Author Archives: Sridhar P

What’s India’s future once Coronavirus is contained? Collection of Expert Views

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Now that India is bracing for relaxation of nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, economists and world renowned Indian brains had a discussion on almost all the aspects of Indian life from e-commerce to gold-buying spree to frugal mindset to sanitation consciousness.

Here are some takeaway points:

General Outlook

  1. India seems to have suppressed the curve for long but not now with 1.6 million cases and more than 36,000 deaths so far. It looks like it might escalate further.
  2. Possibility of W Curve –  There is a good chance of re-occurrence of the virus, which could see a possibility of regular lockdowns. Businesses need to plan accordingly.
  3. Capital inflow will look for countries that are less battered. Western economies are badly battered while countries like India, Indonesia, among others are not so battered.
  4. Emotional and Economic backlash against China is expected. Already, countries and companies are working on strategy to pivot away from China as part of their supply chains. Japan has announced packages for it’s companies bringing back manufacturing home. Businesses need to keep this in mind and work accordingly.

Discretionary Spending

  1. For individuals, health and safety will become No.1 on their agenda from the 3rd of 4th place. There will be more spending on this and reduction in other discretionary spending.
  2. The ticket size of spending will drop for a while. People will spend on cheaper goods than on expensive goods, or delay spending for a while.
  3. Extreme acceleration in digital economy — home education, home entertainment, home fitness, etc
  4. Loyalty shock: People will be less loyal towards brands as other aspects will take over. People will switch brands faster due to various other concerns like safety.
  5. General Trust deficit among stakeholders like vendors, customers, employees, borrowers, banks, etc. visible. Banks will have trust deficit with borrowers, companies will have trust deficit with suppliers, and it goes on.

Liquidity and P&L

  1. Segregate Good Costs and Bad Costs
  2. Good costs (Eg. Digitization, tech costs, digital marketing, best employees, etc) need to be insulated and protected
  3. Bad Costs (Eg. Fancy office, unnecessary spending, bad performers, traditional working methods) need to be ruthlessly eliminated. Companies will not entertain or be emotional about non-core businesses.
  4. Be Frugal – Not necessary to have fancy office, fancy cars, excess employee strength, etc. Companies tend to remove all the flab and be lean.
  5. Maintain Good behaviour – Have frank and open conversation with all stakeholders like suppliers, employees, etc and try to find the middle ground, so that the burden can be shared justly.
  6. Be Future Ready – In this crisis, there will be winners and there will be losers. Those who re-orient their strategy will be winners.

Govt Stimulus

  1. Economy was in poor shape even before Covid. The govt has little leeway to provide large stimulus.
  2. Govt earns about $60-70 billion a week from taxes. Imagine what a hit a 5-week lockdown will have. Size of Indian economy is about $3 Trillion. In some scenarios, it is predicted that Govt could take a hit of nearly $1 Trillion.
  3. Inequality has already sharpened. The gap between rich and poor has further increased. Govt needs to concentrate on mass health and mass welfare. If not, 200 million people could sink into poverty.
  4. Govt must explore printing currency (Quantitative easing), but there are limitations here. It has side effects like inflation. Rich countries have more leeway for such quantitative easing.
  5. Govt will focus on more capital from outside.

Result of backlash against China

  1. Internationally, and domestically there is an emotional and economic backlash against China due to border clashes recently.
  2. Businesses with supply chains passing through China will need to insulate themselves and build alternatives.
  3. India and Indian businesses need to try to become the contract manufacturer of the world, just like China is. India needs to make use of this opportunity.
  4. All big wealth funds and sovereign funds will be awash with liquidity. This liquidity needs to be attracted to India.
  5. In every sector, there are good and bad companies. Management has to invest correctly in manufacturing and modern tech, be honest and fair to all stakeholders, etc., Those companies with good management and displaying good behaviour will come out victorious.

Export Business

  1. Indian exporters need to build trust. They need to live up to promises made. They need to deliver on time and deliver the promised quality. They shouldn’t make incorrect promises just to get more business.
  2. Bangladesh export business has built trust and a good reputation. Despite a chequered past (low quality, human rights issues, etc) they have managed to overcome and are winning.

Wholesale, Retail, etc.

  1. More people will prefer to buy from retail stores where there is perception of safety (Eg. Sanitation, cleanliness, crowds, etc). They will move away from malls and mega markets. Many will move towards online stores. Wholesale suppliers also need to concentrate on such retailers.
  2. Customers also need to be ring-fenced.
  3. A high end restaurant in Delhi is giving 40% of bill value as a gift coupon to be used anytime up to December 2020.
  4. Car companies are giving buy back offers, in case the customer loses his job in the next one year.
  5. Pricing needs to be re-approached. People are looking for cheaper prices or cheaper good.

Brick & Mortar in Discretionary Spends

  1. Cinemas could take a big hit in the near future. Entertainment could move to home.
  2. Because of this, cafes and restaurants might see some increase in business. Many chains are implementing measures like social distancing like lesser furniture, etc, to build confidence to consumers.
  3. Smaller retailers need to send a message of safety. Eg: Have sanitisers, put up notice of no Covid positive employee found in the store, maintain social distancing, etc.
  4. Since travel and tourism will take a big hit, connected purchases will also shift. Purchases that happened abroad will happen at home. (Eg. Electronics, Luxury goods and apparel, etc.,). But travel related purchases will drop.

Real Estate

  1. Indian real estate economy is sitting on a huge inventory with a huge cost-of-carry
  2. The industry is highly leveraged with low margins.
  3. Unsold inventory is considered an appreciating asset, but might turn out to be a flawed view.
  4. Market was already overdue for a huge reset, which will be accelerated by the pandemic.
  5. Also, the sharing and co-working space could be hit as more businesses try to have their own smaller spaces and more WFH employees.

Jewellery 

  1. Gold-as-an-asset could see appreciation.
  2. Jewelry, as a discretionary spend, will take a hit.
  3. The Indian wedding industry will take a hit, as social distancing, cost consciousness, travel avoidance, etc., will prevent fat weddings, destination weddings, etc. This will hit all connected industries. (Eg. Silk, partywear, etc)

Financial Markets

  1. There will be value destruction and value creation in different companies in the same sector.
  2. High Debt low margin companies will find it difficult. (indicates risky or unscrupulous management)
  3. High Debt high margin companies could be rewarded, but caution needs to be exercised. (may indicate sharp or dynamic management)
  4. No debt high margin companies are best rewarded now.
  5. Know more about the CEO and management and their actions and activities. (Eg: 3 branches of Starbucks were kept open in India for last few days. The CEO of Starbucks India sat in the Fort (Mumbai) branch throughout the day to give his employees confidence and motivation).
  6. New tech unicorns will be born. Those involved in cyber security, cloud services, online education services, etc.

