Opinion of Health Care Professionals towards Submitting a Research Article to a Journal.

There are no specific criteria to measure a journals quality, but indexation of a journal in a reputed database such as PubMed/Medline, SCOPUS, EMBASE etc, and whether the journal is having an impact factor produced by Thomson Reuters are looked upon. Many more indexation database have come up recently, and authors are publishing more articles than before. This questionnaire based study was conducted in November 2012 in two medical colleges in south India with the aim to know the opinion of health care professionals towards submitting a research publication to a journal. Prior approval was taken from the Institutional Ethics Committee to conduct the study. The selected participants were from tutors to professors. The information was recorded and analyzed using Microsoft Excel (2007 version). A total of 297 respondents participated in the study, out of which 263 completed the questionnaire. Assistant professors had more number of publications and also had the maximum number of publications as first author. Among the papers published <10% were published in journals which are pubmed indexed. Highest percentage of pubmed indexed journals were published by professors which was around 10%. The knowledge about impact factor was higher among the junior faculty than the professors. The knowledge regarding quality of a journal, with respect to indexation and impact factor of a journal is grossly inadequate among the doctors. Necessary steps should be taken by editorial board of reputed journals and associations such as International Council Of Medical Journal Editors or regulatory authorities such as Medical Council of India to spread the knowledge about quality of a journal

A study on the effect of silver nitrate and 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate pulsing solutions on Lilium cut flowers

Lilium is one of the most important cut flowers in commercial markets, giving customers ornamental value. Fresh flowers, a highly perishable item, need more care and proper treatment for their longer post-harvest life and due to this, the end users face the post-harvest losses of cut flowers. Such losses can be minimized by using preservative chemical, which plays an important role in increasing the vase life of flowers. To increase the post-harvest life of lilium cut flowers cv. ‘Pavia’, the present investigation was aimed to study the effect of different combinations and concentrations of silver nitrate at 50, 75 and 100 ppm and 8-hydroquinoline citrate at 100, 150 and 200 ppm pulsing solutions with 20 % sucrose. Three replications were completely randomised with 16 treatments and one control. Silver nitrate showed better results in flower bud opening, flower bud opening to complete flowering, flower size, bloom life, dry weight and dry matter percentage. Among the treatment concentrations, AgNO3 at 50 ppm with 20% sucrose showed the most effective result on enhancing the selected parameters and improved flower quality during post-harvest life. Among the treatment combinations, 8-HQC at 100 ppm + AgNO3 at 75 ppm with 20 % sucrose showed better results. These findings will be useful to researchers, farmers, and end users to retain the ornamental value of lilium cut flowers for longer than usual

Response of preservative chemicals on the shelf life of cut lilium (Lilium spp.) flower cv. ‘Pavia’

Lilium cut flowers have commercial importance and extending their vase life is vital. An increase in the vase life quality and quantity can directly increase the viability and price realization of commercially important flowers like lilium. Shelf life of cut lilium flower is influenced by using different preservative chemicals and sucrose added in vase solution. Such an extension of vase life can be achieved via chemical treatment. The trial was carried out to examine the effect of various concentration of two chemicals, AgNO3 (silver nitrate) and 8-HQC (8-Hydroxyquinoline citrate) along with sucrose on the shelf life of lilium cut flower cv. ‘Pavia’ (cross between Asiatic and Longiflorum lilies). In the experiment, sucrose (20%), 8-HQC at 3 concentrations (100, 150, 200 ppm) and AgNO3 at 3 concentrations (50, 75, 100 ppm) and water (distilled) as control were tested alone and with combinations. Cut flowers of lilium were treated at one bud opening stage. The trial was carried out in a completely randomized design (CRD) having 16 treatments and one control in three (3) replications. The fresh weight and relative fresh weight of the cut flower spike, opening of all flowers on a spike, vase solution uptake on a day, total vase solution uptake and vase life of lilium cut flower spike showed the best outcome with AgNO3 (50 ppm) and 20% sucrose treatment combination. Out of the two chemicals, silver nitrate showed better results than 8-HQC as a preservative in enhancing the shelf life of cut Lilium flower cv. ‘Pavia’. Analysis of this new and exciting method will be useful to research institutes, commercial producers, wholesalers, retailers, consumers or anyone to choose right chemical and concentration of holding solution to maximize the post-harvest life of lilium cut flowers

An investigation of traditional uses and anti-inflammatory property of Clematis buchananiana De Candolle and Tupistra nutans Wall. ex Lindl.: Native ethnomedicinal plants from Sikkim, India

719-727In the traditional medicinal system of Sikkim Clematis buchananiana and Tupistra nutans is used extensively to treat various ailments, however, they have not been validated for their anti-inflammatory property by in vitro method. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate specific ethnomedicinal uses, in-vitro anti-inflammatory property, and phytochemical constituents of Clematis buchananiana and Tupistra nutans. The ethnomedicinal usage was studied by calculating the value for fidelity level, use-value, and informant consensus factor. Stabilization of human red blood cell membrane and protein denaturation method was used to study anti-inflammatory property. The phytochemicals were analysed by the methods described elsewhere. Clematis buchananiana was found to be used more frequently for sinusitis, headache, cold and Tupistra nutans for high blood pressure, diabetes and stomach-ache. Both C. buchananiana and T. nutans was found to inhibit the HRBC membrane and protein denaturation effectively in a dose-dependent manner. However, inhibition of haemolysis and protein denaturation by C. buchananiana was found to be higher than T. nutans at all doses. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of anti-inflammatory metabolites such as flavonoids and phenolics in both the plants. The results provide evidence for the anti-inflammatory property of C. buchananiana and T. nutans

