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Heavy metals, which have widespread environmental distribution and originate from natural and anthropogenic sources, are common environmental pollutants. In recent decades, their contamination has increased dramatically because of continuous discharge in sewage and untreated industrial effluents. Because they are non-degradable, they persist in the environment; accordingly, they have received a great deal of attention owing to their potential health and environmental risks. Although the toxic effects of metals depend on the forms and routes of exposure, interruptions of intracellular homeostasis include damage to lipids, proteins, enzymes and DNA via the production of free radicals. Following exposure to heavy metals, their metabolism and subsequent excretion from the body depends on the presence of antioxidants (glutathione, α-tocopherol, ascorbate, etc.) associated with the quenching of free radicals by suspending the activity of enzymes (catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase). Therefore, this review was written to provide a deep understanding of the mechanisms involved in eliciting their toxicity in order to highlight the necessity for development of strategies to decrease exposure to these metals, as well as to identify substances that contribute significantly to overcome their hazardous effects within the body of living organisms.

Context: The use of controlled vocabularies (CVs) aims to increase the quality of the specifications of the software requirements, by producing well-written documentation to reduce both ambiguities and complexity. Many studies suggest that defects introduced at the requirements engineering (RE) phase have a negative impact, significantly higher than defects in the later stages of the software development lifecycle. However, the knowledge we have about the impact of using CVs, in specific RE activities, is very scarce. Objective: To identify and classify the type of CVs, and the impact they have on the requirements engineering phase of software development. Method: A systematic mapping study, collecting empirical evidence that is published up to July 2019. Results: This work identified 2348 papers published pertinent to CVs and RE, but only 90 primary published papers were chosen as relevant. The process of data extraction revealed that 79 studies reported the use of ontologies, whereas the remaining 11 were focused on taxonomies. The activities of RE with greater empirical support were those of specification (29 studies) and elicitation (28 studies). Seventeen different impacts of the CVs on the RE activities were classified and ranked, being the two most cited: guidance and understanding (38%), and automation and tool support (22%). Conclusions: The evolution of the last 10 years in the number of published papers shows that interest in the use of CVs remains high. The research community has a broad representation, distributed across the five continents. Most of the research focuses on the application of ontologies and taxonomies, whereas the use of thesauri and folksonomies is less reported. The evidence demonstrates the usefulness of the CVs in all RE activities, especially during elicitation and specification, helping developers understand, facilitating the automation process and identifying defects, conflicts and ambiguities in the requirements. Collaboration in research between academic and industrial contexts is low and should be promoted.

Soil treatment methods to cope with ever-growing demands of construction industry and environmental aspects are always explored for their suitability in different in-situ conditions. Of late, enzyme induced calcite precipitation (EICP) is gaining importance as a reliable technique to improve soil properties and for contaminant remediation scenarios. In the present work, swelling and permeability characteristics of two native Indian cohesive soils (Black and Red) are explored. Experiments on the sorption and desorption of multiple heavy metals (Cd, Ni and Pb) onto these soils were conducted to understand the sorptive response of the heavy metals. To improve the heavy metal retention capacity and enhance swelling and permeability characteristics, the selected soils were treated with different enzyme solutions. The results revealed that EICP technique could immobilize the heavy metals in selected soils to a significant level and reduce the swelling and permeability. This technique is contaminant selective and performance varies with the nature and type of heavy metal used. Citric acid (C6H8O7) and ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) were used as extractants in the present study to study the desorption response of heavy metals for different EICP conditions. The results indicate that calcium carbonate (CaCO3) precipitate deposited in the voids of soil has the innate potential in reducing the permeability of soil up to 47-fold and swelling pressure by 4-fold at the end of 21 days of curing period. Reduction in permeability and swell, following EICP treatment can be maintained with one time rinsing of the treated soil in water to avoid dissolution of precipitated CaCO3. Outcomes of this study have revealed that EICP technique can be adopted on selected native soils to reduce swelling and permeability characteristics followed by enhanced contaminant remediation enabling their potential as excellent landfill liner materials.

