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Background: Plantar fasciitis causes heel pain in active as well as sedentary adults of all ages. The condition is more likely to occur in persons who are obese or in those who are on their feet most of the day. The muscles that help to invert and evert the ankle are much weaker in a person who is experiencing the symptoms of plantar fasciitis. The lack of adequate hip strength can lead to excess motion in the lower extremity that can place too much stress on the foot and cause plantar fasciitis. Objective: The aim of this study is to compare effectiveness of Strengthening of foot intrinsic and extrinsic muscles with hip abductors & lateral rotators along with Myofascial release vs Stretching of foot intrinsic and extrinsic muscles with hip abductors & lateral rotators along with Myofascial release. Methods and Materials: Randomised comparative case-controlled study. A randomized controlled trial was performed on 80 subjects (both gender) age group 25-55 years with diagnosis of planter fasciitis were divided into 2 equal groups. Group A subjects received MFR with Stretching. MFR technique was applied on sole of the foot by knuckles and by using tennis ball, 5 times/week for 2 mins. In stretching, static stretching was given by maintaining the position for 30 secs and rest of 10 sec is given, for 5 repetitions. This protocol was performed for 8 weeks. In group B, subjects received MFR techniques with strengthening exercise. MFR was given by knuckles for 1 min followed by MFR by using tennis ball for another 1 min. Strengthening was done for both intrinsic and extrinsic muscles, Hip (Abductors & Lateral Rotators) by using TheraBand and weight-cuffs. TheraBand of different colours were used ranging from medium to high resistance. Weight-cuffs of 1kg and above is used according to patients’ condition for strengthening of abductors & lateral rotators of hip. Protocol was followed 5 times/week for 8 weeks. Data was collected on Day 1st (pre-test), 4th week (mid) and at the end of 8 weeks (post-test), for outcome measures of pain on VAS Scale and Foot Function on FFI Scale. Comparison between 2 groups was done on paired t-test. Statistical Analysis Used: Comparison between the two groups was done on Paired T test. SPSS statistical software was used for data analysis. Results: Results suggested that both form of exercises are effective in relief of pain & improvement in function but patients in Group B, which were given strength training with myofascial release were more improved in achieving pain relief and foot function as compare to group-A. Conclusions: After 8 week of training it was found that Strengthening of foot intrinsic and extrinsic muscles with hip abductors & lateral rotators along with Myofascial release has good results in patients with plantar fasciitis as compared to Stretching of foot intrinsic and extrinsic muscles with hip abductors & lateral rotators along with Myofascial release.

Amalgamation of hydrogen–deuterium exchange and mass spectrometer for rapid determination of higher order structural differences in therapeutic proteins.

Postviral bacterial infections are a major health care challenge in coronavirus infections, including COVID-19; however, the coronavirus-specific mechanisms of increased host susceptibility to secondary infections remain unknown. In humans, coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, infect lung immune cells, including alveolar macrophages, a phenotype poorly replicated in mouse models of SARS-CoV-2. To overcome this, we used a mouse model of native murine β-coronavirus that infects both immune and structural cells to investigate coronavirus-enhanced susceptibility to bacterial infections. Our data show that coronavirus infection impairs the host ability to clear invading bacterial pathogens and potentiates lung tissue damage in mice. Mechanistically, coronavirus limits the bacterial killing ability of macrophages by impairing lysosomal acidification and fusion with engulfed bacteria. In addition, coronavirus-induced lysosomal dysfunction promotes pyroptotic cell death and the release of IL-1β. Inhibition of cathepsin B decreased cell death and IL-1β release and promoted bacterial clearance in mice with postcoronavirus bacterial infection.

