Composition dependent magnetic properties of iron oxide - polyaniline nanoclusters

Gamma - Iron Oxide prepared by sol -gel process was used to produce nanocomposites with polyaniline of varying aniline concentrations. TEM shows the presence of chain like structure for lower polyaniline concentration. The room temperature hysteresis curves show finite coercivity of 160 Oe for all the composites while the saturation magnetization was found to decrease with increasing polymer content. ZFC - FC magnetisation measurements indicate high blocking temperatures. It is believed that this indicates a strongly interacting system, which is also shown by our TEM results. Monte Carlo simulations performed on a random anisotropy model with dipolar and exchange inteactions match well with experimental results.Comment: 9 (nine) pages, 6 figures (jpeg and eps

Co-occurrence of Superparamagnetism and Anomalous Hall Effect in Highly Reduced Cobalt Doped Rutile TiO2 Films

We report a detailed magnetic and structural analysis of highly reduced Co doped rutile TiO2 films displaying an anomalous Hall effect (AHE). The temperature and field dependence of magnetization, and transmission electron microscopy clearly establish the presence of nano-sized superparamagnetic cobalt clusters of 8-10 nm size in the films at the interface. The co-occurrence of superparamagnetism and AHE raises questions regarding the use of the AHE as a test of the intrinsic nature of ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors.Comment: Physical Review Letters (In press

Coronary Plaque Morphology and the Anti-Inflammatory Impact of Atorvastatin: A Multicenter 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomographic/Computed Tomographic Study.

BACKGROUND: Nonobstructive coronary plaques manifesting high-risk morphology (HRM) associate with an increased risk of adverse clinical cardiovascular events. We sought to test the hypothesis that statins have a greater anti-inflammatory effect within coronary plaques containing HRM. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this prospective multicenter study, 55 subjects with or at high risk for atherosclerosis underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomographic/computed tomographic imaging at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment with atorvastatin. Coronary arterial inflammation (18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake, expressed as target-to-background ratio) was assessed in the left main coronary artery (LMCA). While blinded to the PET findings, contrast-enhanced computed tomographic angiography was performed to characterize the presence of HRM (defined as noncalcified or partially calcified plaques) in the LMCA. Arterial inflammation (target-to-background ratio) was higher in LMCA segments with HRM than those without HRM (mean±SEM: 1.95±0.43 versus 1.67±0.32 for LMCA with versus without HRM, respectively; P=0.04). Moreover, atorvastatin treatment for 12 weeks reduced target-to-background ratio more in LMCA segments with HRM than those without HRM (12 week-baseline Δtarget-to-background ratio [95% confidence interval]: -0.18 [-0.35 to -0.004] versus 0.09 [-0.06 to 0.26]; P=0.02). Furthermore, this relationship between coronary plaque morphology and change in LMCA inflammatory activity remained significant after adjusting for baseline low-density lipoprotein and statin dose (β=-0.27; P=0.038). CONCLUSIONS: In this first study to evaluate the impact of statins on coronary inflammation, we observed that the anti-inflammatory impact of statins is substantially greater within coronary plaques that contain HRM features. These findings suggest an additional mechanism by which statins disproportionately benefit individuals with more advanced atherosclerotic disease. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00703261.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (5T32 HL076136) and Marfan Foundation, National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, British Heart Foundation, Wellcome Trus

Human Activities Detection using DeepLearning Technique- YOLOv8

Using a mask during the pandemic has occasionally been crucial and difficult. The use of universal masks can greatly lower and possibly even stop the spread of viruses within communities. So, mask detection has become a very critical task for security agencies in all the buildings, Government offices & other places. With the advent of GPUs, high computing machines, and Deep Convolution Neural Networks (DCCN), automatic Face & Mask Detection is possible by considering the image processing feature of extracting, 3-dimensional shapes from 2- dimensional images. This paper discuss about the YOLOv8 model to confirm its overall applicability, on two datasets namely FDDB & MASK. This helps to examine the behavior of the feature from the Mask dataset, which is intended for COVID-19 Mask Detection alone. Mask is the main dataset in this experiment. Above this, the ImageNet dataset is utilized for pretraining and FDDB (Face Detection Dataset & Benchmarks) datasets for recognizing face of a human being. The precision of models on FDDB is 58.9 % & on MASK dataset is 66.5%

A study on catheter associated blood stream infections at a tertiary care hospital of Bihar

