Knowledge, attitude, and practices among clinically exposed medical students and interns towards COVID-19 vaccine in a tertiary care hospital, Kanyakumari district: a cross-sectional survey

Background: Several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved against coronavirus disease and its distribution to different countries. The study is mainly done to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice among clinically exposed medical students and interns toward COVID-19 vaccine.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2022 to August 2022 in a tertiary care hospital. Using questionnaires, the knowledge, attitude, and practice among medical students and interns were assessed, and they were then analysed and categorised accordingly. Then the students were given awareness regarding COVID-19 vaccine.Results: The questionnaires were distributed among students and interns, and responses were collected. A total number of participants (n=300), out of which the majority of responders were second-year students 89 (29.6%). Overall, 39.75% had high-grade knowledge, 43.5% had a positive attitude and 37.5% had good practice regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. The results show that 81.2% of interns had high-grade knowledge, 76.6% possess a positive attitude and 71.9% of good practice and preventive measures towards COVID-19 vaccine.Conclusions: Our study concludes that there were certain gaps in knowledge, attitude, and practice among second and third-year medical students when compared with final-year medical students and interns

Study on drug profile used in common pregnancy influenced issues and its complications

Background: Pregnancy influenced issues are common among pregnant women treated by medications that causes complication in mother and fetus. The study aims to identify patients with pregnancy influenced issues like gestational diabetes mellitus, gestational hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux disease and anaemia. To assess the drug used pattern along with antibiotic therapy and to observe the above disease related complications.Methods: A hospital based prospective observational study was conducted at department of obstetrics and gynecology in Rajah Muthiah Medical College and Hospital. Totally 100 patients enrolled and data was collected using data collection form.Results: Out of 100 patients, high prevalence occurred in 26-30 years of age. Primarily gestational hypertension (39%), treated with Tab. Labetatol and complications were premature delivery, low birth weight. Anaemia (25%) cases treated with Tab. Ferrous sulphate, Iron sucrose and Folic Acid, Preterm delivery as complication. Gestational diabetes mellitus (18%) treated with Metformin and Human Insulin and complications were preterm delivery, maternal obesity, increased child weight. GERD (8%) treated with Pantoprazole, Ondansetron, Bifilac and complications were weight loss, dehydration, low birth weight. In pre-operative cases, 79% received antibiotics as monotherapy and 21% as dual therapy. In post-operative cases, 41% received antibiotics as monotherapy and 59% as dual therapy. Metronidazole (95%) given in both post and pre- operative conditions.Conclusions: The present study provides valuable insight about the overall drugs used in pregnancy related diseases and complications arise. We hope our data will make necessary recommendations to all health care professionals and pregnant women to ensure all pregnancy related safety measures were taken

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON THE CORONAVIRUSES OF ANIMALS AND SARS-CoV-2

Coronaviruses (CoVs), classified into four genera, viz., alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and Delta- CoV, represent an important group of diverse transboundary pathogens that can infect a variety of mammalian and avian species including humans, animals, poultry, and non-poultry birds. CoVs primarily infect lung and gut epithelial cells, besides monocytes and macrophages. CoVs have high mutation rates causing changes in host specificity, tissue tropism, and mode of virus excretion and transmissions. The recent CoV zoonoses are SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 that are caused by the transmission of beta-CoVs of bats to humans.  Recently, reverse zoonoses of the COVID-19 virus have been detected in dogs, tigers, and minks. Beta-CoV strains also infect bovine (BCoV) and canine species (CRCoV); both these beta-CoVs might have originated from a common ancestor. Despite the high genetic similarity between BCoV, CRCoV, and HCoV-OC43, these differ in species specificity. Alpha-CoV strains infect canine (CCoV), feline (FIPV), swine (TGEV and PEDV), and humans (HCoV229E and NL63). Six coronavirus species are known to infect and cause disease in pigs, seven in human beings, and two in dogs. The high mutation rate in CoVs is attributed to error-prone 3′-5′ exoribonuclease (NSP 14), and genetic recombination to template shift by the polymerase. The present compilation describes the important features of the CoVs and diseases caused in humans, animals, and birds that are essential in surveillance of diverse pool of CoVs circulating in nature, and monitoring interspecies transmission, zoonoses, and reverse zoonoses