To establish the impact of "Covid-19 Vaccination express" (CVE) on vaccine uptake in Malawi.Retrospective cross-sectional study to compare the daily vaccine administration rate in CVE and routine covid vaccination (RCV). RCV data was collected from March 2021 to October 2021. The data regarding CVE was collected from 5 November 2021 to 31 December 2021. Data was collected regarding (1) the total number and type of vaccine doses administered and (2) Demographic details like age, gender, occupation, presence of comorbidities, the first dose, or the second dose of the people who received a vaccine.From March-December 2021, a total of 1,866,623 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered, out of which 1,290,145 doses were administered at a mean daily vaccination rate of 1854 (95 % CI: 1292-2415) doses as a part of RCV, and 576,478 doses were administered at a mean daily vaccination rate of 3312 (95 % CI: 2377-4248) doses as a part of CVE. Comparing the mean daily doses (Astra Zeneca, AZ doses 12) administered in the CVE and RCV showed that the mean daily doses of AZ vaccine administered were significantly higher in the CVE (p 0.05).CVE successfully increased the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Any public health program's efficacy may be evaluated solely based on the available statistics. A program's ability to be tracked relies heavily on data. There are several systems in place in India for gathering data on the health of individual states and the country as a whole. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is one of these mechanisms. Children's vaccination status is one of the many data points collected by the National Health Interview Study (NFIS), a representative sample survey. NFHS is commonly used to evaluate and monitor the progress of any health program in the country, therefore, to sum it up: According to Rajasthan's NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 reports, there has been a significant increase in the state's coverage status. Despite the difficulties and the closure of the corona, this research will investigate the data that has demonstrated extraordinary rises and the causes that have made it possible or the huge efforts by the state government.

Automation of Postal systems has the major research scope in the field of automation. To create Postal Automation set-up for countries like India is a tedious task if compared with other countries because of India’s multiscript and multilingual behavior. This work will help in recognizing the “Gurmukhi” handwritten district names of the State Punjab. To recognize the district names, a CNN-based architecture is proposed by employing a Holistic approach. For this, an image database of 22000 samples is prepared having 1000 sample images for every district name which is collected from 500 different writers. Maximum accuracy on validation data achieved by the proposed Model is 99%.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and ultimately fatal disease. Recent findings have shown a marked metabolic reprogramming associated with changes in mitochondrial homeostasis and autophagy during pulmonary fibrosis. The microRNA-33 (miR-33) family of microRNAs (miRNAs) encoded within the introns of sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP) genes are master regulators of sterol and fatty acid (FA) metabolism. miR-33 controls macrophage immunometabolic response and enhances mitochondrial biogenesis, FA oxidation, and cholesterol efflux. Here, we show that miR-33 levels are increased in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells isolated from patients with IPF compared with healthy controls. We demonstrate that specific genetic ablation of miR-33 in macrophages protects against bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. The absence of miR-33 in macrophages improves mitochondrial homeostasis and increases autophagy while decreasing inflammatory response after bleomycin injury. Notably, pharmacological inhibition of miR-33 in macrophages via administration of anti-miR-33 peptide nucleic acids (PNA-33) attenuates fibrosis in different in vivo and ex vivo mice and human models of pulmonary fibrosis. These studies elucidate a major role of miR-33 in macrophages in the regulation of pulmonary fibrosis and uncover a potentially novel therapeutic approach to treat this disease.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome and its clinical and hormonal profile in females with type 1 diabetes. Materials and methods 65 T1DM females were evaluated for presence of PCOS and compared with age and BMI matched females with PCOS without diabetes. Results According to Rotterdam criteria 18/65 (27%) had PCOS. Prevalence of androgen excess, hirsutism, menstrual dysfunction and PCOM was 26%, 3%, 21% and 52% respectively. The females with T1DM who had PCOS did not differ from group without PCOS. Among those who had PCOS, the mean daily insulin dose (U/kg/day) was higher in girls who had post-pubertal onset of diabetes (median, IQR; 1.2, 0.95-1.56) vs pre-pubertal (0.81, 0.75-1.2) (p=0.055) which was close to statistical significance. When the group of T1DM with PCOS was compared with PCOS females without diabetes, they had significantly lower hirsutism score (median, IQR; 1.5, 0-3 vs. 11.5, 0 – 16.5, p= 0.04), significantly higher waist hip ratio (0.91, 0.89-0.99 vs. 0.86, 0.80 – 0.89, p= 0.004) and SHBG (in nmol, 54.4, 38-86.2 vs. 28.3, 20.4-37.4, p= 0.004) Conclusion Females with T1DM have a high prevalence of menstrual abnormalities, hyperandrogenism and PCOS which is not related to metabolic control, age of onset of diabetes or insulin dose.

