How many participants were enrolled in the multicentre clinical trial on standardised Ashwagandha root extract?
- A.600
- B.900
- C.1,200
- D.1,500
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is 1,200. The randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled that many apparently healthy adults between eighteen and seventy years of age, each of whom had already received a first, second or booster dose of the COVISHIELD vaccine, across seven study sites in India. The options of six hundred, nine hundred and fifteen hundred are wrong because none matches the enrolment reported for this study. A related figure is worth keeping separate: of those enrolled, 1,032 participants, which works out to eighty-six per cent, actually completed the full course, having taken the extract or a matching placebo for twenty-four weeks and been followed up to the twenty-eighth week. The trial was registered with the Clinical Trials Registry-India, and it was designed as a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, which is the form of evidence regarded as the most reliable for questions of safety and tolerability in a healthy population.
Read the full article: Ashwagandha Extract Safe Over 24 Weeks in 1,200-Adult Trial
Practice Questions
What daily dose of standardised aqueous Ashwagandha root extract was given to participants in the trial?
- A.250 mg
- B.500 mg
- C.750 mg
- D.1,000 mg
Show answer
Participants were randomly assigned to receive either this standardised aqueous extract or a matching placebo, and the assignment was double-blind, meaning neither the participants nor the assessors knew which arm a person belonged to.
Read the full explanation →The Ashwagandha safety study was published in which journal?
- A.The Lancet
- B.Frontiers in Medicine
- C.Nature Medicine
- D.Indian Journal of Medical Research
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The Lancet is wrong because the study was not carried in it, although it is among the best known medical journals and therefore a tempting distractor.
Read the full explanation →Under which fund has TDB extended support to the AI-ELINT project, and in what form?
- A.Research, Development and Innovation Fund, as Optionally Convertible Debt
- B.National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, as an outright grant
- C.Startup India Seed Fund, as equity
- D.Production Linked Incentive scheme, as a subsidy
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The Technology Development Board is giving the money through this fund, and the instrument chosen is debt that may later be converted into equity, which lets the Board support a deep technology firm without taking a shareholding at the outset.
Read the full explanation →The AI-ELINT satellite constellation supported by TDB will use microsatellites of which class?
- A.The 10 kg class
- B.The 50 kg class
- C.The 500 kg class
- D.The 1,200 kg class
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The project plans microsatellites of this weight class, to be placed in low Earth orbit and added to the group in stages, so that coverage and the frequency of revisits over a chosen area both grow as more satellites go up.
Read the full explanation →How much support has the Technology Development Board agreed to give Astrome Technologies for the AI-ELINT constellation?
- A.Rs 128.11 crore
- B.Rs 64.05 crore
- C.Rs 46.50 crore
- D.Rs 640.5 crore
Show answer
That is the financial support the Technology Development Board, which works under the Department of Science and Technology, has agreed to give Astrome Technologies Private Limited of Bengaluru from the Research, Development and Innovation Fund, and it is being given as Optionally Convertible Debt.
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