Fragile brain, handle with care: A case of abusive head trauma and a review of literature

We report an 11-month-old boy who brought with status epilepticus. The presence of bilateral retinal hemorrhages and generalizedcerebral atrophy indicating ischemia revealed on imaging tests lead us to keep a differential diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome (SBS).On repeated questioning, mother gave the history of shaking by a relative which further supported our diagnosis. Thus in a child with anonspecific febrile convulsive state, the treating physician should keep SBS also as a differential diagnosis

Coexistence of carcinoma cheek with tuberculosis: a rarity

Coexistence of tuberculosis and cheek malignancy is a rare phenomenon and it has never been reported to the best of our knowledge. Here, we present a case of carcinoma cheek with tuberculosis in a 50 year old male patient who was successfully managed by multimodality approach by combining anti-tubercular therapy with chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Allelic dimorphism of Plasmodium vivax gam-1 in the Indian subcontinent

BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphism is an inevitable component of a complex organism especially in multistage infectious organisms such as malaria parasites. Understanding the population genetic structure of the parasites would provide valuable information for effective malaria control strategies. Recently, the development of molecular tools like PCR has made analysis of field samples possible and easier and research on Plasmodium vivax has also been strengthened. Not many reports are available on the genetic polymorphism of P. vivax from the Indian sub-continent. This study evaluates the extent of diversity in field isolates of India with respect to Pvgam-1. METHODS: A study was designed to assess the diversity of Pvgam-1 among field isolates from India, using a nested PCR assay. Field isolates were collected from different regions of the country and the observed variability was confirmed by sequencing data. RESULTS: Both Belem and Chesson type alleles were present either exclusively or in mixed form among isolates of all 10 study sites. The Belem type allele was predominant, occurring in 67% of isolates. The proportion of isolates showing the mixed form (both Belem and Chesson type alleles occurring together in the same isolate) was about 13 overall (up to 38.5% in some isolates). Sequencing of the PCR-amplified Belem and Chesson type alleles confirmed the PCR results. Among the 10 study sequences, 11 polymorphic sites and four singleton variations were observed. All the nucleotide substitutions were non-synonymous. CONCLUSION: Study shows limited diversity of Pvgam-1 marker in Indian isolates with well representation of both Belem and Chesson type alleles

Drought and salinity stresses induced physio-biochemical changes in sugarcane: an overview of tolerance mechanism and mitigating approaches

Sugarcane productivity is being hampered globally under changing environmental scenarios like drought and salinity. The highly complex nature of the plant responses against these stresses is determined by a variety of factors such as genotype, developmental phase of the plant, progression rate and stress, intensity, and duration. These factors influence plant responses and can determine whether mitigation approaches associated with acclimation are implemented. In this review, we attempt to summarize the effects of drought and salinity on sugarcane growth, specifically on the plant’s responses at various levels, viz., physiological, biochemical, and metabolic responses, to these stresses. Furthermore, mitigation strategies for dealing with these stresses have been discussed. Despite sugarcane’s complex genomes, conventional breeding approaches can be utilized in conjunction with molecular breeding and omics technologies to develop drought- and salinity-tolerant cultivars. The significant role of plant growth-promoting bacteria in sustaining sugarcane productivity under drought and salinity cannot be overlooked

Safety and Immunogenicity of DNA and MVA HIV-1 Subtype C Vaccine Prime-Boost Regimens: A Phase I Randomised Trial in HIV-Uninfected Indian Volunteers

STUDY DESIGN: A randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled phase I trial. METHODS: The trial was conducted in 32 HIV-uninfected healthy volunteers to assess the safety and immunogenicity of prime-boost vaccination regimens with either 2 doses of ADVAX, a DNA vaccine containing Chinese HIV-1 subtype C env gp160, gag, pol and nef/tat genes, as a prime and 2 doses of TBC-M4, a recombinant MVA encoding Indian HIV-1 subtype C env gp160, gag, RT, rev, tat, and nef genes, as a boost in Group A or 3 doses of TBC-M4 alone in Group B participants. Out of 16 participants in each group, 12 received vaccine candidates and 4 received placebos. RESULTS: Both vaccine regimens were found to be generally safe and well tolerated. The breadth of anti-HIV binding antibodies and the titres of anti-HIV neutralizing antibodies were significantly higher (p<0.05) in Group B volunteers at 14 days post last vaccination. Neutralizing antibodies were detected mainly against Tier-1 subtype B and C viruses. HIV-specific IFN-γ ELISPOT responses were directed mostly to Env and Gag proteins. Although the IFN-γ ELISPOT responses were infrequent after ADVAX vaccinations, the response rate was significantly higher in group A after 1(st) and 2(nd) MVA doses as compared to the responses in group B volunteers. However, the priming effect was short lasting leading to no difference in the frequency, breadth and magnitude of IFN-γELISPOT responses between the groups at 3, 6 and 9 months post-last vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Although DNA priming resulted in enhancement of immune responses after 1(st) MVA boosting, the overall DNA prime MVA boost was not found to be immunologically superior to homologous MVA boosting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trial Registry CTRI/2009/091/00005

