Comparison of Stressors Experienced by Patients and Nurses' Perception on the Patients' Stressors Admitted in ICU.

The study sought to compare the stressors experienced by patients and nurses' perception of the patients' stressors admitted in intensive care units (ICUs) of selected hospitals of Madurai (TN). Design used in this study was descriptive-comparative study design and purposive sampling technique was employed. The sample size consisted of 80, among these 40 were staff nurses working in ICU and 40 were patients who were admitted in ICU. The study was carried out by using Modified intensive care unit environmental stressors questionnaire (ICU-ESQ). This tool had 50 items, which are rated in a 4-point Likert-type scale. The items corresponded to stressors that are related to physical stressors (13 items), Psychological stressors (22 items) and the ICUEnvironment stressors (15 items). The data obtained were analysed by inferential statistics and descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that mean score of stressors experienced by patients was higher than the nurses mean score. The most stressful items ranked by patients and nurses were similarforfirst three items.

Photocatalytic remediation of methylene blue and antibacterial activity study using Schiff base-Cu complexes.

This work describes the design of novel Cu(II) complexes and their application in the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB). The same photocatalyst exhibits antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (gram-negative) and Bacillus circulans (gram-positive). The characterisation of the photocatalysts has been done by several up-to-date physical methods. The rationale behind the photocatalysts' beneficial intervention is discussed in this study. Statistical analysis of the degradation of MB is done using a one-way ANOVA, and the significance of means is determined by a multiple comparison test using Turkey HSD. Also, the degradation of MB follows pseudo first-order kinetics with high correlation coefficient values (R2 > 0.95), making them useful as simple and low-cost organic dye degradation agents.

Purification and characterization of beta-1,4-glucosidase from Clostridium papyrosolvens.

Clostridium papyrosolvens CFR-1010 was selected for the anaerobic extracellular production of beta-1,4-glucosidase. The enzyme was purified by alcohol precipitation and DEAE ion-exchange chromatography. Its homogeneity was confirmed by SDS/PAGE. The enzyme had a molecular mass of 85 kDa. The maximum enzyme activity was observed at pH 5.0 and 50 degrees C. The enzyme activity was inhibited by Ca2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Fe2+, Mg2+ and Na+ ions. However, the activity increased (158%) in the presence of MnCl2, whereas it decreased by 80% in the presence of N-bromosuccinimide, suggesting the presence of tryptophan residues at the active site of enzyme. The enzyme had a K(m) of 15 mg/ml and Vmax of 125 units/min per mg of protein.