A Journey through and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indian Setup-Lessons Learnt So Far

World over life was going at its normal pace when an outbreak occurred in Hubei province of China in the later part of the year 2019. This outbreak was soon found to be caused by a virus named coronavirus (COVID-19). Rapidly the virus spread globally leading to a pandemic. The mortality rate was increasing day by day and helplessly everyone was wondering what actually could be done to prevent the spread. Lessons from the past epidemic made it possible to think that maintaining social distancing and adequate hygiene might help to combat the ailment. In India, majorly affected were the people from poor strata and the businessmen who were earning their daily bread by selling things of daily need. The health sector too witnessed an alarming ratio of patients suffering from COVID-19. The second wave, which soon followd the first wave, caused much more havoc. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic, exposed and challanged the health security system of every country. As the danger of pandemic still prevails, steps to curtail the spread of disease and future management strategies should be formulated from the lessons learnt through the COVID-19 phase

Study on association of polymorphism of CYP450 2D6 with head and neck cancer and treatment response in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy paclitaxel, cisplatin, 5fu (TPF) followed by chemoradiation

Background: Aims of this study were to study the association of genetic polymorphism in CYP450 2D6 in patients of locally advanced head and neck cancer, and try to assess a correlation between this polymorphism & response to treatment. Need of the study was to find out a possible genetic level explanation for the different response achieved in patients with similar histopathology, stage, exposure to carcinogen & ethnicity undergoing similar treatment.Methods: A study comprising of 150 patients & 150 controls was done to analyze the association between polymorphs of CYP450 2D6 with head & neck cancer and treatment response (TPFàCTRT). Two cycles of TPF (paclitaxel-175mg/m2 D1, cisplatin 35mg/m2 D2-D3 and 5Fu 1gm/m2 D1-D3) were given followed by radiotherapy with concurrent cisplatin (40 mg/m2).The response to the treatment was assessed clinically, radiologically & by  laryngoscopy-post treatment. Genotyping of the blood samples was done. Analysis of the association between genetic polymorphisms and risk of HNSCC was estimated by calculating crude odds ratio (OR). A P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS software package (version 11.0 for Windows; SPSS Chicago, IL).Results: Patients with CYP 2D6*1 showed good response to the therapy given, while CYP 2D6*4 and *10 were poor responders.Conclusion: There is a strong association of polymorphs of CYP 2D6 with occurrence of head and neck cancer. Response to treatment (TPFàCT-RT) is polymorph graded. Our study thus provides an insight in to the concept of “Right therapy to the right patient”.

Doubling Energy Efficiency at the University of Michigan by 2030

Approximately 84 million Americans spend their days in colleges, universities, and public or private primary and secondary schools.ii The commercial building sector, which includes educational institutions, accounts for 18.44 percent of overall energy consumption in the United States.iii Education buildings are ranked third highest of all commercial buildings, consuming over 600 trillion Btus of energy each year.iv Given these consumption levels, educational institutions have an opportunity to make a significant impact to increase energy efficiency in this country. The University of Michigan (herein, also “the University” or “UM”) has been working diligently to be leaders in this charge. In 2012, the Alliance to Save Energy proposed a goal of doubling energy productivity in the United States by 2030, thereby getting twice as much economic output for every unit of energy input.v This goal inspired Johnson Controls, Inc. (herein, “Johnson Controls” or “JCI”) to approach the University with a Master’s Project, enabling a group of students to learn from the expertise of Johnson Controls, and to be active participants in sustainability efforts at the University of Michigan. Additionally, the findings and recommendations developed to increase energy productivity on campus should likely contribute towards the University’s existing sustainability goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This project seeks to harness the knowledge, technology and best practices honed by Johnson Controls from decades of experience in energy conservation projects, as well as the expertise from the University of Michigan, including various professionals and organizations that actively work towards energy efficiency measures on campus. Leveraging these and other resources, our six graduate student member team (Appendix A) analyzed the University of Michigan’s current energy demand and management. We learned about the extensive work the energy management team has already been doing for several decades in some areas on campus, and about what opportunities there are for improvement. Our master's project team identified several recommendations for furthering the collective energy efficiency performance of the University, as well as recommendations on measures that can be taken in the Samuel T. Dana building (herein, the “Dana building”), which serves as a case study for the project. The key findings and recommendations, both campus-wide and for the Dana building, are detailed here.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117588/3/Doubling Energy Efficiency at the University of Michigan by 2030.pd

FINANCIAL INCLUSION USING PRADHAN MANTRI JAN-DHAN YOJANA -A CONCEPTUAL STUDY

ABSTRACT Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial service

Reduce energy consumption using efficient temperature Control inside building

One of the biggest problems we have in front of us today is climate change. However, this problem can be solved if we can take right steps individually. One of the major steps which can be taken is to reduce energy consumptions in the houses by automatic control of ACs according to users’ comfort which will help in energy consumption. It is observed that a huge difference can be created by using automated temperature control system in respect to energy consumption. This paper contains study of indoor environment of the rooms in 1.8K Hostel and classrooms of Department of Civil Engineering in the Campus of NIT WARANGAL is done to analyse the comfort temperature inside the rooms for the efficient use of energy. Questionnaire survey-based study was adopted for this paper to analyse the range of thermal comfort of the students

Early integration of palliative care in cervical cancer: Experiences from a pilot study

Introduction: Palliative care (PC) has been classically synonymous with end-of-life care offered to patients with advanced incurable cancers with an aim to improve their quality-of-life (QoL). However, there is growing evidence to suggest that early integration of PC (EIPC) along with cancer-directed management improves patient-reported outcomes. In this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of EIPC on QoL of cervical cancer patients treated with curative intent. Material and Methods: Patients with locally advanced cervical cancer (stage IB2 to IIIB) having eastern cooperative oncology group (ECOG) performance score 0–2 were randomized into EIPC arm and standard of care arm of concurrent chemoradiation by a computer-generated table of random numbers. QoL was assessed by functional assessment of cancer therapy – general (FACT-G) questionnaire twice in both arms. The first assessment was done prior to starting treatment and second assessment at three months after treatment completion. The mean scores on physical, mental, emotional, social, and functional well-being subscales of FACT-G scale were calculated in both arms, and Wilcoxon test was used to evaluate differences in QoL scores within and in between the arms. This trial was registered with Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) vide CTRI/2017/05/008704. Results: Fifty patients were enrolled in each arm. However, only 42 and 45 patients in EPIC and standard oncological care arm were evaluated in the final analysis. Comparing QoL scores between the two time points in each arm, the mean pre-treatment scores in EIPC arm was significantly higher than post-treatment scores in the domains of physical and emotional well-being, whereas social and functional well-being scores improved significantly after treatment as compared with that as baseline. However, when compared between two arms, the difference of mean scores pre- and post-treatment were almost similar for physical and functional well-being but statistically significant differences were found only in social and emotional well-being scales. Conclusions: Our study is a feasibility study done in an attempt to test the validity of EIPC in cervical cancers. The results are inspiring to conduct robust studies in the future to explore this new domain of integration of palliative services in curable cancers

A Comprehensive Review on Pharmacotherapeutics of Herbal Bioenhancers

In India, Ayurveda has made a major contribution to the drug discovery process with new means of identifying active compounds. Recent advancement in bioavailability enhancement of drugs by compounds of herbal origin has produced a revolutionary shift in the way of therapeutics. Thus, bibliographic investigation was carried out by analyzing classical text books and peer-reviewed papers, consulting worldwide-accepted scientific databases from last 30 years. Herbal bioenhancers have been shown to enhance bioavailability and bioefficacy of different classes of drugs, such as antibiotics, antituberculosis, antiviral, antifungal, and anticancerous drugs at low doses. They have also improved oral absorption of nutraceuticals like vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and certain herbal compounds. Their mechanism of action is mainly through absorption process, drug metabolism, and action on drug target. This paper clearly indicates that scientific researchers and pharmaceutical industries have to give emphasis on experimental studies to find out novel active principles from such a vast array of unexploited plants having a role as a bioavailability and bioefficacy enhancer. Also, the mechanisms of action by which bioenhancer compounds exert bioenhancing effects remain to be explored