FedCare: Federated Learning for Resource-Constrained Healthcare Devices in IoMT System

In social IoMT systems, resource-constrained devices face the challenges of limited computation, bandwidth, and privacy in the deployment of deep learning models. Federated learning (FL) is one of the solutions to user privacy and provides distributed training among several local devices. In addition, it reduces the computation and bandwidth of transferring videos to the central server in camera-based IoMT devices. In this work, we design an edge-based federated framework for such devices. In contrast to traditional methods that drop the resource-constrained stragglers in a federated round, our system provides a methodology to incorporate them. We propose a new phase in the FL algorithm, known as split learning. The stragglers train collaboratively with the nearest edge node using split learning. We test the implementation using heterogeneous computing devices that extract vital signs from videos. The results show a reduction of 3.6 h in the training time of videos using the split learning phase with respect to the traditional approach. We also evaluate the performance of the devices and system with key parameters, CPU utilization, memory consumption, and data rate. Furthermore, we achieve 87.29% and 60.26% test accuracy at the nonstragglers and stragglers, respectively, with a global accuracy of 90.32% at the server. Therefore, FedCare provides a straggler-resistant federated method for a heterogeneous system for social IoMT devices.

Roles and Impact of ASHA Workers in Combating COVID-19: Case Study Bhubaneswar

The present COVID attack has significantly accentuated vulnerability of infections at community level where their basic healthcare and immunization program are being implemented by the ICDS scheme launched in 1975 through a slew of AWCs scattered all over the country. The AWC acts as a primary health center that provides supplementary nutrition to children (between 0 and 6 years of age) and pregnant and lactating mothers besides providing preschool education to children in the age group of 4–6 years. The ASHA workers associated with AWC under then NRHM are the first hand health workers available to them at the community level who act as a bridge between the dispensaries and the community members. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the role of ASHA workers has assumed increased salience as the governments are relying on them for community level combating of this outbreak. This paper takes a close look at fund allocations to the public healthcare sector among the developing and developed countries and also the interstate allocations and allocations for major schemes and the resultant impact on HDI. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

COVID-19 Induced New Workplace HR Practices: Practitioners' Perspectives from India

The purpose of this article is to provide a first-hand account of how human resources (HR) practitioners from India are revisiting their traditional perceptions of managing HR in the wake of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study applies an in-depth interview method to probe the mindset of 13 top-level HR practitioners from India. The time duration of each interview ranged between 45 minutes and 1 hour. The data generated from the qualitative interviews are analysed through latent thematic analysis. The findings throw light on how HR managers in India are rethinking their traditional practices to adjust to the new normal. The themes point to a shift towards a virtual organizational structure, with emphasis given to developing virtual empathy and virtual team building. There is also the resonance of being more future-ready for the potential recurrence of such types of economically disruptive shock events. There is more willingness to hire gig workers and freelancers now given the increased risk of overstaffing in the post-pandemic market. This study provides practitioners with a lot of validity about the way forward in the new world of work-from-home and virtual employment contracts. This is a novel exploration of what some of the senior HR practitioners from India are doing to counter the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic-induced workplace disruption. © 2023 XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources.

Assessing the Impact of Corona Pandemic on Adopting Healthy Habits Among People of Uttar Pradesh

Background: The role of physical activity and a healthy diet for improving overall health is known to all. Sudden lockdown, imposed by the Indian government for the containment of the Corona virus disease in March 2020, has affected the physical, mental and emotional health of everyone in the country. Objectives: This paper is aimed to access the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the healthy habits of the people of Uttar Pradesh. It also tried to explore the reason why someone not able to adapt the healthy habits. Method: An online survey was conducted among the people having smartphones and internet accessibility in Uttar Pradesh. Questions related to their daily routine and diets were asked. More than two hundred participants have taken part in the survey. Then BMI, immunity through diet, and Physical immunity were calculated. Different statistical methods were applied to find relations and associations among the variables. Results: Maximum respondents were below the age of 35 (89%, n = 178), hence they have a good physical immune system, but only 56 percent (n = 112) were having BMI in the normal range. Most of them were conscious about the impact of exercise and a healthy diet on their health then also only 68 percent (n = 136) were involved in any sort of exercise. Conclusion: People of Uttar Pradesh are aware of the healthy habits and diet required to improve the immune system. Taking a healthy diet and regular exercise is part of the day for many and those who lack motivation are unable to do so. © 2023 DMICS.

