Inhaled Insulin: Intrapulmonary or Intranasal?

Initial attempts delivered the insulin hormone intramuscularly, intravenously, and eventually subcutaneously. Other routes of administration of the drug were explored. These included oral, rectal, sublingual, buccal, transdermal, vaginal, intramuscular, intrapulmonary, and intranasal delivery systems. The purpose of these latter studies was to determine a noninjectable method to deliver insulin to patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes that would effectively lower blood sugar, control hemoglobin A1c (in much later studies), and allow patients a simpler, less invasive, and more direct control oftheir underlying disease process.  In January 2006 the United States Food and Drug Administration approved Exubera (Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, New York, NY) as the first pulmonary inhaled insulin. In actuality attempts to explore various methods to deliver insulin using intrapulmonary delivery had occurred since1925. &#xb

of vitamin D deficiency with occurrence of pre eclampsia among inpatients of tertiary care centre, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: Pre eclampsia has remained a significant public health threat in both developed and developing countries contributing to maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality globally. Vitamin D has direct influence on molecular pathways proposed to be important in the pathogenesis of pre eclampsia, yet the vitamin D-pre eclampsia relation has seldom been studied. In the present study we aimed to assess the association of vitamin D deficiency with the occurrence of pre eclampsia. If indeed vitamin D deficiency is related to pre eclampsia, this correlation can inform future studies, which hopefully will ultimately lead to a decrease in the incidence of pre eclampsia hence a decrease in adverse maternal and fetal outcomes.Methods: We conducted a comparative cross sectional study carried out for a period of one year from August 2014 to July 2015. A total of 384 patients were selected. 192 pre eclamptic and 192 non pre eclamptic pregnant patients aged 16-45 years attending in-patient department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology BRD Medical college Gorakhpur were included in the study.Results: About 82.8% of pre eclamptic and 31.25% of non pre eclamptic patients were found deficient in vitamin D. Also, severe pre eclamptic patients had more severe deficiency of vitamin D. Majority of these patients (51.78%) had very low vitamin D concentration.Conclusions: Maternal vitamin D deficiency may be an independent risk factor for preeclampsia. Vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy should be explored for preventing preeclampsia and promoting neonatal well-being

Live Image Colour Segmentation Using Different Methods of ANN

Machine learning is a new dimension of science since last 2 decade which motivates algorithms that can learn from data by building a model, based on inputs and using that to make predications or decisions, rather than following only explicitly programmed instructions. Machine learning is sometimes conflated with data mining, which focuses more on exploratory data analysis. Data mining is the extraction of interesting (non-trivial, implicit, previously unknow and potential useful) patterns of knowledge from huge amount of data In computer vision image segmentation is the process of partitioning a digital image into multiple segments (set of pixels, also known as super-pixels). The goals of segmentation is to simplify and/or change the representation of an image into something that is more meaningful and easier to analyze. Image segmentation is typically used to locate objects and boundaries (lines, curves, etc.) in images. More precisely, image segmentation is the process of assigning a label to every pixel in an image such that pixels with the same label share certain characteristics. After that by considering region co-ordinates it separates all color in different figure

Modulating Effect of the −158 Gγ (C→T) Xmn1 Polymorphism in Indian Sickle Cell Patients

Xmn1 polymorphism is a known factor, which increases fetal haemoglobin production. Among the inherited disorders of blood, thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Diseases contributes to a major bulk of genetic diseases in India. Our aim was to verify the role of the Xmn1 polymorphism as a modulating factor in sickle cell patients and frequency of the polymorphism in Indian sickle cell patients. 60 sickle homozygous and 75 sickle beta thalassemia patients were included and 5 ml blood sample was collected from them. Screening of sickle patients was done by HPLC. An automated cell analyzer SYSMEX (K-4500 Model) was used to analyze the Complete Blood Count of patients. Xmn1 polymorphism analysis was done by PCR-RFLP and one-way ANOVA test was applied to analysis of variance between groups. Among the sickle patients 27 were heterozygous (+/−) and 19 were homozygous (+/+) while 30 were heterozygous (+/−) and 24 were homozygous (+/+) in sickle β-thalassemia patients. Extremely significant differences (p-value <0.001) of hematological parameters seen among patients with Xmn1 carrier and without the Xmn1 carrier. In our cases the clinical symptoms were barely visible and higher HbF level with Xmn1 carriers were found. Presence of Xmn1 polymorphism in sickle cell patients with higher HbF were phenotypically distinguished in the sickle cell patients. We conclude that the phenotypes of Indian sickle cell patients were greatly influenced by Xmn1polymorphism

