Influence of light on serum cholesterol levels in complete (by birth) blind people

Background: With blindness normal stimulation of the hypothalamic pituitary axis is reduced. The serum cholesterol is frequently increased the upper limit of normal it is unclear whether the effect is due to complete absence of light, HPA axis function reduction or diurnal variation of melatonin levels.Methods: A self-administered questionnaire ascertained lifestyle characteristics, including alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus and dietary habits. Inclusion criteria: 50 complete blindness persons (by birth), healthy adults, Age group between 30-50 years. Exclusion area: age 50, alcoholic, liver diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes mellitus, thyroid diseases.Results: A total No of 100 cases were studied by dividing them into two groups controls 50 and cases 50. The results so obtain were compared with 50 healthy controls (excluded consumed alcoholic, liver diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes mellitus, thyroid diseases.). Statistical evaluation was carried out to confirm any deviation from the normal values. The mean serum cholesterol of Cases (298.28±26.82) is having higher level as compared to the mean value of controls (153.38±11.79). This increase is statistically highly significant (<0.0001).Conclusions: It has been shown from this study with blindness normal stimulation of the HPA is reduced consequently the serum cholesterol is frequently increased the concentration may exceed the upper limit of normal. On this basis we observed increases the upper limit of the cholesterol levels in blind healthy people than subjects with normal healthy light perception

Estimation of serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, gamma-glutamyl transferase and cholesterol levels in prolonged (30 years) daily consumption coffee in people

Background: Although prolonged (30years) coffee consumption has been associated with reduced or increased frequency of liver (SGOT, SGPT, GGT) enzymes and cholesterol levels, it is unclear whether the effect is from coffee or caffeine.Methods: A self-administered questionnaire ascertained lifestyle characteristics, including alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, Diabetes mellitus and Dietary habits. As for drinking habit, examinees were first asked about their current drinking frequency (none, 1-2 times/ week, or almost daily) past or current smokers about the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the duration of smoking in years. As regards coffee, examinees were asked their usual daily intake in cups.Results: A total No of 200 cases were studied by dividing them into two group’s controls and cases. The results so obtain were compared with 50 healthy controls (not to consumed caffeine contained things that include nor coffee, tea, any type of cola’s). Statistical evaluation was carried out to confirm any deviation from the normal values. In men the mean serum SGOT, SGPT, GGT and cholesterol of cases is having higher level as compared to the mean value of controls. This increase is statistically highly significant (SGOT<0.0001, SGPT=0.045, GGT=0.0043, cholesterol<0.0001). In women’s the mean serum SGOT, SGPT, GGT and cholesterol of Cases is having higher level as compared to the mean value of Controls. This increase is statistically significant (SGOT< 0.05, SGPT=0.0319, GGT <0.0001, cholesterol: <0.0001).Conclusion: It has been shown from this study that prolonged daily consumption of coffee in many people it results increasing of levels of serum concentrations of the SGOT, SGPT, GGT and Cholesterol. It is observed that liver enzymes and cholesterol could be a target for caffeine or other components of coffee.

Potential removal of phenol using modified laterite adsorbent

613-619Phenol is a notorious persistent bioaccumulative toxic substance. Being a primary pollutant, phenol has to be removed completely due to its toxicity even at low concentrations. Now-a-days the use of low cost adsorbents for the effective removal of contaminants from waste water poses a big challenge to the researchers. Modified laterite, a cheap and effective adsorbent was chosen as the adsorbent in the present study. The experiments were carried out to identify optimum values of different parameters that influence the process such as contact time, pH, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage etc. The kinetics of the adsorption process were also studied and found that pseudo second order model was the good fit. Three different isotherm models, viz., Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin were applied and observed that Freundlich model was obeyed with good agreement. The investigation shows that modified laterite as a low cost adsorbent, can efficiently remove phenol from waste water

Potential removal of phenol using modified laterite adsorbent

Phenol is a notorious persistent bioaccumulative toxic substance. Being a primary pollutant, phenol has to be removed completely due to its toxicity even at low concentrations. Now-a-days the use of low cost adsorbents for the effective removal of contaminants from waste water poses a big challenge to the researchers. Modified laterite, a cheap and effective adsorbent was chosen as the adsorbent in the present study. The experiments were carried out to identify optimum values of different parameters that influence the process such as contact time, pH, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage etc. The kinetics of the adsorption process were also studied and found that pseudo second order model was the good fit. Three different isotherm models, viz., Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin were applied and observed that Freundlich model was obeyed with good agreement. The investigation shows that modified laterite as a low cost adsorbent, can efficiently remove phenol from waste water

Evidence for the association between FTO gene variants and vitamin B12 concentrations in an Asian Indian population

