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Aim: The aim of this study was to develop and validate the situational anxiety scale (SAS) during COVID-19 among adults with type 2 diabetes attending a tertiary diabetes center in Southern India. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 individuals aged from 18 to 65 years with type 2 diabetes attending a tertiary care diabetes center completed a structured SAS at two visits. The first visit (visit 1) survey was conducted in April 2021 and the second visit (visit 2) survey was conducted in March 2022. The SAS was administered to all 100 individuals. The State Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale (STAI-S) consisting of 20 questions was administered to the same 100 individuals in addition to the SAS during Visit 2. Results: The SAS showed good internal consistency for visit 1 (alpha = 0.855) and visit 2 (alpha = 0.795). Exploratory factor analysis showed four factors and explained 69% of variance. The four factors identified were as follows: (1) fear, (2) desire for COVID-free state, (3) lack of interest and energy, and (4) financial worries. A weak positive correlation was observed between SAS visit 2 and STAI-S, and it was statistically significant (r = 0.223;P = 0.026). Conclusion: The SAS is a valid and reliable tool for measuring situational anxiety during pandemics and post-COVID anxiety levels, which can help in the development of a holistic approach.
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Background: Owing to the recent scenario on this ongoing Coronavirus pandemic outbreak around the world, the present study has been undertaken. Aim(s): In this study, we adopted two strategies, i.e., via computational method, a search for the novel plant secondary metabolites from the Indian Traditional Medicine to target and combat the enduring novel 2019 CoVs main protease that causes pneumonia, followed by the effect of these selected secondary metabolites on the host's immune system for their immunomodulatory potential on Interleukin-2. Method(s): A detailed literature review has been done to identify the assorted plant secondary metabolites from the natural sources, which have been extensively used traditionally for their immunomodulatory potential. Next, the resulting compounds have processed for the molecular docking study to predict whether the compounds have the potency to fight against 2019-CoVs protein or it could have the ten-dency to battle the cytokines, which are responsible for the immune response of the host, thereby pre-venting the CoVs caused infection in humans. Furthermore, to explore molecular mechanics, the in-silico docking study with COVID-19 Mpro and Interleukin-2 has been performed. Results & Discussion: Among the six secondary metabolites selected, five compounds showed its possible promising potency with COVID-19 and IL-2 proteins, which are compared with the standard drug Remdesivir, one of the anti-viral drugs for treating and managing the present coronavirus condition and an IL-2 inhibitor, which is the native IL-2 ligand protein (i.e., from PDB Id-1PW6) itself. Besides, based on the docking scores, the Curcumin (from Curcuma longa) showed the highest score towards these two targets taken for this study. The identified compounds have a promising binding affinity with the Mpro receptors, in the narrow range of binding energy for the protein PDB Id: 6LU7 and the score range between-10.9102 to-19.8790 kcal/mol: when compared to the standard-21.8600 kcal/mol. Whereas, the binding affinity with the Interleukin-2 receptor, for the protein PDB Id: 1PW6 the range between-11.3899 to-17.1366 kcal/mol: when compared to that of standard-16.9554 kcal/mol. Conclusion(s): Our result findings demonstrate that the integrated Indian traditional herbal treatment might be hopefully used for the viral respiratory infection due to either it may have acted directly on the viral protein or through regulating the immune response, which could lead to the rapid drug discovery of the drug leads with clinical potency towards the novel infectious disease, where there is no drug or vaccines are available.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.
ABSTRACT
Recently the world has come across a pandemic disease known as covid-19. The presence of symptoms of covid-19 and pneumonia may be alike to other types of lung illnesses. So, because of this, it is difficult for the affected person or medical experts to identify the condition. Chest x-ray provides general orientation which can be an initial investigative study in the analysis of lung diseases. Information from retenogram studies help the finding of covid-19 and pneumonia affecting the lungs. We use a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) in Tensor Flow and Keras based covid-19, pneumonia classification. The best fit model of CNN is then deployed in the Django framework for providing a better user interface and predicting the output.
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INTRODUCTION: The National Health Service's reliance on overseas doctors and nurses, unlike dentists, has been widely reported. As the United Kingdom (UK) leaves the European Union, an understanding of the migration trends and possible influences are important to inform future planning. AIM: To examine trends in the profile of UK registered dentists in the context of key events and policy changes from 2000 to 2020. METHOD: Data were obtained from the General Dental Council via annual reports, and under 'freedom of information' communications; details of policy initiatives were obtained from the government and professional websites. RESULTS: Over a 20-year period (2000-2019), the number of registered dentists increased from 31,325 to 42,469, a net increase of 36% (11,144 dentists), the majority of whom were international graduates (58%; n = 6,416) such that by December 2019, 28% of all registered dentists had qualified outside of the UK. Similarly, regarding new registrants, there were increases of graduates from UK (18%), EEA countries (214%) and, via the Overseas Registration Examination route (621%); and a decrease from countries with bilateral agreements for recognition (43%), in line with changes in health and immigration policies. CONCLUSIONS: International dental graduates increasingly contribute to the UK dental workforce and there is an urgent need for research into dentist migration and retention in the UK in support of patient access to dental care. IMPACT: The United Kingdom (UK) dental workforce is increasingly reliant on international dental graduates representing 28% of current registrants compared with 18% in 2000. Health policies and immigration policies were the main drivers that influenced dental workforce migration to the UK along with wider events, such as EU expansions, global recession and Brexit. Pre-existing lack of research into dental workforce could add to the uncertainties of post COVID-19 oral health care access and delivery.
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The present study has been undertaken to search the novel co drugs for fight-ing against the COVID-19 disease through an in-silico approach. We have designed eight co drugs by merging two drugs namely hydroxychloroquine, used in the treatment of COVID-19 and curcumin an immuno modulator. The two drugs were linked through a bio-cleavable hydrolyzable linker by three-step process. The designed co drugs were subjected for molecular docking studies to know their therapeutic efficacy against the COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) and Interleukin-1β. The designed co drugs have a promising binding affinity towards Mpro in the narrow range of binding energies between-28.2498 to-35.8648 kcal/mol when compared to the standard Remdesivir which has-21.8600 kcal/mol. Similarly the binding energies of designed co drugs against Interleukin-1β range between-25.8032 to-34.6973 kcal/mol when compared to the standard curcumin which has-17.3274 kcal/mol. Our findings demonstrated that the designed co drugs may be useful for the treatment of viral respiratory infection due to their additive therapeutic actions on the viral protein and modulating the immune response synergistically.