AJAY KUMAR GUPTA

Born in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) brought up and educated in different part of India like UP board Allahabad, Nagpur University, Rajiv Gandhi Univ of Health Sciences Karnataka, Bengaluru and Bundelkhand University. Started academic carrier as Lecturer at Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, SGRRITS, Dehradun (1999-2001), followed by Institute of Pharmacy, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (2001-05); and presently serving CSJM University, Kanpur since from 2005. Awarded with Fellow Membership of ISCA, ICCE, FBPS, FABRF; Life Member: PRAYATNA, IPA, APTI, IPGA. Associate Editor/Editorial Board Member of several international and national journals. Guided several PG (M.Pharm), UG (B.Pharm.) projects and still guiding PG, UG & PhD scholars. Received various International, National and local Awards. Several articles are published and patents are granted.

EDUCATION

M.Pharm. (Pharmacology), PhD (Pharmacy), PDCR

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Pharmacology, Ethnopharmacology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Drug discovery and development

Scopus Publications

Carotid stenosis and cryptogenic stroke
Luca Saba, Riccardo Cau, Giacomo Spinato, Jasjit S. Suri, Marta Melis, Gianluca De Rubeis, Pierluigi Antignani, and Ajay Gupta
Elsevier BV



Recent advances and controversial issues in the optimal management of asymptomatic carotid stenosis
Kosmas I. Paraskevas, Martin M. Brown, Brajesh K. Lal, Piotr Myrcha, Sean P. Lyden, Peter A. Schneider, Pavel Poredos, Dimitri P. Mikhailidis, Eric A. Secemsky, Piotr Musialek,et al.
Elsevier BV



Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy and Risk of Isolated Nontraumatic Subdural Hemorrhage
Cyprien A. Rivier, Hooman Kamel, Kevin N. Sheth, Costantino Iadecola, Ajay Gupta, Mony J. de Leon, Elizabeth Ross, Guido J. Falcone, and Santosh B. Murthy
American Medical Association (AMA)
ImportanceCerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a common cause of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage in older patients. Although other types of intracranial hemorrhage can occur in conjunction with CAA-related intracerebral hemorrhage, the association between CAA and other subtypes of intracranial hemorrhage, particularly in the absence of intracerebral hemorrhage, remains poorly understood.ObjectiveTo determine whether CAA is an independent risk factor for isolated nontraumatic subdural hemorrhage (SDH).Design, Setting, and ParticipantsA population-based cohort study was performed using a 2-stage analysis of prospectively collected data in the UK Biobank cohort (discovery phase, 2006-2022) and the All of Us Research Program cohort (replication phase, 2018-2022). Participants included those who contributed at least 1 year of data while they were older than 50 years, in accordance with the diagnostic criteria for CAA. Participants with prevalent intracranial hemorrhage were excluded. Data were analyzed from October 2022 to October 2023.ExposureA diagnosis of CAA, identified using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) diagnosis code.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe outcome was an isolated nontraumatic SDH, identified using ICD-10-CM codes. Two identical analyses were performed separately in the 2 cohorts. First, the risk of SDH in patients with and without CAA was assessed using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for demographic characteristics, cardiovascular comorbidities, and antithrombotic medication use. Second, multivariable logistic regression was used to study the association between CAA and SDH.ResultsThe final analytical sample comprised 487 223 of the total 502 480 individuals in the UK Biobank cohort and 158 008 of the total 372 082 individuals in the All of Us cohort. Among the 487 223 participants in the discovery phase of the UK Biobank, the mean (SD) age was 56.5 (8.1) years, and 264 195 (54.2%) were female. There were 649 cases of incident SDH. Of the 126 participants diagnosed with CAA, 3 (2.4%) developed SDH. In adjusted Cox regression analyses, participants with CAA had an increased risk of having an SDH compared with those without CAA (hazard ratio [HR], 8.0; 95% CI, 2.6-24.8). Multivariable logistic regression analysis yielded higher odds of SDH among participants with CAA (odds ratio [OR], 7.6; 95% CI, 1.8-20.4). Among the 158 008 participants in the All of Us cohort, the mean (SD) age was 63.0 (9.5) years, and 89 639 (56.7%) were female. The findings were replicated in All of Us, in which 52 participants had CAA and 320 had an SDH. All of Us participants with CAA had an increased risk of having an SDH compared with those without CAA (HR, 4.9; 95% CI, 1.2-19.8). In adjusted multivariable logistic regression analysis, CAA was associated with higher odds of SDH (OR, 5.2; 95% CI, 0.8-17.6).Conclusions and RelevanceIn 2 large, heterogeneous cohorts, CAA was associated with increased risk of SDH. These findings suggest that CAA may be a novel risk factor for isolated nontraumatic SDH.