High-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPVs) are the most prevalent viruses in human diseases including cervical cancers. Expression of E6 protein has already been reported in cervical cancer cases, excluding normal tissues. Continuous expression of E6 protein is making it ideal to develop therapeutic vaccines against hrHPVs infection and cervical cancer. Therefore, we carried out a meta-analysis of multiple hrHPVs to predict the most potential prophylactic peptide vaccines. In this study, immunoinformatics approach was employed to predict antigenic epitopes of hrHPVs E6 proteins restricted to 12 Human HLAs to aid the development of peptide vaccines against hrHPVs. Conformational B-cell and CTL epitopes were predicted for hrHPVs E6 proteins using ElliPro and NetCTL. The potential of the predicted peptides were tested and validated by using systems biology approach considering experimental concentration. We also investigated the binding interactions of the antigenic CTL epitopes by using docking. The stability of the resulting peptide-MHC I complexes was further studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The simulation results highlighted the regions from 46-62 and 65-76 that could be the first choice for the development of prophylactic peptide vaccines against hrHPVs. To overcome the worldwide distribution, the predicted epitopes restricted to different HLAs could cover most of the vaccination and would help to explore the possibility of these epitopes for adaptive immunotherapy against HPVs infections.

Background: The caregivers of persons with epilepsy and schizophrenia undergo severe emotional, physical, financial burden due to the nature, chronicity, disability, and stigma attached to the illness. Aim: To assess the burden and social support among caregivers of persons with schizophrenia and epilepsy. Method: The study was conducted at the Out Patient Department of LokopriyaGopinathBordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur. It was a comparative study. Purposive sampling technique was used for selection of the sample. The sample for the current study comprised of caregivers of 30 persons with schizophrenia and 30 persons suffering from epilepsy. A semi-structured socio-demographic data sheet, the Burden Assessment Schedule (BAS), the Social Support Questionnaire, and the General Health Questionnaire were administered to the caregivers. Results: There was no significant difference reported by the caregivers in the two groups with the entire domains of BAS and perceived social support. Physical and mental health, and caregivers’ strategy domains of BAS had significant negative correlation at 0.05 levels with perceived social support. External support, support of patient, taking responsibility, and other relation domains of BAS had significant negative correlation at the 0.01 level with perceived social support. Conclusion: While the two groups had no significant difference with the entire domains of BAS and perceived social support; physical and mental health, and caregivers’ strategy had significant negative correlation with perceived social support.

A case of a 40-year-old, Muslim woman, educated up to class IV, homemaker by profession, hailing from a lower socioeconomic background of Chirang district of Assam was referred to medical camp, with symptoms of reduced interest in daily activities, increased tension, fearfulness, with decreased amount of sleep and appetite. Psychiatric social work assessment showed that she had a frictional and conflicting relationship with her husband. Due to which her quality of life was compromised. On further assessment it was found that the client was having moderate level of functioning. Impact of Event Scale score suggested cutoff for a probable diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), consider consulting a mental health professional. The client was referred to a psychiatrist for further assessment and treatment, and she was diagnosed as PTSD. Later individual, marital, and group interventions were provided and moderate improvement in terms of self-esteem, reducing anxiety, and enhancing coping mechanism. The present case study prompts us to look at the intersection of mental health, disaster, and gender. Disasters have been taking place since time immemorial and will continue to occur. A significant percentage of survivors develop profound, debilitating posttraumatic stress reactions requiring extended mental health intervention. These extreme stress reactions include fear and irrational behaviour, shock, immobilisation, withdrawal, denial and intrusive thoughts, hyper-vigilance, easy startle, insomnia, decreased attention and concentration, and psycho-physiological reactions. The social work professionals have long been involved with disaster relief work, both at individual and community level.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of underlying fungus in nose and paranasal sinuses in patients present with nasal polyposis. METHODOLOGY: A total of 324 patients presented with nasal polyps were included in this study. Data collected from all the patients admitted in ENT department with diagnosis of nasal polyposis. All the relevant information about their presenting symptoms was recorded in a proforma. Post operatively the removed material was sent for histopathology and fungal culture. Later the findings of biopsy and culture reports were also recorded and analysed. RESULTS: Out of 324 patients 159 were males and 165 were females. Underlying fungus was present in 226(69.75%) and out of them, 102(45.13%) were males and 124(54.86%) were females with a P value of 0.039. The mean age was 25.95 ± 9.32 (15-45) years for the patient with fungus. Aspergillus was the commonest organism found. CONCLUSION: Underlying fungus was found in a significantly high number of patients presented with nasal polyps and Aspergillus was the commonest organism found.

