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Background: Low-pressure pneumoperitoneum (LPP) is an attempt to improve laparoscopic surgery. Lower pressure causes lesser inflammation and better hemodynamics. There is a lack of literature comparing inflammatory markers in LPP with deep NMB to standard pressure pneumoperitoneum (SPP) with moderate NMB in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methodology: This was a single institutional prospective randomized control trial. Participants included all patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic gall stone disease. Participants were divided into 2 groups group A and B. Group A—Low-pressure group in which pneumoperitoneum pressure was kept low (8–10 mmHg) with deep Neuromuscular blockade (NMB) and Group B—Normal pressure group (12–14 mmHg) with moderate NMB. A convenience sample size of 80 with 40 in each group was selected. Lab investigations like CBC, LFT, RFT and serum IL-1, IL-6, IL-17, TNF alpha levels were measured at base line and 24 h after surgery and compared using appropriate statistical tests. Other parameters like length of hospital stay, post-operative pain score, conversion rate (low-pressure to standard pressure), and complications were also compared. Results: Eighty participants were analysed with 40 in each group. Baseline characteristics and investigations were statistically similar. Difference (post-operative–pre-operative) of inflammatory markers were compared between both groups. Numerically there was a slightly higher rise in most of the inflammatory markers (TLC, ESR, CRP, IL-6, TNFα) in Group B compared to Group A but not statistically significant. Albumin showed significant fall (p < 0.001) in Group B compared to Group A. Post-operative pain was also significantly less (p < 0.001) in Group A compared to Group B at 6 h and 24 h. There were no differences in length of hospital stay and incidence of complications. There was no conversion from low-pressure to standard pressure. Conclusion: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed under low-pressure pneumoperitoneum with deep NMB may have lesser inflammation and lesser post-operative pain compared to standard pressure pneumoperitoneum with moderate NMB. Future studies with larger sample size need to be designed to support these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exposure of humans and animals to heavy metals is increasing day-by-day; thus, lead even today remains of significant public health concern. According to CDC, blood lead reference value (BLRV) ranges from 3.5 µg/dl to 5 μg/dl in adults. Recently, almost 2.6% decline in male fertility per year has been reported but the cause is not well established. Lead (Pb2+) affects the size of testis, semen quality, and secretory functions of prostate. But the molecular mechanism(s) of lead toxicity in sperm cells is not clear. Thus, present study was undertaken to evaluate the adverse effects of lead acetate at environmentally relevant exposure levels (0.5, 5, 10 and 20 ppm) on functional and molecular dynamics of spermatozoa of bucks following in vitro exposure for 15 min and 3 h. Results: Lead significantly decreased motility, viable count, and motion kinematic patterns of spermatozoa like curvilinear velocity, straight-line velocity, average path velocity, beat cross frequency and maximum amplitude of head lateral displacement even at 5 ppm concentration. Pb2+ modulated intracellular cAMP and Ca2+ levels in sperm cells through L-type calcium channels and induced spontaneous or premature acrosome reaction (AR) by increasing tyrosine phosphorylation of sperm proteins and downregulated mitochondrial transmembrane potential. Lead significantly increased DNA damage and apoptosis as well. Electron microscopy studies revealed Pb2+ -induced deleterious effects on plasma membrane of head and acrosome including collapsed cristae in mitochondria. Conclusions: Pb2+ not only mimics Ca2+ but also affects cellular targets involved in generation of cAMP, mitochondrial transmembrane potential, and ionic exchange. Lead seems to interact with Ca2+ channels because of charge similarity and probably enters the sperm cell through these channels and results in hyperpolarization. Our findings also indicate lead-induced TP and intracellular Ca2+ release in spermatozoa which in turn may be responsible for premature acrosome exocytosis which is essential feature of capacitation for fertilization. Thus, lead seems to reduce the fertilizing capacity of spermatozoa even at 0.5 ppm concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the gold nanoparticles synthesized from chemical (CH-AuNPs) and green methodologies from Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (HRS) leaves extracts (HRS-Bio-AuNPs) and Trichoderma reesei (TR) fungal biomass (TR-Bio-AuNPs). The TR-Bio-AuNPs displayed an absorption peak at 527 nm, HRS-Bio-AuNPs at 525 nm. On the other hand, the CH-AuNPs displayed an absorption peak at 530 nm. The zeta potentials of −17.00 mV and −16.10 mV, respectively of the HRS-Bio-AuNPs and TR-Bio-AuNPs solutions had single peaks indicating the presence of repulsion between the synthesized NPs, whereas CH-AuNPs solutions possessed −19.10 mV zeta potential. Using a transmission electron microscope (TEM), the average size 42.48 nm, 22.60 nm and 16.33 nm was observed in