Library Cooperation in India: Present Status and Future Needs

The paper describes the present status of Library Cooperation in India and the plans of the government of India through the NISSAT Programme. On the basis of existing library services in the national and institutional libraries, and in consideration of future developments in technical education and research, an assessment is made of the need for various types of library cooperation in order to adequately meet future requirements. Drawing from the situation in advanced countries a plan is provided for establishing active library cooperation at both national and state levels

Comparative study of labetalol and nifedipine in management of non- severe preeclampsia and its fetomaternal outcome

Background: In developed countries, 16 percent of maternal deaths were attributed to hypertensive disorders. Of hypertensive disorders, the preeclampsia syndrome, either alone or superimposed on chronic hypertension, is the most dangerous. The incidence of preeclampsia in nulliparous populations ranged from 3 to 10 percent.Methods: The present study was conducted at Government Raja Mirasudhar Hospital, Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India from October 2017 to October 2018. The study consisted of 100 antenatal women with non-severe preeclampsia. The efficacy of labetalol verses nifedipine in its management was studied along with the fetomaternal outcome.Results: In this study, in the labetalol and in the nifedipine groups adequate control of blood pressure was achieved. However, labetalol was well tolerated by our women without much side effects.Conclusions: The present study indicates both labetalol and nifedipine are equally efficacious in the control of hypertension in non-severe preeclampsia. Pathology of the disease was not altered significantly in both the groups. There was no significant difference in the neonatal outcome between the two groups

HYBRID CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES FOR HEART MURMUR DETECTION TO ASSIST PHONOCARDIOGRAM BASED SIGNAL ACQUISITION

The main contribution of this paper has been to introduce nonlinear classification techniques to extract more information from the PCG signal. Especially, Artificial Neural Network classification techniques have been used to reconstruct the underlying system’s state space based on the measured PCG signal. This processing step provides a geometrical interpretation of the dynamics of the signal, whose structure can be utilized for both system characterization and classification as well as for signal processing tasks such as detection and prediction

IMPROVED PSO BASED DRIVER’S DROWSINESS DETECTION USING FUZZY CLASSIFIER

In this drowsiness detection framework two actions including brain and visual features are utilised to distinguish the various levels of drowsiness. These actions are provided by the EEG and EOG signal brain actions. From the EEG and EOG signals the peculiarities like mean, peak, pitch, maximum, minimum, standard deviation are assessed . In these peculiarities we decide on some best attributes - peak and pitch employing an IPSO strategy that picks up the best threshold esteem. These signals are then offered into the STFT which is employed to discover the signal length, producing a STFT network from the intermittent hamming window,the output of which are energy signals alpha and beta. These energy signals are offered into the MCT to get an alpha mean and a beta mean -the most chosen and outstanding attributes. These are then subjected to fuzzy based classification to give a precise result checking over the maximum values in the alpha and the beta series . &nbsp

