Chromene Carbohydrazide- Schiff Base as a Highly Selective Turn-Off Fluorescence Chemosensor for In3+ Ion and its Application.

A new 7-(diethylamino)-2-oxo-2 H-chromene-3-carbohydrazide design to synthesize a simple Schiff-base condition. The synthesized molecules' (probe L) photophysical properties were investigated in various solvent systems and solvent-poor-solvent assays. Probe L exhibits the absorbance band at 440 nm and the emission band at 488 nm in DMSO: H2O (7:3, v/v). Further, probe L shows selective turn-off emission recognition of In3+ ions in DMSO: H2O (7:3, pH = 7.4). By Job's plot and ESI mass analysis, probe L forms a 1:2 stoichiometry complex with an estimated association constant of 4.04 × 104 M- 2 with In3+ ions. Metal induces CHEQ (chelation-caused fluorescence quenching) to reduce the intensity of probe L's emission, and the estimated quenching constant was 4.52 × 104 M- 1. The limit of detection was found to be 5.93 nM; the time response of the sensor is instantaneous, and its reversible nature was confirmed using EDTA additions. Solid substrates (test strips) were designed and tested for fast, reliable, user-friendly, and real-time sensing of In3+ ions for on-site applications. The binding mechanism of probe L with In3+ ions was investigated using 1H NMR titration and DFT/TD-DFT studies.

Safety Assessment of a Novel Intravenous Diclofenac Sodium Formulation Following 28-Day Repeated Administration in Wistar Rats.

These toxicity studies aimed to assess the safety and tolerability of a novel intravenous diclofenac sodium (37.5 mg/mL) formulation containing povidone K12 (80 mg/mL) as the key excipient in Wistar rats. This formulation was tested at doses of 3, 7, and 15 mg/kg/day and was administered daily for 28 days by intravenous route. Toxicokinetic estimation revealed a dose-proportional increase in plasma exposure to diclofenac. The formulation was well tolerated in males; however, mortality was observed in females (2/15) at the highest dose (15 mg/kg/day). Adverse gastrointestinal events related to NSAIDS and a few other treatment-related effects on clinical and anatomic pathology were noted at the 15 mg/kg/day dose, which normalized at the end of the 2-week recovery period. In addition, the excipient povidone K12 was present in a higher amount than the approved Inactive Ingredient Database (IID) limit in the proposed novel formulation. It was qualified through a separate 28-day repeated dose toxicity study by intravenous route in Wistar rats. Povidone K12 was found to be well tolerated and safe up to a dose of 165 mg/kg/day. No treatment-related adverse effects were observed in this study. In conclusion, repeated administration of a novel intravenous formulation containing diclofenac sodium was found to be safe up to the dose of 7 mg/kg/day in female rats and 15 mg/kg/day in male rats.

A Retrospective Comparison of Electrocardiographic Parameters in Ketamine and Tiletamine-Zolazepam Anesthetized Indian Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta).

Electrocardiographic evaluation is performed in rhesus monkeys to establish the cardiovascular safety of candidate molecules before progressing to clinical trials. These animals are usually immobilized chemically by ketamine (KTM) and tiletamine-zolazepam (TZ) to obtain a steady-state heart rate and to ensure adequate human safety. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of these anesthetic regimens on different electrocardiographic parameters. Statistically significant lower HR and higher P-wave duration, RR, QRS, and QT intervals were observed in the KTM-anesthetized group in comparison to TZ-anesthetized animals. No significant changes were noticed in the PR interval and p-wave amplitude. Sex-based significance amongst these parameters was observed in male and female animals of TZ- and KTM-anesthetized groups. Regression analysis of four QTc formulas in TZ-anesthetized rhesus monkeys revealed that QTcNAK (Nakayama) better corrected the QT interval than QTcHAS (Hassimoto), QTcBZT (Bazett), and QTcFRD (Fridericia) formulas. QTcNAK exhibited the least correlation with the RR interval (slope closest to zero and r = .01) and displayed no statistical significance between male and female animals. These data will prove useful in the selection of anesthetic regimens for chemical restraint of rhesus monkeys in nonclinical safety evaluation studies.