CH-AgNPs, HRS-AuNPs, and TR-AuNPs respectively; they were evenly disseminated with no significant aggregation. Furthermore, assess the toxicity in percentage inhibition (% PI) as in vitro by applying toxtrak test against prebiotic and probiotic cultures and the % PI values of HRS-Bio-AuNPs (19.60%) and TR-Bio-AuNPs (15.76%) and CH-AuNPs (33.43%) were obtained and clearly demonstrate their non-toxic behavior treated against prebiotic and probiotic bacterial cultures. The effects of CH-AuNPs, HRS-Bio-AuNPs, and TR-Bio-AuNPs were also evaluated using an in vivo technique on Drosophila egg laying capability (eggs/fly/day was 61.89, 62.79, and 63.19 respectively), emergence of flies from pupa (number of fly out of 100 pupa were obtained, 98.49, 99.09, and 99.59 respectively) and the life span (the survival rate of fly was 66, 69, and 70 days respectively). According to the data acquired, there were no significant differences were observed between any of the groups. Overall, we can say that TR-Bio-AuNPs made from fungus biomass have the best qualities, are safe, eco-friendly and have no adverse effects on prebiotic or probiotic bacterial cultures or the reproductive fitness-related traits of Drosophila melanogaster. The next possibility is HRS-Bio-AuNPs, followed by CH-AuNPs as the choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The number of patients getting mitral valve replacement (MVR) surgery for severe mitral regurgitation and mitral stenosis has increased and is expected to climb further. Mitral valve surgery can be conducted using either a direct vision method or an endoscopic and robotic procedure.The purpose of this casecontrol study was to compare the feasibility and safety between Right Mini Thoracotomy with central cannulation versus Conventional Sternotomy for mitral valve replacement MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total 100 patients underwent Mitral Valve Replacement were included, among them group A 50 patients were underwent for Mini Right Thoracotomy performed through right anterolateral mini thoracotomy with central cannulation. Fifty patient of group B were underwent mitral valve replacement through conventional median sternotomy. RESULTS: Our study found that a statistically significant high length of incision, blood loss, number of blood transfusions, ICU stay, hospital stay and re-exploration was found among the sternotomy group compare to the thoracotomy group. While a statistically significant less cross lamp time and total bypass time was found among the sternotomy group compare to the thoracotomy group. Conclusion: Based on these findings, a minimally invasive approach should be explored for all patients who require mitral valve replacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decrease in insulin sensitivity during the transition of preruminant calves into ruminant animals is the common denominator. Meanwhile, this adaptation predisposes dairy calves towards various health issues and metabolic disorders that occur in later life. Chromium (Cr) has been shown to potentiate insulin functioning and is thereby helpful in reducing the risk of these metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of Cr supplementation on the insulin sensitivity and health status in Hariana calves during their transition period. A total of 24 preruminant Hariana calves were randomly allocated into four groups (6 calves per group) for a period of 90 days. Calves either received a basal diet devoid of supplemental Cr (control; Cr0.0 group) or were supplemented with 0.05 mg (Cr0.05 group), 0.10 mg (Cr0.10 group), and 0.15 mg (Cr0.15 group) of Cr per kg BW0.75 as Cr-picolinate (Cr-Pic). To determine the effect of Cr supplementation on the insulin response, glucose-insulin-non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) kinetics was studied during the intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). A rapid glucose disappearance (p < 0.05) with unaltered insulin kinetics during IVGTT and OLTT indicates greater insulin sensitivity in calves supplemented with 0.10 and 0.15 mg of Cr per kg BW0.75. Improved insulin sensitivity in the Cr0.10 and Cr0.15 groups was further confirmed by higher (p < 0.05) values of the insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), revised quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (RQUICKI), and lower (p < 0.05) values of the homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) during IVGTT. Mean serum non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAm), and insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) levels were the highest (p < 0.05) and cortisol concentrations were the lowest (p < 0.05) in the Cr0.15 groups. Unlike IVGTT, there was no effect of treatment, period, and treatment × period interaction on mean serum glucose and insulin levels during OGTT. However, Cr-supplemented calves had a higher (p < 0.05) glucose clearance rate (gCR). Serum IRS-1 concentrations during OGTT were also higher (p < 0.05) in the Cr0.10 and Cr0.15 groups than in the other groups. Serum Cr levels increased dose dependently and were the highest (p < 0.05) in calves fed a diet supplemented with 0.15 mg Cr per kg BW0.75. There was no effect of treatment on average daily gain (ADG) and body condition score (BCS) while frequency and duration of diarrhea were lower and fecal score was better