A heavy winter monsoon rainfall episode influenced by easterly waves, a westerly trough, blocking and the ITCZ

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Unsteady boundary layer flow of thermophoretic MHD nanofluid past a stretching sheet with space and time dependent internal heat source/sink

In this study we analyze the boundary layer flow of a thermophoretic magnetohydrodynamic dissipative nanofluid over an unsteady stretching sheet in a porous medium with space and time dependent internal heat source/sink. The governing equations are transformed to ordinary differential equations by using similarity transformation. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained by using the Shooting Technique. The effects of non-dimensional governing parameters on the velocity, temperature, concentration profiles, friction factor, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are discussed and presented through graphs and tables. Accuracy of the results compared with the existing ones. Excellent agreement is found with earlier studies

Utilisation of Postnatal Care among Rural Women in Nepal

Background: Postnatal care is uncommon in Nepal, and where it is available the quality is often poor. Adequate utilisation of postnatal care can help reduce mortality and morbidity among mothers and their babies. Therefore, our study assessed the utilisation of postnatal care at a rural community level. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in two neighbouring villages in early 2006. A total of 150 women who had delivered in the previous 24 months were asked to participate in the study using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The proportion of women who had received postnatal care after delivery was low (34%). Less than one in five women (19%) received care within 48 hours of giving birth. Women in one village had less access to postnatal care than women in the neighbouring one. Lack of awareness was the main barrier to the utilisation of postnatal care. The woman's own occupation and ethnicity, the number of pregnancies and children and the husband's socio-economic status, occupation and education were significantly associated with the utilisation of postnatal care. Multivariate analysis showed that wealth as reflected in occupation and having attended antenatal are important factors associated with the uptake of postnatal care. In addition, women experiencing health problems appear strongly motivated to seek postnatal care. Conclusion: The postnatal care has a low uptake and is often regarded as inadequate in Nepal. This is an important message to both service providers and health-policy makers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the actual quality of postnatal care provided. Also there appears to be a need for awareness-raising programmes highlighting the availability of current postnatal care where this is of sufficient quality

A Novel Air-Dried Multiplex High Resolution Melt Assay for the Detection of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase and Carbapenemase Genes.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a novel air-dried high-resolution melt (HRM) assay to detect eight major extended spectrum beta-Lactamase (ESBL) (blaSHV and blaCTXM groups 1 and 9) and carbapenemase (blaNDM, blaIMP, blaKPC, blaVIM and blaOXA-48-like) genes that cause antimicrobial resistance to cephalosporins and carbapenems. METHODS: The assay was evaluated using 439 DNA samples extracted from bacterial isolates from Nepal, Malawi and UK and 390 clinical isolates from Nepal with known antimicrobial susceptibility results. Assay reproducibility was evaluated across five different q-PCR instruments (Rotor-Gene Q, QuantStudioTM 5, CFX96, LightCycler® 480 and MIC). Assay stability was also assessed upon the assay storage in the refrigerator (6.2°C±0.9), room temperature (20.4°C±0.7) and oven (29.7°C±1.4) at six time points for eight months. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity for detecting the ESBL and carbapenemase genes in comparison to the reference gel-base PCR and sequencing was 94.7% (95%CI: 92.5%-96.5%) and 99.2% (95%CI: 98.8%-99.5%), and 98.5% (95%CI: 97.0%-99.4%) and 98.5% (95%CI: 98.0%-98.9%) when compared to the original HRM wet PCR mix format. The overall agreement was 91.1% (95%CI: 90.0%-92.9%) when predicting phenotypic resistance to cefotaxime and meropenem among Enterobacteriaceae isolates. We observed almost perfect inter-machine reproducibility of the air-dried HRM assay and no loss of sensitivity occurred under all storage conditions and time points. CONCLUSIONS: We present here a ready-to-use air-dried HRM-PCR assay that offers an easy, thermostable, fast and accurate tool for the detection of ESBL and carbapenemase genes in DNA samples to improve AMR

Two new functions of inositol in the eye lens: Antioxidation and antiglycation and possible mechanisms

129-133The extent of glycation of human eye lens proteins with glucose in presence of added inositol was examined in vitro using [U 14C] glucose. Lens homogenate was reacted with varying concentrations of glucose and glucose + inositol. At the end of the reaction, the proteins were precipitated with TCA, centrifuged, dissolved in NaOH and the radioactivity was measured. Inositol decreased the glycation by 57-67 %.  Pure inositol and glucose suitably labelled with 3H or 14C when reacted and followed by paper chromatography and HPLC showed that glucosyl inositol was present along with unreacted free glucose. Preliminary studies made of the UV spectra of pure inositol (i) when reacted with H2  O2 showed that inositol removed H2 O2 from the reaction mixture (ii) when reacted with arachidonic acid showed that they formed a conjugate. The observations indicate that the antioxidant property of inositol could be the result of its' quenching action on reactive oxygen, intermediates and conjugate-formation with compounds like arachidonic acid and the antiglycating property due to scavenging of glucose. The antioxidant and the antiglycating properties of inositol may be beneficial in delaying or averting cataract.</span

Evaluation of a Carbonaceous Sorbent Prepared from Pearl Millet Husk for Its Removal of Basic Dyes

971-978The capacity of a carbonaceous sorbent prepared from Pearl Millet Husk (PMHC), an agricultural byproduct to remove basic dyes was evaluated by choosing Methylene blue as the test dye. Batch-mode adsorption studies were carried out systematically, involving process parameters, such as agitation time, initial dye concentration, carbon dose, and pH. The adsorption followed a simple first order kinetic equation given by Lagergren and the rate was controlled by both film and intra-particle diffusion processes, isotherm analyses of the equilibrium data involving Freundlich, Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson models have shown that Freundlich model fits well with the experimental data more precisely, although reasonably better fit was obtained for Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson isotherm models. The adsorption parameters were obtained by non-linear optimization method and the adsorption capacity derived from Langmuir isotherm model was 82.37 mg/g. The influence of pH on dye removal was insignificant and a portion of the dye was recovered from the spent carbon in organic medium

Insulin receptor tyrosine kinase activity in monocytes of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients receiving oral L-lysine

331-334The action of lysine as an antidiabetic agent was examined in human volunteers. Eight patients with type 2 DM were orally supplemented with L- lysine hydrochloride lg /day in two doses along with antidiabetic tablets (glyciphage &nbsp;or chlorformine), for a period of two months. Periodically their plasma fasting sugar and insulin receptor tyrosine kinase activity was measured in their monocytes. Eight normal healthy volunteers served as controls for comparison of receptor tyrosine kinase activity. Insulin receptor tyrosine kinase was isolated from monocytes by immunoprecipitation and the activity was determined using exogenous substrate poly glu-tyr (4: 1) and radioactive ATP. Phosphorylated peptide was separated by electrophoresis and quantified using a liquid scintillation system. The enzyme activity was significantly low (22074±1728 dpm/ml immunoprecipitate) in subjects with diabetes when compared to non-diabetic control group (50,775 ± 3597). Lysine treatment enhanced the enzyme activity by 31 % in patients with diabetes and decreased their blood sugar by 27%