Moving from rabies research to rabies control: lessons from India

BACKGROUND: Despite the availability of effective interventions and public recognition of the severity of the problem, rabies continues to suffer neglect by programme planners in India and other low and middle income countries. We investigate whether this state of 'policy impasse' is due to, at least in part, the research community not catering to the information needs of the policy makers. METHODS & FINDINGS: Our objective was to review the research output on rabies from India and examine its alignment with national policy priorities. A systematic literature review of all rabies research articles published from India between 2001 and 2011 was conducted. The distribution of conducted research was compared to the findings of an earlier research prioritization exercise. It was found that a total of 93 research articles were published from India since 2001, out of which 61% consisted of laboratory based studies focussing on rabies virus. Animals were the least studied group, comprising only 8% of the research output. One third of the articles were published in three journals focussing on vaccines and infectious disease epidemiology and the top 4 institutions (2 each from the animal and human health sectors) collectively produced 49% of the national research output. Biomedical research related to development of new interventions dominated the total output as opposed to the identified priority domains of socio-politic-economic research, basic epidemiological research and research to improve existing interventions. CONCLUSION: The paper highlights the gaps between rabies research and policy needs, and makes the case for developing a strategic research agenda that focusses on rabies control as an expected outcome

Recent advances in bioprocess technology-2020

Now-a-days, bioprocesses catalyzed by the whole cells and enzymes in industrial settings are gaining momentum over the traditional chemical synthetic processes. In this context, biotransformations show many advantages, such as one-pot reactions under mild conditions, high stereo- and regioselectivity, environmental friendliness and broad portfolio of substrates (including liquid, solid and gas waste). Nonetheless, some limitations such as the instability of biocatalysts and poor performance under certain reaction conditions, the low solubility of some substrates in the reaction medium, the high production costs due to complex downstream processing and product isolation and the limited knowledge in the microbiology or design of the bioprocesses, often hinder the scale-up of bioprocesses from the laboratory to the manufacturing plant. To develop efficient, sustainable and low-cost processes, both industrial and environmental biotechnology have an increasing demand for novel bioprocesses, capable of overcoming the abovementioned drawbacks. In this sense, the industrial sector demands novel processes using biocatalysts that exhibit a superior activity and stability under a wide range of reaction conditions (often achieved using metabolic engineering), the optimization of feedstock utilization by employing low-cost waste resources, the use of green chemistry solutions that allow the reduction of the use of hazardous solvents and reagents, or the development of cost-competitive biorefinery concepts able to convert industrial waste and byproducts into added value products, thus creating new value chains. This special issue (SI) aims at highlighting the recent advances in Bioprocess Technology. To this end, twenty-eight scientific articles, including experimental and review papers, were compiled in order to show the reader the state-of-the-art and future trends in bioprocess technology in the context of circular economy. These papers have been selected based on the standard peer-review process of the journal and have been classified in six different categories: i) Bioprocess design and circular economy, ii) Biotransformation catalyzed by whole cell or enzymes, iii) Microbial biomass valorization into high-value chemicals and biofuels, iv) The use of renewable carbon and waste resources, v) Novel fermentation strategies, v) Metabolic engineering and vi) New bioprocesses applications. The guest editors would like to thank Prof. Ashok Pandey, Editor-in-Chief of Bioresource Technology who has contributed greatly to the success of this special issue. We also thank to Dr. Adam Fraser (Publishing Editor), Mr. Leonard Daniel (Journal Manager) and Ms. Hannah Zhang (Associate Publishing Content Specialist) for their cooperation in bringing out this SI. Finally, the guest editors would like to thank to all the authors and reviewers for their remarkable contributions, which made possible the publication of this special issue. We hope that the articles published in this Special Issue will be of great interest and value to the readers of Bioresource Technology

N,N′-(Ethane-1,2-diyldi-o-phenyl­ene)bis­(pyridine-2-carboxamide)

The title mol­ecule, C26H22N4O2, is centrosymmetric and adopts an anti conformation. Two intra­molecular hydrogen bonds, viz. amide–pyridine N—H⋯N and phen­yl–amide C—H⋯O, stabilize the trans conformation of the (pyridine-2-carboxamido)­phenyl group about the amide plane. In the crystal, the presence of weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds results in the formation of a three-dimensional network

