Exploring the sensing potential of Fe-decorated h-BN toward harmful gases: a DFT study.

Gas sensing technology has a broad impact on society, ranging from environmental and industrial safety to healthcare and everyday applications, contributing to a safer, healthier, and more sustainable world. We studied pure and Fe-decorated hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) gas sensor for monitoring of carbon-based gases using density functional theory (DFT). The calculations utilized the Generalized Gradient Approximation with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (GGA-PBE) exchange-correlation functional. The novelty of our study lies in the investigation of the adsorption of harmful gases such as carbonyl sulfide, carbinol, carbimide, and carbonyl fluoride on both pure and Fe-decorated h-BN. The deviation in structural, electronic, and adsorption properties of h-BN due to Fe decoration has been studied along with the sensing ability to design said material towards carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbonyl sulfide (COS), carbinol, (CH4O), carbimide (CH2N2), and carbonyl fluoride (CF2O) gases. Gases such as CO, COS, CH2N2, and CF2O exhibited chemisorption, while CO2, and CH4O exhibited physisorption behavior. The introduction of Fe altered the semiconductor properties of h-BN and rendered it metallic. Enhanced electronic properties were observed due to a robust hybridization occurring between the d-orbitals of Fe-decorated BN and the gas molecules. The extended recovery periods observed for gases, aside from CO2, indicate their adhesive interactions with Fe-decorated h-BN. The reduction in desorption duration as temperature rises allows Fe-decorated h-BN to function as a reversible gas sensor. This research opens up a novel pathway for the synthesis and advancement of cost-effective, environmentally friendly double-atom catalysts with high sensitivity for capturing and detecting molecules such as CO, COS, CH2N2, CO2, CH4O, and CF2O.

Breast cancer's hidden partner: meningoencephalitis as a paraneoplastic revelation: a rare presentation of invasive ductal carcinoma of breast: a case report.

Introduction and importance: Paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes encompass a group of neurologic disorders arising from pathological processes unrelated to metastasis, metabolic disturbances, infections, coagulopathy, or treatment-related side effects. These syndromes can affect various regions of the nervous system, resulting in diverse clinical manifestations. Case presentation: The authors present a rare case of anti-amphiphysin-associated meningoencephalitis in a South Asian Pakistani woman. Initially, the patient was managed for suspected infectious meningitis, but empirical treatment failed to yield improvement. Subsequent investigations unveiled a paraneoplastic syndrome secondary to breast cancer. Discussion: Diagnosing these clinical entities is challenging due to their multifaceted presentations, often leading to delayed identification, increased patient suffering, economic burdens, and preventable complications. Conclusion: Anti-amphiphysin-associated meningoencephalitis is a rare manifestation of paraneoplastic syndromes. It is crucial to raise awareness among healthcare professionals about the diverse presentations of paraneoplastic syndromes.

Survival tactics of an endangered species Withania coagulans (Stocks) Dunal to arid environments.

Withania coagulans is a valuable medicinal plant with high demand, but its wild growth and local usage pose a threat to its natural habitat. This study aims to understand the plant's growth, anatomy, and physiology in different environmental conditions to aid in conservation and re-vegetation efforts. Fifteen differently adapted populations of Withania coagulans were collected from diverse ecological regions, viz., (i) along the roadside, (ii) hilly areas, (iii) barren land, and (iv) wasteland to unravel the adaptive mechanisms that are responsible for their ecological success across heterogenic environments of Punjab, Pakistan. The roadside populations had high values of photosynthetic pigments, total soluble proteins, root endodermis thickness, stem and leaf cortical thickness, and its cell area. The populations growing in hilly areas showed better growth performance such as vigorous growth and biomass production. Additionally, there was enhanced accumulation of organic osmolytes (glycine betaine and proline), chlorophyll content (chl a/b), and enlarged epidermal cells, cortical cells, vascular bundles, metaxylem vessels, and phloem region in roots. In case of stem area, epidermal thickness, cortical thickness, vascular bundle, and pith area showed improved growth. However, the barren land population showed significant increase in carotenoid contents, vascular bundle area, and metaxylem area in roots, and xylem vessels and phloem area in stems and leaves. The wasteland population surpassed the rest of the populations in having greater root dry weight, higher shoot ionic contents, increased root area, thick cortical, and vascular bundle area in roots. Likewise, cortical thickness and its cell area, and pith area in stems, whereas large vascular bundles, phloem region, and high stomatal density were recorded in leaves. Subsequently, natural populations showed the utmost behavior related to tissue organization and physiology in response to varied environmental conditions that would increase the distribution and survival of species.

