Library services to blind users in digital environment: their fundamental right in the information age

Abstract Published in Seminar Papers 51 st All India Conference: ILA, 2005:p183.Discusses the need of Digital Library for blind users, present condition of blind libraries in India, legal aspects of equal rights to information access by these users in the scenario of library and information, the role of LIS organizations and professionals, guidelines and basics of developing a digital library for visually impaired after understanding the appropriate approaches in respect of utilization of latest technologies

Detection of Glaucoma and Microaneurysm in Retinal Fundus Images Based on Optic Disk and Optic Cup Segmentation

Diabetes cause’s metabolic and physiological abnormalities in the retina and the changes suggest a role for inflammation in the development of diabetic retinopathy. The occurrence of micro aneurysms, a small red dot in retinal layer in the eye, is one of the early signs of diabetic retinopathy. To serve this purpose, various automated systems have been designed which includespreprocessing methods and candidate extractors. The objectives of this paper are to classify different stages of diabetic retinopathy as mild, Moderate, and Severe. Glaucoma is an irreversible chronic eye disease that leads to vision loss. In this paper, we propose a method for cup to disc ratio (CDR) assessment using 2-D retinal fundus images. In the proposed method, the optic disc and optic cup is segmented using thresholding algorithm. The cup to disc ratio (CDR) is computed based on the measurement of the segmented optic disc and optic cup. The Cup to Disc Ratio (CDR) of the color retinal fundus camera image is the primary identifier to confirm Glaucoma for a given patient

IN SILICO STUDIES OF THE SECONDARY METABOLITES OF SOLANUM TORVUM SW. FOR THEIR ANTIASTHMATIC ACTIVITY

Objective: Solanum torvum Sw., Family: Solanaceae, commonly known as Turkey Berry is used by the traditional tribes for the treatment of cold, cough, tuberculosis, hepatotoxicity, cancer, etc. The action of the plant towards the treatment of these diseases has been proven except for asthma. The present study is to prove the antiasthmatic activity of methanolic extract and the secondary metabolites of Solanum torvum Sw using in silico docking studies in compare to reference standard Dexamethasone, a synthetic cortisone derivative.Methods: The GC-MS analysis of the dried methanolic extract of the dried fruits of Solanum torvum Sw. and the total saponin fraction has been carried out to know the important moieties that are responsible for the antiasthmatic activity.Results: The results from the docking studies showed that the compounds Cholesta-5,7,9-(11)-trien-3-ol,4,4-dimethyl, (3á); Lanosta-7,9-(11),20-triene-3α, 18-diol, diacetate and Cholestan-26-oic acid,3,7,12,24-tetrakis (acetyloxy), methyl ester, (3à,5á,7à,12à) were found to have significant scores of-6.8,-6.9 and-6.9 respectively towards Glucocorticoid receptor protein (Gr), (PDB id: 4UDC) which is very similar to the affinity of the standard (-7.1). These compounds passed the drug-likeness test. A modification in the structure can be brought, which makes the compounds more potent. The compounds 9, 12-Octadecadienoic acid, ethyl ester; Hexadecanoic acid, ethyl ester; 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z), methyl ester; Oxacycloheptadec-8-en-2-one, (8Z) have passed the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) filter of the drug-likeness test.Conclusion: The antiasthmatic activity of the drug may be due to the similarity with the structure of Dexamethasone. Further research can be carried out in order to improve the clinical significance of these extracts and its metabolites

Lightning generated sferics: diagnostics tools to study upper atmosphere

Atmospherics or sferics that originate from lightning discharges on propagating large distances in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide or in the dispersive regions of ionosphere and magnetosphere form dispersed sferics called tweeks and whistlers respectively. Tweeks are novel diagnostic tool to monitor the nighttime D-region ionosphere. In this paper the lightning sferics (tweeks) recorded at a low latitude station, Suva (18.2o S,178.3oE, geomag. lat. 22.2o S, L = 1.17)) Fiji, in the South Pacific region and Allahabad (geomag. lat. 16.490 N, L=1.09) in India, will be presented and shown how they could be used to probe the night time D-region of the ionosphere. The computed D-region electron density is then compared with the electron density profile obtained from International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) 2007 model. Typical records of whistlers observed in Fiji and in India are presented