Comparison of different QT correction methods for nonclinical safety assessment in ketamine-anesthetized Indian rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).

Rhesus monkeys are a non-rodent species employed in the preclinical safety evaluation of pharmaceuticals and biologics. These nonhuman primate species have been increasingly used in biomedical research because of the similarity in their ionic mechanisms of repolarization with humans. Heart rate and QT interval are two primary endpoints in determining the pro-arrhythmic risk of drugs. As heart rate and QT interval have an inverse relationship, any change in heart rate causes a subsequent change in QT interval. This warrants for calculation of a corrected QT interval. This study aimed to identify an appropriate formula that best corrected QT for change in heart rate. We employed seven formulas based on source-species type, clinical relevance, and requirements of various international regulatory guidelines. Data showed that corrected QT interval values varied drastically for different correction formulas. Equations were compared on their slope values based on QTc versus RR plots. The rank order of the slope for different formulas was (closest to farthest from zero) QTcNAK, QTcHAS, QTcBZT, QTcFRD, QTcVDW, QTcHDG, and QTcFRM. QTcNAK emerged to be the best correcting formula in this study. It showed the least correlation with the RR interval (r = -0.01) and displayed no significant difference amongst the sexes. As there is no universally recognized formula for preclinical use, the authors recommend developing a best-case scenario model for specific study designs and individual organizations. The data from this research will be helpful in deciding an appropriate QT correction formula for the safety assessment of new pharmaceuticals and biologics.

Photocatalytic performance and interaction mechanism of reverse micelle synthesized Cu-TiO2 nanomaterials towards levofloxacin under visible LED light.

The degradation performance of Cu-TiO2 nanomaterials towards levofloxacin (LFX) antibiotic was investigated under an environmentally benign visible LED light source. Cu-TiO2 nanomaterials were prepared using the reverse micelle sol-gel method with different copper content ranging from 0.25 to 1.0 wt% concerning titania. Characterization of Cu-TiO2 samples was performed by XRD, TEM, UV-Vis, BET, ICP-MS, FTIR and XPS techniques. 0.5 wt% Cu-TiO2 showed crystallite size below 6 nm, surface area (69.85 m2/g) and significant visible light absorption capacity. Both Cu1+ and Cu2+ are formed in lower Cu-doped TiO2 samples, whereas only Cu2+ is present in higher Cu-doped TiO2 samples as evident in XPS analysis. 0.5 wt% Cu-TiO2 has shown the optimum photocatalytic degradation of 75.5% under 6 h. of a visible light source. FTIR analysis of LFX adsorbed Cu-TiO2 materials indicated the pollutant-catalyst interaction, where the declining trend was observed in photocatalytic degradation efficiency for higher Cu-doped TiO2 samples due to copper-LFX complex formation. Copper-LFX complexes are formed due to the presence of Cu2+ in higher Cu-doped TiO2 nanomaterials, which might have hindered the photocatalytic activity under visible light. Effects of initial pollutant concentration, catalyst loading and visible light intensity on the degradation of LFX are studied. Photocatalytic degradation pathways of LFX using best performing Cu-TiO2 material were also proposed based on the LC-MS analysis.

Virulence associated gene profiling and antimicrobial resistance pattern of Streptococcus suis isolated from clinically healthy pigs from North East India.