in Cr-supplemented calves. The current findings show that Cr supplementation improved glucose utilization and health status in calves during their transition period by improving insulin sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is an important nonedible industrial crop that produces oil, which is used in the production of medicines, lubricants, and other products. However, the quality and quantity of castor oil are critical factors that can be degraded by various insect pest attacks. The traditional method of identifying the correct category of pests required a significant amount of time and expertise. To solve this issue, automatic insect pest detection methods combined with precision agriculture can help farmers in providing adequate support for sustainable agriculture development. For accurate predictions, the recognition system requires a sufficient amount of data from a real-world situation, which is not always available. In this regard, data augmentation is a popular technique used for data enrichment. The research conducted in this investigation established an insect pest dataset of common castor pests. This paper proposes a hybrid manipulation-based approach for data augmentation to solve the issue of the lack of a suitable dataset for effective vision-based model training. The deep convolutional neural networks VGG16, VGG19, and ResNet50 are then adopted to analyze the effects of the proposed augmentation method. The prediction results show that the proposed method addresses the challenges associated with adequate dataset size and significantly improves overall performance when compared to previous methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lateral epicondylitis (LE) is the most common condition of elbow pain. Multiple intralesional steroid injections help in the treatment. Prolotherapy is a traditional injection method recently categorized as regenerative treatment. However, there is scarcity of literature that compares its effectiveness with steroids. Objective: The aim was to compare the effectiveness of dextrose prolotherapy (DP) against local steroid injection in patients with LE in relieving pain and improving dysfunction. Participants and methods: This parallel, randomized controlled trial was conducted at Outpatient Department, National Institute for Locomotor Disabilities (Divyangjan), (erstwhile National Institute for the Orthopaedically Handicapped) Kolkata, from January 2016 to January 2017. Patients with the clinical diagnosis of LE (in clinical stages 2, 3, and 4) were allocated to receive either DP (group A) or local steroid injection (group B). A total of 34 participants aged between 18 and 60 years who had symptoms for greater than or equal to 4 weeks was included. Injections were given to each patient at 0, 4, and 8 weeks. Data were collected at baseline and followed up at the fourth, eighth, and 16th weeks. The two interventions' differential response was recorded in terms of pain [visual analog scale (VAS)], upper-extremity activities (DASH; disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand scale), and the pain-free grip strength (PFGS). Results: Both groups A and B showed significant improvement (P < 0.05) in VAS, DASH, and PFGS at follow-ups compared with baseline. Compared with group B, at 4 weeks, group A had no statistically significant differences in the VAS (53.6 ± 12.6 vs 51.3 ± 15.5, P = 0.65), DASH score (26.2 ± 14.6 vs 26.7 ± 15.6, P = 0.93), and PFGS (16.3 ± 8.7 vs 12.3 ± 5.4, P = 0.14). Compared with group B, at 8 weeks, no statistically significant differences in the VAS (n = 15, difference of mean 0.4, 95% confidence interval [-7.4 to 8.2], P = 0.9), DASH (n = 15, 3.5 [-5.2 to 12.2], P = 0.4), and PFGS (n = 15, 4.7 [-0.8 to 10.2], P = 0.1) were noted between two groups. However, at 16 weeks, compared with group B, group A patients showed significant better improvement in VAS (n = 15, 14.0 [7.0-20.9], P = 0.0001) and PFGS (n = 15, 8.4 [2.3-14.5], P = 0.009) but not in DASH (n = 15, 8.4 [2.3-14.5], P = 0.4). Conclusions: DP showed superiority in reducing LE pain and improving the grip strength as compared with local steroid injection. However, prolotherapy was associated with increased pain around the injection site in the first 48 h and transient weakness of wrist extensors (about 10 min) because of local spread of lignocaine in the common extensor-origin muscles, which was conservatively managed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the current study, it has been found that all targeted plants species are being used by local forest dwellers for healing various ailments such as fever, common cold, skin ailments, jaundice, headaches, piles, joint pain, cough etc. in human being. A total of 19 plant species belonging to 16 families are showed different habit such as tree (12), herbs (4), climber (2) and orchid (1), The study revealed that local peoples from Polo Forest prefer tree species more than other plants for ethnobotanical purposes and the healing of various ailments. The population study showed that among these selected plants, P. gangeticum, C. tuberosum, V. tessellate, H. speciosa were not noted however, it is noted in the qualitative study which indicates the minimum density of these plants. The findings of the study suggest that those plants which showed the least density needs to be