Mutualism in a Reduced Gravity Environment (MuRGE)

MuRGE (Mutualism in a Reduced Gravity Environment) is a NASA flight-research experiment to investigate the microgravity effects associated with cell-cell communication and beneficial microbe-host interactions using a plant-fungal model system. This investigation will use a clinostat, an instrument that slowly rotates the plants to negate the effects of gravitational pull on plant growth (gravitropism) and development, to simulate microgravity. I will be using the endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica (Pi) and the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana (At). P. indica has been shown to colonize roots of various plant species, including A. thaliana, and to increase plant growth and resistance to stress. The fungus has the ability to grow from spores or in axenic cultures without the presence of a host. P. indica spores and P. indica extract will be used to inoculate Arabidopsis seeds germinated on a clinostat in order to determine if simulated microgravity affects the interaction between the fungus and its plant host

Seismic Design at Low Altitude, Building Built on the Playground

The presence of walls on the dashboard changes the behavior of the building on a more general basis. However, it is common practice for companies to ignore the possibility of wall erosion for the details of the building being built. Engineers believe that analysis without looking at constraints is what improves design. But this may not always be true, especially for low-cost homeowners without using it. Therefore, the design of the walls in the integrated architectural design is crucial. ISI 1893: 2002 allows warehouse storage without regard to energy constraints, but with an increase of 2.5 versus consumption. According to the schedule, vacant flyer posts and markings should be designed up to 2.5 times the store's sales and schedules according to the non-slip layout (i.e. without driving force). However, as engineers know in design agencies, the size factor of 2.5 is not realistic for low-rise buildings. This requires revision and revision of the special rule that has proposed much of the rationale for low-income housing. Therefore, the aim of this study is defined as checking the use of factor 2.5 and investigating the effect of energy efficiency and stress on the post-diffusion model Home theater industry. A building built on RC (G + 3) with landfills located in the seismic zone - V is designed for this study. This building has been analyzed for two different issues: (a) consideration of body weight and weight and (b) consideration of material damage without consideration of strength. Two types of templates were used with SAP2000 software. Weight loss using mean weighted weight and similar devices evaluated from this death test was analyzed for durability analysis. Similar to eliminating pressure using a sequential method

Assessment of prescription pattern of cataract patients in the ophthalmology department at a tertiary health care institution

Background: Evaluation of the current prescription pattern of cataract patients in the Ophthalmology Department to find out utilization of drugs per prescription that reflects possibilities of drug interaction and patient compliance and to suggest measures for rational prescriptions.Methods: The study was carried out in the Ophthalmology Department at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati for a period of 6 months after obtaining permission from the Institutional Human Ethics Committee. This was a retrospective, observational hospital based study. The present study included patients of any age group and both the sexes (male/female) who were diagnosed as having cataract and who were prescribed different categories of drugs. A total of 156 prescriptions were collected, analysed and classified during the study period (both outdoor and indoor patients).Results: Our study found that maximum numbers of patients were encountered in the age group of 45-65 years and around 48.4% of cases for IOL implantation were having immature senile cataract. Topical eye drops are most commonly used account for 56.3% in preoperative cases. Overall 564 drugs were prescribed on discharge in 156 prescriptions; So on an average 3.6 drugs were prescribed per prescription. Overall antimicrobials (51.80%) are most commonly prescribed group followed by anti-inflammatory (25.10%), anxiolytic, steroid etc.Conclusions: Our study showed a significant awareness to avoid polypharmacy by keeping average number of drugs per prescription as low as possible to avoid increased cost of the therapy, therapeutic failure, and adverse drug reactions and hence for better patient compliance

Understanding Academic Stress among Adolescents

Any individual who progresses through life goes through various changes and transitions where ‘stress’ becomes invariably part of the journey. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the concept of academic stress as the transitions occur at an individual and social level. It, therefore, becomes imperative to understand the sources and impact of academic stress to derive adequate and efficient intervention strategies. This review aims to understand academic stress at a bio psychosocial level highlighting the impact and sources of academic stress. For the literature review, articles were collected from online databases such as EBSCO, ProQuest, Springer, PubMed, Jstor and Google Scholar. The literature search was done using keywords academic stress, academic anxiety, coping, physiological reactions of stress, academic performance, stress and mental health.The prevalence rate of stress varied from 15%-45% in studies conducted after 2000. The review examines stress and its physiological impact, cognitive and social influences, sources of stress detailing Indian findings

Surface runoff estimation using geographic information system and soil conservation service-curve number method for sub catchments of Karamadai, Tamil Nadu

Water conservation becomes essential as the resource becomes scarcer. The most important step in managing water resources is estimating watershed runoff generated from rainfall, as the runoff and rainfall are the key factors in determining water availability for surface storage and groundwater recharge. So, this study is mainly focused on estimating the surface runoff generated from the three sub-catchments of Karamadai, Tamil Nadu, India, using the heavy to extreme daily rainfall events received in the study area within the span of 20 years (2000–2019). The study was performed in the ArcGIS environment using remote sensing data. The SCSCN (Soil Conservation Service-Curve Number) method was used to estimate surface runoff. The changes in the land use in each sub-catchment were analysed in each decade and studied for their impact on the runoff depth. The land use and land cover classification map of the study area was prepared from LISS III satellite imagery for the years 2006 and 2016 by using supervised classification. The curve number was assigned based on land use as well as the hydrologic soil group. The weighted curve number was calculated from the area under each land use and then used to calculate storm runoff. The maximum runoff occurred in 2011 in all the catchments of the Karamadai block. It was found that more runoff occurred in the Mandrai Pallam catchment compared to Periya Pallam and Pare Pallam, as the Mandrai Pallam catchment had less soil moisture retention capacity than the other two catchments. So, more priority must be given to this catchment while planning to implement the soil and water conservation measures

