Institutionalizing community led action for sanitary survey

Bacteriological contamination in drinking water is the major source for child mortality. Developing countries are facing problem of cholera, dysentery, diahorrea, typhoid and jaundice. Therefore prevention of bacteriological contamination is necessary for sustainability. In Uttar Pradesh, there are large number of people suffer from water related diseases as they draw unsafe water from private shallow hand pumps and dug wells, which is a major cause of avoidable morbidity and mortality. The only viable option today is developing a process of water quality surveillance, through which people can develop the necessary knowledge and skills to monitor the quality of water they consume, undertake corrective measures and sustain the same on their own. Under National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme, Mr. V.K. Mishra and Mr. Arvind Kr. Singh has developed the Community Led Action for Sanitary Survey (CLASS) is an IEC tool to facilitate community to undertake sanitary survey, water quality bacteriological testing and analysis of all drinking water sources in the village and develop collecting action for remedial measures

ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTIDYSLIPIDEMIC POTENTIAL OF IPOMOEA BATATAS LEAVES IN VALIDATED DIABETIC ANIMAL MODELS

Objective: The present study was undertaken to investigate the antidiabetic potential of the leaves of Ipomoea batatas.Methods: The crude powder, 95% ethanolic, 50% ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Ipomoea batatas leaves were administered to normoglycemic and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats in a single dose study. The chloroform, butanol and aqueous fractions of aqueous extract were investigated for their antihyperglycemic on STZ-induced diabetic rats. Multiple dose study of an aqueous fraction was also done in STZ and neonatal STZ-induced diabetic rats. Further, the aqueous fraction was measured against the alpha glucosidase and aldose reductase enzymes, and glucose uptake in L6 myotubes.Results: The aqueous extract showed significant lowering of postprandial hyperglycemia of post sucrose loaded normal rats and significantly declined the blood glucose level of STZ-induced diabetic rats. The aqueous fraction at a single dose of 100 mg/kg b. w in comparison with chloroform and butanol fractions significantly lowered the blood glucose level of STZ-induced diabetic rats. The aqueous fraction in a multiple dose study were found to significantly improved the percent glycated hemoglobin (%HbA1c), fasting blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance (OGTT), serum insulin, lipid profile, liver and kidney parameters in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Marked improvement in OGTT and serum insulin levels was also found in neonatal STZ-induced diabetic rats. In vitro study, the aqueous fraction of I. batatas increased glucose uptake in L6 myotubes and inhibits the α-glucosidase and aldose reductase enzymes.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the significant antidiabetic activity of the I. batatas leaves by promoting insulin secretion, alpha glucosidase and aldose reductase enzyme inhibition.Â

Nanostructured Materials Research at NML

NML is coordinating the CSIR Network Project on 'Nanostructured Advanced Materials'. Eight other participating CSIR labs are AMPRE, Bhopal; CEERI, Pilani; CGCRI, Kolkata; CMERI, Durgapur; IMMT, Bhubaneswar; NAL, Bangalore; NCL, Pune; NPL, New Delhi.The project has been divided into four modules: (i) Biomaterials and Processes (ii) Ceramics, Composite and Hard coatings (iii) Magnetic Materials and (iv) Structural Materials. The major emphasis on the project has been given on the development of newer process, product and devices

Time-resolved Q-factor measurement and its application in performance analysis of 42.6 Gbit/s packets generated by SGDBR lasers

We demonstrate a novel time-resolved Q-factor measurement technique and demonstrate its application in the analysis of optical packet switching systems with high information spectral density. For the first time, we report the time-resolved Q-factor measurement of 42.6 Gbit/s AM-PSK and DQPSK modulated packets, which were generated by a SGDBR laser under wavelength switching. The time dependent degradation of Q-factor performance during the switching transient was analyzed and was found to be correlated with different laser switching characteristics in each case

Brucellosis - A major differential for juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Brucellosis is a Gram-negative, aerobic zoonotic infection acquired by Brucella species and transmitted from animals to humansthrough the ingestion of infected food products, direct contact with an infected animal, or inhalation of aerosols. Usually, thedisease remains undiagnosed due to lack of awareness and inadequate reporting and is a challenging health problem in tropicalcountries. We report a case of 16-year-old male presenting to us with chronic inflammatory symmetric polyarthritis misdiagnosedas juvenile idiopathic arthritis but later found to be suffering from brucellosis on reevaluation. Through this case report, we wouldlike to highlight the possibility and advantage of the high degree of suspicion for an infectious etiology responsible for arthritis inthe background of autoimmunity and would also like to emphasize on the possibility of Brucella inducing a false-positive responsefor young patients presenting with arthritis