Surgical management of proximal tibial fractures with locking compression plate

Background: Incidence of proximal tibial fractures is increasing due to increasing incidence of road traffic accidents (RTA). Knee joint being one of the major weight bearing joint of the body, appropriate management of fracture around it will be of paramount importance in maintaining mobility. The recent development of locking compression plate (LCP) has revolutionized the treatment of proximal tibial fractures by overcoming the few drawbacks of conventional buttress plate.Methods: We studied 30 patients involving proximal tibial fracture manged using LCP [23 patients with minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis, (MIPO) technique and 7 patients with Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) technique]. We followed up all the patients until complete union of fractures.Results: The average time for union of fracture was 14 weeks (range: 12-24 weeks). Overall 96.7% patients had acceptable outcome (70% excellent and 26.7% good). Patients treated with MIPO technique healed earlier and more frequently had excellent results than those treated with ORIF. A total of four patients had complications (knee joint stiffness in 1, postoperative loss of reduction in 1, infection in 1 and knee instability in 1). Conclusions: Locking compression plate system acts as a good biological fixation for proximal tibial fractures even in difficult fracture situations. MIPO technique offers faster healing and better outcome than ORIF in patients with proximal tibial fractures

A Comparative Analysis on the Causes of Occupational Stress among Men and Women Employees and its Effect on Performance at the workplace of Information Technology Sector, Hyderabad

The research study presents the outcome of a comparative analysis on causes of occupational stress among the Men and Women employees and its effect on the employee performance at the workplace of Information Technology Sector (ITS), Hyderabad. A survey of 200 employees consisting 110 Men and 90 Women working in the IT sector was carried out to assess the six independent stress causing factors Job related, Organizational Related, Career, Physiological, Behavioral and Individual factors and its effect on employees’ Performance a dependent factor. The descriptive analysis, correlation techniques and parametric statistics like t-test, F-test and multiple regression analysis carried out to arrive at the conclusions. To measure the reliability of the scale used for this study, and internal consistencies of the survey questionnaire, the reliability static Cronbach’s alpha (C-alpha) and Spearman-Brown split-half reliability statistics were estimated. The overall C-alpha is 0.89 whereas the Spearman-Brown split half statistic is 0.83. The C-alpha values ranged from 0.62 to 0.76 for Men and 0.60 to 0.74 for Women, for all the 6 independent and one dependent factor. The results of the study indicate that the medium level occupational stress exists at the workplace in general, effecting the performance moderately. Health-wise, some employees developed chronic neck and back pain, an effect of long sitting hours at work. The study confirms that Women will have more stress than Men, however the factors causing the stress among the Men and Women are not similar

Change from baseline as an outcome illustrates escape behaviour of rats in hot plate method

Background: The Hot Plate test is a thermal hyperalgesia model to assess the analgesic activity of many compounds. Traditional analysis compares reaction times with controls, reports only analgesic activity without considering escape reflex. Escape reflex to pain sensation also provides an indirect measure of analgesic activity. However, it requires repeated exposure of rats to hot plate. We explored the learning activities and escape behaviour of rats by calculating the change from baseline of reaction times.Methods: Male Wister strain albino rats, weighing between 150-200mg were used for assessment of hot-plate induced hyperalgesia. Author analysed the analgesic activity of aspirin (100mg/Kg) and compared with animals receiving saline. Aspirin and saline were administered 1hr orally before the commencement of the experiment. The reaction time was recorded at every 30 min up to 6hrs.Results: With traditional analysis, we can observe that the onset of action, peak action and duration of analgesic activity of aspirin was at 0.5, 2.0 and 5.0 hours respectively. Peak inhibition of reaction time was seen at 2 hours with a magnitude of 474%. When we applied a statistical procedure, absolute change from baseline statistics, we found that animals treated with aspirin also exhibited escape reflex after fading of drug response and animals treated with saline demonstrated early (0.5hr) escape behaviour from the hot plate and continued throughout the rest of the experiment.Conclusions: Change from baseline as an outcome illustrates escape behaviour of rats in hot plate method and it should be employed along with percentage inhibition during assessment of analgesic activity