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OBJECTIVE: Peroxisome injury occurs in the central nervous system (CNS) during multiple virus infections that result in neurological disabilities. We investigated host neuroimmune responses and peroxisome biogenesis factors during severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection using a multiplatform strategy. METHODS: Brain tissues from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (n = 12) and other disease control (ODC) (n = 12) patients, as well as primary human neural cells and Syrian hamsters, infected with a clinical variant of SARS-CoV-2, were investigated by droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR), quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR), and immunodetection methods. RESULTS: SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the CNS of 4 patients with COVID-19 with viral protein (NSP3 and spike) immunodetection in the brainstem. Olfactory bulb, brainstem, and cerebrum from patients with COVID-19 showed induction of pro-inflammatory transcripts (IL8, IL18, CXCL10, NOD2) and cytokines (GM-CSF and IL-18) compared to CNS tissues from ODC patients (p < 0.05). Peroxisome biogenesis factor transcripts (PEX3, PEX5L, PEX11ß, and PEX14) and proteins (PEX3, PEX14, PMP70) were suppressed in the CNS of COVID-19 compared to ODC patients (p < 0.05). SARS-CoV-2 infection of hamsters revealed viral RNA detection in the olfactory bulb at days 4 and 7 post-infection while inflammatory gene expression was upregulated in the cerebrum of infected animals by day 14 post-infection (p < 0.05). Pex3 transcript levels together with catalase and PMP70 immunoreactivity were suppressed in the cerebrum of SARS-CoV-2 infected animals (p < 0.05). INTERPRETATION: COVID-19 induced sustained neuroinflammatory responses with peroxisome biogenesis factor suppression despite limited brainstem SARS-CoV-2 neurotropism in humans. These observations offer insights into developing biomarkers and therapies, while also implicating persistent peroxisome dysfunction as a contributor to the neurological post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. ANN NEUROL 2023.
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The present study was simultaneously conducted in two distantly located areas to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on farming processes, instantaneous financial impacts and mitigation strategies adopted by the farmers in the small scale freshwater carp farming and coastal brackish water shrimp farming sectors in India. Primary data were collected through interview of the farmers with the help of pre-tested structured interview schedules. Though the initial impact in both the sectors were substantial, freshwater carp farmers mitigated the crises comparatively well because of wider option in alternative livelihood, low cost locally available inputs, mobilization of local market, direct door to door vending of live fish and mobilization of women work force from the family in the farming sector. Untapped resource in the form of women's' participation in the freshwater farming practices was noteworthy during the pandemic period which increased polynomially (y = - 1.0714x2 + 7.5286x -2.2;R2 = 0.9648). As the shrimp farming sector was dependent upon external markets and burdened with high cost inputs primarily supplied by the input dealers on credit basis, the sector has to bear the burden most. Garret's Rank analysis revealed that integration with other production sectors ranked first as mitigation perception to the freshwater carp farmers, whereas, to the coastal shrimp farmers, the highest rank was with the perception that everything will be normalized within 2- 3 months naturally. Garret's Rank analysis also revealed that in both the sectors, the farmers most important need was credit from the Govt. source in mitigating COVID-19 like crisis in future. © D. Hait.
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Visually impaired people require support with regular tasks including navigating, detecting obstacles, and maintaining safety, especially in both indoor and outdoor environments. As a result of the advancement of assistive technology, their lives have become substantially more convenient. Here, cutting-edge assistive devices and technologies for the visually impaired are reviewed, along with a chronology of their evolution. These methodologies are classified according to their intended applications. The taxonomy is combined with a description of the tests and experiments that can be used to examine the characteristics and assessments of assistive technology. In addition, the algorithms used in assistive devices are examined. This paper looks at solar industry innovations and promotes using renewable energy sources to create assistive devices, as well as, addresses the sudden advent of COVID-19 and the shift in the development of assistive devices. This review can serve as a stepping stone for further research on the topic. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)
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Children with prior coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection display an increased systemic inflammation causing multiorgan dysfunctions in the cardiovascular, respiratory, central nervous system, and gastrointestinal (GI) systems, known as MIS-C, that is, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Most of the MIS-C cases have GI manifestations like pain abdomen, loose motion, vomiting or nausea, elevated liver enzymes, ileus, and bleeding. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in the terminal ileum and colon are responsible for the majority of ACE2-induced damage to these tissues. In the pandemic's second wave, a significant number of MIS-C patients with predominantly GI symptoms (around 80%) were reported. Although different molecular inflammatory mechanisms are involved, there is a significant overlap of the children's GI symptoms with those of MIS-C and other conditions of the abdomen caused by infection or inflammation, thus resulting in a diagnostic dilemma. Here, we report two cases of MIS-C with acute appendicular perforation and ileal perforation needing both medical management and surgical intervention. © 2022 Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.