Management of Upapluta Yonivyapad (Vulvovaginitis) during Pregnancy - A Case Study

Pregnant women commonly develop increased vaginal discharge, which in many instances is not pathological. Pregnancy is associated with specific anatomical, physiological and immunological changes that can predispose to infection and also alter the response to the disease process. Infections in pregnancy demands prompt adequate and careful management. Vulvovaginitis during pregnancy may be considered under the umbrella of Upapluta Yonivyapad. Pregnant women are more prone to vulvovaginitis which is a great challenge for obstetricians today. In Ayurveda, Upapluta Yonivyapad described by Acharaya Charaka, Sharangadhara and both Vagbhata can be compared to vulvovaginitis during pregnancy. Here Panchawalkala Kwatha Prakshalna followed by Jatyadi Taila Pichu externally and Tab Leukol internally has been used to correct Garbhini Upapluta

Spectrum of pigmented lesions of skin: a retrospective study in a tertiary health care of Southern Assam

Background: Pigmented lesions are one of the most common cause for dermatological consultation.  Most of them are benign, while a majority of them have malignant transformation and are called as melanoma. A careful histopathological interpretation by the pathologist is needed in the diagnosis and management of these lesions. Aims and objectives of the study were- 1. To study the spectrum of various pigmented skin lesions.  2.  To establish the correlation between the microscopic pathological findings of various skin lesions with the presenting clinical features.Methods: A 3-year study was conducted in the pathology department of tertiary care centre on all skin biopsy tissue which came as pigmented lesion. The entire skin biopsy is submitted for routine processing and embedded in paraffin wax. 3-5 mm thick paraffin sections of the skin biopsy are stained with H and E.Results: Out of 432 skin biopsies studied during this period, 58 cases were diagnosed as pigmented skin lesions. Of these, the biopsy tissue was inadequate in 5 cases while five cases presented with non-specific findings. Of the remaining cases, 15 were malignant and 33 were benign lesions. Only 18 of these were of melanocytic origin with 8 cases of malignant melanoma and 10 nevi. In the present study an analysis of the clinical diagnosis with the histopathological diagnosis revealed a positive correlation in 54% cases.Conclusions: A good clinical correlation and biopsy with histopathological diagnosis is necessary for the accurate diagnosis and definite treatment of patients with pigmented skin lesions

Land use land cover change detection in the lower Bhavani basin, Tamil Nadu, using geospatial techniques

Land use land cover (LULC) change detection is essential for sustainable development, planning and management. This study was an attempt to evaluate the LULC change in the lower bhavani basin from 2014 to 2019, using Landsat 8 data integrating Google Earth Engine (GEE) as a web-based platform and Geographic Information System. The CART and Random Forest classifiers in GEE were used for performing supervised classification. The classified map accuracy was assessed using high resolution imagery and evaluated using a confusion matrix implemented in GEE. Five major LULC classes, viz., agriculture, built up, current fallow, forest and waterbody, were identified, and the dominant land use in the study area was agriculture and current fallow, followed by dominant land use of forest. During the study period (2014–2019) the change inbuilt-up area 7.37% in 2019 and 5.45% in 2014, was noted due to urban sprawl. GEE showed significant versatility and proved to be an effective platform for LULC detection

Spatial and temporal estimation of actual evapotranspiration of lower Bhavani basin, Tamil Nadu using Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land Model

Estimating evapotranspiration's spatiotemporal variance is critical for regional water resource management and allocation, including irrigation scheduling, drought monitoring, and forecasting. The Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) method can be used to estimate spatio-temporal variations in evapotranspiration (ET) using remote sensing-based variables like Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), surface albedo, transmittance, and surface emissivity. The main aim of the study was to evaluate the actual evapotranspiration for the lower Bhavani basin, Tamil Nadu based on remote sensing methods using Landsat 8 data for the years 2018 to 2020. The actual evapotranspiration was estimated using SEBAL model and its spatial variation was compared over different land covers. The estimated values of daily actual evapotranspiration in the lower Bhavani basin ranged from 0 to 4.72 mm day-1. Thus it is evident that SEBAL model can be used to predict ET with limited ground base hydrological data. The spatially estimated ET values will help in managing the crop water requirement at each stage of crop and irrigation scheduling, which will ensure the efficient use of available water resources

Covid-19 Detection For CT-scan Images Using Transfer Learning Models

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2 which affected around 455 million people around the world. CT-scan is a medical imaging technique that uses X-rays to create detailed images of the body and which can be used to detect many respiratory diseases. Transfer learning models are a type of machine learning model that are trained on a large dataset of images and which can be used for their already trained ability to extract features from image in other tasks. They can then be used to classify new images with similar features.This paper presents a study of different transfer learning models for the task of classifying chest X-ray images into three classes: COVID-19, pneumonia, and normal. The study was implemented using Python and the dataset used was the COVID-19 Chest X-ray Dataset. The train-test split used was 0.2–0.8. The parameters used to test the models were the precision, recall, accuracy, F1 score, and Matthew’s correlation score. Other than these, different optimizers were also compared such as ADAM, SGD with different learning rates of 0.01, 0.001, and 0.0001.The models used in this study are EfficientNetB0, EfficientNetB7, VGG16, and InceptionV3. Out of these models, the most effective model was the EfficientNetB0 model, which achieved an accuracy of 98.6%. This study provides valuable insights into the use of transfer learning for medical image analysis. The results suggest that transfer learning can be used to develop accurate and efficient models that can be used as a secondary option for the diagnosis of COVID-19 using chest X-ray images