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Abstract Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that primarily affects children under 15, often leading to permanent paralysis, known as acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). AFP surveillance is essential for the eradication of polio, with community-based surveillance (CBS) playing a pivotal role in detecting and reporting cases. CBS improves the timeliness and accuracy of AFP detection, but challenges such as underreporting, delays, and low community awareness persist. Strategies involving use of mobile applications, awareness campaigns, and improvements in healthcare infrastructure were implemented to improve CBS of AFP. While numerous case studies from various countries illustrate the implementation of CBS, a comprehensive synthesis of these studies across diverse contexts is limited. This paper examines state-of-the-art CBS approaches for AFP, analyzing progress, challenges, and potential solutions. A targeted literature review of English-language studies published between 2004 and 2024 was conducted, focusing on the roles of communities, technological integration, and practical recommendations, while excluding studies that lacked methodological rigor or direct relevance. The review revealed that CBS has significantly advanced the global fight against polio by increasing community awareness, enabling earlier detection, and improving the reporting of AFP cases. However, issues such as security concerns, delayed reporting, low levels of community awareness, and underutilization of technology persist. This review recommends strengthening organizational structures, improving healthcare access, raising community awareness, and using technology for more efficient AFP surveillance. The implication of this work is beyond polio as it offers a comprehensive framework for integrating disease surveillance, technology and community involvement to strengthen public health strategies and build robust health systems.

The study aimed to assess the impact of YouTube Tutorials as a classroom reinforcement tool on Grade 7 students' English Language Proficiency during the 2022-2023 academic year. It sought answers to questions regarding students' language proficiency levels before and after watching YouTube Tutorials in morphology, phonology, semantics, and syntax, as well as the overall improvement in English competence. The study employed a mixed-method research approach with 54 respondents, utilizing a self-made survey questionnaire. The findings revealed that students initially had fair to poor proficiency levels in various language areas, which significantly improved after exposure to YouTube Tutorials. The mean differences demonstrated a substantial increase in English competence, with a p-value of 0.000*, indicating statistical significance. YouTube Tutorials were found to reinforce learning by enhancing comprehension, problem-solving, and advanced study. It also contributed to broader knowledge acquisition, creativity, and improved language skills. In conclusion, YouTube Tutorials proved effective in enhancing English language proficiency among Grade 7 students. Recommendations included considering YouTube Tutorials as a reinforcement tool for English teachers, providing classroom technology, encouraging parental support, and emphasizing the importance of quality video content. Further research in different contexts and with diverse respondents was suggested for result validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a multimodal and multidisciplinary approach intended to reduce the length of stay, postoperative complications, and readmission rates. The benefits of ERAS protocols in elective surgery are well established; however, the evidence to support their safety and efficacy in emergency surgery is rare. Aim: To compare the modified ERAS protocol with conventional management protocol following emergency laparotomy regarding the time taken to recover bowel function and the incidence of postoperative complications, duration of postoperative hospital stay, need for readmission, and 30 day mortality. Materials and Methods: The present study was a randomised controlled study conducted in the Department of General Surgery, Pt BD Sharma Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana, India over a period of two years from June 2017 to May 2019. It included a total of 70 patients who presented in an emergency with perforation peritonitis. A total of 10 patients were excluded based on the exclusion criteria, and the remaining 60 patients were randomised into the Group-A (case group/ERAS group) and the control Group-B (control group/conventional group), with 30 patients in each group. Postoperative outcomes like postoperative complications, time of appearance of bowel sounds, time to first flatus, time to first defaecation, time to resumption of normal diet, and length of hospital stay were noted in both groups. Results: The length of hospital stay was shorter in the case group (8.83±4.69 days) compared to the control group (12.23±8.65 days); however, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.064). Similarly, the difference in the time taken for the recovery of bowel sounds, postoperative complications, and 30 day mortality was also statistically insignificant between the two groups. No patient required readmission in either group. Conclusion: The use of ERAS protocols in emergency surgery is feasible, but all the elements of ERAS are difficult to apply in an emergency setting. Hence, a tailored approach to the ERAS protocols has to be used in emergency surgery. However, no significant benefit was noted in the group following modified ERAS protocols compared to the group following conventional protocols.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have often been wrongly viewed as asexual. However, research suggests that their romantic and sexual experiences are more nuanced and deserving of further exploration. By addressing these areas, the study aimed to foster a more supportive and understanding environment for individuals with ASD as they navigate the complexities of relationships. This study delved into the romantic and sexual lives of young adults with ASD, focusing on a young man to understand how his condition influenced his partner preferences and relationships with friends, classmates, and family. Through a semi-structured interview and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the study uncovered three key themes: (a) navigating social interactions and boundaries; (b) understanding love and relationships; and (c) desires and expectations in relationships. These insights highlighted the need for tailored sex education, family support, and positive media portrayals. According to the study, a male adolescent with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has difficulty interacting socially, particularly when it comes to recognizing cues and establishing limits with others. His romantic aspirations may be impacted by his inability to comprehend emotions and the impact of societal prejudices. The results show that to normalize his experiences and promote healthy relationships, family support, specialized sex education, and favorable media portrayals are essential.