Modularly assembled multiplex prime editors for simultaneous editing of agronomically important genes in rice
Ajay Gupta, Bo Liu, Saad Raza, Qi-Jun Chen, and Bing Yang
Elsevier BV



Multi-Echo Complex Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping and Quantitative Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent Magnitude (mcQSM + qBOLD or mcQQ) for Oxygen Extraction Fraction (OEF) Mapping
Junghun Cho, Jinwei Zhang, Pascal Spincemaille, Hang Zhang, Thanh D. Nguyen, Shun Zhang, Ajay Gupta, and Yi Wang
MDPI AG
Oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), the fraction of oxygen that tissue extracts from blood, is an essential biomarker used to directly assess tissue viability and function in neurologic disorders. In ischemic stroke, for example, increased OEF can indicate the presence of penumbra—tissue with low perfusion yet intact cellular integrity—making it a primary therapeutic target. However, practical OEF mapping methods are not currently available in clinical settings, owing to the impractical data acquisitions in positron emission tomography (PET) and the limitations of existing MRI techniques. Recently, a novel MRI-based OEF mapping technique, termed QQ, was proposed. It shows high potential for clinical use by utilizing a routine sequence and removing the need for impractical multiple gas inhalations. However, QQ relies on the assumptions of Gaussian noise in susceptibility and multi-echo gradient echo (mGRE) magnitude signals for OEF estimation. This assumption is unreliable in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regions like disease-related lesions, risking inaccurate OEF estimation and potentially impacting clinical decisions. Addressing this, our study presents a novel multi-echo complex QQ (mcQQ) that models realistic Gaussian noise in mGRE complex signals. We implemented mcQQ using a deep learning framework (mcQQ-NET) and compared it with the existing QQ-NET in simulations, ischemic stroke patients, and healthy subjects, using identical training and testing datasets and schemes. In simulations, mcQQ-NET provided more accurate OEF than QQ-NET. In the subacute stroke patients, mcQQ-NET showed a lower average OEF ratio in lesions relative to unaffected contralateral normal tissue than QQ-NET. In the healthy subjects, mcQQ-NET provided uniform OEF maps, similar to QQ-NET, but without unrealistically high OEF outliers in areas of low SNR, such as SNR ≤ 15 (dB). Therefore, mcQQ-NET improves OEF accuracy by more accurately reflecting realistic Gaussian noise in complex mGRE signals. Its enhanced sensitivity to OEF abnormalities, based on more realistic biophysics modeling, suggests that mcQQ-NET has potential for investigating tissue variability in neurologic disorders.


Experiment and optimisation analysis of whole-body vibration among tractor drivers: a comprehensive study
Chander Prakash, Lakhwinder Pal Singh, and Ajay Gupta
Inderscience Publishers



High-resolution anatomical imaging of the fetal brain with a reduced field of view using outer volume suppression
MinJung Jang, Ajay Gupta, Arzu Kovanlikaya, Jessica E. Scholl, and Zungho Zun
Wiley
AbstractPurposeTo achieve high‐resolution fetal brain anatomical imaging without introducing image artifacts by reducing the FOV, and to demonstrate improved image quality compared to conventional full‐FOV fetal brain imaging.MethodsReduced FOV was achieved by applying outer volume suppression (OVS) pulses immediately prior to standard single‐shot fast spin echo (SSFSE) imaging. In the OVS preparation, a saturation RF pulse followed by a gradient spoiler was repeated three times with optimized flip‐angle weightings and a variable spoiler scheme to enhance signal suppression. Simulations and phantom and in‐vivo experiments were performed to evaluate OVS performance. In‐vivo high‐resolution SSFSE images acquired using the proposed approach were compared with conventional and high‐resolution SSFSE images with a full FOV, using image quality scores assessed by neuroradiologists and calculated image metrics.ResultsExcellent signal suppression in the saturation bands was confirmed in phantom and in‐vivo experiments. High‐resolution SSFSE images with a reduced FOV acquired using OVS demonstrated the improved depiction of brain structures without significant motion and blurring artifacts. The proposed method showed the highest image quality scores in the criteria of sharpness, contrast, and artifact and was selected as the best method based on overall image quality. The calculated image sharpness and tissue contrast ratio were also the highest with the proposed method.ConclusionHigh‐resolution fetal brain anatomical images acquired using a reduced FOV with OVS demonstrated improved image quality both qualitatively and quantitatively, suggesting the potential for enhanced diagnostic accuracy in detecting fetal brain abnormalities in utero.


Reduction in Constitutively Activated Auditory Brainstem Microglia in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease
Tracy Butler, Xiuyuan Wang, Gloria Chiang, Ke Xi, Sumit Niogi, Lidia Glodzik, Yi Li, Qolamreza Ray Razlighi, Liangdong Zhou, Seyed Hani Hojjati,et al.
IOS Press
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology is considered to begin in the brainstem, and cerebral microglia are known to play a critical role in AD pathogenesis, yet little is known about brainstem microglia in AD. Translocator protein (TSPO) PET, sensitive to activated microglia, shows high signal in dorsal brainstem in humans, but the precise location and clinical correlates of this signal are unknown. Objective: To define age and AD associations of brainstem TSPO PET signal in humans. Methods: We applied new probabilistic maps of brainstem nuclei to quantify PET-measured TSPO expression over the whole brain including brainstem in 71 subjects (43 controls scanned using 11C-PK11195; 20 controls and 8 AD subjects scanned using 11C-PBR28). We focused on inferior colliculi (IC) because of visually-obvious high signal in this region, and potential relevance to auditory dysfunction in AD. We also assessed bilateral cortex. Results: TSPO expression was normally high in IC and other brainstem regions. IC TSPO was decreased with aging (p = 0.001) and in AD subjects versus controls (p = 0.004). In cortex, TSPO expression was increased with aging (p = 0.030) and AD (p = 0.033). Conclusions: Decreased IC TSPO expression with aging and AD—an opposite pattern than in cortex—highlights underappreciated regional heterogeneity in microglia phenotype, and implicates IC in a biological explanation for strong links between hearing loss and AD. Unlike in cerebrum, where TSPO expression is considered pathological, activated microglia in IC and other brainstem nuclei may play a beneficial, homeostatic role. Additional study of brainstem microglia in aging and AD is needed.


