A prospective, single-center study to evaluate the clinical performance of Meril ABFind in individuals vaccinated against COVID-19

Background: Accurate rapid antibody detection kits requiring minimum infrastructure are beneficial in detecting post-vaccination antibodies in large populations. ChAdOx1-nCOV (COVISHIELD) and BBV-152 (Covaxin) vaccines are primarily used in India. Methods: In this single-centre prospective study, performance of Meril ABFind was investigated by comparing with Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant (Abbott Quant), GenScript cPass SARS-CoV-2 neutralization antibody detection kit (GenScript cPass), and COVID Kawach MERILISA (MERILISA) in 62 vaccinated health care workers (HCW) and 40 pre-pandemic samples. Results: In the vaccinated subjects, Meril ABFind kit displayed high sensitivity of 93.3% (CI, 89.83%-96.77%), 94.92% (CI, 91.88%-97.96%), and 90.3% (CI, 86.20%-94.4%) in comparison to Abbott Quant, MERILISA, and GenScript cPass respectively. The results of the Meril ABFind in the COVISHIELD-vaccinated group were excellent with 100% sensitivity in comparison to the other three kits. In the Covaxin-vaccinated group, Meril ABFind displayed sensitivity ranging from 80% to 88.9%. In control samples, there were no false positives detected by Meril ABFind, while Abbott Quant, MERILISA, and GenScript cPass reported 2.5%, 10.0%, and 12.5% false positives, respectively. In the pre-pandemic controls, specificity of Meril ABFind was 100%, Abbott Quant 97.5%, MERILISA 90%, and GenScript cPass 87.5%. Conclusion: The Meril ABFind kit demonstrated satisfactory performance when compared with the three commercially available kits and was the only kit without false positives in the pre-pandemic samples. This makes it a viable option for rapid diagnosis of post vaccination antibodies.

COMPARISON OF ILEAL CONDUIT AND TUUC: A 4 YEARS STUDY

Objective: This study aims to compare 4 years of experience of IC and TUUC in the same period and among similar experienced surgeons. Material & Methods: Between January 2016 and August 2019, 44 radical cystectomies were performed, but 4 patients were excluded due to incomplete data or who underwent neo-bladder procedures. The primary endpoint was 30 days of complication rate and intraoperative complications. Bowel movement, ambulation, and length of stay (LOS) postoperatively were followed-up over a period of 30-day postoperatively. Results: 12 male patients underwent TUUC and 24 male patients IC, while only 4 female patients underwent IC. The mean of LOS of IC was 12.72 8.6 and 10.08 3.5 for TUUC; there were no significant differences between arms. However, TUUC had lower intra-operatively bleeding (779.17 441.15 ml) compared to IC (1328.57 810.40 ml). There was no difference in early complications between arms. Conclusion: Our results suggest that TUU with UC diversion may be used as a viable option of urinary diversion in radical cystectomy. This technique provides similar safety both surgically and oncologically.

A Decade of UAV Docking Stations: A Brief Overview of Mobile and Fixed Landing Platforms

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have advanced rapidly in the last two decades with the advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. It is crucial, however, to design better power supply technologies. In the last decade, lithium polymer and lithium-ion batteries have mainly been used to power multirotor UAVs. Even though batteries have been improved and are constantly being improved, they provide fairly low energy density, which limits multirotors’ UAV flight endurance. This problem is addressed and is being partially solved by using docking stations which provide an aircraft to land safely, charge (or change) the batteries and to take-off as well as being safely stored. This paper focuses on the work carried out in the last decade. Different docking stations are presented with a focus on their movement abilities. Rapid advances in computer vision systems gave birth to precise landing systems. These algorithms are the main reason that docking stations became a viable solution. The authors concluded that the docking station solution to short ranges is a viable option, and numerous extensive studies have been carried out that offer different solutions, but only some types, mainly fixed stations with storage systems, have been implemented and are being used today. This can be seen from the commercially available list of docking stations at the end of this paper. Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of the technologies being developed and implemented, which can offer solutions to a vast number of different problems.

