Domestic Violence against Women during the Covid-19: A Case Study of Bihar (India)

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed that the socioeconomic challenges in developing countries intersect within and beyond the dynamics of caste, class, space, and most importantly, gender. The recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic compelled the entire human population to survive on the brink of uncertainty. The subsequent lockdown witnessed an upsurge in domestic abuse cases across the globe, making us realize how the four walls of the familial space turned into a hotbed of the \u27shadow pandemic\u27 resulting from the socioeconomic disparities and individual frustration during difficult times. India also witnessed a sudden surge in domestic violence cases, often called a shadow pandemic. While some got reported, many went without being documented in any forum. In this regard, this research is a case study of Bihar (India), which encountered a higher rate of domestic violence during the pandemic than other states such as Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Himanchal Pradesh. This empirical study examines the economic, psychological, and social factors responsible for the surge in domestic abuse in Bihar during the Covid-19 pandemic

Ambient mass spectrometry technologies for the detection of falsified drugs

Increased globalization of the pharmaceutical market has facilitated the unobstructed and fast spread of poor-quality medicines. Poor-quality medicines include spurious/falsely-labeled/falsified/counterfeit drugs (those that are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to content and/or origin), substandard drugs (legitimate drugs that do not meet their quality specifications), and degraded medicines (good quality pharmaceuticals that suffered from deterioration caused by improper storage or distribution). Consumption of poor-quality pharmaceuticals is likely to increase morbidity and mortality.Moreover, poor-quality drugs can also contribute to the development of resistance to anti-infective medicines and decrease the quality of health care received by patients. To assess the true prevalence of poor quality drugs, tiered technology approaches enabling the testing of drug samples collected at points of sale are required, thus ensuring public health standards. High throughput and high resolution ambient mass spectrometry techniques allow investigation of pharmaceuticals with minimal or no sample preparation, thus possessing capabilities to survey a large number of drug samples for their authenticity.Fil: Culzoni, Maria Julia. Georgia Institute Of Techology; Estados Unidos. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe; ArgentinaFil: Dwivedi, Prabha. Georgia Institute Of Techology; Estados UnidosFil: Green, Michael D.. Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. National Center For Infectious Diseases. Division Of Parasitic Diseases; Estados UnidosFil: Newton, Paul. Mahosot Hospital; Laos. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Fernandez, Facundo. Georgia Institute Of Techology; Estados Unido

Evaluation of a Gas Chromatograph-Differential Mobility Spectrometer for Potential Water Monitoring on the International Space Station

Environmental monitoring for manned spaceflight has long depended on archival sampling, which was sufficient for short missions. However, the longer mission durations aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have shown that enhanced, real-time monitoring capabilities are necessary in order to protect both the crewmembers and the spacecraft systems. Over the past several years, a number of real-time environmental monitors have been deployed on the ISS. Currently, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the station air are monitored by the Air Quality Monitor (AQM), a small, lightweight gas chromatograph-differential mobility spectrometer. For water monitoring, real-time monitors are used for total organic carbon (TOC) and biocide analysis. No information on the actual makeup of the TOC is provided presently, however. An improvement to the current state of environmental monitoring could be realized by modifying a single instrument to analyze both air and water. As the AQM currently provides quantitative, compound-specific information for VOCs in air samples, this instrument provides a logical starting point to evaluate the feasibility of this approach. The major hurdle for this effort lies in the liberation of the target analytes from the water matrix. In this presentation, we will discuss our recent studies, in which an electro-thermal vaporization unit has been interfaced with the AQM to analyze target VOCs at the concentrations at which they are routinely detected in archival water samples from the ISS. We will compare the results of these studies with those obtained from the instrumentation routinely used to analyze archival water samples

Prevalence of substandard and falsified artemisinin-based combination antimalarial medicines on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea.

INTRODUCTION: Poor-quality artemisinin-containing antimalarials (ACAs), including falsified and substandard formulations, pose serious health concerns in malaria endemic countries. They can harm patients, contribute to the rise in drug resistance and increase the public's mistrust of health systems. Systematic assessment of drug quality is needed to gain knowledge on the prevalence of the problem, to provide Ministries of Health with evidence on which local regulators can take action. METHODS: We used three sampling approaches to purchase 677 ACAs from 278 outlets on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea as follows: convenience survey using mystery client (n=16 outlets, 31 samples), full island-wide survey using mystery client (n=174 outlets, 368 samples) and randomised survey using an overt sampling approach (n=88 outlets, 278 samples). The stated active pharmaceutical ingredients (SAPIs) were assessed using high-performance liquid chromatography and confirmed by mass spectrometry at three independent laboratories. RESULTS: Content analysis showed 91.0% of ACAs were of acceptable quality, 1.6% were substandard and 7.4% falsified. No degraded medicines were detected. The prevalence of medicines without the SAPIs was higher for ACAs purchased in the convenience survey compared with the estimates obtained using the full island-wide survey-mystery client and randomised-overt sampling approaches. Comparable results were obtained for full island survey-mystery client and randomised overt. However, the availability of purchased artesunate monotherapies differed substantially according to the sampling approach used (convenience, 45.2%; full island-wide survey-mystery client, 32.6%; random-overt sampling approach, 21.9%). Of concern is that 37.1% (n=62) of these were falsified. CONCLUSION: Falsified ACAs were found on Bioko Island, with the prevalence ranging between 6.1% and 16.1%, depending on the sampling method used. These findings underscore the vital need for national authorities to track the scale of ineffective medicines that jeopardise treatment of life-threatening diseases and value of a representative sampling approach to obtain/measure the true prevalence of poor-quality medicines

Evaluation of a Gas Chromatograph-Differential Mobility Spectrometer for Potential Water Monitoring on the International Space Station

No abstract availabl

Quality of antimalarials at the epicenter of antimalarial drug resistance: results from an overt and mystery client survey in Cambodia.

