e-Banking in India -Challenges and Opportunities

ABSTRACT E-banking i

A prospective study to compare the efficacy and safety of tioconazole and clotrimazole vaginal gel in patients suffering from vulvovaginal candidiasis

Background: Vulvo vaginal candidiasis is an extremely common gynaecological condition. While clotrimazole has been the mainstay of treatment of this pathology, newer medications are now available. The study aims to compare the efficacy, compliance and safety of tioconazole single dose intravaginal gel application and clotrimazole vaginal gel for 3 days in patients suffering from vulvovaginal candidiasis.Methods: A prospective, multicentric, open label, randomized, controlled, parallel group clinical trial of 220 women with 110 in each group for the evaluation of the effects of tioconazole vaginal gel in patients suffering from candidial vaginitis. Patients were divided into two groups; Group I received tioconazole vaginal gel as topical single dose therapy administered by the treating doctor and Group II received clotrimazole vaginal gel self-administered by the patient for three days. Response to therapy in both groups was studied and compared.Results: At the end of day 7, mean score of vaginal discharge quantity had a fall of 93.3% and 92.3% in tioconazole and clotrimazole group respectively but difference was statistically insignificant. Microbiological cure rate in both the groups was similar. Reduction of vaginal irritation, vaginal itching, vaginal burning, pain in the vulval area, pain during urination or during sexual intercourse, vaginal erythema, tenderness and swelling were also comparable in both the groups.Conclusions: Tioconazole gel single dose intravaginal application is as effective as clotrimazole gel three day intravaginal application. tioconazole is safe, well accepted and tolerated by the patients and will be useful in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis

Evaluation of Immunomodulatory activity of Diosgenin in rats

Background: The immune system is intrinsic to health. Modulation of the immune responses to alleviate the diseases by using herbal plants has been of interest for many years. Diosgenin, a naturally occurring steroid saponin mainly present in the seeds of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum) and in the root tubers of wild yams (Dioscorea villosa). Activation of specific and nonspecific immunity results in stimulation of immune response. Diosgenin has the positive effects on both specific and nonspecific immunity. Aim: To study the immunomodulatory activity of Diosgenin in albino wistar rats. Method: The suspension of Diosgenin was given orally at the dosage level of 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg for 21 days in a rat. The immunomodulatory activity on specific and non-specific immunity was studied by heamagglutination antibody (HA) titer, delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response and carbon clearance test. Immunosuppression in a rat was induced by using Cyclophosphamide (100 mg/kg, p.o.). Sheep red blood cells (SRBCs) were used as antigen (0.1ml 20% SRBCs). Result: Diosgenin exhibited significant increase in the production of antibody titer in response to SRBC antigen. A significant increase in both primary and secondary HA titer was observed in immunosuppressed group treated with Diosgenin when compared with negative control. A significant increase in the DTH response was observed in immunosuppressed animals treated with Diosgenin, pre-sensitized with SRBCs antigen. Diosgenin exhibited significant increase in phagocytic index against control group, indicating the stimulation of the reticuloendothelial system. Conclusion: The study indicates that Diosgenin triggers stimulatory effect on specific and nonspecific immune response. The immunostimulant effect of Diosgenin could be attributed due to its saponin glycoside

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF RAPIDLY DIS INTEGRATING FILM OF AMLODIPINE BES YLATE

Fast-dissolving drug-delivery systems were first developed in the late 1970s as an alternative to tablets, capsules, and syrups. Fast dissolving oral films (FDOFs) are the most advanced form of  oral solid dosage form due to more flexibility and comfort. It improve the efficacy of APIs by dissolving within minute in oral cavity after the contact with less saliva as compared to fast dissolving tablets, without chewing and no need of water for admin istration. The FDOFs place as an alternative in the market due to the consumer’s preference for a fast dissolving product over conventional tablets / capsules. The oral thin-film technology is still in the beginning stages and has bright future ahead because it fulfils all the need of patients. Eventually, film formulations having drug/s will be commercially launched using the oral film technology. In the present study fast dissolving film of  Amlodipine Besylate was prepared using sodium alginate as film forming polymer. To decrease the disintegration time of formulationssodium starch glycolate was used as disintegrating agent. A full 32factorial design was applied using concentration of polymer and disintegrant as independent variable and disintegration time and % cumulative drug release as dependent variable. Response surface curves were plotted. Batch F6 was found to be the optimized batch as its disintegration was completed within the minimum time as compared to all other batches. The formulation (F6) was also showing sufficient drug release after 6 min. All the nine formulation was showing approximately 70-85% drug release after 6 mi

Fermentation, Isolation, Structure, and antidiabetic activity of NFAT-133 produced by Streptomyces strain PM0324667

