Knowledge, attitude and practice of needle stick injury and post exposure prophylaxis in undergraduate medical students

Background: Needle stick injury are the most common reason behind occupational blood exposure and most important source of exposure to another person’s blood.Methods: A cross-sectional observational questionnaire-based study of 450 undergraduate medical students which includes 100 from each years, Second year: Part I (II/I: Third Semester), Second year: Part II (II/III: Fifth Semester), Third Year (III: Seventh Semester), Fourth year (IV: Ninth Semester) MBBS and 50 Interns. The participation was voluntary and written consent was taken prior to enrollment. The objectives of study were explained, and validated questionnaire was administered to the students and collected in a single visit after 30-40 minutes.Results: The average age was 21.91±2.03 years. About 406 students were aware of disease transmitted by NSI. 189 students felt that occurrence of NSI, first person to be contacted is Medicine Physician. 208 don’t know of existence of PEP. 164 felt PEP is to be given for 4 weeks. According to 138 students PEP guidelines were proposed by NACO while 101 students felt WHO. 261 students felt that most probable chance of getting NSI was in emergency ward. 363students felt that need for NSI PEP training before clinical exposure is very important. 345 felt the need for insurance of HCWs for diseases transmitted by NSI.Conclusions: Medical students are highly vulnerable to NSI and there is need to provide adequate preventive measures, frequent training for needle stick injury and postexposure prophylaxis to all healthcare workers

Hemocompatibility of Silicon-Based Substrates for Biomedical Implant Applications

Silicon membranes with highly uniform nanopore sizes fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology allow for the development of miniaturized implants such as those needed for renal replacement therapies. However, the blood compatibility of silicon has thus far been an unresolved issue in the use of these substrates in implantable biomedical devices. We report the results of hemocompatibility studies using bare silicon, polysilicon, and modified silicon substrates. The surface modifications tested have been shown to reduce protein and/or platelet adhesion, thus potentially improving biocompatibility of silicon. Hemocompatibility was evaluated under four categories—coagulation (thrombin–antithrombin complex, TAT generation), complement activation (complement protein, C3a production), platelet activation (P-selectin, CD62P expression), and platelet adhesion. Our tests revealed that all silicon substrates display low coagulation and complement activation, comparable to that of Teflon and stainless steel, two materials commonly used in medical implants, and significantly lower than that of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) cellulose, a polymer used in dialysis membranes. Unmodified silicon and polysilicon showed significant platelet attachment; however, the surface modifications on silicon reduced platelet adhesion and activation to levels comparable to that on Teflon. These results suggest that surface-modified silicon substrates are viable for the development of miniaturized renal replacement systems

Evaluation of aqueous geochemistry of fluoride enriched groundwater: A case study of the Patan district, Gujarat, Western India

High fluoride (F−) groundwater causes fluorosis which might at severe stages lead to deformation of bones, bilateral lameness. The concentration of F− ranged from 0.4 to 4.8 mg/L. This study suggests that high HCO3− and Na+ in alkaline medium along with water–rock interaction plays important role in enrichment of F− in groundwater. Na-HCO3 is the dominant water type followed by Ca-HCO3 suggesting dominance of Na+, Ca2+ and HCO3− ions in groundwater. Factor analysis of water quality parameters suggests that four principal components account for 74.66% of total variance in the dataset. Factor 1 shows higher positive loading for pH, HCO3− negative loading for F−, Ca2+, SO42− depicting ion-exchange and HCO3 dominant water type responsible for F enrichment in groundwater. Saturation index for selected minerals suggests that most of the samples are oversaturated with calcite and undersaturated with fluorite. Calcite precipitation leads to the removal of Ca2+ from solution thus allowing more fluorite to dissolve. These released Ca2+ ions combine with CO32− ions to further enhance the precipitation of CaCO3

Effectiveness of modified carnoys compared to carnoys solution in preventing recurrence of odontogenic keratocysts: An original research

Introduction: Carnoy’s solution (CS), has been barred for 7 years, without data to support its effectiveness. Hence in the present study we evaluate the effectiveness of modified carnoys (MC) compared to carnoys solution in preventing recurrence of odontogenic keratocysts. Material and Methods:  We conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing CS or for the recurrence and time to recurrence. The values obtained were compared. Results: we observed that in both the recurrence was similar, Median time to recurrence was 2 years. Preserving adjacent teeth was associated with a significant increase in recurrence. Conclusion: We observed no significant difference in recurrence rate or distribution of time to recurrence between OKCs treated with CS or MC

Blockchain for Future Wireless Networks: A Decade Survey

The emerging need for high data rate, low latency, and high network capacity encourages wireless networks (WNs) to build intelligent and dynamic services, such as intelligent transportation systems, smart homes, smart cities, industrial automation, etc. However, the WN is impeded by several security threats, such as data manipulation, denial-of-service, injection, man-in-the-middle, session hijacking attacks, etc., that deteriorate the security performance of the aforementioned WN-based intelligent services. Toward this goal, various security solutions, such as cryptography, artificial intelligence (AI), access control, authentication, etc., are proposed by the scientific community around the world; however, they do not have full potential in tackling the aforementioned security issues. Therefore, it necessitates a technology, i.e., a blockchain, that offers decentralization, immutability, transparency, and security to protect the WN from security threats. Motivated by these facts, this paper presents a WNs survey in the context of security and privacy issues with blockchain-based solutions. First, we analyzed the existing research works and highlighted security requirements, security issues in a different generation of WN (4G, 5G, and 6G), and a comparative analysis of existing security solutions. Then, we showcased the influence of blockchain technology and prepared an exhaustive taxonomy for blockchain-enabled security solutions in WN. Further, we also proposed a blockchain and a 6G-based WN architecture to highlight the importance of blockchain technology in WN. Moreover, the proposed architecture is evaluated against different performance metrics, such as scalability, packet loss ratio, and latency. Finally, we discuss various open issues and research challenges for blockchain-based WNs solutions