Female frontline community healthcare workforce in India during Covid-19

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 million Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), 2.6 million Anganwadi workers (AWWs) and an entire cadre of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) have been at the forefront of the emergency health response system in India. During the pandemic, these three cadres of healthcare workers managed tasks like monitoring and conducting syndromic surveys, disease surveillance, data reporting, public health messaging, delivering essential food and ration services, at the community level. They routinely clocked over 12 hours work days and were on call the rest of the time. Despite being the backbone of India’s public health response, female frontline workers from across the country have reported being underpaid, undervalued, and alienated without any state support or protection. This report explores the role played by ASHAs, AWWs and ANMs during the pandemic, by analysing the information gathered from interviewing 201 frontline health workers across the 3 cadres from ten states. It offers crucial insight into their increased burden of work, economic vulnerabilities brought by reduced income and delayed payments, absence of medical insurance and adequate state support, as well as their consequently deteriorating physical and mental health

A Unified Model for Tracking and Image-Video Detection Has More Power

Objection detection (OD) has been one of the most fundamental tasks in computer vision. Recent developments in deep learning have pushed the performance of image OD to new heights by learning-based, data-driven approaches. On the other hand, video OD remains less explored, mostly due to much more expensive data annotation needs. At the same time, multi-object tracking (MOT) which requires reasoning about track identities and spatio-temporal trajectories, shares similar spirits with video OD. However, most MOT datasets are class-specific (e.g., person-annotated only), which constrains a model's flexibility to perform tracking on other objects. We propose TrIVD (Tracking and Image-Video Detection), the first framework that unifies image OD, video OD, and MOT within one end-to-end model. To handle the discrepancies and semantic overlaps across datasets, TrIVD formulates detection/tracking as grounding and reasons about object categories via visual-text alignments. The unified formulation enables cross-dataset, multi-task training, and thus equips TrIVD with the ability to leverage frame-level features, video-level spatio-temporal relations, as well as track identity associations. With such joint training, we can now extend the knowledge from OD data, that comes with much richer object category annotations, to MOT and achieve zero-shot tracking capability. Experiments demonstrate that TrIVD achieves state-of-the-art performances across all image/video OD and MOT tasks.Comment: (13 pages, 4 figures

Improvised storage of Cassia fistula L. fruit pod with special references to Ayurvedic principles and practices by traditional text: An analytical investigation

317-322Cassia fistula L. (Sanskrit: Aragvadha, family: Caesalpinaceae) is used as a mild laxative in traditional medicine. Ancient texts advocate specific storage of its matured and ripe fruits under a pit filled with sand or soil. The present study was designed to compare the physicochemical, organoleptic and other biochemical parameters of the fruit pulp, stored under usual and specific conditions as mentioned in ancient texts. The sample kept under a pit showed higher total phenolics, flavonoids and anthraquinone levels along with reduced total and reducing sugars. The increased antioxidant activity of the pit-stored sample due to higher total phenolics and flavonoids levels as revealed from the DPPH radical scavenging assay may enhance its medicinal attributes, justifying ancient claim of specific storage of the fruits

Pharmacognostical and phytochemical blueprint of Abroma augusta L. stem bark

271-280Uses of Abroma augusta L. stem and root are mentioned in traditional texts where the presence of the alkaloid, betaine in these parts is known. The study was undertaken to generate a pharmacognostical and phytochemical blueprint of Abroma augusta stem bark and detection of the bioactive alkaloid, betaine in it. Authenticated plant materials were subjected to pharmacognostical, physicochemical, and phytochemical studies. HPTLC, HPLC, and FTIR were used for chemical fingerprinting of the plant materials. Diagnostic features of A. augusta stem bark such as organoleptic evaluation, powder microscopic characters, fluorescence profile with various reagents were established. Phytochemical screening of different solvent extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, saponins, tannins, phenolics, glycosides, but fewer terpenoids, flavonoids, and carbohydrates. This was rationalized by FTIR spectroscopy of the chloroform extract that gave maximum extractive yield. HPTLC and HPLC fingerprint profiling with marker identification was generated. The alkaloid, betaine was isolated and identified by mass spectrum. The botanical and chemical screening suggested that A. augusta stem bark may be a potential substitute for the root or stem of the plant. However, further, bio-evaluations are required to ascertain its possible clinical applications. The generated profile may serve as a reference document in future for identification and authentication of the plant material

Pharmacognostical and phytochemical blueprint of Abroma augusta L. stem bark

Uses of Abroma augusta L. stem and root are mentioned in traditional texts where the presence of the alkaloid, betaine in these parts is known. The study was undertaken to generate a pharmacognostical and phytochemical blueprint of Abroma augusta stem bark and detection of the bioactive alkaloid, betaine in it. Authenticated plant materials were subjected to pharmacognostical, physicochemical, and phytochemical studies. HPTLC, HPLC, and FTIR were used for chemical fingerprinting of the plant materials. Diagnostic features of A. augusta stem bark such as organoleptic evaluation, powder microscopic characters, fluorescence profile with various reagents were established. Phytochemical screening of different solvent extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, saponins, tannins, phenolics, glycosides, but fewer terpenoids, flavonoids, and carbohydrates. This was rationalized by FTIR spectroscopy of the chloroform extract that gave maximum extractive yield. HPTLC and HPLC fingerprint profiling with marker identification was generated. The alkaloid, betaine was isolated and identified by mass spectrum. The botanical and chemical screening suggested that A. augusta stem bark may be a potential substitute for the root or stem of the plant. However, further, bio-evaluations are required to ascertain its possible clinical applications. The generated profile may serve as a reference document in future for identification and authentication of the plant material

