Minimum Latency-Secure Key Transmission for Cloud-Based Internet of Vehicles Using Reinforcement Learning.

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) communication key management level controls the confidentiality and security of its data, which may withstand user identity-based attacks such as electronic spoofing. The IoV group's key is updated with a defined frequency under the current key management method, which lengthens the time between crucial changes and encryption. The cluster key distribution management is used as the study object in this paper, which is based on the communication security on the Internet of Vehicles cluster. When vehicles enter and exit the cluster, the Internet of Vehicles must update the group key in real-time to ensure its forward and backward security. A low-latency IoV group key distribution management technology based on reinforcement learning is proposed to optimize the group owner vehicle according to factors such as changes in the number of surrounding vehicles and essential update records and the update frequency and the key length of its group key. The technology does not require the group leader vehicle to predict the nearby traffic flow model. The access-driven cache attack model reduces the delay of encryption and decryption and is verified in the simulation of the IoV based on advanced encryption standards. The simulation results show that, compared with the benchmark group key management scheme, this technology reduces the transmission delay of key updates, the calculation delay of encryption and decryption of the IoV, and improves the group key confidentiality.

Vaccination With Routine Childhood Vaccines and Severity of COVID-19 Among Children in Delhi.

OBJECTIVE: To study the association between routine childhood vaccination and the severity of COVID-19 among children. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was undertaken among 141 children (aged ≤15 years), tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. RESULTS: COVID-19 severity (combined moderate and severe) was significantly more in males (14.5%) than females (3.8%), and in those who did not receive first and second dose of MR vaccine (57.1%, and 40%, respectively) than who received (6.3%, and 6.1%, respectively). Disease severity was more in partially immunized children (16.7%) as compared to fully immunized children (7.0%). CONCLUSION: Children who did not receive both doses of MR vaccine had a severe infection when compared to those who were vaccinated.

Enhancing malaria control using Lagenaria siceraria and its mediated zinc oxide nanoparticles against the vector Anopheles stephensi and its parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

In many developing countries, there are certain health problems faced by the public, one among them is Malaria. This tropical disease is mainly caused by Plasmodium falciparum. It is categorized as a disaster to public health, which increases both mortality and morbidity. Numerous drugs are in practice to control this disease and their vectors. Eco-friendly control tools are required to battle against vector of this significant disease. Nanotechnology plays a major role in fighting against malaria. The present paper synthesized Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) using zinc nitrate via simple green routes with the help of aqueous peel extract of Lagenaria siceraria (L. siceraria). The synthesized ZnO NPs were characterized by various biophysical methods. Moreover, the extract of L. siceraria and their mediated ZnO NPs was experimented against III instar larvae of An. stephensi. The impact of the treatment based on ZnO NPs concerning histology and morphology of mosquito larval was further observed. In the normal laboratory environment, the efficiency of predation of Poeciliareticulata (P. reticulata) against An. Stephensi larvae was found to be 44%, whereas in aqueous L. siceraria extract and its mediated ZnO NPs contaminated environment, P. reticulate showed predation efficiency of about 45.8% and 61.13% against An. Stephensi larva. L. siceraria synthesized ZnO NPs were examined against the Plasmodium falciparum CQ-sensitive strains. The L. siceraria extract and its mediated ZnO NPs showed the cytotoxic effects against HeLa cell lines with an IC50 value of 62.5 µg/mL. This study concludes that L. siceraria peel extract and L. siceraria synthesized ZnO NPs represent a valuable green option to fight against malarial vectors and parasites.