Energetics and economics of green gram [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] as influenced by varying land configuration and nutrient management

Field experiments were carried out at the Agronomy Main Research Farm, O.U.A.T. Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India during 2019 and 2020 to find out energetics and economics of green gram as influenced by varying land configuration and nutrient management practices. Split-plot Design was adopted with three replications. Results of the experiment showed that raised bed method with PDM-139 cultivar in combination with F6 treatment gave the highest pooled yield (522.84 kg ha-1 and 455.29 kg ha-1) respectively. Similar trend was observed in Energy productivity (0.358kg MJ/ha and 0.335 kg/MJ respectively) and efficiency (1.42 kg MJ ha-1 and 1.17 MJ ha-1respectively). Economic analysis also revealed that flat bed with PDM-139 with F6 treatment combination gave the highest pooled B: C ratio (1.75) during the years of investigation

Farmer Interest Groups: Paving Its Path Towards Profitability

The current study entailed to ascertain the role that Farmers' Interest Groups played in knowledge transfer as well as in increasing agricultural production, productivity, and in turn leading to profitability for the farm sector in the Boudh district of Odisha. For the impact assessment, six FIGs from a range of villages in the Boudh district, including Baghiapada, Saleising, and Palijhar, were randomly selected. The results of this study depicted that member of Farmer Interest Groups adopted scientific agricultural practices and goatery technologies at a greater mean rate (80.63 MPS and 79.63 MPS, respectively) than non-members (59.12 MPS and 60.12 MPS). The aggregate differences in the adoption of crop and goatery farming technology between FIG members and non-members were calculated to be 21.5 and 19.5 MPS, respectively. It was also found that the crop and goatery production under FIG produced a higher yield than the agricultural practices now employed by farmers. The members became more active in meetings and the adoption of new and scientific farm and goatery technology after learning about the benefits of the FIGs. In addition to enhancing agriculture and animal production, this will also benefit the socioeconomic conditions of the farming community

L-Valin combined PLGA nanoparticles for oral insulin delivery

Oral delivery is the preferred route of administration because it offers several advantages over other routes. However, it is not an effective route for the delivery of peptides and proteins because of so many constraints. The small intestine has been shown to be able to transport the L-forms of amino acids against a concentration gradient and that they compete for the mechanism concerned. So L-Valine was used as a ligand for carrier mediated transport of insulin loaded PLGA nanoparticles. L-valine-conjugated PLGA-nanoparticles were prepared using double emulsion solvent evaporation method. The insulin bearing nanoparticles were also studied for size, drug entrapment efficiency, zeta potential and polydispersity index, in vitro insulin release. Ex-vivo studies on intestine revealed that conjugated nanoparticles showed greater insulin uptake as compared to nonconjugated nanoparticles. In-vivo studies were performed on streptozotocin induced diabetic rabbits.&nbsp; Oral suspension of insulin loaded PLGA nanoparticles reduced blood glucose level from 265.4±8.5 to 246.6±2.4 mg/dl within 4 hrs which further decreased to 198.7±7.1 mg/dl value after 8 hrs, The ligand conjugated formulation on oral administration produced hypoglycaemic effect within 4 hrs of administration, the hypoglycaemic effect prolonged till 12 hours of oral administration. Simultaneously, the insulin concentration in withdrawn samples was also assessed and found that profile of insulin level is in compliance with the blood glucose reduction profile. Compared with formulation loaded with the drug, the valine conjugated nanoparticles produced a sustained hypoglycaemic response till 12 hrs than 8 hrs. Hence, it is concluded that the L-valine conjugated NPs bearing insulin are the promising carrier for the transportation of insulin across the intestine on oral administration Keywords: L-valine, Streptozotocin, PLGA nanoparticles, Insulin

