Bayes Reliability Measures of Lognormal and Inverse Gaussian Distributions under ML-II e-contaminated Class of Prior Distributions

ML-II e-contaminated class of priors are employed to study the sensitivity of Bayes reliability measures for a lognormal (LN) distribution and inverse Gaussian (IG) distribution to mis-specification in the prior is employed. The numerical illustrations suggest that reliability measures of both the distributions are not sensitive to moderate amount of mis-specification in prior distributions belonging to the class of ML-II e-contaminated.Defence Science Journal, 2010, 60(4), pp.442-450, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.60.48

Cyto-histopathological correlation of thyroid lesions

Background: Thyroid is a frequent site of disease in human body. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a rapid, efficient, inexpensive and safe diagnostic method in these cases. FNAC has some limitations, particularly limited to representatives of samples and exact typing of benign and malignant neoplastic lesions. Thus, FNAC alone may not give a confirmative diagnosis regarding few thyroid lesions. Hence, histopathological study has been the standard technique for the diagnosis of thyroid lesions. Objectives were to study cytomorphological features of thyroid enlargement and palpable lesions of thyroid by FNAC, to correlate cytomorphological features of thyroid lesions with Histopathological features wherever possible and to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of FNAC of thyroid lesions.Methods: In the present study, 385 cases of thyroid FNA’s, have been analyzed and cyto-histopathological correlation has been interpreted wherever available.Results: In present study sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive, negative predictive value and accuracy of FNAC was found out be 92.31%, 97.01%, 85.71%, 98.48% and 96.25%.Conclusions:Fine needle aspiration cytology is a simple reliable and cost effective technique without complications. This can be used as safe outpatient procedure with minimal discomfort to the patient.

A Comparative Study on the Effects of Stair Climbing Exercise Versus Static Cycling on Cardio Respiratory Response among House Managers

BACK GROUND: It is observed that the cardio respiratory responses of the house managers are poor due to sedentary life style and lack of physical workouts. This study is conducted to assess the effect of the stair climbing exercises versus static cycling exercises on the cardio respiratory response (heart rate) in sedentary house managers who scored below average scores in step test. AIM OF THE STUDY: To compare the effectiveness of stair climbing exercises and static cycling exercises on improving cardiorespiratory responses in sedentary house managers. OBJECTIVES: 1. To evaluate the effect of stair climbing exercises on cardiorespiratory responses in sedentary house managers. 2. To evaluate the effect of static cycling exercises on cardiorespiratory responses in sedentary house managers. 3. To compare the effect of stair climbing exercises and static cycling exercises on cardiorespiratory responses in sedentary house managers. METHODOLOGY: STUDY DESIGN: Comparative study STUDY SETTING: The study was conducted in the gym and the public access stairs of residential apartments. POPULATION OF STUDY: House managers of age group of 36 to 45 years. SAMPLE SIZE: 40 house managers with sedentary life style. STUDY SAMPLING TECHNIQUE: Simple Random Sampling. STUDY DURATION: The duration of study was 6 weeks. SELECTION CRITERIA: Inclusion Criteria: • Sedentary life style house managers. • Age group 36-45 years. • Step test Score of less than below average (115-120 beats per minute). Exclusion Criteria: • History of cardio respiratory diseases. • Muscular skeletal injury. • Working women. • On regular exercise. • Any systemic illness that may affect the study. MATERIAL: • Stop watch. • 12 inch step. • Stethoscope. • Sphygmomanometer. • Static Cycle. • Metronome. • Consent form. • Data collection sheet. RESULTS: The mean and standard deviations of the two groups A and B have been shown in table 3 to 6. Table 3 shows the pre test comparision of mean and standard deviations of the two groups A and B shows "t" value of 0.4391, the two-tailed P value equals 0.6630. Table 4 shows the post test comparision of mean and standard deviations of the two groups A and B shows "t" value of 4.2873, the two-tailed P value equals 0.0001** which was statistically significant. Group “A” Pre test & post test values of Step Test is tabulated in Table 5, which shows “t” value of 27.0150 and p value of 0.0001 which is statistically very significant Group “B” Pre test & post test values of Step Test is tabulated in Table 6, which shows “t” value of 15.6925 and p value of 0.0001 which is statistically very significant. CONCLUSION: It is proved that stair climbing exercises are effective in altering the cardio respiratory responses among house managers. It is proved that static cycling exercises are effective in altering the cardio respiratory responses among house managers. On comparison of the two types of exercises the stair climbing seems more effective over static cycling with a significant reduction in heart rate after step test. From the above results, it can be rightly concluded that stair climbing and static cycling are both effective in altering the cardiac responses and stair climbing is more effective than static cycling in altering the cardiorespiratory responses among house managers

Physical Activity and Hippocampal Sub-Region Structure in Older Adults with Memory Complaints.