Maternal and fetal outcome in epilepsy complicating pregnancy

INTRODUCTION: Epilepsy describes a condition in which a person has recurrent seizures due to chronic underlying process. Epilepsy refers to a clinical phenomenon rather than a single disease entity, since there are many forms and causes of epilepsy. Traditionally, the diagnosis of epilepsy requires the occurrence of at least two unprovoked seizures which are 24 hours apart. Some clinicians diagnose epilepsy when one unprovoked seizure occurs in the setting of an interictal discharge. Seizures are the manifestation of abnormal hypersynchronous discharges of cortical neurons. The signs and symptoms of seizures depend on the cortical location of the epileptic discharges and the propagation pattern of the epileptic discharge in the brain. The causes of epilepsy may primary or secondary. Epilepsy is usually managed by neurologists or general practitioners. Treatment is symptomatic and similar whether the epilepsy is primary or secondary with usage of antiepileptic drug. Epilepsy is not a contraindication to pregnancy. Women with epilepsy can be reassured that having epilepsy should not prevent them from having children. However close medical care is essential and a multidisciplinary approach is recommended. Pregnancies in women with epilepsy are high risk and need careful management by both the medical and obstetric teams due to the increased incidence of complications and adverse outcomes of pregnancy. By the time a pregnant woman with epilepsy presents, the fetus is virtually fully formed and the opportunity for altering drug treatment has passed (Crawford P., 2002). AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the effect of epilepsy on pregnancy regarding the maternal and fetal outcome. • To evaluate the effect of pregnancy on epilepsy regarding the frequency of seizure occurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective study on epilepsy complicating pregnancy was conducted in Government Rajaji hospital (GRH), Madurai from June 2010 to May 2011. Permission from Ethical Committee of the hospital was obtained for research purpose. All consecutive epileptic patients admitted in department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, were recruited for this study with fulfillment of following criteria. Inclusion criteria: 1. All pregnant women with history of epilepsy, 2. Both primigravida and multigravida, 3. Both booked and unbooked cases, 4. All type of seizure disorder (GTCS, Partial), 5. Patients on regular or irregular intake of AEDs, 6. Patients on Monotherapy or polytherapy of AEDs, 7. Patients not on AEDs as per neurologist advice, 8. Patients who discontinued AEDs by themselves. Exclusion criteria: 1. Eclamptic patients, 2. Postpartum seizure (including Eclampsia, CVT), 3. Cases of metabolic encephalopathy / drug toxicity, 4. Psychogenic causes. SUMMARY: 75 epileptic women with pregnancy were assessed for maternal and fetal outcome including outcome of seizure frequency. • Mean maternal age was 24.1 years. • 53.3% were primigravida and 46.7% were multigravida. • 77% had epilepsy for more than 10 years. • 98.7% of patients had generalized tonic clonic seizures and 1.3% had partial seizures. • 72 % of patients were on monotherapy and 6.7% of patients were on polytherapy. • 90.7% of patients on antiepileptic drugs had regular intake of folic acid. • 85.3% had term deliveries and 14.7% had preterm deliveries. • 66.7% had normal delivery and 28% underwent caesarean sections for various obstetric indication. •Low birth weight babies (< 2.5 kg) were seen in23.3% of patients. No cases of microcephaly were observed in our study and all babies had normal head circumference. • Incidence of congenital anomalies was almost nil, except for one fetus with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. • None of the patients had any significant obstetric complications. • Seizure frequency was increased in 21.3%. • There was a significant correlation between disease free interval and increase in seizure frequency. Shorter the disease interval higher the incidence of seizure frequency. 76.2 % of cases with disease free interval of less than one year had increased seizure frequency. CONCLUSION: The maternal and fetal outcome was good in our study among the pregnant women with epilepsy, except for few complications like prematurity and low birth weight which has slightly increased. The good maternal and fetal outcome with reduced occurrence of obstetric complications and reduced incidence of congenital anomalies in our study may be due to early booking, regular antenatal care, regular intake of anti epileptic drugs (preferentially monotherapy) and regular intake of folic acid along with antiepileptic drugs, which was found in most of our cases. There is increased frequency of seizures in one fifth of our pregnant epileptic women with statistically significant correlation between the disease free interval and frequency of seizures. Shorter the disease interval higher the incidence of seizure frequency. Increased seizure frequency should be anticipated in patients with shorter disease free interval and may be advised to have regular antiepileptic drug intake and more frequent antenatal visits. There exists no statistically significant correlation between the disease free interval and occurrence of obstetric complications. Pregnant patients with epilepsy has to be considered as high risk pregnancy which need evaluation, specialist opinion and referral to tertiary care centres for better maternal and neonatal outcome. The maternal and fetal complications can be minimized by the close coordination between neurologist, obstetrician and the pediatrician.