Type-2 diabetes is mediated by defects in either insulin secretion or insulin action. In an effort to identify extracts that may stimulate glucose uptake, similar to insulin, a high throughput-screening assay for measuring glucose uptake in skeletal muscle cells was established. During the screening studies to discover novel antidiabetic compounds from microbial resources a Streptomyces strain PM0324667 (MTCC 5543, the Strain accession number at Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, India), an isolate from arid soil was identified which expressed a secondary metabolite that induced glucose uptake in L6 skeletal muscle cells. By employing bioactivity guided fractionation techniques, a tri-substituted simple aromatic compound with anti-diabetic potential was isolated. It was characterized based on MS and 2D NMR spectral data and identified as NFAT-133 which is a known immunosuppressive agent that inhibits NFAT-dependent transcription in vitro. Our investigations revealed the antidiabetic potential of NFAT-133. The compound induced glucose uptake in differentiated L6 myotubes with an EC50 of 6.3 ± 1.8 μM without activating the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ. Further, NFAT-133 was also efficacious in vivo in diabetic animals and reduced systemic glucose levels. Thus it is a potential lead compound which can be considered for development as a therapeutic for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. We have reported herewith the isolation of the producer microbe, fermentation, purification, in vitro, and in vivo antidiabetic activity of the compound

Probing the thermal state of the intergalactic medium at z > 5 with the transmission spikes in high-resolution Ly α forest spectra

We compare a sample of five high-resolution, high S/N Ly$\alpha$ forest spectra of bright $6<z \lesssim 6.5$ QSOs aimed at spectrally resolving the last remaining transmission spikes at $z>5$ with those obtained from mock absorption spectra from the Sherwood and Sherwood-Relics suites of hydrodynamical simulations of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We use a profile fitting procedure for the inverted transmitted flux, $1-F$, similar to the widely used Voigt profile fitting of the transmitted flux $F$ at lower redshifts, to characterise the transmission spikes that probe predominately underdense regions of the IGM. We are able to reproduce the width and height distributions of the transmission spikes, both with optically thin simulations of the post-reionization Universe using a homogeneous UV background and full radiative transfer simulations of a late reionization model. We find that the width of the fitted components of the simulated transmission spikes is very sensitive to the instantaneous temperature of the reionized IGM. The internal structures of the spikes are more prominant in low temeperature models of the IGM. The width distribution of the observed transmission spikes, which require high spectral resolution ($\leq$ 8 km/s) to be resolved, is reproduced for optically thin simulations with a temperature at mean density of $T_0= (11000 \pm 1600,10500\pm 2100,12000 \pm 2200)$ K at $z= (5.4,5.6,5.8)$. This is weakly dependent on the slope of the temperature-density relation, which is favoured to be moderately steeper than isothermal. In the inhomogeneous, late reionization, full radiative transfer simulations where islands of neutral hydrogen persist to $z\sim5.3$, the width distribution of the observed transmission spikes is consistent with the range of $T_0$ caused by spatial fluctuations in the temperature-density relation

Boomerang: Rebounding the consequences of reputation feedback on crowdsourcing platforms

Paid crowdsourcing platforms suffer from low-quality workand unfair rejections, but paradoxically, most workers and requesters have high reputation scores. These inflated scores, which make high-quality work and workers difficult to find,stem from social pressure to avoid giving negative feedback. We introduce Boomerang, a reputation system for crowdsourcing that elicits more accurate feedback by rebounding the consequences of feedback directly back onto the person who gave it. With Boomerang, requesters find that their highly rated workers gain earliest access to their future tasks, and workers find tasks from their highly-rated requesters at the top of their task feed. Field experiments verify that Boomerang causes both workers and requesters to provide feedback that is more closely aligned with their private opinions. Inspired by a game-theoretic notion of incentive-compatibility, Boomerang opens opportunities for interaction design to incentivize honest reporting over strategic dishonesty

The Daemo crowdsourcing marketplace

The success of crowdsourcing markets is dependent on a strong foundation of trust between workers and requesters. In current marketplaces, workers and requesters are often unable to trust each other’s quality, and their mental models of tasks are misaligned due to ambiguous instructions or confusing edge cases. This breakdown of trust typically arises from (1) flawed reputation systems which do not accurately reflect worker and requester quality, and from (2) poorly designed tasks. In this demo, we present how Boomerang and Prototype Tasks, the fundamental building blocks of the Daemo crowdsourcing marketplace, help restore trust between workers and requesters. Daemo’s Boomerang reputation system incentivizes alignment between opinion and ratings by determining the likelihood that workers and requesters will work together in the future based on how they rate each other. Daemo’s Prototype tasks require that new tasks go through a feedback iteration phase with a small number of workers so that requesters can revise their instructions and task designs before launch