Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Blood Donation among Health Science Students in a University campus, South India

Background: The major part of demand for blood in India has been meeting through voluntary blood donations. The healthy, active and receptive huge student population is potential blood donors to meet safe blood requirements. However, there is a paucity of studies on awareness and attitude among health science students on voluntary blood donation. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitude about blood donation among health science students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 410 health sciences students from different streams in a University campus of South India through a structured survey questionnaire in the year 2009. Results: The overall knowledge on blood donation was good, but majority (62%) of students never donated blood. Knowledge level was found highest among allied health science (53.1%) and lowest among pharmacy students (20.7%). ‘Feeling of medically unfit’ and ‘never thought of blood donation’ were the major reasons for not donating blood. A significant association was observed between different streams of students and levels of knowledge and attitude about blood donation. Conclusion: This study elicits the importance of adopting effective measures in our campuses to motivate about voluntary blood donation among students

Economic analysis of integrated farming systems in the Kuttanad region of Kerala state, India: A case study

Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India. According to Committee on Doubling of Farmers’ Income Report, the average annual earning of a small and marginal farmer household was Rs 79,779 in 2015-16 and indicates that 86% of farmer households earn only 9% of total income and rest of the farmers earn 91% of total income. Integrated farming system practised mostly by small and marginal farmers, is a viable option for increasing farm income. The present study was undertaken to identify the farming systems practised by small and marginal holdings in Kuttanad region of Kerala state, India and also attempts to assess the profitability of these farms and suggest optimal farm plans using linear programming technique. The study revealed that rice + fish and Coconut + Banana+ Dairy cow + Poultry+ Goat were the most profitable farming systems with a benefit cost ratio of 2.63 and 2.86, respectively. The resource allocation in the existing plan was sub-optimal. The optimisation of resource use led to maximization of net returns, indicating the potential for realising greater income. The net returns of rice + fish increased from Rs. 181724 to Rs. 220010 in the optimal plan. The study also suggests the extent to which net returns can be increased with additional units of constraint resources viz., land/labour. The net returns in FS IV can be increased by Rs.286177.9 per additional acreage of land allotted.  Thus, the farmers in Kuttanad can increase their income by optimal resource allocation and by deploying additional units of land or labour

Bio-Prospecting of a Few Brown Seaweeds for Their Cytotoxic and Antioxidant Activities

Methanolic extracts (MEs) of seven brown seaweeds occurring in the Indian coastal waters were screened for their cytotoxic and antioxidant properties following various assays. The methanolic extracts of seaweeds in the order of Dictyopteris australis > Spatoglossum variabile > Stoechospermum marginatum > Spatoglossum aspermum showed significant cytotoxic activity. A very high DPPH radical scavenging activity was exhibited by the methanolic extracts prepared from St. marginatum, Padina tetrastromatica, Dictyopteris delicatula and S. aspermum. The total phenolic content of the MEs varied from 13.19 ± 0.32 to 25.29 ± 0.445 gallic acid equivalents (mg g−1 of methanolic extract). The reducing power assay indicated a dose dependency, at concentrations of 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 and 2.0 mg mL−1 of MEs and decreased in the following order: Butylated hydroxy toluene > P. tetrastromatica > D. delicatula > S. aspermum > S. variabile > S. marginatum > D. australis > S. marginatum. Furthermore, D. australis, S. aspermum, S. variabile and S. marginatum demonstrated good metal ion chelating properties. All the above evidences suggest that, the antioxidant compounds found in brown seaweeds scavenge free radicals through effective intervention. This decisively promotes them as a potential source of natural antioxidants

A revision of Indian species of Parurios Girault with a new record of Papuopsia Boucek (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) from India

Two new species of Parurios Girault viz. P. bouceki Narendran sp. nov. and P. sringericus Narendran sp. nov. are described from India. The female of P. keralensis Narendran is also described. A key to Indian species of Parurios is provided. The genus Papuopsia is recorded for the first time from India

Some aspects on ecotoxicology and Ecophysiology of shrimp Penaeus semisulcatus (De haan, 1844) to copper, Cadmium and zinc (TH 117)

The thesis highlights the effect of copper, cadmium and zinc in green tiger prawn Penaeus semisu/catus, one of the penaeids occurring throughout the Indian coastal waters particularly in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. Acute toxicity bioassays were conducted for copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and zinc (In ). The 96 h LCso for copper, cadmium and zinc were 6.98 ppm, 2.8 ppm and 5.00 ppm respectively. The degree of toxicity of the three metals were in the order Cd > In > Cu. Based on the LCso values, two sublethal concentrations of copper (0.7 ppm and 1.4 ppm), cadmium (0.25 ppm and 0.5 ppm) and zinc (0.5 ppm and 1.00 ppm) were selected for bioaccumulation, physio-biochemical and histopathological studies. In all the lethal and sublethal exposures, blackening of the gill lamellae and exoskeleton was noticed. The accumulation of metals was pronounced in the hepatopancreas, gills, muscle, tail and carapace. The results of the study suggest that the shrimps could not regulate the accumulation of Cu. Cd and In . The bioaccumulation in the selected organsltissues was found to be dose dependent. In the physio-biochemical studies. an increase in the respiration rate was found in shrimps exposed to lethal concentrations of copper. cadmium and zinc. The biochemical components, carbohydrate, protein and lipid were found to get reduced during the various phases of metal exposure. The observed change in the proximate components is attributed to the alterations in the enzymes involved in cellular energy generation processes. inhibition of protein synthesis by the alteration in the DNA and RNA content and increases in the free fatty acid content due to changes in the synthesis and mobilization of lipids. Histopathological changes include haemocy1ic infiltration. swelling of gill lamellae. fusion of gill lamellae. lifting of lamellar epithelium. fusion and necrosis of secondary gill lamellae in gills and tissue debris, necrotic tubules, swelling and abnormal lumen in hepatopancreas. Ultrastructural changes in gills include damaged nuclear membrane. disrupted mitochondria, distorted endoplasmic reticulum. apical cell damage, and damage to mitochondrial and nuclear membrane. In hepatopancreas vacuole formation. breakage of cell membrane. swelling of nuclear membrane. condensed nucleus. aggregations in nucleus. disrupted endoplasmic reticulum and formation of electron dense bodies were the major changes

