DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FIELD OF AYURVEDA - PAST TO PRESENT

In the present era of competition and globalization, every branch of science is trying to retain its identity in the globe by reorientation and developing itself according to the needs by conducting various kinds of research. The present practice of Ayurveda emphasizes on traditional way. The Globalization, Patent, Intellectual Property Rights issues and Bio-piracy are becoming major challenges in the indigenous traditional medical systems like Ayurveda. In order to promote as a global medicine and equip Ayurveda to meet the global healthcare needs of the 21st century, there is an urgent need to modernize the ancient system in pace with the development of science and information technology. So considering all these facts, Ayurveda is needed to restructure in the global context to meet the rising demands of a cyber society with the application of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) technology. This review article highlights how the advancements have been taken in different fields of Ayurveda over the decades till the current scenario

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PERSONALITY WITH AYURVEDIC PRAKRITI

Study of personality is one of the most fascinating sciences that attracted many researchers world wide. Personality is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. The study of personality in modern psychology dates back to ancient Greek, when Plato, Aristotle and Hippocrates suggested their theories on personality. Through the centuries, their theories have evolved, changed and have continued to be the base and foundation of modern psychology. As centuries progressed, many philosophers, psychologist and physicians have expanded this field. Personality theories such as type, trait, humanistic, behaviorist, psychoanalytic, cognitive and psychobiologist theories have emerged from ancient times and continue to be present in modern times. Ayurvedic system of medicine is one of the ancient systems of medicine, which recognizes the individuality of an individual by means of Prakriti. Prakriti can be correlated as psycho-somatic constitution, Because Ayurveda believes that human organism behaves in a wholesome and complex manner and physical and mental factors of personality cannot be isolated. Ayurveda gives eloberated description about prakriti in terms of predominance of body humor, nature of sperm and ovum, season and condition of the uterus, food and regimen of mother, composition of Pancamahabhuta and how it getsinfluenced by race/religion, caste/family, habitat, nature of the season, age or stages of life and basic instincts. This way Ayurveda provides a comprehensive, multiphasic and multidimensional theory of personality, which gives a complete picture of an individual. This paper aims to study ayurvedic perspective of personality

Influence of Altitude on Pulmonary Function

Variation in lung function at high altitude (HA) impacts the working capacity of individuals and may predispose body towards hypoxia induced illness. So, we investigated the changes in pulmonary function of healthy human male volunteers belonging to two different ethnicities i.e. Indian and Kyrgyz. Twenty, age and BMI matched, volunteers (Indian=10 and Kyrgyz=10) were recruited for the study. Measurement for pulmonary functions (FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC ratio, PEF, FEF 25-75%, MEF 25%, MEF 50%, MEF 75%, MVV) were performed on each individual at basal (800 m) and high altitude (4,111 m) on day 3,7,14 and 21. Results indicate that Kyrgyz has comparatively higher FVC, FEV1, PEF and MVV values and lower FEV1/FVC ratio upon altitude induction than those of Indian counterparts. Mid expiratory flow FEF25-75% was significantly increased in Kyrgyz upon altitude induction indicate more proficient lung emptying while only moderate increase at day 7 in Indian. MEF25% was significantly increased in Kyrgyz, while no change is observed in Indians at high altitude which indicates that 75% of lung emptying through small airways is better in Kyrgyz. MEF 50% and MEF 75% increased with altitude in both groups. For MVV, the maximum increase was ~17% in Indian at HA14 (p<0.01) and in Kyrgyz ~33% (p<0.001) at HA14 as compared to basal. Difference in lung function response observed, indicates that Kyrgyz has better pulmonary dynamics during altitude exposure as compared to Indian counterparts. The varied result observed may be due to different ethnic origin of the groups

Evaluation of Physiological Parameters in Response to Endurance Exercise of Zanskar Ponies Adapted to High Altitude of Ladakh Region

Zanskar pony, a native horse breed of Ladakh mainly used for transportation in Trans-Himalayan region of India, is well adapted to high altitude hypobaric hypoxia environment. Due to extreme conditions of the Ladakh region, better endurance of these ponies under hypoxic and extreme cold conditions is of utmost concern for their recruitment in Indian Army. In the present study, 12 young trained Zanskar ponies were evaluated during endurance exercise at an altitude of 3292 meter above mean sea level. The animals were subjected to carriage transport with 65-70Kg load or riding on a track of 5-6 Km. Physiological parameters viz., pulse rate (PR), heart rate (HR), rectal temperature (RT), respiratory rate (RR) and oxygen saturation (SaO2) were recorded in Zanskar ponies during pre-exercise (T0), post- exercise (T1) and post recovery (T2, 2 hours post resting) stages. Results showed marked increase in PR, HR, RR and RT post exercise time points. The mean values of PR increased from 49.83±4.62 to 73.67±21.54 per minute, HR from 48±13.60 to 75±15.82 beats/min, RR from 37.83±9.70 to 57.67±13.48 per min and RT from 99.62±0.34 101.04±0.53 °F from pre stress to post endurance stress. The mean SaO2 level reduced significantly (88.58±6.75 at T0 versus 64.00±18.70 at T1 and 54.42±14.79 at T2) post exercise. This indicated limited availability of arterial oxygen for tissues which could be vital factor for adverse change in some of physio-biochemical parameters. Though the trend of physiological response was similar for all the 12 animals, still variation at individual animal level was observed during endurance stress. In future, some of these physiological parameters along with biochemical and molecular parameters could be evaluated as potential biomarkers in selecting ponies with superior endurance trait specifically under hypoxic conditions