Complications and Outcomes of Peritoneal Dialysis in Indian Subcontinent: Two Decades of Experience from a Single Centre

Introduction: Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) was first introduced in 1990. It is now being considered at per or even better than MHD in many centers in India. Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS),Imphal is a tertiary care hospital in Northeastern part of India which is surrounded by neighboring states and border states of Myanmar where communication, transport, renal health care system is least developed. Many patient used to die due to lack of availability of hemodialysis facility. Since September 2001, CAPD programme was started at RIMS hospital, Imphal to treat the patient of CKD in Manipur, other neighboring states and Myanmar. It has been already more than 21 years and 736 number of PD catheter insertion is done at RIMS till September 2022. Method(s): Tenckhoff catheters were implanted either trans-peritoneally by surgeon or percutaneously by the nephrologist under local anaesthesia. All the details data about the patients were collected and accumulated. Accumulation and collection of data is constantly done by designated analyzers in RIMS centers in order to be continually updated on the demographics of renal patients using PD. These data were constantly documented and analyzed to assess the outcome and complications of PD. A total of 736 CKD patients were implanted with CAPD catheter between September 2001 to September 2022 and their detail data were analysed. Result(s): Out of total 736 PD cases there were 276 episodes of peritonitis. 58.6% cases had single episode of peritonitis as in Table -1. Out of 276 episodes of peritonitis 27 cases were culture positive.The leading causative agent of peritonitis was Staphylococcus aureus (37% of culture positive cases). Staphylococcus epidermidis was responsible for 18.5% of culture positive episodes as shown in Table-2. The incidence of ESI was 0.03 per person-years.The most common infective organism was S. aureus which was responsible for 12 (52%) of cases Table-3. Out of total 736 PD cases 72 patients were shifted to HD over the twenty one -year period, refractory peritonitis was the most common cause of technique failure ( 41.6 %) (Table- 4). A total of 125(16.9%) patients among 736 had PD catheter tip migration of which 46% were surgically removed and re-inserted. Omentectomy was require in 14.4 % of patient due to omental wrap around PD catheter (Table 5). There were 443 admissions to the hospital by these PD patients during the study period, of which 173(39%)were due to peritonitis. Non-peritoneal infections were the second most common cause responsible for 98(22.1%) hospital admissions. The non-peritoneal infections included covid 19 pneumonia in 5 patients (Table 6). Out of 736 patients, 145 patients(14.7%) were continuing on PD and12 patients (1.6%)underwent renal transplantation(Table-8). Conclusion(s): Our study suggests that there has been considerable improvement in overall outcome and mortality in patients on PD over the 20 years period. Peritonitis is the most common complication associated with PD. Having a well-trained staff will decrease the complications. This modality of renal replacement therapy in terms of long-term survival and quality of life and should be encouraged at the national level. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023

Study for Gender Perspective- During "New” Normal

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent nationwide lockdown, India faces significant policy challenges, both humanitarian as well as economic. Vast numbers of its population of 1.3 billion people are self-employed informal sector workers and daily wage earners who lack access to social security. Many of these workers are facing job and income losses, and food shortages, and require direct support in terms of cash and food. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that significant mental health concerns have arisen in the face of the pandemic and the lockdown, both due to the economic uncertainty as well as the social distancing measures, which have impacted community connectedness. In this paper, we report the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and mental health outcomes as well as dietary habits among a subset of India's economically vulnerable population in crowded urban settings. The data comes from over 96 households with respondents aged 18-45 residing across Lucknow and various parts of Uttar Pradesh. This crisis could act as a turning point where more inclusive, gender sensitive policies can be formulated while steps are taken to redress the economy. © 2023 DMICS.

