Efficacy and safety of a fixed dose combination of paracetamol, chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine in treatment of common cold: a phase IV, open-labelled, multi-centric study

Background: Acute coryza or common cold affects the upper airways, sometimes in association with low-grade fever and systemic symptoms, and usually presents with at least two of the following symptoms: cough, dysphonia, throat discomfort, sore throat, nasal congestion, rhinorrhoea, sneezing, headaches, myalgia and fever. A triple combination of analgesics, decongestants and antihistamines provides better relief for multiple symptoms in common cold and allergic rhinitis according to various studies. A combination of Paracetamol as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic, Chlorpheniramine maleate, an anti-histaminic and Phenylephrine as a nasal decongestant is popular in the treatment of common cold. Hence the present study was planned to evaluate efficacy and safety of this combination in treatment of common cold.Methods: This was a phase IV, open-labelled, multicentric study in 159 patients. Efficacy assessment was done by analyzing the reduction in mean TSS at each follow-up visit and safety assessment was done by analyzing the adverse events during the study.Results: There was reduction in mean TSS from 6.62 (day 1) to 3.56 (day 3) and 0.69 (day 5). Most of the patients had >50% reduction in total symptom score at visit 3 and 58.49% patients had complete relief from the symptoms at the end of study. Out of 159 patients, 26 i.e. 16.36% experienced adverse events. Sedation and drowsiness (6.29%) were the most common adverse event seen in patients.Conclusions: A fixed dose combination of Chlorpheniramine maleate, Paracetamol, and Phenylephrine is safe and effective in the treatment of common cold

Awareness of eye donation in an urban population in India

Purpose: Awareness of eye donation and willingness to pledge eyes for donation was assessed in the urban population of Hyderabad, India, where corneal blindness is a significant problem. Methods: A total of 2522 subjects of all ages, representative of the Hyderabad population, participated in the Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study. Subjects >15 years old were interviewed regarding awareness of eye donation and willingness to pledge eyes for donation. Results: Age-gender-adjusted prevalence of awareness of eye donation was 73.8% (95% CI: 66.5-81.0%) but only 1.9% (95% CI: 0.16-3.66%) had pledged eyes. With multivariate analysis, significantly less awareness of eye donation was found in illiterate subjects (OR 0.1; 95% CI: 0.1-0.14), subjects ≥70 years old (OR 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2-0.6), subjects of lower socio-economic status (OR 0.4; 95% CI: 0.3-0.6), females (OR 0.6; 95% CI: 0.5-0.8) and Muslims (OR 0.7; 95% CI: 0.6-0.9). Media was the major source of information about eye donation. Of those aware of eye donation, 44.9% were willing to pledge eyes. Willingness to pledge eyes for donation was significantly lower in Muslims (OR 0.18; 95% CI: 0.13-0.24) than in Hindus and in subjects =60 years old (OR 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2-0.5). Conclusions: These data show that although only a few had pledged eyes there is enough potential in this population for obtaining many more corneas for transplantation. The information about distribution and demographic associations of awareness and willingness for eye donation could help in developing strategies to increase procurement of corneas for dealing with corneal blindness

Global, regional, and national levels of maternal mortality, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the global community to provide benchmark targets for global development between 2015 and 2030 and to reframe the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to achieve sustainable global development. This report presents data on maternal mortality in 195 countries from 1990 to 2015. Maternal mortality data were categorized in 3 formats, namely, number of deaths, cause-specific mortality rate per capita, and cause fraction. The overall maternal mortality was modeled using cause-of-death ensemble modeling (CODEm). The number of deaths, maternal mortality ratios (MMRs), and 95% uncertainty intervals were reported for all estimates

The Intestinal Microbiota Contributes to the Ability of Helminths to Modulate Allergic Inflammation

We thank Manuel Kulagin for technical help, Pierre Bonnaventure for portal vein blood sampling, Francisco Sepulveda for technical assistance in GS-MS acquisition, and Dorothee Hahne (Metabolomics Australia, University of Western Australia) for human samples SCFA isolation, acquisition, and analysis. We also thank Cristina Cartoni (Phenotyping Unit, EPFL) for Milliplex analysis, Jessica Dessimoz and her team from the Histology Core Facility (EPFL), Miguel Garcia and his team from the Flow Cytometry Core Facility (EPFL), and staff from the EPFL CPG animal house for excellent animal care. The computations were partially performed at the Vital-IT Center for high-performance computing of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (http://www.vital-it.ch). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 310948. Funding for A.W.W. and a subset of the 16S rRNA gene sequencing was provided by the Wellcome Trust (grant number WT 098051). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Deep RNA sequencing of L. monocytogenes reveals overlapping and extensive stationary phase and sigma B-dependent transcriptomes, including multiple highly transcribed noncoding RNAs

