New normal of academic virtual conference: Imperative during pandemic.

In COVID pandemic, attending the continuing medical education, workshops, and conferences with physical attendance is not possible. We designed, developed, and hosted the first of its kind academic virtual/online conference at par with an in-person academic conference to disseminate the expertise of the renowned subject experts along with researchers to present their research work due to the ongoing pandemic. We, in this article, had summarized the most critical steps in order to make the process easier for first-timers while providing our more comprehensive walkthroughs on each step. We choose a live session of the speakers on the Zoom meeting mode to retain the atmosphere of a live conference. WhatsApp, Google (Google Meet and E-mail), and Kahoot were other platforms to communicate with speakers, researchers, and participants to seamlessly participate. A number of advantages in terms of protection for delegates/speakers and their families came from the Virtual Conference on Nutrition and Health, restricting the spread of COVID-19, low budget for organizers, economically much cheaper alternatives both for speakers and participants, dissemination of knowledge, time productive, and meeting research paper presentation eligibility for a professional course. When one is new to technology, try adding an innovative aspect as a starting point to future virtual and in-person events, and seeing how it works is imperative. Ensuring Internet bandwidth, updated hardware, or webcam and/or microphone functionality at the participant end is critical.

A Pilot Retrospective Study Validating Noncommunicable Disease Risk Assessment Score (AMNRAS).

BACKGROUND: Globally Noncommunicable Diseases is lead causes of mortality. This calls for the need of sensitive and cost appropriate screening tools to identify asymptomatic healthy individuals with higher risk and/or subclinical NCD in the community. The study aims to generate pilot evidence based, validated, good quality, cost appropriate, and sustainable risk assessment score for NCD for developing countries like India. METHODS: This descriptive retrospective study of diabetic camp data of 84 patients was conducted. A risk score having 10 questions and three measurements for NCDs appropriate for Indian communities was generated. It was compared to IDRS, FINDRISC, FRS, CBAC, and WHO/ISH prediction charts. RESULTS: The study finally included 36 patients with NCD as case and 44 subjects without NCD as control. The means of weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood sugar were significantly different among the two groups. AMNRAS of more than 14 was highly predictive for an individual to be at risk of NCD or sub clinical case of NCD requiring evaluation. The proposed cut-off of 8 for AMNRAS, the sensitivity and NPV was highest compared to other score, 88.9% and 84.6%, respectively. Score for the Area under curve was significantly higher for AMNRAS [0.83 (0.74 to 0.92)] compared to other scores. CONCLUSIONS: AMNRAS has higher performance parameters than the other five tested in the present study. Other scoring system performs only modestly in discrimination of NCD cases. The accuracy of AMNRAS for NCD risk will have to be determined in large size cohorts.

Prevalence of Maternal Measles Antibody and Its Associated Factors among Infants in Coastal Karnataka, India.

BACKGROUND: The current recommendation in India to commence first dose of measles immunization is at 9 months of age. The effectiveness of measles vaccination is greatly impacted by the level of maternal measles antibody (MMA) during infancy. OBJECTIVES: To find the prevalence of MMA and to study the maternal and infant factors associated with persistence of MMA among the infants in a Indian rural community. METHODOLOGY: Dried blood spot sample was collected before vaccination among infants aged 9 months and above when they came for first dose of measles vaccine to assess measles-specific maternal IgG antibody titers by enzyme immunoassay. Maternal and child factors influencing persistence of MMA were collected by interviewing the mothers. Association between various factors affecting seropositivity was tested using univariate logistic regression analysis and strength of association is reported as risk ratio with 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: Based on the qualitative estimation among all the recruited children (250) in the study, 4 (1.6%) infants showed the presence of MMA whereas 25 (10%) of children had MMA on quantitative estimation. The effect of maternal factors, child nutrition, and sociodemographic factors on the presence of MMA was not found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of persistent MMA (IgG titer ≥200 mIU/ml) among the infants aged 9-12 months was 10%. The choice of vaccinating infants at the end of 9 months for the first dose of measles vaccine is justified as the remaining (90%) of infants were susceptible for measles infection at this age.

Changing Perspectives in Tribal Health: Rising Prevalence of Lifestyle Diseases among Tribal Population in India.

BACKGROUND: The major focus of studies related to health among tribes in India has been on malnutrition. The world is in the stage of epidemiological transition, and noncommunicable diseases are overtaking the communicable diseases not only in general but also among the tribal population. OBJECTIVES: A cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension among the tribal population. METHODOLOGY: A house-to-house survey using a semi-structured questionnaire was conducted in three randomly selected tribal villages. Participants aged 18 and above from both genders were included. Blood pressure was recorded and random blood sugar was estimated for all the participants. Chi-square test was used to study association for categorical variables and one-way ANOVA and Student's t-test were used to study association for continuous variables. A P < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 952 tribal people were interviewed. About 40.2% were males and 59.8% were females. About 82.2% were Illiterate. 18.9% were underweight compared to 8.8% who were overweight or obese. The prevalence of diabetes was 3.8% (36 participants) of which 77.8% was newly detected. Increasing age was associated with diabetes. Overall, prevalence of hypertension was 16.7% (159 participants) of which 62.9% were newly detected. Age, gender, body mass index, and literacy status were associated with the presence of hypertension. Only eight participants had both diabetes and hypertension. CONCLUSION: Noncommunicable diseases burden in tribal population is as high as in the general population. Effective strategies to prevent this have to be devised.

Zinc Oxide-Containing Porous Boron-Carbon-Nitrogen Sheets from Glycine-Nitrate Combustion: Synthesis, Self-Cleaning, and Sunlight-Driven Photocatalytic Activity.

We developed a single-step thermal method that enables successful inclusion of ZnO components in the porous boron-carbon-nitrogen (BCN) framework to form a new class of functional hybrid. ZnO-containing BCN hybrids were prepared by treating a mixture of B2O3, glycine, and zinc nitrate at 500 °C. Glycine-nitrate decomposition along with B2O3 acts as a source for ZnO-BCN formation. The incorporation of ZnO onto BCN has extended the photoresponse of ZnO in the visible region, which makes ZnO-BCN a preferable photocatalyst relative to ZnO upon sunlight exposure. It is interesting to note that as-prepared 2D ZnO-BCN sheets dispersed in PDMS form a stable coating over aluminum alloys. The surface exhibited a water contact angle (CA) of 157.6° with 66.6 wt % ZnO-BCN in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and a water droplet (7 µL) roll-off angle of <6° and also demonstrates oil fouling resistant superhydrophobicity. In brief, the present study focuses on the gram scale synthesis of a new class of sunlight-driven photocatalyst and also its application toward the development of superhydrophobic and oleophobic coating.