Widespread availability of monotherapies and falsified antimalarials is thought to have contributed to the historical development of multidrug-resistant malaria in Cambodia. This study aimed to document the quality of artemisinin-containing antimalarials (ACAs) and to compare two methods of collecting antimalarials from drug outlets: through open surveyors and mystery clients (MCs). Few oral artemisinin-based monotherapies and no suspected falsified medicines were found. All 291 samples contained the stated active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of which 69% were considered good quality by chemical analysis. Overall, medicine quality did not differ by collection method, although open surveyors were less likely to obtain oral artemisinin-based monotherapies than MCs. The results are an encouraging indication of the positive impact of the country's efforts to tackle falsified antimalarials and artemisinin-based monotherapies. However, poor-quality medicines remain an ongoing challenge that demands sustained political will and investment of human and financial resources

A Repeat Random Survey of the Prevalence of Falsified and Substandard Antimalarials in the Lao PDR: A Change for the Better.

In 2003, a stratified random sample survey was conducted in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) to study the availability and quality of antimalarials in the private sector. In 2012, this survey was repeated to allow a statistically valid analysis of change through time. The counterfeit detection device 3 (CD-3) was used to assess packaging quality in the field and HPLC and mass spectroscopy analysis chemical analysis performed. The availability of oral artesunate monotherapies had significantly decreased from 22.9% (22) of 96 outlets in southern Laos in 2003 to 4.8% (7) of 144 outlets in 2012 (P < 0.0001). All the samples collected in the 2012 survey contained the correct active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in contrast to the 21 (84%) falsified artesunate samples found in the 2003 survey. Although none of the medicines found in 2012 survey had evidence for falsification, 25.4% (37) of the samples were outside the 90-110% pharmacopeial limits of the label claim, suggesting that they were substandard or degraded. Results obtained from this survey show that patients are still exposed to poorly manufactured drugs or to ineffective medicines such as chloroquine. The quality of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) used in Laos needs to be monitored, since falsified ACTs would have devastating consequences in public health

Quality of artemisinin-based combination formulations for malaria treatment: prevalence and risk factors for poor quality medicines in public facilities and private sector drug outlets in Enugu, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Artemisinin-based combination therapies are recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria, yet medication must be of good quality for efficacious treatment. A recent meta-analysis reported 35% (796/2,296) of antimalarial drug samples from 21 Sub-Saharan African countries, purchased from outlets predominantly using convenience sampling, failed chemical content analysis. We used three sampling strategies to purchase artemisinin-containing antimalarials (ACAs) in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria, and compared the resulting quality estimates. METHODS: ACAs were purchased using three sampling approaches--convenience, mystery clients and overt, within a defined area and sampling frame in Enugu metropolis. The active pharmaceutical ingredients were assessed using high-performance liquid chromatography and confirmed by mass spectrometry at three independent laboratories. Results were expressed as percentage of APIs stated on the packaging and used to categorise each sample as acceptable quality, substandard, degraded, or falsified. RESULTS: Content analysis of 3024 samples purchased from 421 outlets using convenience (n=200), mystery (n=1,919) and overt (n=905) approaches, showed overall 90.8% ACAs to be of acceptable quality, 6.8% substandard, 1.3% degraded and 1.2% falsified. Convenience sampling yielded a significantly higher prevalence of poor quality ACAs, but was not evident by the mystery and overt sampling strategies both of which yielded results that were comparable between each other. Artesunate (n=135; 4 falsified) and dihydroartemisinin (n=14) monotherapy tablets, not recommended by WHO, were also identified. CONCLUSION: Randomised sampling identified fewer falsified ACAs than previously reported by convenience approaches. Our findings emphasise the need for specific consideration to be given to sampling frame and sampling approach if representative information on drug quality is to be obtained

Performance Evaluation of the Operational Air Quality Monitor for Water Testing Aboard the International Space Station

Real-time environmental monitoring on ISS is necessary to provide data in a timely fashion and to help ensure astronaut health. Current real-time water TOC monitoring provides high-quality trending information, but compound-specific data is needed. The combination of ETV with the AQM showed that compounds of interest could be liberated from water and analyzed in the same manner as air sampling. Calibration of the AQM using water samples allowed for the quantitative analysis of ISS archival samples. Some calibration issues remain, but the excellent accuracy of DMSD indicates that ETV holds promise for as a sample introduction method for water analysis in spaceflight