Insitu Remediation of Mercury Contaminated Sites

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Substance and Alcohol Abuse among College Students: Contributing Factors and Intervention Strategies

College and university students in many countries are at increased risk for heavy drinking, with serious immediate health risks (e.g. drink-driving and other substance use), and longer-term risks (e.g. alcohol dependence).  Certainly, alcohol consumption of college students has impact on the students themselves and also the college community in general, where the misuse of alcohol can lead to a wide variety of consequences, the most severe being alcohol abuse, dependence, and death. Alcohol use has been an issue of great ambivalence throughout the rich and long history of the Indian subcontinent. The behaviors and attitudes about alcohol use in India are very complex, contradictory and convoluted because of the many different influences in that history. The pattern of drinking in India has undergone a change from occasional & ritualistic use to being a social event The harmful use of alcohol is a particularly grave threat to men. It is the leading risk factor for death in males ages 15–59, mainly due to injuries, violence and cardiovascular diseases. Globally, 6.2% of all male deaths are attributable to alcohol, compared to 1.1% of female deaths. The rationale of this study is a step to acknowledge the pattern of alcohol use in the youngsters in order to take suitable measures to curb this evil. Keywords: Alcohol Abuse; College Students; Intervention Strategie

CARDIOPROTECTIVE POTENTIAL OF QUERCETIN AGAINST DIESEL OR PETROL EXHAUST NANOPARTICLE INDUCED TOXICITY: A PROSPECTIVE IN VITRO PHARMACOLOGICAL STUDY IN H9C2 CELLS

Objective: Phytochemicals are known to elicit potential antioxidant activity. This study examined the cardioprotective effects of quercetin against oxidative damage to rat cardiomyocyte cells (H9c2) after treatment with Diesel Exhaust Nanoparticles (DEPs) or Petrol Exhaust Nanoparticles (PEPs). Methods: Cardiomyocyte cells were exposed to DEPs or PEPs alone and in a combination with quercetin for 24 h. Results: Results showed that quercetin had no lethal effect on H9c2 cells up to a concentration of 1.0 μg/ml. Exposure to DEPs (4.0 μg/ml) or PEPs (10.0 μg/ml) induced cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, and inflammation (p<0.05). It also provoked lipid peroxidation by an increase in MDA and a decrease in SOD activity and glutathione activity (p<0.05). Simultaneous addition of quercetin restored these parameters to near normal. Conclusion: These results thus specify that quercetin plays a protective role in cardiac cells exposed to DEPs and PEPs

Video Mining using LIM Based Clustering and Self Organizing Maps

AbstractVideo mining has grown as an energetic research area and given incremental concentration in recent years due to impressive and rapid raise in the volume of digital video databases. The aim of this research work is to find out new objects in videos. This work proposes a novel approach for video mining using LIM based clustering technique and self organizing maps to recognize novelty in the frames of video sequence. The proposed work is designed and implemented on MATLAB. It is tested with the sample videos and provides promising results. And it is suitable for day to day video mining applications and object detection systems including remote video surveillance in defense for national and international border tracking

Students’ Perception towards Online Learning across Multiple Disciplinary Courses in India—A Qualitative Analysis

Online learning has become essential to the teaching and learning approach during the pandemic. Due to its enormous benefits, online or e-learning can be sustained. The acceptability of online or e-learning depends on the student’s perception and the availability of infrastructure. Data from various streams and age groups has been collected from students in different institutions. After collecting the data, this research incorporates descriptive statistics for a thorough analysis and utilizes the Chi-square test to provide scientific evidence. This study finds that the majority of final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students support online education. The student’s economic status affects their preference for online or e-learning. Having a smart device and internet access also influence the decision to pursue online or e-learning. Gender is positively associated with access to Internet facilities and has a cascading effect on preferences for online or e-learning. Female students prefer online classes but require additional internet resources. Higher education institutions could enhance their online course offerings by targeting specific groups, such as female students for postgraduate programs, if they could better understand their preferences. Even though some existing studies in the literature have examined the Indian scenario to understand the factors influencing the adoption of online education, none of these studies have considered the fundamental need for online or e-learning. Moreover, the preferences were not studied based on different demographics. This research work has collected and utilized data from various educational disciplines across multiple institutes, marking the first endeavor of its kind in the literature