Suppression of endoplasmic reticulum stress reverses hindlimb unloading-induced hepatic cellular processes in mice.

BACKGROUND: The Hindlimb unloaded mouse, an animal model of simulated microgravity demonstrates significant metabolic and hepatic derangements. However, cellular and molecular mechanisms driving liver dysfunction in Hindlimb unloaded mice are poorly characterized. METHODS: We investigated the possible contribution of dysregulated protein homeostasis by endoplasmic reticulum, endoplasmic reticulum stress, to liver dysfunction during HU. C57BL/6j male mice were grouped into ground-based controls or Hindlimb unloaded groups treated daily with vehicle or 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PBA), a potent inhibitor of endoplasmic reticulum stress. Following three weeks of HU, mice were sacrificed, and liver tissues were dissected for further analysis. RESULTS: Hindlimb unloaded was associated with hepatic atrophy and elevated endoplasmic reticulum stress, which was restored by 4-PBA treatment. The Gene Ontology analysis revealed the downregulation of genes primarily involved in liver metabolic and Wingless-related integration site (WNT) signaling pathways, while those related to cytochrome P450, and liver fibrosis were upregulated. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis revealed downregulation of several genes involved in metabolic pathways following treatment with 4-PBA, induced by HU. CONCLUSIONS: We report several differential and uniquely expressed genes associated with microgravity-induced elevated ER stress and liver injury. Our data has translational potential in unraveling novel molecular targets for pharmaceutical therapies of liver diseases. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: Our novel findings show a pathogenic role for elevated ER stress in liver injury in microgravity conditions.

Traditional healers working with primary care and mental health for early intervention in psychosis in young persons: protocol for the feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: In low/middle-income countries (LMICs), more than half of patients with first-episode psychosis initially seek treatment from traditional and religious healers as their first care. This contributes to an excessively long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP). There is a need for culturally appropriate interventions to involve traditional and spiritual healers to work collaboratively with primary care practitioners and psychiatrists through task-shifting for early detection, referral and treatment of first episode of psychosis. METHODS: To prevent the consequences of long DUP in adolescents in LMICs, we aim to develop and pilot test a culturally appropriate and context-bespoke intervention. Traditional HEalers working with primary care and mental Health for early interventiOn in Psychosis in young pErsons (THE HOPE) will be developed using ethnographic and qualitative methods with traditional healers and caregivers. We will conduct a randomised controlled cluster feasibility trial with a nested qualitative study to assess study recruitment and acceptability of the intervention. Ninety-three union councils in district Peshawar, Pakistan will be randomised and allocated using a 1:1 ratio to either intervention arm (THE HOPE) or enhanced treatment as usual and stratified by urban/rural setting. Data on feasibility outcomes will be collected at baseline and follow-up. Patients, carers, clinicians and policymakers will be interviewed to ascertain their views about the intervention. The decision to proceed to the phase III trial will be based on prespecified stop-go criteria. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained from Keele University Ethical Review Panel (ref: MH210177), Khyber Medical University Ethical Review Board (ref: DIR/KMU-EB/IG/001005) and National Bioethics Committee Pakistan (ref no. 4-87/NBC-840/22/621). The results of THE HOPE feasibility trial will be reported in peer-reviewed journals and academic conferences and disseminated to local stakeholders and policymakers. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN75347421.

Supervised Machine Learning Based Noninvasive Prediction of Atrial Flutter Mechanism from P-to-P Interval Variability under Imbalanced Dataset Conditions.

