A Comparison Of Peer-Led And Teacher-Led Interventions In Changing Knowledge And Attitudes Related To Hiv/Aids Among Secondary School Students

The main objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of peer-led and teacher-led HIV/AIDS interventions in changing knowledge and attitudes related to HIV/AIDS among secondary school students.The study sample consisted of 306 Form Four students from three secondary schools in Kajang. A total of 102 students from each school were matched closely with respect to socio-economic status, ethnic group, sex and academic achievement. The three schools were randomly assigned to either peer-led intervention, teacher-led intervention or control. All the respondents completed a questionnaire before and immediately after an HIV/AIDS intervention. Follow-up questionnaires were completed at one and three months after the intervention. The results of the ANOVA (GLM Repeated Measure Design) and Post Hoc Test showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) in the mean knowledge an

Vectors Space and Module

A vector space is a set that is closed under finite vector addition and scalar multiplication. It has scalars with multiplication by complex numbers, rational numbers or any field. In abstract algebra, the fundamental algebraic structure is called as module. In this vector space and module to be same in terms of definition. Module have coefficients in much more general algebraic objects. But when we analysed deeply, they are quite different as discussed in this paper

STUDIES ON PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, TANNINS CONTENT AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY FROM LEAF AND CALLUS EXTRACTS OF MEMECYLON UMBELLATUM.

Objective: This study aims to determine the phytochemical screening, tannins content, and antibacterial activity from leaf and callus extracts of Memecylon umbellatum.Methods: Preliminary screening involved the qualitative methods to detect the presence of terpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, steroids, quinones, saponins, cardiac glycosides, and alkaloids. Total tannins contents were quantitatively estimated with tannic acid as standard. Different concentrations of ethanolic leaf and callus extracts were tested using the agar disc diffusion technique for the antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli.Results: The phytochemical analysis of leaf and callus extract of M. umbellatum revealed the presence of significant secondary metabolites such as tannins, saponins, quinones, cardiac glycosides, phenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids, and alkaloids. The total tannins content in callus and leaf extract were found to be 11.37 mg tannic acid equivalents (TAE)/g and 7.1 mg TAE/g, respectively. The antibacterial activity of ethanolic leaf and callus extracts of M. umbellatum shown more active against B. subtilis. Both the callus and leaf extract of M. umbellatum was found to be inactiveagainst E. coli.Conclusion: It was concluded that the powerful antibacterial effect is attributed to the greater amount of tannin compounds in the ethanolic callus extracts of M. umbellatum.Â

A Study of Incidence and Indications of Primary Cesarean Section in Multiparus Women with Outcome of Pregnancy

INTRODUCTION: Laparotomy and hysterotomy incision through surgery to deliver the fetus is called Cesarean section. In modern days, higher complications in normal vaginal delivery is the major reason for choice of c section in India whereas this was already followed by US since decades. Healthy survival was possible for women in ancient days post normal delivery as they performed heavy physical work. However, modern women have less physical ability for normal vaginal delivery because of the low strength and fear of issues after a normal vaginal delivery. Today’s women being literate and aware of the difficulties like Postpartum infections which includes uterine, bladder, or kidney infections, excessive bleeding after delivery, pain in the perineal area (between the vagina and the rectum), Vaginal discharge, swollen breasts, clogged ducts, Stretch marks and also the vital reasons are Hemorrhoids and constipation along with Urinary or fecal (stool) incontinence, Hair loss, Postpartum depression, Discomfort during sex and difficulty regaining the pre-pregnancy shape becomes crucial factor to decide for C section over normal vaginal delivery. AIM OF THE STUDY: 1. To study the incidence of primary cesarean in multiparous women. 2. To study the indications of primary cesarean in multiparous women. 3. To study the maternal and fetal outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is ananalytical cross-sectional research conducted from April 2019 to October 2019. For the purpose of analysis and research, I have taken the data of 100 primary cesarean sections in multipara happened in RSRM Lying-in hospital affiliated to Stanley Hospital, Chennai. The cases are women undergoing cesarean section for the first time whereas the prior child birth are only through normal vaginal delivery. RESULTS: Most cases comprise of age group 26 – 30 which amounts to 41% out of which 97% were booked cases and rest 3% are unbooked. Frequent signs of cesarean section in multiparous women is performed due to Fetal distress - 28%, Breech in labour - 14% and Transverse lie in labour – 13% of the total cases analyzed. No maternal mortality is taken into account. Anemia – 7and wound infections – 3 were the highest post-operative complications discovered among the18% of patients and no complications in 82% of the cases. Fetal distress is the common factor for NICU admission with 26 cases and 14 infants were kept in observation out of 100. Total Perinatal morbidity was 61% which contains Mal presentation at the highest rate of 27%. Neonatal morbidity was 26% in the study done. CONCLUSION: Fetal distress,Breech in Labour and Transverse lie in labour were the main reason of cesarean section in multiparous women