This study revealed the prevalence of Streptococcus suis in 20·39% clinically healthy pigs from North East India. All these isolates were screened for the presence of virulence- associated genes such as suilysin (sly), muramidase released protein (mrp), extracellular protein factor (epf) and arginine deiminase (arcA). Of these 62 isolates, 29 isolates carried mrp gene, 17 isolates carried sly gene, 57 isolates carried arcA gene, whereas all isolates were negative for epf gene. The most prevalent genotype was mrp- sly- epf- arcA+ (45·16%) followed by genotypes mrp+ sly- epf- arcA+ (27·41%), mrp+ sly+ epf- arcA+ (19·35%) and mrp- sly+ epf- arcA- (8·06%). High frequency of resistance was observed for antimicrobials such as tetracycline (93·54%), clindamycin (91·93%), co-trimoxazole (88·70%) and erythromycin (85·48%). Antimicrobial resistance patterns of the S. suis isolates revealed 16 resistance groups (R1 to R16), where 93·54% isolates showed multi-drug resistance (≥3 antimicrobial agents). It has also been observed that 57 (91·93%) isolates were resistant to at least four antimicrobials. The most predominant resistance pattern observed was CD-COT-E-TE, which accounted for 38·70% of the isolates. The occurrence of relatively high levels of resistance of S. suis to some antimicrobials (e.g., macrolides, tetracyclines, and sulphonamides) as observed in this study may represent a human health concern. In addition, a relatively higher percentage of S. suis isolated from clinically healthy pigs indicates a carrier status with risk of dissemination to other pigs in the herd as well as to humans.

Haemato-biochemical alterations and oxidative stress associated with naturally occurring porcine circovirus2 infection in pigs.

Porcine circovirus2 (PCV2) infection in pigs is one of the major causes of economic loss to the farmers in terms of low production, slow growth and increase post-weaning mortality rate. The effect of PCV2 infection on haemogram, serum biochemical profile and oxidant/anti-oxidant status is not well established in pigs. In the present study, haemogram, serum biochemical profile and oxidant/anti-oxidant status were assessed in pigs confirmed positive for PCV2 infections as evidenced by commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit (n = 151) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (n = 42) among a total of 306 number of pigs included in the study. Non-infected healthy pigs (n = 6) served as healthy control. The total erythrocyte count (TEC), haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), total leukocyte count (TLC), differential leukocyte count (DLC) and thrombocyte count were measured. The levels of total protein, albumin, globulin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and glucose and enzymes viz. alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were measured. Oxidative stress indicators such as plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and total anti-oxidant activity (TAOA) were measured using commercially available kits. The mean values of TLC, lymphocytes and thrombocyte count were significantly (P < 0.05) low in PCV2-infected pigs. The levels of globulin, AST, GGT, BUN and creatinine were significantly increased (P < 0.05) whereas levels of albumin and glucose significantly (P < 0.05) decreased in PCV2-infected pigs. The significant increase (P < 0.05) in MDA level and significant decrease (P < 0.05) in TAOA level were noticed in PCV2-infected animals as compared with healthy control. The present study supports immunosuppression, possible multiple organ damage and oxidative stress associated with naturally occurring PCV2 infection in pigs. Timely vaccination and managemental practices can reduce PCV2 infection in farms. In spite of many research studies, there is still paucity of detailed systemic study on haemato-biochemical alteration and oxidative stress associated with PCV2 infection.

Synthesis Route Impact on BiVO4 Nanoparticles and their Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity Under Green LED Irradiation.

The present study demonstrates the BiVO4 nanoparticles synthesized by co-precipitation (CPM), hydrothermal (HTM) and solution combustion method (SCM) and their visible light photocatalytic activity under irradiation of green light emitting diodes. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by Powder X-ray Diffraction, UV-vis Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, BET Surface area analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy. Result demonstrated that the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 catalyst synthesized by solution combustion method has 4.7, 1.9 and 6.7 times higher photocatalytic activity under irradiation of green light emitting diodes as compared to ultraviolet, blue and red light emitting diodes respectively. It has also been found that the photocatalytic activity of the synthesized BiVO4 by SCM is 6.5 times more as compared to commercial TiO2 under green light emitting diodes irradiation. Furthermore, the room temperature fluorescence and quenching analysis was carried out for the determination of hydroxyl radical generation and understanding photocatalytic activity of the catalyst under green light emitting diodes irradiation. Additionally, the effect of operational parameters under irradiation of green light emitting diodes was studied to optimize catalyst amount, pH, initial dye concentration and amount of H2O2. Recyclability study concern about solution combustion synthesized BiVO4 catalyst has also been done up to 5 cycles in presence of green light emitting diodes irradiation.

