Molecular characterization of Bertiella studeri infecting a primate in South India.

Bertiella spp. is a mite-borne cestode parasite that inhabits the small intestine of wide range of mammals, including non-human primates. In the present study, the morphological and molecular analysis of Bertiella studeri recovered from the small intestine of a bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) from Wayanad, Kerala (South India) was performed. Acetic alum carmine staining identified the cestode morphologically based on the characters like broader proglottids, which contain irregularly alternating genital pores, single set of reproductive organs, 280 testes and a tubular transverse uterus. Molecular characterization was done using 18SrRNA, ITS1-5.8S and COX1 genes. Phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA X based on the Maximum Likelihood (ML) method (Hasegawa-Kishino-Yano (HKY) model). Cytochrome oxidase I gene could detect the existence of genetic variation in the parasite from two different hosts viz., monkey (Kerala, Argentina, and Kenya) and human (Sri Lanka). A minimum spanning network of haplotypes was generated by the haplotype networking with the above sequences using the popARTv1.7. Haplotype analysis based on COX1 revealed that the parasite haplotype was different in each country with highest population frequency in Sri Lanka.

Decentralisation, health and Sustainable Development Goal 3.

SETTING: Kerala State, India, implemented decentralising reforms of healthcare institutions 25 years ago through transfer of administrative control and a sizeable share of the financial allocation. OBJECTIVE: To describe the main impacts of decentralisation in Kerala on local policy formulation, programme implementation and service delivery for sustainable health systems. DESIGN: This was part of a broader qualitative study on decentralisation and health in Kerala. We conducted 25 in-depth interviews and reviewed 31 government orders or policy documents, five related transcripts and five thematic reports from the main study. RESULTS: Liaising between health system and local governments has improved over time. A shift from welfare-centric projects to infrastructure, human resources and services was evident. Considerable heterogeneity existed due to varying degrees of involvement, capacity, resources and needs of the community. State-level discourse and recent augmentation efforts for moving towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) strongly uphold the role of local governments in planning, financing and implementation. CONCLUSION: The 25-year history of decentralised healthcare administration in Kerala indicates both successes and failures. Central support without disempowering the local governments can be a viable option to allow flexible decision-making consistent with broader system goals.

CONTEXTE: L'État du Kerala, en Inde, a mis en œuvre des réformes de décentralisation des établissements de santé il y a 25 ans, en transférant le contrôle administratif et une part importante de l'allocation financière. OBJECTIF: Décrire les principaux impacts de la décentralisation au Kerala sur la formulation de politiques locales, la mise en œuvre de programmes et la prestation de services pour des systèmes de santé durables. MÉTHODE: Cette étude faisait partie d'une étude qualitative plus vaste sur la décentralisation et la santé au Kerala. Nous avons mené 25 entretiens approfondis et examiné 31 décrets ou documents de politique du gouvernement, cinq transcriptions connexes et cinq rapports thématiques de l'étude principale. RÉSULTATS: La liaison entre le système de santé et les gouvernements locaux s'est améliorée au fil du temps. Une réorientation des projets centrés sur le bien-être vers les infrastructures, les ressources humaines et les services était évidente. Une hétérogénéité considérable existe en raison des différents degrés d'implication, de capacité, de ressources et de besoins de la communauté. Le discours au niveau de l'État et les récents efforts d'augmentation en vue d'atteindre les objectifs de développement durable (SDG) de l'ONU soutiennent fortement le rôle des gouvernements locaux dans la planification, le financement et la mise en œuvre. CONCLUSION: Les 25 ans d'histoire de l'administration décentralisée des soins de santé au Kerala révèlent à la fois des réussites et des échecs. Un soutien central sans déresponsabiliser les gouvernements locaux peut être une option viable pour permettre une prise de décision flexible et cohérente avec les objectifs plus larges du système.

Role of decentralised governance in implementing the National AIDS Control Programme in Kerala.

