राजी सेठ' का कथा साहित्य : समग्र अनुशीलन

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Prevalence of diabetes mellitus among tuberculosis patients attending a directly observed treatment-short-course center in Delhi, India

Background: Diabetes (DM) can worsen the clinical course of tuberculosis (TB) and treatment outcomes in terms of increased deaths, treatment failure, and relapse rates. This study investigated the prevalence of DM in TB patients at an urban primary health centre (UPHC), Delhi and the factors associated with it.Methods: A record-based study of all TB patients registered from December 2019 to November 2020 at a directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) center of a UPHC in Delhi was conducted. Information regarding socio-demographic details and disease profile, diabetes status and random blood sugar level was collected from patients’ treatment cards. Data were entered and analyzed in SPSS. Descriptive analysis was done.Results: A total of 252 patients were registered at the DOTS center during one year and data for all of them were analyzed. The mean age of the study participants at the time of the study was 31.13±15.84 years, half of them were males (56%) and the site of the disease was predominantly pulmonary (61%). Out of 252 TB patients, 17 (7%) and 2 (1%) were diabetics and pre-diabetics respectively.Conclusions: Those patients with age more than 30 years, pulmonary TB, sputum positive TB are the factors with statistically significant association with diabetes in our study

Negative index fishnet with nanopillars formed by direct nano-imprint lithography

In this paper we demonstrate the ability to fabricate fishnets by nanoimprinting directly into a pre-deposited three layer metal–dielectric–metal stack, enabling us to pattern large areas in two minutes. We have designed and fabricated two different fishnet structures of varying dimensions using this method and measured their resonant wavelengths in the near-infrared at 1.45 μm and 1.88 μm. An important by-product of directly imprinting into the metal–dielectric stack, without separation from the substrate, is the formation of rectangular nanopillars that sit within the rectangular apertures between the fishnet slabs. Simulations complement our measurements and suggest a negative refractive index real part with a magnitude of 1.6. Further simulations suggest that if the fishnet were to be detached from the supporting substrate a refractive index real part of 5 and FOM of 2.74 could be obtained

Comparative antimicrobial activity of clove and fennel essential oils against food borne pathogenic fungi and food spoilage bacteria

Antifungal and antibacterial activities of essential oils obtained from fennel seeds (Feoniculum vulgare Mill) and clove buds (Syzygium aromaticum) were studied by agar well dilution technique. Both essential oils (EOs) from fennel and clove exhibited pronounced and varying degrees of growth inhibition against fungal (86 to 39%) and bacterial pathogens (42 to 20%). Fennel oil depicted significant and greater fungitoxicity in case of three fungal strains Alternaria alternate (7.7, 3.8 cm) Fusarium oxysporum (5.9, 4.1 cm) and Aspergillus flavus (4.5, 3.7 cm) except two Aspergillus strains, Aspergillus acculeatus and Apergillus fumigatus where clove oil showed greater inhibition zone (5.5, 5.9 cm) (3.5, 3.7 cm) respectively. A. alternate was found to be most sensitive strain, which growth was suppressed up to 86% by fennel seeds oil. Bactericidal activity of culinary spices was evaluated against five food spoilage bacteria namely: Pseudomonas syringae, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus sp., and Aeromicrobium erythreum. Fennel oil was found fairly active against bacterial strains as compared to clove oil with highest antibacterial activity against Gram positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis (3.8 cm) and least against Gram negative bacteria E. coli (2.2 cm). The summarizing results from the present investigation showed that fennel seeds oil is a relatively stronger antimicrobial agent against broad range of pathogens as compared to clove oil, except in case of certain Aspergillus strains and E. coli.Key words: Food spoilage, anti-bacterial, pathogenic fungi, clove, fennel, essential oil

Integrated 3D Hydrogel Waveguide Out-Coupler by Step-and-Repeat Thermal Nanoimprint Lithography: A Promising Sensor Device for Water and pH

Hydrogel materials offer many advantages for chemical and biological sensoring due to their response to a small change in their environment with a related change in volume. Several designs have been outlined in the literature in the specific field of hydrogel-based optical sensors, reporting a large number of steps for their fabrication. In this work we present a three-dimensional, hydrogel-based sensor the structure of which is fabricated in a single step using thermal nanoimprint lithography. The sensor is based on a waveguide with a grating readout section. A specific hydrogel formulation, based on a combination of PEGDMA (Poly(Ethylene Glycol DiMethAcrylate)), NIPAAm (N-IsoPropylAcrylAmide), and AA (Acrylic Acid), was developed. This stimulus-responsive hydrogel is sensitive to pH and to water. Moreover, the hydrogel has been modified to be suitable for fabrication by thermal nanoimprint lithography. Once stimulated, the hydrogel-based sensor changes its topography, which is characterised physically by AFM and SEM, and optically using a specific optical set-up

