Thyroid Storm: Clinical Manifestation, Pathophysiology, and Treatment

Thyroid storm is a rare but life-threatening endocrine emergency. It is an acute exaggerated clinical manifestation of thyrotoxic state. The exact incidence is unknown. It occurs in 1–2% of patients admitted for thyrotoxicosis. It has a mortality of 10–20%. This chapter would help us to understand its clinical manifestations, pathophysiology, and effective treatment. Terminal learning objective would be to diagnose impending storm early and start prompt treatment in day-to-day practice. The chapter would cover pathophysiology including triggers, clinical features including various diagnostic criteria, diagnosis, and treatment of thyroid storm. Indications of surgical treatment in storm will be discussed

Curse of the technology-computer related musculoskeletal disorders and vision syndrome: a study

Background: Computer Related Musculoskeletal disorders and Vision Syndrome (CRMSKVS) is defined as symptoms due to prolonged use of Visual Display Terminal (VDT).Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was done among office-workers working on computer terminal. A self-reported questionnaire was distributed and Musculoskeletal (MSK) and visual symptoms in the preceding 12 months (01 October 2017 to 30 September 2018) were taken as dependent variable. Multivariate analysis was done to identify the determinants of CRMSKVS.Results: Responses from 1193 subjects were included in the study. CRMSKVS was present in 489 cases (40.98%; males - 37.5%, females - 58.29%).  The main MSK symptoms were pain/stiffness in neck (40.98%), shoulder (38.99%), lower back (35.6%) and elbow/wrist/hand/fingers (23.1%). The ocular symptoms were excessive watering (39.6%), pain (24.99), irritation (18.6%), burning/itching sensation (29.8%), redness (40.7%), blurring of vision (13.2%) and headache (40.9%). Female gender (OR-1.498(1.262-1.778)), long duration of working hours (OR-2.77(2.399-3.214)), poor break duration (OR-2.59(2.172-3.089)), excessive smart phone use (OR-2.071(1.834-2.338)), poor posture (OR-3.883(3.282-4.592)), inappropriate distance of computer screen (OR-2.173(1.829-2.582)), low height of screen (OR-1.936(1.527-2.454)), distance of keyboard (OR-3.161(2.528-3.953)) and distance of mouse (OR-5.785(3.932-8.512)) were identified as significant determinants of CRMSKVS.Conclusions: CRMSKVS is an emerging pandemic which needs urgent attention by medical and administrative authorities. The device factors, personal factors, environmental and ergonomic factors are the modifiable risk factors for CRMSKVS

IMPROVED WEIGHTED CLUSTERING ALGORITHM FOR MOBILE AD HOC NETWORKS

ABSTRACT The proposed weight-based distributed clustering algorithm takes into consideration the ideal degree, transmission power, mobility, and battery power of mobile nodes. We try to keep the number of nodes in a cluster around a pre-defined threshold to facilitate the optimal operation of the medium access control (MAC) protocol. The non-periodic procedure for cluster head election is invoked on-demand, and is aimed to reduce the computation and communication costs. The cluster heads, operating in "dual" power mode, connects the clusters which help in routing messages from a node to any other node. Key words: ad hoc networks, clusters, dominant set, load balancing INTRODUCTION Current wireless cellular networks solely rely on the wired backbone by which all base stations are connected, implying that networks are fixed and constrained to a geographical area with a pre-defined boundary. Deployment of such networks takes time and cannot be set up in times of utmost emergency. Therefore, mobile multihop radio networks, also called ad hoc or peer-to-peer networks, play a critical role in places where a wired (central) backbone is neither available nor eco-nomical to build, such as law enforcement operations, battle field communications, disaster recovery situations, and so on. Such situations demand a network where all the nodes includ-ing the base stations are potentially mobile, and communica-tion must be supported untethered between any two nodes. A multi-cluster, multi-hop packet radio network architecture for wireless systems should be able to dynamically adapt itself with the changing network configurations. Cer-tain nodes, known as clusterheads, are responsible for the formation of clusters each consisting of a number of nodes (analogous to cells in a cellular network) and maintenance of the topology of the network. The set of clusterheads is known as a dominant set. A clusterhead does the resource allocation to all the nodes belonging to its cluster. Due to the dynamic nature of the mobile nodes, their association and dissociation to and from clusters perturb the stability of the network and thus reconfiguration of clusterheads is unavoidable. This is an important issue since frequent clusterhead changes adversely affect the performance of other protocols such as scheduling, routing and resource allocation that rely on it. Choosing clus-terheads optimally is an NP-hard proble