Amongall challenges facing humanity today, global warming has become a major concern in the last two decades due to an increase of almost 2.41 mg.L-1of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. Although many CO2 capture technologies have ramped up significantly in the last few decades, most of them are still not sustainable with scanty economic incentive to use it. Harnessing the inherent ability of photosynthetic microorganisms as algae to capture and convert CO2 into value added products and fuels has great prospective for utilization of atmospheric carbon waste. A synergistic union of algal cultivation with effective mitigation of CO2 emitted from power plants has been proved as economically viable and energetically feasible as algae can fix CO2 ten times greater than terrestrial plants. In order to meet current bio-economy challenges to produce high-value multiple products at a time, new integrated strategies are necessary for algal cultivation with cost-effective CO2 capturing from thermoelectric plants. The feasibility of large-scale algal cultivation depends on various physico-chemical parameters, affecting growth as well as carbon mitigation efficiency, directly or indirectly. This paper highlights the vital variables which help to craft an efficient algae cultivation system particularly for effective industrial CO2 mitigation. It includes algal-bacteria interactions, physicochemical conditions, cultivation system and utilization of produced algal biomass toward value addition. The aim is to apply the fundamentals of algae based integrated approaches to capture CO2 and achieve a green economy that improves the quality of energy, environment, and health of mankind.

Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) is an indigenously developed technology which strives to digitise vaccine stocks and monitor the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone based application. The platform supports the central government’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks, flows and storage temperatures across all cold chain points of the country.This vaccine logistics system has been introduced by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and implemented by the United Nations Development programmers. In terms of functionality, eVIN aims to provide an integrated solution to address constraints of infrastructure, monitoring and human resource, inadequate vaccine stocks and related challenges.

Fermentation is one of the most important bioprocessing techniques used to enhance nutritional components and a reduction in anti-nutritional compounds. In the present work, germinated and ungerminated grains of white and red –brown finger millet landraces were subjected to 8, 16 and 24 hours of fermentation to find out its response in terms of nutritional, anti-nutritional compounds and antioxidant activity. White and red-brown grains showed significant response to 16 and 24 hours process in terms of nutritional and anti-nutritional changes. Significant reduction in the tannin content (73%) was noted for germinated and un-germinated grains with the enhancement in nutritional compounds. Highest antioxidant activity was noted for germinated (91%) grains of white seed coat color grains. Process of natural fermentation and the microflora produces various endogenous enzymes which causes enhancement and reduction of nutritional and antinutritional compounds. Obtained results prove the importance of fermentation process and conservation of landraces for nutritional security.

VISTA (also called PD-1H), a novel immune regulator expressed on myeloid and T lymphocyte lineages, is up-regulated in mouse and human idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, the significance of VISTA and its therapeutic potential in regulating IPF has yet to be defined. To determine the role of VISTA and its therapeutic potential in IPF, the expression profile of VISTA was evaluated from human single-cell RNA sequencing data (IPF Cell Atlas). Inflammatory response and lung fibrosis were assessed in bleomycin-induced experimental pulmonary fibrosis models in VISTA-deficient mice compared with wild-type littermates. In addition, these outcomes were evaluated following VISTA agonistic antibody treatment in the wild-type pulmonary fibrosis mice. VISTA expression was increased in lung tissue-infiltrating monocytes of IPF patients. VISTA was induced in the myeloid population, mainly circulating monocyte-derived macrophages, during bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Genetic ablation of VISTA drastically promoted pulmonary fibrosis, and bleomycin-induced fibroblast activation was dependent on the interaction between VISTA-expressing myeloid cells and fibroblasts. Treatment with VISTA agonistic antibody reduced fibrotic phenotypes accompanied by the suppression of lung innate immune and fibrotic mediators. In conclusion, these results suggest that VISTA up-regulation in pulmonary fibrosis may be a compensatory mechanism to limit inflammation and fibrosis, and stimulation of VISTA signaling using VISTA agonists effectively limit the fibrotic innate immune landscape and the consequent tissue fibrosis. Further studies are warranted to test VISTA as a novel therapeutic target for the IPF treatment.

