Low Serum Zinc & Magnesium: A Possible Risk Factor for First Episode Simple Febile Seizures

Febrile seizures are the most common seizure disorder of children. They are seizures occurring in neurologically healthy infants between 6 months to 5 years without any CNS infection, metabolic disturbances or previous afebrile seizures. They have multiple etiological factors like genetic, environmental factors, family history, specific nutrient deficiencies like iron, zinc, magnesium, copper, selenium, GABA deficiencies. Zinc is an essential micronutrient necessary for normal brain function and in controlling the occurrence of febrile seizures. Zinc directly raises the threshold level of seizures. Magnesium an essential micronutrient, plays a role in stability of nerve and muscle cell. Hypomagnesemia leads to nerve and muscle cell excitability. In our study the relationship between low serum zinc & magnesium and first episode simple febrile seizures was taken as the objective. Case control study was conducted in our Institute of Social Pediatrics, 40 cases and 40 controls were included in the study. Cases were the children admitted with first episode simple febrile seizures, controls were age and sex matched children with acute febrile illness without seizures. Serum zinc & magnesium were estimated and statistical analysis performed with SPSS 16 version. Statistically significant low serum zinc & magnesium was found in the cases compared to the controls. Also febrile seizures was found to be common among the age group 1-2 years and slightly higher among the male children

Preliminary Investigation of Antimicrobial Property of Acacia leucophloea Leaves Extract

Leaves of indigenous plant Acacia leucophloea have been successively extracted using different solvents like hexane, methanol and water. Extract was evaluated for its antibacterial activity using two assay method Kirby bauer disc diffusion and tube dilution assay. Results of the given study revealed that the methanolic extract is potential antibacterial agent specifically for E coli & & S aureus

Japanese encephalitis virus associated post-infectious relapsing acute onset chronic demyelinating polyradiculoneuritis

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is an uncommon manifestation of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus infection. JE is a neurotropic viral tropical disease affecting both CNS and PNS. Hereby report a case of acute onset CIDP (A-CIDP) following primary infection with JE who presented as symmetric flaccid areflexic sensorimotor quadriparesis with subsequent clinical improvement with steroids and plasmapheresis

Are aggressive deliveries of very preterm babies justified?

Background: Every year there are 15 million babies who are born too soon. The objective of this study was to analyze the neonatal morbidity and mortality of preterm neonates at birth.Methods: This was a prospective study conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology and neonatology. We included all preterm deliveries from 26 weeks to 36 weeks 6 days period of gestation in one year. Neonatal morbidities and mortalities at birth were noted.Results: The rate of preterm birth was 8.49%. Spontaneous preterm labor accounted for 52% of the causes of preterm. Hyperbilirubinemia was the commonest neonatal morbidity affecting 53.2% of the neonates. Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and sepsis was highest in neonates of 26 weeks to 28 weeks gestation. This group saw a mortality of 90%.Conclusions: Prematurity is associated with high mortality and long-term morbidity. Low APGARS might be good predictors of neonatal/ infant mortality.  In the extremely preterm neonate, it may prove worthy to weigh the risks and benefits and thereafter counsel the mother and concerned relatives accordingly to help with decision making.

IN VITRO ANTIPLASMODIAL ACTIVITY OF NATIVE INDIAN SEAWEED SARGASSUM SP.

ABSTRACTObjectives: To investigate the antiplasmodial activity of three different solvent extracts of Sargassum tenerrimum against Plasmodium falciparum.Methods: The seaweed species of S. tenerrimum were collected from Rameshwaram, Southeast coast of India. The collected samples were dried andextracted with three different polaritic (hexane, acetone, and ethylacetate) solvents and tested against P. falciparum parasite strain.Results: Acetone extract exhibited better activity than the other two extracts. The inhibitory concentration values of acetone S. tenerrimum werefound to be 27.82 and 18.14 µg/ml at 24-48 hrs, respectively. S. tenerrimum crude extracts were subjected for the phytochemical analysis, and itshowed the presence of steroids, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, glycosides, amino acids, and phenol compounds. The gas chromatography-massspectroscopy result reveals that the presence of 10 major and minor compounds in the S. tenerrimum extract. In that, cyclotrisiloxane hexamethylcompounds might be responsible for the effective parasite suppression.50Conclusion: It can be concluded from the present study that the acetone extract of S. tenerrimum has strong antiplasmodial activity. Furthermore, thestudy has been extended to the isolation of the possible active compounds that is responsible for the antiplasmodial properties.Keywords: Antiplasmodial assay, Different polaritic solvents, Plasmodium falciparum, Sargassum tenerrimum

