to standard dosing. These encouraging conversion rates to definitive therapy, highlight the potential of chemoimmunotherapy as induction therapy in this cohort with a very poor prognosis, with broader implications of cost savings where access to immune checkpoint inhibitors is limited.

Non-O157 Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) are an important group of foodborne pathogens, implicated in several outbreaks and recalls in the past 2 decades. It is therefore crucial to devise effective control strategies against these pathogens. Bacteriophages present an attractive alternative to conventional pathogen control methods in the food industry. Bacteriophages, targeting non-O157 STEC (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145), were isolated from beef cattle operations in Oklahoma. Their host range and lytic ability were determined against several ( n = 21) non-O157 STEC isolates, by using the spot-on-lawn assay. Isolated phages were purified, and their morphology was determined under a transmission electron microscope. Infection kinetics of selected phages ( n = 19), particularly adsorption rate, rise period, latent period, and burst size, were determined. Phages were also evaluated for stability at a wide pH range (1 to 11) and temperature range (-80 to 90°C). In total, 45 phages were isolated and classified into Myoviridae, Siphoviridae, or Tectiviridae. The phages had a latent period between 8 and 37 min, a rise period between 19 and 40 min, and a large burst size (12 to 794 virions per infected cell), indicating high lytic activity. Tested phages were stable at pH 5 to 9 for 24 h, whereas a decrease in phage titer was observed at pHs 1, 2, and 11. Phages were stable at 40 and 60°C, except for O103-specific phages. At 70°C, all the phages lost viability after 20 min, except three phages targeting O26 and O121 and one phage targeting O45 and O111 STEC, which remained viable for 60 min. All the phages lost activity after 10 min at 90°C, except one each of O26 and O121 STEC-infecting phages that remained viable for 60 min. Phages remained stable for 90 days under refrigerated (4°C) and frozen (-20 and -80°C) storage. Characterization of phages, targeting diverse non-O157 STEC serotypes, could help in the development of effective biocontrol strategies for this group of pathogens in the food industry.