Indian Ocean moisture flux variations during summer monsoon and its relation with Indian rainfall

1971-1977In this article, we discussed about the variations of moisture flux (MF) over the Indian Ocean (IO) and successive Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR). MF calculated over 1000-850 mb levels at five different sub regions over the IO during 2006-2014. In monsoons months (June through September), moisture transported from the southern IO through Arabian Sea (AS) via a low-level jet produces rainfall in Indian subcontinent. MF commences in May then increases through August and then decreases by September. We verified the relation of five sub regions MF with ISMR and found northwest IO (NWIO), Arabian Sea (AS) have positive relation. However, the Bay of Bengal (BOB) and the central IO (CIO) indicated negative relation. Strong positive relation observed with correlation coefficients (CC) of 0.81 and 0.72 between MF and ISMR over NWIO and AS respectively, however BOB and CIO reveal an inverse relation (CC of –0.34 and -0.7). During an El Nino year, MF deviations are negative over the NWIO and AS, indicating lower moisture transport to India and consecutive ISMR is low. MF during El Nino/La Nina/normal monsoon season over the NWIO and AS areas are important for ISMR

Maternal mortality at a government teaching hospital: a six year duration study

Background: The studies were to help generate information and knowledge regarding the causes of maternal deaths in an urban tertiary health care government hospital and how they can be prevented in a developing country like ours to achieve millennium development goal 5 (MDGS) at reducing the MMR by 75% over the period of 1990-2015.Methods: A retrospective study done in the year of 2014 on 97 maternal deaths over a period of six years from January 2007 to December 2012.Results: During the study period there were 16,534 deliveries, and 97 maternal deaths, giving a maternal mortality rate of 586/100,000 live births. Haemorrhage was leading cause of death. Most women died within 24 hours of admission and most of them were admitted in shock. The majority of the death occurred in the age group 20-30 years and in multigravidas.Conclusions: The maternal mortality rate is much more than the national MMR. Haemorrhage was the leading cause of death followed by septicemia, both of them being preventable by adequate transfusion of blood and its components, delivery in a well-equipped hospital, early identification and prompt action, good antibiotic coverage, and early transportation

Blood transfusions and its rational use in obstetrics

Background: Blood transfusion (BT) during or after delivery is a serious and sometimes a predictable event. This study helps to generate the information and knowledge regarding the various aspects of blood transfusions in obstetrics and its rational use and alternative strategies.Methods: This is retrospective study of 184 obstetric patients who had 288 blood transfusions during the month of March and April 2014 in the department of obstetrics in an urban tertiary care referral government teaching institute.Results: During this study period of 2 months from March to April 2014 there were 907 admissions in the labour room and 642 deliveries. Among these, 184 patients received blood transfusions. Numbers of blood transfused were 288. The main indication of blood transfusion was anaemia.Conclusions: As many as 56% of pregnant women are anaemic depending on the geographic and socio-economic group studies. Various strategies can be implemented to reduce the anaemia and decrease the number of blood transfusions so that patient will receive the maximum benefit with minimal risks

Corrosion Classification, Rate And Corrosion Product Type: A Review

Corrosion is a slow process that occurs primarily on metal surfaces, but the corrosion related losses are of high order. When considering only the loss of metal, the damages cannot be measured. Except for the least active noble metals, corrosion occurs with all metals. The indirect losses are much higher. Consideration must also be given to the cost of fabrication and cost of preventing corrosion. Indirect losses are higher than the direct losses. When a structure such as building or bridge collapsed due to problems with corrosion the damage often involves the loss of human life and property and the cost of subsequent reconstruction and alternative solution. Corrosion is quite noticeable in some types of corrosion and is only seen when an accident occurs

Synergistic Effects of Andrographolide on DNA Damage Repair Mechanism and Apoptosis in Breast Cancer Cells

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Several drugs including cisplatin and carboplatin have shown tremendous effectivity in reducing cancer; however development of drug resistance by breast cancer cells to overcome cytotoxic insults and recurrence of the disease is a major concern at the moment. Andrographolide is a diterpenoid with a potent anti-inflammatory and anti tumor activity and it’s usage in combination therapy would be ideal as it is proven for it’s apoptotic capability in varied number of cells. Antiproliferative and apoptotic activity of andrographolide in triple negative MDA-MB-231 cells was evaluated by clonogenic assay and flow cytometric analysis. Expression and phosphorylation of proteins were evaluated by immunoblotting. Our results revealed dose-dependent cytotoxic effects of andrographolide in MDA-MB-231 cells with and without carboplatin. It resulted in G2/M arrest of cells when treated alone, and further enhanced upon treatment in combination with carboplatin.  Andrographolide alone and in combination with carboplatin enhanced apoptotic cells in early, mid and late stages and increased expression of DNA damage repair response proteins including FANCJ, FANCD2, RAD51, pRPA32 and p53. The present study strongly suggests that andrographolide inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation by apoptosis mediated through cell cycle arrest and up regulation of DNA damage repair response gene expression and shows synergistic effects upon usage in combination with carboplatin

