Cognitive development in children with chronic protein energy malnutrition

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malnutrition is associated with both structural and functional pathology of the brain. A wide range of cognitive deficits has been reported in malnourished children. Effect of chronic protein energy malnutrition (PEM) causing stunting and wasting in children could also affect the ongoing development of higher cognitive processes during childhood (>5 years of age). The present study examined the effect of stunted growth on the rate of development of cognitive processes using neuropsychological measures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty children identified as malnourished and twenty as adequately nourished in the age groups of 5–7 years and 8–10 years were examined. NIMHANS neuropsychological battery for children sensitive to the effects of brain dysfunction and age related improvement was employed. The battery consisted of tests of motor speed, attention, visuospatial ability, executive functions, comprehension and learning and memory</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Development of cognitive processes appeared to be governed by both age and nutritional status. Malnourished children performed poor on tests of attention, working memory, learning and memory and visuospatial ability except on the test of motor speed and coordination. Age related improvement was not observed on tests of design fluency, working memory, visual construction, learning and memory in malnourished children. However, age related improvement was observed on tests of attention, visual perception, and verbal comprehension in malnourished children even though the performance was deficient as compared to the performance level of adequately nourished children.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Chronic protein energy malnutrition (stunting) affects the ongoing development of higher cognitive processes during childhood years rather than merely showing a generalized cognitive impairment. Stunting could result in slowing in the age related improvement in certain and not all higher order cognitive processes and may also result in long lasting cognitive impairments.</p

Growth Patterns of Neuropsychological Functions in Indian Children

We investigated age-related differences in neuropsychological performance in 400 Indian school children (5–15 years of age). Functions of motor speed, attention, executive functions, visuospatial functions, comprehension, learning, and memory were examined. Growth curve analysis was performed. Different growth models fitted different cognitive functions. Neuropsychological task performance improved slowly between 5 and 7 years, moderately between 8 and 12 years and slowly between 13 and 15 years of age. The overall growth patterns of neuropsychological functions in Indian children have been discussed with the findings reported on American children. The present work describes non-linear, heterogeneous, and protracted age trends of neuropsychological functions in Indian children and adolescents

Design of single switch-boosted voltage current suppressor converter for uninterrupted power supply using green resources integration

Introduction. Uninterrupted power supply is the major requirement in the areas since it involves human lives. In the current scenario the demand and price of fossil fuels is increasing rapidly and availability also is not sufficient to the needs, an alternative identification to power generation is solar and wind energies. The purpose of designing an aimed, single switch boosted voltage and current suppressor (SS-BVCS) converter topology that interfaces both the wind and solar hybrid model. The method involves in the proposed chopper converter is derived by simply merging a switch and a pair of diodes and CLC filter which is used in realization of zero voltage switching for the main switch and a reversing diode to extract high voltage gain. The designed SS-BVCS converter topology can able to have a tight self-control on two power-processing paths. The novelty of the SS-BVCS converter module is designed to ensure maximum throughput, feeding to the load with high quality uninterrupted output, by boosting the DC voltage to a required amount and thereby supressing the current. Practical value obtained by the developed model utilizes both the sources for supply to the load individually or combined based on the extraction availability of the feeder. Also, the proposed SS-BVCS module delivers with efficient lesser component count and gaining maximum power from the harvest of green energy.Вступ. Джерело безперебійного живлення є основною вимогою в галузях, що пов'язані з людськими життями. У поточній ситуації, коли попит та ціна на викопне паливо швидко зростають, а їх доступність також недостатня для задоволення потреб, альтернативною технологією виробництва електроенергії є сонячна та вітрова енергія. Метою є розробка цільової топології перетворювача з підвищеною напругою та пригнічувачем струму з одним перемикачем (SS-BVCS), яка взаємодіє як з вітровою, так і з гібридною моделлю сонячної енергії. Метод включає запропонований перетворювач переривника, отриманий шляхом простого злиття перемикача, пари діодів і CLC-фільтра, який використовується для реалізації перемикання при нульовому напрузі для основного ключа і реверсивного діода для вилучення високого коефіцієнта посилення по напрузі. Розроблена топологія перетворювача SS-BVCS може забезпечити жорсткий самоконтроль на двох ланцюгах обробки енергії. Новизна модуля перетворювача SS-BVCS призначена для забезпечення максимальної пропускної здатності, живлення навантаження з якісним безперебійним виходом шляхом підвищення напруги постійного струму до необхідної величини і, таким чином, придушення струму. Практична цінність, отримана завдяки розробленій моделі, дозволяє використовувати як джерела живлення навантаження окремо, так і комбіновано залежно від можливості відбору фідера. Крім того, запропонований модуль SS-BVCS забезпечує ефективне використання меншої кількості компонентів та отримання максимальної потужності за рахунок збирання зеленої енергії

OGFOD1 catalyzes prolyl hydroxylation of RPS23 and is involved in translation control and stress granule formation

