Role of visual inspection of cervix with acetic acid and high risk human papilloma virus DNA testing in screening for cervical cancer

Background: To evaluate the role of VIA alone and in combination with high risk Human Papilloma virus DNA testing as a screening test for cervical dysplasia and cancer.Methods: 400 symptomatic patients from the gynecology outpatient department were screened using Pap smear and VIA. HPV DNA testing was done for 62 VIA positive and 100 VIA negative women. Colposcopy was done for all women. Those found positive on any or all of the screening tests were subjected to cervical biopsy. The results were analysed for PAP, VIA, HPV and a combined test using VIA and HPV both.Results: VIA had the highest sensitivity (91%) to detect any grade of dysplasia. The sensitivity of the combination test (VIA + HPV) was 80.6% which was lower than that of VIA (91%) and also lower than that of HR HPV DNA detection (86%). The specificity of the combination test (VIA + HPV) was 68.3 % which was significantly higher than that of VIA alone (39%) (p = 0.000) and also higher than that for HPV DNA detection when used alone (56%). Pap smear had the highest specificity (95.12 %) but sensitivity was much lower at 52.7 %.Conclusions: VIA is a highly sensitive screening test. The main disadvantage is its low specificity. However the combination test of VIA + HR HPV testing overcomes this and at the same time maintains a high sensitivity. Thus a test which combines VIA plus HR HPV testing is better screening method than either of the three tests (VIA, HPV, PAP) done alone

Enhanced cell density cultivation and rapid expression-screening of recombinant Pichia pastoris clones in microscale

Cultivation of yeast Pichia pastoris in the microtiter plate, for optimisation of culture conditions, and expression screening of transformants has gained significance in recent years. However, in the microtiter plate, it has been challenging to attain cell densities similar to well-aerated shake-flask culture, due to the poor mixing resulting in oxygen limitation. To solve this problem, we investigated the influence of multiple cultivation parameters on P. pastoris cell growth, including the architecture of 96-deepwell plate (96-DWP), shaking throw diameter, shaking frequency, culture volume/well, and media composition. In the optimised conditions, a cell density of OD600 ~50 (dry cell weight ~13 g/L) with >99% cell viability was achieved in the casamino acids supplemented buffered-minimal-media in 300 to 1000 μl culture volume/well. We have devised a simplified method for coating of the culture supernatant on the polystyrene surface for immunoassay. Clones for secretory expression of envelope domain III of dengue virus serotype-1 under the control of inducible and constitutive promoter were screened using the developed method. Described microscale cultivation strategy can be used for rapid high-throughput screening of P. pastoris clones, media optimization, and high-throughput recombinant protein production. The knowledge gained through this work may also be applied, to other suspension cultures, with some modifications.</p

The GSK3 Kinase and LZTR1 Protein Regulate the Stability of Ras Family Proteins and the Proliferation of Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Ras family proteins are membrane-bound GTPases that control proliferation, survival, and motility. Many forms of cancers are driven by the acquisition of somatic mutations in a RAS gene. In pancreatic cancer (PC), more than 90% of tumors carry an activating mutation in KRAS. Mutations in components of the Ras signaling pathway can also be the cause of RASopathies, a group of developmental disorders. In a subset of RASopathies, the causal mutations are in the LZTR1 protein, a substrate adaptor for E3 ubiquitin ligases that promote the degradation of Ras proteins. Here, we show that the function of LZTR1 is regulated by the glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3). In PC cells, inhibiting or silencing GSK3 led to a decline in the level of Ras proteins, including both wild type Ras proteins and the oncogenic Kras protein. This decline was accompanied by a 3-fold decrease in the half-life of Ras proteins and was blocked by the inhibition of the proteasome or the knockdown of LZTR1. Irrespective of the mutational status of KRAS, the decline in Ras proteins was observed and accompanied by a loss of cell proliferation. This loss of proliferation was blocked by the knockdown of LZTR1 and could be recapitulated by the silencing of either KRAS or GSK3. These results reveal a novel GSK3-regulated LZTR1-dependent mechanism that controls the stability of Ras proteins and proliferation of PC cells. The significance of this novel pathway to Ras signaling and its contribution to the therapeutic properties of GSK3 inhibitors are both discussed

Synthesis and antimalarial activity of sulfonamide-attached coumarin-[1,2,3]-triazoles

1545-1555Drug resistance in malaria parasites is one of the major stumbling blocks hindering the goal of malaria elimination. One of the major strategies to counter drug resistance is the development of new potent antimalarial drugs. In the present study, a series of novel sulfonamide based coumarin-[1,2,3]-triazole conjugates have been synthesized via Huisgen reaction between azidosulfonamides and 4-hydroxy- or 7-hydroxymethylcoumarinoalkynes. All the compounds have been characterized spectroscopically and screened for their in vitro antimalarial activity against P. falciparum 3D7 strain. Out of the twenty five synthesized compounds, four compounds displayed significant activity (IC50 50 of 3.64 µM

Semantic MapNet: Building Allocentric SemanticMaps and Representations from Egocentric Views

We study the task of semantic mapping - specifically, an embodied agent (a robot or an egocentric AI assistant) is given a tour of a new environment and asked to build an allocentric top-down semantic map ("what is where?") from egocentric observations of an RGB-D camera with known pose (via localization sensors). Towards this goal, we present SemanticMapNet (SMNet), which consists of: (1) an Egocentric Visual Encoder that encodes each egocentric RGB-D frame, (2) a Feature Projector that projects egocentric features to appropriate locations on a floor-plan, (3) a Spatial Memory Tensor of size floor-plan length x width x feature-dims that learns to accumulate projected egocentric features, and (4) a Map Decoder that uses the memory tensor to produce semantic top-down maps. SMNet combines the strengths of (known) projective camera geometry and neural representation learning. On the task of semantic mapping in the Matterport3D dataset, SMNet significantly outperforms competitive baselines by 4.01-16.81% (absolute) on mean-IoU and 3.81-19.69% (absolute) on Boundary-F1 metrics. Moreover, we show how to use the neural episodic memories and spatio-semantic allocentric representations build by SMNet for subsequent tasks in the same space - navigating to objects seen during the tour("Find chair") or answering questions about the space ("How many chairs did you see in the house?")