SETTING: In alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Kerala State in India aims to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, using its strong background in local governance to implement the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP). OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of local governments in the implementation of NACP in tune with SDGs. DESIGN: We conducted a state-wide exploratory study using document reviews, key informant and in-depth interviews, which were analysed thematically. RESULTS: Four overarching themes that emerged were 1) preparation for programme implementation, 2) positive impact of local government involvement, 3) convergence with other organisations, and 4) barriers to implementation. Local government commitment to implementing the programme was evidenced by their adoption of the HIV/AIDS policy, facilitative interdepartmental coordination and local innovations. Interventions focused on improving awareness about the disease and treatment, and social, financial and rehabilitative support, which were extended even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fund shortages and poor visibility of the beneficiaries due to preference for anonymity were challenges to achieving the expected outcomes. CONCLUSION: The NACP is ably supported by local governments in its designated domains of interventions, prevention, treatment, and care and support. The programme can achieve its target to end the AIDS epidemic by overcoming the stigma factor, which still prevents potential beneficiaries from accessing care.

CONTEXTE: En accord avec les Objectifs de développement durable (SDG) des Nations unies, l'État du Kérala en Inde a pour objectif de mettre fin à l'épidémie de VIH/SIDA en s'appuyant sur sa forte expérience de gouvernance locale en matière de mise en œuvre du Programme national de lutte contre le SIDA (NACP). OBJECTIF: Examiner le rôle des gouvernements locaux dans la mise en œuvre du NACP, en accord avec les SDG. MÉTHODES: Nous avons réalisé une étude exploratoire à l'échelle de l'État, par le biais d'analyses documentaires, d'entretiens avec des informateurs clés et d'entretiens approfondis, qui ont ensuite été analysés de manière thématique. RÉSULTATS: Quatre thèmes centraux ont été identifiés : 1) préparation de la mise en place du programme, 2) impact positif de l'implication des gouvernements locaux, 3) convergence avec d'autres organisations, et 4) obstacles à la mise en œuvre. L'engagement des gouvernements locaux à mettre en œuvre le programme se manifestait par l'adoption de la politique de lutte contre le VIH/SIDA, par une coordination interdépartementale facilitée et par des innovations locales. Les interventions portaient sur l'amélioration de la sensibilisation au VIH/SIDA et à son traitement, ainsi qu'aux systèmes de soutien social, financier et de réadaptation disponibles ; ces interventions ont même été maintenues pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Le manque de financements et la mauvaise visibilité des bénéficiaires en raison d'une volonté d'anonymat représentaient autant d'obstacles empêchant d'atteindre les résultats escomptés. CONCLUSION: Les gouvernements locaux apportent leur soutien efficace au NACP dans les domaines d'intervention qui lui ont été assignés (prévention, traitement, soins et soutien). Le programme peut atteindre son objectif d'éradication de l'épidémie de SIDA s'il parvient à lutter contre la stigmatisation associée à la maladie, qui empêche encore d'éventuels bénéficiaires d'accéder aux soins.

Re-engineering primary healthcare in Kerala.

INTRODUCTION: In the backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the state of Kerala, India, revamped its existing primary health centres (PHCs) into people-friendly family health centres (FHCs) in order to provide comprehensive primary care as part of a mission-based ('Aardram') initiative. It was envisioned that the mission's implementation and operation would make use of decentralised governance. The present study explored how the decentralised governance influenced reorganisation of primary care. METHODS: The study adopted an exploratory approach using qualitative methods: key informant interviews (n = 8), in-depth interviews (n = 20) and document reviews. Thematic analysis was done following deductive coding and the themes that emerged were organised under a schema. RESULTS: The results could be summarised under five overarching themes. Strong political commitment, combined with bureaucratic competence, facilitated implementation and functioning of 'Aardram' primary care. The insights developed through multi-sectoral training helped local governments (LGs) get involve and engage with the health system as a team in order to plan and implement interventions. The decentralised governance structures enabled re-engineering of PHCs by mobilisation of financial resources, provision of human resources, infrastructure modification, and enhanced community participation at various levels. Non-uniformity of commitment, sub-optimal engagement of urban LGs and issues of sustainability and monitoring were the shortcomings observed. CONCLUSION: Decentralised governance played a positive role in the re-engineering of PHCs, which was utilised as a platform to demonstrate best practices in health governance through a participatory approach. The importance of empowering LGs through capacity building to address challenges in achieving primary care SDGs is highlighted in this study.

