Oilseed scenario in India for self-reliance in edible oil

Globally, India ranks fourth in oilseed production. About 25 million hectares of land produce 32 million tons of oilseeds, including groundnut, rapeseed, and soybean. The annual per capita demand for edible oil in India is 19.5kg. Domestic production meets only 30% of this demand, and the rest is imported. Of this import, Palm oil has the maximum share (62%) from Indonesia and Malaysia, followed by soya (21%) from Argentina and Brazil, and sunflower oil (16%) from Ukraine and Argentina. Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine directly affect the price of edible oil in international and domestic markets. India can potentially increase domestic oilseeds production, thereby reducing the import burden. The Indian government has taken initiatives like the Technology Mission on Oilseeds, palm oil area expansion under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, development of buffer stock for oilseeds, and other policies to motivate farmers to use location-specific improved varieties and quality seeds production to fulfill the domestic demands of oilseeds. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reseverd.

Understanding the perceived psychological distress and health outcomes of children during COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: The study explored the impacts of restrictions on the perceived psychological distress and health outcomes in children by their mothers who acted as their full-time caregivers during the pan-India lockdown after the outbreak of COVID-19. Method: A narrative qualitative research design was used and a purposive heterogeneous sample of 20 mothers of children aged 9–11 years were chosen, who were in a full-time caregiving role. Data obtained through a telephonic semi-structured interview were analysed using Narrative Thematic Method. Results: Four themes were generated: aberrant social responsivity and loneliness, decreased interest in regular activities, psychological distress and defiant emotional responses, and negative health outcomes. Anxiety, irritation, quarrelsome behaviours, anger, frustration, feeling low, reduced interest in games, boredom, etc. were reported in children. Decreased appetite, sleep disturbances, complaints of indigestion and multiple complaints of body aches were major negative health outcomes. Conclusions: Mothers described a variety of psychological distress and health outcomes for children due to the extreme restrictions, uncertainty, apprehension, reduced positive engagement and lowered social connection after the outbreak of the pandemic. Family-, media-, school- and community-based real or virtual intervention programmes are recommended to minimize the negative impacts and to guard children against the ill-consequences of restrictions of current and future pandemics. © 2021 Australian Psychological Society.

Enhancing Education Experience using Augmented Reality

This study examines the application of augmented reality across numerous academic fields. The COVID-19 pandemic shows how distance learning must change to endure a wave of tragedy and maybe adapt to the new normal. The ongoing increase in student interest in school remains a significant issue for children's education. While augmented reality (AR) has many benefits for students, it also makes it simpler for teachers to clarify ideas and make sure that pupils understand them, especially when the subject is more challenging. Two significant technologies for creating augmented reality (AR) apps are unity and Vuforia. We built the Android app ARLearn using the above tools as a base. Students will be more interested and engaged in lessons that use augmented reality software. The use of AR in education has the potential to be a very interesting and practical strategy that changes how education is provided in the next years. As part of our ARLearn initiative, we are looking into several industries for the AR learning approach. © 2022 IEEE.

Vaccine Supply Optimization and Forecasting using Random Forest and ARIMA Models

In order to tackle the Corona Virus Disease, it took a considerable amount of time for the governments to come up with effective and efficient vaccines. After the vaccines were developed, the next challenge was to supply the vaccines to various designated centers based on demographics, population distribution, and other factors. The whole system for vaccine supply played a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also saw a lot of haphazard and mismanagement in some places especially when the cases per day surged high, as people weren't prepared for such a situation. Now that we have got enough data, we can use it to optimize the vaccine supply across various Covid Vaccination Centers and be prepared for any such circumstances in the future. In this paper, we have proposed a two-step approach where considering the past supply and wastage data we performed a classification task that indicates whether doses are to get wasted at a given center. If yes, we then perform demand forecasting based on the number of administered doses so that the wastage can be reduced, and supply can be optimized. © 2022 IEEE.