Clinical Profile of Patients with Dengue Fever and a Scoring System to Assess its Outcome

INTRODUCTION: Dengue is a common viral infection worldwide. Infact, the most common mosquito borne arboviral infection is Dengue, putting half of the world’s population at risk. The disease manifest from a self limiting fever to death. Most deaths are due to shock from plasma leakage. Any test that predicts the occurrence of plasma leakage helps in reducing morbidity and mortality. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of the study is to study the clinical and laboratory profile of patients with dengue fever with validation of a scoring system to assess its outcome. METHODS: Based on a similar study, the sample size was calculated as 172 and study period was from May 2018 to May 2019. Patients with acute febrile illness duration of 1-7 days, with IgM dengue positive and age > 13 years. After obtaining ethical committee clearance, the study was conducted at Stanley hospital’s wards and after informed consent, patients details noted. Score attempted with platelets, hemtocrit, SGOT, Serum albumin and whether patients are progress to serositis / shock are looked upon and then any correlation with the score attempted. RESULTS: The study’s population comprised mostly of younger patients with 58% of people under twenty eight years of age. Dengue fever occurred twice more common in men than in women. Of the symptoms discussed, the majority in our study were fever (all), myalgia (8 %), headache (5.9%) and G.I symptoms (8%). Around 6% of patients in our study have comorbidities. The co-morbidities found were diabetes, hypertension, COPD among few others. Out of all patients taken in for the study, only around ten percent have their systolic BP of less than 90 mmHg on admission. Around 15% of people had tachycardia and this also correlates well with the nearly thirty percent of patients having fever on admission.19% had leukopenia with total leukocytes count of less than 4000 on admission. Around half of the patients had thrombocytopenia of < 50,000/cu.mm of platelets. On admission, nearly 9% had haematocrit of more than 45. 66% had elevated SGOT levels. Serum albumin is low (<3.5) in about one fifth of patients. Three patients have proteinuria (2+ in dipstick) while all others have normal urine output. Similarly, three patients have glycosuria. Three patients have hematuria. Hepatomegaly was observed in about 6% of people on admission. Splenomegaly was observed in almost one fifth of people. Pleural effusion was present in almost 5 %, ascites in almost 15% of people and blood transfusion was done in 13% percent of patients. The modified Dengue score was calculated and majority of patients (79.3%) have score of less than or equal to 2. The chances of ascites increase as the Dengue score increases (significant p-value). LIMITATIONS: Sample size is small to extrapolate the results to the population and the patient variables are considered on day of admission for score estimation irrespective of the day of fever. Study was done at a tertiary care hospital, which may alter the course of illness due to early intervention. CONCLUSION: From this study we can conclude that, dengue is more common in young men and early admission reduces mortality. Leukopenia is common in dengue infection and thrombocytopenia is common. In-spite of thrombocytopenia, adequate fluid resuscitation seems to reduce the incidence of bleeding. Dengue score predicts ascites occurrence but does not predict with sufficient satisfaction the occurrence of pleural effusion, and the need for ICU care

IN VITRO EVALUATION OF CYTOTOXICITY, OXIDATIVE STRESS, DNA DAMAGE AND INFLAMMATION INDUCED BY DIESEL EXHAUST PARTICLES IN HUMAN A549 LUNG CELLS AND MURINE RAW 264.7 MACROPHAGES