INTRODUCTION: Dans le contexte des Objectifs de développement durable (SDG), l'État du Kérala, Inde, a transformé ses centres de soins primaires (PHC) existants en centres de santé familiale (FHC) conviviaux afin de fournir des soins primaires complets dans le cadre d'une initiative mandatée en mission ('Aardram'). Il était prévu que la mise en œuvre et le fonctionnement de cette mission fassent appel à la gouvernance décentralisée. Cette étude a examiné l'influence de la gouvernance décentralisée sur la réorganisation des soins primaires. MÉTHODES: L'étude a eu recours à une approche exploratoire, en utilisant des méthodes qualitatives : entretiens avec des informateurs clés (n=8), entretiens approfondis (n=20) et analyses documentaires. Une analyse thématique a été réalisée selon un codage déductif et les thèmes identifiés ont été structurés sous forme de schéma. RÉSULTATS: Les résultats peuvent être résumés en cinq thèmes principaux. Un engagement politique fort, associé à des compétences bureaucratiques, ont facilité la mise en œuvre et le fonctionnement des soins primaires de la mission 'Aardram'. Les connaissances acquises grâce à la formation multisectorielle ont aidé les gouvernements locaux (LG) à s'impliquer et à s'engager dans le système de santé en tant qu'équipe afin de planifier et de mettre en place des interventions. Les structures de gouvernance décentralisées ont permis de réorganiser les PHC en mobilisant des ressources financières, en fournissant des ressources humaines, en modifiant les infrastructures et en renforçant la participation communautaire à différents niveaux. Parmi les lacunes observées figurent le manque d'uniformité de l'engagement, l'engagement sous-optimal des LG urbains et les questions de durabilité et de suivi. CONCLUSION: La gouvernance décentralisée a joué un rôle positif dans la réorganisation des PHC, qui a été utilisée comme une plateforme pour illustrer les bonnes pratiques en matière de gouvernance sanitaire par le biais d'une approche participative. Cette étude met en évidence l'importance de l'autonomisation des LG au travers du renforcement des capacités afin de relever les défis liés à la réalisation des SDG en matière de soins primaires.

A comparative study of microwave oven-assisted tissue processing and conventional method of tissue processing on turnaround laboratory time and morphological quality of tissue sections.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of tissue processing is to fix the tissue in a solid medium toenable thin sections. Conventional method of tissue processing is the standardized method of tissue processing which has been used for more than 10 decades. However, the conventional method is time-consuming, and the overall turnaround time for the histopathology report is at least two days. The objective of this study is to identify the protocol for tissue processing procedure using domestic microwave oven. To determine the tissue processing time when using domestic microwave oven. To compare the morphological quality of tissue slides made by domestic microwave oven and conventional method using automated tissue processor. MATRIALS AND METHODS: The conventional protocol and three microwave protocols of tissue processing were used in this study. A pilot study was done prior to the real run to determine the baseline timing for microwave protocol. The baseline timing was fixed at 2 minutes,30 minutes,5 minutes and 25 minutes. The processing time of the microwave protocol was adjusted from 62 minutes to 70 minutes to 77 minutes by increasing the dehydration and wax impregnation time while the time for tissue fixation and clearing remain the same throughout all the microwave protocols. RESULTS: The group 2 microwave protocol produced the sections that is closely comparable to group 1 conventional protocol. The morphological quality of histopathology slides is best observed when the processing time of microwave protocol is 62 minutes. CONCLUSION: The most appropriate microwave protocol for tissue processing is group 2 as the morphological quality of histopathology slides are more superior than that of group 1 with an overall percentage of 80% of satisfactory slides in group 2 and 76.68% in group 1.