Calming the Storm: Natural Immunosuppressants as Adjuvants to Target the Cytokine Storm in COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis, with no specific antiviral to treat the infection and the absence of a suitable vaccine to prevent it. While some individuals contracting the SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibit a well coordinated immune response and recover, others display a dysfunctional immune response leading to serious complications including ARDS, sepsis, MOF; associated with morbidity and mortality. Studies revealed that in patients with a dysfunctional immune response, there is a massive cytokine and chemokine release, referred to as the 'cytokine storm'. As a result, such patients exhibit higher levels of pro-inflammatory/modulatory cytokines and chemokines like TNFα, INFγ, IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-7, IL-9, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17, G-CSF, GM-CSF, MCSF, HGF and chemokines CXCL8, MCP1, IP10, MIP1α and MIP1ß. Targeting this cytokine storm is a novel, promising treatment strategy to alleviate this excess influx of cytokines observed at the site of infection and their subsequent disastrous consequences. Natural immunosuppressant compounds, derived from plant sources like curcumin, luteolin, piperine, resveratrol are known to inhibit the production and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. This inhibitory effect is mediated by altering signal pathways like NF-κB, JAK/STAT, MAPK/ERK that are involved in the production and release of cytokines and chemokines. The use of these natural immunosuppressants as adjuvants to ameliorate the cytokine storm; in combination with antiviral agents and other treatment drugs currently in use presents a novel, synergistic approach for the treatment and effective cure of COVID-19. This review briefly describes the immunopathogenesis of the cytokine storm observed in SARS-CoV-2 infection and details some natural immunosuppressants that can be used as adjuvants in treating COVID-19 disease.

Factors affecting blood glucose and serum sodium level with intraoperative infusion of 1% dextrose in ringer's lactate in neonates undergoing surgery.

CONTEXT: Under anesthesia, blood glucose level in term neonates varies widely due to stress induced glucose mobilisation due to various factors. Postoperative hyponatremia occurs with intraoperative infusion of large volume of hypotonic fluid. There is a growing consensus on the intraoperative use of 1-4% glucose containing isotonic fluid in them. AIMS: To know the relation of duration of surgery, infusion rate, fluid bolus, blood transfusion with blood glucose level and effect on serum sodium level with intraoperative 1% dextrose ringer's lactate (1% DRL) in neonates undergoing surgery. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Prospective single-center study in tertiary institute. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 100 neonates undergoing various surgeries under general anesthesia with or without caudal anaesthesia were included. 1% DRL was used as maintenance and replacement fluid intraoperatively. Blood glucose level at hourly interval throughout surgery and serum sodium concentration before and after infusion was documented. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Student's t test (two tailed, independent) has been used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: After the infusion of 1% DRL during surgery, mean blood sugar levels were increased above the base line in all neonates at successive hourly interval. Serum sodium levels remained within physiological range in all neonates. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative hyperglycemia is more obvious with higher intravenous fluid infusion rate, prolonged duration of surgery, and requirement of fluid bolus as well as blood transfusion intraoperatively. Use of 1% DRL in neonates undergoing surgery is effective in preventing dysnatremia.

A computer aided diagnosis system for measurement of mandibular cortical thickness on dental panoramic radiographs in prediction of women with low bone mineral density.

Osteoporosis detection at earlier stages can enhance the life span of an elderly individual. The aim of the study is to perform semi-automated measurement of mandibular cortical thickness (MCT) on a dental panoramic radiograph (DPR) and thereby to predict the risk of low BMD among the studied population. The study involved 76 women (mean age: 57.2 ± 12.6 years). The DPR was obtained using KODAK 8000C system. The BMD of right total hip (T-BMD) was obtained using DPX Prodigy Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) Scanner. The DPR obtained were subjected to image processing techniques to perform MCT measurement. The region of interest was manually selected around the mental foramen and enhanced using a median filter. The Ostu segmentation was performed and connected component labelling operation was performed to determine the lower boundary by finding the contour with maximum area. Subsequently, the haar wavelet operation was carried out to find the magnitude and thereby select the upper delineating cortical boundary. The Pearson test results revealed (r = 0.96, p < 0.01) for the standard (manual) MCT measurement against the MCT measured using the proposed semi-automated scheme. ROC analysis revealed that MCT = 2.5 mm could be an optimal threshold in spotting individuals at risk of low BMD. The results of the study revealed that the MCT measured on a DPR using the proposed approach could be helpful for identifying individuals at risk of low BMD.

A Review on Green Synthesis, Biomedical Applications, and Toxicity Studies of ZnO NPs.

