The burden of unintentional drowning: Global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

__Background:__ Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related mortality globally. Unintentional drowning (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes W65-74 and ICD9 E910) is one of the 30 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of injury-related mortality in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. This study's objective is to describe unintentional drowning using GBD estimates from 1990 to 2017. __Methods:__ Unintentional drowning from GBD 2017 was estimated for cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs), age, sex, country, region, Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile, and trends from 1990 to 2017. GBD 2017 used standard GBD methods for estimating mortality from drowning. __Results:__ Globally, unintentional drowning mortality decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017, from 531 956 (uncertainty interval (UI): 484 107 to 572 854) to 295 210 (284 493 to 306 187) deaths. Global age-standardised mortality rates decreased 57.4%, from 9.3 (8.5 to 10.0) in 1990 to 4.0 (3.8 to 4.1) per 100 000 per annum in 2017. Unintentional drowning-associated mortality was generally higher in children, males and in low-SDI to middle-SDI countries. China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh accounted for 51.2% of all drowning deaths in 2017. Oceania was the region with the highest rate of age-standardised YLLs in 2017, with 45 434 (40 850 to 50 539) YLLs per 100 000 across both sexes. __Conclusions:__ There has been a decline in global drowning rates. This study shows that the decline was not consistent across countries. The results reinforce the need for continued and improved policy, prevention and research efforts, with a focus on low-and middle-income countries

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Pore-Scale Modelling of Solvent-Based Recovery Processes

A need for a reduction in energy intensity and greenhouse gas emissions of bitumen and heavy oil recovery processes has led to the invention of several methods where mass-transfer-based recovery processes in terms of cold or heated solvent injection are used to reduce bitumen viscosity rather than steam injection. Despite the extensive numerical and experimental investigations, the field results are not always aligned to what is predicted unless several history matches are done. These discrepancies can be explained by investigating the mechanisms involved in mass transfer and corresponding viscosity reduction at the pore level. A two-phase multicomponent pore-scale simulator is developed to be used for realistic porous media simulation. The simulator developed predicts the chamber front velocity and chamber propagation in agreement with 2D experimental data in the literature. The simulator is specifically used for vapor extraction (VAPEX) modelling in a 2D porous medium. It was found that the solvent cannot reach its equilibrium value everywhere in the oleic phase confirming the non-equilibrium phase behavior in VAPEX. The equilibrium assumption is found to be invalid for VAPEX processes even at a small scale. The model developed can be used for further investigation of mass transfer-based processes in porous media

Indirect shoot organogenesis of a valuable medicinal plant Paederia foetida L. using nodal explants

Paederia foetida L. is an important medicinal herb harboring lots of essential drug producing metabolites and the plant has been going to be endangered due to lack of proper strategies for conservation. Since, indirect organogenesis by tissue culture is considered as the valuable tools for rapid multiplication and improvement of plant genetic resources, application of this technique should be very imperative for the conservation of this valuable and rare medicinal plant. Hence, the research effort was made to develop a suitable protocol for indirect organogenesis in-vitro using nodal explants of P. foetida. After surface sterilization, the explants were submitted to MS medium supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators for showing the performance in terms of callus induction, shoot proliferation and root initiation. Among the surface sterilants used, 0.1% HgCl2 treated for 2 minutes and 3% NaOCl treated for 10 minutes showed better performance and maintained 100% and 80% survivability respectively. MS medium supplemented with 2, 4-D at 1.5 mg L-1 showed better performance than others in terms of initiation of callus from nodal explants. In contrast, NAA at 0.5 mg L-1 and BAP 0.2 mg L-1 showed highest rate of callus proliferation with somatic embryos from proliferated callus. During shoot organogenesis, MS medium supplemented with BAP 2 mg L-1 showed better results for the regeneration of shoots from embryogenic calli. The shoots derived from callus produced roots by half strength MS medium supplemented with IAA. After acclimatization, the plantlets were allowed to ambient condition for further establishment. Our findings claim the establishment of a suitable protocol for indirect organogenesis of P. foetida that could be employed for rapid multiplication, conservation and sustainable utilization of P. foetida as valuable genetic resource. [Fundam Appl Agric 2019; 4(2.000): 806-814