Remote Associations Between Tau and Cortical Amyloid-β Are Stage-Dependent
Seyed Hani Hojjati, Gloria C. Chiang, Tracy A. Butler, Mony de Leon, Ajay Gupta, Yi Li, Mert R. Sabuncu, Farnia Feiz, Siddharth Nayak, Jacob Shteingart,et al.
IOS Press
Background: Histopathologic studies of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) suggest that extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques promote the spread of neurofibrillary tau tangles. However, these two proteinopathies initiate in spatially distinct brain regions, so how they interact during AD progression is unclear. Objective: In this study, we utilized Aβ and tau positron emission tomography (PET) scans from 572 older subjects (476 healthy controls (HC), 14 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 82 with mild AD), at varying stages of the disease, to investigate to what degree tau is associated with cortical Aβ deposition. Methods: Using multiple linear regression models and a pseudo-longitudinal ordering technique, we investigated remote tau-Aβ associations in four pathologic phases of AD progression based on tau spread: 1) no-tau, 2) pre-acceleration, 3) acceleration, and 4) post-acceleration. Results: No significant tau-Aβ association was detected in the no-tau phase. In the pre-acceleration phase, the earliest stage of tau deposition, associations emerged between regional tau in medial temporal lobe (MTL) (i.e., entorhinal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus) and cortical Aβ in lateral temporal lobe regions. The strongest tau-Aβ associations were found in the acceleration phase, in which tau in MTL regions was strongly associated with cortical Aβ (i.e., temporal and frontal lobes regions). Strikingly, in the post-acceleration phase, including 96% of symptomatic subjects, tau-Aβ associations were no longer significant. Conclusions: The results indicate that associations between tau and Aβ are stage-dependent, which could have important implications for understanding the interplay between these two proteinopathies during the progressive stages of AD.


Small Fenestra Stapedotomy in Comparison to Large Fenestra Stapedectomy in Improving Hearing Loss Caused by Otosclerosis: A Retrospective Study
Pankaj Kumar, Biban Chhabra, Ajay Kumar Gupta, Akshay Tamrakar, and Pallika Kumar
Medknow
Background: A retrospective study done on all otosclerotic patients who underwent stapes surgery between January 2019 and June 2022 in the department of otorhinolaryngology in a tertiary care hospital in North India. Material and Methods: Fifty four patients were enrolled in the study. The inclusion criteria of the study included patients in the age group of 18–55 years with conductive hearing loss and an intact tympanic membrane and an air–bone gap (ABG) of more than 30 dB. Diagnosis of otosclerosis is based on clinical history of progressive hearing loss and audiometric evaluation. Pure Tone Average shows typical conductive hearing loss pattern. Aim and Objective: Preoperative and 6 months postoperative audiological evaluation was conducted to understand the difference in hearing. The same surgical technique was used in all the cases, except that the dimension of the foot plate removed was different. Results: The mean age of patients in years who underwent stapes surgery was 31.6 ± 6.4 years. Out of the 54 patients, 24 (44.44%) were male and 30 (55.56%) were female. The number of patients who underwent large fenestra stapedectomy was 30 (55.56%) and who underwent small fenestra stapedotomy was 24 (44.44%). There was a significant improvement in the hearing parameters (PTA and ABG) in both the groups after surgery, but there was no significant difference between the small fenestra and large fenestra groups in terms of improvement in PTA and ABG. Conclusion: In conclusion, both small fenestra stapedotomy and large fenestra stapedectomy are safe and effective procedures for improving conductive hearing loss in otosclerosis patients.


