A comparative analysis of different augmentations for brain images.

Deep learning (DL) requires a large amount of training data to improve performance and prevent overfitting. To overcome these difficulties, we need to increase the size of the training dataset. This can be done by augmentation on a small dataset. The augmentation approaches must enhance the model's performance during the learning period. There are several types of transformations that can be applied to medical images. These transformations can be applied to the entire dataset or to a subset of the data, depending on the desired outcome. In this study, we categorize data augmentation methods into four groups: Absent augmentation, where no modifications are made; basic augmentation, which includes brightness and contrast adjustments; intermediate augmentation, encompassing a wider array of transformations like rotation, flipping, and shifting in addition to brightness and contrast adjustments; and advanced augmentation, where all transformation layers are employed. We plan to conduct a comprehensive analysis to determine which group performs best when applied to brain CT images. This evaluation aims to identify the augmentation group that produces the most favorable results in terms of improving model accuracy, minimizing diagnostic errors, and ensuring the robustness of the model in the context of brain CT image analysis.

Low temperature desolventization: effect on physico-chemical, functional and structural properties of rice bran protein.

De-oiled rice bran is a good source of high-quality protein; however, the current practice of desolventization at high temperature (110-120 °C) denatures the protein, making its extraction difficult and uneconomical. The present study aims to investigate the effect of low temperature desolventization of de-oiled rice bran (LTDRB) on extraction, yield, and purity of protein and its comparison with protein obtained from high temperature desolventized de-oiled rice bran (HTDRB). The optimal conditions for preparation of protein from LTDRB were: extraction pH 11.00, extraction duration 52 min, and extraction temperature 58 °C resulting in an extraction efficiency, yield, and purity of 54.0, 7.23, and 78.70%, respectively. The LTDRB showed a positive impact on the color, solubility, foaming capacity and stability of protein whereas the absorption and emulsification properties were better for HTDRB protein. Significant decrease in enthalpy (ΔH) for denaturation was observed for LTDRB protein as compared to HTDRB protein. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that HTDRB protein was more compact than LTDRB protein. LTDRB protein had smaller particle size distribution than HTDRB. Study suggested that low temperature desolventization can result in higher protein extraction with better physico-chemical, structural, and functional properties of protein obtained from DRB.

Exploring the Potential of Bee-Derived Antioxidants for Maintaining Oral Hygiene and Dental Health: A Comprehensive Review.

Honey bee products comprise various compounds, including honey, propolis, royal jelly, bee pollen, bee wax and bee venom, which have long been recognized for their pharmacological and health-promoting benefits. Scientists have discovered that periodontal disorders stem from dental biofilm, an inflammatory response to bacterial overgrowth produced by dysbiosis in the oral microbiome. The bee products have been investigated for their role in prevention of oral diseases, which are attributed to a myriad of biologically active compounds including flavonoids (pinocembrin, catechin, caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) and galangin), phenolic acids (hydroxybenzoic acid, hydroxycinnamic acid, p-coumaric, ellagic, caffeic and ferulic acids) and terpenoids. This review aims to update the current understanding of role of selected bee products, namely, honey, propolis and royal jelly, in preventing oral diseases as well as their potential biological activities and mechanism of action in relation to oral health have been discussed. Furthermore, the safety of incorporation of bee products is also critically discussed. To summarize, bee products could potentially serve as a therapy option for people suffering from a variety of oral disorders.

Variation of Mineral Composition in Different Fruit Parts of Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.).

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), belonging to family Cucurbitaceae, is a good source of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds. In the present study, fruits (and its parts-epicarp, mesocarp, endocarp, seed, and whole fruit) of 56 accessions and 4 cultivars of Momordica spp. were assayed and compared for macro-minerals magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), sodium (Na), phosphorus (P), and calcium (Ca), and microminerals iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu). Potassium was the most abundant macro-mineral found in whole fruit ranging from 78.40 to 483.49 mg/100 g dry weight (DW), followed by Mg (13.23-101.70 mg/100 g DW) in epicarp, P (32.22-98.24 mg/100 g DW) in endocarp, Ca (23.41-71.39 mg/100 g DW) in whole fruit, and Na (6.09-18.56 mg/100 g DW) in epicarp. The concentration of microminerals was recorded higher in seeds compared to other fruit parts. Levels of Fe were higher (0.76-6.14 mg/100 g DW), followed by Zn (0.87-2.64 mg/100 g DW), Cu (137.68-525.45 µg/100 g DW), and Mn (46.92-179.05 µg/100 g DW). The analysis depicted bitter gourd to be a potential source of both macro-minerals (K and Mg) and microminerals (Fe and Zn). The consumption of bitter gourd could be a health-promoting strategy to meet daily dietary intake requirements of essential minerals for human health.

