Pancreatitis following Olanzapine Therapy: A Report of Three Cases

CONTEXT: Atypical antipsychotic agents (clozapine, olanzapine) have been linked to metabolic effects and acute pancreatitis. CASE REPORT: We reviewed the inpatient and outpatient records of three patients who developed acute pancreatitis while being treated with olanzapine. The mean age of the patients was 37.7 years (range 18–54 years, 2 female, 1 male). No alternative cause of acute pancreatitis was found in two of the three patients. In the remaining patient, olanzapine may have contributed to acute pancreatitis in the setting of hypertriglyceridemia. Olanzapine was discontinued in all instances. Over a mean follow-up of 14 months, one patient has had a relapsing course, but the remaining two patients have been symptom free without recurrence of acute pancreatitis. CONCLUSIONS: Our case series adds further support to the potential link between olanzapine use and acute pancreatitis. Close monitoring of metabolic parameters is suggested in patients treated with olanzapine. Alternative antipsychotic agents should be considered in patients at high risk for pancreatitis

Dehydroxylation of Minerals of Gadisunkapur Area with Special Reference to FTIR and Thermal Study

This paper attempts to explain the presence of OH group for micas along with some sulfate, chlorite, quartz and feldspar minerals. These minerals are found to be associated with barite vein, metasediments (quartz-chlorite schist), metarhyolite and varieties of granitic rocks of Gadisunkapur area of Hungund-Kushtagi Schist belt. The samples were collected in and around Gadisunkapur village of Bagalkote district, Karnataka and further processed to determine OH group anion in different minerals present based on FTIR and Thermal studies such as Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Differential Thermal analysis (DTA). The high temperature dehydroxylation is investigated using this analysis. Furthermore, present study indicates the presence of different extra species (CO2, CO32- and OH-). The results show the incorporation of CO2 into the structures due to heating or enhanced by the dehydroxylation process

Performance Analysis of Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (spiht) Algorithm for a Family of Wavelets Used in Color Image Compression

With the spurt in the amount of data (Image, video, audio, speech, & text) available on the net, there is a huge demand for memory & bandwidth savings. One has to achieve this, by maintaining the quality & fidelity of the data acceptable to the end user. Wavelet transform is an important and practical tool for data compression. Set partitioning in hierarchal trees (SPIHT) is a widely used compression algorithm for wavelet transformed images. Among all wavelet transform and zero-tree quantization based image compression algorithms SPIHT has become the benchmark state-of-the-art algorithm because it is simple to implement & yields good results. In this paper we present a comparative study of various wavelet families for image compression with SPIHT algorithm. We have conducted experiments with Daubechies, Coiflet, Symlet, Bi-orthogonal, Reverse Bi-orthogonal and Demeyer wavelet types. The resulting image quality is measured objectively, using peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and subjectively, using perceived image quality (human visual perception, HVP for short). The resulting reduction in the image size is quantified by compression ratio (CR)

Automatic detection of powerlines in UAV remote sensed images

Powerline detection is one of the important applications of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV ) based remote sensing. In this paper, powerlines are detected from UAV remote sensed images. The images are acquired from a Quad rotor UAV fitted with a GoPro® camera. In the proposed method pixel intensity-based clustering is performed followed by morphological operations. K-means clustering is applied for clustering. The number of clusters to be used in k-means clustering is automatically generated using Davies-Bouldin (DB) index. Further, the clustered data is processed to improvise the extraction using mathematical morphological operations. Performance of powerline extraction is analysed using confusion matrix method. In the observed results of powerline extraction using DB index, evaluation features derived from confusion matrix is close to one, indicating good classification