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Iris Dataset;Meta Information; Uniform Data Function; High Dimensional Data;

Abstract—Web search engine are often forced to pass through long ordered list of documents called snippets. Snippets are web document attributes. These snippets are returned by search engines. The basis of document clustering is an alternative method of organizing retrieval results. Clustering yet needed to be deployed for the search engines. The approach adopted is formulation, simulation; formulation refers to the decomposition of different page rank values. Improved data clustering kmeans algorithm performs better results. Purpose of adopted web mining approach is to preserve web page conceptually similar, in page rank, link structure mining and probabilistic hybrid approach. Final goal is to eliminate the problem of increasing accuracy also with speed. As a result search engine gain popularity with incorporation of web mining. Proposed method ought to produce desired quality of clusters with probabilistic hybrid approach. Most users are unwilling to wait while accurate results are required at user’s end with probabilistic approach. Proposed model should be incorporated with the search engines to gain optimized results in terms of accuracy and speed

A Randomised Clinical Control Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Shodhita Kuchla Powder (Purified Strychnos Nux-Vomica L.) and Brahmi Extract (Bacopa Monnieri L. Pennell) on Klaibya (Dhwajbhang) w.s.r. to Erectile Dysfunction

Klaibya is defined in Ayurveda as the inability to achieve and maintain sufficient rigidity in the penis, which is essential for his sexual urges or the needs of his female partner during sexual activity. Chakrapani limits the concept of Klaibya to merely erectile dysfunction. Dhwajbhang, according to Acharya Sushruta, is a form of Klaibya caused by excessive coitus. The standard initial evaluation of a man experiencing ED is conducted in person and involves sexual, medical, and psychosocial histories, as well as laboratory tests comprehensive enough to identify comorbid diseases that may predispose the patient to ED and may contraindicate particular treatments. Properties of Ayurvedic drug; Kuchla (Strychnos nux-vomica) in classical text Rasatarangani as therapeutic of Klaibya (ED) and Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri) is well known Medhya drug that works on neuro- psychological disorders. The current study evaluated the effects of Kuchla and Brahmi on 36 erectile dysfunction patients, having 30 of them completing the trial. The patients were categorized into two parts: Group A administered an ED 250 capsule (Hypothetical) once a day (250mg) with milk, and Group B received a placebo once a day with milk HS for 30 days, followed by another 30 days

MeGen - generation of gallium metal clusters using reinforcement learning

The generation of low-energy 3D structures of metal clusters depends on the efficiency of the search algorithm and the accuracy of inter-atomic interaction description. In this work, we formulate the search algorithm as a reinforcement learning (RL) problem. Concisely, we propose a novel actor-critic architecture that generates low-lying isomers of metal clusters at a fraction of computational cost than conventional methods. Our RL-based search algorithm uses a previously developed DART model as a reward function to describe the inter-atomic interactions to validate predicted structures. Using the DART model as a reward function incentivizes the RL model to generate low-energy structures and helps generate valid structures. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach over conventional methods for scanning local minima on potential energy surface. Our approach not only generates isomer of gallium clusters at a minimal computational cost but also predicts isomer families that were not discovered through previous density-functional theory (DFT)-based approaches

Papillary carcinoma thyroid in a thyroglossal cyst: A management dilemma

Thyroglossal duct remnants can harbour malignant changes in them and can present as thyroglossal cysts which are picked up incidentally in postoperative histopathology. Management of these thyroglossal duct carcinomas has always been a controversy to decide on the need to perform a total thyroidectomy in these patients and the adjuvant treatment that’s required. We present a case of a 48-year-old female patient of thyroglossal duct cyst carcinoma who had to be taken for total thyroidectomy and radio iodine ablation during treatment of the lesion. Careful treatment planning aids are necessary in the management of such lesions