Non-destructive determination of grass pea and pea flour adulteration in chickpea flour using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy and chemometrics.

BACKGROUND: In order to obtain more economic gains, some food products are adulterated with low-cost substances, if they are toxic, they may pose public health risks. This has called forth the development of quick and non-destructive methods for detection of adulterants in food. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has become a promising tool to detect adulteration in various commodities. We have developed rapid NIRS based analytical methods for quantification of two cheap adulterants (grass pea and pea flour) in a popular Indian food material, chickpea flour. RESULTS: The NIRS spectra of pure chickpea, pure grass pea, pure pea flour and adulterated samples of chickpea flour with grass pea and pea flour (1-90%) (w/w) were acquired and preprocessed. Calibration models were built based on modified partial least squares regression (MPLSR), partial least squares (PLS), principal component regression (PCR) methods. Based on lowest values of standard error of calibration (SEC) and standard error of cross-validation (SECV), MPLSR-NIRS models were selected. These models exhibited coefficient of determination (R2 ) of 0.999, 0.999, SEC of 0.905, 0.827 and SECV of 1.473, 1.491 for grass pea and pea, respectively. External validation revealed R2 and standard error of prediction (SEP) of 0.999 and 1.184, 0.997 and 1.893 for grass pea and pea flour, respectively. CONCLUSION: The statistics confirmed that our MPLSR-NIRS based methods are quite robust and applicable to detect grass pea and pea flour adulterants in chickpea flour samples and have potential for use in detecting food fraud. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Intravitam Diagnosis of Rabies in Patients with Acute Encephalitis: A Study of Two Cases.

Rabies is one of the oldest known zoonotic diseases. Rhabdovirus, an RNA virus belonging to the genus Lyssavirus and family Rhabdoviridae, causes rabies. Rabies diagnosis is challenging as the rabies virus remains confined to neurons after the initial animal bite. It largely remains immune-evasive until the infection reaches the central nervous system. The bottleneck in rabies diagnosis remains the non-availability of technical expertise and failure to collect an appropriate sample. The laboratory confirmation of rabies in both antemortem and postmortem samples is important. The samples were tested for anti-rabies antibodies using quantitative ELISA. In this report, two case studies are presented to demonstrate the suitability of ELISA for the intra vitam diagnosis of rabies using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a diagnostic sample. The interpretation of serology results for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals has been discussed in detail, which has helped to confirm the antemortem diagnosis of rabies. In this report, we observed that ELISA can be a viable alternative for anti-rabies antibody detection in CSF and can be used as a viable alternative to more technically challenging tests, such as Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFFIT) and Immunofluorescence Assays (IFA).

Rabies Outbreak in the Urban Area of Delhi: An Investigation Report and One Health Perspective for Outbreak Management.

Rabies is a global problem and is endemic in India. Rabies cases occur throughout the year, and the majority of cases are associated with dog bites. We report a rabies outbreak investigation in an urban area of Delhi conducted by our multidisciplinary team, and its role in proactively controlling a rabies outbreak by concerted efforts and timely advice to various stakeholders using a "One Health Approach." A veterinary care NGO from Delhi picked up a suspected rabid stray dog and submitted a brain sample for diagnosis of rabies, as they had received information from a resident of the locality about an unprovoked animal bite incident involving a girl (category III bite) and close contact of two more stray dogs living in the vicinity of the suspected rabid dog. The laboratory diagnosis of rabies in the suspected dog brain sample was confirmed by using Fluorescence Antibody Test (FAT). A multi-expert investigation team with expertise in medicine, microbiology, veterinary sciences, laboratory diagnosis, and public health was constituted to investigate the outbreak. The timely, adequate, and appropriate anti-rabies management initiated for the animal bite victims in this incident could prevent rabies. Proactive involvement of multiple stakeholders and knowledge attributes and practice of local residents could prevent human rabies. As there were no further reports of dog bites from the area, the chain of rabies transmission in that area could be controlled. The presented work is a classical case scenario where concerted efforts of all stakeholders achieved effective control and prevention of rabies by adopting the "One Health approach".

Biosynthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles via endophyte Trichoderma viride and evaluation of their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.

The biogenic method for synthesis of nanoparticles is preferred over the traditional strategies, on account of its ease, environmental friendliness, and cost-effectivity, wherein fungi endorse themselves to be the most appropriate precursor for the same. In recent times numerous metal nanoparticles have been reported to exhibit significant therapeutic activities, out of which Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) stand apart on account of their multidimensional nature. Thus, this study was carried out with an aim to biosynthesize ZnO NPs utilizing endophyte Trichoderma viride, isolated from the seeds of Momordica charantia. The physicochemical characterization of NPs was done via employing a combination of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. The NPs were found to have a hexagonal shape and possessed an average particle size of around 63.3 nm. The antimicrobial activity of NPs was evaluated against multi-drug resistant organisms and it was observed to be an appreciable one whereas the antioxidant activity was deduced to be dose-dependent. Thus, these ZnO NPs can be considered as a probable active ingredient of any future therapeutic conceptualization after undertaking a thorough toxicological assessment.

Rabies can be a disease of puppyhood.

This brief report documents an interesting and a rare case of 10 week old male puppy who suddenly showed a change in his behavior (irritable, agitated, anorexic, and refusing feeds), bitten six humans, and was laboratory-confirmed as died due to rabies (Rapid antigen test and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive for rabies at the National Rabies Reference Laboratory, WHO collaborating Centre for Rabies Epidemiology, Centre for Arboviral and Zoonotic Diseases, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi). All animal bite victims were timely provided postexposure prophylaxis for rabies who had shown sufficient seroconversion by IgG antirabies antibody using enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) and have been reported healthy. This case report reinforces the role of veterinarians/primary care physicians for strong suspicion of rabies encephalitis in puppies with behavioral or neurologic abnormalities and timely/appropriate rabies immunization of the animal bite victims. Shreds of evidence also focus that rabies in puppies younger than 3 months of age is grave and the risk of human beings contracting rabies from young puppies is of public health importance because of fatal consequences. Continuing medical education for primary care physicians and veterinarians, and outreach community public awareness campaigns should be regularly done to promote knowledge of pre-exposure/post-exposure prophylaxis, preventive measures, and animal bite management.

Utility of smear examination, culture, and serological tests in the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis/post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis at National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi.

Introduction: A range of assays have been developed to detect specific antileishmanial antibody, such as rK 39 immunochromatographic test (ICT), KE 16 ICT, ELISA test, and indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT), which play a crucial role in serological diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). However, limited published reports are available on the utility of serological test (IFAT test/rk 39), smear examination, and culture in the diagnosis of VL and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) in our country. Materials and Methods: We present utility of serological test (IFAT test/rK 39), smear examination for Leishmania donovani (LD) bodies, and culture in 2589 samples from 2294 VL/PKDL suspected patients (January 2009-December 2019) tested in Centre for Arboviral and Zoonotic diseases, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India, for laboratory diagnosis of VL/PKDL. Results: A total of 80/553 (14.4%) cases were confirmed of VL (74/522 cases by demonstration of LD bodies in bone marrow smear examination, 5/12 in splenic smear examination 1/19 by culture) and 4/21 (19.0%) cases were confirmed of PKDL (demonstration of LD bodies in slit skin smear examination. In our study 197/1368 (14.4%) cases were diagnosed positive by IFAT, 34/646 (5.2%) cases by rk 39 ICT for VL/PKDL by demonstration of specific antileishmanial antibodies. Conclusion: As the goal of elimination of VL as a public health problem is approaching, apart from serological tests such as rk 39 and IFAT, direct methods of detection such as (parasitic demonstration in BM smear, culture, and molecular tests) for Leishmania may play a crucial role for achieving a correct diagnosis and treatment. We also concluded that IFAT though not field-friendly, its optimal use as an adjunct test with BM smear in all stages of infections may be required. Further rk39 is a simple, reliable, noninvasive, and field-friendly test for diagnosis VL, especially in endemic areas.

Prediction of maize flour adulteration in chickpea flour (besan) using near infrared spectroscopy.

