Examining the Impact of Key Factors on COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage in India: A PLS-SEM Approach.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, numerous factors determined the performance of COVID-19 vaccination coverage. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of factors such as government stewardship, planning and implementation, and community participation on COVID-19 vaccination coverage. This study applied partial least square structured equation modeling (PLS-SEM) by analyzing 187 responses from the stakeholders involved in vaccination programs in four select states of India. This study empirically validates a framework for improving vaccination coverage by confirming the significant impact of planning and implementation on vaccination coverage followed by government stewardship and community participation. Additionally, this study highlights the individual impact of each factor on vaccination coverage. Based on the findings, strategic recommendations were proposed that can be utilized for formulating policy-level actions to facilitate the vaccination program.

Flavan-based phytoconstituents inhibit Mpro, a SARS-COV-2 molecular target, in silico.

A well-validated in-silico approach can provide promising drug candidates for the treatment of the ongoing CoVID19 pandemic. In this study, we have screened 32 phytochemical constituents (PCCs) with Mpro binding site (PDB:6W63) based on which we identified three possible candidates that are likely to be effective against CoVID19-viz., licoleafol (binding energy: -8.1 kcal/mol), epicatechin gallate (-8.5 kcal/mol) and silibinin (-8.4 kcal/mol) that result in higher binding affinity than the known inhibitor, X77 (-7.7 kcal/mol). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of PCCs-Mpro complex confirmed molecular docking results with high structural and dynamical stability. The selected compounds were found to exhibit low mean squared displacements (licoleafol: 2.25 ± 0.43 Å, epicatechin gallate: 1.93 ± 0.35 Å, and silibinin: 1.39 ± 0.19 Å) and overall low fluctuations of the binding complexes (root mean squared fluctuations below 2 Å). Visualization of the MD trajectories and structural analyses revealed that they remain confined to the initial binding region, with mean fluctuations lower than 3 Å. To access the collective motion of the atoms, we performed principal component analysis demonstrating that the first 10 principal components are the major contributors (approximate contribution of 80%) and are responsible for the overall PCCs motion. Considering that the three selected PCCs share the same flavan backbone and exhibit antiviral activity against hepatitis C, we opine that licoleafol, epi-catechin gallate, and silibinin can be promising anti-CoVID19 drug candidates.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Brevicillin, a novel lanthipeptide from the genus Brevibacillus with antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral activity.

AIM: This study was aimed to determine antimicrobial and antiviral activity of a novel lanthipeptide from a Brevibacillus sp. for disinfectant application. METHODS AND RESULTS: The antimicrobial peptide (AMP) was produced by a bacterial strain AF8 identified as a member of the genus Brevibacillus representing a novel species. Whole genome sequence analysis using BAGEL identified a putative complete biosynthetic gene cluster involved in lanthipeptide synthesis. The deduced amino acid sequence of lanthipeptide named as brevicillin, showed >30% similarity with epidermin. Mass determined by MALDI-MS and Q-TOF suggested posttranslational modifications like dehydration of all Ser and Thr amino acids to yield Dha and Dhb, respectively. Amino acid composition determined upon acid hydrolysis is in agreement with core peptide sequence deduced from the putative biosynthetic gene bvrAF8. Biochemical evidence along with stability features ascertained posttranslational modifications during formation of the core peptide. The peptide showed strong activity with 99% killing of pathogens at 12 µg ml-1 within 1 minute. Interestingly, it also showed potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity by inhibiting ∼99% virus growth at 10 µg ml-1 in cell culture-based assay. Brevicillin did not show dermal allergic reactions in BALB/c mice. CONCLUSION: This study provides detailed description of a novel lanthipeptide and demonstrates its effective antibacterial, antifungal and anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity.

A survey on face presentation attack detection mechanisms: hitherto and future perspectives.