special attention to conservation in sustainable manner in the Polo reserve forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO2 reduction is an attractive way for the production of sustainable environment-friendly chemicals. Using the density functional theory employed by DMol3, we calculated the electronic properties of α-sulfur-modified surface of TiO2 (111). We report α-sulfur-TiO2 composite material for selective CO2 reduction to methanol. The α-sulfur-TiO2 catalyst showed higher adsorption for CO2 molecule (reactant) and lower adsorption for methanol (product) as compared to TiO2 catalyst. The introduction of the α-sulfur molecule in the TiO2 catalyst leads to redistribution of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). The DFT studies showed that the α-sulfur-TiO2 catalyst reduced the band gap to 2.06 eV from 2.88 (α-sulfur) and 3.2 eV (TiO2). The experimental study was done using photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction. The sulfur-TiO2 catalyst showed higher methanol production (17 mM/h) under visible light as compared to α-sulfur catalyst (8.5 mM/h). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier we have reported mercury-induced alterations in functional dynamics of buck spermatozoa through free radicals-mediated oxidative stress and spontaneous acrosome reaction. Based on our earlier findings, we aimed to investigate the effect of mercury exposure on motility, kinematic patterns, DNA damage, apoptosis and ultra-structural alterations in goat spermatozoa following in vitro exposure to different concentrations (0.031–1.25 µg/ml) of mercuric chloride for 15 min and 3 h. Following exposure of sperm cells to 0.031 µg/ml of mercuric chloride for 3 h, livability and motility of sperms was significantly reduced along with altered kinematic patterns, significant increase in per cent necrotic sperm cells and number of cells showing DNA damage; and this effect was dose- and time-dependent. Contrary to up-regulation of Bax gene after 3 h in control group, there was significant increase in expression of Bcl-2 in mercury-treated groups. Transmission electron microscopy studies revealed rifts and nicks in plasma and acrosomal membrane, mitochondrial sheath, and collapsed mitochondria with loss of helical organization of mitochondria in the middle piece of spermatozoa. Our findings evidently suggest that mercury induces necrosis instead of apoptosis and targets the membrane, acrosome, mid piece of sperms; and the damage to mitochondria seems to be responsible for alterations in functional and kinematic attributes of spermatozoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present study was undertaken on buck spermatozoa to investigate the effect of mercuric chloride on functional dynamics of buck spermatozoa. Four different concentrations (0.031, 0.125, 0.25 and 1.25 μg/mL) of mercuric chloride, which were 1/40th, 1/10th, 1/5th and equivalent to the LC50 value of HgCl2, were selected for studying their effect following in vitro exposure for 15 min and 3 h. Exposure of spermatozoa to 0.031 μg/mL mercuric chloride for 3 h resulted in significant (p < 0.05) decrease in sperm motility, sperm having intact membrane, intact acrosome and high mitochondrial trans-membrane potential. However, following exposure to higher concentrations (0.25, 1.25 μg/mL), similar results were observed even after 15 min of exposure. HgCl2 significantly (p < 0.05) increased the levels of malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species and significantly (p < 0.05) decreased total antioxidant capacity and superoxide dismutase activity in spermatozoa within 15 min of exposure. Mercuric chloride-treated spermatozoa did not show capacitation, rather exhibited spontaneous acrosome reaction along with significant increase in intracellular Ca2+ and cAMP levels. Immuno-blotting of semen samples of control and 0.031 μg/mL mercury-treated groups showed low intensity bands of p55, p70, p80, p105 and p190 kDa tyrosine phosphorylation proteins while higher concentration-treated groups showed no such bands. Our findings evidently suggest that mercuric chloride even at 0.031 μg/mL adversely affected sperm functions, inhibited tyrosine phosphorylation proteins and capacitation due to oxidative stress. Spontaneous acrosome reaction (AR) in mercury-treated spermatozoa may possibly be due to increase in intracellular Ca2+ and cAMP levels, and capacitation failure may be due to inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering has now become a very important tool to manage the data in many areas such as pattern recognition, machine learning, information retrieval etc. The database is increasing day by day and thus it is required to maintain the data in such a manner that useful information can easily be extracted and used accordingly. In this process, clustering plays an important role as it forms clusters of the data on the basis of similarity in data. There are more than hundred clustering methods and algorithms that can be used for mining the data but all these algorithms do not provide models for their clusters and thus it becomes difficult to categorise all of them. This paper describes the most commonly used and popular clustering techniques and also compares them on the basis of their merits, demerits and time complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet