A Modified Bottom Up Approach to Estimate Expected Demand Reduction During a Rare Event

Indian power system witnessed its largest very short-time demand ramping during light off event conducted to express solidarity with COVID-19 volunteers. 32 GW demand ramping was observed within 25 minutes and recorded as the highest ramping event across the globe. System operator has taken precautions and successfully handled the event with the help of hydro generation. However, system experienced severe frequency and voltage deviations due to unexpected consumer behaviour. A systematic study and an in-depth analysis of such a severe event would help system operators and planners to prepare for similar events. This paper presents a critical analysis of the activity and conducted a survey to understand consumer response during that event. It also proposes a modified Bottom-Up Approach to estimate Expected Demand Reduction (EDR) for such critical events. Proposed model is validated using data collected from the conducted survey. Proposed EDR estimation model offers better results than the Top Down and Bottom-up approach models used by system operator. © 2022 IEEE.

Detection of Covid-19 from the Chest X-Ray Images: A Comparison Study between CNN and Resnet-50

SARS-CoV-2-virus, or COVID-19, is an infectious disease that makes people's lives turn inside out. The disease spread drastically worldwide, affecting the world's socioeconomic balance. Currently, most parts of the world rely on antigen tests or RT PCR tests for diagnosing patients with symptoms of Covid-19. However, in an outbreak where a large group of people gets the symptoms, it will be challenging to conduct the tests for all in a short period;therefore, finding alternates as a backup plan is essential. Many studies were conducted to simplify and automate disease identification using CXR images for that specific purpose. The proposed system aims to compare a ResNet-50 based Covid detection model with a deep CNN model to analyze the difference in terms of performance and efficiency of the models. Both models are trained and tested on the same dataset for better comparison. In this study, both CNN and ResNet-50 model achieved an accuracy of 96 percent, whereas ResNet-50 performed slightly better on the test dataset. © 2022 IEEE.

In silico evaluation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of Punica granatum L. phytochemicals

Discovery of drugs against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the need of the hour. Plant-derived medicines offer safety, long-term stability, and capability to act on disease with multifactorial causation. In Ayurveda/Indian traditional medicine, there are remedies against almost all diseases so far identified but its efficacy and molecular mechanism of action are seldom investigated. Hence, the authors have validated the efficacy of phytochemicals derived from the widely used nutraceutical, Punica granatum against COVID-19 through in silico methods. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease enzyme (Mpro) was selected as the target protein and 219 phytochemicals from P. granatum were used as ligands. The docked molecules having binding energy≤-6kcal/mol were considered as hit molecules and top ranked five hit molecule's binding interactions, molecular properties, pharmacokinetic properties, and toxicity were analyzed and identified the compound luteolin as the best lead. The study also revealed the nutraceutical value of P. granatum against SARS-CoV-2. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In-Silico Validation of Clove as a Potential Nutraceutical against Sars-Cov-2

The pandemic COVID-19 caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has killed millions of human beings throughout the world and attaining natural immunity against this virus is the best remedy. Consumption of nutraceuticals having antiviral and immune-boosting ingredients is the natural way to fight against it. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of phytochemicals from Syzygium aromaticum and identify lead molecules through an in-silico approach. To determine anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity, 249 phytochemicals from Syzygium aromaticum (Clove) were docked with each of the four therapeutic targets namely Spike protein (SP), Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2(ACE2), Main protease (Mpro) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Spike protein and ACE2 have a key role in viral entry into the human host and Mpro and RdRp have a key role in viral multiplication. The docked molecules with minimum binding energies <= -6 kcal/mol were considered active/hit molecules. The total number of hits obtained in the order of merit was 46, 51, 60, and 150 against RdRp, spike protein, Mpro, and ACE2, respectively, and 46 phytochemicals showed inhibitory activity on all four targets. Further, top-ranked lead molecules' protein-ligand interaction, physiochemical and ADMET prediction indicated that the compounds bicornin, casuarictin and pedunculagin have good inhibitory activity against all the selected targets. However, bicornit was recommended as the best lead for further studies since it has comparatively good inhibitory and ADMET properties. Copyright All © 2022 are reserved by International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research.

Around the World in Eighty Days: Some Insights for Health Policies from Early Incidence, Fatality, and Recovery Data of Covid-19

Covid-19 is different from previous pandemics in many respects and singularly striking for an exceptionally unique phenomenon. Never before has an infection gone around the world to 216 countries in a short span of eighty days. This paper compares the incidence, fatality and recovery from Covid-19 data to discern patterns, examine differences in approach and draw lessons for health policy and health systems with data of first eighty days from the first infection in each country. The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to compare responses of high income and low income countries from the perspective of spread, control measures, containment, tracing and treatment;second, to examine whether greater societal development or prosperity is associated with better outcomes for recovery of infected patients or lower fatality;and thirdly, to consider institutional differences that may explain differences in outcomes. For the study, we included countries with high infection rates [United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Italy, China, and Saudi Arabia] and also those with low infection rates (Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and India). We conclude that health systems in high-income countries can learn to be resilient from the experience of other high income countries and also from low-income countries. Timely interventions and administrative initiatives can bring about an enormous difference in outcomes. © 2022 Adani Institute of Infrastructure.

Strategies for COVID-19 control among migrant labourers in a developing country setting: Pathanamthitta model from Kerala.

BACKGROUND: The ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 is a public health emergency with serious implications world-wide including India. Vulnerable population like migrants are often left out of epidemic preparedness planning and reaching out these marginalized population is a challenge. OBJECTIVE: To describe different strategies implemented for control and prevention of Covid-19 among migrants in Pathanamthitta. RESULTS: Strategies for Covid-19 control among migrant labourers were planned and implemented with intersectoral coordination and community participation. Line listing and risk stratification, mobilisation of community volunteers, contactless active symptomatic surveillance using technology, IEC activities for awareness generation in multiple languages, sample collection, testing and distribution of personal protective equipment's were initially implemented. Setting up of a call centre facility assisted with M health technology exclusively for addressing concerns of migrants was first and one of its kind in the country. In addition to that special measures were taken to improve adherence and wellbeing of migrants which included addressing medical needs of migrants including psychological needs, ensuring food security, migrant hostels for the providing shelter, basic health care, isolation facilities and arranging transportation facilities for more than 10,000 stranded migrants. The success of these strategies was evident from the fact that not even a single migrant labourer was tested positive in the district during this period. CONCLUSION: Pathanamthitta district being in a resource constraint setting showed a very effective model by implementing technology assisted strategies tailored to the needs of population.The success of these highly effective and replicable strategy underlines the need to incorporate principles of primary health care in crisis management.