A spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) study of intraretinal hyperreflective foci and its relationship with visual acuity and grades of retinopathy among patients of diabetes mellitus in Indian population.

Background: Hyperreflective foci (HRF) are biomarkers in detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Presence of HRF on spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) can give a correlation with visual acuity change and grades of DR. Purpose of this study is to determine the presence, location, and role of HRF in the retina of DM patients with and without retinopathy.

A case of bilateral sclerouveitis with secondary glaucoma right eye.

Infectious scleritis is rare and most commonly herpetic in origin. We report an unusual bilateral subacute presentation of scleritis with uveitis and glaucoma which responded to treatment with acyclovir. A 47-year-old male coast guard personnel presented with 2 months history of bilateral red eye.

Designing a bed-side system for predicting length of stay in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Increased length of stay (LOS) in intensive care units is directly associated with the financial burden, anxiety, and increased mortality risks. In the current study, we have incorporated the association of day-to-day nutrition and medication data of the patient during its stay in hospital with its predicted LOS. To demonstrate the same, we developed a model to predict the LOS using risk factors (a) perinatal and antenatal details, (b) deviation of nutrition and medication dosage from guidelines, and (c) clinical diagnoses encountered during NICU stay.

Development of data dictionary for neonatal intensive care unit: advancement towards a better critical care unit.

Background: Critical care units (CCUs) with extensive use of various monitoring devices generate massive data. To utilize the valuable information of these devices; data are collected and stored using systems like clinical information system and laboratory information management system. These systems are proprietary, allow limited access to their database and, have the vendor-specific clinical implementation.

Opening gambit: Strategic options to initiate the tobacco endgame.

Endgame strategies to rapidly hasten the decline of tobacco are already well within reach; a few plausible policy options are outlined herein for policy practitioners, tobacco control advocates, and public health specialists. The implementation of these measures which already exist within the gamut of existing legislation requires the galvanization of political will. The options we essay include liquidating existing public investments in tobacco, holding tobacco companies accountable within the jurisdictions of their operations, fixing liability for injury and the imposition of realistic costs on insurance providers.

Modulational instability in the full-dispersion Camassa-Holm equation.

We determine the stability and instability of a sufficiently small and periodic travelling wave to long-wavelength perturbations, for a nonlinear dispersive equation which extends a Camassa-Holm equation to include all the dispersion of water waves and the Whitham equation to include nonlinearities of medium-amplitude waves. In the absence of the effects of surface tension, the result qualitatively agrees with the Benjamin-Feir instability of a Stokes wave. In the presence of the effects of surface tension, it qualitatively agrees with those from formal asymptotic expansions of the physical problem and improves upon that for the Whitham equation, predicting the critical wave number at the strong surface tension limit.

Functionalized alkoxysilane mediated controlled synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles dispersible in aqueous and non-aqueous medium.

The synthesis of amphiphilic noble metal nanoparticles involving the functional role of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (3-APTMS) and 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy-silane (3-GPTMS) is reported herein. The mechanistic approach on the reactivity of these functional alkoxysilane for the typical controlled synthesis of AuNPs as evidenced from UV-visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is reported. The experimental findings demonstrate the followings; (1) Methanolic solution of 3-GPTMS undergo interaction with 3-APTMS and the same is facilitated in the presence of 3-APTMS treated noble metal ions, (2) The molar ratio of 3-GPTMS/3-APTMS control the nanogeometry as well as the dispersibility of AuNPs in both aqueous and non-aqueous media, (3) the dispersion ability of nanoparticles is found to be based on the hydrophobic alkyl chain of the reaction product of 3-GPTMS and 3-APTMS, and (4) AuNPs shows absorption maxima as a function of polarity and refractive index of the medium.

Novel synthesis of super peroxidase mimetic polycrystalline mixed metal hexacyanoferrates nanoparticles dispersion.

Mixed metal-hexacyanoferrates (MHCF) have shown promising applications for technological development particularly in energy storage technologies, ferromagnetic materials, and electrode materials. However, the challenge of controlling their chemical synthesis, solubility, polycrystallinity and nanogeometry have restricted the practical implementation of MHCF in commercial designs. Further, MHCFs have shown potential as peroxidase mimetics.

Cyclohexanone and 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane mediated controlled synthesis of mixed nickel-iron hexacyanoferrate nanosol for selective sensing of glutathione and hydrogen peroxide.

We report the cyclohexanone and 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (3-APTMS) mediated controlled synthesis of mixed nickel-iron hexacyanoferrate (Ni-Fehcf) nanosol of 34 nm average size. The new method allows the synthesis of a variety of mixed metal hexacyanoferrate (Mhcf) nanodispersion along with option for controlling the inversion of electrochemichemical behavior of Prussian blue(PB) into desired Mhcf. The typical process involves the mixing of 3-APTMS treated potassium ferricyanide with desired concentrations of nickel sulfate containing fixed amount of cyclohexanone resulting in a uniform spherical nanodispersion of mixed Ni-Fehcf.

Size-dependence enhancement in electrocatalytic activity of NiHCF-gold nanocomposite: potential application in electrochemical sensing.

A nanocomposite of nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) was made with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of two different sizes (20 and 80 nm as AuNP(red) and AuNP(blue) respectively), synthesized via 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane mediated reduction of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane treated gold chloride and characterized by scanning electron microscopy and UV-VIS spectroscopy. The size of AuNPs was found to influence the two pairs of reversible voltammetric peaks of cation rich and cation deficient NiHCF. Such influence was identified from cyclic voltammetry of nanocomposite modified electrodes and applications during electrochemical sensing of two different analytes hydrazine and glutathione (GSH).

Substrate dependent structural and magnetic properties of pulsed laser deposited Fe3O4 thin films.

Nanocrystalline iron oxide thin films have been deposited on various substrates such as quartz, MgO(100), and Si(100) by pulsed laser deposition technique using excimer KrF laser (248 nm). The orientations, crystallite size and lattice parameters were studied using X-ray diffraction. The XRD results show that the films deposited on MgO and Si substrates are highly oriented and show only (400) and (311) reflections respectively.

Fabrication of alpha-Fe2O3 nanopowder modified glassy carbon electrode for applications in electrochemical sensing.

In the present study, Fe2O3 nanopowder has been grown by Ultrasonic mist chemical vapor deposition (UM-CVD), which is a promising method for large area deposition at low temperatures taking in to account of its simplicity, inexpensiveness and safety. Room temperature XRD results revealed prominent hematite phase with intense (104) reflection and was also in agreement with the HR-TEM results. In situ high temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies clearly indicated the change of phase from hematite to magnetite as the temperature increases above 300 degrees C.

Differential pulse voltammetric determination of methylprednisolone in pharmaceuticals and human biological fluids.

Electrochemical behaviour of methylprednisolone (MP) at the fullerene-C60-modified glassy carbon electrode has been investigated using differential pulse voltammetry. The experimental results suggest that the modified electrode exhibits electrocatalytic effect on the oxidation of MP resulting in a marked enhancement of the peak current response. Under the selected conditions, the oxidation peak current was linearly dependent on the concentration of MP in the range 5.