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Rapid prototyping of devices using exfoliated Molybednum di-Sulphide (MoS2) and Molybdenum di-Selenide (MoSe2) requires an experimental protocol for maximizing the probability of realizing flakes with desired physical dimension and properties. In this work, we analyzed the size and thickness distribution of MoS2 and MoSe2 single crystalline flakes exfoliated using anodic bonding technique and established a correlation between physical dimension of the flakes and the bonding parameters. Anodic bonding was carried out by applying a fixed voltage of 200 V with a set temperature of 150 °C for four different bonding time intervals. On analyzing the flake parameters from the four anodic bonded substrates using the optical and atomic force microscopy, it is found that the probability of getting flakes with large lateral size (>200 μm) increases as the bonding time interval is increased. Most of these large sized flakes have thickness of more than one hundred mono-layers and a tiny fraction of them have thickness of the order of few monolayers. A similar trend was also observed for MoSe2 single crystals. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique in rapid prototyping, ultra thin MoS2 flakes was directly bridged between two ITO electrodes and their transport properties was investigated. Micro-Raman and photoluminescence studies were taken on selected regions of the thicker and thinner exfoliated flakes and their physical properties are compared.

Herein we report a facile and low cost Sol-Gel method was adapted to design and fabricate highly efficient ZnS photocatalyst. The zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin films have been prepared at different annealing temperatures (200, 300 and 400 °C) and annealing temperatures 400 °C was optimized for Manganese (Mn) doped ZnS (Zn1-x Mnx S) (10 wt%) thin films. The effect of annealing temperature and Mn doping on the structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of ZnS thin films were investigated in detail by using XRD, FESEM, EDS, UV–Vis., PL, XPS and N2 adsorption-desorption analysis. XRD pattern exhibited hexagonal crystal structure for prepared samples and average particle size was increased from 25 to 47 nm with increasing annealing temperature and Mn doping. FESEM images revealed that nanoflake like morphology for annealed samples further it’s found to disappear for Mn doped ZnS samples. The presence Mn2+ ions into ZnS lattice was found from EDS and XPS analysis. Optical properties was analyzed by using UV–Vis. and PL studies and it’s found photogenerated recombination process and surface related defects with considerable red shift within the absorption edge and significant narrowing the band gap energy of undoped ZnS by increased annealing temperature with Mn doping. The large surface area with mesopores nature and tuning the optical property in the visible light region could be improve the rapid photo degradation efficiency of methylene blue dye (MB) under stimulated visible light enlightenment. The ZnS:Mn thin films annealed at 400 °C catalyst showed excellent photodegradation efficiency (99%), good stability with better first order kinetic and easy reusability towards MB dye, furthermore the effect of annealing temperature and Mn doping for the enhanced photo catalytic mechanisms by visible light was also discussed.

Vertically-aligned ZnO nanorods were grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates at different bath temperatures. This method has been effectively applied to fabricate efficient nanorod based photo-anodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Photovoltaic performance of the cell was found to be enhanced on the bath temperature used to synthesize nanorods. Crystallinity and morphology of the prepared ZnO nanorod has been studied using X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UV–Visible spectroscopy and Current–Voltage (J–V) measurements. The effect of bath temperature on the photovoltaic performance was investigated under one-sun illumination. The photo-energy conversion efficiency (PCEs) shows that DSSCs prepared at lower bath temperature shows better performance than those prepared at higher bath temperature.

The effect of viscosity on the behavior of a non-equilibrium bubble is investigated experimentally, in two scenarios; firstly, when the bubble is generated in the bulk of the fluid (termed as “free-field” bubble) and secondly when the bubble is generated near a free-surface (termed as “free-surface” bubble). The bubble is created using a low-voltage spark circuit and its dynamics is captured using a high-speed camera with backlit illumination. The viscosity of the surrounding fluid is varied by using different grades of silicone oil. For a “free-field” bubble, the bubble oscillates radially and as the viscosity of the liquid increases, the number of oscillations, as well as the time period of each oscillation, are increased. At high viscosities, the bubble also becomes stable and does not disintegrate into smaller bubbles. The volumetric oscillations also show good agreement with the Rayleigh-Plesset model incorporating energy loss and viscous effects. For “free-surface” bubbles, two parameters, namely, the initial distance of the bubble from the free-surface and the viscosity of the surrounding fluid are varied. It is observed that beyond a certain initial distance of the bubble from the free-surface, the bubble behaves as a “free-field” bubble with negligible influence of the free-surface on its dynamics. This limiting initial distance decreases as the liquid viscosity is increased and is not dependent on the bubble radius. For these bubbles, different behaviors of the free-surface in each liquid are also presented for distances up to the limiting initial distance. These free-surface behaviors are classified into four different regions on a plot of the Reynolds number (based on the bubble expansion) versus the non-dimensional distance of the bubble from the free-surface.