The present study was performed to develop Near-infrared spectroscopy based prediction method for the quantification of the maize flour adulteration in chickpea flour. Adulterated samples of Chickpea flour (besan) were prepared by spiking different concentrations of maize flour with pure Chickpea flour in the range of 1-90% (w/w). The spectra of pure Chickpea flour, pure maize flour, and adulterated samples of Chickpea flour with maize flour were acquired as the logarithm of reciprocal of reflectance (log 1/R) in the entire Visible-NIR wavelength range of 400-2498 nm. The acquired spectra were pre-processed by Ist derivative, standard normal variate, and detrending. The calibration models were developed using modified partial least square regression (MPLSR), partial least square regression and principal component regression. The optimal model was selected on the basis of highest values of the coefficient of determination (RSQ), one minus variance ratio (1-VR) and lowest values of standard errors of calibration (SEC), and standard error of cross-validation (SECV). MPLSR model having RSQ and 1-VR value of 0.999 and 0.996 having SEC and SECV value of 1.092 and 2.042 was developed for quantification of maize flour adulteration in chickpea flour. Cross validation and external validation of the developed models resulted in RSQ of 0.999, 0.997 and standard error of prediction of 1.117, and 2.075, respectively. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-022-05456-7.

Nipah Virus Disease: Recent Perspective and One Health Approach.

Background: Nipah virus (NiV) first emerged in 1998 in Malaysia, causing an outbreak of respiratory illness and encephalitis in pigs. Pig-to-human transmission of NiV associated with severe febrile encephalitis was described, and it was thought to occur through close contact with infected animals. The first outbreak was reported in India in Siliguri, West Bengal in 2001 followed by Nadia, West Bengal and adjoining areas of Bangladesh in 2007, where an intermediate animal host was not identified, suggesting bat-to-human and human-to-human transmissions. Although it is extremely difficult to document the spillover event and ascertain crossing of trans-natural boundaries by bats and bringing new viruses in an unexposed population, efforts for source identification are important to understand the epidemiology of disease. As the disease transcends beyond one species and has shown to infect humans, it therefore requires the 'One Health approach' in which multiple sectors coordinate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes. Objective: We summarize the re-emergence and response of the Nipah virus outbreaks (NiVD) in Kerala, India, about 1800 kms away, a decade later in 2018 and 2019. The paper recapitulates involvement of various stakeholders from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate of Health Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, State Health Department, State Animal Husbandry, District Administration, and multidisciplinary response mechanism during the NiVD outbreaks of 2018 and 2019. Methods: Information was collected from the Press Information Bureau (PIB), media/weekly alerts from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), news articles from print and electronic media, newsletters, advisories from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Disease Outbreak News (DON), World Health Organization (WHO), and published papers from various stakeholders. Findings & Conclusion: The evidence of NiV in humans and bats, with samples collected from the outbreak sites, was laboratory confirmed. The multidisciplinary response mechanisms during the 2018 outbreak helped in further understanding the importance of the One Health approach for systemic and streamlined response utilizing existing surveillance systems. This was of utmost help in the subsequent outbreak of the disease that occurred during 2019, wherein there was no documented spread of disease from the index case and no mortality was observed. This success reiterates the need for institutionalizing the involvement and cooperation of various departments and organizations during public health emergencies, especially of Zoonotic diseases, using the One Health approach.

Chronicle down memory lane: India's sixty years of plague experience.

BACKGROUND: This perspective documents the historical aspects of outbreaks of plague of last six decades, establishment of plague surveillance network in India with detailed insights about its activities and recent developments requiring focus on plague surveillance. Human plague was reported in Mulbagal area of Karnataka in 1966-67 only to re-emerge in the country in 1994 in Beed district (Maharashtra) and subsequently in Surat (Gujarat). Later Plague outbreak has been reported in the year 2002 with index case from Village Hatkoti, Shimla District in Himachal Pradesh. The last outbreak reported from India was in 2004 from Village Dangaud, Uttarkashi District in Uttarakhand followed by a period of quiescent since last 17 years. OBJECTIVES: During the last few decades, at least three geographical areas experienced outbreaks of plague after silent period of 28 years. We recapitulate the response mechanism for containing outbreaks during the last three outbreaks of plague held in Maharashtra & Gujarat (1994), Himachal Pradesh (2002) and Uttarakhand (2004). We also document the Plague surveillance network of India and its activities which is a comprehensive surveillance system comprising of rodent, flea, canine and human surveillance whose foundation was started in 1964. The recent developments of last decade in terms of revised Human plague surveillance case definitions, Plague surveillance sites, vector control, novel diagnostics and vaccines in our country are also mentioned. CONCLUSION: The thrust areas in control of plague outbreak are early detection and isolation of cases, timely effective antibiotic treatment, chemoprophylaxis to contacts, strengthening of surveillance system and massive IEC campaign in infected areas. Yersinia pestis (causative agent of Plague) also being an important bioterrorism agent, clinicians need to pay special attention to diagnose and microbiologists must be provided skilled training for laboratory confirmation to this pestilential disease for effective and timely management.