Forex Markets

  1. No doomsday scenario (i.e. Dollar will become 90 rupees etc). Such scenarios don’t seem realistic
  2. Govt should be buying as much oil as possible, as such prices may never be seen in the future of oil.
  3. As the western economies are more battered and Indian economy too faces same fate, depending on the spread of the disease in India.
  4. Watch out for sharp spikes in the market. Better to avoid the spikes.

Outlook for near future

  1. Large Companies survive.
  2. Huge concern seen for employees. Companies are paying the employees even when closed.
  3. HUL decided not to cut a single rupee for their suppliers, service providers, etc. No haircuts.
  4. Safety of employees and customers is becoming a major point of focus.
  5. This is possible because they have reserves of funds, etc that have been built up over the years.

Medium and Small businesses

  1. They have to work with thin capital reserves. Excess capital is taken out of the business and applied into personal assets.
  2. Small businesses take out the surplus and purchase personal assets instead of re-investing in the business. There are various factors and motivations here.
  3. Because of this, they are unable to meet the cash expenses of even the next month.
  4. A high end restaurant chain in Delhi (with Rs.40 crore annual turnover) is unable to pay the salaries of the current month as it has no liquid reserve. Owner has invested in personal assets like house in London, etc.
  5. Medium and Small business need to have a look at how they can build some business reserves to endure such disruptions.

‘Force Majeure’ in Contracts

  1. Should force majeure clauses be triggerd in various contracts like rent, supply, etc? It will lead to litigation, but there is no point in getting into litigation now.
  2. All parties have been affected by the crisis. The tenants, the landlords, the lenders/financiers, etc.
  3. Parties need to sit across the table and find a common ground and mutually decide upon the costs, rentals, etc. Burden has to be shared.

Work From Home Scenario

  1. It is possible for lot of employees to not visit the office and still be productive.
  2. In one corporate office, it is found that it is enough that only 30% staff stay in the office. Others can be connected from homes. This leads to lesser commute expense, stress of the commute, time wasted, etc.,
  3. Parents can take care of children more effectively while Working From Home. There can be dark hours when no calls will be made.

Optimism

As per a McKinsey survey of entrepreneurs released in May, 53% of Indian entrepreneurs are optimistic, while only 25% of Japanese entrepreneurs are optimistic. Now it’s the equally bad everywhere.

 

French Biriyani Gets Wider Appaluse for Danish Sait

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Amazon Prime Video’s Kannada film French Biriyani recently saw a release on the 24 July 2020 on the platform of Amazon Prime Video. The film stars Danish Sait and has received immense commendations from the audience for the laugh riot it is! The comedy-drama film is sure to leave you with burst of giggles.

“It’s a good feeling that the film has been appreciated and admired”, says Danish Sait about his film ‘French Biriyani’.

Talking about how does he feel about the success of French Biriyani, Danish Sait replied, “I feel very happy and I am glad that our promise to make people laugh has been delivered. I feel like a political party who lives up to the promise. it’s a good feeling that the film has been appreciated and admired. ”

In the Midst of Coronavirus

The actor said further added “In the midst of the pandemic, what can we do except for making people laugh and I am glad that we managed to do that! I am also very honest about the fact that the good will not be taken to the head and I am gonna wake up the next day and work harder.”

When asked if the pressure on the comedian playing a comic role is a lot more than a pressure on an actor playing a comic role, Danish Sait said, “To be honest with you it will be really unfair for one person to take the entire film’s pressure as a film is the sum of its total parts.”

The actor further added, “The only person who really has pressure, whether it is an actor playing a comic role or a comedian playing a comic role, is the director. Yes, when you do comedy, the pressure becomes a bit higher but I do realize with all reviews that I have read in general I believe that people have managed to separate the two.”

Danish continued: “They see a film is a film, the shows that you do on stage are separate and your content is separate. As long as you enjoy what you do, I think the real pressure is on the director and not the actors because then you’re just there in the front. The moment I put pressure on myself I think I am taking myself too seriously and I am not that guy.”

The film is directed by Pannaga Bharana and is produced by Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar and Gurudath A Talwar under the banner of PRK productions. Make sure that you grab a bowl of popcorn and watch giggle-inducing film!

Besides Remdesvir, 20 other drugs can stop Covid-19; Full List

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After screening 12,000 drugs from the library of collections ReFRAME, scientists have isolated 21 drugs for their antiviral activity as effective in providing treatment to Covid-19 patients depending upon dosage and other modifications. The list includes astemizole for allergies and clofazamine for leprosy, and remdesivir, which are already approved by the the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A Nature study authored by a global team of scientists led by Sumit Chanda, professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, has identified these existing drugs that stop the replication of SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus or COVID-19.

The scientists analyzed 12,000 known drugs for their ability to block the replication of SARS-CoV-2, and reported 100 molecules with confirmed antiviral activity in tests and found 21 of these drugs to be effective at concentrations that could be safely given to patients. Moreover, four of these compounds were found to work synergistically with remdesivir, which is now a standard-of-care treatment for COVID-19 patients.

Extensive testing

“Remdesivir has proven successful at shortening the recovery time for patients in the hospital, but the drug doesn’t work for everyone who receives it. That’s not good enough,” says Chanda. “As infection rates continue to rise in America and around the world, the urgency remains to find affordable, effective, and readily available drugs that can complement the use of remdesivir, as well as drugs that could be given prophylactically or at the first sign of infection on an outpatient basis.”

The team conducted extensive testing and validation to evaluate the drugs on human lung biopsies of Covid-19 patients and also evaluated the drugs for synergies with remdesivir, besides monitoring dose-response relationship between the drugs and antiviral activity. Here’s the full list of 21 drugs:

Of the 21 drugs,the scientists found:

  • 13 have previously entered clinical trials and are found effective at concentrations, or doses, that could potentially be safe for COVID-19 patients.
  • Two are already FDA approved — astemizole (allergies), clofazamine (leprosy), while remdesivir has received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA.
  • Four worked synergistically with remdesivir, including the chloroquine derivative hanfangchin A (tetrandrine), an antimalarial drug that is into Phase 3 clinical trials.