The use of antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) in low-resource environments is sporadic. Further, drug choice, dose, and route of ACS are not optimized. We report the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of oral dosing of ACS using a preterm sheep model.We measured pharmacokinetics of oral betamethasone-phosphate (Beta-P) and dexamethasone-phosphate (Dex-P) using catheterized pregnant sheep. We compared fetal lung maturation responses of oral Beta-P and Dex-P to the standard treatment with 2 doses of the i.m. mixture of Beta-P and betamethasone-acetate at 2, 5, and 7 days after initiation of ACS.Oral Dex-P had lower bioavailability than Beta-P, giving a lower maximum maternal and fetal concentration. A single oral dose of 0.33 mg/kg of Beta-P was equivalent to the standard clinical treatment assessed at 2 days; 2 doses of 0.16 mg/kg of oral Beta-P were equivalent to the standard clinical treatment at 7 days as assessed by lung mechanics and gas exchange after preterm delivery and ventilation. In contrast, oral Dex-P was ineffective because of its decreased bioavailability.Using a sheep model, we demonstrate the use of pharmacokinetics to develop oral dosing strategies for ACS. Oral dosing is feasible and may facilitate access to ACS in low-resource environments.

Let G be an almost simple, simply connected algebraic group over the field $$\mathbb {C}$$ of complex numbers. Let B be a Borel subgroup of G containing a maximal torus T of G, and let W be the Weyl group defined by T. The Borel group B determines a subset of simple reflections in W. For w in W, we let $$Z(w,\underline{i})$$ be the Bott–Samelson–Demazure–Hansen variety corresponding to a reduced expression $$\underline{i}$$ of w as a product of these simple reflections. In this article, we study the geometric invariant theoretic quotient of $$Z(w,\underline{i})$$ for the T-linearized ample line bundles.

In Cuddalore district, paddy is the major cereal crop. Some part of Vridhachalam, Parangipettai, Nallur and Mangalore blocks of Cuddalore district soils are affected by saline and sodic soil resulting in low productivity in paddy. In order to enhance the yield in saline and sodic, efforts were taken to identify suitable rice varieties. The present field-oriented research was done under the close supervision of soil scientist of Farm Science Centre through organizing On-Farm Trails (Assessment) at five different locations. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of paddy varieties in salt affected soils of Cuddalore district. The blocks having desired EC, pH and ESP were taken for the assessment of rice varieties. Keeping the parameters mentioned earlier, Parangipettai and Vridhachalam block of Cuddalore district was opted for the study.Uniform cultural practices were applied to all the varieties up to maturity. Proper plant protection measures were taken according to the incidence of pest and diseases. The on-Farm Testing consist of three paddy variety viz., BPT 5204 (Farmer practice), TRY 3 and Gangavathi Sona-05-01 as test varieties were taken for assessment. The results showed that paddy variety TRY 3 recorded maximum yield, yield attributes and net return when compared to Gangavathi sona and farmer’s practice. TRY 3 paddy variety registered highest yield of 6.37 t/ha followed by Gangavathi sona 05-01 (5.57 t/ha) and BPT 5204 (5.38 t/ha). TRY 3 recorded 18.40 per cent higher yield over farmer’s practice and 14.36 per cent over Gangavathi sona. Net return was recorded maximum of in TRY 3 followed by Gangavathi sona 05-01 and BPT 5204. TRY 3 recorded 32.40 per cent higher net return over farmer’s practice and 23.71 per cent over Gangavathi sona. The trial farmers expressed that, TRY 3 performed comparatively better than other two varieties in respect of major diseases like bacterial blight and blast. To conclude, TRY 3 variety can be recommended for salt affected soils based on the study result.