Atrial flutter (AFL) is a common arrhythmia with two significant mechanisms, namely, focal (FAFL) and macroreentry (MAFL). Discrimination of the AFL mechanism through noninvasive techniques can improve radiofrequency ablation efficacy. This study aims to differentiate the AFL mechanism using a 12-lead surface electrocardiogram. P-P interval series variability is hypothesized to be different in FAFL and MAFL and may be useful for discrimination. 12-lead ECG signals were collected from 46 patients with known AFL mechanisms. Features for a proposed classifier are extracted through descriptive statistics of the interval series. On the other hand, the class ratio of MAFL and FAFL was 41 : 5, respectively, which was highly imbalanced. To resolve this, different data augmentation techniques (SMOTE, modified-SMOTE, and smoothed-bootstrap) have been applied on the interval series to generate synthetic interval series and minimize imbalance. Modification is introduced in the classic SMOTE technique (modified-SMOTE) to properly produce data samples from the original distribution. The characteristics of modified-SMOTE are found closer to the original dataset than the other two techniques based on the four validation criteria. The performance of the proposed model has been evaluated by three linear classifiers, namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), logistic regression (LOG), and support vector machine (SVM). Filter and wrapper methods have been used for selecting relevant features. The best average performance was achieved at 400% augmentation of the FAFL interval series (90.24% sensitivity, 49.50% specificity, and 76.88% accuracy) in the LOG classifier. The variation of consecutive P-wave intervals has been shown as an effective concept that differentiates FAFL from MAFL through the 12-lead surface ECG.

Knowledge, attitude, and practices of front line health workers after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine: a cross-sectional study in Pakistan.

Background: Globally, there is an increased risk of COVID-19 infection among front-line health workers (FHW). This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practices of FHW of Pakistan after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: A population web-based survey on COVID-19 vaccine was conducted on 635 FHW in Pakistan between April 15, 2021, and July 15, 2021. The survey focused on four main sections consisting of socio-demographic data, knowledge, attitude, and practices after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The data was analyzed on SPSS. p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Overall, 60% of FHW were nervous before getting vaccinated, with the leading reason to get vaccinated being their concern to protect themselves and their community (53.4%). A majority of FHW had fear about the unseen side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (59.7%) used in Pakistan, with the most common side effect reported as soreness at the injection site (39%). It has been noted that almost all of the FHW observed preventive practices after getting vaccinated. The results showed that married respondents had favorable practices towards COVID-19 vaccines (B = 0.53, p < 0.01) (B, unstandardized regression coefficient). It was also found that more informational sources (B = 0.19, p < 0.01), higher knowledge of vaccination (B = 0.15, p < 0.001), and favorable attitude toward vaccine (B = 0.12, p < 0.001) significantly predicted favorable practices toward COVID-19 vaccination. Conclusion: The findings reflect that FHW, though they were worried about its side effects, have good knowledge and a positive attitude after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. This study is significant as the FHWs are a symbol for guidance, a reliable source of information, and an encouraging means of receiving COVID-19 vaccine for the general public. This study also reported that post-vaccination side effects were mild which will aid in reducing the vaccine hesitancy among the general Pakistani population.

Nuclear Medicine-A Name for Now and the Future.

ABSTRACT: Our article addresses the prevailing trend of new terminology introduced alongside the progress being made in nuclear medicine. Our article provides a historic, current, and future perspective.

Predictors and outcomes of acute pulmonary embolism in COVID-19; insights from US National COVID cohort collaborative.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether COVID-19 patients with pulmonary embolism had higher mortality and assess the utility of D-dimer in predicting acute pulmonary embolism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Using the National Collaborative COVID-19 retrospective cohort, a cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was studied to compare 90-day mortality and intubation outcomes in patients with and without pulmonary embolism in a multivariable cox regression analysis. The secondary measured outcomes in 1:4 propensity score-matched analysis included length of stay, chest pain incidence, heart rate, history of pulmonary embolism or DVT, and admission laboratory parameters. RESULTS: Among 31,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 1117 (3.5%) patients were diagnosed with acute pulmonary embolism. Patients with acute pulmonary embolism were noted to have higher mortality (23.6% vs.12.8%; adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR) = 1.36, 95% CI [1.20-1.55]), and intubation rates (17.6% vs. 9.3%, aHR = 1.38[1.18-1.61]). Pulmonary embolism patients had higher admission D-dimer FEU (Odds Ratio(OR) = 1.13; 95%CI [1.1-1.15]). As the D-dimer value increased, the specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy of the test increased; however, sensitivity decreased (AUC 0.70). At cut-off D-dimer FEU 1.8 mcg/ml, the test had clinical utility (accuracy 70%) in predicting pulmonary embolism. Patients with acute pulmonary embolism had a higher incidence of chest pain and history of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. CONCLUSIONS: Acute pulmonary embolism is associated with worse mortality and morbidity outcomes in COVID-19. We present D-dimer as a predictive risk tool in the form of a clinical calculator for the diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism in COVID-19.