 

What’s Next?

The researchers are currently testing all 21 compounds in small animal models and lung organoids that mimic human tissue. Once these studies are favorable, the team hopes to approach the FDA for more clinical trials to test these drugs for COVID-19 patients.

The drugs were identified after screening of more than 12,000 drugs from the ReFRAME drug repurposing collection–the most comprehensive drug repurposing collection of compounds that have been approved by the FDA for other diseases.

Spike Proteins in Coronavirus before and after fusion structures found

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Scientists report two new cryo-EM structures representing the pre-fusion and post-fusion conformations of the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein in coronavirus that is responsible for host cell entry and the spread of infection in human body.

These reconstructions – derived from a full-length, fully wild-type form of the S protein – demonstrate critical differences from previous cryo-EM studies that used engineered, stabilized versions of the S protein, said researchers.

Based on their findings, the authors caution that current vaccine strategies informed by structures of the engineered S protein could be relying on limited and even misleading information about the protein’s natural state.

They say it’s possible that vaccine strategies that employ full-length sequences of the S protein or whole inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (such as PiCoVacc), could spontaneously form the S protein’s postfusion structure, found here to possess several features that could distract the patient’s immune system.

Therefore, these vaccine strategies may require further evaluation, the authors say. Using cryo-EM on full-length SARS-CoV-2 samples in their natural state, Yongfei Cai and colleagues imaged the pre-fusion S protein configuration, a semi-stable state when the protein is poised to fuse with host cell membranes, and the post-fusion conformational configuration, a stable, rigid state achieved when the S protein has gone through a conformational change that would promote viral fusion with a host cell membrane.

They found their prefusion structure differed from previously described prefusion conformations in several ways, including the presence of previously unobserved disulfide bonds. The protein’s spontaneous transition from the prefusion state to the postfusion state occurred independently of whether the spike had interacted with host cell membranes, the researchers also found.

The postfusion structure was strategically “decorated” by N-linked glycans, forming spikes that might play protective roles against host immune responses, such as by inducing nonneutralizing antibody responses or shielding more vulnerable regions of the S protein. In future work, the researchers hope to image a higher-resolution structure of an intact S protein, and also aim to reconstruct regions where host cell membrane fusion occurs.

 

Mysterious 350-ft ‘blue hole’ off Florida reveals huge wealth of undersea life

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Blue holes, or underwater sinkholes similar to sink holes on land, are scattered across Florida’s Gulf continental shelf though vary in size, shape and depth, but most are rich in ecological diversity with  plants and animals. NOAA-supported project has come out with new findings of one such blue hole called Amberjack Hole.

Last year, in May and September, a team of scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory, Florida Atlantic University/Harbor Branch, Georgia Institute of Technology and the U.S. Geological Society, with support from the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, explored one blue hole, dubbed “Amberjack Hole,” approximately 30 miles off west of Sarasota shore.

They deployed divers and a “benthic lander” with scientific instruments collectively weighing more than 270 kilograms (600 pounds into Amberjack Hole, whose bottom extends deeper than 107 meters (350 feet). The team documented life around the rim of the hole and carbon, nutrients, and microscopic life throughout the hole and in its bottom sediments.

The benthic lander was deployed to the bottom of Amberjack Hole to collect data and samples for longer periods than divers can, right where the bottom water meets the sediment. Image courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory

What Can We Learn?

From this “mission,” scientists are hoping to learn whether these submersed sinkholes are connected to Florida’s groundwater or if there is groundwater intrusion into the Gulf of Mexico. If a particular blue hole is secreting nutrients and thus affecting an area’s primary production or whether such microenvironments harbor unique or new species of microbes. If the Amberjack site should become a protected area or not is the next on agenda.

The rim of Amberjack Hole is 34 meters (113 feet) from the surface, and the rest of the hole extends down another 72+ meters (237 feet)! In May 2019, scientific divers traveled to the bottom of Amberjack Hole and deployed a special benthic lander created for this project to s depth where bottom water meets the sediment.

In September, the team returned with 17 water samples from just outside the hole down to the bottom and collected 4 sediment cores at the bottom. Remarkably, they also discovered two dead but intact smalltooth sawfish, Pristis pectinata, an endangered species, at the bottom of the hole. One of the animals was subsequently recovered to undergo a necropsy.

The deceased sawfish were intact enough to be collected for research, and Mote scientists quickly reported the discovery to NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and obtained the required permit for collection of one of the sawfish, a male measuring an impressive 12 feet long. Video courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory.

 

A diver’s view looking up to the opening of Amberjack Hole. Image courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory

Water sampled inside the hole was found to contain naturally occurring isotopes of radium and radon, two markers of groundwater, suggesting that blue holes are not isolated from groundwater and could provide insights into potential groundwater connection between the Floridan Aquifer and the Gulf of Mexico.

Further, in August 2020 and May 2021 a second deeper site, Green Banana, will be explored using the same techniques developed for the Amberjack Hole. The first trip is scheduled for August 2020, and work will continue in 2021.

 

Why WHO Optimistic About Oxford Covid-19 Vaccine? How Others Stack at AZD1222?

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Finally, a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and licensed to the multinational pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca has emerged as the favourite of World Health Organization scientists out of about 23 vaccines in their Phase III trial, after reporting success and safety in the first two phases.

For India, this vaccine is important as AstraZeneca, among others, had entered a deal with Pune-based Serum Institute of India to supply one billion doses for low-and-middle-Income countries, with first 400 million to be produced before the end of 2020. Its other global facilities will produce 300 million doses for the US.

Between April 23-May 21, Oxford University with AstraZeneca conducted human trials of the vaccine – where 1,077 volunteers were given the AZD1222 shot and all of them developed protective neutralizing antibodies as well as T-cells (T lymphocytes) which multiplied to attack any pathogen inside the human system. The participants were aged between 18 and 55 and split roughly 50-50 between male and female. Ninety-one percent of them were white, while roughly 5% were Asian, and fewer than 1% were Black.

While AZD1222 enters the next phase III of the clinical trials, the results published in The Lancet medical journal, show that the Covid-19 vaccine prompted no serious side effects among the people who received two doses so far, which has promted the WHO Chief Scientist Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s health emergencies chief to say: “We now need to move into larger scale, real-world trials, but it is good to see more data, more products moving in to this very important phase of vaccine discovery.” See the video below from 19:30 for WHO remarks on Oxford vaccine:

The next stage — Phase III — trial will be conducted in the US on 30,000 patients, besides those “in low-to-middle income countries including Brazil and South Africa which are already underway,” the university has said in a release.