Introduction: Intravascular catheters are indispensable in modern-day medical practice, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs). The incidence of CRBSI varies considerably by type of catheter, frequency of catheter manipulation, and patient related factors (e.g., underlying disease and acuity of illness). Materials and Methods: It was case-control study conducted in the Department of Microbiology, Darbhanga Medical College, Laheriasri, Bihar, India from January 2020 to December 2020. The number of participants in this study was 100 cases and 100 controls. Patients aged >18 yrs, admitted in intensive care units with intravascular catheters, were included. Skin was cleaned with 70% alcohol prior to catheter removal. Drying was avoided by sealing the tube and transporting the same to the laboratory as soon as possible. In blood processing, blood was collected within 48 hours of catheter collection under all aseptic precautions in a BacT bottle and analyzed using the BacT ALERT system. Antibiotic sensitivity pattern was done by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method as recommended by Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI). Statistical analyses were done using SPSS 16.0 and strength of association is expressed as odds ratio which was derived using logistic regression analysis. Results: Out of 100 samples, 81% of the isolates were bacteria, while 17% of the pathogens were Candida species and only 2% were polymicrobial. While majority (70.4%, 19/27) of the organism of CRBSI was Gram positive, majority (61.6%, 45/73) of the organism of CRLI were Gram negative.The commonest pathogen of CRBSI was Staphylococcus aureus (12/27) and the least common was Acinetobacter baumannii (1/27). Candida spp. Conclusions: The increasing rate of CRBSI is a matter of concern to our hospital set up. This work will help both the clinicians as well as microbiologists in better management of patients as well as in prevention of nosocomial bloodstream infection, especially due to multidrug resistant organisms

Acute pain services in India: A glimpse of the current scenario

Background & Aims: Acute postoperative pain is still a neglected and unresolved issue in day to day practice. Acute pain services were conceived three decades ago to form a dedicated team to monitor pain assessment and treatment as per laid down pain protocols and guidelines. The concept of acute pain service (APS) is slowly evolving in India. Materials and Methods: This nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the status of postoperative pain, the prevalent treatment practices, opioid policy and the prevalence of acute pain services in India. An electronic communication was sent to 4000 Indian Society of Anesthesiologists life members. Results: We received only 146 responses mainly from faculties/consultants from few corporate hospitals or medical colleges. About 68 APSs are functioning, however, 20 APS do not have any training programs and 34 have no written protocols. Anesthesiologists are involved in postoperative pain management only when epidural analgesia is employed; otherwise surgeons are custodians of pain in the ward. Conclusion : This survey found that majority of anesthesiologists are agreeable to forming an APS and ready to take the responsibility, however administrative issues seem to be a major barrier

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Not AvailableBackground: Seafood contamination with Salmonella enterica is not only a public health concern, but can also lead to economic losses due to import rejections. Continuous monitoring of seafood for Salmonella is necessary for risk assessment and to establish suitable control measures. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the extent of Salmonella contamination of seafood in fish landing centers and retails markets. Methods: In this study, we analyzed seafood samples from three fish landing centers and seven retail markets of Mumbai, India for S. enterica contamination. Salmonella was isolated using multiple selective enrichment broths and selective agars, and identified by conventional biochemical tests followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: Of 82 samples of seafood, comprising both finfish and shellfish, Salmonella was detected in 17 (20.7%) finfish samples. None of the shellfish samples (shrimps, clams, and cephalopods) were found to be contaminated with Salmonella. Samples from both landing centers and fish markets, as well as from pelagic and demersal sources, harbored Salmonella. Source-wise analysis showed that 11 of 57 (19.3%) samples from retail fish markets and 6 of 25 (24%) samples from fish landing centers were contaminated with Salmonella. Conclusions: The study emphasizes the need to implement measures to prevent anthropogenic contamination of coastal waters and improve the hygiene of retail fish markets in Mumbai. Highlights: Seafood from landing centers and retail markets, as well as from pelagic and demersalhabitats were similarly contaminated with Salmonella. Fish species widely consumed in the region of this study were found highly contaminated with SalmonellaNot Availabl

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Not AvailableIn this study using 57 finfish samples of marine origin, selective enrichment in Rappaport-Vassiliadis (RV) broth followed by isolation on the Hektoen enteric agar (HEA) yielded 50 (53.2%) of 94 isolates. The results suggest RV-HEA as the most suitable media combination for the recovery of Salmonella from tropical seafood.Not Availabl