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Medical Plastic waste is produced in large quantities in India each year, thus recycling it as a constituent in concrete can help to reduce waste disposal. The pandemic of Covid-19 has also resulted in increased production of the PP plastic waste. Because medical plastic wastes are harmful to both the environment and human health, using plastic trash in concrete will help to safeguard both the environment and human health Earlier, different research work were undertaken to figure out safe and feasible methods for plastic waste ejection but with scarce land resources and the threat it has posed to the environment has led us to take a step back and think of safe measures for its safe re-utilization. One such approach is utilization of plastic in concrete manufacturing. With a comparatively longer service life, concrete can act as a safe place for plastic utilization. Plastic wastes are employed as coarse aggregate in concrete in various proportions, and their suitability is tested, the impact of employing plastic waste as coarse aggregate replacement is investigated in this study. As part of the investigation of concrete’s plastic inclusion effect, different experimental research are discussed in this study. The current investigation was carried out on M30 grade concrete, with coarse aggregate replaced with medical PP plastic waste at varied proportions of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. The physical and mechanical properties were comparatively analysed, and the replacement value was optimised. Fresh and hardened concrete qualities were tested and the concrete replacement value for coarse aggregate was optimised at 40% partial replacement of natural coarse aggregate by PP plastic in concrete. Fresh and hardened concrete qualities were tested and analysed.
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Background: In India, two vaccines received emergent use authorization, namely Covishield (a brand of the Oxford—Astra Zeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum institute of India) and Covaxin (developed by Bharat Biotech) against COVID-19 disease. Chest CT is an objective way to assess the extent of pulmonary parenchymal involvement. This study aims to estimate the disease severity and outcome due to COVID-19 among vaccinated and non-vaccinated symptomatic patients and compare the same in Covishield versus Covaxin recipients using CT severity score. Results: A total of 306 patients were retrospectively evaluated. The mean age was 62.56 ± 8.9 years, and males [n-208 (67.97%)] were commonly affected. Of 306 patients, 143 were non-vaccinated (47%), 124 were partially vaccinated (40%), and 39 were completely vaccinated (13%). CT severity scores were reduced in both Covishield and Covaxin recipients in comparison with the non-vaccinated group [χ2 (2) = 16.32, p < 0.001]. There is a reduction in LOS among the vaccinated group, predominantly among the Covishield recipients. Conclusion: Vaccination confers protection from severe SARS-CoV2 infection and is associated with an overall reduction in mortality.
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Aim: To determine the demographic profile of pregnant females with COVID-19 infection. The outcome and prognosis in pregnant women with COVID-19 infection was also evaluated. Method and material:The study included 38 pregnant women with COVID-19 infection and hospital admission for at least 24 hours. Cause of admission was classified as obstetric and COVID-19-related. All the patients were COVID positive and were referred from other centres/ hospital to this facility andwas admitted to this hospital for delivery. Primary outcomes included maternal admission to intensive care unit (ICU), COVID-19 pneumonia, maternal mortality. The information on socio-demographic factors, pre-gestational chronic diseases (including cardiac, renal, endocrine, psychiatric, hematologic and autoimmune disease, cancer and HIV)and mode of delivery was collected. Results:The mean age of the patients was 28.8±6.2 years. The mode of delivery for 60.5%patients(23) was normal vaginal delivery and lower segmentcaesarean section in 39.5%(15) patients.94.7%(36) patients were asymptomatic in the present study. Maximum patients in the present studywere hospitalized for 3-5 days. Conclusion: COVID-19 infection was associated with higher rates of caesarean section in pregnant women. However, COVID-19 cannot be considered as an indication for caesareansectiondelivery. Patients with increased age have more days of hospitalization than younger patient.
