Production of both esters and biogas from Mexican poppy

This paper details a dynamic evaluation of a procedure for extracting both, ester and biogas from seeds and waste of Mexican poppy (Argemone mexicana) using simple and inexpensive technique. Results showed that A. mexicana seed contains 30% oil. Through the process of transestrification, oil extracted from seed, has been converted to its ester. Methanol gives good separation of ester with A. mexicana compared to ethanol and A. mexicana methyl ester showed closer physical property to diesel. Calorific value of seed waste was 4621 Kcal/Kg and C/N ratio was 11. The experiment for biogas production was accomplished in two conditions viz sunlight (22- 30°C) and at room temperature (16-20°C) for 33 days. Sunlight increase ten times biogas production compared to room temperature. Biogas produced through anaerobic digestion of seed waste contained 52% methane. This process is suitable for smallscale industries and agricultural farms.Key words: Transestrification, energy conservation, anaerobic digestion, methane, biogas, methyl ester

Legal Lamination to Transboundary Movement of Plastic Pollutants

The menace caused by plastic waste is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing today. It is established that plastic pollution and its accumulation in the world ocean is one of the greatest threats exacerbating all three planetary existential threats identified by the UN. The presence of plastic pollutants in the marine environment is due to its transboundary and cross-continental movement. Therefore, after five decades of the Stockholm conference, it seems necessary to explore how far the principles and objectives of the Stockholm Declaration can be utilized to accommodate the rising concerns and to address the existing environmental crises, including the plastic pollution. There is a need to develop a cooperative scheme that enables the international community of States to come together and find a solution using the expertise of the Basel Convention. Such an initiative –a sort of alliance of states, both members and non-member States to the Convention - could also pave the way for similar collaboration among States to tackle the issues associated with plastic and other forms of pollution

Jejunal atresia presenting with mesenteric cyst in a neonate: a case report

Jejunoileal atresia is a congenital anomaly that is characterized clinically by bilious vomiting and abdominal distension. It has been associated with various congenital anomalies but its association with mesenteric cyst has only been reported sporadically. As this is a very rare entity, it is being reported with a brief review of literature

Attenuated maladaptive emotion processing as a potential mediator of the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and mental health

The emotion processing and regulation mechanisms by which dispositional (personality trait) mindfulness exerts its positive effects on mental health remain unclear. Here, we tested, using structural equation modeling, whether the relationship between higher dispositional mindfulness and better mental health is mediated by reduced maladaptive processing of emotional information (e.g., expressive suppression, impoverished emotional experiences, unprocessed emotions, avoidance, externalizing strategies) and associated lower negative affect, enhanced adaptive processing of emotional information (e.g., cognitive reappraisal) and associated higher positive affect, or a combination of these two emotion processing styles. Dispositional mindfulness, mental health, diverse emotional constructs with adaptive and maladaptive dimensions (including range and differentiation of emotional experiences, use of specific emotion regulation strategies, emotion processing deficits, negative affect repair strategies, negative mood regulation expectancies), and positive and negative affect were assessed using self-report measures in a non-clinical sample of 256 adults. The relationship between higher dispositional mindfulness and better mental health was found to be best explained by reduced maladaptive emotion processing styles and associated lower negative affect, rather than by enhanced adaptive emotion processing and higher positive affect. Further research should investigate whether the same mechanisms explain psychological benefits of cultivated mindfulness in people with low dispositional mindfulness and/or with mental health disorders following mindfulness skills training.Bial Foundation (92/18; awarded to VK and RP) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (3/1/3-ICMR-JRF/2011/HRD/12/81003; awarded to SPM)

Pediatric carcinoma of rectum - Varanasi experience

Background : Primary gastrointestinal system malignancies constitute approximately 2% of pediatric neoplasm and of these; colorectal carcinoma is the second most common malignancy. This is one of the rarer diseases in children. Aim : We reviewed our records to study the clinical features, outcome and the follow-up of this condition with evaluation of the prognostic factors. Settings and Design: Tertiary care Pediatric Surgery centre. Retrospective study. Materials and Methods : The data of all patients with diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma from January 1986 to January 2006 were reviewed. The confirmation of the diagnosis was by biopsy from the lesion. The age, sex, family history, clinical features, response to the treatment and follow-up were studied. Results : There were four male patients. All had bleeding per rectum as the presenting complaint. Three patients had advanced disease at presentation. All the patients had signet cell adenocarcinoma. The two patients expired and one was lost to follow-up. One patient is alive after one year of follow up and is receiving treatment. Conclusion : Colorectal cancer in children though rare can be a reality, hence any children presenting with pain in abdomen along with doubtful history of constipation and rectal bleeding should be examined carefully with special emphasis on digital rectal examination