Theory of constraints in healthcare: a systematic literature review
Mohit Datt, Ajay Gupta, Sushendra Kumar Misra, and Mahesh Gupta
Emerald
PurposeTheory of Constraints (TOC), though a well-established process improvement methodology in manufacturing, is still a novel philosophy for healthcare and an exhaustive review of literature is needed to summarize the key findings of various researchers. Such a review can provide a direction to the researchers and academicians interested in exploring the application of TOC in the healthcare sector. This paper aims to review the existing literature of TOC tools and techniques applied to the healthcare environment, and to investigate motivating factors, benefits and key gaps for identifying directions for future research in the domain of healthcare.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, different electronic repositories were searched using multiple keywords. The current study identified 36 articles published between January 1999 to mid-2021 to conceptualize and summarize the research questions used in the study. Descriptive analysis along with pictorial representations have been used for better visualization of work.FindingsThis paper presents a thorough literature review of TOC in healthcare and identifies the evolution, current trends, tools used, nature of services chosen for application and research gaps and recommends future direction for research. A variety of motivating factors and benefits of TOC in healthcare are identified. Another key finding of this study is that almost all implementations listed in literature reported positive outcomes and substantial improvements in the performance of the healthcare unit chosen for study.Practical implicationsThis paper provides valuable insight to researchers, practitioners and policymakers on the potential of TOC to improve quality of services, flow of patients, revenues, process efficiency and cost reduction in different health care settings. A number of findings and suggestions compiled in the paper from literature study can be used for diagnosing, learning and making substantial changes in healthcare. The methodologies used by different researchers were analysed and combined to propose a generic step by step procedure to apply TOC. This methodology will guide the practising managers about the appropriate tools of TOC for their specific need.Social implicationsGood health is always the first desire of all men and women around the globe. The global aim of healthcare is to quickly cure more patients and ensure healthier population both today and in future. This article will work as a foundation for future applications of TOC in healthcare and guide upcoming applications in the booming healthcare sector. The paper will help the healthcare managers in serving a greater number of patients with limited available resources.Originality/valueThis paper provides original collaborative work compiled by the authors. Since no comprehensive systematic review of TOC in healthcare has been reported earlier, this study would be a valuable asset for researchers in this field. A model has been presented that links various benefits with one another and clarifies the need to focus on process improvement which naturally results in these benefits. Similarly, a model has been presented to guide the users in implementation of TOC in healthcare.


CIRMQUAL: a conceptual framework of healthcare service quality
Mohit Datt, Ajay Gupta, Sushendra Kumar Misra, and Mahesh Gupta
Emerald
PurposeThe scope of this study is to explore and summarize the pool of dimensions, models and measurement techniques of service quality used in healthcare services and to propose a comprehensive conceptual model for practitioners and researchers.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs a comprehensive review of available literature by using multiple keywords on different electronic repositories using the recommendations of the PRISMA approach for the selection of articles. A critical analysis of available studies helped in compiling a list of core service quality dimensions in healthcare services.FindingsThis paper presents a comprehensive account of different dimensions and their measurement items used by various researchers to assess service quality in healthcare systems. Most of the researchers have used SERVQUAL model either in its original or modified form while the others have proposed and used totally different dimensions to assess the service quality in healthcare. Many dimensions are just an existing dimension of SERVQUAL that has undergone a name change while others are completely new. The dimensions used by many researchers have items drawn from more than one dimension of SERVQUAL model. The availability of so many dimensions and models adds to the confusion that researchers and practicing managers experience when determining the appropriate model to be used in their work. To mitigate this confusion, there is a need to develop a comprehensive model; the current work is an attempt to meet this need. Through our analysis, we identify four major service quality dimensions: clinical quality, infrastructural quality, relationship and managerial quality and propose a model named CIRMQUAL.Originality/valueAfter exploring all available models in the domain of healthcare, this research presents the best possible areas to enhance the quality of healthcare services. It also enhances the research insights for academicians and working professionals by developing and proposing a comprehensive model for measuring healthcare service quality. The proposed model covers almost all of the service quality dimensions used by other researchers and will make the choice of dimensions/model easy for the future researchers/practitioners interested in measuring and improving the quality of services offered by their healthcare units. Such a comprehensive model has not been developed by any researcher thus far.


Pathway to Independence Awards (K99/R00): Funding Dynamics and Prediction of Future National Institutes of Health Research Project Funding
Kelly M. Gillen, Daniel M. Markowitz, Patricia Long, Adriel Villegas-Estrada, Gabriela Anglon, Eileen Chang, and Ajay Gupta
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Abstract Purpose The authors used the National Institutes of Health (NIH) RePORTER (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools) to evaluate funding trends and historic NIH investment increase in the K99 award pathway and examine whether R00 to R01 or R21 achievement time correlated with the future success of an early-stage NIH-funded investigator. Method All K99 awards and funding data in this study were limited to all clinical departments. The authors identified all researchers and awards through a K99 search from fiscal years (FYs) 2007 to 2022 across all clinical departments and investigated trends in K99 awards and funding from NIH FYs 2007 to 2022. They generated an R00 data set and analyzed the K99 to R00 achievement statistics from FYs 2007 to 2022. The authors aggregated NIH annual data files for FYs 2007 to 2021 to generate a master data file of all R01 and R21 awards. They linked R01 and R21 award data to the researcher previously identified through the K99 search and focused on the connection between K99/R00 awardees and subsequent R01 or R21 awards. Results From FY 2008 to FY 2022, the NIH K99 budget increased 127.0%, whereas the NIH program-level budget increased 17.3%. A principal investigator’s mean funding per year significantly decreased as time from R00 to R01 or R21 increased (P < .001); 7 of 15 comparisons differed significantly (2 at P < .01 and 5 at P < .001). Conclusions NIH investment in the K99 award pathway has substantially outpaced the NIH program-level budget increase, and there is a strong association between mean funding per year since the start of the R00 phase and time from R00 to R01 or R21. This analysis may be useful to clinical departments as they evaluate selecting new and retaining current biomedical scientists for independent research positions.


