Environmental set-up and tidal propagation in a tropical estuary with dual connection to the sea (SW Coast of India)

The Kochi Backwater (KB) is the second largest wetland system in India. It is connected to the sea at Fort Kochi and Munambam (Pallipuram) (30 km north of Kochi). As the tide is forced through two openings, its propagation in the backwater system is very complicated, particularly in the northern arm of the estuary. Using synchronous water level (WL) and current measurements in the KB from a network of stations during 2007-2008, it was convenient to demarcate the northern KB into two distinct regions according to the tidal forcing from the north (Pallipuram) and south (Vallarpadam). This demarcation is useful for computing the propagation speeds of the dominant tidal constituents in the northern branch of the KB with dual opening for opposing tides. WL variations indicated that M 2 tide (Principal lunar semidiurnal constituent) dominated in the sea level variance, followed by the K 1 constituent (Luni-solar declinational diurnal constituent). The M 2 tidal influence was the strongest near the mouth and decayed in the upstream direction. The propagation speed of the M 2 tide in the southern estuary was ~3.14 m/s. The ratio of the total annual runoff to the estuarine volume is ~42 that indicates the estuary will be flushed 42 times in a year. KB can be classified as a monsoonal estuary where the river discharge exhibits large seasonal variation

Effect of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) intake on glycemia: A meta-analysis of clinical trials

10.1186/1475-2891-13-7Nutrition Journal131

Evaluation of bleach-sedimentation for sterilising and concentrating Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum specimens

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background Bleach-sedimentation may improve microscopy for diagnosing tuberculosis by sterilising sputum and concentrating Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We studied gravity bleach-sedimentation effects on safety, sensitivity, speed and reliability of smear-microscopy. Methods This blinded, controlled study used sputum specimens (n = 72) from tuberculosis patients. Bleach concentrations and exposure times required to sterilise sputum (n = 31) were determined. In the light of these results, the performance of 5 gravity bleach-sedimentation techniques that sterilise sputum specimens (n = 16) were compared. The best-performing of these bleach-sedimentation techniques involved adding 1 volume of 5% bleach to 1 volume of sputum, shaking for 10-minutes, diluting in 8 volumes distilled water and sedimenting overnight before microscopy. This technique was further evaluated by comparing numbers of visible acid-fast bacilli, slide-reading speed and reliability for triplicate smears before versus after bleach-sedimentation of sputum specimens (n = 25). Triplicate smears were made to increase precision and were stained using the Ziehl-Neelsen method. Results M. tuberculosis in sputum was successfully sterilised by adding equal volumes of 15% bleach for 1-minute, 6% for 5-minutes or 3% for 20-minutes. Bleach-sedimentation significantly decreased the number of acid-fast bacilli visualised compared with conventional smears (geometric mean of acid-fast bacilli per 100 microscopy fields 166, 95%CI 68-406, versus 346, 95%CI 139-862, respectively; p = 0.02). Bleach-sedimentation diluted paucibacillary specimens less than specimens with higher concentrations of visible acid-fast bacilli (p = 0.02). Smears made from bleach-sedimented sputum were read more rapidly than conventional smears (9.6 versus 11.2 minutes, respectively, p = 0.03). Counting conventional acid-fast bacilli had high reliability (inter-observer agreement, r = 0.991) that was significantly reduced (p = 0.03) by bleach-sedimentation (to r = 0.707) because occasional strongly positive bleach-sedimented smears were misread as negative. Conclusions Gravity bleach-sedimentation improved laboratory safety by sterilising sputum but decreased the concentration of acid-fast bacilli visible on microscopy, especially for sputum specimens containing high concentrations of M. tuberculosis. Bleach-sedimentation allowed examination of more of each specimen in the time available but decreased the inter-observer reliability with which slides were read. Thus bleach-sedimentation effects vary depending upon specimen characteristics and whether microscopy was done for a specified time, or until a specified number of microscopy fields had been read. These findings provide an explanation for the contradictory results of previous studies.Peer Reviewe

Hostility, Physical Aggression and Trait Anger as Predictors for Suicidal Behavior in Chinese Adolescents: A School-Based Study

Purpose: This study explored the extent to which trait aggression is associated with suicidal behavior in a nationwide school-based sample of adolescents. Methods: A nationwide sample of 14,537 high school students in urban areas of China was recruited. Information concerning suicide ideation, plans, attempts, trait aggression and other risk factors was collected by a self-reported questionnaire. Multivariate regression analyses were employed to predict suicidal behavior. Results: Approximately 18.5 % of students reported suicide ideation, 8.7 % reported suicide plans, and 4.1 % reported attempts during the past one year. Hostility and trait anger had a significant positive association with suicidal ideation. Hostility and physical aggression were positively related to suicide plans. Hostility had a positive correlation with suicide attempts, while trait anger was inversely associated with suicide attempts. Conclusions: This study suggests that hostility, physical aggression and trait anger may be able to be used to predict suicidal behavior among adolescents. Suicide prevention programs should target at attenuating the severity of hostility, anger and physical aggression. But teachers and parents should also give close attention to students with low trait anger

Quantitation of circulating immune complexes in patients with chronic periapical lesions.

Quantitation of circulating immune complexes (CIC) was done in 45 patients with chronic periapical lesions. The levels were compared with those of age-matched healthy individuals. Both patients with chronic periapical granuloma and periapical cysts showed significantly higher levels of CIC than the controls. This observation indicates that the continuous presence of root canal antigens may cause elevated levels of circulating immune complexes. The possibility of chronic periapical lesions acting as foci of infection is discussed, and the importance of early treatment of these conditions is emphasized.Dental College, Trivandrum, Indi

Smoking cessation among diabetes patients: results of a pilot randomized controlled trial in Kerala, India

Abstract Background India has the second largest diabetic population (61 million) and tobacco users (275 million) in the world. Data on smoking cessation among diabetic patients are limited in low and middle income countries. The objective of the study was to document the effectiveness of diabetic specific smoking cessation counseling by a non-doctor health professional in addition to a cessation advice to quit, delivered by doctors. Methods In our parallel-group randomized controlled trial, we selected 224 adult diabetes patients aged 18 years or older who smoked in the last month, from two diabetes clinics in South India. Using a computer generated random sequence with block size four; the patients were randomized equally into intervention-1 and intervention-2 groups. Patients in both groups were asked and advised to quit smoking by a doctor and distributed diabetes specific education materials. The intervention-2 group received an additional diabetes specific 30 minutes counseling session using the 5As (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist and Arrange), and 5 Rs (Relevance, Risks, Rewards, Roadblocks and Repetition) from a non-doctor health professional. Follow up data were available for 87.5% of patients at six months. The Quit Tobacco International Project is supported by a grant from the Fogarty International Centre of the US National Institutes of Health (RO1TW005969-01). The primary outcomes were quit rate (seven day smoking abstinence) and harm reduction (reduction of the number of cigarettes / bidis smoked per day > 50% of baseline use) at six months. Results In the intention to treat analysis, the odds for quitting was 8.4 [95% confidence interval (CI): 4.1-17.1] for intervention-2 group compared to intervention-1 group. Even among high level smokers the odds of quitting was similar. The odds of harm reduction was 1.9 (CI: 0.8-4.1) for intervention-2 group compared to intervention-1 group. Conclusions The value addition of culturally sensitive diabetic specific cessation counseling sessions delivered by non-doctor health professional was an impressive and efficacious way of preventing smoking related diabetic complications. Trial Registration Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI/2012/01/002327)</p