MEDICINAL PLANTS OF NORTH-EAST REGION OF INDIA: A SMALL REVIEW

Assam is a state of the North Eastern part of India. There are varieties of plants distributed in various parts of the state. 50% of India's entire plant biodiversity is contributed by the North Eastern States i.e., Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura including Assam. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India in 1980s recorded two hundred and eighty-six (286) species of plants from Assam, used by the tribes of Assam.The traditional system of medicine plays an important role in the healthcare of rural people for all types of ailments. The healing power of traditional herbal medicines has been realized and documented since Rigveda and Atharvaveda. Nearly 80% of the world populations rely on traditional medicines for primary health care, most of which involve the use of plant extracts

ASSESSING ECOTOURISM ECONOMICS FOR LIVELIHOOD INTERVENTION- A CASE IN NAMERI NATIONAL PARK OF ASSAM (INDIA)

This paper entitled tries to emphasize on the ecotourism initiatives and its impact of on livelihood intervention in the fringe of Nameri National Park in Assam, India. Ecotourism initiatives that have been introduce by Assam (Bhorelli) Angling and Conservation Association (ABACA), an organization started ecotourism ventures in the year 1956 benefiting local populace in terms of income, improved infrastructure, employment opportunities and exposure. The community's capacity to facilitate resource related conflicts has improved following support from development institutions and facilities provided by the organization. An expanding livelihood base is reducing local vulnerability to disaster and man-animal conflicts. The numbers of inhabitant wildlife species in the park have increased due to adequate protection and reduce frequency of livestock in nearby villagers. There is need to build the community's capacity for the promotion of activities that compliment ecotourism. Through the paper the researcher emphasizes such possibilities on the basis of assessment of potential ecotourism resources of the Nameri National Park during field experience gained different parts of the study area

The gut microbiota in immune-mediated disorders

The human gut microbiota is a diverse community of microbes residing in the intestine. Evidence from various animal models and human studies have highlighted its potential role in health, metabolic and immune-associated conditions such as osteoporosis, inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and multiple sclerosis. This thesis provides further understanding of the changes in the gut microbiota dynamics in these disorders which is important for establishing a necessary knowledge base for potential microbiota-based diagnostic/therapeutic options. The studies undertaken in this thesis provides a baseline observation and identify the directionality of changes that occurs in the gut microbiota throughout disease progression and treatment. The thesis investigates alterations in the microbiota due to biologics treatment and differences associated with health and disease status. Amplicon and metagenomic whole genome shotgun (mWGS) sequencing were employed along with extensive meta-data analyses. Using robust and rigorous statistical approaches on the amplicon dataset, I identified a set of key taxa that are differentially abundant in osteoporosis. The microbiota diversity is associated with various covariates; however, the key taxa retain association with bone measures after accounting for the covariates. The gut microbiota of different arthritis and IBD samples were profiled at different time-points using mWGS before and during biologics treatment. This demonstrated that the long-term biologics treated samples show the presence of taxa observed in healthy controls which are absent or reduced in treatment naive arthritic subjects. This signature is reflected in β-diversity and in the differentially abundant taxa. The strength of this signature varies in different arthritic diseases. In MS, I identified different taxonomic and functional signatures of the gut microbiota associated with different MS phenotype which is distinct from both young and elderly healthy population using mWGS profiles. For better inference of functional potential from amplicon data, I developed a novel methodology IPCO, a flexible R library. It outperforms other tools both in terms of sample and features profiles correlation by retaining most of the observed biological signal determined from paired mWGS and metabolites profile data. In conclusion, an altered microbiota composition was found to be associated with bone mineral density in osteoporosis, different phenotypes of MS as well as with biologics-mediated disease remission in different forms of arthritis. These noted alterations will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between the gut microbiota and immune disorders. This can be useful to identify potential diagnostic or therapeutic targets in at-risk individuals. Lastly, I demonstrated that IPCO generated reliable prediction of the functional potential from 16S data in contrast to established tools

Prevalence and major risk factors of non-communicable diseases: a machine learning based cross-sectional study

