Management of severe malaria remains a critical global challenge. In this study, using a multiplexed quantitative proteomics pipeline we systematically investigated the plasma proteome alterations in non-severe and severe malaria patients. We identified a few parasite proteins in severe malaria patients, which could be promising from a diagnostic perspective. Further, from host proteome analysis we observed substantial modulations in many crucial physiological pathways, including lipid metabolism, cytokine signaling, complement, and coagulation cascades in severe malaria. We propose that severe manifestations of malaria are possibly underpinned by modulations of the host physiology and defense machinery, which is evidently reflected in the plasma proteome alterations. Importantly, we identified multiple blood markers that can effectively define different complications of severe falciparum malaria, including cerebral syndromes and severe anemia. The ability of our identified blood markers to distinguish different severe complications of malaria may aid in developing new clinical tests for monitoring malaria severity.

Background: COVID-19 severity is disproportionately high in the elderly and people with comorbidities. However, other factors that predispose individuals to increased chances of infection are unclear. Methods: Data from 18,600 people screened for COVID-19 in Mumbai during the outbreak's initial phase, March 7 to June 30, 2020, were used to assess risk factors associated with COVID-19 using the odds ratio analysis. Findings: Males aged 60 years having both diabetes and hypertension were at the highest risk of COVID-19 infection (M vs. F OR=2.5, 95% CI=1.34À4.67, p = 0.0049). People having both diabetes and hypertension in 20 years (OR=4.11, 95% CI=3.26À5.20, p <0.0001), diabetes and hypertension independently in 20À39 (OR=4.13, 95% CI=2.22À7.70, p <0.0001, OR=4.32, 95% CI=2.10À8.88, p = 0.0001) and 60 years (OR=2.69, 95% CI=1.87À3.87, p <0.0001, OR=2.03, 95% CI=1.46À2.82, p <0.0001), chronic renal disease in 20À39 years (OR=5.38, 95% CI=1.91À15.09, p = 0.0007) age groups had significantly higher risk of COVID-19 infection than those without comorbidity. Quarantined people had significantly lower positive odds (OR=0.59, 95% CI=0.53À0.66, p <0.001) than non-quarantined people. Interpretation: Our research indicates that the risk of getting COVID-19 disease is not equal. When considering sex, age, and comorbidity together, we found that males aged 60 years and having both diabetes and hypertension had a significantly high risk of COVID-19 infection. Therefore, remedial measures such as vaccination programs should be prioritized for at-risk individuals.

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This paper is concerned with the preservation of unimodality under coherent structures of independent components having a common life distribution function. This result in a way generalizes a result of Alam [1], as Alam's result indirectly also deals with preservation of unimodality for (n – i + 1)-out-of-n systems of independent and identically distributed components. The usefulness of this property of coherent systems in obtaining sharper upper bounds on the reliability of the concerned system has been illustrated below for a bridge structure with components having a gamma life distribution function.

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