Predicting Treatment Response in Social Anxiety Disorder From Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Context: Current behavioral measures poorly predict treatment outcome in social anxiety disorder (SAD). To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine neuroimaging-based treatment prediction in SAD. Objective: To measure brain activation in patients with SAD as a biomarker to predict subsequent response to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Design: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected prior to CBT intervention. Changes in clinical status were regressed on brain responses and tested for selectivity for social stimuli. Setting: Patients were treated with protocol-based CBT at anxiety disorder programs at Boston University or Massachusetts General Hospital and underwent neuroimaging data collection at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Patients: Thirty-nine medication-free patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for the generalized subtype of SAD. Interventions: Brain responses to angry vs neutral faces or emotional vs neutral scenes were examined with fMRI prior to initiation of CBT. Main Outcome Measures: Whole-brain regression analyses with differential fMRI responses for angry vs neutral faces and changes in Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale score as the treatment outcome measure. Results: Pretreatment responses significantly predicted subsequent treatment outcome of patients selectively for social stimuli and particularly in regions of higher-order visual cortex. Combining the brain measures with information on clinical severity accounted for more than 40% of the variance in treatment response and substantially exceeded predictions based on clinical measures at baseline. Prediction success was unaffected by testing for potential confounding factors such as depression severity at baseline. Conclusions: The results suggest that brain imaging can provide biomarkers that substantially improve predictions for the success of cognitive behavioral interventions and more generally suggest that such biomarkers may offer evidence-based, personalized medicine approaches for optimally selecting among treatment options for a patient

A new view of electrochemistry at highly oriented pyrolytic graphite

Major new insights on electrochemical processes at graphite electrodes are reported, following extensive investigations of two of the most studied redox couples, Fe(CN)64–/3– and Ru(NH3)63+/2+. Experiments have been carried out on five different grades of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) that vary in step-edge height and surface coverage. Significantly, the same electrochemical characteristic is observed on all surfaces, independent of surface quality: initial cyclic voltammetry (CV) is close to reversible on freshly cleaved surfaces (>400 measurements for Fe(CN)64–/3– and >100 for Ru(NH3)63+/2+), in marked contrast to previous studies that have found very slow electron transfer (ET) kinetics, with an interpretation that ET only occurs at step edges. Significantly, high spatial resolution electrochemical imaging with scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, on the highest quality mechanically cleaved HOPG, demonstrates definitively that the pristine basal surface supports fast ET, and that ET is not confined to step edges. However, the history of the HOPG surface strongly influences the electrochemical behavior. Thus, Fe(CN)64–/3– shows markedly diminished ET kinetics with either extended exposure of the HOPG surface to the ambient environment or repeated CV measurements. In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals that the deterioration in apparent ET kinetics is coupled with the deposition of material on the HOPG electrode, while conducting-AFM highlights that, after cleaving, the local surface conductivity of HOPG deteriorates significantly with time. These observations and new insights are not only important for graphite, but have significant implications for electrochemistry at related carbon materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes

Citizen science reveals widespread negative effects of roads on amphibian distributions

Landscape structure is important for shaping the abundance and distribution of amphibians, but prior studies of landscape effects have been species or ecosystem-specific. Using a large-scale, citizen science-generated database, we examined the effects of habitat composition, road disturbance, and habitat split (i.e. the isolation of wetland from forest by intervening land use) on the distribution and richness of frogs and toads in the eastern and central United States. Undergraduates from nine biology and environmental science courses collated occupancy data and characterized landscape structure at 1617 sampling locations from the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. Our analysis revealed that anuran species richness and individual species distributions were consistently constrained by both road density and traffic volume. In contrast, developed land around wetlands had small, or even positive effects on anuran species richness and distributions after controlling for road effects. Effects of upland habitat composition varied among species, and habitat split had only weak effects on species richness or individual species distributions. Mechanisms underlying road effects on amphibians involve direct mortality, behavioral barriers to movement, and reduction in the quality of roadside habitats. Our results suggest that the negative effects of roads on amphibians occur across broad geographic regions, affecting even common species, and they underscore the importance of developing effective strategies to mitigate the impacts of roads on amphibian populations

"If we use the strength of diversity among researchers we can only improve the quality and impact of our research": Issues of equality, diversity, inclusion, and transparency in the process of applying for research funding

This paper sets out the recommendations that have emerged from a six-month-long exploration and discussion of the processes that take place before research is submitted for funding: the ‘pre-award’ environment. Our work concentrated on how this environment is experienced by researchers at all career stages and from a variety of backgrounds, demographics, and disciplines, as well as by research managers and research support professionals. In the later stages of our exploration, representatives from research funders were also involved in the discussions. The primary component of this project was an analysis of pre-award activities and processes at UK universities, using information collated from workshops with researchers and research management and support staff. The findings of this analysis were presented as a workflow diagram, which was then used to surface issues relating to equality, diversity, inclusion, and transparency in context. The workflow diagram and the issues highlighted by it were used to structure discussions at a symposium for a range of research stakeholders, held in Bristol, UK, in January 2023. The recommendations set out in this paper are drawn from discussions that took place at that event. This paper is not an exhaustive landscape analysis, nor a review of existing research and practice in the area of pre-award processes or of recent thinking on the topics of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Instead, it aims to summarise and encapsulate the suggestions put forward by the stakeholders during the symposium. These recommendations, from experienced professionals working in the field, are based on their encounters with the issues raised in the project. They do not solely relate to those working on pre-award processes, but may also apply to funders, policymakers, university leaders, and professional associations, since many of the challenges flagged in our research are systemic and cultural, and reach far beyond the research office