Comparison of Speech Enhancement Algorithms

The simplest and very familiar method to take out stationary background noise is spectral subtraction. In this algorithm, a spectral noise bias is calculated from segments of speech inactivity and is subtracted from noisy speech spectral amplitude, retaining the phase as it is. Secondary procedures follow spectral subtraction to reduce the unpleasant auditory effects due to spectral error. The drawback of spectral subtraction is that it is applicable to speech corrupted by stationary noise. The research in this topic aims at studying the spectral subtraction & Wiener filter technique when the speech is degraded by non-stationary noise. We have studied both algorithms assuming stationary noise scenario. In this we want to study these two algorithms in the context of non-stationary noise. Next, decision directed (DD) approach, is used to estimate the time varying noise spectrum which resulted in better performance in terms of intelligibility and reduced musical noise. However, the a priori SNR estimator of the current frame relies on the estimated speech spectrum from the earlier frame. The undesirable consequence is that the gain function doesn’t match the current frame, resulting in a bias which causes annoying echoing effect. A method called Two-step noise reduction (TSNR) algorithm was used to solve the problem which tracks instantaneously the non-stationarity of the signal but, not by losing the advantage of the DD approach. The a priori SNR estimation was modified and made better by an additional step for removing the bias, thus eliminating reverberation effect. The output obtained even with TSNR still suffers from harmonic distortions which are inherent to all short time noise suppression techniques, the main reason being the inaccuracy in estimating PSD in single channel systems. To outdo this problem, a concept called, Harmonic Regeneration Noise Reduction (HRNR) is used wherein a non-linearity is made use of for regenerating the distorted/missing harmonics. All the above discussed algorithms have been implemented and their performance evaluated using both subjective and objective criteria. The performance is significantly improved by using HRNR combined with TSNR, as compared to TSNR, DD alone, as HRNR ensures restoration of harmonics. The spectral subtraction performance stands much below the above discussed methods for obvious reasons

Comparison of Speech Enhancement Algorithms

AbstractThe simplest and very familiar method to take out stationary background noise is spectral subtraction. In this algorithm, a spectral noise bias is calculated from segments of speech inactivity and is subtracted from noisy speech spectral amplitude, retaining the phase as it is. Secondary procedures follow spectral subtraction to reduce the unpleasant auditory effects due to spectral error. The drawback of spectral subtraction is that it is applicable to speech corrupted by stationary noise. The research in this topic aims at studying the spectral subtraction & Wiener filter technique when the speech is degraded by non-stationary noise. We have studied both algorithms assuming stationary noise scenario. In this we want to study these two algorithms in the context of non-stationary noise. Next, decision directed (DD) approach, is used to estimate the time varying noise spectrum which resulted in better performance in terms of intelligibility and reduced musical noise. However, the a priori SNR estimator of the current frame relies on the estimated speech spectrum from the earlier frame. The undesirable consequence is that the gain function doesn’t match the current frame, resulting in a bias which causes annoying echoing effect. A method called Two-step noise reduction (TSNR) algorithm was used to solve the problem which tracks instantaneously the non-stationarity of the signal but, not by losing the advantage of the DD approach. The a priori SNR estimation was modified and made better by an additional step for removing the bias, thus eliminating reverberation effect. The output obtained even with TSNR still suffers from harmonic distortions which are inherent to all short time noise suppression techniques, the main reason being the inaccuracy in estimating PSD in single channel systems. To outdo this problem, a concept called, Harmonic Regeneration Noise Reduction (HRNR) is used wherein a non-linearity is made use of for regenerating the distorted/missing harmonics. All the above discussed algorithms have been implemented and their performance evaluated using both subjective and objective criteria. The performance is significantly improved by using HRNR combined with TSNR, as compared to TSNR, DD alone, as HRNR ensures restoration of harmonics. The spectral subtraction performance stands much below the above discussed methods for obvious reasons

A prospective, open label, randomized-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Herbovir syrup in mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients

Background: COVID-19 patients experience cytokine storm which cause pulmonary and extra-pulmonary complications. Effective antiviral and immune boosters are need of hour to treat COVID-19 as well as post COVID complications.Methods: In this study involving mild COVID-19 we randomized 40 patients to receive a Herbovir syrup along with standard of care (SOC) or SOC alone in 1:1 ratio. We evaluated the benefits of Herbovir syrup by assessing clinical outcomes and improvement in immune markers (LDH, CRP, D-dimer).Results: At the end of the study the immune markers in Herbovir group improved significant compared to control group. In patients who received Herbovir, LDH decreased from 334 U/l at baseline to 254 U/l at the end of treatment (p value 75% patients in Herbovir treated group.Conclusions: Herbovir accelerated recovery of COVID-19 patients by early improvement in clinical symptoms and immune markers in this study and results clearly indicates that Herbovir syrup has antiviral, immune booster activity and has definitive role in the management of mild COVID-19 patients along with standard of care. (Funded by Venkat pharma. CTRI no. CTRI/2020/08/027041)

Prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria and its antibiotic sensitivity in type-2 diabetic women along the sea coast

Type-2 diabetes women are more prone for Urinary tract infections (UTI). Many UTIs are asymptomatic and whether the symptomatic UTI are preceded by asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is not clear. Hence, the present study is conducted to understand the relationship between ASB and symptomatic UTI among Type-2 diabetic women along the sea coast.A hospital based study conducted in the Narayana Medical College & Hospital, which is situated within 10-15 km radius of the seacoast in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, India. 238 subjects were selected, out of these 164 diabetic subjects in the experimental and 56 in the control group. Findings indicate that the prevalence of ASB in type-2 diabetic women is high along the sea coast and significantly associated with nephropathy. The major risk factors include age, duration of diabetes, proteinuria, leucocyturia, glucosuria, nephropathy and rise in plasma glucose. Among the clinical isolates of ASB, gram negative isolates were more than gram positive. These isolates are highly resistant to antibiotics like Ciprofloxacin, Ofloxacin, Gentamicin and Cefotaxime while, sensitive to Amikacin and Cephaperazone ± sulbactam. Thus present study concludes that overall risk factors for ASB in type-2 diabetic women observed are proteinuria, leucocyturia, glucosuria, nephropathy and plasma glucose

Post harvest loss and marketing of fruits - economic analysis of pink flesh guava in local and distant markets in India

Guava produced in Bengaluru in Karnataka is also transported to distant markets like Cochin in Kerala and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. An assessment of post harvest loss (PHL) was done in these markets. The main marketing channel followed was:Producer PHC Distant Market WS Retailer ConsumerMarketing practices followed in marketing of pink flesh guava and losses occurring at the wholesale (transit) and retailers’ level (storage) in the distant market - Kerala were studied from wholesalers and retailers. The PHL at the wholesalers’ level was observed to be 3.6 per cent mainly due to pressed and crushed fruits during transit. The retail level loss was 4.59 per cent which was mainly due to storage for more than two days resulting in decaying, rotting, yellowing etc. Average price received by the wholesaler was Rs.29.92/kg with a margin of Rs.6.21/kg (20.75%). The retailers received a price of Rs.46.54/kg with a margin of Rs.16.35/kg (35.13%). Marketing practices followed in marketing of pink flesh guava and losses occurring at the wholesale (transit) and retailers’ level (storage) in the distant market - Chennai (Tamil Nadu) were studied with wholesalers in Coimbeedu market and retailers in different parts of Chennai. The PHL at the wholesalers’ level was observed to be 4.62 per cent mainly due to pressed and crushed fruits during transit. The retail level loss was 6.09 per cent which was due to pressing of fruits during handling. The wholesaler received a margin of 22.91 percent in trading of guava fruits. The retailers received a margin of 45.72 per cent. The Karnataka farmers can take advantage of the higher prices prevalent in the distant markets and increase their income. Pathological investigation indicated that losses occurred at different stages of handling due to Styler end rot, Anthracnose, Canker, thrips attack etc., which needs to be addressed. The storage losses of pink flesh guava were estimated as 5.89 % after 4 days of storage at room temperature (24-32°C) that constituted mainly the physiological loss in weight (PLW). Spoilage started after 5 days of storage (10.5 %) and reached to 28.31 % by 6 days of storage. After 4 days of storage, guava fruits lose weight to the extent of 6 per cent and the spoilage starts after 5 days. Hence, care should be taken to dispose of the fruits within five days of harvest