Estimation of plant nitrogen content using digital image processing

A manually operated four wheel test trolley was designed and developed for acquiring outdoor color images of plant under controlled illumination to predict crop nitrogen content in field.  This set up consists of a camera to capture the plant image, four lights to control illumination and a laptop for processing the signal.  The developed unit was evaluated rigorously for paddy crop for four observations at fifteen days interval after transplantation.  The results were compared with the chlorophyll content of the crop measured by SPAD meter and the chemical analysis of plant leaf.  The processing of the color plant image was done in MATLAB 7.0 program.  Various features such as R, G, B, normalized ‘r’ and normalized ‘g’ were analyzed for both the processes.  Regression models were developed and evaluated between various image feature and the plant nitrogen content and observed that, the minimum accuracy was found to be 65% with an average accuracy of 75% (Standard Deviation +1.9), actual and predicted values of nitrogen percent were linearly correlated with R2 value (0.948), this showed that the plant nitrogen content can be successfully estimated by its color image feature.   Keywords: precision agriculture, digital image processing, site specific nitrogen applicatio

Delivery and Evaluation of Participatory Education for Animal Keepers Led by Veterinarians and Para-Veterinarians around the Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India.

<div><p>Aim</p><p>We aim to investigate local perceptions of animal health challenges; current animal health knowledge; and methods to provide effective, relevant education to animal keepers in the Kanha Tiger Reserve area.</p><p>Materials and methods</p><p>A farmer education programme was undertaken in the Kanha Tiger Reserve area. Local animal health priorities were investigated through participatory village meetings (n = 38), individual animal keeper questionnaires (n = 100) and a written survey of local paravets (n = 16). Educational interventions were: veterinary surgeon led education meeting (VE); paravet led education meeting (PVE); distribution of printed materials (PM). 230 village meetings were carried out across 181 villages, contacting 3791 animal keepers. 20 villages received printed materials. Information was gathered on perceptions of local animal health challenges and current remedies. Efficacy of knowledge transfer was assessed four to five months later using a purposeful sample of 38 villages.</p><p>Results</p><p>Group meetings identified ticks (35/38), foot and mouth disease (FMD) (31/38) and diarrhoea (30/38) as the greatest animal health challenges. Individual interviews identified haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) (87/100), blackquarter (BQ) (66/100) and plastic ingestion (31/100). Paravets identified FMD (7/16), BQ (6/16) and HS (6/16), and also indicated that animal husbandry and socio-economic factors were important. Current treatments were primarily home remedies and herbalism, but also included contacting a paravet, use of pharmaceuticals and faith healing. Animal treatment knowledge prior to intervention was not significantly different between groups (P = 0.868). Following intervention animal health knowledge was assessed: PVE performed better than controls (P = 0.001) and PM (P = 0.003); VE performed better than controls (P = 0.009). There was no significant difference between VE and PVE (P = 0.666) nor PM and controls (P = 0.060).</p><p>Conclusions and recommendations</p><p>Open access participatory village meetings are an effective way to provide animal health education. In this region distribution of posters and leaflets did not appear to be an effective way to contact animal keepers. Meetings led by paravets can be as effective as those led by veterinarians and paravets can rapidly and sustainably contact large numbers of animal keepers. Investigation of the local animal health situation is essential to ensure education is relevant and accessible to intended recipients. Interventions must be carefully planned to maximise engagement of all sections of the community, particularly women.</p></div

