Evaluation of Mean Platelet Volume Changes in Neonatal Sepsis

INTRODUCTION: Neonatal sepsis is a clinical syndrome of bacteraemia characterised by systemic signs and symptoms in first month of life. Incidence of neonatal sepsis is found to be 11.5-24/1000 livebirths in India whereas in developed countries, the incidence is found to be 1-5/1000. Neonatal sepsis remains to be a common health problem in developing countries. Though many advanced diagnostic and treatment modalities have been on research and current use, neonatal sepsis continues to be a major burden. As the signs & symptom in neonatal sepsis are non specific and resemble non-infectious condition, prompt diagnosis & early treatment is necessary in reducing morbidity and mortality in neonatal sepsis. Neonatal sepsis is divided into early and late onset sepsis according to the age of onset of infection. This classification is important since the mode of transmission and treatment modality differs. Early onset sepsis is acquired through vertical transmission from mother during intrapartum period, whereas late onset sepsis is acquired through horizontal transmission of organism prevailing in environment. Early onset sepsis presenting within 3 days of life mainly manifest as pneumonia & late onset sepsis presenting after 3 days manifest as septicaemia & meningitis. Prematurity and low birth weight are significant risk factor for neonatal sepsis with 4 to 10 fold higher risk of infection compared to healthy neonates. Sepsis related mortality can mostly prevented by, Good antenatal and postnatal care during delivery. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate mean platelet volume as an early marker in neonatal sepsis. METHOD: A total of 105 neonates with 35 healthy neonates as controls, 35 neonates as culture +ve sepsis and 35 neonates as culture –ve sepsis, delivered and admitted in government Rajaji hospital, Madurai, were enrolled for our study. Neonates who has risk factor for sepsis and symptomatic were enrolled for study as sepsis group, healthy neonates were taken as control,blood was taken for MPV along with blood culture and other sepsis screen parameter before administrating antibiotics. RESULT: In our study, Baseline MPV found to be significant with p value of <0.0001 between controls and sepsis group .Baseline investigation like CRP and I/T ratio found to be significant between control and sepsis group. EOS found to be higher with 55.71% compared to LOS with 44.28%. Serial MPV done on consecutive days [day 1, day 3 & day 7] in culture +ve and culture -ve sepsis found to be significant between survivor & non survivor with p value of <0.001. MPV found to be higher on consecutive days in non-survivor group. Sensitivity and specificity of MPV using cut off value [10.4] from previous two study found to be 25.71% & 82.85% which has lower sensitivity and higher specificity compared to previous studies. CONCLUSION: Evaluating MPV in our study, found out that MPV can be used as an early marker in diagnosing neonatal sepsis. Compared to CRP, which is used as a common parameter in sepsis screen in diagnosing neonatal sepsis, MPV in our study found to has high specificity in detecting sepsis. Thus MPV can be used as an early predictor of sepsis, also for assessing response to therapy and also predicts mortality

End-uses of electricity in households of Karnataka state, India

This paper describes the results of a survey of electricity consumption in a sample consisting of 1,165 households in four districts of Karnataka state in India. The survey revealed the patterns of consumption of electricity in AEH[1] and non-AEH[2] households, the stock of electrical appliances used by the households, the differences in the consumption of electricity in urban and rural areas, the use of other sources of energy for domestic purposes, and the degree of penetration of energy-efficient appliances/devices. The analysis of electricity consumption of appliances in AEH households showed that the consumption of electricity is mainly due to lighting, air circulation, water-heating and cooking. In non-AEH households, the end-uses accounting for most of the consumption of electricity are lighting, entertainment and air circulation. The survey also yielded the appliance elasticities and the degree of penetration of energy-efficient devices. As a result policy-makers can take corrective actions by promoting efficiency improvements in certain end-use devices so that increases in the penetration of these devices would not significantly affect the overall electricity requirement for the domestic sector

Plan@Earth- NGO for turning waste as a resource

Plan@Earth is a Voluntary organisation registered as a charitable trust under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act (Reg No ER-313/09). It works in the area of environment conservation by offering solutions for waste management. Plan@Earth believes that “waste is not a trash but a resource” and proper waste management is the vital part for sustainable development of society. The activities of Plan@Earth are directed towards the 6 Rs namely, Reduce, Reuse, Refuse, Restructure, Remove and Recycle. The first 3 Rs are achieved through awareness classes, campaigns, street-plays. The other 3 Rs are achieved by training the community to segregate waste at source followed by door to door collection of waste from over 20000 households using push carts and directing clean and dry waste collected for recycling. The dry waste that cannot be recycled are washed and made into bags, file-folders, items of home décor using the method of up-cycling. With the help of the mechanical engineering dept of SNGCE College, Kolenchery, Plan@Earth has also developed a machine to make “Eco-Bricks” using discarded plastic packaging and sand. Every year Plan@Earth carries out nearly 200 awareness classes and uses mimes, skits, street plays and dramas performed by student volunteers to get the message across to the public. Each project in this NGO can support 20-25 women from poorer backgrounds as means for poverty alleviation

