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Background: Mental health issues are common among college students, and structured services have been proven to enhance outcomes. Despite increased enrolment for higher education in India, college mental health services remain sparse. JEEVANI is the first structured state-wide college mental health service in India. This paper describes its framework and provides an overview of its functioning during the initial five months. Methods: In 2019–2020, the Directorate of Collegiate Education, Government of Kerala, implemented the program in 66 colleges catering to approximately 60,000 students. Qualified counsellors were trained to identify issues and provide interventions and early referrals, using a stepped-care approach. They conducted awareness programs to promote mental health and reduce stigma. Results: The services were accessed by 2,315 students during the assessment period (October 2019 to February 2020). The beneficiaries were predominantly females (54.1%). Over a third (38.8%) belonged to the lower socio-economic strata, and 2.5% had significant vulnerabilities. Although no syndromal diagnoses were made, anxiety and depression were the most common presentations. The counsellors provided 3,758 individual sessions and facilitated support for students who reported academic difficulties or interpersonal issues. Severe mental illness was detected in 54 students, and referrals for specialist mental health input were initiated in 68. Conclusion: Describing the framework, sharing the technical material, and providing an overview of its functioning from a resource-constrained setting in India may encourage higher education institutions in low- and middle-income countries to consider similar projects.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive and heterogeneous cancer subtypes. High rates of metastasis, poor prognosis, and drug resistance are the major problems associated with TNBC. The current chemotherapeutics eliminate only the bulk tumor cells (non-BCSCs) and do not affect breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs). The BCSCs which are left behind after chemotherapy is reported to promote recurrence and metastasis of TNBC. Death receptor-5 (DR-5) is exclusively expressed in TNBCs and mediates the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis. DR-5, therefore, can be exploited for targeted drug delivery and to induce apoptosis. Gamma-secretase mediated Notch signaling in BCSCs regulates its proliferation, differentiation, and metastasis. The endogenous ligand, Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4), is reported to activate this Notch signaling in TNBC. Blocking this signaling pathway using both gamma-secretase inhibitors (GSIs) and DLL4 monoclonal antibody (mAb) may produce synergistic benefits. Further, the GSIs (DAPT, LY-411575, RO4929097, MK0752, etc.) suffer from poor bioavailability and off-target side effects such as diarrhea, suppression of lymphopoiesis, headache, hypertension, fatigue, and ventricular dysfunctions. In this hypothesis, we discuss Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) based drug delivery systems containing GSIs and surface modified with DR-5 and DLL4 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to effectivity target and treat TNBC. The delivery system is designed to deliver the drug cargo precisely to TNBCs through its DR-5 receptors and hence expected to reduce the off-target side effects of GSIs. Further, DLL4 mAb and GSIs are expected to act synergistically to block the Notch signal mediated BCSCs proliferation, differentiation, and metastasis.

Humans, always, have tamed nature to meets their needs and demands. The contemporary cities are a consequence of that. The agglomeratic nature of these cities have enabled them to thrive over the surrounding rural areas. This process of urbanization has always come at a price. As cities have progressed to be larger and more complex growth engines, they have become vulnerable and susceptible to disasters, with climate change further exacerbating the status quo.Resilience is a system's innate ability to resist a drastic change in its surrounding, and to bounce back after experiencing a period of stress. Studying resilience helps to understand the vulnerability of these urban centres and enable them to increase their capacity to bounce back. While sustainability is seen as the goal to achieve, resilience is the capability to strengthen the pathway to sustainability.Master plans for cities have helped streamline the process of development by understanding the convoluted interrelationship between the various aspects of the cities and provide balanced solutions to meet the goals of development. A Resilience Master Plan affirms to improve the Resilience of the City while also ensuring the city meets the targets of sustainable development, in a systematic manner.Genesis of modern civilization in India began when Vasco da Gama landed on the shores near Kozhikode City, Kerala. Kozhikode plays a significant role in the development of the entire region. In the recent times, the city has been vulnerable to disasters of various kinds, including Floods and Epidemics.The study delves into the concept of Resilience and Resilience Master Plan, appraise the existing Master Plan of Kozhikode, assimilate the Resilience of Kozhikode City, and suggest methods to help increase of the Resilience of the city, while achieving the goals of development in a sustainable manner.

