Context:Ultrasound-guided bilateral superficial cervical plexus block (BSCPB) is a technique described for thyroid surgeries for postoperative analgesia as the surgery can cause severe pain and discomfort. Perineural dexamethasone is known to prolong analgesic duration and reduce postoperative nausea/vomiting.Aims:To assess the efficacy of dexamethasone as an adjuvant to BSCPB with 0.25% bupivacaine on isoflurane consumption, intraoperative hemodynamic parameters, and postoperative analgesia in patients undergoing thyroid surgeries under general anesthesia.Settings and Design:This was a randomized control trial.Subjects and Methods:Eighty patients were randomized to two equal groups using random number table into Group A with BSCPB receiving 20 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine and Group B with BSCPB receiving 19 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine + injection dexamethasone 4 mg in the preinduction period. Hemodynamic parameters, isoflurane consumption, postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) score, and antiemetic effect over 24 h were compared between two groups.Statistical Analysis Used:Microsoft excel data sheet, Chi-square test, and independent t-test were used for statistical analysis.Results:The intraoperative hemodynamic parameters were comparable between the two groups. There was a significant difference in mean VAS score between two groups from 6 h to 20 h postoperatively. The time of rescue analgesic in Group A was 7.09 ± 1.04 min and Group was 13.19 ± 1.46 min with P < 0.0001. In Group A, 40% had nausea and 35% had vomiting, and in Group B, 7.5% had nausea and 5% had vomiting.Conclusions:Preinduction ultrasound-guided BSCPB with bupivacaine and dexamethasone provides longer duration of postoperative analgesia and lesser nausea and vomiting compared to bupivacaine alone.

Background and Aims: Changes in the sympathetic nervous system by pain can impact smooth muscle tone and can alter perfusion. This can be monitored by perfusion index (PI). It is a non-invasive, indirect, and continuous measure of peripheral perfusion. This study investigates the changes in PI due to painful stimuli under general anaesthesia. Methods: Twenty patients between the ages of 20 and 45 years, with informed consent, who were undergoing elective laparoscopic procedure, and belonging to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status class I were connected with standard monitors along with SEDLINE, pulse oximetry (Root, Masimo Corporation®, Irvine, CA, USA) to monitor PI and Pleth-Variability Index (PVi). General anaesthesia was administered. PI, PVi, heart rate (HR), and non-invasive blood pressure were recorded pre-induction, during induction, before and after intubation, at the time of pneumoperitoneum (P0), and first laparoscopic port insertion (P1). Later, intravenous injection of fentanyl 0.5 μg/kg was administered and values were recorded at the second (P2) and third (P3) port insertion. The aforementioned parameters were recorded for up to 30 minutes. Statistical confirmation was done through paired t tests. Results: PI values after fentanyl increased from 5.33 ± 2.67 (P1) to 5.99 ± 2.8 (P2) (P < 0.001), and to 6.3 ± 2.88 (P3) (P < 0.001). This increase correlated with a decrease in HR, from 101.42 ± 12.53 (P1) to 87.93 ± 10.98 (P2) (P < 0.001), and to 83 ± 10.82 (P3) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: PI can be a tool to monitor the nociception in anaesthetised patients when administering analgesia.

Shorea robusta Roxb.ex Gaertn, commonly called Sal, is a major source of hardwood timber widely spread in the Indian sub continent and contributes to the biodiversity of the northern India. These woody plants are difficult to regenerate under in vitro conditions and only few attempts have been successful so far. The present investigation focus on testing two basal media for shoot proliferation from nodal and axillary shoot buds explants of S. robusta, each supplemented with different concentrations and combination of phytohormones. Shoot regenerations and percent of explants response, showed significant difference with media composition than with the prolonged incubation period during culturing. The result showed that with increased concentrations of benzyl amino purine (BAP) from 2.0 mg/L to 3.0 mg/L in the media WPM (McCown's woody plant medium) and MMS (modified Murashige and Skoog medium), the number of shoot proliferations increases and alongwith significant difference in the percentage (80-83 %) of shoot initiations. To all the treatments (T-1-T-5), media supplemented with 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), gibberellic acid (GA(3)), and 6-aminopurine hemisulfate salt (AdSO(4)) were kept the same. However, in comparison with control (T-c) the rooting of in vitro cultured shoots in the half strength MMS medium containing indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) concentration between 1.5 and 2.5 mg/L with activated charcoal (AC) showed a significant difference. The above research finding has shown a potential to resolve some of the challenges associated with multiplication of important Sal cultivars and further improve the breeding methodologies through in vitro selection procedure.

