Induced Size Effects Of Gd3+ ions Doping On Structural And Magnetic Properties Of Ni-Zn Ferrite Nanoparticles

Gd3+ ions substituted in Ni0.5Zn0.5GdxFe2-xO4 (where x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) ferrite nanoparticles in the size range from 15 to 25 nm were prepared by chemical method. The effect of Gd3+ ions in spinel structure in correlation to structural and magnetic properties have been studied in detail using XRD, HRTEM and EPR techniques. The spin resonance confirms the ferromagnetic behaviour of these nanoparticles and higher order of dipolar-dipolar interaction. On increasing Gd3+ ions concentrations, the super exchange interaction i.e. increase in movement of electron among Gd3+ - O - Fe3+ in the core group and the spin biasing in the glass layer has been interpreted. The decrease in ‘g’ value and increase in relaxation time is well correlated with the change of particle size on different concentrations of Gd3+ ions in Ni-Zn ferrite

Clinico-epidemiological profile and risk factors associated with failure of conservative therapy in pediatric empyema patients

Objective: The objective is to study the clinico-epidemiological profile and risk factors associated with failure of conservative therapy in pediatric empyema patients and to correlate the Light’s criteria in the same. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based prospective observational study was performed in the pediatric department of a tertiary care hospital, New Delhi. A total of 74 children of ≤12 years of age having either macroscopic frank pus in pleural tap or a positive Gram-stain or positive culture in pleural fluid were enrolled in the study. Those empyema patients who fail to improve with antibiotics and chest tube drainage after 7–14 days (4 weeks for Staphylococcus aureus and 6–12 weeks for anaerobic organisms, respectively) or develop some complications in the mean time were considered as a failure of therapy. Results: Head nodding, lethargy and inability to feed/drink, prior antibiotic therapy, duration of illness (>7 days) before presenting to the hospital, and growth on the cultures were the main factors associated with the failure of conservative therapy. S. aureus is the most common organism causing empyema. Considering Light’s criteria, significant results were obtained and almost all the enrolled empyema patients found to have exudative pleural fluid. In the study, failure of conservative therapy occurred in 27.03%, prolonged hospitalization was seen among 48.65 % children, 28.38% needed change in antibiotics, and 1.35% children expired. Conclusion: History of prior antibiotic therapy, long duration of illness, and clinical features at admission along with the microorganism involved affect the conservative therapy response and may predispose to complications. Light’s criteria were very well validated in the study for its use in pediatric population

Air Quality Prediction - A Study Using Neural Network Based Approach

India is the 7th largest country by area and 2nd most populated country in the world. The reports prepared by IQAir revels that India is 3rd most polluted country after Bangladesh and Pakistan, on the basis of fine particulates (PM2.5) concentration for the year 2020. In this article, the quality of air in six Indian cities is predicted using data-driven Artificial Neural Network. The data was taken from the 'Kaggle' online source. For six Indian cities, 6139 data sets for ten contaminants (PM2.5, PM10, NO, NO2, NH3, CO, SO2, O3, C6H6 and C7H8) were chosen. The datasets were collected throughout the last five years, from 2016 to 2020, and were used to develop the predictive model. Two machine learning model are proposing in this study namely Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) The R-value of ANN and GPR models are 0.9611 and 0.9843 sequentially. The other performance indices such as RMSE, MAPE, MAE of the GPR model are 21.4079, 7.8945% and 13.5884, respectively. The developed model is quite useful to update citizens about the predicted air quality of the urban spaces and protect them from getting affected by the poor ambient air quality. It can also be used to find the proper abatement strategies as well as operational measures

Influence of plant growth retardants on growth, seed yield and quality in onion (Allium cepa) cv. Pusa Riddhi

A field experiment was conducted at New Delhi during rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15 to evaluate the effect of growth retardants on seed scape height, seed yield and quality attributes in onion (Allium cepa L.) cv. Pusa Riddhi. The experiment consisted of 15 treatments in combinations of three growth retardants, viz. paclobutrazol, ethephon and triadimefon. The results revealed that among different growth retardants, 100 ppm paclobutrazol significantly reduced the seed scape height (69.9 cm) and increased the seed scape diameter (3.71 cm). The paclobutrazol application also significantly improved the umbel diameter, umbellates/umbel, productive umbellates/umbel, seed setting (%), 1 000 seed weight and seed yield/umbel but it reduced the leaves/plant and seed scapes/plant. The triadimefon treatment significantly reduced the disease severity and disease incidence which affects the seed yield and quality. Seed quality attributes were not much influenced by growth retardant applications but higher seed vigour index-I (952.14) and II (186.13) were recorded under triadimefon and paclobutrazol treatments respectively. Paclobutrazol application also influenced the total leaf chlorophyll content and seed antioxidant enzymes, viz. SOD, catalase and glutathione reductase over the control treatment

Effect of post harvest treatments and harvesting stage on vase life and flower quality of cut Oriental lily