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, had earlier informed that 8,000 volunteers were enrolled for the Phase III trial which will assess how the vaccine works in a large number of people over the age of 18, and how well the vaccine works to prevent them from the infection. However, it will take a year to conclusively determine if the vaccine offers long-term protection or not.

“There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic… We still do not know how strong an immune response we need to provoke to effectively protect against Sars-Cov-2 infection,” said Gilbert.

Indian Serum Institute Role 

Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said the company was on track to be producing doses by September. While the Oxford University will have intellectual property rights, Pune-based Serum Institute of India will emerge as a major supplier.

The data, published in the medical journal the Lancet, showed that the vaccine caused side effects such as fever, headaches, muscle aches, and injection site reactions, in about 60% of patients, which are deemed mild and not dangerous for any vaccine.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine AZD1222 has finally emerged as a relatively safe vaccine in view of similar results or data from others is still awaited from 22 other contestants who are in Phase III trial. In case its immediate rival vaccine from the Chinese biotech CanSino, the Phase 2 results showed that this vaccine works better in some people and not equally efficient among those aged 55 and older, a key target for Covid-19 vaccination.

Advantages of Oxford vaccine over Moderna vaccine

While the AZD1222 vaccine went on trials from April 30 with a 10,000-patient study in the United Kingdom, another 5,000-patient test began in Brazil in June and the current phase 3 results could become available in September, October, or November, said Astra-Zeneca.

AZD1222 has another advantage as it needs to be kept cold, but not frozen, whereas the messenger RNA vaccines work on the body’s genetic messaging system to provoke an immune response. The mRNA vaccines, developed by Moderna, the German firm BioNTech and the drug giant Pfizer, increased levels of neutralizing antibodies in patients.

WHO Scientist Michael Ryan announcing the Oxford vaccine trial results at a press conference Monday, July 20, 2020 (WHO)

AZD1222 works differently using a genetically engineered virus, called adenovirus, which was taken from chimps and modified not to replicate and sicken people. It carries a gene for one of the proteins in SARS-Cov-2 and inserts it into a recipient’s cells, which in turn, cause the patient’s cells to make that protein, which is then recognized by the immune system as foreign. This mechanism was not there in the past but has been used in experimental vaccines such as the Ebola virus and the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

Oxford vaccine vs CanSino

The next rival CanSino, also into its Phase 3 trial, is a viral vector vaccine that uses a live but weakened human cold virus, adenovirus 5 — known as Ad5 for short — to develop immune system of the body to recognize the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Its focus is on the Ad5 parts of the vaccine rather than the SARS-Cov-2 and many research groups have stopped it over concerns about preexisting immunity, which can run to 70% or higher in some populations.

CanSino Phase 2 trial essentially showed that those who had no or low-level pre-existing immunity to Ad5 developed neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 at roughly double the rate of people who had high-level preexisting immunity, especially in people aged 55 and older. CanSino has dropped the higher dose.

Kathryn Edwards, scientific director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program in Nashville, Tenn., noted the CanSino vaccine may not be protective enough for older adults, but it might be useful in children. However, the CanSino vaccine has already received an emergency license in China for use in the military.

Not China, but Russia announces world’s first Covid-19 vaccine

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Any Covid-19 vaccine? All nations and the entire world humanity was eagerly awaiting the precious announcement from at least one top nation that its scientists have successfully completed clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine.

When expectations were running high that it would be China, where the novel coronavirus had its origin in the city of Wuhan, unexpectedly Russia has announced first to the world that its clinical trials are completed successfully and the vaccine is ready for production.

The Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University is the one which has claimed that it has successfully completed the trails their vaccine has all the “safety of those vaccines that are currently in the market.”

Announcing the news, Vadim Tarasov, the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology of the Unviersity said the clinical trials have been conducted on volunteers, reports Russian news agency Sputnik, adding that the first group of volunteers would be discharged on 15 July and the second on 20 July.

Russian vaccine

The vaccine was produced by Russia’s Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology on June 18. “Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus,” Tarasov said.

“The safety of the vaccine is confirmed. It corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market,” said another scientist Alexander Lukashev, director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases at Sechenov University.

“Sechenov University in a pandemic situation acted not only as an educational institution but also as a scientific and technological research center that is able to participate in the creation of such important and complex products as drugs,” Tarasov said.

Elsewhere, Gilead Sciences, Oxford University’s researchers and American biotech company Moderna are at the forefront of developing a Covid-19 vaccine, while a Canadian and Chinese joint project is equally pushing the date for completion of clinical trials. BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate is expected to be ready by the end of 2020.

Asian tiger mosquito, native to warm climate is now gaining ground in Illinois’s harsh winter

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Researchers report that the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, has become more abundant across Illinois in the last three decades, spreading diseases such as chikungunya or dengue fever, largely confined to Asian warm climate, especially the forests of southeast Asia.

Ever since it found its way to Texas around 1985, it has quickly spread to Illinois, despite its harsh winters, said researchers. “The global trade in used tires facilitates the spread of the mosquito,” said Chris Stone, a medical  the entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and the lead author of the new study. “The eggs get stuck to the walls of the tires and can survive even in dry conditions. Tires are also great at retaining rainwater, which is perfect for the larvae to develop in.”

Stone and his colleagues studied how the mosquitoes were able to spread across Illinois, given how cold the state’s winters can be. In their paper published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, they said the spread of the Asian tiger mosquito in Illinois also is a result of repeated introductions from neighboring counties.

Genetic info to track spread

Rebecca Smith, a professor of pathobiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who led the research with Stone said, “Winters are fairly warm in cities like Chicago because of all the roads and concrete. There are a lot of places like sewers and subways where these mosquitoes can live in the winter.”

The researchers used genetic information to track the spread of the mosquitoes, focusing on mitochondrial DNA, which is abundant in cells. Comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences is an established method for studying the spread of mosquitoes globally.

“We found that there is a surprising diversity of Aedes albopictus in Illinois,” Stone said. “Some were from the Texas population, but a few had previously been found only in Japan. This observation supports the idea that we see multiple introductions of these mosquitoes from different places.”