The growing amount of data collected by quantified self tools and social media hold great potential for applications in personalized medicine. Whereas the first includes health-related physiological signals, the latter provides insights into a user's behavior. However, the two sources of data have largely been studied in isolation. We analyze public data from users who have chosen to connect their MyFitnessPal and Twitter accounts. We show that a user's diet compliance success, measured via their self-logged food diaries, can be predicted using features derived from social media: linguistic, activity, and social capital. We find that users with more positive affect and a larger social network are more successful in succeeding in their dietary goals. Using a Granger causality methodology, we also show that social media can help predict daily changes in diet compliance success or failure with an accuracy of 77%, that improves over baseline techniques by 17%. We discuss the implications of our work in the design of improved health interventions for behavior change.

History of mental illness is a major factor behind suicide risk and ideation. However research efforts toward characterizing and forecasting this risk is limited due to the paucity of information regarding suicide ideation, exacerbated by the stigma of mental illness. This paper fills gaps in the literature by developing a statistical methodology to infer which individuals could undergo transitions from mental health discourse to suicidal ideation. We utilize semi-anonymous support communities on Reddit as unobtrusive data sources to infer the likelihood of these shifts. We develop language and interactional measures for this purpose, as well as a propensity score matching based statistical approach. Our approach allows us to derive distinct markers of shifts to suicidal ideation. These markers can be modeled in a prediction framework to identify individuals likely to engage in suicidal ideation in the future. We discuss societal and ethical implications of this research.

The aim of this investigation was to study the use of nano/micro-porous cellulosic materials (tubular cellulose, TC) produced by delignification of mango (Magnifera indica L.), sal (Shorea robusta G.) sawdust and rice husk (Otyza sativa L) in various food bioprocesses. Specifically, the porous structure of TC renders it suitable for use as filter material in continuous cold pasteurization processes as well as biocatalyst (carrier for yeast immobilization) for alcoholic fermentation. Water contaminated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Lactobacillus bulgaricus cells was continuously pumped through TC filters. The effect of TC origin, type of contamination and microbial load on the operational stability of the system was assessed. The microbial load removal ranged between 99.9-88.2% and 92-77% for yeast and bacteria, respectively. The system operated efficiently for up to 55 days. Filter regeneration was done with hot water. Scanning electron micrographs showed the entrapment of cells in the TC filters. The TCs were further used as S. cerevisiae immobilization carriers for alcoholic fermentation of grape must and glucose media at 15 degrees C. Satisfactory fermentation rates, high ethanol content, ethanol productivity, and volatile by-products formation were observed. The TCs showed great potential for water pretreatment and food bioprocessing with simultaneous valorization of lignocellulosic biomass. (c) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Werther effect describes the increased rate of completed or attempted suicides following the depiction of an individual's suicide in the media, typically a celebrity. We present findings on the prevalence of this effect in an online platform: r/SuicideWatch on Reddit. We examine both the posting activity and post content after the death of ten high-profile suicides. Posting activity increases following reports of celebrity suicides, and post content exhibits considerable changes that indicate increased suicidal ideation. Specifically, we observe that post-celebrity suicide content is more likely to be inward focused, manifest decreased social concerns, and laden with greater anxiety, anger, and negative emotion. Topic model analysis further reveals content in this period to switch to a more derogatory tone that bears evidence of self-harm and suicidal tendencies. We discuss the implications of our findings in enabling better community support to psychologically vulnerable populations, and the potential of building suicide prevention interventions following high-profile suicides.

Porous delignified cellulose (or tubular cellulose, abbr. TC) from Indian Mango (Mangifera indica) and Sal (Shorea robusta) wood and Rice husk, and TC/Ca-alginate/polylactic acid composites, were used as Lactobacillus bulgaricus immobilisation carriers leading to improvements in lactic acid fermentation of cheese whey and synthetic lactose media, compared to free cells. Specifically, shorter fermentation rates, higher lactic acid yields (g/g sugar utilised) and productivities (g/L d), and higher amounts of volatile by-products were achieved, while no significant differences were observed on the performance of the different immobilised biocatalysts. The proposed biocatalysts are of food grade purity, cheap and easy to prepare, and they are attractive for bioprocess development based on immobilised cells. Such composite biocatalysts may be used for the co-immobilisation of different microorganisms or enzymes (in separate layers of the biocatalyst), to efficiently conduct different types of fermentations in the same bioreactor, avoiding inhibition problems of chemical or biological (competition) nature.