The scientific Thoughts of Kalameka Pulavar in Solo Songs

It is the literature composed during the Sangam period that still stands as the lifeblood of Tamil literature. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they are the mother and forerunner of contemporary literature. Thus, the collection of solo songs has an important place in Tamil literature. It highlights the lives and ethics of the people. The songs of Kalameka Pulavar are praiseworthy. The contribution of science to today's medicine is immense. With the development of science, new drugs have been discovered in medicine and a permanent solution has been found for various terminal diseases. Nevertheless, today's scientific medicine has also endorsed the system of medicine found in the Sangam literature and has made its continuous use among the people. It is used in today's medicine as a natural medicine for various skin diseases. This is what Kalamekar, the scholar of the Sangam age, also teaches through his song. The purpose of this article is to highlight the scientific thoughts and medical references found in the poems of Kalameka Pulavar

Study of Bacterial and Parasitic profile of Acute Diarrhoea in Children Under Five Years of Age with special reference to Detection and Characterization of Rota Virus.

INTRODUCTION : The gastrointestinal tract is home to 10 times more bacteria than cells in the entire human body. It is the site of sophisticated interactions between microbial pathogens, commensals, host epithelial cells and the immune system, a kind of jungle of biologic interactions, evolution and natural history whose balance is crucial for childhood growth and development. Diarrhoea is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. Globally, there are about two billion cases of diarrhoeal disease every year. Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age with an estimated 1.5 million child deaths every year. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined99. Diarrhoeal disease continues to be a public health problem especially in developing countries where they are estimated to be responsible for 2.5 million infant deaths per year with an annual mortality rate of 4.9/ per 1000 children and an incidence of 3.2 episodes of diarrhoea per child-year among children under 5 years of age. n In India, one third of total paediatric admissions in hospitals are due to diarrhoeal diseases and 17% of all deaths in indoor paediatric patients are diarrhoea related76. Diarrhoea is the cause of death in almost 23% of Indian children who die before the age of 5. Hence this study was undertaken to identify the bacterial, parasitic profile and rota viral infections in children under 5 years of age with diarrhoea and from children under 5 years of age presenting to hospital for reasons other than diarrhoeal illness. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES : To determine the prevalence of bacteria and parasites in stool samples from diarrheal cases of children under 5 years of age. To find antibiotic susceptibility of significant bacterial isolates. To determine the incidence of rota virus infection in children under 5 years of age with acute diarrhoea. To examine the age distribution of rota virus infected children. To evaluate clinical severity of rota virus infection in children. To evaluate the protective effect of breast feeding on rota virus diarrhoea. To evaluate the distribution of different genotypes of rotaviruses circulating in the community. CONCLUSION : In the present study, rota virus, Shigella sp, Vibrio sp, Salmonella sp, EHEC, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium were seen significantly in children with diarrhoea. All of the Shigella and Salmonella isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin and gentamycin. Vibrio cholerae was sensitive to tetracycline which is used for chemoprophylaxis and thus holds good still now. High rate of resistance of bacterial isolates to cotrimoxazole and ampicillin was seen which recommends continuous antibiotic surveillance to monitor development of resistance. Rota virus incidence was found to be 16% among children under five years of age with diarrhoea. Majority of them were in the age group of 7 to 12 months associated with severe dehydration and protective effect of breast feeding was not found against rota virus infection in this age group. The genotype combination of rota virus identified were G1P[8],G2P[4] and G10P[untypeable]. Thus the present study shows significant association of rota virus in children under five years of age with acute diarrhoea and the prevalence of uncommon genotype G10. The significant association of rota virus in childhood diarrhoea along with clinical severity suggests consideration of a rota virus vaccine in the childhood immunization program. In developing countries like India, exposure to an environment contaminated with human and animal faeces and close contact with animals in the domestic environment are factors enabling viral reassortment and the emergence of new strains. Most of the rota virus strains in circulation appear to be like those of common genotypes G1-4 which are components of current vaccine. But the non typeable strains pose an unknown antigenic challenge to the current vaccine Rotateq. Hence continuous and prospective monitoring of circulating strains in a large scale study will detect any change in the distribution of rotavirus strains which would influence the vaccine based preventive strategies in India

Application and Effectiveness of Immunostimulants, Probiotics, and Prebiotics in Aquaculture: A Review

