A survey of image encryption for healthcare applications.

Recently, medical image encryption has attracted many researchers because of security issues in the communication process. The recent COVID-19 has highlighted the fact that medical images are consistently created and disseminated online, leading to a need for protection from unauthorised utilisation. This paper intends to review the various medical image encryption approaches along with their merits and limitations. It includes a survey, a brief introduction, and the most utilised interesting applications of image encryption. Then, the contributions of reviewed approaches are summarised and compared regarding different technical perspectives. Lastly, we highlight the recent challenges along with several directions of potential research that could fill the gaps in these domains for researchers and developers.

SARS-CoV-2: Immunity, Challenges with Current Vaccines, and a Novel Perspective on Mucosal Vaccines.

The global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has played a critical role in reducing pandemic spread, disease severity, hospitalizations, and deaths. However, the first-generation vaccines failed to block severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and transmission, partially due to the limited induction of mucosal immunity, leading to the continuous emergence of variants of concern (VOC) and breakthrough infections. To meet the challenges from VOC, limited durability, and lack of mucosal immune response of first-generation vaccines, novel approaches are being investigated. Herein, we have discussed the current knowledge pertaining to natural and vaccine-induced immunity, and the role of the mucosal immune response in controlling SARS-CoV2 infection. We have also presented the current status of the novel approaches aimed at eliciting both mucosal and systemic immunity. Finally, we have presented a novel adjuvant-free approach to elicit effective mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2, which lacks the safety concerns associated with live-attenuated vaccine platforms.

Identifying the natural compound Catechin from tropical mangrove plants as a potential lead candidate against 3CLpro from SARS-CoV-2: An integrated in silico approach.

SARS-CoV-2, a member of beta coronaviruses, is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. With global fatalities of the pandemic exceeding 4.57 million, it becomes crucial to identify effective therapeutics against the virus. A protease, 3CLpro, is responsible for the proteolysis of viral polypeptides into functional proteins, which is essential for viral pathogenesis. This indispensable activity of 3CLpro makes it an attractive target for inhibition studies. The current study aimed to identify potential lead molecules against 3CLpro of SARS-CoV-2 using a manually curated in-house library of antiviral compounds from mangrove plants. This study employed the structure-based virtual screening technique to evaluate an in-house library of antiviral compounds against 3CLpro of SARS-CoV-2. The library was comprised of thirty-three experimentally proven antiviral molecules extracted from different species of tropical mangrove plants. The molecules in the library were virtually screened using AutoDock Vina, and subsequently, the top five promising 3CLpro-ligand complexes along with 3CLpro-N3 (control molecule) complex were subjected to MD simulations to comprehend their dynamic behaviour and structural stabilities. Finally, the MM/PBSA approach was used to calculate the binding free energies of 3CLpro complexes. Among all the studied compounds, Catechin achieved the most significant binding free energy (-40.3 ± 3.1 kcal/mol), and was closest to the control molecule (-42.8 ± 5.1 kcal/mol), and its complex with 3CLpro exhibited the highest structural stability. Through extensive computational investigations, we propose Catechin as a potential therapeutic agent against SARS-CoV-2. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

ZFP36 ring finger protein like 1 significantly suppresses human coronavirus OC43 replication.

CCCH-type zinc figure proteins (ZFP) are small cellular proteins that are structurally maintained by zinc ions. Zinc ions coordinate the protein structure in a tetrahedral geometry by binding to cystine-cystine or cysteines-histidine amino acids. ZFP's unique structure enables it to interact with a wide variety of molecules including RNA; thus, ZFP modulates several cellular processes including the host immune response and virus replication. CCCH-type ZFPs have shown their antiviral efficacy against several DNA and RNA viruses. However, their role in the human coronavirus is little explored. We hypothesized that ZFP36L1 also suppresses the human coronavirus. To test our hypothesis, we used OC43 human coronavirus (HCoV) strain in our study. We overexpressed and knockdown ZFP36L1 in HCT-8 cells using lentivirus transduction. Wild type, ZFP36L1 overexpressed, and ZFP36L1 knockdown cells were each infected with HCoV-OC43, and the virus titer in each cell line was measured over 96 hours post-infection (p.i.). Our results show that HCoV-OC43 replication was significantly reduced with ZFP36L1 overexpression while ZFP36L1 knockdown significantly enhanced virus replication. ZFP36L1 knockdown HCT-8 cells started producing infectious virus at 48 hours p.i. which was an earlier timepoint as compared to wild -type and ZFP36L1 overexpressed cells. Wild-type and ZFP36L1 overexpressed HCT-8 cells started producing infectious virus at 72 hours p.i. Overall, the current study showed that overexpression of ZFP36L1 suppressed human coronavirus (OC43) production.