All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) Task Force guidelines to prevent intraocular infections and cluster outbreaks after cataract surgery.

Infectious endophthalmitis is a serious and vision-threatening complication of commonly performed intraocular surgeries such as cataract surgery. The occurrence of endophthalmitis can result in severe damage to the uveal and other ocular tissues even among patients undergoing an uncomplicated surgical procedure. If the infections result from common factors such as surgical supplies, operative or operation theater-related risks, there can be a cluster outbreak of toxic anterior segment syndrome (TASS) or infectious endophthalmitis, leading to several patients having an undesirable outcome. Since prevention of intraocular infections is of paramount importance to ophthalmic surgeons, the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) has taken the lead in the formation of a National Task Force to help ophthalmic surgeons apply certain universal precautions in their clinical practice. The Task Force has prepared a handy checklist and evidence-based guidelines to minimize the risk of infectious endophthalmitis following cataract surgery.

South Indian zebu dwarf cattle show higher natural resistance to tick infestation compared to crossbreds: preliminary observations.

The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of various factors on the host resistance of cattle against tick infestation in Kerala State, South India. The number of naturally infested semi-engorged female ticks present on the cattle was counted on a sample cattle population across the four regions of Kerala. Then, the animals were grouped based on the tick count. The chi-square test and Fisher exact test were used to identify the effects of genetic and non-genetic factors on tick burden in cattle. It was found that the Holstein Friesian crossbred and Jersey crossbred cattle had a significantly higher level of tick infestation than the indigenous Vechur breed (Bos indicus). No tick infestation was observed in indigenous Kasaragod Dwarf cattle (B. indicus). Tick infestation was more in heifers and dry animals than lactating animals. However, the sex of the animal and the stage of lactation did not influence the tick load. Tick infestation was also influenced by parity, grazing, and region.

Instillation of bradykinin into femoral artery elicits cardiorespiratory reflexes involving perivascular afferents in anesthetized rats.

The physiology of baroreceptors and chemoreceptors present in large blood vessels of the heart is well known in the regulation of cardiorespiratory functions. Since large blood vessels and peripheral blood vessels are of the same mesodermal origin, therefore, involvement of the latter in the regulation of cardiorespiratory system is expected. The role of perivascular nerves in mediating cardiorespiratory alterations produced after intra-arterial injection of a nociceptive agent (bradykinin) was examined in urethane-anesthetized male rats. Respiratory frequency, blood pressure, and heart rate were recorded for 30 min after the retrograde injection of bradykinin/saline into the femoral artery. In addition, paw edema was determined and water content was expressed as percentage of wet weight. Injection of bradykinin produced immediate tachypneic, hypotensive and bradycardiac responses of shorter latency (5-8 s) favoring the neural mechanisms involved in it. Injection of equi-volume of saline did not produce any responses and served as time-matched control. Paw edema was observed in the ipsilateral hind limb. Pretreatment with diclofenac sodium significantly attenuated the bradykinin-induced responses and also blocked the paw edema. Ipsilateral femoral and sciatic nerve sectioning attenuated bradykinin-induced responses significantly, indicating the origin of responses from the local vascular bed. Administration of bradykinin in the segment of an artery produced reflex cardiorespiratory changes by stimulating the perivascular nociceptors involving prostaglandins. This is a novel study exhibiting the role of peripheral blood vessels in the regulation of the cardiorespiratory system.

Significant cardiac disease complicating Graves' disease in previously healthy young adults.

