Region Of South India Research Articles

Additive association of knowledge and awareness on control of hypertension: a cross-sectional survey in rural India.

To determine whether there is an interaction between knowledge about hypertension and awareness of hypertension on the treatment and control of hypertension in three regions of South India at different stages of epidemiological transition (see Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/HJH/B426). Using a cross-sectional design, we randomly selected villages within each of rural Trivandrum, West Godavari, and Chittoor. Sampling was stratified by age group and sex. We measured blood pressure and administered a questionnaire to determine knowledge and awareness of hypertension. Logistic regression was used to assess associations of awareness and knowledge about hypertension with its treatment and control in participants with hypertension, while examining for statistical interaction. Among a total of 11 657 participants (50% male; median age 45 years), 3455 had hypertension. In analyses adjusted for age and sex, both knowledge score [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.14 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12--1.17)] and awareness [aOR 104 (95% CI 82--134)] were associated with treatment for hypertension. Similarly, both knowledge score [aOR 1.10; 95% CI (1.08--1.12)] and awareness [aOR 13.4; 95% CI (10.7--16.7)], were positively associated with control of blood pressure in those with hypertension, independent of age and sex. There was an interaction between knowledge and awareness on both treatment and control of hypertension (P of attributable proportion <0.001 for each). Health education to improve knowledge about hypertension and screening programs to improve awareness of hypertension may act in an additive fashion to improve management of hypertension in rural Indian populations.

Fluoride enrichment in groundwater and associated human health risk in a tropical hard rock terrain in South India

This study is conducted in Dharapuram, a water-stressed semi-arid region in south India with an aim to understand the hydrochemistry of F-rich groundwater and perform a systematic human health risk assessment. Results indicate that groundwater is alkaline, dominated with Na, Mg, HCO3, and Cl. Gibb’s plot shows that groundwater is influenced by rock–water interaction and evaporation processes. The concentration of fluoride exceeded the acceptable limits of 1 mg/L of Indian drinking water standard in 73% of the samples. However, no samples exceeded maximum permissible limit of 1.5 mg/L. Higher concentrations were observed in the eastern, southeastern, northeastern regions in this category. Geochemical investigation showed that the Na-rich–Ca-poor groundwater favoring fluoride release from the geological formations and increase in F-levels in groundwater. Saturation indices show that groundwater is undersaturated with fluoride, which is agreed with the hydrochemical analysis. Hazard quotient (HQ) shows that the groundwater is posing noncarcinogenic threats to 62% of children and 34% of females. In contrast, men were found to be safer than compared to the other two groups. The individuals with higher body weight are proved to be less affected by the same concentration of fluoride in drinking water.

Evaluation of Charu Prepared from Acalypha Indica L- An Important Medicinal Plant of Traditional Siddha System Useful in Treating Skin Diseases

Siddha system of medicine is practiced in regions of South India. The eighteen Siddhars were the men who achieved supreme knowledge in the field of medicine, yoga and tap, since then this system of medicine developed. Acalypha indica is an important medicinal plant mentioned in Siddha literature. In the present study, Charu prepared from raw powder of leaves of this plant were evaluated by using different techniques like Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy analysis for determination of associated functional group, Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) for the quantification of trace and heavy elements and antifungal activity of Charu were tested. FTIR analysis showed the broad peaks for numerous functional groups like alkanes, alkynes, alkyl halide, aromatics, alkaloid etc. Elemental analysis from this plant shows good results for most of trace as well as heavy elements which have great significance in diet. Plant product Charu shows good antifungal activity against four different pathogenic skin disease causing fungi and hence the formulation can be used to treat dermal infections.

