The evidence base for rotavirus vaccination in India: Current status, future needs.

Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe diarrheal disease in infants and young children worldwide. Vaccination offers the best protection against this disease, and two rotavirus vaccines were developed in India and included in its routine immunization program. The Government of India's decision to adopt this intervention was supported by a solid base of evidence from clinical trials, as well as substantial research regarding rotavirus disease burden and the potential health and economic value of immunization.

Lot quality assurance sampling for coverage evaluation of a new vaccine: A pilot study.

Background: Worldwide, vaccine-preventable diseases have been a significant cause of mortality in the under-5 age group. To reduce the disease burden, new vaccines are being introduced in every country's immunization programmes. For this to happen, high vaccination coverage is necessary.

Quantum Nonlocality: Multicopy Resource Interconvertibility and Their Asymptotic Inequivalence.

Quantum nonlocality, pioneered in Bell's seminal work and subsequently verified through a series of experiments, has drawn substantial attention due to its practical applications in various protocols. Evaluating and comparing the extent of nonlocality within distinct quantum correlations holds significant practical relevance. Within the resource theoretic framework this can be achieved by assessing the interconversion rate among different nonlocal correlations under free local operations and shared randomness.

Digitizing tools for post introduction evaluation of rotavirus vaccine introduction in India.

Background And Aims: The Rotavirus vaccine (RVV) introduction is a landmark event in the history of Indian public health as for the first time a novel, low-cost indigenous vaccine was introduced in a short timeline between 2016 and 2019. As per WHO mandate, post-introduction evaluation (PIE) be conducted within 6 to 12 months of vaccine introduction to provide an understanding of the operational aspects of the program. For RVV PIE, an innovative approach to developing and deploying a digitized tool was employed.

Benefits of thermal and distance-filtered imaging for wayfinding with prosthetic vision.

Visual prostheses such as the Argus II provide partial vision for individuals with limited or no light perception. However, their effectiveness in daily life situations is limited by scene complexity and variability. We investigated whether additional image processing techniques could improve mobility performance in everyday indoor environments.

Oligourea helix bundle binds detergents with diverse polar head groups.

Here we report a series of crystal structures (and accompanying biophysical data) of an array of diverse detergent guests bound to an oligourea foldamer helix bundle. These results significantly increase our structural and chemical understanding of aqueous guest recognition by oligourea foldamers and will aid the design of further functionalised oligourea-based self-assemblies.

Diagnostic accuracy of RBC scintigraphy and CTA for detection of patients with suspected lower gastrointestinal bleeding: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Detection of lower gastrointestinal bleeding (LGIB) through noninvasive modalities is very important in the successful management of LGIB. RBC scintigraphy and CT have a role in the detection of LGIB and guiding the management of patient by localization of the bleeding site. However, only a small number of studies have evaluated the role of RBC scintigraphy and CT in the diagnosis of LGIB.

Critical factors in the successful expansion of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

India had decided to roll out PCV in India in 2015, but successful implementation of any new vaccine introduction mandates an enormous effort. PCV was scaled up during the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed new, unprecedented challenges in the vaccine rollout. However, India successfully expanded PCV in the country in record time across all states and Union Territories.

Distilling Nonlocality in Quantum Correlations.

Nonlocality, as established by the seminal Bell's theorem, is considered to be the most striking feature of correlations present in spacelike separated events. Its practical application in device independent protocols, such as secure key distribution, randomness certification, etc., demands identification and amplification of such correlations observed in the quantum world.

An exploratory simulation study and prediction model on human brain behavior and activity using an integration of deep neural network and biosensor Rabi antenna.

The plasmonic antenna probe is constructed using a silver rod embedded in a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) ad-drop filter. Rabi antennas are formed when space-time control reaches two levels of system oscillation and can be used as human brain sensor probes. Photonic neural networks are designed using brain-Rabi antenna communication, and transmissions are connected via neurons.

Development of a Choice-framework for Covid vaccines in India using a multi-criteria decision analysis approach.

Background: Vaccines were crucial in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic. As more vaccines receive regulatory approval, stakeholders will be faced with several options and must make an appropriate choice for themselves. We proposed a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework to guide decision-makers in comparing vaccines for the Indian context.

Wrapper-based deep feature optimization for activity recognition in the wearable sensor networks of healthcare systems.

The Human Activity Recognition (HAR) problem leverages pattern recognition to classify physical human activities as they are captured by several sensor modalities. Remote monitoring of an individual's activities has gained importance due to the reduction in travel and physical activities during the pandemic. Research on HAR enables one person to either remotely monitor or recognize another person's activity via the ubiquitous mobile device or by using sensor-based Internet of Things (IoT).

Adaptive Binding of Alkyl Glycosides by Nonpeptidic Helix Bundles in Water: Toward Artificial Glycolipid Binding Proteins.

Amphipathic water-soluble helices formed from synthetic peptides or foldamers are promising building blocks for the creation of self-assembled architectures with non-natural shapes and functions. While rationally designed artificial quaternary structures such as helix bundles have been shown to contain preformed cavities suitable for guest binding, there are no examples of adaptive binding of guest molecules by such assemblies in aqueous conditions. We have previously reported a foldamer 6-helix bundle that contains an internal nonpolar cavity able to bind primary alcohols as guest molecules.