Asian tiger mosquitoes are good at outcompeting other mosquitoes, which can have both beneficial and harmful effects. Some studies from Florida and Texas where Aedes albopictus has displaced Aedes aegypti, a closely related mosquito known as the yellow fever mosquito that can transmit dengue and yellow fever, prompted the team to focus on the implications of the establishment of the Asian tiger mosquito in Illinois on other mosquito species.

 

 

 

Mice shrinking in size? Not just climate or urban impact but more to it, says study

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According to the controversial Bergmann’s Rule, species tend to be larger in cold climates and smaller in warm ones, which may shrink mice for an instance over a period of time, while humans facing the same prospect is not ruled out.

A new study tested this and published a paper in Scientific Reports, after analyzing 70 years of records of the North American deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, arguably the most common and best-documented mammal in the U.S.

Unexpectedly, researchers found deer mice are generally decreasing in mass over time, but this trend may not be linked to changes in climate, say the scientists but they are surprised to find larger-bodied deer mouse populations getting smaller and smaller-bodied populations are getting larger.

No climate impact

“The most exciting aspect of this study was one that still remains mysterious – deer mice appear to be getting smaller over time, but it doesn’t seem to directly relate to climatic drivers or urbanization,” said co-author Robert Guralnick, curator of bioinformatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “Is this generally true for mammals?”

Body size is an important physical characteristic in warm-blooded animals because it helps maintain the right body temperature and for metabolism and heat transfer. “Even in a small mammal like this, a minor change in body mass could have really important consequences for optimizing those energy balances,” said study co-author Bryan McLean, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a former postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum.

Larger-bodied animals have less body surface – which releases heat – relative to the volume of their bodies, so they may cope with the cold better than their smaller-bodied kin, says the thermodynamic foundation of Bergmann’s Rule. Because body size affects thermoregulation, changes in body size could influence animals’ resilience to climate change.

Sources of study

To examine changes in the deer mouse’s body size in relation to space, time, climate and human population density, Guralnick and his collaborators compiled body length and mass measurements taken by thousands of researchers across the U.S. over seven decades.

Their findings show that deer mice in colder climates tend to be longer and have bigger body mass, consistent with Bergmann’s Rule. As temperature changed over a period, deer mice body mass decreased, which also aligned with the researchers’ hypothesis. As precipitation increased, however, researchers expected an increase in mouse body but they found body mass also decreased.

According to Bergmann’s Rule, mice should be smaller in urban areas to beat the heat but due to huge food and garbage available in cities, mice could grow larger. The data showed that in urban areas, deer mice populations tended to retain the same body mass, but grow shorter in length.

When the team decoupled mouse mass from all of these factors, they still noted a general decrease in mass, hinting that climate and urbanization influence body size in a more complicated way than previously thought.

“Preliminarily, this is very intriguing, but we still don’t know what drives this decrease in mass,” Guralnick said. The team will now turn its attention to analyzing body size across all mammals, he said.

 

Internet for All? SpaceX just launched 60 satellites into space orbit, as part of its Starlink fleet

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On Wednesday, June 3 at 9:25 p.m. EDT, SpaceX launched its eighth Starlink mission aboard Falcon 9, which lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, just days after SpaceX and NASA made history amid coronavirus pandemic last weekend, launching two astronauts into space on board a Falcon 9 rocket to join the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were launched into space on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marking the first time humans have been launched from the US since 2011.

Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission in September 2018, the Iridium-8 mission in January 2019, and two separate Starlink missions in May 2019 and in January 2020. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

On this mission, SpaceX launched the first Starlink satellite with a deployable visor to block sunlight from hitting the brightest spots of the spacecraft. NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre said: “The goal of Starlink is to create a network that will help provide internet services to those who are not yet connected, and to provide reliable and affordable internet across the globe.”

Starlink Satellite

Explaining the Starlink satellite design, SpaceX said on its website that it was driven by the fact that they fly at a very low altitude compared to other commmunication satellites. “We do this to prioritize space traffic safety and to minimize the latency of the signal between the satellite and the users who are getting internet service from it. Because of the low altitude, drag is a major factor in the design.”

During orbit raise, the satellites must minimize their cross-sectional area relative to the wind, otherwise drag will cause them to fall out of orbit. High drag is a double-edged sword—it means that flying the satellites is tricky, but it also means that any satellites that are experiencing problems will de-orbit quickly and safely burn up in the atmosphere. This reduces the amount of orbital debris or “space junk” in orbit.

This low-drag and thrusting flight configuration resembles an open book, where the solar array is laid out flat in front of the vehicle. When Starlink satellites are orbit raising, they roll to a limited extent about the velocity vector for power generation, always keeping the cross sectional area minimized while keeping the antennas facing Earth enough to stay in contact with the ground stations, said SpaceX.

Shark-Fin orientation

When the satellites reach their operational orbit of 550 km, drag is still a factor—so any inoperable satellite will quickly decay—but the altitude control system is able to overcome this drag with the solar array raised above the satellite in a vertical orientation that we call “shark-fin.” This is the orientation in which the satellite spends the majority of its operational life.

A recent study, published in arXiv, researchers led by Stefano Gallozzi, wrote: “Depending on their altitude and surface reflectivity, their contribution to the sky brightness is not negligible for professional ground based observations. With the huge amount of about 50,000 new artificial satellites for telecommunications planned to be launched in Medium and Low Earth Orbit, the mean density of artificial objects will be of >1 satellite for square sky degree; this will inevitably harm professional astronomical images.”

Italian team develops superior AI model for stock trading

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Using the science of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with deep learning – a discipline within artificial intelligence, Italian researchers have developed a system of market forecasting with the potential for greater gains and fewer losses than previous attempts to use AI methods to manage stock portfolios.

The team, led by Prof. Silvio Barra t the University of Cagliari, published its findings in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica. The University of Cagliari-based team set out to create an AI-managed “buy and hold” (B&H) strategy – a system of deciding whether to take one of three possible actions – a long action (buying a stock and selling it before the market closes), a short action (selling a stock, then buying it back before the market closes), and a hold (deciding not to invest in a stock that day).

At the heart of their proposed system is an automated cycle of analyzing layered images generated from current and past market data unlike the older B&H systems, based on machine learning, a discipline that leans heavily on predictions based on past performance.

