An Explication of Pandemic Public Health Emergency, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Review

In December 2019 a series of acute atypical respiratory disease occurred in Wuhan, China. The first clusters of cases were identified in association with the South China Seafood Market. In subsequent investigations it was found to be a novel coronavirus. It is suggested to have zoonotic origin. On December 31st 2019, China notified the outbreak to the World Health Organization. During the New Year, the massive migration of Chinese fuelled the epidemic. Cases in other provinces of China and other countries (South Korea, Thailand and Japan in quick succession) were reported in people who were returning from Wuhan. On 11 February, on the basis of existing rules on taxonomy the virus was names as SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the family of coronaviruses. It is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) virus. It has a single linear RNA segment. On the same day WHO announced the new name for the disease i.e. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say it is primarily spread directly due to close contact between people through small droplets produced during coughing, sneezing or talking within a range of about 1-3 meters. It may even transmit through indirect contact via fomites. While there are concerns it may spread by feces, this risk is believed to be low. Soon, the number of cases started increasing exponentially and on March 12, 2020 WHO announced COVID-19 a pandemic. COVID-19 has been impacting a large number of people worldwide, being reported in approximately 200 countries and territories. It was identified that Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) act as a functional receptor for SARS-CoV-2. The pathophysiology of COVID-19 follows sex differences, age differences, race differences in as well as underlying disease conditions i.e. comorbidities aggravated the severity of this disease.  The most common symptoms being reported are fever, dry cough or chest tightness, and dyspnoea. It is now widely recognized that respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 are extremely heterogeneous, ranging from minimal symptoms to significant hypoxia with ARDS. Diagnosis is done with the help of history, clinical signs and serological testing. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) is considered the standard method of testing. Several have been tested in clinical trials but none of them have been proven to be a definite therapy yet. The evolution of the current outbreak has seen extraordinary measures put in place to control transmission, including the ‘shut-down’ and ‘quarantine’. Researchers are trying to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 but at present, no vaccine is available. One should strictly follow all the preventive measures as directed by WHO and CDC and along with this, one should boost up its natural immunity to lessen the chances of getting infection

Gaschromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of degradation of ethylacetoacetate achieved in shake flask culture using a previously characterized yeast strain Tichosporon dermatis.

Public and regulatory interest regarding the presence of pharmaceutically active compounds in the environment its increasing adverse impact has increased in the recent years. Detection of a wide variety of pharmaceutical compounds in water environment has been a serious and growing concern in the last few decades. Understanding the biological degradation of pharmaceutical compounds is essential for accurately determining their ultimate environmental fate, conducting accurate risk assessments, and improving removal of such micro pollutants.  Present investigation was designed to accomplish biodegradation of ethylacetoacetate in shake flask culture using whole cells of previously isolated and identified yeast strain Trichosporon dermatis, from pharmaceutical effluents using enrichment culture technique. The strain was cultivated for two generations on an orbital shaker at 120 rpm at 28 ± 20C and the biomass was separated by centrifugation at 10,000 rpm for 20 mts. Normal saline washed cells were used in degradation carried out in Erlenmeyer flasks containing 500 ml of mineral medium containing ethylacetoacetate at standard conditions; wet cell weight= 20g/l; ethylacetoacetate concentration = 0.5% in mineral medium (w/v); time of biodegradation= 72 hrs; temperature= 28 ± 20C. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of microbially degraded product revealed that complete degradation of ethylacetoacetate in mineral medium was achieved in 72 hours using whole cells of Trichosporon dermatis yeast strain. Degradation of ethylacetoacetate by this yeast strain has not been reported before the present investigation. Keywords: ethyl acetoacetate, biodegradation, Gass chromatography/mass spectrometry and effluents

Multiscale Modelling Of The Stress Singularity At A Mode I Crack Tip

Direct modelling technique is used to study stresses at the tip of a mode I crack where domain of the material microstructure is explicitly discretised and represented by finite elements. Two cases of internal (at crack faces) and external uniform loading are considered. A multiscale asymptotic model accounting for both the external boundaries and the non-singular stresses at the crack tip are used to analyse the numerical results. It is shown that the parameters (coefficients) of the expansion of the stress concentration at the crack tip can be recovered for both cases of loading from the simulated stress distribution ahead of the crack tip. Applicability of this technique is validated by recovering the parameters for a wider range of heterogeneous material properties

Desktop publishing

Information centres (ICs) cater to a multitude of needs of their users. For quite some time now, ICs are depending heavily on information technology to serve their clientele better, faster and in a professional way. Like CD-ROM and video disc technologies, which are being widely accepted as a part of modem information centres, desktop publishing (DTP) also entered the scene with a bang to provide a professional image to the information services. ICs with their diverse nature of functions can make use of DTP as a tool to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of document production in information services. This article briefly overviews various aspects of DTP to provide the user an idea about what it is and where the technology can be used