Alien Registration- Simmons, Beulah P. (Presque Isle, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/33394/thumbnail.jp

Effect of pilates and breathing exercise on quality of life and sleep quality among medical students with premenstrual syndrome

Background: Quality of life and sleep quality have been documented as a challenge for college students, with reports indicating impacts on daytime functioning and academic achievement. The present study evaluates the effect of Pilates and breathing exercise on quality of life and sleep quality among medical college students. Methods: This pre-test and post-test quasi experimental study involving 132 participants consists of one experimental group (assigned Pilates and breathing exercise) and control group (breathing exercise). After the first supervised session, participants were instructed to perform the exercise protocol three times a week for eight weeks. Quality of life and sleep quality were measured by short form 36 quality of life questionnaire and Pittsburgh sleep quality index, respectively. The variables were assessed at baseline and after eight weeks of the study. Results: After eight weeks, findings showed an improvement in the quality of life and sleep quality in experimental group (p<0.05) compared to the control group. The subjects in the experimental group who followed the Pilates and breathing exercise improved quality of life after the intervention. Especially the role limitation in their activities of daily living due to health problem and emotional problem and the social functioning improved significantly comparing to the pre-test evaluation done prior to the intervention.  When comparing the different PSQI components in both pre and post-test of experimental group, the strongest difference was observed in component 3 (sleep duration, p<0.05) and component 7 (daytime dysfunction, p<0.05). Conclusions: Eight week of Pilates and breathing exercise have significant improvement in quality of life and sleep quality in medical college students

The SITE-100 Project: Site-Based Biodiversity Genomics for Species Discovery, Community Ecology, and a Global Tree-of-Life

Most insect communities are composed of evolutionarily diverse lineages, but detailed phylogenetic analyses of whole communities are lacking, in particular in species-rich tropical faunas. Likewise, our knowledge of the Tree-of-Life to document evolutionary diversity of organisms remains highly incomplete and especially requires the inclusion of unstudied lineages from species-rich ecosystems. Here we present the SITE-100 program, which is an attempt at building the Tree-of-Life from whole-community sampling of high-biodiversity sites around the globe. Combining the local site-based sets into a global tree produces an increasingly comprehensive estimate of organismal phylogeny, while also re-tracing evolutionary history of lineages constituting the local community. Local sets are collected in bulk in standardized passive traps and imaged with large-scale high-resolution cameras, which is followed by a parataxonomy step for the preliminary separation of morphospecies and selection of specimens for phylogenetic analysis. Selected specimens are used for individual DNA extraction and sequencing, usually to sequence mitochondrial genomes. All remaining specimens are bulk extracted and subjected to metabarcoding. Phylogenetic analysis on the mitogenomes produces a reference tree to which short barcode sequences are added in a secondary analysis using phylogenetic placement methods or backbone constrained tree searches. However, the approach may be hampered because (1) mitogenomes are limited in phylogenetic informativeness, and (2) site-based sampling may produce poor taxon coverage which causes challenges for phylogenetic inference. To mitigate these problems, we first assemble nuclear shotgun data from taxonomically chosen lineages to resolve the base of the tree, and add site-based mitogenome and DNA barcode data in three hierarchical steps. We posit that site-based sampling, though not meeting the criterion of “taxon-completeness,” has great merits given preliminary studies showing representativeness and evenness of taxa sampled. We therefore argue in favor of site-based sampling as an unorthodox but logistically efficient way to construct large phylogenetic trees.Copyright © 2022 Bian, Garner, Liu and Vogler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. The attached file is the published version of the article

Effectiveness of circuit interval training and physiotherapy health education on anthropometric measurements and quality of life among obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome- a randomised controlled trial

Background: The objective was to assess the effectiveness of circuit interval training and physiotherapy health education on anthropometric measurements and quality of life (QOL) among obese women with PCOS. Methods: The study is a parallel group randomised controlled trial   among 40 obese women diagnosed with PCOS based on Rotterdam criteria and conducted in obstetrics and gynaecology Physiotherapy centre, IGMC&RI, Puducherry. Allocation of participants to group A and group B done using permutated block randomization by an independent physiotherapist. Group A(n=20) received the conventional treatment and Group B (n=20) received the circuit interval training for 6 weeks. Results: The outcome values obtained were calculated by the software SPSS 26. The power of the study is 80%. P<0.05 was considered a significant difference and 95% confidence. There was a significant improvement in the pre and post-test values of anthropometric measurements (BMI and WHR) within the experimental group. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of 1.03 points in BMI, 0.019 in WHR, and 0.018 in WHtR, which was higher than the MCID of the control group was observed between the groups. The results show that circuit interval training is effective in improving the anthropometric measurements and quality of life obesity was found to have a negative correlation with the quality of life, implying that increased weight reduces the quality of life in PCOS women. Conclusions: Circuit interval training along with physiotherapy health education, has a positive impact on improving anthropometric measurements such as BMI, waist circumference, and metabolic parameters over time