Immunostimulants, also called immunomodulators, adjuvants, or biological response modifiers, stimulate the immune system. They can be administered in the form of drugs or nutrients. Probiotics are organisms or substances that improve the intestinal microbial balance of a host animal. Prebiotics are indigestible components in a diet that are metabolized by specific microorganisms and prove helpful for the growth and health of the host. When provided as dietary supplements in feeds, even in small quantities, immunostimulants, probiotics, and prebiotics usually improve immunity, feed efficiency, and growth performance of crustaceans and fishes. The use of immunostimulants, probiotics, and prebiotics in aquaculture are presented in this review

Measuring the Epilation Force Over the Frontal and Occipital Region in Cases of Female Pattern Hair Loss Using Hand Held Trichotilometer

INTRODUCTION : The Female Pattern Hair Loss is defined as progressive thinning of hair which is usually non scarring. There is usually gradual decrease in the ratio of terminal hair and vellus hair, which is termed as Folliculminiaturization. It is hair thinning occurring predominantly over the frontal and vertex region of the head, however it can involve any region of the scalp and sometimes it can present as diffuse hair thinning. Female pattern hair loss may begin as early as puberty. This pattern of hair loss has greater psychological impact on affected patients. Alopecia affecting a woman's emotional health status, has a great psychological impact as it causes distress to the patient, also increases the concern regarding one’s appearance and continuity of hair loss. Based on the levels of androgens, FPHL was earlier classified into Androgen dependent FPHL and Androgen independent FPHL. Trichotillometer was first designed and constructed by C L Krumdieck in the year 1981. It is a hand held device, which helps in measuring the force, necessary to epilate the individual hair. It can be used in an outpatient basis, to determine the force required to pluck the individual hair, in patients with alopecia. AIM OF THE STUDY : To determine the epilation force (EF) required to pluck the anagen hair and telogen hair from frontal and occipital region of the scalp in female pattern hair loss. REVIEW OF LITERATURE : Studies were conducted using the trichotillometer, to evaluate the nourishment status in adults.1,2 Chase et al., conducted a study on 17 adults patients who had features of protein energy malnutrition. The aim of their study was to assess the force required to pluck the hair amongst the study population and it was compared with healthy individuals. The plucking force had significant correlation with that of serum albumin, hair shaft diameter, triceps skin fold, arm muscle circumference, weight, hematocrit and beta carotene. STUDY DESIGN: Hospital based Observational study RESEARCH SUBJECTS : The study will be carried out on patients attending the outpatient Department of Dermatology, Venerology and leprology, PSGIMSR, Coimbatore. SAMPLE SIZE: 30. Inclusion Criteria : 1. Age more than 20 years, 2. Patients diagnosed to have female pattern hair loss clinically using LUDWIG’s classification (only class 2), 3. Only female patients were included in the study. Exclusion Criteria : Hair wash done within last three days at the time of OPD visist. Currently on treatment for the hair loss. METHODOLOGY : • Informed and written consent will be obtained from all patients. • The volunteers will be made to sit on the stool. • The clip at the lower end of the trichotillometer The will be attached to the distal end of a single hair shaft . • Spring balance is pulled upwards gently by hand at the top end with the help of the ring attached to its top till the hair snaps from the scalp. • Force indicator slides down the inner wall of the spring balance and stops at the point when the hair is detached from the scalp. • The force in gm will be noted and taken as the epilation force. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: All the data obtained from these parameters will be recorded in excel sheets and statistical analysis will be done. RESULTS : The mean force required to pluck anagen and telogen hair over frontal region was 0.51N and 0.71N respectively, which was not statistically significant (p value – 0.152). Similarly, the mean force required to pluck anagen and telogen hair over occipital region was 0.61N and 0.51N respectively, however the results did not reach its statistical significance. CONCLUSION : We conclude that, Trichotillometer is a simple, portable and easy to use device which can be used in the OPD for the diagnosis of pattern hair loss. We can also compare the epilation force of anagen hair, before and after the treatment in diseased patients with the help of this equipment to find the effectiveness of the given hair loss treatment

Controlled delivery of Imatinib mesylate from collagen coated poly(lactic acid) microspheres: In vitro release studies

The development of injectable microspheres for controlled drug delivery to the desired site is a major challenge. We demonstrated the possibility of entrapping an anticancer drug, Imatinib mesylate, in collagen coated biodegradable poly (lactic acid) microspheres with a mean diameter of 10-20 µm. The collagen coating on polymeric matrix surfaces through various surface modification techniques was the current scenario to improve bio-integration of the polymers with the in-vivo system. Here protein adsorption principle is used and various characterization techniques like FTIR, DSC and SEM analysis are used to confirm collagen coating. The reduction in burst release of the Imatinib from the PLA microspheres further confirms its presence and role in controlled release.  This collagen coated PLA microspheres may have potential for the targeted delivery of Imatinib mesylate to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors, chronic myeloid leukemia cancer