we are using today is expanding faster than we could have imagined. Since the dawn of the Internet, there has been an exponential increase in the number of web sites and so the quantity of data on these websites. The hackers attack the web sites to collect useful information and also to make other legitimate users devoid of the information or services they required. Such problems and other similar types of attacks can be handled by "Honeypot" system which takes all attacks on itself and studies the attack patterns to detect similar kind of attacks in future. Honeypots allow all the attacks on itself and make attackers think that they have the access of real system and meanwhile honeypots will study all the attack pattern of attackers. The authors have created a network of various Honeypots to enhance the efficiency. Before honeypots, a filtering algorithm is used which with the help of pre-defined sink server will predict whether a given packet is malicious or not, here help of ISP service provider can also be taken if sink server doesn't have any information about the sender of given data packets. Then to further enhance the capability of honeynet cloud, a various different type of services can be deployed at honeynet clouds like HTTP, CBR and FTP. Here, the authors have used NS2 simulator to run the proposed work and the results are taken in the form of graphs like throughput of all three different types of honeypots, bandwidth and packet loss of all services provided by destination servers. Detection rate of malicious packets are calculated and comparison has be done between different services provided by honeynet cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work illustrates the promising intervention of smart diagnostics devices through artificial intelligence (AI) and mechanobiological approaches in health care practices. The artificial intelligence and mechanobiological approaches in diagnostics widen the scope for point of care techniques for the timely revealing of diseases by understanding the biomechanical properties of the tissue of interest. Smart diagnostic device senses the physical parameters due to change in mechanical, biological, and luidic properties of the cells and to control these changes, supply the necessary drugs immediately using AI techniques. The latest techniques like sweat diagnostics to measure the overall health, Photoplethysmography (PPG) for real-time monitoring of pulse waveform by capturing the reflected signal due to blood pulsation), Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and Nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) smart devices to detect disease at its early stage, lab-on-chip and organ-on-chip technologies, Ambulatory Circadian Monitoring device (ACM), a wrist-worn device for Parkinson's disease have been discussed. The recent and futuristic smart diagnostics tool/techniques like emotion recognition by applying machine learning algorithms, atomic force microscopy that measures the fibrinogen and erythrocytes binding force, smartphone-based retinal image analyser system, image-based computational modeling for various neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, predicting and preventing of Zika virus, optimal drugs and doses for HIV using AI, etc. have been reviewed. The objective of this review is to examine smart diagnostics devices based on artificial intelligence and mechanobiological approaches, with their medical applications in healthcare. This review determines that smart diagnostics devices have potential applications in healthcare, but more research work will be essential for prospective accomplishments of this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forest ecosystem is a primary source of fuel wood for forest dwellers as cooking energy and other purposes. The forest dwellers depend on the nearby forest area for taking fuel wood on headloads or otherwise. Therefore, an attempt has been done to estimate the quantity and monetary value of fuel wood being collected from the forest areas of Narmada Forest Division (NFD). This study was done in 31 forest villages covering 346 households through structured questionnaire interview based on the density classes of the forest and their dependence for fuelwood on the forest. It has been found that a total of 11 tree species are being frequently used as fuelwood. The investigation of the study showed that fuelwood collection was found to be 76561.79 Mt/annum with an estimated monetary value of Rs 114.7 million/annum. The fuel wood collection from forest areas having different density classes viz., Moderate Dense (MD), Open Forest (OF) and Degraded Forest (DF) found to be 3.39 mt/ha/annum, 1.54 mt/ha/annum and 0.31 mt/ha/annum, respectively Furthermore, estimation showed that per capita and per household's fuel wood consumption in the forest villages of NFD is 1.06 kg/day and 5.3kg/day, respectively. These benefits of forest are being used free of cost by the villagers of the forest areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photo-electrochemical properties of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/nickel oxide-nickel (Ni0.98Si0.02O2-Ni) with isolated Si sites are discussed. The Ni0.98Si0.02O2-Ni photo-electrocatalyst without any noble metal was prepared using a one-step chemical reduction precipitation