Recent advances based on the synergetic effect of adsorption for removal of dyes from waste water using photocatalytic process.

The problem of textile dye pollution has been addressed by various methods, mainly physical, chemical, biological, and acoustical. These methods mainly separate and/or remove the dye present in water. Recently, advanced oxidation processes (AOP) have been focused for removal of dye from waste water due to their advantages such as ecofriendly, economic and capable to degrade many dyes or organic pollutant present in water. Photocatalysis is one of the advance oxidation processes, mainly carried out under irradiation of light and suitable photocatalytic materials. The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalytic materials mainly depends on the band gap, surface area, and generation of electron-hole pair for degradation dyes present in water. It has been observed that the surface area plays a major role in photocatalytic degradation of dyes, by providing higher surface area, which leads to the higher adsorption of dye molecule on the surface of photocatalyst and enhances the photocatalytic activity. This present review discusses the synergic effect of adsorption of dyes on the photocatalytic efficiency of various nanostructured high surface area photocatalysts. In addition, it also provides the properties of the water polluting dyes, their mechanism and various photocatalytic materials; and their morphology used for the dye degradation under irradiation of light along with the future prospects of highly adsorptive photocatalytic material and their application in photocatalytic removal of dye from waste water.

Immunomodulatory basis of antioxidant therapy and its future prospects: an appraisal.

Antioxidants are agents which can modulate oxidant-antioxidant profile of body system by neutralizing pro-oxidant molecules. The current scientific knowledge on mechanisms of antioxidant activity of biomolecules was critically reviewed with a special emphasis on immunomodulation. The immuno-oxidative wreckage of animals in various disease conditions and the role of biomodulators in curbing the oxidative stress through immune pathways were analyzed. The critical role of immunomodulatory mechanisms in controlling oxidative damage was identified. Selection of antioxidant therapy considering the immunopharmacology of the drug as well as immunological basis of disease may reduce treatment failure and adverse health effects. Hence, it is suggested that future studies on antioxidants may focus on the immuno-oxidative pathobiology to better understand its clinical effects and effective disease management.

Iron-functionalized titanium dioxide on flexible glass fibers for photocatalysis of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and o-xylene (BTEX) under visible- or ultraviolet-light irradiation.

UNLABELLED: Iron-functionalized titanium dioxide (TiO2) composites with various Fe-to-Ti ratios were prepared on flexible glass fibers (GF-Fe-TiO2) via a sol-gel method, followed by a dip-coating process. The photocatalytic ability of these composites in degrading selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs; benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and o-xylene [BTEX]) at indoor concentration levels was examined. The GF-Fe-TiO2 composites were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray elemental analysis, ultraviolet (UV)-visible spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The GF-Fe-TiO2 composites showed superior photocatalytic performance to that of a reference glass fiber-supported TiO2 photocatalyst for the treatment of BTEX under visible light. However, this trend was reversed under UV irradiation. Specifically, the average BTEX photocatalytic efficiencies of the 0.01-GF-Fe-TiO2 composite in a 3-hr visible-light photocatalytic process were 4%, 33%, 51%, and 74%, respectively. Conversely, the average BTEX photocatalytic efficiencies obtained for GF-TiO2 were close to 0%, 5%, 16%, and 29%, respectively. These findings demonstrated that the GF-Fe-TiO2 composites could be applied to photocatalytically purify BTEX, especially under visible-light exposure. Moreover, the GF-Fe-TiO2 composites prepared with different Fe-to-Ti ratios displayed different BTEX photocatalytic decomposition efficiencies under visible or UV light, allowing for optimization of the Fe-to-Ti ratio (which was found to be 0.01). IMPLICATIONS: The application of nanomaterials for air purification necessitates a supporting material to stabilize them while in contact with the treated air in the photocatalytic chamber. Glass fibers have an obvious advantage over other supporting materials mainly because of its flexibility, which makes it much easier to handle. However, the applications of glass fiber-supported, visible light-activated photocatalysts to the treatment of air pollutants are rarely reported in literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the applicability of glass fiber-supported Fe-TiO2 for the purification of VOCs under visible- as well as UV-light exposure.