Tele-yoga in the management of ankylosing spondylitis amidst COVID pandemic: A prospective randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) signficantly affect day to day activities contributing to signficant disability. Patients with AS often report to have psychological problems and poor quality of life (QoL). This study investigates the effect of a three-month tele-yogic intervention on disease activity, functional index, inflammatory markers, quality of life and mental health measures in patients with AS. METHODS: One hundred and twenty AS patients were assigned to either the yoga intervention group (YG) or the control group (CG). The YG (n = 57) received a 60-min structured yoga module online for 3 months in addition to standard medical care. The CG participants (n = 52) received only standard care during the same period. Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI), Ankylosing Spondylitis-Quality of Life (ASQOL) and psychological and inflammatory biomarkers were assessed at baseline and after three months. RESULTS: YG showed significant improvement in BASDAI (p = 0.001), anxiety (p = 0.0004), and depression (p = 0.001) at three months compared to baseline. The CG showed no significant change in similar outcome measures. At three months, the intervention resulted in a significant improvement in BASDI (-0.79; 95% CI (-1.3, to -0.29); p = 0.0021), BASFI (-0.86, 95% CI (-1.59, to -0.14); p = 0.0193), anxiety (-0.42, 95% CI (-0.84 to -0.01), p = 0.0468), and AS-QoL (-3.37; 95% CI (-5.21 to 1.53); p = 0.0004) compared to the CG. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that yoga helps improve pain, functional index, and mental health in patients with AS. Tele-yoga intervention is feasible and effective in treating AS.

A Review of Mirzapur Season 1 Showing How Media Frames Gun Culture and Abusive Languages

Studios have been compelled to push back the arrivals of their most prominent motion pictures to the following year or skirt dramatic deliveries entirely, drop-kicking films directly to web-based features, prompting a film industry 77.2 percent more regrettable than as of now last year, as per the media investigation organization comscore [1]. The Alternatives With the increasing number of corona cases, the hope for theatres to open decreased. [...]the search for new alternatives began and the most favourable outcome was using the OTT platform. While there are different types of OTT stages, OTT television allude to great video content transferred straightforwardly from the supplier, on to a client's screen (versatile, tablet, PC, television and so on) through Web Convention over a public organization. Various creators have utilized different models including - Innovation Acknowledgment Model (Hat), (Davis, 1989), Hypothesis of Panned Conduct (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), Dissemination of Development (DOI), (Roger, 1995), Hypothesis of Contemplated Activity (TRA) to survey and comprehend the acknowledgment of another innovation by clients and relate it with reception of OTT media including television, voice, intuitive and others.20 as for OTT stage, Cap is utilized essentially by different creators like Cha, 2013;Cha and Chan-Olmsted, 2012.

Optimizing variant-specific therapeutic SARS-CoV-2 decoys using deep-learning-guided molecular dynamics simulations.

Treatment of COVID-19 with a soluble version of ACE2 that binds to SARS-CoV-2 virions before they enter host cells is a promising approach, however it needs to be optimized and adapted to emerging viral variants. The computational workflow presented here consists of molecular dynamics simulations for spike RBD-hACE2 binding affinity assessments of multiple spike RBD/hACE2 variants and a novel convolutional neural network architecture working on pairs of voxelized force-fields for efficient search-space reduction. We identified hACE2-Fc K31W and multi-mutation variants as high-affinity candidates, which we validated in vitro with virus neutralization assays. We evaluated binding affinities of these ACE2 variants with the RBDs of Omicron BA.3, Omicron BA.4/BA.5, and Omicron BA.2.75 in silico. In addition, candidates produced in Nicotiana benthamiana, an expression organism for potential large-scale production, showed a 4.6-fold reduction in half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) compared with the same variant produced in CHO cells and an almost six-fold IC50 reduction compared with wild-type hACE2-Fc.

Effect of 0.5% povidone-iodine on the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal viral loads in patients with COVID-19: A double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial.

