The Impact of Pandemic COVID -19 in Workplace

COVID-19 has become a huge worry for the Globe. The social and economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic will be far reaching and devastating for all. In this globally connected world, every country will get impacted by the devastation caused by the pandemic. The COVID-19 is likely to lead to certain permanent or long-lasting. By the time, when the pandemic ends, we will probably see a new world, a new lexicon, a new social norm with far reaching economic and social destruction. When COVID-19 outbreak started spreading across the world, thousands of people started facing severe health issues and death rates increased. The only way to stop the spread of the pandemic was to stop all social and economic activities in the affected countries for indefinite period of time. This led many countries to impose complete lock-down all across the globe which is still going on going on. In such a scenario all business activities, across all industries were completely stopped. The lockdown impacted various sectors in varied degree. For example, the airlines, hospitality, hotel, manufacturing industry is totally stopped and will take a long time to come out of this situation, if at all. Millions of people in these sectors are likely to lose jobs in these sectors. COVID-19 pandemic caused enormous disruption in businesses, which will take years to recover, if at all. The disruption is likely to lead to permanent shut down of many businesses, unable to bear the financial losses and disruptions caused by the pandemic. To get over the current situation, companies are trying to run offices and administration jobs through “Work from Home” mode. Companies are trying to cope up with economic turbulence caused due to COVID 19 through the usage of disruptive technology by working from home concept. Earlier work from home was an acceptable business practice only in IT and Technology sectors. However, other industry sectors were reluctant to adopt WFH as a good business practice. The biggest business change that we can see today, forced by the global spread the pandemic, is that many companies have been forced to implementing Work from Home mode for their employees. During the last 2 months, companies have found significant benefit in the WFH. Most companies, going forward, are looking at WFH as an integral business model. The WFH mode is helping some industries and functions in keeping its operations going, in a limited way. This research paper analyses the positives and negatives aspects of work from home concept as during this COVID-19 crisis, people working on WFH, are compelled to live in social isolation and emotional distancing. One can balance the responsibilities of work-life domains, especially when life domain needs as much attention as to work, during these difficult times. The study has focused on the impact of COVID-19 virus pandemic on working life of employees. This research paper also emphasizes that how employers as well as HR managers are required to think out of the box and bring forth best practices as well as redefining HR roles  during any adversity .This research paper will also give light on few important issues  such as People-Connect , adoption of a system of  Skilling, re-skilling, Up-skilling and multi-skilling people about technology, design thinking, storytelling, analytics, Artificial intelligence  to prepare our workforce to become more competent and talented by enhancing their skill set. Keywords: Work from Home, COVID-19, social distancing, lockdown, people-connect, re-skilling, multi-skilling, up-skilling, technology disruption. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-15-02 Publication date:May 31st 202

Effect of cultivars and fertilizer levels on growth, yield and quality of patchouli [Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth.] under shaded condition

A field experiment was conducted at Bengaluru (Karnataka) to study the influence of culivars (Johore and CIM-shreshtha) and three fertilizer levels [Control (no fertilizers); recommended NPK (200:50:50 kg ha-1) and vermicompost 10 t ha-1 + 50% recommended NPK (100:25:25 kg ha-1)] on growth, herbage and oil yield of patchouli under shaded condition. Results showed that among the cultivars, CIM-shreshtha recorded significantly higher plant height and plant spread than Johore. CIM-shreshtha produced 29.25% and 43.28% higher herbage and oil yield compared to Johore. The application of recommended NPK (200:50:50 kg ha-1) produced maximum herbage and oil yield compared with control and was at par with vermicompost 10 t ha-1 + 50% recommended NPK (100:25:25 kg ha-1). Oil quality was not influenced by cultivar and fertilizer levels. &nbsp

Effect of cultivars and fertilizer levels on growth, yield and quality of patchouli [Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth.] under shaded condition

A field experiment was conducted at Bengaluru (Karnataka) to study the influence of culivars (Johore and CIM-shreshtha) and three fertilizer levels [Control (no fertilizers); recommended NPK (200:50:50 kg ha-1) and vermicompost 10 t ha-1 + 50% recommended NPK (100:25:25 kg ha-1)] on growth, herbage and oil yield of patchouli under shaded condition. Results showed that among the cultivars, CIM-shreshtha recorded significantly higher plant height and plant spread than Johore. CIM-shreshtha produced 29.25% and 43.28% higher herbage and oil yield compared to Johore. The application of recommended NPK (200:50:50 kg ha-1) produced maximum herbage and oil yield compared with control and was at par with vermicompost 10 t ha-1 + 50% recommended NPK (100:25:25 kg ha-1). Oil quality was not influenced by cultivar and fertilizer levels. &nbsp

Antioxidant capacity and combinatorial antimicrobial effects of Nardostachys jatamansi essential oil with conventional antibiotics against some drug resistant bacteria

