A Study on Consumer Awareness about Handloom Products with Special Reference to Erode District.

Handloom Industry is the integral part of textile industry in our country. This industry is placed in the second position in terms of provision of livelihood and comes next to agriculture. It is the largest cottage industries which produce Cotton, Silk, Jute and Khadi in large quantities. The demand and popularity of Indian handloom has been growing not only in our country, but also around the world. Handloom fabric has a unique character which other mill made or powerloom fabric doesn’t have. The distinctiveness of handloom products compared with other mill made cloths is not known to the customer. Hence the present study is an attempt to understand the customer awareness about handloom products. The present study is descriptive in nature. The data required for the present study is collected mainly from primary sources. Stratified Random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 600 customers from five different taluks in Erode District, Tamil Nadu. Keywords: Handloom, customer, awareness, handloom mar

Pulmonary hypertension predicts higher mortality in patients admitted with severe COVID-19 infection

Objective: Patients with underlying conditions are predicted to have worse outcomes with COVID-19. A strong association between baseline cardiovascular disease and COVID-19-related mortality has been shown by a number of studies. In the current retrospective study, we aim to identify whether patients with pulmonary hypertension have worse outcomes compared with patients without pulmonary hypertension. Methods: Data from patients of ⩾18 years of age with COVID was retrospectively collected and analyzed ( n  = 679). Patients who underwent transthoracic echocardiography, at the discretion of the medical team, were identified and the transthoracic echocardiography was reviewed for the presence of pulmonary hypertension. Patient health parameters and outcomes were measured and statistically analyzed. Results: Of 679 consecutive patients identified with a diagnosis of COVID-19, 57 underwent transthoracic echocardiography, 32 of which were found to have pulmonary hypertension. Patients who underwent transthoracic echocardiography had a significantly higher intensive care unit admission rate (73.7% versus 25.4%, p   0.001). These patients had longer intensive care unit length of stay, longer mechanical ventilation time, longer hospital length of stay, and a significantly higher mortality rate when compared to those not undergoing transthoracic echocardiography (59.7% versus 32.3%, p  < 0.001). Among patients who underwent transthoracic echocardiography, those with pulmonary hypertension had significantly higher mortality compared to those without pulmonary hypertension (80% versus 43.8%, p  < 0.01). Conclusion: COVID-19 in patients with pulmonary hypertension was associated with high in-hospital mortality even when adjusted for confounding factors. A number of mechanisms have been proposed for the worse outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction, including right ventricle overload and indirect pro-inflammatory cytokine storm. Further, large-scale studies are required to evaluate the impact of right ventricular dysfunction in COVID-19 patients and to elucidate the associated mechanism

Regulation of Mcl-1 Expression in Context to Bone Marrow Stromal Microenvironment in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

A growing body of evidence suggests that the resistance of CLL cells to apoptosis is partly mediated through the interactions between leukemia cells and adjacent stromal cells residing in the lymphatic tissue or bone marrow microenvironment. Mcl-1, an anti-apoptotic protein that is associated with failure to treatment is up-regulated in CLL lymphocytes after interaction with microenvironment. However, the regulation of its expression in context to microenvironment is unclear. We evaluated and compared changes in Mcl-1 in CLL B-cells in suspension culture and when co-cultured on stromal cells. The blockade of apoptosis in co-cultured CLL cells is associated with diminution in caspase-3 and PARP cleavage and is not dependent on cytogenetic profile or prognostic factors of the disease. Stroma-derived resistance to apoptosis is associated with a cascade of transcriptional events such as increase in levels of total RNA Pol II and its phosphorylation at Ser2 and Ser5, increase in the rate of global RNA synthesis, and amplification of Mcl-1 transcript levels. The latter is associated with increase in Mcl-1 protein level without an impact on the levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. Post-translational modifications of protein kinases show increased phosphorylation of Akt at Ser473, Erk at Thr202/Tyr204 and Gsk-3β at Ser9 and augmentation of total Mcl-1 accumulation along with phosphorylation at Ser159/Thr163 sites. Collectively, stroma-induced apoptosis resistance is mediated through signaling proteins that regulate transcriptional and translational expression and post-translational modification of Mcl-1 in CLL cells in context to bone marrow stromal microenvironment

