Retrodictive mentalising abilities of individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the retrodictive mentalising abilities (a kind of backwards inference from a mental state to its causal antecedent in order to make sense of others’ behaviours) of people with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A new experimental paradigm was developed in order to examine people’s ability to make sense of others’ behaviours in a way that closely resembles the intricacies of real-world settings. The stimuli utilised in this thesis portrayed people’s spontaneous and genuine responses during four specific events (scenarios). People were told a joke in the Joke scenario whereas in the Story scenario the researcher related a series of unfortunate mishaps that she experienced earlier in the day. In the Compliments scenario, people were told a series of compliments while in the Waiting scenario the researcher performed irrelevant tasks during an experiment whilst the person was kept waiting. Participants viewed brief videoclips of these behavioural responses and were asked to determine which event had previously occurred to the people in the videoclips. Participants eye movements were recorded to ascertain the visual strategies used. Typically developing individuals successfully inferred the events that occurred by viewing brief samples of behavioural reactions of typically developing individuals (Experiment 1). It was found that scenario experienced did not impact how targets self-reported their level of empathic ability (Experiment 2). While people with ASD were able to infer people’s behavioural responses, their performance on the task was inferior as compared to typically developing individuals (Experiment 3). Participants varied their gaze strategies depending on the event experienced by the people in the videoclips and they had a tendency to focus more on the mouth compared to the eye region of the face (Experiment 1 and 3). When participants viewed videoclips of behavioural responses of people with and without ASD to the same events, they were more successful at inferring the reactions to the events which occurred when viewing videoclips of neurotypical individuals as opposed to individuals with ASD (Experiment 4). Furthermore, participants were unable to identify the reactions to two of the four events when viewing videoclips of people with ASD

FACTORS INFLUENCING COMPLIANCE TO THERAPEUTIC REGIMEN AMONG PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSION

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to identify the level of compliance to therapeutic regimen, assess the factors promoting and interfering compliance, and to find the association between level of compliance and factors influencing it in patients with hypertension in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Kochi, with a view to develop an information booklet.Methods: Nonprobability convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from 150 individuals attending outpatient departments. Data on compliance were assessed through interview using standardized Hill And Bone High Blood Pressure Compliance. Scale and factors promoting and interfering compliance were assessed using self-developed semi-structured questionnaire.Results: Only 55 (36.7%) had good compliance, while 52 (34.7%) had average and 43 (28.7%) had poor compliance to anti-hypertensive therapeutic regimen. The major factors promoting compliance were found as patient-prescriber relationship 146 (97.3%), family support 133 (88.7%), motivation 125 (83.3%), communication with healthcare providers 122 (81.3%), health literacy 104 (69.3%), and patient satisfaction 75 (50%). The factors interfering with compliance were lack of self-esteem 136 (90.7%), long-term adherence 129 (86%), misconceptions and erroneous beliefs 122 (81.3%), cost of therapy and income 100 (80%), forgetfulness 107 (71.3%), difficulty in adjustment to dietary change 82 (54.7%), and fear of side effects 70 (50%). A significant association between the level of compliance and factors promoting and interfering with compliance to therapeutic regimen (p<0.01) was noted. Level of compliance with therapeutic regimen was found to be lower in patients with associated comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus (c2=9.52, p<0.01) and coronary artery disease (c2=6.737, p<0.05).Conclusion: The study concludes the significance of developing systems to tack and ensure compliance to therapy among hypertensives with a focus on factors promoting compliance not only from the patient perspective but also from the perspective of family and society