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Background: Individuals living in rural areas have higher obesity and obesity related co-morbidities than their urban counterparts. Understanding rural-urban differences associated with weight management may inform the development of effective weight management interventions for adults living in rural areas. Methods: The International Weight Control Registry (IWCR) is an online registry designed to assess factors contributing to successes and challenges with weight loss and weight loss maintenance across the world. We examined demographics, weight history and weight management strategies in a sample of urban and rural residents in the Midwestern U.S. (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI). Participants were classified as rural or urban by the Rural-Urban Commuting Area Code. Analyses included Chi-square tests for proportions and independent t-test and Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous variables. Results: The sample was 45% rural (n = 78 of a total N = 174) with a mean age of 50.3 years. Rural residents were more likely to be white, non-college graduates, and have lower family income compared with urban areas (p < 0.05). Rural and urban residents reported similar weight histories and strategies for weight management. Work-related physical activity was higher and weekday sitting time was lower in rural compared to urban residents (p < 0.01). These data could potentially be impacted by the relative number of residents working from home during COVID-19 (Urban: 59% vs. Rural: 37%, p < 0.05). Rural residents were more likely to report a lack of neighborhood walkability (p < 0.01) and healthy food availability (p < 0.05) compared with urban residents. Conclusions: These data suggest rural-urban differences in demographic characteristics, opportunity for leisure time physical activity, and the availability of heathy foods should be considered in the development of weight management interventions. The consistency of the observed findings will be evaluated at the regional, national and international levels as the size of the available sample in the IWCR increases.
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With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, several educational and business organizations have adopted online video conferencing platforms to facilitate their smooth functioning. These platforms have largely favored educational institutions for remotely conducting virtual classes over various electronic learning (e-learning) platforms. This has imposed challenges on existing Internet platforms for efficiently managing network performance generated from the extensive use of these platforms. In this paper, a framework for monitoring the effect of different network parameters, while using some well-known e-learning platforms is provided. The different LTE network performance parameters like uplink speed, downlink speed, network latency, and jitter are considered. We observed that the LTE network performance parameters obtained while using Microsoft Teams is optimum. Since, we observed that Microsoft Teams provided an optimal performance, we further perform analysis on Microsoft Teams. We further obtain the empirical distribution pertaining to the LTE network communication features by employing Gamma distribution. From our analysis, it is observed that the network throughput, latency, and jitter can be optimized to enhance the users’ quality of experience by employing the proposed strategy. © 2020 IEEE.
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Airglow emissions which originate from the mesospheric and thermospheric altitudes have been routinely being monitored at Kolhapur (16.8 degrees N, 74.2 degrees E), Maharashtra, India, using ground base remote sensing imagers. We note that the observable amplitudes of very small-scale waves during April 2020 were significantly smaller than the regular observations. We investigate the reason for these low observable amplitudes. It is noted that drastic improvement in the quality of images was due to better contrast, which is attributed to significant reduction in greenhouse gases and aerosol loading in the atmosphere by the complete shutdown of local man-made emissions. Results suggest that lockdown had an important repercussion on the visibility through the improved air quality and thus better viewing conditions, which were reflected in the remotely sensed observations made with airglow imager.
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Background: The typical CT manifestations of COVID-19 pneumonia include ground-glass opacity (GGO) with or without consolidation and superimposed interlobular septal thickening. These are often rounded in morphology and frequently bilateral, multilobar, posterior, peripheral, and basilar in distribution. The various atypical CT features of COVID-19 are seldom described in the literature. The study aims to enumerate the atypical pulmonary CT features in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in correlation with the disease severity. Results: A total of 298 confirmed cases of COVID-19 pneumonia with positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) who underwent chest CT scans were retrospectively evaluated. The cohort included 234 (78.5%) men and 64 (21.5%) women and the mean age was 53.48 ± 15.74 years. The most common presenting symptoms were fever [n = 197 (66.1%)] and cough [n = 139 (46.6%)]. Out of 298 cases of COVID-19 pneumonia, 218 cases (73.1%) showed typical CT features while 63 cases (21.1%) showed atypical CT features with concurrent classical findings and the remaining 17 cases (5.8%) were normal. Among the atypical CT features, the most common was pulmonary cysts [n = 27 (9%)]. The other features in the order of frequency included pleural effusion [n = 17 (5.7%)], nodules [n = 13 (4.3%)], bull’s eye/target sign[n = 4 (1.3%)], cavitation [n = 3 (1.0%)], spontaneous pneumothorax [n = 2 (0.6%)], hilar lymphadenopathy [n = 2 (0.6%)], spontaneous pneumo-mediastinum with subcutaneous emphysema [n = 1 (0.3%)], Halo sign [n = 1 (0.3%)], empyema [n = 1 (0.3%)] and necrotizing pneumonia with abscess [n = 1 (0.3%)]. Conclusion: CT imaging features of COVID-19 pneumonia while in a vast majority of cases is classical, atypical diverse patterns are also encountered. A comprehensive knowledge of various atypical presentations on imaging plays an important role in the early diagnosis and management of COVID-19. © 2021, The Author(s).