Advances in hybrid peptide-based self-assembly systems and their applications.

Self-assembly of peptides demonstrates a great potential for designing highly ordered, finely tailored supramolecular arrangements enriched with high specificity, improved efficacy and biological activity. Along with natural peptides, hybrid peptide systems composed of natural and chemically diverse unnatural amino acids have been used in various fields, including drug delivery, wound healing, potent inhibition of diseases, and prevention of biomaterial related diseases to name a few. In this review, we provide a brief outline of various methods that have been utilized for obtaining fascinating structures that create an avenue to reproduce a range of functions resulting from these folds.

Eye movements and the perceived location of phosphenes generated by intracranial primary visual cortex stimulation in the blind.

Background: Restoring sight for the blind using electrical stimulation of the visual pathways is feasible but demands an understanding of the spatial mapping of the visual world at the site of targeted stimulation, whether in the retina, thalamus, or cortex. While a visual cortex stimulator can bypass the eye and create visual percepts, there is an inherent dissociation between this stimulation and eye movements. It is unknown whether and how robustly the brain maintains the oculomotor circuitry in patients with bare- or no-light perception.

Glow in the dark: Using a heat-sensitive camera for blind individuals with prosthetic vision.

To date, retinal implants are the only available treatment for blind individuals with retinal degenerations such as retinitis pigmentosa. Argus II is the only visual implant with FDA approval, with more than 300 users worldwide. Argus II stimulation is based on a grayscale image coming from a head-mounted visible-light camera.

Prosthetic Visual Performance Using a Disparity-Based Distance-Filtering System.

Purpose: At present, Argus II is the only retinal prosthesis approved by the US Food and Drug Administration that induces visual percepts in people who are blind from end-stage outer retinal degenerations such as retinitis pigmentosa. It has been shown to work well in sparse, high-contrast settings, but in daily practice visual performance with the device is likely to be hampered by the cognitive load presented by a cluttered real-world environment. In this study, we investigated the effect of a stereo-disparity-based distance-filtering system on four experienced Argus II users for a range of tasks: object localization, depth discrimination, orientation and size discrimination, and people detection and direction of motion.

The use of handheld marker to calibrate a field-programmable gate array based eye tracker for artificial vision system.

Tracking the eye of a blind patient can enhance the usability of an artificial vision system. In systems where the sensing element, i.e.

Improved mobility performance with an artificial vision therapy system using a thermal sensor.

Objective: To evaluate the benefit of integrating thermal imaging into an artificial vision therapy system, the Argus II retinal prosthesis, in simplifying a complex scene and improving mobility performance in the presence of other persons.

Approach: Four Argus II retinal implant users were evaluated on two tasks: to locate and approach target persons in a booth, and to navigate a hallway while avoiding people. They completed the tasks using both the original Argus II system (the 'Argus II camera') and a thermal-integrated Argus II system (the 'thermal camera').

Towards safe operation of an active retinal prosthesis during functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging.

Objective: To determine if the Argus II retinal prosthesis can operate during functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) acquisitions and if currents induced in the prosthesis by imaging are at safe levels.

Materials And Methods: One Argus II retinal prosthesis was modified to enable current measurements during imaging. Active electronics were modified to enable operation during scans.

The effect of waveform asymmetry on perception with epiretinal prostheses.

Objective: Retinal prosthetic implants have helped improve vision in patients blinded by photoreceptor degeneration. Retinal implant users report improvements in light perception and performing visual tasks, but their ability to perceive shapes and letters is limited due to the low precision of retinal activation, which is exacerbated by axonal stimulation and high perceptual thresholds. A previous in vitro study in our lab used calcium imaging to measure the spatial activity of mouse retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in response to electrical stimulation.

Improved localisation and discrimination of heat emitting household objects with the artificial vision therapy system by integration with thermal sensor.

Aim: To demonstrate the potential clinically meaningful benefits of a thermal camera integrated with the Argus II, an artificial vision therapy system, for assisting Argus II users in localising and discriminating heat-emitting objects.

Methods: Seven blind patients implanted with Argus II retinal prosthesis participated in the study. Two tasks were investigated: (1) localising up to three heat-emitting objects by indicating the location of the objects and (2) discriminating a specific heated object out of three presented on a table.

Dietary plant flavonoids in prevention of obesity and diabetes.

Obesity and diabetes are the most prevailing chronic metabolic diseases worldwide from mainly lipid and glucose metabolic dysfunctions and their incidence is increasing at an alarming high rate. Obesity is characterized by excess fat accumulation in WAT and liver and is the central player of insulin resistance in the peripheral tissues from chronic inflammation, lipotoxicity and gut dysbiosis, and plays a key role for development of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and vascular diseases. Diabetes mellitus, known as diabetes, is chiefly characterized by hyperglycaemia from impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance.

Self-Assembly of a β-Peptide Foldamer: The Role of the Surfactant in Three-Dimensional Shape Selection.

The effect of a small ionic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), on the self-assembly of a β-peptide has been systematically studied by using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, selected area electron diffraction, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The latter study suggested that the formation of asymmetric microcrystals may be due to the preferential adsorption of CTAB on {011} and (001) crystal faces. This work provides a plausible rationale for the characteristic 3D morphogenesis of foldectures and elucidates the interaction between the surfactant and organic building block molecules.