Perceptions on tuberculosis and its cure among the government welfare sector providers in Chennai, city, South India

Objective - To study the perceptions on cure regarding tuberculosis (TB) among the employees working in Adi dravidar and Tribal Welfare department, Government of Tamil Nadu. Design - An interview schedule was used to collect the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and the data on their knowledge on symptoms, cause, mode of infection, diagnosis, treatment for TB and their perceptions on cure were collected. Results - Among the 71 employees working in the Tamil Nadu government welfare origination, only ninety two percent of them have heard of the disease called TB. Forty three percent reported that cough as the main symptom, 37% reported TB was caused by germs. Out of 97% who were aware there was treatment available for TB, only 72% reported TB was curable. Disappearance of symptoms (12%) and feeling alright (25%) were perceived as the cure of TB. Only 26% reported completing the treatment for the prescribed period as cure of TB. Misconceptions reported on cure of TB were abstaining from smoking (95%), from alcohol (89%) from sex (17%) and tobacco (98%). Conclusions - This study suggests for strengthening the need to educate the community in general and the other government sector in specific on symptoms and cure of TB

Establishment of callus and cell suspension culture of Sophora alopecuroides Linn. for the production of oxymatrine

Oxymatrine is one of the most important biologically active compounds and is present in Sophora alopecuroides L. The present investigation focuses on the development of an efficient tissue culture method to induce callus and cell suspension culture of S. alopecuroides by studying the effect of jasmonic acid and nitric oxide on cell suspension culture. Callus induction efficiency is high in axenic leaf explants grown in MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/L Kinetin (Kin), 1.0 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The cell suspension culture was developed using the same callus induction medium without agar. The maximum cell number and dry weight of suspension culture were obtained by the 9th day of incubation. The synthesis of oxymatrine is higher in jasmonic acid and nitric oxide (200 µMJA and 50 µMNO) combination (11.91 µg/g) when compared to the non-elicited control (8.3 µg/g) of callus

Mouth Image Based Person Authentication Using DWLSTM and GRU

Recently several classification methods were introduced to solve mouth based biometric authentication systems. The results of previous investigations into mouth prints are insufficient and produce lesser authentication results. This is mainly due to the difficulties that accompany any analysis of the mouths: mouths are very flexible and pliable, and successive mouth print impressions even those obtained from the same person may significantly differ from one other. The existing machine learning methods, may not achieve higher performance and only few methods are available using deep learning for mouth biometric authentication. The use of deep learning based mouth biometrics authentication gives higher results than usual machine learning methods. The proposed mouth based biometric authentication (MBBA) system is rigorously examined with real world data and challenges with the purpose that could be expected on mouth-based solution deployed on a mobile device. The proposed system has three major steps such as (1) database collection, (2) creating model for authentication, (3) performance evaluation. The database is collected from Annamalai University deep learning laboratory which consists of 5000 video frames belongs to 10 persons. The person authentication model is created using divergence weight long short term memory (DWLSTM) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) to capture the temporal relationship in mouth images of a person. The existing and proposed methods are implemented via the Anaconda with Jupyter notebook. Finally the results of the proposed model are compared against existing methods such as support vector machine (SVM), and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) with respect to metrics like precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy of mouth

Mangiferin induces cell death against rhabdomyosarcoma through sustained oxidative stress

AbstractBackgroundEmbryonic rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) is the most prevalent type of cancer among children. The present study aimed to investigate cell death induced by mangiferin in RD cells.MethodsThe Inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of mangiferin was determined by an MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide) assay. Cell death induced by mangiferin against RD cells was determined through lactate dehydrogenase and nitric oxide release, intracellular calcium levels, reactive oxygen species generation, antioxidant status, mitochondrial calcium level, and mitochondrial membrane potential. Furthermore, acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining was performed to determine early/late apoptotic event.ResultsMangiferin induced cell death in RD cells with an IC50 value of 70μM. The cytotoxic effect was reflected in a dose-dependent increase in lactate dehydrogenase leakage and nitric oxide release during mangiferin treatment. Mangiferin caused dose dependent increase in reactive oxygen species generation, intracellular calcium levels with subsequent decrease in antioxidant status (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase, and glutathione) and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in RD cells. Further data from fluorescence microscopy suggest that mangiferin caused cell shrinkage and nuclear condensation along with the occurrence of a late event of apoptosis.ConclusionResults of the present study shows that mangiferin can act as a promising chemopreventive agent against RD by inducing sustained oxidative stress