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) plays a major role in maintaining cognition in older adults. PA has been shown to be correlated with total hippocampal volume, a memory-critical region within the medial temporal lobe (MTL). However, research on associations between PA and MTL sub-region integrity is limited.ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between PA, MTL thickness, and its sub-regions, and cognitive function in non-demented older adults with memory complaints.MethodsTwenty-nine subjects aged ≥60 years, with memory complaints were recruited for this cross-sectional study. PA was tracked for 7 days using accelerometers, and average number of steps/day determined. Subjects were categorized into two groups: those who walked ≤4000 steps/day (lower PA) and those with >4000 steps/day (higher PA). Subjects received neuropsychological testing and 3T MRI scans. Nonparametric ANCOVAs controlling for age examined differences between the two groups.ResultsTwenty-six subjects aged 72.7(8.1) years completed the study. The higher PA group (n = 13) had thicker fusiform gyrus (median difference = 0.11 mm, effect size (ES) = 1.43, p = 0.001) and parahippocampal cortex (median difference = 0.12 mm, ES = 0.93, p = 0.04) compared to the lower PA group. The higher PA group also exhibited superior performance in attention and information-processing speed (median difference = 0.90, ES = 1.61, p = 0.003) and executive functioning (median difference = 0.97, ES = 1.24, p = 0.05). Memory recall was not significantly different between the two groups.ConclusionOlder non-demented individuals complaining of memory loss who walked >4000 steps each day had thicker MTL sub-regions and better cognitive functioning than those who walked ≤4000 steps. Future studies should include longitudinal analyses and explore mechanisms mediating hippocampal related atrophy

Prescribing pattern and adverse drug reactions monitoring in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory arthritis which requires lifelong treatment to prevent the damage to joints and to maintain day to day functioning of patients. All the drugs used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis show significant toxicity and hence it is very important that their use require regular monitoring for adverse reactions. The present study is designed to estimate the prescribing pattern and the occurrence of adverse drug reactions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted from July 2014 to September 2014 in rheumatology outpatient department.75 patients who fulfilled the study criteria were observed for 3 months. Their prescriptions were collected and analysed. The CSDCO reporting forms were used for the collection of adverse drug reactions. Causality assessment was done by using WHO-UMC scoring system and severity assessment by modified Hartwig and Siegel scale.Results: The study group consists of 85.6 % female. Majority of them were in age group 40-49 years. Average number of drugs per prescription was 4.97.Out of 75 patients, 57.33% were on single DMARD, and 33.33% required 2 DMARDs and 9.33% were prescribed 3 DMARDs. A total of 64 adverse drug reactions were reported out of which 29.6% was due to glucocorticoids, 25% was due to the use of NSAIDS and steroids. Chloroquine maculopathy occurred in 2 patients and elevated liver enzymes occurred in 6 patients due to methotrexate which necessitated DMARD withdrawal. Eight percent of the ADRs were severe.Conclusions: Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is based on DMARDs and glucocorticoids where it is difficult to prevent the occurrence of ADRs. Consistent monitoring of therapy is needed for early recognition of ADRs and prompt action

Android application development for identifying maize infested with fall armyworms with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Integrated proposed pest management (TNAU IPM) capsules

Several pests and diseases wreak havoc on maize crops worldwide. Novel and rapid methods for detecting pests and diseases in real-time will make monitoring them and designing effective management measures easier. In the recent past, maize has been imperilled by fall armyworms (Spodoptera frugiperda), which have caused substantial yield losses in maize. This study aimed to create an Android mobile application via  DCNN (Deep Convolutional Neural Network)-based AI pest detection system for maize producers. Everyone benefits from the deployment of these CNN models on mobile phones, especially farmers and agricultural extension professionals because it makes them more accessible. Automatic diagnosis of plant pest infestations from captured images through computer vision and artificial intelligence research is feasible for technological advancements. Therefore, early detection of maize fall armyworm (FAW) infestation and providing relevant recommendations in maize could result in intensified maize crop yields. . An Android mobile application was created to identify fall armyworm infection in maize and included the recommendations given by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University proposed Integrated Pest Management (TNAU IPM ) capsules in the mobile app on as to how to deal with such a problem. Digital and novel technology was chosen to address these issues in maize. Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) and transfer learning have recently moved into the realm of just-in-time crop pest infestation detection, following their successful use in a variety of fields. The algorithm accurately detects FAW (S. frugiperda) infected areas on maize with 98.47% training accuracy and 93.47% validation accuracy

