Human Patient Simulator based CBRN Casualty Management Training

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergency are becoming an impending threat. Effective preparedness needs to be raised for prompt response of CBRN incidents. During mass casualty incidents the strategy of the first responders must be beyond the triage, evacuation and medical first aid. Response process is advanced by the presence of CBRN contaminants and it becomes more complex when the rescue operations have to be performed immediately after the incident. Methodological approach is required to identify and decontaminate the CBRN victims. To manage CBRN emergencies, skill based training of appropriate degree is a key to the right level of preparedness. Intervention by first responders requires specialised inputs in knowledge, skills and aptitude. In India, CBRN defence training has traditionally been a military oriented domain, involving the quick reaction team, quick reaction medical team, rapid action medical team, etc. The training concept discussed in this study contemplates around standardised simulated CBRN casualty referred to as CBRN human patient simulator (HPS), which conceptualised in the division of CBRN Defence, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, Delhi. HPS provides an opportunity to learn about the health impact of CBRN contaminants and practise medical management. Simulation as training and planning tools, offers repeatability, controllability, possibility for evaluation and provides a platform to learn from costly mistakes. Group training and demonstrations conducted on the HPS offers an additive benefit to enhance performance as a team and also help to reduce errors. This paper provides the information on the potentials of simulation based training of emergency response teams in the management of CBRN victims.

Malaria in Pregnancy

Malaria infection during pregnancy is an important public health problem with substantial risks to both the mother and foetus. Pregnant women are the most vulnerable group of malaria‐associated morbidity and mortality. A pregnant woman has an increased risk (up to four times) of getting malaria and twice the chances of dying from malaria, compared to a non‐pregnant adult, becuase the immune system is partially suppressed during pregnancy. Malaria in pregnancy not only affects the mother but also has a dangerous sequel for the developing foetus, resulting in premature delivery or intrauterine growth retardation. Diagnosis of malaria in pregnancy remains a challenge due to the low parasite density and placental sequestration of Plasmodium falciparum. Thus, there is an urgent need for new diagnostic methods to detect malarial parasites in the pregnant women. Though antimalarial drugs are available, which can be safely given in the pregnancy, increasing drug resistance of malarial parasite may pose a big problem in the future. In this chapter, we review the burden of pregnancy‐associated malaria (PAM), its pathogenesis, diagnostic issues during pregnancy and recent guidelines for chemoprophylaxsis and treatment

Effect of Ceramic/Graphite Reinforcement on Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of Copper Metal Matrix Hybrid Composites

In the present investigation, effect of ceramic/graphite addition on the dry sliding wear behavior of copper-based hybrid composites have been assessed at three different normal loads of 9.81, 19.62 and 29.43 N. Wear test is performed by using pin-on-disc test rig at sliding speeds of 1.30 and 1.84 m/s under ambient conditions. The copper-based hybrid composites are successfully synthesized by using stir casting route. The samples are characterized by various techniques such as X-rays diffraction (XRD), high resolution-scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive analysis of X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX). Microstructural investigations reveal the presence of the WC, TiC and graphite particles in the hybrid composites. It is observed that graphite reinforced hybrid composite shows better wear resistance than hybrid composite without graphite addition. In all the cases cast copper specimen shows highest wear rate. The observed friction and wear behavior have been explained on the basis of the presence tribofilm on the worn surface. Microstructural characterization of the worn surface and wear debris show that the mechanism of wear is primarily adhesive and oxidative in case of cast copper, where as it is a mix of adhesive and abrasive wear in case of hybrid composites. Wear debris analysis also helps to understand the wear mechanism involved during dry sliding

ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTIDYSLIPIDEMIC POTENTIAL OF IPOMOEA BATATAS LEAVES IN VALIDATED DIABETIC ANIMAL MODELS

Objective: The present study was undertaken to investigate the antidiabetic potential of the leaves of Ipomoea batatas.Methods: The crude powder, 95% ethanolic, 50% ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Ipomoea batatas leaves were administered to normoglycemic and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats in a single dose study. The chloroform, butanol and aqueous fractions of aqueous extract were investigated for their antihyperglycemic on STZ-induced diabetic rats. Multiple dose study of an aqueous fraction was also done in STZ and neonatal STZ-induced diabetic rats. Further, the aqueous fraction was measured against the alpha glucosidase and aldose reductase enzymes, and glucose uptake in L6 myotubes.Results: The aqueous extract showed significant lowering of postprandial hyperglycemia of post sucrose loaded normal rats and significantly declined the blood glucose level of STZ-induced diabetic rats. The aqueous fraction at a single dose of 100 mg/kg b. w in comparison with chloroform and butanol fractions significantly lowered the blood glucose level of STZ-induced diabetic rats. The aqueous fraction in a multiple dose study were found to significantly improved the percent glycated hemoglobin (%HbA1c), fasting blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance (OGTT), serum insulin, lipid profile, liver and kidney parameters in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Marked improvement in OGTT and serum insulin levels was also found in neonatal STZ-induced diabetic rats. In vitro study, the aqueous fraction of I. batatas increased glucose uptake in L6 myotubes and inhibits the α-glucosidase and aldose reductase enzymes.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the significant antidiabetic activity of the I. batatas leaves by promoting insulin secretion, alpha glucosidase and aldose reductase enzyme inhibition.Â

Detection of Ascosphaera apis, causing chalkbrood disease in the colonies of European honey bee, Apis mellifera in West Bengal, India

The decline of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) populations is of great concern around the world. Among the several key drivers, dissemination of pests and pathogens is potential one. Chalkbrood is very common fungal disease of honey bee, caused due to Ascosphaera apis. In the present study, survey was conducted regarding the prevalence of diseases in A. mellifera beekeeping in Gangetic plains of West Bengal, India. Results confirmed the occurrence of chalkbrood disease in different apiaries, where dead and mummified bee larvae with cotton like chalky white or greyish-black covering were found as physical symptoms of the disease. From three surveyed apiaries, a total of 16 hives out of 113 hives were found to be infected with the diseases; and 46 frames out of 132 frames from the infected 16 hives were found to be affected by the pathogen. Microscopic examination reflected that nearly 87% of the samples collected from the infected frame were found to be positive for the spore of Ascosphaera. The fungus associated with the disease was isolated on Potato Dextrose Agar medium, pure cultured and its genomic DNA was isolated to perform PCR and based on 18s rDNA sequencing by using specific primer pair of ITS-1 and ITS-4, the fungus was identified as Ascosphaera apis. Keywords: 18s rDNA, Bees, Necrotrophs, Phylogen

#MeTooMA: Multi-Aspect Annotations of Tweets Related to the MeToo Movement

In this paper, we present a dataset containing 9,973 tweets related to the MeToo movement that were manually annotated for five different linguistic aspects: relevance, stance, hate speech, sarcasm, and dialogue acts. We present a detailed account of the data collection and annotation processes. The annotations have a very high inter-annotator agreement (0.79 to 0.93 k-alpha) due to the domain expertise of the annotators and clear annotation instructions. We analyze the data in terms of geographical distribution, label correlations, and keywords. Lastly, we present some potential use cases of this dataset. We expect this dataset would be of great interest to psycholinguists, socio-linguists, and computational linguists to study the discursive space of digitally mobilized social movements on sensitive issues like sexual harassment.Comment: Preprint of paper accepted at ICWSM 202

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