Effect of Different Chemical Environment on Porous Silicon

Properties of porous silicon (PS) are found to be sensitive towards different chemical environment. Because of its large surface area, it is highly reactive and can adsorb chemical vapours. The present study shows that photoconductivity and photoluminescence (PL) properties are changed significantly in the presence ofacetone, ammonia and steam vapours and can be used to identify and sense these chemical environment. These results also suggest that the molecules adsorbed on the pores change the transport mechanism of carriers in PS, leading to increase or decrease in conductivity. On the other hand, surface states on the enormous PS surface are modified under different chemical environment, leading to change in visible PL

ESTIMATION OF FLAVONOID CONTENT, POLYPHENOLIC CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF DIFFERENT PARTS OF ABRUS PRECATORIUS (L.)

Objective: Abrus precatorius (L.) is a tropical plant and is used in traditional medicine for treatment of a wide range of ailments. Lately, plants with medicinal properties have gained importance for their potential therapeutic use in diseases caused due free radicals. Hence, the present investigation was carried out to estimate the total phenolic and flavonoid content and free radical scavenging activity of fresh and dry parts of Abrus precatorius.Methods: Plant material was collected from Karnala forest of Maharashtra. Extracts of leaves, stem, root and seed (fresh and dry) were prepared using four different solvents i.e. Distilled water, Ethanol, Methanol and Acetone. Each extract was tested for total phenolic content, flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity (by FRAP, DPPHË™ and ABTSË™+assays), while phenolic compounds like Gallic acid, Catechol, Vanillin, Caffeic acid, p-Coumaric acid and Ferulic acid were detected and quantified using RP-HPLC.Results: Seeds showed highest phenolic content (8.99±0.27 mg GAE/g) and DPPHË™ radical scavenging activity (88.34±0.08 %) in methanolic extracts. The leaves had the highest flavonoid content (145.68±0.99 mg RE/g). The antioxidant potential was found to be the highest in seeds followed by root, leaves and stem. Methanol proved to be the best solvent for extraction of phenolics, flavonoid and antioxidants.Conclusion: This study substantiates the high antioxidant activity of different plant parts of A. precatorius. Therefore, it can be used as a source of natural antioxidants and used in drug formulations for treatment of diseases resulting from oxidative stress.Â

Endosalpingiosis with concurrent endometriosis of ovary masquerading as ovarian malignancy

Endosalpingiosis is a rare gynecological disorder of müllerian origin, characterized by the presence of tubal epithelium outside the fallopian tube, which involves structures of the female genital tract, peritoneum, and sub-peritoneal tissues. Endosalpingiosis can be associated with endometriosis or endocervicosis, although it often appears alone. Authors report a case of endosalpingiosis with concurrent endometriosis in a 42-year-old P2L1 patient. The patient presented to us with complaints of heaviness in lower abdomen, a feeling a lump in the lower abdomen and low-grade fever for 15 days. On per abdominal examination, a large solid cystic mass up to 20 weeks size was felt, which was more on the left side. Cervix was normal on speculum examination, the same mass was felt on per vaginal examination, separate from the uterus, the right fornix appeared free. Patient was asked to get a set of investigations done and to review as early as possible. An exploratory laparotomy with peritoneal wash cytology, total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-ophorectomy with supracolic and infracolic omentectomy and bilateral pelvic lymph nodes dissection was done on 18/07/18. Per operatively, there was a large cystic mass occupying the abdominal cavity adhered to the bowel and to posterior wall of the uterus, adhesiolysis followed by staging laparotomy was done.Patient’s postoperative course was uneventful and she was discharged on the 5th day of surgery in stable condition. The final histopathology report was suggestive of endosalpingiosis with concurrent endometriosis

Knowledge, attitude and practices about menopause and menopausal symptoms among midlife school teachers

Background: This study is aimed towards women’s knowledge and attitudes towards menopause as menopause brings multifaceted impact including psychomotor, vasomotor and cardiovascular changes on women`s health.Methods: The population of interest consisted of 150 qualified teachers of age group 40 to 60 years and above from different colleges and schools of Bhopal city. The data was collected using predesigned questionnaire with inform consent and responses were analysed using simple percentages.Results: In this study, mean age of menopause is 48.4 years and 92% of women had knowledge about menopause out of them 84% of women consider it to be a natural process. Working capacity of 66% of the women was affected while sexual life is affected in 56% of the women. 88% of the women were aware of hormonal replacement therapy but only 4.6% of women were taking HRT due to concerns regarding side effects.Conclusions: Most of the women in our study are aware of menopause and its symptoms but they are not following healthy life style modifications. Increased awareness is required to prepare women for menopause