method. Photo-electrochemical properties were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques in aqueous alkaline solution at pH 8.0. The photo-electrochemical response of the catalyst showed sensitivity to visible and UV light. The catalyst produced hydrogen from water at a rate of 0.5 mmol g−1 h−1 with the reduction of CO2 into CO under visible light in the absence of any light sensitizer or a noble metal. The metallic Ni amount in the catalyst system was optimized to obtain the best photo-electrocatalyst. The first principle DFT study showed that the incorporation of Si sites allowed absorbance of visible light. The catalyst was characterized by powder x-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma- atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), cyclic voltammetry, and chronoamperometry. The products were analyzed by gas chromatography- thermal conductivity detector (GC-TCD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple, sensitive, rapid, precise and accurate method has been developed for simultaneous estimation of tazarotene and hydroquinone in their pharmaceutical dosage form (gel preparation). The chromatographic separation was carried out on a reversed-phase Inertsil C18 (4.6 mm I.D. × 250 mm, 5 μm) column using a mobile phase consisting of 0.02 M KH2PO4‒acetonitrile (80 : 20, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and UV detection at λmax = 254 nm. The method showed linearity with the correlation coefficient of 0.999 for both tazarotene and hydroquinone over the concentration range of 5‒25 and 1‒5 µg/mL, respectively. The mean recoveries were found to be in the range of 98‒101% for both components. The method was validated as per International Conference on Harmonization guidelines for linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, specificity, accuracy, precision and robustness. As a result, this method can be successfully applied for routine quantification of tazarotene and hydroquinone in pharmaceutical dosage form (gel preparation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the internet has become the medium for transferring the sensitive information, the security of the transferred message has become the utmost priority. Image steganography has emerged out as the eminent tool of information hiding that ensures the security of the transmitted data. Image files provide high capacity, and their frequency of availability over the internet is also high. In this paper, a method of image coding is proposed that hides the information along a selected pixel and on the next value of the selected pixel, that is, pixel + 1. One bit is hidden at the selected pixel, and the second bit is hidden on the pixel +1 value. On the basis of the 7th bit of the pixels of an image, a mathematical function is applied at the 7th bit of the pixels, which generates a temporary variable (pixel + 1). The 7th bit of the selected pixel and 7th bit of pixel + 1 are used for information hiding and extraction. On the basis of a combination of these two values, two bits of the message can be hidden on each pixel. After implementation, the efficiency of the method is checked on the basis of parameters like PSNR and MSE, and then comparison with some already proposed techniques was done. This proposed image steganography showed interesting, promising results when compared with other existing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Aim of the study was to: 1) present MDCT characteristics of different mediastinal mass lesions, 2) estimate proportion of benign and malignant mediastinal mass lesions based on MDCT findings, and 3) find out the diagnostic accuracy with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of MDCT in mediastinal mass lesions assuming histopathology as gold standard. Material and methods: This study was an analysis of 60 patients who underwent MDCT scan for characterisation of mediastinal mass lesion, and subsequently imaging findings were verified with pathological diagnosis. Results: Out of 60 patients 65% were malignant and 35% were benign. Metastatic carcinoma was the leading diagnosis. Sensitivity of MDCT in this study came out to be 94%, specificity is 90%, with a positive predictive value of 94% and negative predictive value of 90% with diagnostic accuracy of 93%. Conclusions: Mediastinal mass lesion can be accurately diagnosed with MDCT which is a non-invasive and easily available modality requiring clinical data for accurate diagnosis and management. Co-relation of MDCT findings with other imaging findings is complex and requires adequate clinical data for optimum diagnostic confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Aim of the study was to: 1) present MDCT characteristics of different mediastinal mass lesions, 2) estimate proportion of benign and malignant mediastinal mass lesions based on MDCT findings, and 3) find out the diagnostic accuracy with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of MDCT in mediastinal mass lesions assuming histopathology as gold standard. Material and methods: This study was an analysis of 60 patients who underwent MDCT scan for characterisation of mediastinal mass lesion, and subsequently imaging findings were verified with pathological diagnosis. Results: Out of 60 patients 65% were malignant and 35% were benign. Metastatic carcinoma was the