A Pilot Survey to Assess the Vitamin A Status of Children Aged 6-72 months in the Ramu Region of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea has been classified by the World Health Organisation as an area where clinical vitamin A deficiency (VAD) exists. This is at variance with the experience of the local physicians who do not encounter classical VAD in clinical practice. This pilot study was carried out to resolve this contradiction, since many suggestions have been made to fortify foods with Vitamin A. If done in the absence of concrete data to back up this classification, it could take the focus away from the real problem as well as potentially create problems of Vitamin A toxicity. Therefore, answers from this study could have far reaching implications in a country such as PNG, which has high childhood mortality and limited financial and manpower resources. The objective of this study was to determine the vitamin A status and identify risk factors of VAD in children aged 6 months to 6 years in a rural area of Papua New Guinea. The survey was carried out in the Ramu region of Madang province. Households and children were randomly selected and standard questionnaires were used to collect information about diet, previous illnesses and night blindness. The weight and height of all children was recorded and an ocular and physical examination carried out by trained personnel. In addition, haemoglobin estimation and examination of blood films for malaria parasites was carried out in all the children. In a randomly selected number of children, estimations of serum retinol and other micronutrient levels were carried out. Results: A total of 609 children were enrolled in the study. Biochemical parameters were studied in 106 of them .The mean age of the children was 35 months. Possible night blindness was reported in 4 children. No xerophthalmia was seen. The prevalence of serum retinol levels ( 0.7 (mol/L (WHO suggested cut off values for subclinical VAD) was 10.3%. Anthropometric indicators indicated a high proportion of the children had stunting and wasting or both. Analysis of dietary patterns, maternal literacy, food availability and other surrogate indicators indicated that the population is at mild-moderate risk of developing VAD. In conclusion, no evidence of clinical vitamin A deficiency was found. Subclinical vitamin A deficiency seemed to occur in this population at a level of mild-moderate public health importance. Further studies need to be carried out to assess the situation in different areas in PNG before policy decisions can be made with regards to mass vitamin A supplementation

Intensity preserving cast removal in color images using particle swarm optimization

In this paper, we present an optimal image enhancement technique for color cast images by preserving their intensity. There are methods which improves the appearance of the affected images under different cast like red, green, blue etc but up to some extent. The proposed color cast method is corrected by using transformation function based on gamma values. These optimal values of gamma are obtained through particle swarm optimization (PSO). This technique preserves the image intensity and maintains the originality of color by satisfying the modified gray world assumptions. For the performance analysis, the image distance metric criteria of CIELAB color space is used. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated by testing the proposed method on color cast images. It has been found that distance between the reference image and the corrected proposed image is negligible. The calculated value of image distance depicts that the enhanced image results of the proposed algorithm are closer to the reference images in comparison with other existing methods

A comparative evaluation of I-gel and laryngeal mask airway supreme in laparoscopic surgeries: a randomized comparative study

Background: Supraglottic airway device results in less hemodynamic responses during laparoscopic surgery but supraglottic airway device to be used should have higher oropharyngeal seal pressure than peak pressure for effective ventilation as laparoscopic surgery also leads to higher airway pressure. In this study the efficiency of the I-gel with SLMA is compared in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgeries.Methods: Sixty patients were randomized in to two groups, group A where I-gel was considered for airway management and group B where LMA Supreme was the device chosen for airway management.Results: Oropharyngeal seal pressure was significantly lower in group A than group B, 5 minutes after insertion of airway device it was 24.90±3.03 cm H2O and 27.30±3.41 cm H2O in group A and group B, respectively and 5 minutes after creation of pneumoperitoneum it was 25.53±3.17 cm H2O and 27.57±3.36 cm H2O in group A and group B, respectively. There was significant difference in the difference between inspiratory and expiratory tidal volume between the groups at all the time periods being higher in group A than group B. Hemodynamics were comparable between the two groups. Time taken to insert the airway device and Ryle’s tube insertion was significantly lesser in group B in comparison to group A. The percentage of complications was higher in group A than group B with no significant (p>0.05) association.Conclusions: Both the I-gel and SLMA devices can be used safely in laparoscopic cholecystectomy in non-obese patients. But in SLMA group oropharyngeal seal pressure was higher with lesser leak volume in comparison to I-gel group

Advances and trends in analytical techniques in natural product research: Challenges and future perspective

Advances in analytical methods and bioassay development have helped to push forward the research in natural products. Their high chemical diversity and the effects of evolutionary pressure to create biologically active molecules could be attributed to success in drug discovery. Despite the availability of modern analytical instrumentation techniques, metabolic profiling covers the identification of a selected group of metabolites. The phytochemical analysis is commonly performed using standard techniques such as thin-layer chromatography, high-performance thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and more recently mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry. Two-dimensional J-resolved Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra and multivariate data analysis techniques were applied to avoid low resolution and overlapping signals hampering the identification of the individual components of botanicals. On-targeted metabolomic analysis via the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS) was utilised to localise compounds belonging to various chemical classes (i.e. oxygenated fatty acids, flavonols, phenolic acids, and sinapoyl choline derivatives). Rotation planar chromatography over-pressured layer chromatography and electro planar chromatography are the other innovations. Parallel and serially coupled layers open up new avenues for the analysis of a large number of samples for high-throughput screening and very complex matrices in a natural product. Analytical strategies with applications to natural extracts and novel methods that have strong potential, regardless of how often they are used are discussed with respect to their potential applications challenges and future trends

Deepfake technology and the future of public trust in video

Will deepfake technology break public trust in video? Deepfakes—highly realistic digital images created using deep learning technology—have raised concerns among scholars, policymakers, public interest groups, and journalists. Scholars and media pundits alike have rushed to call deepfake technology an ‘epistemic threat’ and have rekindled concerns about the beginning of a ‘post-truth’ era. However, at present there are only a handful of data-driven investigations of the potential of this technology to reshape society’s relationship with visual media. In this dissertation, I identify the centrality of video in the contemporary information ecology and then present findings from a study that investigated how people conceptualize trust in video, how they justify their trust in videos they consume, and how they perceive deepfake technology’s effect on their relationship with video as a medium. To understand people’s perceptions of deepfake technology, I proposed three research questions: RQ1, how will deepfake technology impact people’s trust in video?; RQ2, what are people’s perspectives on the societal implications of deepfake technology?; and RQ3, what are people’s perspectives on how society should respond to deepfake technology? To obtain answers to these questions, I conducted a qualitative study in which I interviewed 33 individuals from two key societal stakeholder groups—21 members of the general population and 12 visual journalists. Using reflexive thematic analysis of the interview data, I report several themes that summarize people’s perspectives on trust in video, the impact of deepfake technology, and how society ought to respond to the anticipated impacts of the technology. I conclude this dissertation by juxtaposing the findings from the analysis of the interview data with existing literature on trust and the anticipated impact of deepfake technology. I then describe the theoretical implications in relation to the literature, the implications of the research for practice, and some recommendations for future research. This dissertation enriches our understanding of the problem space of anticipating the ramifications of deepfake technology for a culture that privileges visual information.Informatio