Identification and classification of transportation disaster tweets using improved bidirectional encoder representations from transformers

Social Media today has become the most relevant and affordable platform to express one's views in real-time. The #Endsars protest in Nigeria and the COVID-19 pandemic have proven how important and reliant both government agencies and individuals are on social media. This research uses tweets collected from Twitter API to identify and classify transportation disasters in Nigeria. Information such as the user, location, and time of the tweet makes identification and classification of transportation disasters available in real-time. Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) uses a transformer that includes two separate mechanisms, a decoder that produces a prediction for the task and an encoder that reads the text input. It learns contextual relations between words (sub-words) in a text. This research applied BERT with a combination of AdamW optimizers. AdamW is an improved version of stochastic gradient descent that computes an adaptive learning rate for each parameter. Our proposed model produces an accuracy of 82%. It was concluded that our approach outperformed the existing algorithm: BERT having an accuracy of 64%. © 2023

Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Coronavirus Vaccination in a Patient with No Known Comorbidities

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an inflammatory condition where there is marked cytopenia and large-scale activation of macrophages and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. HLH may be of two types - primary HLH caused by genetic abnormalities and secondary HLH due to infections, malignancies, autoimmune disorders, rheumatologic disorders, and metabolic dysfunctions. We describe a case of HLH following the first dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Corona Virus vaccine. In this patient, there was no clear precipitant of HLH. The most probable explanation could be intense immune activation by vaccine constituents producing aberrant activation of inflammatory cytokines. There were no signs of infection or malignancy. Since our patient was clinically stable, his symptoms had resolved and HLH parameters had improved, no HLH-specific therapy was given.

COVID-19 Article Classification Using Word-Embedding and Different Variants of Deep-Learning Approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we go about our everyday lives, and we will continue to see its impact for a long time. These changes especially apply to the business world, where the market is very volatile as a result. Requirements of the people are changing rapidly, as are the restrictions on transport and trade of goods. Due to the intense competition and struggles brought about due to the pandemic, acting first on profit opportunities is crucial to businesses doing well in the current climate. Thus, getting the relevant news in time, out of the huge number of COVID-19 related articles published daily is of utmost importance. The same applies to other industries, like the medical industry, where innovations and solutions to managing COVID-19 can save lives, and money in other parts of the world. Manually combing through the massive number of articles posted every day is both impractical and laborious. This task has the potential to be automated using Natural Language Processing (NLP) with Deep Learning based approaches. In this paper, we conduct exhaustive experiments to find the best combination of word-embedding, feature selection, and classification techniques;and find the best structure for the Deep Learning model for article classification in the COVID-19 context. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Impact of the Pandemic on Mental Health Among the Youth of India

The restrictions due to the pandemic have impacted mental health worldwide. The pandemic instigated health and financial pressure on everyone. The research aims to analyse the impact of the lockdown and pandemic on the mental health of the youth in India, understand the reasons behind it and try to examine whether it should be continued after the lockdown. The study also seeks to understand whether the government response to the distress created mentally by the coronavirus pandemic has been adequate or not. This study is based on primary data collected from the youth of tier-one cities in India, using web-based surveys, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. Through the research, variables that impact mental health have been identified, which include sleep patterns, generalized anxiety, screen time, social media usage, life satisfaction, work pressure, the environment at home, work satisfaction, sense of productivity, physical activities, and interpersonal conflicts. There has been an inadequate promotion of the initiatives undertaken by the government, leading to unawareness of these schemes. The research observed, an increased work pressure, screen time, and generalized anxiety, and a decrease in work satisfaction, productivity, sleep time, and personal space. This research is essential to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of mental health deterioration and to come up with methods to help curb these problems in the long run. The research, however, has shortcomings including small sample size, and an under-representation of the marginalized income group. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COVID-19 INFECTION-RELATED MYOCARDITIS: AN UPDATED SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