leading diagnosis. Sensitivity of MDCT in this study came out to be 94%, specificity is 90%, with a positive predictive value of 94% and negative predictive value of 90% with diagnostic accuracy of 93%. Conclusions: Mediastinal mass lesion can be accurately diagnosed with MDCT which is a non-invasive and easily available modality requiring clinical data for accurate diagnosis and management. Co-relation of MDCT findings with other imaging findings is complex and requires adequate clinical data for optimum diagnostic confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modulation of myometrial spontaneity by lead acetate trihydrate (Pb) and its regulatory pathways were studied in estrogenized rats. Isometric tension in myometrial strips under a resting tension of 1 g was measured using data acquisition system-based physiograph and Lab Chart Pro v7.3.7 software. Lead produced a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on rat myometrium with a major effect on phasic contractions compared to tonic contractions along with a reduction in both amplitude and frequency of contraction. Lead (3 μM) significantly (p < 0.05) reduced CaCl2, and 80 mM KDS induced contractile response while potentiated the relaxant effect of phenylephrine. Based on our findings, it may be inferred that lead blocks calcium entry through VDCC and/or stimulates β-adrenoceptors adenylyl cyclase-C-AMP pathway to produce inhibitory effect on rat myometrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The study was conducted to evaluate the impact of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) on type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.0-35.0 kg/m. Possible mechanisms, including alterations in gastric emptying time (GET), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), ghrelin and leptin, were evaluated. Methods: Twenty obese patients with T2DM and with a BMI of 30.0-35.0 kg/m underwent LSG during March 2012 to February 2015. Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and GET were measured at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 24 months after surgery. Fasting and post-prandial levels of serum GLP-1, ghrelin and leptin were measured pre-operatively and after 3 and 6 months. Results: The average duration of follow-up was 17.6 months, and 10 patients had completed 2 years of follow-up. After 2 years, the average BMI decreased from 33.4 ± 1.2 to 26.7 ± 1.8 kg/m. The mean HbA1c decreased from 8.7 ± 1.6 to 6.7 ± 1.5 %, respectively. Ten patients achieved complete remission. Insulin could be stopped in all six patients who were on it pre-operatively. Meal-stimulated GLP-1 response and serum insulin at 30 min showed a significant increase following surgery. There was a significant decrease in GET. Conclusions: This prospective study confirms the positive impact of LSG on diabetic status of non-morbidly obese patients. The possible mechanisms include the rise in post-prandial GLP-1 level induced by accelerated gastric emptying, leading to an increase in insulin secretion. LSG also leads to decreased ghrelin and leptin levels which may have a role in improving glucose homeostasis after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel MnFe2O4-porous organic polymer (POP) nanocomposite was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method and using the highly cross-linked N-rich benzene-benzylamine POP. The nanocomposite presented highly efficient photocatalytic performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from pure water without addition of any sacrificial agent under one AM 1.5 G sunlight illumination. A photocatalytic activity of 6.12 mmol h−1 g−1 was achieved in the absence of any noble metal cocatalyst, which is the highest H2 production rate reported for nonprecious metal catalysts. The photocatalytic performance of MnFe2O4-POP could be attributed to the intrinsic synergistic effects of manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4) nanoclusters interacting with the nitrogen dopant POP with a unique mesoporous nanoarchitecture and spatially confined growth of MnFe2O4 in the interconnected POP network, leading to high visible-light absorption with fast electron transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronary artery fistula is a connection between coronary artery and its branch to any of the cardiac chamber, great vessel or coronary sinus bypassing the myocardial capillary bed. Majority of fistulas are congenital in origin, although acquired fistulas may be encountered occasionally after cardiac surgery, endocarditis and after repeated myocardial biopsies (Somers and Verney, Clin Radioly 44:419-421, ). We report a 55-year-old female patient of large coronary cameral fistula between sinoatrial nodal artery and right atrium. She presented with congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation and deterioration of left ventricular function with mitral regurgitation with functional class 3. The patient was managed with closure of origin of fistula from inside the aorta using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) patch of 1.5 × 1.5 cm, on cardiopulmonary bypass using blood cardioplegia, as rest of the right coronary artery (RCA) was rudimentary. She had uneventful recovery with improvement in the functional class 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study was