Obesity among young adults in developing countries : a systematic overview

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Does quality of care differ when HIV patients are treated by non-specialist and specialist HIV healthcare providers in developed countries? A Systematic narrative review

Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Electrical characterization of plasma-enhanced Cvd silicon nitride dielectric on copper

In this work, a novel metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor process is introduced and integrated in a Copper Interconnect technology, whose smallest feature size is 0.18mum process, which has good yield, reliability and repeatability. The MIM uses a one-photomask process and hence is termed as the Low-cost-integration (LCI) MIM. The LCI MIM uses copper as the bottom electrode, plasma enhanced silicon nitride as the dielectric, and Tantalum nitride as the top electrode. The target capacitance density is 1.5fF/mum2. The target leakage current is 1e-7A/cm2 at 3.3V at 125°C. The maximum operating voltages that the MIM is designed for is 5V. The voltage linearity is desired to be less than 100ppm/v; The purpose of the study is to determine the feasibility of integrating the low-cost-integration (LCI) MIM capacitor and to characterize the device to ensure that it meets the above mentioned target values for the various parameters. This is done by electrically characterizing the capacitor for the capacitance change with voltage, the leakage current at accelerated voltages and the time-dependent-dielectric breakdown (TDDB) under various electric fields. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Clinical study of emergency peripartum hysterectomy for postpartum hemorrhage

Background: The objective of this study was to study indications and the outcome of emergency peripartum hysterectomy for PPH in a tertiary care centre and to study the maternal mortality and morbidity in these patients.Methods: This is an observational study conducted at Vanivilas hospital attached to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute between January 2014 to December 2015 for 24 months. The women who fulfill the inclusion criteria are studied with respect to parity, gestational age at delivery, route of delivery (vaginal/cesarean), details of instrumental delivery, conservative methods used to control bleeding, ICU admissions and blood transfusions. An analysis of maternal mortality and morbidity was done with respect to development of hypovolemic shock, DIC, anemia, acute kidney injury, septicemia and maternal deaths.Results: The rate of peripartum hysterectomy is 10.1 per 1000 live births. Placental abnormalities (placenta previa and placenta accreta) are the leading indications (41.4%) for peripartum hysterectomy followed by uterine atony (34.5%). All 29 women received blood and blood product transfusions. 34.5% developed febrile morbidity, 27.6% developed DIC, 10.3% developed acute kidney injury and septicemia and 10.3% maternal deaths.Conclusions: PPH is unpredictable in onset, duration and etiology and it remains a major life threatening complication of any delivery. The most common causes of hemorrhage in these women are placental abnormalities and uterine atony. When conservative treatment is not feasible or has failed, prompt peripartum hysterectomy is performed failing which the delay would contribute to the maternal morbidity and mortality

Comparison Of Modified Dual Ternary Indexing And Multi-Key Hashing Algorithms For Music Information Retrieval

In this work we have compared two indexing algorithms that have been used to index and retrieve Carnatic music songs. We have compared a modified algorithm of the Dual ternary indexing algorithm for music indexing and retrieval with the multi-key hashing indexing algorithm proposed by us. The modification in the dual ternary algorithm was essential to handle variable length query phrase and to accommodate features specific to Carnatic music. The dual ternary indexing algorithm is adapted for Carnatic music by segmenting using the segmentation technique for Carnatic music. The dual ternary algorithm is compared with the multi-key hashing algorithm designed by us for indexing and retrieval in which features like MFCC, spectral flux, melody string and spectral centroid are used as features for indexing data into a hash table. The way in which collision resolution was handled by this hash table is different than the normal hash table approaches. It was observed that multi-key hashing based retrieval had a lesser time complexity than dual-ternary based indexing The algorithms were also compared for their precision and recall in which multi-key hashing had a better recall than modified dual ternary indexing for the sample data considered.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Prevention of Obesity : Exploration of Lifestyle in 18-25 olds