Retinal Phenotyping of Ferrochelatase Mutant Mice Reveals Protoporphyrin Accumulation and Reduced Neovascular Response

Purpose: Heme depletion, through inhibition of ferrochelatase (FECH), blocks retinal and choroidal neovascularization. Both pharmacologic FECH inhibition and a partial loss-of-function Fech mutation (Fechm1Pas) are associated with decreased neovascularization. However, the ocular physiology of Fechm1Pas mice under basal conditions has not been characterized. Here, we aimed to characterize the retinal phenotype of Fechm1Pas mice. Methods: We monitored retinal vasculature at postnatal day 17, 2 months, and 6 months in Fechm1Pas homozygotes, heterozygotes, and their wild-type littermates. We characterized Fech substrate protoporphyrin (PPIX) fluorescence in the eye (excitation = 403 nm, emission = 628 nm), retinal function by electroretinogram, visual acuity by optomotor reflex, and retinal morphology by optical coherence tomography and histology. We stained vasculature using isolectin B4 and fluorescein angiography. We determined endothelial sprouting of retinal and choroidal tissue ex vivo and bioenergetics of retinal punches using a Seahorse flux analyzer. Results: Fundi, retinal vasculature, venous width, and arterial tortuosity showed no aberrations. However, VEGF-induced retinal and choroidal sprouting was decreased in Fechm1Pas mutants. Homozygous Fechm1Pas mice had pronounced buildup of PPIX in the posterior eye with no damage to visual function, bioenergetics, and integrity of retinal layers. Conclusions: Even with a buildup of PPIX in the retinal vessels in Fechm1Pas homozygotes, the vasculature remains normal. Notably, stimulus-induced ex vivo angiogenesis was decreased in Fechm1Pas mutants, consistent with reduced pathologic angiogenesis seen previously in neovascular animal models. Our findings indicate that Fechm1Pas mice are a useful model for studying the effects of heme deficiency on neovascularization due to Fech blockade

Small-molecule inhibitors of ferrochelatase are antiangiogenic agents

Activity of the heme synthesis enzyme ferrochelatase (FECH) is implicated in multiple diseases. In particular, it is a mediator of neovascularization in the eye and thus an appealing therapeutic target for preventing blindness. However, no drug-like direct FECH inhibitors are known. Here, we set out to identify small-molecule inhibitors of FECH as potential therapeutic leads using a high-throughput screening approach to identify potent inhibitors of FECH activity. A structure-activity relationship study of a class of triazolopyrimidinone hits yielded drug-like FECH inhibitors. These compounds inhibit FECH in cells, bind the active site in cocrystal structures, and are antiangiogenic in multiple in vitro assays. One of these promising compounds was antiangiogenic in vivo in a mouse model of choroidal neovascularization. This foundational work may be the basis for new therapeutic agents to combat not only ocular neovascularization but also other diseases characterized by FECH activity

