Study of risk factors causing coronary heart disease among army personnel of the rank non-commissioned officers and below in the age group of 20-50 years and its association with prehypertension

Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is an acute public health problem both in developed and in developing countries, like India. Assessing the prevalence of CHD in the community is equivalent to assessing the tip of the iceberg. Hypertension is a major risk factor for CHD and hypertension disease prevalence tip of the iceberg in the community is much more obscure. Objective: The objective of the study was to carry out a cross-sectional study among serving Army personnel, comprising healthy non-commissioned officers and other rank personnel to successfully assess the risk factors for CHD and their association with prehypertension. Materials and Methods: Screening of risk factors for CHD among 200 randomly selected participants was carried out. Blood pressure, height, weight, serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL), random blood sugar levels, and smoking status were the major risk factors screened. Results: Nearly 63% of Army personnel were found to be having blood pressure commensurate to the range of prehypertension. About 15% were detected to be overweight, 22% had hypercholesterolemia, 5.4% had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 19.2% were current smokers. Higher age, body mass index, high serum triglycerides, low serum HDL, and IGT were found to be independently associated with increased prevalence of prehypertension in multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Our findings recommend the constant monitoring of CHD risk factors and the formulation of effective preventive strategies for adequate control of alarming incidence

Nonlinear Hydrodynamics from Flow of Retarded Green's Function

We study the radial flow of retarded Green's function of energy-momentum tensor and $R$-current of dual gauge theory in presence of generic higher derivative terms in bulk Lagrangian. These are first order non-linear Riccati equations. We solve these flow equations analytically and obtain second order transport coefficients of boundary plasma. This way of computing transport coefficients has an advantage over usual Kubo approach. The non-linear equation turns out to be a linear first order equation when we study the Green's function perturbatively in momentum. We consider several examples including $Weyl^4$ term and generic four derivative terms in bulk. We also study the flow equations for $R$-charged black holes and obtain exact expressions for second order transport coefficients for dual plasma in presence of arbitrary chemical potentials. Finally we obtain higher derivative corrections to second order transport coefficients of boundary theory dual to five dimensional gauge supergravity.Comment: Version 2, reference added, typos correcte

Promoting cultural diversity and inclusion in undergraduate primary care education

In this article, we review key factors in promoting a culturally diverse and inclusive learning environment for all undergraduate medical students, and the role of primary care educators in preparing students to work with diverse teams, patients and communities. These factors include approaches to curriculum and assessment, student community, faculty development and recruitment, and wider institutional factors. By highlighting these, including areas where further research, evaluation and consensus are needed, we hope to support further discourse on how primary care educators can promote culturally diverse and inclusive undergraduate medical education

A novel pathway producing dimethylsulphide in bacteria is widespread in soil environments

The volatile compound dimethylsulphide (DMS) is important in climate regulation, the sulphur cycle and signalling to higher organisms. Microbial catabolism of the marine osmolyte dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) is thought to be the major biological process generating DMS. Here we report the discovery and characterisation of the first gene for DMSP-independent DMS production in any bacterium. This gene, mddA, encodes a methyltransferase that methylates methanethiol (MeSH) and generates DMS. MddA functions in many taxonomically diverse bacteria including sediment-dwelling pseudomonads, nitrogen-fixing bradyrhizobia and cyanobacteria, and mycobacteria, including the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The mddA gene is present in metagenomes from varied environments, being particularly abundant in soil environments, where it is predicted to occur in up to 76% of bacteria. This novel pathway may significantly contribute to global DMS emissions, especially in terrestrial environments, and could represent a shift from the notion that DMSP is the only significant precursor of DMS

Energy Transfer and Spectra in Simulations of Two-dimensional Compressible Turbulence

We present results of high-resolution numerical simulations of compressible 2D turbulence forced at intermediate spatial scales with a solenoidal white-in-time external acceleration. A case with an isothermal equation of state, low energy injection rate, and turbulent Mach number $M\approx0.34$ without energy condensate is studied in detail. Analysis of energy spectra and fluxes shows that the classical dual-cascade picture familiar from the incompressible case is substantially modified by compressibility effects. While the small-scale direct enstrophy cascade remains largely intact, a large-scale energy flux loop forms with the direct acoustic energy cascade compensating for the inverse transfer of solenoidal kinetic energy. At small scales, the direct enstrophy and acoustic energy cascades are fully decoupled at small Mach numbers and hence the corresponding spectral energy slopes comply with theoretical predictions, as expected. At large scales, dispersion of acoustic waves on vortices softens the dilatational velocity spectrum, while the pseudo-sound component of the potential energy associated with coherent vortices steepens the potential energy spectrum.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. To appear in: Turbulence in Complex Conditions, Proc. Euromech/Ercoftac Colloquium 589, ed. M. Gorokhovski, Springer, 201

