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BACKGROUND Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a genetically determined disorder characterized by the gradual conversion of terminal hairs into indeterminate, and finally into vellus hairs. It is the most common cause of hair loss affecting more men and occasionally women. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is one of the newer treatment options and has shown promising results. We wanted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PRP in the treatment of AGA. METHODS A prospective cohort study was done on thirty patients of AGA. The stage of alopecia was evaluated according to the Hamilton-Norwood scale (males) and the Ludwig scale (females). All patients were treated with six intradermal PRP sittings with an interval of 4 weeks between each sitting and were evaluated at the end of 6 months using global photography, hair pull test, patient’s satisfaction rating and hair density. RESULTS Out of 30 patients, majority were in the age group of 21 - 25 years (40 %). 23 were males and 7 were females. Among male patients, maximum number of patients (39.13 %) were having grade 4 AGA followed by grade 3 (30.43 %). Among females, maximum number of patients (57.14 %) were having grade 1 AGA. At baseline, 66.67 % patients showed positive hair pull test whereas all patients showed negative hair pull test at the end of study. Baseline mean hair density was 78.96 ± 9.66 hairs / cm2 and at the end of study it was 105. 46 ± 9.21 hairs / cm2 . On an analogue scale ranging from 0 to 10, the overall mean change in the clinical rating of patient satisfaction was 6.83, which denoted satisfactory for most patients. CONCLUSIONS All patients treated with PRP showed increase in hair density in dermoscopic photomicrographs at the end of the study. PRP is a simple, effective and safe treatment for AGA. KEYWORDS Androgenetic Alopecia, Platelet-Rich Plasma

BACKGROUND Workers in a construction site may be exposed to various hazardous substances, physical agents, poor hygienic living conditions and harsh environmental factors. It is associated with plethora of health risks and increased risk of various dermatological conditions is one such phenomenon which needs evaluation. We did this study to assess the prevalence and pattern of skin diseases among migrant construction workers. METHODS The current study was a community based cross-sectional study. Group of construction workers working in a single cluster were selected by convenient sampling. Data collection was done from March to September 2019. All the migrant construction workers, who were available onsite were screened by a team of qualified dermatologists and diagnosis of skin diseases was made using clinical skills and lab facilities. Descriptive analysis was carried out by mean and standard deviation (SD) for quantitative variables, and frequency and proportion for categorical variables. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS statistical software version 21. RESULTS A total of 833 construction workers were screened. There was a high male preponderance, with male to female ratio of 7.42:1. The overall prevalence of any dermatological morbidity was 36.2 %. Infective skin diseases contributed to 61.56 % of the dermatological morbidity. Among infective conditions, fungal infections (65.5 %) were the most common infective dermatoses. Mite infestation (scabies) was found in 46 (23.35 %) workers. The common bacterial infections observed were furuncle and folliculitis in 7 (3.55 %) subjects each. Sycosis barbae was seen in 2 (1.02 %) subjects. Viral infections like herpes and molluscum contagiosum have contributed to the minor portion of the dermatological morbidity. One subject was found to have Hansen’s disease. Allergic contact dermatitis (29.27 %), photodermatitis (14.63 %), miliaria (12.20 %), hand eczema (9.76 %) and irritant contact dermatitis (7.32 %) were the common non-infective skin conditions affecting the study population. CONCLUSIONS There is high burden of dermatological morbidity among construction workers. Majority of the skin conditions were infective in nature. Poor literacy levels, overcrowded living conditions and poor personal hygienic practices were the possible risk factors. KEYWORDS Dermatological Morbidities, Construction Workers, Prevalence

Pharmaceutical R&D is organized around prioritized investments, delivering on assets with the greatest return of investments Linear sequencing of trials and financial risks are determinants of speed in an enterprise There is less flexibility in leveraging expertise around priorities that are thrust on the system by external forces This commentary provides an insight into enabling warp speed using a hypervelocity mindset for mobilizing resources and scientific creativity, for accelerated timelines in response to pandemics

