62 research outputs found
Studies on in vitro antiplasmodial activity of cleome rutidosperma
Malaria is a protozoal disease transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito, caused by minute parasitic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium, which infect human and insect hosts alternatively. It affects over 40% of the worldís population, with 120 million cases reported, and about 2 million deaths annually (1). The P. falciparum variety of the parasite accounts for 80% of cases and 90% of deaths caused by malaria. The declining efficacy of classical medication in relation to the rapid increase of parasite resistant strains, mainly of Plasmodium falciparum, as well as the greater resistance of vectors to insecticides, and the difficulty of creating efficient vaccines have led to an urgent need for new efficient antimalarial drugs (2, 3). Natural molecules may provide innovative strategies towards malarial control, hence active research groups are now working to develop new active compounds as an alternative to chloroquine, especially from artemisinin (4, 5), a plant-based antimalaria drug isolated from the Chinese plant Artemisia annua (6). Plants may well, therefore, prove to be the sources of new antimalarial in view of the success with the two important chemotherapeutic agents, quinine and artemisinin, both of which are derived from plants. Cleome rutidosperma (Capparidaceae) is a low-growing herb, up to 70 cm tall, found in waste grounds and grassy places with trifoliate leaves and small, violet-blue flowers, which turn pink as they age. The elongated capsules display the asymmetrical, dull black seeds. The plant is native to West Africa, although it has become naturalized in various parts of tropical America as well as Southeast Asia (7, 8). The diuretic, laxative, anthelmintic, antimicrobial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities of Cleome rutidosperma were reported earlier by the authors (9-13). The plant is used as antimalarial by the traditional healers in Cameroon and mild antiplasmodial activity of chloroform/methanol (1:1) extract of leaves of Cleome rutidosperma against chloroquine-sensitive (F32) laboratory strain of P. falciparum was reported earlier in Cameroon (14). The present study investigates the in vitro antiplasmodial activity of ethanolic extract and its fractions of aerial parts of Cleome rutidosperma against the chloroquine sensitive (CQS) D10 strain of the parasite, as well as their toxicity against a mammalian cell lines
A simulation-calibrated limit on the H i power spectrum from the GMRT Epoch of Reionization experiment
The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Epoch of Reionization experiment is an ongoing effort to measure the power spectrum from neutral hydrogen at high redshift. We have previously reported an upper limit of (70 mK)^2 at wavenumbers of k ≈ 0.65 h Mpc^(−1) using a basic piecewise-linear foreground subtraction. In this paper, we explore the use of a singular value decomposition to remove foregrounds with fewer assumptions about the foreground structure. Using this method, we also quantify, for the first time, the signal loss due to the foreground filter and present new power spectra adjusted for this loss, providing a revised measurement of a 2σ upper limit at (248 mK)^2 for k = 0.50 h Mpc^(−1). While this revised limit is larger than previously reported, we believe it to be more robust and still represents the best current constraint on reionization at z ≈ 8.6
High-Performance Computing for SKA Transient Search: Use of FPGA based Accelerators -- a brief review
This paper presents the High-Performance computing efforts with FPGA for the
accelerated pulsar/transient search for the SKA. Case studies are presented
from within SKA and pathfinder telescopes highlighting future opportunities. It
reviews the scenario that has shifted from offline processing of the radio
telescope data to digitizing several hundreds/thousands of antenna outputs over
huge bandwidths, forming several 100s of beams, and processing the data in the
SKA real-time pulsar search pipelines. A brief account of the different
architectures of the accelerators, primarily the new generation Field
Programmable Gate Array-based accelerators, showing their critical roles to
achieve high-performance computing and in handling the enormous data volume
problems of the SKA is presented here. It also presents the power-performance
efficiency of this emerging technology and presents potential future scenarios.Comment: Accepted for JoAA, SKA Special issue on SKA (2022
Differences in Candidate Gene Association between European Ancestry and African American Asthmatic Children
Candidate gene case-control studies have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with asthma susceptibility. Most of these studies have been restricted to evaluations of specific SNPs within a single gene and within populations from European ancestry. Recently, there is increasing interest in understanding racial differences in genetic risk associated with childhood asthma. Our aim was to compare association patterns of asthma candidate genes between children of European and African ancestry.Using a custom-designed Illumina SNP array, we genotyped 1,485 children within the Greater Cincinnati Pediatric Clinic Repository and Cincinnati Genomic Control Cohort for 259 SNPs in 28 genes and evaluated their associations with asthma. We identified 14 SNPs located in 6 genes that were significantly associated (p-values <0.05) with childhood asthma in African Americans. Among Caucasians, 13 SNPs in 5 genes were associated with childhood asthma. Two SNPs in IL4 were associated with asthma in both races (p-values <0.05). Gene-gene interaction studies identified race specific sets of genes that best discriminate between asthmatic children and non-allergic controls.We identified IL4 as having a role in asthma susceptibility in both African American and Caucasian children. However, while IL4 SNPs were associated with asthma in asthmatic children with European and African ancestry, the relative contributions of the most replicated asthma-associated SNPs varied by ancestry. These data provides valuable insights into the pathways that may predispose to asthma in individuals with European vs. African ancestry
Functional Variant in the Autophagy-Related 5 Gene Promotor is Associated with Childhood Asthma
