Effects of twin pregnancy chorionic properties on fetal outcomes: a comparative study

Background: Twins carry significant risks to both mothers and babies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate chorionicity and its impact on perinatal outcomes in twins.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Government T. D. Medical College, Alappuzha, Kerala. A total of 106 cases of twin pregnancies were included in the prospective descriptive study. Based on the ultrasound results and methods of the postpartum pathologic examination of the placental membranes, the cases were divided into the twin group with monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) and twin group with dichorionic diamniotic (DCDA group). The relationships of different chorionic properties and fetal outcomes were determined by comparing various fetal outcomes.Results: Among 106 twin pregnancies, 61.3% were DCDA twins, 38.7% were MCDA. Average maternal age of monochorionic twin was 25 and that of dichorionic twin was 27. Perinatal mortality of monochorionic twin was 14.7% when compared to 8.6% for dichorionic twin. The mean gestational age for monochorionic twin pregnancy was 34.78 weeks whereas it was 35.91 weeks for dichorionic pregnancy. Elective and emergency LSCS was done more for dichorionic twin pregnancies compared to monochorionic twin pregnancies. Low Apgar scores were seen in monochorionic twins compared to dichorionic twins.Conclusions: The incidence of fetal outcomes in the monochorionic group was inferior to those in the dichorionic group. The fetal outcomes may be improved by determining the chorionic properties in early pregnancy by using ultrasound and consequently planning for pregnancy monitoring and intervention

Assessment of seedling traits of rice landraces under different saline conditions

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting rice growth and yield worldwide. In rice, the most critical stages which affect salinity at a greater level are germination, vegetative and reproductive stages.It is very important to know the genotypic variation among landraces under saline conditions at the seed germination stage to reduce the harmful effect of salinity. The present study conducted on Petri plate was mainly for assessing germination, relative water content and seedling parameters of eleven rice landraces with check landrace Pokali under three different salt concentrations (75mM, 125mM and 150mM). Two-way ANOVA gave the variations among the genotypes, treatments and their interactions. The present study showed that Mundan, Odiyan, Muttadan, Kallimadiyan and Vellimuthu had less percentage reduction in growth parameters at the germination stage. Odiyan and Mundan showed less percentage reduction in fresh weight (36.09%) and  shoot length (25.61%) respectively, in relative water content  (10.70% and 16.07%, respectively) at higher concentrations of salinity (150mM) compared to control. Pokali, Chembakam and Odiyan showed good germination parameters under three different saline treatments compared to other genotypes. Biplot analysis showed 65.4% variation between the treatments, whereas the variation between the genotypes was around 13.3%. Screening of landraces for salinity tolerance at the seed germination stage is the most reliable method to identify the salt tolerant line at the early seedling stage. The present study can be used for further screening programme at the vegetative stage for the identification of potential salt tolerant lines to improve breeding and gene introgression studies

Evaluation of Integrated nutrient management practices on growth, yield parameters and yield of improved traditional rice in the western zone of Tamil Nadu

Farmers have recently relied on chemical fertilizers, particularly macronutrients, to boost rice yields. It leads to many problems, mainly rapidly declining soil fertility, soil and water quality, resulting in global environmental issues. With this view, a study aimed to evaluate different organic manures and inorganic fertilizers in an integrated manner and their effect on increasing rice (CO 57) yield. The study was conducted on Wetland farm, Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during Early kar, 2023. The experiment was conducted in randomized block design (RBD), and it had three replications and twelve treatments. The treatments included nutrient management practices and foliar spray of micronutrients. The results revealed that higher plant height (85.0 cm), total number of tillers m-2 (298), Leaf area index (4.99) and dry matter production (5298 kg ha-1), number of productive tillers m-2 (309), number of filled grains panicle-1 (176) and 1000 grain weight (22.00 g), grain yield (3972 kg ha-1) and straw yield (5798 kg ha-1) were recorded with the combined application of 50 % recommended dose of nitrogen through inorganic fertilizer + 50 % recommended dose of nitrogen through vermicompost + foliar spray of 0.5 % ZnSO4 + 1 % FeSO4 at tillering, PI and flowering stage (T11) compared to other practices. The use of inorganic fertilizers combined with organic sources applied to the soil enhanced plant quality and yield sustainably without harming the natural ecosystem. Integrated nutrient management (INM) in rice significantly improved overall crop response, leading to optimal growth characteristics and yield attributes.