Prevalence of antibiotic resistant Salmonella spp. strains in shrimp farm source waters of Nagapattinam region in South India

The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella spp. in the source waters of shrimp farms in the Nagapattinam region of South India was investigated. Water and sediment samples (188 Nos.) collected from 23 natural creeks during December 2018 to April 2019 were examined for Salmonella spp. by conventional and PCR methods. The study indicated 28.7% of water and 25.5% of sediment isolates as Salmonella spp., while PCR test gave positive for 7.44% and 5.15% of the isolates, respectively. The isolates were resistant to sulfonamide (SF), but sensitive to tetracycline (TC), chloramphenicol (CAP), and furazolidone (FZ). PCR amplification of mitochondrial 16S rRNA region identified the highly resistant Salmonella serovar as S. Montevideo, which is an emerging food-borne pathogen. The incidence of antibiotic-resistant S. Montevideo reported for the first time in the natural creeks that supply water for shrimp farms emphasizes the need for regulatory steps to control its prevalence.

Industry 4.0—Awareness in South India

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) approaches, frameworks, and technologies have gained an increasing relevance in order to gain sustainable and competitive advantages for industrial enterprises and for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well. Contrary to previous studies, which are mainly focused on companies, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey on inhabitants, in an attempt to examine general awareness about I4.0 concepts, in the region of South India. Our findings revealed a rather poor informational level of I4.0 concept and its components, which consequently leads to inadequate future actions and expectations. Moreover, respondents with prior information about I4.0 framework tend to have rather positive opinions and expectations of possible future trends. We emphasize that insufficient knowledge of the potential workforce regarding I4.0 concepts, especially in a region with ascending demographic development, can be considered as one of the main barriers for a successful and sustainable future development towards the 4th industrial revolution.

Modelling the daily reference evapotranspiration in semi-arid region of South India: A case study comparing ANFIS and empirical models

The estimation of evapotranspiration (ETo) is one of the main tools for the control of crop growth and to make a rational use of water resources. To estimate this parameter accurately, it is necessary to have a daily measurement of four meteorological variables, these are: temperature, solar radiation, relative humidity and wind speed. It is not always possible to count on all the variables, that is why there are empirical methods that use a limited number of variables that make an approximate estimate of the ETo value. Each of these models are applicable to different regions with completely different climates. In this paper, a study has been carried out to define the model of ETo estimation that best adapts to the semi-arid region in South India. Two different datasets for the same period from different meteorological stations were used. In addition to the empirical methods for estimating ETo, computer models ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) were implemented. These models consist in the future estimation of a certain parameter by using current variables and a history of variables and past results. The results of this work show that ANFIS 11 model makes the best estimate with RMSD = 0.002 and r = 0.999. The RITCHIE method is the most suitable empirical model for this region, which reaches RMSD = 0.507 and r = 0.851. In addition, ranking of equations is elaborated for both datasets for daily estimates of ETo. Finally, comparison is made with the results for each case and thus confirm or reject the convenience of one model over the rest. To achieve this, a series of statistical indicators were used: Index of agreement (d), MAE (Mean absolute error), SEE (Standard error of estimate) and RMSD (Root mean square difference). Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed in order to compare and show the stability of the best models when an error is introduced within the input parameters. In this case, the empirical models demonstrate a better performance than the ANFIS models. This work demonstrates that the Ritchie method is a good estimator of the ETo value for a semi-arid region in southern India. In addition, the results of the ANFIS models are promising and could be used as estimation methods.

Mopla guttata (Acrididae: Catantopinae) rediscovered in the Western Ghats, Kerala, India

The endemic Catantopinae genus Mopla was described by Henry in 1940 from the Malabar region of South India. Henry described two species under this genus, M. guttata and M. rubra. The female type specimens of Mopla are deposited in the Natural History Museum, London, UK. There have been no further records of these two species since their description. Seventy-six years later, the first male specimen of the genus Mopla was discovered in the Western Ghats, Kerala, India, in 2016. This paper describes the specimen, thought to be of Mopla guttata, and reconsiders its systematic placement.

Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future: Insights from Pondicherry, South India

Wetland ecosystems hold an important part of the world’s biodiversity and are complex social-ecological systems. Aiming to understand interdependencies among their components and to define management policies, the social-ecological trajectory of Oussudu lake – a wetland of Pondicherry region in South India – was reconstructed and analyzed. During the last decades, this wetland has transformed from an irrigation tank to a lake to cater biodiversity conservation and recreation. The environmental history highlights a governance change that has contributed to “black boxing” the wetland’s functional environment and to conceal major water issues at regional and local levels. This study emphasizes the importance of implementing an approach that combines the management of this urban lake commons with a multi-scalar, socio-ecological and multi-stakeholder analysis. A trade-off on the seasonal water regime between different users - including fauna and flora - has to be found.

Morphometry of greater sciatic notch in gender identification in hyderabad-karnataka region of South India

Morphometry of greater sciatic notch in gender identification in hyderabad-karnataka region of South India

Temporal and Spatial Variations of Monsoonal Upwelling along the South West and East Coasts of India

The implicit/explicit impact of global warming or the anthropogenic climate change on the coastal upwelling processes affects the marine ecosystem significantly and continuous monitoring of the coastal upwelling along the coastal regions is essential. The Ekman transport due to alongshore winds and Ekman pumping due to wind stress curl play important roles on the coastal upwelling, especially along the southern part of Indian peninsula. Upwelling Indexes based on wind and SST are computed in the study to demarcate the upwelling features along the coasts. Since upwelling leaves its trail on surface features, long time series of satellite-derived wind, Sea Surface Temperature (SST), Sea level anomaly (SLA) and Surface Chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a) are analyzed to understand the upwelling along the coastal regions of south India. The present study reveals a decrease in the intensity of upwelling along the western coast (Chl-a ∼ 0.2 mg/m3 dec−1, Upwelling Index based on wind () and Vertical Velocity of Ekman Pumping (VVEP) is approximately 0.0012 m2/s dec−1 and 0.120 cm/day dec−1 respectively) and a slight increase all along the eastern coast of southern India during summer monsoon (Chl-a along 11.3°N and 13.9°N is 1 mg/m3 dec−1, and VVEP along 10.5°N is 0.0023 m2/s dec−1 and 0.2 cm/day dec−1 respectively).

Students perception regarding integrated pathology teaching programme for medical laboratory science curriculum: An institutional study

Students perception regarding integrated pathology teaching programme for medical laboratory science curriculum: An institutional study - IJPO- Print ISSN No: - 2394-6784 Online ISSN No:- 2394-6792 Article DOI No:- 10.18231/j.ijpo.2019.111, Indian Journal of Pathology and Oncology-Indian J Pathol Oncol

Entropy water quality index and probabilistic health risk assessment from geochemistry of groundwaters in hard rock terrain of Nanganur County, South India

Sixty-one groundwater samples collected from the hard rock terrain of Nanganur region in South India, were evaluated for hydrogeochemistry as well as groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation purposes. Additionally, the probabilistic non-carcinogenic human health risks associated with fluoride and nitrate concentrations were assessed using the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) mathematical model. The hydrogeochemical facies, i.e. Ca2+-Mg2+-SO42− and Na+-Cl--SO42−, are result of weathering and dissolution of rocks, ion exchange between Ca2+ and Na+, and precipitation of CaCO3, and influences of anthropogenic sources. Molar ratio Na+/Cl-, and distributions of Ca2++Mg2+ versus HCO3-+SO42−, Ca2++Mg2+ versus total cations (TC), and Na++K+ versus TC indicate that silicate weathering is the prime source for the ions. Gibbs diagram also suggests that rock-water interaction is the primary process of ionic concentrations in this groundwater system. About 18% groundwater samples show medium salinity and low sodium hazards and 73% of them, however, have high salinity and low sodium hazards. Wilcox diagram indicates that most groundwater samples (92%) are suitable for irrigation. However, 66% of them exceeded the prescribed limits of nitrate (45 mg/L) and 62% these groundwater samples exceeded limit of fluoride (1.5 mg/L) for drinking purpose. Hazard quotient of nitrate (HQNitrate) and HQFluoride as well as total non-carcinogenic health risk of fluoride and nitrate (HITotal) indicates that infants and children are more vulnerable to non-carcinogenic risk than adults. Based on these results, we recommend regulation of fertilizer application and appropriate remediation for defluoridation of drinking water to prevent the further health risk.