Standardization and evaluation of Ayurvedic Medicines - Needs

Internationally there is an emerging interest to adopt and study the Ayurvedic medicines. To exploit its potentials to bring out the therapeutic approaches available in the oldest system of medicines and to put Ayurvedic products from our Natural heritage to National and international healthcare program with competence in the Global Healthcare market, there is extreme need of generating evidential data. The Ayurvedic products like pharmaceuticals products need to be standardized and evaluate with application of reliable evaluatory methods from Modern sciences. A complete literature review on the basis of systematic capture from diverse sources is extremely essential prior to designing pre-clinical and clinical studies. Authenticated and standardized raw materials need to be utilized to lead a quality product. Phytochemical standardization and development of qualitative parameters with the various analytical techniques is also essentials for assurance of quality of single or polyherbal formulations. In order to established reasonable safety of Ayurvedic therapeutics in clinical trials, toxicity studies are of important concerns. To explore effective dosages to be employed for clinical trials for the formulations under evaluations or to demonstrate new phramcological activities of already known medicinal plants or discovery of new natural prodcuts, it becomes obvious to conduct Phyto-phamacological evaluation in fairly reliable animals models. To survive in Global market, clinical research in compliance with internationally acceptable guidelines has to be conducted. All these above ideas are to develop a stable, viable, safe and efficacious Ayurvedic product to the application of Ayurvedic and modern research methodologies

A comparative study on dengue and malaria infections and analysis on the prevalence of co-infection from a rural tertiary care hospital

Background: To compare dengue fever and malaria infection cases from a rural tertiary care hospital.Methods: Samples from January 2017 to February 2018 which had come to the Department of Microbiology at East Point College of Medical Science and Research Centre were included in the study. Serological diagnosis of dengue was done using the rapid dengue day 1 test which detects NS1, IgM and IgG. This test can be performed using serum, plasma or whole blood. Malarial parasites were identified by peripheral smear for malaria by Leishman’s stain and Jaswant Singh Battacharji (JSB) stain, rapid tests were performed by using advantage mal card, which detects plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax by using human whole blood.Results: Monthly analysis is done for dengue samples and malaria samples were done during January 2017 to February 2018. Positive samples are then analysed according to NS1 positive cases, IgM positive cases, IgG positive cases, NS1 and IgM combined cases, NS1 and IgG combined cases and IgM and IgG combined cases for dengue. In case of malaria vivax and falciparum cases were compared. Samples are then compared among different age groups. Under 15 age- group there were 32 positive cases of NS1, 1 case of IgM and IgG combined positive and 1 case of P. falciparum infection. In 16-50 age-group 244 cases were dengue NS1 positive, 1 case positive for NS1 and IgM combined, 1 case for NS1 and IgG combined, 5 cases for IgM and IgG combined, 11 cases of P. vivax and 3 cases of P. falciparum. Above 50 age-group had 27 NS1 positive cases and 1 case of IgM and IgG combined. NS1 and Plasmodium vivax species positives were more from dengue and malaria infection.Conclusions: From July 2017 to October 2017 dengue and malaria cases were drastically increased. Malariacases drops from November to December 2017 and again raised from January to February 2018, which shows seasonal variations. So, we conclude that viral and parasitic infection mainly occurs in July to September months and has to be ruled by proper clinical diagnosis

In Silico, In Vitro and In Vivo Hepatoprotective Activity of Caryota Urens L.Flowers Against Ethanol Induced Livertoxicity Using Rats

Liver is one of the most important organs in the human body. It plays a supreme role in the metabolism of xenobiotics, detoxification and excretion of many endogenous and exogenous compounds. However, liver is one of the most frequently injured organs in the body. A number of hepatotoxins such as viruses, bacteria, chemicals, medicines and alcohol target the liver and cause liver injury. The magnitude of liver hepatotoxins is generally measured by the levels of serum enzyme biomarkers and antioxidants. These antioxidants are rich in natural sources of drugs, especially plants. Natural remedies from traditional plants and their derivatives are still used all over the world in one from another as they are effective and safe alternate treatments for hepatotoxicity. In this aspect, plants that were chosen for the study are the flowers of Caryota urens L. The study investigated the in silico, in vitro and in vivo hepatoprotective activities of flowers Caryota urens L. Phytochemical screening of various plant extracts viz, aqueous and ethanol was carried out. In vitro hepatoprotective activity was based on the protection of liver cells from ethanol cytotoxicity in MTT assay. The aqueous extract of Caryota urens L showed good activity than ethanolic extract. In vivo hepatoprotective activity of various extracts of the plant at two different doses (lower and higher) was determined. AECU and EECU at doses of 100mg/kg and 200mg/kg possessed significant increasing (P<0.01) hepatoprotective activity. The results of the present study revealed that the AECU and EECU can protect the liver in a dose dependent manner from damaging effects of ethanol by considerably decreasing the serum marker enzymes. The decreased serum levels of these enzymes were further accompanied by the improvement of liver histology in AESA and EESA at higher doses (200mg/kg) which remarkably exhibited the hepatoprotective effect of flowers Caryota urens L. The presence of active constituents (flavonoids, tannins, triterpenoids and phenolics) in these plants might be responsible for the hepatoprotective activity. Therefore, AECU and EECU at high dose (200mg/kg) proposed to protect the liver against ethanol-induced oxidative damage in rats. The in vivo hepatoprotective properties of the plants can consequently propose a liver protection to the population whoever consumes it and prevent liver damage