BACKGROUND: Identification of specific genes and gene expression patterns important for bacterial survival, transmission and pathogenesis is critically needed to enable development of more effective pathogen control strategies. The stationary phase stress response transcriptome, including many σ(B)-dependent genes, was defined for the human bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) with the Illumina Genome Analyzer. Specifically, bacterial transcriptomes were compared between stationary phase cells of L. monocytogenes 10403S and an otherwise isogenic ΔsigB mutant, which does not express the alternative σ factor σ(B), a major regulator of genes contributing to stress response, including stresses encountered upon entry into stationary phase. RESULTS: Overall, 83% of all L. monocytogenes genes were transcribed in stationary phase cells; 42% of currently annotated L. monocytogenes genes showed medium to high transcript levels under these conditions. A total of 96 genes had significantly higher transcript levels in 10403S than in ΔsigB, indicating σ(B)-dependent transcription of these genes. RNA-Seq analyses indicate that a total of 67 noncoding RNA molecules (ncRNAs) are transcribed in stationary phase L. monocytogenes, including 7 previously unrecognized putative ncRNAs. Application of a dynamically trained Hidden Markov Model, in combination with RNA-Seq data, identified 65 putative σ(B )promoters upstream of 82 of the 96 σ(B)-dependent genes and upstream of the one σ(B)-dependent ncRNA. The RNA-Seq data also enabled annotation of putative operons as well as visualization of 5'- and 3'-UTR regions. CONCLUSIONS: The results from these studies provide powerful evidence that RNA-Seq data combined with appropriate bioinformatics tools allow quantitative characterization of prokaryotic transcriptomes, thus providing exciting new strategies for exploring transcriptional regulatory networks in bacteria. See minireivew http://jbiol.com/content/8/12/107

Using NMR-based metabolomics to evaluate postprandial urinary responses following consumption of minimally processed wheat bran or wheat aleurone by men and women

Wheat bran, and especially wheat aleurone fraction, are concentrated sources of a wide range of components which may contribute to the health benefits associated with higher consumption of whole-grain foods. This study used NMR metabolomics to evaluate urine samples from baseline at one and two hours postprandially, following the consumption of minimally processed bran, aleurone or control by 14 participants (7 Females; 7 Males) in a randomized crossover trial. The methodology discriminated between the urinary responses of control, and bran and aleurone, but not between the two fractions. Compared to control, consumption of aleurone or bran led to significantly and substantially higher urinary concentrations of lactate, alanine, N-acetylaspartate acid and N-acetylaspartylglutamate and significantly and substantially lower urinary betaine concentrations at one and two hours postprandially. There were sex related differences in urinary metabolite profiles with generally higher hippurate and citrate and lower betaine in females compared to males. Overall, this postprandial study suggests that acute consumption of bran or aleurone is associated with a number of physiological effects that may impact on energy metabolism and which are consistent with longer term human and animal metabolomic studies that used whole-grain wheat diets or wheat fractions.peer-reviewe