undertaken to elucidate the adverse effect of lead on female reproductive system following in vivo exposure in rats. Materials and Methods: Animals of Group II, III and IV received lead acetate in drinking water (30,100 and 300 ppm, respectively) for 28 days whereas Group I served as control. Lead levels in digested blood and bone samples were measured using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results: Marked and a significant decrease in per cent body weight gain was observed in rats of Group IV and III, respectively, compared to that in the control group. Relative uterine weights were found to decrease by 27% in Group III and IV compared to control and low dose lead treated (30 ppm) rats. Lead levels were found to increase in a linear manner in blood along with a marked increase in bone levels in 100 ppm exposure group while there was a decrease in both the blood and bones levels at 300 ppm exposure. Compared to plasma progesterone levels in rats of the control group, a nonsignificant (12.46-21.13%) reduction in plasma progesterone were observed in different lead-treated groups. No apparent gross pathological lesions were observed in any of the vital organs, including uterus. However, histopathological examination of uteri of different groups revealed lead-induced dose-dependent inflammatory changes, which were characterized by thickening of the endometrium, narrowing of uterine lumen, damage to endometrial glands and vacuolar degeneration in endometrial epithelial cells. Conclusion: Findings of this study suggest lead-induced pathophysiological alterations in myometrium, which in turn may affect the reproductive efficiency of animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security is one of the main goals that must be achieved during the transmission of information over the network. The technique that can be used for secure transmission of data is Cryptography. This technique will make the information to be transmitted into an unreadable form by encryption so that only authorized persons can correctly recover the information. Image encryption plays a significant role in the field of information hiding. Image encrypting or hiding methods and algorithms range from simple spatial domain methods to more complicate and reliable frequency domain ones. This research work, introducing a method which provides good confusion and diffusion properties that ensures high security due to mixing the two Boolean operations: XOR and Rotation that will be applied on the LSB of the pixels in the image. This method can be implemented by firstly doing a sequential XOR operation on LSB bits of pixels in the image, and secondly by a circular rotate right of these bits. These two operations must be repeated many times during the encryption phase. The performance and security of the proposed encryption method can be evaluated by applying it on images and analyzing the recorded results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacted esophageal foreign bodies are encountered occasionally. It still remains the challenging task for endoscopiest to remove them and surgery may be the only final remedy. This report consists of five consecutive cases from January 2004 to December 2007, where denture plate foreign bodies were found impacted in cervico-thoracic junction of esophagus. Endoscopic attempts did not help them and all the patients needed cervical oesophagotomy. Two patients were males and three females with age ranged from sixty to eighty five years. The duration of ingestion was two to seven days with mean of 4.8±1.92 days. Denture plates were removed successfully in all the cases without any early or late complication over the period of 2.163±1.212 years of follow up. Mortality and morbidity was 0%. Open surgical removal of impacted esophageal foreign body is still the gold standard in spite of advancement in endoscopic techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presentation of the bronchogenic cyst is variable, making pre-operative diagnosis difficult. Majority of them are either asymptomatic or discovered incidentally. The most common presenting symptoms are cough, fever and dyspnea. We discuss the case of a large bronchogenic cyst in the posterior mediastinum causing oesophageal compression and impinging on the left atrium. The patient presented with dysphagia and back pain and was extensively investigated by various physicians before being diagnosed as having bronchogenic cyst. We concluded that the backache was due to stretching of nerves in the parietal pleura. This case demonstrates the need for detailed investigations prior to treatment of patients with such symptom complex as a bronchogenic cyst may be the cause of such symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a disease which results from malignant proliferation of plasma cells. It is commonly encountered in elderly patients. Diffuse bony lesions are the most frequent thoracic involvement with MM. We report a case of 42-year-old male patient who came with pain and full swelling in the right chest wall since two years. On CT scan of thorax, heterogenously enhancing soft tissue density lesion with lytic sclerotic destruction of right 4th rib seen. En-bloc resection of third and fourth rib was done and plasmacytoma was confirmed on biopsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]