Objective: to determine whether the administration of Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (CNTF) at the site of repaired facial nerve enhances regeneration in the adult sheep model. Methods: Ten adult sheep were divided into 2 groups: control and study group (CNTF group). In the CNTF group, the buccal branch of the facial nerve was transected and then repaired by epineural sutures. CNTF was injected over the left depressor labii maxillaris muscle in the vicinity of the transected and repaired nerve for 28 days under local anesthesia. In the CNTF group, the sheep were again anesthetized after nine months and the site of facial nerve repair was exposed. Detailed electrophysiological, tension experiments and morphometric studies were carried out and then analyzed statistically. Results: The skin CV min, refractory period, Jitter and tension parameters were marginally raised in the CNTF group than the control but the difference was statistically insignificant between the two groups. Morphometric indices also did not show any significant changes in the CNTF group. Conclusion: CNTF has no profound effect on neuronal regeneration of adult sheep animal model.

Remediation and management of Chromium (Cr) contaminated soils for safe usage has been a serious challenge. The aim of present work was to isolate and identify Cr tolerant bacterial strains and assessing their plant growth promoting potential under controlled conditions. Soil samples were collected from Gujrat District, Pakistan, and analyzed for Cr content and bacteria isolation. In-vitro screening was done for chromium tolerance and plant growth-promoting (PGP) abilities. The tolerant isolates which also exhibited PGP abilities were used as inoculants in germination and pot trial experiment. The isolates A5 and A6, identified as Pseudomonas plecoglossicida and Staphylococci saprophyticus through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, were found to be tolerant up to 700 mg L-1 of Cr (VI). Both were effective in solubilizing phosphate but only A5 (Pseudomonas plecoglossicida) was able to produce indole acetic acid. A5 also increased the percentage of seed germination from 17 to 46% and spinach plant’s biomass by 44% with respect to the control. Keeping in view the results obtained, A5 (Pseudomonas plecoglossicida) appeared as the best species that was able to tolerate Cr stress and promote plant growth. Further, it can be developed as a bio-inoculant for non-food agricultural applications for remediation of Cr contaminated soils.