Background: Burns occur in daily day to day activities, while cooking, fire accidents, road traffic incidents, explosions. In India burns are second leading cause of mortality, first being road traffic accidents. Due to large area involved, longer hospital staying, burns are site of bacterial growth and are much more affected than surgical wounds. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine microbial profile of burn victims admitted in Shridevi institute of Medical sciences and Research Hospital, Tumkur. Material and Methods: The study included 110 consecutive patients, admitted to burns ward during the study period of March to December 2016.Wound swab cultures were assessed on day four of the admission for bacterial growth. Results: Bacterial infection reached maximum by fourth week of infection. Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase negative Staphylococci and Klebsiella pneumonia were the most frequently isolated organisms. Conclusion: These results would enable early treatment of imminent septic episodes with proper empirical antibiotics thereby preventing mortality among burns patients.

The present work aims to synthesize functionally Graded (FG) composites through directional solidification (DS) in combination with lateral vibrations. Directional solidification is one of the effective processing techniques to synthesize FG composite. Due to the advancements in developing new class of materials, DS has become one of the important processing techniques in order to attain the gradation in properties. To achieve the better gradation of properties in Al-Si alloy, Chill was placed at the bottom of the mold which is subjected to lateral vibrations. FG composites produced showed that better hardness was obtained towards the region where primary Silicon (Si) is precipitated. In contrast diametrical compression strength results revealed that the Si rich region is brittle in nature when compared to the other end of the cast which is ductile in nature. Microstructural study also revealed that gradation in properties has taken place from bottom to top portion due to precipitation of Si.

Background: Mental health issues are common among college students, and structured services have been proven to enhance outcomes. Despite increased enrolment for higher education in India, college mental health services remain sparse. JEEVANI is the first structured state-wide college mental health service in India. This paper describes its framework and provides an overview of its functioning during the initial five months. Methods: In 2019–2020, the Directorate of Collegiate Education, Government of Kerala, implemented the program in 66 colleges catering to approximately 60,000 students. Qualified counsellors were trained to identify issues and provide interventions and early referrals, using a stepped-care approach. They conducted awareness programs to promote mental health and reduce stigma. Results: The services were accessed by 2,315 students during the assessment period (October 2019 to February 2020). The beneficiaries were predominantly females (54.1%). Over a third (38.8%) belonged to the lower socio-economic strata, and 2.5% had significant vulnerabilities. Although no syndromal diagnoses were made, anxiety and depression were the most common presentations. The counsellors provided 3,758 individual sessions and facilitated support for students who reported academic difficulties or interpersonal issues. Severe mental illness was detected in 54 students, and referrals for specialist mental health input were initiated in 68. Conclusion: Describing the framework, sharing the technical material, and providing an overview of its functioning from a resource-constrained setting in India may encourage higher education institutions in low- and middle-income countries to consider similar projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoworld is an attractive sphere with the potential to explore novel nanomaterials with valuable applications in medicinal science. Herein, we report an efficient and ecofriendly approach for the synthesis of Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) via a solution combustion method using Areca catechu leaf extract. As-prepared NiO NPs were characterized using various analytical tools such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). XRD analysis illustrates that synthesized NiO NPs are hexagonal structured crystallites with an average size of 5.46 nm and a hexagonal-shaped morphology with slight agglomeration. The morphology, size, and shape of the obtained material was further confirmed using SEM and TEM analysis. In addition, as-prepared NiO NPs have shown potential antidiabetic and anticancer properties. Our results suggest that the inhibition of α-amylase enzyme with IC 50 value 268.13 µg/mL may be one of the feasible ways through which the NiO NPs exert their hypoglycemic effect. Furthermore, cytotoxic activity performed using NiO NPs exhibited against human lung cancer cell line (A549) proved that the prepared NiO NPs have significant anticancer activity with 93.349 μg/mL at 50% inhibition concentration. The biological assay results revealed that NiO NPs exhibited significant cytotoxicity against human lung cancer cell line (A549) in a dose-dependent manner from 0–100 μg/mL, showing considerable cell viability. Further, the systematic approach deliberates the NiO NPs as a function of phenolic extracts of A. catechu with vast potential for many biological and biomedical applications.