IN LABORATORY GENERATION AND MATURATION OF HUMAN MONOCYTE-DERIVED DENDRITIC CELLS FOR CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a critical role in the regulation of adaptive immune responses, furthermore they act as a bridge between the innate and the adaptive immune systems they have been ideal candidates for cell-based immunotherapy of cancers and infections in humans. The first reported trial using DCs in 1995, since they have been used in trials all over the world for several of indications, including cancer and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Generally, for in vitro experiments or for DCs vaccination monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) were generated from purified monocytes that isolated from peripheral blood by density gradient centrifugation. A variety of methods can be used for enrichment of monocytes for generation of clinical-grade DCs. Herein we summarized up to date understanding of systems and inputs used in procedures to differentiate DCs from blood monocytes in vitro

Effect of Kasni seed preparations on serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase levels in newly diagnosed patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Kasni (Cichorium intybus L.) reported to play an important role in the effective management of serum liver enzymes SGPT & SGOT in various animal models and this study is extension to newly diagnosed patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methods: Newly diagnosed 90 patients of Type2 DM, age 35-65years, of either sex were divided into 3 groups. In group I only Metformin sustained release once a day and in group II/III 6 grams crude seed powder or 50 ml decoction of crude seed powder was given twice a day for 90 days in combination with Metformin sustained release orally once in a day. Serum liver enzyme levels of SGPT & SGOT were measured at zero, 30th, 60th and 90th day.Results: All the three groups showed a significant reduction in SGPT & SGOT across the four time periods. Post hoc Tukey HSD test shown that there was a significant difference between group I & II (p=0.011) and group I & III (p=0.000) for SGPT and group I & II (p=0.012) and group I & III (p=0.000) for SGOT.Conclusions: The add on  therapy with Kasni seed preparations is more effective for the management of altered SGPT and SGOT levels in Type2 diabetes mellitus patients than only oral hypoglycaemic agent in decreasing SGPT & SGOT of selected patients. Among Kasni seed preparation treated groups, decoction was found more effective than crude seed powder.

Optical packet transmission in 42.6 Gbit/s wavelength-division-multiplexed clockwork-routed networks

The use of amplitude-modulated phase-shift-keyed (AM-PSK) optical data transmission is investigated in a sequence of concatenated links in a wavelength-division-multiplexed clockwork-routed network. The narrower channel spacing made possible by using AM-PSK format allows the network to contain a greater number of network nodes. Full differential precoding at the packet source reduces the amount of high-speed electronics required in the network and also offers simplified header recognition and time-to-live mechanisms

Evaluation of antidepressant and analgesic activity of tapentadol with mirtazapine: an experimental study

Background: Data comparing tapentadol with an antidepressant is limited. A comparison of tapentadol with mirtazapine at different dose has not been performed, the other antidepressant in the same therapeutic class with a significant market share, has been undertaken. In the absence of relevant data to assess the place that tapentadol should occupy in the therapeutic arsenal, indirect comparisons are the most rigorous way to go. We conducted a study evaluate antidepressant and analgesic activity of tapentadol with mirtazapine at different doses in Swiss albino mice.Methods: Tapentadol was administered at 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg (i.p) once daily for 14 days to swiss albino mice of either sex. The immobility period for antidepressant activity of mice were recorded in forced swim test and reaction time for analgesic activity of mice were recorded in tail flick test of the control and drug treated group. The antidepressant and analgesic activity of tapentadol (10, 20, 40 mg/kg i.p) was compared with that of mirtazapine (3, 5, 7 mg/kg i.p), administered for 14 days.Results: Tapentadol produced better antidepressant at (20, 40 mg/kg), but less at 10 mg/kg and significant analgesic activity at all the three doses, as indicated by reduction in immobility times and increase in reaction time as compared to control. Mirtazapine produced no antinociceptive activity at 3 mg/kg, but significant at 5, 7 mg/kg and showed better antidepressant activity at all the three doses in mice. The result of this study indicates the better analgesic activity of tapentadol at all the doses and least antidepressant activity at 10 mg/kg, as compared to mirtazapine which has shown better antidepressant activity at all the three doses but no analgesic activity at 3 mg/kg.Conclusion: It can be concluded that tapentadol is a better drug in case of depression associated with pain compared to mirtazapine in mice

Requirements for Bend Insensitive Fiber in Millimeter-Wave Fronthaul Systems

The impact of fiber bending on mm-wave radio-over-fiber transmission is investigated and the need for bend insensitive fiber for front-haul installation confirmed. A 70m W-band hybrid photonic-wireless link including bend insensitive fiber is demonstrated with BER<10\u3csup\u3e-6\u3c/sup\u3e at 5mm bending radius