Rationale and Objective: Autophagy is a cellular process directed at eliminating or recycling cellular proteins. Recently, the autophagy pathway has been implicated in immune dysfunction, the pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders, and response to viral infection. Associations between two genes in the autophagy pathway, ATG5 and ATG7, with childhood asthma were investigated. Methods: Using genetic and experimental approaches, we examined the association of 13 HapMap-derived tagging SNPs in ATG5 and ATG7 with childhood asthma in 312 asthmatic and 246 non-allergic control children. We confirmed our findings by using independent cohorts and imputation analysis. Finally, we evaluated the functional relevance of a disease associated SNP. Measurements and Main Results: We demonstrated that ATG5 single nucleotide polymorphisms rs12201458 and rs510432 were associated with asthma (p = 0.00085 and 0.0025, respectively). In three independent cohorts, additional variants in ATG5 in the same LD block were associated with asthma (p,0.05). We found that rs510432 was functionally relevant and conferred significantly increased promotor activity. Furthermore, Atg5 expression was increased in nasal epithelium of acute asthmatics compared to stable asthmatics and non-asthmatic controls. Conclusion: Genetic variants in ATG5, including a functional promotor variant, are associated with childhood asthma. Thes
Identification of KIF3A as a Novel Candidate Gene for Childhood Asthma Using RNA Expression and Population Allelic Frequencies Differences
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease with a strong genetic predisposition. A major challenge for candidate gene association studies in asthma is the selection of biologically relevant genes.Using epithelial RNA expression arrays, HapMap allele frequency variation, and the literature, we identified six possible candidate susceptibility genes for childhood asthma including ADCY2, DNAH5, KIF3A, PDE4B, PLAU, SPRR2B. To evaluate these genes, we compared the genotypes of 194 predominantly tagging SNPs in 790 asthmatic, allergic and non-allergic children. We found that SNPs in all six genes were nominally associated with asthma (p<0.05) in our discovery cohort and in three independent cohorts at either the SNP or gene level (p<0.05). Further, we determined that our selection approach was superior to random selection of genes either differentially expressed in asthmatics compared to controls (p = 0.0049) or selected based on the literature alone (p = 0.0049), substantiating the validity of our gene selection approach. Importantly, we observed that 7 of 9 SNPs in the KIF3A gene more than doubled the odds of asthma (OR = 2.3, p<0.0001) and increased the odds of allergic disease (OR = 1.8, p<0.008). Our data indicate that KIF3A rs7737031 (T-allele) has an asthma population attributable risk of 18.5%. The association between KIF3A rs7737031 and asthma was validated in 3 independent populations, further substantiating the validity of our gene selection approach.Our study demonstrates that KIF3A, a member of the kinesin superfamily of microtubule associated motors that are important in the transport of protein complexes within cilia, is a novel candidate gene for childhood asthma. Polymorphisms in KIF3A may in part be responsible for poor mucus and/or allergen clearance from the airways. Furthermore, our study provides a promising framework for the identification and evaluation of novel candidate susceptibility genes
The International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce (INPST) and the power of Twitter networking exemplified through #INPST hashtag analysis
Background: The development of digital technologies and the evolution of open innovation approaches have enabled the creation of diverse virtual organizations and enterprises coordinating their activities primarily online. The open innovation platform titled "International Natural Product Sciences Taskforce" (INPST) was established in 2018, to bring together in collaborative environment individuals and organizations interested in natural product scientific research, and to empower their interactions by using digital communication tools. Methods: In this work, we present a general overview of INPST activities and showcase the specific use of Twitter as a powerful networking tool that was used to host a one-week "2021 INPST Twitter Networking Event" (spanning from 31st May 2021 to 6th June 2021) based on the application of the Twitter hashtag #INPST. Results and Conclusion: The use of this hashtag during the networking event period was analyzed with Symplur Signals (https://www.symplur.com/), revealing a total of 6,036 tweets, shared by 686 users, which generated a total of 65,004,773 impressions (views of the respective tweets). This networking event's achieved high visibility and participation rate showcases a convincing example of how this social media platform can be used as a highly effective tool to host virtual Twitter-based international biomedical research events
Interpreting the Image of the Human Body in Premodern India
This paper sets out two main arguments. In part one, a description of the adherents of the various intellectual disciplines and religious faiths in premodern India is given, each having developed distinct and different imagined bodies; for example, the body described in Tantric circles had little or nothing in common with the body described in medical circles. In part two, an account is given of the encounter between Ayurvedic anatomy and early colonial European anatomy which led initially to attempts at synthesis; these gave way to an abandonment of the syncretist vision of the body and the acceptance of an epistemological suspension of judgment, in which radically different body conceptualizations are simultaneously held in unacknowledged cognitive dissonance
Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries
Abstract
Background
Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres.
Methods
This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries.
Results
In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia.
Conclusion
This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries
Tracking dispersion measure variations of timing array pulsars with the GMRT
We present the results from nearly three years of monitoring of the variations in dispersion measure (DM) along the line-of-sight to 11 millisecond pulsars using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). These results demonstrate accuracies of single epoch DM estimates of the order of 5 × 10-4 cm-3 pc. A preliminary comparison with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) data shows that the measured DM fluctuations are comparable. We show effects of DM variations due to the solar wind and solar corona and compare with the existing models
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