Antenatal corticosteroids (ANS) are the major intervention to decrease respiratory distress syndrome and mortality from premature birth and are standard of care. The use of ANS is expanding to include new indications and gestational ages, although the recommended dosing was never optimized. The most widely used treatment is two intramuscular doses of a 1:1 mixture of betamethasone-phosphate (Beta-P) and betamethasone-acetate (Beta-Ac) – the clinical drug. We tested in a primate model the efficacy of the slow release Beta-Ac alone for enhancing fetal lung maturation and to reduce fetal corticosteroid exposure and potential toxic effects. Pregnant rhesus macaques at 127 days of gestation (80% of term) were treated with either the clinical drug (0.25 mg/kg) or Beta-Ac (0.125 mg/kg). Beta-Ac alone increased lung compliance and surfactant concentration in the fetal lung equivalently to the clinical drug. By transcriptome analyses the early suppression of genes associated with immune responses and developmental pathways were less affected by Beta-Ac than the clinical drug. Promoter and regulatory analysis prediction identified differentially expressed genes targeted by the glucocorticoid receptor in the lung. At 5 days the clinical drug suppressed genes associated with neuronal development and differentiation in the fetal hippocampus compared to control, while low dose Beta-Ac alone did not. A low dose ANS treatment with Beta-Ac should be assessed for efficacy in human trials.

We determine the Verma multiplicities and the characters of projective modules for atypical blocks in the BGG Category O for the general linear Lie superalgebras gl ( 2 | 2 ) and gl ( 3 | 1 ) . We then explicitly determine the composition factor multiplicities of Verma modules in the atypicality 2 block of gl ( 2 | 2 ) .

The GST was launched at midnight on 1 July 2017 by the President of India, PranabMukherjee, and the Government of India. The launch was marked by a historic midnight (30 June – 1 July) session of both the houses of parliament convened at the Central Hall of the Parliament. Goods and services are divided into five tax slabsfor collection of tax - 0%, 5%, 12%,18% and 28%. However, Petroleum products,alcoholic drinks, electricity, and real estate are not taxed under GST and insteadare taxed separately by the individual state governments, as per the previous taxregime. There is a special rate of 0.25% on rough precious and semi-preciousstones and 3% on gold.[1] In addition a cess of 22% or other rates on top of 28%GST applies on few items like aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco products.Pre-GST, the statutory tax rate for most goods was about 26.5%, Post-GST, most goods are expected to be in the 18% tax range. The single GST subsumed severaltaxes and levies which included: central excise duty, services tax, additional customsduty, surcharges, state-level value added tax and Octroi. Other levies which wereapplicable on inter-state transportation of goods have also been done away within GST regime. GST is levied on all transactions such as sale, transfer, purchase,barter, lease, or import of goods and/or services. The GST is imposed at variablerates on variable items. The rate of GST is 18% for soaps and 28% on washingdetergents. GST on movie tickets is based on slabs, with 18% GST for tickets thatcost less than Rs. 100 and 28% GST on tickets costing more than Rs.100 and 5% onreadymade clothes. The rate on under-construction property booking is 12% Someindustries and products were exempted by the government and remain untaxed under GST, such as dairy products, products of milling industries, fresh vegetables& fruits, meat products, and other groceries and necessities.&nbsp

Though oseltamivir and zanamivir are the active anti-influenza drugs, the emergence of different strains of influenza A virus with mutations creates drug-resistance to these drugs. Therefore, it is essential to find a suitable approach to stop the viral infection. The present study focuses on understanding the conformational changes of the HA2 protein at different pH levels (pH 7, pH 6, pH 5) and on blocking the low pH-induced conformational changes of the HA2 protein with a suitable ligand using molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation methods. As the pH value decreases to pH 5, the protein undergoes large conformational changes with less stability in the order of pH 7 pH 6 pH 5. The fusion peptide (residues 1-20) and the extended loop (residues 58-75) deviate more at pH 5. The ligand stachyflin bound between the N- and C-terminal helix regions retains the stability of the HA2 protein at pH 5 and blocks the low pH-induced conformational transition. The performance of stachyflin is increased when it directly interacts with residues at the intramonomer binding site rather than the intermonomer binding site. The susceptibility of the HA2 protein of different subtypes to stachyflin is in the order of H1 H7 H5 H2 H3. Stachflin has a higher binding affinity for H1 (at pH 7, pH 6, pH 5) and H7 subtypes than others. Lys47, Lys58, and Glu103 are the key residues that favor the binding and highly stabilize the HA2 protein at low pH. Graphical abstract Low pH-induced conformational change of influenza HA2 protein.

