Unleashing the Potential of the Internet of Things in Transforming Libraries into Intelligent Hubs of Digital Knowledge

Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly evolving technology that has the potential to transform the way libraries operate and provide services to their patrons. By connecting devices and systems to the internet, libraries can gain access to real-time data and automate many of their processes, leading to more efficient and effective operations. This paper explores the use of IoT in libraries, specifically focusing on how it can enable smart libraries in the digital era. The paper will discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing IoT in libraries and provide examples of how libraries are currently using IoT to improve their services. The paper will also explore the future possibilities of IoT in libraries and how it can be used to enhance the user experience and support the development of new services. Overall, this paper will provide an overview of the IoT technology and its potential to revolutionize the way libraries operate and provide services to their patrons in the digital era

Adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients in a tertiary care teaching hospital: analysis of the reported cases

Background: Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR’s) contributes to the burden of drug-related morbidity and mortality. ADRs are seen frequently in hospitals due to a variety of factors like complexity of diseases, drug interactions, polypharmacy, and possible negligence. The purpose of the study was to identify and assess ADR in various departments of a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: A prospective spontaneous reporting was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital during a period of four months from November 2016 to February 2017. All suspected spontaneous ADRs were assessed and the information was collected and analyzed by the pharmacologists for causality assessment using the Naranjo’s causality assessment scale.Results: A total of 30 ADRs were reported with female preponderance (70%). Majority of ADRs were from General Medicine and Oncology departments. The most affected organ systems were skin (80%) followed by the gastrointestinal system (13.3%). The most frequent drugs causing ADRs were antibiotics (56.3%) in which type B reactions were more compared to type A and followed by anticancer drugs (10%). The severity assessment showed that most of them were mild reactions (76.6%). Causality assessment revealed that 90% of the reactions were probable, 10% were possible and no reactions were unlikely.Conclusions: The study accomplished that ADRs are widespread and a few of them raised the healthcare expenditure due to increased hospital stay. The reporting of the ADRs to regional Pharmacovigilance centers should be encouraged to ensure drug safety

Prescribing pattern of antibiotics and susceptibility of pathogens in upper respiratory tract infections: a study from a tertiary care hospital

Background: Upper respiratory tract infections are mostly caused by viruses and are self-limiting. But it is seen that drug therapy is restored to many of them without adequate justifications. Sometimes multiple drug therapy imposes high cost burden on patients. Use of antibiotics in URTI patients have led to rise in bacterial resistance. So, this study was aimed to analyse the prescription pattern in upper respiratory tract infections and the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated organisms.Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital for a period of three months. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria sixty patients were selected. Prescriptions of these patients were collected and analysed for the various WHO prescription indicators like average number of drugs per encounter, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic names, percentage of drugs prescribed as injection, drugs form the essential drug list etc. The swabs were collected from the site of infections and were analysed for the bacterial growth. Also, the antibiotic susceptibility of these organisms was tested.Results: A total of sixty prescriptions were collected and analysed. The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.21. Antimicrobials were prescribed in 90% of cases. Approximately 50% cases the combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid was prescribed. The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic names was 87% and 68% drugs were form the essential drug list. The culture report of the specimen collected from the swabs showed that only 50% of cases were of some bacterial origin. And the organisms isolated were less susceptible to the antibiotics that were prescribed.Conclusions: This study of prescribing patterns in patients gives appropriate feedback and awareness among health care providers. Rationale prescribing practice will prevent antibiotic resistance and reduction in the adverse drug reactions.

Knowledge, attitude towards human papillomavirus and HPV vaccine among medical students of a tertiary care teaching hospital in India

Background: The objective of the study was to assess the awareness of the human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and vaccination among the young students of a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: A cross sectional study was done among the students of a tertiary care teaching hospital. The students were assured of the confidentiality and were provided a questionnaire about HPV infection and HPV vaccine.Results: About 94.3% of students implicated that HPV is a causative agent of cervical cancer and 5.7% students didn’t know about the association. About 72.1% were aware of the availability of the vaccine to be immunized against HPV infection but 3.3% answered wrongly and 24.6% didn’t know about it. Thirty one percent students knew the correct age of initiation of the vaccination, 23% answered wrongly and about 45.9% of the students didn’t know the answer. Only 4.1 % of the students have been vaccinated with HPV vaccine. About 63.9% students didn’t agree to vaccinate themselves against HPV as they felt it would give a false sense of security and 68.8% of the students were against the routine vaccination of the young Indian population against HPV as the sexual exposure occurs at late age. 73% students referred the age of vaccination to be >25 years.Conclusions: Lack of knowledge among medical students can be detrimental to the health of the society. So there is a need to create awareness among the future health educators against various aspects of HPV, cervical cancers and its prevention