Intracellular infiltration of bacteria into host cells complicates medical and surgical treatment of bacterial joint infections. Unlike soft tissue infections, septic arthritis and infection-associated inflammation destroy cartilage that does not regenerate once damaged. Herein, we show that glycolytic pathways are shared by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) proliferation and host inflammatory machinery in septic arthritis. MRSA readily penetrates host cells and induces proinflammatory cascades that persist after conventional antibiotic treatment. The glycolysis-targeting drug dimethyl fumarate (DMF) showed both bacteriostatic and anti-inflammatory effects by hindering the proliferation of intracellular MRSA and dampening excessive intraarticular inflammation. Combinatorial treatment with DMF and vancomycin further reduced the proliferation and re-emergence of intracellular MRSA. Combinatorial adjuvant administration of DMF with antibiotics alleviated clinical symptoms of septic arthritis by suppressing bacterial burden and curbing inflammation to protect cartilage and bone. Our results provide mechanistic insight into the regulation of glycolysis in the context of infection and host inflammation toward development of a novel therapeutic paradigm to ameliorate joint bioburden and destruction in septic arthritis.

The objective of this study was to comprehensively investigate patterns of brain activities associated with pain recovery following experimental tonic pain in humans. Specific electrophysiological features of pain recovery may either be monitored or be modulated through neurofeedback (NF) as a novel chronic pain treatment. The cold pressor test was applied with simultaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. EEG data were acquired, and analyzed to define: (1) EEG power topography patterns of pain recovery; (2) source generators of pain recovery at cortical level; (3) changes in functional connectivity associated with pain recovery; (4) features of phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) as it relates to pain recovery. The novel finding of this study is that recovery from pain was characterized by significant theta power rebound at the left fronto-central area. The sources of theta power over-recovery were located in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), cingulate cortex, left insula and contralateral sensorimotor cortex. These effects were paralleled by theta band connectivity increase within hemispheres in a prefrontal-somatosensory network and interhemispherically between prefrontal and parietal areas. In addition, this study revealed significant reduction in PAC between theta/alpha and gamma oscillations during recovery period following tonic pain. These findings have largely been replicated across two identical sessions. Our study emphasizes the association between pain recovery and left lateral prefrontal theta power rebound, and significant over-recovery of functional connectivity in prefrontal-sensorimotor neural network synchronized at theta frequencies. These findings may provide basis for chronic pain treatment by modulating neural oscillations at theta frequencies in left prefrontal cortex.

Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) are relevant therapeutic targets in the treatment of lung cancer. Germline susceptibility variants that influence these RTKs may provide new insights into their regulation. rs9387478 is located in the genomic interval between two RTK-genes ROS1/DCBLD1, of which ROS1 alterations are implicated in lung carcinogenesis and treatment response while the latter remains poorly understood.Venous blood was drawn from 100 control and 231 case subjects. Genotype was scored by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), PCR amplification followed by HindIII digestion. Logistic regression was applied to compare the association between variables. Survival curve was plotted to draw a correlation between the genotype and overall survival. Also, eQTL and chromatin state changes were analyzed and correlated with the survival of patients using available datasets.In our population smoking correlated significantly with lung cancer [OR= 2.607] with the presence of the minor allele 'A' enhancing the nicotine dependence [CA (OR=3.23)]. Individuals with homozygous risk allele 'A' had a higher chance of developing lung cancer [OR=2.65] than individuals with CA/CC implying a recessive model of association. Patients with CC/CA genotype had better overall survival than patients with AA genotype [161 days/142 days vs 54 days, p=0.005]. The homozygous risk allele was significantly associated with increased DCBLD1 and ROS1 expression in lung cancer, with enriched active histone marks due to the polymorphism. Interestingly, increased DCBLD1 expression was associated with poor outcomes in lung cancer.Overall, our study provides strong evidence that rs9387478 is significantly associated with both nicotine dependence and lung cancer in our North Indian cohort. The association of the SNP with prognostic genes, DCBLD1 and ROS1 make rs9387478 a promising prognostic marker in the North Indian population. The results obtained are significant, however, the study needs to be performed in a larger sample size.