Integrated energy planning: Part II. Examples of DEFENDUS scenarios

The first part of this paper presented an ab initio exposition of the development-focused end-use oriented service-directed (DEFENDUS) approach to energy planning. In this approach, the future demand for any source of energy is estimated on the basis of the energy services required and the efficiency with which these are provided. To meet this demand, the costs per unit of the available energy-supply/saving technologies are estimated and a least-cost mix of options identified. In this second part, some of the energy studies for which the DEFENDUS method has been used are described to demonstrate that its applicability is not confined to a particular region or source of energy. These studies include: electricity for five states of India, petroleum products for the country as a whole, biomass for the state of Karnataka, and a composite energy scenario for Karnataka involving integration of all the currently-used sources of energy. In every case, the energy usage pattern in the commencement year of the plan, i.e., the total energy usage disaggregated between the existing categories of users according to their end-uses, is obtained. Then, depending on the goals selected and the strategies that could be adopted to achieve them, growth rates for each category of users are used to estimate the number of users in future years. Improvement in the efficiency of end-use devices and/or substitution of energy sources are considered, to determine the possible reduction in the category-wise unit energy usage, and the corresponding energy requirement is estimated. The electricity plan for the state of Karnataka comprises future demand estimation as well as the comparative costs of various supply/saving options. For the other states, electricity demand has been estimated in various scenarios. In the oil scenarios for India, the focus is mainly on demand management through modal and carrier shifts, with emphasis on the middle distillates. The biomass strategy for Karnataka includes both demand- and supply-side measures. All these studies show that the DEFENDUS planning procedure is easily amenable to modification according to the particular case under consideration. Further, the integration of worksheets for individual sources of energy demonstrates that this method, though simple, is capable of dealing with composite energy planning. Above all, with the popularity of personal computers and spreadsheet packages, the DEFENDUS method facilitates the democratization of energy planning

Percolative shunting on electrified surface

The surface discharge of electrified dielectrics at high humidity is considered. The percolative nature of charge transport in electrets is established. Particular attention is given to the phenomena of adsorption and nucleation of electrically conducting phase in the cause of percolation cluster growth on electrified surface. The critical index of the correlation lenght for percolation cluster is found, and its value is in good agreement with the known theoretical estimations.Comment: 4 pages with 1 figure, revtex, published in Tech. Phys. Lett. 25 (1999) 877-879 with one additional figur

HONEYPOT: Intrusion Detection System

The number of computers connecting to the internet is getting increased day by day, while the number of computers connected is increasing then it is obvious that the amount of network-based attacks will also increase. In this way, we use a honeypot that is a framework trap that is set to act against unapproved utilization of PCs and data frameworks. Around the globe, a huge number of individuals get to the web each day, honeypot which can likewise be called Intrusion Detection Technology is another time of security innovation that screens device to avoid malicious sports. The whole factor of this research paper is an Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System, elements accomplished via honeypot and honeytrap methodologies. A great deal of research went into this review paper and the discoveries propose that the honeypots are drawing in light of a legitimate concern for analysts as a significant security system that can be actualized to stop or occupy the assaults the system assaults and give a chance to find out increasingly more about the source and nature of these assaults. Hence we can say that a honeypot can be utilized as an examination apparatus to accumulate increasingly more data about the expanding number of system assaults that are going on consistently

Rescue of stranded Hawksbill turtle in Kollam, Kerala

On 27th  March, 2019, fisher folks of Kakkathoppu, a coastal area of Kollam district in Kerala, India, found a Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), stranded in the rocky seashore (Fig1). The turtle was live female that weighed approximately 50 kg having a carapace length of 48 cm. According to the local fishermen, the turtle was unable to swim back to sea due to ruptured carapace and fatigued condition. On primary evaluation, barnacles were observed to be covering a part of its body and the carapace as well as head region were found exposed to sunburn

NEUROPROTECTIVE EFFECT OF SARGASSUM ILICIFOLIUM TURNER C. AGARDH ON ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE ACTIVITY AND ATTENUATION OF SCOPOLAMINE-INDUCED AMNESIA IN RODENTS

ABSTRACTObjective: In day to day life, occupational stress is responsible for oxidative stress by altering sleep cycle. Scopolamine induction of amnesia correlatesto stress-induced amnesia in youngsters. Hence, the present study was aimed to investigate the anti-amnesic effect of ethanolic extract and ethylacetate fraction of Sargassum ilicifolium Turner (C. Agardh) against scopolamine.Methods: In this study, seven groups of animals were used and scopolamine (0.4 mg/kg b.wt/intraperitoneally) was administered to all groups exceptpositive control to induce memory loss. Elevated plus maze, Morris water maze served as an exteroceptive behavioral model in testing memory inyoung rats. Brain acetylcholinesterase, a biomarker enzyme was estimated. Finally histopathology of cerebral cortex was performed.Results: The extract and fraction treated group showed an interesting result in memory scores, and the significant enzyme inhibition might beresponsible to attenuate acetylcholine in cholinergic neurons to enhance memory. Finally, histopathology of cerebral cortex proved the neuroprotectiveeffect of S. ilicifolium. All the results were statistically significant.Conclusion: Neuroprotective role of S. ilicifolium Turner C.Agardh was highlighted well in this study and it will be interesting infuture to dissect outthe kinetics of individual components in the fraction and to strengthen the phytomolecule role by insilico studies.Keywords: Learning, Memory, Acetylcholinesterase, Sargassum ilicifolium Turner (C. Agardh)