Earthworm Grazed-Trichoderma harzianum Biofortified Spent Mushroom Substrates Modulate Accumulation of Natural Antioxidants and Bio-Fortification of Mineral Nutrients in Tomato

The present investigation was aimed at evaluating the impact of earthworm grazed and Trichoderma harzianum biofortified spent mushroom substrate (SMS) on natural antioxidant and nutritional properties of tomato. Results of the investigation reveal that earthworm grazing and T. harzianum bio-fortification led to significant improvement in the physico-chemical properties of fresh SMS and its application increased the accumulation of natural antioxidants and mineral content in tomato as compared to either T. harzianum biofortified SMS or fresh SMS. In particular, the earthworm grazed, T. harzianum biofortified SMS (EGTHB-SMS) was found to inhibit lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation with significant increase in total polyphenol and flavonoid content in tomato. Further, it increased Fe2+/Fe3+ chelating activity, superoxide anion radical scavenging activity compared to other treatments. The results thus suggest an augmented elicitation of natural antioxidant properties in tomato treated with EGTHB-SMS, resulting in a higher radical scavenging activity, that is highly desirable for human health. In addition, the use of SMS to enhance the nutritional value of tomato fruits becomes an environment friendly approach in sustainable crop production

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) & Pap smear positivity rates according to socio demographic factors amongst rural married women

Background: Cervical cytology which is a standard screening tool in developed countries fails as a screening method in low-resource countries due to financial and technical constraints. Objective: To determine the prevalence of pre-malignant lesions of the cervix by VIA and Pap smear test among rural married women and to find out association of socio demographic factors with positive screening test results. Material & Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out among rural married women in the field practice area. A pre-designed questionnaire was administered to collect information from 550 women. Results: The VIA and Pap smear tests were positive among 5.5% and 3.6%study subjects respectively. Pap smear test result presented with pre-cancerous lesions such as atypical squamous cell of undifferentiated significance (ASCUS)16 (2.90%), low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) 2 (0.36%) and high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) 2 (0.36%). The VIA & Pap smear positivity rate was found to be more in the age group of ≥40 years, Hindu, education above intermediate class, joint family and, upper & lower socio-economic status respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of pre-malignant lesions of the cervix by VIA test was 5.5 % while 3.6% pre-malignant lesion was detected by Pap smear method

Cross-sectional study on visual inspection with acetic acid and pap smear positivity rates according to sociodemographic factors among rural married women of bareilly (Uttar Pradesh)

Background: It is possible to prevent deaths due to cervical cancer through screening and treatment. Cervical cytology which is a standard screening tool in developed countries fails as a screening method in low-resource countries due to financial and technical constraints. Objective: To determine the prevalence of pre-malignant lesions of the cervix by VIA and Pap smear test among rural married women and to find out association of socio demographic factors with positive screening test results. Method: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out among rural married women in the field practice area of a tertiary health care center. A pre-designed questionnaire was administered to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics from 550 women. They were tested for the presence of pre-malignant lesions of the cervix using VIA and Pap smear as screening tools. Results: Out of 550 study participants, total 37 patients were found positive, out of which 7, 17 & 13 patients were found positive by Pap smear alone, VIA test alone, and by both these tests respectively. Moderate agreement (k=0.498) was found between these two tests by applying Kappa statistics at 95% confidence interval. The VIA and Pap smear tests were positive among 5.5% and 3.6% study subjects respectively. The positivity rate was found to be more in the age group of >50 years, Hindu, SC/ST caste, joint family, professional and, upper class. Conclusion: The prevalence of pre-malignant lesions of the cervix by VIA test was 5.5% while 3.6% pre-malignant lesion was detected by Pap smear method. VIA and Pap smear positivity rates among rural married women

Plant Biodiversity: Conservation and the Intellectual Property Rights

313-314Controlling the decline of plant biodiversity and several policy decisions and ways towards conservation have been determined. One among these is Intellectual Property Rights as well. According to the Act-15 of Biodiversity summit held in 1992 all the countries possess their rights on the biodiversity available within their geographical boundaries. Present paper comprises the details on biodiversity and Intellectual Property Rights

Freak waves off Ratnagiri, west coast of India

1339-1342Freak <span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:mangal;background:white;mso-ansi-language:="" en-in;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:hi;font-style:normal"="">waves are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface gravity waves whose heights are larger than the expected maximum wave height for a given sea state. Wave data collected off Ratnagiri, along the west coast of India during <span style="font-size:11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:" times="" new="" roman";background:white;mso-ansi-language:="" en-in;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:hi"="">1 January to 31 December 2011 using directional wave rider buoy at 13 m water depth is used to study the freak waves. Abnormality Index (AI), the ratio between maximum wave height and significant wave height, is used to identify and study the variation of the freak wave events off Ratnagiri. From the half hourly wave data covering one year period, 89 freak wave events are observed. The statistics built on these selected events suggests that maximum freak events (29 events) are during the rough SW monsoon and 20 events during the calm pre-monsoon season. Highest freak wave (wave height=6.9 m) is observed in July 2011. The Abnormality Index varied from 2 to 2.5 during the study period. Daily variations in number of freak wave events are associated with the interaction between sea-breeze generated random wind sea and swells propagating towards the study area.</span

Graphene: Synthesis, properties and application in transparent electronic devices

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have received huge attention because of their attractiveness for use in many electronic and optoelectronic devices. Graphene is the two-dimensional basic building block for carbon allotropes of any dimensionality, such as graphite, nanotubes and fullerenes. As we know, transparent electrodes are an important component in many modern electronic devices such as touch screen, liquid crystal display (LCD), light-emitting diode (LED) and solar cells. In addition, all of electronic appliances are growing in demand too much fast due to the rapid industrialization and growing human population. Right now, this role has been well used by doped metal oxide materials; most common are tin doped indium oxide (ITO) and fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO). In recent years many other transparent conducting materials (TCM) have also been developed such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, metal nanowires and nanoparticles. Among the all these TCM, graphene has received greater attention due to advantages over other materials because of its very high electrical conductivity, optical transparency and flexibility. The flexibility of graphene-based devices goes beyond conventional transistor circuits and includes flexible and transparent electronics, optoelectronics, sensors, electromechanical systems, and energy technologies. This review article will explore the production of graphene by different methods, properties of graphene and also analyze the application in transparent conducting electronic devices