Focused Ion Beam Tomography

To study the fundamental effect of shape and morphology of any material on its properties, it is very essential to know and study its morphology. Focused ion beam (FIB) tomography is a 3D chemical and structural relationship studying technique. The instrumentation of FIB looks like that of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but there is a major difference in the beam used for scanning. For SEM, a beam of electrons is used with scanning medium whereas in FIB, a much focused beam of ions is used for scanning. FIB can be used for lithography and ablation purposes, but due to advancements and high-energy focused beam, it is nowadays being used as a tomographic technique. Tomography is defined as imaging by sectoring or cross-sectioning any desired area. The hyphenation of FIB with energy-dispersive spectrometry or secondary ion mass spectrometry can give us elemental analysis with very high-resolution 3D images for a sample. This technique contributes to acquaintance of qualitative and quantitative analyses, 3D volume creations, and image processing. In this chapter, we will discuss the advancements in FIB instrumentation and its use as 3D imaging tool for different samples ranging from nanometer (nm)-sized materials to micrometer (μm)-sized biological samples

Knowledge and attitude of patients and their relatives towards electro-convulsive therapy: a study from a tertiary care centre in Northern India

Background: Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) has been effective in various psychiatric disorders and is life-saving in some conditions. Despite its effectiveness and lack of serious side-effects, its use is restricted due to negative attitude of patients and their relatives towards ECT. The objective of the study was to study the attitude of patients and their attendants towards ECT. Also, we studied their knowledge regarding ECT prior to the administration of ECT.Methods: A 16 item questionnaire was formulated to be used for assessing the attitude and knowledge about ECT and was administered after translating it into Urdu language for better understanding. Patients planned for ECT were administered the questionnaire after taking consent. A total of 60 patients and 60 attendants were taken up for the study.Results: About 60-70% of patients gave correct (right) responses to questions like ECT being life-saving procedure, need of investigations before ECT and other questions like question numbers 1,5,6,7,11,14,15. There was little knowledge regarding other areas like use of ECT in pregnant females and elderly (question numbers 2, 4, 10, 12). The patients as well as their attendants did not differ significantly in the responses given to the queries. Maximum number of patients received knowledge regarding ECT from doctors; few had attained it from other sources like internet.Conclusions: The study is a preliminary one and emphasizes the need for better standardized questionnaire for proper assessment. It also gives us an insight into lack of knowledge among patients and their attendants regarding ECT

Haemoparasites of domestic poultry and wild birds in Selangor, Malaysia

Avian haemoparasites are known to exert negative pressures on their hosts causing considerable pathology and mortalities. The present study reports on the prevalence of haemoprotozoa and microfilaria in various species of wild birds and domestic poultry in Selangor, Malaysia, and contributes to the database on the occurrence of these pathogens among avifauna in the country. Giemsa-stained thin blood smears were screened from 728 birds representing five avian orders, namely Galliformes, Anseriformes, Phoenicopteriformes, Pelecaniformes and Gruiformes. The most common haemoparasite was Plasmodium, with a prevalence of 8.0%. The aquatic/ wetland species of birds (Anseriformes and Gruiformes) were the most common hosts for this pathogen with high infection rates (31.8% – 50.0%). The prevalence of Plasmodium in domestic poultry was moderate (2.7%). Leucocytozoon sabrazesi and L. caulleryi were confined to the Galliformes with relatively low average infection rates of 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively. Haemoproteus was detected for the first time in domestic poultry and Red Jungle fowls in the country, with an average prevalence of 0.8%. Trypanosomes and microfilaria were only present in the village chickens and Red Jungle fowls, with high microfilaraemia rates (19.0%) in the latter. The current compilation will contribute to our understanding on avian haemoparasite transmission in the country

SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ION EXCHANGERS THROUGH CONTROLLED GRAFTING OF 4-VINYLPYRIDINE ONTO STYRENE-DIVINYLBENZENE

  Macroreticular ion-exchange resins with 4-vinylpyrirline grafted onto styrene-divinylbenzene were synthesized by the suspension polymerization technique. Study of effects of degree of grafting on the texture of S-DVB copolymer and on the ion exchange kinetics is presented. The degree of grafting was controlled by the time of graft polymerization reaction. It was found that 2 to 3 hours of reaction time was found to be the optimum for the synthesis of the ion-exchangers with good ion exchange kinetics and reasonable capacity. Infrared spectroscopic monitoring of residual double bonds, ion exchange capacity, break through capacity for ferric chloride complex, pore volume by mercury porosimetery and self diffusion coefficient for ferric chloride complex are reported. &nbsp

Maternal mental health and its determinants during COVID-19, experience from Kashmir, Northern India