Just like seasoned investor

By letting their proposed network analyze current data layered over past data, they are able to take market forecasting a step further, allowing for a type of learning that more closely mirrors the intuition of a seasoned investor rather than a robot. Their proposed network can adjust its buy/sell thresholds based on what is happening both in real time and the past. Taking into account present-day factors increases the yield over both random guessing and trading algorithms not capable of real-time learning, they said.

To train their CNN for the experiment, the research team used S&P 500 data from 2009 to 2016. The S&P 500 is widely regarded as a litmus test for the health of the overall global market.

At first, their proposed trading system predicted the market with about 50 percent accuracy, or about accurate enough to break even in a real-world situation. They discovered that short-term outliers, which unexpectedly over- or underperformed, generating a factor they called “randomness.” Realizing this, they added threshold controls, which ended up greatly stabilizing their method.

“The mitigation of randomness yields two simple, but significant consequences,” Prof. Barra said. “When we lose, we tend to lose very little, and when we win, we tend to win considerably.” Howwever, further enhancements will be needed, said Prof. Barra, as other methods of automated trading already in use make markets more and more difficult to predict.

Why Indian-Americans in US have fewer infant sudden deaths? Study Finds Reason

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Indian-American parents have the highest percentage of sleeping with their babies among ethnic groups in New Jersey but the lowest rate of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), found a study recently.

Researchers from the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences attributed this paradoxical finding to a variety of compensatory factors, including Indian-Americans’ practice of placing their infants on their backs to sleep. The study was published in the journal New Jersey Pediatrics.

“Conditions that substantially increase the risk of SUID while bed-sharing include smoking, alcohol use and maternal fatigue,” said lead author Barbara Ostfeld, a professor of pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “Indian-Americans smoke and use alcohol less than other populations. In addition, grandparents tend to be very active in childcare, which reduces maternal fatigue. Apart from bed-sharing, poverty also increases the risk of SUID, and Indian-Americans have higher incomes.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics considers bed-sharing to be a high risk factor in SUID, which includes sudden infant death syndrome, accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, and ill-defined and unknown causes in children under one year old.

“There is strong clinical information on the risks associated with bed-sharing,” Ostfeld said. “Our intent was to discover more about this little-researched demographic breakdown, so we can better understand the risk factors for SUID in all groups and create culturally sensitive health messaging.”

The researchers looked at the mortality rates of 83,000 New Jersey-born infants of Asian-Indian heritage over a 15-year period and safe sleep practices in a sampling of this population. Results showed that 97 percent of the surveyed American-born mothers of Asian-Indian heritage reported using a crib, compared to 69 percent of those who were foreign-born.

Although infants of the foreign-born mothers now residing in the United States had a higher SUID rate compared to infants of U.S.-born mothers of Asian-Indian heritage, for whom no SUID was recorded, the rate was still lower than that of other populations: From 2000 to 2015, infants of foreign-born mothers of Asian-Indian heritage had a SUID rate of 0.14 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 0.4 in white, 0.5 in Hispanic and 1.6 in black populations.

“Our study shows that improved compliance with American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines on supine sleep and avoiding bed-sharing is associated with a lower rate of SUID even in already low-risk groups,” said Ostfeld. “Larger studies are needed to better understand the complex variables that affect risk in sharing a bed with an infant.”

Patient ID, medical records’ matching now helps during vaccination, say experts

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Experts from Regenstrief Institute, Mayo Clinic and the Pew Charitable Trusts have suggested that matching patient records from disparate sources has become crucial to stem the tide of the current coronavirus pandemic and allow for fast action for future outbreaks of highly contagious viruses.

In a peer-reviewed commentary published in npj Digital Medicine, the team of experts said rapid identification of COVID-19 infected and at-risk individuals and the success of future large-scale vaccination efforts in the United States will depend on how effectively an individual’s electronic health data is securely preserved and shared among healthcare providers, including hospitals and pharmacies, and other systems used to track the illness and immunization.

For data sharing to be effective, electronic health records (EHRs) — both those held within a single facility and those in different healthcare organizations — must correctly refer to a specific individual.

Some of the specimen queries are:

Is Billy Jones known at a different doctor’s office as William Jones and are all his health records linked? To which Maria Garcia do lab test results belong?
Which John Smith was referred to during contact tracing?

The commentary note said patient matching rates vary widely, with healthcare facilities failing to link records for the same patient as often as half the time. Authors — Shaun Grannis, vice president for data and analytics at Regenstrief Institute and Regenstrief Professor of Medical Informatics at Indiana University School of Medicine, John D. Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform and Ben Moscovitch, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ health information technology initiative — call for stakeholders to urgently address the patient matching conundrum. Otherwise, efforts to curtail the current pandemic and future ones will be ill-advisedly delayed, they cautioned.

“The sharing of more data and use of standards — reflect near-term opportunities that government and health care organizations can implement to respond to the current pandemic and prepare for future ones. In the longer term, there may be other opportunities — such as use of biometrics, unique identifiers, or multi-factor authentication — that could further enhance patient identification and matching, including for routine care,” they said in their note.

However, those options and the associated standards that underlie their success are worthwhile to examine, but cannot be designed, deployed, and implemented in a near-term manner that could help mitigate the effects of this pandemic, said the authors.

No Dark Matter, astronomers find the long missing Universe’s ordinary matter

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Astronomers have detected much of the Universe’s ordinary matter, which had long been missing from accounts of its total mass. Not ‘dark matter’ — the mysterious, invisible stuff that makes up the majority of the Universe’s contents. This is normal matter, but it’s spread so sparsely across intergalactic space that more than three-quarters of it is almost undetectable.

Using an array of 36 radio telescopes in remote Western Australia, researchers analysed the light from 6 fast radio bursts (FRBs), unusually energetic events that last just milliseconds and originate in other galaxies. The spectrum was sensitive enough to reveal the exceedingly thin matter that the FRBs met in their travels. “The missing matter was equivalent to only one or two atoms in a room the size of an average office,” says radio astronomer Jean-Pierre Macquart.

More than three-quarters of the baryonic content of the Universe resides in a highly diffuse state that is difficult to detect, with only a small fraction directly observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters. Censuses of the nearby Universe have used absorption line spectroscopy to observe the ‘invisible’ baryons, but these measurements rely on large and uncertain corrections and are insensitive to most of the Universe’s volume and probably most of its mass.