A 52-year-old woman presented with respiratory symptoms of productive cough and shortness of breath. She had suffered from repeated pneumonia. The CT scans revealed chronic sinusitis, tree bud signs in pulmonary imaging, and situs inversus. She received a primary diagnosis of Kartagener syndrome of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and a genetic examination was performed. Compound heterozygous mutations in dynein axonemal heavy chain 9 (DNAH9) were identified, which encoded outer dynein arms (ODAs) components. DNAH9 mutations are relatively rare events in PCD, and this is the first report of PCD patients with DNAH9 mutations in the Chinese population. Further, a literature review of mutations in PCD was conducted.

Mitochondria have emerged as important signaling organelles where intracellular perturbations are integrated and, consequently, intracellular signaling pathways are modulated to execute appropriate...

Background: Hollow viscus perforation peritonitis is one of the commonest surgical emergencies with high mortality and morbidity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Mannheim’s peritonitis index in prediction of mortality in these patients.Methods: This is a retrospective, observational cohort study in these patients managed in a single-center from January 1, 2013 to December 30, 2019. Total index scores were plotted in the receiver operating characteristic curves to find out the cut-off point. Sensitivity, specificity, relative risk, positive and negative predictive values were calculated. The individual risk factors were analyzed for mortality as well.Results: Case records of 395 cases of non-traumatic hollow viscus perforation peritonitis were available, there were 33 mortalities (8.2%), mean score was 22.96 (+7.6) points (range 10-43 points). The sensitivity and specificity with score cut-off of 25 came to be 75.8% and 56.35%; positive and negative predictive value being 13.7% and 96.2%. Risk of patients for mortality with scores >25 was 3.62 times those with scores 29 respectively (p-value 50 years, presence of organ dysfunction, diffuse peritonitis, non-colonic origin and character of exudates were significant factors; multivariate analysis showed only organ failure as significant.Conclusions: Mannheim peritonitis index is very useful in stratification of severity of the disease and prediction of mortality in patients with peritonitis, and should be included in management of all these patients.Keywords: Mannheim’s peritonitis index; perforation peritonitis

Introduction: Occupational stress is a health hazard to the individual worker both physically and psychologically. Research for the past years shows that, signs of occupational stress appear to be rising amongst nursing profession. The ability of nurses to appropriately handle stress while on duty may have a significant impact on individual outcomes, especially job performance. Objective: This study was conducted to measure the work-related stress and its association with the job performance among nurses. Methods: A pilot study was done and prevalence of work related stress was 13 % on the basis of which sample size was calculated which was 102 (in open epi). The 102 nurses were selected randomly from a tertiary care teaching hospital of Surendranagar district. The data was collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire which included questionnaires on demographic variables, level of work stress and job performance. Results: The findings of the study revealed that moderate and severe level of work stress was present in 53% and 45% of nurses respectively. The mean job stress score was found to be higher among younger nurses than those of more than 40 years. There was a negative relationship between job stress and job performance (r = −0.01) among staff nurses. Conclusion: Based on study findings, it was concluded that all the nurses were suffering from mild to severe level of work stress. and it was negatively correlated with the job performance of the nurses. Hence, it is recommended that corrective measures may be planned by the authority to reduce the work stress of nurses to improve the job performance.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PsA) is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that causes life-threatening infections in individuals with compromised immune systems and exacerbates health concerns for those with cystic fibrosis (CF). PsA rapidly develops antibiotic resistance; thus, novel therapeutics are urgently needed to effectively combat this pathogen. Previously, we have shown that a novel cationic Zinc (II) porphyrin (ZnPor) has potent bactericidal activity against planktonic and biofilm-associated PsA cells, and disassembles the biofilm matrix via interactions with eDNA In the present study, we report that ZnPor caused a significant decrease in PsA populations in mouse lungs within an in vivo model of PsA pulmonary infection. Additionally, when combined with an obligately lytic phage PEV2, ZnPor at its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) displayed synergy against PsA in an established in vitro lung model resulting in greater protection of H441 lung cells versus either treatment alone. Concentrations above the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of ZnPor were not toxic to H441 cells; however, no synergy was observed. This dose-dependent response is likely due to ZnPor’s antiviral activity, reported herein. Together, these findings show the utility of ZnPor alone, and its synergy with PEV2, which could be a tunable combination used in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections.