The advances in human face recognition (FR) systems have recorded sublime success for automatic and secured authentication in diverse domains. Although the traditional methods have been overshadowed by face recognition counterpart during this progress, computer vision gains rapid traction, and the modern accomplishments address problems with real-world complexity. However, security threats in FR-based systems are a growing concern that offers a new-fangled track to the research community. In particular, recent past has witnessed ample instances of spoofing attacks where imposter breaches security of the system with an artifact of human face to circumvent the sensor module. Therefore, presentation attack detection (PAD) capabilities are instilled in the system for discriminating genuine and fake traits and anticipation of their impact on the overall behavior of the FR-based systems. To scrutinize exhaustively the current state-of-the-art efforts, provide insights, and identify potential research directions on face PAD mechanisms, this systematic study presents a review of face anti-spoofing techniques that use computational approaches. The study includes advancements in face PAD mechanisms ranging from traditional hardware-based solutions to up-to-date handcrafted features or deep learning-based approaches. We also present an analytical overview of face artifacts, performance protocols, and benchmark face anti-spoofing datasets. In addition, we perform analysis of the twelve recent state-of-the-art (SOTA) face PAD techniques on a common platform using identical dataset (i.e., REPLAY-ATTACK) and performance protocols (i.e., HTER and ACA). Our overall analysis investigates that despite prevalent face PAD mechanisms demonstrate potential performance, there exist some crucial issues that requisite a futuristic attention. Our analysis put forward a number of open issues such as; limited generalization to unknown attacks, inadequacy of face datasets for DL-models, training models with new fakes, efficient DL-enabled face PAD with smaller datasets, and limited discrimination of handcrafted features. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is an additional challenge to the existing face-based recognition systems, and hence to the PAD methods. Our motive is to present a complete reference of studies in this field and orient researchers to promising directions.

A STUDY ON BUSINESS MARKETING PARADIGMS AND TACTICS IN THE MODERN MARKET

The goal of this study is to suggest a radical shift in the way we think about extending the marketing paradigm. Since the writers believe that there is not enough of a balance between consumer and brand thinking, this is both theoretically and practically required. Despite the fact that the marketing paradigm centers on the clientele, the marketing technique considers the two sides of the market, the demand and the supply. Due to rising costs and increased competition, business owners are scratching their heads to come up with innovative marketing strategies. Although they get some insight into the historical alterations in marketing theory and practice, this information is less helpful in terms of understanding the marketing paradigm adjustments that will be necessary to thrive in the VUCA world. The purpose of this essay is to analyze and evaluate recent marketing trends and to suggest the introduction of a new marketing paradigm.

Genome-wide analysis provides genetic evidence that ACE2 influences COVID-19 risk and yields risk scores associated with severe disease.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) enters human host cells via angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, through a genome-wide association study, we identify a variant (rs190509934, minor allele frequency 0.2-2%) that downregulates ACE2 expression by 37% (P = 2.7 × 10-8) and reduces the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection by 40% (odds ratio = 0.60, P = 4.5 × 10-13), providing human genetic evidence that ACE2 expression levels influence COVID-19 risk. We also replicate the associations of six previously reported risk variants, of which four were further associated with worse outcomes in individuals infected with the virus (in/near LZTFL1, MHC, DPP9 and IFNAR2). Lastly, we show that common variants define a risk score that is strongly associated with severe disease among cases and modestly improves the prediction of disease severity relative to demographic and clinical factors alone.

From outbreak of COVID-19 to launching of vaccination drive: invigorating single-use plastics, mitigation strategies, and way forward.

The unforeseen outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has significantly stipulated the use of plastics to minimize the exposure and spread of the novel coronavirus. With the onset of the vaccination drive, the issue draws even more attention due to additional demand for vaccine packaging, transport, disposable syringes, and other allied devices scaling up to many million tonnes of plastic. Plastic materials in personal protective equipment (PPE), disposable pharmaceutical devices, and packaging for e-commerce facilities are perceived to be a lifesaver for the frontline healthcare personnel and the general public amidst recurring waves of the pandemic. However, the same material poses a threat as an evil environmental polluter when attributed to its indiscriminate and improper littering as well as mismanagement. The review not only highlights the environmental consequences due to the excessive use of disposable plastics amidst COVID-19 but also recommends mixed approaches to its management by adopting the combined and step-by-step methodology of adequate segregation, sterilization, sanitization activities, technological intervention, and process optimization measures. The overview finally concludes with some crucial way-forward measures and recommendations like the development of bioplastics and focusing on biodegradable/bio-compostable material alternatives to holistically deal with future pandemics.