The Development and Validation of Elder Self-Neglect Scale (ESNS) in Iranian Community-dwelling Older Population.

The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable elder self-neglect scale (ESNS) for field research on Iranian community-dwelling older adults. This mixed-method exploratory study was conducted in three stages: (1) item generation using literature review, (2) item reduction by expert panels, and (3) assessing the psychometric properties. In the third stage, the face, content, and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis) were performed on the first sample (n = 450), and the final 26-item scale was developed. After that, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability were assessed on the second sample (n = 250). Data were analyzed using IBM-SPSS v.23 and AMOS v.24. Exploratory factor analysis identified six factors with a total variance of 77.53%. The goodness of fit was indicated by Structural Equation Modeling. The Cronbach's alpha was estimated at 0.85. The optimal cutoff point was 73. This scale with 26 items seems to be an effective tool in screening elder self-neglect.

Cardiopulmonary disease as sequelae of long-term COVID-19: Current perspectives and challenges.

COVID-19 infection primarily targets the lungs, which in severe cases progresses to cytokine storm, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan dysfunction, and shock. Survivors are now presenting evidence of cardiopulmonary sequelae such as persistent right ventricular dysfunction, chronic thrombosis, lung fibrosis, and pulmonary hypertension. This review will summarize the current knowledge on long-term cardiopulmonary sequelae of COVID-19 and provide a framework for approaching the diagnosis and management of these entities. We will also identify research priorities to address areas of uncertainty and improve the quality of care provided to these patients.

Incivility in online learning environment: Perception of dental students and faculty.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to assess the extent of incivility and perception of dental students and faculty regarding uncivil behaviors in the online learning environment. METHODS: Incivility in online environment (IOLE) survey was used to collect data from dental students (n = 232) and faculty (n = 35) at Margalla Institute of Health Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from September to December 2021. A 4- point Likert scale was used for respondents to indicate their perceptions regarding incivility in IOLE, and a list of students' and faculty's uncivil behaviors. Descriptive analysis, chi-square test, and Spearman's correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. The level of significance was kept at ≤0.05. RESULTS: The majority of the students reported online incivility as either "a moderate or serious problem" (n = 103, 72.0%), and the majority of faculty (n = 12, 56%) reported incivility as "no to a mild problem" (p = 0.018). Both students and faculty agreed that students are more likely to engage in uncivil behavior in OLE as compared to faculty. Various forms of rude/threatening comments and posting ambiguous or vague responses that do not add meaning to the online discussion were considered uncivil student behaviors by both students and faculty (p ≤ 0.05). Assigning grades without providing useful feedback and threatening to fail students for not complying with faculty's demands were perceived as uncivil faculty behaviors (p ≤ 0.05). Female students and students with less self-reported expertise in online learning had greater mean scores for faculty uncivil behaviors (p ≤ 0.05). CONCLUSION: Incivility exists in OLE in dentistry with the more likely engagement of students in uncivil behaviors. With the increasing use of online platforms for education in dentistry, there is a need for further research and training courses for both students and faculty to reduce the extent of incivility and create a healthy and conducive learning environment.

Mitigating sarcoplasmic reticulum stress limits disuse-induced muscle loss in hindlimb unloaded mice.

Muscle disuse in the hindlimb unloaded (HU) mice causes significant atrophy and weakness. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving disuse-muscle atrophy remain elusive. We investigated the potential contribution of proteins dysregulation by sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), a condition called SR stress, to muscle loss during HU. Male, c57BL/6j mice were assigned to ground-based controls or HU groups treated with vehicle or 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PBA), a potent inhibitor of SR stress, once a day for three weeks. We report that the 4-PBA reduced the SR stress and partly reversed the muscle atrophy and weakness in the HU mice. Transcriptome analysis revealed that several genes were switched on (n = 3688) or differentially expressed (n = 1184) due to HU. GO, and KEGG term analysis revealed alterations in pathways associated with the assembly of cilia and microtubules, extracellular matrix proteins regulation, calcium homeostasis, and immune modulation during HU. The muscle restoration with 4-PBA partly reversed these changes along with differential and unique expression of several genes. The analysis of genes among the two comparisons (HU-v vs. control and HU-t vs. HU-v.) shows 841 genes were overlapped between the two comparisons and they may be regulated by 4-PBA. Altogether, our findings suggest that the pharmacological suppression of SR stress may be an effective strategy to prevent disuse-induced muscle weakness and atrophy.