Attention to the mouth and gaze following in infancy predict language development.

We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the speaker's attentional shift to the object she was describing. We also collected language outcome measures on the same infants at 18 and 24 months. Attention to the mouth and gaze following at 12 months both predicted later productive vocabulary. The results are discussed in terms of social engagement, which may account for both attentional distribution and language onset. We argue that an infant's inherent interest in engaging with others (in addition to creating more opportunities for communication) leads infants to attend to the most relevant information in a social scene and that this information facilitates language learning.

Phase-based design of CO2 capture, transport, and storage infrastructure via SimCCS3.0.

The design of optimal infrastructure is essential for the deployment of commercial and large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. During the design process, it is important to consider CO2 capture and storage locations and CO2 transportation pipelines to minimize the total project cost. SimCCS, first introduced in 2009, is an integrated open-source tool to optimize CCS infrastructure. The core CCS infrastructure design problem in SimCCS is structured as a mixed-integer linear programming problem by selecting the optimal pipeline routes, searching CO2 source capture and storage locations, and determining the corresponding CO2 amounts to meet desired capture targets. Multiple important and practical features have been developed to the latest version of SimCCS, SimCCS3.0. One of these features is phase-based modeling which enables users to dynamically design the CCS infrastructure. We demonstrate the phased-based modeling capability using two CCS infrastructure optimization case studies. The results from these case studies reveal that the phase-based modeling capability in SimCCS is particularly useful to optimize the dynamic deployment of CCS projects.

A cross sectional analysis of medical device associated adverse events with radiotherapy devices - A materiovigilance study.

BACKGROUND: Materiovigilance is a method for tracking, documenting, and analyzing the causal factors of adverse outcomes or complications associated with the use of medical devices. In addition, it recommends that the Indian regulatory authority takes necessary steps with the aim of enhancing patient safety. The present study was taken up as there are hardly any studies available in the public domain on adverse events due to radiotherapy. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to analyze the pattern of adverse events due to medical devices used in the department of radiation oncology. METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study carried out from June to September, 2022. The patients who were treated with the medical devices in radiation oncology at Victoria Hospital affiliated with Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, were included. The medical device used on the patients causes adverse events. The data were collected from the patient's health records available in the department of radiotherapy. RESULTS: Total 40 adverse events collected as per inclusion and exclusion criteria were analyzed. All the adverse events associated with medical devices were filled in the medical device adverse event reporting form and submitted to materiovigilance program, which also included the causality assessment. All the adverse events were caused due to external beam radiotherapy/teletherapy device. Dermatitis was the most common adverse event found in the reported cases (n = 20, 50%). CONCLUSION: Materiovigilance program is in budding stage. It was observed that the adverse events in patients were due to medical devices used in radiation oncology. Medical devices with skin-sparing effect (radiation is converged onto tumor) should be promoted and more research and engineering are required in designing of advanced medical devices for the treatment of cancer across the globe.

Synthesis, Spectral Characterization, Thermal Investigation, Computational Studies, Molecular Docking, and In Vitro Biological Activities of a New Schiff Base Derived from 2-Chloro Benzaldehyde and 3,3'-Dimethyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine.

