Efficacy of growth hormone in improving the pregnancy rate in poor responders in ART

Background: Poor responders impose a great challenge to ART clinicians. Research to improve their pregnancy rate is going on. This study was conducted to analyze the effect of growth hormone in poor responders in ART.Methods: This study was done from January 2015 to December 2015. It was a retrospective, single centre, cohort study in which 36 poor responders were selected and allotted into group A (18) with growth hormone and group B (18) without growth hormone. High dose of gonadotrophins was used for ovarian stimulation and antagonist protocol was followed in all patients. Group A received 4 IU of growth hormone along with usual treatment from day 2 till ovulation trigger with HCG injection, group B usual protocol.Results: Statistical analysis was done with independent T test, and p value <0.05 was considered significant. Higher number of mature oocytes and pregnancy rates were observed in growth hormone group. Number of MII oocytes was 5.8, on an average in group A and 3.7 in group B, the difference was statistically significant (p 0.0000001).  Clinical pregnancy rates were 27.7% in group A and 16.6% in group B, statistical significance (p 0.02).Conclusions: Addition of growth hormone shows increase in number of oocytes retrieved and pregnancy rates in poor responders in ART patients

Outcome of laparoscopic surgeries during pregnancy for non-obstetric emergencies

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the surgical and obstetric outcome, safety and feasibility of various laparoscopic surgeries for non-obstetric indications in pregnancy.Methods: We did a retrospective analysis of 18 pregnant patients who underwent laparoscopic surgeries. Study period was from October 2013 till September 2015 conducted in Radhakrishna multispeciality hospital /IVF center Bangalore. Patients operated are 6 cases cholicystectomy, 6 cases appendicectomy, 5 adnexal mass removals, one salpingectomy for heterotopic pregnancy resulted from ART. All patients were between 11 to 32 weeks of gestation, with mean gestational age 21±6.5 weeks at the time of surgery and mean duration of surgery was 46±16.3 minutes.Results: All eighteen pregnant patients had uneventful hospital courses after laparoscopic procedures. Mean duration of hospital stay after surgery was 43±8.5 hours. One pregnancy was terminated at 11 weeks for suspected ovarian malignancy and 16 delivered full-term babies without complications, one patient delivered preterm at 35 weeks with NICU admission. The mean birth weight at the time of delivery was 2.8±550 gms. There was no maternal morbidity or mortality, or any identifiable neonatal birth defect. No conversion to laparotomy required in any case.Conclusions: Laparoscopic surgeries can be done in any trimester of pregnancy, but more safe and feasible during the second and early third trimester of pregnancy. Laparoscopic surgeries are as safe as laparotomy in the hands of experienced laparoscopic surgeon with no deleterious effects on either mother or fetus

Energetics of intrinsic defects and their complexes in ZnO investigated by density functional calculations

Formation energies of various intrinsic defects and defect complexes in ZnO have been calculated using a density-functional-theory-based pseudopotential all-electron method. The various defects considered are oxygen vacancy (VO), zinc vacancy (VZn), oxygen at an interstitial site (Oi), Zn at an interstitial site (Zni), Zn at VO (ZnO), O at VZn(OZn), and an antisite pair (combination of the preceding two defects). In addition, defect complexes like (VO+Zni) and Zn-vacancy clusters are studied. The Schokkty pair (VO+VZn) and Frenkel pairs [(VO+Oi) and (VZn+Zni)] are considered theoretically for the first time. Upon comparing the formation energies of these defects, we find that VO would be the dominant intrinsic defect under both Zn-rich and O-rich conditions and it is a deep double donor. Both ZnO and Zni are found to be shallow donors. The low formation energy of donor-type intrinsic defects could lead to difficulty in achieving p-type conductivity in ZnO. Defect complexes have charge transitions deep inside the band gap. The red, yellow, and green photoluminescence peaks of undoped samples can be assigned to some of the defect complexes considered. It is believed that the red luminescence originates from an electronic transition in VO, but we find that it can originate from the antisite ZnO defect. Charge density and electron-localization function analyses have been used to understand the effect of these defects on the ZnO lattice. The electronic structure of ZnO with intrinsic defects has been studied using density-of-states and electronic band structure plots. The acceptor levels introduced by VZn are relatively localized, making it difficult to achieve p-type conductivity with sufficient hole mobility.Peer reviewe

Retrospective analysis of necropsy findings in patients of H1N1 and their correlation to clinical features