Upper aerodigestive tract involvement with tuberculosis is relatively rare and may be seen in up to 2% of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Isolated tonsil involvement with tuberculosis is not commonly seen in clinical practice. We report a case of a 22-year-old postpartum mother who presented with odynophagia, fever, loss of weight and submandibular swelling of 3 months’ duration. Clinical examination revealed a submandibular node, and oropharyngeal examination revealed necrotic slough overlying an enlarged left tonsil. Fine-needle aspiration cytology of the node and histopathological examination of the left tonsillectomy specimen revealed necrotising epithelioid cell granulomas, and stain for acid-fast bacilli was positive in the latter. She was diagnosed with tonsillar tuberculosis and was started on antituberculous treatment following which she improved clinically. This case serves to demonstrate an uncommon presentation of primary tuberculosis and reminds us to consider tuberculosis also as a microbiological aetiology for tonsillitis.

Maximal Frequent Patterns can be mined using breadth-first search or depth-first search. The pure BFS algorithms work well when all maximal frequent itemsets are short. The pure DFS algorithms work well when all maximal frequent itemsets are long. Both the pure BFS and pure DFS techniques will not be efficient, when the dataset contains some of long maximal frequent itemsets and some of short maximal frequent itemsets. Efficient pruning techniques are required to mine MFI from these kinds of datasets. An algorithm (MFIMiner) using Breadth-First search with efficient pruning mechanism that competently mines both long and short maximal frequent itemsets is proposed in this paper. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated and compared with GenMax and Mafia algorithms for T40I10D100K, T10I4D100K, and Retail dataset. The result shows that the proposed algorithm has significant improvement than existing algorithms for sparse datasets.

This paper explains about the evaluation and rehabilitation of a severely fire-affected post-tensioned flat slab without demolition. The portion under rehabilitation was a post-tensioned slab in the ground floor of a tower with 3 Basements + Ground + 13 floors, to be used as office space. The post-tensioned flat slab was designed with isolated drop panels. The building was designed to resist gravity and lateral loading with a combination of reinforced concrete columns and shear walls. The flat slab had suffered various levels of damages including spalling of concrete with the bottom un-tensioned reinforced and pre-stressing tendon exposed. Columns in the affected area also had significant damages due to exposure to the high temperature. The total affected area of the floor was around 500 m2 including four columns. The damaged face of the flat slab and all faces of the column were chipped to remove the loose and delaminated concrete. The strength of the existing concrete and reinforcement was ascertained with core cuts, TGA and DTA tests and cut samples. Based on the results, a comprehensive retrofit plan was drawn up without the need to pull down the affected slab. The rehabilitation involved change of the design basis from isolated drop panels to formation of a continuous drop connecting the columns in the affected area. The design utilised the residual strength available in the concrete, un-tensioned and pre-tensioned reinforcements. Self-compacting concrete with mineral and chemical admixtures was used for forming the retrofit zone and was placed from above the existing affected slab. Shear connection between existing and new concrete was created with chemical grouted dowel reinforcements. The entire rehabilitated slab and column was grouted with low viscous epoxy grout to seal the micropores and restore normalcy to the slab. The complete rehabilitation of the area was done without any change in the intended design capacity and with the most optimum and economical solution.

The proposed work involves an exclusive study on the synthesis protocol, crystal structure analysis, and imaging contrast features of unique lanthanide phosphates (LnPO

The structural and bioactivity features of alumina zirconia composite (AZC) due to Ca

Mechanical strength and biocompatibility are considered the main prerequisites for materials in total hip replacement or joint prosthesis. Noninvasive surgical procedures are necessary to monitor the performance of a medical device in vivo after implantation. To this aim, simultaneous Gd

