CORRELATION OF GLYCOSYLATED HEMOGLOBIN LEVELS WITH FASTING AND POSTPRANDIAL GLUCOSE IN SOUTH INDIAN TYPE 2 DIABETIC PATIENTS

Objective: To assess the correlation of glycosylated hemoglobin levels with fasting and postprandial glucose in South Indian type 2 diabetic patients.Methods: This retrospective observational study was carried out as per the protocol approved by the institutional ethics committee (IEC) and case records of patients (≥ 40 y old) diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and complications, that fasting blood sugar (FBS), postprandial blood sugar (PPBS) and HbA1c measured during previous follow-ups were included in the study. Statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS Ver.20 and p ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Based on the study criteria, 633 case profiles were selected and enrolled in the study. Most of the patients were males 488 (77.1%) and the mean age of patients was 59.7 y (SD=9.6). The mean fasting glucose and postprandial glucose were 9.42 mmol/l (SD=4.2), 13.39 mmol/l (SD=5.2) respectively. Patients were suffering from different type of diabetes complications, and most of them had poor glycemic control as the mean HbA1c was found to be 8.7 % (SD=2.2). The FBS and PPBS were plotted against HbA1c values showed moderate correlation and the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of postprandial glucose level was better than the fasting blood glucose level.Conclusion: This present study showed that there is the significant correlation between PPBS and HbA1c values. Since PPBS is performed routinely, its interpretation in terms of long term glycemic control will help clinicians to tailor their therapeutic strategies

STUDY ON PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF ANTI-DIABETIC DRUGS AMONG TYPE 2 DIABETES PATIENTS WITH COMPLICATION IN SOUTH INDIAN TEACHING HOSPITAL

ABSTRACTObjective: To evaluate the drug utilization pattern of anti-diabetic agents with respect to glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level in a Type 2diabetes patient with complication.Methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted as per the protocol approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee. The patientsdiagnosed with Type 2 diabetes mellitus with complication were identified, and those who had measured HbA1c level during previous follow upswere included in the study. All demographic, drug prescriptions, and clinical data of patients were collected and documented in a suitably designedcase report form. Descriptive analyses were performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 20.Results: Based on the study criteria, 644 patients were selected and enrolled for the study. The majority of study subjects 494 (76.7%) were male and415 (64.4%) were belonged to the age group 45-64 years. 252 (39.1%) of the patient, had normal weight followed by 234 (36.3%) were overweight,and 142 (22.1%) patients were obese. The prescription pattern showed the majority of patients 509 (79%) patients had 1-2 anti-diabetic medicationfollowed 133 (20.7%) patient prescribed with 3-4 anti-diabetic drug. An insulin was prescribed in 507 (63.4%) patients and among oral anti-diabeticdrugs, metformin 283 (43.9%), glimepiride 140 (21.7%), and voglibose 88 (13.7%) was most commonly prescribed.Conclusion: Among all the anti-diabetic drugs, the insulin was highly preferred over oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs) to control the glycemic level,and metformin accounted for the most commonly prescribed OHAs. In the second generation of sulfonylureas class, glimepiride and glipizide weremost prescribed.Keywords: Anti-diabetic agents, Diabetes mellitus, Prescription pattern

Computational studies of graphene and single walled carbon nanotube growth and carbonaceous polymeric nanocomposites

Graphene and single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) has attracted a lot of attention in different fields of science due to its unique electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. Controlling the growth of graphene and SWNT is a very topical subject and critical for producing material with desired properties since their properties are highly dependent on their atomic structure and it is often desirable that the material contains very few or (if possible) no defects.There is great interest in using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to design high performance materials, primarily due to their unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. These properties, as well as their light weight, make them suitable as reinforcement additives in polymeric nanocomposites. This includes composites of polyethylene (PE) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which are widely used in commercial applications.In this thesis, density functional theory (DFT) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations based on a tight binding (TB) model are used to study the growth of graphene in the absence of a catalyst, and compare this with the growth mechanism on a Ni(111) surface. The growth of defect-free graphene at the atomic level was simulated which allowed for the study of the mechanisms of defect formation and healing. The growth of SWNT is also studied using the same computational methods and the role of Ni in maintaining an open SWNT end was investigated.A valid force field is selected to study the effect of SWNTs on the polymer morphology in large PE composite systems. The results show that the PE wrapped around the SWNT thereby increasing the radius of gyration of the PE. Interfacial shear strength, interfacial bonding energy and Young’s modulus is measured and results show that short SWNTs as reinforcement do not increase the Young’s modulus for the systems studied here, whereas longer, aligned SWNTs increased the Young’s modulus in the SWNT axial direction.Interfacial properties in SWNT-PE and SWNT-PAN composites is studied. These properties are critical for the other nanocomposite properties, such as interfacial shear stress and load transfer from the polymer to the SWNT additives. The effect of functionalization of SWNT on the interfacial properties were compared with those obtained for non-functionalized SWNTs. The results emphasize the improvement of interfacial properties after functionalizing the SWNTs with carboxylic acid groups. In addition, the changes in properties such as the interfacial shear stress are larger for the polar PAN systems than for the PE systems

Computational Studies of Graphene Growth and Carbonaceous Polyethylene Nanocomposites