Deep learning based Tamil Parts of Speech (POS) tagger

This paper addresses the problem of part of speech (POS) tagging for the Tamil language, which is low resourced and agglutinative. POS tagging is the process of assigning syntactic categories for the words in a sentence. This is the preliminary step for many of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. For this work, various sequential deep learning models such as recurrent neural network (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) and Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) were used at the word level. For evaluating the model, the performance metrics such as precision, recall, F1-score and accuracy were used. Further, a tag set of 32 tags and 225 000 tagged Tamil words was utilized for training. To find the appropriate hidden state, the hidden states were varied as 4, 16, 32 and 64, and the models were trained. The experiments indicated that the increase in hidden state improves the performance of the model. Among all the combinations, Bi-LSTM with 64 hidden states displayed the best accuracy (94%). For Tamil POS tagging, this is the initial attempt to be carried out using a deep learning model

HPTLC Analysis of Tephorisa pulicherrima (Baker) Gamble Ethanol Extract of Root

Tephrosia pulcherrima commonly known as “Kalakkozhuppa,” is well known for its therapeutic properties in the Indian traditional medicinal system. The presence of important bioactive compounds in plants makes them pharmacologically valuable. Therefore, in this study, the High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) analysis of Tephrosia pulcherrima (root) ethanol extract was performed for its phytochemical profiling. The HPTLC densitometric analysis of the ethanol extract of Tephrosia pulcherrima was carried out using CAMAG HPTLC system, and the results were obtained in the form of chromatograms (scanned at the wavelength of 254 nm and 366 nm) representing several peaks. The phytochemical profile of the plant was determined and presented in the tables showing the total number of peaks, peak heights, peak area, percent area, and Rf values. The study concluded that T. pulcherrima ethanol extract of the root contains a rich variety of phytochemicals which might be accountable for its therapeutic value and thus justifies its traditional use in India

Role of Third Material (Interlayer) on Mechanical Properties of the AA2024-Copper Joints Carried out by Friction Stir Welding (FSW)

The work focused on improving the mechanical properties of AA2024-Cu joints by introducing a third material in the form of interlayer. The interlayer chosen for this purpose was Zn based on the resultant intermetallic phases that could have formed with matrix. Experiment was carried between AA2024 and copper plates with Zn strip. It included the optimization of tool-offset positions. The welds were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with electron probe micro-analyser (EPMA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The results showed that the Zn strip diffused well into the AA2024 matrix at the optimum tool-offset position and it had formed more than two intermetallic phases in the processed region, which had improved the strength and ductility of the welds significantly. It concluded that it was possible to enhance the properties by altering the composition and kind of intermetallics by using an appropriate filler metal in the form of interlayer

The Potential of Aqueous Humor Sampling in Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment of Retinoblastoma

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a rare malignant tumor that arises in the developing retina in one or both eyes of children. Pathogenic variants of the RB1 tumor suppressor gene drive the majority of germline and sporadic RB tumors. Considering the risk of tumor spread, the biopsy of RB tumor tissue is contraindicated. Advancement of chemotherapy has led to preservation of more eye globes. However, this has reduced access to tumor material from enucleation specimens. Recently, liquid biopsy of aqueous humor (AH) has advanced the RB tumor- or eye-specific genetic analysis. In particular, nucleic acid analysis of AH demonstrates the genomic copy number profiles and RB1 pathogenic variants akin to that of enucleated RB eye tissue. This advance reduces the previous limitation that genetic assessment of the primary tumor could be done only after enucleation of the eye. Additionally, nucleic acid evaluation of AH allows the exploration of the genomic landscape of RB tumors at diagnosis and during and after treatment. This review explores how AH sampling and AH nucleic acid analysis in RB patients assist in diagnosis, prognosis, and comprehending the pathophysiology of RB, which will ultimately benefit individualized treatment decisions to carefully manage this ocular cancer in children