Prevalence of cognitive impairment and depression among elderly patients attending the medicine outpatient of a tertiary care hospital in South India

Background:Cognitive impairment is an important clinical issue among elderly patients with depression and has a more complex etiology. The aim of the present work was to examine the prevalence of cognitive impairment and depression in elderly subjects above 60 years.Methods: A cross-sectional study on the prevalence of cognitive impairment and depression on elderly people (n=525) attending the General Medicine OPD of Sri Venkateswara Ram Narain Ruia Government General Hospital, Tirupati. Cognitive function and depression were assessed by applying standardized Mini-Mental State Examination of Folstein (MMSE) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), respectively.Results:Prevalence of cognitive impairment was 31.0% (34.7% women, 23.4% men); there were significant differences observed with reference to age, gender, literacy and economic status. Prevalence of depression was 44.8% (51.0% women, 39.6% men); with relation to age, gender, literacy and economic status, there were significant differences observed.Conclusion:Cognitive impairment and depression were present in elderly people and these disorders are more prevalent in the females than in the males. Hence, psychiatrist should pay special attention for early detection and treatment of depressive symptoms in elderly people with cognitive impairment

The Effect of Ketamine on the Onset Time and the Intubating Conditions of Rocuronium Bromide

SUMMARY: From this prospective single blind study conducted on 80 patients undergoing elective surgery, we tried to evaluate the effect of the Ketamine on the onset time and intubating conditions of Rocuronium bromide. The summary of our findings are 1. The demographic profile such as age, sex, height, weight and BMI were comparable between the groups. 2. The indices that measure the difficulty of an intubation such as MMS, Cormack Lehane grading and POGO score were comparable between the groups. 3. The mean time of onset of neuromuscular blockade was 93.48± 33.74 seconds in Ketamine group versus 127.50±48.75 seconds in saline group. It was statistically significant with a ‘p’value of0.001. 4. The percentage of acceptable intubating conditions in Ketamine group was 87.5% and in saline group was 80 %. Both the groups were comparable. 5. When compared to the baseline values, the mean arterial pressure at induction was better maintained in Ketamine group than in saline group. 6. Arterial blood pressure and the heart rate at other times were comparable between the groups. CONCLUSION: From our study we conclude that administration of low dose Ketamine before induction reduces the onset time of Rocuronium bromide with stable hemodynamics. Though, acceptable intubating conditions were seen in 87.5 % of cases with Ketamine, we could not demonstrate a significant difference between the groups

Evaluation of Serum Magnesium and Micronutrients Level in Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition Aged 6 Months to 59 Months

BACKGROUND: India is home to the largest number of children in the world. Nearly every fifth young child in the world lives in India. It is estimated that there are about 43 crore children in the age group of 0-18 years.Micronutrients though required in small amounts, are essential for proper growth and development of the human body Micronutrient deficiencies also referred to as ‘Hidden Hunger’ affects the health, learning ability as well as productivity owing to high rates of illness and disability contributing to vicious cycle of malnutrition, underdevelopment and poverty. As there are fewer studies regarding micronutrient levels in malnourished children this study is done in view of assessing micronutrient level in local population. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To evaluate the serum magnesium and micronutrient levels in severe acute malnourished children among the age group of 6 months to 5 years. 2. To identify specific micronutrient levels in our clinical settings. 3. To assess other determinants associated with severe acute malnourished Children. METHOD: Type of Study: • descriptive cross sectional study. Study Setting: • severe acute malnourished children in pediatric, nutrition, speciality wards of Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Chennai. Study Time Period: • May 2018 to April 2019. Inclusion Criteria: • Severe acute malnourished children aged from 6 months to 5 years based on WHO case definition. Exclusion Criteria: • Children W.H.O presents with a chronic disorder such as cardiovascular, liver, renal, chromosomal disorders contributing to malnutrition other than nutritional causes are excluded. Sample Size: 70 (based on open epi software). Its descriptive study with 70 samples. Children attending nutrition clinic were classified as severe acute malnutrition based on WHO guidelines and their micronutrient levels was assessed. The knowledge of mothers regarding nutrition and public health services was assessed based on questionnaire method. RESULTS: Among 70 children presented. Nearly 82% were anemic 18.6 % had severe anemia 21.4% had moderate anemia, 41.4% had mild anemia. The mean haemoglobin during presentation was around 9.2 g/dl.57% of children were zinc deficient with mean value of zinc was around 72.79 ± 31.18.44.3% of children were deficient in magnesium with mean value of 1.78 ± 0.47.37% of children were deficient in copper with mean value of 99.99 ± 42.46.98.6% of children had accessibility to primary health care. Around 45% were aware of national programmes related to nutrition. 91.4% of mothers were awareness about that breast feeding and weaning method but even with awareness and knowledge only 55% of mother exclusively breastfed their babies lack of family support and improper guidance influenced the mother to choose early weaning and other forms of feeding. 84.3% mothers had knowledge about ors and proper technique of preparation. 90% of children were completely immunised as per national schedule. 82.9% mothers had practice of bottle feeding despite knowing about exclusive breastfeeding importance