Sequence Characterisation and Genotyping of Allelic Variants of Beta Casein Gene Establishes Native Cattle of Ladakh to be a Natural Resource for A2 Milk

Bovine milk is regarded as nature's perfect food due to presence of vital nutrients. However some peptides are generated after proteolytic digestion of β-casein that have opioid properties and may increase the risk of chronic diseases. There are 13 genetic variants of bovine beta-casein; out of these A1 and A2 are the most common in dairy cattle breeds. The A1 and A2 variants differ only at position 67, which is histidine in A1 or proline in A2 milk. Earlier published reports have indicated that A1 β casein could be responsible for several health disorders like diabetes, coronary heart disease etc. while A2 β-casein is generally considered safe for human consumption. In the present study, an effort was made to sequence characterize β casein gene and identify allelic distribution of A1A2 alleles in native cattle of Ladakh region adapted to high altitude and low oxygen condition. The data showed 2 non-synonymous variations in coding region, while 5’UTR was completely conserved. The 3’UTR showed 2 more variations in Ladakhi samples. Further, the genotyping in 85 Ladakhi cattle for A1A2 alleles revealed that in Ladakhi cattle, A2 allele is predominantly present as reported for some of the other Indian breeds. The frequency of A2 allele was 0.90 and frequency of A2A2 genotype was found to be 0.79 in Ladakhi cattle. The present data strongly indicate that local cattle of Ladakh with higher frequency of A2 allele and A2A2 genotype is natural resource for A2 milk.  Systematic efforts should be made for long term conservation and genetic improvement of this invaluable genetic resource of Ladakh

An environmentally benign antimicrobial nanoparticle based on a silver-infused lignin core

Silver nanoparticles have antibacterial properties, but their use has been a cause for concern because they persist in the environment. Here, we show that lignin nanoparticles infused with silver ions and coated with a cationic polyelectrolyte layer form a biodegradable and green alternative to silver nanoparticles. The polyelectrolyte layer promotes the adhesion of the particles to bacterial cell membranes and, together with silver ions, can kill a broad spectrum of bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and quaternary-amine-resistant Ralstonia sp. Ion depletion studies have shown that the bioactivity of these nanoparticles is time-limited because of the desorption of silver ions. High-throughput bioactivity screening did not reveal increased toxicity of the particles when compared to an equivalent mass of metallic silver nanoparticles or silver nitrate solution. Our results demonstrate that the application of green chemistry principles may allow the synthesis of nanoparticles with biodegradable cores that have higher antimicrobial activity and smaller environmental impact than metallic silver nanoparticles

Dynamic temporary blood facility location-allocation during and post-disaster periods

The key objective of this study is to develop a tool (hybridization or integration of different techniques) for locating the temporary blood banks during and post-disaster conditions that could serve the hospitals with minimum response time. We have used temporary blood centers, which must be located in such a way that it is able to serve the demand of hospitals in nearby region within a shorter duration. We are locating the temporary blood centres for which we are minimizing the maximum distance with hospitals. We have used Tabu search heuristic method to calculate the optimal number of temporary blood centres considering cost components. In addition, we employ Bayesian belief network to prioritize the factors for locating the temporary blood facilities. Workability of our model and methodology is illustrated using a case study including blood centres and hospitals surrounding Jamshedpur city. Our results shows that at-least 6 temporary blood facilities are required to satisfy the demand of blood during and post-disaster periods in Jamshedpur. The results also show that that past disaster conditions, response time and convenience for access are the most important factors for locating the temporary blood facilities during and post-disaster periods

Numerical investigation of MHD stagnation-point flow and heat transfer of sodium alginate non-Newtonian nanofluid

A rigorous analysis of unsteady magnetohydrodynamic mixed convection and electrically conducting nanofluid model with a stretching/shrinking wedge is presented. First, the governing partial differential equations for momentum and energy conservation are converted to coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations by means of exact similarity transformation. The homotopy analysis method (HAM) is employed to obtain the analytical approximations for flow velocity and temperature distributions of alumina-sodium alginate naofluid. The solution is found to be dependent on some parameters including the nanoparticle volume fraction, unsteadiness parameter, magnetic parameter, mixed convection parameter and the generalized prandtl number. A systematic study is carried out to illustrate the effects of these parameters on the velocity and temperature distributions. Also, the value of skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are compared with copper-sodium alginate and titania-sodium alginate nanofluids