The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus Gmelin) is a fish-eating specialist crocodylian, endemic to south Asia, and critically endangered in its few remaining wild localities. A secondary gharial population resides in riverine-reservoir habitat adjacent to the Nepal border, within the Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), and nests along a 10 km riverbank of the Girwa River. A natural channel shift in the mainstream Karnali River (upstream in Nepal) has reduced seasonal flow in the Girwa stretch where gharials nest, coincident with a gradual loss of nest sites, which in turn was related to an overall shift to woody vegetation at these sites. To understand how these changes in riparian vegetation on riverbanks were related to gharial nesting, we sampled vegetation at these sites from 2017 to 2019, and derived an Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from LANDSAT 8 satellite data to quantify riverside vegetation from 1988 through 2019. We found that sampled sites transitioned to woody cover, the number of nesting sites declined, and the number of nests were reduced by > 40%. At these sites, after the channel shift, woody vegetation replaced open sites that predominated prior to the channel shift. Our findings indicate that the lack of open riverbanks and the increase in woody vegetation at potential nesting sites threatens the reproductive success of the KWS gharial population. This population persists today in a regulated river ecosystem, and nests in an altered riparian habitat which appears to be increasingly unsuitable for the continued successful recruitment of breeding adults. This second-ranking, critically endangered remnant population may have incurred an "extinction debt" by living in a reservoir that will lead to its eventual extirpation.

BackgroundABO and Rh blood group systems are associated with many diseases including cancerous, infectious, non-infectious, bacterial and viral diseases. Studies have shown association of blood groups A and O with higher and lower odds for coronavirus disease 2019 positivity, respectively.MethodsThis is a single-center, retrospective study conducted at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi. We investigated the association of ABO and Rh blood groups with susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 infection, severity of disease, recovery period, and mortality of patients. Patients were enrolled from April 8, 2020 to October 4, 2020. A total of 2,586 real-time PCR (RT-PCR)-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were recruited. Data was analyzed using chi-square test, odds ratio, and Mann–Whitney test to determine the association of blood groups.ResultsIn the 2,586 COVID-19-infected patients, the frequencies of A, B, O, and AB were 29.93%, 41.80%, 21.19%, and 7.98%, respectively. Of the patients, 98.07% were Rh positive. Blood group A (odds ratio, 1.53; CI, 1.40–1.66; p < 0.001) and B (odds ratio, 1.15; CI, 1.06–1.24; p < 0.001) is observed to be significantly associated with COVID-19 susceptibility, whereas blood group O (odds ratio, 0.65; CI, 0.59–0.71; p < 0.001) and AB (odds ratio, 0.66; CI, 0.59–0.71; p < 0.001) have low risk of COVID-19 infection.ConclusionA, B, and Rh+ are found to be more susceptible to COVID-19 infection, whereas blood groups O, AB, and Rh− are at a lower risk of COVID-19 infection. No association was found between blood groups and susceptibility to severity of disease and mortality.

Background & objectives: Nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) in blood donor screening not only detects window period (WP) donors but also those with chronic occult infections which are negative by routine serological screening. This study was conducted to determine the time trend of NAT positivity and seroprevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) through a period of six years and evaluate the strength of NAT as a supplementary test in identifying the cryptic carriers in blood donor population. Methods: A total of 1,01,411 blood donations were screened between January 2011 and December 2016 by the ELISA and individual donor (ID) NAT Procleix Ultrio Plus Assay. Additional molecular and serological assays were done on the NAT yield samples to differentiate the type of cryptic carriers. Results: NAT yields comprised 0.05 per cent (50/101411) of the total samples tested with a yield rate of 1/2028. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) contributed to 80 per cent of the total NAT yields and the rest 20 per cent due to hepatitis C virus (HCV). Majority of HBV NAT yields (75%) were from chronic occult donors and 25 per cent were WP donors. Both HBV and HCV NAT yields had a wide range of viral count. There was no HIV NAT yield. A significant decline in the prevalence rate of TTIs through the study period of six years was observed. Interpretation & conclusions: The cryptic infections found in blood donors increase the risk of TTIs. Blood screening by both serology and NAT can reduce this threat.

Abstract-The simplicity and ease of access of a menu are the main things that facilitate ordering food in a restaurant. A Tablet menu completely revolutionizes the patron's dining experience. Existing programs provide an app that restaurants can use to feed their menus into iOS & Android based tablets and make it easier for the diners to flip, swipe & tap through the menu. We here aim to provide the restaurants with a tablet menu that would recommend dishes based on a recommendation algorithm which has not been implemented elsewhere. In addition to this we run the app on an Android based tablet & not on an iOS based tablet which is more expensive alternative. We use a cloud-based server for storing the database which makes it inexpensive & secure.

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