Deblurring of images using blind schemes

The thesis presents two blind deconvolution schemes for image blur removal. The two major types of blur has been worked out, namely, the gaussian blur and the motion blur. The image corrupted by the gaussian blur is reconstructed by Evolutionary algorithm using pseudo-wigner distribution. The second method deals with heuristically estimating the blur parameter of the image undergone motion blur. The gaussian effect is mostly observed in astronomical imaging. The image deblurring for motion blurred image is required due to hardware incapability of capturing the exact information of moving object or with moving camera. In this thesis, an observed image is assumed to be the two dimensional convolution of the true image with a linear-shift invariant blur, known as point-spread function, psf, and the additive noise is assumed to be zero. The Evolutionary algorithm has been implemented to remove gaussian blur. The atmospheric turbulence is mostly modelled by the gaussian psf. The algorithm proceeds by randomly generating the psf’s at each generation. The psf’s at each generation are used to estimate the true image. The best fitted images are then given as input to the next generation. After few generation, the most feasible images are chosen. These closer estimated images are fused using pseudo-wigner distribution to reconstruct the final required image. The inherent dynamic characteristic of the nature gives rise to motion blur. Whenever there is relative motion between the object to be captured and the imaging system, the image captured at that instant is suered by the type of blur known as motion blur. A new heuristic approach has been framed out with the purpose of estimating the motion blur parameter. This type of blur is characterised by its length and the motion direction. These parameters are then used to restore the image. The motion direction is estimated from the fourier domain of the observed motion blurred image. The length is then iteratively computed using Entropy and the RMSE as the quality metrics

Acculturation and oral health status among Tibetan immigrants residing in Bangalore City, India

Background: This study is the first of its kind conducted among Tibetans immigrants to Bangalore City, India to study the effects of acculturation on the oral health outcomes of less established group of individuals. Objectives: To determine the Acculturation and oral health status among Tibetan immigrants in Bangalore city and to assess the relationship between them. Materials and Methods: A random sample of 560 immigrants aged 18 years and above from different Tibetan centre of Bangalore city were included for the study. Acculturation was measured using modified Psychological-behavioral acculturation scale. Dental caries experience and periodontal status were recorded. Results: 49.1% of females and 50.9% of males were in highly accultured group. Bivariate analysis using Chi-square test was performed using 5% significance level. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated a strong association between DMFT and Ethnic factors, and periodontal status with language barrier and utilization of health care. Discussion: Reducing disparities in oral health status and in the use of dental services among Tibetan immigrants require attention to cultural factors such as language barrier and age at migration and immigrant’s degree of acculturation

Developing A Campus Information System For Manipal Institute Of Technology, Manipal Campus, Manipal

Organophosphorus based pesticides are chemical pesticides which are widely used in India for controlling the pests, insects and plant pathogens. The mode of action of pesticides belonging to this class is on neurotransmitter inhibition as well as muscle suppression by which the target organisms are killed. But since the use of these pesticides is in an uncontrolled and indiscriminate manner in agriculture sector, there is a need to degrade the m to protect their harmful effects on environment. Biological degradation of these pesticides are considered as better alternatives as this method is both economical as well as eco-friendly. Bioremediation of organophosphorus pesticides in the vicinity of soil has gained much attention recently because the microbes involved in this process are naturally having the potency to degrade the pesticides in their habitat which is called principle of infallibility. This property was explored for the biological degradation of pesticides. The microorganisms have a special gene known as organophosphate hydrolase or ‘oph’ whose enzyme product when come into contact with the organophosphorus compounds readily degrades them. This organophosphate hydrolase enzyme is well known for its broad spectrum of substrates hydrolysis activity. This activity was taken as a tool for screening of potent bacteria form agriculture soils towards organophosphorus degradation in the present study. Serial dilutions of the soil samples collected from three different regions of Telangana state were done to decline the microbial load and then through spread plate and streaking techniques, isolated bacterial colonies were obtained. Screening of these colonies for the presence of OPH enzyme was done by mixing the OPDs onto OP medium. After screening for the potent isolates showing OPH enzyme, it is revealed that the potent isolates which were successful in degradation of organophosphorus pesticide Chlorantraniliprole indicated by bacterial growth even in the presence of pesticide and also due to the presence of ‘oph’ gene which produced OPH enzyme

Out of Pocket expenditure among beneficiaries of Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram

Background: About 67,000 women in India die every year (MoHFW, 2011), due to pregnancy related complications. Similarly, every year more than 13 lacs infants die, within 1 year of the birth and out of these approximately 9 lacs i.e. 2/3rd of the infant deaths take place within the first four weeks of life (1).Out of these, approximately 7 lacs i.e. 75% of the deaths take place within a week of the birth and a majority of these occur in the first two days after birth (1). In view of the difficulty being faced by the pregnant women and parents of sick new-born (MoHFW,2011), along with high out-of-pocket expenses incurred by them on delivery and treatment of sick new-born, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a major initiative, to provide completely free and cashless services to pregnant women including normal deliveries and caesarean operations and sick new born (up to 30 days after birth) in Government health institutions in both rural & urban areas. Material & Methods: In this community based descriptive cross-sectional study, data was collected from 100 mothers, who had delivered in last one year at District Hospital Maternal Wing situated at Morar Block of Gwalior District M.P and MO, ANM’s, ASHA’s, using Semi structured close ended Interview schedule and an open ended questionnaire respectively. Data were compared by using SPSS (ver. 22.0) Result: Expenses were divided under two heads, medical and non-medical. 15% of the total beneficiaries incurred the medical expenses in the form of medicines, diagnostics etc. and almost 99% of all the respondents incurred the non-medical expenses in the form of transport, food etc. Conclusion: Based on the outcome of the study the overall impression was that 59% of the beneficiaries were not aware of the JSSK scheme. Only during pregnancies through the initiatives of the ASHAs the beneficiaries came to know about the free entitlements of the scheme. There was unavailability of ambulance when required and delay in the services