Usage and Analysis of Big Data in E-Health Domain

Big data analytics is a growth area with the potential to provide useful insight in healthcare. Big Data can unify all patient related data to get a 360-degree view of the patient to analyze and predict outcomes. It can improve clinical practices, new drug development and health care financing process. It offers a lot of benefits such as early disease detection, fraud detection and better healthcare quality and efficiency. This chapter introduces the Big Data concept and characteristics, health care data and some major issues of Big Data. These issues include Big Data benefits, its applications and opportunities in medical areas and health care. Methods and technology progress about Big Data are presented in this study. Big Data challenges in medical applications and health care are also discussed. While many dimensions of big data still present issues in its use and adoption, such as managing the volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value, the accuracy, integrity, and semantic interpretation are of greater concern in clinical application.

The Known Antimammalian and Insecticidal Alkaloids Are Not Responsible for the Antifungal Activity of Epichloë Endophytes

Asexual Epichloë sp. endophytes in association with pasture grasses produce agronomically important alkaloids (e.g., lolitrem B, epoxy-janthitrems, ergovaline, peramine, and lolines) that exhibit toxicity to grazing mammals and/or insect pests. Novel strains are primarily characterised for the presence of these compounds to ensure they are beneficial in an agronomical setting. Previous work identified endophyte strains that exhibit enhanced antifungal activity, which have the potential to improve pasture and turf quality as well as animal welfare through phytopathogen disease control. The contribution of endophyte-derived alkaloids to improving pasture and turf grass disease resistance has not been closely examined. To assess antifungal bioactivity, nine Epichloë related compounds, namely peramine hemisulfate, n-formylloline-d3, n-acetylloline hydrochloride, lolitrem B, janthitrem A, paxilline, terpendole E, terpendole C, and ergovaline, and four Claviceps purpurea ergot alkaloids, namely ergotamine, ergocornine, ergocryptine, and ergotaminine, were tested at concentrations higher than observed in planta in glasshouse and field settings using in vitro agar well diffusion assays against three common pasture and turf phytopathogens, namely Ceratobasidium sp., Drechslera sp., and Fusarium sp. Visual characterisation of bioactivity using pathogen growth area, mycelial density, and direction of growth indicated no inhibition of pathogen growth. This was confirmed by statistical analysis. The compounds responsible for antifungal bioactivity of Epichloë endophytes hence remain unknown and require further investigation.

Prioritizing motivators influencing intentions to visit spiritual destinations in India: an application of analytical hierarchical process (AHP) approach

PurposeSpiritual tourism is becoming a significant growth area of the Indian travel market, with more Indians opting to go on pilgrimage to popular religious cities. There are many spiritual destinations where some of this life's essences can be sought to enjoy harmony and peace. The study aims to prioritize motivators driving the intentions of the tourists to visit the spiritual destination.Design/methodology/approachThe current study applied the analytical hierarchical process, a multi-criteria decision-making technique, on the sample of visitors from all the six spiritual destinations to rank the motivational factors that drive the intentions of the tourist to visit a spiritual destination.FindingsThe study's results postulated that spiritual fulfillment motives and destination atmosphere are the top prioritized motivations, while destination attributes and secular motives emerged as the least prioritized.Practical implicationsThe research study provides valuable insights to the spiritual tourism industry stakeholders to target the tourists' highly prioritized motivations to augment the visits to a particular spiritual destination.Originality/valuePrevious research has explored the motivations and modeled their relationships with tourists' satisfaction and intentions. But, the present study has applied a multi-criteria decision-making technique to add value to the existing knowledge base.