Carotid Plaque-RADS: A Novel Stroke Risk Classification System
Luca Saba, Riccardo Cau, Alessandro Murgia, Andrew N. Nicolaides, Max Wintermark, Mauricio Castillo, Daniel Staub, Stravos K. Kakkos, Qi Yang, Kosmas I. Paraskevas,et al.
Elsevier BV



Integrating Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma: a framework development and its application
Mahesh Gupta, Abhijeet Digalwar, Ajay Gupta, and Animesh Goyal
Informa UK Limited



Variations in Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve in Thyroidectomy
Pankaj Kumar, Moudipa Chatterjee, and Ajay Gupta
Springer Science and Business Media LLC



Advancements in smart farming: A comprehensive review of IoT, wireless communication, sensors, and hardware for agricultural automation
Chander Prakash, Lakhwinder Pal Singh, Ajay Gupta, and Shiv Kumar Lohan
Elsevier BV



Optic Nerve Diameter on Non-Contrast Computed Tomography and Intracranial Hypertension in Patients With Acute Brain Injury: A Validation Study
Joshua Kahan, Hanley Ong, Hailan Elnaas, Judy H. Ch'ang, Santosh B. Murthy, Alexander E. Merkler, Mert R. Sabuncu, Ajay Gupta, and Hooman Kamel
Mary Ann Liebert Inc
Intracranial hypertension is a feared complication of acute brain injury that can cause ischemic stroke, herniation, and death. Identifying those at risk is difficult, and the physical examination is often confounded. Given the widespread availability and use of computed tomography (CT) in patients with acute brain injury, prior work has attempted to use optic nerve diameter measurements to identify those at risk of intracranial hypertension. We aimed to validate the use of optic nerve diameter measurements on CT as a screening tool for intracranial hypertension in a large cohort of brain injured patients. We performed a retrospective observational cohort study in a single tertiary referral Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit. We identified patients with documented intracranial pressure measures as part of their routine clinical care who had non-contrast CT head scans collected within 24 hours, and then measured the optic nerve diameters and explored the relationship and test characteristics of these measures to identify those at risk of intracranial hypertension. In a cohort of 314 patients, optic nerve diameter on CT was linearly but weakly associated with intracranial pressure. When used to identify those with intracranial hypertension (>20 mm Hg), the area under the receiver operator curve was 0.68. Using a previously proposed threshold of 0.6 cm, the sensitivity was 81%, specificity 43%, positive likelihood ratio 1.4, and negative likelihood ratio 0.45. CT-derived optic nerve diameter using a threshold of 0.6 cm is sensitive but not specific for intracranial hypertension, and the overall correlation is weak.


Extracranial Carotid Plaque Calcification and Cerebrovascular Ischemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Moayad Homssi, Atin Saha, Diana Delgado, Arindam RoyChoudhury, Charlene Thomas, Matthew Lin, Hediyeh Baradaran, Hooman Kamel, and Ajay Gupta
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
BACKGROUND: Although coronary calcification quantification is an established approach for cardiovascular risk assessment, the value of quantifying carotid calcification is less clear. As a result, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the association between extracranial carotid artery plaque calcification burden and ipsilateral cerebrovascular ischemic events. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was performed in the following databases: Ovid MEDLINE(R) 1946 to July 6, 2022; OVID Embase 1974 to July 6, 2022; and The Cochrane Library (Wiley). We performed meta-analyses including studies in which investigators performed a computed tomography assessment of calcification volume, percentage, or other total calcium burden summarizable in a single continuous imaging biomarker and determined the association of these features with the occurrence of ipsilateral stroke or transient ischemic attack. RESULTS: Our overall meta-analysis consisted of 2239 carotid arteries and 9 studies. The presence of calcification in carotid arteries ipsilateral to ischemic stroke or in stroke patients compared with asymptomatic patients did not demonstrate a significant association with ischemic cerebrovascular events (relative risk of 0.75 [95% CI, 0.44–1.28]; P =0.29). When restricted to studies of significant carotid artery stenosis (>50%), the presence of calcification was associated with a reduced risk of ischemic stroke (relative risk of 0.56 [95% CI, 0.38–0.85]; P =0.006). When the analysis was limited to studies of patients with mainly nonstenotic plaques, there was an increased relative risk of ipsilateral ischemic stroke of 1.72 ([95% CI, 1.01–2.91]; P =0.04). Subgroup meta-analyses of total calcium burden and morphological features of calcium showed wide variability in their strength of association with ischemic stroke and demonstrated significant heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of calcification in carotid plaque confers a reduced association with ipsilateral ischemic events, although these results seem to be limited among carotid arteries with higher degrees of stenosis. Adoption of carotid calcification measures in clinical decision-making will require additional studies providing more reproducible and standardized methods of calcium characterization and testing these imaging strategies in prospective studies.