The proposed work aims to recommend relevant hash-tags from social media posts and blog posts related to food, recipes and other popular domains using topic word-embeddings. These hash-tags can be used in turn to give food item/recipe as the user requires. For topic modeling a machine learning approach called LDA(Latent Dirichlet Allocation) is used. The method treats the social media posts as a corpus of words and applies a topic modeling to generate the relevant hash-tags. The hash-tags recommended are cross validated with a word embedding model developed from the Wikipedia corpus to check the accuracy of the recommendation system. This algorithm is further tested on posts that do not contain hash-tags to recommend new relevant hash-tags for the same.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are an important emerging threat to cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In North America, where the incidence of NTM in CF patients is ≥11.8%, Mycobacterium abscessus complex (MABSC), a multidrug-resistant NTM, accounts for ∼35% of these [1], is notoriously recognised as difficult to eradicate, and seriously affects morbidity and mortality in CF [2] as well as lung transplantation outcomes [3, 4]. The mechanisms for the increased incidence of MABSC infection in CF patients are not known. The immune response in CF patients is directed to the Th2 response, which is associated with poorer clinical outcome and accelerated decline in lung function. This Th2 pattern is associated with diminished interferon-γ production and lesser activation of macrophages. One activator of macrophages is granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), the Toll-like receptor activation of which includes phagocytosis, bactericidal activity, oxidative burst and cell adhesion in macrophages [5]. Two experimental findings support the plausibility that reduced GM-CSF-elicited macrophage activation may contribute to NTM and MABSC infection in CF. First, alveolar macrophages from in GM-CSF−/− mice exhibit defective phagocytosis, bacterial killing and reduced H2O2 production [6]. Second, although wild-type mouse models of M. abscessus pulmonary infection show limited morbidity and are limited in their usefulness to study NTM therapy GM-CSF knockout models of M. abscessus infection, mice either succumbed to the acute infection or the infection persisted to a chronic stage in the absence of exogenous GM-CSF [7]. Previously, we [8] and others have reported the successful use of inhaled GM-CSF to treat autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis and metastatic lung metastases [9] without toxicity. Herein, we treated two CF patients with M. abscessus who were experiencing a decline in pulmonary function and clinical stability., Inadequate innate GM-CSF may underlie the nontuberculous mycobacterium infection in cystic fibrosis http://ow.ly/26n330iggNJ

Experiments were conducted to develop a high seed yielding Pongamia pinnata clone through cleft grafting and to estimate the grafting compatibility, survival and growth attributes of grafted plant over a period of seven weeks besides assessing the survival percentage, plant height (cm), number of leaves in the grafted clones in comparison with check under rain fed field conditions. The results in the nursery stage exhibited good graft compatibility, higher survival percentage (93.0 per cent) and more number of sprouts (26.6) in grafted plants. Biometric observations recorded in the field at 4 MAP (Months After Planting) revealed that the initial height growth and the number of leaves in the grafted plants (61.9cm; 285.6) was more than the check (42.9cm; 121.4) while at 12 MAP, survival percentage and 4 years and 6 months after planting survival percentage, height, basal diameter, dbh, number of primary branches and percentage of flowering tree was more in the check under rain fed ecosystem.

The issue of balance between the benefits of greater renewable penetration with the cost of adapting conventional base load systems is drawing the attention of power system planners across the globe. The study region, State of Tamilnadu, India, faces acute power shortages and frequent power cuts, though the installed capacity of the state is higher than the peak demand and is planning more solar additions. The impact of the inclusion of solar power plants is analyzed, for 6-year and 14-year planning horizons, using the model formulated, integrating all critical elements of the system, employing Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. A balanced approach is adopted to understand the long term impact of solar additions by realistically imposing Total Emission Reductions Constraints (TERC), and Emission Treatment Penalty Costs (ETPC) on the remaining portion of pollution. The sensitivity of the system generation mix and the system reliability, to different solar power development and emissions reduction scenarios is also studied. The resulting variations in different cost components are also reported. The study will have greater utility for the planners who are currently involved in the long term planning of systems expected to have increasing proportion of RET plants.

Background & objectives: Sepsis due to multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens is a challenge for clinicians and microbiologists and has led to use of parenteral colistin. There is a paucity of data regarding safety and efficacy of intravenous colistin use in neonates. The objective of this retrospective analysis was to study the efficacy and safety of intravenous colistin in the treatment of neonatal sepsis. Methods: An audit of the data from neonates, admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital during January 2012 to December 2012, and who received intravenous colistin was carried out. Results: Sixty two neonates received intravenous colistin (52 preterm and 10 term) for the treatment of pneumonia, bloodstream infections and meningitis. The isolated pathogens in decreasing order of frequency were Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Of the total 62 neonates, 41 (66.12%) survived and 21 (33.87%) died. Significantly higher mortality was observed in neonates with lower body weights (P < 0.05). A significant association of mortality was found in those with sepsis due to Klebsiella species. Only one of seven with this infection survived as against 15 of the 23 who grew other organisms [P = 0.03; crude odds ratio = 11.25 (1.2, 110.5)]. None of the neonates developed neurotoxicity or nephrotoxicity. Interpretation & conclusions: This retrospective study in neonates with sepsis showed that intravenous colistin was safe and effective in the treatment of neonatal sepsis. Further, well–controlled, prospective clinical trials need to be done to corroborate these findings.

