Replicating Viral Vector-Based Vaccines for COVID-19: Potential Avenue in Vaccination Arena

The “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” is the third member of human coronavirus (CoV) that is held accountable for the current “coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)” pandemic. In the past two decades, the world has witnessed the emergence of two other similar CoVs, namely SARS-CoV in 2002 and MERS-CoV in 2013. The extent of spread of these earlier versions was relatively low in comparison to SARS-CoV-2. Despite having numerous reports inclined towards the zoonotic origin of the virus, one cannot simply sideline the fact that no animal originated CoV is thus far identified that is considered similar to the initial edition of SARS-CoV-2; however, under-sampling of the diverse variety of coronaviruses remains a concern. Vaccines are proved to be an effective tool for bringing the end to such a devastating pandemic. Many vaccine platforms are explored for the same but in this review paper, we will discuss the potential of replicating viral vectors as vaccine carriers for SARS-CoV-2

Quantum Correlations in NMR systems

In conventional NMR experiments, the Zeeman energy gaps of the nuclear spin ensembles are much lower than their thermal energies, and accordingly exhibit tiny polarizations. Generally such low-purity quantum states are devoid of quantum entanglement. However, there exist certain nonclassical correlations which can be observed even in such systems. In this chapter, we discuss three such quantum correlations, namely, quantum contextuality, Leggett-Garg temporal correlations, and quantum discord. In each case, we provide a brief theoretical background and then describe some results from NMR experiments.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Effects of Neonatal Nutrition Interventions on Neonatal Mortality and Child Health and Development Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Background The last two decades have seen a significant decrease in mortality for children \u3c 5 years of age in low and middle‐income countries (LMICs); however, neonatal (age, 0–28 days) mortality has not decreased at the same rate. We assessed three neonatal nutritional interventions that have the potential of reducing morbidity and mortality during infancy in LMICs. Objectives To determine the efficacy and effectiveness of synthetic vitamin A, dextrose oral gel, and probiotic supplementation during the neonatal period. Search Methods We conducted electronic searches for relevant studies on the following databases: PubMed, CINAHL, LILACS, SCOPUS, and CENTRAL, Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials, up to November 27, 2019. Selection Criteria We aimed to include randomized and quasi‐experimental studies. The target population was neonates in LMICs. The interventions included synthetic vitamin A supplementation, oral dextrose gel supplementation, and probiotic supplementation during the neonatal period. We included studies from the community and hospital settings irrespective of the gestational age or birth weight of the neonate. Data Collection and Analysis Two authors screened the titles and extracted the data from selected studies. The risk of bias (ROB) in the included studies was assessed according to the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews. The primary outcome was all‐cause mortality. The secondary outcomes were neonatal sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), prevention and treatment of neonatal hypoglycaemia, adverse events, and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Data were meta‐analyzed by random effect models to obtain relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for dichotomous outcomes and mean difference with 95% CI for continuous outcomes. The overall rating of evidence was determined by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Main Results Sixteen randomized studies (total participants 169,366) assessed the effect of vitamin A supplementation during the neonatal period. All studies were conducted in low‐ and middle‐income (LMIC) countries. Thirteen studies were conducted in the community setting and three studies were conducted in the hospital setting, specifically in neonatal intensive care units. Studies were conducted in 10 different countries including India (four studies), Guinea‐Bissau (three studies), Bangladesh (two studies), and one study each in China, Ghana, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The overall ROB was low in most of the included studies for neonatal vitamin A supplementation. The pooled results from the community based randomized studies showed that there was no significant difference in all‐cause mortality in the vitamin A (intervention) group compared to controls at 1 month (RR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.90–1.08; six studies with 126,548 participants, statistical heterogeneity I2 0%, funnel plot symmetrical, grade rating high), 6 months (RR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.89–1.07; 12 studies with 154,940 participants, statistical heterogeneity I2 43%, funnel plot symmetrical, GRADE quality high) and 12 months of age (RR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.94–1.14; eight studies with 118,376 participants, statistical heterogeneity I2 46%, funnel plot symmetrical, GRADE quality high). Neonatal vitamin A supplementation increased the incidence of bulging fontanelle by 53% compared to control (RR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.12–2.09; six studies with 100,256 participants, statistical heterogeneity I2 65%, funnel plot symmetrical, GRADE quality high). We did not identify any experimental study that addressed the use of dextrose gel for the prevention and/or treatment of neonatal hypoglycaemia in LMIC. Thirty‐three studies assessed the effect of probiotic supplementation during the neonatal period (total participants 11,595; probiotics: 5854 and controls: 5741). All of the included studies were conducted in LMIC and were randomized. Most of the studies were done in the hospital setting and included participants who were preterm (born \u3c 37 weeks gestation) and/or low birth weight (\u3c 2500 g birth weight). Studies were conducted in 13 different countries with 10 studies conducted in India, six studies in Turkey, three studies each in China and Iran, two each in Mexico and South Africa, and one each in Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Thailand. Three studies were at high ROB due to lack of appropriate randomization sequence or allocation concealment. Combined data from 25 studies showed that probiotic supplementation reduced all‐cause mortality by 20% compared to controls (RR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.66–0.96; total number of participants 10,998, number needed to treat 100, statistical heterogeneity I2 0%, funnel plot symmetrical, GRADE quality high). Twenty‐nine studies reported the effect of probiotics on the incidence of NEC, and the combined results showed a relative reduction of 54% in the intervention group compared to controls (RR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.35–0.59; total number of participants 5574, number needed to treat 17, statistical heterogeneity I2 24%, funnel plot symmetrical, GRADE quality high). Twenty‐one studies assessed the effect of probiotic supplementation during the neonatal period on neonatal sepsis, and the combined results showed a relative reduction of 22% in the intervention group compared to controls (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70–0.86; total number of participants 9105, number needed to treat 14, statistical heterogeneity I2 23%, funnel plot symmetrical, GRADE quality high). Authors\u27 Conclusions Vitamin A supplementation during the neonatal period does not reduce all‐cause neonatal or infant mortality in LMICs in the community setting. However, neonatal vitamin A supplementation increases the risk of Bulging Fontanelle. No experimental or quasi‐experimental studies were available from LMICs to assess the effect of dextrose gel supplementation for the prevention or treatment of neonatal hypoglycaemia. Probiotic supplementation during the neonatal period seems to reduce all‐cause mortality, NEC, and sepsis in babies born with low birth weight and/or preterm in the hospital setting. There was clinical heterogeneity in the use of probiotics, and we could not recommend any single strain of probiotics for wider use based on these results. There was a lack of studies on probiotic supplementation in the community setting. More research is needed to assess the effect of probiotics administered to neonates in‐home/community setting in LMICs