National Institutes of Health Funding Gaps for Principal Investigators
Kelly M. Gillen, Daniel M. Markowitz, Patricia Long, Adriel Villegas-Estrada, Eileen Chang, and Ajay Gupta
American Medical Association (AMA)
ImportanceEarly-stage and established investigators compete for a limited supply of funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Regardless of their previous funding success, many principal investigators (PIs) encounter a funding gap in which they no longer receive ongoing funding from the NIH.ObjectiveTo determine incidence rates of PI-level funding gaps, the mean funding gap length, and whether these 2 metrics are associated with previous funding success.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis study was conducted using data from NIH RePORTER. Historical datafiles for fiscal year (FY) 2011 to FY 2021 were aggregated to generate 2 master datafiles for this period: all NIH awards and only R01 awards. PIs with no funding in FY 2011 or FY 2021 were removed. PIs were sorted by FY 2011 total funding amounts and grouped by quarter of amount.ResultsA total of 39 944 unique researchers were awarded 220 131 NIH awards, of which 103 753 were R01 awards. For all NIH awards, there was an overall linear increase from top quarter to bottom quarter in the percentage of PIs who had at least 1 year without funding (from 27% to 75%), percentage of these gap PIs who had at least 2 consecutive years without funding (from 56% to 68%), and mean maximum consecutive years without funding for gap PIs (2.2 years to 3.1 years). For only R01 awards, there was an overall linear increase from top quarter to bottom quarter in the percentage of PIs who had at least 1 year without funding (50% to 74%), percentage of gap PIs who had at least 2 consecutive years without funding (59% to 71%), and mean maximum consecutive years without funding for gap PIs (2.4 years to 3.1 years).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this cohort study of NIH-funded investigators, PIs with higher NIH funding were less likely to experience a funding gap. Additionally, when these PIs encountered a funding gap, this period without funding was shorter; however, among all PIs, funding gaps typically lasted 2 to 3 years. These associations were found inclusive of all NIH awards and when analysis was limited to only R01 awards. These findings may be useful to PIs and academic institutions as they prepare, structure, and project research resource allocations.


Incidence and Possible Predictive Factors of Facial Nerve Paralysis after Superficial Parotidectomy for Benign Tumours: Our Experience
Pankaj Kumar, Ajay Gupta, Nitish Aggarwal, Saurabh Vijay, and Pallika Kumar
Springer Science and Business Media LLC



Choroid Plexus Calcification Correlates with Cortical Microglial Activation in Humans: A Multimodal PET, CT, MRI Study
T. Butler, X.H. Wang, G.C. Chiang, Y. Li, L. Zhou, K. Xi, N. Wickramasuriya, E. Tanzi, E. Spector, I. Ozsahin,et al.
American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR)



High-efficiency prime editing enables new strategies for broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial blight of rice
Ajay Gupta, Bo Liu, Qi‐Jun Chen, and Bing Yang
Wiley
Using genetic resistance against bacterial blight (BB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae (Xoo) is a major objective in rice breeding programmes. Prime editing (PE) has the potential to create novel germplasm against Xoo. Here, we use an improved prime-editing system to implement two new strategies for BB resistance. Knock-in of TAL effector binding elements (EBE) derived from the BB susceptible gene SWEET14 into the promoter of a dysfunctional executor R gene xa23 reaches 47.2% with desired edits including biallelic editing at 18% in T0 generation that enables an inducible TALE-dependent BB resistance. Editing the transcription factor TFIIA gene TFIIAγ5 required for TAL effector-dependent BB susceptibility recapitulates the resistance of xa5 at an editing efficiency of 88.5% with biallelic editing rate of 30% in T0 generation. The engineered loci provided resistance against multiple Xoo strains in T1 generation. Whole-genome sequencing detected no OsMLH1dn-associated random mutations and no off-target editing demonstrating high specificity of this PE system. This is the first-ever report to use PE system to engineer resistance against biotic stress and to demonstrate knock-in of 30-nucleotides cis-regulatory element at high efficiency. The new strategies hold promises to fend rice off the evolving Xoo strains and protect it from epidemics.


Evaluation of the Statistical Detection of Change Algorithm for Screening Patients with MS with New Lesion Activity on Longitudinal Brain MRI
M. Homssi, E.M. Sweeney, E. Demmon, W. Mannheim, M. Sakirsky, Y. Wang, S.A. Gauthier, A. Gupta, and T.D. Nguyen
American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR)
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Identification of new MS lesions on longitudinal MR imaging by human readers is time-consuming and prone to error. Our objective was to evaluate the improvement in the performance of subject-level detection by readers when assisted by the automated statistical detection of change algorithm. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 200 patients with MS with a mean interscan interval of 13.2 (SD, 2.4) months were included. Statistical detection of change was applied to the baseline and follow-up FLAIR images to detect potential new lesions for confirmation by readers (Reader + statistical detection of change method). This method was compared with readers operating in the clinical workflow (Reader method) for a subject-level detection of new lesions. RESULTS: Reader + statistical detection of change found 30 subjects (15.0%) with at least 1 new lesion, while Reader detected 16 subjects (8.0%). As a subject-level screening tool, statistical detection of change achieved a perfect sensitivity of 1.00 (95% CI, 0.88–1.00) and a moderate specificity of 0.67 (95% CI, 0.59–0.74). The agreement on a subject level was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.87–0.95) between Reader + statistical detection of change and Reader, and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.66–0.78) between Reader + statistical detection of change and statistical detection of change. CONCLUSIONS: The statistical detection of change algorithm can serve as a time-saving screening tool to assist human readers in verifying 3D FLAIR images of patients with MS with suspected new lesions. Our promising results warrant further evaluation of statistical detection of change in prospective multireader clinical studies.


