Road Rage Menace: A Cross-sectional Study to Assess Driver Anger Level in Public Motor Vehicle Drivers in a City in Central India

Introduction: Road rage and aggressive driving is a prevalent condition in today’s society due to motorists’ frustrations during heavy traffic volumes. Objective: This study was done to assess the level of anger amongst the drivers of public transport vehicles in Indore, using Driving Anger Scale (DAS by Deffenbacher et. al.) and various factors affecting it. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 135 drivers of Public transport vehicle drivers (Star bus, City-van and star cab drivers) in Indore to assess their anger level using Driving Anger Scale. The participants were required to record the amount of anger they would experience in response to each item in the scale (1=not at all angry, 2=a little angry, 3=some anger, 4=much anger, 5=very much angry). Results: The mean DAS score in Indore was found to be 3.013 and in the three organizations namely Star bus drivers, City van drivers and Star cab drivers was 2.92, 3.08 and 3.04 respectively. The DAS score of drivers with respect to the 6 sub-scales were: hostile gestures (Star bus -3.42,City van -3.67,Star cab -3.38), slow driving (Star bus -2.73,City van driv-2.78,Star cab-3.17), traffic obstructions (Star bus-2.85,City van -3.25,Star cab-3.18), discourtesy (Star bus -3.23,City van-3.33,Star cab -3.25)and police presence (Star bus -2.15,City van -1.99,Star cab -2.78), illegal driving (Star bus -3.04,City van -3.14,Star cab -2.89). The DAS scores of the drivers did not vary significantly with age group, experience, and educational qualification. Conclusion: Though DAS scores did not vary between the three groups of drivers, however average level anger for various given circumstances commonly found in the Indian traffic scenario was on the higher side

Tricks to translating TB transcriptomics.

Transcriptomics and other high-throughput methods are increasingly applied to questions relating to tuberculosis (TB) pathogenesis. Whole blood transcriptomics has repeatedly been applied to define correlates of TB risk and has produced new insight into the late stage of disease pathogenesis. In a novel approach, authors of a recently published study in Science Translational Medicine applied complex data analysis of existing TB transcriptomic datasets, and in vitro models, in an attempt to identify correlates of protection in TB, which are crucially required for the development of novel TB diagnostics and therapeutics to halt this global epidemic. Utilizing latent TB infection (LTBI) as a surrogate of protection, they identified IL-32 as a mediator of interferon gamma (IFNγ)-vitamin D dependent antimicrobial immunity and a marker of LTBI. Here, we provide a review of all TB whole-blood transcriptomic studies to date in the context of identifying correlates of protection, discuss potential pitfalls of combining complex analyses originating from such studies, the importance of detailed metadata to interpret differential patient classification algorithms, the effect of differing circulating cell populations between patient groups on the interpretation of resulting biomarkers and we decipher weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), a recently developed systems biology tool which holds promise of identifying novel pathway interactions in disease pathogenesis. In conclusion, we propose the development of an integrated OMICS platform and open access to detailed metadata, in order for the TB research community to leverage the vast array of OMICS data being generated with the aim of unraveling the holy grail of TB research: correlates of protection

Undifferentiated Carcinoma of Larynx of Nasopharyngeal Type

Undifferentiated carcinoma of nasopharyngeal type arising in the larynx is unusual. This type of carcinoma-which occurs almost exclusively in nasopharynx-is very infrequent in the larynx (0.2%). Till date only 17 cases are reported in the medical literature. We present the clinical and histopathological findings along with the management of one additional case of undifferentiated carcinoma of nasopharyngeal type in the larynx which was managed successfully with radiotherapy

Extramedullary Plasmacytoma of Soft Tissues and Gingiva

Extramedullary plasmacytoma (EMP) is a rare plasma cell neoplasm of soft tissue without bone marrow involvement or other systemic characteristics of multiple myeloma. It accounts for 3% of all plasma cell tumors. Multiple extramedullary plasmacytoma is defined when there is more than one extramedullary tumor of clonal plasma cells and such presentation has not been described earlier. We report such rare case of multiple extramedullary plasmacytoma involving multiple soft tissues in chest, abdomen, mandible, maxilla, and gingiva

Engineering orthogonal dual transcription factors for multi-input synthetic promoters

Synthetic biology has seen an explosive growth in the capability of engineering artificial gene circuits from transcription factors (TFs), particularly in bacteria. However, most artificial networks still employ the same core set of TFs (for example LacI, TetR and cI). The TFs mostly function via repression and it is difficult to integrate multiple inputs in promoter logic. Here we present to our knowledge the first set of dual activator-repressor switches for orthogonal logic gates, based on bacteriophage λ cI variants and multi-input promoter architectures. Our toolkit contains 12 TFs, flexibly operating as activators, repressors, dual activator–repressors or dual repressor–repressors, on up to 270 synthetic promoters. To engineer non cross-reacting cI variants, we design a new M13 phagemid-based system for the directed evolution of biomolecules. Because cI is used in so many synthetic biology projects, the new set of variants will easily slot into the existing projects of other groups, greatly expanding current engineering capacities

Insular Carcinoma of Thyroid Presenting as a Giant Skull Lesion: A Dilemma in Treatment.

Thyroid surgeons are becoming increasingly more aware of a histologically distinct subset of thyroid carcinoma whose classification falls between well-differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas with respect to both cell differentiation and clinical behavior. This subtype of tumors has been categorized as poorly differentiated or insular carcinoma, based on its characteristic cell groupings. Although the differentiation of insular carcinoma from other thyroid carcinomas has important prognostic and therapeutic significance, relatively little about insular carcinoma has been published in the otolaryngology literature. In this article, we discuss a case of insular carcinoma of thyroid presenting with concurrent distant metastasis to skull, lung, ribs, and inguinal region with review of the literature. We conclude that insular thyroid carcinoma warrants aggressive management with total thyroidectomy and excision of accessible giant lesion followed by radioactive iodine ablation of any remaining thyroid tissue

On the eclipsing cataclysmic variable star HBHA 4705-03

We present observations and analysis of a new eclipsing binary HBHA 4705-03. Using decomposition of the light curve into accretion disk and hot spot components, we estimated photometrically the mass ratio of the studied system to be q=0.62 +-0.07. Other fundamental parameters was found with modeling. This approach gave: white dwarf mass M_1 = (0.8 +- 0.2) M_sun, secondary mass M_2=(0.497 +- 0.05) M_sun, orbital radius a=1.418 R_sun, orbital inclination i = (81.58 +- 0.5) deg, accretion disk radius r_d/a = 0.366 +- 0.002, and accretion rate dot{M} = (2.5 +- 2) * 10^{18}[g/s], (3*10^{-8} [M_sun/yr]). Power spectrum analysis revealed ambiguous low-period Quasi Periodic Oscillations centered at the frequencies f_{1}=0.00076 Hz, f_2=0.00048 Hz and f_3=0.00036 Hz. The B-V=0.04 [mag] color corresponds to a dwarf novae during an outburst. The examined light curves suggest that HBHA 4705-03 is a nova-like variable star.Comment: 7 figures and 2 tables, accepted for publication in Acta Astronomic