Changing histological spectrum of adult nephrotic syndrome in comparison to previous study: single centre analysis

Background: Glomerular diseases are an important cause of chronic renal failure in developing countries. The spectrum of diseases causing nephrotic syndrome is changing globally in the last few decades. Methods: Patients in the age group 18-60 years with nephrotic syndrome were consecutively included in the study. Renal biopsies were performed in all patients and were subjected to light microscopy, immunofluorescence (IF) and electron microscopy (EM). Results: 189 patients (67% males) were included in the study. The mean age was 43 years. Primary glomerular diseases accounted for 92.5% of cases while lupus nephritis was the most common secondary glomerular disease. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) accounted for 28.6% of primary glomerular diseases making it the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome. It was followed by membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) in 13.2%, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis in 11.2%, diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis in 10.6% and minimal change disease in 9.5%. Conclusions: The biopsy diagnosis of FSGS has increased considerably in last few decades and it is now the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults in North India. MGN is the most common lesion in patients over 40 years of age

Torsion of the vermiform appendix: A case report

Torsion of the vermiform appendix is a rare condition with few cases reported in the literature. Various factors predispose to torsion. Various factors predispose to torsion. We report a case of primary torsion of the vermiform appendix. The clinical presentation was indistinguishablefrom acute appendicitis and the diagnosis was made at operation.Appendix was preileal in position and the direction of torsion wasanticlockwise. There was intrinsic torsion with no obvious factor fortorsion identified. Appendectomy was performed

ICH guidelines-compliant HPLC-UV method for pharmaceutical quality control and therapeutic drug monitoring of the multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor pazopanib

In this study, an HPLC method with ultraviolet (UV) detection was developed and validated for determination of pazopanib (PAZ), a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitor in bulk drug, tablets formulation, and in human plasma. Oxamniquine (OXA) was used as internal standard (IS). The analytical column used for the separation was Nucleosil CN with dimensions (i.d. 250 × 4.6 mm and particle size 5 μm). The separation was carried out in isocratic mode with mobile phase constituting acetonitrile:100 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH 4.5); 40:60, v/v. The developed method was linear in the concentration range of 2–12 μg mL–1 and had a correlation coefficient (r = 0.9998, n = 6). The limits of detection and quantitation (LOD and LOQ) were 0.27 and 0.82 μg mL–1, respectively. The relative standard deviations for the inter- and intra-assay precisions were below 3.61 % and the accuracy of the method was 96.69–104.15 %. The degradation products were resolved from the intact drug, proving the stability-indicating property of the proposed method. The recovery values were 100.17–103.98 % (± 1.81–4.02) for determination of PAZ in human plasma. The results indicated the versatility of the new method in estimation of PAZ during pharmaceutical quality control (QC) and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).Keywords: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, pazopanib, HPLC, UV detection, quality control, therapeutic drug monitorin

Physico-Chemical Characterization Of Sweet Chestnut (Castanea Sativa L.) Starch Grown In Temperate Climate Of Kashmir, India

Studies were conducted to characterize the chestnut starch for physico-chemical properties. Chemical composition of chestnut starch showed low levels of protein and ash indicating purity of starch. The results revealed low water and oil absorption capacity of chestnut starch. Starch showed high swelling power and low solubility index. Swelling power and solubility index of chestnut starch increased with increase in temperature (50–90 °C). The results revealed high initial, peak, setback, breakdown, and final viscosity but low paste development temperature. Transmittance (%) of the starch gel was low and decreased with increasing storage period. The chestnut starch gel showed increase in % water release (syneresis) with increase in time of storage but was less susceptible to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing. Starch was also characterized for granule morphology. Starch granules were of round and oval shapes, some granules showed irregular shape

The influence of cutting fluid conditions and machining parameters on cutting performance and wear mechanism of coated carbide tools

The present study investigates the effect of various cutting fluid cooling conditions and machining parameters on tool flank wear (VB) and surface roughness (Ra) in hard turning of AISI D2 steel using multilayer coated carbide inserts. Response surface methodology with Face centered composite design was adopted to reduce the number of tests. Analysis of variance was employed to check the validity of regression models and to determine the effects, contribution and significance of process parameters on desired responses. The analysis of variance results indicates that the effect of machining time (72.5%) and cutting speed (16.02%) were found to be the most dominant factors contributing to tool wear of the inserts. Alternatively, machining time (63.36%) and feed rate (17.66%) were the main factors influencing surface roughness (Ra) of the work material. On the other hand, application of low flow high velocity cutting fluid condition (LFHV) showed a substantial contribution in reducing tool wear and increasing surface finish. It was observed that adhesion, abrasion along with chipping were the most dominant tool failure modes of coated carbide inserts. Finally, Desirability function approach (DFA) was used to find out the optimal cutting parameters for minimum tool wear with maximum surface finish

Bacteriological profile of wound infections and antimicrobial resistance in selected gram-negative bacteria