The advance of reliable and eco-friendly strategies for the development of nanoparticles is a fundamental key to the discipline of nanotechnology. Nanoparticles have been continuously evaluated and have been used in many industrial applications for a decade. In particular, the role of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) has received a great interest because of various properties such as UV filter properties and photochemical, antifungal, high catalyst, and antimicrobial activities. Because of the high rate of poisonous chemicals and the extreme surroundings used within the chemical and physical methods, the green techniques have been adopted using plants, fungi, bacteria, and algae for the synthesis of nanoparticles. Therefore, this paper considers various green synthesis methods to provide the evidence of ZnO NP role to several applications, and in addition, biomedical applications and toxic effect were reviewed. Therefore, the paper used various secondary sources to collect the relevant review articles. From the findings, the green route of synthesis is rather safe and eco-friendly when compared to physical and chemical means of synthesis. On the other hand, its biomedical applications in this sector are increased day by day in various processes including bioimaging, drug delivery, biosensors, and gene delivery. With respect to its toxicity properties, ZnO NPs can act as smart weapons against multiple drug-resistant microorganisms and as a talented substitute for antibiotics.

In vitro anti- biofilm and anti-bacterial activity of Sesbania grandiflora extract against Staphylococcus aureus.

The main objective of this research is to investigate the anti-biofilm and anti-bacterial activity of Sesbania grandiflora (S. grandiflora) against Staphylococcus aureus. S. grandiflora extract were prepared and analyzed with UV -Vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Dynamic light scattering. Biofilm forming pathogens were identified by congo-red assay. Quantification of Extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) particularly protein and carbohydrate were calculated. The efficacy of the herbal extract S. grandiflora and its inhibition against the pathogenic strain of S. aureus was also evaluated. The gradual decrease or disappearance of peaks reveals the reduction of protein and carbohydrate content in the EPS of S. aureus when treated with S. grandiflora. The antibacterial activity of S. grandiflora extract against the bacterial strain S. aureus showed that the extract were more active against the strain. To conclude, anti-biofilm and antibacterial efficacy of S. grandiflora plays a vital role over biofilm producing pathogens and act as a good source for controlling the microbial population.

Evaluation of anti-cholinesterase, antibacterial and cytotoxic activities of green synthesized silver nanoparticles using from Millettia pinnata flower extract.

The aim of this study is to develop an easy and eco-friendly method for the synthesis of Ag-NPs using extracts from the medicinal plant, Millettia pinnata flower extract and investigate the effects of Ag-NPs on acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), antibacterial and cytotoxicity activity. UV-Vis peak at 438 nm confirmed the Ag-NPs absorbance. The SEM analysis results confirmed the presence of spherical shaped Ag-NPs by a huge disparity in the particle size distribution with an average size of 49 ± 0.9 nm. TEM images revealed the formation of Ag-NPs with spherical shape and sizes in the range between 16 and 38 nm. The Ag-NPs showed an excellent inhibitory efficacy against AChE and BChE. The highest antibacterial activity was found against Escherichia coli (20.25 ± 0.91 mm). These nanoparticles showed the cytotoxic effects against brine shrimp (artemia saliana) nauplii with a LD50 value of 33.92.

Biotechnology and pharmacological evaluation of Indian vegetable crop Lagenaria siceraria: an overview.

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, which comprises about 118 genera and 825 species. It is an important vegetable crop of India, and its production is influenced by a number of factors viz., environmental, nutritional, cultural operation and use of plant growth regulators. Since, bottle gourd belongs to a medicinal family, it plays a major role in the treatment of several diseases related to the skin and heart. There are several organic chemical compounds including vitamin B complex, pectin, dietary soluble fibres, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, amino acids and minerals which have been isolated from this species. Therefore, the bottle gourd is considered to have a great impact on therapeutic health benefits. Due to drastic industrialization and urbanization, most of the human beings are facing several ill effects which may lead to death at extreme cases. Hence, the major research area was said to be nanotechnology. Taking into consideration, we have combined nanotechnology field with waste source in the name of green synthesis and planned to cure several diseases, as most of the researchers focused their work on this and succeeded too. The present study is a complete review of L. siceraria that covers the ethnomedical uses, chemical constituents, and pharmacological profile. This study is mainly focused on the antibacterial, hepatoprotective, diuretic and anthelminthic activities.