The COVID-19 Psychological Distress Scale (CPDS-16): development and initial validation

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused psychological distress among the Indian population. There are several scales that assess fear and distress related to COVID-19 among individuals. However, these scales are context-specific and lack multi-cultural environment applicability in countries such as India. Therefore, the present study developed a psychometric instrument to assess psychological responses to COVID-19 among the Indian population. A total of 420 participants (60.5% females, Mage=25.89 years) were recruited online using a convenience sampling technique. The 16-item COVID-19 Psychological Distress Scale (CPDS-16) was developed based on the extensive review of the existing scales on psychological constructs related to COVID-19 (yielding four scales with a total of 37 items) and independent review by two external experts. Internal consistency and reliability of the scale was established by using corrected item-total correlations, Cronbach's alpha, and McDonald's omega. Factor structure of the scale was determined by using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Convergent validity of the scale was established by correlating CPDS-16 scores with the three subscales of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Corrected item-total correlations (range = 0.43 to 0.70), Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.90), and McDonald's omega (ω = 0.89) provided evidence for very good internal consistency and reliability of the scale. EFA of the CPDS-16 demonstrated a two-factor structure identified as 'individual level distress' (10 items) and 'community level distress' (6 items). Convergent validity of the scale was established using the DASS-21 with statistically significant and positive correlations between CPDS-16 and the three DASS-21 subscales (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress). The CPDS-16 is a reliable and valid instrument in assessing psychological distress caused due to COVID-19 with robust psychometric properties. The scale can be administered rapidly and is useful in screening psychological distress caused due to COVID-19

Order-Revealing Encryption and the Hardness of Private Learning

An order-revealing encryption scheme gives a public procedure by which two ciphertexts can be compared to reveal the ordering of their underlying plaintexts. We show how to use order-revealing encryption to separate computationally efficient PAC learning from efficient $(\epsilon, \delta)$-differentially private PAC learning. That is, we construct a concept class that is efficiently PAC learnable, but for which every efficient learner fails to be differentially private. This answers a question of Kasiviswanathan et al. (FOCS '08, SIAM J. Comput. '11). To prove our result, we give a generic transformation from an order-revealing encryption scheme into one with strongly correct comparison, which enables the consistent comparison of ciphertexts that are not obtained as the valid encryption of any message. We believe this construction may be of independent interest.Comment: 28 page

Pediatric carcinoma of rectum - Varanasi experience

Background : Primary gastrointestinal system malignancies constitute approximately 2% of pediatric neoplasm and of these; colorectal carcinoma is the second most common malignancy. This is one of the rarer diseases in children. Aim : We reviewed our records to study the clinical features, outcome and the follow-up of this condition with evaluation of the prognostic factors. Settings and Design: Tertiary care Pediatric Surgery centre. Retrospective study. Materials and Methods : The data of all patients with diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma from January 1986 to January 2006 were reviewed. The confirmation of the diagnosis was by biopsy from the lesion. The age, sex, family history, clinical features, response to the treatment and follow-up were studied. Results : There were four male patients. All had bleeding per rectum as the presenting complaint. Three patients had advanced disease at presentation. All the patients had signet cell adenocarcinoma. The two patients expired and one was lost to follow-up. One patient is alive after one year of follow up and is receiving treatment. Conclusion : Colorectal cancer in children though rare can be a reality, hence any children presenting with pain in abdomen along with doubtful history of constipation and rectal bleeding should be examined carefully with special emphasis on digital rectal examination

Rules extraction from neural networks applied to the prediction and recognition of prokaryotic promoters

Promoters are DNA sequences located upstream of the gene region and play a central role in gene expression. Computational techniques show good accuracy in gene prediction but are less successful in predicting promoters, primarily because of the high number of false positives that reflect characteristics of the promoter sequences. Many machine learning methods have been used to address this issue. Neural Networks (NN) have been successfully used in this field because of their ability to recognize imprecise and incomplete patterns characteristic of promoter sequences. In this paper, NN was used to predict and recognize promoter sequences in two data sets: (i) one based on nucleotide sequence information and (ii) another based on stability sequence information. The accuracy was approximately 80% for simulation (i) and 68% for simulation (ii). In the rules extracted, biological consensus motifs were important parts of the NN learning process in both simulations