Background: Since the start of the pandemic due to coronavirus 2019, stresses and anxiety have increased in all age-groups. We aimed to study the common mental disorders in pregnant and lactating females and study their fears and copings during the pandemic. Materials and Methods: Purposive sampling was employed in our study. We included all pregnant and lactating females who consented to participate in the study. A total of 95 females were included in our study. We used a semi-structured questionnaire with questions regarding socio-demographic variables and questions related to apprehensions due to COVID-19, belonging to high-risk group, and structured instruments like Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Results: The mean age of our study population was 30.8 ± 3.67 years. The majority of our patients were married (93) and homemakers (61) and studied up to 12th grade. Among our patients, 33 tested positive for COVID-19 and 12 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19-related symptoms. Thirty-nine females were pregnant and 56 were lactating. Preexisting medical illness was seen in 23, and psychiatric illness was already present in 19 patients. Major depression was seen in 43% of females, mild anxiety symptoms in 69%, severe anxiety in 8%, mild obsessive compulsive disorder in 16%, and moderate in 10% of cases. Conclusion: In our cases, anxiety and depression were seen in increased prevalence as compared to pre-pandemic levels. Being hospitalized for COVID-19 symptoms, social isolation and apprehensions regarding the baby increased the risk of depression

Fast free-of-acrylamide clearing tissue (FACT)—an optimized new protocol for rapid, high-resolution imaging of three-dimensional brain tissue

Abstract Fast Free-of-Acrylamide Clearing Tissue (FACT) is a new sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-based clearing protocol for the chemical clearing and imaging of brain tissue containing transgenic or immunolabeled fluorescent proteins. In the present study, we have developed this new method and optimized multiple dimensions of the workflow, including reduced clearing time, improved efficiency of fluorescent signals without the need for electrophoretic or complex instrumentations, preservation of cytoarchitectural details, optimized confocal microscopy, and accelerated data collection. We systematically compared seven clearing protocols with the FACT protocol, using transgenic mouse brains with fluorochrome expression in microglia. Only six days were required for detecting transgene-labeled markers in a 1-mm thick brain slice from adult mice, and 14 days were required for detecting antibody-labeled markers in the same-sized tissue. Preservation of fluorescent signal was achieved by decreasing clearing time, adjusting the pH of the SDS solution, and using the appropriate temperature for tissue clearing, all of which contributed to the superiority of our method. We conclude that the FACT protocol can be successfully applied to the fluorescent imaging of mouse brain tissue, and will facilitate structural analyses and connectomics of large assemblies of cells and their networks in the context of three-dimensional organ systems

The influence of Kerr field and Doppler broadening on magneto optical and image state rotation

We examine the magneto-optical and image state rotation (MOR) of left and right circularly plane-polarized light pulse through a double Λ-type four-level configuration of Rubidium atom via Kerr field and Doppler broadening in the presence of the static magnetic field. The medium’s behavior is different for both orthogonal components of the probe beam, causing linear dichroism or circular birefringence. Enhanced and lossless MOR is obtained by applying the control field through a closed-loop birefringent system. We observe a magnified angle of rotation of probe field in Doppler broadened medium. It is shown that due to the Kerr nonlinearity, the rotation angle of the probe beam is generated and modified through cold and Doppler broadened medium. Moreover, almost complete polarization rotation is observed for a particular set of parameters. The MOR can be effectively utilized in designing new TM/TE polarization modes, optical communication, polarization spectroscopy, lider with backscattering depolarization, precision measurements, and magnetometry

Synthesis of Sheet Like Morphology of NiO for Sensitive and Selective Determination of Urea

An efficient and simple method has been demonstrated for the synthesis of nickel oxide nanostructures using urea as a capping agent. The nanosheet-like morphology was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, crystalline nature was studied by using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and surface area of nanomaterial was investigated by automated sorption analyzer. Then synthesized NiO nanostructures were used to fabricate the surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The electrocatalytic parameters of modified NiO/GCE electrode were investigated by using various techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), square wave voltammetry (SWV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), normal pulse voltammetry (NPV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry. Various working experimental conditions were optimized in order to attain the highest sensitivity for the determination of urea and the highest peak current 1032 μA of response were obtained at 100 μM concentration of urea. A linear calibration plot was obtained for peak current versus concentration of urea in the range of 10 μM urea to 80 μM urea with a good detection limit of 2 μM. The proposed working strategy was successfully employed for the estimation of urea in human urine samples and the obtained results are found satisfactory. The newly functional urea sensor can be exploited at large scale as an alternative analytical device beside to the other reported urea sensorsValiderad;2018;Nivå 1;2018-02-12 (andbra)</p