Introduction Off-label drug use is commonly reported in various disciplines of medicine. Considering the lacunae of studies from prescribers in the Indian subcontinent, the present study was conducted to explore their awareness and views of off-label drug use. Methods A validated questionnaire was administered to interns, junior residents and faculty members who were recruited in the present study of various medical and surgical departments of Subharti Medical College, Meerut, India, a tertiary care teaching hospital. Descriptive statistics was used for analyzing the data. Results A total of 59/85 (69%) stated that they have used a drug in an off-label manner mainly [31/85 (36.5%)] related to indications. Nearly half of the study participants (41/85, 48.2%) considered prescribing an off-label drug illegal and only 25/85 (29.3%) participants felt that they had adequate knowledge regarding the use of drugs in off-label manner. Out of the total 70 participants who answered the question related to informing parents/relatives while prescribing an off label drug, only 39/70 (55.7%) answered affirmative. Out of the remaining 31/70 (44.3%) of participants who did not inform about prescribing an off label drug, 9/31 (29%) felt that it was illegal and more than two-third (24/31, 77%) felt their knowledge on off-label drug use was insufficient. Surprisingly, 74/82 (90.2%) participants felt that a drug approved to be used in adults cannot be used in children for the same indication despite not having any alternative in pediatric age group. Conclusion We found an inadequate knowledge regarding the off-label drug use amongst the prescribers in a tertiary care medical college hospital. Many of the physicians felt such use as illegal and do not inform the patient's relatives about such acts. Considering the legal issues, clearly there exists a need to patch up this lacuna in developing countries like India.

Genetic and environmental factors contribute to the onset and severity of asthma. Molecular pathogenesis of asthma involves changes in gene expression by a variety of inflammatory mediators acting in autocrine and paracrine fashion on effector cells of the airways. Transcriptional regulation of gene expression in resident airway cells has been studied extensively. However, protein function in a target cell can be regulated at multiple levels starting from transcription followed by post-transcription, translation, and post-translation steps. In this context, small noncoding RNAs known as microRNAs (miRNAs) have evolved as one of the key regulators of gene expression post-transcriptionally. Most importantly, miRNA expression is dynamic in nature and can be regulated by a variety of external stimuli. Altered expression of individual or a group of miRNAs is thought to contribute to human diseases. Recent studies have implicated differential expression of miRNAs in the lungs during inflammation. Most importantly, advanced biochemical and molecular tools could be used to manipulate miRNA expression thereby effecting functional changes in target cells and organ systems. This review summarizes the current understanding of miRNA in the regulation of airway function in health and disease, and highlights the potential clinical utility of mRNAs as biomarkers of airway diseases and as potential therapeutic targets.

Background Direct to physician advertisements and direct to consumer advertisement (DTCA) is a well-known marketing strategy of pharmaceutical companies. Studies from the West and also from the Indian sub-continent revealed several lacunae in such advertisements. Objectives The present study was carried out to understand the international and national scenario regarding the lacunae in drug advertisements and the opinion of both physicians and patients regarding DTCA. Methods The present study was conducted after obtaining approval from the institutional ethics committee. Warning letters (WLs) issued to pharmaceutical companies by United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) due to discrepancies in the advertisements were analyzed for reasons that were grouped into one of the following categories: overstatement of efficacy; unapproved indication; lack of adequate directions to use; omission of adverse effects; misleading claims; advertisement made for an unapproved drug (investigational new product). Drug advertisements in Current Index of Medical Specialties (CIMS) April-July 2014 issue was also analyzed for lacunae depending on categories as mentioned above. Physicians and patients in a tertiary care medical college and hospital were administered a validated questionnaire exploring their views about crucial aspects of DTCA. Descriptive statistics was used for each of the categories. Results A total of 93 WLs issued by USFDA and 36 by TGA were assessed. Majority of the WLs by USFDA were issued for omission of adverse effects (61/93, 65.6%) followed by misleading claims (54/93, 58.1%). Similarly, WLs by TGA were also mainly issued for the presence of misleading claims (35/36, 97.2%) followed by overstatement of efficacy (26/36, 72.2%) and CIMS evaluation had revealed that 78/92 (84.8%) advertisements omitted adverse effects, 20/92 (21.7%) had misleading claims, 9/92 (9.8%) had unapproved indications and 7/92 (7.6%) overstated the efficacy. With regard to the opinion regarding DTCA, 69.9% physicians had a patient discussing DTCA that was clinically inappropriate. One hundred (64.5%) out of 155 physicians opined that DTCA encourage patients to attend physicians regarding preventive healthcare. On the contrary, 82/155 (52.9%) physicians felt that DTCA would damage the same. Similarly, 69 out of the total 100 patients felt that drug advertisements aid them to have better discussions with their treating physicians. Surprisingly, a large majority (91/100) were of the opinion that only safe drugs are allowed to be advertised. Conclusion To conclude, from the findings of this study both the physicians and patients should be cautious and not overzealous while dealing with drug advertisements or promotional literature. More stringent scrutiny and issue of WLs or blacklisting of indulging pharmaceutical companies are mandatory by the regulatory agency to contain the same.

