Creativity and competitive excellence

Treball final de Grau en Administració d’Empreses. Codi: AE1049. Curs acadèmic 2014-201

A REVIEW ON PYRAZOLINE DERIVATIVES AS ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT

At present, there is a lot of research about the pyrazoline heterocyclic compound, its ring structure is being changed and new derivatives are being made, many of which have antimicrobial activity over the derivatives. Pyrazoline is the five-member heterocyclic ring which have two N atoms in nearby position and contains two endocyclic double bonds. Noteworthy consideration has been concentrated on pyrazolines and pyrazoline derivative due to their important pharmacological action. Some replaced pyrazolines have been stated near retain particular important pharmacological actions as antimicrobial, antifungal, antineoplastic, antidepressant, insecticidal, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antitumor properties

Data integrity for on-chip interconnects

With shrinking feature size and growing integration density in the Deep Sub- Micron (DSM) technologies, the global buses are fast becoming the "weakest-links" in VLSI design. They have large delays and are error-prone. Especially, in system-onchip (SoC) designs, where parallel interconnects run over large distances, they pose difficult research and design problems. This work presents an approach for evaluating the data carrying capacity of such wires. The method treats the delay and reliability in interconnects from an information theoretic perspective. The results point to an optimal frequency of operation for a given bus dimension for maximum data transfer rate. Moreover, this optimal frequency is higher than that achieved by present day designs which accommodate the worst case delays. This work also proposes several novel ways to approach this optimal data transfer rate in practical designs.From the analysis of signal propagation delay in long wires, it is seen that the signal delay distribution has a long tail, meaning that most signals arrive at the output much faster than the worst case delay. Using communication theory, these "good" signals arriving early can be used to predict/correct the "few" signals that arrive late. In addition to this correction based on prediction, the approaches use coding techniques to eliminate high delay cases to generate a higher transmission rate. The work also extends communication theoretic approaches to other areas of VLSI design. Parity groups are generated based on low output delay correlation to add redundancy in combinatorial circuits. This redundancy is used to increase the frequency of operation and/or reduce the energy consumption while improving the overall reliability of the circuit

Multiple symbol decoding of differential space-time codes

Multiple-symbol detection of space-time differential codes (MS-STDC) decodes N consecutive space-time symbols using maximum likelihood (ML) sequence detection to gain in performance over the conventional differential detection scheme. However its computational complexity is exponential in N . A fast algorithm for implementing the MD-STDC in block-fading channels with complexity O(N 4) is developed. Its performance in both block-fading and symbol-by-symbol fading channels is demonstrated through simulations. Set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) coupled with rate compatible punctured convolution code (RCPC) and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is employed as a generalized multiple description source coder with robustness to channel errors. We propose a serial concatenation of the above with a differential space-time code (STDC) and invoke an iterative joint source channel decoding procedure for decoding differentially space-time coded multiple descriptions. Experiments show a gain of up to 5 dB in PSNR with four iterations for image transmission in the absence of channel state information (CSI) at the receiver. A serial concatenation of SPIHT + RCPC/CRC is also considered with space-time codes (STC) instead of STDC. Experiments show a gain of up to 7 dB with four iterations in the absence of CS

Alcoholism with central pontine demyelination: a case report

Central pontine myelinolysis is a non-inflammatory demyelinating disease characterized by loss of myelin with relative neuron sparing, associated with rapid correction of hyponatremia and sometimes hypernatremia or chronic alcoholism. We are reporting a case of 52 year old male patient who was chronic alcoholic from past 20 years, presented to us with complaints of altered sensorium and dysarthria of 5 days duration .He was investigated and diagnosed as case of central pontine myelinosis associated with chronic alcoholism

Prostate artery embolisation : an initial experience from an Indian perspective

Purpose: The study aims to report our very early experience with prostate artery embolisation in patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) in an Indian setting. Material and methods: This prospective study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Review Board, and informed consent was obtained from all the patients. Four patients with lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia underwent prostate embolisation. Embolisation was performed using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles. International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life (QOL) score, postvoid residual volume, and prostate volume was recorded in each patient for 12 months. No major complications were seen in any patient. Results: Four patients with a mean age of 74.2 years underwent prostate artery embolisation. It was successful in all the cases. Bilateral embolisation was performed in three patients and unilateral approach in one patient. Clinical improvement was characterised by a mean prostate volume reduction of 22% and mean IPSS reduction of 30% at 12-month follow-up. Conclusions: The initial experience with prostate embolisation has been very rewarding and is a great alternative treatment for BPH. It is a very safe and effective procedure and can be an ideal procedure from an Indian perspective