In vivo efficacy of natural essential oil of Syzygium aromaticum L. bud for protecting the Pisum sativum L. seeds

The mycological investigations on sixty samples of stored garden pea food seeds revealed presence of twelve and ten species of fungi by blotter and agar plate techniques respectively. The fungal species were associated with genera viz., Alternaria, Aspergillus, Botrytis, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Fusarium, Penicillium and Rhizopus. The fungal species viz., Cladosporium herbarum (Pers.) Link and Penicillium italicum Wehmer did not show its appearance in agar plate method. It showed dominance of Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ochraceous, Aspergillus terreus in blotter method in comparison to agar plating. Aspergillus tmarii, P. italicum and Rhizopus stolonifer did not grow on sterilized seeds in Blotter method. Pathogenicity tests of dominant fungi caused biodeterioration in garden pea seeds. The antifungal testing of essential oils revealed Syzygium aromaticum L. bud oil to be fungitoxic at 500 ppm (0.025 mL). The minimum inhibitory concentration of the S. aromaticum oil was found to be 300 ppm against four fungi viz., A. flavus, A. niger, A. ochraceous and A. terreus. At this concentration the oil was found to be fungicidal and thermostable. The oil activity was not affected by physical factors and showed broad spectrum. In vivo study depicted that clove oil was more effective in comparison to EDCT. It controlled a maximum of 4 fungi while the clove oil showed no growth of fungi even after 6 months storage

Study of ambient air pollutants over Rishikesh at foothills of north-western Indian Himalaya

49-60Air quality parameters measured over Rishikesh city of Uttarakhand, where a large number of visitors and pilgrimage stay and pass by throughout the year are analyzed and studied. Such intensive human activities lead to the impacts and its manifestation on regional scale environment. Due to consistent infrastructure development and the increased vehicular emission due to transport, a large amount of particulate matters is added to the ambient environment and affects the air quality adversely. Here an attempt is made to understand the growth in level of ambient air pollutants through available measurement. In this study particulate matter (PM10), suspended particulate matters (SPMs) and the concentration of gaseous pollutants (SO2 and NO2) from 2011 to 2014 are measured and analyzed. It is observed that concentrations of the pollutants increase during pre-monsoon season as compared to the winter and monsoon seasons. In addition, PM10 and SPM concentrations are found about two times higher than the prescribed national standard. SO2 and NO2 levels are found within the limits as proposed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) New Delhi, India. A detailed statistical analysis is carried out on the basis of monthly mean values of the observed pollutants. The PM10 exhibits a significant positive correlation with SO2 and NO2 concentrations. In addition, back trajectories show partly long-term transport from North Africa, Saudi Arabia and central Asian region in contributing over the region with local emission that is considered to be the main and direct cause of increasing trend of the pollutants

SYNTHESIS OF COPPER NANOPARTICLES USING ASCORBIC ACID AND CETYL TRIMETHYL AMMONIUM BROMIDE

Objective: The present study highlights the development of a method to synthesize copper nanoparticles (CuNPs).Methods: CuNPs were developed using 0.01 M copper penta sulfate and 0.11 M of ascorbic acid (AA) and 0.03 M of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide solution. The synthesized CuNPs were differentiated through filtration and washed by water (deionized). CuNPs were kept in dialysis bag 70 KD in a 250 mL glass beaker along with distilled water. The assembly was kept on a magnetic stirrer for 24 h at 500 rpm. Then, the dialysis bag containing CuNPs solution was filtered by a filter assembly with 0.2 μm nylon filter. The filtered CuNPs were spray dried with the help of spray drier.Results: The prepared CuNPs were found to be 440 nm with zeta potential of −10 mV and polydispersity index 0.314.Conclusion: The investigation deciphers the promising and material technique to synthesis of CuNPs by methods for synthetic reduction utilizing strategy using AA (0.2 M) and sodium hydroxide (1 M), and Syloid 244FP