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the in vitro oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, inflammation and DNA damage induced by Diesel Exhaust Particles (DEPs). Methods: Alveolar macrophages (murine RAW 264.7 cells) and cultured type II epithelium cells (human A549 lung cells) were exposed to various concentrations of Diesel Exhaust Particles for 24 h. The experiment was evaluated for cell viability, oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, inflammation and DNA damage parameters. Results: The results showed that overall both cell lines had similar patterns in response to the oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, inflammation and DNA damage parameters induced by DEPs. Vehicle control showed no changes compared to the control. Both cells showed significant changes at the dose of 20 μg/mL and significant changes were found in cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, DNA damage and inflammation indexes. Conclusion: Hence, exposure to DEPs resulted in doseâ€dependent toxicity in cultured A549 cells and RAW264.7cells and was closely correlated to increased inflammation and oxidative stress

Comparison of 0.1 % Bupivacaine and 2 mcg /ml Fentanyl with 0.1 % Ropivacaine and 2 mcg /ml Fentanyl for Labour analgesia

BACKGROUND : Epidural technique forms an important technique in administration of labour analgesia. Analgesia for labour gives pain free delivery and reduces the stress response due to labour pain and patient satisfaction. Bupivacaine was the routinely used local anaesthetic for labour analgesia. But it produces motor blockade which prevents patient from ambulation. Ropivacaine which is recently used provides ambulatory analgesia. The opiods added to the local anaesthetic provides increased duration of analgesia, enhanced intensity of analgesia and decreases the dose of local anaesthetic. AIM : This study was conducted to compare analgesic efficacy, onset of action, total dose of anaesthetic required, intensity of motor blockade and hemodynamic stability in patients who have been given lumbar epidural analgesia for normal vaginal delivery. METHODOLOGY : 50 ASA physical status II parturient, aged 20 – 40 years who received epidural labour analgesia for delivery were included in the study. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups Group B (n = 25) & Group R (n = 25). Epidural technique was standardised. Efficacy of bupivacaine and fentanyl with ropivacaine and fentanyl for labour analgesia were compared between the two groups. RESULTS : The onset of action was faster with bupivacaine when compared to ropivacaine. The total volume of local anaesthetic required was higher with ropivacaine when compared to bupivacaine. The level of motor blockade produced was minimal with ropivacaine when compared to bupivacaine. There was no undue prolongation in duration of labour and the incidence of instrumental delivery were comparable between the groups. The patient satisfaction score, APGAR SCORE, demographic and hemodynamic parameters were comparable between the groups. CONCLUSION : Bupivacaine and Ropivacaine provides equivalent analgesia for labour without compromising maternal safety and neonatal outcome

EXTRACTION AND ISOLATION OF FLAVONOID QUERCETIN FROM THE LEAVES OF TRIGONELLA FOENUM-GRAECUM AND THEIR ANTI-OXIDANT ACTIVITY

Objective: The present study was designed for isolation of bioactive flavonoid molecule quercetin from the leaves of Trigonella foenum-graecum and their subsequent characterization. Methods: Crude extracts of fenugreek were prepared using various solvents such as hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol. The plant extracts were subjected for photochemical analysis and total flavonoid content. The extracts were then subjected to column chromatography followed by TLC. The isolated compound was subjected to FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectroscopy and their free radical scavenging activity was studied.Results: The ethanol extract showed the presence of higher flavonoid content when compared with other solvent extracts. The ethanol extract was subjected to fractionalization by column chromatography. The eluted fractions were run in TLC mobile phase with the different solvent ratio. The fractions showed Rf value equal to standard quercetin in TLC were combined and crystallized. The characterization techniques confirmed that the isolated compound was found to be quercetin. The free radical scavenging activity suggests that the isolated compound quercetin could act as a potent source of antioxidants.Conclusion: The flavonoid quercetin was isolated effectively from the leaves of Trigonella foenum-graecum and their antioxidant activity was studied.Keywords: Antioxidant activity, DPPH, Flavonoids, NMR, Querceti