Anthelminthic activity of Asta Churna

Purpose: To determine the effect of Asta churna (an ayurvedic preparation of Impcops) on Indian earthworms. Methods: Asta churna (2.5 mg/mL and 5 mg/mL) were investigated for activity in Indian earthworms (Pheretima postuma) against piperazine citrate (15 mg/mL) and albendazole (20 mg/mL) as standard references and normal saline as control. The time to achieve paralysis of the worms was determined. Results: The two concentrations of Asta churna exhibited significant anthelminthic activity (p < 0.001) when compared with the piperazine citrate, albendazole and normal saline. Conclusion: Asta chuma has paralytic effect on Indian earthworms. Keywords: Asta churna, Pheretima postuma, Anthelminthic activit

International perspective on research priorities and outcome measures of importance in the care of children with acute exacerbations of asthma: A qualitative interview study

Background: Acute exacerbations of asthma are common in children, however, treatment decisions for severe exacerbations are challenging due to a lack of robust evidence. In order to create more robust research, a core set of outcome measures needs to be developed. In developing these outcomes, it is important to understand the views of clinicians who care for these children in particular, views that relate to outcome measures and research priorities. Methods: To determine the views of clinicians, a total of 26 semistructured interviews based on the theoretical domains framework were conducted. These included experienced clinicians from emergency, intensive care and inpatient paediatrics across 17 countries. The interviews were recorded, and later transcribed. All data analyses were conducted in Nvivo by using thematic analysis. Results: The length of stay in hospital and patient-focused parameters, such as timing to return to school and normal activity, were the most frequently highlighted outcome measures, with clinicians identifying the need to achieve a consensus on key core outcome measure sets. Most research questions focused on understanding the best treatment options, including the role of novel therapies and respiratory support. Conclusion: Our study provides an insight into what research questions and outcome measures clinicians view as important. In addition, information on how clinicians define asthma severity and measure treatment success will assist with methodological design in future trials. The current findings will be used in parallel with a further Paediatric Emergency Research Network study focusing on the child and family perspectives and will contribute to develop a core outcome set for future research

Nuclear quadrupole resonance at high pressures

A review with 117 refs

Synthesis and Anticonvulsant Activity of a New Series of 1,4-Dihydropyridine Derivatives

A series of 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives (1a–g) were prepared from three compounds condensation of Hantzsch synthesis. A new series of 2,2’-{[4-(aryl)-2,6-dimethyl-1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-diyl]dicarbonyl}dihydrazinecarbothioamide (2a-g) were prepared from compounds diethyl 4-(aryl)-2,6-dimethyl-1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-dicarboxylate (1a-g) reacted with thiosemicarbazide to give the corresponding compounds (2a-g) by hydrazinolysis method. The synthesized compounds were confirmed by IR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR, mass spectral and elemental analyses. The newly synthesized compounds (2a-g) were screened for anticonvulsant activity against in swiss albino rat. The test was evaluated by maximal electrode induced convulsion method. Synthesized compounds were used two (50 and 100 mg/kg) concentrations. Compounds (1a-g) were inactive while compounds (2a-g) have moderate anti-convulsant activity compared with standard phenytoin drug. The compound 2,2’-{[4-(furan-2-yl)-2,6-dimethyl-1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-diyl]dicarbonyl} dihydrazinecarbothioamide (2a) has highly active compared with other compound (2b-2g)

Random forest regression with hyper parameter tuning for medical insurance premium prediction

The proposed effort has the purpose of predicting an individuals insurance expenses also identifying people having medical insurance plans and clinical data, irrespective of their health concerns. A patient will require many types of health insurance. Regardless of the type of insurance coverage a person has, it is feasible to estimate their health insurance expenditures depends on the degree of critical care they get. The&nbsp; random forest&nbsp; Regression is one of the regressors used in this investigation. When the accuracies were compared, hyper parameter tuning was the most effective of all the approaches, with a 98 percent accuracy. Finally, the prediction fit will calculate the insurance expense of the user and calculate the insurance costs

GAP between knowledge and skills for the implementation of the ACCM/PALS septic shock guidelines in India: Is the bridge too far?

Objective: To determine whether physicians were aware of and had the skills to implement the American College of Critical Care Medicine/Pediatric Advanced Life Support Course septic shock protocol. Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Setting: Four academic institutions in Chennai, Manipal, Mangalore, and Trivandrum - cities representing the three southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala, respectively, between February and April 2006. Interventions: Pre and post lecture questions. They were evaluated using 11 questions testing knowledge and 10 questions testing their comfort level in performing interventions related to the initial resuscitation in septic shock. Measurement and Main Result: The ACCM/PALS sepsis guidelines were taught during the PALS course conducted in the four academic institutions. A total of 118 delegates participated, of whom 114 (97%) were pediatricians and four (3%) were anaesthetists. The overall mean number of correct responses for the 11 questions testing knowledge before and after the lecture was 2.1 and 4.07, respectively P=0.001(paired t test). Although, 42% of the respondents (n=50) were aware of the ACCM guidelines, 88% (n=104) did not adhere to it in their practice. A total of 86% (n=101) and 66% (n=78) did not feel comfortable titrating inotropes or intubating in the ED; 78% (n=92) and 67% (n=78), respectively felt that central venous access (CVA) and arterial pressure (AP) monitoring were unimportant in the management of fluid refractory shock. Of the physicians, 20% (n=24) had never intubated a patient, 78% (n=92) had not introduced a central venous catheter, and 76% (n=90) had never introduced an intra-arterial catheter. Conclusions: In view of the lack of skills and suboptimal knowledge, the ACCM/PALS sepsis guidelines may be inappropriate in its current format in the Indian setting. More emphasis needs to be placed on educating community pediatricians with a simpler clinical protocol, which has the potential to save many more children

Allelic association with ankylosing spondylitis fails to correlate with human leukocyte antigen B27 homodimer formation

Expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 is strongly associated with predisposition toward ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and other spondyloarthropathies. However, the exact involvement of HLA-B27 in disease initiation and progression remains unclear. The homodimer theory, which proposes that HLA-B27 heavy chains aberrantly form homodimers, is a central hypothesis that attempts to explain the role of HLA-B27 in disease pathogenesis. Here, we examined the ability of the eight most prevalent HLA-B27 allotypes (HLA-B*27:02 to HLA-B*27:09) to form homodimers. We observed that HLA-B*27:03, a disease-associated HLA-B27 subtype, showed a significantly reduced ability to form homodimers compared with all other allotypes, including the non-disease-associated/protective allotypes HLA-B*27:06 and HLA-B*27:09. We used X-ray crystallography and site-directed mutagenesis to unravel the molecular and structural mechanisms in HLA-B*27:03 that are responsible for its compromised ability to form homodimers. We show that polymorphism at position 59, which differentiates HLA-B*27:03 from all other allotypes, is responsible for its compromised ability to form homodimers. Indeed, histidine 59 in HLA-B*27:03 leads to a series of local conformational changes that act in concert to reduce the accessibility of the nearby cysteine 67, an essential amino acid residue for the formation of HLA-B27 homodimers. Considered together, the ability of both protective and disease-associated HLA-B27 allotypes to form homodimers and the failure of HLA-B*27:03 to form homodimers challenge the role of HLA-B27 homodimers in AS pathoetiology. Rather, this work implicates other features, such as peptide binding and antigen presentation, as pivotal mechanisms for disease pathogenesis