The antibacterial and antioxidant properties of essential oils (EOs) have long been recognized. The present study was conducted to investigate the antioxidant capability of Nardostachys jatamansi essential oil and to see if it has a synergistic antimicrobial effect with antibiotics against two Gram negative (Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli) and three Gram positive (Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus aureus) bacterial strains. Guaia-6,9-diene (11.96 %), calarene (10.44 %), jatamansone (8.11 %), α-gurjunene (7.42 %), valencene (6.46 %), α-maaliene (5.24 %), sprojatamol (5.06 %), and caratol (5.06 %) were found to be the primary components of N. jatamansi EO. According to antioxidant studies, N. jatamansi EO has moderate DPPH radical scavenging activity, reducing power, and ferric reducing antioxidant power. Similarly, N. jatamansi EO also showed significant antibacterial activity, with inhibition zones, MIC, and MBC values ranging from 10.5 ± 0.5 to 14.0 ± 0.4 mm, 1.5 to 3.1 mg/mL, and 1.8 to 3.5 mg/mL respectively. The results of N. jatamansi EO interactions with conventional antibiotics revealed that amoxicillin, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, and ampicillin MICs were reduced by 5 to 10 fold, 4 to 9.09 fold, 4 to 10.5 fold, and 4 to 8.0 fold, respectively. The findings of this study are noteworthy because no previous reports of N. jatamansi EO's synergistic interaction with conventional antibiotics have been published, and therefore may constitute an important strategy for addressing problem of drug resistant bacteria

Recurrent pyometra and xanthogranulomatous salpingitis: A rare pathologic association in a postmenopausal lady

Xanthogranulomatous inflammation is a rare, non-neoplastic variant of chronic inflammation. Of the 15 reported cases of Xanthogranulomatous endometritis, majority (60%) were accompanied by endometrial carcinoma. We herein report a case of a postmenopausal woman presenting with recurrent pyometra who was suspected to be case of cervical tuberculosis and treated for the same. Inspite of antitubercular therapy, she had cervical stenosis and developed recurrent pyometra over the next 2 years requiring repeated drainage. She then underwent hysterectomy and was found to have co-existent Xanthogranulomatous salpingitis (XGS) on histopathological examination. Xanthogranulomatous inflammation is a rare pathological diagnosis that gynecologists need to be aware of while managing such patients

Chemical Composition, Antibacterial and Combinatorial Effects of the Essential Oils from <i>Cymbopogon</i> spp. and <i>Mentha arvensis</i> with Conventional Antibiotics

This work aimed to evaluate the chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils of Cymbopogon citratus (CCEO), Cymbopogon khasianus (CKEO), and Mentha arvensis (MAEO) against two Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae) and three Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtilis) microbial strains and their combination with antibiotics (chloramphenicol, ampicillin, erythromycin) to observe the synergistic behavior between them. The essential oils (EOs) were investigated by the GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometry) method. The synergistic effect between EOs and antimicrobial agents was analyzed by broth dilution assay. (-)-carvone (52.48%), geraniol (57.66%), and citral (37.83%) were the major components identified in EOs of MAEO, CKEO, and CCEO, respectively. According to the antibacterial activity, EOs demonstrated strong antibacterial activity with MIC values ranging from 0.7 to 18 mg/mL. The interaction between the combination of EOs and antibiotics was determined in terms of FICI (Fractional Inhibitory Concentration Index). Some combinations displayed a partial synergistic effect, and some showed a synergistic and others displayed no effect against bacterial strains. The best synergistic action was shown by the combination of CCEO and Chloramphenicol against E. coli with a FICI value of 0.4. Three to four fold reductions in the MIC value of both essential oil and antibiotics were observed. Therefore, this synergistic interaction of the most active EOs with synthetic antibiotics could lead to new combination therapies for combating infections caused by multidrug-resistant microbes at sufficiently low concentrations in the pharmaceutical and food industry

Nanotechnology-assisted treatment of pharmaceuticals contaminated water

ABSTRACTThe presence of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater due to an increase in industrialization and urbanization is a serious health concern. The demand for diverse types of pharmaceutical compounds is expected to grow as there is continuous improvement in the global human health standards. Discharge of domestic pharmaceutical personal care products and hospital waste has aggravated the burden on wastewater management. Further, the pharmaceutical water is toxic not only to the aquatic organism but also to terrestrial animals coming in contact directly or indirectly. The pharmaceutical wastes can be removed by adsorption and/or degradation approach. Nanoparticles (NPs), such as 2D layers materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and carbonaceous nanomaterials are proven to be more efficient for adsorption and/or degradation of pharmaceutical waste. In addition, inclusion of NPs to form various composites leads to improvement in the waste treatment efficacy to a greater extent. Overall, carbonaceous nanocomposites have advantage in the form of being produced from renewable resources and the nanocomposite material is biodegradable either completely or to a great extent. A comprehensive literature survey on the recent advancement of pharmaceutical wastewater is the focus of the present article

Rigid bronchoscopic management of acute respiratory failure in a 30-year-old woman

A 30-year-old woman presented with a history of progressive shortness of breath, cough, and hoarseness. Stridor was audible on examination. Chest X-ray showed normal lung fields and contrast-enhanced computed tomography thorax showed lower tracheal occlusion with endoluminal growth. Diagnostic flexible bronchoscopy demonstrated multiple whitish glistening nodules over both vocal cords and lower tracheal occlusion by whitish nodular growth. In view of critical central airway obstruction, rigid bronchoscopy and excision of the lower tracheal growth were performed. Histopathological examination of the excised specimen demonstrated features of squamous papillomas. A diagnosis of respiratory papillomatosis was established. On follow-up surveillance bronchoscopy, there was a gradual spontaneous regression of the residual lesions, and the patient remains currently asymptomatic 1 year since the procedure