SESSION TITLE: Late Breaking Posters in Critical Care SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Posters PRESENTED ON: 10/18/2022 01:30 pm - 02:30 pm PURPOSE: This systematic review aims to better understand the clinical characteristics, comorbidities, diagnostic findings, and clinical outcomes associated with COVID-19 myocarditis. METHODS: A search for “COVID-19 OR SARS COV-2 OR Coronavirus AND Myocarditis” was performed on 1/4/2022. 2011 studies from Embase and 1165 studies from PubMed were identified. Selection criteria included studies on SARS COV-2 infection-related myocarditis. 142 PubMed and 104 Embase studies were identified. Studies were appraised per protocols and s, vaccine-related myocarditis, uncertain vaccine/infection-related myocarditis, and, systematic reviews. Duplicate studies were removed. A total of 53 articles from which 57 cases were selected to be part of this systematic review. Data on age, sex, days since diagnosis, comorbid conditions such as morbid obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, CAD, preexisting CHF, ischemic heart disease, D- Dimer, ferritin, high sensitivity troponin, BNP, EKG, echocardiogram, cMRI findings, medications, ventilation requirements, and mortality were extracted from 57 studies and were analyzed using IBM SPSS v26. RESULTS: Mean EF was 32.65 ± 16.57 %. EKG findings of diffuse ST elevation were present in 22% of all cases. Echocardiogram findings of diffuse hypokinesis present in 42.1% and depressed EF in 31.6% of all cases. 21.1% required non-invasive ventilation while 26.3% of all cases ended up requiring mechanical ventilation. Ischemic cardiomyopathy was present in 1.7%, Hypertension in 24.5%, Hyperlipidemia in 7%, Morbid obesity, and a previous diagnosis of CHF was present in 0% of all cases. Overall mortality was seen in 5.3% of all cases. 50% of the cases reported using cardiac MRI (cMRI) and 58% with reported cMRI findings met the Lake Louis criteria for diagnosis of myocarditis. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review presents findings of demographics, comorbidities, diagnostic findings, and clinical outcomes of adult COVID-19 patients with myocarditis. The mean days since COVID-19 diagnosis has a wide range due to varied presentations noted in case reports. The previously presumed high-risk factors for COVID-19-related myocarditis are not present in a significant percentage of the cases. SARS-CoV2 myocarditis-related mortality is lower in cases than expected. In the setting of the appropriate clinical context, acute/subacute chest pain, with elevated cardiac biomarkers, abnormal EKGs, and echocardiogram findings in patients with recent or /remote SARS-CoV2 infection/ vaccination, a clinical diagnosis of myocarditis can be made in absence of cMRI. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Diagnosis of SARS-CoV2-related myocarditis can be made based on clinical presentation, abnormal EKG, and echocardiogram with or without the added benefit of cardiac MRI. This systematic review aims to update current knowledge on the characteristics of COVID-19 infection-related myocarditis. DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Mubashir Ayaz Ahmed No relevant relationships by Hari Bhattarai No relevant relationships by shyam chalise No relevant relationships by Saral Desai No relevant relationships by Shayet Hossain Eshan No relevant relationships by Sudha Misra No relevant relationships by Zahin Islam Rafa No relevant relationships by Shrungavi Ramanathan No relevant relationships by Monica Sharma

