UNRAVELING THE POTENTIAL PHYTOCHEMICAL COMPOUNDS OF GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE THROUGH GC-MS STUDY

Objective: To profile the chemical composition of ethanolic extract of Gymnema sylvestre through Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry technique.Methods: The chemical compositions of the plant leaf extracts of G. sylvestre were investigated using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy (Scion 436-GC Bruker model coupled with a Triple, quadruple mass spectrophotometer) and NIST-MS library.Results: GC-MS analysis of leaf extracts revealed the existence of Terpenes, alcohols, fatty acids, amine and sterols. The highest % Peak area is hexadecanoic acid, α-Santoline alcohol, recorded the next highest % peak area of 9.05. Major of the compounds belongs to terpeneoid group, namely 6-Octen-1-ol, 3,7-dimethyl, Isophytol, Squalene, Nerolidol, β-Amyrin and Cedrene-V6 which constitutes 30.7% of the peak area. The presence of α-Tocopherol-β-D-mannoside and Vitamin E also identified through this study.Conclusion: From the above finding we can interpret that the G. sylvestre contained a considerable amount of phytoconstituents especially terpenoids. In future, this study will be helpful for the quantitative analysis of phytochemicals as well as formulation studies.Â

A study on the clinical profile of children with snake envenomation in a tertiary referral centre at Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu, India

Background: Snake envenomation is a well-known cause of morbidity and mortality in rural India. In the year 2009, WHO included snake bite in the list of neglected diseases.Methods: This study was conducted in children admitted with snake bite in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in the year 2015. Their demographic details, site of bite, arrival time, 20Minutes Whole Blood Cloting Time, Clinical signs and symptoms, complications and outcome were measured.Results: The male: female ratio was 2.57:1. Peak age group affected was 6 to 12 years old children. Lower limbs were commonly bitten. 65% of children arrived in the hospital between 6 and 24 hours after the bite. Pain and swelling at the site of bite were the most common symptom of envenomation. 80% of envenomation was found to be hematotoxic, 11% of envenomation was neurotoxic and 68% of children were successfully treated with 10 vials of ASV. There was only one death during the study period.Conclusion: This study reiterates the need for a more rapid transport and administration of ASV in the transit period. Other important observations in the study are that the number of neurotoxic snake bites is only 9% and the presence of allergic reactions to ASV in 6% of children. The development of monovalent ASV specific to the snake species may be considered, which will be associated with less anaphylaxis and more effective neutralisation of venom

Determination of the chromospheric quiet network element area index and its variation during 2008-2011

Generally it has been considered that the plages and sunspots are the main contributors to the solar irradiance. There are small scale structures on the sun with intermediate magnetic fields that could also contribute to the solar irradiance. It has not yet been quantified how much of these small scale structures contribute to the solar irradiance and how much it varies over the solar cycle. In this paper, we used Ca II K images obtained from the telescope installed at Kodaikanal observatory. We report a method to separate the network elements from the background structure and plage regions. We compute the changes in the network element area index during the minimum phase of solar cycle and part of the ascending phase of cycle 24. The measured area occupied by the network elements is about 30% and plages less than 1% of the solar disk during the observation period from February 2008-2011. During the extended period of minimum activity it is observed that the network element area index decreases by about 7% compared to the area occupied by the network elements in 2008. A long term study of network element area index is required to understand the variations over the solar cycle.Comment: 12 pages, 9 Figures, Accepted for publication in RA

Risk factors for relapse in childhood steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome

Background: Nephrotic syndrome (NS) generally tends to follow a benign and chronic relapsing course. Relapses are a major problem in children with steroid sensitive NS (SSNS). Objective: To identify the risk factors for frequent relapse (FR) in the first episode childhood SSNS. Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the Government Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital, Tamil Nadu, between July 2013 and January 2016. Children aged 9 months - 12 years with a diagnosis of SSNS (first episode) who came for follow-up for at least 12 months in the pediatric nephrology clinic were included. The enrolled cases were divided into 2 groups: (1) frequent relapser (FR) and (2) infrequent relapser (IFR). 9 factors were studied as possible risk factorsfor relapse. The data collected were analyzed using Chi-square test and Student’s t-test. Results: Of 160 SSNS children, there were 92 (57.5%) cases of IFR and 68 (42.5%) cases of FR. There were 97 males (60.6%) and 63 females (39.4%) with a male to female ratio of 1.5:1. The mean age of presentation was 4.37±2.32 years. The mean time taken to achieve remission during the first episode was 1.94±1.04 weeks. The interval between remission and first relapse was 5.56±4.51 months. Incidence of infection and hypertension was 31.9% and 37.5%, respectively. Risk factors significantly associated with FR were: Time taken to achieveremission during the first episode (>14 days) (p<0.0001), mean duration of interval between remission and first relapse (within 6 months) (p<0.0001), associated infections (p<0.0001) and hypertension (p<0.0001). Age at onset, sex, serum albumin, 24 h urine protein, and azotemia did not influence the FR in our study. Conclusion: More than 14 days to achieve remission during the first episode, relapse within first 6 months, associated infections and hypertension were the factors associated with FRs

Evaluation of a multidisciplinary Tier 3 weight management service for adults with morbid obesity, or obesity and comorbidities, based in primary care