A study on the association of diabetes and semen quality in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Background: Globally prevalence of diabetes is gradually increasing in individual at reproductive stage. Uncontrolled blood sugar affects biological systems including reproductive. Thus, this study was aimed to analyze the association of diabetes and male infertility in and around Chennai. Methods: Fifty-four male participants who visited the fertility clinic was grouped in two based on the sugar value. An anthropometric measurement, clinical, blood, seminal parameters and life style behaviors was analyzed. All study variables was analyzed to examine the association of diabetes and semen quality. Results: Study results shows that people with diabetes had abnormal semen parameters as compared to non- diabetic study participants. Pearson’s correlation between the semen parameters and blood sugar value of the study participants showed semen parameters: volume (r=-0.28, p<0.05), count (r=-0.22, p<0.05), and motility (r=-0.23, p<0.05), has a significantly week negative correlation with blood sugar level.  Scatter plots also showed semen parameters:  volume (r2=-0.079), count (r2=-0.048), and motility (r2=-0.053), had a significantly week negative linear correlation with blood sugar level. Conclusions: From the study it was concluded that the uncontrolled blood sugar levels affect the reproductive health of the study participants.

Effect of long term fertilization on phosphorus dynamics in root zone environment under finger millet - Maize cropping sequence

In an agro-ecosystem, phosphorus (P) is found in organic and an inorganic form which includes soluble P, sorbed P and mineral bounded P. In soil, added P sources undergo various soil processes like mineralization, immobilization, precipitation, weathering, dissolution, sorption and desorption. For understanding the P dynamics in clay loam (Vertic Ustropept) soil, the present study was undertaken in P dynamics under rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere environment of maize in Long Term Fertilizer Experiment at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The results revealed that the fractions of various pools of inorganic NaOH extractable Fe - P, H2SO4 extractable Ca- P, NH4F extractable Al- P, NH4Cl extractable Saloid P and Na citrate - Dithionate extractable Reductant soluble P were dominant in the non-rhizospheric soil than rhizospheric environment. The order of inorganic P fractions in the non-rhizospheric and rhizospheric region of the soil was found as Ca-P > Fe-P > Al-P > Reductant soluble-P > Saloid P and the knee-high stage of the non - rhizosphere soil recorded the highest inorganic as well organic P fractions. Irrespective of P fractions, Ca – P was recorded high (192.5 &  186.7 mg kg-1 ) followed by Fe - P (40.8& 34.9 mg kg-1) at a knee-high stage in non-rhizosphere and rhizosphere, respectively. Practising various nutrient management systems, application of 100% recommended dose of fertilizer along with FYM @ 10 t ha-1 (T8) recorded significant changes in all inorganic (Ca-P, Fe-P, Al-P, Reductant soluble-P, Saloid P), organic fractions and also Total P followed by 150% NPK (T3) in sandy clay loam soil. Nowadays, increasing demand for P fertilizer in India, judicious use of P fertilizer is important. Despite that, intensively cultivated soils have a lot of P reserves like organic and inorganic P pools and effective way of P transformation management could reduce the quantum of P fertilization in soil

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE PATTERN OF USE OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS IN SURGICAL PROPHYLAXIS IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Objective: To evaluate the most common class of antimicrobial agents used in surgical prophylaxis. To evaluate the timing, dosage, route and duration of use of antimicrobial agents in surgical prophylaxis.Methods: The study subjects were 214 patients who underwent general surgical procedures at Vinayaka Missions Kirupananda Variyar Medical College from July 2013 to June 2014. The use of antimicrobial agents was noted from the first dose of antibiotic given before the induction of anaesthesia. After surgery was completed the duration of antibiotic in the post-operative ward was noted. Results: Majority of the patients were males of age group 50-60 y and the most common surgical procedure was hernioplasty. Combination therapy with two antimicrobial agents was more preferred regimen 126 (58.9%). Among the antimicrobial agent's cefotaxime 114 (24.8%) was the most commonly prescribed drug and it was followed by metronidazole 121 (21.9%). ceftriaxone 60 (13.1%) was the third most commonly prescribed antimicrobial agent. The mean duration of prescription of antimicrobial agents in the present study was 4.78 d and the mean cost of drug treatment was 787.54 rupees. The cost-effective regimen was that of aminoglycosides and imidazole.Conclusion: The choice of antimicrobial agent was based on the local prevalence pattern of microorganisms. The intravenous administration of antibiotic prophylaxis immediately before or after the induction of anaesthesia is the most reliable method for ensuring effective serum concentration at the time of surgery. The antimicrobial agent chosen must cover all the most likely contaminating organisms