PROSPECTS OF VEGETABLE OIL DERIVATIVES FOR RURAL AGRICULTURAL ENERGY IN INDIA

Svijet je suočen s dvojnom krizom: krizom nestajanja fosilnih goriva i krizom degradacije okoliša. Alternativna goriva, očuvanje i upravljanje energijom, energetska učinkovitost i zaštita okoliša posljednjih su godina dobili na značenju. Kao alternativa dizel gorivu dosta obećavaju esterificirana biljna ulja koja su ekološki vrlo pogodna. U ruralnoj Indiji potreba za naftom otpada na poljoprivrednu mehanizaciju poput traktora i vršilica. Poljoprivrednici koji posjeduju marginalna i velika zemljišta mogu ispuniti zahtjeve dizel goriva tako da siju uljarice na vlastitoj zemlji. U ovom radu procjenjuje se isplativost lokalne proizvodnje biljnih ulja u jednom malom oglednom selu u središnjoj Indiji. Analiziraju se metilni esteri masnih kiselina iz ulja pamukovog sjemena, sojinog ulja, ulja balanitesa i jatrofina ulja da bi se ustanovila njihova svojstva i radni učinak u dizel motoru, a procjenjuje se i potrebna površina zemljišta za uzgoj tih uljnih kultura kako bi se udovoljilo potrebama seoske poljoprivrede za gorivom. Rezultati pokazuju da kalorična vrijednost metilnih estera iznosi dizela, a i druga su svojstva posve usporediva s dizelom. Analiza radnog učinka metilnih estera u motoru pokazuje neznatno smanjenje toplinske učinkovitosti od oko , dok su emisije smanjene za do u usporedbi s dizelom. Izvršena je i ekonomska analiza te je ustanovljeno da je korištenje derivata biljnih ulja kao zamjene za dizel gorivo skuplje od korištenja mineralnog dizela.The world is confronting the twin crises of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation. Alternative fuels, energy conservation and management, energy efficiency and environmental protection have become increasingly import in recent years. Among alternative fuels, esterified vegetable oils hold good promise as eco-friendly alternatives to diesel fuel. In rural India, of the petroleum diesel requirement is for agricultural equipment such as tractors and threshers. Marginal farmers and large landholders can meet their diesel requirement by sowing oil yielding crops on their own lands. This paper evaluates the feasibility of the local production of vegetable oil for a small representative village in central India. Fatty acid methyl esters of cottonseed oil, soybean oil, balanites oil and jatropha oil were analyzed for their properties and performance in diesel engines. The land required to grow these oil crops in order to meet rural agricultural diesel requirements was estimated. The results indicate that the calorific value of these methyl esters is that of diesel and the other properties are quite comparable with diesel. Engine performance analysis of these methyl esters indicates that there is a slight decrease in thermal efficiency of approximately , while emissions are reduced by to as compared to diesel. Economic analysis was also performed and it was found that vegetable oil derivatives as diesel fuel substitutes are costlier than mineral diesel

Epidural Electrical Stimulation for Stroke Rehabilitation: Results of the Prospective, Multicenter, Randomized, Single-Blinded Everest Trial.

BackgroundThis prospective, single-blinded, multicenter study assessed the safety and efficacy of electrical epidural motor cortex stimulation (EECS) in improving upper limb motor function of ischemic stroke patients with moderate to moderately severe hemiparesis.MethodsPatients ≥ 4 months poststroke were randomized 2:1 to an investigational (n = 104) or control (n = 60) group, respectively. Investigational patients were implanted (n = 94) with an epidural 6-contact lead perpendicular to the primary motor cortex and a pulse generator. Both groups underwent 6 weeks of rehabilitation, but EECS was delivered to investigational patients during rehabilitation. The primary efficacy endpoint (PE) was defined as attaining a minimum improvement of 4.5 points in the upper extremity Fugl-Meyer (UEFM) scale as well as 0.21 points in the Arm Motor Ability Test (AMAT) 4 weeks postrehabilitation. Follow-up assessments were performed 1, 4, 12, and 24 weeks postrehabilitation. Safety was evaluated by monitoring adverse events (AEs) that occurred between enrollment and the end of rehabilitation.ResultsPrimary intent-to-treat analysis showed no group differences at 4 weeks, with PE being met by 32% and 29% of investigational and control patients, respectively (P = .36). Repeated-measures secondary analyses revealed no significant treatment group differences in mean UEFM or AMAT scores. However, post hoc comparisons showed that a greater proportion of investigational (39%) than control (15%) patients maintained or achieved PE (P = .003) at 24 weeks postrehabilitation. Investigational group mean AMAT scores also improved significantly (P < .05) when compared to the control group at 24 weeks postrehabilitation. Post hoc analyses also showed that 69% (n = 9/13) of the investigational patients who elicited movement thresholds during stimulation testing met PE at 4 weeks, and mean UEFM and AMAT scores was also significantly higher (P < .05) in this subgroup at the 4-, 12-, and 24-week assessments when compared to the control group. Headache (19%), pain (13%), swelling (7%), and infection (7%) were the most commonly observed implant procedure-related AEs. Overall, there were 11 serious AEs in 9 investigational group patients (7 procedure related, 4 anesthesia related).ConclusionsThe primary analysis pertaining to efficacy of EECS during upper limb motor rehabilitation in chronic stroke patients was negative at 4 weeks postrehabilitation. A better treatment response was observed in a subset of patients eliciting stimulation induced upper limb movements during motor threshold assessments performed prior to each rehabilitation session. Post hoc comparisons indicated treatment effect differences at 24 weeks, with the control group showing significant decline in the combined primary outcome measure relative to the investigational group. These results have the potential to inform future chronic stroke rehabilitation trial design