EFFECT OF ANGIOSPERMIC EPIPHYTES ON THE RELATIVE STATUS OF ERGOSTEROL AND ELECTROLYTE LEAKAGE IN FUNGAL PATHOGENS

Objective: In the present study, emphasis has been made to assay the antifungal activity of some angiospermic epiphytes like Cuscuta reflexa, Viscum orientale, Cymbidium bicolor, Bulbophyllum propinquum, Hoya ovalifolia and Dendrophthoe falcata. Methods: The antifungal activity due to epiphytes extracts was expressed in term of reduction in dry biomass of fungi based on the relationship of ergosterol content and electrolyte leakage in fungal pathogens viz., Colletotrichum dematium, Drechslera oryzae, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani treated with epiphytes extract. Results: Treated fungi showed increased in ergostesrol content and increased electrolyte leakage confirmed the pathetic situation of fungi; hence there was fungistatic effect, which was dose-dependent. Conclusion: The angiospermic epiphytes of selected species chosen for the study could be serves an alternative eco-friendly source to synthetic fungicides

Causality assessment and the severity of the adverse drug reactions in tertiary care hospital: a pharmacovigilance study

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) constitute a major clinical problem in terms of human suffering and increased health care costs. To study the adverse drug reactions reported in a tertiary care hospital and study of causality assessment and severity of adverse drug reaction (ADR) cases reported.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted as part of pharmacovigilance program over 12months between September 2015 and August 2016. Adverse drug reactions reported from hospital were filled into Suspected ADR - CDSCO forms and submitted to pharmacovigilance unit. Causal relationship was assessed and categorized by Naranjo’s algorithm and WHO - UMC causality scale. The severity of each ADR was assessed using Modified Hartwig and Siegel scale.Results: Total 120 cases were reported over 12 months. Among them, 66% were in males and 55% were in females. The majority of ADRs were due to antimicrobial agents (40.78%) followed by haematinics (12%) and anti-epileptics (10%). Maximum number of patients (30.25%) reported with dermatological manifestations. Highest number of ADRs was reported from the department of medicine (45%). As per Naranjo’s scale, 54% reports were assessed as probable and 46% classified as possible. Majority of cases were mild to moderate in severity.Conclusions: The pattern of ADRs reported in our hospital is similar with the pattern of studies conducted in other hospitals elsewhere. This study provides a database of ADRs due to commonly used drugs in our hospital, which will help clinicians for their optimum and safe use. Hence effective pharmacovigilance is required for the use of these drugs and their safety assessment

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic (wave 2) and associated lockdown on wound care and the resultant increase in the number of amputations

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unparalleled impact on the socio-economic and healthcare structure of the entire world, including India. The risk of major amputations has increased during the COVID-19 lockdown.Aim of the study was to conduct a single-centered study on the prevalence of major amputations during the pre-pandemic and pandemic period to evaluate the indirect effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on people with lower limb cellulites and wounds. This study also emphasizes on the importance of easy and routine access to foot-care specialist.Methods: The data of patients attending the outpatient and emergency room of general surgery in K. R. Hospital with complaints of cellulites/wounds/ulcers during the months of March to July was evaluated. The number of amputations done during same time period was analyzed.Results: The patients attending outpatient department (OPD) during the lockdown had a fall, while cases and amputations immediately after lockdown had increased.Conclusions: The findings of the present study, reiterate the role of preventive actions in wound care and stress on the importance awareness of complications if such wounds are ignored

Performance analysis of coconut enterprises facilitated through agribusiness incubators

Agribusiness incubators (ABI) catalyze entrepreneurship development by facilitating technology and institutionalized services. The study addresses the performance analysis of enterprises promoted through coconut sector ABIs working in Kerala. Primary and secondary data collected from 30 randomly selected ABI graduated entrepreneurs in business were used to characterize the enterprises. The results indicated that 56 per cent of enterprises joined ABIs at the nascent stage and were able to receive government funding under different subsidy schemes. Majority of enterprises (72%) shared features of micro-enterprises in terms of the number of persons employed (01-10) and annual turnover less than ` 25 lakh. Most of the micro-enterprises (66%) functioned as sole proprietary firms, whereas small enterprises were registered as limited company/partnership firms (20%). Virgin coconut oil (VCO) was the major product in 40 per cent of enterprises followed by coconut chips (20%), coconut chocolates (10%), desiccated coconut (07), neera and tender coconut water-based drinks (07%). Performances of two purposively selected enterprises producing VCO and coconut chips were undertaken using break-even analysis. Production and sales of both VCO and coconut chips were more than the calculated BEP values of 1000 litres and 500 kg respectively. This indicated that both enterprises operated at profitable levels. The findings suggest that the entrepreneurs who completed the business incubation program had greater success in their business irrespective of the business size. This can be attributed to their greater access to technologies and entrepreneurship development programmes under the ABI

