Role of Multimedia in Education and its Impact on Academic Achievements

Multimedia is a diversified and powerful means to strengthen and aid the education methodology, by making learning interactive and interesting, this paper further justifies the same. The Internet acts as a gateway between multimedia producers and consumers. It is free from discipline boundaries. Several tools allow nontechnical educators to deal with diverse multimedia to create the learning material. These tools should stand fit some parameters, briefly discussed. Its employment is rapidly magnifying, enabling self-learning, which was boosted in the Covid era. This paper emphasizes on to prevent traditional teaching from being used as a supplement but should be primary. Various hiccups in its efficient use in education still prevail but are heading toward resolution. © 2023 Bharati Vidyapeeth, New Delhi.

Importance of Microminerals for Maintaining Antioxidant Function After COVID-19-induced Oxidative Stress

Background: COVID-19 is caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Coronavirus 2. Since the antioxidant mechanisms such as glutathione peroxidase or superoxide dismutase are downregulated during infection by the virus, there is an imbalance in the oxidant-antioxidant system. In this study we aimed to identify the effect of COVID-19 on the antioxidant defense mechanism by comparing the concentrations of antioxidants and microminerals in COVID-19 patients and healthy controls.Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study involved 200 patients at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal University. The serum concentrations of antioxidants and minerals were determined to establish the impact of COVID-19 on antioxidants mechanism and nutrient status in COVID-19 patients.Results: The serum concentrations of GPX (10.36 & PLUSMN;2.70 > 5.82 & PLUSMN;1.64 mKAT/L, p < 0.0001) and copper (2192.5 & PLUSMN;449.8 > 782.15 & PLUSMN;106.5 mu g/dL, p < 0.0001) were significantly greater, and zinc (34.78 & PLUSMN;4.5 & LE;81.07 & PLUSMN;10.13 mu g/dL, p < 0.0001) was significantly less, in the study group than in controls. The Pearson correlation between serum SOD and zinc was significant (r = 0.491, p < 0.0001) indicating the importance of zinc in maintaining and improving SOD activity. No significant correlations were observed between copper and SOD (r =-0.089) or iron and CAT (r =-0.027).Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the expected increase in oxidant-radical production during COVID-19 by estimating the altered concentrations of antioxidants and the minerals required to neutralize the elevated ROS. This finding is not novel but adds to the existing literature, which recommends nutritional supplementation of microminerals and antioxidants.

Disaster Management and Human Adaptation - Case Study

Disasters are a complex phenomenon that calls for a steady and multi-disciplinary approach to help create a multi-layered picture of the vulnerability of hazards and risks for the community. India is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, losing about 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product annually (World Bank 2003). Almost every part of the country falls in at least one hazard zone or other. The socioeconomic vulnerability makes it difficult for people to cope with the impact of these hazards. Humans adapt in a variety of ways that may often remain unnoticed and unorganized. Further, in order to manage the effects of climate-change- induced disasters, autonomous adaptation is frequently overlooked - both at national and international levels. This chapter looks at various disasters across Indian subcontinent, in which the community has been affected badly and how human resilience and adaptation have revived the society and led to sustainable development. The case studies in this chapter would cover the reasons for the disaster and corrective actions taken for some repeated disasters such as cyclones, earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Effect of Supply Chain Disruption in Dental Practice During Covid-19 Pandemic: An Indian Perspective

Disruption during Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need of healthcare supply chain management in order to achieve effective delivery of health services. Though, considerable efforts have been undertaken on managing the healthcare supply chain disruptions in India but there is paucity of literature which documented the effect of supply chain disruptions in dental practices during covid-19 pandemic. During pandemic, the disruptions in production and distribution of dental products were seen in India. Indian dental market is largely dependent on imports and there is scarcity of local production units. The main dental companies reported significant decline in production during the first wave of Covid-19. The increase in demand for dental supplies was seen with shutdown, shortage of labour and scarcity of raw materials. Disruption rippled through the supply chain and this was caused by large distortion in demand. This phenomenon led to bullwhip effect. This bullwhip effect crisis led to increased cost in dental practices. Covid19 has shown significant lack of resilience in Indian dental healthcare supply chain. This study identified few loopholes in dental supply chain and suggested the way forward for managing the supply chain disruptions. It seems that there is need of more comprehensive research on dental supply chain resilience from Indian perspective to prevent disruptions particularly in emergent situations. © 2022, MedSci Publications. All rights reserved.