Streptomyces aridus sp. nov., isolated from a high altitude Atacama Desert soil and emended description of Streptomyces noboritoensis Isono et al. 1957.

A polyphasic study was undertaken to determine the taxonomic status of a Streptomyces strain which had been isolated from a high altitude Atacama Desert soil and shown to have bioactive properties. The strain, isolate H9(T), was found to have chemotaxonomic, cultural and morphological properties that place it in the genus Streptomyces. 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses showed that the isolate forms a distinct branch at the periphery of a well-delineated subclade in the Streptomyces 16S rRNA gene tree together with the type strains of Streptomyces crystallinus, Streptomyces melanogenes and Streptomyces noboritoensis. Multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) based on five house-keeping gene alleles showed that isolate H9(T) is closely related to the latter two type strains and to Streptomyces polyantibioticus NRRL B-24448(T). The isolate was distinguished readily from the type strains of S. melanogenes, S. noboritoensis and S. polyantibioticus using a combination of phenotypic properties. Consequently, the isolate is considered to represent a new species of Streptomyces for which the name Streptomyces aridus sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is H9(T) (=NCIMB 14965(T)=NRRL B65268(T)). In addition, the MLSA and phenotypic data show that the S. melanogenes and S. noboritoensis type strains belong to a single species, it is proposed that S. melanogenes be recognised as a heterotypic synonym of S. noboritoensis for which an emended description is given. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10482-017-0838-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Dataset for Characterizing viral samples using machine learning for Raman and absorption spectroscopy

We demonstrated the application of machine learning methods, such as convolutional neural networks and random forests, to predict the concentration of viral samples through Raman and absorption Spectroscopy. Our study demonstrates that concatenating the Raman and absorption data increases the prediction accuracy compared to using either Raman or absorption spectrum alone. In this dataset, we've included the raw and processed data files associated with the manuscript.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Android App Based Tourist Guide

In a society undergoing rapid changes, future museums will contribute to human culture by means of smartphone technology that promotes active interaction with the public. As the electronic techniques advance, computing machines have been miniaturized and smart phones are equipped with powerful processors, large memories, sensor, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. Since android based smart phone is a personal belonging, it is an excellent candidate device on which a context-aware service is provided. This paper introduces our Android application that recognizes the tourist place in which a user is interested and displays useful information like historical importance in the form of text, photo gallery and video clips. The goal of proposed work is to provide correct and easy information to the tourist, to make tourism attractiv

Regioselective synthesis of novel heterophanes from 4-amino-triazoles^†

670-673The regioseiective synthesis of N-amino-benztriazolophanes has been achieved by incorporation of benzene nucleus in the heterophane. The some of the novel compounds have been studied for their use as PTC agents

Uncontrollable dissipative systems: observability and embeddability

The theory of dissipativity is well developed for controllable systems. A more appropriate definition of dissipativity in the context of uncontrollable systems is in terms of the existence of a storage function, namely a function such that, along every system trajectory, its rate of change at each time instant is at most the power supplied to the system at that time. However, even when the supplied power is expressible in terms of just the external variables, the dissipativity property for uncontrollable systems crucially hinges on whether or not the storage function depends on variables unobservable/hidden from the external variables: this paper investigates the key aspects of both cases, and also proposes another intuitive definition of dissipativity. These three definitions are compared: we show that drawbacks of one definition are addressed by another.Dealing first with observable storage functions, under the conditions that no two uncontrollable poles add to zero and that dissipativity is strict as frequency tends to infinity, we prove that the dissipativities of a system and its controllable part are equivalent. We use the behavioural approach for formalising key notions: a system behaviour is the set of all system trajectories. We prove that storage functions have to be unobservable for lossless' uncontrollable systems. It is known, however, that unobservable storage functions result in certain fallacious' examples of lossless systems. We propose an intuitive definition of dissipativity: a system/behaviour is called dissipative if it can be embedded in a controllable dissipative superbehaviour. We prove embeddability results and use them to resolve the fallacy in the example termed lossless' due to unobservable storage functions. We next show that, quite unreasonably, the embeddability definition admits behaviours that are both strictly dissipative and strictly antidissipative. Drawbacks of the embeddability definition in the context of RLC circuits are finally related to the inability to realise/synthesise the special one-port electrical network, called the nullator, using only passive electrical components