Comparison of relapse rates of depot and oral antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia

Introduction: Antipsychotics are the mainstay of treatment in schizophrenia. First-generation and second-generation antipsychotics are available as oral and depot formulations. The aim of this study was to compare the relapse rate in patients with schizophrenia treated with depot and oral antipsychotics. Methods: All patients diagnosed with schizophrenia under the Top End Mental Health Service in Darwin, Australia during a period of five years were included. Their medications and history of relapses were retrieved from electronic records. Mean relapses-per-month was calculated and compared using the independent t-test and ANOVA. Results and discussion: The study sample contained 193 patients; 137 were males. The mean relapses-per-month for oral formulations was significantly higher than for depot formulations. Second-generation antipsychotic depot formulations had significantly reduced mean relapses-permonth compared to oral second-generation formulations. The mean relapses-per-month for firstgeneration antipsychotics depot was not significantly different from first-generation depot formulations. First-generation antipsychotics depot formulations were significantly more effective than oral second-generation. Zuclopenthixol appeared to be the best first-generation antipsychotics depot compared to flupenazine and flupenthixol. First-generation antipsychotics depot formulations were equally effective as Second-generation antipsychotics depot formulations. Conclusion: Depot formulations overcome some of the adherence problems with oral therapy, and the resultant continuous therapy is effective in reducing relapse rates

The prevalence of Early Childhood Caries in 1-2 yrs olds in a semi-urban area of Sri Lanka

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>ECC remains a problem in both developed and developing countries and ECC has been considered to be present in epidemic proportions in the developing countries. The aetiology and associated factors of ECC should be studied adequately to overcome this health hazard. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of ECC in 1 to 2 years old children in some selected MOH areas (semi-urban) in the district of Colombo, Sri Lanka.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study was conducted as a cross sectional study. A total of 422 children aged 1-2 years were selected using systematic sampling technique in Maharagama, Piliyandala, Nugegoda and Boralesgamuwa MOH areas in Colombo district, Western province, Sri Lanka. The pre-test was done initially with 10 children aged 1 1/2 year olds.</p> <p>Prior to the clinical examination of each child, a questionnaire consisting questions regarding tooth brushing, dietary habits, breast and bottle feeding, long term medications(Sweetened medications taken more than 3 months), attending a dental clinic during pregnancy of mother and socio-economical status of the family was administered to mothers of those children. Sterile dental mouth mirrors were used to detect ECC in children.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of ECC of the whole sample of 410 children aged 1-2 years was 32.19% and the mean dmft was 2.01 and the mean dmfs was 3.83. From the children who had ECC 95% were untreated. There were significant relationships between dmft and long term use of medications (p < 0.000), intake of sugar with milk (p = 0.013), sweet consumption (p = 0.013), employment of mothers (p < 0.000) and visiting a dental clinic during pregnancy (p < 0.000).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study documents high prevalence and severity of ECC among 1-2 years old children in four selected MOH areas of Colombo district and caries in most of the children with ECC (95%) were untreated. Results reveal an urgent need to increase awareness among the public about ECC and institute preventive strategies.</p

SUCCESSFUL ACCLIMATIZATION OF IN-VITRO ROOTED STEM CUTTINGS OF CINNAMON (Cinnamomum verum Presl)

Hardening of regenerated plantlets for successful field transfer is consideredto be a major obstacle in clonal micro-propagation of cinnamon. In-vitroinduced roots are rarely functional, lack of root hairs, fragile and aregenerally damaged during transfer to the soil. Therefore, objectives of presentexperiments were to develop an appropriate acclimatization procedure and toselect a suitable potting media for successful field establishment of Cinnamon plantlets.In-vitro rooted stem cuttings were transferred in to four different pottingmedia of Soil, Coir dust, Sand: Coir dust - (1: 1) and Soil: Sand - (1: 1)Sealed containers with sterilized potting media were used to maintain &gt;80 %Relative humidity for 2 weeks and then gradually acclimatized to fieldconditions. Three different procedures (1) lid removed and kept in shade after2 weeks of transplanting (2) lid removed only at nights after 2 weeks oftransplanting, and (3) lid removed after 4 weeks of transplanting were used astreatments.At the end of 4th week, plantlets in coir dust medium showed the highestsurvival rate (87.5 %). Higher number of new leaf formation was observed incoir dust medium and overall appearance of the plantlets was very good.Most plantlets in soil medium were dead at the end of the 4th week, andremaining plantlets were very weak. Acclimatization procedure did notsignificantly affect on growth or overall appearance of plantlets. Resultsrevealed that coir dust medium provided with two weeks of humid conditionsis the best for successful acclimatization of in-vitro Cinnamon plantlets

GROWTH PERFORMANCES OF CASHEW NUT (Anacamium occidentale L) AND RANAWARA (Accasia auriculata L) UNDER DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SAUNITY