Sociodemographic, obstetric and psychological determinants of obesity among women in early to mid-pregnancy in South India

Background: Worldwide, the occurrence of obesity has markedly increased over the past decades with serious public health consequences. Obese pregnant women are more likely to develop hypertension, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes, resulting in obstetric complications which in turn may contribute to an increase in adverse child outcomes and maternal mortality. The present study was done to determine the prevalence of obesity and its association with socio-demographic variables, obstetric history and mental health. Methods: This study was nested within an ongoing cohort study, CASCADE, in a public hospital in Bangalore. The study participants comprised of 280 pregnant women who were 18 years of age and above, with a gestational age of less than 24 weeks, enrolled between a period of August 1st, 2017 until April 30th, 2018. Weight and height were measured using calibrated devices to calculate the body mass index. Results: The prevalence of obesity was observed to be 33.9% among the pregnant mothers. Obesity was found to be significantly associated with age, history of abortion, gravidity on multivariate logistic regression. No association was found with depression and anxiety. Conclusions: Obesity is an important health concern among urban pregnant women in the region of South India. The prevalence is much higher than that reported in other studies. Increasing age, multigravidity and past history of abortion were significantly associated with maternal obesity.

Evaluating the significance of the traditional use of Alstonia scholaris Linn. in Tulunadu region of South India

Objective: To evaluate the importance of the tradition of consuming expressed juice of Alstonia scholaris Linn. on the particular New moon day of Ashada (July-August) month of Hindu calendar in South Indian region of Tulunadu. Methodology: Collection of stem bark of Alstonia scholaris Linn. was done during early morning hours in accordance with the traditional practice. Three separate samples were obtained, first three days before the particular New moon day, second on the New moon day and third three days after the New moon day. About 10 milliliter of expressed and filtered juice of all three samples were extracted with dichloromethane 20 ml thrice with gentle shaking. The organic layers were collected and dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate. Analysis of the samples were done by using Shimadzu UV Spectrophotometer of model UV-1800, by keeping the absorbance at constant against the dichloromethane as blank. Results: The graphs indicated the presence of maximum concentration of active principles on the particular New moon day. The peak max of absorbance was found to be 0.2 from 1st and 3rd samples. An absorbance of 0.5 was observed in sample 2 showing maximum concentration of active principles. Conclusion: The therapeutic importance of Alstonia scholaris has been undebatable while its intake on a particular day by the people of Tulu nadu region of South India has stood the test of time. The richness and realisms in the Indian culture and lifestyle remain interwoven with health traditions. However, their apt apprehension, analysis, appreciation and application is the need of the hour.Q

Stress among Traffic Police Personnel in the Coastal Region of South India

Stress among Traffic Police Personnel in the Coastal Region of South India

Disingenuous forests: A historical political ecology of fuelwood collection in South India

Much of India contains complex and ambiguous post-colonial environmental histories. Within the international clean cookstove development discourse, it is assumed that fuelwood collection for cooking is a significant factor in the overexploitation of forest biomass. This brand of storytelling is certainly applied in India where a series of programs have long targeted household fuelwood collection activities as a way of reversing rates of deforestation. This essay outlines the enigmatic and peculiar environmental histories of two distinct regions in South India. Based on oral histories, interviews and field surveys our findings indicate that many pressures other than fuel collection have helped alter vegetation and reduce fuel availability, particularly the expansion of commercially cultivated land in recent years. Moreover, a variety of historical contingencies, such as mass displacement from dam construction and the deliberate seeding of an invasive species complicate one-dimensional or reductive explanations of landscape change — a discursive environmental rendering referred to here as a ‘disingenuous nature’. Through retrospective analysis, we describe how this land use narrative, like so many other sustainable development discourses premised on incomplete and misleading information, is the byproduct of a ‘multi-scale narrative repurposing and sector coalescence’ process. This characterization signals how environmental narratives are repurposed and recycled uncritically by actors in distinct yet discursively compatible development sectors.