ORGANIZING PNEUMONIA WITH FOREIGN BODY REACTION AS A RESULT OF SODIUM HYDROXIDE AND AMMONIUM SALT VAPOR EXPOSURE

SESSION TITLE: Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease Cases SESSION TYPE: Rapid Fire Case Reports PRESENTED ON: 10/18/2022 12:25 pm - 01:25 pm INTRODUCTION: Sodium hydroxide and ammonium salt vapor exposure are known to cause epithelial necrosis of the tracheobronchial tree, but no pathologic descriptions exist of subsequent inflammatory pneumonitis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 56-year-old man presented to the outpatient clinic with 2 months of progressive scant hemoptysis and dyspnea on exertion. He had a mild smoking history, a history of longstanding stable UC, and had a history significant only for recently performing multiple weeks of cleaning work on a large, enclosed HVAC system with chemicals containing sodium hydroxide and ammonium. He wore no respiratory protection at work. CXR was significant for streaky bilateral lower lobe opacities and CT Chest revealed bilateral basilar ground-glass opacities with a small left pneumothorax. His PFT demonstrated mild restriction with a diffusion defect. Infiltrates persisted after treatment with levofloxacin. A broad autoimmune panel was normal. Bronchoscopy with cryobiopsy showed organizing pneumonia with foreign body reaction. BAL showed primarily mast cells and no organisms were found. Prednisone at 60mg daily with Bactrim prophylaxis and a subsequent prolonged wean was initiated with marked improvement. DISCUSSION: Industrial HVAC cleaning agents are widely used with the proliferation of HVAC systems in the post-COVID world. Other examples exist of prolonged cleaning product use and lung function decline (Svanes et al). Our case report hypothesizes a link between inhalational exposure to sodium hydroxide and ammonium salts with organizing pneumonia with foreign body features, a previously unknown effect. Prednisone led to improvement. CONCLUSIONS: High suspicion for occult pneumonitis should exist when patients present with prolonged exposure to cleaning/noxious chemical vapors exist. Respiratory protection should be emphasized as a public health policy to prevent lung damage among any type of cleaner use including high-skilled (HVAC) cleaners. Reference #1: Advenier, A., & Grandmaison, G. (2022). PULMONARY ACUTE LESIONS AFTER CAUSTIC EXPOSURE. Retrieved 31 March 2022, from https://www.lungdiseasesjournal.com/articles/pulmonary-acute-lesions-after-caustic-exposure.html Reference #2: Svanes, Ø., Bertelsen, R. J., Lygre, S., Carsin, A. E., Antó, J. M., Forsberg, B., García-García, J. M., Gullón, J. A., Heinrich, J., Holm, M., Kogevinas, M., Urrutia, I., Leynaert, B., Moratalla, J. M., Le Moual, N., Lytras, T., Norbäck, D., Nowak, D., Olivieri, M., Pin, I., … Svanes, C. (2018). Cleaning at Home and at Work in Relation to Lung Function Decline and Airway Obstruction. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 197(9), 1157–1163. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201706-1311OC Reference #3: Gorguner, M., & Akgun, M. (2010). Acute inhalation injury. The Eurasian journal of medicine, 42(1), 28–35. https://doi.org/10.5152/eajm.2010.09 DISCLOSURES: no disclosure on file for Ai-Yui Maria Tan;No relevant relationships by Sudha Misra No relevant relationships by Amrik Ray

Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis after COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case Report

Aim and background: Cases of thrombotic thrombocytopenia induced by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have been reported recently. Herein, we describe hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) following COVID-19 vaccination. Case report: A 35-year-old male, chronic alcoholic, 3 years into abstinence received first dose Covishield vaccine. He started developing a fever, testicular pain, diminished sensorium requiring invasive ventilation, and decreased urine output 4 days after getting vaccinated. Initial workup for NCCT brain and HRCT chest was normal, tropical fever panel was negative, cultures for blood and endotracheal aspirate were sterile, liver and renal functions showed mild derangement, CSF study was normal. Ultrasound examination of the abdomen revealed mild hepatosplenomegaly, mild testicular swelling, and suprainguinal lymphadenopathy, with no focus of infection. Subsequently, he developed bicytopenia with haemoglobin 9.0 g/dL and platelet counts 50 × 109/L, ferritin 2130 μg/L, triglyceride 353 mg/dL, and decreased fibrinogen 1.41 g/L. Bone marrow as well as lymph node biopsy showed haemophagocytosis with engulfment of neutrophils, lymphocytes, and normoblasts making HLH a likely diagnosis. Soluble CD25 and NK cell function could not be performed. Extensive evaluation was done to look into the etiology of HLH. SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test was negative. RT-PCR test for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), influenza A (H1N1, H3N2), influenza B, cytomegalovirus (CMV) performed from endotracheal aspirate (ETA) was negative. Similarly, the RT-PCR test from serum samples for EBV, Parvo B-19, CMV, and from CSF sample for EBV, Parvo B-19, CMV, and HSV-1 was negative. Hepatitis B, C, and HIV serologies were negative. Culture and sensitivity repeated from blood, ETA and urine was sterile. Autoimmune panel including complements levels were negative. Peripheral smear, bone marrow, and lymph node biopsy were normal and did not reveal abnormal or malignant cells. He had persistent fevers to 38.6°C during the first 6 days of his admission, with a rise in his ferritin to 1950 μg/L. The patient received steroids but not etoposide. By the 8th day, his fevers resolved, with improvement in his lethargy and malaise. Two weeks later, his ferritin had reduced to 510 μg/L, platelet count rose to 180 × 109/L, and repeat ultrasound abdomen demonstrated resolution of his splenomegaly. In our patient, there was no clear precipitant of HLH other than the Covishield vaccine. There was no evidence of an infection or malignancy. Due to our patient's clinical stability, resolution of symptoms, and improvement of HLH parameters he did not require HLH specific therapy. It is unclear if he had a pre-existing genetic predisposition to HLH as genetic testing is pending, however, it is unlikely as he has reached the age of 35 and suffered from previous viral infections without developing HLH.

