Biological activities of aerial parts of Paeonia emodi wall

The ethanolic extract derived from the aerial parts of Paeonia emodi was screened for various in vitro biological activities including antifungal, antibacterial, insecticidal, phytotoxic and haemagglutination activities. General toxicity (brine shrimp lethality assay) of this extract has also been assessed. The extract was found to possess excellent phytotoxicity against Lemna minor L., moderate heamagglutination activity against human erythrocytes and reasonable insecticidal activity against Bruchus pisorum. The crude extract did not display any antifungal or antibacterial activity against the fungi and bacteria used in this study. No significant general toxicity was observed with the extract at tested concentrations

Correlates of socioeconomic status and the health of older people in the United Kingdom: a review

This paper reviews the existing literature on the association between the socio-economic status (SES) and the health of the ageing population in the United Kingdom (UK). It has been noted that socio-economic differentials are more marked across the UK than they are in other developed countries. Social class gradients are significant in health for working age people (up to age 65), whereas studies on older populations have so far been limited so as to draw any robust conclusions. In this paper, we examine the inequalities through selected SES indicators in order to tease out the effects on health outcomes of the older population. We critically review the physical and mental health indicators of older people in the UK with regard to their SES differentials. The findings reveal that older people with lower SES are more likely to experience poorer health outcomes (for example, long-standing illness or increased disability) and have shorter life expectancy compared to those of higher SES. We illustrate how education remains the single most important determinant of health inequality in later life. We suggest that educational level or occupational class allied with material deprivation offer the best combined indicators of SES for studying health inequalities among older people. The findings of this paper has profound implications for prioritising policies to improve the health and wellbeing of elderly people with lower SES and go offer an evidence base of how to understand and to develop interventions that minimise the inequalities in health in later life in the UK

Petrogenetic evolution of pegmatites of the Shigar valley, Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 A

Socio-economic inequalities in health among older adults in two rural sub-districts in India and Bangladesh: a comparative cross-sectional study

Health inequalities have been observed among older people in many developing countries, particularly among those with least social protection and low socio-economic (SES) status. This study attempted to examine effects of SES on the health of older adults, and related gender differences, in two rural sub-districts - Matlab, Bangladesh and Vadu, India. The study utilised the WHO SAGE INDEPTH Wave 1, 2007 Matlab, Bangladesh and Vadu, Pune District, India datasets. Both gender and SES indicators were strongly associated with all health indicators of older adults in the Bangladesh site, whereas in India, education and asset quintiles were not consistently associated with self-rated health, quality of life and functional ability score but gender was consistently associated with all health indicators except the quality of life score. The SES-health gradient was noticeably higher amongst older adults in Matlab, Bangladesh than in Vadu, India. Education was also found to be an important predictor of health outcome in both sites

Nucleon sigma term and strange quark content from lattice QCD with exact chiral symmetry

We calculate the nucleon sigma term in two-flavor lattice QCD utilizing the Feynman-Hellman theorem. Both sea and valence quarks are described by the overlap fermion formulation, which preserves exact chiral and flavor symmetries on the lattice. We analyse the lattice data for the nucleon mass using the analytical formulae derived from the baryon chiral perturbation theory. From the data at valence quark mass set different from sea quark mass, we may extract the sea quark contribution to the sigma term, which corresponds to the strange quark content. We find that the strange quark content is much smaller than the previous lattice calculations and phenomenological estimates.Comment: 27 page

Chiral Perturbation Theory and Finite Size Effects on the Nucleon Mass in unquenched QCD

We calculate finite size effects on nucleon masses in chiral perturbation theory. We confront the theoretical predictions with N_f=2 lattice results and discuss chiral extrapolation formulae.Comment: talk at Lattice 03 (spectrum), 3 pages latex, 3 figures. Assignment of 2 data points to incorrect data sets in plot 1 and of 1 data point in plot 2 corrected. 1 fm lattice result updated. Conclusions unchange

BB Decay Constants from NRQCD with Dynamical Fermions

We present a lattice investigation of the heavy-light meson decay constants using Wilson light quarks and NRQCD heavy quarks, partially including the effects of dynamical sea quarks. We calculate the pseudoscalar and vector decay constants over a wide range in heavy quark mass and are able to perform a detailed analysis of heavy quark symmetry. We find consistency between the extrapolation of the NRQCD results and the static case, as expected. We find the slope of the decay constants with $1/M$ is significantly larger than naive expectations and the results of previous lattice calculations. For the first time we extract the non-perturbative coefficients of the slope arising from the $O(1/M)$ heavy quark interactions separately and show the kinetic energy of the heavy quark is dominant and responsible for the large slope. In addition, we find that significant systematic errors remain in the decay constant extracted around the $B$ meson mass due to truncating the NRQCD series at $O(1/M)$. We estimate the higher order contributions to $f_B$ are approximately $20\%$; roughly the same size as the systematic errors introduced by using the Wilson action for light quarks.Comment: 30 pages, Latex, 14 postscript figure

Characterization of pathogenic mutations in 21-hydroxylase gene of Pakistani patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia and their family members--a preliminary report

Objective: To characterize specific mutations within the 21-hydroxylase gene (CYP21-B) using ARMS-PCR assay in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and to compare it with that reported in other populations. Subjects and Methods: Five families, having an index case with CAH diagnosed on the basis of clinical and biochemical findings volunteered to give blood samples for analysis. A strategy, based on ARMS-PCR (Amplified Refractory Mutation System) was employed for the detection of mutations in 21-hydroxylase gene. The products of ARMS-PCR were resolved on agarose gels and the PCR products were visualized over ultra violet illumination. Results: Twenty-six specimens were analyzed for common point mutations in the 21-hydroxlase genes at the nucleotide positions 659, 1004 and 1688. Seven samples belonged to index cases with CAH. Of these 7, the assigned sex was male in 5 and female in 2 cases. However, genotypic sex was 3 males and 4 females. The mean age was 8 months in 5 cases while the median 17-OH Progesterone levels was 273.2 ng/ml. Vomiting, precocious puberty and ambiguous genitalia were the presenting features in 2, 1 and 4 cases respectively. Analysis for mutation at 659, 100 and 1688 was performed on 7 index cases and the family members of 5 index cases. The mutation analysis for the family members of index case 6 and 7 was not performed due to non-availability of their blood specimens. Index case No. 1, 4 and 7 showed homozygosity for splice mutations at nucleotide position 659, intron 2 with a sequence change of A to G, while the index case No. 2 and 6 showed heterozygosity for the same mutation. No mutation was found at 659, 1004 or 1688 in index case No. 3 and 4 at the analyzed nucleotide position. Nineteen family members of Case Nos. 1-5 were also analyzed for the same mutations. (Family No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 included 3, 2, 7, 4 and 5 members respectively). These included 8 males and 11 females. All were asymptomatic. Both the parents of index case 1 and 4 were heterozygous at 659 while the father of index case No. 2 was heterozygous at 659 and mother was normal. Conculsion: Our results demonstrated the A to G transition at nucleotide 659 causing aberrant splicing, reported for some other populations as the most commonly identified point mutations. All cases were appropriately assigned to paternal or maternal chromosomes