SCIENTIFIC VALIDATION OF AYURVEDIC CONCEPT OF PRAKRITI (PSYCHO-SOMATIC CONSTITUTION) - CURRENT EVIDENCES

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian healing system with personalized approach documented and practiced since ages. Ayurveda is not merely a system of medicine, in a broader sense it is the “Science of Holistic Living and Art of Natural Healing”. Ayurveda has a unique way of classifying human population based on individual constitution or Prakriti. Ayurveda's Tridosha theory identifies principles of movement (Vata), metabolism (Pitta), and structure (Kapha) as discrete phenotypic groupings. As per this system, every individual is born with his or her own basic constitution, which to a great extent regulates inter-individual variability in susceptibility to diseases and response to external environment, diet and drugs. In the realm of modern predictive medicine, efforts are being directed towards capturing disease phenotypes with greater precision for successful identification of markers for prospective disease conditions. Due to contemporary technological advancements, newer approaches are emerging in different sciences which are beyond their frontiers, of which Precision medicine is newer one. It is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person. It seems to be the continuation or advancement of personalized predictive medicine. In this context different study discussed in the article provides the identification of a genomic link to the theory of Prakriti led to a search for possible classification of people on their Prakriti based on their genetic makeup. These studies could eventually lead to a personalization of medical practice on the basis of Prakriti as is conceived in Ayurveda. This reappraisal of Ayurveda in light of fundamental science and its advances would be immensely helpful to perceive Ayurveda in true scientific fervor

Symptomatic “H” Type Duplex Gallbladder

A case of ductular type duplex gallbladder is presented that was diagnosed by magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and managed by laparoscopy

Plant defense elicitors: plant fitness versus wheat stem sawfly

The wheat stem sawfly (WSS), Cephus cinctus Norton, is an important wheat pest in the Northern Great Plains of the USA. No single control measure effectively suppresses WSS damage. This study provides information on the effects on the WSS adult settling preference behavior on wheat plants under laboratory conditions from treatment with both synthetic plant defense elicitors (Actigard® and cis-jasmone) and a botanical insecticide (Azadirachtin®). In addition, field experiments were performed to determine whether these chemicals impact the WSS fitness (larval mortality and larval body weight), winter wheat plant fitness (infestation, stem lodging, yield, and quality), adult population of WSS and Bracon spp., and larval parasitism levels. Our lab results showed that there were no significant differences in adult settling behavior on plants exposed separately to each chemical and control. In contrast, when adults were exposed simultaneously to treated and untreated plants, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of adults settling on Actigard® and Azadirachtin® treated plants compared to plants sprayed with water in the same cage. However, in field situations, regardless of application timing and field location, none of the chemicals significantly reduced adult population or stems damage. The exception was two times applications of Actigard® had significantly lower WSS infested stem damage levels at 30 days after initial treatment applications at Knees and 50 days at Choteau locations compared to control, but without effect at the Conrad location. The field study indicated that two times applications of Actigard® significantly increased diapausing larval mortality percentages and lowered stem lodging levels compared to untreated controls at Knees and Choteau locations, while no effects at Conrad location. Larval body weight was significantly lower in plots treated with Actigard® at Knees and Conrad, but no effects at Choteau. No significant differences were found in wheat yield and quality in plots treated with chemicals and controls at any location. Bracon spp. adult population and parasitism levels were not negatively affected by the use of chemicals. In conclusion, this study offers insights on what treatments should be emphasized in more detail despite variable findings

SHARE AND USE

Android is one of the most user friendly mobile platforms that have grasped the attention of smart phone users around the globe. According to stats available there are 1.4 billion people who have used Android mobile platform. And this has led to the development of android application exponentially; there are around 2.8 million android applications available in play store. Many of the available application do not fit into low specification smart phones due to some reasons. Share and Use is an android application that lets you use another smart phones application by your phone without actually installing it on your phone. Share and Use lets user to use application installed on other phones and access applications on their smart phones. Share and Use helps phones with lower specification android phones to use applications that are not be able to install in them

Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Activity of the Leaf Extract of Mirabilis jalapa Against Pathogenic Microorganisms

