Rapid growth and high cloud-forming potential of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol in a thermal power plant plume during COVID lockdown in India

The COVID lockdown presented an interesting opportunity to study the anthropogenic emissions from different sectors under relatively cleaner conditions in India. The complex interplays of power production, industry, and transport could be dissected due to the significantly reduced influence of the latter two emission sources. Here, based on measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity and chemical composition of atmospheric aerosols during the lockdown, we report an episodic event resulting from distinct meteorological conditions. This event was marked by rapid growth and high hygroscopicity of new aerosol particles formed in the SO2 plume from a large coal-fired power plant in Southern India. These sulfate-rich particles had high CCN activity and number concentration, indicating high cloud-forming potential. Examining the sensitivity of CCN properties under relatively clean conditions provides important new clues to delineate the contributions of different anthropogenic emission sectors and further to understand their perturbations of past and future climate forcing

Validity, reliability and prevalence estimates of nomophobia among undergraduate dental students of Bhubaneswar, India

Background. Considered a modern phobia, Nomophobia (NO MObile PHOne PhoBIA) is a term describing irrational fear or anxiety of being unable to access one’s own mobile phone. Objectives. To develop and validate the nomophobia questionnaire, administering it to a sample of adolescents representing undergraduate dental students. To assess the prevalence of Nomophobia, determine the usage pattern of mobile phones and evaluate the impact due to lack of access to mobile phones among undergraduate dental students. Material and method. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 302 undergraduate students of Bhubaneswar through a self-administered questionnaire via Google Forms consisting of 19 items evaluating the pattern and anxiety related to usage of mobile phones. Responses were recorded on a 5-point Likert scale. Kruskal Wallis, Mann-Whitney U and Chisquare tests were used for statistical analysis. Results. Test-Retest reliability showed kappa of k=0.86 and Internal consistency Chronbach’s-Alpha to be α=0.82. Prevalence of nomophobia (score ≥ 58) was 32.1%, and students at risk of being nomophobic (score 39-57) was 61.9%. It was highest in males (32.6%) and amongst the interns (41.9%) and lowest (25.5%) amongst the second-year students. Participants felt nervous/insecure if their phones were away from them because of the fear that somebody might have accessed their data (3.07±1.93) and or tried to contact them (3.09±1.13) which were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusions. The present study confirms that nomophobia is an emerging behavioural addiction among dental students. Adequate prevention strategies would be helpful in reducing the impact of the chronic mobile usage. Effect of the mobile phone on dental students and the fear of not having it with them is increasing elaborately, that needs to be controlled. Otherwise, it would negatively affect their academic achievement and well-being

Cyberchondria among information technology professionals of Bhubaneswar by using cyberchondria severity scale (CSS-15)

Background. Internet can act as an excellent resource for gaining valuable health related information. However, excessive online research and investigation about health-related issues may impose a negative impact. The term cyberchondria is used to describe a clinical condition in which frequent internet searches for health-related information leads to exaggerated anxieties about physical well-being. Objectives. To determine the prevalence of cyberchondria and associated factors among the information technology professionals of Bhubaneswar in India. Materials and methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 243 software professionals in Bhubaneswar using a previously validated Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS-15) questionnaire. Descriptive statistics in terms of number, percentage, mean and standard deviation were presented. Independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance was applied to compare the cyberchondria score between two and more than two independent variables respectively. Results. From 243 individuals 130 (53.5%) were males and 113 (46.5%) were females with mean age 29.82±6.67 years. The prevalence of cyberchondria severity was found to be 46.5%. The mean cyberchondria score of all study subjects was 43.80±10.62. It was significantly higher among those who spend more than 1 hour in the internet during night, feel fear and anxiety in visiting the doctor or dentist, interested in gaining the health-related information from other resources and agreed that gaining health related information has increased after COVID-19 pandemic (p˂0.05). Conclusion. Cyberchondria is a growing issue with regard to mental health in developing countries and has the ability to cause anxiety and distress. Appropriate actions must be taken to prevent it on a societal level

An Improved VGG-19 Network Induced Enhanced Feature Pooling for Precise Moving Object Detection in Complex Video Scenes