Objective: Tamarindus indica Linn.(T.indica) is a well-known plant used in traditional medicine. The plant is popular for its antidiabetic activity. However, effect so f its aqueous fruit pulp extract on carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes and its glucose uptake potential were not explored. Materials and Methods: The antidiabetic activity was assessed by in-vitro α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory assays after preliminary phytochemical analysis. MTT assay was carried out to find cytotoxicity. Glucose uptake activity of the extract was carried out using L6 myotubes. Results:The results showed a strong α-amylase inhibitory activity for the fruit pulp extract of T.indica compared to standard acarbose; the IC50 of the fruit pulp extract of T.indica and acarbose was 34.19 µg/ml 34.83µM. The extract also showed moderate α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. IC50 of the fruit pulp extract of T.indica and acarbose were 56.91µg/ml and 45.69µM respectively. The cytotoxicity assay showed IC50 of >300µg/ml and ≥1000µM for the fruit pulp extract of T.indica and metformin. The extract showed 63.99±0.08% glucose uptake in L6 myotubes whereas metformin and insulin at 10µg/ml and 10µM exhibited an uptake of 76.99±0.3% and 84.48±0.45% glucose, respectively. Conclusion: The study revealed that the fruit pulp extract of T.indica Linn does not show any cytotoxic effect and has very good α-amylase and good α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. The glucose uptake potential proves its postprandial hypoglycemic effect. Hence, it may be considered an antidiabetic agent for control of postprandial hyperglycemia.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most common endocrine disorder1.At least 30% of diabetics have some cutaneous involvement during the course of their disease 1. Type II patients do develop more frequent cutaneous infections, whereas type I patients develop more autoimmune- type cutaneous lesions 2,3. Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and pattern of skin manifestations among diabetic patients. Methods: 100 patients of diabetes mellitus with skin manifestations who consecutively attended DVL outpatient department and willing to participate in the study were enrolled in this study. Skin examination was done and findings entered to computer database for analysis. Results: Among 100 patients, there were 56 males and 44 females the youngest patient being 19 years old and eldest was 77 years old. Cutaneous infections were the most commonly observed dermatoses (51%), followed by dermatoses more commonly associated with diabetes mellitus (36%), non specific dermatoses (23%), neuropathic and ischemic diabetic skin disease (5%), due to microangiopathy (4%), metabolic disorders (3%) and cutaneous reactions to therapy (3%).Among cutaneous infections, fungal infections (38%) are the most common dermatoses followed by bacterial infections (11%) and viral infections (2%). Tinea corporis was the most common fungal infection and furunculosis (3%) was most common bacterial infection. Among the common dermatoses associated with diabetes mellitus (36%) majority presented with pruritus secondary to xerosis (12 patients, 12%) followed by 11 cases (11%) of psoriasis, 4 cases of vitiligo, 2 patients each (2%) of acrochordons, lichen planus and macular amyloidosis, 1 patient each (1%) of acanthosis nigricans, alopecia universalis and kyrles disease. Among patients with non specific dermatoses, eczema was most common followed by pemphigus, acne vulgaris and hidradenitis suppurativa. Conclusion: Infections were the most common cutaneous manifestations in diabetes, followed by dermatoses most commonly associated with diabetes. Cutaneous manifestations are more common in patients who have overall poor glycemic control. Cutaneous manifestations can heighten the suspicion of a physician regarding the diagnosis of diabetes and help to prevent systemic derangements by early institution of appropriate treatment.

Today’s youth is tomorrow’s promise and tomorrow’s promise is our students. It is said that youth period is like soft clay in the hands of a potter. We need to channelize the potentials and technical skills of the students to facilitate the growth of the society and nation. The engineering education should train the students with adequate technological skills and unfold them as best human beings along with a sense of socio-economic and civic responsibility. Today, requirements for engineering programs reflect a movement with a paradigm shift in the existing practices to resolve the current engineering education problems.Many engineering educators see service learning as a way to enhance their programs by exposing students to engineering context, moreovergiving them a chance to develop professional and interpersonal skills. During the process, qualitative and quantitative surveys were done to collect longitudinal data from electrical and electronics engineering undergraduates (n=65) who have been the winners for consecutive two years of National solar vehicle challenge (NSVC) contest. NSVC is an annual contest organized by dynamic motors with a vision to stir young technocrats to make way for India to become the largest renewable energy hub in the world. The pre-test and post-test survey consist of demographics and qualitative questions. The outcome variables analyzed are civic responsibility, eagerness in service participation, knowledge on eco-friendly projects and sustainable thinking level of the engineering undergraduates.Service participation showed significant positive effects on all the outcome measures among 25% of the actively participated engineering undergraduates. In addition, they were technically enhanced to design single /multi sitter, light weighed and efficient solar vehicles.