Association Between Spotty Calcification in Nonstenosing Extracranial Carotid Artery Plaque and Ipsilateral Ischemic Stroke
Moayad Homssi, Amar Vora, Cenai Zhang, Hediyeh Baradaran, Hooman Kamel, and Ajay Gupta
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Background Small spotty calcifications in the coronary arteries are associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction. We examined the association between spotty calcifications near the carotid bifurcations and ipsilateral ischemic stroke in patients with <50% luminal stenosis of the extracranial carotid arteries. Methods and Results We used data from the CAESAR (Cornell Acute Stroke Academic Registry), a prospective registry of all patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to our institution. We included patients who met criteria for cryptogenic stroke and underwent computed tomography angiography and brain magnetic resonance imaging. Patients with extracranial carotid artery stenosis ≥50% and patients with posterior or bilateral anterior circulation infarcts were excluded. We examined the carotid bifurcations for spotty calcifications, defined as ≥1 contiguous regions of luminal calcification ≤3 mm along the long axis of the vessel. We also measured low‐density plaque and maximum plaque thickness. The eligible cohort consisted of 117 patients with a mean age of 66.7±1.65 years with a median National Institute of Health Stroke Scale stroke at the time of arrival of 6 (range, 3–13). The number of spotty calcifications present within a low‐density plaque was significantly associated with ipsilateral infarction (0.3±0.8 versus 0.1±0.4, P =0.02). Maximum plaque thickness was also significantly associated with ipsilateral infarction (1.4 mm ±1.5 versus 1.0 mm ±1.1, P =0.004). Conclusions Spotty calcifications associated with low‐density plaque and maximum plaque thickness were associated with ipsilateral ischemic stroke in patients with nonstenotic carotid atherosclerosis, suggesting a role as imaging markers of high‐risk plaque.

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

Asymmetric Janus Nanofibrous Agar-Based Wound Dressing Infused with Enhanced Antioxidant and Antibacterial Properties
K Rathore, D Upadhyay, N Verma, AK Gupta, S Matheshwaran, S Sharma, ...
ACS Applied Bio Materials 7 (11), 7608-7623 2024



Novel perspective of therapeutic modules to overcome motor and nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease
A Kumar, AK Gupta, PK Singh
AIMS neuroscience 11 (3), 312 2024



Evaluation of green inhibitors for corrosion control of bronze by using thin layer activation method
J Biswal, HJ Pant, VK Sharma, SC Sharma, AK Gupta
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam 2024



Prevalence of depression in hypertensive patients and its associated factors in India: a systematic review and meta-analysis
A Dutta, V Chaudhary, AK Gupta, K Murti, S Kumari, D Dhir, S Meenakshi, ...
Hipertensin y Riesgo Vascular 2024



Incidence of Different Type of Lip Lines among Medical Students at Prayagraj
A Kaul, RK Rai, DK Singh, AK Gupta
Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine 46 (2), 205-208 2024



Abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) for post-trauma laparotomy ventral hernia and follow-up assessment of functional quality of life (QOL): experience of a level-1 trauma
DK Bagaria, S Gupta, S Pandey, N Choudhary, P Priyadarshini, A Kumar, ...
Hernia 28 (3), 857-862 2024



Seven Days in the ICU; The Profound Storm of a Proliferative Disease
H Shanmugavel Geetha, MG Suresh, A Sekar, A Gupta, GM Abraham
C79. INFECTIONS AND CRITICAL ILLNESS: CHALLENGES IN THORACIC ONCOLOGY, A6573 2024



Real-World assessment of personalized approach with voglibose fixed-dose combination in type 2 diabetes mellitus
N Parmar, AK Gupta, K Jhaveri, A Balachandran, G Chhaya, S Kansara, ...
Cureus 16 (4) 2024



Formulation of Calcium Enriched Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana) based Muffin Fortified with Nutri Seeds
A Gupta, N Kamat, PM Pakma, A Baruah, H Sharma
J Food Chem Nanotechnol 10 (S1), S111-S116 2024



IDF23-0486 Influence of body composition on bone mineral content among adult ambulatory T2D patients
M Bera, MK Guha, R Ahmed, A Gupta
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 209, 111516 2024



The association between BAP levels and other markers of vascular calcification in patients with T2DM
A Gupta, M Bera, R Ahmed, MK Guha
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 209 2024



IDF23-0560 The prevalence of Endogenous Cushing syndrome (CS) in adults with diabetes mellitus in Eastern India
A Gupta, M Bera, A Baidya, R Ahmed
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 209, 111540 2024



IDF23-0470 A study to asses the comparable sensitivity and specificity of TBI and ABI in the evaluation of PAD in persons with T2D
M Bera, A Gupta, MK Guha, R Ahmed
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 209, 111387 2024



IDF23-0561 The spectrum of thyroid dysfunction and thyroid autoimmunity in Type 1 diabetes
A Gupta
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 209, 111541 2024



Progressive Expression of Bean Leaf Lesions: A Comprehensive Analysis Using Spatio-Temporal Disease Classification Solutions Based on CNN and LSTM Networks
D Upadhyay, M Manwal, AK Gupta, V Kukreja, R Sharma
2024 IEEE International Conference on Computing, Power and Communication 2024



Modeling of Triphenyl Phosphate Surfactant Enhanced Drying of Polystyrene/p-Xylene Coatings Using Artificial Neural Network
D Thapliyal, R Shrivastava, GD Verros, S Verma, RK Arya, P Sen, ...
Processes 12 (2), 260 2024