Redefining vulnerability and resilience from COVID-19 lens: a case study of COVID-19 management in Bihar, India

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered hidden vulnerabilities of the globalized world that were never witnessed before in modern history. Globalization once seen as the main driver for economic prosperity and poverty reduction became bane and led to the spread of coronavirus in the entire world. While coronavirus broke all the boundaries and spread to each segment of society, the scientific community thrives their best to unleash possible solutions for the effective management of COVID-19. To contain the spread of the virus and effective management of the pandemic, concerted efforts are applied from each section of the society. This chapter presents some of the key strategic approaches through digital means adopted by the Indian state of Bihar in containing the spread of coronavirus. Despite high population density, the mortality rate and rate of infection remained low in Bihar as compared to several Indian states. The concerted efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 through the use of technology-driven solutions, efficient management of migrant laborer, tracking of patients, and treatment minimized overall patient load and reduced suffering of people of Bihar. The pandemic has also brought a new dimension to the vulnerability and resilience discourse. This chapter also provides insights into the elements of vulnerabilities and resilience related to COVID-19 and how these elements are reshaped from the lens of COVID-19 management. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of Volatility Contagion Effect Between Major Financial Markets During COVID-19 Pandemic Catastrophes

Across the globe, the havoc of the pandemic known to be a black swan event has brought miseries, deaths, uncertainty, loss of lives and jobs holding the humanity in a state of despair. The financial markets have been equally hit by the pandemic due to on-going uncertainty and hopelessness among the masses. The aim of this study is to examine the volatility contagion and dynamic conditional correlations between eight stock indices during the gloomy period to validate that there is a scope for revisiting the investment portfolio, create natural hedge in the investment portfolio by using exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) and dynamic conditional correlation generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (DCC-GARCH) approach. We conducted an in-depth analysis of capturing volatility among stock indices ranging from tracking the volatility followed by estimating persistence and multivariate volatility contagion of major stock indices of developed and developing economies during turbulent times of the pandemic when the globe was reeling under the taxing consequences of the first and second wave of COVID-19. There are very few studies that have conducted an in-depth analysis of capturing volatility of stock indices ranging from tracking the asymmetric volatility followed by estimating persistence and multivariate volatility contagion of major stock indices of developed and developing economies during turbulent times of the pandemic when the globe was reeling under the taxing consequences of the first and second wave of COVID-19. © 2022 Management Development Institute.

Longitudinal Extensive Transverse Myelitis:rare immunotherapy related adverse effect vs COVID19-related immunization complication

Objective: To report an acute presentation of long extensive transverse myelitis (LETM) in the setting of Atezolizumab monotherapy and COVID-19 mRNA immunization Background: Patients being treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) for advanced malignancy have an increased propensity of developing neuro-immune complications. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic there have been reported cases of TM following COVID-19 immunization. The reported infrequency of TM with both aforementioned causes makes delineating the etiology challenging. Design/Methods: A 58-year-old male with metastatic SCLC completed 4 cycles of Atezolizumab, Carboplatin and Etoposide and was transitioned to Atezolizumab maintenance. He previously underwent Atezolizumab infusion and was administered the second dose of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine one day prior to developing acute lower extremity paralysis, sensory loss from chest down and overflow incontinence. MRI spine illustrated centromedullary enhancing lesions from C7-T7. CSF analysis showed 25 WBC, 116/uL RBC, 94 mg/dL protein, normal glucose, negative oligoclonal bands and normal IgG index. CSF bacterial and virology studies were negative. Additionally, serum anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) and antiaquaporin receptor 4 (AQP4) antibodies were unremarkable. Results: 5-day course of pulsed methylprednisolone followed by three therapeutic plasma exchanges produced minimal improvement in lower extremities strength and sensory level. Conclusions: This case demonstrates the complication and symptomatology of TM in the setting of anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody with the co-incidental COVID-19 mRNA vaccine administration. The causal relationship between the vaccine and TM is difficult to establish due to limited data and the presence of a known inciting factor but hints at a possible exaggeration of the existing neuroinflammatory process. Currently, CDC recommends that individuals who are moderately to severely immunocompromised receive an additional dose of an mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) at least 28 days after the completion of the initial mRNA COVID-19 vaccine series. Caution should be given for those patients who are on ICI therapy.

