SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in the city of Hyderabad, India in early 2021

Background

COVID-19 emerged as a global pandemic in 2020, spreading rapidly to most parts of the world. The proportion of infected individuals in a population can be reliably estimated via serosurveillance, making it a valuable tool for planning control measures. Our serosurvey study aimed to investigate SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in the urban population of Hyderabad at the end of the first wave of infections.

Methods

This cross-sectional survey, conducted in January 2021 and including males and females aged 10 years and above, used multi-stage random sampling. 9363 samples were collected from 30 wards distributed over six zones of Hyderabad, and tested for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antigen.

Results

Overall seropositivity was 54.2%, ranging from 50% to 60% in most wards. Highest exposure appeared to be among those aged 30–39 and 50–59 years, with women showing greater seropositivity. Seropositivity increased with family size, with only marginal differences among people with varying levels of education. Seroprevalence was significantly lower among smokers. Only 11% of the survey subjects reported any COVID-19 symptoms, while 17% had appeared for COVID-19 testing.

Conclusion

Over half the city's population was infected within a year of onset of the pandemic. However, ∼ 46% of people remained susceptible, contributing to subsequent waves of infection.

Pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, and molecular studies of an important medicinal herb Achillea millefolium L

Background

Achillea millefolium L. is traditionally important medicinal herb used for the treatment of various ailments from the centuries. Recent studies showed its biological activities on hay fever, hepato-biliary disorders, and as appetite enhancing drug. It is also reported to be used for the treatments of skin inflammations, wounds, cuts, and abrasions.

Aim

To investigate preliminary pharmacognostical, phytochemical, and molecular parameters of aerial parts of the drug.

Materials and methods

A. millefolium was identified and collected from the Himalaya region. The material is properly dried, macro-and microscopic evaluation, phytochemical and molecular studies as per the standard quality control and WHO guidelines.

Results

The leaves are pinnately lobed, inflorescence compound corymbose. Nonglandular trichomes are uni-seriate, multicellular, and smooth walled; glandular trichomes are bicellular, present throughout the aerial parts. The endodermis is evident in the stem and leaf mesophyll is equifacial. The partial genome sequence analysis showed similarity toward studied species, which can clearly distinguish it from other species of the genus Achillea. The best chromatographic separation was observed with ascentis express C18, 2.7 μm, 100 mm × 4.6 mm. The flavonoids and phenolic acids have shown maximum absorbance at 330 nm. The system suitability parameters such as theoretical plate, tailing factor, and resolution met the acceptance criteria with United States pharmacopeia (USP).

Conclusion

The findings of this study will be helpful for the precise identification of the raw drug of A. millefolium from its closely allied species.

Halide-aided controlled fabrication of Pt–Pd/graphene bimetallic nanocomposites for methanol electrooxidation

Herein, Pt–Pd/RGO bimetallic nanocomposites were synthesized through a halide-aided fabrication strategy. The Pt–Pd/RGO-15KI with its uniform dispersion exhibits improved methanol electro-oxidation activity compared to Pt–Pd/RGO-0KI.

Management of dental trauma to a developing permanent tooth during endotracheal intubation

Anesthesiologists consistently work in the mouth of patients but are not exposed to comprehensive education of teeth, the surrounding structures, and intraoral prosthesis. One of the most common adverse events related to anesthesia is perioperative dental damage. To minimize these dental injuries, a preoperative assessment of patient's dentition and intra-oral tissues should be undertaken.

'I could never do that before': effectiveness of a tailored Internet support intervention to increase the social participation of youth with disabilities

BACKGROUND

Youth use the Internet for a variety of purposes including social networking. Youth with disabilities are limited in their social networks and friendships with peers. The aim was to investigate the effectiveness of tailored one-on-one support strategies designed to facilitate social participation of youth with disabilities through the use of the Internet for social networking.

METHODS

Eighteen youth aged 10-18 years with cerebral palsy, physical disability or acquired brain injury received support, training and assistive technology at their home to learn to use the Internet for building social networks. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) were used to evaluate objective changes in performance and satisfaction. Interviews with the youth identified subjective changes they experienced through participation in the programme and to determine whether and how the intervention influenced their social participation.

RESULTS

Youth showed an increase in performance and satisfaction with performance on identified goals concerning social networking on the COPM; Paired T-test showed that these differences were statistically significant at P < 0.001. GAS T-scores demonstrated successful outcomes (>50) for 78% of the youth. Interviews showed that youth were positive about the benefits of hands-on training at home leading to increased use of the Internet for social networking.

CONCLUSIONS

The Internet could be a viable method to facilitate social participation for youth with disabilities. Youth identified the benefits of one-to-one support at home and training of the family compared with typical group training at school. Despite its success with this group of youth, the time and effort intensive nature of this approach may limit the viability of such programmes. Further longitudinal research should investigate whether Internet use is sustained post intervention, and to identify the factors that best support ongoing successful and safe use.

