Carotenoid Profiles and Preliminary Investigation on Carotenoid Biosynthesis in the Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis) Mesocarp

The oil palm fruit is one of the richest sources of carotenoids. However, little is known about the pathway for carotenoid synthesis in the oil palm. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide some basic information on carotenoid synthesis in the oil palm mesocarp. In order to do so, we needed to firstly extract carotenoids from the oil palm mesocarp. A technique for extracting carotenoids from the oil palm meso carp was optimised. Cold saponification was used to remove unwanted lipid materials from the crude carotenoid extract. Ultra violet-Visible (UV -Vis) spectrophotometry was utilized to compare the absorbance profiles of the carotenoid extracts of oil palm fruits at different stages of development i.e 15-20 weeks after anthesis (W AA). The results showed that in unripe oil palm fruit, carotenoids absorb strongly in the UV range while in ripe fruit the carotenoids absorb strongly in the visible range as more carotenoids are formed. Reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) coupled with a photo-diode array (PDA) detector was used in this study for characterizing the carotenoid profiles o

Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding use of fixed dose combination drugs among young prescribers a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural Bengal, India

Background: Use of fixed dose combination (FDCs) is a double edged sword with scope for irrational prescribing on one hand and improved pharmacotherapy and patient compliance on the other hand. Irrational FDCs are being marketed aggressively and often young prescribers including Post Graduate Trainees fall prey to the lure of FDCs. This was a Knowledge-Attitude-Practice study regarding of FDC use among the resident doctors working at a tertiary care medical college of rural Bengal.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire based study including 50 resident doctors who were asked to fill a 10-question questionnaire on FDCs anonymously.Results: Ninety two percent of the study participants were aware of the FDCs. The most commonly perceived advantages were better patient compliance and synergistic effects. Most (96%) cited problems of titrating dosages and problems of more side effects. Only 37.6% knew about the banned FDCs. Preferred FDCs among them were antibiotics (94%), cough syrups (80%) and NSAIDs (68%). Residents of dermatology, orthopaedics, surgery and medicine most commonly prescribed FDCs. Sources of knowledge regarding FDCs were CME (92%), medical representative (76%), colleagues (72%), internet (68%), journals (48%) and textbooks (36%).Conclusions: The study showed that most participants were aware of the FDCs and also aware of the problems with irrational FDC use. Knowledge regarding banned drugs was poor as was the rationality of such combinations. More CMEs and inter department group discussions could be conducted to improve awareness and FDC prescribing practice among young prescribers

DRUG UTILIZATION STUDY IN A RADIOTHERAPY UNIT OF A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN RURAL WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Objective: Drug utilization studies lay special emphasis on the medical social and economic consequences of use of medications in special settings. This study was undertaken to identify the pattern of drugs prescribed frequently among patients attending the radiotherapy department. Methods: This is a prospective study undertaken between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018. Prescriptions and patient records were reviewed and analyzed using the World Health Organization (WHO) indicators for drug utilization studies. Results: We encountered a total of 618 patients during the study period. Among them, 340 (55.01%) were female. The most common age groups presenting were between 21 and 60 years. Carcinoma breast was the most common type encountered (total cases 181, 29.28%), followed by carcinoma lung (total cases 92, 14.88%), carcinoma cervix, hematological malignancies, carcinoma prostate, and carcinoma rectum. Total number of drugs prescribed was 3008 in total 618 prescriptions making it 4.86 drugs per prescription on average. Among them on average per prescription, 2.82 drugs were cytotoxic drugs (1745 total), whereas 2.04 drugs were supportive or adjunct drugs (1263 total). Among the drugs prescribed, 96.24% were in generic names, 6.95% prescriptions contained antibiotics, and 96.44% (596) prescriptions contained injections. About 85.23% of drugs were prescribed from essential drug list. Average consulting was 8.2 min and dispensing time for adjunct drugs was 4 min on average. On average, 52.42% of patients (324) had complete correct knowledge of the dosage and schedule prescribed. Adverse drug reactions were common, out of 618 patients, 542 (87.7%) experienced ADRs most common being gastrointestinal and dermatological ADRs. The most common implicated drug was cisplatin. Six serious adverse events were encountered. Conclusions: This study provides a clear picture of drug use in this special clinic in rural Bengal and paves the way for larger and long-term study

Preparação e caracterização de nanopartículas de Prata em meio aquoso e orgânico, com impregnação em borrachas de silicone contendo trans-[RuCl2(vpy)4] para fins antimicrobiano