PhD ThesisPostprin

AHL-mediated quorum sensing regulation: Role in controlling cytotoxicity, T6SSs and CRISPR-Cas systems in Aliivibrio wodanis

Aliivibrio wodanis has been associated with winter ulcer disease outbreaks. It has been reported that A. wodanis may act as a secondary pathogen in disease outbreaks and pathogenesis. The culture supernatant of A. wodanis causes a cytopathogenic effect (CPE) in various salmon cell lines. Moreover, in an Atlantic salmon bath challenge experiment, A. wodanis alone produces clinical symptoms in the fish. However, the contribution of A. wodanis to winter ulcer disease is not clear. Despite the knowledge to date and the research done in the field, there are still unanswered questions and a knowledge gap. Several Vibrio and Aliivibrio species use quorum sensing (QS) to regulate genes connected to host-pathogen interaction, virulence, survival, and adaptation mechanisms. In other aliivibrios, several QS systems, including the ainS/AinR and a transcriptional regulator litR (LuxR homologs), have been reported to regulate various phenotypic traits. Moreover, temperature is an essential factor that governs the prevalence of bacteria in the environment and host and is a potent regulator of pathogenesis in many bacteria. Hence the thesis aimed to understand better the QS`s role and the effect of temperature in A. wodanis. Our study reveals that ainS autoinducer synthase is required to produce the Acyl-Homoserine Lactone (AHL) 3OHC10-HSL in A. wodanis. Furthermore, we found that the 3OHC10-HSL production is cell density and temperature-dependent. The 3OHC10-HSL concentration was higher at 6°C, the temperature below the threshold temperature at which winter ulcer occurs, compared to 12°C. The results also showed that QS and temperature regulate various functions such as AHL production, motility, and production of proteases, hemolysin and siderophores. The cell culture study further revealed that cell density, QS and temperature influence the cytotoxicity in CHSE salmon cell lines. This suggests that A. wodanis produces cytolysins and cytotoxins that are implicated in cytotoxicity. Bacteria use the Type VI secretion system (T6SS) for multiple functions like iron transport, interspecies competition, virulence, and niche adaptations. A. wodanis co-exists with the main pathogen M. viscosa in the infected fish during the winter ulcer disease outbreaks. In addition, the bacterium has been shown to hinder the growth and virulence of M. viscosa. The thesis further investigated the mechanisms by which A. wodanis may survive together with M. viscosa in skin ulcers and during winter ulcer outbreaks. We found that the A. wodanis genome encodes three T6SSs (T6SS1-T6SS3) and auxiliary clusters (Aux1-4); and several potential Type VI secretion system effectors (T6SEs). In addition, the A. wodanis genome is found to contain a type IF CRISPR-Cas system. This suggests that these two mechanisms may play a role during the survival, adaptation, and immune function of A. wodanis in its natural environment, inside the host or during its co-existence with M. viscosa. Next, we analyzed the genome-wide transcriptomics of A. wodanis and QS mutants litR and ainS mutants grown at different temperatures and cell densities. We found that the genes involved in T6SSs, and CRISPR-Cas systems are regulated by cell density, temperature, and QS. The transcriptome analysis showed that the complete T6SS2 apparatus was less expressed in the litR/WT, suggesting litR regulates T6SS2 in A. wodanis. In this study, the transcriptome analysis demonstrated that deletion of litR decreased the hcp1 expression, a gene involved in bacterial competition and virulence in other bacteria. In addition to litR dependent expression, expression value of hcp decreased three times in litR/WT, HCD at 12°C when compared to 6°C and HCD. Our observation suggests that temperature 6°C and litR are crucial for expressing the genes related to virulence. Understanding the strain diversity of the same species is important in exploring strategies to survive in a changing environment. Finally, we wanted to study the genomic similarity and variation between A. wodanis isolates by performing a pan-genome analysis of twenty-two A. wodanis isolates collected from various locations across Norway. The analysis revealed an open pan-genome with a wide inter-species diversity in A. wodanis genomes. We examined the phylogenetic relatedness between the isolates using single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and core genes. The phylogenetic trees were distributed into five groups, where Group 2, 4 and 5 encompassed conserved isolates. The accessory genomes (shell and cloud) accounted for about 73% of the total pan-genome suggesting the genomes have acquired most of the genes through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Whole and cloud genome functional annotation revealed a larger number of genes related to functional families such as metabolism, signaling and cellular processes and genetic information processing, suggesting they are involved in energy metabolism and environmental interactions. By further analyzing the twenty-two A. wodanis genomes, we identified diverse CRISPR-Cas systems, spacers, and prophages. About 60% of isolates encoded a different CRISPR-Cas system compared to the reference strain. Like the reference strain, the other twenty-one A. wodanis isolates also encode multiple T6SSs where the T6SS2 and Aux-2 are either absent or showed differences in about 80% (18 out of 22) of isolates. In addition to the T6SSs and CRISPR-Cas, other elements relevant for adaptation, virulence, and survival potentials, such as virulence factors (VFs) and biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), were explored. We have found that the predicted VFs and BGCs were conserved between the A. wodanis isolates. The results presented in this work yield knowledge about QS regulation of virulence, survival, and adaptation mechanisms in A. wodanis. This aids in understanding the mechanisms connected to co-existence of A. wodanis with M. viscosa and winter ulcer disease development and treatment