Route of Drug Abuse and Its Impact on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among Drug Addicts

Background: Various studies have tested quality of life (QOL) among drug addicts, however very few have reported any association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL) and mode of drug administration among drug addicts. Hence, the present study was conducted aiming to evaluate the impact of mode of administration of drugs on OHRQOL among drug addicts. Methods: Data was collected using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method among 313 male drug addicts in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India, using self-administered questionnaires on oral hygiene aids and drug addiction history. OHRQOL was recorded using Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire. The chi-square test, t-test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for statistical analysis. Findings: In this study, 56.2% of the drug addicts reported practicing oral hygiene aids. The main drugs abused were heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines as 51.4%, 35.1%, and 13.4%, respectively. Most of the drug addicts were employed (82.4%) and studied up to primary education (46.3%). The highest mean values of community periodontal index (CPI) and decayed, missing, filled surface (DMFS) were found among the cocaine addicts and amphetamine abusers with rates of 3.11 ± 0.98 and 6.69 ± 8.52, respectively. Poor OHRQOL was observed among addicts who consumed drugs in inhalation since a long time irrespective of the type of the drug, but among them heroin addicted subjects had the poorest OHRQOL. Conclusion: OHRQOL was poor among the drug addicts in comparison to general population. Preventive strategies on oral health and other health promotion programs for this vulnerable group can be unified

Feedback reporting of survey data to healthcare aides

BackgroundThis project occurred during the course of the Translating Research in Elder Care (TREC) program of research. TREC is a multilevel and longitudinal research program being conducted in the three Canadian Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The main purpose of TREC is to increase understanding about the role of organizational context in influencing knowledge use in residential long-term care settings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate healthcare aides&rsquo; (HCAs) perceptions of a one-page poster designed to feed back aggregated data (including demographic information and perceptions about influences on best practice) from the TREC survey they had recently completed. MethodsA convenience sample of 7 of the 15 nursing homes participating in the TREC research program in Alberta were invited to participate. Specific facility-level summary data were provided to each facility in the form of a one-page poster report. Two weeks following delivery of the report, a convenience sample of HCAs was surveyed using one-to-one structured interviews. ResultsOne hundred twenty-three HCAs responded to the evaluation survey. Overall, HCAs&rsquo; opinions about presentation of the feedback report and the understandability, usability, and usefulness of the content were positive. For each report, analysis of data and production and inspection of the report took up to one hour. Information sessions to introduce and explain the reports averaged 18 minutes. Two feedback reports (minimum) were supplied to each facility at a cost of CAN$2.39 per report, for printing and laminating. ConclusionsThis study highlights not only the feasibility of producing understandable, usable, and useful feedback reports of survey data but also the value and importance of providing feedback to survey respondents. More broadly, the findings suggest that modest strategies may have a positive and desirable effect in participating sites. <br /

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic study of silicon surface passivation in alcoholic iodine and bromine solutions

We report an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) study of silicon surfaces passivation using alcoholic solutions of iodine and bromine where different behavior with two systems is observed. The minority carrier lifetime determined by microwave photoconductive decay method showed better surface passivation for iodine-alcoholic system with HF preconditioning step. The iodine-ethanol (I-E) passivated samples show strong Si-I bonding (two times) in Si core level spectra for the samples without oxide (25.5%) compared with oxide (10.2%) counterpart. However, bromine-ethanol (B-E) passivated samples show higher Si-Br bonding strength in the samples with oxide (24.7%) compared to without oxide specimens (12.0%). This may be the reason of difference in passivation behavior of I-E and B-E systems. Higher O-Br bonding in O core level spectra of B-E passivated samples with oxide (35.8%), compared to without oxide (20.7%), results in comparable lifetime values in both with and without preconditioning. To understand the effect of solvent on the passivation, experiments are performed using iodine-methanol (I-M) and bromine-methanol (B-M) solutions and XPS analysis shows similar Si-I, Si-Br, and O-Br bonding trends

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni and their Course 2 and 2-A educational experience

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 20).Data was gathered and analyzed through a survey of the Mechanical Engineering Course 2 and Course 2-A Alumni to analyze the impact of their choice of major on their current career path and to investigate the career paths of mechanical engineering majors. Data was gathered on their jobs taken, confidence level compared to their peers, preparation and importance abilities, experiences, and reflections. Over 350 graduates completed the survey and several differences were found. Course 2-A students had more transfers from other majors, engaged in a wider variety of career options, and found their elective classes more useful. Course 2 students reported to have a greater importance for technical skills and a higher confidence level with respect to their peers in their profession. There was little difference in most abilities, and what was missing in their MIT experience. Overall, Course 2 and 2-A reported being better prepared for technical subjects and less prepared for communication-related subjects than was required in their job. Moreover, all respondents mentioned missing the same courses in their curriculum that was needed for their job. Finally, Course 2 and 2-A respondents held widely divergent impressions of the other's program. Empirical data suggests that each major possesses qualities to satisfy the specific course's individual needs. This resulted in the conclusion that the Mechanical Engineering Department was on the right path by supporting the Course 2-A major and by recognizing and catering to two separate populations, one with an interest in depth and one with an interest in breadth.by Neha Batra.S.B