Microbiological Aspects and Immunity Response of Bacteria Causing Pulpitis

The oral cavity is a very widely distributed ecosystem in which several hundred microbial species normally cohabit harmoniously. Under special conditions some microorganisms with potential are promoted, leading to inflammation & infection by induced de-mineralization of dental enamel that normally constitutes an impermeable barrier that protects the underlying dentin and the connective tissue situated in the center of the tooth & dental pulp such as pulpitis, dental caries, and periodontal infection. In inflammation of the dental pulpitis the immunity response against oral infection leads to infection and results in a high level of morbidity and economic burden to society

Envisioning Futures of Design Education: An Exploratory Workshop with Design Educator

The demand for innovation in the creative economy has seen the adoption and adaptation of design thinking and design methods into domains outside design, such as business management, education, healthcare, and engineering. Design thinking and methodologies are now considered useful for identifying, framing and solving complex, often wicked social, technological, economic and public policy problems. As the practice of design undergoes change, design education is also expected to adjust to prepare future designers to have dramatically different demands made upon their general abilities and bases of knowledge than have design career paths from years past. Future designers will have to develop skills and be able to construct and utilize knowledge that allows them to make meaningful contributions to collaborative efforts involving experts from disciplines outside design. Exactly how future designers should be prepared to do this has sparked a good deal of conjecture and debate in the professional and academic design communities. This report proposes that the process of creating future scenarios that more broadly explore and expand the role, or roles, for design and designers in the world’s increasingly interwoven and interdependent societies can help uncover core needs and envision framework(s) for design education. This approach informed the creation of a workshop held at the Design Research Society conference in Brighton, UK in June of 2016, where six design educators shared four future scenarios that served as catalysts for conversations about the future of design education. Each scenario presented a specific future design education context. One scenario described the progression of design education as a core component of K-12 curricula; another scenario situated design at the core of a network of globally-linked local Universities; the third scenario highlighted the expanding role of designers over time; and the final scenario described a distance design education context that made learning relevant and “close” to an individual learner’s areas of interest. Forty participants in teams of up to six were asked to collaboratively visualize a possible future vision of design education based on one of these four scenarios and supported by a toolkit consisting of a set of trigger cards (with images and text), along with markers, glue and flipcharts. The collaborative visions that were jointly created as posters using the toolkit and then presented by the teams to all the workshop participants and facilitators are offered here as a case study. Although inspired by different scenarios, their collectively envisioned futures of what design education should facilitate displayed some key similarities. Some of those were: Future design education curricula will focus on developing collaborative approaches within which faculty and students are co-learners; These curricula will bring together ways of learning and knowing that stem from multiple disciplines; and Learning in and about the natural environment will be a key goal (the specifics of how that would be accomplished were not elaborated upon.) In addition, the need for transdisciplinarity was expressed across the collaborative visions created by each of the teams, but the manner that participants chose to express their ideas about this varied. Some envisioned that design would evolve by drawing on other disciplinary knowledge, and others envisioned that design would gradually integrate with other disciplines

Modeling the Growth of Food Science and Technology Literature in India

Purpose: The purpose of the research paper is to find the most appropriate growth model in the field of Food Science and Technology in India. Design/Methodology/Approach: The Growth rate functions α1 and α2 methodology suggested by Egghe and Rao. Findings: The research shows that Growth of the Food Science and Technology Literature is viable in terms of Publications as well as in Citations. Research Limitations/ Implications: The research area is limited to Food Science and Technology area in India only. Originality/Value: The growth rate functions in the field of food science and technology particularly in India is not performed earlie

Concurrent dengue and typhoid infection: study from a tertiary care centre in Muzaffarnagar, India

Background: Acute febrile illness is a common presenting complaint during the rainy season. Rains predispose to both water and vector borne diseases. Co-infection of dengue with malaria, leptospirosis, typhoid, scrub typhus and other arboviral diseases can occur in endemic areas. Such dual infections are difficult to diagnose and create a diagnostic dilemma for the treating physician. Here in this study authors attempt to find out rates of concurrent dengue and typhoid infection.Methods: This retrospective study was done between August to November 2017. 403 patients presenting with acute febrile illness were studied. Diagnosis of dengue was done by rapid card test detecting NS1 antigen, IgM and IgG antibodies. Serodiagnosis of Salmonella infection was done by tube Widal test.Results: : Out of 403 febrile sera samples tested 154 (38.2%) were positive for dengue (either NS1 antigen or IgM antibodies or both), 71(17.6%) were positive for Widal test O and H titres ≥1:160) and 28 (6.9%) were positive for both dengue as well as Salmonella (Widal test).Conclusions: Acute febrile illnesses with diagnostic dilemma may be seen in cases of co-infection. Only better clinical judgement and right choice of laboratory tests can diagnose these diseases timely and prevent fatal outcomes

CYPRINUS CARPIO: BIOINDICATOR OF HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN YAMUNA RIVER, DELHI REGION

Heavy metals being persistent pose conglomerated hazards towards safety and human health. Impacts of heavy metal pollution can be exhibited by both natural and anthropogenic activities. Therefore, developing nations are under immense pressure of controlling the environmental impacts of increasing industrialization and pollution, subject to their limited resources and infrastructure. Bioindicators are important biological entities to determine the positive/ negative changes in the desired ecosystem. They are the fast respondents towards the slightest changes and provide early reliable results. Identifying & establishing a suitable bioindicator can provide a faster and inexpensive way to address the undesirable effects. Cyprinus carpio, a freshwater fish, is used to determine the Lead (Pb) at different locations of Yamuna River and the bioavailability in different tissues. In the present study, we are trying to establish fish as an indicator of lead pollution in the river. It is a well-known fact that the water bodies are most affected by human activities. Polluted water bodies can lead to adverse effects on human health. Lead is also known to cause phytotoxicities in aquatic and terrestrial plants. This study is therefore an attempt to identify the harmful impacts of lead in River ecology. Ten fish specimens of C. carpio were collected from four different sites of Yamuna River and analyzed for Lead accumulation in fish tissues. High concentration and accumulation were observed in specimens collected from various locations and found to be higher than the permissible limits for human consumption

