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Background: The consequences of SARS-CoV-2 on mother and fetus remain unknown due to a lack of robust evidence from prospective studies. Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of COVID-19 on neonatal outcomes and the scope of vertical transmission. Methods: This ambispective observational study enrolled pregnant women with COVID-19 in North India from April 1 to August 31, 2020 to evaluate neonatal outcomes and the risk of vertical transmission. Results: A total of 44 neonates born to 41 COVID-19-positive mothers were evaluated. Among them, 28 (68.3%) patients (two sets of twins) were delivered within 7 days of testing positive for COVID-19, 23 (56%) patients (two sets of twins) were delivered by cesarean section; 13 (29.5%) newborns hada low birth weight; seven (15.9%) were preterm; and six (13.6%) required neonatal intensive care unit admission, reflecting an increased incidence of cesarean delivery and low birth weight but zero neonatal mortality. Samples of cord blood, placental membrane, vaginal fluid, amniotic fluid, peritoneal fluid (in case of cesarean section), and breast milk for COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tested negative in 22 prospective delivery cases. Nasopharyngeal swabs of two newborns tested positive for COVID-19: one at 24 hours and the other on day 4 of life. In the former case, biological samples were not collected as the mother was asymptomatic and her COVID-19 report was available post-delivery; hence, the source of infection remained inconclusive. In the latter case, all samples tested negative, ruling out the possibility of vertical transmission. All neonates remained asymptomatic on follow-up. Conclusion: COVID-19 does not have direct adverse effects on the fetus per se. The possibility of vertical transmission is almost negligible, although results from larger trials are required to confirm our findings.

Introduction: An increase in the common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) is generally considered an early marker of atherosclerosis and is a well-established predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD). An association between changes in CCA-IMT and risk of stroke has been reported but has conflicting findings. Objective: The present meta-analysis was aimed to clarify the association between CCA-IMT with the risk of stroke and its subtype by estimating pooled analysis of published literature. Methods: Comprehensive search for all published articles was performed in electronic databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Trip Databases, Worldwide Science, CINAHL and Google Scholar from 01 January 1950 to 30 April 2020. Results: In our meta-analysis, a total of 19 studies, of which sixteen studies involving 3475 ischaemic stroke (IS) cases and 11 826 controls; six studies with 902 large vessel disease (LVD) and 548 small vessel disease (SVD) of IS subtypes; five studies with 228 intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) and 1032 IS cases, were included. Our findings suggest a strong association between increased CCA-IMT with risk of IS as compared to control subjects [SMD = 1.46, 95% CI = 0.90-2.02]. However, there is an increased risk of LVD as compared to the SVD subtype of IS [SMD = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.19-0.52] and more chance of occurrence of IS rather than ICH [SMD = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.28-1.41]. Conclusions: Carotid intima thickness measurements are found to be associated with the risk of stroke along with its subtypes and may be used as a diagnostic marker for predicting the risk of stroke events.

Functional development of affective and reward circuits, cognition and response inhibition later in life exhibits vulnerability periods during gestation and early childhood. Extensive evidence supports the model that exposure to stressors in the gestational period and early postnatal life increases an individual's susceptibility to future impairments of functional development. Recent versions of this model integrate epigenetic mechanisms of the developmental response. Their understanding will guide the future treatment of the associated neuropsychiatric disorders. A combination of non-invasively obtainable physiological signals and epigenetic biomarkers related to the principal systems of the stress response, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary axis (HPA) and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), are emerging as the key predictors of neurodevelopmental outcomes. Such electrophysiological and epigenetic biomarkers can prove to timely identify children benefiting most from early intervention programs. Such programs should ameliorate future disorders in otherwise apparently healthy children. The recently developed Early Family-Centered Intervention Programs aim to influence the care and stimuli provided daily by the family and improving parent/child attachment, a key element for healthy socio-emotional adult life. Although frequently underestimated, such biomarker-guided early intervention strategy represents a crucial first step in the prevention of future neuropsychiatric problems and in reducing their personal and societal impact.

Taila Bindu Pariksha, an ancient method of urine examination for ascertaining the prognosis of diseases, was very popular in the medieval period, the use of which became obsolete after 17th Century AD. Technique of this test is very crude and there are chances of variations in the observations. To revive this technique, it is necessary that the methodology of this test should be standardized so that the observations could be reproducible. To standardize the technique, apparently healthy volunteers were selected and various parameters were standardized for doing this test, i.e., shape and size of Patra (testing containers), volume of the urine, size of the oil drop, height of the oil drop from the surface of urine, variety of sesame oil, etc., Based on the literature, the parameters were changed one by one and observations were noted down. The whole method was recorded in the form of video clips for proper evaluation. The parameters standardized on the basis of observations can be considered as standard to be referred in future studies.

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Solar energy may cater current power demand and second generation with modified technologies could play important role. This review presents role of ZnTe as efficient interface to CdTe devices with future road map to improve device performance.

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