Systematic re-review of WASH trials to assess women's engagement in intervention delivery and research activities.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions significantly reduce health risks in low- and middle-income countries. Many rely on women, but the extent of women's engagement remains undocumented. Here we conducted a re-review of papers from two systematic reviews that assessed the effectiveness of water, sanitation and/or handwashing with soap interventions on diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infections to assess women's roles in WASH research and intervention activities. A total of 133 studies were included. Among studies that specified gender, women were the most sought-after group for engagement in research (n = 91/132; 68.9%) and intervention (n = 49/120; 40.8%) activities. Reporting time burden for research (n = 1; 1%) and intervention activities (n = 3; 2.5%) was rare. All interventions were classified as gender unequal (36.7%) or gender unaware (63.3%) according to the World Health Organization Gender Responsiveness Assessment Scale, indicating exploitative engagement. Women play a critical but instrumentalized role in WASH, and both research and interventions need to change to enable, and not hinder, gender equality.

Potential probiotic characterization and effect of encapsulation of probiotic yeast strains on survival in simulated gastrointestinal tract condition.

The present study is focused on probiotic characterization of four yeasts viz. Pichia barkeri VIT-SJSN01, Yarrowia lipolytica VIT-ASN04, Wickerhamomyces anomalus VIT-ASN01 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae VIT-ASN03 isolated from food samples based on their auto-aggregation, co-aggregation ability and haemolytic activity. All the yeast strains showed good self-adhering and co-adhering potentiality with a value index of greater than 85%. None of the strains exhibited haemolysis which confirmed their non-pathogenic nature. Yeast strains were encapsulated in sodium alginate, sodium alginate coated with chitosan and sodium alginate-gelatinized with starch. Size and morphology of the beads and capsules were determined using SEM analysis. Encapsulation output and viability under storage condition was investigated. It was found that probiotic yeasts encapsulated in sodium alginate beads, chitosan coated beads and microcapsules showed better survival to simulated gastrointestinal conditions compared to free cells.