SUMMARY: Graves' disease is associated with tachydysrythmia, cardiac ischaemia and cardiomyopathy - all uncommon in young adults without previous cardiac disease. We present three young individuals who developed cardiac complications after periods of uncontrolled Graves' disease. Subject 1: A 34-year-old female had severe thyrotoxic symptoms for weeks. Investigations showed fT4: 98.4 (11-25 pmol/L), fT3: 46.9 (3.1-6.8 pmol/L), TSH <0.01 (0.27-4.2 mU/L) and thyrotrophin receptor antibody (TRAb): 34.8 (<0.9 U//l). She had appropriate treatment but several weeks later she became breathless despite improving thyroid function. Echocardiography showed a pericardial effusion of 2.9 cm. She responded well to steroids and NSAIDs but developed active severe Graves' orbitopathy after early total thyroidectomy. Subject 2: A 28-year-old male developed thyrotoxic symptoms (fT4: 38 pmol/L, fT3: 13.9 pmol/L, TSH <0.01 (for over 6 months) and TRAb: 9.3 U/L). One month after starting carbimazole, he developed acute heart failure (HF) due to severe dilated cardiomyopathy - EF 10-15%. He partially recovered after treatment - EF 28% and had early radioiodine treatment. Subject 3: A 42-year-old woman who had been thyrotoxic for several months (fT4: 54.3; fT3 >46.1; TSH <0.01; TRAb: 4.5) developed atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure. Echocardiography showed cardiomegaly - EF 29%. She maintains sinus rhythm following early total thyroidectomy (EF 50%). Significant cardiac complications may occur in previously fit young adults, who have had uncontrolled Graves' disease for weeks to months. Cardiac function recovers in the majority, but early definitive treatment should be discussed to avoid Graves' disease relapse and further cardiac decompensation. LEARNING POINTS: Cardiac complications of Graves' disease are uncommon in young adults without previous cardiac disease. These complications may however occur if Graves' disease had been poorly controlled for several weeks or months prior to presentation. Persistent symptoms after adequate control should alert clinicians to the possibility of cardiac disease. Specific treatment of Graves' disease and appropriate cardiac intervention results in complete recovery in the majority and carries a good prognosis. Early definitive treatment should be offered to them to prevent cardiac decompensation at times of further relapse.

Incidence of cutaneous habronemosis in Manipuri ponies in India.

Information pertaining to parasitic fauna and parasitic diseases in Manipuri ponies in India is not available. Moreover, no systematic studies have been undertaken on cutaneous habronemosis in Manipuri ponies which is a common skin problem of Manipuri ponies as reported by pony owners. Keeping in the view of the importance of parasitic infections in veterinary health coverage particularly in Manipuri ponies, the present study was planned. A survey of natural cases of cutaneous habronemosis followed by molecular confirmation of species involved and treatments were done. Out of 200 ponies examined, nine cases (4.5%) of cutaneous habronemosis was recorded. Gross examination revealed raised and ulcerated wounds with necrotic tissues covered with yellowish-tan granulation. Histopathological study revealed eosinophilic granuloma and in the center of the granuloma with necrotic debris. Remnants of the Hebronema larvae with infiltrating neutrophils surrounded by proliferating fibrous tissue with numerous eosinophils, macrophages and lymphocytes were also observed. Molecular detection of Habronema sp. was confirmed by semi-nested PCR. Sequence analysis revealed larvae of H. muscae was the common spirurid species responsible for producing cutaneous habronemosis in Manipuri ponies. Subsequently, sequence submitted to NCBI GenBank and accession number obtained (MH038181). Surgical removal of necrotic tissue, ivermectin injection along with antibiotics successfully cured all the lesions in infected ponies.Results confirmed occurrence of cutaneous habronemosis in Manipuri ponies in India.

Development of a rapid point-of-care patient reported outcome measure for cataract surgery in India.