Effect of differential heat treatments on antibacterial activity of fermented goat milk

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of three different temperatures on the antibacterial potential of fermented goat milk.Goat milk is one of the naturalfoods to complete perfection.Bioactive peptides, the specific protein fragments that have a positive impact on body functions, can be produced during milk fermentation. Thanks to the starter cultures’ proteolytic activity.Fresh pooled goat milk sample collected was divided into four lots. One set was used for raw milk analysis and the remaining three were subjected to heat treatment at three different timetemperature combinations namely;72°C for 15 sec, 85°C for 10 min, and 121° C for 15 min. These samples were cooled immediately to 42ºC, inoculated with 0.04 % DVS yogurt culture,incubated at 42º C for 4 hrs, and then stored at 5±2°C for 21 days for storage studies. The analysis was carried out at 7-day intervals. An agar well diffusion assay was performed to assess the inhibitory activity ofWater-soluble peptide extracts (WSPE) of these samples against Bacillus cereus ATCC 10876, Escherichia coli NCIM 2685, Salmonella enterica ATCC 6017, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. The milk that was heated to 85°C for 10 min before fermentation showed the highest antibacterial activity against E.coli during the 7th and 14th day of storage, withthe zone of inhibition measuredat 17±0.433mm and 21±0.55mm respectively.Thus, it can be concluded that milk heated at 85°C for 10 min had better antibacterial activity than the other two treatments

The Homeobox Protein CEH-23 Mediates Prolonged Longevity in Response to Impaired Mitochondrial Electron Transport Chain in C. elegans

Recent findings indicate that perturbations of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (METC) can cause extended longevity in evolutionarily diverse organisms. To uncover the molecular basis of how altered METC increases lifespan in C. elegans, we performed an RNAi screen and revealed that three predicted transcription factors are specifically required for the extended longevity of mitochondrial mutants. In particular, we demonstrated that the nuclear homeobox protein CEH-23 uniquely mediates the longevity but not the slow development, reduced brood size, or resistance to oxidative stress associated with mitochondrial mutations. Furthermore, we showed that ceh-23 expression levels are responsive to altered METC, and enforced overexpression of ceh-23 is sufficient to extend lifespan in wild-type background. Our data point to mitochondria-to-nucleus communications to be key for longevity determination and highlight CEH-23 as a novel longevity factor capable of responding to mitochondrial perturbations. These findings provide a new paradigm for how mitochondria impact aging and age-dependent diseases

Indian Women in Technology: An Empirical Analysis of Role Conflict

An important issue that our society has been facing in the recent past is the changing work and family roles of Indian women. Woman, today, function within multiple roles simultaneously operating in both work and family domains as a mother, spouse, housekeeper, as well as maintaining full-time employment outside the home. The relationship between these dual roles has thus become a topic of interest among organizational researchers. This study deals with selected antecedents and their influence on the role conflict among Indian women in technology. A sample size of 598 Indian women in technology was taken for the study and the result shows the occurrence of work-family conflict. Three predominant factors that influence the work-family conflict time-dimension are work exhaustion, work thought interference and perceived workload in the order of merit

Indian Women in Technology: An Empirical Analysis of Role Conflict

An important issue that our society has been facing in the recent past is the changing work and family roles of Indian women. Woman, today, function within multiple roles simultaneously operating in both work and family domains as a mother, spouse, housekeeper, as well as maintaining full-time employment outside the home. The relationship between these dual roles has thus become a topic of interest among organizational researchers. This study deals with selected antecedents and their influence on the role conflict among Indian women in technology. A sample size of 598 Indian women in technology was taken for the study and the result shows the occurrence of work-family conflict. Three predominant factors that influence the work-family conflict time-dimension are work exhaustion, work thought interference and perceived workload in the order of merit.