Polyampholyte Hydrogel Characteristics and Detecting the Bacterial Interactions With These Hydrogels Using Digital Image Processing Methods

In recent years, the unique physical properties of synthetic hydrogels have been exploited in a number of interesting and novel applications. In particular polyampholytes have been the subject of many theoretical studies since they provide a model for studying the longrange interactions found in proteins and other forms of soft condensed matter. In balanced polyampholytes the net electrostatic forces are attractive so that in low ionic salt concentration, the chains have a tendency to collapse into compact globules. Addition of salt, which screens these interactions, induces a swelling of the chain. However the electrostatic interactions between polymeric and mobile charges that determine the hydrogel swelling equilibrium at high ionic strengths are still not very well understood. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to analyze the characteristics of balanced polyampholytes with different charge offsets produced by systematically varying the relative proportions of 2-sulfoethyl methacrylate -2-methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (SEMA-MAETAC) in copolymers of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). Hydrogel equilibrium swelling measurements were made in different bath solutions such as DI (de-ionized) water, PBS (phosphate buffer solution) and different Nacl concentration. A slight swelling in DI water and collapse transitions at intermediate salt concentrations observed experimentally provides the equivalent results, compared with the earlier studies done on balanced polyampholytes. However the deswelling of the hydrogels in high ionic salt concentration found to be abnormal. Hydrogel membrane potential has been measured using a novel method considering the Donnan potential and the Diffusion potential at a charged membrane/salt solution interface. For the balanced polyampholyte hydrogel charges ranging from 0mM to 160mM we observe a negative slope in the steady state potential whereas we observe a positive slope in the steady state potential for the highest charged balanced polyampholyte hydrogel, which is 200mM in this case. Finally digital image processing techniques have been applied to examine the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens 5RL and hydrogel interactions. And the higher proliferation rates of the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens 5RL over neutral HEMA hydrogels compared to copolymer HEMA hydrogels with balanced charge densities in the range of 40 mM to 160 mM were analyzed using these techniques. Comparative change in the micro motion of the bacteria over balanced polyampholyte hydrogels and the unbalanced polyelectrolyte hydrogels were also presented. The cumulative result of this thesis is that the selection of the acidic and basic monomers used in the preparation of these hydrogels and their micro structural arrangements should be given importance and also the emphasis of digital image processing techniques in the application of molecular imaging

Neonatal septicemia: isolates and their sensitivity pattern with emergence of Citrobacter septicemia

Background: Septicemia in neonates refers to bacterial infection documented by positive blood culture in the first 28 days of life and is one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity in India. The aim of the study was to identify clinical neonatal sepsis cases and isolate responsible microorganism by blood culture and determine sensitivity pattern of isolates in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: It is a hospital based retrospective study involving neonates admitted in department of paediatrics at a medical college hospital. Two hundred twenty five blood samples were collected for blood culture from neonates with clinical sepsis with standard protocol. Isolation of microorganism and antibiotic sensitivity testing was done with disc diffusion method.Results: Blood culture reports were positive in 43.55% cases of clinical sepsis. Among positive blood culture reports gram negative isolates were more frequent (75.51%). Most commonly isolated was Klebsiella species (34.70%), most common gram positive isolate was Streptococcus (10.20%). Prevalence of Citrobacter species isolation was 16.12%. Among gram negative isolates best overall sensitivity was towards levofloxacin (97.3%) followed by amikacin (60.8%). Sensitivity to piperacillin+tazobactam (20.3%) and cefoperazone+sulbactam (23%) were very low. Gram positive isolates had best sensitivity to vancomycin and linezolid.Conclusions: Gram negative organisms (Klebsiella species, Citrobacter species), Streptococcus, Staphylococcus are leading cause of neonatal sepsis. There are high levels of resistance to routinely used antibiotics among them. Therefore results of this study suggest that we should revise our antibiotic treatment policy and emphasize on rationale antibiotic use.

Efficiency of Indian General Insurance Companies: A Convex Nonparametric Least Squares Approach

In the current millennium, the Indian general insurance market has witnessed major structural changes because of the establishment of a market regulator and the initiation of entry deregulation. The present study evaluates the efficiency performance of fifteen Indian general insurance companies for the period 2011/12 - 2016/17 using a robust nonparametric approach. The study also seeks to explain efficiency by considering the influence of environmental variables on the efficiency scores. The results indicate that efficiency is positively related to ownership, insurer age, market share, and return on equity but negatively related to size

The effectiveness of intravenous dexmedetomidine on haemodynamic responses during tracheal extubation in patients undergoing craniotomies