ETHNOMEDICINAL NOTES AND CHROMOSOMAL STATUS OF SOME SELECTED HERBS FROM PARVATI VALLEY, KULLU DISTRICT, HIMACHAL PRADESH

Objective: The objective of the present study was to enlist the ethnobotanical uses and chromosomal status of wild plants of Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Plants are locally used in curing ulcers, sores, insect bites, muscular and joint pains, pneumonia, jaundice, diarrhoea, piles, swellings, allergies and skin diseases.Methods: For documentation of ethnomedicinal information, a questionnaire containing the vernacular name, plant part/s used, medicinal uses, mode of preparation and amount of dose taken was prepared. Personnel interviews/interactions were conducted with medicine men (vaids and hakims), local healers, village elders, tribals and shepherds. The interviews were cross-validated to ascertain the facts about the local use of each plant species. Chromosomal status was determined through male meiosis by using standard acetocarmine technique.Results: Present paper contains information on ethnomedicinal uses, chromosome counts, male meiosis and pollen fertility on 62 medicinal herbs from Parvati Valley. Plants are used as a decoction, paste or powder in cooked form or as raw. Preparations are taken orally in pure form or as a mixture or with a little amount of salt, milk, honey or butter.Conclusion: Due to indiscriminate forest clearing, grazing and collection by traders, most of the species became rare and restricted to specific pockets or are now almost extinct. To preserve herbal diversity, grazing should be restricted in alpine and sub-alpine zones. Database on ethnic knowledge, chromosomal diversity, natural regeneration and distribution pattern should be prepared for designing future plans for sustainable development

Isoniazid resistance among rifampicin-susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from tuberculosis patients

AbstractObjective/BackgroundWith the introduction of novel molecular techniques that rely on rifampicin (RIF) susceptibility, resistance to isoniazid (INH) or other first-line drugs remains undetected. Such patients are prescribed first-line antituberculosis therapy and are on RIF monodrug therapy during the continuation phase, which may lead to therapeutic failure and emergence of multidrug resistance. We aimed to study INH resistance among RIF-susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates from retreatment patients.MethodsThe Drug Susceptibility Testing data for four first-line drugs (streptomycin [SM], INH, RIF, and ethambutol [EMB]) using BACTEC MGIT 960 (Becton Dickinson, Franklin 124 Lakes, NJ ,USA) and for two drugs (INH and RIF) using line probe assay was analyzed retrospectively at the Department of Microbiology, National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (New Delhi, India).ResultsWe analyzed 4910 drug susceptibility results performed using the BACTEC MGIT960 liquid culture system from 2009 to 2015. We found that 969 (19.7%) isolates were sensitive to all four first-line drugs, 3941 (80.3%) isolates were resistant to one or more drugs, and 3041 (61.9%) isolates were resistant to both RIF and INH with or without resistance to any other drug (multidrug resistant). Monodrug resistance to SM and EMB was observed in 94 (1.9%) and 8 (0.16%) isolates, respectively. RIF resistance without INH resistance was observed in 22 (0.44%) isolates. There were 776 isolates sensitive to RIF, but resistant to INH. Among these, INH resistance with EMB and/or SM was observed in 367 (7.47%) isolates, whereas 409 (8.3%) isolates were resistant to INH alone. The results of line probe assay from 2012 to 2015 were also analyzed, and the resistance to INH alone among all isolates with valid results was found to be 9.32% (1462/15,676). More than 75% of these isolates harbor mutations in the kat G gene associated with high-level resistance.ConclusionINH resistance among RIF-susceptible isolates was present in 10–15% of the total cases. Among these cases, the use of RIF susceptibility alone will fail to detect INH resistance. Since higher rates of failure, relapse, or acquired resistance are linked with INH resistance, rollout of techniques focusing on RIF resistance must, therefore, be accompanied by strict monitoring for better management of patients