DISCRIMINATORY POTENTIAL OF BIPHASIC MEDIUM OVER COMPENDIAL AND BIORELEVANT MEDIUM FOR ASSESSMENT OF DISSOLUTION BEHAVIOR OF TABLETS CONTAINING MELOXICAM NANOPARTICLES

ABSTRACTObjective: Dissolution test serves as a quality control tool for assessment of drug release from dosage form as well as a research tool to optimize newformulations. The existing guidelines by FDA, EMA, ICH, USP, etc., describe specifications for the dissolution of immediate release as well as modifiedrelease oral dosage form. However, none of them have discussed about the discriminatory potential of the medium to differentiate release profile of twoor more products that are pharmaceutically equivalent. It is pertinent to add here that the pharmaceutical equivalents are not always bioequivalent.Hence, a discriminatory dissolution procedure is a must requirement to differentiate the release behavior of drug from a pharmaceutically equivalentproduct that contains different types and amount of excipient in the formulation. This also becomes more cumbersome when it is desirable forprediction of in vivo behavior of a drug when it is converted into a novel delivery system like nanoparticles. The reason could be the presence ofexcipients used to formulate drug nanoparticles into solid oral dosage form, may change the drug disintegration as well as dissolution behavior, whichultimately may lead to altered bioavailability.Methods: In this study, the nanoparticles of meloxicam were prepared using wet media milling and the milled samples were dried using spray drier.The dried nanoparticles were converted into tablet dosage form by varying the type of diluent. To one batch lactose was used and another one wascontaining dicalcium phosphate (DCP). The assessment of release of meloxicam from these two batches was evaluated in various dissolution media.Results: The study revealed that in all the cases the nanoparticulate tablets of Batch 1 have given increased dissolution profile as compared tomarketed formulation (Muvera), Batch 2 and controlled tablets of meloxicam. This proved that the excipients also play a major role in the releasebehavior of drug otherwise if it was not so, the nanoparticulate tablets of Batch 1 and Batch 2 would have given the same dissolution profile in all thetried media. Batch 1 containing lactose with a higher surface area provided more and rapid wetting of the drug by the dissolution media compared toBatch 2 that contained DCP as a major diluent.®Conclusion: Among all the dissolution media tried to evaluate the discriminatory power and simulation with a biorelevant medium, the biphasicmedium of pH 1.8, 4.8 and 6.8 has promised to simulate with biorelevant media. However, the medium of pH 6.8 has shown the best dissolution profile.Keywords: Solubility, Compendial media, Biphasic media, Dissolution, Meloxicam

Enhancement of bioavailability of herbal drugs for treating viral therapy using SNEDDS as the delivery system

SNEDDS were developed with the objective of treating low bioavailability of drugs for antiviral drugs due to its low solubility. The scientist has increased their interest in improving bioavailability and absorption of poorly-water soluble drugs using Self-Emulsifying lipid technology. SNEDDS was an isocratic mixture contains an Oil, Surfactant, Co-surfactant, and Drug in accurate amount. The SNEDDS was primarily prepared as liquid-SNEDDS, but S-SNEDDS was more stable as compared to L-SNEDDS. As viral infection was major threat for people due to its limited efficacy and Serious adverse effects. The most damaging viral diseases was treated with help of SNEDDS as delivery system. They were a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The plant and plant source were major source from which the extracted metabolites used for synthesis of drug through metabolic pathway. The phytochemicals and extracts were better and safe alternative for synthetic drugs. The phytochemicals like Curcumin, Myricetin, Apigenin etc. used as drug for treating antivirals using SNEDDS. This technique was used for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Also, the ternary phase diagram gives dramatic representation of Oil, surfactant and Co-surfactant which shows its concentration. Some characterization techniques were Droplet size, Zeta potential, XRD, DSC, FTIR, and TGA. Also, QbD provides a platform for systemic production of drug formulations. QbD was used for its better bioavailability