The main stream media has overlooked the importance of indigenous people and their culture. The failure of mainstream media in reaching and engaging the local communities has triggered the demand of Community based media. Over the years community media has been emerged as an alternate and viable option to the mainstream media. One of the popular forms of community media is the ‘Community Radio’ which is operated in a community, for the community and by the community members. In last two decades gradually but the community radio has been expanded throughout the country in India. Today, more than 250 community radio stations are operational in the country and most of these are serving the rural communities. This paper investigates the role of community radio stations in preserving and promoting the indigenous culture of the state of Rajasthan in India. The well known community radio stations of the Rajasthan state of India has been selected for the study. The findings of this study reveal most of the radio stations are playing an important role the preservation and promotion of folk art and culture of the state.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 20 million people worldwide, with mortality exceeding 800,000 patients. Risk factors associated with severe disease and mortality include advanced age, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. Each of these risk factors pathologically disrupts the lipidome, including immunomodulatory eicosanoid and docosanoid lipid mediators (LMs). We hypothesized that dysregulation of LMs may be a defining feature of the severity of COVID-19. By examining LMs and polyunsaturated fatty acid precursor lipids in serum from hospitalized COVID-19 patients, we demonstrate that moderate and severe disease are separated by specific differences in abundance of immune-regulatory and proinflammatory LMs. This difference in LM balance corresponded with decreased LM products of ALOX12 and COX2 and an increase LMs products of ALOX5 and cytochrome p450. Given the important immune-regulatory role of LMs, these data provide mechanistic insight into an immuno-lipidomic imbalance in severe COVID-19.

The present paper reports a highly sensitive room temperature operable ethanol vapor sensor based on the electrical properties of nanostructured Pd-doped SnO2. Pd-doped SnO2 thin films were prepared on the glass substrate (1.2 cm2) using single-step thermal decomposition of stannous chloride (SnCl2) and palladium chloride (PdCl2). The resultant films were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The doping of SnO2 with Pd was found to enhance the ethanol sensing response operating at room temperature. The 5% Pd-doped SnO2 sensor showed higher ethanol-sensing performance than the 0, 1, and 3% Pd-doped SnO2 with the sensing range of 10–190 ppm. The response and recovery time at 40 ppm of ethanol gas were ∼107 s and ∼378 s. The effect of Pd doping on the optical, structural properties of SnO2 and its ethanol vapor sensing behavior was studied and discussed.

Worldwide metastasis of novel coronavirus COVID-19 has caused immense alterations among every walk of human existence and social interaction(1). Education and training sector being as vulnerable to these adjustments as any other domain(2). Owing to its extremely infectious nature, the COVID-19 pandemic enforced the closure of training institutes globally. All the traditional classroom training were restricted as an instant consequence, to achieve the norms of social distancing which can perhaps aid in obliterating the infection curve and lessen the resultant fatalities(3). Educational institutions in India predominantly bank on traditional methods of training, utilizing conventional setup of in-person training and lectures in a teaching space. While over the years, there is a marked shift towards blended learning, still most of the academic institutes are guided by the existing orthodox learning methodologies. An unexpected outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2) shuddered the entire world (4). This complete shutdown kind of circumstances has tested the education system globally and coerced the educators to shift to digital platforms and online modules almost instantaneously. Academic institutions were required to shift from their traditional pedagogical approach to online teaching-learning. The article recognises the possible barriers to swiftly shift from traditional methods of learning towards e-learning among adult professionals through analysing the limitations faced by the authors while converting and conducting traditional trainings into e-trainings at The National Cold Chain and Vaccine Management Resource Centre (NCCVMRC-NIHFW), New Delhi. This article also put some light on methodologies that could assist academic institutions in dealing with challenges associated with shifting towards e-learning.