There are large extents of salt affected lands in Sri Lanka, which is estimated to be'223,000 hectares or about 3% of land area of the island, mainly in dry zone areas. Thisseverely affect the productivity of the agricultural lands. And selection of salt-toleranttreelcrop species is considered to be one of the alternatives to overcome this problem.Two separate pot experiments were conducted to study the effect of different salinitylevels on growth performances of cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L) and Ranawara(Aceasia aurieulata L) at the Faculty of Agriculture, Mapalana. Each tree speciesconsisted of eight treatments, which were differentiated, with different concentrations ofsalinity (i.e. 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20mmhos/cm). The experimental design for bothexperiments were Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with 4 replicates. One month oldplants raised in poly bags (10" x-Iz") were used to apply different treatments. 100 ml ofsaline water, which, was prepared by diluting sea water in different treatments wasapplied twice a week. Plant height and the dry matter yield of shoots and roots weremeasured at 3, 6, and 9 weeks after the treatment applicationThe results revealed that plant height, shoot and root biomass has decreased Significantlywith increasing levels of saline water up to 12mmhoslcm compared to the control wherenormal water (O.13mmhoslcm) is applied in cashew nut. Ranawara seems to be more salttolerant. At the early stage, shoot height. shoot weight and root weight significantlydecreased with increasing level of salinity but at latter stage they were not much affectedwith increasing level of salinity. Therefore Ranawara could be recommended as mediumsalt tolerant tree species while cashew nut is not much tolerant to salinity.

A Web Based Employee Management System

Employees are the backbone of any company. Often employee data such as personal details of employees, salary, leaves, and work allocations are managed using manual methods. These manual methods generate a lot of paperwork and make it complex to effectively manage the tasks. Most of the computerized systems proposed for employee management mainly focuses only on attendance management, leave management and salary management. This paper proposes a web-based Employee Management System solution to address the difficulties faced. The system will address the shortcomings of the existing systems and provide functions to manage employee data effectively. It will use trending technologies such as React JS, Node JS, Express JS, and MongoDB as the database which are faster and more user friendly compared to the technologies proposed in the literature. The system will use the concepts of distributed systems, client server architecture and show features of 3-tier architecture. The paper concludes that the proposed system addresses the shortcomings of the similar systems proposed in the literature but should be further improved by studying the subject area. Further research should be done to provide more features related to managing employee data and to provide a responsive design that can be accessed through mobile devices as well

IN-VITRO CALLUS FORMATION OF RED SANDALWOOD (Pterocarpus santalinus L.) AS AFFECTED BY EXPLANT TYPE AND DIFFERENT LEVELS OF 2,4-D AND BAP

Pterocarpus santalinus is a valuable medicinal plant, now included in red listof endangered plants under IUCN guidelines. Distribution of this plant in SriLanka is very limited and the local demand for ayurvedic purposes is stillunreached. As conventional propagation techniques are not satisfactory,possibilities in in-vitro techniques seem to be promising, and callus culture isone aspect that has to be studied. Leaf parts, cotyledon parts, root segments,inter-nodal segments, and nodal segments from in-vitro seedlings were usedas explants. 2,4-D and BAP were used separately in six differentconcentrations (1 mg/l - 6 mg/l) for callus initiation Full strength MS medium(Murashige and Skoog, 1962) was used with 30 g/l of sucrose and 8 g/l agaras the culture medium. Callus formation could be observed in every explant.However, large clumps of creamy white callus were obtained from nodalsegments. Callus formation in root segments was very poor and showedbrown color. In nodal segments, callus formation was started within twoweeks and large clumps of callus were observed while slight swellin~occurring on root segments, leaf parts and in cotyledon parts at the end of 41week. Callus formation was best when the culture medium was supplementedwith 3 mg/l of BAP. Though callus formation could be observed in 2,4-D,amount of callus formed was poor. Present studies revealed that MS mediumsupplemented with 3 mg/l BAP is ideal for callus induction in Pterocarpussantalinus and possibility of using nodal segments as initial explants

In vitro shoot tip culture of Red Sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus L.)