Background and Objective: The povidone-iodine (PvP-I) nasal antiseptic has been shown to completely inactivate the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro at variable concentrations. This study was performed to investigate the effect of 0.5% PvP-I nasal drops and oral gargles on the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal viral loads in SARS-CoV-2-positive patients. Methods: This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial among patients aged ≥18 years with reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction confirmed in the mild to moderate category of SARS-CoV-2 infection. A total of 32 patients were randomly assigned to receive either freshly prepared 0.5% PvP-I solution or distilled water in the form of supervised self-administered 4-5 nasal drops, followed by 20 ml for gargling for at least 30 seconds. The main outcome measure was the mean change in viral titer and Ct values in the nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples at baseline, 5 minutes, and 3 hours post intervention. Results: The mean change in viral titers across the time duration for the test group when compared with the control group was not statistically significant (P = 0.109). However, the mean change in Ct value was found to be borderline statistically significant (P = 0.042). Noticeable differences were noted among the mean viral titers and Ct values in the intervention group when plotted against the time of testing as compared to the control group. PvP-I solution at 0.5% dilution was well tolerated, and no evident side effects were reported. Conclusions: This study shows that 0.5% PvP-I has an effect on reducing nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal viral loads in COVID-19 patients. This can be of substantial aid for the primary care physicians, especially for the practitioners in remote and resource poor areas.

Recent changes in the mutational dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease substantiate the danger of emerging resistance to antiviral drugs.

Introduction: The current coronavirus pandemic is being combated worldwide by nontherapeutic measures and massive vaccination programs. Nevertheless, therapeutic options such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) main-protease (Mpro) inhibitors are essential due to the ongoing evolution toward escape from natural or induced immunity. While antiviral strategies are vulnerable to the effects of viral mutation, the relatively conserved Mpro makes an attractive drug target: Nirmatrelvir, an antiviral targeting its active site, has been authorized for conditional or emergency use in several countries since December 2021, and a number of other inhibitors are under clinical evaluation. We analyzed recent SARS-CoV-2 genomic data, since early detection of potential resistances supports a timely counteraction in drug development and deployment, and discovered accelerated mutational dynamics of Mpro since early December 2021. Methods: We performed a comparative analysis of 10.5 million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences available by June 2022 at GISAID to the NCBI reference genome sequence NC_045512.2. Amino-acid exchanges within high-quality regions in 69,878 unique Mpro sequences were identified and time- and in-depth sequence analyses including a structural representation of mutational dynamics were performed using in-house software. Results: The analysis showed a significant recent event of mutational dynamics in Mpro. We report a remarkable increase in mutational variability in an eight-residue long consecutive region (R188-G195) near the active site since December 2021. Discussion: The increased mutational variability in close proximity to an antiviral-drug binding site as described herein may suggest the onset of the development of antiviral resistance. This emerging diversity urgently needs to be further monitored and considered in ongoing drug development and lead optimization.

Enforcing and Resisting Hindutva: Popular Culture, the COVID-19 Crisis and Fantasy Narratives of Motherhood and Pseudoscience in India

This article analyzes how Hindu nationalists employ fantasy narratives to counteract resistance, with a particular focus on narratives of 'motherhood' and 'pseudoscience'. It does so by first introducing a conceptual discussion of the relationship between fantasy narratives, ontological insecurity, gender, and anti-science as a more general interrelationship characterizing pre- and post-COVID-19 far-right societies and leaders, such as India. It then moves on to discuss such fantasy narratives in the case of India by highlighting how this has played out in two cases of Hindu nationalist imaginings: that of popular culture, with a specific focus on the town Varanasi and the film Water (produced in 2000), and that of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emerging crisis and resistance that it has entailed. Extracts of interviews are included to illustrate this resistance.

Effect of COVID-19 on recreational trips to tourist destination - An Indian context

The present work reports an investigation on perception of tourists towards recreational trips to tourist destinations due to the effect of COVID-19 in India. Responses of tourists were captured from several popular tourist destinations in India for different travel modes, different activities within a destination and various interventions in the context of COVID-19 by a survey questionnaire and the responses were analyzed using RIDIT to rank as per their perceived risk and importance. Public transport like air, train and bus were found to be the high-risk travel modes over personal vehicles along with visiting attraction points/shopping areas within a destination. Interventions like sanitization, social distancing, use of musk and self-vaccination got higher importance by the tourists. An SP survey was conducted and depending on various interventions and their levels, a model was developed based on binary logit, which gives the probability of making a recreational trip to a tourist destination.

Seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 immunoglobulin G antibodies among health-care workers prior and after 4-6 weeks of coronavirus disease vaccine administration at tertiary care center of Southwest Bihar, India

AIM: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an ongoing global health emergency. To control the spread, a mass vaccination program is initiated. Antibody titer after vaccination can be a better marker to monitor immunological response. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out at the Department of Microbiology, Narayan Medical College and Hospital, Jamuhar Sasaram, southwest Bihar, considering the sample size, type, and collection. First, antibody was tested before vaccination and second antibody value after 28 days of the first dose of COVID vaccine among the health-care workers and housekeeping staff. RESULTS: A total of 251 subjects were administered with vaccination (Covishield) to check the immunoglobulin g (IgG) responses. The concentration of the SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody in female patients tended to be higher than in male patients. CONCLUSION: There is a difference in antibody positivity among males and females. Most of the participants had IgG positivity, because of their profession, vaccination boosted percentage positivity in both males and females. Females have more IgG levels compared to males. Hence, recommend that separate guidelines can be made between males and females for vaccination dosages. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Indian Journal of Health Sciences & Biomedical Research is the property of Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Structural bioinformatics analysis of SARS-CoV-2 variants reveals higher hACE2 receptor binding affinity for Omicron B.1.1.529 spike RBD compared to wild type reference.

To date, more than 263 million people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many countries, the global spread occurred in multiple pandemic waves characterized by the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Here we report a sequence and structural-bioinformatics analysis to estimate the effects of amino acid substitutions on the affinity of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain (RBD) to the human receptor hACE2. This is done through qualitative electrostatics and hydrophobicity analysis as well as molecular dynamics simulations used to develop a high-precision empirical scoring function (ESF) closely related to the linear interaction energy method and calibrated on a large set of experimental binding energies. For the latest variant of concern (VOC), B.1.1.529 Omicron, our Halo difference point cloud studies reveal the largest impact on the RBD binding interface compared to all other VOC. Moreover, according to our ESF model, Omicron achieves a much higher ACE2 binding affinity than the wild type and, in particular, the highest among all VOCs except Alpha and thus requires special attention and monitoring.

A 9-gene biomarker panel identifies bacterial coinfections in culture-negative COVID-19 cases.

Confirmatory diagnosis of bacterial coinfections with COVID-19 is challenging due to the limited specificity of the widely used gold-standard culture sensitivity test despite clinical presentations. A misdiagnosis can either lead to increased health complications or overuse of antibiotics in COVID-19 patients. With a multi-step systems biology pipeline, we have identified a 9-gene biomarker panel from host blood that can identify bacterial coinfection in COVID-19 patients, even in culture-negative cases. We have also formulated a qPCR-based score that diagnoses bacterial coinfection with COVID-19 with the accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of 0.93, 0.96, and 0.89, respectively. This gene signature and score can assist in the clinical decision-making process of necessary and timely prescription of antibiotics in suspected bacterial coinfection cases with COVID-19 and thereby help to reduce the associated morbidity and mortality.

COVID-19 infection, and reinfection, and vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection among health care workers in the setting of omicron variant transmission in New Delhi, India.

Background: Surge of SARS CoV-2 infections ascribed to omicron variant began in December 2021 in New Delhi. We determined the infection and reinfection density in a cohort of health care workers (HCWs) along with vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic infection within omicron transmission period (considered from December 01, 2021 to February 25, 2022. Methods: This is an observational study from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Data were collected telephonically. Person-time at risk was counted from November 30, 2021 till date of infection/ reinfection, or date of interview. Comparison of clinical features and severity was done with previous pandemic periods. VE was estimated using test-negative case-control design [matched pairs (for age and sex)]. Vaccination status was compared and adjusted odds ratios (OR) were computed by conditional logistic regression. VE was estimated as (1-adjusted OR)X100-. Findings: 11474 HCWs participated in this study. The mean age was 36⋅2 (±10⋅7) years. Complete vaccination with two doses were reported by 9522 (83%) HCWs [8394 (88%) Covaxin and 1072 Covishield (11%)]. The incidence density of all infections and reinfection during the omicron transmission period was 34⋅8 [95% Confidence Interval (CI): 33⋅5-36⋅2] and 45⋅6 [95% CI: 42⋅9-48⋅5] per 10000 person days respectively. The infection was milder as compared to previous periods. VE was 52⋅5% (95% CI: 3⋅9-76⋅5, p = 0⋅036) for those who were tested within 14-60 days of receiving second dose and beyond this period (61-180 days), modest effect was observed. Interpretation: Almost one-fifth of HCWs were infected with SARS CoV-2 during omicron transmission period, with predominant mild spectrum of COVID-19 disease. Waning effects of vaccine protection were noted with increase in time intervals since vaccination. Funding: None.

A computational essential dynamics approach to investigate structural influences of ligand binding on Papain like protease from SARS-CoV-2.