Spinal Cord Atrophy Predicts Progressive Disease in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

Objective A major challenge in multiple sclerosis (MS) research is the understanding of silent progression and Progressive MS. Using a novel method to accurately capture upper cervical cord area from legacy brain MRI scans we aimed to study the role of spinal cord and brain atrophy for silent progression and conversion to secondary progressive disease (SPMS). Methods From a single-center observational study, all RRMS (n = 360) and SPMS (n = 47) patients and 80 matched controls were evaluated. RRMS patient subsets who converted to SPMS (n = 54) or silently progressed (n = 159), respectively, during the 12-year observation period were compared to clinically matched RRMS patients remaining RRMS (n = 54) or stable (n = 147), respectively. From brain MRI, we assessed the value of brain and spinal cord measures to predict silent progression and SPMS conversion. Results Patients who developed SPMS showed faster cord atrophy rates (-2.19%/yr) at least 4 years before conversion compared to their RRMS matches (-0.88%/yr, p < 0.001). Spinal cord atrophy rates decelerated after conversion (-1.63%/yr, p = 0.010) towards those of SPMS patients from study entry (-1.04%). Each 1% faster spinal cord atrophy rate was associated with 69% (p < 0.0001) and 53% (p < 0.0001) shorter time to silent progression and SPMS conversion, respectively. Interpretation Silent progression and conversion to secondary progressive disease are predominantly related to cervical cord atrophy. This atrophy is often present from the earliest disease stages and predicts the speed of silent progression and conversion to Progressive MS. Diagnosis of SPMS is rather a late recognition of this neurodegenerative process than a distinct disease phase. ANN NEUROL 202

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Conjugating his-tagged proteins to magnetic nanoparticles: tips and challenges

Resumen del póster presentado al 5th Multistep Enzyme Catalyzed Processes Congress (MECPC), celebrado online del 13 al 16 de septiembre de 2021.The histidine tag (His-tag) is one of the most used affinity-tag for protein purification due to its small size and versatility. Agarose and sepharose beads containing nitriloacetic acid (NTA) transition metal derivatives are widely used for the purification of His-tagged proteins, thanks to their high affinity to the His-tag genetically fused to the protein of interest [1]. The same chemistry can be used to conjugate enzymes to magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) with the aim of tuning their activity by magnetic heating [2, 3]. Within the frame of the FET-OPEN project HOTZYMES (https://www.hotzymes.eu), different MNPs have been synthetized and coated with polyacrylic acid and dimercaptosuccinic acid, and then were further functionalized with NTA-Cu2+ as His-tag chelating agent. Different proteins were expressed as His-tag variants and immobilized on the MNPs, including monomeric (superfolded GFP), dimeric (C. violaceum transaminase, CvTA; C. uda cellobiose phosphorylase, CuCbP), and tetrameric (B. stearothermophilus alcohol dehydrogenase, ADH) variants. While for the monomeric protein selected as model no difficulties in the bioconjugation processes were observed, when using dimeric or tetrameric enzymes the aggregation of the MNPs occurs very easily due to crosslinking between the nanoparticles. This colloidal destabilization of the MNPs is favored due to its high surface area and the presence of several tags per enzyme molecule. To avoid this situation, different strategies have been developed: saturation of the binding site of the nanoparticles, presence of a small percentage of imidazole in reaction, changes in the incubation conditions (pH, ionic strength, …). First positive results confirm that by playing with different factors it is possible to conjugate different His-tagged enzymes to very different MNPs in terms of size, shape, surface area, and colloidal stability. Actually, it is possible to avoid protein and MNPs aggregation while obtaining good activity yields for the conjugated enzymes and maintaining the magnetic heating capacity of the MNPs.The research for this work has received funding from the European Union (EU) project HOTZYMES (grant agreement n° 829162) under EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme Research and Innovation actions H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01. Authors also thank Spanish MINECO project BIO2017-84246-C2-1-R, DGA and Fondos Feder (Bionanosurf E15_17R).Peer reviewe