Background: Managing wound infections is a challenging task. Understanding their resistance pattern is an essential step at reducing its burden in hospital settings. Objective: To determine the bacteriological diversity of wound infections and the antimicrobial resistance exhibited by a selected Gram-negative bacterium in the Aljouf region of Saudi Arabia. Methods: The study retrospectively analysed the antibiograms of wound infections from hospitalized patients for the year 2019. The European Centre for Disease Control guidelines were adopted for the classification of resistant bacteria. Multidrug-, extensive drug-, and carbapenem-resistant isolates are presented as frequencies and percentages. Results: A total of 295 non-duplicate wound swab antibiograms were retrieved, 64.4% (190) and 35.6% (105) isolates were Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial infections respectively. Predominant pathogens included Staphylococcus species 21.0% (62), E. coli 16.3% (48) and K. pneumoniae 13.5% (40). 148 (77.9%), 42 (22.1%) and 43 (22.6%) of the Gram-negative isolates were multidrug-, extensively drug- and carbapenem-resistant. The antibiotic resistance exhibited by gram-negative bacteria was 43.4% (234/539), 59.1% (224/379) and 53.7% (101/188) towards carbapenems, 3rd - and 4th – generation cephalosporins. Conclusions: The majority of wound infections are caused by multidrug-, extensively drug- and carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Further studies should focus on the molecular basis of this resistance. Keywords: Wound infections; hospital; Gram-negative bacteria; antibiograms; multidrug-resistance; E. coli

Effect of Pulsing Treatments for Enhancing Shelf-Life of Cut Asiatic Lilium cv. Elite

Studies were conducted on cut Asiatic Lilium cv. Elite to assess the effectiveness of various floral preservatives as pulsing treatments for delaying senescence and prolonging vase life. Uniform spikes of lilium at bud colour break stage were brought to the laboratory in the morning and placed in 8 different pulsing solutions consisting of sucrose (Suc) 5%, aluminium sulphate (AS) 400 ppm, silver thio-sulphate (STS) 2.0 mM and citric acid (CA) 1000 ppm alone and in combination with sucrose. Distilled water without any chemical served as the control. Among individual treatments, STS 2.0 mM maintained better water relations and flower quality compared to others. STS also showed superiority over other treatments when combined with Suc 5% by providing largest flower size (16.74 cm) with maximum vase life (17.29 days) owing to most-favourable water relations parameters

Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks of the Soils of different climatic regions of Golestan Province, Iran

Some biological soil quality indicators i.e. soil respiration, microbial biomass, biomass nitrogen, C:N, net mineralization, population of the microorganisms together with total carbon, organic carbon, inorganic carbon and total nitrogen were studied to investigate their variatiou in different climatic regions of Golestan province, northeast Iran. Fourteen soil profiles were dug and described on three climatic regions namely: Aridie-thermic, xeric-thermic and udic-mesic soil moisture and temperature regimes. All the studied soils formed on loess or loess-derived parent materiaL Natural vegetation varies from sparse rangelands in the northern arid parts to dense deciduous forest in the southern humid regions of north-facing slopes of the Alborz mountain ranges. The studied soils were classified as Aridisols and Entisols in the aridic moisture regimes, Inceptisols and Mollisols in the xeric moisture regimes and Alfisols in the udic moisture regime regions. The results revealed that organic carbon and total nitrogen increased while inorganic carbon decreased with increasing precipitation. Soil inorganiC carbon and consequently pH decreased with increasing precipitation. Biological soil quality attributes such as soil respiratioIL, biomass carbon and nitrogen increased sharply from aridic to xeric regions but decreased gradually in the udic regions. This trend was in accordance with the population of bacteria and actinomycetes. The xeric-thermic moisture and temperature regimes has provided favourable soil environment with regard to the available moisture and temperature both for the population of .microorganisms and also the vegetative cover which both are responsible for the biomass productio

Influence of deforestation and slope position on C and N stocks of the loess derived hillslopes of Golestan Province, Iran

C ,and N pools, populations of the microorganiS111S and the main soil physico-chemical properties were studied 011 different slope positions and land uses of the loess derived hill slopes of Golestan Province, north of Iran. The aim of this study was to detennlne the effect of deforestation and cultivation on the C and N pools in loess hillslopes. The results showed that the soils of the forest land use were l11ainly Alfisols while the adjacent deforested land use soils were mainly classified as Inceptisols indicating the lower landscape stability and loss of the previous topsoil following deforestation. Soil organic carbon (SOC), soil respiration, biomass C, population of fungi, biomass N, total N, and mineralized N were significantly higher in all the slope positions of the forest compared to the cultivated land use. Higher S9il erosion, decrease in the stability of landscape, poqr soil fertility, and finally natural disasters and loss of life are the consequences of deforestation in the study area

Tribological Characterisation of Graphene Oxide as Lubricant Additive on Hypereutectic Al-25Si/Steel Tribopair

The performance of a lubricant greatly depends on the additives it involves. However, recently used additives produce severe pollution when they are burned and exhausted. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new generation of green additives. Graphene oxide (GO) is considered to be environmentally friendly. The scope of this study is to explore the fundamental tribological behavior of graphene, the first existing 2D material, and evaluate its performance as a lubricant additive. The friction and wear behavior of 0.5 wt% concentrations of GO particles in ethanol and SAE20W50 engine oil on a hypereutectic Al-25Si alloy disc against steel ball was studied at 5 N load. GO as an additive reduced the wear coefficient by 60–80% with 30 Hz frequency for 120 m sliding distance. The minimum value of the coefficient of friction (0.057) was found with SAE20W50 + 0.5 wt% GO. A possible explanation for these results is that the graphene layers act as a 2D nanomaterial and form a conformal protective film on the sliding contact interfaces and easily shear off due to weak Van der Waal's forces and drastically reduce the wear. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman spectroscopy were used for characterization of GO and wear scars