Effectiveness of health education intervention on diabetes mellitus among the teachers working in public sector schools of Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is considered as one of the major public health problems globally. Health education strategies can help in managing blood glucose level and complications among DM patients. Health education intervention is effective to manage and control the blood glucose levels among diabetic patients. This study explored the effectiveness of health education intervention on DM among school teachers in public sector schools of Pakistan. METHODS: This was quasi-experimental study where baseline & end line assessments were conducted on teachers of public sector schools of Sindh province, Pakistan, from October to December 2019. Pretested structured questionnaire was used in this study. Participants (n = 136). were randomly selected from the list of government schools registered with district education department An intervention comprised of health education sessions with DM patients was undertaken after conducting baseline assessment followed by end line assessment. The institutional review board of Health Services Academy Pakistan ethically approved this study. RESULTS: All the respondents completed post-test with mean ± SD age of participants being 39.2 ± 1.34 years. Female teachers comprised 65% out of which 70% were living in rural areas. Knowledge on DM pre-test score was 20.03 ± 3.31 that increased in post-test to 49.11 ± 2.21 (p < 0.05). Mean score of information on symptoms and causes of DM was 1.98 ± 0.21 for pre-test whereas for post-test it was 4.78 ± 0.12 (p < 0.05). The effect of intervention was significant on diabetes related complications (p < 0.05), symptoms (p < 0.05), overall score (p < 0.05) and preventive practices (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The study provides evidence of the importance and effectiveness of health education intervention related to diabetes among school teachers, which has a positive impact on the knowledge and practices. We concluded that the health education session sensitized the teachers and they can bring cogent changes to enhance their knowledge about diabetes and its risks.

The clinical course, biochemical markers, and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 positive patients from the third wave in Pakistan: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Third wave of COVID-19 has affected several countries. Case fatality rates from first and second waves are expected to be surpassed by the current wave due to various variant transmissions. This study was aimed to compare and contrast the significant clinical markers between survivors and non-survivors during the third wave of COVID-19 to assess severity and prognosis. Methods: It includes all the patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) during the third wave, and were monitored for their disease course and outcomes. A total of 209 patients were included in the analysis via non-probability consecutive sampling method. Results: The median age was higher in non-surviving patients (p = 0.010). Majority of deaths occurred in intensive care patients (p < 0.001) and those with diabetes (p = 0.032) and hypertension (p = 0.003). Fever was the most predominant symptom in all patients (78.9%), dyspnea was common among expired individuals (p = 0.043) while recovered patients were more likely to be asymptomatic (p = 0.044). Gastrointestinal symptoms were not found marked during this wave. Being on ventilator has higher mortality (p < 0.001). Predominant radiological findings were interstitial patches or infiltrate (43.7%). Multivariable analysis showed hypertension (p = 0.042), BiPAP/CPAP (p < 0.001), being on ventilator (p = 0.004), and ARDS (p < 0.001) was associated with poor survival while patchy interstitial infiltrates on X-ray had good survival probability (p = 0.032). On Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, hypertension (p = 0.003), BiPAP/CPAP (p = 0.008), ventilator (p = 0.025), ICU stay (p = 0.001), high-grade fever (p = 0.001), and ARDS (p < 0.001) had reduced cumulative survival. Conclusion: Certain biochemical markers were more predictive of disease severity in the third-wave than the preceding waves.

Multi-step short-term [Formula: see text] forecasting for enactment of proactive environmental regulation strategies.