Universe’s invisible baryons

In particular, quasar spectroscopy is sensitive either to the very small amounts of hydrogen that exist in the atomic state, or to highly ionized and enriched gas in denser regions near galaxies. Other techniques to observe these invisible baryons also have limitations — Sunyaev–Zel’dovich analyses can provide evidence from gas within filamentary structures, and studies of X-ray emission are most sensitive to gas near galaxy clusters.

The scientists said a measurement of the baryon content of the Universe using the dispersion of a sample of localized fast radio bursts; this technique determines the electron column density along each line of sight and accounts for every ionized baryon.

“We augment the sample of reported arcsecond-localized fast radio bursts with four new localizations in host galaxies that have measured redshifts of 0.291, 0.118, 0.378 and 0.522. This completes a sample sufficiently large to account for dispersion variations along the lines of sight and in the host-galaxy environments, and we derive a cosmic baryon density of Ωb=0.051+0.021−0.025h−170 (95 per cent confidence; h70 = H0/(70 km s−1 Mpc−1) and H0 is Hubble’s constant,” wrote scientists in their paper published in Nature.

This independent measurement is consistent with values derived from the cosmic microwave background and from Big Bang nucleosynthesis, they wrote in their abstract.

Neanderthal gene in modern women helps give birth to more children, says study

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A new study said one in three women in Europe who inherited genes from the ancient homosapiens — Neanderthals — tend to give birth to more children as they produce more progesterone receptors in their cells, which may lead to increased sensitivity to progesterone and protection against early miscarriages and bleeding.
The study, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, is based on analyses of biobank data from more than 450,000 participants – among them 244,000 women.
The findings showed that almost one in three women in Europe have inherited the progesterone receptor from Neandertals, while 29 percent carry one copy of the Neandertal receptor and three percent have two copies. Progesterone is a hormone, which plays an important role in the menstrual cycle and in pregnancy. It helps in preparing the uterine lining for egg implantation and in maintaining the early stages of pregnancy.
Modern Humans
The present-day carriers of the Neandertal haplotypes express higher levels of the receptor. In a cohort of present-day Britons, these carriers have more siblings, fewer miscarriages and less bleeding during early pregnancy suggesting that it promotes fertility  and this may explain the high frequency of the Neandertal progesterone receptor alleles in modern human populations.

 “The progesterone receptor is an example of how favourable genetic variants that were introduced into modern humans by mixing with Neanderthals can have effects in people living today,” says Hugo Zeberg, researcher at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who performed the study with colleagues Janet Kelso and Svante Pääbo.

Neanderthals in a cave /Searchmap.eu

“The proportion of women who inherited this gene is about ten times greater than for most Neanderthal gene variants,” says Hugo Zeberg. “These findings suggest that the Neanderthal variant of the receptor has a favourable effect on fertility.”

Genomic Evidence from Past Studies

It’s thought that the Neanderthals and modern humans encountered in ancient periods and had sexual rendezvous, according to genomic evidence from past studies. Scientists believe that Western Asia is the most likely spot where it happened, said a 2017 study that analyzed the genetic material of people living in the region today, identifying DNA sequences inherited from Neanderthals.

“As far as human history goes, this area was the stepping stone for the peopling of all of Eurasia,” said Omer Gokcumen of biological sciences in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. “This is where humans first settled when they left Africa. It may be where they first met Neanderthals. From the standpoint of genetics, it’s a very interesting region.”

The scientists analyzed 16 genomes belonging to people of Turkish descent. For example, one DNA sequence that originated from Neanderthals includes a genetic variant linked to celiac disease. Another includes a variant tied to a lowered risk for malaria. The bottom line is that Neanderthals tens of thousands of years ago may continue to exert an influence on our well-being today, Gokcumen says.

India health minster Harsh Vardhan takes charge as WHO Board Chiarman

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As coronavirus has given the World Health organization enough explanations to do amid massive criticism for its delayed response initially, India’s Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan joined the world body as its board chairman on Friday, at its 147th session, taking over charge from Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan.

He said, “I feel privileged to take charge as Chairman of the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board at its 147th session held virtually.I believe that health is central to economic performance and to enhancing human capabilities.”

The WHO has a 34-member WHO Executive Board, one of the two boards WHO has — the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board. The WHO headquarters is located at Geneva in Switzerland. The UN specialised agency for international public health, is currently at the forefront of fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic.

India comes under its South East Asia Region’s members and was elected last year unanimously to the executive board for a three-year term beginning May. The WHO board has 34 members technically qualified in the field of health,each elected for three-year term, while the Health Assembly is the WHO’s decision-making body with 194 Member States.

The Board chairman’s post is held by rotation for one year by each of the WHO’s six regional groups: African Region, Region of the Americas, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Western Pacific Region. The Board is the executive organ of the WHO and implements decisions and policies of the Health Assembly.

Amid Coronavirus, Pulitzer-winning ‘Vulture & the Little Girl’ photo makes rounds for wrong reasons

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See the heart-wrenching picture above titled “The vulture & the Little Girl’ that was taken in 1993 and went on to win a Pulitzer Award for the famous photographer Kevin Carter of South Africa.

In the picture, a vulture is waiting for the death of a hungry little girl and Carter, a photojournalist, captured it in March 1993, when famine killed many children and elders in Sudan. He was awarded the “Pulitzer Prize” for it but Carter committed suicide soon after receiving the Award, at the age of 33, despite receiving worldwide recognition and applaud for his stunning photo.

But he never realised that the same photo would drive him to suicide.

When he was busy celebrating the great honor at the time of his receiving the award and the photo was being shown on many TV channels all over the world.

Someone asked in a phone interview as to what happened to the girl in the end?

Carter replied that he could not stay there for long as he was in a hurry to catch his flight.

“How many vultures were there?” He was asked again.

“I think there was one,” Carter said.

The man on the other end of the phone said, “I’m saying there were two vultures that day, one of them with a camera.”

Realising the significance of his words, Carter was obviously upset and eventually committed suicide.

Carter forgot the basic human instinct to help the ‘girl’ save from death. All he could have done was to take the starving baby to the United Mission’s feeding center, which was only half-a-mile away. The baby might have been trying to reach the center and a lending hand would have saved her for life time.

Sold to The New York Times, the photograph first appeared on 26 March 1993, and the paper said that according to Carter, “she recovered enough to resume her trek after the vulture was chased away” but that it was unknown whether she reached the UN food center.” Next year, the photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

In 2011, the child’s father revealed the child was actually a boy, Kong Nyong, and he had reached the UN food aid station. The boy survivied the vulture but died of fever in 2007, reported El Mundo quoting the family. The reporter described the boy as girl and received Pulitzer but failed to take the boy to the nearest aid station. If he had, he would have realised that it was a boy.