Investigating the phenology and interactions of competitive plant species co-occurring with invasive Lantana camara in Indian Himalayan Region
A Kumar, S Singh, D Kumar, RK Singh, AK Gupta, K Premkumar, ...
Scientific Reports 14 (1), 400 2024



Ameriolations with VAM and PSB inoculation of growth and yield attributes in pea (Pisum sativum L.) cv. Arkel
SS Bhatt, M Vamshi, V Singh, P Rani, D Dayal, A Gupta, AK Sanghi, ...
Legume Research 47 (7), 1208-1212 2024



Central serous chorioretinopathy: StatPearls
A Gupta, K Tripathy
Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing 2024



Religion, spirituality, and coping among the psychiatric population: a narrative review
S Shoib, S Das, AK Gupta, I Ullah, S Javed, A Nocera, SK Kar, ...
Academy Publisher 2024

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

Effect of salt stress on proline metabolism in two high yielding genotypes of green gram
N Misra, AK Gupta
Plant science 169 (2), 331-339 2005
Citations: 428



Effect of salinity and different nitrogen sources on the activity of antioxidant enzymes and indole alkaloid content in Catharanthus roseus seedlings
N Misra, AK Gupta
Journal of plant physiology 163 (1), 11-18 2006
Citations: 294



Hepatoprotective activity of aqueous ethanolic extract of Chamomile Capitula in paracetamol intoxicated albino rats
N Gupta, Ajay Kumar, Misra
American Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology 1 (1), 17-20 2006
Citations: 206



Hepatoprotective activity of Rauwolfia serpentina rhizome in paracetamol intoxicated rats.
AK Gupta, HC Havagiray Chitme, SK Dass, NM Neelam Misra
2006
Citations: 92



Effect of dynamic cross‐linking on melt rheological properties of polypropylene/ethylene‐propylene‐diene rubber blends
AK Jain, NK Gupta, AK Nagpal
Journal of Applied Polymer Science 77 (7), 1488-1505 2000
Citations: 70



Interactive effects of sodium and calcium on proline metabolism in salt tolerant green gram cultivar
N Misra, AK Gupta
Am. J. Plant Physiol 1 (1), 1-12 2006
Citations: 56



Antioxidant activity of Chamomile recutita capitula methanolic extracts against CCl₄-induced liver injury in rats.
AK Gupta, HC Havagiray Chitme, SK Dass, NM Neelam Misra
2006
Citations: 49



Herbal medicine for health
AK Gupta, HR Chitme
The eastern pharmacist 23 (512), 41-44 2000
Citations: 44



Wound-healing activity of Onosma hispidum (Ratanjot) in normal and diabetic rats
N Kumar, AK Gupta
Journal of herbs, spices & medicinal plants 15 (4), 342-351 2010
Citations: 32



Medicinal plant for curing Alzheimer’s disease
AK Singh, A Gupta, AK Mishra, V Gupta, P Bansal, S Kumar
International Journal of Pharmaceutical & Biological Archive 1 (2), 108-114 2010
Citations: 32



Changes in free amino acids and stress protein synthesis in two genotypes of green gram under salt stress
N Misra, AK Gupta, UN Dwivedi
Journal of Plant Sciences 2006
Citations: 30



Indian tribe’s and villager’s health and habits: Popularity of apocynaceae plants as medicine
AKGSKP Nirmala Devi
International Journal of Green Pharmacy (IJGP) 11 (02) 2017
Citations: 21



Differential response of scavenging of reactive oxygen species in green gram genotype grown under salinity stress
N Misra, MS Ansari, AK Gupta
Am. J. Plant Physiol 1, 41-53 2006
Citations: 19



Aquasomes: a self-assembled nano-particulate carrier system
AK Gupta, D Gupta, V Gupta
Int J Cur Res Rev 13 (4), 44-52 2021
Citations: 16



Hypoglycemic activity of Onosma hispidum (Ratanjot)
N Kumar, AK Gupta, D Prakash, P Kumar
International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries 30 (4), 213-216 2010
Citations: 16



Pre-planting application of soil sterilents and herbicides for management of crown gall disease on Tolt'cherry rootstock
AK Gupta, B Kamal
The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 76 (7) 2006
Citations: 16



Central serous chorioretinopathy: StatPearls
A Gupta, K Tripathy
Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing 2024
Citations: 15



Comparative antioxidant potential screening of polyherbal formulations
S Jain, A Gupta, N Malviya, H Suhur
Advances in Pharmacology and Toxicology 10 (1), 101-110 2009
Citations: 15



Synchysis scintillans or asteroid bodies
LP Agarwal, M Mohan, PK Khosla, AK Gupta
Orient Arch Ophthalmol 1, 167 1963
Citations: 15



Kasni (Cichorium intybus L.) A propitious traditional medicinal herb
P Katiyar, A Kumar, AK Mishra, RK Dixit, A Kumar, R Kumar, AK Gupta
Int J Pharmacogn 8, 368-380 2015
Citations: 14

Publications

Refer Vidwan-ID: 213005

RESEARCH OUTPUTS (PATENTS, SOFTWARE, PUBLICATIONS, PRODUCTS)

Refer Vidwan-ID: 213005

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Eight months