Valorizing the 'Irulas' traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest, India

A mounting body of critical research is raising the credibility of Traditional Knowledge (TK) in scientific studies. These studies have gained credibility because their claims are supported by methods that are repeatable and provide data for quantitative analyses that can be used to assess confidence in the results. The theoretical importance of our study is to test consensus (reliability/replicable) of TK within one ancient culture; the Irulas of the Kodiakkarai Reserve Forest (KRF), India. We calculated relative frequency (RF) and consensus factor (Fic) of TK from 120 Irulas informants knowledgeable of medicinal plants. Our research indicates a high consensus of the Irulas TK concerning medicinal plants. The Irulas revealed a diversity of plants that have medicinal and nutritional utility in their culture and specific ethnotaxa used to treat a variety of illnesses and promote general good health in their communities. Throughout history aboriginal people have been the custodians of bio-diversity and have sustained healthy life-styles in an environmentally sustainable manner. However this knowledge has not been transferred to modern society. We suggest this may be due to the asymmetry between scientific and TK, which demands a new approach that considers the assemblage of TK and scientific knowledge. A greater understanding of TK is beginning to emerge based on our research with both the Irulas and Malasars; they believe that a healthy lifestyle is founded on a healthy environment. These aboriginal groups chose to share this knowledge with society-at-large in order to promote a global lifestyle of health and environmental sustainability

Bi-allelic Loss-of-Function CACNA1B Mutations in Progressive Epilepsy-Dyskinesia.

The occurrence of non-epileptic hyperkinetic movements in the context of developmental epileptic encephalopathies is an increasingly recognized phenomenon. Identification of causative mutations provides an important insight into common pathogenic mechanisms that cause both seizures and abnormal motor control. We report bi-allelic loss-of-function CACNA1B variants in six children from three unrelated families whose affected members present with a complex and progressive neurological syndrome. All affected individuals presented with epileptic encephalopathy, severe neurodevelopmental delay (often with regression), and a hyperkinetic movement disorder. Additional neurological features included postnatal microcephaly and hypotonia. Five children died in childhood or adolescence (mean age of death: 9 years), mainly as a result of secondary respiratory complications. CACNA1B encodes the pore-forming subunit of the pre-synaptic neuronal voltage-gated calcium channel Cav2.2/N-type, crucial for SNARE-mediated neurotransmission, particularly in the early postnatal period. Bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in CACNA1B are predicted to cause disruption of Ca2+ influx, leading to impaired synaptic neurotransmission. The resultant effect on neuronal function is likely to be important in the development of involuntary movements and epilepsy. Overall, our findings provide further evidence for the key role of Cav2.2 in normal human neurodevelopment.MAK is funded by an NIHR Research Professorship and receives funding from the Wellcome Trust, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity, and Rosetrees Trust. E.M. received funding from the Rosetrees Trust (CD-A53) and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. K.G. received funding from Temple Street Foundation. A.M. is funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and Biomedical Research Centre. F.L.R. and D.G. are funded by Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. K.C. and A.S.J. are funded by NIHR Bioresource for Rare Diseases. The DDD Study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (grant number HICF-1009-003), a parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (grant number WT098051). We acknowledge support from the UK Department of Health via the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy's and St. Thomas' National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. This research was also supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. J.H.C. is in receipt of an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The research team acknowledges the support of the NIHR through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, Department of Health, or Wellcome Trust. E.R.M. acknowledges support from NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, an NIHR Senior Investigator Award, and the University of Cambridge has received salary support in respect of E.R.M. from the NHS in the East of England through the Clinical Academic Reserve. I.E.S. is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Program Grant and Practitioner Fellowship)

Pseudorapidity and transverse-momentum distributions of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

The pseudorapidity (eta) and transverse-momentum (p(T)) distributions of charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions are measured at the centre-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV. The pseudorapidity distribution in vertical bar eta vertical bar <1.8 is reported for inelastic events and for events with at least one charged particle in vertical bar eta vertical bar <1. The pseudorapidity density of charged particles produced in the pseudorapidity region vertical bar eta vertical bar <0.5 is 5.31 +/- 0.18 and 6.46 +/- 0.19 for the two event classes, respectively. The transverse-momentum distribution of charged particles is measured in the range 0.15 <p(T) <20 GeV/c and vertical bar eta vertical bar <0.8 for events with at least one charged particle in vertical bar eta vertical bar <1. The evolution of the transverse momentum spectra of charged particles is also investigated as a function of event multiplicity. The results are compared with calculations from PYTHIA and EPOS Monte Carlo generators. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Spectrophotometric determination of hydroxylamine and its derivatives in drug formulations by the indophenol reaction

