Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) are harmful xenobiotics show casingv aried unwanted effects altering the endocrine system and its functions. Exposure of EDCs to humans occurs through route ...sincluding air, water, skinand via contaminated food. The food stuffs primarily used in daily activities contain preservatives and plasticisers. Parabens are routinely used as preservatives in foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals whereas bisphenol A (BPA) is utilised in food cans, beverage bottles and polycarbonate tableware. In this research work, we have developed a sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) based method and validated it to simultaneously estimate methylparaben (MP), ethylparaben (EP), propylparaben (PP) and BPA with a linearity range of 25-1600 ng/mL utilising QbD approach. The developed method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and robustness according to the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. Estimation of EDCs in ready-to-eat (RTE) food materials was undertaken by the application of this validated method. The results showed significant amounts of EDCs in RTE samples. Thus this preliminary study investigated the presence of MP, EP, PP, and BPA in these foodstuffs to raise awareness amongst researchers as well as governing bodies regarding food contamination.
The establishment of standard, universal and quality healthcare service is essential for developing countries such as India to enhance the quality of life. Various healthcare schemes such as Jan ...Aushadhi Scheme, Mukhyamantri Nishulk Dava Yojna etc are operating in India which provides free healthcare services including free distribution of medicines. The medicines provided in these schemes are mostly generic drugs and the supply chain has already been established for it. The variety of generic drugs varies in quantity across different storage points and consumption points, and also having different self-lives, costs and logistics requirements. It was observed that the performance of these supply chain needs to be improved in various dimensions. Therefore, generic drug distribution in Rajasthan is studied and analyzed in the current study. The different aspects of generic drug distribution considered in the study are process view of the existing supply chain, sourcing, ordering and procurement, logistics and warehousing, inventory management and information system. The use of various techniques such as value stream mapping, inbuilt analytical tool for ordering, 5S practice and performance measurement system is explored to develop a strategy for improved resource utilization.
Diabetes and its complications are a significant health concern throughout the globe. There are physiological differences in the mechanism of type-I and type-II diabetes and the conventional drug ...therapy as well as insulin administration seem to be insufficient to address the problem at large successfully. Hypoglycemic swings, frequent dose adjustments and resistance to the drug are major problems associated with drug therapy. Cellular approaches through stem cell based therapeutic interventions offer a promising solution to the problem. The need for pancreatic transplants in case of Type- I diabetes can also be by-passed/reduced due to the formation of insulin producing β cells via stem cells. Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) and induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs), successfully used for generating insulin producing β cells. Although many experiments have shown promising results with stem cells in vitro, their clinical testing still needs more exploration. The review attempts to bring into light the clinical studies favoring the transplantation of stem cells in diabetic patients with an objective of improving insulin secretion and improving degeneration of different tissues in response to diabetes. It also focuses on the problems associated with successful implementation of the technique and possible directions for future research.
Abstract
Introduction
The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a measurement of variations in the size of red blood cells. As the width increases, the rate of mortality also increases, although ...the reason for it is still not known. On the other hand, platelet distribution width (PDW) is also useful in predicting morbidity and mortality in sepsis and other critically ill patients. In our study, we planned to study the impact of both RDW and PDW and evaluate their prognostic importance with outcome in patients admitted in medicine intensive care unit (MICU).
Material and Method
In these cross-sectional observational studies, 1,300 patients were included who were admitted in MICU. Critically ill patients were defined on the basis of qSOFA score greater than 2. PDW and RDW were obtained from Coulter report of complete blood count. Parameters included in Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV scores were taken and APACHE IV score was calculated. Correlation of RDW and PDW with outcomes such as length of ICU stay, use of mechanical ventilator, and discharge/death was done.
Result
The mean RDW (%) for the entire study population was 15.17 ± 3.01. The RDW (%) was significantly on the higher side in patients who succumbed to the disease as compared with the patients who were discharged. The correlation between the length of ICU stay (days) and RDW (%) was moderately positive and was significant (rho = 0.37,
p
≤ 0.001). The correlation between the length of ICU stay (days) and PDW (%) was moderately positive and was significant (rho = 0.5,
p
≤ 0.001).
Conclusion
RDW and PDW were found as significant indicators for period of stay in ICU, requirement for mechanical ventilation, and mortality rate in patients admitted to ICUs. As these are simple, easy to conduct, universally available tests, they can be regularly incorporated in patients admitted in ICUs.
In this work, a unique material has been developed by carrying out in situ co‐polymerization of sulfur and triglycerides (edible oil) within the cotton fibers to yield poly (sulfur/oil) impregnated ...cotton (PSOIC) composite material. The adsorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared, X‐ray diffraction, and SEM analysis. The equilibrium oil uptake studies were carried out in batch mode experiments and the sorption data were analyzed by various sorption isotherm models. The Langmuir model was found to be best fitted with maximum oil sorption capacity Qo of 9.52 g/g polymer. On the contrary, the conventional poly (sulfur/oil) adsorbent showed a Qo value of 2.35 g/g polymer, thus indicating the suitability and superiority of PSOIC over PSO material. The newly developed PSOIC material could be pressed in the form of sheets and was successful in removing oil/grease layer from the oil/water mixture. The adsorbent showed fair re‐generation capacity, thus minimizing the cost effectiveness to employ in large‐scale removal processes.