Graphene, the youngest allotrope of carbon, has attracted a lot of attention in different fields of science due to its unique electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. Controlling the growth of graphene is a very topical subject and critical for producing material with desired properties since the properties of graphene are highly dependent on its atomic structure and it is often desirable that the material contains very few or (if possible) no defects. Another allotrope of carbon which has become of great interest in the field of polymeric nanocomposites (PNCs) is carbon nanotubes (CNTs); this is due to the unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties as well as the light weight of CNTs which make them suitable as reinforcement additives in PNCs. This includes composites of polyethylene (PE), which is widely used in different commercial applications.In this study, Monte Carlo simulations based on a tight binding model is used to study the growth of graphene in the absence of a catalyst, and compare this with the growth mechanism on a Ni(111) surface. This is the first simulation of the growth of defect-free structures at the atomic level and also allows for the study of the mechanisms of defect formation and healing. A valid force field is selected to study the effect of SWCNTs on the polymer morphology in large PE composite systems. The results show that the PE wrapped around the SWCNT thereby increasing the radius of gyration of the PE. Interfacial shear strength, interfacial bonding energy and Young’s modulus is measured and results show that short SWCNTs as reinforcement do not increase the Young’s modulus for the systems studied here, whereas longer, aligned SWCNTs increased the Young’s modulus in the SWCNT axial direction

Computational studies of graphene and single walled carbon nanotube growth and carbonaceous polymeric nanocomposites

Graphene and single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) has attracted a lot of attention in different fields of science due to its unique electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. Controlling the growth of graphene and SWNT is a very topical subject and critical for producing material with desired properties since their properties are highly dependent on their atomic structure and it is often desirable that the material contains very few or (if possible) no defects.There is great interest in using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to design high performance materials, primarily due to their unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. These properties, as well as their light weight, make them suitable as reinforcement additives in polymeric nanocomposites. This includes composites of polyethylene (PE) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which are widely used in commercial applications.In this thesis, density functional theory (DFT) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations based on a tight binding (TB) model are used to study the growth of graphene in the absence of a catalyst, and compare this with the growth mechanism on a Ni(111) surface. The growth of defect-free graphene at the atomic level was simulated which allowed for the study of the mechanisms of defect formation and healing. The growth of SWNT is also studied using the same computational methods and the role of Ni in maintaining an open SWNT end was investigated.A valid force field is selected to study the effect of SWNTs on the polymer morphology in large PE composite systems. The results show that the PE wrapped around the SWNT thereby increasing the radius of gyration of the PE. Interfacial shear strength, interfacial bonding energy and Young’s modulus is measured and results show that short SWNTs as reinforcement do not increase the Young’s modulus for the systems studied here, whereas longer, aligned SWNTs increased the Young’s modulus in the SWNT axial direction.Interfacial properties in SWNT-PE and SWNT-PAN composites is studied. These properties are critical for the other nanocomposite properties, such as interfacial shear stress and load transfer from the polymer to the SWNT additives. The effect of functionalization of SWNT on the interfacial properties were compared with those obtained for non-functionalized SWNTs. The results emphasize the improvement of interfacial properties after functionalizing the SWNTs with carboxylic acid groups. In addition, the changes in properties such as the interfacial shear stress are larger for the polar PAN systems than for the PE systems

On weighting/reweighting schemes for approximate message passing algorithms

In this paper, we propose a number of weighting/reweighting schemes to improve the performance of the so-called approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm of Donoho et al. We consider the application of AMP for the recovery of sparse signals from an under-determined system of linear equations, and variants of AMP for the recovery of block sparse signals. The proposed schemes for block sparse signals cover both cases of known and unknown block borders. Simulation results, both in noiseless and noisy scenarios, show significant performance improvement over the standard AMP algorithm and a considerably better performance/complexity trade-off compared to other state-of-the-art recovery algorithms

Detection of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and plasmid-borne blaCTX-M and blaTEM genes among clinical strains of Escherichia coli isolated from patients in the north of Iran

Escherichia coli is an important cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide. Antimicrobial resistance leads to treatment failure of hospital infections caused by E. coli. Production of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) is one of the major causes of antibiotic resistance in these bacteria. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of blaTEM and blaCTX-M genes in ESBL-producing E. coli strains isolated from clinical specimens of patients admitted to six hospitals in the north of Iran. A total of 160 E. coli strains were isolated from various clinical samples of hospitalised patients. Antibiotic resistance patterns were determined by the Kirby�Bauer disk diffusion method. The double-disk phenotypic confirmatory test was carried out amongst β-lactam-resistant isolates to detect ESBL-producing strains. Plasmid DNA of ESBL-producing strains was extracted and subjected to PCR for detection of the blaTEM and blaCTX-M genes, and isolates were extensively verified by sequencing. The highest resistance rate was to amoxicillin; all E. coli isolates (100) were susceptible to imipenem. Amongst the 160 clinical E. coli isolates, 83 (51.9) were ESBL-positive, of which 27 (32.5) and 72 (86.7) were positive for blaTEM and blaCTX-M, respectively. This study is the first report of an ESBL phenotype disseminated in hospitals in the north of Iran. These findings showed that there was a direct relationship between the development of resistance to β-lactam antibiotics and production of TEM and CTX-M enzymes. © 2016 International Society for Chemotherapy of Infection and Cance