BACKGROUND: For patient undergoing cataract surgery in India, existing patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures are either not culturally relevant, have not been adequately validated, or are too long to be used in a busy clinical setting. We sought to develop and validate a brief and culturally relevant point-of-care PRO measure to address this need. METHODS: Twelve items from the Indian Visual Functioning Questionnaire (IND-VFQ) were selected based on preliminary data. Patients 18 years and older were prospectively recruited at Aravind Eye Care System in Madurai, India. Clinical and sociodemographic data were collected and the 12-item short-form IND-VFQ (SF-IND-VFQ) was administered pre- and post-operatively to 225 patients; Factor analysis and Rasch modeling was performed to assess its psychometric properties. RESULTS: One item that did not fit a unidimensional scale and had poor fit with the Rasch model was eliminated from the questionnaire. The remaining 11 items represented a single construct (no residual correlations> 0.1) and were largely unaffected by differential item functioning. Five items had disordered thresholds resolved by collapsing the response scale from four to three categories. The survey had adequate reliability (0.80) and good construct (infit range, 0.77-1.29; outfit range, 0.56-1.30) and content (item separation index, 5.87 logits) validity. Measurement precision was fair (person separation index, 1.97). There was evidence that items were not optimally targeted to patients' visual ability (preoperatively, - 1.92 logits; overall, - 3.41 logits), though the survey measured a very large effect (Cohen's d 1.80). In a subset of patients, the average time to complete the questionnaire was 2 min 6.3 s. CONCLUSIONS: The SF-IND-VFQ is a valid, reliable, sensitive, and rapidly administered point-of-care PRO measure to assess changes in visual functioning in patients undergoing cataract surgery in India.

Head to head comparison of adverse effects and efficacy between high dose deflazacort and high dose prednisolone in systemic lupus erythematosus: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Deflazacort (DFZ), an oxazoline derivative of prednisolone (PDN), has a dose equivalence of 1.2:1 (mg) to PDN. No study to date has compared adverse effects and efficacy of high doses of DFZ as against high-dose PDN in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). OBJECTIVES: To compare adverse effects of high dose DFZ and PDN in SLE patients, especially in terms of cushingoid features and gain in body weight, 3 and 6 months after initiation of these agents. METHODS: In both the steroid arms, the following outcome parameters were assessed at 3 and 6 months: (a) cushingoid features by Cushing's Severity Index (CSI) (b) hirsutism by modified Ferriman Gallwey score (c) weight gain by difference (Δ, delta) of weight (in kilograms). RESULTS: Patients on PDN had 1.6 kg (3.2%) and 2 kg (5.1%) higher median weight gain as compared to those on DFZ at 3 and 6 months respectively ( p = 0.012 and 0.001). PDN caused 10% and 22.2% higher increment in median hirsutism scores as compared to DFZ at 3 months and 6 months follow-up, respectively ( p = 0.004 and 0.002). PDN caused 100% higher increase in median CSI scores than DFZ at 6 months ( p = 0.03). There was no significant difference by generalized estimation equation between the groups with respect to changes in SLEDAI, renal SLEDAI, anti-dsDNA titres and C3/C4 levels. There were two serious infections (requiring hospitalization/intravenous antibiotics) in the PDN group, while none in the DFZ group. CONCLUSION: Comparable intake and tapering of high dose DFZ and PDN in active SLE revealed 2-fold less weight gain, 2.5-fold less hirsutism and 1.5-fold lower cushingoid severity index as well as lower glycaemic elevation in the DFZ group as compared to PDN group. Both had similar efficacy.

Content Based Geographic Image Retrieval using Local Vector Pattern

ABSTRACT Large image archives formed by satellite remote sensing missions are getting an increasing valuable source of information in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The need for retrieving a required image from a huge image database is increasing significantly for the purpose of analyzing resources in GIS. Content Based Geographic Image Retrieval (CBGIR) in the image processing field is the best solution to meet the requirement. In this work, we used Local Vector Pattern (LVP) to extract fine features present in the geographical image and retrieve the applicable images from a large remote sensing image database. The primary idea of our method is generating micro patterns of LVP by the vectors of each pixel that are constructed by calculating the values between the centre pixels and its neighbourhood pixels with various distances of different directions. Then the proposed method was designed for concatenating these vector patterns to produce more unique features of geographical images and comparing the results with Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Local Derivative Pattern (LDP) and Local Tetra Pattern (LTrP). Ultimately, the extensive analysis carried out on different geographical image collections proved that the proposed method achieves the improved classification accuracy and better retrieving results.

