A RANDOMIZED CONTROL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE ROLE OF HERBAL IMMUNOMODULATORS IN BOOSTING THE IMMUNITY AND OVERALL HEALTH OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN COVID-19 WARDS: AN EXPLORATORY, FEEDBACK CLINICAL STUDY

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the role of the herbal immunomodulators Immusante and Guduchi in boosting the immunity and overall health of healthcare workers assigned to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) wards. Methods: An open-label, randomized, prospective, and single center clinical study was conducted among 100 healthcare workers assigned to COVID-19 wards. Eligible subjects (50 in each arm) were randomly assigned to either arm I (Immusante+Guduchi tablets) or arm II (treatment as per the institutional policy). Assessments after 30 days of treatment included respiratory symptoms, Adapted Immune Status Questionnaire (ISQ), improvement in quality of life (Short form 12 [SF-12] Health Survey), and safety and tolerability. Results: All 100 subjects completed the study as per the protocol. There were no respiratory symptoms in the subjects in arm 1. However, four subjects (8%) in arm II reported cough during the study period. A better Immune status improvement was seen through the adapted ISQ in arm I as compared to arm II. In each of the 8 SF-12 Health Survey domains, a statistically significant difference was observed in arm I compared to arm II. A retrospective assessment of COVID-19 infection showed only 8% of subjects as COVID-19 positive in arm I compared with 26% of subjects in arm II. Conclusion: Considering the positive trend observed in this study in terms of ISQ, SF-12, and COVID-19 infection rates, the combination of Immusante and Guduchi in healthcare workers at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 infection had a beneficial effect in boosting immunity and overall health

Real Time Static and Dynamic Sign Language Recognition using Deep Learning

Sign language recognition systems are used for enabling communication between deaf-mute people and normal user. Spatial localization of the hands could be a challenging task when hands-only occupies 10% of the entire image. This is overcome by designing a real-time efficient system that is capable of performing the task of extraction, recognition, and classification within a single network with the use of a deep convolution network. The recognition is performed for static image dataset with a simple and complex background, dynamic video dataset. Static image dataset is trained and tested using a 2D deep-convolution neural network whereas dynamic video dataset is trained and tested using a 3D deep-convolution neural network. Spatial augmentation is done to increase the number of images of static dataset and key-frame extraction to extract the key-frames from the videos for dynamic dataset. To improve the system performance and accuracy Batch-Normalization layer is added to the convolution network. The accuracy is nearly 99% for dataset with a simple background, 92% for dataset with complex background, and 84% for the video dataset. By obtaining a good accuracy, the system is proved to be real-time efficient in recognizing and interpreting the sign language gestures

Graphene and Graphyne based three dimensional porous architectures

The main objective of the thesis is to introduce porous structure into graphene/graphene oxide materials and study their effects on various physics/chemistry related applications. Introduction of porosity may be achieved in the already formed graphene oxide network or synthesize porous network that resembles graphene. Both are attempted in the present thesis and hence, the thesis consists of two distinct aspects including preparation and studies of (1) 3D porous architectures of graphene with extrinsic porosity and (2) graphyne networks (poly(tri-ethynylbenzene)) possesing intrinsic porosity. Benefits of porosity of these systems are explored for physics related (gas sensing, electrostatic capacitors, band gap engineering) and chemistry related (oxygen reduction reaction, photoelectrochemical water splitting, dye removal, supercapacitors, batteries) studies. Efforts towards tuning the electronic properties of 2D graphene are also undertake

“A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF ALCAFTADINE 0.25% VERSUS OLOPATADINE HYDROCHLORIDE 0.2% IN ALLERGIC CONJUNCTIVITIS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL”

Background: Ocular itching is the hallmark symptom of allergic conjunctivitis, accompanied by tearing, conjunctival redness, eyelid swelling and chemosis. Alcaftadine and Olopatadine hydrochloride are classied as dual-acting antiallergic agents, used in treatment of Allergic conjunctivitis. Objective: To compare efcacy and safety of Alcaftadine 0.25% and Olopatadine hydrochloride 0.2% eye drops among patients with allergic conjunctivitis. Ophthalmology out-patient department at Minto Ophthalmic Hospit Settings and Design: al, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru; prospective, randomized, comparative study. This study Methods and Material: was conducted among 120 patients suffering from grade 3 Allergic Conjunctivitis and efcacy measured in terms of proportion of patients achieving symptomatic relief of allergic ocular signs and symptoms from grade 3 to grade 0 from baseline to 2 weeks, using TOSS score (Total Ocular Symptoms Score) and Conjunctival Hyperaemia scale. Safety assessed by monitoring treatment-emergent adverse effects. Continuous data assessed by unpaired, paired 't' test and repeated measures-ANOVA and categorical data by chi-square test. p-value &lt; 0.05 was considered as statistically signicant, whereas &lt; 0.001 as highly signicant. Greater proportion of patients achieved symptomatic reli Results: ef in Alcaftadine group (98.3%) compared to Olopatadine hydrochloride group (90%) at end of 2 weeks. A signicant and faster reduction in TOSS score was observed from baseline to 2 weeks in Alcaftadine treated group compared to Olopatadine hydrochloride group (p&lt;0.05). Adverse events reported were headache, burning sensation and mild redness in both groups Alcaftadine 0.25% demonstrated greater efcacy in reduci . Conclusion: ng ocular signs and symptoms of Allergic conjunctivitis from baseline to 2 weeks, compared to Olopatadine hydrochloride 0.2% with minimal side-effects.</jats:p

Tailored nitrogen dioxide sensing response of three-dimensional graphene foam

Ultralight and macroporous three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (rGO) foams are prepared by lyophilization (freeze-drying) technique to avoid a conventional template method. This method allows tailoring the porosity of the foams by varying the weight percentages of graphene oxide dispersions in water. Three different rGO foams of 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 wt% are used for NO2 sensing. Sensing response from the tailored structure of rGO is found to be directly related to the density. A maximum of 20% sensing response is observed for a higher porosity of the structure, better than the known results so far on graphene foams in the literature. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Understanding the role of galectin inhibitors as potential candidates for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein: <i>in silico</i> studies

Galectin 3 have the potential to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. We validated the studies by docking, MD and MM/GBSA calculations.</p

Analysis and design of high gain DC-DC converter for renewable energy applications

ABSTRACTThe paper proposes an efficient DC-DC converter for renewable energy applications. The proposed high-gain converter is designed with switched inductor cell and voltage multiplier cell. In the proposed converter, the continuous source current is obtained by switched inductor cells, and high-voltage gain is achieved using voltage multiplier cells. The proposed converter provides a voltage gain of 10 when operated with a duty ratio of 27.3%, whereas a voltage gain of 39 is obtained for an 80% duty ratio. The efficiency of 96.54% is achieved in simulation for the rated condition of 24 V/240 V, 120W. The converter operation under steady-state, state-space modelling, and voltage and current stress of the power semiconductor components are analyzed. In addition to that, loss distribution and efficiency analysis are made. The performance of the converter is analyzed using the Matlab Simulink tool. Also, the experimental hardware prototype model is developed to validate the simulated and theoretical analysis