Reshaping healthcare supply chain using chain-of-things technology and key lessons experienced from COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 (Corona virus disease 2019) pandemic continues to slash through the entire humanity on the earth causing an international health crisis and financial uncertainty. The pandemic has formed a colossal disruption in supply chain networks. It has caused piling higher mortality in patients with comorbidities and generated a surging demand for critical care equipment, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and cutting-edge technologies. Personal protective equipment, masks, ventilators, testing kits, and even commodities required for daily care have been scarce as lockdown and social distancing guidelines have kicked in. Amidst COVID-19, implementing and executing key processes of the healthcare supply chain (HSC) in a secured, trusted, effective, universally manageable, and the traceable way is perplexing owing to the fragile nature of the HSC, which is susceptible to redundant efforts and systemic risks that can lead to adverse impacts on consumer health and safety. Though the crisis shone a harsh light on the cracks and weaknesses of the HSC, it brings some significant insights into how HSC can be made more resilient and how healthcare industries figure out solutions to mitigate disruptions. While there are innumerable experiences learned from the disruption of this crisis, in this paper, five important areas to analyze the most vital and immediate HSC enhancements including building a resilient supply chain, thinking localization, implementing reliable reverse logistics, breaking down extant silos to achieve end-to-end visibility, and redesigning HSC using digitalization are emphasized. This work identifies important features related to CoT and HSC. Also, this study links these lessons to a potential solution through Chain of Things (CoT) technology. CoT technology provides a better way to monitor HSC products by integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) with blockchain networks. However, such an integrated solution should not only focus on the required features and aspects but also on the correlation among different features. The major objective of this study is to reveal the influence path of CoT on smart HSC development. Hence, this study exploits (i) fuzzy set theory to eliminate redundant and unrelated features; (ii) the Decision-Making and Experimental Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to handle the intricate correlation among different features. This fuzzy-DEMATEL (F-DEMATEL) model attempts to direct CoT technology towards smart HSC by identifying the most influencing factors and investors are recommended to contribute to the development of application systems. This work also demonstrates how CoT can act a vital role in handling the HSC issues triggered by the pandemic now and in the post-COVID-19 world. Also, this work proposes different CoT design patterns for increasing opportunities in the HSC network and applied them as imperative solutions for major challenges related to traditional HSC networks.

Spirituality as intrinsic motivational factor and health related quality of life among hospitalized male patients practicing Hinduism in India.

Introduction: Intrinsic motivation denotes doing an activity for itself and deriving pleasure and satisfaction from involvement. Intrinsic spirituality as the most important motive or driving factor in a person's life has a significant influence on the perception of one's own physical and psychological health, social relationships, and environmental health. Aim: The study aims to investigate the influence of intrinsic spirituality as a motivational factor on the dimensions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among hospitalized patients. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and sixty-seven patients admitted to a tertiary hospital were selected by stratified random sampling from different medical and surgical wards. Patients comprised Hindu male patients, mean age 36 (standard deviation = 13.2) years suffering from either medical or surgical disorders of minor-to-moderate intensity. Measures of Intrinsic Spirituality Scale and WHOQOL-BREF were administered to assess their intrinsic spirituality and the four dimensions of HRQoL, namely physical and psychological health, social relationships, and environmental quality of life. Data of 325 patients (42 participants eliminated in data cleaning process) were analyzed using SPSS version 25 for Pearson's correlation, and regression analysis. Results: Higher scores on intrinsic spirituality were found to be positively impact overall quality of life and general health (r = 0.169, P = 0.002; ß =0.180, P = 0.001), psychological health (r = 0.149, P = 0.007; ß =0.151, P = 0.006), social relationships (r = 0.123, P = 0.026; ß =0.133, P = 0.016), and environmental health perception (r = 0.211, P = 0.000; ß =0.22, P = 0.000) and were not significantly correlated with physical health perception (r = 0.091, P = 0.10; ß =0.093, P = 0.094). Conclusion: Spiritual motivation significantly predicts better psychological, social, and environmental health perception among hospitalized male Hindu patients. Realistic perception with respect to physical health is also reflected in this study.

Data on Molluscan Shells in parts of Nellore Coast, southeast coast of India.