Background subtraction is a crucial stage in many visual surveillance systems. The prime objective of any such system is to detect local changes, and the system could be utilized to face many reallife challenges. Most of the existing methods have addressed the problems of moderate and fast-moving object detection. However, very few literature have addressed the issues of slow moving object detection and these methods need further improvement to enhance the efficacy of detection. Hence, within this article, our significant endeavor involved identifying moving objects in challenging videos through an encoder-decoder architectural design, incorporating an enhanced VGG-19 model alongside a feature pooling framework. The proposed algorithm has various folds of novelties: a pre-trained VGG-19 architecture is modified and is used as an encoder with a transfer learning mechanism. The proposed model learns the weights of the improved VGG-19 model by a transfer-learning mechanism which enhances the model’s efficacy. The proposed encoder is designed using a smaller number of layers to extract crucial fine and coarse scale features necessary for detecting the moving objects. The feature pooling framework (FPF) employed is a hybridization of a max-pooling layer, a convolutional layer, and multiple convolutional layers with distinct sampling rates to retain the multi-scale and multi-dimensional features at different scales. The decoder network consists of stacked convolution layers projecting from feature to image space effectively. The developed technique’s efficacy is demonstrated against thirty-six state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. The outcomes acquired by the developed technique are corroborated using subjective as well as objective analysis, which shows superior performance against other SOTA techniques. Additionally, the proposed model demonstrates enhanced accuracy when applied to unseen configurations. Further, the proposed technique (MOD-CVS) attained adequate efficiency for slow, moderate, and fast-moving objects simultaneously

Organic and elemental carbon variation in PM2.5 over megacity Delhi and Bhubaneswar, a semi-urban coastal site in India

This paper presents the effect of meteorology, long-range transport, boundary layer and anthropogenic activities on the chemical composition of aerosol (PM2.5) particularly carbonaceous aerosol (OC, EC TC) in two Indian cities, namely Delhi and Bhubaneswar. The climatological and demographical differences in the two cities have compelled the authors to compare concentrations of atmospheric organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM2.5 at Delhi and Bhubaneswar during winter 2013 (Dec 2012 to Feb 2013). Although, Delhi is a densely populated megacity with several anthropogenic activities, Bhubaneswar is a comparatively less dense small coastal city. The percentage contribution of total carbon (TC) to PM2.5 mass was higher as recorded at Bhubaneswar (similar to 30.38 %) as compared to Delhi (similar to 15 %). Average ratios of OCtot/EC, K+/OCtot and K+/EC were recorded as 1.88 +/- A 0.24, 0.006 +/- A 0.004 and 0.018 +/- A 0.013 at Bhubaneswar, respectively, whereas in Delhi, respective average ratios of OCtot/EC, K+/OCtot and K+/EC were recorded as 1.37 +/- A 0.16, 0.230 +/- A 0.066 and 0.321 +/- A 0.122. OCtot/EC, K+/OCtot, K+/EC ratios and eight carbon fraction analysis of PM2.5 mass revealed the dominant contribution of fossil fuel specifically from coal combustion at Bhubaneswar, whereas vehicular exhaust, fossil fuel combustion along with biomass burning and road dust were the main sources of emission at Delhi. Long-range transport and prevailing meteorology had a major impact on the respective pollutants at Bhubaneswar, and OCtot and EC of PM2.5 mass over Delhi were believed to have originated from local sources due to shallow boundary layer, stable meteorology and high anthropogenic activities during the observation period. Besides, secondary organic carbon (OCsec) contributed 15.76 +/- A 8.41 and 14.65 +/- A 7.46 % to OCtot concentration of Bhubaneswar and Delhi, respectively

Cervical strongyloidiasis in an immunocompetent patient: A clinical surprise

A 32-year-old lady came for a routine gynecological check up. Her cervical cytologic smear was reported as low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion. As a part of basic routine investigation, cervical punch biopsy was done. Astonishingly it revealed multiple rhabditiform larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis. These were curved thick with pointed end and a short buccal cavity. She did not have any history of immunosuppression including steroid therapy and was otherwise normal. Extensive review of the literature on parasites encountered in cervix yielded few case reports on strongyloides in cytologic smears, but failed to reveal any report till date on S. stercoralis found in histopathology section. Our case is probably the first in the world and the first reported from India to the best of our knowledge. We describe this case of strongyloidiasis of cervix with review of the literature on various parasites encountered in the cervix because of its rarity and also to keep this parasitic infestation as a differential diagnosis of cervical lesions

Surging Role of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Refractory ARDS Due COVID-19 and In-depth Review of Existing Applications