The current research involves the synthesis of a new Schiff base through the reaction between 2-chlorobenzaldehyde and 3,3'-dimethyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine by using a natural acid catalyst and a synthesized compound physicochemically characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1H- and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance, and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Thermal studies were conducted using thermogravimetric, differential thermal analysis, and differential thermogravimetric curves. These curves were obtained in an inert nitrogen environment from ambient temperature to 1263 K using heating rates of 10, 15, and 20 K·min-1. Using thermocurve data, model-free isoconversional techniques such as Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, and Friedman are used to determine kinetic parameters. These parameters include activation energy, phonon frequency factor, activation enthalpy, activation entropy, and Gibb's free energy change. All of the results have been thoroughly investigated. The molecule's anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic properties were also examined. To learn more about the potential of the Schiff base and how successfully it can suppress the amylase enzyme, a molecular docking experiment was also conducted. For in silico research, the Swiss Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity algorithms were used to calculate the theoretical pharmacokinetic properties, oral bioavailability, toxic effects, and biological activities of the synthesized molecule. Moreover, the cytotoxicity tests against a human lung cancer cell line (A549) using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay demonstrated that the synthesized Schiff base exhibited significant anticancer properties.

Low temperature energy- efficient synthesis methods for bismuth-based nanostructured photocatalysts for environmental remediation application: A review.

Bismuth-based composite materials have unique structural, chemical, optical, and electrical properties that are highly beneficial in Photocatalysis. The layered structure and tunable bandgap properties of the Bismuth-based composites are advantageous for the absorption of solar light efficiently. Also, these properties help the separation and recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, leading to enhancement in the photocatalytic activity. Synthesis of the catalyst at a lower temperature to produce catalyst reduces the production cost and electrical energy consumption. This review provides an overview of the recent development in Bismuth-based composite nanostructured photocatalytic materials, mainly using low-temperature driven synthesis methods. Herein, we have mainly summarized the primarily used low temperature-based synthetic routes, particularly in the temperature range of 50-300 °C for synthesizing Bismuth-based composite materials. In addition to this, the photocatalytic mechanism, the textural, structural, electronic, and photocatalytic properties of the synthesized photocatalysts are discussed. The literature shows that the surface area of the composite Bismuth-based photocatalytic materials synthesized using the low-temperature synthetic route is in the range of 1.5-81 m2/g and can be activated by solar, ultraviolet, and Light Emitting Diode (LEDs) light irradiation based on the synthetic route. Their photocatalytic performance and structural stability are excellent and utilized for several runs. The comprehensive understanding of the low-temperature synthesis of Bismuth-based composite materials for visible light-activated photocatalytic applications provided will be useful for developing photocatalytic materials on an industrial scale due to energy-efficient synthetic routes. Furthermore, the prospects of low temperature-driven Bismuth-based composite synthesis routes are discussed.

Improving deep learning performance for predicting large-scale geological [Formula: see text] sequestration modeling through feature coarsening.

Physics-based reservoir simulation for fluid flow in porous media is a numerical simulation method to predict the temporal-spatial patterns of state variables (e.g. pressure p) in porous media, and usually requires prohibitively high computational expense due to its non-linearity and the large number of degrees of freedom (DoF). This work describes a deep learning (DL) workflow to predict the pressure evolution as fluid flows in large-scale 3-dimensional(3D) heterogeneous porous media. In particular, we develop an efficient feature coarsening technique to extract the most representative information and perform the training and prediction of DL at the coarse scale, and further recover the resolution at the fine scale by spatial interpolation. We validate the DL approach to predict pressure field against physics-based simulation data for a field-scale 3D geologic [Formula: see text] sequestration reservoir model. We evaluate the impact of feature coarsening on DL performance, and observe that the feature coarsening not only decreases the training time by [Formula: see text] and reduces the memory consumption by [Formula: see text], but also maintains temporal error [Formula: see text] on average. Besides, the DL workflow provides predictive efficiency with 1406 times speedup compared to physics-based numerical simulation. The key findings from this research significantly improve the training and prediction efficiency of deep learning model to deal with large-scale heterogeneous reservoir models, and thus it can also be further applied to accelerate workflows of history matching and reservoir optimization for close-loop reservoir management.