Background: Dexmedetomidine an α2 agonist reduces heart rate and blood pressure due to sympatholytic activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dexmedetomidine on haemodynamic response during endotracheal extubation in patients undergoing craniotomies for intracranial space occupying lesion (ICSOL).Methods: Sixty patients of ASA grade I and II, age 18-50 years scheduled for craniotomy for nonvascular ICSOL were selected after randomization into 2 groups with 30 patients in each group. Group D and C received an IV infusion of dexmedetomidine 0.5 mg/kg and normal saline 100 ml respectively over 10 min at the time of skin closure in a double-blind manner. Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were recorded just before drug administration, 3 and 5 minutes after drug administration, during extubation and at 3, 5, 10 and 15 minutes after extubation. Respiratory rate and oxygen saturation were analyzed at 3, 5, 10 and15 minutes after extubation. Any laryngospasm, bronchospasm, desaturation, respiratory depression, vomiting, hypotension and bradycardia was noted.Results: Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure increased during emergence time in both groups (p<0.05) but this increase was more significant in control group than group D. SBP and heart rate were significantly lower in group D from 3 minutes after drug administration to 15 minutes after extubation. DBP was lower in group D during extubation till 15 minutes after extubation (p<0.01). No significant differences were observed in the respect of adverse events between the groups.Conclusions: Intravenous dexmedetomidine 0.5 mg/kg before extubation is attenuates haemodynamic response during endotracheal extubation in craniotomies

FAULT TOLERANT SYSTEM FOR CELLULAR NETWORK

In cellular communication networks, the geographical area is divided into smaller regions, called cells. In each cell, there is one Mobile Service Station (MSS) as well as a number of Mobile Hosts (MH). The communication between MSSs is, in general, through wired links, while the links between an MH and MSS is wireless. A Mobile Host can communicate with other Mobile Hosts in the system only through the Mobile Service Station in its cell. This kind of architecture is shown in Fig. 1. There are two kinds of channels available to an MH: communication channel and control channel. The former is used to support communication between an MH and the MSS in its cell, while the latter is set aside to be used exclusively to send control messages that are generated by the channel allocation algorithm

Studies on Production and Characterization of Bio Diesel from Jatropha

Our world is getting industrialized and modernized with each passing day which is increasing the vehicles and engines in our daily life and solution is not to reduce them but to use them in a smarter way. However we are having limited resources for petro-fuels. Therefore it is a high time to search for new alternatives in place of petro-fuels. Our research is based on finding such an alternative fuel in the form of Jatropha Oil which is easily available on the earth especially in India. We have compared Jatropha oil with Diesel on a Diesel engine, on different parameters such as CO emission, break thermal efficiency, break specific fuel consumption, smoke density and hydrocarbon emission. We have observed that Jatropha oil is either close to diesel or sometimes performing better than diesel and can be used an alternative to Diesel

Detection of Wormhole Attack using Hop-count and Time delay Analysis

Abstract- MANET, due to the nature of wireless transmission, has more security issues compared to wired environments. In this paper we specifically considering Tunneling attack which does not require exploiting any nodes in the network and can interfere with the route establishment process. Instead of detecting suspicious routes as in previous methods, we implement a new method which detects the attacker nodes and works without modification of protocol, using a hop-count and time delay analysis from the viewpoint of users without any special environment assumptions. The proposed work is simulated using OPNET and results showing the advantages of proposed work. Index Terms- Ad hoc network, hop-count analysis, network security, Tunneling attack

Study of Thyroid Function Tests in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

Background: The metabolic syndrome is a constellation of clinical and metabolic abnormalities including abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance. Metabolic syndrome and thyroid dysfunction are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Aims and objectives: To study the prevalence, symptomatology of thyroid dysfunction and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) findings of thyroid in thepatients having metabolic syndrome. Material and methods: The study was carried out in 60 cases of metabolic syndrome (according to NCEP ATP III criteria) selected from the medicine outdoor clinic (including diabetic clinics, thyroid clinics) and medicine indoor wards in Post Graduate Department of Medicine, SN Medical College and Hospital, Agra. Diagnosis of thyroid dysfunction was made by history, examination and serum FT4 and TSH. Result and observations: Out of 60 patients of metabolic syndrome, 30 patients (50%) were euthyroid, 13 patients (21.66%) had subclinical hypothyroid and 12 patients (20%) had overt hypothyroid. Five patients (8.33%) of metabolic syndrome had hyperthyroidism. Truncal obesity was most prevalent (80.0%) component of metabolic syndrome, followed by hypertriglyceridemia (70%). Diabetes mellitus was equally prevalent in both males as well as females and was present in about 40.0% patients and 53% of patients with metabolic syndrome were hypertensive. Conclusion: This study shows that 50% metabolic syndrome patients had thyroid dysfunction. About 21.66% had subclinical hypothyroidism, 20% had overt hypothyroidism and 8.33% were having hyperthyroidism. The most common symptom in metabolic syndrome patients with hypothyroidism was lethargy/ sleepiness followed by dry and coarse skin. The most common symptom in hyperthyroid patients was nervousness (100%) followed by sweating, heat intolerance and palpitation in 80% of th