Prevalence of hearing loss due to ossicular chain involvement in rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic multisystem disease commonly affecting the synovial joints. Involvement of middle ear ossicular chain in RA may lead to hearing loss. The effects of hearing loss are profound, with consequences in the social, functional, and psychological well-being of the persons affected. Both conductive and sensorineural types of hearing impairments have been found in these patients in various studies. This study aimed at evaluating the prevalence of hearing impairment in our patients.Methods: Pure tone and impedance audiograms were taken for 100 RA patients who came to the outpatient department. They were divided into three groups based on their disease activity (DAS28). The hearing thresholds were compared among these groups. Tympanographic features and acoustic reflexes were recorded. Disease duration was also taken into account for asessing the severity of hearing impairment.Results: Out of 100 patients, 52 patients had significant hearing impairment audiometrically, of which 44 had sensorineural, 1 conductive and 7 mixed impairments. No significant difference was found between the hearing thresholds and the disease activity but those with high disease activity had higher incidence of abnormal tympanograms (72.2%) and absence of acoustic reflex (55.5%). Prevalence of hearing impairment was found to be increased with increasing disease duration, with steep rise between 5 and 10 years of disease duration.Conclusions: Hearing impairment affects the quality of life adversely. Severity of hearing impairment is significantly associated with having a hearing-related handicap and with self-reported communication difficulties. Thus, hearing assessment if done routinely can improve the outcome in these patients.

Improvement of radar ice-thickness measurements of Greenland outlet glaciers using SAR processing

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.3189/172756402781816852.Extensive aircraft-based radar ice-thickness measurements over the interior and outlet-glacier regions of the Greenland ice sheet have been obtained by the University of Kansas since 1993, with the latest airborne surveys conducted in May 2001. The radar has evolved during this period to a highly versatile system capable of characterizing ice thickness over a wide variety of ice-sheet conditions. Before 1997, the digital system was limited, only capable of storing incoherent data or coherent data with a very large number of presumed signals at a low pulse-repetition frequency. In 1998, the radar was upgraded with modern components allowing coherent data to be stored with a small number of presumed returns for 1024 range cells at a high pulse-repetition frequency.The new data on ice thickness of Greenland outlet glaciers are archived and made available to the scientific community in the form of radar echograms and derived ice thickness at http://tornado.rsl.ukans.edu/Greenlanddata.htm. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) also provides a link to these data, and NSIDC will eventually serve as the permanent archive of these data. Improvements in radar sensitivity in outlet-glacier regions have been achieved by collecting coherent radar data and applying various signal-processing techniques. Deep outlet-glacier channels that were previously unresolved with incoherent data can now be mapped using a coherent signal, signal conditioning and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing

Phenotype Enhancement Screen of a Regulatory spx Mutant Unveils a Role for the ytpQ Gene in the Control of Iron Homeostasis

Spx is a global regulator of genes that are induced by disulfide stress in Bacillus subtilis. The regulon that it governs is comprised of over 120 genes based on microarray analysis, although it is not known how many of these are under direct Spx control. Most of the Spx-regulated genes (SRGs) are of unknown function, but many encode products that are conserved in low %GC Gram-positive bacteria. Using a gene-disruption library of B. subtilis genomic mutations, the SRGs were screened for phenotypes related to Spx-controlled activities, such as poor growth in minimal medium and sensitivity to methyglyoxal, but nearly all of the SRG mutations showed little if any phenotype. To uncover SRG function, the mutations were rescreened in an spx mutant background to determine which mutant SRG allele would enhance the spx mutant phenotype. One of the SRGs, ytpQ was the site of a mutation that, when combined with an spx null mutation, elevated the severity of the Spx mutant phenotype, as shown by reduced growth in a minimal medium and by hypersensitivity to methyglyoxal. The ytpQ mutant showed elevated oxidative protein damage when exposed to methylglyoxal, and reduced growth rate in liquid culture. Proteomic and transcriptomic data indicated that the ytpQ mutation caused the derepression of the Fur and PerR regulons of B. subtilis. Our study suggests that the ytpQ gene, encoding a conserved DUF1444 protein, functions directly or indirectly in iron homeostasis. The ytpQ mutant phenotype mimics that of a fur mutation, suggesting a condition of low cellular iron. In vitro transcription analysis indicated that Spx stimulates transcription from the ytpPQR operon within which the ytpQ gene resides. The work uncovers a link between Spx and control of iron homeostasis

Prevalence of TT Virus in patients with chronic periodontitis, patients with aggressive periodontitis and healthy controls - A pilot study

Torque teno virus (TTV), a novel DNA virus resides in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and replicates when these cells get activated. The TTV replication shifts the immunobalance. Aim: To determine the presence of TTV in the gingiva of patients with aggressive periodontitis, patients with chronic periodontitis, and healthy controls, and to correlate the presence of TTV with probing pocket depth and clinical attachment level. Methods: Forty-two subjects (22 males and 20 females) aged 21 to 55 years were recruited for this study. Subjects were stratified into aggressive periodontitis (Group I), chronic periodontitis (Group II) and healthy controls (Group III). Gingival tissue biopsy was taken from all the subjects and the presence of TTV was analyzed using PCR and 2% agarose gel electrophoresis. Results: TTV was identified in half of the subjects and more number of subjects with periodontitis have TT virus compared to controls. There was significant association between presence of TT virus and pocket depth, clinical attachment level. Conclusions: The findings from the present study shows that there was no significant association between TT virus and periodontitis, even though it was isolated from more number of subjects with aggressive periodontitis, and TTV was associated with pocket depth and clinical attachment level. These findings need to be investigated in further studies

Analysis of association of TaqI VDR gene polymorphism with the chronic periodontitis in Dravidian ethnicity

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze the association of TaqI vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism with the chronic periodontitis (CP) in Dravidian ethnicity. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 subjects were recruited for this study, which included 60 CP and 60 healthy controls. TaqI VDR gene polymorphism was analyzed using specific primers and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and visualized under 2% agarose gel. Results: Our study results showed that Tt and tt genotype had a higher frequency of occurrence in CP compared with controls. Similarly, t allele was found to be associated with CP. Conclusion: Our study concludes that TaqI VDR gene polymorphism is associated with CP in Dravidian ethnicity

A new point of view on Product Lifecycle Management

This paper is one of the first tasks that the members of the International Working Group on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM-IWG) assigned themselves in November 2007 for establishing a comprehensive point of view on PLM. In particular, the present paper aims to capture the state of the art of PLM from the PLM worldwide community. The generic models presented here can be translated and put into practice in each company considering the structure of the company and the characteristic of its products. The paper is still under development in view of reaching consensus on the meaning and the scope of the PLM area, therefore every contribution is welcome