The use of recently developed mass spectrometry-based proteomic approaches for the study of methylocella silvestris BL2

The study of the protein complement, termed proteomics, has advanced over the last twenty years as a consequence of developments in mass spectrometry. Currently, improvements in mass spectrometry-based approaches are targeted towards achieving information on both the identity and abundance of proteins. Increased numbers of protein identifications are obtained by simplifying the analyte of interest. This can be achieved with the use of separation techniques, including two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC). Ion mobility coupled to mass spectrometry has recently been shown to be a useful post-ionisation separation tool for proteomic studies. The utility of these technologies for obtaining both qualitative and quantitative information is not extensively addressed in the current literature. The use of a recently developed 2D-LC system, together with a method of ion mobility separation and a label-free quantitative approach for proteomic studies has been evaluated here for characterising the proteome of the bacterium Methylocella silvestris. This bacterium is the first methane-utilising bacteria also discovered to grow on substrates containing carbon-carbon bonds, and has great biotechnological potential. The metabolism of this bacterium was studied by obtaining information on its soluble proteome when grown with methane, propane, succinate, acetate, methanol, methylamine or trimethylamine. The benefits and limitations of 2D-LC and ion mobility for profiling and labelfree quantitative studies were demonstrated for simple mixtures and complex bacterial extracts. The combination of both 2D-LC and ion mobility was also achieved, resulting in wider proteome coverage when compared to the respective stand-alone approaches. A cluster of expressed genes that were greatly up-regulated under trimethylamine growth and monomethylamine growth were proposed to be involved in the indirect pathway for trimethylamine metabolism. It was further verified that one of these genes expresses the previously unidentified trimethylamine monooxygenase. A propane assimilation route was proposed, based on information obtained on the levels of primary oxidation enzymes and downstream central metabolic pathways

Tamoxifen treatment and its outcome in breast cancer patients at a hospital-based cancer registry in Kerala

Background: Endocrine therapy for breast cancer is directed at reducing oestrogen synthesis or alternatively blocking oestrogen receptors (ER) in tumour-sensitive tumors. Despite side effects, the use of systemic adjuvant therapy after local management of breast cancer substantially improves survival and reduces the risk of relapse. The study objective was to assess the recurrence of breast cancer and the complications seen in breast cancer patients on tamoxifen therapy at a hospital-based cancer registry, Thrissur, Kerala.Methods: After obtaining institutional ethical clearance, included 75 patients of histologically diagnosed breast carcinoma currently on tamoxifen, diagnosed in the year of 2016. Data was obtained from the patient files and by personal intimation.Results: Of the 75 patients on tamoxifen, four (5.33%) patients had history of recurrence. 22.6% of patients on tamoxifen were noted to have increased endometrial thickness. Other side effects noted were weight gain, TIA, bone pain and vaginal discharge.Conclusions: It was found that the recurrence rate at three years for the study population was 5.33%. More studies from developing countries, with larger sample size and clinical trials will give us more accurate information regarding the efficacy of the drug

A high order finite element scheme for pricing options under regime switching jump diffusion processes

This paper considers the numerical pricing of European, American and Butterfly options whose asset price dynamics follow the regime switching jump diffusion process. In an incomplete market structure and using the no-arbitrage pricing principle, the option pricing problem under the jump modulated regime switching process is formulated as a set of coupled partial integro-differential equations describing different states of a Markov chain. We develop efficient numerical algorithms to approximate the spatial terms of the option pricing equations using linear and quadratic basis polynomial approximations and solve the resulting initial value problem using exponential time integration. Various numerical examples are given to demonstrate the superiority of our computational scheme with higher level of accuracy and faster convergence compared to existing methods for pricing options under the regime switching model

Clinical Significance of a False Positive Glucose Challenge Test in Patients with a High Body Mass Index

OBJECTIVE: To determine if there is an increased maternal or neonatal morbidity in overweight and obese patients with a false positive glucose challenge test (GCT). METHODS: Patients with a body mass index (BMI) \u3e/=25.0 at registration were included in this prospective 36-month study. The study cohort consisted of patients with a false positive (FP) GCT, with two comparison cohorts: those with a (1) screen negative (SN) GCT result and (2) true positive (TP) GCT result. Risks were reported as odd ratios with 95% confidence intervals, with a P/=4000 g in the FP cohort, but this fell short of reaching statistical significance. When comparing the FP to TP cohorts, rates of gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, and infants \u3e/=4000 g were similar; however, neonatal morbidity was increased in the TP group. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight and obese patients with a FP glucose challenge screen are more likely to have adverse maternal outcomes. Neonatal morbidity was not increased