Screening of cetirizine for analgesic activity in mice

Background: Pain is the most common symptom for which patients approach doctors. We have multitude of drugs for pain relief, but they have serious side effects ranging from peptic ulcer (e.g. NSAIDs) to renal failure. The other group, opioids have well known side effects ranging from sedation to drug dependence. So a search for a drug for analgesia with high therapeutic effect and fewer side effects will be a boon for the patients. The objective of this study was to find whether cetirizine, a second generation antihistaminic drug, has got any analgesic activity in mice.Methods: Ten adult albino mice weighing 20-30 grams of either sex were randomized to two groups (n=5). Group I: control group (Treated with solvent 0.1 ml/kg), Group II: Test group (Cetirizine 1mg/kg). All drugs were given orally. The analgesic activity was evaluated by using tail flick, tail immersion and tail clip methods. Reaction time of animals to pain sensation before and after Cetirizine administration were noted at 0, 15, 30, 60 and 90 minutes time intervals respectively on Day 1, 3, 5, 7, 10.Results: Mean reaction time was expressed as Mean±SEM, and one way ANOVA was used to assess statistical significance. Cetirizine was found to have statistically significant analgesic effect in mice and time dependent increase in analgesic effect were observed in all three pain models and maximum analgesic activity was observed at 60 minutes (p<0.001) after drug administration.Conclusions: Through this study, Cetirizine, a second generation antihistamine, is found to have significant analgesic activity in mice. This effect has to be studied further elaborately in animals as well as in humans

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SECURELY CONNECTING HETEROGENEOUS L3 NETWORK WITH SDWAN

At present, there are different methods and systems for connecting L3 heterogenous data networks. Current software-defined wide area network (SDWAN) solutions provide a secure way of interconnecting branches or data centers with various deployment models. However, existing solutions do not allow for connecting Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)-only networks to Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)-only networks. Presented herein are techniques for providing an efficient and secure way of connecting IPv4-only branches with IPv6-only branches and vice versa. In one instance, techniques presented herein provide for connecting an IPv4-only branch with an IPv6-only branch when the controller is located in the IPv6-only network. In another instance, techniques presented herein provide for connecting an IPv4-only branch with an IPv6-only branch when the controller is located in the IPv4-only network

Prescribing pattern of antimicrobial agents in pediatrics department of a teaching hospital

Background: Antibiotics are commonly used in pediatric illness and irrational use of antibiotics can lead to bacterial resistance. Appropriate studies should be done to frame proper guidelines for the use of antibiotics in pediatric population. The objective of the study was to determine the prescribing pattern of antibiotics and to analyze the rational use of antibiotics in pediatric department.Methods: An observational prospective study was carried out for a period of 3 months in the Department of Pediatrics. The data were recorded in the specific format, and the result was analyzed by descriptive statistics.Results: In this study, 347 prescriptions containing antibiotics were analyzed, out of which 54.6% were of male child and 45.4% were of female child. About 40.6% of the patients were in the age group of 1-5 years. A single antibiotic was prescribed in 78% of patients. Respiratory tract infections were the most common disease (68.2%), followed by skin infections (12.3%), gastrointestinal diseases (9.5%), and fever without focus (6.5%). Cephalosporins were the most commonly prescribed antibiotic group (35%).Conclusion: Irrational use of antibiotics can lead to bacterial resistance and can worsen the existing disease conditions. So, antibiotics should be prescribed according to the WHO guidelines or other rational strategy, especially in the pediatric age group

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LOSARTAN POTASSIUM FLOATING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Objective: The current study was projected to prepare a losartan potassium gastroretentive drug delivery system (GRDDS) of floating tablets was planned to enhance the gastric residence time, thus prolong the drug release.Methods: Effervescent floating matrix tablets of losartan potassium were prepared by direct compression technique using polymers like HPMC k4m, guar gum, and gum karaya, with lubricants magnesium stearate and talc. In the present study, sodium bicarbonate was incorporated as a gas generating agent. Total nine formulations were designed and evaluated for pre-compression parameters known as the angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, Hausner's ratio, compressibility index, and post-compression parameters are uniformity of weight, hardness, and drug content percentage, variability, in vitro buoyancy, dissolution studies, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).Results: An in vitro dissolution study was carried out by using buffer pH 1.2. From in vitro dissolution studies, it has been found that an increase in polymer concentration diminishes the drug release profile. The in vitro drug release percentage from F4-F9 formulations ranged from 60.28%-98.66% at the closing of 12 h and buoyancy found over 12 h.Conclusion: The in vitro drug release from F1-F3 and F7-F9 followed zero-order, F4 followed Higuchi order, F5 and F6 followed Hixon-Crowell release kinetics. The drug release mechanism was set up to be F1-F8 non-Fickian (anomalous behavior) and F9 having Fickian diffusion type

Electronic Resource Sharing of Libraries: A Footprint Toward Green-E Future

This paper discusses different benefits of electronic resource sharing and described it as a sector, i.e., space, energy, cost, time, organization, and reliability. The authors also have visualized the concept of "Green-E" in the field of libraries and information centers. Through the analysis of electronic resources as a renewable source of energy for libraries, the idea has been explained and supported by showing how electronic resources play an important role as greener energy and help save the earth from global warming and climate change. The future of e-libraries and green libraries may be called the "Green-E Library," and its electronic resources mark the footprint for a green future

Unleashing the Potential of the Internet of Things in Transforming Libraries into Intelligent Hubs of Digital Knowledge

Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly evolving technology that has the potential to transform the way libraries operate and provide services to their patrons. By connecting devices and systems to the internet, libraries can gain access to real-time data and automate many of their processes, leading to more efficient and effective operations. This paper explores the use of IoT in libraries, specifically focusing on how it can enable smart libraries in the digital era. The paper will discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing IoT in libraries and provide examples of how libraries are currently using IoT to improve their services. The paper will also explore the future possibilities of IoT in libraries and how it can be used to enhance the user experience and support the development of new services. Overall, this paper will provide an overview of the IoT technology and its potential to revolutionize the way libraries operate and provide services to their patrons in the digital era