This paper presents a multi-objective model to assist in developing advertisement allocation patterns on television. Television advertising is one of the main tools of marketing where a manufacturer ...tries to put forth maximum information about his product. This helps in creating awareness about his product and thereby increases the profit margins. Telecasting a certain ad on television is quite costly and thus required proper allocation and optimization. Optimal number if ads for a certain ad will help in achieving economic sustainability and reducing e-waste generated by televisions. The carbon footprint for digital television was found to be 0.088 kg CO2 / viewer-hour according ato the experimental calculations. Thus if the advertiser adopts the optimum advertisement allocation policy then it will reduce the carbon footprints and will help advertiser in performing his social responsibility. Duration of long and short kinds of ads is considered which need to be telecasted on different genre of channels. Different time zones of a day have different number of viewers thereby resulting in different advertising impacts. Moreover, certain products are gender orientated and they must be taken care to be advertised in the proper genre of channel. Maximization of the impact of advertising and minimization of the advertising cost are taken as the objectives if this study. Moreover, in this paper the budget allocation is not a crisp quantity but is considered to be a random variable following normal distribution. The model is tested on a numerical illustration to presents the results and to show its applicability.
The severe acute respiratory coronavirus-2 syndrome infection has spread worldwide and has an abrupt effect on human, economic, and health system. The data are collected from various relevant sources ...such as PubMed, Infection Prevention Control, World Health Organization novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation update report, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society guidelines, Society of Critical Care Medicine, World Confederation for Physical therapy guidelines, and from other Internet sources. It is observed that about 30% of COVID-19 patients with sepsis needed hospital rehabilitation, while 20% requires a home-based rehabilitation program. Based on the evidence, it is anticipated that severe and critical COVID-19 patients develop postintensive care syndrome, resulting in pulmonary disabilities, dyspnea on exertion, physical deconditioning, cognitive impairment, and mental health disturbances. Most of these symptoms may also occur in patients recovered from symptoms, or who were not admitted to intensive care unit, or in older adults with chronic health conditions, or who have been deconditioned due to mobility disability, social isolation, etc. Such patients need access to effective pulmonary therapy, functional rehabilitation, and stress management in the hospital- and home-based settings to regain their previous independence level. The evidence suggests that viruses could even survive in the oropharyngeal cavity and stool for up to 15 days after COVID-19 infection has been declared cured. The physiotherapist must take proper safety measures before managing patients at home; a virtual care therapy is therefore highly recommended. Due to the increasing demands of hospital beds, the patients may need to be discharged earlier than expected. Rehabilitation act as adjuvant therapy in preparing patients for discharges, reducing the experience of disability, and ensuring the quality of treatment among recovered/discharged COVID-19 patients in hospital- or home-based settings.
A newly discovered electron‐deficient s‐Heptazine discotic core has been used for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) applications. The compound exhibits aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) ...characteristic, while most of other discotics reported so far, show aggregation‐caused quenching (ACQ) behavior. It (Hpz‐3C12) shows sky‐blue light emission in a solid state while weakly emissive in the solution state. The solution‐processed OLEDs have been fabricated from Hpz‐3C12 by using host‐guest configuration by doping with different hosts and found to display deep‐blue emission. The device shows the best efficiency with CBP‐host with 3 wt. % dopant (Hpz‐3C12) concentration.
A novel electron‐deficient heptazine based columnar liquid crystal exhibit AIEE phenomena. Deep‐blue OLEDs have been fabricated by using host‐guest configuration from the sky‐blue emitter Hpz‐3C12 by using different hosts and it shows the best efficiency with CBP host at 3 wt. % dopant concentration.
Metacaspases are distant relatives of animal caspases found in plants, protozoa and fungi. Some recent studies have demonstrated that metacaspases are involved in regulating the developmental and ...environmentally induced programmed cell death in plants. In this study, we identified metacaspase gene family in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and analyzed their expression pattern in various developmental tissues and stress responses of plants. There were eight metacaspase genes identified in the Peptidase (Cysteine protease) C14 family and based upon sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, a systematic nomenclature of potato metacaspases (SotubMCs) has been proposed. Three of the eight candidate genes showing homology with Arabidopsis thaliana type I metacaspase, AtMC1 were given name SotubMC1, SotubMC2 and SotubMC3 as per the degree of relatedness. Similarly, the next three being homologous to A. thaliana type I metacaspase, AtMC3 were named SotubMC4, SotubMC5, and SotubMC6. The remaining two were named SotubMC7 and SotubMC8, showing significant similarity with type II metacaspases of A. thaliana, AtMC4 and AtMC9, respectively. Evolutionary divergence analysis of SotubMCs from its orthologs in seven other members of Solanaceae family as well as with A. thaliana, Vitis vinifera and Oryza sativa was also carried out. The dN/dS ratios of the orthologous pairs suggested the SotubMCs were under purifying (negative) selection in course of plant evolution. Splicing patterns of potato metacaspases were also analyzed. Amongst all SotubMCs, SotubMC2, SotubMC4, SotubMC6 and SotubMC7 genes appeared to produce multiple alternative spliced variants of different lengths. Furthermore using protein modeling tools, we have predicted the protein structure of identified metacaspases. The cis-regulatory elements analysis was also performed exhibiting the presence of development, stress and hormones related cis-elements in the promoter regions of the SotubMCs. This indicates that potato metacaspases might be playing important roles in the development, stress and hormone responsive pathways. Moreover, relative expression analysis of identified genes was carried out using qRT-PCR in various developmental tissues that also include stolons and tubers. The eight metacaspases showed differential expression in different tissues. Some of the tissues such as leaf undergoing senescence among different leaf developmental stages (immature, mature and senescent) displayed higher relative expression of some of the metacaspases, implying their involvement in leaf senescence. The expression pattern of SotubMCs under various abiotic, biotic and hormonal stresses was also analysed. The results showed that many members of the potato metacaspase gene family displayed differential expression patterns under various stress conditions. Taken together, the study could provide crucial resources for further investigations to understand the functional roles of the identified metacaspases in potato.
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