Role of Relative Humidity in Processing and Storage of Seeds and Assessment of Variability in Storage Behaviour in Brassica

The role of relative humidity (RH) while processing and storing seeds of Brassica spp. and Eruca sativa was investigated by creating different levels of relative humidity, namely, 75%, 50%, 32%, and 11% using different saturated salt solutions and 1% RH using concentrated sulphuric acid. The variability in seed storage behaviour of different species of Brassica was also evaluated. The samples were stored at 40±2°C in sealed containers and various physiological parameters were assessed at different intervals up to three months. The seed viability and seedling vigour parameters were considerably reduced in all accessions at high relative humidity irrespective of the species. Storage at intermediate relative humidities caused minimal decline in viability. All the accessions performed better at relative humidity level of 32% maintaining seed moisture content of 3%. On analyzing the variability in storage behaviour, B. rapa and B. juncea were better performers than B. napus and Eruca sativa

A Profile of Bacteriologically Confirmed Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Children

Objective: To describe the clinical profile of children with bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis. Study Design: A multicentric study was conducted in three hospitals in Chennai city between July 1995 and December 1997. Children aged 6 months to 12 years with signs and symptoms suggestive of tuberculosis were investigated further. Clinical examination, chest radiograph, tuberculin skin test with 1 TU PPD and, sputum or gastric lavage for mycobacterial smear and culture were done for all and, lymph node biopsy when necessary. Results: A total of 2652 children were registered and tuberculosis was bacteriologically confirmed in 201. Predominant symptoms were history of an insidious illness (49%), fever and cough (47%), loss of weight (41%) and a visible glandular swelling (49%). Respiratory signs were few and 62% were undernourished. Over half the patients with confirmed TB had normal chest X-ray. Abnormal X-ray findings included parenchymal opacities in 47% and hilar or mediastinal lymphadenopathy in 26%. The prevalence of isoniazid resistance was 12.6% and MDR TB 4%. Conclusions: Children with tuberculosis present with fever and cough of insidious onset. Lymphadenopathy is a common feature even in children with pulmonary TB. A significant proportion of children have normal chest X-rays despite positive gastric aspirate cultures. Drug resistance rates in children mirror the pattern seen in adults in this geographic area

A Meta-analysis of Gene Expression Signatures of Blood Pressure and Hypertension

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered numerous genetic variants (SNPs) that are associated with blood pressure (BP). Genetic variants may lead to BP changes by acting on intermediate molecular phenotypes such as coded protein sequence or gene expression, which in turn affect BP variability. Therefore, characterizing genes whose expression is associated with BP may reveal cellular processes involved in BP regulation and uncover how transcripts mediate genetic and environmental effects on BP variability. A meta-analysis of results from six studies of global gene expression profiles of BP and hypertension in whole blood was performed in 7017 individuals who were not receiving antihypertensive drug treatment. We identified 34 genes that were differentially expressed in relation to BP (Bonferroni-corrected p<0.05). Among these genes, FOS and PTGS2 have been previously reported to be involved in BP-related processes; the others are novel. The top BP signature genes in aggregate explain 5%–9% of inter-individual variance in BP. Of note, rs3184504 in SH2B3, which was also reported in GWAS to be associated with BP, was found to be a trans regulator of the expression of 6 of the transcripts we found to be associated with BP (FOS, MYADM, PP1R15A, TAGAP, S100A10, and FGBP2). Gene set enrichment analysis suggested that the BP-related global gene expression changes include genes involved in inflammatory response and apoptosis pathways. Our study provides new insights into molecular mechanisms underlying BP regulation, and suggests novel transcriptomic markers for the treatment and prevention of hypertension

International Conference on Signal Processing, Embedded System and Communication Technologies and their applications for Sustainable and Renewable Energy (ICSECSRE '14) Energy Efficient Framework for heterogeneous Multicore Parallel Processors

Abstract: Recently, energy-efficient computing has become a major interest, both in the mobile and IT sectors. With the advent of multi-core processors and their energy-saving mechanisms, there is a necessity to model their power consumption. The existing models for multi-core processors are based on the assumption that the power consumption of multiple cores performing parallel computations is equal to the sum of the power of each of those active cores. In this paper, we analyze this assumption and show that it leads to lack of accuracy when applied to modern processors such as quad-core. Based on our analysis, we present a methodology for estimating the energy consumption of multi-core processors. Unlike existing models, we take into account resource sharing and power saving mechanisms. We show that our approach provides accuracy with varying task sets

Adaptive Cost-Based Task Scheduling in Cloud Environment

Task execution in cloud computing requires obtaining stored data from remote data centers. Though this storage process reduces the memory constraints of the user’s computer, the time deadline is a serious concern. In this paper, Adaptive Cost-based Task Scheduling (ACTS) is proposed to provide data access to the virtual machines (VMs) within the deadline without increasing the cost. ACTS considers the data access completion time for selecting the cost effective path to access the data. To allocate data access paths, the data access completion time is computed by considering the mean and variance of the network service time and the arrival rate of network input/output requests. Then the task priority is assigned to the removed tasks based data access time. Finally, the cost of data paths are analyzed and allocated based on the task priority. Minimum cost path is allocated to the low priority tasks and fast access path are allocated to high priority tasks as to meet the time deadline. Thus efficient task scheduling can be achieved by using ACTS. The experimental results conducted in terms of execution time, computation cost, communication cost, bandwidth, and CPU utilization prove that the proposed algorithm provides better performance than the state-of-the-art methods