Investigation of the phytochemical constituents and antimicrobial activity of the leaf extracts of Mirabilis jalapa were carried out using acetone, chloroform, ethanol and methanol. These extracts were subjected to screening of preliminary phytochemical tests. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of alkaloids, flavanoids, phenols, glycosides, tannins, saponins and lignins. The methanol extract exhibited the largest zone of inhibition (21mm in dia with 500μg/disc extract) against Staphylococcus aureus and the highest inhibition of fungal radial mycelial growth (97.5% with 500μg/ml medium) against Aspergillus flavus. The methanol extract exhibited the lowest MIC against Staphylococcus aureus (39 μg/ml) and Aspergillus flavus (45μg/ml). It appeared that M. jalapa could be a potential natural source of new antimicrobial agent.Keywords: Mirabilis jalapa, leaf extract, phytochemicals, antimicrobial activity

HT-FED2004-56013 MODELLING OF SLURRY-HANDLING PIPING ELEMENT UNDER INTERFERENCE CONDITIONS

ABSTRACT The paper presents a new approach to predict the two-phase performance of jet-pumps under interference conditions. We limit our study mainly to diffuser and transport regions of the jet pump. The five essential pre-requisites which form the backbone of our approach are a fairly generalized and accurate approach to (i) solid-fluid interaction, (ii) particle diffusion under generalized flow field, (iii) friction factor-Reynolds number equation, (iv) solid-fluid flow through ducts and (v) mixing of primary and secondary jets using the approach of Wang et al

Towards an understating of signal transduction protein interaction networks

Protein network analysis has witnessed a number of advancements in the past for understanding molecular characteristics for important network topologies in biological systems. The signaling pathway regulates cell cycle progression and anti-apoptotic molecules. This pathway is also involved in maintaining cell survival by modulating the activity of apoptosis through RAS, P13K, AKT and BAD activities. The importance of protein-protein interactions to improve usability of the interactome by scoring and ranking interaction data for proteins in signal transduction networks is illustrated using available data and resources

Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations

This is the published version, also available here: http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1101/gr.173301.The origins and affinities of the ∼1 billion people living on the subcontinent of India have long been contested. This is owing, in part, to the many different waves of immigrants that have influenced the genetic structure of India. In the most recent of these waves, Indo-European-speaking people from West Eurasia entered India from the Northwest and diffused throughout the subcontinent. They purportedly admixed with or displaced indigenous Dravidic-speaking populations. Subsequently they may have established the Hindu caste system and placed themselves primarily in castes of higher rank. To explore the impact of West Eurasians on contemporary Indian caste populations, we compared mtDNA (400 bp of hypervariable region 1 and 14 restriction site polymorphisms) and Y-chromosome (20 biallelic polymorphisms and 5 short tandem repeats) variation in ∼265 males from eight castes of different rank to ∼750 Africans, Asians, Europeans, and other Indians. For maternally inherited mtDNA, each caste is most similar to Asians. However, 20%–30% of Indian mtDNA haplotypes belong to West Eurasian haplogroups, and the frequency of these haplotypes is proportional to caste rank, the highest frequency of West Eurasian haplotypes being found in the upper castes. In contrast, for paternally inherited Y-chromosome variation each caste is more similar to Europeans than to Asians. Moreover, the affinity to Europeans is proportionate to caste rank, the upper castes being most similar to Europeans, particularly East Europeans. These findings are consistent with greater West Eurasian male admixture with castes of higher rank. Nevertheless, the mitochondrial genome and the Y chromosome each represents only a single haploid locus and is more susceptible to large stochastic variation, bottlenecks, and selective sweeps. Thus, to increase the power of our analysis, we assayed 40 independent, biparentally inherited autosomal loci (1 LINE-1 and 39 Alu elements) in all of the caste and continental populations (∼600 individuals). Analysis of these data demonstrated that the upper castes have a higher affinity to Europeans than to Asians, and the upper castes are significantly more similar to Europeans than are the lower castes. Collectively, all five datasets show a trend toward upper castes being more similar to Europeans, whereas lower castes are more similar to Asians. We conclude that Indian castes are most likely to be of proto-Asian origin with West Eurasian admixture resulting in rank-related and sex-specific differences in the genetic affinities of castes to Asians and Europeans