Natural rubber latex (NRL), obtained from Hevea brasiliensis, comprises particles of long-chain poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) molecules. It is a naturally occurring, biocompatible polymer that acts as a stable matrix for precise drug release. Amikacin sulfate (AS) is a broad-spectrum semi-synthetic aminoglycoside antibiotic frequently used to treat Gram-negative bacterial infections. This study focuses on developing amikacin sulfate-loaded NRL (AS-NRL) films, characterizing their physicochemical properties, evaluating their antibacterial and antibiofilm activities, and assessing their cytocompatibility. The AS-NRL films were prepared using a casting method. Their physicochemical properties were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), mechanical testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and static contact angle assessments. The antibacterial and antibiofilm efficacy of the films was evaluated against strong biofilm-forming, multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains of Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas spp., isolated from indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs). This investigation confirmed that amikacin sulfate was effectively incorporated into the natural rubber latex films. Surface topography analysis by SEM also confirmed the presence of amikacin sulfate on the film surface. All films possessed sufficient elasticity for catheterization. The antibacterial and antibiofilm assays confirmed the ability of the AS-NRL films to control bacterial growth and minimize biofilm formation, supported by live/dead staining assays and SEM imaging. NRLA4 films retained antibacterial activity after leaching in artificial urine for 21 days against all tested bacterial strains. The AS-NRL films showed cytocompatibility in vitro. This work demonstrates that AS-NRL films are promising biomaterials for developing urinary catheters, potentially reducing CAUTI and the undesirable side effects of high-dose antibiotics.

Abstract Subtitles are a crucial component of Digital Entertainment Content (DEC such as movies and TV shows) localization. With ever increasing catalog (≈ 2M titles) and localization expansion (30+ languages), automated subtitle quality checks becomes paramount. Being a manual creation process, subtitles can have errors such as missing transcriptions, out-of-sync subtitle blocks with the audio and incorrect translations. Such erroneous subtitles result in an unpleasant viewing experience and impact the viewership. Moreover, manual correction is laborious, highly costly and requires expertise of audio and subtitle languages. A typical subtitle correction process consists of (1) linear watch of the movie, (2) identification of time stamps associated with erroneous subtitle blocks, and (3) correcting procedure. Among the three, time taken to watch the entire movie by a human expert is the most time consuming step. This paper discusses the problem of missing transcription, where the subtitle blocks corresponding to some speech segments in the DEC are non-existent. We present a solution to augment human correction process by automatically identifying the timings associated with the non-transcribed dialogues in a language agnostic manner. The correction step can then be performed by either human-in-the-loop mechanism or automatically using neural transcription (speech-to-text in same language) and translation (text-to-text in different languages) engines. Our method uses a language agnostic neural voice activity detector (VAD) and an audio classifier (AC) trained explicitly on DEC corpora for better generalization. The method consists of three steps: first, we use VAD to identify the timings associated with dialogues (predicted speech blocks). Second, we refine those timings using the AC module by removing the timings associated with the leading and trailing non-speech segments identified as speech by VAD. Finally, we compare the predicted dialogue timings to the dialogue timings present in the subtitle file (subtitle speech blocks) and flag the missing transcriptions. We empirically demonstrate that the proposed method (a) reduces incorrect predicted missing subtitle timings by 10%, (b) improves the predicted missing subtitle timings by 2.5%, (c) reduces false positive rate (FPR) of overextending the predicted timings by 77%, and (d) improves the predicted speech block-level precision by a 119% over VAD baseline on a human-annotated dataset of missing subtitle speech blocks.