Plight of employees, migrant workers, and the middle class in India during COVID-19

The chapter discusses condition of employees, migrant workers, and middle classes in India during COVID-19. How each of them faced the pandemic and how their conditions deteriorated drastically are explored. The chapter highlights how labour laws changed, how training and development programs were shelved, and how millions of employees ended up losing jobs during the pandemic. Impact of job loss and its trickledown effects changed the way the Indian middle class was living and forced them to take up a war of their own. It changed the socio-economic scenario and forced several micro, small, and medium enterprises to close shop. SMEs rose to the challenge and either changed the line of business or adopted innovative business practices so as to survive and sustain. Changed scoio-economic environment further became more complex and volatile as few large corporations, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and hospitals in India started considering the pandemic an opportunity to make super normal profits. The Indian middle class rose to the challenge and proved their never say die attitude! © 2022 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Strategies for growth adopted by Indian Businesses Amid the COVID-19 crisis

This chapter makes an effort to highlight the challenges faced and strategies adopted by businesses in India. An effort has been made to describe the economic condition of the economy before the onset of the COVID pandemic and the resulting outcome of the havoc so created by the pandemic and resulting lockdowns. An analysis has been done to clarify how large corporations and small businesses faced the combined blunt of poor economy and COVID. Case story-based approach has been adopted to highlight responses of few large corporations and how they turned the pandemic into an economic opportunity to churn out super normal profits. The chapter also highlights how the number of billionaires in India has increased during this time. Struggles of small businesses are also highlighted, and how they struggled for survival and sustenance and changes they have made in the way they function or carry out day-to-day business operations have also been discussed. A very small proportion of businesses did stand up for the welfare of the public and made an effort to facilitate their workforce. © 2022 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Standardization of herbal biomolecules

The last few years have witnessed a rise in the acceptability and use of medicinal plants-based products in the modern healthcare system. The COVID-19 pandemic has only fueled this interest in herbal medicinal products as viable health-promotive, prophylactic, and therapeutic options for the entire spectrum of infections and diseases. Standardization of herbal products becomes critical for establishing and assuring quality, with authentication, purity, and safety of herbal products emerging as the key attributes. Going beyond the conventional techniques for identification and standardization of herbs and herbal materials that are listed in the compendial specifications and regulatory guidelines, this chapter focuses on discussing some of the most recent advances in this field including metabolomics, DNA fingerprinting and barcoding, gene chip, protein chip, marker compound analysis, and application of basic and advanced hyphenated chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques that are being used for chemical and genomic fingerprinting and standardization of herbal medicinal products. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ANALYZING INDOOR PATHOGEN DISPERSION AND VENTILATION STRATEGIES TO REDUCE THE RISK OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has refocused attention to the significance of indoor air quality and how air moves during the circulation process. Contaminants, especially aerosols (≤ 5 µm), remain airborne for prolonged periods and travel long distances increasing the risk of infection to occupants. This study investigated the movement of air and respiratory particles in a clinical setting and an isolation system using computational fluid dynamics. The ventilation system distributes a combination of outdoor and indoor air to reduce energy consumption. The recirculated air carries contaminants smaller than 1 µm, which are distributed to other spaces in the building, increasing the risk of infection to other occupants. Therefore, the efficacy of an air-sterilization unit that integrates with a building air handling system was examined. It was observed that a larger percentage of aerosols were exhausted compared to droplets, as larger particles deposit on surfaces under the influence of gravity. Using the air sterilization unit reduced the pathogen concentration in the clinical setting by 25%. The air sterilization system had a significant impact when used in an isolation system with a negative pressure and a positive pressure room. Contaminants from the negative pressure room were distributed to the positive pressure room with the conventional ventilation system. However, sterilizing the recirculated air ensured complete safety of the patient (or other occupants) in the positive pressure room. The findings of these studies can be generalized to any scenario where a centralized ventilation system is employed for thermal comfort and air quality control. © 2022 Begell House Inc.. All rights reserved.

To Study the Association of Vitamin D Deficiency with ICU Mortality and Morbidity in Moderately-severe COVID-19 Patients