Introducing a teaching module to impart communication skills in the learning anaesthesiologists.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pre-operative negative valence communications adversely affect intra and post-operative pain experience. This study was conducted to evaluate the teaching of communication skills by teachers in anaesthesia department and whether the post-operative pain is effectively modified due to the skill of communication acquired by students. METHODS: All students and teachers in the department participated in the study. Patients with uncomplicated pregnancy posted for elective lower segment caesarean section were involved. Students were taught to explain the anaesthesia plan pre-operatively to the patients in a positive manner. They were taught the practice of giving positive suggestions before any potentially painful stimulus. Pre-operatively all students informed the patients about the conduct of spinal anaesthesia. The teachers evaluated the students performing spinal block. The performance was rated for procedural and interpersonal skills (direct observation of procedural skills [DOPS] and Smith and Kendall Behavioural scale [SKBS] respectively). The extent of cooperation and the ease with which spinal block could be administered correctly by the student was judged by the teacher. Post-operatively students were randomly provided questionnaires to elicit answers from patients. RESULTS: P value DOPS and SKBS (0.567, 0.867) show no significant statistical variation. P > 0.05 = not significant, indicates no significant variation in procedural and behavioural skills of students in two groups. CONCLUSION: Teaching of communication skills to students showed a demonstrable effect on their pre-operative dialogue with patients. Pain mechanism was effectively modulated by improving patients' psychology to undergo anaesthesia.

Exsanguinated uterus after massive atonic postpartum haemorrhage.

This article addresses issues related to pregnancy anaemia and late referral by a village birth attendant in resource poor setting in a central state of India. A young anaemic woman had labour onset at her village, a birth attendant tried to deliver her but failed. When she came to our hospital, had established septicaemia and absolutely non-reassurable uterine tone leading to intractable atonic postpartum haemorrhage. She died after 5 days because of coagulopathy and multiorgan failure. Huge budgets are being spent for the promotion of institutional deliveries but still the maternal mortality ratio has not reduced. The epidemiology of childbirth, social awareness for safe labour and administrative lethargy towards implementation of government programmes have not changed. The tertiary care-blood and components-multidisciplinary approach could not prevent the death of an anaemic woman. Unless there is a grassroot level change in the healthcare delivery system at the village level, the scenario might not change.

ECG feature extraction using principal component analysis for studying the effect of diabetes.

The condition of cardiac health is given by Electrocardiogram (ECG). ECG analysis is one of the most important aspects of research in the field of Biomedical and healthcare. The precision in the identification of various parameters in ECG is of great importance. Many algorithms have been developed in the last few years for this purpose. Since diabetes is the major chronic illness prevailing today, recently there has been increasing interest in the study of the relationship between diabetes and cardiac health. This paper presents an algorithm based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for 12 lead ECG feature extraction and the estimation of diabetes-related ECG parameters. The data used for our purpose is acquired by XBio Aqulyser unit from TMI systems. The baseline wander is removed from the acquired data using the FFT approach and the signal is de-noised using wavelet transform and then the PCA method is employed to extract the R-wave. The other waves are then extracted using the window method. Later, using these primary features, the diabetes mellitus (DM)-related features like corrected QT interval (QTc), QT dispersion (QTd), P wave dispersion (PD) and ST depression (STd) are estimated. This study has taken 25 diabetic patients data for study.

Influence of inoculation of arsenic-resistant Staphylococcus arlettae on growth and arsenic uptake in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. Var. R-46.

An arsenic hypertolerant bacterium was isolated from arsenic contaminated site of West Bengal, India. The bacteria was identified as Staphylococcus arlettae strain NBRIEAG-6, based on 16S rDNA analysis. S. arlettae was able to remove arsenic from liquid media and possesses arsC gene, gene responsible for arsenate reductase activity. The biochemical profiling of the isolated strain showed that it had the capacity of producing indole acetic acid (IAA), siderophores and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase. Furthermore, an experiment was conducted to test the effect of S. arlettae inoculation on concurrent plant growth promotion and arsenic uptake in Indian mustard plant [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. Var. R-46] when grown in arsenic spiked (5, 10 and 15 mg kg(-1)) soil. The microbial inoculation significantly (p<0.05) increased biomass, protein, chlorophyll and carotenoids contents in test plant. Moreover, as compared to the non-inoculated control, the As concentration in shoot and root of inoculated plants were increased from 3.73 to 34.16% and 87.35 to 99.93%, respectively. The experimental results show that the plant growth promoting bacteria NBRIEAG-6 has the ability to help B. juncea to accumulate As maximally in plant root, and therefore it can be accounted as a new bacteria for As phytostabilization.