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Introduction: COVID-19 caused a large number of mortality, morbidity and impact on the socioeconomic status of the various countries including India. Over the time COVID-19 affected number of body systems critically including urinary system and related organs. Objective: To evaluate the changing scenario in urology in the present pandemic situation arising due to coronavirus disease-19. Methods: A database of a total number of 160 patients during the period of April to July 2020 were recorded. Symptom-based questionnaires were made for the screening of the patients. The cases were divided based on the severity and emergency of the procedure and tabulated accordingly. The various safety and precautionary measures in this pandemic of COVID-19 are discussed and various emergency procedure undertaken is reviewed. Results: The patients were prioritized based on malignant and non-malignant conditions in elective surgical procedures. The priorities in case of emergency surgical procedures involved haematuria, urosepsis, urological trauma, obstructive uropathy, urinary retention due to urethral strictures etc. Conclusion: During the pandemic covid 19 situations, our centre being the covid referral centre, we have operated 160 patients with various guidelines prepared by the institute from time to time and we have safely operated and discharged all our patients.. © IJCRR.
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SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and its adverse outcome on the mother as well on the fetus is emerging as an important concern, but knowledge about the prognosis is limited. In our prospective observational study total of 56 pregnant women admitted in the isolation ward of our institution were included. All women were presented with common symptoms like fever, tiredness, headache, sore throat, and cough. Three women diagnosed SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 positive by Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) examination of the nasopharyngeal swab. All three neonates were tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The three mothers also recovered with routine care and returned home after 7 days with advice for a safe home for further 7 days. SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy mostly appears in the later part of pregnancy and management is almost like the general population. There is no increased risk of severe disease during pregnancy. Neonates are mostly protected from disease transmission due to immune modulation during pregnancy.
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Hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial, is being used worldwide for prophylaxis and treatment of Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19). Though the drug is commonly used in many chronic inflammatory diseases for protracted periods, its safety in the new indication is still under scrutiny. Therefore, this institute based study sought to assess the acute adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine among in-house health care professionals who were taking the drug for COVID-19 prophylaxis. A questionnaire seeking information on the use of the drug was prepared and disseminated electronically to the target population. The responses were also received electronically and analysed. The participants (n=54) had taken prophylaxis for 1-7 weeks. The most common adverse effects in the cohort were nausea (02) and skin rash (02). The total number of adverse effects reported by the participants was 08. One incidence each of gastric upset (01), dizziness (01), pain abdomen (01), and chest tightness (01) was reported. None of the adverse effects were serious. Our study indicates that the prophylactic weekly single dose of hydroxychloroquine is not associated with any serious adverse effects within 1-7 weeks of initiation. Elucidation of the long term and chronic adverse effects, if any, requires further studies.
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SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and its adverse outcome on the mother as well on the fetus is emerging as an important concern, but knowledge about the prognosis is limited. In our prospective observational study total of 56 pregnant women admitted in the isolation ward of our institution were included. All women were presented with common symptoms like fever, tiredness, headache, sore throat, and cough. Three women diagnosed SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 positive by Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) examination of the nasopharyngeal swab. All three neonates were tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The three mothers also recovered with routine care and returned home after 7 days with advice for a safe home for further 7 days. SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy mostly appears in the later part of pregnancy and management is almost like the general population. There is no increased risk of severe disease during pregnancy. Neonates are mostly protected from disease transmission due to immune modulation during pregnancy.
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Hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial, is being used worldwide for prophylaxis and treatment of Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19). Though the drug is commonly used in many chronic inflammatory diseases for protracted periods, its safety in the new indication is still under scrutiny. Therefore, this institute based study sought to assess the acute adverse effects of hydroxychloroquine among in-house health care professionals who were taking the drug for COVID-19 prophylaxis. A questionnaire seeking information on the use of the drug was prepared and disseminated electronically to the target population. The responses were also received electronically and analysed. The participants (n=54) had taken prophylaxis for 1-7 weeks. The most common adverse effects in the cohort were nausea (02) and skin rash (02). The total number of adverse effects reported by the participants was 08. One incidence each of gastric upset (01), dizziness (01), pain abdomen (01), and chest tightness (01) was reported. None of the adverse effects were serious. Our study indicates that the prophylactic weekly single dose of hydroxychloroquine is not associated with any serious adverse effects within 1-7 weeks of initiation. Elucidation of the long term and chronic adverse effects, if any, requires further studies.