2-Oxoglutarate (2OG) and Fe(II)-dependent oxygenase domain-containing protein 1 (OGFOD1) is predicted to be a conserved 2OG oxygenase, the catalytic domain of which is related to hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylases. OGFOD1 homologs in yeast are implicated in diverse cellular functions ranging from oxygen-dependent regulation of sterol response genes (Ofd1, Schizosaccharomyces pombe) to translation termination/mRNA polyadenylation (Tpa1p, Saccharomyces cerevisiae). However, neither the biochemical activity of OGFOD1 nor the identity of its substrate has been defined. Here we show that OGFOD1 is a prolyl hydroxylase that catalyzes the posttranslational hydroxylation of a highly conserved residue (Pro-62) in the small ribosomal protein S23 (RPS23). Unusually OGFOD1 retained a high affinity for, and forms a stable complex with, the hydroxylated RPS23 substrate. Knockdown or inactivation of OGFOD1 caused a cell type-dependent induction of stress granules, translational arrest, and growth impairment in a manner complemented by wild-type but not inactive OGFOD1. The work identifies a human prolyl hydroxylase with a role in translational regulation

PBEF1/NAmPRTase/Visfatin: a potential malignant astrocytoma/glioblastoma serum marker with prognostic value

Malignant astrocytomas comprise anaplastic astrocytoma (AA; grade III) and Glioblastoma (GBM; grade IV). GBM is the most malignant with a median survival of 10-12 months in patients. Using cDNA microarray based expression profiling of different grades of astrocytomas, we identified several fold increased levels of PBEF1 transcripts in GBM samples. Pre-B-cell colony enhancing factor 1 gene (PBEF1) encodes Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAmPRTase), which catalyses the rate limiting step in the salvage pathway of NAD metabolism in mammalian cells. Further validation using real time RT-qPCR on an independent set of tumor samples (n=91) and normal brain samples (n=9), GBM specific higher expression of PBEF1 was confirmed. Immunohistochemical staining for PBEF1 on a subset of the above samples largely reinforced our finding. We carried out ELISA analysis on serum samples of astrocytoma patients to determine whether this protein levels would correlate with the presence of tumor and tumor grade. PBEF1 serum levels were substantially elevated in many of the AA and GBM patients. Statistical analysis of these data indicates that in patients with astrocytoma, serum PBEF1 levels correlate with tumor grade and is highest in GBM. Immunohistochemical analysis of an independent set of 51 retrospective GBM cases with known survival data revealed that PBEF1 expression in the tumor tissue along with its co-expression with p53 was associated with poor survival. Thus, we have identified PBEF1 as a potential malignant astrocytoma serum marker and prognostic indicator among GBMs

K-Space at TRECVID 2008

In this paper we describe K-Space’s participation in TRECVid 2008 in the interactive search task. For 2008 the K-Space group performed one of the largest interactive video information retrieval experiments conducted in a laboratory setting. We had three institutions participating in a multi-site multi-system experiment. In total 36 users participated, 12 each from Dublin City University (DCU, Ireland), University of Glasgow (GU, Scotland) and Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica (CWI, the Netherlands). Three user interfaces were developed, two from DCU which were also used in 2007 as well as an interface from GU. All interfaces leveraged the same search service. Using a latin squares arrangement, each user conducted 12 topics, leading in total to 6 runs per site, 18 in total. We officially submitted for evaluation 3 of these runs to NIST with an additional expert run using a 4th system. Our submitted runs performed around the median. In this paper we will present an overview of the search system utilized, the experimental setup and a preliminary analysis of our results

Association of diabetes mellitus on cardiac remodeling, quality of life, and clinical outcomes in heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction

Background: Diabetes mellitus frequently coexists with heart failure (HF), but few studies have compared the associations between diabetes mellitus and cardiac remodeling, quality of life, and clinical outcomes, according to HF phenotype. Methods and Results: We compared echocardiographic parameters, quality of life (assessed by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire), and outcomes (1‐year all‐cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and HF hospitalization) between HF patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus in the prospective ASIAN‐HF (Asian Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure) Registry, as well as community‐based controls without HF. Adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association of diabetes mellitus with clinical outcomes. Among 5028 patients with HF and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF; EF &lt;40%) and 1139 patients with HF and preserved EF (HFpEF; EF ≥50%), the prevalences of type 2 diabetes mellitus were 40.2% and 45.0%, respectively (P=0.003). In both HFrEF and HFpEF cohorts, diabetes mellitus (versus no diabetes mellitus) was associated with smaller indexed left ventricular diastolic volumes and higher mitral E/e′ ratio. There was a predominance of eccentric hypertrophy in HFrEF and concentric hypertrophy in HFpEF. Patients with diabetes mellitus had lower Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire scores in both HFpEF and HFrEF, with more prominent differences in HFpEF (Pinteraction&lt;0.05). In both HFpEF and HFrEF, patients with diabetes mellitus had more HF rehospitalizations (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.05–1.54; P=0.014) and higher 1‐year rates of the composite of all‐cause mortality/HF hospitalization (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05–1.41; P=0.011), with no differences between HF phenotypes (Pinteraction&gt;0.05). Conclusions: In HFpEF and HFrEF, type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with smaller left ventricular volumes, higher mitral E/e′ ratio, poorer quality of life, and worse outcomes, with several differences noted between HF phenotypes