IntroductionProcalcitonin expression is thought to be stimulated by bacteria and suppressed by viruses via interferon signalling. Consequently, during respiratory viral illness, clinicians often interpret elevated procalcitonin as evidence of bacterial coinfection, prompting antibiotic administration. We sought to evaluate the validity of this practice and the underlying assumption that viral infection inhibits procalcitonin synthesis.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients hospitalised with pure viral infection (n=2075) versus bacterial coinfection (n=179). The ability of procalcitonin to distinguish these groups was assessed. In addition, procalcitonin and interferon gene expression were evaluated in murine and cellular models of influenza infection.ResultsPatients with bacterial coinfection had higher procalcitonin than those with pure viral infection, but also more severe disease and higher mortality (pDiscussionThese studies reveal that procalcitonin rises during pure viral infection in proportion to disease severity and is not suppressed by interferon signalling, in contrast to prior models of procalcitonin regulation. Applied clinically, our data suggest that procalcitonin represents a better indicator of disease severity than bacterial coinfection during viral respiratory infection.

In this paper, a non-polar InGaN/GaN LED, which is oriented in the direction of the m-plane, is simulated through the TCAD tool. The In-GaN/GaN LED device reported in this paper is designed and optimized to modify its characteristic parameters to achieve narrow linewidth. Device simulation of LED is carried out in an LED simulator and extracted data is represented in the form of graphs. This paper has a prime focus on the linewidth of LEDs. After optimization of design, the linewidth of LED is reduced from 32 nm (calculated graphically by measuring − 3 db linewidth) to 5 nm. In addition to linewidth optimization, the impact of the device dimension and $$\hbox{In}_{x}\hbox {Ga}_{1-x}\hbox {N}$$ mole fraction, on peak wavelength and maximum amplitude is reported. The significance of reducing the linewidth is that it reduces the material dispersion in optical fiber communication systems operated with LEDs. Material dispersion is a mechanism which limits the capacity of optical fibers. Hence, it improves the performance of the optical fiber and reduces the power consumption and hence it improve the overall performance and efficiency of the communication systems.

There has been an increase in the discovery and usage of sensors for the detection of chemical compounds in the field of analytical chemistry since the last several years. This has led to progressive research in nanotechnology for developing efficient nanomaterials for bio-chemical sensing applications. Thereby, a deft synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) under microwave irradiation was achieved using sodium alginate as a reducing and capping agent in a fast and cost-effective approach. As per the X-ray diffraction analysis, the average particle size of Ag NPs was found to be 10 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscpopy analysis showed characteristic peaks at binding energies of 368.10 and 374.11 eV indicating the formation of Ag NPs. The synthesized Ag NPs-alginate composite was further used to develop a paper-based sensor for the detection of H

In the present work, we studied the down conversion luminescence behavior of Er3+ substituted Sr0.7Bi2.2Nb2O9 bismuth layered ceramics (SBN-xEr, x = 0.0, 0.6, 0.8, 1) prepared by improved s...

