SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 Delta variant replication and immune evasion

Abstract: The B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in the state of Maharashtra in late 2020 and spread throughout India, outcompeting pre-existing lineages including B.1.617.1 (Kappa) and B.1.1.7 (Alpha)1. In vitro, B.1.617.2 is sixfold less sensitive to serum neutralizing antibodies from recovered individuals, and eightfold less sensitive to vaccine-elicited antibodies, compared with wild-type Wuhan-1 bearing D614G. Serum neutralizing titres against B.1.617.2 were lower in ChAdOx1 vaccinees than in BNT162b2 vaccinees. B.1.617.2 spike pseudotyped viruses exhibited compromised sensitivity to monoclonal antibodies to the receptor-binding domain and the amino-terminal domain. B.1.617.2 demonstrated higher replication efficiency than B.1.1.7 in both airway organoid and human airway epithelial systems, associated with B.1.617.2 spike being in a predominantly cleaved state compared with B.1.1.7 spike. The B.1.617.2 spike protein was able to mediate highly efficient syncytium formation that was less sensitive to inhibition by neutralizing antibody, compared with that of wild-type spike. We also observed that B.1.617.2 had higher replication and spike-mediated entry than B.1.617.1, potentially explaining the B.1.617.2 dominance. In an analysis of more than 130 SARS-CoV-2-infected health care workers across three centres in India during a period of mixed lineage circulation, we observed reduced ChAdOx1 vaccine effectiveness against B.1.617.2 relative to non-B.1.617.2, with the caveat of possible residual confounding. Compromised vaccine efficacy against the highly fit and immune-evasive B.1.617.2 Delta variant warrants continued infection control measures in the post-vaccination era

Load Balancing in Cloud Computing Environment Using Improved Weighted Round Robin Algorithm for Nonpreemptive Dependent Tasks

Cloud computing uses the concepts of scheduling and load balancing to migrate tasks to underutilized VMs for effectively sharing the resources. The scheduling of the nonpreemptive tasks in the cloud computing environment is an irrecoverable restraint and hence it has to be assigned to the most appropriate VMs at the initial placement itself. Practically, the arrived jobs consist of multiple interdependent tasks and they may execute the independent tasks in multiple VMs or in the same VM’s multiple cores. Also, the jobs arrive during the run time of the server in varying random intervals under various load conditions. The participating heterogeneous resources are managed by allocating the tasks to appropriate resources by static or dynamic scheduling to make the cloud computing more efficient and thus it improves the user satisfaction. Objective of this work is to introduce and evaluate the proposed scheduling and load balancing algorithm by considering the capabilities of each virtual machine (VM), the task length of each requested job, and the interdependency of multiple tasks. Performance of the proposed algorithm is studied by comparing with the existing methods

A Novel Analysis of the Performance of Cloud Computing Centers using Non-Markovian Queuing Model

A novel mathematical model is presented to analyse the performance of cloud computing centers using non-Markovian queuing model M/G/c/c+r/PR with priority as a queue discipline.Task arrivals are categorized as higher-priority (Hpriority) task queue and low-priority (Lpriority) task queue.This model allows cloud providers to determine the performance metrics of the task queue such as average number of tasks, probability of congestion, and probability of no waiting time with respect to server and buffer size. Two feasible conditions, namely non-preemptive and preemptive task priorities are discussed in this work. This approach is validated using discrete-event simulator and Maplesoft for the above mentioned parameters and the analysis has been done based on the arrived results

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Not AvailableThree promising varieties of Bottle, gourd, Sponge gourd and Round melon of cucurbitaceous vegetables were artificially aged at 450C and 100 per cent relative humidity for 9 days. The experimental results revealed that accelerated ageing showed significant effect on loss of germination per cent, seedling growth, dry weight and other vigour parameters in all the varieties. However, ageing was more pronounced in sponge gourd seeds, twice as that of non-aged seeds. The decline in germination during accelerated ageing was related to the initial degree of deterioration of the seed lot. Percentage of electrolyte leakage, increased steadily during the course of ageing and irrespective of the varieties. The EC values of the sponge gourd were high as compared with those of bottle, gourd and round melon seeds after 24 hours of soaking which confirms the changes in the membrane permeability.Not Availabl

The effect of emotional intelligence on police officers work-life balance: The moderating role of organizational support

Work–life balance is a main concern for employees and employers alike, because a work–life imbalance can cause stress and health-related problems among workers.This study examines the relationship between emotional intelligence and work–life balance among police officers, and also the impact of organizational support as a moderator in this relationship.The data were collected from 1566 police officers in Peninsular Malaysia.Data was analyzed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) method. The results showed a significant and positive relationship between emotional intelligence and work–life balance.Organizational support was also found to moderate this relationship. These findings suggest that to achieve a work–life balance, police officers must have emotional intelligence, and the presence of organizational support would strengthen this relationship.Hence, in managing police officers’ work–life balance, it is important to enhance their emotional intelligence and implement organizational support policies