Clinical profile of COVID-19 infection in postvaccination individuals.

OBJECTIVES: Covishield and Covaxin vaccines have been introduced after rapid approval in India, the nation that has the second most COVID-19 cases globally. These vaccines have been administered in a 2-dose schedule since January 16, 2021. This study deals with the clinical profile of individuals who developed COVID-19 infection post COVID-19 vaccination. This is the first study of its kind in India. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional study. METHODS: The study population was composed of individuals who were COVID-19 positive more than 4 weeks post vaccination and were compared with individuals who were COVID-19 positive within the first 4 weeks of vaccination. Data were collected in a digital questionnaire format and analyzed with SPSS version 23 software. Clinical features were profiled in detail. Chi-square analysis was done to find out the association of various demographic features with the severity of the disease. RESULTS: In the study population, fever was the most common symptom (75.1%), followed by anosmia (72.1%) and shortness of breath (16.3%). There was a lower incidence of fever, cough, dyspnea, and requirement of hospitalization in the study population compared with the control group and previous epidemiological data. The time required for complete recovery and disease severity was favorable in our study population. There was a significant correlation in the rate of hospitalization among the study group and the comparative group (P = .0001) and between the number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine and the lowest oxygen saturation recorded (P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study should boost the ongoing initiative of maximizing the vaccinated population countrywide and emphasize the need for 2 doses of vaccination.

Patients With Suicidal Patterns in the Emergency Room: A Clinical and Social Reflection.

Background and objective Emergency physicians come across a myriad of medical afflictions resulting from suicide attempts. The Indian contribution to global suicide deaths is alarming; the social construct of India is unique, and so are the problems and challenges. This study aims to describe the social background, demographic parameters and correlate the clinical profile and outcomes of all patients presenting with an attempted or completed suicide. Materials and methods The present study is a hospital-based prospective observational study conducted by the Department of Emergency Medicine at RL Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre, a rural tertiary-care center in Karnataka, India, from June 2020 to February 2021. After stabilizing the patient, a detailed socio-demographic history was recorded. Details of the suicide attempt and findings of the clinical examination were noted. Results The final study sample consisted of 89 patients who presented to the emergency room (ER). Fifty-three patients were female, and thirty-six were males; the average age of the sample was 28.4 ± 11 years. A higher proportion of men who completed pre-university education (p= 0.0005, c2= 11.98) or had a graduate degree (p= 0.009, c2= 6.71) attempted suicide. Amongst all women who attempted suicide, 73.6% (n=39) were married at the time of the event (p= 0.0006, c2= 11.79). Poisoning (n=59) was the most common method of attempting suicide. We also observed that it was primarily men who attempted suicide when under the influence of alcohol (p= 0.006, c2= 7.57). The most common reason for attempting suicide was familial disharmony, including domestic violence. A Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 9/15 and less at the time of presentation resulted in a mortality rate of 28.6%, whereas patients with a GCS score of 10 and above had a mortality rate of 6.1% (p= 0.04, c2= 4.14). Discussion Marriage appears to be less protective for Indian women than Indian men. Poisoning was the most common method of attempted suicide in our study, followed by tablet overdose. The reason for the above could be ease of access to household poisons. Insecticides have been a preferred method in the Indian population over the years. Aluminum phosphide poisoning, a common constituent of rodenticides, is associated with a high mortality rate. However, in the West, firearm-related incidents have the highest mortality. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India, data showed that adult males succumb majorly to romantic relations, unemployment, and failure in examinations. The use of alcohol was more in the illiterate and unskilled workers; however, high school educated persons and students used alcohol intentionally to facilitate suicide. Lower Glasgow Coma Scale values are associated with higher fatality; however, some studies found that Full Outline of Unresponsiveness (FOUR) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Score (APACHE) II scores are better mortality indicators. Conclusion Besides the presentation and GCS score, cognizance of the lethality of different methods in attempting suicide provides clues in anticipating the patient's clinical course. The social patterns of suicide must be considered while designing awareness campaigns and focused outreach programs to decrease suicides. A strict policy must be made and enforced to limit the availability of household poisons.

Draft genome sequence, annotation and SSR mining data of Oryctes rhinoceros Linn. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), the coconut rhinoceros beetle.

The coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), Oryctes rhinoceros Linn. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), is one of the major pests of coconut causing severe yield losses. The adult beetles feed on unopened spear leaf (resulting in the typical 'V'-shaped cuts), spathes, inflorescence, and tender nut leading to stunted palm growth and yield reduction. Moreover, these damages serve as predisposing factors to the entry of other fatal enemies on palms, viz., red palm weevil and bud rot disease, causing yield loss as high as 10%. CRB attacks juvenile palms through the collar region, affecting the growth and initial establishment of the juvenile palms. While the immature stages of CRB sustain on organic debris, the adult beetles are ubiquitous pests on coconut and other palms. The discovery of a new invasive haplotype of CRB from Guam and other Pacific Islands, insensitive to Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus (OrNV), a potent biocontrol agent, has raised serious concerns. The draft genome sequence and simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker data for this important pest of coconut are presented here. A total of 30 Gb of sequence data from an individual third instar larva was obtained on an Illumina HiSeq X Five platform. The draft genome assembly was found to be 372 Mb, with 97.6% completeness based on Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) assessment. Functional gene annotation predicted about 16,241 genes. In addition, a total of 21,999 putative simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were identified. The obtained draft genome is a valuable resource for comprehending population genetics, dispersal patterns, phylogenetics, and species behavior.

Clinico-molecular diagnosis and characterization of bovine lumpy skin disease virus in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an emerging transboundary disease in India. In the recent past, Andhra Pradesh is experiencing outbreaks of LSD in several pockets with a severe economic impact on the farming community. The affected animals showed nodular lesions all over the body in severely affected cases, whereas the lesions were confined to the face, neck, jowl, back, udder, and scrotum in less affected cases. Young ones are highly susceptible to the disease than adults. The mortality was found to be more in young ones than adult cattle which might be due to subsequent secondary bacterial complications. Clinical samples like blood, serum, and tissues were collected randomly from affected animals from four different pockets of Andhra Pradesh. The tissue samples gave positive amplification in PCR targeting LSDV fusion protein gene (ORF 117) and yielded 472 bp product. Another gene specifically targeting ORF036 of LSDV also gave amplification in tissue samples with a product size of 606 bp. The representative samples from four different regions were sequenced for ORF 117 and 036 genes. The phylogeny of the sequenced products of ORF 117 showed more similarity with Kenya Neethling 2490 strain and Russian isolates of 2019. In addition, the phylogeny of ORF 036 showed the path of entry of the virus into the country and also to Andhra Pradesh. The isolates showed similarity with the isolates of India (Odisha), Bangladesh, Russia, Egypt, and Kenya. These studies paved way for the future perspective of developing a vaccine to control the disease.

COVID in Post Vaccinated individuals- Beacon of Light

IntroductionCOVISHIELD and COVAXIN have been introduced post rapid approval as COVID vaccines in India, which has the second most COVID cases across countries. These vaccines are being administered in a two-dose schedule from 16 Jan 2021. This study deals with the clinical profile of individuals who developed COVID infection post-COVID vaccination. This is the first study of similar nature in India. MethodologyThe study population comprised of individuals who were detected to be COVID positive 04 weeks post-vaccination and were compared with individuals detected positive within the first 04 weeks of vaccination. Data was collected in a digital questionnaire format and analyzed with SPSS v-23 software. Clinical features were profiled in detail. Chi-square analysis was done to find out the association of various demographic features with the severity of the disease. ResultsIn the study population, fever was the commonest symptom (75.1%) followed by anosmia (72.1%), and shortness of breath (16.3%). There was a lower incidence of fever, cough, dyspnea, and requirement of hospitalization in the study population as compared to the control group and previous epidemiological data. The time required for complete recovery and disease severity was favorable in our study population. There was a significant correlation in the rate of hospitalization among the study group and the comparative group (p=0.0001) and between the number of dosage of COVID vaccine with the lowest SpO2 recorded (p=0.001). ConclusionThis study will boost the ongoing initiative of having a maximal vaccinated population countrywide and emphasize the need for two doses of vaccination.

Bayesian inference of the viscoelastic properties of a Jeffrey's fluid using optical tweezers.

Bayesian inference is a conscientious statistical method which is successfully used in many branches of physics and engineering. Compared to conventional approaches, it makes highly efficient use of information hidden in a measured quantity by predicting the distribution of future data points based on posterior information. Here we apply this method to determine the stress-relaxation time and the solvent and polymer contributions to the frequency dependent viscosity of a viscoelastic Jeffrey's fluid by the analysis of the measured trajectory of an optically trapped Brownian particle. When comparing the results to those obtained from the auto-correlation function, mean-squared displacement or the power spectrum, we find Bayesian inference to be much more accurate and less affected by systematic errors.