India reported its first case of H1N1 in July 2009 in Pune and since then, the number of reported cases and deaths exploded in India. Since very little data is available about histopathological findings in patients of H1N1 fatal cases in India, a retrospective chart analysis of necropsy findings of 15 cases of 2009 H1N1 fatal cases was performed. Common clinical features were fever, cough , and breathlessness followed by sore throat and rhinorrhea. Common lung findings were mononuclear cell infiltration, thick alveolar septae, intraalveolar hemorrhage . The other findings were congested pulmonary blood vessels, pulmonary edema, cytomegaly, fibrin accumulation and formation of eosinophilic membrane. These findings are suggestive of diffuse alveolar damage ( DAD) and DAD with hemorrhage. All patients who underwent necropsy had radiographic findings suggestive of unilobar or multilobar pneumonia. This clinical finding can be correlated pathologically in these patients as all of them had either polymorphonuclear or mononuclear infiltrate. Furthermore, necrotizing pneumonitis pattern seen on these patients is the likely cause of mortality in these patients. Although clinical ARDS pattern was noted in all these patients, it was well correlated in lung pathology in all these cases

Origin of magnetoelectric behavior in BiFeO3_3

The magnetoelectric behavior of BiFeO$_3$ has been explored on the basis of accurate density functional calculations. The structural, electronic, magnetic, and ferroelectric properties of BiFeO$_3$ are predicted correctly without including strong correlation effect in the calculation. Moreover, the experimentally-observed elongation of cubic perovskite-like lattice along the [111] direction is correctly reproduced. At high pressure we predicted a pressure-induced structural transition and the total energy calculations at expanded lattice show two lower energy ferroelectric phases, closer in energy to the ground state phase. Band-structure calculations show that BiFeO$_3$ will be an insulator in A- and G-type antiferromagnetic phases and a metal in other magnetic configurations. Chemical bonding in BiFeO$_3$ has been analyzed using various tools and electron localization function analysis shows that stereochemically active lone-pair electrons at the Bi sites are responsible for displacements of the Bi atoms from the centro-symmetric to the noncentrosymmetric structure and hence the ferroelectricity. A large ferroelectric polarization (88.7 $\mu$C/cm$^{2}$) is predicted in accordance with recent experimental findings. The net polarization is found to mainly ($>$ 98%) originate from Bi atoms. Moreover the large scatter in experimentally reported polarization values is due to the large anisotropy in the spontaneous polarization.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 4 table

Unified approach to photo and electro-production of mesons with arbitrary spins

A new approach to identify the independent amplitudes along with their partial wave multipole expansions, for photo and electro-production is suggested,which is generally applicable to mesons with arbitrary spin-parity. These amplitudes facilitate direct identification of different resonance contributions.Comment: 11 page

Quasiparticle interference and strong electron-mode coupling in the quasi-one-dimensional bands of Sr2RuO4

The single-layered ruthenate Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ has attracted a great deal of interest as a spin-triplet superconductor with an order parameter that may potentially break time reversal invariance and host half-quantized vortices with Majorana zero modes. While the actual nature of the superconducting state is still a matter of controversy, it has long been believed that it condenses from a metallic state that is well described by a conventional Fermi liquid. In this work we use a combination of Fourier transform scanning tunneling spectroscopy (FT-STS) and momentum resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy (M-EELS) to probe interaction effects in the normal state of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$. Our high-resolution FT-STS data show signatures of the \beta-band with a distinctly quasi-one-dimensional (1D) character. The band dispersion reveals surprisingly strong interaction effects that dramatically renormalize the Fermi velocity, suggesting that the normal state of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ is that of a 'correlated metal' where correlations are strengthened by the quasi 1D nature of the bands. In addition, kinks at energies of approximately 10meV, 38meV and 70meV are observed. By comparing STM and M-EELS data we show that the two higher energy features arise from coupling with collective modes. The strong correlation effects and the kinks in the quasi 1D bands may provide important information for understanding the superconducting state. This work opens up a unique approach to revealing the superconducting order parameter in this compound

HIV infection and drugs of abuse: role of acute phase proteins

Background HIV infection and drugs of abuse such as methamphetamine (METH), cocaine, and alcohol use have been identified as risk factors for triggering inflammation. Acute phase proteins such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA) are the biomarkers of inflammation. Hence, the interactive effect of drugs of abuse with acute phase proteins in HIV-positive subjects was investigated. Methods Plasma samples were utilized from 75 subjects with METH use, cocaine use, alcohol use, and HIV-positive alone and HIV-positive METH, cocaine, and alcohol users, and age-matched control subjects. The plasma CRP and SAA levels were measured by ELISA and western blot respectively and the CD4 counts were also measured. Results Observed results indicated that the CRP and SAA levels in HIV-positive subjects who are METH, cocaine and alcohol users were significantly higher when compared with either drugs of abuse or HIV-positive alone. The CD4 counts were also dramatically reduced in HIV-positive with drugs of abuse subjects compared with only HIV-positive subjects. Conclusions These results suggest that, in HIV-positive subjects, drugs of abuse increase the levels of CRP and SAA, which may impact on the HIV infection and disease progression