Applications of the generalized gradient approximation to ferroelectric perovskites

The Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation to the density functional theory is tested with respect to sensitivity to the choice of the value of the parameter $\kappa$, which is associated to the degree of localization of the exchange-correlation hole. A study of structural and dynamical properties of four selected ferroelectric perovskites is presented. The originally proposed value of $\kappa$=0.804 %(best suited for atoms and molecules) works well for some solids, whereas for the ABO$_3$ perovskites it must be decreased in order to predict equilibrium lattice parameters in good agreement with experiments. The effects on the structural instabilities and zone center phonon modes are examined. The need of varying $\kappa$ from one system to another reflects the fact that the localization of the exchange-correlation hole is system dependent, and the sensitivity of the structural properties to its actual value illustrates the necessity of finding a universal function for $\kappa$.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, PRB in pres

English for communication in Bangladesh: baseline research to establish the pre-existing environment for the ‘English in Action’ project

Although Bangladesh is largely monolingual, English is increasingly important for international communication. The English in Action project was established to enhance the use of English as a tool for better access to the world economy. Interventions in three sectors (primary education, secondary education and adult learning) aim to improve the teaching and learning of communicative English over a 9-year period. At the outset of the project a range of baseline studies was undertaken to collect relevant data to develop a detailed representation of the communicative environment for English in Bangladesh. The main focus of this article is formal education contexts. Data collection for these studies involved various methods including interviews, surveys, classroom observations and desk research of existing sources. This article describes the nature of those studies and presents some of the key findings. Together, the studies create a rich picture of the circumstances that bring about a generally low level of competence in communicative English, despite individuals experiencing many years of compulsory study of the subject within formal education

Blockchain-Based Transaction Validation Protocol for a Secure Distributed IoT Network

Funding Agency: 10.13039/501100010418-Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion (IITP), Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT); 10.13039/501100003621-Korea Government;Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) Associated with Plasmodium vivax Infection: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an unusual syndrome characterized by fever, hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenias, hypertriglyceridemia, hypofibrinogenemia, and pathologic findings of hemophagocytosis in the bone marrow and other tissues. HLH may be familial or associated with different types of infections, autoimmune disorders, or malignancies. Infection-associated HLH has been reported in various viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections, and case reports of parasitic infections implicated in HLH include rare cases from Plasmodium vivax infection, which occasionally affects both military personnel and civilians in Korea. We describe an unusual case of HLH resulting from Plasmodium vivax infection and review the literature. This case suggests that clinical suspicion of HLH is important when P. vivax infection is accompanied by cytopenias. Administration of antimalarial drugs may prevent irreversible end organ damage resulting from P. vivax-associated HLH

Retinal Capillary Hemangioma Treated with Verteporfin Photodynamic Therapy and Intravitreal Triamcinolone Acetonide

Purpose: To report a case of retinal capillary hemangioma treated with verteporfin photodynamic therapy combined with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide. Methods: A 15-year-old female presented with metamorphopsia in the left eye for 7 days. Examination showed peripheral endophytic retinal capillary hemangioma, macular edema, and a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/50. The hemangioma and macular edema were treated with verteporfin photodynamic therapy and intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide. Results: After 5 months of follow-up, involution of the hemangioma, reduction of macular edema, decrease of the feeder and draining vessel diameter, and improvement of best-corrected visual acuity to 20/25 was seen. Conclusions: This verteporfin photodynamic therapy combined with intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide appeared to cause involution of the hemangioma with reduction in macular edema and improvement in visual acuity

Influence of Carbon Concentration on the Superconductivity in MgCxNi3

The influence of carbon concentration on the superconductivity (SC) in MgC$_{x}$Ni$_3$ has been investigated by measuring the low temperature specific heat combined with first principles electronic structure calculation. It is found that the specific heat coefficient $\gamma_n=C_{en}/T$ of the superconducting sample ($x\approx1$) in normal state is twice that of the non-superconducting one ($x\approx 0.85$). The comparison of measured $\gamma_n$ and the calculated electronic density of states (DOS) shows that the effective mass renormalization changes remarkably as the carbon concentration changes. The large mass renormalization for the superconducting sample and the low $T_{c}$(7K) indicate that more than one kind of boson mediated electron-electron interactions exist in MgC$_{x}$Ni$_3$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure