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This study aimed to assess the microbiological quality of 159 animal- and plant-based ready-to-cook (RTC) frozen food items currently popular in Dhaka. Microbiological analyses were carried out to enumerate total aerobic counts of mesophilic bacteria, yeast and mold and to detect some common foodborne pathogens according to standard microbiological criteria. Higher microbial loads in all animal-based food types, other than chicken strips were found. In contrast, plant-based items were relatively safe except paratha, dal-puri, rooti chapati, and aloo-puri. Several common pathogenic bacterial species were screened by analyzing their morphological, cultural, and biochemical characteristics. Escherichia coli was prevalent in most samples, while Salmonella species were least reported. A considerable number of samples exhibited enough microbial loads at infection or intoxication levels.

Diagnostic approaches capable of ultrasensitive pathogen detection from low-volume clinical samples, running without any sophisticated instrument and laboratory setup, are easily field-deployable, inexpensive, and rapid, and are considered ideal for monitoring disease progression and surveillance. However, standard pathogen detection methods, including culture and microscopic observation, antibody-based serologic tests, and primarily polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-oriented nucleic acid screening techniques, have shortcomings that limit their widespread use in responding to outbreaks and regular diagnosis, especially in remote resource-limited settings (RLSs). Recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based programmable technology has emerged to challenge the unmet criteria of conventional methods. It consists of CRISPR-associated proteins (Cas) capable of targeting virtually any specific RNA or DNA genome based on the guide RNA (gRNA) sequence. Furthermore, the discovery of programmable trans-cleavage Cas proteins like Cas12a and Cas13 that can collaterally damage reporter-containing single-stranded DNA or RNA upon formation of target Cas-gRNA complex has strengthened this technology with enhanced sensitivity. Current advances, including automated multiplexing, ultrasensitive single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based screening, inexpensive paper-based lateral flow readouts, and ease of use in remote global settings, have attracted the scientific community to introduce this technology in nucleic acid-based precise detection of bacterial and viral pathogens at the point of care (POC). This review highlights CRISPR-Cas-based molecular technologies in diagnosing several tropical diseases, namely malaria, zika, chikungunya, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS), tuberculosis (TB), and rabies.

Drought is one of the most extreme climatic events in South Asia (SA) and has affected 1.44 billion people in last 68 years. The agriculture in many areas of this region is highly dependent on rainfall, which increases the vulnerability to drought. To mitigate the impact of drought on agriculture and food security, this study aims to develop a state-of-the-art system for monitoring agricultural drought over SA at a high spatial resolution (0.25 ^∘ ) in near real-time. This study currently focuses on the rain-fed area, and the impact of irrigation is not incorporated. This open and interactive tool can assist in monitoring the near-present soil moisture conditions, as well as assessing the historical drought conditions for better management. The South Asia Drought Monitor (SADM) runs the mesoscale hydrologic model to simulate the soil moisture using observation-based meteorological forcing (at near real-time), morphological variables, and land cover data. The soil moisture index (SMI) has been calculated by estimating the percentile of the simulated soil moisture. The drought monitor displays the SMI in five classes based on severity: abnormally dry, moderate drought, severe drought, extreme drought and exceptional drought. The main functions of this open interactive system include the provisioning of up-to-date and historical drought maps, displaying long-term drought conditions and downloading soil moisture data. Comparison of the SMI with the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) shows that the SMI and SPEI depict similar temporal distribution patterns. However, the SPEI (for 4, 6, 9 and 12 months) differs in the representation of the dry conditions in 1992, 2009, and 2015 and the wet condition in 1983, 1988, and 1990. We evaluated the implications of using different precipitation forcings in a hydrological simulation. A comparison of major drought characteristics such as areal extent, duration, and intensity, using different precipitation datasets show that uncertainty in precipitation forcings can significantly influence model output and drought characteristics. For example, the areal extent of one of the most severe droughts from 1986 to 1988 differs by 9% between ERA5 and CHIRPSv2.

Introduction: The present study investigated the role of dispositional hope as a potential protective factor moderator in the relationship between adult ADHD symptoms, media use/smart phone addiction and wellbeing during the period of isolation because of the COVID-19 pandemic among students in Romania., Methods: A sample of 333 college students (86.8% female and 13.2% male) between the age of 18 and 47 with a mean of 20.6 years old from West University of Timişoara completed online surveys. Mediation and moderation analyses were performed to assess the associations among the variables., Results: Results confirmed the negative associations of both adult ADHD and smartphone addiction with overall wellbeing. The smartphone addiction/ wellbeing association was moderated by dispositional hopefulness, such that high hopefulness served as a protective factor [ b = -0.008, 95% percentile CI (-0.0134; -0.0012)]., Discussion: Implications for the educational environment are discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Toma, Anderson, Matichescu, Franţ, Almǎjan-Guţă, Cândea and Bailey.)

Despite recent growth of research on the effects of prosocial media, processes underlying these effects are not well understood. Two studies explored theoretically relevant mediators and moderators of the effects of prosocial media on helping. Study 1 examined associations among prosocial- and violent-media use, empathy, and helping in samples from seven countries. Prosocial-media use was positively associated with helping. This effect was mediated by empathy and was similar across cultures. Study 2 explored longitudinal relations among prosocial-video-game use, violent-video-game use, empathy, and helping in a large sample of Singaporean children and adolescents measured three times across 2 years. Path analyses showed significant longitudinal effects of prosocial- and violent-video-game use on prosocial behavior through empathy. Latent-growth-curve modeling for the 2-year period revealed that change in video-game use significantly affected change in helping, and that this relationship was mediated by change in empathy.