Objectives: To define the role of endoscopic evaluation of middle meatus in adult patients clinically diagnosed to have chronic rhino-sinusitis and its ability to predict intra-sinus mucosal involvement as compared to CT scan.Methods: This prospective analytical study was conducted on consecutive patients with diagnosis of chronic rhino-sinusitis who were symptomatic and fulfilled the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Task Force criteria. The patients were enrolled prospectively and were subjected to rigid diagnostic nasal endoscopy and classified as defined by the revised Sinus Allergy Health Partnership Task Force criteria. The patients then underwent non contrast CT sinuses on the same day. Results were analyzed as a diagnostic test evaluation using CT as a gold standard.Results: Among the 75 study patients with symptom based chronic rhino-sinusitis, nasal endoscopy was abnormal in 65 patients (87%). Of these patients, 60/65 (92%) showed positive findings on CT scan. Ten patients had normal endoscopy, of these 6/10 (60%) had abnormal CT scan. Sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic nasal endoscopy against CT scan were 91% (95% CI: 81-97) and 44% (95% CI: 14-79), respectively. The likelihood ratio for positive nasal endoscopy to diagnose chronic rhino-sinusitis was 1.6 and the likelihood ratio to rule out chronic rhino-sinusitis when endoscopy was negative was 0.2.Conclusion: Nasal endoscopy is a valid and objective diagnostic tool in the work up of patients with symptomatic chronic rhino-sinusitis. When clinical suspicion is low (90% of patients when clinical suspicion is high (88%) as defined in this study by AAO-HNS Task Force criteria. Negative endoscopy, however, does not totally exclude the sinus disease in patients fulfilling task force criteria. CT scan may be needed on follow-up if there is clinical suspicion in 10% of these patients who are negative on endoscopy if symptoms persists. It is thus possible to reduce the number of CT scans if patients are carefully selected based on clinical criteria and endoscopy is done initially as part of their evaluation.

Background: Physiotherapy is an essentialtreatment in the management of Mechanical Neck ache, still there was lack of literature seen supporting the effectiveness of Physiotherapy interventions with their doses targeting specific group of population. The focus of study was to see the effectiveness of Kaltenborn Grade III mobilization, Muscle Energy Techniques and their combination to improve range and functional ability in patients with Mechanical Neck ache. Methods: 72 patients with Mechanical Neck achewere randomly categorized in 3 groups (Mobilization, METs and Combination group. NDI scale and goniometry was used as an assessment tool to measure the outcome before and after treatment (follow up 1 week). Results: According to the results there was significant improvement seen in Combination group (Mobilization and METs) in terms of pain, which decreased from 7.70±0.69 to 1.25±1.93 (p=0.00), gain in ROM e.g. Cervical Flexion (27.29±2.38 to 37.54±3.14). Whereas, marked significance (p=0.00) was seen in the NDI score and percentage of Combination group. ANOVA tells us that difference was significant in all three groups in categories of pain (VAS), gain in cervical ranges and NDI score and percentage as p=0.00. Combination group had significant difference within the groups then METs and Mobilization group in all categories of VAS, Cervical ranges, NDI score and percentage. Conclusion: Combination of (Grade III Kaltenborn and METs) was seen more effective in terms of improving Mechanical Neck Pain, in smaller treatment session (7 days only).

PURPOSE: To assess the frequency of specific point mutations in the K-ras gene in a group of Kashmiri patients with bladder cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the incidence of K-ras exon 1 gene mutations in tumors and surgical margins in 60 patients with transitional cell carcinoma of varied clinical stages and histological grades using the polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism and DNA sequencing. RESULTS: A significant correlation was found between the K-ras, the lymph node status, and tumor recurrence (P < 0.05). Also, smokers and patients with higher tumor grade showed a significantly higher relative risk of developing K-ras mutations than the normal ones. CONCLUSION: K-ras exon 1 gene mutations were found with low frequency in the bladder cancer tumors from Kashmir valley, which suggests that K-ras gene might be involved in a sub-set of bladder tumors, but it needs further investigation on a larger cohort sample to authenticate the current findings.

This paper presents the design, implementation and characterization of a hardware platform for Fuel Management System (FMS) for fuel carrying vehicles. The primary design goal is to devise a system capable of monitoring the fuel level in real time. This system is proposed for fuel carrying road tankers which carry fuel from oil depots to end users such as petrol-stations. This system is based on hardware as well as software. The hardware part consists of fuel level circuits, on-board Arduino, GSM and GPS modules. While the software part consists of LabView for Database purposes. This system offers an Automatic Electronic System (AES) which replaces manual monitoring of fuel. This system measures fuel volume and sends measured volume to the owner’s mobile as well as owner’s computer through GSM network. It also provides a technique for detecting theft or fraud incidents in case of fuel theft or fuel leakage. Additionally the system can track the location of each fuel carrying tanker in order to locate the place of any incident that could have occurred. This system allows for an automated analysis and monitoring of fuel level, having a reduced cost due to affordable and easy-to-acquire electronic components.