Are Sustainable Aviation Fuels a Viable Option for Decarbonizing Air Transport in Europe? An Environmental and Economic Sustainability Assessment

The use of drop-in capable alternative fuels in aircraft can support the European aviation sector to achieve its goals for sustainable development. They can be a transitional solution in the short and medium term, as their use does not require any structural changes to the aircraft powertrain. However, the production of alternative fuels is often energy-intensive, and some feedstocks are associated with harmful effects on the environment. In addition, alternative fuels are often more expensive to produce than fossil kerosene, which can make their use unattractive. Therefore, this paper analyzes the environmental and economic impacts of four types of alternative fuels compared to fossil kerosene in a well-to-wake perspective. The fuels investigated are sustainable aviation fuels produced by power-to-liquid and biomass-to-liquid pathways. Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing are used as environmental and economic assessment methods. The results of this well-to-wake analysis reveal that the use of sustainable aviation fuels can reduce the environmental impacts of aircraft operations. However, an electricity mix based on renewable energies is needed to achieve significant reductions. In addition, from an economic perspective, the use of fossil kerosene ranks best among the alternatives. A scenario analysis confirms this result and shows that the production of sustainable aviation fuels using an electricity mix based solely on renewable energy can lead to significant reductions in environmental impact, but economic competitiveness remains problematic.

On Secure E-Voting over Blockchain

This article discusses secure methods to conduct e-voting over a blockchain in three different settings: decentralized voting, centralized remote voting, and centralized polling station voting. These settings cover almost all voting scenarios that occur in practice. A proof-of-concept implementation for decentralized voting over Ethereum’s blockchain is presented. This work demonstrates the suitable use of a blockchain not just as a public bulletin board but, more importantly, as a trustworthy computing platform that enforces the correct execution of the voting protocol in a publicly verifiable manner. We also discuss scaling up a blockchain-based voting application for national elections. We show that for national-scale elections the major verifiability problems can be addressed without having to depend on any blockchain. However, a blockchain remains a viable option to realize a public bulletin board, which has the advantage of being a “preventive” measure to stop retrospective changes on previously published records as opposed to a “detective” measure like the use of mirror websites. CCS Concepts: • Security and privacy ;

Design and Transition of an Emergency E-Learning Pathology Course for Medical Students Evaluation of a Novel Course Concept

Background Around the world, medical schools emergency-created countless e-learning offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide instruction despite the pandemic. The question now is how to capitalize on this momentum of digitization and how to harness the medical e-learning content created for the future. We have analyzed the transition of a pathology course to show what needs to be considered during such a transition. Methods In the summer semester of 2020, the pathology course at the Technical University of Munich was completely converted to an asynchronous online course. This content was adapted in winter 2021 and incorporated into a flipped classroom concept in which research skills were trained at the same time. Results Screencasts and lecture recordings were the most popular asynchronous teaching formats. Students reported developing a higher interest in pathology and research through group work. The amount of content was very challenging for some students. Conclusion Flipped classroom formats are a viable option when using the pre-existing contents. We recommend checking the contents for technical and didactic quality and optimizing them if necessary. Content on research skills can be combined very well with clinical teaching content.

Tapping the Role of Microbial Biosurfactants in Pesticide Remediation: An Eco-Friendly Approach for Environmental Sustainability

Pesticides are used indiscriminately all over the world to protect crops from pests and pathogens. If they are used in excess, they contaminate the soil and water bodies and negatively affect human health and the environment. However, bioremediation is the most viable option to deal with these pollutants, but it has certain limitations. Therefore, harnessing the role of microbial biosurfactants in pesticide remediation is a promising approach. Biosurfactants are the amphiphilic compounds that can help to increase the bioavailability of pesticides, and speeds up the bioremediation process. Biosurfactants lower the surface area and interfacial tension of immiscible fluids and boost the solubility and sorption of hydrophobic pesticide contaminants. They have the property of biodegradability, low toxicity, high selectivity, and broad action spectrum under extreme pH, temperature, and salinity conditions, as well as a low critical micelle concentration (CMC). All these factors can augment the process of pesticide remediation. Application of metagenomic and in-silico tools would help by rapidly characterizing pesticide degrading microorganisms at a taxonomic and functional level. A comprehensive review of the literature shows that the role of biosurfactants in the biological remediation of pesticides has received limited attention. Therefore, this article is intended to provide a detailed overview of the role of various biosurfactants in improving pesticide remediation as well as different methods used for the detection of microbial biosurfactants. Additionally, this article covers the role of advanced metagenomics tools in characterizing the biosurfactant producing pesticide degrading microbes from different environments.