Papain like protease (PLpro) is a cysteine protease from the coronaviridae family of viruses. Coronaviruses possess a positive sense, single-strand RNA, leading to the translation of two viral polypeptides containing viral structural, non-structural and accessory proteins. PLpro is responsible for the cleavage of nsp1-3 from the viral polypeptide. PLpro also possesses deubiquitinating and deISGlyating activity, which sequesters the virus from the host's immune system. This indispensable attribute of PLpro makes it a protein of interest as a drug target. The present study aims to analyze the structural influences of ligand binding on PLpro. First, PLpro was screened against the ZINC-in-trials library, from which four lead compounds were identified based on estimated binding affinity and interaction patterns. Next, based on molecular docking results, ZINC000000596945, ZINC000064033452 and VIR251 (control molecule) were subjected to molecular dynamics simulation. The study evaluated global and essential dynamics analyses utilising principal component analyses, dynamic cross-correlation matrix, free energy landscape and time-dependant essential dynamics to predict the structural changes observed in PLpro upon ligand binding in a simulated environment. The MM/PBSA-based binding free energy calculations of the two selected molecules, ZINC000000596945 (-41.23 ± 3.70 kcal/mol) and ZINC000064033452 (-25.10 ± 2.65 kcal/mol), displayed significant values which delineate them as potential inhibitors of PLpro from SARS-CoV-2.

A survey of image encryption for healthcare applications

Recently, medical image encryption has attracted many researchers because of security issues in the communication process. The recent COVID-19 has highlighted the fact that medical images are consistently created and disseminated online, leading to a need for protection from unauthorised utilisation. This paper intends to review the various medical image encryption approaches along with their merits and limitations. It includes a survey, a brief introduction, and the most utilised interesting applications of image encryption. Then, the contributions of reviewed approaches are summarised and compared regarding different technical perspectives. Lastly, we highlight the recent challenges along with several directions of potential research that could fill the gaps in these domains for researchers and developers.

Coping Strategy, Life Style and Health Status During Phase 3 of Indian National Lockdown for COVID-19 Pandemic-A Pan-India Survey.

The implementation of timely COVID-19 pan-India lockdown posed challenges to the lifestyle. We looked at the impact of lifestyle on health status during the lockdown in India. A self-rated scale, COVID Health Assessment Scale (CHAS) was circulated to evaluate the physical health or endurance, mental health i.e. anxiety and stress, and coping ability of the individuals under lockdown. This is a pan-India cross-sectional survey study. CHAS was designed by 11 experts in 3 Delphi rounds (CVR = 0.85) and was circulated through various social media platforms, from 9th May to 31st May 2020, across India by snowball circulation method. CHAS forms of 23,760 respondents were downloaded from the Google forms. Logistic regression using R software was used to compare vulnerable (>60 years and with chronic diseases) with non-vulnerable groups. There were 23,317 viable respondents. Majority of respondents included males (58·8%). Graduates/Postgraduates (72·5%), employed (33·0%), businessmen (6·0%), and professionals (9·7%). The vulnerable group had significantly (OR 1.31, p < 0.001) higher representation of overweight individuals as compared to non-vulnerable group. Regular use of tobacco (OR 1.62, p = 0.006) and other addictive substances (OR 1.80, p = 0.039) showed increased vulnerability. Respondents who consume junk food (OR 2.19, p < 0.001) and frequently snack (OR 1.16, p < 0.001) were more likely to be vulnerable. Respondents involved in fitness training (OR 0.57, p < 0.001) or did physical works other than exercise, yoga, walk or household activity (OR 0.88, p = 0.004) before lockdown were less likely to be vulnerable. Majority had a very good lifestyle, 94.4% never smoked or used tobacco, 92.1% were non-alcoholic, 97.5% never used addictive substances, 84.7% had good eating habits, 75.4% were vegetarians, 82.8% had "good" sleep, 71.7% did physical activities. Only 24.7% reported "poor" coping ability. Depression with somewhat low feeling were more likely to be vulnerable (OR 1.26, p < 0.001). A healthy lifestyle that includes healthy eating, proper sleep, physical activeness and non-addictive habits supports better coping ability with lesser psychological distress among Indian population during lockdown.

Professional Fulfillment and Burnout among Resident Doctors during Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic

Background • Generally high level of burnout due to stress in resident doctors • COVID pandemic resulted in disruption of everyday functioning of everyone including resident doctors • Special COVID duties, increased work hours, PPE use and availability and disrupted academic calendar • Likely to cause burnout among resident doctors and affect professional satisfaction Aim To study burnout and professional satisfaction among resident doctors in India during second wave of COVID pandemic Methods A pan India online cross-sectional study among resident doctors using Google forms Approval from Institutional Ethics Committee Semi structured proforma to asses demographics Stanford Professional Fulfilment Index for Professional Fulfilment and Burnout1