Effects of Daily News Sentiment on Stock Price Forecasting

Predicting future prices of a stock is an arduous task to perform. However, incorporating additional elements can significantly improve our predictions, rather than relying solely on a stock's historical price data to forecast its future price. Studies have demonstrated that investor sentiment, which is impacted by daily news about the company, can have a significant impact on stock price swings. There are numerous sources from which we can get this information, but they are cluttered with a lot of noise, making it difficult to accurately extract the sentiments from them. Hence the focus of our research is to design an efficient system to capture the sentiments from the news about the NITY50 stocks and investigate how much the financial news sentiment of these stocks are affecting their prices over a period of time. This paper presents a robust data collection and preprocessing framework to create a news database for a timeline of around 3.7 years, consisting of almost half a million news articles. We also capture the stock price information for this timeline and create multiple time series data, that include the sentiment scores from various sections of the article, calculated using different sentiment libraries. Based on this, we fit several LSTM models to forecast the stock prices, with and without using the sentiment scores as features and compare their performances.Comment: 9th ICBAI conference on December'2022 at IIM Bangalor

Price behaviour of black pepper in Indian and international markets: a comparative analysis

Black pepper, being a trade dependent commodity, shows high degree of price fluctuations. The present study examined the price behavior of black pepper in the pre-liberalisation and postliberalisation periods. The study revealed that the variation in prices increased in the postliberalisation period. Seasonal nature was evident in prices and the harvesting period was found to be coinciding with the trough phase in the price cycle, while the off-season synchronized with the peak phase. The prices exhibited cyclical behavior and the periods of low prices endured longer than that of the price spikes. The occurrence and amplitude of random factors exhibited in the prices of black pepper were more in the pre-liberalisation period

Electrospun polylactic acid-chitosan composite: a bio-based alternative for inorganic composites for advanced application

Fabricating novel materials for biomedical applications mostly require the use of biodegradable materials. In this work biodegradable materials like polylactic acid (PLA) and chitosan (CHS) were used for designing electrospun mats. This work reports the physical and chemical characterization of the PLA-CHS composite, prepared by the electrospinning technique using a mixed solvent system. The addition of chitosan into PLA, offered decrease in fiber diameter in the composites with uniformity in the distribution of fibers with an optimum at 0.4wt% CHS. The fiber formation and the reduction in fiber diameter were confirmed by the SEM micrograph. The inverse gas chromatography and contact angle measurements supported the increase of hydrophobicity of the composite membrane with increase of filler concentration. The weak interaction between PLA and chitosan was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis. The stability of the composite was established by zeta potential measurements. Cytotoxicity studies of the membranes were also carried out and found that up to 0.6% CHS the composite material was noncytotoxic. The current findings are very important for the design and development of new materials based on polylactic acid-chitosan composites for environmental and biomedical applications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pattern of congenital abnormalities in a tertiary hospital and its impact on neonatal mortality

Background: Congenital abnormalities are major contributors of neonatal mortality and stillbirths. However, there is not sufficient data in our country on the prevalence of various congenital malformations and their impact on neonatal mortality. Objectives: To study the prevalence and pattern of congenital anomalies among neonates delivered in a tertiary hospital setting in 3 years and its impact on perinatal and neonatal mortality. Materials and Methods: This hospital based prospective descriptive study was undertaken at tertiary care hospital in Kerala. All babies born in the hospital from January 2013 to December 2015 (3 years) were included in the study. The baby was examined by a pediatrician during the first 24 h to identify any birth defects. A detailed history including familial and gestational factors was taken in babies with birth defects. Photographs, radiographs, ultrasound examination, echocardiography, and chromosomal studies were undertaken as required. The details were entered in a pro forma. The anomalies are classified as per ICD-10 criteria. Results were analyzed by simple statistical techniques recording number and percentage of cases. Results: The prevalence of birth defects in live born newborn was 1.9% whereas, in stillbirths, it was 15.3%. Congenital anomalies also contributed a major risk factor for neonatal death as 22% of the newborns, died in the immediate neonatal period, had some form of congenital anomaly. The major maternal risk factor found to be associated with congenital anomalies was gestational diabetes (21.3%). The patterns of congenital anomalies were musculoskeletal anomalies (25%), central nervous system (18%), genitourinary system (14%), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (12%), cardiovascular system (10%), gastrointestinal (7%), syndromes (6%), non-immune hydrops (5%), and others (3%). Conclusion: Prevalence of birth defects in this birth cohort was 1.9% comparable to other Indian data. In Kerala, one of the major causes of perinatal and neonatal mortality is congenital malformations