Background Low vitamin B12 concentrations have been associated with major clinical outcomes, including adiposity, in Indian populations. The Fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) is an established obesity-susceptibility locus; however, it remains unknown whether it influences vitamin B12 status. Hence, we investigated the association of two previously studied FTO polymorphisms with vitamin B12 concentrations and metabolic disease-related outcomes and examined whether these associations were modified by dietary factors and physical activity. Methods A total of 176 individuals with type 2 diabetes, 152 with pre-diabetes, and 220 normal glucose-tolerant individuals were randomly selected from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study. Anthropometric, clinical, and biochemical investigations, which included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, vitamin B12, homocysteine, and folic acid were measured. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used for dietary assessment and self-reported physical activity measures were collected. An unweighted genetic risk score (GRS) was calculated for two FTO single-nucleotide polymorphisms (rs8050136 and rs2388405) by summation of the number of risk alleles for obesity. Interaction analyses were performed by including the interaction terms in the regression model. Results The GRS was significantly associated with increased BMI (P = 0.009) and risk of obesity (P = 0.023). Individuals carrying more than one risk allele for the GRS had 13.13% lower vitamin B12 concentrations, compared to individuals carrying zero risk alleles (P = 0.018). No associations between the GRS and folic acid and homocysteine concentrations were observed. Furthermore, no statistically significant GRS-diet or GRS-physical activity interactions with vitamin B12, folic acid, homocysteine or metabolic-disease outcomes were observed. Conclusion The study shows for the first time that a genetic risk score using two FTO SNPs is associated with lower vitamin B12 concentrations; however, we did not identify any evidence for the influence of lifestyle factors on this association. Further replication studies in larger cohorts are warranted to investigate the association between the GRS and vitamin B12 concentrations

Special Issue 01

ABSTRACT 1.INTRODUCTION Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are being developed actively and deployed widely for a variety of applications, such as public safety, environment monitoring, and citywide wireless Internet services. The wireless backbone, consisting of wireless mesh routers equipped with one or more radio interfaces, highly affects the capacity of the mesh network. This has a significant impact on the overall performance of the system, thus generating extensive research in order to tackle the specific challenges of the WMN. This configuration adversely affects the capacity of the mesh due to interference from adjacent nodes in the network. Directional antennas and modified MAC protocols make the practical deployment of such solutions infeasible on a wide scale, the main issue in using multiple channels with a single radio is that dynamic channel switching requires tight time synchronization between the nodes. The protocol makes use of the knowledge of network topology by utilizing selective flooding of control messages in a portion of the network. In this way, broadcasting of control messages is avoided and thus the chances of network congestion and disruption of the flows in the network are reduced. A typical WMN application consists of three levels: wired networks, the WMN backbone, and mesh clients. Wired networks contain most resources in WMNs, such as file servers, file transfer protocol servers, etc. The WMN backbone is a collection of static wireless mesh routers. Traffic loads between the wired network and mobile users in mesh clients are transmitted by the WMN backbone in a multihop manner. Mesh clients can connect to the WMN backbone by establishing either wired or wireless links with mesh routers. WMN architecture as shown i

Assessing village-level carbon balance due to greenhouse gas mitigation interventions using EX-ACT model

Under National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, a range of climate smart agricultural practices were evaluated with on-farm demonstrations during 2011–2013 in eight climatically vulnerable villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. Proven climate smart practices viz residue recycling, soil, water and nutrient management, afforestation and feeding + breeding practices in livestock were implemented in annual and perennial crops, irrigated rice, horticulture, fodder, forestry and livestock. An EX-ante carbon-balance tool (EX-ACT) developed by the FAO was used with a combination of various climate smart interventions to know the mitigation potentials in eight climatically vulnerable villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. Based on our observations, EX-ACT model had shown that these practices were effective to mitigate CO2 emissions apart from enhancing soil productivity. In Nacharam, Yagantipalli, Sirusuwada and Matsyapuri villages, climate smart practices implemented in annual crops along with crop residue recycling, crop and water management practices resulted in negative carbon (C) balance by −16,410, −8851, −7271 and −6125 t CO2 e, respectively. The EX-ACT model predicted positive carbon balance with irrigated module in the rice-growing villages of Sirusuwada and Matsyapuri villages. The negative values suggest a sink, and positive values a source for CO2 emissions. In Chamaluru village, although there were CO2 emissions (source) due to livestock and non-forest and land use changes, there was a carbon sink due to other activities as predicted by the model. The results suggested that various climatic smart practices at the village level were successful in creating net sink of CO2 emissions (t CO2 e)

Lower dietary intake of plant protein is associated with genetic risk of diabetes-related traits in urban Asian Indian adults

The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes among South Asians is caused by a complex interplay between environmental and genetic factors. We aimed to examine the impact of dietary and genetic factors on metabolic traits in 1062 Asian Indians. Dietary assessment was performed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Transcription factor 7-like 2 and fat mass and obesity-associated genes were used to construct two metabolic genetic risk scores (GRS): 7-SNP and 3-SNP GRSs. Both 7-SNP GRS and 3-SNP GRS were associated with a higher risk of T2D (p = 0.0000134 and 0.008, respectively). The 3-SNP GRS was associated with higher waist circumference (p = 0.010), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (p = 0.002) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) (p = 0.000066). There were significant interactions between 3-SNP GRS and protein intake (% of total energy intake) on FPG (Pinteraction = 0.011) and HbA1c (Pinteraction = 0.007), where among individuals with lower plant protein intake (1 risk allele had higher FPG (p = 0.001) and HbA1c (p = 0.00006) than individuals with ≤1 risk allele. Our findings suggest that lower plant protein intake may be a contributor to the increased ethnic susceptibility to diabetes described in Asian Indians. Randomised clinical trials with increased plant protein in the diets of this population are needed to see whether the reduction of diabetes risk occurs in individuals with prediabetes