Pregnancy, Microchimerism, and the Maternal Grandmother

A WOMAN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE OFTEN HARBORS A SMALL NUMBER OF FOREIGN CELLS, REFERRED TO AS MICROCHIMERISM: a preexisting population of cells acquired during fetal life from her own mother, and newly acquired populations from her pregnancies. An intriguing question is whether the population of cells from her own mother can influence either maternal health during pregnancy and/or the next generation (grandchildren).Microchimerism from a woman's (i.e. proband's) own mother (mother-of-the-proband, MP) was studied in peripheral blood samples from women followed longitudinally during pregnancy who were confirmed to have uncomplicated obstetric outcomes. Women with preeclampsia were studied at the time of diagnosis and comparison made to women with healthy pregnancies matched for parity and gestational age. Participants and family members were HLA-genotyped for DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1 loci. An HLA polymorphism unique to the woman's mother was identified, and a panel of HLA-specific quantitative PCR assays was employed to identify and quantify microchimerism. Microchimerism from the MP was identified during normal, uncomplicated pregnancy, with a peak concentration in the third trimester. The likelihood of detection increased with advancing gestational age. For each advancing trimester, there was a 12.7-fold increase in the probability of detecting microchimerism relative to the prior trimester, 95% confidence intervals 3.2, 50.3, p<0.001. None of the women with preeclampsia, compared with 30% of matched healthy women, had microchimerism (p = 0.03).These results show that microchimerism from a woman's own mother is detectable in normal pregnancy and diminished in preeclampsia, supporting the previously unexplored hypothesis that MP microchimerism may be a marker reflecting healthy maternal adaptation to pregnancy

Advances in genetics and molecular breeding of three legume crops of semi-arid tropics using next-generation sequencing and high-throughput genotyping technologies

Molecular markers are the most powerful genomic tools to increase the efficiency and precision of breeding practices for crop improvement. Progress in the development of genomic resources in the leading legume crops of the semi-arid tropics (SAT), namely, chickpea (Cicer arietinum), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), as compared to other crop species like cereals, has been very slow. With the advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) and high-throughput (HTP) genotyping methods, there is a shift in development of genomic resources including molecular markers in these crops. For instance, 2,000 to 3,000 novel simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers have been developed each for chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut. Based on Sanger, 454/FLX and Illumina transcript reads, transcriptome assemblies have been developed for chickpea (44,845 transcript assembly contigs, or TACs) and pigeonpea (21,434 TACs). Illumina sequencing of some parental genotypes of mapping populations has resulted in the development of 120 million reads for chickpea and 128.9 million reads for pigeonpea. Alignment of these Illumina reads with respective transcriptome assemblies have provided >10,000 SNPs each in chickpea and pigeonpea. A variety of SNP genotyping platforms including GoldenGate, VeraCode and Competitive Allele Specific PCR (KASPar) assays have been developed in chickpea and pigeonpea. By using above resources, the first-generation or comprehensive genetic maps have been developed in the three legume speciesmentioned above. Analysis of phenotyping data together with genotyping data has provided candidate markers for drought-tolerance-related root traits in chickpea, resistance to foliar diseases in groundnut and sterility mosaic disease (SMD) and fertility restoration in pigeonpea. Together with these traitassociated markers along with those already available, molecular breeding programmes have been initiated for enhancing drought tolerance, resistance to fusarium wilt and ascochyta blight in chickpea and resistance to foliar diseases in groundnut. These trait-associated robust markers along with other genomic resources including genetic maps and genomic resources will certainly accelerate crop improvement programmes in the SAT legum

The Stress-Response Factor SigH Modulates the Interaction between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Host Phagocytes

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis stress response factor SigH plays a crucial role in modulating the pathogen's response to heat, oxidative-stress, envelope damage and hypoxia. We hypothesized that the lack of this key stress response factor would alter the interaction between the pathogen and its host cells. We compared the interaction of Mtb, Mtb:Δ-sigH and a strain where the mutation had been genetically complemented (Mtb: Δ-sigH:CO) with primary rhesus macaque bone marrow derived macrophages (Rh-BMDMs). The expression of numerous inducible and homeostatic (CCL) β-chemokines and several apoptotic markers was induced to higher levels in the cells infected with Mtb:Δ-sigH, relative to Mtb or the complemented strain. The differential expression of these genes manifested into functional differences in chemotaxis and apoptosis in cells infected with these two strains. The mutant strain also exhibited reduced late-stage survival in Rh-BMDMs. We hypothesize that the product of one or more SigH-dependent genes may modulate the innate interaction of Mtb with host cells, effectively reducing the chemokine-mediated recruitment of immune effector cells, apoptosis of infected monocytes and enhancing the long-term survival and replication of the pathogen in this milieu The significantly higher induction of Prostaglandin Synthetase 2 (PTGS2 or COX2) in Rh-BMDMs infected with Mtb relative to Mtb: Δ-sigH may explain reduced apoptosis in Mtb-infected cells, as PTGS2 is known to inhibit p53-dependent apoptosis.The SigH-regulon modulates the innate interaction of Mtb with host phagocytes, perhaps as part of a strategy to limit its clearance and prolong its survival. The SigH regulon appears to be required to modulate innate immune responses directed against Mtb

Весовые соотношения тимуса и надпочечников у антенатально погибших плодов

ТИМУСНАДПОЧЕЧНИКИтимомегалиядети первого года жизнидети раннего возрастаМЛАДЕНЕЦ, СМЕРТНОСТЬЭНДОКРИННОЙ СИСТЕМЫ БОЛЕЗНИСМЕРТНОСТЬ ДЕТСКАЯсиндром внезапной детской смерт