Nephroprotective effect of turmeric on oxidative stress, renal histopathology and toxicity induced by gentamicin

Background: Commonly used aminoglycosides have frequent side effect of nephrotoxicity, still are preferred by clinicians because of efficacy against gram negative bacteria, resistant bacteria, nosocomial infections and cost effectiveness. Gentamicin produces oxidative stress; substances ameliorating stress are used to reduce toxicity. Turmeric has multiple medicinal properties including potent antioxidant activity, hence study was undertaken.Methods: Eight groups containing six animals in each group, treated for 15 days. First group treated with normal saline. Second, fourth and sixth group treated with only gentamicin- sacrificed at 16, 22, 29th day. Third, fifth and seventh group treated with gentamicin and turmeric simultaneously and sacrificed on 16, 22, 29th day. Eighth group was pre-treated with turmeric for thirty days and concurrently treated with gentamicin and turmeric for 15 days and sacrificed on 16th day. Levels of blood urea, serum creatinine, superoxide dismutase and histopathological grades were assessed each time.Results: Severe renal dysfunction (146 ± 9.2, 2.03 ± 0.26), highest renal injury grading (3.66 ± 0.24) was observed in only gentamicin treated groups followed by spontaneous recovery after withdrawal of drug but with higher levels of oxidative stress (0.04 ± 0.01). Gentamicin and Turmeric treated groups maintained renal function and had lower level of renal damage grades and oxidative stress. Turmeric pre-treated group was having lowest oxidative stress (0.12 ± 0.03), histopathology grade (0.60 ± 0.06) with normal renal functions.Conclusions: Turmeric has potent antioxidant property which effectively protects kidney from damage induced because of gentamicin

Social Media Aggregator Using a focused Crawler and a Web & Android UI

Today we live in a digital age, with almost each and every one of us having at least one social media account. With things as trivial as what one had for breakfast to the happenings of the world, everything is discussed about on these social media accounts. This paper intends to suggest using this social media as a policing solution, as in contrast to other traditional media such as television and print media, social media offers velocity, veracity, variety, real-time and a large volume of information. A focused web crawler is used to crawl the internet and to stick to the relevant and required topics only. This crawler is integrated with a database to store the information and the information is projected on an android application as well as a web application for the user’s perusal

A Software Development Lifecycle Case Study on: Diet Recommendation System based on User Activities

This paper focuses on the methods of software engineering which can be helpful to various people working on huge projects with teams. This paper considers diet application as a case study. The main aim of the proposed system (diet application) is to give its users a healthy and balanced diet. The application is made in Flutter to ensure it reaches most of the audience and maximum people can receive its benefits. This paper is mostly based on the process used to create the application and all the views, processes, and architecture of the same. Some of the methods which are mentioned in the paper are the implementation of product backlog for the proposed system in association with a planning poker activity. The paper also has various Unified Modelling Language (UML) views in order to explain the design, implementation, use case and deployment of the proposed system

Assessment of oral hygiene habits, oral hygiene practices and tooth wear among fertilizer factory workers of Northern India: a Cross sectional study

Background: The association between oral hygiene habits & practices and severity of tooth wear lesion varies from community to community and also from occupation to occupation. The present study was conducted with to assess oral hygiene habits & practices and tooth wear among fertilizer factory workers of Punjab, India. Material and Methods: A descriptive cross sectional survey was conducted among 965 male workers who were aged between 19–58 years, who were the workers of fertilizers factory of Bathinda, India. An interview on the demographic profile, oral hygiene practices, and adverse habits followed a clinical examination for recording the Tooth Wear (Smith and Knight Index 1984) using Type III examination. The Chi–square test and a Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis were used for the statistical analysis. Confidence interval and p-value set at 95% and ≤ 0.05 respectively. Results: In the present study majority (47.2%) of the study population used chew sticks for cleaning their teeth. Overall prevalence of adverse habits was reported (92.4%). Study population showed higher prevalence of tooth wear (77.1%). Best predictors identified for Tooth Wear were oral hygiene practices, adverse habits, years of work experience and age respectively. Conclusions: Considerable percentages of fertilizer factory workers have demonstrated a higher prevalence of tooth surface loss. This may be useful in designing the investigations that aim to further explore the causes for these findings and more importantly to plan oral health promotion program implementing both preventive and curative strategies

Archaeoparasitological Strategy Based on the Microscopic Examinations of Prehistoric Samples and the Recent Report on the Difference in the Prevalence of Soil Transmitted Helminthic Infections in the Indian Subcontinent

Archaeoparasitology is a study to acquire data concerning the parasite infection of ancient people through the examination of the specimens obtained in the excavation sites. Although this research has achieved many successes worldwide, there has been few noteworthy reports from South Asia countries. In 2011 to 2016, we thus conducted parasite examinations on Indian archaeological specimens (n = 247) collected at excavation sites of Mature Harappan period (4600–3900 BP) and their contemporary rural Chalcolithic sites. To derive effective strategy of archaeoparasitological works in Indian Subcontinent, our data were analyzed together with previous clinical report on the soil transmitted helminth infection in the Indian Subcontinent. We propose that future paleoparasitological studies in India should be conducted more intensely on ancient specimens from the states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal etc