Lipid based self-assembled nanostructures for therapeutic delivery applications

The evolution of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) has been remarkably interesting and in beneficent directions for food and health industries working towards human well being. Since the discovery of the first-generation lipid based self-assembled nanostructures, i.e., liposomes in the 1960s, it has witnessed significant advances in their development and distinctive potential in different application domains. Based on the composition and structure, these lipid-based structures have varied from liposome to lipid nanoparticles, e.g., solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) & nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) to overcome certain limitation pertaining to their use in different fields. The outstanding application of LNPs as therapeutic delivery systems has made them key players to treat different human disorders including the fatal cancers. Their life-saving global contribution has recently been witnessed in the form of mRNA vaccines against deadly COVID-19. They have also significantly served purpose in other domains such as biomedical imaging, cosmetics, nutrition, and agriculture. Their prominent role is in the area of anticancer therapy as delivery vectors for nucleic acids and drugs. Some issues with respect to the cellular delivery of drugs and genes, such as circulation time and stability have been somewhat resolved, but the unmet goal of site-specific substantial delivery remains the main focus in LNPs development research. Despite the promise shown by LNPs in animal studies and the fact that technological advances in LNPs research have made the approval possible of a few formulations, therapeutic outcomes in human are not satisfactory. The LNPs technology has managed to survive due to possible tailoring of their properties by virtue of the possibility of altering the composition and modifying the surface. Therefore, enormous scientific endeavours are on the rise to transform lipid structures, composition along with tinkering with surface of LNPs. The alternative methods to guide LNPs coupled with advances in small molecule nucleic acid therapeutics and drug development technology to make the entry possible to specific cells may be effective in cancer therapy. The development is very promising;however enduring efforts are required till the goal is reached. © ScienceIn Publishing.

PREVALENCE OF STROKE IN MUCORMYCOSIS PATIENTS WITH COVID-19 INFECTION IN INDIA

Background: During the second wave of COVID-19, India suffered from a catastrophic outburst of cases and rapid transmission of disease due to the highly infectious delta strain (B.1.617.2). Patients infected with this strain underwent prolonged hospitalisations, suffered from severe symptoms. A sudden surge of fungal infections, primarily Mucormycosis was observed. Methods: We conducted a case-control study to study various risk factors and form of intracranial involvement in cases of Mucormycosis. Results: Study included 121 patients in total;out of which 61 were Mucormycosis patients with prior COVID-19 infection. 30 out of 61 Mucormycosis patients had intracranial involvement with majority having stroke in the form of the either infarct (10 patients, 34%);or haemorrhage (3 patients, 10%) and thrombosis of artery involvement (8 patients, 29%). Other intracranial form of involvement was abscess (6 patients, 20%) and meningitis (2 patients, 7%). The most frequent type of infarcts were lacunar infarcts and the most common location of infarcts were middle cerebral artery (MCA) or anterior cerebral artery (ACA). Patients were treated with administration of Amphotericin B and Posaconazole. Telephonic follow-up was conducted after a time period of about 90 days and their health condition was recorded on basis of modified ranking scale (mRS). Out of the 30 Mucormycosis infection patients displaying the occurrence of stroke, 10 patients could not survive. q Conclusion: Intracranial Mucormycosis in COVID19 patients presenting with stroke were observed frequently and had mortality in about one-third cases.