Female frontline community healthcare workforce in India during Covid-19

Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 million Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), 2.6 million Anganwadi workers (AWWs) and an entire cadre of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) have been at the forefront of the emergency health response system in India. During the pandemic, these three cadres of healthcare workers managed tasks like monitoring and conducting syndromic surveys, disease surveillance, data reporting, public health messaging, delivering essential food and ration services, at the community level. They routinely clocked over 12 hours work days and were on call the rest of the time. Despite being the backbone of India’s public health response, female frontline workers from across the country have reported being underpaid, undervalued, and alienated without any state support or protection. This report explores the role played by ASHAs, AWWs and ANMs during the pandemic, by analysing the information gathered from interviewing 201 frontline health workers across the 3 cadres from ten states. It offers crucial insight into their increased burden of work, economic vulnerabilities brought by reduced income and delayed payments, absence of medical insurance and adequate state support, as well as their consequently deteriorating physical and mental health

The Testing Database as Pandemic Technology: Reflections on the COVID-19 Response in India

This article examines the COVID-19 response in India, viewing it as deeply enmeshed in the dynamics of the ‘database’ as an emerging technology of governmentality. Databases aim to translate entire populations into units of information abstracted from social identities and local specificities. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, bureaucratic state systems attempt to manage and respond to the health crisis via databases collating testing data across the country. Problematising COVID-19 testing databases, we delve into the logic of database governance. We find that as a tool of governance the database falters in its attempts to compress complex identities and locations into de-contextualised units of information. As the complexity of lived reality interrupts the logic of databasing, state discourse on ‘unintended consequences’, ‘leakages’, ‘duplication’, and ‘reconciliation’ processes in the management of databases abounds and the ambivalence of databases becomes manifest in the COVID-19 response. In this article, we use secondary data to understand how testing databases intervene and interact with complex realities to establish bureaucratic order around a pandemic. We posit that COVID-19 testing databases should be understood as being embedded in emerging database governmentalities that supplant care of the population with the maintenance of databases

Improvised storage of Cassia fistula L. fruit pod with special references to Ayurvedic principles and practices by traditional text: An analytical investigation

Cassia fistula L. (Sanskrit: Aragvadha, family: Caesalpinaceae) is used as a mild laxative in traditional medicine. Ancient texts advocate specific storage of its matured and ripe fruits under a pit filled with sand or soil. The present study was designed to compare the physicochemical, organoleptic and other biochemical parameters of the fruits pulp, stored under usual and specific conditions as mentioned in ancient texts. The sample kept under pit showed higher total phenolics, flavonoids and anthraquinones levels along with reduced total and reducing sugars. The increased antioxidant activity of the pit-stored sample due to higher total phenolics and flavonoids levels as revealed from the DPPH• radical scavenging assay may enhance its medicinal attributes, justifying ancient claim of specific storage of the fruits

Prevalence of afebrile malaria and development of risk-scores for gradation of villages: A study from a hot-spot in Odisha.

INTRODUCTION:Malaria is a public health emergency in India and Odisha. The national malaria elimination programme aims to expedite early identification, treatment and follow-up of malaria cases in hot-spots through a robust health system, besides focusing on efficient vector control. This study, a result of mass screening conducted in a hot-spot in Odisha, aimed to assess prevalence, identify and estimate the risks and develop a management tool for malaria elimination. METHODS:Through a cross-sectional study and using WHO recommended Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT), 13221 individuals were screened. Information about age, gender, education and health practices were collected along with blood sample (5 μl) for malaria testing. Altitude, forestation, availability of a village health worker and distance from secondary health center were captured using panel technique. A multi-level poisson regression model was used to analyze association between risk factors and prevalence of malaria, and to estimate risk scores. RESULTS:The prevalence of malaria was 5.8% and afebrile malaria accounted for 79 percent of all confirmed cases. Higher proportion of Pv infections were afebrile (81%). We found the prevalence to be 1.38 (1.1664-1.6457) times higher in villages where the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) didn't stay; the risk increased by 1.38 (1.0428-1.8272) and 1.92 (1.4428-2.5764) times in mid- and high-altitude tertiles. With regard to forest coverage, villages falling under mid- and highest-tertiles were 2.01 times (1.6194-2.5129) and 2.03 times (1.5477-2.6809), respectively, more likely affected by malaria. Similarly, villages of mid tertile and lowest tertile of education had 1.73 times (1.3392-2.2586) and 2.50 times (2.009-3.1244) higher prevalence of malaria. CONCLUSION:Presence of ASHA worker in villages, altitude, forestation, and education emerged as principal predictors of malaria infection in the study area. An easy-to-use risk-scoring system for ranking villages based on these risk factors could facilitate resource prioritization for malaria elimination

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