IN SILICO MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES ON THE PHYTOCONSTITUENTS OF CADABA FRUTICOSA (L.) DRUCE FOR ITS FERTILITY ACTIVITY

ABSTRACTObjective: To study the effectiveness of phytocomponents from Cadaba fruticosa (L.) Druce against CYP 17 using computational molecular dockingstudies. The characterization of polycystic ovarian syndrome is hyperinsulinemia, menstural irregularities, long-term metabolic disturbances, andhyperandrogenism. Adrenal and ovarian androgen synthesis are induced by an enzyme, CYP 17 (P450c 17α). Due to increase in the activity of thisenzyme, hyperandrogenism mainly occurs. By inhibiting the enzymatic activity, excess androgen synthesis can be prevented in ovarian theca cells.Literature study has reported that the gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis on the ethanolic extract of the aerial parts of C. fruticosapossesses 20 compounds.Methods: Molecular docking analysis was performed for the reported 20 compounds against CYP 17 using Schrodinger Glide software. These resultswere compared with the docked score of fertility inducing drug clomiphene citrate.Results: All 20 compounds have exhibited moderate to potent inhibition with a range of −3.3 to −7.9. Androstan-3-one, 17-hydroxy-2, 4-dimethyl and3-Trifluoroacetoxypentadecane have showed potent inhibition with the docking score of −7.9 and −6.8, respectively.Conclusion: The results revealed out that the compounds present in C. fruticosa can reduce the activity of CYP 17. This study throws a light onestablishing the novel drug for infertility through experimental procedures.Keywords: Cadaba fruticosa, Glide-score, Infertility, In silico, CYP 17, Polycystic ovarian syndrome

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF ANNONA SPECIES: A REVIEW

Herbal plants and phytogenic products have used for the treatment of various diseases from ancient times in the folklore medicine worldwide. Crude extracts from plants now play an important and valuable source for natural products that are used in the advancement of medicines against various diseases, for the improvement of pharmaceutical preparations and for novel bioscience research. One such plant genus is Annona, such as Annona muricata, Annona cherimola, Annona reticulata, Annona squamosa, and Annona senegalensis are some species widely cultivating in India and tropical regions of Asia for their edible fruits and medicinal values. These plants have been used for centuries as traditional folk medicine for the treatments of various diseases. The plants are considered to be a good source of vitamins, minerals, plant proteins, fibers, etc., as well as the plant is supposed to have many biological activities. This review describes the morphology and ecology of the plant, its ethnomedicinal uses, pharmacological activities, and phytoconstituents