An investigation of traditional uses and anti-inflammatory property of Clematis buchananiana De Candolle and Tupistra nutans Wall. ex Lindl.: Native ethnomedicinal plants from Sikkim, India

In the traditional medicinal system of Sikkim Clematis buchananiana and Tupistra nutans is used extensively to treat various ailments, however, they have not been validated for their anti-inflammatory property by in vitro method. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate specific ethnomedicinal uses, in-vitro anti-inflammatory property, and phytochemical constituents of Clematis buchananiana and Tupistra nutans. The ethnomedicinal usage was studied by calculating the value for fidelity level, use-value, and informant consensus factor. Stabilization of human red blood cell membrane and protein denaturation method was used to study anti-inflammatory property. The phytochemicals were analysed by the methods described elsewhere. Clematis buchananiana was found to be used more frequently for sinusitis, headache, cold and Tupistra nutans for high blood pressure, diabetes and stomach-ache. Both C. buchananiana and T. nutans was found to inhibit the HRBC membrane and protein denaturation effectively in a dose-dependent manner. However, inhibition of haemolysis and protein denaturation by C. buchananiana was found to be higher than T. nutans at all doses. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of anti-inflammatory metabolites such as flavonoids and phenolics in both the plants. The results provide evidence for the anti-inflammatory property of C. buchananiana and T. nutans

An orthogonal biocatalytic approach for the safe generation and use of HCN in a multistep continuous preparation of chiral O-acetylcyanohydrins

An enantioselective preparation of O-acetylcyanohydrins has been accomplished by a three-step telescoped continuous process. The modular components enabled accurate control of two sequential biotransformations, safe handling of an in situ generated hazardous gas, and in-line stabilization of products. This method proved to be advantageous over the batch protocols in terms of reaction time (40 vs 345 min) and ease of operation, opening up access to reactions which have often been neglected due to safety concerns.We gratefully acknowledge the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the research training group GRK 1166 “Biocatalysis in non-conventional media (BioNoCo)”, and the EPSRC (Award Nos. EP/K009494/1 and EP/K039520/1)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Georg Thieme Verlag KG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0035-156064

Massive symptomatic subependymoma of the lateral ventricles: case report and review of the literature

Subependymomas are benign intraventricular tumors with an indolent growth pattern, which are usually asymptomatic, and most commonly occur in the fourth and lateral ventricles. When symptomatic, subependymomas often obstruct critical portions of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathway, causing hydrocephalus, and range from 3 cm to 5 cm in size. We report a case of an unusually massive subependymoma of the lateral ventricles treated with subtotal resection, ventriculoperitoneal shunt, and post-surgical radiation. The clinical course, radiographic and pathologic characteristics of this massive intraventricular subependymoma are discussed, as well as the differential diagnosis of lateral ventricular masses and a review of the literature concerning subependymomas.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46667/1/234_2005_Article_1342.pd

Level-set based adaptive-active contour segmentation technique with long short-term memory for diabetic retinopathy classification

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a major type of eye defect that is caused by abnormalities in the blood vessels within the retinal tissue. Early detection by automatic approach using modern methodologies helps prevent consequences like vision loss. So, this research has developed an effective segmentation approach known as Level-set Based Adaptive-active Contour Segmentation (LBACS) to segment the images by improving the boundary conditions and detecting the edges using Level Set Method with Improved Boundary Indicator Function (LSMIBIF) and Adaptive-Active Counter Model (AACM). For evaluating the DR system, the information is collected from the publically available datasets named as Indian Diabetic Retinopathy Image Dataset (IDRiD) and Diabetic Retinopathy Database 1 (DIARETDB 1). Then the collected images are pre-processed using a Gaussian filter, edge detection sharpening, Contrast enhancement, and Luminosity enhancement to eliminate the noises/interferences, and data imbalance that exists in the available dataset. After that, the noise-free data are processed for segmentation by using the Level set-based active contour segmentation technique. Then, the segmented images are given to the feature extraction stage where Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), Local ternary, and binary patterns are employed to extract the features from the segmented image. Finally, extracted features are given as input to the classification stage where Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is utilized to categorize various classes of DR. The result analysis evidently shows that the proposed LBACS-LSTM achieved better results in overall metrics. The accuracy of the proposed LBACS-LSTM for IDRiD and DIARETDB 1 datasets is 99.43% and 97.39%, respectively which is comparably higher than the existing approaches such as Three-dimensional semantic model, Delimiting Segmentation Approach Using Knowledge Learning (DSA-KL), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Computer aided method and Chronological Tunicate Swarm Algorithm with Stacked Auto Encoder (CTSA-SAE)