Adult-onset Still’s disease with secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis: a case report

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an aggressive and life-threatening syndrome of excessive immune activation causing multi-organ dysfunction. HLH can be inherited genetically, but can also be secondary to infections, malignancy, immunosuppression, and autoimmune conditions. Adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by fevers, arthritis, and an evanescent rash. It can rarely predispose patients to HLH. Herein, we report a case of a 20-year-old male patient who presented with fever, joint pain, and rash for 1 month. On evaluation, he was diagnosed as a case of AOSD complicated with secondary HLH. A 23-year-old male, with no significant past medical history and family history, presented to our emergency department with complaints of fever with rash for the last 1 month. He had intermittent high-grade fever with chills, which was associated with evanescent rash involving the trunk and proximal upper limbs. There was no history of joint pain, cough, sore throat, burning micturition, or weight loss. On examination, the patient was conscious and oriented with a temperature of 101 °F, pulse rate of 100/min, blood pressure of 120/84 mmHg, and SpO2 of 98% on room air. Physical examination revealed salmon-colored maculopapular rash, cervical lymphadenopathy, and mild splenomegaly. The rest of the physical examination was unremarkable. Lab investigations revealed pancytopenia, transaminitis, elevated CRP with low ESR, highly elevated ferritin, elevated LDH, hypofibrinogenemia, and sterile blood and urine cultures. ANA by ELISA, rheumatoid factor, IGRA, dengue IgM, rapid malaria Ag, typhoid IgM, Leptospira IgM and scrub IgM were reported negative. The patient met the diagnostic criteria for AOSD and HLH, and a diagnosis of HLH secondary to AOSD was made. He was given pulse iv methylprednisolone for 5 days, His general condition improved over the week. Then he was switched to oral prednisolone 60 mg once daily. There were no more episodes of fever, and he was discharged after one week on a tapering dose of steroids. AOSD is a rare autoinflammatory condition which often presents as a diagnostic challenge. A high index of suspicion is important for the diagnosis of HLH, and prompt initiation of treatment is of utmost importance, as it is a rapidly progressive life-threatening condition

Experimental study on the performance of microwave assisted Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) pretreatment of rice straw

Biofuels are essentials as they can provide impending substitute for fossil fuels.  Rice straw has gained much attention from researchers because of its usability as a potential feedstock for bioethanol production.  Pre-treatments are crucial for enzymatic hydrolysis of rice straw.  In this study, combination of microwave and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is employed for the delignification of rice straw.  The Response surface methodology is used to optimize the pretreatment conditions with respect to H2O2 concentration, microwave power and irradiation time.  Under optimum conditions, maximum reducing sugar obtained through microwave assisted H2O2 is 1,453.64 µg/mL.  The chemical and morphological analysis ascertained that the surface of the samples treated with microwave assisted H2O2 was more ruptured and has a significantly high crystalline index (63.64%) than untreated rice straw sample (52.2%).  Microwave assisted H2O2 pre-treatmentdisrupted the silicon waxy structure and broken down allether linkages between lignin and carbohydrates and thus, efficiently remove lignin.  The present study proves that microwave assisted H2O2 is an effective pretreatment technique for the conversion of rice straw into bioethanol production by enhancing enzymatic saccharification.   Keywords: pre-treatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, rice straw, biofuel, microwave, hydrogen peroxid

T1 and T2 mapping of articular cartilage and menisci in early osteoarthritis of the knee using 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging

Purpose: 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T1 and T2 mapping to detect and quantify cartilage matrix and meniscal degeneration between normal healthy volunteers and early osteoarthritis patients. Material and methods: A prospective study including 25 patients and 10 healthy volunteers was done. Patients with symptoms of early osteoarthritis and Kellgren-Lawrence grade I-II on plain radiograph were included for MRI knee. Patients with inflammatory arthritis, infection, trauma, and history of knee surgery were excluded. Healthy, normal adult volunteers (preferably age and sex matched) without symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee were drawn from patient's relatives/hospital employees/colleagues for MRI knee. Results: T1 and T2 relaxation time values of articular cartilage and menisci were significantly higher in osteoarthritis patients as compared to healthy volunteers. No significant difference was found in morphological thickness of articular cartilage and menisci in early osteoarthritis patients and healthy volunteers. Conclusions: T1 and T2 mapping are noninvasive MRI techniques reflecting changes in the biochemical composition of cartilage and menisci. T1 values reflect changes in proteoglycan content, and T2 values are sensitive to interaction between water molecules and collagen network. Mapping techniques assess early cartilage and meniscal matrix degeneration in osteoarthritis of the knee, and help in initiating treatment and monitoring disease progression. MRI is a sensitive modality for assessment of pathological changes in articular cartilage. With use of T1 and T2 mapping techniques, it is possible to evaluate the collagen network and proteoglycan content in articular cartilage and meniscal matrix