Adaptive scheduled partitioning technique for reliable emergency message broadcasting in VANET for intelligent transportation systems

This paper aims to enable accurate and reliable emergency message broadcast in Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET). The VANET is the most common topology used in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), where changes in standard topology due to the mobility of nodes create challenges in broadcasting the emergency message and efficient data delivery in both highway and urban scenarios. The main problems in urban scenarios are channel contention, message redundancy and road structure. To obtain information, broadcast protocols for VANET typically use beacon messages, which are distributed among the vehicles. When multiple vehicles transmit messages at the same time, a broadcast storm occurs and vehicles experience message delivery failure. To address this problem, Adaptive Scheduled Partitioning and Broadcasting Technique (ASPBT) for emergency message broadcast and beacon retransmissions for message reliability were proposed. This protocol dynamically modifies several partitions and beacon periodicity to reduce the number of retransmissions. Later, the partition size is determined by estimating the network transmission density of each partition schedule via the Black Widow Optimization (BWO) algorithm is proposed. The simulation is carried out with different network densities at the vehicle speed of 110 km/h, a direct path length of 12 km under a four-way direction path and performance analysis was performed

Management of bipolar depression with lamotrigine: an antiepileptic mood stabilizer

The efficacy of lamotrigine in the treatment of focal epilepsies have already been reported in several case reports and open studies, which is thought to act by inhibiting glutamate release through voltage-sensitive sodium channels blockade and neuronal membrane stabilization. However, recent findings have also illustrated the importance of lamotrigine in alleviating the depressive symptoms of bipolar disorder, without causing mood destabilization or precipitating mania. Currently, no mood stabilizers are available having equal efficacy in the treatment of both mania and depression, two of which forms the extreme sides of the bipolar disorder. Lamotrigine, a well established anticonvulsant has received regulatory approval for the treatment and prevention of bipolar depression in more than 30 countries worldwide. Lamotrigine, acts through several molecular targets and overcomes the major limitation of other conventional antidepressants by stabilizing mood from ‘below baseline’ thereby preventing switches to mania or episode acceleration, thus being effective for bipolar I disorder. Recent studies have also suggested that these observations could also be extended to patients with bipolar II disorder. Thus, lamotrigine may supposedly fulfill the unmet requirement for an effective depression mood stabilizer

Model Electrode Studies of the Electrostatic Interaction between Electrochemically Dissolved Pt Ions and RuO2 Nanosheets

Model electrodes consisting of ruthenium oxide nanosheets coated on freshly cleaved highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (RuO2 nanosheet/HOPG) were prepared to investigate the electrostatic interactions between RuO2 nanosheets and electrochemically dissolved Pt ions. The RuO2 nanosheet/HOPG model electrode was dipped into a solution containing dissolved Pt ions generated by potential cycling a Pt working electrode in sulfuric acid electrolyte. Scanning tunneling microscopy revealed preferential adsorption of Pt ions on the nanosheets as island-like deposits, while no such deposits were observed on HOPG. This shows the strong electrostatic interactions between the positively-charged Pt ions and negatively-charged nanosheet. The calculated amount of Pt ions adsorbed was 0.93 x 10(6) atoms mu m(-2), which agreed with the theoretical saturated adsorption amount of Pt ion on RuO2 nanosheet of 0.96 x 10(6) atoms mu m(-2). All of the Pt ions could be electrochemically reduced to Pt nanoparticles showing activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction.ArticleJOURNAL OF THE ELECTROCHEMICAL SOCIETY. 161(3):F259-F262 (2014)journal articl