BACKGROUND: Intrauterine Candida albicans infection causes severe fetal inflammatory responses and fetal injury in an ovine model. We hypothesized that intra-amniotic antifungal therapy with fluconazole would decrease the adverse fetal effects of intra-amniotic C albicans in sheep. METHODS: Sheep received an intra-amniotic injection of 10(7) colony-forming units C albicans. After 2 d, animals were then randomized to: (i) intra-amniotic and fetal intra peritoneal saline with delivery after 24 h (3 d C. albicans group); (ii) intra-amniotic and fetal intraperitoneal injections of fluconazole with delivery after either 24h (3 d C. albicans plus 1 d fluconazole group) or 72h (5 d C. albicans plus 3 d fluconazole group). Controls received intra-amniotic injections of saline followed by intra-amniotic and fetal intraperitoneal fluconazole injections. RESULTS: Intra-amniotic C. albicans caused severe fetal inflammatory responses characterized by decreases in lymphocytes and platelets, an increase in posterior mediastinal lymph node weight and proinflammatory mRNA responses in the fetal lung, liver, and spleen. Fluconazole treatment temporarily decreased the pulmonary and chorioamnion inflammatory responses. CONCLUSION: The severe fetal inflammatory responses caused by intra-amniotic C albicans infection were transiently decreased with fluconazole. A timely fetal delivery of antimicrobial agents may prevent fetal injury associated with intrauterine infection.

Memristors are an attractive option for use in future memory architectures but are prone to high defect densities due to the nondeterministic nature of nanoscale fabrication. Several works discuss memristor fault models and testing. However, none of them considers the memristor as a multilevel cell (MLC). The ability of memristors to function as an MLC allows for extremely dense, low-power memories. Using a memristor as an MLC introduces fault mechanisms that cannot occur in typical two-level memory cells. In this paper, we develop fault models for memristor-based MLC crossbars. The typical approach to testing a memory subsystem entails testing one memory cell at a time. However, this testing strategy is time consuming and does not scale for dense, memristor memories. We propose an efficient testing technique that exploits sneak-paths inherent in crossbar memories to test several memory cells simultaneously. In this paper, we integrate solutions for detecting and locating faults in memristors. We develop a power aware built-in self-test solution to detect these faults. We also propose a hybrid diagnosis scheme that uses a combination of sneak-path and March testing to reduce diagnosis time. The proposed schemes enable and leverage sneak-paths during fault detection and diagnosis modes, while disabling sneak-paths during normal operation. The proposed hybrid scheme reduces fault detection and diagnosis time by 24.69% and 28%, respectively, compared to traditional March tests.

This study aims to provide an accurate and realistic prediction model for electricity demand using population, imports, exports, per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and per capita Gross National Income (GNI) data for India. Four different models were used for different combinations of the above five input variables and the effect of input variables on the estimation of electricity demand has been demonstrated. In order to train the network 29 years data and to test the network 9 years data have been used. The future electricity demand for a period of 8 years from 2013 to 2020 has been predicted. The performance of the ANFIS technique is proved to be better than Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN).