The last two decades of the Information Age have been characterized by widespread proliferation of the Internet of things (IoT) technology. Besides diverse applications in various consumer, industrial, agriculture, and health care, IoT has enabled solutions for better management of natural resources. This paper illustrates the productive use of the IoT concept to automate the irrigation of vermicompost, encompassing three prime domains—waste management, smart irrigation, and (mobile) app. The soil moisture content and temperature of the compost bed are critical factors that delimit the earthworms’ life expectancy. This paper includes an intelligent monitoring system for effective irrigation of the compost bed, at precise time intervals. The irrigation status and the compost bed's moisture content can be monitored ubiquitously through the Amrita Sparsham mobile application software, minimizing human intervention, facilitating water conservation. Thus, the multipurpose solution is the convergence of Amrita waste management through vermicompost and the automated smart irrigation system monitored using Amrita Sparsham mobile application.

This paper presents the comparative study and analysis on the controllers for Hexapod. At present, there are several compliance control problems related to the hexapod robots under different conditions. These problems can be reduced by improving the strategy of the controller. The parameters such as position, speed and angular velocity simulations are taken for the analytical study of the controllers. Modelling, design and the simulation of DC servo motor are performed. The analysis of its performance using various controllers, which include closed loop, PID and Fuzzy controller is presented. Through the analysis of different parameters of the controller, a suitable controller can be identified. The efficient controller is then selected for the leg position control of the hexapod. It can be verified that the control strategy has great importance in order to enhance the capabilities of the hexapod robot.

A fixed‐dose combination (FDC) tablet of ertugliflozin, a selective inhibitor of sodium‐glucose cotransporter 2, and sitagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 inhibitor, was developed for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Four studies were conducted under fasted conditions to demonstrate bioequivalence of ertugliflozin/sitagliptin FDC tablets and individual components at respective strengths when coadministered in healthy subjects. All studies had open‐label, randomized, 2‐period, 2‐sequence, single‐dose crossover designs. In each study 18 or 19 subjects were enrolled and received an ertugliflozin/sitagliptin FDC tablet (5 mg/50 mg, 5 mg/100 mg, 15 mg/50 mg, or 15 mg/100 mg) and corresponding strengths of ertugliflozin and sitagliptin coadministered as individual components. For both ertugliflozin and sitagliptin, the 90%CIs for the ratio (FDC:coadministration) of geometric means for area under the plasma concentration‐time profile from time 0 extrapolated to infinite time, and maximum observed plasma concentration, were within acceptance criteria for bioequivalence (80% to 125%). All adverse events were mild in intensity. The 4 studies demonstrated that each strength of FDC tablet is bioequivalent to the respective dose of coadministered individual components. This indicates that the known efficacy and tolerability of ertugliflozin and sitagliptin when coadministered can be translated to the use of a FDC formulation.

AFLP or amplified fragment length polymorphism is a PCR-based molecular technique that uses selective amplification of a subset of digested DNA fragments from any source to generate and compare unique fingerprints of genomes. It is more efficient in terms of time, economy, reproducibility, informativeness, resolution, and sensitivity, compared to other popular DNA markers. Besides, it requires very small quantities of DNA and no prior genome information. This technique is widely used in plants for taxonomy, genetic diversity, phylogenetic analysis, construction of high-resolution genetic maps, and positional cloning of genes, to determine relatedness among cultivars and varietal identity, etc. The review encompasses in detail the various applications of AFLP in plants and the major advantages and disadvantages. The review also considers various modifications of this technique and novel developments in detection of polymorphism. A wet-lab protocol is also provided.

