Evaluation of anti-psychotic effect of nimodipine using methylphenidate as a model to induce psychosis in albino mice

Background: Schizophrenia is a functional psychotic disorder currently treated by typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs. A large group of patients remain resistant to therapy. Nimodipine has been found effective for treating resistant bipolar mood disorder which is linked genetically with schizophrenia and has a high overlap of neurotransmitters in the etiopathology. Previous studies to evaluate nimodipine’s antipsychotic activity have shown inconsistent results. Methylphenidate, a CNS stimulant like amphetamine, has been shown to induce stereotypy in animals and can be proposed as an alternative model for psychosis.Methods: Methylphenidate 5 mg/kg was given intraperitoneally to induce psychosis in swiss albino mice (n=6). Nimodipine was given alone in doses of 2.5 and 5 mg/kg by i.p route and in combination with haloperidol 0.1 mg/kg and effects were compared with haloperidol 0.2mg/kg. Activity of nimodipine was also assessed on the haloperidol induced catalepsy test. Statistical analysis was done with ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s test using SPSS v. 20.0.Results: Methylphenidate successfully induced characteristic stereotypy behaviour in mice similar to amphetamine. Both nimodipine 5 mg/kg and haloperidol 0.2 mg/kg showed significant reduction in stereotypy behaviour with no statistical difference between the two; result with nimodipine were only slightly inferior to haloperidol. Nimodipine 5 mg/kg with haloperidol 0.1 mg/kg showed significantly better activity than haloperidol in standard dose of 0.2 mg/kg. Nimodipine did not show significant activity on the haloperidol induced catalepsy test.Conclusions: Methylphenidate has potential to be used as an alternative model for inducing psychosis in animals and nimodipine shows promising results for use as adjuvant antipsychotic drug

Outputs and cost of HIV prevention programmes for truck drivers in Andhra Pradesh, India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>HIV prevention programmes for truck drivers form part of the HIV control efforts, but systematic data on the outputs and cost of providing such services in India are not readily available for further planning and use of resources.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Detailed cost and output data were collected from written records and interviews for 2005–2006 fiscal year using standardized methods at six sampled HIV prevention programmes for truck drivers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The total economic cost for these programmes was computed and the relation of unit cost of services per truck driver with programme scale was assessed using regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 120,436 truck drivers were provided services by the six programmes of which 55.9% were long distance truck drivers. The annual economic cost of providing services to a truck driver varied between programmes from US$1.52 to 4.56 (mean US$ 2.49). There was an inverse relation between unit economic cost of serving a truck driver and scale of the programme (R²= 0.63; p = 0.061). The variation between programmes in the average number of contacts made by the programme staff with truck drivers was 1.3 times versus 5.8 times for contacts by peer educators. Only 1.7% of the truck drivers were referred by the programmes for counseling and HIV testing.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data provide information for further planning of HIV prevention programmes for truck drivers and estimating the resources needed for such programmes. The findings suggest the need to strengthen the role of peer educators and increase referral of truck drivers for HIV testing.</p

Cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions in Andhra Pradesh state of India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Information on cost-effectiveness of the range of HIV prevention interventions is a useful contributor to decisions on the best use of resources to prevent HIV. We conducted this assessment for the state of Andhra Pradesh that has the highest HIV burden in India.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on data from a representative sample of 128 public-funded HIV prevention programs of 14 types in Andhra Pradesh, we have recently reported the number of HIV infections averted by each type of HIV prevention intervention and their cost. Using estimates of the age of onset of HIV infection, we used standard methods to calculate the cost per Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) saved as a measure of cost-effectiveness of each type of HIV prevention intervention.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The point estimates of the cost per DALY saved were less than US $50 for blood banks, men who have sex with men programmes, voluntary counselling and testing centres, prevention of parent to child transmission clinics, sexually transmitted infection clinics, and women sex worker programmes; between US$50 and 100 for truckers and migrant labourer programmes; more than US $100 and up to US$410 for composite, street children, condom promotion, prisoners and workplace programmes and mass media campaign for the general public. The uncertainty range around these estimates was very wide for several interventions, with the ratio of the high to the low estimates infinite for five interventions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The point estimates for the cost per DALY saved from the averted HIV infections for all interventions was much lower than the per capita gross domestic product in this Indian state. While these indicative cost-effectiveness estimates can inform HIV control planning currently, the wide uncertainty range around estimates for several interventions suggest the need for more firm data for estimating cost-effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions in India.</p

Scattering of a photon by a dyon

163-169Undertaking the study of scattering of photon by monopole and dyon it has been shown that photon associated with monopole and dyon has enormously high energy. It has also been shown that two photons are necessary for Compton scattering of dyon through S-matrix expansion. Study of bound state of a dyon and an anti-dyon has also been carried out and it has been shown that this state is very short lived and decays in to four or six photons depending on the spin statistics of the dyons involved.</span