The aim: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of several non-communicable diseases (NCD) and analyze risk factors among adult patients seeking nutritional guidance in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Participants: 146 hospitalized adults of both genders aged 18-93 participated in this cross-sectional research. Methods: We collected the demographic and vital information from 146 hospitalized patients in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We checked the physical and vital parameters, including blood sugar, serum creatinine, blood pressure, and the presence or absence of major non-communicable diseases. Then we used descriptive statistical approaches to explore the NCDs prevalence based on gender and age group. Afterwards, the relationship between different NCD pairs with their combined effects was analyzed using different hypothesis testing at a 95 % confidence level. Finally, the random forest and XGBoost machine learning algorithms are used to predict the comorbidity among the patients with the underlying responsible factors. Result: Our study observed the relationships between gender, age groups, obesity, and NCDs (DM, CKD, IBS, CVD, CRD, thyroid). The most frequently reported NCD was cardiovascular issues (CVD), which was present in 83.56 % of all participants. CVD was more common in male participants. Consequently, male participants had a higher blood pressure distribution than females. Diabetes mellitus (DM), on the other hand, did not have a gender-based inclination. Both CVD and DM had an age-based progression. Our study showed that chronic respiratory illness was more frequent in middle-aged participants than in younger or elderly individuals. Based on the data, every one in five hospitalized patients was obese. We analyzed the comorbidities and found that 31.5 % of the population has only one NCD, 30.1 % has two NCDs, and 38.3 % has more than two NCDs. Besides, 86.25 % of all diabetic patients had cardiovascular issues. All thyroid patients in our study had CVD. Using a t-test, we found a relationship between CKD and thyroid (p-value 0.061). Males under 35 years have a statistically significant relationship between thyroid and chronic respiratory diseases (p-value 0.018). We also found an association between DM and CKD among patients over 65 (p-value 0.038). Moreover, there has been a statistically significant relationship between CKD and Thyroid (P<0.05) for those below 35 and 35-65. We used a two-way ANOVA test to find the statistically significant interaction of heart issues and chronic respiratory illness in combination with diabetes. The combination of DM and RTI also affected CKD in male patients over 65 years old. Among machine learning algorithms, XGBoost produced the highest accuracy, 69.7 %, in comorbidity detection. Random forest feature importance detected age, weight and waist-hip ratio as the major risk factors behind the comorbidity. Conclusion: The prevalence study helps to identify the future risks and most vulnerable groups. By initiating and implementing control plans based on the prevalence study, it is possible to reduce the burden of NCDs on the elderly and middle-aged population of Bangladesh

Near total laryngectomy: a single institutional experience

Background: Near total laryngectomy (NTL) aims to remove cancer of larynx and hypopharynx while maintaining a lung powered, prosthesis free voice. The oncological and functional outcomes of NTL have been encouraging but the surgical procedure is complex. In this study, we present our experience with NTL in order to encourage more ENT and head and neck surgeons to take up the procedure.Methods: Twenty-eight patients, who had undergone NTL at State cancer institute, Guwahati are analysed retrospectively for survival, disease free status, functional outcomes and complications.Results: There were two recurrences: one local recurrence which was salvaged by a completion total laryngectomy. The other patient had distant metastasis and died eventually. Overall survival (OS) was 96.43% and event free survival (EFS) was 92.86%. The patient who died had extra-nodal extension (ENE) on post op histology (p=0.274). Two patients failed to develop any speech had stenosis of the shunt. One of these was the only Salvage NTL case (p=0.057). Tracheostome stenosis, poor swallow and shunt stenosis were the common complications in our series. Most of them resolved with some intervention. Multiple complications were seen in the salvage NTL cases.Conclusions: Careful case selection and well executed surgery leads to acceptable results following NTL. Special attention should be paid to the salvage cases as they are prone to develop complications and failure to attain speech. Patients with adverse post-op histopathological examination (HPE), like ENE should be kept under close follow up