CCheXR-Attention: Clinical concept extraction and chest x-ray reports classification using modified Mogrifier and bidirectional LSTM with multihead attention

Radiology reports cover different aspects, from radiological observation to the diagnosis of an imaging examination, such as X-rays, MRI, and CT scans. Abundant patient information presented in radiology reports poses a few major challenges. First, radiology reports follow a free-text reporting format, which causes the loss of a large amount of information in unstructured text. Second, the extraction of important features from these reports is a huge bottleneck for machine learning models. These challenges are important, particularly the extraction of key features such as symptoms, comparison/priors, technique, finding, and impression because they facilitate the decision-making on patients’ health. To alleviate this issue, a novel architecture CCheXR-Attention is proposed to extract the clinical features from the radiological reports and classify each report into normal and abnormal categories based on the extracted information. We have proposed a modified mogrifier LSTM model and integrated a multihead attention method to extract the more relevant features. Experimental outcomes on two benchmark datasets demonstrated that the proposed model surpassed state-of-the-art models

Comparison of drug information in package inserts with standard medical textbook of pharmacology

Background: Accurate and reliable drug product information is important for the safe and effective use of medicines. But there are variations in the quantity and quality of information mentioned in different drug information sources and a single credible benchmark is lacking. This study was carried out to compare the presentation and completeness of clinical information in package inserts (PIs) marketed by pharmaceutical companies in India with standard medical textbook of pharmacology.Methods: Out of eighty five PIs of different drugs, only 55 were found eligible to be included in this study after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. These PIs and medical textbook were analysed for quantitative and qualitative drug information and were compared using Chi square test of two proportions. The p value of 0.05 was used as cut off to evaluate statistical significance.Results: Quantitatively medical textbook was significantly better statistically in context of treatment of overdose and references. No statistically significant difference was observed in relation to information related to mechanism of action (MOA) and pharmacokinetics (Pk). After qualitative analysis, medical textbook was significantly better statistically in context of size and readability, references related to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and indications and pictures. No statistically significant difference was observed in context of dosing interval, frequency of doses and pharmacokinetic parameters.Conclusions: PIs can be used as a reliable source of drug information by health care professionals in addition to other sources like medical textbooks

Blood zinc levels in children hospitalized with severe pneumonia: a case control study

A case control study was conducted in a referral and teaching hospital in North India on children aged 2 months to 5 years, to compare blood zinc levels in 50 cases of severe pneumonia and 50 age, sex and nutritional status matched controls. Mean blood Zinc levels in cases and controls was 376.1 µg/dL ± 225.73 and 538.52 µg/dL ± 228.0 respectively ( P value 0.0003). In logistic regression model severe pneumonia was associated with lower blood zinc level, use of biomass fuel and isolation of H. Influenzae from nasopharyngeal swab. Cotrimoxazole resistant S. pneumoniae were isolated from 95% of cases and 41.2% of controls (P = 0.0004). Therefore, the role of zinc in treatment of severe pneumonia should be investigated

Dengue in India

Dengue virus belongs to family Flaviviridae, having four serotypes that spread by the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes. It causes a wide spectrum of illness from mild asymptomatic illness to severe fatal dengue haemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS). Approximately 2.5 billion people live in dengue-risk regions with about 100 million new cases each year worldwide. The cumulative dengue diseases burden has attained an unprecedented proportion in recent times with sharp increase in the size of human population at risk. Dengue disease presents highly complex pathophysiological, economic and ecologic problems. In India, the first epidemic of clinical dengue-like illness was recorded in Madras (now Chennai) in 1780 and the first virologically proved epidemic of dengue fever (DF) occurred in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Eastern Coast of India in 1963-1964. During the last 50 years a large number of physicians have treated and described dengue disease in India, but the scientific studies addressing various problems of dengue disease have been carried out at limited number of centres. Achievements of Indian scientists are considerable; however, a lot remain to be achieved for creating an impact. This paper briefly reviews the extent of work done by various groups of scientists in this country