Two case reports on Japanese encephalitis – a possibly under-reported entity in an endemic region in South India

Two case reports on Japanese encephalitis – a possibly under-reported entity in an endemic region in South India

Identification of Protein Motifs in Phytoplasma Associated with Root (Wilt) Disease of Coconut (Cocos nucifera) Using an Improved Statistical Measure

Protein motif is a conserved short region within larger sequence, and it provides an important way to get functional or structural information about a noble protein sequence. This study primarily provides a new approach to identify motifs which are considered to play an important role to determine functional or structural class of any protein. Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) root (wilt) disease (CRWD) became a serious concern for coconut cultivation in the coastal region of South India. It has already been reported that species of the phytoplasma (-belonging to ribosomal group 16SrXI) is primarily associated with CRWD. In this study, our objective is to modify an existing motif identification algorithm, and also identify motifs that describe their conserved region within a CRWD phytoplasma protein sequence. Accordingly, the existing information content measure formulas for a no-gapped and gapped aligned sequence set were re-formulated. Further, an improvement on both these existing measures has been vied by incorporating prior information of BLOSUM90 substitution matrix. Results showed that proposed modifications could successfully identify N-terminal myristoylation motif within an alignment matrix of Arabidopsis thaliana sequences; concurrently our modification has also been validated. Both the approaches, namely frequency- and BLOSUM90-based information content, have been compared using the observed results, in terms of identified motifs. Finally, we could also test this noble BLOSUM90-based approach to correctly predict conserved regions at locations, (163–171) and (117–138), in an aligned secA gene sequence set of phytoplasma, an etiological agent of CRWD.

A Study of Common Dermatoses among the Geriatric Patients in Salem; a Region of South India

A Study of Common Dermatoses among the Geriatric Patients in Salem; a Region of South India

The distribution of carbapenem- and colistin-resistance in Gram-negative bacteria from the Tamil Nadu region in India.

The occurrence of carbapenem- and colistin-resistance among Gram-negative bacteria is increasing worldwide. The aim of this study was to understand the distribution of carbapenem- and colistin-resistance in two areas in Tamil Nadu, India. The clinical isolates (n=89) used in this study were collected from two diagnostic centres in Tamil Nadu, India. The bacterial isolates were screened for meropenem- and colistin-resistance. Further, resistance genes blaNDM-1, blaOXA-48-like, blaIMP, blaVIM, blaKPC, mcr-1 and mcr-2 and integrons were studied. The synergistic effect of meropenem in combination with colistin was assessed. A total of 89 bacterial isolates were studied which included Escherichia coli (n=43), Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=18), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=10), Enterobacter cloacae (n=6), Acinetobacter baumannii (n=5), Klebsiella oxytoca (n=4), Proteus mirabilis (n=2) and Salmonella paratyphi (n=1). MIC testing showed that 58/89 (65 %) and 29/89 (32 %) isolates were resistant to meropenem and colistin, respectively, whereas 27/89 (30 %) isolates were resistant to both antibiotics. Escherichia coli, K. pneumoniae, K. oxytoca, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter cloacae isolates were blaNDM-1-positive (n=20). Some strains of Escherichia coli, K. pneumoniae and K. oxytoca were blaOXA-181-positive (n=4). Class 1, 2 and 3 integrons were found in 24, 20 and 3 isolates, respectively. Nine NDM-1-positive Escherichia coli strains could transfer carbapenem resistance via plasmids to susceptible Escherichia coli AB1157. Meropenem and colistin showed synergy in 10/20 (50 %) isolates by 24 h time-kill studies. Our results highlight the distribution of carbapenem- and colistin-resistance in Gram-negative bacteria isolated from the Tamil Nadu region in South India.