X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), were applied to analyze the organic matrix of two Molluscan shells. The Mollusca shells are mineral structure and calcium carbonate crystallized as aragonite. The FT-IR spectra showed Alkyl Halide, Alkanes, Alcohols, Amides, Aromatic, and Hydroxyl groups in the organic matrix of the whole (organic and mineral) Molluscan shells. SEM images of particles of the two Molluscan shells at different magnifications were taken. The morphologies of the samples show a flake like structures with irregular grains, their sizes are at micrometric scale and the chemical analysis of EDS indicated that the major elements of Cardita and Gastropoda were C, O, and Ca, consistent with the results of XRD analysis. The results of the analysis of the EDS spectra of the shells showed that the content of most of the powder composition of shells is the element carbon, calcium oxygen, aluminium, and lead peaks that appear on the Cardita and Gastropoda and shells powders tap EDS spectra. The present work examined organic matrix of the selected shells of the heavily polluted and light polluted sites, along Nellore Coast, South East Coast of India. The heavily polluted sites have significantly thickened shells. The data demonstrated the sensitivity of this abundant and widely distributed intertidal fragile environment.

Organic matter from benthic foraminifera (Ammonia beccarii) shells by FT-IR spectroscopy: A study on Tupilipalem, South east coast of India.

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to study the variations in organic matters of benthic foraminifera (Ammonia beccarii) from four samples collected from beach environments from brackish environments along Tupilipalem coast (South east coast of India). Common absorption bands were observed as peaks in the range of 3600-3400 cm-1, 3000-2850 cm-1, 1750-1740 cm-1, 1640-1600 cm-1, 1450-1350 cm-1, 885-870 cm-1 and 725-675 cm-1 in all the shells of Ammonia beccarii. The FTIR spectrum of station-1 represents the presence of alkanes (CH3) and alkyl halide (C-F stretching) with absorptions at the range 1385-1255 and 1350-1150 cm-1 were observed and ether (C-O stretching) absorption band was observed at stations 1 and 3 with wavenumber of 1115 cm-1 and 1117 cm-1 respectively. Alkynes C-H bend was observed at station-1 with the wavenumber of 667.43 cm-1. The shifting of peak positions in all the samples is could be due to presence of organic matter in the samples. Satellite remote sensing and field observation data revealed that the river mouth at Tupilipalem coast was closed by a sand bar. Consequentially, this waterbody may affect the species diversity. •Positions of the sampling locations were identified using a hand-held Garmin Global Positioning System (GPS).•Foraminifera from the sediment were obtained using a mixture of Bromoform and Acetone.•The functional groups present in the benthic foraminifera shells were recorded in the spectral range of 4000-400 cm-1 using an FT-IR Spectrophotometer.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations as biomarker for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC).

CONTEXT: Mutations in tyrosine kinase domain (TK) of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) lead to signalling interruptions in several cancers. OBJECTIVE: To understand EGFR mutations in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC), and their role as biomarkers. METHODS: Screened 129 HNSCC patients and 150 controls for mutations in the TK domain using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single strand confirmatory polymorphism (SSCP) and sequencing. RESULTS: 81.39% of HNSCC had four mutations: G2155C, G2176A, C2188G and G2471A among these two mutations were also reported in other cancers where as two novel mutations are being reported for the first time in HNSCC. Mutational frequency was significantly associated with an advanced stage of HNSCC, habits of tobacco/alcohol and ages above 49 years. CONCLUSION: EGFR single nucleotide polymorphisms could be useful biomarkers of HNSCC.

Antimicrobial activity of highly stable silver nanoparticles embedded in agar-agar matrix as a thin film.

Highly stable silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in agar-agar (Ag/agar) as inorganic-organic hybrid were obtained as free-standing film by in situ reduction of silver nitrate by ethanol. The antimicrobial activity of Ag/agar film on Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Candida albicans (C. albicans) was evaluated in a nutrient broth and also in saline solution. In particular, films were repeatedly tested for antimicrobial activity after recycling. UV-vis absorption and TEM studies were carried out on films at different stages and morphological studies on microbes were carried out by SEM. Results showed spherical Ag NPs of size 15-25 nm, having sharp surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band. The antimicrobial activity of Ag/agar film was found to be in the order, C. albicans>E. coli>S. aureus, and antimicrobial activity against C. albicans was almost maintained even after the third cycle. Whereas, in case of E. coli and S. aureus there was a sharp decline in antimicrobial activity after the second cycle. Agglomeration of Ag NPs in Ag/agar film on exposure to microbes was observed by TEM studies. Cytotoxic experiments carried out on HeLa cells showed a threshold Ag NPs concentration of 60 µg/mL, much higher than the minimum inhibition concentration of Ag NPs (25.8 µg/mL) for E. coli. The mechanical strength of the film determined by nanoindentation technique showed almost retention of the strength even after repeated cycle.