Ecological-morphological features of the East Kazakhstan endemic Hedysarum theinum Krasnob. (Fabaceae)

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in the directions determination of environment conservation. It requires an execution of many application strategies of natural resources for plants’ condition evaluation and solution of their problems. Study of morphological features of medicinal plant Hedysarum theinum Krasnob. distributed in East Kazakhstan is the aim of the research in conservation of biodiversity. The population has been investigated by route-observation research method, 1794 m above sea level at GPS coordinates 50о19‘5.969N, 83о52’44.270Е in Ivanov gorge of Altai Mountains (Kazakhstan). H. theinum Krasnob. is an endemic, perennial, main rooted species with 4–8 pairs of leaf, pink-purple corolla, egg shaped seeds in Altai, Central Asian mountains and Mongolia that represents Fabaceae family. There is a need in deep study of H. theinum Krasnob. because valuable medicinal plants found in Eastern Kazakhstan are not investigated sufficiently and growth area is reduced.

Natural capital will be a growth area for investment

Significance Investors are increasingly interested in the financial value of the natural world and how to fit it into their investment strategies. As well as decreasing carbon emissions, the focus is shifting to how to protect nature overall through methods such as reforestation, sustainable agriculture, ocean conservation and increasing biodiversity. Impacts Asset managers are likely to launch an array of innovative nature-linked products. Carbon-offset projects will dominate asset inflows for now, but their attractions are limited and eventually they will be superseded. More banks are likely to introduce nature-based goals within their sustainability-linked loans. The pressure for greater transparency, accountability and measurable metrics will grow in the natural capital asset class.

SFGR Isolation from Clinical Diagnostic Material: Small volume inoculum v1

Rickettsiae are small obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria that are grown in a Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory setting.This protocol uses antibiotic-free medium, and therefore cultures are susceptible to contamination by undesirable bacteria or fungi.This procedure provides guidance for the inoculation and growth of primary isolates derived from small volumes of clinical samples including blood and blood products in a small volume culture and includes topics of growth monitoring, changing media, freezing primary isolates, and troubleshooting in the event of contamination. This technique utilizes Vero E6 cells growth in small conical culture flasks.These flasks have a growth area of 10cm2 and can accommodate up to 5 mL of media.All techniques are to be performed in a biological safety cabinet (BSC) in a BSL-3 laboratory.Proper training and extreme caution is of the utmost importance when working with live rickettsial cultures.

Phalangeal Intra-Articular Osteochondroma Caused a Rare Clinodactyly Deformity in Children: Case Series and Literature Review

BackgroundVarious factors are discovered in the development of clinodactyly. The purpose of this retrospective study was to present a group of children with a rare clinodactyly deformity caused by phalangeal intra-articular osteochondroma and evaluate the efficacy of various treatment methods.MethodsAll child patients that were treated for finger problems in our center between Jan 2017 and Dec 2020 were reviewed. A detailed analysis was made of the diagnosis and treatment methods in eight rare cases. X-rays and histopathology were applied.ResultsA preliminary analysis of 405 patients in total was performed, and we included eight cases in our final analysis. This cohort consisted of 2 girls and 6 boys, with a mean age of 5.74 ± 3.22 years (range: 2y5m to 11y). Overall, four patients had their right hand affected and four patients had their left hand affected. One patient was diagnosed as having hereditary multiple osteochondroma (HMO) while the other seven patients were all grouped into solitary osteochondroma. Osteochondroma was proven in all of them by histopathology examination. Preoperative X-rays were used to allow identification and surgery planning in all cases. All osteochondromas were intra-articular and in the distal end of the phalanges, which is located opposite the epiphyseal growth area. All of the osteochondromas developed in half side of the phalanges. The angulation in the finger long axis was measured, and resulted in a mean angulation of 34.63 ± 24.93 degree (range: 10.16-88.91 degree). All of them received surgery, resulting in good appearance and fingers straightening. No recurrence was recorded.ConclusionsThis retrospective analysis indicates that 10 degrees can be selected as the angulation level for diagnosis of clinodactyly deformities. What’s more important, the abnormal mass proven by X-rays should be included as the classical direct sign for diagnosis. The first choice of treatment is surgery in symptomatic osteochondromas.