Background Across low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), one in ten deaths in children younger than 5 years is attributable to diarrhoea. The substantial between-country variation in both diarrhoea incidence and mortality is attributable to interventions that protect children, prevent infection, and treat disease. Identifying subnational regions with the highest burden and mapping associated risk factors can aid in reducing preventable childhood diarrhoea.Methods We used Bayesian model-based geostatistics and a geolocated dataset comprising 15 072 746 children younger than 5 years from 466 surveys in 94 LMICs, in combination with findings of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017, to estimate posterior distributions of diarrhoea prevalence, incidence, and mortality from 2000 to 2017. From these data, we estimated the burden of diarrhoea at varying subnational levels (termed units) by spatially aggregating draws, and we investigated the drivers of subnational patterns by creating aggregated risk factor estimates.Findings The greatest declines in diarrhoeal mortality were seen in south and southeast Asia and South America, where 54•0% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 38•1-65•8), 17•4% (7•7-28•4), and 59•5% (34•2-86•9) of units, respectively, recorded decreases in deaths from diarrhoea greater than 10%. Although children in much of Africa remain at high risk of death due to diarrhoea, regions with the most deaths were outside Africa, with the highest mortality units located in Pakistan. Indonesia showed the greatest within-country geographical inequality; some regions had mortality rates nearly four times the average country rate. Reductions in mortality were correlated to improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) or reductions in child growth failure (CGF). Similarly, most high-risk areas had poor WASH, high CGF, or low oral rehydration therapy coverage.Interpretation By co-analysing geospatial trends in diarrhoeal burden and its key risk factors, we could assess candidate drivers of subnational death reduction. Further, by doing a counterfactual analysis of the remaining disease burden using key risk factors, we identified potential intervention strategies for vulnerable populations. In view of the demands for limited resources in LMICs, accurately quantifying the burden of diarrhoea and its drivers is important for precision public health.Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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The immense potential of nanobiotechnology makes it an intensely researched field in modern medicine. Green nanomaterial synthesis techniques for medicinal applications are desired because of their biocompatibility and lack of toxic byproducts. We report the toxic byproducts free phytosynthesis of stable silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using the bark extract of the traditional medicinal plant Acacia leucophloea (Fabaceae). Visual observation, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the synthesized AgNPs. The visible yellow-brown color formation and surface plasmon resonance at 440 nm indicates the biosynthesis of AgNP. The TEM images show polydisperse, mostly spherical AgNP particles of 17–29 nm. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that primary amines, aldehyde/ketone, aromatic, azo, and nitro compounds of the A. leucophloea extract may participate in the bioreduction and capping of the formed AgNPs. X-ray diffraction confirmed the crystallinity of the AgNPs. The in vitro agar well diffusion method confirmed the potential antibacterial activity of the plant extract and synthesized AgNPs against the common bacterial pathogens Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC 737), Bacillus cereus (MTCC 1272), Listeria monocytogenes (MTCC 657), and Shigella flexneri (MTCC 1475). This research combines the inherent antimicrobial activity of silver metals with the A. leucophloea extract, yielding antibacterial activity-enhanced AgNPs. This new biomimetic approach using traditional medicinal plant ( A. leucophloea ) barks to synthesize biocompatible antibacterial AgNPs could easily be scaled up for additional biomedical applications. These polydisperse AgNPs green-synthesized via A. leucophloea bark extract can readily be used in many applications not requiring high uniformity in particle size or shape.

The aim of the study was to identify new sources of substrate from agro-industrial waste for protease production using Bacillus sp., a local bacteria isolated from an agro-waste dumping site. The strain was identified as Bacillus sp. BT MASC 3 by 16S rRNA sequence followed by phylogenic analysis. Response surface methodology-based Box–Behnken design (BBD) was used to optimize the variables such as pH, incubation time, coffee pulp waste (CPW) and corncob (CC) substrate concentration. The BBD design showed a reasonable adjustment of the quadratic model with the experimental data. Statistics-based contour and 3-D plots were generated to evaluate the changes in the response surface and understand the relationship between the culture conditions and the enzyme yield. The maximum yield of protease production (920 U/mL) was achieved after 60 h of incubation with 3.0 g/L of CPW and 2.0 g/L of CC at pH 8 and temperature 37 °C in this study. The molecular mass of the purified enzyme was 46 kDa. The highest activity was obtained at 50 °C and pH 9 for the purified enzymes.

Organic molecule dithiocarbamate transition metal complexes are novel and very attractive pharmaceutical targets for the management and control of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The direct reaction has synthesized new transition metal nickel (II), copper (II) complexes of potassium morpholine dithiocarbamate (K + C 5 H 8 NOS 2 − ) ligands and characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), as well as NMR physicochemical techniques. Antibacterial bioefficacy of the ligand and its metal complexes has been investigated in vitro on the growth of Gram-positive ( Staphylococcus aureus MTCC 737, Bacillus cereus MTCC 1272) and the Gram-negative ( Listeria monocytogenes MTCC 657, Shigella flexeneri MTCC 1457) bacteria. The obtained electronic spectral bands are characteristic and consistent with the proposed composition of the ligand as well as its metal complexes. It also provides a further example of the bidentate coordination of dithiocarbamate ligands. Absorption peak values of FTIR are characteristic of the ligand as well as dithiocarbamate group molecules and exhibit their metal coordination. NMR 1 H signal variations also correlate with the coordination mediated chemical shifts. Both the metal complexes showed significant antibacterial activity. However, enhanced antimicrobial activity of the ligands than metal complexes against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria were observed. Thus, further study on this approach could pave a way for the development of dithiocarbamate-metal complex based antibacterial agent.