Source identification of the elemental fraction of particulate matter using size segregated, highly time-resolved data and an optimized source apportionment approach

Source emissions with high covariance degrade the performance of multivariate models, and often highly-time resolved data is needed to accurately extract the contribution of different emissions. Here, we use highly time-resolved size segregated elemental composition data to apportion the sources of the elemental fraction of PM in Zürich (May 2019–May 2020). For data collection, we have used an ambient metals monitor, Xact 625i, equipped with a sampling inlet alternating between PM2.5 and PM10. By implementing interpolation and a newly proposed uncertainty estimation methodology, it was possible to obtain and use in PMF a combined dataset of PM2.5 and PMcoarse (PM10-2.5) having data from only one instrument. The combination of the inlet switching system, the instrument's high time resolution, and the use of advanced source apportionment approaches yielded improved source apportionment results in terms of the number of identified sources, as the model, additionally to the diurnal and seasonal variation of the dataset, also utilizes the variation from the size segregated data. Thirteen sources of elements were identified, i.e., sea salt (5.4%), biomass burning (7.2%), construction (4.3%), industrial (3.3%), light-duty vehicles (5.4%), Pb (0.7%), Zn (0.7%), dust (22.1%), transported dust (9.5%), sulfates (15.4%), heavy-duty vehicles (17%), railway (6.6%) and fireworks (2.4%). The Covid-19 lockdown effect in PM sources in the area was also quantified. High-intensity events disproportionally affect the PMF solution, and in many cases, they are getting discarded before analysis, removing thus valuable information from the dataset. In this study, a three-step source apportionment approach was used to get a well-resolved unmixed solution when firework data points were included in the analysis. This approach can also be used for other sources and/or events with very high contributions that distort source apportionment analysis. Optimized source apportionment techniques are necessary for effective air pollution monitoring.

Stress Among the Nurses and Their Family Involved in COVID-19 Patient Management

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc and many deaths around the world. Coronavirus is highly contagious and spreads like wildfire in the community. The nurses and other frontline health-care workers (HCWs) bore the brunt of this pandemic with maximum effect because they all worked with infected patients. Direct exposure has caused stress, anxiety, and physical cum mental discomfort among them. Objective: This study aimed to assess stress among nurses and family members related to COVID-19 outbreak. Methodology: In this study, mixed method of prospective approach was used. The study was conducted virtually using social media platforms by online questionnaire. It included 150 participants and information was collected on demographic data, change in relationship with family, spouse, children, self-concept, and perceived stress among themselves and their family members. Results: All the nurses were involved in the direct care of COVID-infected patients. Many participants (47%) became anxious and worried about themselves. More than half (56.7%) respondents had no change in relationship, while 40.7% experienced change in relationship with their family. Majority of the participants (88%) had long travel hours and accommodation issues. Although the nurses working for COVID patients were stressed, frightened, and anxious, most of them took pride in their work as a contribution toward the nation during this current pandemic. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that frontline HCWs were at increased risk of mental health consequences such as stress, anxiety, and frustration. Their children developed behavioral changes such as agitation and aggressiveness. Many nurses got more family support than before for their contribution during COVID-19 pandemic.

Identification of potential hits against novel coronavirus-targeting glycoprotein for multi-target approach

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus impacting more than 75 million people across 220 countries. The pharma and biotech industries, along with research institutes, strive to develop an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Efforts are also underway for finding drugs through drug repurposing and novel drug discovery methods. In this study, we have used a multi-target drug approach. The objective is to identify phytochemicals from plant sources effective against novel coronavirus. Natural products having good medicinal properties are known to have minimal side effects compared to synthetic drugs. Therefore, the medicinal products from natural sources are of significance in drug discovery research. In this study, compounds from three common plants were selected for analysis, namely, Tinospora cordifolia, Withania somnifera, and Punica granatum. The primary target selected for this study was glycoprotein. Glycoproteins are known to play a key role in the regulation of cell proliferation, growth, and signaling pathways. We also investigated the effect of screened compounds on other targets in order to have a multi-target therapy. The target proteins chosen for drug design are Spike glycoprotein, Main Protease, and uridylate-specific Endoribonuclease (EndoU). The spike glycoprotein (S) of coronavirus, is a trimeric transmembrane protein, which facilitates entry into cells and is the main target of antibodies. The spike glycoprotein is highly sensitive to mutation. The main protease (MPro) of SRAS-CoV-2 plays an essential role in disease propagation by processing the polyproteins necessary for its replication. Inhibiting the main protease by designing agonists/antagonists can serve in the repair mechanism—the uridylate-specific Endoribonuclease (EndoU) of SRAS-CoV-2 causes a delay in the host sensor system. The objective of this study was to identify potential natural hit compounds which could target multiple proteins of coronavirus. Compounds that can target all the three, namely, Spike glycoprotein, EndoU, and MPro will have better therapeutic index and efficacy than a single target approach. Therefore, the compounds were screened against all these three structural targets. The compounds targeting only one of the proteins were filtered and only those compounds showing activity against all the three structural proteins were retained for further analysis. Drug design methods, including Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Elimination (ADME) profiling and molecular docking studies, have been used in the study to identify potential hit molecules. The twenty four hits obtained targeted all the three selected proteins. This will pave the way for developing lead molecules from the screened compounds effective against all three proteins of novel coronavirus: Main protease, Spike glycoprotein, and Endoribonuclease. © 2021, Trends In Carbohydrate Research. All rights reserved.