Introduction: Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is a device applied to maintain cardiopulmonary support in patients in whom there is a failure of the cardiopulmonary function to maintain perfusion to vital organs. Previously, ECMO was used in pulmonary embolism, cardiogenic shock, myocarditis, and heart failure cases. Its use in refractory acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increased, but the data regarding its safety, efficacy, and mortality benefit remains unclear. The focus of our review is to further expand on these areas and outline the indication, techniques, and complications associated with its use. Methods: We did an extensive search of various databases such as PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect, and Jama Network and studied 41 papers, including free full articles such as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and clinical trials published within the past five years. Results: Implementation of ECMO is advantageous when the PaO2/FiO2 is in the range of 100 to 150 mmHg. For COVID-19 patients, the most appropriate approach is to drain from a femoral venous cannula and thread it to the inferior vena cava just 1-2cm below the cavoatrial junction.  It was seen that the most common complication of ECMO use is coagulopathy. Limb ischemia had a variable incidence from 10 to 70% and is more common in venous-arterial ECMO. Conclusion: ECMO is lifesaving in a highly selected group of patients to prolong survival, reduce complications and provide a good prognosis in terms of mortality. To prevent circuit thrombosis, anticoagulation is key, and understanding feasible intra-atrial communication sites, such as a patent foramen ovale or atrial septal defects, is beneficial to mitigate the risk of stroke and cutting down consequences of thromboembolism

Chemical Characterization and Source Apportionment of Organic Aerosols in the Coastal City of Chennai, India: Impact of Marine Air Masses on Aerosol Chemical Composition and Potential for Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation

Online chemical characterization of NR-PM1 (nonrefractory particulate matter ≤1 μm) has been carried out using an ACSM (Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor) at a coastal urban site in Chennai, India. The average mass concentration of NR-PM1 during the campaign was 30.4 ± 28.3 μg/m3 (arithmetic mean ± standard deviation) with organics accounting for a major fraction of ∼47.4% followed by sulfate (∼33.3%). Back trajectory analysis and STILT model simulations enabled the identification of a relatively clean period with prevailing air masses from ocean. During this period, the average NR-PM1 mass concentration was 7.1 ± 2.8 μg/m3, which is ∼5 times lower than that of the rest of the campaign (with air masses sampled from both continent and ocean) (33.3 ± 29.1 μg/m3). This reduction was primarily attributed to the dilution of local primary emissions due to cleaner marine influx. Comprehensive source apportionment for the organic fraction was performed using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). While equal contributions of primary (∼49%) and secondary (∼51%) organic factors were observed for the rest of the campaign, more oxidized-oxygenated organic aerosol (MO-OOA) factor dominated the OA and accounted for ∼82% of the total OA mass during the clean period. Simultaneously, during the clean period a significant increase in the fraction of organic liquid water was observed. We studied the effect of marine influx on the enhanced secondary organic aerosol (SOA) fraction. In brief, our results demonstrate the significance of marine winds and meteorological conditions on the chemical composition and ambient aerosol mass burden at a coastal site. Further, this study emphasizes that marine influx can cause the dilution in local pollution and can demonstrate distinct chemical composition with impacts on local aerosol properties

Planetary Boundary Layer Height Modulates Aerosol—Water Vapor Interactions During Winter in the Megacity of Delhi

The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is one of the dominant sources of air pollution worldwide. During winter, the variations in planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, driven by a strong radiative thermal inversion, affect the regional air pollution dispersion. To date, measurements of aerosol-water vapor interactions, especially cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity, are limited in the Indian subcontinent, causing large uncertainties in radiative forcing estimates of aerosol-cloud interactions. We present the results of a one-month field campaign (February-March 2018) in the megacity, Delhi, a significant polluter in the IGP. We measured the composition of fine particulate matter (PM1) and size-resolved CCN properties over a wide range of water vapor supersaturations. The analysis includes PBL modeling, backward trajectories, receptor models and fire spots to elucidate the influence of PBL and air mass origins on aerosols. The aerosol properties depended strongly on PBL height and a simple power-law fit could parameterize the observed correlations of PM1 mass, aerosol particle number and CCN number with PBL height, indicating PBL induced changes in aerosol accumulation. The low inorganic mass fractions, low aerosol hygroscopicity and high externally mixed weakly CCN-active particles under low PBL height (urn:x-wiley:2169897X:media:jgrd57510:jgrd57510-math-0001100 m) indicated the influence of PBL on aerosol aging processes. In contrast, aerosol properties did not depend strongly on air mass origins or wind direction, implying that the observed aerosol and CCN are from local emissions. An error function could parameterize the relationship between CCN number and supersaturation throughout the campaign