Developing health promotional skills among medical undergraduates for tuberculosis patients: An innovative way to benefit students as well as patients.

BACKGROUND: Involving medical undergraduate students in patients' health education will not only help in improving students' learning as well as professional and communication skills but also plays an important role in achieving better health outcome of patients. The aim of the study was to assess the impact of students led educational intervention regarding tuberculosis (TB) on their learning and on the patients' knowledge and attitude towards the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred medical undergraduates were included in the study. An integrated lecture on TB was given to all participants followed by preintervention test on TB. One group was then subjected to interactive traditional lecture. Whereas the videos reflecting the experiences of TB patients were shown to the other group and was given an assignment to prepare educational leaflets for TB patients followed by postintervention test for both groups. The patients' satisfaction level with the information given via educational leaflet and the overall perceived benefits of this activity by the students were assessed. Data analysis done using SPSS version 23.0. Independent and paired t-test were used to calculate difference of means for quantitative variables. RESULTS: Two groups were comparable preintervention however postintervention there was significant improvement in knowledge in the study group (P0.000). Overall 74.2% of the patients were satisfied with the information provided through leaflets. Students' feedback highlighted that majority of the them felt benefitted from this activity. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that such type of educational interventions have dual benefits, i.e., learning for the students as well as providing health education to patients which in turn will improve their clinical outcome.

Efficient and modified 2-NBDG assay to measure glucose uptake in cultured myotubes.

Under type-2 diabetes, insulin resistance develops in skeletal muscles as a key defect and to study the disorder, its manifestation, and possible solution, measurement of glucose uptake is a fundamental necessity. Of various approaches (i.e. scintillation counting, flow cytometry, fluorometry and spectrophotometry) fluorescent labelled glucose analogue, 2-NBDG solution is the most popular one. Although 2-NBDG based assay is the most widely used approach in various cells including skeletal muscle, even then all available protocols possess huge variability which impacts the overall data reproducibility. Moreover, starvation (use of glucose/serum free medium), one of the prerequisite condition for glucose uptake assay, itself induces stress specifically during longer pre-incubation periods and alters muscle cell metabolism and morphology, but the fact has not been duly considered. Therefore in the present article, using specific skeletal muscle cells i.e. C2C12 myotubes, we have re-established the conditions like pre-incubation time period, concentrations of insulin, glucose and serum/BSA while maintaining the cultured myotubes in morphologically healthy state. Our lab standardized protocols were observed to be effective in studying insulin resistance condition induced by diverse stresses (oxidative & inflammation) in myotubes. Comparative study conducted with already established protocols demonstrates that the present method is more efficient, effective and better improvised for studying glucose uptake in C2C12.

Educating nursing staff regarding infection control practices and assessing its impact on the incidence of hospital-acquired infections.

CONTEXT: Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are a global problem. One of the common causes of HAI is through the health-care workers, mainly because of failure to comply with the recommended infection control guidelines. AIMS: The aim of our study was to educate and train the nurses regarding infection control practices and assess the impact of training and assess whether this training actually made any change in the incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) and intravenous (IV) line-related infections. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Baseline knowledge, attitude, and practices study of willingly participating 105 nurses regarding infection control was done. The incidence of CAUTI and IV line-related infection was calculated in the areas of their postings. They were trained via an educational module regarding infection control practices. We again assessed the incidence of CAUTI and IV line-related infections in the same areas 2 months after training. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0. Student's t-test was used to analyze the difference in the prevalence of CAUTI and IV line-associated HAIs pre intervention and post intervention. RESULTS: There was reduction in the incidence of IV line-related infection, though it was not significant (P 0.15) and no change in the incidence of CAUTI after intervention. CONCLUSION: Single educational module though improved nurses' knowledge and attitude regarding infection control but failed to result in significant improvement in practices and incidence of HAIs.