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências Físicas e Matemáticas. Curso de Química.Neste trabalho foi aperfeiçoada a preparação e caracterização de nanopartículas de prata metálicas em escala ampliada na fase aquosa, seguida da extração para meio orgânico. Posteriormente essas nanopartículas foram impregnadas em borracha de silicone, contendo o complexo trans- [RuCl2(vpy)4]. As nanopartículas de prata em fase aquosa foram preparadas por redução química usando o borohidreto de sódio (NaBH4) como redutor e citrato de sódio como estabilizante. Para a obtenção de nanopartículas de prata em meio orgânico foi utilizado um agente de transferência de fase contendo grupo amino em sua estrutura. A caracterização das nanopartículas foi realizada por espectroscopia UV-Vis e microscopia de transmissão eletrônica (MET). As propriedades térmicas do nanocompósito feito a partir da borracha de silicone foram analisadas por termogravimetria (TGA). Estudos microbiológicos também foram feitos para comprovar a atividade antimicrobiana do polímero. Foram utilizados os microorganismos Escherichia coli (ATCC-25922) e Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) e os meios de cultura MacConkey e Muller & Hynton. A atividade microbiológica da borracha de silicone impregnada com nanopartículas de prata foi confirmada pela formação de um halo de inibição ao redor da amostra analisada

Viajantes

Se ao menos sentisse a saudade que estou de você, Correria para meus braços, Uniria seu corpo ao meu

A comparative study between retrospective and prospective assessment of rationality and effectiveness of snake bite management in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Snake bite envenomation remains one of the commonest causes of mortality and morbidity in rural West Bengal. Objective of present study was to compare the rationality, effectiveness and adherence to standard treatment guidelines of Government of West Bengal of snake bite management over the high-risk periods of two years.Methods: This was a comparative study of snake bite management between 2016 and 2018 (over April to September) during peak risk season in a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural Bengal. The data was collected retrospectively from the treatment records in 2016 and from patients admitted with history of snake bite in the Medicine ward, ICU and ITU in 2018.Results: Records from 2016 yielded 177 snake bite patients (144 venomous and 82.5% neurotoxic envenomation) and in 2018, 190 cases (114 venomous and 71.1% neurotoxic). There was delay in presentation (>2 hours) in almost 80% cases in both years and 2.56% had anaphylactic reaction following ASV administration in 2018 against 3.15% in 2016. Ventilator support was necessary for 12% patients in 2018. Overall percentage of mortality reduced from 6.70% to 3.2% in 2018. Adherence to snake bite management STG was seen in 81.8% of the retrospective records vis a vis 80% cases in prospective analysis (p = 0.21).Conclusions: The survival rate in venomous snake bite is found to be high in this institution over last two seasons of snake bite. The practice of snake bite management is found to be adherent with standard protocol in most cases

Design of an Intelligent SHA-1 Based Cryptographic System: A CPSO Based Approach

Abstract The paper puts forward the design of an intelligent SHA-1 based crypto system. For a given 512-bit message stream the intelligence of the system lies in its power of predicting the probable-colluders. Along with the conventional SHA-1 architecture, our scheme employs a predictor control block which takes the message stream from the user, and provides the log-list of the equal length bit-streams that are most likely to produce collisions with the message stream. The predictor controller uses Canonical Particle Swarm optimization (CPSO) algorithm. Besides proposing the algorithm itself, the paper also surveys the performance of the predictor when employed with different hardware platforms

Menino

Vem!cá menino, vamos dançar uma bossa juntos. Vamos ver o sol se pôr

A study of prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a tertiary care referral hospital in West Bengal

Background: The terms "metabolic syndrome", "insulin resistance syndrome" and "syndrome X" are now used specifically to define a constellation of abnormalities that is associated with increased risk for the development of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic vascular disease. It is a state of chronic low grade inflammation with the profound systemic effects. Several organisations gave several criteria to diagnose it. Effective preventive approaches include lifestyle changes, primarily weight loss, diet, and exercise, the appropriate use of pharmacological agents to reduce the specific risk factors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done to evaluate the co-morbidity profile of patients, with metabolic syndrome and correlate clinical manifestations with specific components or metabolic syndrome, at the OPD of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospitals, West Bengal. American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists criteria were chosen for diagnosis.Results: 100 patients were recruited having type II diabetes mellitus. Most of the patients were male between 20-70 years and maximum was on oral hypoglycemic agent with app 40% patient was without any glycemic control. In comorbidities hypertension was highest, followed by coronary artery disease, hypothyroidism and cerebrovascular accident. Waist-hip ratio was highest in female. All of the patients were having some cardiac risk factor assessed by ECG, echocardiography and thread mill test.Conclusions: The data demonstrates that metabolic syndrome is extremely common among diabetic patients. Frequency was much higher in women than men. Obesity is a key element in causing the metabolic syndrome and this factor was also more common in women