Factors Influencing Artificial Intelligence Conversational Agents Usage in the E-commerce Field: A Systematic Literature Review

Artificial intelligence conversational agents have become an important strategy for business, both as an online shopping application and as a customer support solution, where they provide interactive communication for online customers. To ensure the effective usage and successful implementation of the conversational agents, the factors influencing customers\u27 attitudes and acceptance towards conversational agents need to be explored. This paper presents a systematic literature review of conversational agents in the field of e-commerce to identify the variables that influence conversational agents\u27 usage and to present the state-of-the-art in this research area. Twenty-four relevant papers are reviewed, and many significant factors are identified that positively influence customers\u27 acceptance, satisfaction, and trust towards conversational agents’ technology

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices of universal precautions among medical and nursing students

Background: Universal precautions is an approach to infection control to treat all human blood and certain human body fluids as if they were known to be infectious for HIV, HBV and other bloodborne pathogens. The CDC recommends Standard Precautions for the care of all patients, regardless of their diagnosis or presumed infection status. Health care personals are at risk of being exposed to blood-borne pathogens. The aim of the study to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of medical and nursing students towards universal precautions.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out at S. S. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Davangere, Karnataka. The participants were medical and Nursing undergraduate students. A questionnaire was prepared based on the WHO and CDC guidelines on Universal Precautions and was validated and pre-tested before finalization. Degree of knowledge was ascertained by means of yes-no questions on each item being evaluated.Results: All students were aware of Universal precautions, but soundness of their knowledge is very poor. Compliance in Universal precautions is good to average in nursing students but poor to average in medical students.Conclusions: It can be concluded that interventions to improve Universal precautions among medical students, nursing students urgently needed. So, there is a need for developing strategies to promote the use of Universal precautions which take into account behaviour change and accuracy of knowledge including its integration into practice. Teaching universal precautions early in their curriculum is necessary for better learning and practices during their posting

Molecular-Level Understanding of the Anticancer Action Mechanism of Anthracyclines

Anthracyclines drugs are used as a treatment regime to combat cancer owing to their great chemotherapeutic potential. They are characterized by the presence of a wide range of derivatives, the most famous are doxorubicin and daunorubicin. The proposed action mechanism of anthracyclines and their derivatives to exert cytotoxic effect involves the intercalation of the drug molecule into nucleic acid and inhibition of the activity of topoisomerases. These events consequences in halting DNA replication and transcription mechanisms of the cell. Understanding of the structural and conformational changes associated with nucleic acid after binding with drugs provides significant knowledge for the development of more effective drugs. A comprehensive elucidation of the molecular mechanism(s) of action of anthracyclines drugs plays a significant role in the rational drug designing to obtain an effective, selective, and safe anti-cancer drugs

Depression: A Challenge during Palliative Care

Depression is a serious concern among patients and their family members undergoing treatment for acute and chronic illnesses. The quality of palliative care has great significance in improving the mental health of patients. The patient usually undergoes various stages of treatment before reaching the palliative care stage. Therefore, the tendency of denying treatment at later stages of illness increases. Depression could arise either early or at later stages of treatment. Most doctors feel restrained to prescribe antidepressants to the patient, as antidepressants could have a serious side effect on the physiology of the patient. Antidepressants only work for a smaller group of patients. A proper diagnostics and structured interview with extensive checks of reliability and viability could be used for assessment. Various factors like sociodemographic, gender, age, support health groups have a drastic effect on the mental health of the patient. Palliative care to the patients with social health support groups psychotherapy, relaxation meditation yoga, along with the appropriate pharmacological approach, works wonders for some patients. Continued efforts should be made to treat and deal with depression in palliative care

Assessment and Management of Pain in Palliative Care

Palliative care is an essential component in any disease management. Pain assessment acts as the connecting link between the nerves, brain and spinal cord. Classification and assessment of the pain have great significance in controlling the pain-related symptoms. Pain is broadly divided into three types nociceptive, neuropathic and mixed depending upon the damage caused. Nociceptive pain is caused due to the stimulation of the pain receptors in the tissues and is further divided into visceral and somatic depending on the pain site. Neuropathic pain arises when the nervous system gets damaged or start dysfunctioning. Cancer pain assessment includes several factors like the site, intensity, syndrome, timing and temporal variation of pain. Edmonton staging system for cancer pain prognostic is widely used for pain management includes emotional/psychological distress cognitive impairment caused by pain. A comprehensive understanding of pain assessment will help in enhancing the quality of life of the patients