Understanding biology and genetics at molecular level has become very important for dissection and manipulation of genome architecture for addressing evolutionary and taxonomic questions. Knowledge of genetic variation and genetic relationship among genotypes is an important consideration for classification, utilization of germplasm resources, and breeding. Molecular markers have contributed significantly in this respect and have been widely used in plant science in a number of ways, including genetic fingerprinting, diagnostics, identification of duplicates and selection of core collections, determination of genetic distances, genome analysis, development of molecular maps, and identification of markers associated with desirable breeding traits. The application of molecular markers largely depends on the type of markers employed, distribution of markers in the genome, type of loci they amplify, level of polymorphism, and reproducibility of products. Among many DNA markers available, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) is the simplest, is cost-effective, and can be performed in a moderate laboratory for most of its applications. In addition, RAPDs can touch much of the genome and has the advantage that no prior knowledge of the genome under research is necessary. The recent improvements in the RAPD technique like arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR), sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR), DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF), sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP), cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (CAPS), random amplified microsatellite polymorphism (RAMPO), and random amplified hybridization microsatellites (RAHM) can complement the shortcomings of RAPDs and have enhanced the utility of this simple technique for specific applications. Simple protocols for these techniques are presented along with the applications of RAPD in genetic diversity analysis, mapping, varietal identification, genetic fidelity testing, etc.

Background: Chronic urticaria, with or without angioedema, has been defined as daily or almost daily symptoms and signs recurring for more than six weeks. Chronic urticaria has an idiopathic etiology in majority. This is called as chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) or chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). Aim and objectives were to compare the clinical features in CIU patients with a positive autologous serum skin test (ASST) and negative ASST.Methods: Fifty clinically diagnosed patients of CIU attending the department of DVL OPD at tertiary care teaching hospital, were enrolled based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria.Results: ASST was positive in 48% (24/50) of patients with CSU. In study of 50 patients, 66% were females and 34% were males. The mean age of patients was 36.8 years. The disease's median duration was 10 months and 11 months in ASST positive and ASST negative groups respectively. Of the 50 patients, 20 patients showed a positive response to the test for simple dermographism, of which 13 were ASST positive. Of the 50 patients, 8 patients gave a history of atopy, of which 5 were in the ASST positive group, 3 were in ASST negative group.Conclusions: In the present study ASST was positive in 48% of patients with CIU. Majority of ASST positive patients had almost daily attacks. ASST positive patients had a longer duration of persistence of wheals. ASST is a fairly good indicator of autoimmune etiology for chronic urticaria.

Background: Vitiligo is characterized by milky-white macules affecting the skin and mucous membranes. It occurs due to the progressive loss of functioning melanocytes from the affected areas. It may affect any age group and gender. Genetic, immunological, neural, and self-destructive mechanisms may be involved in its pathogenesis. Both autoimmune and non-autoimmune disorders have been reported to be associated with vitiligo.Methods: This is a descriptive study conducted in the Department of DVL of a teaching hospital from August 2020 to November 2021. 50 vitiligo patients were enrolled in the study. Relevant data was recorded using the customized case proforma and analyzed.Results: Majority of the patients belonged to the age group of 21-30 years (28%). Males (54%) outnumbered females. The mean duration of the disease was 51.6 months. The familial incidence of vitiligo was 18%. Majority of the cases were of vitiligo vulgaris type (50%). Koebnerization was seen in 20% and leukotrichia in 34% of the cases. 14% of cases had other coexisting cutaneous diseases. Urticaria (4%) was the most common followed by alopecia areata, acne, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. 44% of the study population had systemic comorbidities. Iron deficiency anemia was the most common seen in 20% of cases followed by hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and hypertension.Conclusions: A detailed history, comprehensive cutaneous and systemic examination, relevant laboratory workup is mandatory in a newly diagnosed patient with vitiligo. A regular follow-up and psychiatric evaluation is also necessary to reduce the disease burden.