A Comparison of Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of Fatal Human Infections with H5N1 and Human Influenza Viruses in Thailand, 2004–2006

BACKGROUND: The National Avian Influenza Surveillance (NAIS) system detected human H5N1 cases in Thailand from 2004-2006. Using NAIS data, we identified risk factors for death among H5N1 cases and described differences between H5N1 and human (seasonal) influenza cases. METHODS AND FINDINGS: NAIS identified 11,641 suspect H5N1 cases (e.g. persons with fever and respiratory symptoms or pneumonia, and exposure to sick or dead poultry). All suspect H5N1 cases were tested with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for influenza A(H5N1) and human influenza viruses. NAIS detected 25 H5N1 and 2074 human influenza cases; 17 (68%) and 22 (1%) were fatal, respectively. We collected detailed information from medical records on all H5N1 cases, all fatal human influenza cases, and a sampled subset of 230 hospitalized non-fatal human influenza cases drawn from provinces with ≥1 H5N1 case or human influenza fatality. Fatal versus non-fatal H5N1 cases were more likely to present with low white blood cell (p = 0.05), lymphocyte (p<0.02), and platelet counts (p<0.01); have elevated liver enzymes (p = 0.05); and progress to circulatory (p<0.001) and respiratory failure (p<0.001). There were no differences in age, medical conditions, or antiviral treatment between fatal and non-fatal H5N1 cases. Compared to a sample of human influenza cases, all H5N1 cases had direct exposure to sick or dead birds (60% vs. 100%, p<0.05). Fatal H5N1 and fatal human influenza cases were similar clinically except that fatal H5N1 cases more commonly: had fever (p<0.001), vomiting (p<0.01), low white blood cell counts (p<0.01), received oseltamivir (71% vs. 23%, p<.001), but less often had ≥1 chronic medical conditions (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of diagnostic testing during an influenza A(H5N1) epizootic, a few epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory findings might provide clues to help target H5N1 control efforts. Severe human influenza and H5N1 cases were clinically similar, and both would benefit from early antiviral treatment

Qualification study of SiPMs on a large scale for the CMVD Experiment

A Cosmic Muon Veto (CMV) detector using extruded plastic scintillators is being designed around the mini-Iron Calorimeter (mini-ICAL) detector at the transit campus of the India based Neutrino Observatory, Madurai for the feasibility study of shallow depth underground experiments. The scintillation signals that are produced in the plastic due to muon trajectories are absorbed by wavelength shifting (WLS) fibres. The WLS fibres re-emit photons of longer wavelengths and propagate those to silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs). The SiPMs detect these photons, producing electronic signals. The CMV detector will use more than 700 scintillators to cover the mini-ICAL detector and will require around 3000 SiPMs. The design goal for the cosmic muon veto efficiency of the CMV is >99.99%. Hence, every SiPM used in the detector needs to be tested and characterised to satisfy the design goal of CMV. A mass testing system was developed for the measurement of gain and choice of the overvoltage ($V_{ov}$) of each SiPMs using an LED driver. The $V_{ov}$ is obtained by studying the noise rate, the gain of the SiPM. This paper describes the experimental setup used to test the SiPMs characteristics along with detailed studies of those characteristics as a function of temperature.Comment: 16 pages, 20 figure

Efficacy of NVX-CoV2373 Covid-19 Vaccine against the B.1.351 Variant.

BACKGROUND: The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants threatens progress toward control of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. In a phase 1-2 trial involving healthy adults, the NVX-CoV2373 nanoparticle vaccine had an acceptable safety profile and was associated with strong neutralizing-antibody and antigen-specific polyfunctional CD4+ T-cell responses. Evaluation of vaccine efficacy was needed in a setting of ongoing SARS-CoV-2 transmission. METHODS: In this phase 2a-b trial in South Africa, we randomly assigned human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative adults between the ages of 18 and 84 years or medically stable HIV-positive participants between the ages of 18 and 64 years in a 1:1 ratio to receive two doses of either the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine (5 μg of recombinant spike protein with 50 μg of Matrix-M1 adjuvant) or placebo. The primary end points were safety and vaccine efficacy against laboratory-confirmed symptomatic Covid-19 at 7 days or more after the second dose among participants without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. RESULTS: Of 6324 participants who underwent screening, 4387 received at least one injection of vaccine or placebo. Approximately 30% of the participants were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 at baseline. Among 2684 baseline seronegative participants (94% HIV-negative and 6% HIV-positive), predominantly mild-to-moderate Covid-19 developed in 15 participants in the vaccine group and in 29 in the placebo group (vaccine efficacy, 49.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.1 to 72.8). Vaccine efficacy among HIV-negative participants was 60.1% (95% CI, 19.9 to 80.1). Of 41 sequenced isolates, 38 (92.7%) were the B.1.351 variant. Post hoc vaccine efficacy against B.1.351 was 51.0% (95% CI, -0.6 to 76.2) among the HIV-negative participants. Preliminary local and systemic reactogenicity events were more common in the vaccine group; serious adverse events were rare in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The NVX-CoV2373 vaccine was efficacious in preventing Covid-19, with higher vaccine efficacy observed among HIV-negative participants. Most infections were caused by the B.1.351 variant. (Funded by Novavax and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04533399.)