Morphometry and length-weight relationship of Coilia dussumieri, Valenciennes, 1848 from Mumbai waters

Coilia dussumieri Valenciennes, 1848 a component of 'dol' net fishery forms an important pelagic resource along northwest coast of India. The present communication deals with morphometry and length-weight relationship of this species along Mumbai coast. Morphometric study showed a positive correlation among the compared characters. The length-weight relationship for the species from Mumbai coast was found to be W=0.017L super(2.4223)

Positive Solutions for Fractional p- Laplace Semipositone Problem with Superlinear Growth

We consider a semipositone problem involving the fractional $p$ Laplace operator of the form \begin{equation*} \begin{aligned} (-\Delta)_p^s u &=\mu( u^{r}-1) \text{ in } \Omega,\\ u &>0 \text{ in }\Omega,\\ u &=0 \text{ on }\Omega^{c}, \end{aligned} \end{equation*} where $\Omega$ is a smooth bounded convex domain in $\mathbb{R}^N$, $p-1<r<p^{*}_{s}-1$, where $p_s^{*}:=\frac{Np}{N-ps}$, and $\mu$ is a positive parameter. We study the behaviour of the barrier function under the fractional $p$-Laplacian and use this information to prove the existence of a positive solution for small $\mu$ using degree theory. Additionally, the paper explores the existence of a ground state positive solution for a multiparameter semipositone problem with critical growth using variational arguments.Comment: 35 pages, 0 figure

Retrodictive mentalising abilities of individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the retrodictive mentalising abilities (a kind of backwards inference from a mental state to its causal antecedent in order to make sense of others’ behaviours) of people with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A new experimental paradigm was developed in order to examine people’s ability to make sense of others’ behaviours in a way that closely resembles the intricacies of real-world settings. The stimuli utilised in this thesis portrayed people’s spontaneous and genuine responses during four specific events (scenarios). People were told a joke in the Joke scenario whereas in the Story scenario the researcher related a series of unfortunate mishaps that she experienced earlier in the day. In the Compliments scenario, people were told a series of compliments while in the Waiting scenario the researcher performed irrelevant tasks during an experiment whilst the person was kept waiting. Participants viewed brief videoclips of these behavioural responses and were asked to determine which event had previously occurred to the people in the videoclips. Participants eye movements were recorded to ascertain the visual strategies used. Typically developing individuals successfully inferred the events that occurred by viewing brief samples of behavioural reactions of typically developing individuals (Experiment 1). It was found that scenario experienced did not impact how targets self-reported their level of empathic ability (Experiment 2). While people with ASD were able to infer people’s behavioural responses, their performance on the task was inferior as compared to typically developing individuals (Experiment 3). Participants varied their gaze strategies depending on the event experienced by the people in the videoclips and they had a tendency to focus more on the mouth compared to the eye region of the face (Experiment 1 and 3). When participants viewed videoclips of behavioural responses of people with and without ASD to the same events, they were more successful at inferring the reactions to the events which occurred when viewing videoclips of neurotypical individuals as opposed to individuals with ASD (Experiment 4). Furthermore, participants were unable to identify the reactions to two of the four events when viewing videoclips of people with ASD