IntroductionIn the Philippines, scheduling the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been a challenging task. The local government units (LGUs) have to carefully work with limited resources to avoid underutilizing vaccines while considering prioritization schemes in the rollout. As the country continues to vaccinate its population to manage the spread of COVID-19, planning the prioritization of individuals becomes more apparent in the vaccination rollout with respect to the COVID-19 situation in their respective areas.MethodsOur study develops a location-allocation model that aims to optimally schedule the COVID-19 vaccine rollout of a municipality. Here we applied the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the prioritization of communities (i.e., barangays) in the vaccine rollout based on the number of COVID-19 cases, the population density, and the proximity of the community to the available vaccine sites. Consequently, an integer programming (IP) model was formulated to determine the assignment of individuals to the vaccine stations with respect to the prioritization of their community in the rollout, as well as the minimum number of vaccine stations to open.Results and discussionThe AHP-based IP model proposed in this study not only assigns individuals to vaccination centers, but is also capable of tailoring the vaccine rollout to prioritize individuals depending on the preferences of the LGUs, and the COVID-19 situation in their areas. Furthermore, the vaccine rollout framework in this work is applicable to other vaccine-preventable diseases (e.g., rabies, measles, etc.) should LGUs embark on adapting this approach.

Abstract The potential for a Trichoderma-based compost activator was tested for in-situ rice straw decomposition, under both laboratory and field conditions. Inoculation of Trichoderma caused a 50% reduction in the indigenous fungal population after 2 weeks of incubation for both laboratory and field experiments. However, the Trichoderma population declined during the latter part of the incubation. Despite the significant reduction in fungal population during the first 2 weeks of incubation, inoculated samples were found to have higher indigenous and total fungal population at the end of the experiments with as much as a 300% increase in the laboratory experiment and 50% during day-21 and day-28 samplings in the field experiment. The laboratory incubation experiment revealed that inoculated samples released an average of 16% higher amounts of CO2 compared to uninoculated straw in sterile soil samples. Unsterile soil inoculated with Trichoderma released the highest amount of CO2 in the laboratory experiment. In the field experiment, improved decomposition was observed in samples inoculated with Trichoderma and placed below ground (WTBG). From the initial value of around 35%, the C content in WTBG was down to 28.63% after 42 days of incubation and was the lowest among treatments. This is significantly lower compared with NTBG (No Trichoderma placed below ground, 31.1% C), WTSS (With Trichoderma placed on soil surface, 33.83% C), and NTSS (No Trichoderma placed on soil surface, 34.30% carbon). The WTBG treatment also had the highest N content of 1.1%. The C:N ratio of WTBG was only 26.27, 39.51% lower than the C:N ratio of NTBG, which is 43.43. These results prove that the Trichoderma-based inoculant has the potential to hasten the decomposition of incorporated rice straw.

The high specific surface areas and porosities of aerogels can impart desirable properties to textiles. The most established application of aerogels in textiles is the enhancement of thermal insulation and this has been the subject of some excellent reviews. This review, for the first time, discusses the other applications of aerogels in textiles and considers enhancements in mechanical and acoustic properties, water repellency, permeability to air and water, acoustics, protection from radiation, chemicals and fire, and the remediation of textile processing effluent. These discussions are underpinned by the various approaches and materials employed for preparing aerogels, and the methods for incorporating them into textiles. Future prospects for aerogels in textiles are reviewed, and it is likely that innovations in aerogels driven by the energy storage, aerospace, and medical technology sectors such as lower production costs and greater use of biopolymers and hybrids, will underpin innovation in textile-aerogels. It is hoped this review will inspire collaboration between researchers in the fields of aerogels and textiles.

Functionalized carbon nanotube (FCNT) and Manganese Oxide (MnO2) nanoflower hybrid material was synthesized using hydrothermal technique as a promising electrode material for supercapacitor applications. The morphological investigation revealed the formation of ‘nanoflower’ like structure of MnO2 connected with FCNT, thus paving an easy path for the conduction of electrons during the electrochemical mechanism. A significant improvement in capacitance properties was observed in the hybrid material, in which carbon nanotube acts as a conducting cylindrical path, while the major role of MnO2 was to store the charge, acting as an electrolyte reservoir leading to an overall improved electrochemical performance. The full cell electrochemical analysis of FCNT-MnO2 hybrid using 3 M potassium hydroxide (KOH) electrolyte indicated a specific capacitance of 359.53 F g−1, specific energy of 49.93 Wh kg−1 and maximum specific power of 898.84 W kg−1 at 5 mV s−1. The results show promise for the future of supercapacitor development based on hybrid electrode materials, where high specific energy can be achieved along with high specific power and long cycle life.