Introduction: Stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) is a common clinical complication implicated in increased morbidity and mortality after stroke. Dysphagia and stroke-induced immunodepression may contribute to SAP. However, a better understanding of the processes underlying the infection-induced immune response in the recovering brain remains to be unveiled. Methods: Stroke was modeled in mice by tMCAO (1h) followed by reperfusion; at day 3 mice received an oropharyngeal Klebsiella inoculation. To examine how lung infection affects the brain immune response, we compared tMCAo+infection vs tMCAo+vehicle. Functional outcomes and brain leukocyte cytokine expression were analyzed. To investigate how stroke affects the host response to pulmonary infection we compared Sham+infection vs tMCAo+ infection. Bacterial burden in the lung and spleen, tissue injury and immune cell profile in the lungs were evaluated at day 2 post-infection. Results/Conclusions: We detected similar brain leukocyte numbers between the tMCAo infected vs vehicle groups. However, in the tMCAo infected group, cytotoxic T-cells (CD8+) produced less IL-6 and IFNγ and granulocytes/neutrophils produced less INFγ. tMCAo infected animals also exhibited a worse functional recovery (Fig 1a). Klebsiella CFUs were increased in spleen in mice with stroke compared to sham, while lung (BAL) white blood cells counts were reduced in the stroke group, with altered cellular composition (Fig 1b).Our investigation has revealed that lung infection attenuates cytokine production in the brain after stroke. That could have a dual effect, positive for brain injury but detrimental for fighting infection. Stroke affects the response to lung infection by reducing lung leukocyte counts and increasing bacterial dissemination. Advancing our understanding of the mechanisms driving altered immune responses in SAP important for identifying potential treatment targets.

The 3GPP (Rel.12 and Rel.16) introduces and explores the dual connectivity (DC). It is one of the most important future technologies adopted by 5G. It enhances the throughput and mobility robustness by enabling simultaneous dual connections with macro and small-cell evolved NodeBs (eNBs). While aggregating spectrum with the dual connections, DC induces two power-saving mechanisms of discontinuous reception (DRX). This results into offset synchronizations that decrease the feasibility of saving power. Therefore, the conventional DRX mechanism is not suitable for DC. Hence, we have proposed a synchronized adaptive DRX sleep (SAS) scheme for DRX that synchronizes its short-/long-sleep durations to make it suitable for active and background traffic. Next, we have evaluated the performance of SAS scheme with semi-Markov model in terms of DRX sleep time ratio and average delays. Moreover, in-depth analytical and simulation analyses of the DRX performance with DC have also been conducted. The accuracy of our model has been verified on the basis of a wide range of parameters. The proposed SAS scheme performs more effectively than the conventional DRX scheme for DC under different traffic types.

Klebsiella species cause infections at multiple sites, including lung, urinary tract, bloodstream, wound or surgical site, and brain. These infections are more likely to occur in people with preexisting health conditions. Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) has emerged as a major pathogen of international concern due to the increasing incidences of hypervirulent and carbapenem-resistant strains. It is imperative to understand risk factors, prevention strategies, and therapeutic avenues to treat multidrug-resistant Klebsiella infections. Here, we highlight the epidemiology, risk factors, and control strategies against K. pneumoniae infections to highlight the grave risk posed by this pathogen and currently available options to treat Klebsiella-associated diseases.

A country's immunization system's effectiveness depends on its supply chain's efficacy. To assess the challenges of maintaining an efficient vaccine supply chain, Malawi conducted its assessment using The EVM2.0 tool (Effective Vaccine Management).It is a cross-sectional study in which all EVM requirements were assessed between September and October 2021. Data were collected from eighty-two randomly selected sites using the site selection tool of the EVM. Data were entered into the EVM assessment tool 2.0 version 1.12 for analysis. This tool generates performance indicators and criteria scores for assessed sites, compared with a WHO minimum score of 80%.Overall criteria scores across all levels of the immunization supply chain showed a statistically significant mean difference of 5.92 (t = 2.58, P = 0.02). Comparative overall mean criteria scores across different levels of the immunization supply chain showed no statistically significant difference for primary (p = 0.76), sub-national (p = 0.69), and lowest distribution stores (p = 0.12). However, a substantial gap was found in the overall mean scores of the health facility's service point (SP) (t = 4.12, P = 0.001). The overall category scores across all immunization supply chain levels did not show a statistically significant difference. However, among individual category scores, Infrastructure (76 %), Equipment (67 %), Policies and procedures (62 %), Financial (47 %), and Resources (64 %) were found to be below the WHO minimum score.Though the 2021 Malawi EVM assessment findings are promising, they still identified the gaps to be improved to ensure the vaccine availability in the right amount, at the right time, and at the right cost.