Introduction: The severity of COVID-19 is determined by the presence of pneumonia, severe ARDS, cytokine storms, and small vessels thrombosis, all involves underlying inflammation. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin with immuno-modulating and anti-inflammatory properties. The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is usually due to inadequate sunlight exposure, sedentary lifestyle, diet poor in vitamin D, and traditional clothing. Vitamin D deficiency is a modifiable risk factor their identification and management can improve outcomes. Materials and methods: This was a prospective observational single centre study of moderatelysevere COVID-19 patients. All consecutive, moderately-severe COVID-19 patients with ICU stay >48 hours were included. Exclusion criteria: consent refusal, pregnant and lactating mothers, Age <18 years, post-cardiac arrest resuscitated patient before ICU admission, patient on multivitamin or Neutraceuticals supplements, chronic diarrhea, and cancer patients. Based on vitamin D levels on ICU admission, patients were stratified into two groups, i.e., ≤20 ng/mL deficient and >20 ng/mL non-deficient group. After demographic data, we collected data of underlying disease;cause of admission;APACHE II on admission and daily SOFA scoring, various morbidities during ICU stay (mechanical ventilation, inotropes/vasopressor, nosocomial infections, etc.), length of ICU stay, ICU mortality and 30 days mortality. Results and discussion: A total of 88 patients were studied, 73 (82.9%) patients had vitamin D deficiency. Median [IQ range] vitamin D levels of the deficient and non-deficient group were 11 [5-17] and 27 [22-35]. Groups did not differ in demographic or clinical characteristics except for age. The elderly age group had a higher prevalence of deficiency and was statistically significant, mean (±SD) age of the deficient vs non-deficient group was 54.78 (±13.30) vs 46.47 (±5.75), p value 0.02. The overall mortality rate of the cohort was 42.05%. Percentage mortality in the deficient group (46.5%) was lower than the non-deficient group (20%) but failed to show statistical significance p value 0.058. In continuous data, deficient group had a poor association with ICU morbidities vs nondeficient group as mean (±SD) duration of mechanical ventilation 4.59 (±2.78) vs 4.07 (±3.21) p value 0.521, and length of ICU stay 8.04 (±2.82) vs 8.53 (±3.04) p value 0.545. In categorical data, deficient group showed increased ICU morbidities vs non-deficient group but were not statistically significant, inotropes/vasopressor requirement 60.3% vs 53.3% p value 0.619, hospital-acquired infection incidence 45.2% vs 40% p value 0.712 and 30 days mortality 75.6% vs 24.4% p value 0.059. In severity scoring, deficient group had higher severity vs non-deficient group but statistical significance was not demonstrated APACHE II 10.74 (±4.42) vs 8.73 (±3.39) p value 0.101 and mean SOFA score 4.17 (±3.33) vs 2.51 (±2.68) p value 0.074. Mean (±SD) levels of vitamin D in survivor vs non-survivors were 11.54 (±5.76) vs 15.45 (±6.92) p value 0.006 showed a correlation between mortality and low vitamin D deficiency levels. However, vitamin D levels failed as an independent risk factor for mortality in multivariate analysis OR (95% C.I.) 1.198 (0.732-1.672), p value 0.296. Conclusion: In moderately-severe COVID-19, vitamin D deficiency was associated with a greater incidence of mortality and morbidity, although the relationship was not statistically significant. Vitamin D deficiency was not found to be an independent risk factor for mortality.

Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality and tourism education in India and preparing for the new normal. (Special Issue: How are hospitality and tourism businesses in India responding to the Covid-19 pandemic?.)

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has had serious and far-reaching consequences on every aspect of human life. As various countries went into lockdown, hospitality and tourism was badly affected and this has had an impact on hospitality and tourism education too. This paper aims to assess the impact of the pandemic on hospitality and tourism education in India and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies in support of the industry. The study also proposes recommendations for resilience-building. Design/methodology/approach: A pilot survey using semi-structured interviews was conducted and followed by a detailed questionnaire-based survey of industry representatives and educators. Selected industry leaders were also interviewed to understand the industry perspective on the pandemic, the "new normal" and the expectations of post pandemic graduates. The study focuses on four main areas - (1) existing interrelationships between industry and academia, (2) the efficiency of Internet-based education during the pandemic, (3) the "new normal" and the expectations of graduates and (4) recommendations for resilience-building. Findings: There is a perceived gap between academia and industry that needs to be bridged. We found that the pandemic is seriously affecting education with challenges ranging from technological issues, disparities and reduced enrolments to student behavioural issues. Most impacted was the practical training component in operational areas and especially in food production and services. It is now clear that education needs a shift in focus from the more traditional, operational aspects of hospitality and tourism to technological awareness, knowledge and soft skills development. The research also identified a need for better two-way communication and information exchange between industry and academia. In fact, the lessons learnt from the pandemic need to be communicated from industry to academia. This is important given that industry expects graduates to be adaptive, compassionate, able to multi-task, familiar with the principles of crisis management and proficient with technology. Originality/value: The study analyses possible long-term effects and implications for the workforce of the future as the industry struggles to respond to the pandemic. The study also suggests possible avenues and methods for industry and academia to form more symbiotic relationships and become more resilient.