Public transport: a large scale fomite of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Background: The role of public transport as reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci was determined.Methods: 200 swabs were collected from 50 public buses (urban and rural) circulating in Davangere, Karnataka. Swabs collected were inoculated on Blood agar, Mannitol salt agar and MacConkey agar plates. After incubation for 24-48 hours, plates were examined for the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. Anti-microbial susceptibility test was performed using oxacillin 1ug disc to detect methicillin resistance as per CSLI guidelines.Results: Out of 40 Staphylococcus aureus isolated 35 isolates were resistant to more than two classes of antibiotics, hence multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Out of 35 MDR isolates, 18 were resistant to oxacillin and cefoxitin. Minimum inhibitory concentration test revealed that out of 35 MDR isolates, 18 isolates had MIC value of ≥ 4µg/ml.Conclusions: The recovery methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from public transport system implies a potential risk for transmission of these bacteria in community

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF DISPERSIBLE TABLETS OF FLAVONOID PGAL ISOLATED FROM SARACA ASOCA LEAVES

Objective: The study aimed to design and evaluate a dispersible tablet of flavonoid PGAL isolated from Saraca asoca leaves for antidepressant activity. Methods: The phytoconstituent was isolated from a methanolic extract of Saraca asoca leaves using silica gel column (60-120 mesh) chromatography. The dispersible tablets were prepared by direct compression and then evaluated for various tablet evaluation parameters and antidepressant activity performing Tail Suspension Test (TST), Forced Swim Test (FST), Locomotion Activity, Brain Glutamate Level and Brain Nitrite Level. Results: Hardness of 2.85±0.13 kg/cm2 to 3.25±0.15 kg/cm2 and friability of 0.35% to 0.48% indicate that the prepared tablets were mechanically sound. Test for weight variation was also within tolerance limits, i.e. 2.04% to 4.25% difference in weight of the tablet from the average weight of 10 tablets. The tablets also passed the test for drug content uniformity, 97.35% to 100.35%, i.e. always within the prescribed limits of 95% to 105%. Disintegration time, 2 minutes to 2.75 minutes, and dispersion time, 3.25 minutes to 3.75 minutes, were also exemplary. The antidepressant activity was displayed by the optimized formulation as indicated by a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in immobility time in TST as well as FST; a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the level of brain tissue glutamate as well as nitrite in PGAL formulation treated mice when compared with negative control, as did by standard drug fluoxetine. Conclusion: The formulation has been optimized based on dispersion time. The formulation with minimum dispersion time, i.e. F1, has been considered an optimized formulation. The prepared optimized formulation was found to comply with all physical parameters and antidepressant activity

Isolation and Characterization of Lytic Bacteriophages from Wastewater and its Application in Pathogen Reduction

Present work wasperformedto isolate, enrich and characterizebacteriophageusing basic laboratory set-up, and to demonstrate their lytic potential in pathogen reduction. Following standard microbiological and molecular biological procedures, we examined cultivable bacteria and bacteriophages in wastewater sample. Subsequently, from cultures of wastewater sample, we isolated and characterized bacterial isolate, which was thenusedtoenrichlytic bacteriophages, using a combination of double layer plaque-assay, isolation and genetic techniques to isolate bacteriophage against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Subsequently decontamination capability of this phage was assessed in form of spray and matrix adsorbed formulations.  Storage stability of phagepreparations at different temperatures was also studied by calculating reduction in phage titer. Presentstudies demonstratelytic potential of phageas an eco-friendly alternative to conventional control approachesagainstbacterial contamination

Current Research on Silver Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications

Over the past couple of decades, nanomaterials have advanced the research in materials; biomedical, biological, and chemical sciences; etc., owing to their peculiar properties at the nanoregime compared to their bulk composition. Applications of nanoparticles in the fields like medicine and agriculture have been boosted due to the development of different methodologies developed to synthesize specific shapes and sizes. Silver nanoparticles have tunable physical and chemical properties, so it has been studied widely to improve its applicability. The antimicrobial properties of Ag NPs are finding their application in enhancing the activity of drugs (like Amphotericin B, Nystatin, Fluconazole) and composite scaffolds for controlled release of drugs and targeted delivery of drugs due to their low toxicity and biocompatibility. Similarly, their surface plasmon resonance property makes Ag NPs a top-notch material for developing (bio)sensors, for instance, in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, for detecting biomarkers, diseases, pollutants, and higher catalytic activity in photochemical reactions. Besides these, highly conducting Ag NPs are used in wearable and flexible sensors to generate electrocardiographs. Physicochemical or biological approaches are used to prepare Ag NPs; however, each method has its pros and cons. The prohibitive cost and use of hazardous chemicals hinder the application of physicochemical synthesis. Likewise, biological synthesis is not always reproducible for extensive use but can be a suitable candidate for therapeutic activities like cancer therapy. Excess use of Ag NPs is cytotoxic, and their unregulated discharge in the environment may have effects on both aquatic and terrestrial biota. The research in Ag NPs has always been driven by the need to develop a technology with potential benefits and minimal risk to environmental and human health. In this review, we have attempted to provide an insight into the application of Ag NPs in various sectors along with the recent synthetic and characterization techniques used for Ag NPs