An investigation was carried out to study the effect of post harvest treatments and harvesting stage on vase life and flower quality of cut Oriental lily cv. Avocado. The results showed that highest vase life (15.83 days) and vase solution uptake (49.17 ml) was recorded with sucrose (2%) + 5-SSA (200ppm), whereas maximum flower diameter (15.17 cm) was recorded in vase solution containing sucrose (2%) + 5-SSA (100ppm). Earliest opening of florets (4.42 days) reported under sucrose (2%) + 5-SSA (200ppm). Effect of treatments was found non-significant in respect to opening of florets. Harvesting at green bud stage exhibited extended vase life (14.33 days) and higher vase solution uptake (40.43 ml), whereas maximum flower diameter (14.25 cm) recorded at 75% colour development stage. Based on the results it is concluded that 5-SSA could be an inexpensive and potential chemical for delaying senescence and for extending the keeping quality of cut liliums commercially

HIV mortality and infection in India: estimates from nationally representative mortality survey of 1.1 million homes

Objective To determine the rates of death and infection from HIV in India

Insights from global data for use of rotavirus vaccines in India

Rotavirus vaccines are being introduced in several low- and middle-income countries across the world with and without support from the GAVI Alliance. India has the highest disease burden of rotavirus based on morbidity and mortality estimates and several indigenous vaccine manufacturers are developing rotavirus vaccines. One candidate has undergone phase III testing and others have completed evaluation in phase II. Global data on licensed vaccine performance in terms of impact on disease, strain diversity, safety and cost-effectiveness has been reviewed to provide a framework for decision making in India

Male Use of Female Sex Work in India: A Nationally Representative Behavioural Survey

Heterosexual transmission of HIV in India is driven by the male use of female sex workers (FSW), but few studies have examined the factors associated with using FSW. This nationally representative study examined the prevalence and correlates of FSW use among 31,040 men aged 15–49 years in India in 2006. Nationally, about 4% of men used FSW in the previous year, representing about 8.5 million FSW clients. Unmarried men were far more likely than married men to use FSW overall (PR = 8.0), but less likely than married men to use FSW among those reporting at least one non-regular partner (PR = 0.8). More than half of all FSW clients were married. FSW use was higher among men in the high-HIV states than in the low-HIV states (PR = 2.7), and half of all FSW clients lived in the high-HIV states. The risk of FSW use rose sharply with increasing number of non-regular partners in the past year. Given the large number of men using FSW, interventions for the much smaller number of FSW remains the most efficient strategy for curbing heterosexual HIV transmission in India

Overexpression of Prothymosin Alpha Predicts Poor Disease Outcome in Head and Neck Cancer

In our recent study, tissue proteomic analysis of oral pre-malignant lesions (OPLs) and normal oral mucosa led to the identification of a panel of biomarkers, including prothymosin alpha (PTMA), to distinguish OPLs from histologically normal oral tissues. This study aimed to determine the clinical significance of PTMA overexpression in oral squamous cell hyperplasia, dysplasia and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Immunohistochemistry of PTMA protein was performed in HNSCCs (n = 100), squamous cell hyperplasia (n = 116), dysplasia (n = 50) and histologically normal oral tissues (n = 100). Statistical analysis was carried out to determine the association of PTMA overexpression with clinicopathological parameters and disease prognosis over 7 years for HNSCC patients.<0.001). Chi-square analysis showed significant association of nuclear PTMA with advanced tumor stages (III+IV). Kaplan Meier survival analysis indicated reduced disease free survival (DFS) in HNSCC patients (p<0.001; median survival 11 months). Notably, Cox-multivariate analysis revealed nuclear PTMA as an independent predictor of poor prognosis of HNSCC patients (p<0.001, Hazard's ratio, HR = 5.2, 95% CI = 2.3–11.8) in comparison with the histological grade, T-stage, nodal status and tumor stage.Nuclear PTMA may serve as prognostic marker in HNSCC to determine the subset of patients that are likely to show recurrence of the disease

Nuclear S100A7 Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Head and Neck Cancer

Tissue proteomic analysis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and normal oral mucosa using iTRAQ (isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation) labeling and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, led to the identification of a panel of biomarkers including S100A7. In the multi-step process of head and neck tumorigenesis, the presence of dysplastic areas in the epithelium is proposed to be associated with a likely progression to cancer; however there are no established biomarkers to predict their potential of malignant transformation. This study aimed to determine the clinical significance of S100A7 overexpression in HNSCC.Immunohistochemical analysis of S100A7 expression in HNSCC (100 cases), oral lesions (166 cases) and 100 histologically normal tissues was carried out and correlated with clinicopathological parameters and disease prognosis over 7 years for HNSCC patients. Overexpression of S100A7 protein was significant in oral lesions (squamous cell hyperplasia/dysplasia) and sustained in HNSCC in comparison with oral normal mucosa (p(trend)<0.001). Significant increase in nuclear S100A7 was observed in HNSCC as compared to dysplastic lesions (p = 0.005) and associated with well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (p = 0.031). Notably, nuclear accumulation of S100A7 also emerged as an independent predictor of reduced disease free survival (p = 0.006, Hazard ratio (HR = 7.6), 95% CI = 1.3-5.1) in multivariate analysis underscoring its relevance as a poor prognosticator of HNSCC patients.Our study demonstrated nuclear accumulation of S100A7 may serve as predictor of poor prognosis in HNSCC patients. Further, increased nuclear accumulation of S100A7 in HNSCC as compared to dysplastic lesions warrants a large-scale longitudinal study of patients with dysplasia to evaluate its potential as a determinant of increased risk of transformation of oral premalignant lesions