In vitro propagation of Aloe barbadensis Miller, a miracle herb

Aloe vera has valuable medicinal properties and is commercially used inpharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. An efficient micro propagation method hasbeen developed in Aloe vera plants using the shoot tip explants cultured on MS mediumwith different phyto hormonal supplements for shoot proliferation and rooting. Theshoot proliferation was found best (80%) in the MS medium containing Benzyl aminopurine (BAP) 2.0 mg/L. Seventy percent of adventitious root formation was observed inhalf strength MS medium supplemented with Indole butyric acid (IBA). After two weeks,in vitro grown plants were transferred to the poly-cups containing 1:1 ratio of soil an

Musculoskeletal disorders and associated disabilities among bank workers

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are among the most common health problems encountered in the workplace around the globe leading to disabling conditions there by reducing human performance and subsequently quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of MSDs and associated disabilities and also to identify the risk factors responsible for their occurrence among bank workers in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu, India.  Methods: Annual prevalence of MSD was determined through a cross sectional survey from a sample of 300 bank workers. A pre-validated questionnaire adopted from modified Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire and 12 Item General Health Questionnaire was used to obtain information about participant’s demographic characteristics, job characteristics, psychosocial stress, musculoskeletal impairments and the resulting disability in different body regions. Data was obtained from the participant’s at their respective working places in Kancheepuram for a period of 1 month.Results: Annual prevalence of 33.8% was observed for the MSD, with a disability rate of 8.5%.The body region mostly affected was the lower back (51.8%) followed by the neck (48.2%), shoulder (40.2%) and upper back (39.6%). In terms of disability, the same pattern was noted with rates for the lower back, neck, shoulder and upper back being 18.9%, 13.4%, 11.6% and 9.1% respectively. The risk factors identified as being responsible for MSD were job tenure, psychosocial stress, and female sex while those responsible for the disabilities were job tenure and psychosocial stress.Conclusion: Low prevalence of MSDs and associated disabilities was observed.

A Qualitative Evaluation of IoT-driven eHealth: Knowledge Management, Business Models and Opportunities, Deployment and Evolution

eHealth has a major potential, and its adoption may be considered necessary to achieve increased ambulant and remote medical care, increased quality, reduced personnel needs, and reduced costs potential in healthcare. In this paper the authors try to give a reasonable, qualitative evaluation of IoT-driven eHealth from theoretical and practical viewpoints. They look at associated knowledge management issues and contributions of IoT to eHealth, along with requirements, benefits, limitations and entry barriers. Important attention is given to security and privacy issues. Finally, the conditions for business plans and accompanying value chains are realistically analyzed. The resulting implementation issues and required commitments are also discussed based on a case study analysis. The authors confirm that IoT-driven eHealth can happen and will happen; however, much more needs to be addressed to bring it back in sync with medical and general technological developments in an industrial state-of-the-art perspective and to get recognized and get timely the benefits

Using creative co-design to develop a decision support tool for people with malignant pleural effusion

Abstract: Background: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common, serious problem predominantly seen in metastatic lung and breast cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma. Recurrence of malignant pleural effusion is common, and symptoms significantly impair people’s daily lives. Numerous treatment options exist, yet choosing the most suitable depends on many factors and making decisions can be challenging in pressured, time-sensitive clinical environments. Clinicians identified a need to develop a decision support tool. This paper reports the process of co-producing an initial prototype tool. Methods: Creative co-design methods were used. Three pleural teams from three disparate clinical sites in the UK were involved. To overcome the geographical distance between sites and the ill-health of service users, novel distributed methods of creative co-design were used. Local workshops were designed and structured, including video clips of activities. These were run on each site with clinicians, patients and carers. A joint national workshop was then conducted with representatives from all stakeholder groups to consider the findings and outputs from local meetings. The design team worked with participants to develop outputs, including patient timelines and personas. These were used as the basis to develop and test prototype ideas. Results: Key messages from the workshops informed prototype development. These messages were as follows. Understanding and managing the pleural effusion was the priority for patients, not their overall cancer journey. Preferred methods for receiving information were varied but visual and graphic approaches were favoured. The main influences on people’s decisions about their MPE treatment were personal aspects of their lives, for example, how active they are, what support they have at home. The findings informed the development of a first prototype/service visualisation (a video representing a web-based support tool) to help people identify personal priorities and to guide shared treatment decisions. Conclusion: The creative design methods and distributed model used in this project overcame many of the barriers to traditional co-production methods such as power, language and time. They allowed specialist pleural teams and service users to work together to create a patient-facing decision support tool owned by those who will use it and ready for implementation and evaluation

Mechanical, pH and Thermal Stability of Mesoporous Hydroxyapatite

The stability of mesoporous hydroxyapatite (HAP) powder was studied following treatments of ultrasound, pH and heating. HAP was found to be mechanically stable up to (and including) 1 h continuous ultrasonic treatment in water. The HAP structure was also stable to pH, evidenced by practically identical XRD and FTIR spectra over the pH range 2–12. The surface area increased progressively with increasing acidity, reaching a maximum of 121.9 m 2 g −1 at pH 2, while alkaline conditions decreased the surface area to a minimum of 55.4 m 2 g −1 at pH 12. Heating in air had a significant influence on the structural and morphological properties of HAP, which underwent dehydroxylation to form oxyhydroxyapatite (OHAP) at temperatures ≥ 650 °C, and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) ≥750 °C. The surface area decreased at elevated temperatures due to agglomeration of HAP crystals by sintering, which was associated with an increased particle size

Identi¢cation of a novel mycobacterial transcriptional regulator and its involvement in growth rate dependence and stringent control

A novel transcriptional regulator has been identified in the 400-bp upstream region of the guaA gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv that promotes the expression of lacZ gene in Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 and M. tuberculosis H37Rv but not in Escherichia coli DH5K. PCR-mediated deletion mutagenesis and cloning identified a 120-bp fragment upstream from the guaA gene to be the actual regulator. Primer extension analysis mapped the transcription start site to be the first ‘G’ residue of the translation start codon GTG of the guaA gene. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed strong binding of M. smegmatis RNA polymerase holoenzyme to the 400-bp fragment that expresses lacZ in mycobacterial species and a weak binding to the 280-bp fragment that expresses only in E. coli DH5K. Both promoter recombinants revealed varied response in the presence of purine nucleotides and exhibited down-regulation when subjected to amino acid starvation