Red Sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus L.) is an endangered woody plant species of familyLeguminosae with high medicinal value. According to some assessments (Arunakumara et 01. =005)trees of this species are available in Southern parts of Sri Lanka. Ilowever seed propagation of redsandalwood has some constraints like low germination of seeds, dormancy of seeds. fungal growthinside the seed coat, scarcity of plants, seasonal fruit bearing habit of trees (Kumarasinghe et al ,2003). Therefore in vitro shoot tip culture can be applied as an alternative propagation technique forconservation and multiplication of Red sandalwood plants in Sri Lanka.Shoot tips were excised from field grown and plant house grown plants. Experiments were carriedout to identify proper surface steril ization procedures for explants and to identify proper establ ishmentmedia for sterilized explants. NaOCI (10.15.20%) with different exposure times (10. 15.20 minutes)were tested and Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Mccown woody plant (WPM)) media were used asestablishment media with and without activated charcoal (1 g/I). Completely Randomized Design (CRD)with twenty replicates was applied for the study.Results revealed that, usage of 10% NaOCI for 20 minutes exposure time showed highest survivalpercentage (100%) for shoot tips detected from plantlets grown in the plant house where contaminationwere controlled up to zero level. Promotion of auxiliary buds within two weeks after culture initiationand appearance of new leaves within a month were observed in survived cultures. For explantsdetected from field grown plants 10% NaOCI for 15 minutes exposure time showed 70% survivalwhere promotion of auxiliary buds within two weeks time and appearance of new leaves within amonth was observed. Among the two media tested both MS medium and WPM medium were wellsuited for culture establishment of plant house derived explants where 1.0 gr1 activated charcoal wasincorporated or not as an absorbent. However MS medium with 1.0 gl' activated charcoal was thebest medium for explants from field grown plants. Of well established explants, 10% showedadventitious root formation in MS charcoal free medium. Immature stem cuttings showed best growthperformances where semi hard wood stem cuttings showed enlargement of stem diameter and callusformation at cut ends.Further studies are needed to identify proper shoot proliferation and rooting media for establishedshoot tips of red sandalwood. Finally there is a need to identify a suitable 

In vitro shoot tip culture of Red Sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus L.)

Red Sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus L.) is an endangered woody plant species of familyLeguminosae with high medicinal value. According to some assessments (Arunakumara et 01. =005)trees of this species are available in Southern parts of Sri Lanka. Ilowever seed propagation of redsandalwood has some constraints like low germination of seeds, dormancy of seeds. fungal growthinside the seed coat, scarcity of plants, seasonal fruit bearing habit of trees (Kumarasinghe et al ,2003). Therefore in vitro shoot tip culture can be applied as an alternative propagation technique forconservation and multiplication of Red sandalwood plants in Sri Lanka.Shoot tips were excised from field grown and plant house grown plants. Experiments were carriedout to identify proper surface steril ization procedures for explants and to identify proper establ ishmentmedia for sterilized explants. NaOCI (10.15.20%) with different exposure times (10. 15.20 minutes)were tested and Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Mccown woody plant (WPM)) media were used asestablishment media with and without activated charcoal (1 g/I). Completely Randomized Design (CRD)with twenty replicates was applied for the study.Results revealed that, usage of 10% NaOCI for 20 minutes exposure time showed highest survivalpercentage (100%) for shoot tips detected from plantlets grown in the plant house where contaminationwere controlled up to zero level. Promotion of auxiliary buds within two weeks after culture initiationand appearance of new leaves within a month were observed in survived cultures. For explantsdetected from field grown plants 10% NaOCI for 15 minutes exposure time showed 70% survivalwhere promotion of auxiliary buds within two weeks time and appearance of new leaves within amonth was observed. Among the two media tested both MS medium and WPM medium were wellsuited for culture establishment of plant house derived explants where 1.0 gr1 activated charcoal wasincorporated or not as an absorbent. However MS medium with 1.0 gl' activated charcoal was thebest medium for explants from field grown plants. Of well established explants, 10% showedadventitious root formation in MS charcoal free medium. Immature stem cuttings showed best growthperformances where semi hard wood stem cuttings showed enlargement of stem diameter and callusformation at cut ends.Further studies are needed to identify proper shoot proliferation and rooting media for establishedshoot tips of red sandalwood. Finally there is a need to identify a suitable acclimatization procedurefor ill vitro derived plantlets to resume independent growth in the field

IN· VITRO PROPAGATION OF BLACK PEPPER (Piper nigrum)

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is an important spice crop among minor export crops. Inconventional vegetative propagation systems of black pepper, cuttings and seeds havebeen used. But these methods provide limited quantities of planting materials, and alsospread certain pests and diseases. These problems can be overcome by adopting apropagation method through tissue culture techniquesAll experiments were set up according to completely randomized design. The beststerilization was obtained in 0.1 % HgCb solution for 10 minutes immersion prior todissection of the final explants. Bud length was maximized (4.6 ±..0.84) after 8 weeks inWP medium supplemented with 2 mgll BA and I mgll Kn. The highest survival rate (78%) was observed, when surface sterilized in leaf sections of third leaf with 0.1 % HgCI2in 10 minutes followed by dipping in 90 % alcohol solution. MS medium supplementedwith 0 mgll Kn and I mgll 2,4- D was the most suitable medium for callus formation ofpepper leaf culture.According to the experiment results, 0.1 % HgCI2 with 10 minutes was best treatment forsurface sterilization of buds. For multiplication of pepper buds, 2 mgll BA and I mg/I Kncombination was superior to other treatments. When surface sterilized in leaf sections ofthird leaf with 0.1 %HgCI2 in 10 minutes and dipped in 90 %alcohol solution was bestfor pepper leaf culture and MS medium supplemented with 0 mg/I Kn and I mg/I 2,4- Dwas superior treatment for callus formation.