Cross-Sectional Study on Assessment of Frequency of Intestinal Helminth Infections and Its Related Risk Factors among School Children from Adola Town, Ethiopia.

The three main intestinal helminth infections (IHIs), ascariasis, trichuriasis, and hookworm, are common clinical disorders worldwide. These IHIs are more prevalent in tropics and subtropical countries especially in developing countries like sub-Saharan Africa responsible for morbidity, mortality, and physical as well as intellectual growth retardation in children. In Ethiopia, the burden of IHIs appears in all ages mainly due to factors like lack of education, low socio-economic status, and inadequate supply of drugs and proper awareness. The present study was carried out to access the prevalence of intestinal helminth infections and associated risk factors among school children in Adola town from Guji Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, from August 2019 to December 2019. 404 stool samples were collected in a clean, dry, screw-capped, and wide-mouthed plastic container, fixed with 10% formal-saline solution, and transported to the Adola Hospital laboratory for further microscopic analysis by wet mount following formal ether concentration technique. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 by binary logistic regression model using odd ratio with 95% CI. The overall prevalence of IHIs among school children was found to be 33.91% (137/404). Rate of double infection was noted to be 2.72% (11/404). Most dominant species was Ascaris lumbricoides (8.9%) followed by Hymenolepis nana (7.7%), Taenia saginata (5.4%), hookworm (4.7%), Trichuris trichiura (2.5%), Schistosoma mansoni (2.2%), Enterobius vermicularis (1.7%), and Strongyloides stercoralis (0.7%), respectively. Highest prevalence was observed in male students (39.6%) compared to female students (28.8%) (P < 0.05). The prevalence of IHIs among school children in the age group of 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, and above 20 was 49.6%, 35.8%, 10.9%, and 3.6%, respectively (P < 0.05). IHI was significantly associated with some of the risk factors such as gender, educational level of students', toilet usage habit, habit of hand washing, hand washing habit before feeding and after defecation, purpose of hand washing, and awareness to intestinal helminths (P < 0.05). In the study area, the prevalence of IHIs is moderately high and represents a public health problem in the school children. Therefore, all stakeholders should pay attention to raise awareness about health education programs such as proper personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, improving the quality of drinking water, and treatment to reduce the consequences of intestinal helminths.

SARS-CoV-2 Mutations and COVID-19 Clinical Outcome: Mutation Global Frequency Dynamics and Structural Modulation Hold the Key.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has had an enormous burden on the healthcare system worldwide as a consequence of its new emerging variants of concern (VOCs) since late 2019. Elucidating viral genome characteristics and its influence on disease severity and clinical outcome has been one of the crucial aspects toward pandemic management. Genomic surveillance holds the key to identify the spectrum of mutations vis-à-vis disease outcome. Here, in our study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the mutation distribution among the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recovered and mortality patients. In addition to the clinical data analysis, the significant mutations within the two groups were analyzed for their global presence in an effort to understand the temporal dynamics of the mutations globally in comparison with our cohort. Interestingly, we found that all the mutations within the recovered patients showed significantly low global presence, indicating the possibility of regional pool of mutations and the absence of preferential selection by the virus during the course of the pandemic. In addition, we found the mutation S194L to have the most significant occurrence in the mortality group, suggesting its role toward a severe disease progression. Also, we discovered three mutations within the mortality patients with a high cohort and global distribution, which later became a part of variants of interest (VOIs)/VOCs, suggesting its significant role in enhancing viral characteristics. To understand the possible mechanism, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of nucleocapsid mutations, S194L and S194*, from the mortality and recovered patients, respectively, to examine its impacts on protein structure and stability. Importantly, we observed the mutation S194* within the recovered to be comparatively unstable, hence showing a low global frequency, as we observed. Thus, our study provides integrative insights about the clinical features, mutations significantly associated with the two different clinical outcomes, its global presence, and its possible effects at the structural level to understand the role of mutations in driving the COVID-19 pandemic.