Phytate-degrading Pediococcus pentosaceus CFR R123 for application in functional foods

The present work looks at the role of phytate-degrading Pediococcus pentosaceus CFR R123 application in functional foods to evaluate the fate of phytate and calcium solubility during fermentation. Under standard conditions, CFR R123 grown in modified MRS containing sodium phytate CFR R123 showed 43% degradation of sodium phytate in 15 minutes. Fermentation of malted finger millet seed coat (MFSC) and soya milk (SM) with CFR R123 for 12 h resulted in 5.6-12% phytate degradation and a notable increase in calcium availability (125%) was observed. The isolate CFR R123 was found to decrease the phytic acid levels resulting in increased levels of calcium during MFSC and soya milk fermentation. This study introduces phytate-degrading P. pentosaceus CFR R123 that can be employed as a starter culture as well as an ingredient of functional food to provide nutritive benefits to the consumer with a natural phenomenon.

Evaluation of beneficial attributes for phytate-degrading Pediococcus pentosaceus CFR R123

In this study we have screened and selected potent phytate-degrading lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and evaluated their beneficial attributes. Around 60 LAB strains were isolated from several cereal- and pulse-based conventional fermented preparations. They were screened for their ability to degrade myo-inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) by cobalt chloride qualitative staining method (plate assay). One of the cultures, Pediococcus pentosaceus CFR R123, was capable of degrading both calcium and sodium salts of phytic acid. Additionally, we have carried out an in vitro evaluation for the beneficial attributes of phytate degrading CFR R123. P. pentosaceus CFR R123 showed 53% survivability at pH 2 and 62% at pH 2.5, whereas cultures of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG showed a survivability of 55% and 82%, respectively. CFR R123 could also withstand 0.3% ox-bile, whereas no growth was observed for GG. The strain CFR R123 exhibited 62.8% hydrophobicity to xylene whereas 59% was found for GG. Both the tested strains showed a good spectrum of antibacterial activity against food-borne pathogens like Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes Scott A, etc. P. pentosaceus CFR R123 possessed β-galactosidase activity and cholesterol reduction ability. In conclusion, LAB with phytate degrading ability and several beneficial attributes could potentially be used as a starter culture to improve the nutritional security of functional food.

Parents' and service providers' perceptions of family-centred practice in a community-based, paediatric disability service in Australia

BACKGROUND

For children who have physical disabilities and their families, involvement with a variety of providers of rehabilitation services is the norm rather than the exception. Despite family-centred practice (FCP) being recognized as the 'best practice' model, families experience models of service provision that range from 'expert' to 'collaborative'. After adopting FCP at Novita Children's Services in South Australia, it was imperative to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of FCP. Aim To investigate parents' and staff's perceptions of FCP at Novita as part of ongoing quality assurance activity, and to identify any gaps in the services provided.

METHODS

The Measures of Processes of Care (MPOC) for parents/caregivers and service providers were utilized. A total of 189 families stratified by the three age groups of clients (<6, 6-12 and 13-18 years) and home location (metropolitan and rural) completed the MPOC-20 questionnaire. A total of 145 staff, allied health therapists, rehabilitation engineers, managers and other staff who have direct contact with clients and their families completed the MPOC - service providers (MPOC-SP) questionnaire.

RESULTS

Parents generally rated the family-centred behaviours of staff as positive. Respectful and supportive care received the highest rating, while providing general information received the lowest. There were significant differences in scores for all five scales of the MPOC between metropolitan and rural families and the age of the child. Service providers also generally rated their family-centred behaviours as positive. There were significant differences among the professions in areas of showing interpersonal sensitivity and providing general information.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that parents and service providers perceive FCP as positive at Novita, with some areas for improvement. The MPOC-20 and MPOC-SP can be used to measure FCP and to identify service delivery gaps, which warrant further exploration.

"No shoes; they walked away?": effects of enhancements on learning and using Blissymbols by normal 3-year-old children

The present investigation studied the effects of enhancements on the learning, retention, transfer to the unlearned form, and use of Blissymbols in 40 normal 3-year-old children. The subjects, seen individually, learned either 12 standard Blissymbols (SBS) or the same 12 symbols in the enhanced form (EBS). The symbols were introduced with short explanations. The number of trials taken to reach > 90% correct identification, the number of symbols selected appropriately to complete a communicative act, the number of symbols correctly identified a week after the acquisition phase was completed, and the number of symbols correctly identified in the untrained form of Blissymbols were determined. The results demonstrated that the subjects learned EBS faster than SBS, remembered more EBS than SBS in the retention task, did not differ in the communicative use of SBS and EBS, and were affected more negatively when presented with SBS than EBS in a task where the untrained form was presented. The results are discussed in terms of how very young children might benefit more from an illustration system such as EBS than from an orthographic system such as SBS.