Mitochondrial genetic homogeneity of South American leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Tamil Nadu, India

The South American leafminer, Tuta absoluta is an exotic devastative pest on solanaceous vegetables, including tomatoes, which leads to a cent per cent economic loss in India. The molecular markers assist in assessing gene flow, migratory frequencies, and genetic variety, as well as helping to evaluate the genetic makeup and diversification of an exotic species population to indigenous ones. With this, the present study aimed to investigate the genetic divergence of T. absoluta  in different districts of Tamil Nadu, India. The study depicted the examination of genetic divergence of T. absoluta by aiding amplified region of mitochondrial DNA encoding cytochrome oxidase I (COI) from the T. absoluta samples gathered from Coimbatore, Dharmapuri and Dindigul districts of Tamil Nadu. The  findings showed that the phylogenetic tree constructed from all sequences of T. absoluta acquired from the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)  and BOLD (The Barcode of Life Data System) databases exhibited 99 percent identity and aggregated together into a single clade. . 5Hence, the present study revealed the great genetic uniformity in T. absoluta populations in India and corroborates that most of the globe rely on the partial COI gene, evidenced by minimal nucleotide diversity

Effect of antibiotic materials on rugose spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) oviposition

The rugose spiralling whitefly is an invasive sucking pest on horticultural crops found in India. Elimination of endomicrobial communities harboured in hosts through antibiotic treatments adversely affects the fitness parameters of rugose spiralling whitefly. Keeping this in view, the present study aimed to evaluate the ovicidal action of antibiotics against rugose spiralling whiteflies reared on four host plants. Antibiotics with varied modes of action were erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, carbenicillin and cefotaxime and were applied to coconut, banana, sapota and guava leaves for whitefly oviposition. Antibiotic treatment, carbenicillin 100 μg/mL + ciprofloxazin 5 μg/mL significantly (p&lt;0.05) reduced the oviposition and % egg hatchability of whiteflies reared in coconut (13 eggs/spiral and 61.54%), banana (15 eggs/spiral and 60.00%), sapota (15 eggs/spiral and 66.67%) and guava (16 eggs/spiral and 56.25%). The reduction in the number of eggs per spiral and hatchability percentage proved that antibiotic treatments significantly (P&lt;0.05) reduced rugose spiralling whitefly fecundity. Antibiotic material affects the fitness parameters of whitefly by disrupting the endomicrobial communities associated with whitefly. Antibacterial materials have a potential plant protection role in the management of whiteflies by reducing population growth

Fieldwork Practicum as Perceived by Social Work Students with Special Reference to Madurai

In the scholarly world Social Work is viewed as a practice-oriented discipline. Social work education comprises of a theoretical component taught in the classroom and field- based education involving integration of the academic aspect and practice. Fieldwork practicum is the hallmark of Social Work. Fieldwork, which is also known as field instruction6, field placement, field education, practicum or internship is therefore an integral component of social work education. The perception of students about Field Work program was studied by adopting a qualitative technique called Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with three groups of final year Social Work Postgraduate students at a particular college in Madurai, to find meaningful insights. An Explanatory Research Design was adopted for the study. Student’s perception on three broad areas such as (i) Training at Fieldwork agency, (ii) Faculty guidance and (iii) Practical application of theories were studied. Students perceived certain fieldwork agencies with wider scope to practice the methods of Social Work but there were also fieldwork agencies, where the scope for social work practices was low due to lack of Social work professionals. It was found that Fieldwork enables students to come in contact with needy people, their problems, their reactions to the problems and their attitude towards social workers and thus the students discovered their ability to help. Students perceived fieldwork as a supervised social work practice that provides opportunities for them to match theory and practice. Thus Fieldwork enabled Social work student trainees to develop their knowledge, skills through practical application. Keywords: Field Work, practical application, student perception, Social Wor

Meningioma in pregnancy: a rare case report

Central nervous system tumor in pregnancy is rare. We report a case of such a tumor diagnosed in the third trimester of pregnancy. Patient presented with signs of increased intracranial tension and MRI showed a meningioma. Caesarean section along with craniotomy and tumor excision done successfully in the same sitting. Mother and the baby recovered well