913-916Hydroxylamine has been determined by its reduction to ammonium sulphate in Zn/H2SO4 column and Berthelot reaction of the formed ammonium sulphate using salicylic acid, sodium hypochlorite and sodium nitroprusside to give indophenol blue which is measured spectrophotometrically at 648 nm. The molar absorptivity is found to be 1.9×104 1 mol-1cm-1. Beer's law is obeyed in the range 2.5 - 25 μg of hydroxylamine in 10 ml of its solution. For the determination of 1.5 μg/ml of hydroxylamine, the RSD is 2.8% (n=10). The developed method has been applied for the determination of hydroxylamine and its derivatives after hydrolysis in drug formulations. The results obtained by the present method compare well with those obtained by the available reference method and with the standard addition of hydroxylamine.</span

Attitudes and related perceptions about product placement: A comparison of Finland, Italy and the United States

The primary goal of our study is to explore cross-national differences in attitudes and perceptions about product placements, after investigating measurement invariance. Our cross-national focus includes three countries that have not been compared previously: Finland, Italy and the USA, which differ significantly in terms of the evolution/maturity of product placement markets, regulatory structures and cultural contexts. Motivated by earlier studies, we investigate the cross-national measurement invariance of scales to measure four research constructs related to the product placement domain (attitude toward credibility of advertising, attitude toward advertising-in-general, attitude toward placement-in-general and attitude toward regulation of placements). Our research also extends earlier work focused on similar constructs from a cross-national perspective. Results from multi-group analyses using a structural equation modeling approach indicate important and statistically significant differences in latent means between the three countries for all four constructs of research interest. Substantive explanations of these differences and their implications for future practice and research are discussed

Free fatty acids, lipid peroxidation, and lysosomal enzymes in experimental focal cerebral ischemia in primates: loss of lysosomal latency by lipid peroxidation

Experimental focal cerebral ischemia was produced in monkeys (Macaca radiata) by occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery (MCA). The release of the lysosomal glycosidases, &#946;-D-hexosaminidase, &#945;-L-fucosidase and &#945;-D-mannosidase into the soluble fraction in the right basal ganglia of the experimental animals was measured at different periods from 30 min to 12 hr after occlusion and compared with the corresponding sham operated control animals. There was a significant increase in the released lysosomal enzymes in the MCA occluded animals at all periods and particularly at 4 hr after occlusion. The CSF from the experimental animals also showed elevated levels of hexosaminidase and fucosidase. The free fatty acids (FFA) measured in the basal ganglia at 30 min and 2 hr after occlusion showed a 100 fold increase in the experimental animals. The predominant fatty acid released was linoleic acid (18:2) followed by arachidonic acid (20:4). Lipid peroxidation in the basal ganglia measured by the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) reaction in the presence or absence of ascorbic acid also showed a significant increase in the experimental animals at all periods with a maximum at 30 min to 2 hr after occlusion. In order to assess whether lipid peroxidation causes damage to the lysosomes and release of the enzymes, a lysosome enriched P<SUB>2</SUB> fraction from the normal monkey basal ganglia was prepared and the effect of peroxidation studied. Maximum peroxidation in the P<SUB>2</SUB> fraction was observed in the presence of arachidonic acid, ascorbic acid and Fe<SUP>2+</SUP>. There was a good correlation between the extent of lipid peroxidation and the in vitro release of lysosomal hexosaminidase from the P<SUB>2</SUB> fraction. Anti-oxidants which strongly inhibited lipid peroxidation in the P<SUB>2</SUB> fraction prevented the release of hexosaminidase. The results suggested that in ischemia produced by MCA occlusion lipid peroxidation which damages the lysosomal membrane causes the release of lysosomal hydrolytic enzymes

Effect of copper nanoparticles exposure in the physiology of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio): Biochemical, histological and proteomic approaches

Copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) are serious water pollutants but their impact in teleosts performance remains poorly understood. In the present study, we have exposed juvenile carps (Cyprinus carpio), a freshwater teleost edible in India to two different doses (20 and 100 μg/L) of Cu-NPs for seven days. The doses selected were eco-relevant considering the contamination levels of certain water resources. The results indicated that the activity oxidative stress enzymes catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione-S-transferase were significantly increased in the kidney, liver and gills of the treated groups when compared to control. Histological analysis revealed that after exposure, disruption of the secondary lamellae of gills, liver damage with pyknotic nuclei and structural disarray of the kidney occurred. Proteomic analysis of the liver showed down-regulation of several proteins including the ferritin heavy chain, rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 17-like, cytoglobin-1 and up-regulation of diphosphomevalonate decarboxylase and selenide & water dikinase-1. Taken together, the results of suggest that short-term exposure of juvenile carp to Cu-NPs causes oxidative stress and impart serious deleterious effects in the tissues which may affect fish growth and development