Perovskite solar cells: progress and advancements

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as a new class of optoelectronic semiconductors that revolutionized the photovoltaic research in the recent years. The perovskite solar cells present numerous advantages include unique electronic structure, bandgap tunability, superior charge transport properties, facile processing, and low cost. Perovskite solar cells have demonstrated unprecedented progress in efficiency and its architecture evolved over the period of the last 5–6 years, achieving a high power conversion efficiency of about 22% in 2016, serving as a promising candidate with the potential to replace the existing commercial PV technologies. This review discusses the progress of perovskite solar cells focusing on aspects such as superior electronic properties and unique features of halide perovskite materials compared to that of conventional light absorbing semiconductors. The review also presents a brief overview of device architectures, fabrication methods, and interface engineering of perovskite solar cells. The last part of the review elaborates on the major challenges such as hysteresis and stability issues in perovskite solar cells that serve as a bottleneck for successful commercialization of this promising PV technology

Study of risk factors for preterm deliveries in a tertiary hospital

Background: Preterm labour and preterm deliveries are very challenging obstetric complications. Early identification of risk factors may help identify women at risk for preterm deliveries.Methods: A one-year observational study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, IGMC Shimla, Himachal Pradesh from 1st August 2017 to 31st July 2018. All mothers who delivered between 24 to 37 weeks were subjected to a detailed history with respect to age, parity, previous pregnancy outcomes and to identify the presence of any risk factors. A thorough obstetric and systemic examination was done. Parametric and non-parametric test of significance were used to find the association between different quantitative and qualitative variable.Results: Incidence of preterm deliveries was 11.4%. Maximum cases were of age group 25-30 years. 71.7% belonged to lower socio-economic status. 54% cases were seen in multigravida. History of previous abortion was seen in 18.4% and 9.7% had history of preterm deliveries. 12% cases had history of 1st trimester bleeding.  Spontaneous onset of preterm labour was seen in 55.1%. The significant risk factors associated were PIH and genitourinary infections.Conclusions: The risk factors of preterm birth to a large extent can be identified in antenatal period. Adolescent health education including good nutrition, good hygiene, counselling for contraception to reduce unintended pregnancies and birth spacing can lower the preterm birth rate. Better prenatal care, early identification of risk factors and complicated cases, regular follow up and proper management can help us in reducing preterm births

Acceleration of pro-caspase-3 maturation and cell migration inhibition in human breast cancer cells by phytoconstituents of Rheum emodi rhizome extracts