A multidisciplinary Tier 3 weight management service in primary care recruited patients with a body mass index ≥40 kg·m−2, or 30 kg·m−2 with obesity-related co-morbidity to a 1-year programme. A cohort of 230 participants was recruited and evaluated using the National Obesity Observatory Standard Evaluation Framework. The primary outcome was weight loss of at least 5% of baseline weight at 12 months. Diet was assessed using the two-item food frequency questionnaire, activity using the General Practice Physical Activity questionnaire and quality of life using the EuroQol-5D-5L questionnaire. A focus group explored the participants' experiences. Baseline mean weight was 124.4 kg and mean body mass index was 44.1 kg·m−2. A total of 102 participants achieved 5% weight loss at 12 months. The mean weight loss was 10.2 kg among the 117 participants who completed the 12-month programme. Baseline observation carried forward analysis gave a mean weight loss of 5.9 kg at 12 months. Fruit and vegetable intake, activity level and quality of life all improved. The dropout rate was 14.3% at 6 months and 45.1% at 1 year. Focus group participants described high levels of satisfaction. It was possible to deliver a Tier 3 weight management service for obese patients with complex co-morbidity in a primary care setting with a full multidisciplinary team, which obtained good health outcomes compared with existing services

Lithological Discrimination of Anorthosite using ASTER data in Oddanchatram Area, Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu, India

The present study applies with hyperspectral remote sensing techniques to map the lithology of the Oddanchatram anorthosite. The hyperspectral data were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF), Pixel Purity Index (PPI) and n-Dimensional Visualization for better lithology mapping. The proposed study area has various typical rock types. The PCA, ICA and MNF have been proposed best band combination for effectiveness of lithological mapping such as PCA (R: G: B=2:1:3), MNF (R: G: B=4:3:2) and ICA (R: G: B=3:1:2). The derived lithological map has compared with published geological map from Geological Survey of India and validated with field investigation. Therefore, ASTER data based lithological mapping are fast, cost-effective and more accurate

A novel algorithm with IM-LSI index for incremental maintenance of materialized view

The ability to afford decision makers with both accurate and timely consolidated information as well as rapid query response times is the fundamental requirement for the success of a Data Warehouse. To provide fast access, a data warehouse stores materialized views of the sources of its data. As a result, a data warehouse needs to be maintained to keep its contents consistent with the contents of its data sources. Incremental maintenance is generally regarded as a more efficient way to maintain materialized views in a data warehouse The view has to be maintained to reflect the updates done against the base relations stored at the various distributed data sources. The proposed approach contains two modules namely, materialized view selection(MVS) and maintenance of materialized view. (MMV). In recent times, several algorithms have been proposed for keeping the views up-to-date in response to the changes in the source data. Therefore, we present an improved algorithm for MVS and MMV using IM-LSI(Itemset Mining using Latent Semantic Index) algorithm. selection of views to materialize using the IM(Itemset Mining) algorithm method to overcome the problem resulting from conventional view selection algorithms and then we consider the maintenance of materialized views using LSI. For the justification of the proposed algorithm, we reveal the experimental results in which both time and space costs better than conventional algorithms.Facultad de Informátic

Human milk banking: One year experience from a tertiary care centre

Introduction: A human milk bank (HMB) systematically collects, screens, processes, and dispenses excess milk donated by healthy nursing mothers. First HMB of Asia was established in the year 1989 in Mumbai, but there are still insufficient milk banks in India. Objective: This study aimed to provide our experience in the past 1 year. Methods: This retrospective descriptive study was conducted in the HMB of a tertiary care institution. The data were collected from donor forms and other milk bank records in the milk bank. All the demographic details and bacteriological data were collected. Results: There were 1168 donors with no extramural donors. Of these, 882 donors had term babies and 286 had preterm babies. The mean age of the donor population was 23.53±3.27 years. On the analysis of the volume of milk donated, the mean volume was 77.62±51.26 ml. A total of 90,660 ml of human milk was collected during the study period of 1 year. The bacteriological culture of the donor milk showed growth in 42 (3.6%) samples and was discarded. Klebsiella (2.39%) was the most common organism followed by Escherichia coli (0.44%) and Staphylococcus (0.35%). There were 1424 recipients and about 74% of them, were preterm babies. There were no extramural recipients. Conclusion: For a large number of preterm babies and the neonates without breast milk in India, pasteurized donor human milk will be the best source of nutrition. Hence, number of HMBs will improve the neonatal survival and reduce the morbidity

CLUSTERING BASED ROUTING FOR DELAY- TOLERANT NETWORKS

ABSTRACT Delay-tolerant networking (DTN) is an approach to computer network Clustering significantly reduces the energy consumption of a cluster. In this paper, a cluster based routing protocol for Delay-Tolerant Mobile Networks (DTMNs) is used. Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) scheme is employed for on-line updating region contact probability, with its mean proven to converge to the true contact probability. The gateway nodes exchange network information and perform routing. It uses clustering's structure to decrease overhead, average end-to-end delay and improve the average packet delivery ratio

Performance assessment on manufacturing of unfired bricks using industrial wastes

This paper presents eco-friendly unburnt bricks made up of fly ash, waste plastic powder, waste glass powder, lime, gypsum and crusher sand as alternatives to conventional burnt clay bricks for sustainable development. The research focuses on the maximum utilization of industrial waste in eco-friendly unburnt brick production. Materials are characterized according to their chemical and geotechnical properties. In this research, we use a milled waste glass powder of size less than 600μm and plastic powder obtained from plastic waste of size less than 600μm are added along with crushed sand, gypsum, lime and fly ash with various mix proportions concerning FaL-G mix concept. All the proportions were taken on a weight basis. Compressive strength, water absorption, and efflorescence are the key parameters chosen for comparing the innovative brick with conventional fly ash brick. There are five different mixes (Type A, B, C, D & E) are made in this research. The plastic and glass powders are replaced by crusher sand at the increased rate of 2% in every mix whereas 2%,4%,6%,8%, and 10%. It was found that the type B bricks have 17.63% strength was increased when compared to base mix. From the test results, type B bricks have enhanced mechanical performance when compared to all other mixes