An idea of oscillating alphabets through mechanical coupling

Alphabets are considered to be the building block of words and many sentences. To scientifically explore the importance and application of a word through vibrations, the first step may be to formulate an idea of oscillating alphabets or letters. In this paper, we have carried out an effort to design oscillating letters through coupled mechanical structures based on theoretical and finite element analyses. Based on designed structures, we fabricated them using bulk microfabrication process. Subsequently, we performed experimental studies to demonstrate the vibrations of letters “A”, “B”, “C”, “Z”, “I”, “T”, “H” and “OM” suspended with clamped–clamped and clamped–free conditions. Finally, we demonstrated grouping of letters through mechanical coupling in a word “IITH” through two different designs to measure its vibration. For both designs, we measured frequencies and modes with clamped–clamped and clamped–free conditions, respectively. Based on the comparison of experimental results with numerical simulation, we found that fabricated structure with clamped–free condition is found to work better. Additionally, we observed that the mechanical coupling in the second design of IITH gives nearly uniform response of all the letters while the first design gives non-uniform motion. Consequently, further development in amplitude amplification of such kind of oscillating letters or words based on clamped–free conditions may lead to the development of a learning tool for millions of blind people who can perceive vibration from different alphabets

Assessment of topiramate’s efficacy and safety in epilepsy

Objective: To study the significance of topiramate (TPM) addition on seizure control in treatment of epilepsy. Design: A prospective open label add-on trial of TPM addition in patients with epilepsy was done. The events of baseline phase of 12 weeks followed by titration and maintenance phases were recorded. Assessment of the number of seizure and emergent adverse effects was done by a monthly visit for each case. Main Outcome Measures: Reduction of more than 50% mean seizure frequency or response ratio of 0.33 was taken as the criteria for responders. Statistical Analysis: Normal Z-test for significance of differences between two proportions and Chi-square test for presence of association was applied and mean age, median duration, sex ratio, percentage prevalence were depicted. Results: Significant responses to TPM in both partial as well as generalized seizures were observed (Z = 6.66, P < 0.001 and Z = 4.185, P < 0.01). The effect was more pronounced in patients with partial seizures. However, the overall response was highly significant (Z = 7.839, P < 0.001). The best response was noted at the dose of 200-300 mg/day (Z = 6.708, P < 0.001). More than 35% cases of partial and generalized seizures reported more than 75% reduction levels. The drug was well tolerated in more than 65% cases for side effects on psychosis, giddiness, and anorexia. Mild side effects were seen only in about less than 35% cases. Conclusions: TPM was found as a significantly effective add-on anticonvulsant with some limitation or mild side effects

GIS and Remote Sensing Aided Information for Soil Moisture Estimation: A Comparative Study of Interpolation Techniques

Soil moisture represents a vital component of the ecosystem, sustaining life-supporting activities at micro and mega scales. It is a highly required parameter that may vary significantly both spatially and temporally. Due to this fact, its estimation is challenging and often hard to obtain especially over large, heterogeneous surfaces. This study aimed at comparing the performance of four widely used interpolation methods in estimating soil moisture using GPS-aided information and remote sensing. The Distance Weighting (IDW), Spline, Ordinary Kriging models and Kriging with External Drift (KED) interpolation techniques were employed to estimate soil moisture using 82 soil moisture field-measured values. Of those measurements, data from 54 soil moisture locations were used for calibration and the remaining data for validation purposes. The study area selected was Varanasi City, India covering an area of 1535 km2. The soil moisture distribution results demonstrate the lowest RMSE (root mean square error, 8.69%) for KED, in comparison to the other approaches. For KED, the soil organic carbon information was incorporated as a secondary variable. The study results contribute towards efforts to overcome the issue of scarcity of soil moisture information at local and regional scales. It also provides an understandable method to generate and produce reliable spatial continuous datasets of this parameter, demonstrating the added value of geospatial analysis techniques for this purpose

Use of TOPEX altimeter for the study of diurnal and spatial distribution of southwest monsoon rainfall over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea

In this paper, the rain detection capability of the dual-frequency (Ku and C band) radar altimeter onboard, the non-sun-synchronous TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) satellite is exploited to study the diurnal variability of rainfall over Indian oceanic regions during the southwest monsoon season. The study is done using three consecutive years (1993, 1994 and 1995) of T/P altimeter data. Based on the difference of normalized backscattered coefficient, Δσo (C–Ku band), the T/P satellite observations are categorized into three different classes of “no rain,” “low rain,” and “high rain.” The data is further divided into 12 time intervals of 2 h each, starting from 0000 to 2400 Z. The uneven distribution of observations in each time interval due to orbit characteristics of T/P satellite is removed. The histograms of rain events are plotted for the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea to study diurnal and regional variability of rain events. The variation of rainfall intensity, within “high-rain” category, over the two regions is also studied. The results showed that there is no consistent diurnal variability of rainfall exist over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal regions from year to year. However, the 3-year composite data shows more rain events over the Arabian Sea at early morning hours between 0000 and 0200 GMT. This is verified by concurrently available TOPEX Microwave Radiometer (TMR) observations of rain events. The intensity of rain rate also does not show any marked diurnal variability. The probability of rain events is significantly high over the Bay of Bengal region compared to the Arabian Sea region. This is also verified with TMR-based analysis. Further, interannual variability of rain events and amount over the two regions from Δσo-based analysis is also discussed in association with interannual variations in the monsoon activities over these two regions