A Risk Assessment Of Pathogen Transport During An Indoor Orchestra Performance

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that airborne pathogens and viruses have a detrimental impact on the health and well-being of an individual in an indoor space. Respiratory particles are released as droplets of varying velocities and diameters, where smaller droplets (aerosols) linger in air for prolonged periods, increasing the infection risk of individuals in an enclosed space. The pandemic has raised concerns regarding the safety of musicians due to respiratory particles released through woodwind and brass instruments. A collaboration with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was pursued to assess the risk of infection and develop strategies to mitigate the spread of respiratory particles using computational fluid dynamics. A coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian modeling approach was employed to examine the airflow patterns and airborne particle pathogen transport induced by the musicians in the music hall. The investigation considered three brass instruments (trumpet, tuba, trombone), without and with a bell covering. It was observed that the dispersion of particles for each instrument depended on the bell design and orientation of the instrument. For example, the trumpet produced a higher concentration of respiratory particles compared to a tuba, which has its tubing wrapped. Additionally, the effect of using bell covers (cloth covering on the opening of the brass instruments) showed that the covers reduced the number of pathogens escaping the instruments by capturing large respiratory particles and reducing the escaping velocity of small particles. Reduced particle velocities at the instrument opening meant that the particles traveled shorter distances, which helped mitigate the spread of virus in the music hall. Moreover, the efficacy of using Plexiglas partitions on the sides and in front of the musicians limited the transmission of pathogens from one musician to another. Overall, the findings of this study helped strategize the location of musicians based on the type of instruments being played and the operating conditions in the music hall to decrease the airborne transmission of the novel Coronavirus. © 2021 by ASME.

A Scoping review of challenges, scope and assessment approaches of teledentistry: an Indian perspective

Context: In India, COVID-19 pandemic has limited the utilization and access to dental services owing to the risk of infections transmission. In this context, tele-dentistry could be useful but there is paucity of literature which provides guidance on the scope and challenges for using tele-dentistry in India. Aims: To identify challenges, scope and assessment approaches of tele-dentistry from an Indian perspective. Settings and Design: Scoping Review. Methods and Material: Scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malley framework. Databases were searched in July from April to August 2020. Studies concerning challenges and scope of tele-dentistry in India were included. Additionally, literature about assessment approaches used for tele-dentistry programs were also reviewed Results: A total of 64 studies were reviewed, out of which 26 articles were included in the final review. Scoping review reveled that tele-dentistry could act as a seamless tool for diagnosing, training and screening. Few studies suggested the relevance of smartphone technology for specialist consultations and proper diagnosis. Majority of studies revealed shortage of basic infrastructure as a major challenge for tele-dentistry in India. Assessment studies were mainly focused on economic perspective and cost-effectiveness of the programs. Conclusions: This review provide guidance for using tele-dentistry in India. It is also reflected that there is a need for further research about the assessment of tele-dentistry in terms of safety, clinical outcomes, and patient perception. © 2021, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine. All rights reserved.

A survey of urology residency program directors assessing criteria to interview applicants during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: To determine criteria of interest to Urology residency program directors (PDs) when selecting applicants for residency interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: An anonymous survey was sent via email to all Urology residency PDs across the United States. PDs were asked to assign the degree of importance (1-5, with 5 being very important) of selected factors in deciding which applicants to interview. Surveys were distributed and study data was managed using REDCap. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS: In total, 130 urology residency PDs were contacted and 64 (49.3%) responded to the survey. Urology letter(s) of recommendation (LOR) based on non-virtual rotation(s), Urology clerkship grades, research experience, and Visa status of the applicant were cited as the most important factors in selecting applicants for interview with median importance ratings of 5, 4, 4, and 5, respectively. Urology LOR based on virtual rotation(s), virtual subinternship( s), and participation in social media activities were the least important in selecting applicants for interviews with median importance ratings of 2 for each. Notably, Urology LOR(s) based on non-virtual rotation(s) and Visa status were consistently ranked as the most important factors by over 50% of PDs. CONCLUSIONS: Urology PDs value urology LOR(s) from nonvirtual rotation(s), Urology clerkship grades, research experience, and applicant Visa status as the most important factors in selecting applicants for interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual rotation(s) and social media activity were ranked the lowest among criteria that influence the selection process for interviews.

Dental student’s physical activity in epidemic COVID-19

Introduction: Physical activity during the Covid 19 pandemic is essential for Dental students to uphold their physical and mental health. Objective: The purpose of this study was to expose the physical activity approved by basic dental students with an age range of 18-23 years while remaining at home during the Covid 19 widespread. Method: The research using survey method A total of 122 dental students participating, the sampling used was ease sampling. They have passionately ready to be involved in this research. Modifiable Activity Questionnaire (MAQ) altered back by the Guttman scale was recycled as an instrument in this study. The distribution of the survey using google form assistance started from March to April 2021. The data analysis used was expressive statistics with a simple percentage supply. Results: The results displayed that male dental students action level was at a moderate action level, while female dental students were at a low motion level. This alteration occurs because the behaviours of physical activity and motivation to move are diverse in gender. Management from physical education teachers and parents is needed to supervise the physical activities of dental students mainly women though at home during the Covid 19 widespread.