Isolation, identification and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of Escherichia coli isolated from various clinical sample in a tertiary care hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Background: Escherichia coli is one of the most frequent causes of many bacterial infections, including Urinary Tract Infections (UTI), blood stream infections, otitis media, pneumonia, meningitis, traveler’s diarrhoea, enteric infections and systemic infections. This study was done with the aim to surveying antibiotic sensitivity pattern of isolated Escherichia coli in both sex attended in NIMS Hospital, Jaipur under the taken time period.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 62 Escherichia coli were isolated from various clinical specimens of the patients attending both OPD and IPD. The strains were selected using the laboratory standard methods and culture-specific. The antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method.Results: Out of total 62 isolates of Escherichia coli 26(41.93%) isolates were from male while 36(58.064%) from female patients. Maximum sensitivity were shown by Polymyxin B and Colistin i.c 100% followed by Nitrofuratonin 82.5% followed by Meropenem 79.03%, Aztreonam 72.58%, Piperacillin/ Tazobactam and Ciprofloxacin 61.30%, each Amikacin 56.45%, Imipenem 54.83%, Ofloxacin 45.16%, Cefepime 43.54%, Ceftazidime 38.71%, Gentamycin and Ceftriaxone 37.09% each, Cefotaxime 30.64%, Norfloxacin 27.5%. Maximum resistance shown against Norfloxacin 72.5%, followed by Gentamycin and Ceftriaxone 62.90%, Ceftazidime 61.30%.Conclusions: Escherichia coli infected more in urinary tract infection as compare to other sample in human, and it is common in female than male. Regular monitoring of antimicrobial susceptibility for E.coli is recommended to improve treatment. A changing trend in antibiotic sensitivity profile of the isolates need to be monitored as there is limited availability of newer drugs and the emergence of resistant bacteria far exceeds the rate of new drug development

Er3+-Doped Nanoengineered Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Alumino-Silicate Fiber for Efficient CW and Mode-Locked Laser Operation

We report on the development of efficient continuous wave (CW) and mode-locked ring fiber lasers utilizing an Er3+-doped nanoengineered yttria-stabilized zirconia alumino (YSZA)-silicate fiber as the gain element. With the proper design of the material composition, the YSZA fiber host presents superior features to eliminate the Er3+ cluster effects and enhance the radiative emission over commercial silica fibers, thus significantly increasing the fiber laser efficiencies. Through cavity analysis and optimization, we successfully demonstrate a 975-nm pumped single-mode Er3+-doped CW YSZA-silicate fiber laser with a slope efficiency of 43%, which is corresponding to the quantum efficiency of 69%. Because of the special dispersion property of the Er3+-doped YSZA-silicate fiber, we are able to build a stable soliton mode-locked 1565-nm fiber laser with 3.2-nJ pulse energy, 644-fs pulsewidth, and 4.96-kW peak power

Enhanced Erbium-Zirconia-Yttria-Aluminum Co-Doped Fiber Amplifier

An efficient optical amplifier is demonstrated using an improved erbium-zirconia-yttria-aluminum co-doped fiber (Zr-EDF) as the gain medium. With a combination of both Zr and Al, we could achieve a high erbium doping concentration with an absorption loss of around 80.0 dB/m at 980 nm. The Zr-EDF is obtained from a fiber preform, which is fabricated in a ternary glass host, i.e., a zirconia-yttria-aluminum co-doped silica fiber, using a modified chemical vapor deposition, in conjunction with a solution doping process. At the optimum length of 1 m, the Zr-EDF amplifier produces a flat gain of 38 dB within a wavelength region between 1530 and 1565 nm with a gain variation of less than 3 dB when the input signal power and 980 nm pump power are fixed at -30 dBm and 130 mW, respectively. The highest gain of 40.3 dB is obtained at 1560 nm wavelength. Compared with the previous Zr-EDF amplifier, the proposed Zr-EDFA shows improved gain, particularly at longer wavelengths. The gain is enhanced by about 15.8 dB at a wavelength of 1560 nm for an input signal of -30 dBm

Gut microbiota alterations associated with reduced bone mineral density in older adults

Objective: To investigate compositional differences in the gut microbiota associated with bone homeostasis and fractures in a cohort of older adults. Methods: Faecal microbiota profiles were determined from 181 individuals with osteopenia (n = 61) or osteoporosis (n = 60), and an age- and gender-matched group with normal BMD (n = 60). Analysis of the 16S (V3-V4 region) amplicon dataset classified to the genus level was used to identify significantly differentially abundant taxa. Adjustments were made for potential confounding variables identified from the literature using several statistical models. Results: We identified six genera that were significantly altered in abundance in the osteoporosis or osteopenic groups compared with age- and gender-matched controls. A detailed study of microbiota associations with meta-data variables that included BMI, health status, diet and medication revealed that these meta-data explained 15–17% of the variance within the microbiota dataset. BMD measurements were significantly associated with alterations in the microbiota. After controlling for known biological confounders, five of the six taxa remained significant. Overall microbiota alpha diversity did not correlate to BMD in this study. Conclusion: Reduced BMD in osteopenia and osteoporosis is associated with an altered microbiota. These alterations may be useful as biomarkers or therapeutic targets in individuals at high risk of reductions in BMD. These observations will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between the microbiota and bone homeostasis