The aggressive nature of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer subtype obligates for innovative targeted therapies. The present study aimed to investigate the phytoconstituents and specific anticancer activities of Rheum emodi rhizome, a known food source used locally to treat various ailments. Petroleum ether extracts (hot [PHR] and cold [PCR]) of R. emodi, exhibited significant free radical scavenging potentials through DPPH and reducing power assays, rendering them as good sources of antioxidants. The extracts, PHR and PCR had shown significant (P < 0.05) cancer-cell-specific cytotoxicity in the assayed cells (MDA-MB-231 [breast carcinoma] and WRL-68 [non-tumoral]) at 100 μg/ml, and 50 and 100 μg/ml concentrations respectively. Extracts also induced fervent apoptosis in ER-negative cells (MDA-MB-231) compared to ER-positive subtype (MCF-7), and found to involve CPP32/caspase-3 in its apoptosis induction mechanism. Moreover, extracts had an inevitable potential to inhibit the migration of metastatic breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231)in vitro. Further, the active principles of extracts were identified through HPLC and GC-MS analysis to reveal major polyphenolics, 4,7-Dimethyl-(octahydro)indolo[4,3-fg]quinolin-10-one, 5-Oxo-isolongifolene, Valencene-2, and other quinone, quinoline and anthraquinone derivatives. The extracts are thus good candidates to target malignant ER-negative breast cancer, and the identified phytoconstituents could be eluted in further exploratory studies for use in dietary-based anti-breast cancer therapies

Intelligent Hybrid Cloud Data Hosting Services with Effective Cost and High Availability

In this Paper the major concentration is an efficient and user based data hosting service for hybrid cloud. It provides friendly transaction scheme with the features of cost effective and high availability to all users. This framework intelligently puts data into cloud with effective cost and high availability. This gives a plan of proof of information respectability in which the client has utilize to check the rightness of his information. In this study the major cloud storage vendors in India are considered and the parameters like storage space, cost of storage, outgoing bandwidth and type of transition mode. Based on available knowledge on all parameters of existing cloud service providers in India, the intelligent hybrid cloud data hosting framework are assured to customers for low cost and high availability with mode of transition. It guarantees that the ability at the customer side is negligible and which will be helpful for customers

A Hybrid Classification Approach for Iris Recognition System for Security of Industrial Applications

The biometric authentication system is demanded to identify a particular person from the set of persons. Even though many biometric authentication methods are available such as fingerprint, palm, face, and iris, the iris-based recognition system is effective due to its simplified process. This article proposes an iris recognition system using a hybrid classification approach for security applications. The proposed method includes three modules: preprocessing, augmentation, and classifier. The preprocessing module converts the color iris images into grey scale images and also resizes the image into 256 × 256. The preprocessed iris images are now data augmented to construct the larger dataset. The data augmented images are classified into either genuine or imposter images using a hybrid classification approach. The hybrid classification approach functions in two modes as training and testing. In this article, the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) is integrated with the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) classifier to enhance the recognition rate of the iris recognition system. The performance analysis of the proposed approach is shown in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, recognition rate, specificity, false-positive rate, and false-negative rate. The experimental results of the proposed iris recognition system stated in this article significantly outweigh other design methods

A Rare Variation in the Origin and Course of the Artery of Penis

Vascular variations of the penis are very rare. Awareness of its variations is of utmost importance to the urologists and radiologist dealing with the reconstruction or transplants of penis, erectile dysfunctions, and priapism. We report an extremely rare variation of the artery of the penis and discuss its clinical importance. The artery of the penis arose from a common arterial trunk from the left internal iliac artery. The common trunk also gave origin to the obturator and inferior vesical arteries. The artery of the penis coursed forward in the pelvis above the pelvic diaphragm and divided into deep and dorsal arteries of the penis just below the pubic symphysis. The internal pudendal artery was small and supplied the anal canal and musculature of the perineum. It also gave an artery to the bulb of the penis

Determination and expression of genes for resistance to blast (Magnaporthe oryza) in Basmati and non-Basmati indica rices (Oryza sativa L.)

One hundred and twenty two (122) genotypes of Basmati and non-Basmati Indica rice genotypes were evaluated for expression of resistance against blast disease under induced epiphytotic conditions. Disease severity (%) and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) parameters were used for screening the blast resistance. Only 13 genotypes expressed resistance against the blast disease. Nine genotypes carried blast resistance genes but, were susceptible under induced epiphytotic conditions. The rice genotype VLD-61 had no resistance genes; however, it expressed strong resistance against blast. An empirical breeding strategy for development of blast resistant improved varieties of rice was also discussed.Keywords: Magnaporthe oryzae, restriction digestion, molecular breeding, Basmati riceAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(26), pp. 4098-410