Identification of potential hits against novel coronavirus-targeting glycoprotein for multi-target approach

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus impacting more than 75 million people across 220 countries. The pharma and biotech industries, along with research institutes, strive to develop an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Efforts are also underway for finding drugs through drug repurposing and novel drug discovery methods. In this study, we have used a multi-target drug approach. The objective is to identify phytochemicals from plant sources effective against novel coronavirus. Natural products having good medicinal properties are known to have minimal side effects compared to synthetic drugs. Therefore, the medicinal products from natural sources are of significance in drug discovery research. In this study, compounds from three common plants were selected for analysis, namely, Tinospora cordifolia, Withania somnifera, and Punica granatum. The primary target selected for this study was glycoprotein. Glycoproteins are known to play a key role in the regulation of cell proliferation, growth, and signaling pathways. We also investigated the effect of screened compounds on other targets in order to have a multi-target therapy. The target proteins chosen for drug design are Spike glycoprotein, Main Protease, and uridylate-specific Endoribonuclease (EndoU). The spike glycoprotein (S) of coronavirus, is a trimeric transmembrane protein, which facilitates entry into cells and is the main target of antibodies. The spike glycoprotein is highly sensitive to mutation. The main protease (MPro) of SRAS-CoV-2 plays an essential role in disease propagation by processing the polyproteins necessary for its replication. Inhibiting the main protease by designing agonists/antagonists can serve in the repair mechanism-the uridylate-specific Endoribonuclease (EndoU) of SRAS-CoV-2 causes a delay in the host sensor system. The objective of this study was to identify potential natural hit compounds which could target multiple proteins of coronavirus. Compounds that can target all the three, namely, Spike glycoprotein, EndoU, and MPro will have better therapeutic index and efficacy than a single target approach. Therefore, the compounds were screened against all these three structural targets. The compounds targeting only one of the proteins were filtered and only those compounds showing activity against all the three structural proteins were retained for further analysis. Drug design methods, including Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Elimination (ADME) profiling and molecular docking studies, have been used in the study to identify potential hit molecules. The twenty four hits obtained targeted all the three selected proteins. This will pave the way for developing lead molecules from the screened compounds effective against all three proteins of novel coronavirus: Main protease, Spike glycoprotein, and Endoribonuclease.

Preliminary Evidence from a Cross-sectional Study on Epidemiology and Early Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19 in Karnataka State of India

Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infection and quickly disseminated around the world. This article studies the epidemiology and early transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in Karnataka, which would be useful for effective epidemic management and policy formulation. Materials and Methods All COVID-19 cases reported in the state of Karnataka, India, till June 12, 2020, are included in the study. The epidemiology and transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in Karnataka is studied through descriptive statistical analysis. Results The findings illustrate a gender-, age-, and region-based disparity in the susceptibility and fatality. There appears to be a male preponderance in the susceptibility, but a female preponderance in fatality. It is also found that the adults are more susceptible to the infection, while the elderly have the risk of high fatality. Further, infected individuals in the region with urbanization have a higher risk of fatality than other regions. The study shows that the chances of recovery for females are lower than males, and further, the chances of recovery are positively related to the age of the infected person. The chances of recovery are higher if the infected individual is younger and they diminish if the individual is older. The study also explores that the chances of recovery are affected by the patient's geographical location. It is also noted that individuals who returned from foreign travel have better chances of recovery than the locally transmitted individuals. Conclusion Though the risk of susceptibility to COVID-19 infection is equal to all, the burden of getting infected and the burden of fatality is unequally distributed among different demographic categories. To manage the contagious spread of epidemic, to reduce fatality, and to increase the chances of recovery, targeted policy actions are suggested to benefit the vulnerable demographic categories.