Search

The purpose of this study is to refine and examine the reliability and validity of e-service quality scales developed by Zeithaml et al. (2000), consisting of 11 dimensions in online purchase environment. The study assessed the perception of 479 online buyers from Rajasthan. The respondents were required to respond on a five-point Likert-scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The data was analysed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 software package. Confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) was used to test the reliability and validity of the measurement model. The findings revealed the good and acceptable internal consistency among the constructs of the study. The measurement model fit was found to be good using different model fit indices like CMIN, DF, GFI, NFI, CHI, IFI, TLI, and RMSEA. The findings revealed that all the fit indices criterion was accomplished, which resulted into accepting the reliability and validity of the measurement model.

The present paper deals with the check list of family Russulaceae, which are reported from India till 2016. In this paper 158 taxa of Russula, 83 taxa of Lactarius, 29 taxa of Lactifluus, 1 species each of Multifurca and Gloeopeniophorella and 2 species of Boidinia have been catalogued. The genus Pseudoxenasma is not yet reported from India.

ABSTRACTWidespread antimonial resistance in anthroponotic visceral leishmaniasis (VL) makes it critical to monitor the susceptibility of prevailing field isolates to upcoming antileishmanials in order to frame the right treatment policies to protect these drugs against development of resistance. We aimed to generate the baseline data on natural in vitrosusceptibility to paromomycin and sitamaquine in Leishmania donovanifield isolates from VL patients (n= 20) coming from zones of varying sodium antimony gluconate (SAG) resistance. We further monitored nitric oxide (NO) release in infected macrophages treated with these drugs. Field isolates exhibited variable sensitivity to paromomycin and sitamaquine with respective mean 50% effective dose (ED50) values ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of 3.9 ± 0.3 μM and 2.1 ± 0.2 μM at the intracellular amastigote stage and 29.8 ± 2.5 μM and 17.7 ± 1.0 μM at the promastigote stage. Susceptibilities at the two parasite stages did not correlate for either drug. Isolates from high SAG resistance zones exhibited significantly lower susceptibility to sitamaquine than those from low SAG resistance zones, while isolates from different zones showed similar susceptibilities to paromomycin. NO release was promoted in L. donovani-infected macrophages upon treatment with paromomycin/sitamaquine. NO inhibitors significantly compromised amastigote killing by sitamaquine, but not by paromomycin. In conclusion, SAG-resistant/sensitive VL isolates were susceptible to both paromomycin and sitamaquine. Paromomycin, exhibiting higher efficacy against SAG-resistant parasites and having a distinct mechanism of action, appears to be a promising drug for combination therapy.

The occurrence of spontaneous pneumomediastinum in swine flu, or H1N1 influenza A infection, is a rare phenomenon and only few cases have been reported in children. We describe a case of spontaneous pneumomediastinum in adult infected with swine flu.