Deep Neural Network-based Handheld Diagnosis System for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present work was to propose and implement deep neural network (DNN)-based handheld diagnosis system for more accurate diagnosis and severity assessment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS: Initially, the learning of the proposed system for ASD diagnosis was performed by implementing DNN algorithms such as a convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM), and multilayer perceptron (MLP) with DSM-V based acquired dataset. The performance of the DNN algorithms was analyzed based on parameters viz. accuracy, loss, mean squared error (MSE), precision, recall, and area under the curve (AUC) during the training and validation process. Later, the optimum DNN algorithm, among the tested algorithms, was implemented on handheld diagnosis system (HDS) and the performance of HDS was analyzed. The stability of proposed DNN-based HDS was validated with the dataset group of 20 ASD and 20 typically developed (TD) individuals. RESULTS: It was observed during comparative analysis that LSTM resulted better in ASD diagnosis as compared to other artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms such as CNN and MLP since LSTM showed stabilized results achieving maximum accuracy in less consumption of epochs with minimum MSE and loss. Further, the LSTM based proposed HDS for ASD achieved optimum results with 100% accuracy in reference to DSM-V, which was validated statistically using a group of ASD and TD individuals. CONCLUSION: The use of advanced AI algorithms could play an important role in the diagnosis of ASD in today's era. Since the proposed LSTM based HDS for ASD and determination of its severity provided accurate results with maximum accuracy with reference to DSM-V criteria, the proposed HDS could be the best alternative to the manual diagnosis system for diagnosis of ASD.

A study to evaluate ocular changes in patients undergoing spine surgery in the prone position.

Background and Aims: AA present prospective study was conducted to evaluate ocular changes occurring in patients undergoing spine surgery in the prone position. Material and Methods: A total of 44 patients of either sex, belonging to American society of Anaesthesiology I and II (aged 18-60 years) scheduled for elective spine surgery in prone position were enrolled in the study. Baseline IOP and MAP measurement were taken prior to induction. After induction of anaesthesia patients were intubated using flexo-metallic tube of appropriate size. IOP and MAP were recorded after induction of anaesthesia, following completion of surgery and immediately after turning the patient supine and 30 min following extubation. Blood loss and duration of surgery was also noted. The OPP was derived using the formula (OPP = MAP-IOP). Ophthalmic examination was also performed using direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy on the day prior to surgery and on first post-operative day to rule out anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION), posterior ischemic optic neuropathy (PION), and retinal ischemia. Results: Mean IOP significantly increased (18.91 ± 3.56 mm Hg) (P < 0.001) at the end of surgery as compared to baseline value 12.85 ± 3.07 mm Hg. As a result mean OPP significantly reduced (75.12 ± 16.45) (P = 0.0018) at the end of the procedure. Conclusion: In patient's undergoing spine surgery in the prone position, careful patient positioning with no extrinsic pressure on the eyes, minimal surgical time and blood loss, and prevention of intraoperative hypotension, should be ensured to prevent the IOP rise and a reduction in OPP which can further prevent post-operative visual disturbance.

Photoluminescence performance of green light emitting terbium (III) complexes with ß-hydroxy ketone and nitrogen donor ancillary ligands.

An efficient and cost-effective technique, solution precipitation approach is adopted to synthesize five bright green luminescent terbium (III) complexes by employing the main ß-hydroxy ketone ligand, 2-hydroxy-4-ethoxyacetophenone, and ancillary ligands like bathophenanthroline, 5,6-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline, 1,10-phenanthroline, and 2,2-bipyridyl. The elemental compositions and binding mode of ligand to terbium (III) ion can be validated by using energy dispersive X-ray analysis, elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The complexes are thermally stable up to 158°C and possess the cubic shaped particles as confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopic study, respectively. The band-gap energy (3.02-2.92 eV) of complexes is reckoned through diffuse reflectance spectra, which tailors them as potential candidates in the field of military radars. The photoluminescence studies unveil that the complexes exhibit the bright green luminescence corresponding to 5 D4 → 7 F5 transition of Tb3+ ion (548 nm) under the excitation wavelength of 395 or 397 nm. The Commission International de I'Eclairage chromaticity coordinates (x, y) and color purity substantiates the green emission of complexes. The energy transfer mechanism elucidates that the main ligand and ancillary ligands sensitize Tb3+ ion, which in turn enhances the luminescence efficiency of the emissive layer of white organic light emitting diodes. The results reveal that the complexes are considered as good contenders in the field of display devices and laser technology. Lastly, in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activity proclaim the potent antimicrobial and antioxidant actions of complexes via tube dilution and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assays, respectively.