Link prediction in a complex network is a problem of fundamental interest in network science and has attracted increasing attention in recent years. It aims to predict missing (or future) links between two entities in a complex system that are not already connected. Among existing methods, local similarity indices are most popular that take into account the information of common neighbours to estimate the likelihood of existence of a connection between two nodes. In this paper, we propose global and quasi-local extensions of some commonly used local similarity indices. We have performed extensive numerical simulations on publicly available datasets from diverse domains demonstrating that the proposed extensions not only give superior performance, when compared to their respective local indices, but also outperform some of the current, state-of-the-art, local and global link-prediction methods.

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The global spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected humans in all age groups, deteriorated host immune responses, and caused millions of deaths. The reasons for individuals succumbing to COVID-19 were not only the SARS-CoV-2 infection but also associated bacterial infections. Antibiotics were largely used to prevent bacterial infections during COVID-19 illness, and many bacteria became resistant to conventional antibiotics. Although COVID-19 was considered the main culprit behind the millions of deaths, bacterial coinfections and superinfections were the major factors that increased the mortality rate in hospitalized patients. In the present study, we assessed the pathophysiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) superinfection in COVID-19 patients in Pakistan. A total of 3492 COVID-19 hospitalized patients were screened among which 224 strain were resistant to methicillin; 110 strains were tazobactam-resistant; 53 strains were ciprofloxacin-resistant; 23 strains were gentamicin-resistant; 11 strains were azithromycin-resistant; 3 strains were vancomycin-resistant. A high frequency of MRSA was detected in patients aged ≥50 with a prevalence of 7.33%, followed by patients aged >65 with a prevalence of 5.48% and a 5.10% prevalence in patients aged <50. In addition, pneumonia was detected in the COVID-19-associated MRSA (COVID-MRSA) that showed decreased levels of lymphocytes and albumin and increased the mortality rate from 2.3% to 25.23%. Collectively, an MRSA superinfection was associated with increased mortality in COVID-19 after 12 to 18 days of hospitalization. The study assessed the prevalence of MRSA, mortality rate, pneumonia, and the emergence of antibiotic resistance as the main outcomes. The study summarized that COVID-MRSA aggravated the treatment and recovery of patients and suggested testing MRSA as critical for hospitalized patients.

The yolk is the principal part of the egg that contains vitamins, minerals, lipids, and proteins which are essential for embryo development and hatching. The egg yolk contains significant amounts of lipoproteins, triacylglycerides, and cholesterol, whose dynamics are indistinct during embryogenesis. The effects of cholesterol on the yolk protein abundance, intensity, and function are ill-defined during embryonic development. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, eggs with respective high and low cholesterol protein abundance were investigated after 0, 2, 6, and 13 days of embryogenesis and further analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. The results revealed that the vitellogenin proteins are the most abundant egg yolk protein that showed proximity and a high degree of variation in isoelectric point and molecular weight. The results demonstrated increased expression of vitellogenin-1 and vitellogenin-3 at two days and vitellogenin-2 protein at 13 days of embryogenesis in both egg types. The ovoinhibitor, immunoglobulin lambda light chain precursor, Ig-gamma (clone-36 chicken), and beta-2-glycoprotein-1 precursor proteins were significantly expressed in high cholesterol eggs while haptoglobin protein PIT-54 and vitelline membrane outer layer proteins intensities were significant in low cholesterol eggs at two days of embryogenesis. The high cholesterol eggs showed a modest increase in egg weight, yolk weight, albumen height, yolk color, and egg strength relative to the low cholesterol eggs. The gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that the differentially expressed proteins such as vitellogenin proteins were involved in lipid transport and lipid localization biological processes and showed nutrient reservoir activity function. The ovotransferrin regulated the biological processes of plasminogen activation and extracellular matrix disassembly and characterized the anchored component of the plasma membrane. The ovoinhibitor protein was involved in response to mineralocorticoid and corticosterone biological processes whereas the vitellin membrane outer layer protein constituted the extracellular exosome, extracellular organelle, and membrane-bounded vesicle cellular components. Collectively, our study revealed yolk protein abundance, molecular function, cellular components, and biological processes and concluded that yolk protein intensities were significantly altered by cholesterol concentration.

The recent pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has increased the global concern over its transmission and prevention. Since there was an incontrovertible perception that environmental conditions might affect the spread of SARS-CoV-2, we analyzed the environmental variables impact on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Pakistan. Our analytical study revealed that when the temperature remained high for consecutive 10 to 15-days, a significant decrease is witnessed in the forthcoming week in the COVID-19 cases. We found that a persistent high ambient temperature of 36 °C and above is detrimental to SARS-CoV-2 transmission and has paused the community spread of COVID-19 in Pakistan. Importantly, during the fall period of SARS-CoV-2, a high relative humidity of 63-72% was noted that showed a positive role in COVID-19 inhibition. Hence, the community spread of SARS-CoV-2 was paused by the warm humid climate and the ambient temperature was the yardstick in turning down the epidemic in Pakistan.