Effect of Seed Priming with Some Plant Leaf Extract on Seedling Growth Characteristics and Root Rot Disease in Tomato

Tomato is one of the important vegetable crops. The problem of seedling establishment is found in tomato due to several soil borne diseases. One of them is root rot caused by Fusarium oxysproum. There are many chemical methods available to control this disease, but use of chemicals deplete the soil micro-environment and causes soil and water pollution and also do not fit within the framework of ‘Organic farming’. Seed priming with certain phytochemicals may be an economic and ecofriendly alternative to such chemicals. In present study we primed tomato seeds with leaf extract of six different plants (White musale, Periwinkle, Neem, Wood apple, Lantana and White cedar). Different leaf extracts of dose of 2% was taken independently for seed priming. We found that priming with White musale, Periwinkle, Neem and wood apple leaf extract had an improvement in different seed and seedling growth parameters in presence of pathogen. Priming with Lantana and white cedar leaf extract showed a reduction in some of the parameters that may be due to allelopathic nature of these plants. Seed priming with leaf extract of Wood apple exhibited maximum survival rate (76.50 %) followed by Neem (68.46 %) and White Musale (52.60 %)

Artificial intelligence-powered expert system model for identifying fall armyworm infestation in maize (Zea mays L.)

Maize (Zea mays L) is one of the most saleable cereal crops grown worldwide and a dominant staple food in many developing countries. The severe outbreak of fall armyworm in maize causes massive yield loss. Modern technologies, including smartphones, can assist in detecting recognising the fall armyworm infestation in maize. The objective of this study was to develop an automated Artificial Intelligence Powered Expert System (AIPES) for identifying fall armyworm infestation in maize. In addition, it put forward a deep learning-based model that is trained on photographs of healthy and fall armyworm infested leaves, cobs and tassels from a dataset and furnished an application that will be detecting maize fall armyworm infestation using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture and Mobile Net V 2 framework model. The study developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based maize fall armyworm infestation detection system using a DCNN (Deep Convolutional Neural Network) to support maize cultivating farmers. The model executed the objective by accurately identifying the fall armyworm infested maize plant and also classified them vis-c-vis the healthier crop. The deep learning models were trained to detect and recognise fall armyworm infection using more than 11000 images of fall armyworm infested leaves, cobs, and tassels. The created application (AIPES for identifying fall armyworm infestation in maize) using CNN detected and recognised the fall armyworm infestation in maize with a 100 per cent training accuracy rate and 87 per cent validation accuracy. So, the detection of maize fall armyworm and the treatment of fall armyworm-infested maize could lead to a higher maize crop yield.      

Screening for sexually transmitted infections at a DeAddictions service in South India

Objectives To estimate the lifetime prevalence of four sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and to identify correlates of these infections among patients seeking care for a substance use disorder at a specialized DeAddictions Unit in southern India. Methods Consecutive inpatients (n = 361; 98% male; M age = 36.7 years) admitted to DeAddictions Unit of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bangalore, India, participated in a structured interview to obtain demographic, psychiatric, sexual behavior, and substance use data; each patient also provided a blood sample for serologic testing for HIV, chlamydia, syphilis, and hepatitis B. Results One-quarter of all patients tested positive for at least one STI. Lifetime seroprevalence rates were 12.9% for syphilis, 10.3% for chlamydia, 3.1% for hepatitis B, and 1.1% for HIV. Analyses did not reveal any consistent pattern of associations between STI status and sociodemographic, psychiatric, and sexual behavioral characteristics. Conclusions All patients should receive a comprehensive sexual assessment during standard care; for those patients who report risky sexual practices, we recommend voluntary counseling and testing for STIs. Although we do not recommend universal testing for STIs at this time, this should be revisited based upon national surveillance data