Streblus asper Lour. (Shakhotaka): A Review of its Chemical, Pharmacological and Ethnomedicinal Properties

Streblus asper Lour is a small tree found in tropical countries, such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Various parts of this plant are used in Ayurveda and other folk medicines for the treatment of different ailments such as filariasis, leprosy, toothache, diarrhea, dysentery and cancer. Research carried out using different in vitro and in vivo techniques of biological evaluation support most of these claims. This review presents the botany, chemistry, traditional uses and pharmacology of this medicinal plant

A SECURED AUTHENTICATED WATERMARKING TECHNIQUE

Whenever media contents transmitted through the network, compressed and encrypted media data is used so it is important to give proper protection to the data items to avoid unauthorized access and for that we need to enhance media authentication and for that the compressed encrypted media data which is used to distribute through the network is watermarked for providing proof of ownership or distributorship. For doing compression JPEG 2000 compression and while doing compression the data is packed to  low  number of bits and to this data encryption is applied so  stream cipher technique is used for avoiding media quality degradation and also this technique allow to do watermarking in a predictable manner. And a robust watermarking algorithm is used for watermarking this compressed and encrypted media data

Echocardiographic evaluation of left atrial performance by using left atrial appendage flow velocity

Background:  Left atrial (LA) functional Study has a traditional role in evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function. The widely accepted echocardiographic parameters used in routine clinical practice to assess left ventricular diastolic function include pulsed-wave doppler mitral inflow analysis, tissue doppler imaging measurements, and LA dimension estimation. Left atrial appendage doppler studies using early diastolic emptying velocity, late diastolic emptying velocity and LAA filling velocity imaging to assess LA function were validated in patients with valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). Currently, there is no evidence regarding the Left atrial appendage doppler studies used in identifying the performance of left atrium and diastolic function in patients with Normal Sinus Rhythm. Objectives: This study aimed to identify the performance of left atrial function in patients with normal sinus rhythm using Left atrial appendage doppler studies. Methods: In a study population of 63 patients aged >18 years old who undergone routine echocardiographic study for Cardiac evaluation between Jan 2017 to Jan 2018, among which 40 (64%) were males and 23 (36%) were females. For those Patient’s, left atrial appendage flow velocity and diastolic doppler parameters are noted from G E echocardiography machine by the single observer. Results: The Mean Left Atrial Appendage (late-diastolic emptying velocity) in diastolic dysfunction patients (39.74) associated with impaired left atrial function, when compared with the mean Left Atrial Appendage (late-diastolic emptying velocity) in patients without diastolic dysfunction (54.76) respectively. Conclusion: In this study, we founded that Patient with diastolic dysfunction had an impaired left atrial function that was measured by left atrial appendage flow velocity

Immunohistochemical expression of P53 and Ki-67 on epithelial tumors of ovary

Background: Ovarian cancer is the third most common gynaecologic cancer and it is well known for its late presentation at advanced stage. Epithelial tumors of the ovary (EOT) are commonest of all ovarian neoplasms and their malignant forms represent about 90% of ovarian cancers. The determination of cell proliferation has been reported to be of diagnostic and prognostic significance. Over expression of p53 and Ki-67 has been claimed to be a marker of poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian tumors. Aim this study was to evaluate the biological significance of p53 and Ki-67 and their antigen expression in epithelial ovarian cancer.Methods: This is an observational study of 52 cases of ovarian tumors which were diagnosed and operated at Dept of Gynaecology, Prathima institute of medical sciences in South India, between August 2018 to July 2020.Results: The mean age of diagnosis for benign, borderline and malignant epithelial tumors was 42years, 49 years, 56years respectively. Most common histological type was serous epithelial tumors (50%). Highest p53 and Ki-67 immunoreactivity was seen in malignant tumors. Their co-expression was seen in 46.2% of the cases.Conclusions: Epithelial tumors and their malignant forms are common ovarian cancers, which are well known for its lethality and late presentation. Immunohistochemical markers p53 and Ki-67 frequently over expressed in epithelial tumors and has a prognostic role in determining the biologic tumor behaviour which further helps in planning the treatment