Cataract surgery and environmental sustainability: Waste and lifecycle assessment of phacoemulsification at a private healthcare facility.

PURPOSE: To measure the waste generation and lifecycle environmental emissions from cataract surgery via phacoemulsification in a recognized resource-efficient setting. SETTING: Two tertiary care centers of the Aravind Eye Care System in southern India. DESIGN: Observational case series. METHODS: Manual waste audits, purchasing data, and interviews with Aravind staff were used in a hybrid environmental lifecycle assessment framework to quantify the environmental emissions associated with cataract surgery. Kilograms of solid waste generated and midpoint emissions in a variety of impact categories (eg, kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents). RESULTS: Aravind generates 250 grams of waste per phacoemulsification and nearly 6 kilograms of carbon dioxide-equivalents in greenhouse gases. This is approximately 5% of the United Kingdom's phaco carbon footprint with comparable outcomes. A majority of Aravind's lifecycle environmental emissions occur in the sterilization process of reusable instruments because their surgical system uses largely reusable instruments and materials. Electricity use in the operating room and the Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) accounts for 10% to 25% of most environmental emissions. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical systems in most developed countries and, in particular their use of materials, are unsustainable. Results show that ophthalmologists and other medical specialists can reduce material use and emissions in medical procedures using the system described here.

Image Retrieval Based on Local Mesh Vector Co-occurrence Pattern for Medical Diagnosis from MRI Brain Images.

In modern health-care, for evidence-based diagnosis, there is a requirement for an efficient image retrieval approach to retrieve the cases of interest that have similar characteristics from the large image databases. This paper presents a feature extraction approach that aims at extracting texture features present in the medical images using Local Pattern Descriptor (LPD) and Gray-level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM). As a main contribution, a novel local pattern named Local Mesh Vector Co-occurrence Pattern (LMVCoP) has been proposed by concatenating the Local Mesh Co-occurrence Pattern (LMCoP) and the Local Vector Co-occurrence Pattern (LVCoP). The fusion of GLCM with the Local Mesh Pattern (LMeP) and the Local Vector Pattern (LVP) produces LMCoP and LVCoP respectively. The LMVCoP method has been investigated on the Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS): a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain image database. LMVCoP descriptor achieves 87.57% of ARP and 53.21% of ARR which are higher than the existing methods of LTCoP, PVEP, LBDP, LMeP and LVP. The LMVCoP method enhances the retrieval results of LMeP/LVP from 81.36%/83.52% to 87.57% in terms of ARP on OASIS MRI brain database.

Oxidative stress evoked damages on rat sperm and attenuated antioxidant status on consumption of aspartame.

Although several studies on toxic effect of aspartame metabolite have been studied, controversial reports over the use of aspartame owing to the fact that it releases methanol as one of its metabolite during metabolism exist. This present study is proposed to investigate whether aspartame (40 mg kg-1 b.wt) administration for 90 days could induce oxidative stress and alter antioxidant status of epididymal sperm in Wistar strain male albino rats. To mimic the human methanol metabolism, methotrexate (MTX)-treated rats were included to study the effects of aspartame. Oral intubations of FDA approved 40 mg kg-1 b.wt aspartame were given daily for 90 days to Wistar strain male albino rats and studied along with controls and MTX-treated controls. Sperm count, viability, morphology, morphometry and motility were assessed. A significant decrease in sperm function of aspartame treated animals was observed when compared with the control and MTX control. The free radical generation were observed in epididymal sperm by assessing the scavenging enzymes, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Result suggest that there was a significant increase glutathione-s-transferase (GST), with a significant decrease in reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase activity (SOD), glutathione peroxidase levels (GPx), catalase activity (CAT) and glutathione reductase concentration. The increase in free radicals generation could have ultimately caused the lipid peroxidation mediated damages on the testis. Aspartame treated animals also revealed the reduced space in seminiferous tubules, which resulted in reduced Leydig cells when compared with control in histopathology. These findings demonstrate that aspartame metabolites could be a contributing factor for development of oxidative stress in the epididymal sperm.