Coronavirus and Prey Culture

Today, almost 26 years after, many TV channels have been highlighting the plight of migrant workers and the plight of their children and even infants. But the twist is that the picture of Carter has been used to pronounce that those with cameras in their hands, busy taking pictures of workers walking thousands of kilometres, are similar to such vultures. Had it not been for these visuals, the governments today would not have moved to help them.

“Kevin Carter had self-esteem, so he committed suicide, but the vultures named after this journalist are busy making breaking news with dignity,” writes one circulating the message on WhatsApp.

Yes, these news gatherers get incentives from the government in the form of perks such as early coronavirus testing facilities but the numbers are not one but millions of them. No one reporter could have saved them the way Carter would have done so. With TV exposure, the migrant labourers and their children could not have been saved in India. Criticizing the whistleblower is also against humanity.

 

Amphan Cyclone wreaks havoc in West Bengal and Bangladesh, 14 dead

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Cyclone Amphan from the Bay of Bengal wreaked havoc on eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and destroying thousands of homes, with officials struggling to evacuate and provide relief amid a surging coronavirus outbreak.

The populous Indian state of West Bengal took the brunt of Cyclone Amphan, with gusting winds of up to 185 km per hour (115 mph) and a storm surge of around five metres. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at least 10 people had died in the state, and two districts been completely battered.

“Area after area has been devastated. Communications are disrupted,” Banerjee said, adding that although 500,000 people had been evacuated, state authorities had not entirely anticipated the ferocity of the storm.“We are facing greater damage and devastation than the CoVID-19,” she said as the disease has so far killed 250 people in the state.

With rains continuing, the hardest hits areas were not immediately accessible, while the Centre asked the National Disaster Relief Force to move in and promised that they could make a proper assessment of the destruction on Thursday morning.

2.4 million Evacuated in Bangladesh

In neighbouring Bangladesh, at least four people were killed, reported Reuters quoting officials. Around 2.4 million people have been shifted to more than 15,000 storm shelters this week and Bangladeshi officials also said they had moved hundreds of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, living on a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, to shelter.

But officials said they feared that standing crops could be damaged and large tracts of fertile land in the densely-populated country washed away. “Fortunately, the harvesting of the rice crop has almost been completed. Still it could leave a trail of destruction,” said Mizanur Rahman Khan, a senior official in the Bangladesh agriculture ministry.

Cyclones frequently batter parts of eastern India and Bangladesh between April and December, often forcing the evacuations of tens of thousands and causing widespread damage.

 

Japan-India scientists claim Ayurvedic medicine Ashwagandha helpful in Covid-19 cure

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Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and IIT-Delhi joint research on Indian ayurvedic component Ashwagandha in combinaton with propolis, an actve ingredent from New Zealand can be developed as possible drug treatment to cure Coronavirus or COVID-19.

The research by IIT-D was led by Professor D Sundar from DAILAB (DBT-AIST International Laboratory for Advanced Biomedicine) discovered that Withanone (Wi-N), a natural compound derived from Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) and Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE), an active ingredient of New Zealand propolis, have the potential to block the activity of Mpro, responsible for COVID-19 infection in the human body. Japan’s AIST has not made any such claim so far and either removed the relevant sections and pages from its website or put them Under Construction mode.

The study to be published in Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics soon, claimed that properties of the ayurvedic herb Ashwagandha have “therapeutic and preventive value” against COVID-19 infection. “SARS-CoV-2 virus genome and structure have been recently published triggering drug designing, devising and development using informatics and experimental tools, worldwide.

DAILAB and AIST Japan, working on natural compounds from Ashwagandha and propolis for last several years, explored the possibility of some of their bio-actives to interact with SARS-CoV-2,” IIT-D said in a statement. The journal JBSD ranks 57 out of 286 in the category of journals in biochemistry and molecular biology, 12 out of 73 in the category of journals in biophysics.

“The researchers targeted the main SARS-CoV-2’s enzyme for splitting proteins, known as the Main protease or Mpro that plays a key role in mediating viral replication. This is an attractive drug target for this virus… They discovered that Withanone (Wi-N), a natural compound derived from Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) and Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE), an active ingredient of New Zealand propolis, have the potential to interact with and block the activity of Mpro,” the statement said.

Sundar said, “While the reputation of Ashwagandha as an immunity enhancer forms a basis of the recent initiative of the Indian government in forming an interdisciplinary task force to launch its clinical research studies related to SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 disease, the current research report of this team provide hints on its direct anti-viral activities.”

However, Japan’s AIST has not made any such claim so far and either removed the relevant sections and pages from its website or put them Under Construction mode.

Priyanka Gandhi thanks UP govt for allowing offer of 1,000 buses to ply migrant workers home

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Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s offer to ply 1,000 buses to transport stranded labourers and migrants in Delhi to their homes in Uttar Pradesh has been accepted by the UP government after dragging ts feet for over two days. The state Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi replied to Priyanka Gandhi’s private secretary accepting the offer and requesting more details including a list of the drivers and conductors.

In her May 16 letter soon after the tragic road accident when 25 migrants had died near Aurraiya, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi wrote to CM Yogi Adityanath offering to bear the cost of 1,000 buses to transport migrants to UP. She said thousands of migrants from various parts of the country were walking down to their homes and 65 of them died on the road that was more than the COVID-19 tally in the state.

Priyanka Gandhi offered to provide 1,000 buses to transport migrants and bear the cost by the Congress Party and said 500 buses were being parked at Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad and another 500 buses at Noida. Amid adverse media reports, the UP Government has finally decided to give permission.

Earlier, Priyanka had deplored the poor mismanagement at Ghaziabad’s Ram Lila ground where a large uncontrollable crowd of migrants had gathered and were seen pushing each other, ignoring social distancing norms in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, to register to return home.

“If this exercise had started a month ago the migrants would not have had to undergo such hardship. I had offered 1,000 buses and had parked them at the UP border but the UP Government kept playing politics and did not give permission. The UP Government is not helping those hit by this pandemic and is neither allowing others to do it,” Priyanka had said in her earlier tweet.

After the approval of her request, she said, “The nation-building workers cannot be left like this to fend for themselves. The Congress party is committed to help them,” and thanked the state government for accepting the offer.