Loading of Silica Nanoparticles in Block Copolymer Vesicles during Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly: Encapsulation Efficiency and Thermally Triggered Release

Poly(glycerol monomethacrylate)-poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer vesicles can be prepared in the form of concentrated aqueous dispersions via polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). In the present study, these syntheses are conducted in the presence of varying amounts of silica nanoparticles of approximately 18 nm diameter. This approach leads to encapsulation of up to hundreds of silica nanoparticles per vesicle. Silica has high electron contrast compared to the copolymer which facilitates TEM analysis, and its thermal stability enables quantification of the loading efficiency via thermogravimetric analysis. Encapsulation efficiencies can be calculated using disk centrifuge photosedimentometry, since the vesicle density increases at higher silica loadings while the mean vesicle diameter remains essentially unchanged. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is used to confirm silica encapsulation, since a structure factor is observed at q ≈ 0.25 nm–1. A new two-population model provides satisfactory data fits to the SAXS patterns and allows the mean silica volume fraction within the vesicles to be determined. Finally, the thermoresponsive nature of the diblock copolymer vesicles enables thermally triggered release of the encapsulated silica nanoparticles simply by cooling to 0–10 °C, which induces a morphological transition. These silica-loaded vesicles constitute a useful model system for understanding the encapsulation of globular proteins, enzymes, or antibodies for potential biomedical applications. They may also serve as an active payload for self-healing hydrogels or repair of biological tissue. Finally, we also encapsulate a model globular protein, bovine serum albumin, and calculate its loading efficiency using fluorescence spectroscopy

Rice biofortification: breeding and genomic approaches for genetic enhancement of grain zinc and iron contents

Rice is a highly consumed staple cereal cultivated predominantly in Asian countries, which share 90% of global rice production. Rice is a primary calorie provider for more than 3.5 billion people across the world. Preference and consumption of polished rice have increased manifold, which resulted in the loss of inherent nutrition. The prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies (Zn and Fe) are major human health challenges in the 21st century. Biofortification of staples is a sustainable approach to alleviating malnutrition. Globally, significant progress has been made in rice for enhancing grain Zn, Fe, and protein. To date, 37 biofortified Fe, Zn, Protein and Provitamin A rich rice varieties are available for commercial cultivation (16 from India and 21 from the rest of the world; Fe > 10 mg/kg, Zn > 24 mg/kg, protein > 10% in polished rice as India target while Zn > 28 mg/kg in polished rice as international target). However, understanding the micronutrient genetics, mechanisms of uptake, translocation, and bioavailability are the prime areas that need to be strengthened. The successful development of these lines through integrated-genomic technologies can accelerate deployment and scaling in future breeding programs to address the key challenges of malnutrition and hidden hunger

Pneumoproteins and biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation do not predict rapid lung function decline in people living with HIV

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is among the leading causes of death worldwide and HIV is an independent risk factor for the development of COPD. However, the etiology of this increased risk and means to identify persons with HIV (PWH) at highest risk for COPD have remained elusive. Biomarkers may reveal etiologic pathways and allow better COPD risk stratification. We performed a matched case:control study of PWH in the Strategic Timing of Antiretoviral Treatment (START) pulmonary substudy. Cases had rapid lung function decline (> 40 mL/year FEV1 decline) and controls had stable lung function (+ 20 to − 20 mL/year). The analysis was performed in two distinct groups: (1) those who were virally suppressed for at least 6 months and (2) those with untreated HIV (from the START deferred treatment arm). We used linear mixed effects models to test the relationship between case:control status and blood concentrations of pneumoproteins (surfactant protein-D and club cell secretory protein), and biomarkers of inflammation (IL-6 and hsCRP) and coagulation (d-dimer and fibrinogen); concentrations were measured within ± 6 months of first included spirometry. We included an interaction with treatment group (untreated HIV vs viral suppression) to test if associations varied by treatment group. This analysis included 77 matched case:control pairs in the virally suppressed batch, and 42 matched case:control pairs in the untreated HIV batch (n = 238 total) who were followed for a median of 3 years. Median (IQR) CD4 + count was lowest in the controls with untreated HIV at 674 (580, 838). We found no significant associations between case:control status and pneumoprotein or biomarker concentrations in either virally suppressed or untreated PWH. In this cohort of relatively young, recently diagnosed PWH, concentrations of pneumoproteins and biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation were not associated with subsequent rapid lung function decline. Trial registration: NCT00867048 and NCT01797367

On the Crossing Number of Join of some Graphs of order six with nK1, Path and Cycle

It has been long conjectured by Zarankiewicz, the crossing number of the complete bipartite graph Km,n. This conjecture has been verified by Kleitman  for min {m, n}<= 6. Using this result, we give the exact value of crossing number of the join of a certain graph G on six vertices with nK1, Pn and Cn, an empty graph, a path and a cycle respectively on n vertices