Particulate matter is one of the key contributors of air pollution and climate change. Long-term exposure to constituents of air pollutants has exerted serious health implications in both humans and plants leading to a detrimental impact on economy. Among the pollutants contributing to air quality determination, particulate matter has been linked to serious health implications causing pulmonary complications, cardiovascular diseases, growth retardation and ultimately death. In agriculture, crop yield is also negatively impacted by the deposition of particulate matter on stomata of the plant which is alarming and can cause food security concerns. The deleterious impact of air pollutants on human health, agricultural and economic well-being highlights the importance of quantifying and forecasting particulate matter. Several deterministic and deep learning models have been employed in the recent years to forecast the concentration of particulate matter. Among them, deep learning models have shown promising results when it comes to modeling time series data and forecasting it. We have explored recurrent neural networks with LSTM model which shows potential to predict the particulate matter ([Formula: see text]) based on multi-step multi-variate data of two of the most polluted regions of South Asia, Beijing, China and Punjab, Pakistan effectively. The LSTM model is tuned using Bayesian optimization technique to employ the appropriate hyper-parameters and weight initialization strategies based on the dataset. The model was able to predict [Formula: see text] for the next hour with root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.1913 (91.5% accuracy) and this error gradually increases with the number of time steps with next 24 hours steps prediction having RMSE of 0.7290. While in case of Punjab dataset with data recorded once a day, the RMSE for the next day forecast is 0.2192. These multi-step short-term forecasts would play a pivotal role in establishing an early warning system based on the air quality index (AQI) calculated and enable the government in enacting policies to contain it.

Bionomics of the unexplored sand flies fauna of District Mohmand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: assessing risk factors associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis.

BACKGROUND: Sand flies are of considerable public health importance in Pakistan because these insects are vectors of leishmaniasis. The current study explores the bionomics of sand flies, their spatial distribution pattern and cutaneous leishmaniasis-associated risk factors in District Mohmand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. METHODS: Sand flies were collected from indoor and outdoor habitats in 69 villages of five tehsils in Mohmand during July-October 2019. Risk factor data were recorded for 829 households in 94 villages. RESULTS: In total, 2065 sand flies were captured. Phlebotomus (Paraphlebotbmus) sergenti was the most abundant species. Relative density for P. sergenti and Phlebotomus papatasi was highest in Prang Ghar and lowest in Safi. Sand flies abundance peaked in August and September, corresponding to maximum relative humidity, temperature and rainfall. Relative density for P. sergenti and P. papatasi was highest in combined dwellings (indoor) and cattle corrals (outdoor). Phlebotomus sergenti and P. papatasi were abundant at an elevation of 283-1140 m on agricultural land and rangelands. Both species were recorded abundantly on Carbontites, Mesozoic and Indus suture Melange rock formations. Presence of domestic animals, ownership of pet dogs, presence of muddy dunes in the village, knowledge of sandflies and use of mosquitoes spray remained significant risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: The study reports sand fly bionomics in District Mohmand. Risk identified for cutaneous leishmaniasis are significant in strategising control methods for Health authorities can allocate localized control means to high-risk areas using these findings.

Endodontic Microbiology: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Top 50 Classics.

BACKGROUND: Citation analysis has emerged to play a significant role in recognition of the most useful areas of research. Endodontic microbiology has been a topic of interest for endodontists as well as periodontists and oral surgeons. This bibliometric analysis is aimed at identifying and reporting the characteristics of the top 50 cited articles on endodontic microbiology. METHODS: The articles were identified through a search on Web of Science (WoS), property of Clarivate Analytics database published on endodontic microbiology. The citation information of the selected articles was recorded. The Journal of Endodontics, International Endodontic Journal, Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology Oral Radiology and Endodontology, Dental Traumatology, and Australian Endodontic Journal were searched in the search title. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed using a statistical software package SPSS. Statistical analysis was performed using Shapiro-Wilk, Kruskal-Wallis, Post hoc, Mann-Kendall trend, and Spearman-rank tests. RESULTS: The 50 most cited articles were published from 1965 to 2012 with citation count varying from 1065 to 103 times. The total citation counts of articles recorded were 11,525 (WoS), 12,602 (Elseviers' Scopus), and 28,871 (Google Scholar). The most prolific years in terms of publications were 2001, 2002, and 2003, with five publications each, followed by 2005 with four. The year with most citations was 1998, with 1,330 citations, followed by 1965 and 2001, with 1,065 and 1,015 citations, respectively. A total of 136 authors contributed to the top 50 most cited articles with 27 corresponding institutions from 12 different countries. The most common methodological design was in vitro study, followed by clinic-laboratory study, literature review, systematic review and meta-analysis, and animal study. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provided a detailed list of the top 50 most cited and classic articles on microbiology in endodontics. This will help researchers, students, and clinicians in the field of endodontics as an impressive source of information.