Active surfaces with bactericidal properties are of paramount importance in health care sector as a judicious approach to confront prevalent challenges presented by disastrous pathogenic infections and antibiotic-resistant microbes. Herein, we present Bayerite underpinned Ag2O/Ag (ALD), a nanohybrid with excellent antibacterial and antibiofilm functionalities against tested standard strains and clinical isolates. The multicomponent system coexists and complement each other with respect to phase and functionalities, demonstrated by XRD, XPS, and TEM analyses. In situ reduction of Ag+ ions to Ag0 over Bayerite as a stable bound phase is favoured by pH of the reaction, yielding 60-80% bound Ag protruding outwards facilitating active surface for interaction with microbes. ALD has a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.068 mg/ml against clinical isolates: Pseudomonas aeruginosa RRLP1, RRLP2, Acinetobactor baumannii C78 and C80. Disc diffusion assay demonstrated excellent antibacterial activity against standard strains (positive control: standard antibiotic disc, Amikacin). ALD incorporated PMMA films (5 and 10 wt%; PALD-5 and PALD-10) exhibited significant contact killing (99.9%) of clinical isolates in drop-test besides strong antibacterial activity (disc diffusion assay) comparable to that of ALD. ALD exemplified a dose (0.034 and 0.017 mg/ml) dependent biofilm inhibition (P < 0.001) and significant eradication of pre-formed biofilms (P < 0.001) by clinical isolates. PALD 5 and PALD 10 significantly declined the number of viable biofilm associated bacteria (99.9%) compared to control. Both ALD and PALD samples are proposed as green antibacterial materials with antibiofilm properties. Results also present ample opportunity to explore PALD as antibacterial and/or antibiofilm coating formulations., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Objective: Noninvasive ventilation, including nasal high-flow therapy (nHFT), provides effective neonatal respiratory support. There are limited data on nHFT use during neonatal transport. Our objective was to assess the efficacy and safety of nHFT during neonatal transport., Methods: One hundred ninety-five neonates transported on nHFT via a Neo-Pod "T" system (Westmed Inc, Tucson, AZ) were identified from Life Flight transport data. Data included demographics, transport location, distance, indication, and mode as well as pretransport and intratransport respiratory support data. We compared neonates who successfully tolerated nHFT transport with those who required support escalation (defined as increase in flow ≥2 L/min or fraction of inspired oxygen [FiO 2 ] ≥20%)., Results: Eighty-seven percent of neonates (170/195) were effectively transported on nHFT. Infants requiring escalation of nHFT support had a significantly higher pretransport FiO 2 (median = 0.60 [interquartile range, 0.36-1.00] vs. 0.36 [0.23-0.56]; P < .05) and a longer ground time for stabilization (56 ± 25 vs. 39 ± 18 minutes, P < .05) and were more frequently transported by air., Conclusion: Nasal HFT can be an effective mode of respiratory support in the transport of selected neonates. FiO 2 at the time of transport may be a key parameter to aid in determining neonates who can be safely transported on nHFT., (Copyright © 2019 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are frequent comorbid neurodevelopmental conditions and the overlap between both disorders remains to be delineated. A more complete understanding of the shared genetic and environmental factors is needed. Using a family-based method, we evaluated the risk of ADHD in a group of relatives with an ASD proband (ASD-) and a group of relatives with an ASD and ADHD proband (ASD+). We enrolled 1245 individuals in the study: 499 probands, their 746 first-degree relatives and 140 controls. We used a multivariate generalized estimating equation (GEE) model, in which the dependent variable was the ADHD diagnosis in the relatives and the independent variable the ASD+ or ASD- in probands. We adjusted for sociodemographic factors (age, sex, IQ) and for the nature of the familial relationship with the affected proband (parent or sibling). Among the probands, there were 287 ASD- and 212 ASD+ individuals. ADHD was more frequent in relatives (19%) than in the control group (7%) (p = 0.001). The risk of ADHD was higher in the ASD+ relatives group than in the ASD- relatives group (GEE model OR 1.58 [95% CI 1.04-2.38], p = 0.032). This result was found in parents (OR 1.96 [95% CI  1.14-3.36], but not in siblings (OR 1.28 [95% CI 0.84-1.94], p = 0.434). Our study provides a representative estimate of the family distribution of ADHD in relatives of ASD probands but supports the modest effect of shared genetic and environmental factors between both disorders.