Brain Tumor Segmentation of T1w MRI Images Based on Clustering Using Dimensionality Reduction Random Projection Technique.

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis of a brain tumor may increase life expectancy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accompanied by several segmentation algorithms is preferred as a reliable method for assessment. The availability of high-dimensional medical image data during diagnosis places a heavy computational burden and a suitable pre-processing step is required for lower- dimensional representation. The storage requirement and complexity of image data are also a concern. To address this concern, the random projection technique (RPT) is widely used as a multivariate approach for data reduction. AIM: This study mainly focuses on T1-weighted MRI image clustering for brain tumor segmentation with dimension reduction by using the conventional principal component analysis (PCA) and RPT. METHODS: Two clustering algorithms, K-means and fuzzy c-means (FCM) were used for brain tumor detection. The primary study objective was to present a comparison of the two clustering methods between MRI images subjected to PCA and RPT. In addition to the original dimension of 512 × 512, three other image sizes, 256 × 256, 128 × 128, and 64 × 64, were used to determine the effect of the methods. RESULTS: In terms of average reconstruction, Euclidean distance, and segmentation distance errors, the RPT produced better results than the PCA method for all the clustered images from clustering techniques. CONCLUSION: According to the values of performance metrics, RPT supported fuzzy c-means in achieving the best clustering performance and provided significant results for each new size of the MRI images.

Facile coconut inflorescence sap mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles and its diverse antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties.

Green synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) involves the use of diverse extracts of biological origin as substrates to synthesize NPs and can overcome the hazards associated with chemical methods. Coconut inflorescence sap, which is unfermented phloem sap obtained by tapping of coconut inflorescence, is a rich source of sugars and secondary metabolites. In this study, coconut inflorescence sap was used to synthesize silver NPs (AgNPs). We have initially undertaken metabolomic profiling of coconut inflorescence sap from West Coast Tall cultivar to delineate its individual components. It was found to comprise of 64% secondary metabolites, 9% sugars, 12% lipids/fats and 9% peptides in positive mode, whereas in the negative mode, it was 33, 20, 9 and 11%, respectively. The concentration of silver nitrate, inflorescence sap and incubation temperature for the synthesis of AgNPs were optimized. Incubating the reaction mixture at 40 °C was found to enhance AgNP synthesis. The AgNPs synthesized were characterized using UV-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The particles were crystalline in nature and the bulk of the particles were spherical with smooth (thin) shell and poly-dispersed with a diameter ranging from 10 nm to 30 nm. Antimicrobial property of AgNPs was tested in tissue culture of arecanut (Areca catechu L.) where bacterial contamination (Bacillus pumilus) was a frequent occurrence. A significant reduction in the contamination was observed when plantlets were treated with aqueous solutions of AgNPs. Notably, treatment with AgNPs did not affect the growth and development of the arecanut plantlets. Antimicrobial properties of AgNPs synthesized from inflorescence sap were also evaluated in human pathogenic bacteria viz., Escherichia coli ATCC 25922; Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028 and Vibrio parahaemolyticus AQ4037. The antibacterial action was confirmed by determining the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and protein leakage studies. Cytotoxicity of AgNPs was quantified in HeLa cells. The viability (%) of HeLa cells declined significantly at 10 mg L-1 concentration of AgNP and complete mortality was observed at a concentration of 60 mg L-1. The study concludes that unfermented inflorescence sap, with above neutral pH, serves as an excellent reducing agent to synthesize AgNPs from Ag+.

Method development and validation for rapid identification of epigallocatechin gallate using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography.

Although Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the most available and beneficial catechin found in tea, its auto-oxidation property may lead to toxicity when consumed in large quantities. Thus, there is a need to quantify the EGCG, which enables to study the pharmacological characteristics of the compound. The study aimed to develop and validate a rapid and accurate analytical method for quantitative determination of EGCG. Standard EGCG was used to conduct trials for the optimization of the analytical method using Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC). Tests for validation (specificity, linearity, accuracy, system suitability, method precision, robustness, and ruggedness) were performed. The preliminary trials yielded an analytical method with good peak shape and acceptable system suitability which was further validated. The method was shown to be specific, with a linear correlation coefficient of > 0.9996 and accurate with acceptable recovery rate (99.1% to 100.4%). Acceptable system suitability and method precision were confirmed with a relative standard deviation (less than 2%). Further, robustness and ruggedness experiments also demonstrated the suitability of the present analytical method. The method developed for determination of EGCG was validated as per the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) guidelines and thus can be used in routine compliance tests in the laboratory for further studying/characterizing the properties of EGCG.