To compare the effects of intra vaginal prostaglandin E1 and intra-cervical prostaglandin E2 for prelabour ripening of unfavorable uterine cervix in nulliparous women

Background: Induction of labour by use of prostaglandins improves the obstetric outcome in complicated cases such as prolonged deliveries. The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) for prelabour ripening of unfavourable uterine cervix in nulliparous women, to study the effect of PGE1 and PGE2 on duration of labor and to evaluate the obstetrical and neonatal outcome of induction of labour using prostaglandins E1 and E2.Methods: This was a prospective study conducted on 50 nulliparous women with singleton pregnancy with gestational age ≥37 weeks during the period from August 2008 to October 2010 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences and Allied Hospitals, Mumbai. All the 50 patients were divided into two groups. Group-1 containing 25 patients received intravaginal PGE1, (Tablet Misoprostol 25 mcg) inserted in the posterior vaginal fornix under all aseptic precautions. Group-2 containing 25 patients received intracervical PGE2, (Dinoprostone gel, 0.5 mg). Analysis and comparison of various parameters like induction- delivery interval, Bishops score before and after administration of drug, mode of delivery, neonatal outcome, foeto-maternal complications between the two groups were noted and analysed the data statistically by using Chi-square, continuity correction, Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney tests.Results: Majority of the patients in both the groups were under the age of 23-27 years. Post-datism was the common indication noticed in 18 (72%) and 13 (52%) patients of both the groups respectively. Maximum patients had a Bishop’s score of 3 in PGE1 (56%) and PGE2 groups (48%) respectively. The improvement in Bishop’s score in both the groups before and after drug administration was 6.20 and 6.76 respectively. Maximum patients in both the groups went into active labour within six hours of induction of labour. The most common side effects seen in our study was nausea and vomiting in both groups. Majority (23) were born with Apgar score 8-10 in group 1 and 21 for group 2 patients.Conclusions: Both the drugs had similar efficacy and safety in induction of labour. Prospective research is required to fully evaluate the impact of AMOR-IPAT on nulliparous birth outcomes

Roadway Traffic Analysis using Data Mining Techniques for Providing Safety Measures to Avoid Fatal Accidents

Roadway traffic safety is a major concern for transportation governing agencies as well as ordinary citizens.Data Mining is taking out of hidden patterns from huge database. It is commonly used in a marketing, surveillance, fraud detection and scientific discovery. In data mining, machine learning is mainly focused as research which is automatically learnt to recognize complex patterns and make intelligent decisions based on data. Globalization has affected many countries. There has been a drastic increase in the economic activities and consumption level, leading to expansion of travel and transportation. The increase in the vehicles, traffic lead to road accidents. Considering the importance of the road safety, government is trying to identify the causes of road accidents to reduce the accidents level. The exponential increase in the accidents data is making it difficult to analyse the constraints causing the road accidents. The paper describes how to mine frequent patterns causing road accidents from collected data set. We find associations among road accidents and predict the type of accidents for existing as well as for new roads. We make use of association and classification rules to discover the patterns between road accidents and as well as predict road accidents for new roads

Ergodic Sensitivity Analysis of One-Dimensional Chaotic Maps

Sensitivity analysis in chaotic dynamical systems is a challenging task from a computational point of view. In this work, we present a numerical investigation of a novel approach, known as the space-split sensitivity or S3 algorithm. The S3 algorithm is an ergodic-averaging method to differentiate statistics in ergodic, chaotic systems, rigorously based on the theory of hyperbolic dynamics. We illustrate S3 on one-dimensional chaotic maps, revealing its computational advantage over naive finite difference computations of the same statistical response. In addition, we provide an intuitive explanation of the key components of the S3 algorithm, including the density gradient function.Comment: 20 pages, 17 figure

Computational assessment of smooth and rough parameter dependence of statistics in chaotic dynamical systems

An assumption of smooth response to small parameter changes, of statistics or long-time averages of a chaotic system, is generally made in the field of sensitivity analysis, and the parametric derivatives of statistical quantities are critically used in science and engineering. In this paper, we propose a numerical procedure to assess the differentiability of statistics with respect to parameters in chaotic systems. We numerically show that the existence of the derivative depends on the Lebesgue-integrability of a certain density gradient function, which we define as the derivative of logarithmic SRB density along the unstable manifold. We develop a recursive formula for the density gradient that can be efficiently computed along trajectories, and demonstrate its use in determining the differentiability of statistics. Our numerical procedure is illustrated on low-dimensional chaotic systems whose statistics exhibit both smooth and rough regions in parameter space.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, submitted to journal, under revie