Photochemical method for removing methane interference for improved gas analysis

The development of laser spectroscopy has made it possible to measure minute changes in the concentrations of trace gases and their isotopic analogs. These single or even multiply substituted species occur at ratios from percent to below parts per million and contain important information concerning trace gas sources and transformations. Due to their low abundance, minimizing spectral interference from other gases in a mixture is essential. Options including traps and membranes are available to remove many specific impurities. Methods for removing CH4, however, are extremely limited as methane has low reactivity and adsorbs poorly to most materials. Here we demonstrate a novel method for CH4 removal via chlorine-initiated oxidation. Our motivation in developing the technique was to overcome methane interference in measurements of N2O isotopic analogs when using a cavity ring-down spectrometer. We describe the design and validation of a proof-of-concept device and a kinetic model to predict the dependence of the methane removal efficiency on the methane concentration [CH4], chlorine photolysis rate JCl2, chlorine concentration [Cl2] and residence time tR. The model was validated by comparison to experimental data and then used to predict the possible formation of troublesome side products and by-products including CCl4 and HCl. The removal of methane could be maintained with a peak removal efficiency >98 % for ambient levels of methane at a flow rate of 7.5 mL min−1 with [Cl2] at 50 ppm. These tests show that our method is a viable option for continuous methane scrubbing. Additional measures may be needed to avoid complications due to the introduction of Cl2 and formation of HCl. Note that the method will also oxidize most other common volatile organic compounds. The system was tested in combination with a cavity ring-down methane spectrometer, and the developed method was shown to be successful at removing methane interference.

Preliminary Analysis of a Wireless and Wearable Electronic-Textile EASI-Based Electrocardiogram

Background: With cardiovascular disease continuing to be the leading cause of death and the primary reason for hospitalization worldwide, there is an increased burden on healthcare facilities. Electronic-textile (e-textile)-based cardiac monitoring offers a viable option to allow cardiac rehabilitation programs to be conducted outside of the hospital.Objectives: This study aimed to determine whether signals produced by an e-textile ECG monitor with textile electrodes in an EASI configuration are of sufficient quality to be used for cardiac monitoring. Specific objectives were to investigate the effect of the textile electrode characteristics, placement, and condition on signal quality, and finally to compare results to a reference ECG obtained from a current clinical standard the Holter monitor.Methods: ECGs during different body movements (yawning, deep-breathing, coughing, sideways, and up movement) and activities of daily living (sitting, sitting/standing from a chair, and climbing stairs) were collected from a baseline standard of normal healthy adult male using a novel e-textile ECG and a reference Holter monitor. Each movement or activity was recorded for 5 min with 2-min intervals between each recording. Three different textile area electrodes (40, 60, and 70 mm2) and electrode thicknesses (3, 5, and 10 mm) were considered in the experiment. The effect of electrode placement within the EASI configuration was also studied. Different signal quality parameters, including signal to noise ratio, approximate entropy, baseline power signal quality index, and QRS duration and QT intervals, were used to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the textile-based ECG monitor.Results: The overall signal quality from the 70 mm2 textile electrodes was higher compared to the smaller area electrodes. Results showed that the ECGs from 3 and 5 mm textile electrodes showed good quality. Regarding location, placing the “A” and “I” electrodes on the left and right anterior axillary points, respectively, showed higher signal quality compared to the standard EASI electrode placement. Wet textile electrodes showed better signal quality compared to their dry counterparts. When compared to the traditional Holter monitor, there was no significant difference in signal quality, which indicated textile monitoring was as good as current clinical standards (non-inferior).Conclusion: The e-textile EASI ECG monitor could be a viable option for real-time monitoring of cardiac activities. A clinical trial in a larger sample is recommended to validate the results in a clinical population.