A Questionnaire-based Survey on Treatments and Practices of Antibiotics in URTI and Fever of Unknown Origin in India

India is the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world. High antibiotic consumption is linked to the emergence and community spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. It is well-established that antibiotic overuse is one of the leading causes of antibiotic resistance, which is a major global public health challenge. Optimizing antibiotic usage is, thus, an essential issue. Before promoting and defining judicious antibiotic prescribing, it is crucial to analyze practitioners\u27 diagnostic and prescribing practices. Hence, a nationwide retrospective questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 950 Indian doctors. This survey aimed to describe the approaches and practices of Indian doctors towards antibiotic use in upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) and compare practices with national guidelines. These are the most common reasons for primary health care consultations and significantly contribute to the overuse of antibiotics. According to the survey, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid remains the first-line antibiotic for URTI treatment. Third-generation cephalosporins were found to be the most prescribed antibiotics for PUO, uncomplicated typhoid and infections during pregnancy. Our survey results show that most of the clinicians in our study were well aware of the guidelines for antimicrobial use issued by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the nationwide problem of antimicrobial resistance. This study provides an important insight into the prescribing practices of antibiotics among Indian doctors

Factors Affecting Impulse Buying on Online Shopping amongst Youth: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

This article aims to identify the constructs that impacts impulse buying on online shopping amongst youth. The research was conducted based on the response received from 301 responses from the youth population.  The main significant components consist of scarcity, serendipity, e-commerce, social shopping, value shopping and relaxation shopping. Factors were identified from literature survey and exploratory factor analysis was utilized for grouping the variables   under different components. The findings contributed that the six latent variables are significant contributors to the affective impulse buying tendency. This was validated using structural equation modeling approach utilizing AMOS 22.0. This research helps to understand the rising trend of e-commerce in the developing country’s prospective.  It also develops a foundation for future research and significant insights to perceive the impulse buying on online shopping amongst youth

ermectin – A Potent Weapon in the AntiCOVID-19 Armamentarium

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become an earth-shattering menace afflicting the entire globe. With no effective antiviral drugs in sight, the repurposing of many currently available drugs has been considered the mainstay of treatment. One such drug is ivermectin (IVM), a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiparasitic agent that has been shown to exhibit antiviral activity against a broad range of viruses. Ivermectin proposes many potential effects to treat a range of diseases, with its antimicrobial, antiviral and anticancer properties as a wonder drug. Several studies have reported antiviral effects of IVM on RNA viruses such as Zika, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile, Hendra, Newcastle, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, chikungunya, Semliki Forest, Sindbis, Avian influenza A, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Recent studies have suggested that IVM inhibits the replication of (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro, thus suggesting its potential for use against COVID-19. In this review, we describe the mechanism of action, rationale, dosing protocols of IVM in the management and prophylaxis of COVID-19 infection

A TOOL FOR EFFECTIVE DETECTION OF FRAUD IN CREDIT CARD SYSTEM

Due to the rise and rapid growth of E-Commerce, use of credit cards for online purchases has dramatically increased and it caused an explosion in the credit card fraud. Fraud is one of the major ethical issues in the credit card industry. As credit card becomes the most popular mode of payment for both online as well as regular purchase, cases of fraud associated with it are also rising. In real life, fraudulent transactions are scattered with genuine transactions and simple pattern matching techniques are not often sufficient to detect those frauds accurately. Implementation of efficient fraud detection systems has thus become imperative for all credit card issuing banks to minimize their losses. Many modern techniques based on Artificial Intelligence, Data mining, Fuzzy logic, Machine learning, Sequence Alignment, Genetic Programming etc., has evolved in detecting various credit card fraudulent transactions

Ragi Traditional But Nutritional Especially in the Era of COVID-19

Finger millet is the name commonly used to denote the crop Eleusine coracana. It is known as Ragi in many parts of India, which is an important member of the family of cereals. In fact, it is superior to many cereals like wheat and rice in terms of its micronutrient content and bioavailability. Several indigenous processing techniques may be applied to finger millets allowing it to be processed into various value-added products, which may be better in appearance, taste, flavor and acceptability. Development of value-added products that contain Ragi as one of their major components can be beneficial for food and nutrition security of Indians. Ragi may contribute to solving the issue of micronutrient deficiency and nutrition security as it is an important source of micronutrients and can be easily incorporated in various recipes and value-added products. It can therefore be a part of various nutritional programs to enhance the nutritional density of foods

Biological Role of <em>Withania somnifera</em> against Promiscuity of Zinc Oxide Nano Particles and Its Interaction with Macrophages

In agriculture and food industry, nanotechnology can be utilized to improve crop yield, food quality, shelf life, safety, cost and nutritional benefits. Zinc is a trace element and its deficiency causes health problems in human beings and animals. The use of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) is growing exponentially in food industry, biomedicine and nanofertilizer segment. A remarkable presence of nanomaterials in ecosystem and consumer products can cause adverse effects. Hence, it is an important challenge for the use of nanoparticles in agriculture as fertilizer to enhance plant yield on one hand and their interaction with the cells of the innate immune system in animals on the other hand. So, public concern about their potential toxicity is increasing. ZnO NPs interact with cells and produce harmful effects in a dose dependent manner. The reactive oxygen species generation might be a reason for the toxicity of ZnO NPs. The toxicity is caused due to dissolved Zn++ ions by absorption which causes adverse effect on phagocytosis and oxidative stress by free radical while Withania somnifera induced the phagocytosis activity by antioxidant mechanism thus having protective effects. It is emphasized that further research is needed on the use of nanoparticles in agriculture, animal husbandry, and human health sector so that their safer levels for use could be ascertained