Food-based probiotics: Functional dietary ingredients

Probiotics are included in the group of health promoting functional foods that promotes good gut health through the supply of essential metabolites with therapeutic characteristics. Promoting a healthy digestive tract and a healthy immune system are their most widely studied benefits of late. A series of food and pharmaceutical products have drawn the attention and interest of consumers due to their exclusive health benefits. Therefore, food-based probiotics are gaining popularity in the recent years, even though there is an increase in commercially available probiotic supplements. Probiotics can be naturally found in some food groups, whereas, the other food groups can act as a vehicle for probiotics. One of the most abundant sources of probiotics is the group of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which plays an important role in preventing intestinal problems. Under certain stress conditions, intestinal microbiota may be altered manifesting in gut disorders. Probiotic bacteria stimulate the growth of indigenous beneficial gut microbiota by inhibiting the growth of opportunistic pathogenic microbes. These are also commonly known as healthy bacteria which are obtained from food, beverages and dietary supplements. Thus, this chapter will focus on the probiotics naturally occurring across different food groups of the food pyramid, and also their potential in fermented food products for healthy diets. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Trend of COVID-19 Pandemic in India: A Methodical Comparison with Italy, UK, and the US

Introduction: To statistically compare the trends of epidemiological indicators of COVID-19 in India with Italy, the UK, and the US. Methodology: In this descriptive analysis, epidemiological indicators were calculated and their trends were plotted and compared statistically. Regression analysis was done to predict the fatalities. Results: The trends of total and active cases per million populations are rising in India and US, while Italy has achieved the plateau in the total cases per million populations, and active cases have been sharply declining with time. The UK is about to achieve the same. India has remained far behind the other three countries in the number of tests per million populations (p<0.05). In the initial phase, the test positivity rate of India was quite lower but has overtaken Italy and UK. India has always reported a higher recovery rate than US and lower than Italy. CFRs have achieved a plateau in Italy and UK, in US it is declining, while it remained almost constant in India throughout the pandemic. Testing was a significant covariate in predicting the fatalities. Conclusions: India was able to manage the initial phase of this pandemic due to early and strict government interventions and strong public health responses. @ 2022 The Journal retains the copyrights of this article.

Application of the Internet of Things (IoT) to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic

The emergence of coronavirus (COVID-19) is currently a challenge that has physical, economic, social, and pedagogical boundaries, thus gaining global attention. The emergence of new trends in technologies contributed to the commencement of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is gaining worldwide attention as well as becoming available for monitoring, diagnosing, forecasting, and preventing emerging communicable diseases. IoT in the medical organization is advantageous and has enabled appropriate control of individuals with COVID-19 by using interconnected wearable sensors and networks. IoT is an evolving area of investigation in infectious disease epidemiology. However, the augmented dangers of communicable diseases transmitted through worldwide integration and the pervasive availability of smart types of machinery, including the interrelatedness of the world, require its utilization for monitoring, averting, predicting, and managing transmittable viruses. This has helped in reducing the circulation rate in the hospital and increasing patient satisfaction. Therefore, this chapter discusses the overall applications of IoT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the significant applications of IoT, challenges, and opportunities of deploying the technologies during the outbreak are presented. This can be of help to identify symptoms and provides better treatment for the outbreak. Taking into account the current situation worldwide, smart disease monitoring systems focused on IoT can be significantly advanced in an attempt to combat the next contagion. With the development of smartphones, wearable devices, and Internet access, IoT’s role will limit the spread of the pandemic by collecting and analyzing data already gathered. These technologies also help to provide an automated and efficient warning system that allows early and timely identification of COVID-19, thus reducing mortality and preventing global spread. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.