Phase I and Extension Study of Clofarabine Plus&nbsp;Cyclophosphamide in Patients With&nbsp;Relapsed/Refractory Acute Lymphoblastic&nbsp;Leukemia

BackgroundClofarabine is a nucleoside analogue with activity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Based on the hypothesis that clofarabine inhibits DNA repair after exposure to DNA-damaging agents, we designed a phase I and extension study to evaluate the combination of clofarabine and cyclophosphamide in adult patients with relapsed/refractory ALL.MethodsThe continual reassessment method (CRM) was used to define the maximum tolerated dose (MTD).ResultsFifty patients with a median age of 30 years (range, 21-72 years) were enrolled, 30 of whom were part of the phase I group. Clofarabine 40 mg/m(2) intravenously daily&nbsp;× 3 days and cyclophosphamide 200 mg/m(2) intravenously every 12 hours&nbsp;× 3 days were established as the MTDs. Dose limiting toxicity (DLT) included diarrhea, transaminase elevations, and skin rashes. The response rate of the whole study group was 14%, including 10% of patients who achieved complete remission (CR) or CR without platelet recovery (CRp). Three responses occurred in patients with primary refractory disease. Early mortality (&lt; 30 days) was 6%. The median duration of response was 69 days (range, 5-315 days). Median overall survival was about 3 months. Compared with day 1 (cyclophosphamide alone), H2AX phosphorylation was increased on day 2 when clofarabine and cyclophosphamide were administered as a couplet (n&nbsp;= 8).ConclusionThe combination of clofarabine plus cyclophosphamide at the doses used in this study in a group of heavily pretreated patients with ALL is only moderately effective. Other doses, alternative schedules, or a more favorable patient population may achieve better results

Vessel-by-vessel analysis of lower extremity 18F-NaF PET/CT imaging quantifies diabetes- and chronic kidney disease-induced active microcalcification in patients with peripheral arterial disease

Abstract Background Positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) imaging with fluorine-18 (18F)-sodium fluoride (NaF) provides assessment of active vascular microcalcification, but its utility for evaluating diabetes mellitus (DM)- and chronic kidney disease (CKD)-induced atherosclerosis in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has not been comprehensively evaluated. This study sought to use 18F-NaF PET/CT to quantify and compare active microcalcification on an artery-by-artery basis in healthy subjects, PAD patients with or without DM, and PAD patients with or without CKD. Additionally, we evaluated the contributions of DM, CKD, statin use and established CT-detectable calcium to 18F-NaF uptake for each lower extremity artery. Methods PAD patients (n = 48) and healthy controls (n = 8) underwent lower extremity 18F-NaF PET/CT imaging. Fused PET/CT images guided segmentation of arteries of interest (i.e., femoral-popliteal, anterior tibial, tibioperoneal trunk, posterior tibial, and peroneal) and quantification of 18F-NaF uptake. 18F-NaF uptake was assessed for each artery and compared between subject groups. Additionally, established calcium burden was quantified for each artery using CT calcium mass score. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate DM, CKD, statin use, and CT calcium mass as predictors of 18F-NaF uptake in PAD. Results PAD patients with DM or CKD demonstrated significantly higher active microcalcification (i.e., 18F-NaF uptake) for all arteries when compared to PAD patients without DM or CKD. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that concomitant DM or CKD was associated with increased microcalcification for all arteries of interest and this increased disease risk remained significant after adjusting for patient age, sex, and body mass index. Statin use was only associated with decreased microcalcification for the femoral-popliteal artery in multivariate analyses. Established CT-detectable calcium was not significantly associated with 18F-NaF uptake for 4 out of 5 arteries of interest. Conclusions 18F-NaF PET/CT imaging quantifies vessel-specific active microcalcification in PAD that is increased in multiple lower extremity arteries by DM and CKD and decreased in the femoral-popliteal artery by statin use. 18F-NaF PET imaging is complementary to and largely independent of established CT-detectable arterial calcification. 18F-NaF PET/CT imaging may provide an approach for non-invasively quantifying vessel-specific responses to emerging anti-atherogenic therapies or CKD treatment in patients with PAD