Background: Our previous study showed that overexpression of cyclin D1 protein is associated with poor prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Regarding the alteration in the transactivating pathway regulating cyclin D1 expression is still unclear in OSCC from our population. Objectives: The major objective of this study is to understand the alteration associated with the transactivation pathway regulating the cyclin D1 overexpression in OSCC patients from our population. Materials and Methods: Alteration in the transactivation pathway regulating cyclin D1 expression was evaluated in tumor sample from OSCC patients. The findings were further validated using in vitro knockdown model in OSCC cell line. Results: Results from the patients' samples showed that the Phospho-STAT3 has a significant association with cyclin D1 overexpression in OSCC tumor samples. Further knockdown in vitro studies using SCC66 showed a significant correlation between STAT3 and cyclin D1 in OSCC. Conclusion: The results from this study showed that in our population the cyclin D1 overexpression is associated with hyperactivation of STAT3 pathway. Our previous result has shown that the cyclin D1 protein overexpression is associated with poor prognosis in OSCC patients. Hence, STAT3 pathway will be better target for the patients with increased cyclin D1 in OSCC patients from our population.

Sleep deprivation is one of the various stress factors which may affect the efficiency of an anaesthitist. Cognitive functions play a vital role in safe anaesthetic practice. To assess the effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive functions, forty anaesthesia residents were tested using various tests in two planned situations. 'Situation I' comprised of non sleep deprived state and 'Situation II' was the sleep deprived state defined as 'less than 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours'. The tests used were Trail making task, Digit symbol test, Letter comparison test and Standard progressive matrices. There was a statistically significant decrease in the performance scores after sleep deprivation. It is concluded that acute sleep deprivation adversely affects cognitive functions.

Aims Childhood obesity is a growing global health burden. Prescribing medications for this cohort has until now relied on empirical experience with no set guidelines to inform drug dose calculations. Standard body weight calculated dosages have led to supratherapeutic doses commonly being prescribed. Recent research has highlighted the need for a new body weight adjusted approach to prescribing. This project aimed to evaluate whether these recent developments are being translated into practice to provide safe and appropriate doses in children over the 91 st percentile for BMI (Body Mass Index) Methods We chose 6 drugs (aciclovir, aminophylline, gentamicin, oromorph, paracetamol and phenytoin) that have particularly narrow therapeutic windows and a high risk of toxicity with suggested dosage adjustments based on ideal (IBW) or adjusted body weight (ABW) than actual body weight. First a prescribing exercise was carried out using case scenarios in a group of paediatricians during a departmental teaching session in a tertiary children’s hospital. Next, over 4 weeks, all patients on the wards were screened for being overweight or obese. Children between the ages of 2 and 16 years with BMI over 91 st centile and on one or more of the listed drugs were included. Results In the prescribing task we had 7 paediatricians from the level of Foundation Year 1 to Consultant. Out of the 42 individual question responses none were answered using the correct dose adjustment. In the ward-based project, none of the 13 patients identified were prescribed the correct adjusted doses of their medications using IBW or ABW. The maximum daily drug overdose was 149% for a prescription of paracetamol in an 11-year-old girl. The minimum daily drug overdose was 111%. The average daily drug overdose from what was being prescribed for obese children on the ward in this four-week window was 128%. Conclusion We identified a lack of knowledge amongst paediatricians on prescribing in children with a BMI≥91 st percentile although the sample size was small. There must be a call for more awareness and further studies to evaluate the mechanisms of altered pharmacokinetics in overweight and obese children to guide future drug dose adjustments and formulate universal guidelines.

Aluminium and its alloys are used in fabrication because of their low weight, good corrosion resistance and weldability. Pure aluminium is soft and therefore not suitable for structures, which require strength. The Present investigation aims to compare the mechanical properties of non-heat treatable Aluminium alloy AA5083 and heat treatable. Aluminium alloy AA7020 using Tungsten Inert Gas welding. 5556A filler were used to weld AA7020 alloy and 5183A filler for AA5083 alloy. Effect of pulsing mode over conventional mode of GTA process were also investigated for AA5083 alloy. In this work, gas tungsten arc welding process has been selected because it is low heat input process. Low heat input process has selected because AA7020 and AA5083 were low melting point material. The alternating current (AC) power source has been selected because of better cleaning action and high heat concentration on the materials can be avoided. Mechanical testing like tensile test, impact test, bend and hardness test have been critically analysed and the properties were summarized and correlating with microstructure and SEM fractographs.