BGREI Impact on Productivity & Income from Rice: Western Vs. Northern Odisha

The article provides a comparison of the impact of the BGREI on rice productivity and income in the western and northern portions of Odisha in 2016–17. After consulting with scientists of ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack, 2 districts Mayurbhanj and Bargarh were selected as the research location. Two blocks from each district, 4 villages from each block were taken into consideration purposively and 10 farmers were selected randomly. Two pre-tested questionnaires were administered separately to the randomly selected beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries to collect the required data. After analysis of the data, it was observed that there is an increase of 8.83 quintals/acre (61.92%) in the productivity of Kharif rice in western Odisha, whereas in northern Odisha it is 6.1 quintals/acre (60.10%). Likewise, in case of Income from Kharif rice, there is an increment of Rs.12980/acre in western Odisha, whereas in northern Odisha it is Rs.8967/acre. After a critical statistical study, it was also clarified that there is no such major difference in the impact of BGREI on the income of rice farmers and productivity of rice, based on the location (i.e. between western Odisha and northern Odisha). It can be said that there is no such biasness in the BGREI scheme implemented areas of Odisha

Farmer Interest Groups: Paving Its Path Towards Profitability

The current study entailed to ascertain the role that Farmers' Interest Groups played in knowledge transfer as well as in increasing agricultural production, productivity, and in turn leading to profitability for the farm sector in the Boudh district of Odisha. For the impact assessment, six FIGs from a range of villages in the Boudh district, including Baghiapada, Saleising, and Palijhar, were randomly selected. The results of this study depicted that member of Farmer Interest Groups adopted scientific agricultural practices and goatery technologies at a greater mean rate (80.63 MPS and 79.63 MPS, respectively) than non-members (59.12 MPS and 60.12 MPS). The aggregate differences in the adoption of crop and goatery farming technology between FIG members and non-members were calculated to be 21.5 and 19.5 MPS, respectively. It was also found that the crop and goatery production under FIG produced a higher yield than the agricultural practices now employed by farmers.&nbsp; The members became more active in meetings and the adoption of new and scientific farm and goatery technology after learning about the benefits of the FIGs. In addition to enhancing agriculture and animal production, this will also benefit the socioeconomic conditions of the farming community

Cryptanalytic Time-Memory Tradeoff for Password Hashing Schemes

A cryptanalytic technique known as time-memory tradeoff (TMTO) was proposed by Hellman for finding the secret key of a block cipher. This technique allows sharing the effort of key search between the two extremes of exhaustively enumerating all keys versus listing all possible ciphertext mappings produced by a given plaintext (i.e. table lookups). The TMTO technique has also been used as an effective cryptanalytic approach for password hashing schemes (PHS). Increasing threat of password leakage from compromised password hashes demands a resource consuming algorithm to prevent the precomputation of the password hashes. A class of password hashing designs provide such a defense against TMTO attack by ensuring that any reduction in the memory leads to exponential increase in runtime. These are called \textit{Memory hard} designs. However, it is generally difficult to evaluate the ``memory hardness of a given PHS design.\\ In this work, we present a simple technique to analyze TMTO for any password hashing schemes which can be represented as a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The nodes of the DAG correspond to the storage required by the algorithm and the edges correspond to the flow of the execution. Our proposed technique provides expected run-times at varied levels of available storage for the DAG. Although our technique is generic, we show its efficacy by applying it on three designs from the ``Password Hashing Competition (PHC) - Argon2i (the PHC winner), Catena and Rig. Our analysis shows that Argon2i fails to maintain the claimed memory hardness. In a recent work Corrigan-Gibbs et al. indeed showed an attack highlighting the weak memory hardening of Argon2i. We also analyze these PHS for performance under various settings of time and memory complexities