Knowledge Attitude and Practice on Sexual Health Education among Teachers of Intellectually Challenged Children in Villupuram District

Sexual health education has always been a controversial topic. Parents of intellectually challenged children experience fear about other people that they might take advantage of their child, thus special educators have greater role in assisting children with intellectual disability in their growth and development, and sexuality is part of that growth. Special educators need to start early to educate the intellectually challenged children about sexuality-related issues and continue the conversation well into their teen years. Sexual health education helps children with an intellectual disability recognize if someone is trying to take advantage of them so they can recognize inappropriate sexual advances early on, better protect themselves from exploitation and be able to report incidents of suspected sexual abuse. Hence, all the special educators should be aware about sexual health education. Against this background, the present study is aimed at measuring the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Sexual Health Education among teachers of intellectually challenged children in Villupuram District. Having adopted descriptive research design, a total of 32 special educators were selected from 93 special educators using Simple Random Sampling Method (Lottery Method) for the study. A tool on KAP on Sexual Health Education prepared by Venkat Lakshmi and Navyas was applied by the authors to measure the KAP on Sexual Health Education. Salient findings and Suggestions pertaining to the study will be discussed in the full paper. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Sexual Health Education, Teachers of Intellectually Challenged Children, Role of Teachers

Theoretical Analysis of Continuous Heat Extraction from Absorber of Solar Still for Improving the Productivity

This paper communicates the theoretical analysis of continuous waste heat extraction from the other side of absorber plate. For theoretical analysis two conditions are determined one is the mass of water in the absorber and another one is mass flow rate of water around the absorber plate. Results indicated that the water temperature is reached maximum at 10 kg of mass and 5 kg/hr mass flow of water and the heat extracted from the absorber is higher at optimum mass flow of 5 kg/hr. Also, the higher temperature difference between the water and the collector cover is found during the off-shine period. The maximum achievable hourly productivity of 0.9 and 0.5 kg is found for the solar still with and without circulation respectively. The yield from present model with continuous heat extraction is increased from 3 to 5.5 kg/m2. As the approached method is more new to the society it may be determined by Agouz- Nagarajan- Sathyamurthy (ANS) model

Impact of water management on methane emission dynamics in Sri Lankan paddy ecosystems

Paddy ecosystems constitute a dominant source of greenhouse gases, particularly of methane (CH₄), due to the continuous flooding (CF) practiced under conventional paddy cultivation. A new management method, namely alternative wetting and draining (AWD) (i.e., flooding whenever surface water levels decline to 15 cm below the soil surface), is an emerging practice developed to mitigate CH₄ emissions while providing an optimal solution for freshwater scarcity. Despite extensive paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka, no systematic research study has been conducted to investigate CH₄ emissions under different water management practices. Thus, field experiments were conducted in Sri Lanka to investigate the feedback of controlled water management on seasonal and diel variation of CH₄ emission, water consumption, and crop productivity. Adopting the same rice variety, two water management methods, continuous flooding (CF) and alternative wetting and draining (AWD), were compared with plants (W/P) and without plants (N/P) present. The emission of CH₄ was measured using the static closed chamber method. The results show a 32% reduction in cumulative CH₄ emission, on average, under AWD when compared to CF. The yield under the AWD was slightly higher than that of CF. Although it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05) there was not any reduction in yield in AWD than in CF. The total water saving under AWD ranged between 27–35% when compared to CF. Thus, the results support (without considering the effect of nitrous oxide) AWD as a promising method for mitigating CH₄ emissions while preserving freshwater and maintaining grain yield in paddy systems

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Docking and Dynamics Study of Phytochemicals as Potent Inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease

Coronavirus Infectious Disease-19 (COVID-19) caused by coronavirus 2 is a global health hazard. The lack of medications against the disease is a major concern of the research community today. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Main Protease (SARS-CoV-2 MPro) is the most extensively studied protein responsible for spreading disease. Several plant-based products are utilized to treat the disease's symptoms. Here, we have attempted to screen 377 phytocompounds against the target computationally. We have sorted eight best-pose compounds based on docking studies for further analysis. Lipinski and Adsorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Elimination/Toxicity (ADME/T) properties were also evaluated to assess the drug-like properties and toxicity of the screened compounds. Finally, we discovered Coruscanone to be the most effective lead compound for the target. The best complex was further undertaken for dynamic simulation. RMSD, RMSF, h-bond, and Rg were analyzed and studied related to the reference compound. The study additionally continues to elucidate its inhibitory action via in vitro studies

Assessment of microbial contamination of mobile phones among mothers in Raichur city, Karnataka: A cross- sectional study

Studies have reported that multiple contaminated surfaces play an important part in spreading diseases including mobile phones. Cell phones act as a medium by which bacterial pathogens are transmitted- either from phone to phone or from the hand of user to mobile phone; resulting in exchange of microbial flora. This study was carried out to assess the amount of bacterial contamination among mobile phone users who are mothers and handle kids below 6 years of age. The aim of the present study was to assess the presence of different microbial species for contamination among mothers with children <6 years of age using different mobile phones in Raichur. A cross sectional study was carried out among 60 mothers in Raichur city of Karnataka. The sterile swab was used to collect samples and transferred to the laboratory for assessment. Among the 60 study subjects, all of them did not know that micro-organisms spread from their body parts to mobile phone. No one was advised by the doctor on ill effects of mobile phone usage during pregnancy and none cleaned their phones regularly with any chemical disinfectant. Half of the microbes identified was Coagulase negative species.&nbsp

Chronic Endotoxemia in Subjects with Type-1 Diabetes Is Seen Much before the Onset of Microvascular Complications

<div><p>Background</p><p>Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/Endotoxin is hypothesized to play an important role in chronic inflammation associated with Type-1 diabetes (T1DM) and its complications. Endotoxin core antibodies (EndoCAb), LPS binding protein (LBP) and soluble CD14 (sCD14) act as modulators of LPS induced activation of innate immune system <i>in vivo</i>. For the present study we estimated the levels of LPS and its translocation markers in T1DM subjects with and without microvascular complications (MVC) and correlate them with clinical parameters of T1DM and serum inflammatory cytokine levels (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β and GM-CSF).</p><p>Methods</p><p>A total of 197 subjects (64 normal glucose tolerance (NGT) subjects, 97 T1DM subjects without MVC and 36 with MVC) were included in this study and the levels of serum LPS, its translocation markers and cytokines measured by immunoassays.</p><p>Results</p><p>Compared to NGT, T1DM subjects (both with and without MVC) had significantly higher levels of LPS, reduced levels of LBP and EndoCAb along with significant increase in the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and GM-CSF (p<0.05). No significant change was seen in the levels of these biomarkers between T1DM subjects with and without MVC.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Decreased levels of EndoCAb and LBP suggest sustained endotoxin activity in T1DM subjects even before the onset of microvascular complications.</p></div