Background: Life satisfaction and perceived social support been shown to improve the well-being of a person and also affect the outcome of treatment in somatization disorder. The phenomenon of somatization was explored in relation to the perceived social support and life satisfaction. Aim: This study aimed at investigating perceived social support and life satisfaction in people with somatization disorder. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on persons having somatization disorder attending the outpatient unit of LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam. Satisfaction with life scale and multidimensional scale of perceived social support were used to assess life satisfaction and perceived social support respectively. Results: Women reported more somatic symptoms than men. Family perceived social support was high in the patient in comparison to significant others′ perceived social support and friends′ perceived social support. Perceived social support showed that a significant positive correlation was found with life satisfaction. Conclusion: Poor social support and low life satisfaction might be a stress response with regard to increased distress severity and psychosocial stressors rather than a cultural response to express psychological problems in somatic terms.

Objective: To determine the frequency of risk factors associated with road traffic accidents of motorbike in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the two tertiary care hospitals (Civil Hospital andJinnah Postgraduate Medical Center) of Karachi, Pakistan. All male motorbike accident victims presented to theemergency department of the selected hospital, who gave consent, were included in the study. Patients under age 15years and do not understand Urdu language were excluded. Information was collected through a pretested questionnaire. Results: A total of 127 accident cases from respected hospitals were included in the study. Most (76%) of the accidentcases were younger than 33 years. Approximately, 49% of the participants were riding the bikes without driving license.Nearly, 43% never used helmet during riding. Approximately, 21% were reported that they were chewing tobacco atthe time of accident. Majority (71%) of the accidents occurred on the working days. Almost 61% of the accidentsoccurredin the evening time. In 43% of the cases, speed of the motorbikes was more than 50 km/hour. Nearly, 31% ofthe victims were riding along with their friends/family members. Majority (72%) of the accidents occurred on the mainroads. Approximately 45 % of the accident cases had fracture. Approximately, 34% of the injuries were severe andlower extremity was involved in 36% of cases. About, 38 % of the victims reported that they were in depressed moodswhile riding bike. Conclusion: Mental depression, young age and lack of driving expertise were the major risk factors for motor bike accidents.

A three-phase squirrel-cage induction motor is used as a propulsion system of an electric vehicle (EV). Two different control methods have been designed. The first is based on the conventional DTC Scheme adapted for three level inverter. The second is based on the application of fuzzy logic controller to the DTC scheme. The motor is controlled at different operating conditions using a FLC based DTC technique. In the simulation the novel proposed technique reduces the torque and current ripples. The EV dynamics are taken into account.

Aim: Overall aim of the study was to see parent-child relationship in children of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 30 alcoholic and 30 non-alcoholic parents and their children taken from Kanke Block of Ranchi district. The sample was selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Socio-demographic data sheet and Parent Child Relationship Scale (Rao, 1978) were administered to the children. Results: In a child′s perception of father in various domains of parent-child relationship, significant difference at P < 0.01 was found in the domain of symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward in loving and neglecting, and in child′s perception of the mother. Significant difference at P < 0.01 was found in the domain of symbolic punishment, rejecting, object punishment, indifferent and in neglecting. Conclusion: The result showed that the children of alcoholic parents tended to have more symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward loving and in neglecting than children of non alcoholic parents.

In order to explore the possibility of using low-lime fly ashes, the physical and chemical properties which have a direct bearing on their geotechnical and geoenvironmental behaviors have been investigated. In this paper, two types of low-lime fly ashes, originating from India, have been used. A brief account of various methods adopted in characterizing their physical, chemical, and geotechnical properties is presented. The relative importance of each of these properties in enhancing the bulk applicability of fly ashes has been brought out.