Oral health education (advice and training) for people with seriousmental illness (Review)

This article will be made Open Access on the publisher's webpage (follow the DOI link) on the 8 September 2016.Background People with serious mental illness not only experience an erosion of functioning in day-to-day life over a protracted period of time, but evidence also suggests that they have a greater risk of experiencing oral disease and greater oral treatment needs than the general population. Poor oral hygiene has been linked to coronary heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory disease and impacts on quality of life, affecting everyday functioning such as eating, comfort, appearance, social acceptance, and self esteem. Oral health, however, is often not seen as a priority in people suffering with serious mental illness. Objectives To review the effects of oral health education (advice and training) with or without monitoring for people with serious mental illness. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group’s Trials Register (5November 2015), which is based on regular searches ofMEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, BIOSIS, AMED, PubMed, PsycINFO, and clinical trials registries. There are no language, date, document type, or publication status limitations for inclusion of records in the register. Selection criteria All randomised clinical trials focusing on oral health education (advice and training) with or without monitoring for people with serious mental illness. Data collection and analysis We extracted data independently. For binary outcomes, we calculated risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI), on an intention-to-treat basis. For continuous data, we estimated the mean difference (MD) between groups and its 95% CI. We employed a fixed-effect model for analyses. We assessed risk of bias for included studies and created ’Summary of findings’ tables using GRADE. Main results We included three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving 1358 participants. None of the studies provided useable data for the key outcomes of not having seen a dentist in the past year, not brushing teeth twice a day, chronic pain, clinically important adverse events, and service use. Data for leaving the study early and change in plaque index scores were provided. Oral health education compared with standard care When ’oral health education’ was compared with ’standard care’, there was no clear difference between the groups for numbers leaving the study early (1 RCT, n = 50, RR 1.67, 95%CI 0.45 to 6.24, moderate-quality evidence), while for dental state: no clinically important change in plaque index, an effect was found. Although this was statistically significant and favoured the intervention group, it is unclear if it was clinically important (1 RCT, n = 40, MD - 0.50 95% CI - 0.62 to - 0.38, very low quality evidence).These limited data may have implications regarding improvement in oral hygiene. Motivational interview + oral health education compared with oral health education Similarly, when ’motivational interview + oral health education’ was compared with ’oral health education’, there was no clear difference for the outcome of leaving the study early (1 RCT, n = 60 RR 3.00, 95% CI 0.33 to 27.23, moderate-quality evidence), while for dental state: no clinically important change in plaque index, an effect favouring the intervention group was found (1 RCT, n = 56, MD - 0.60 95% CI - 1.02 to - 0.18 very low-quality evidence). These limited, clinically opaque data may or may not have implications regarding improvement in oral hygiene. Monitoring compared with no monitoring For this comparison, only data for leaving the study early were available. We found a difference in numbers leaving early, favouring the ’no monitoring’ group (1 RCT, n = 1682, RR 1.07, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.14, moderate-quality evidence). However, these data are problematic. The control denominator is implied and not clear, and follow-up did not depend only on individual participants, but also on professional caregivers and organisations - the latter changing frequently resulting in poor follow-up, but not a good reflection of the acceptability of the monitoring to patients. For this comparison, no data were available for ’no clinically important change in plaque index’. Authors’ conclusions We found no evidence from trials that oral health advice helps people with serious mental illness in terms of clinically meaningful outcomes. It makes sense to follow guidelines and recommendations such as those put forward by the British Society for Disability and Oral Health working group until better evidence is generated. Pioneerin

Differentially Private Release of Heterogeneous Network for Managing Healthcare Data

With the increasing adoption of digital health platforms through mobile apps and online services, people have greater flexibility connecting with medical practitioners, pharmacists, and laboratories and accessing resources to manage their own health-related concerns. Many healthcare institutions are connecting with each other to facilitate the exchange of healthcare data, with the goal of effective healthcare data management. The contents generated over these platforms are often shared with third parties for a variety of purposes. However, sharing healthcare data comes with the potential risk of exposing patients’ sensitive information to privacy threats. In this article we address the challenge of sharing healthcare data while protecting patients’ privacy. We first model a complex healthcare dataset using a heterogeneous information network that consists of multi-type entities and their relationships. We then propose DiffHetNet , an edge-based differentially private algorithm, to protect the sensitive links of patients from inbound and outbound attacks in the heterogeneous health network. We evaluate the performance of our proposed method in terms of information utility and efficiency on different types of real-life datasets that can be modeled as networks. Experimental results suggest that DiffHetNet generally yields less information loss and is significantly more efficient in terms of runtime in comparison with existing network anonymization methods. Furthermore, DiffHetNet is scalable to large network datasets

Percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty in the era of transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a narrative review

The role of percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) in the management of severe symptomatic aortic stenosis has come under the spotlight following the development of the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) technique. Previous indications for BAV were limited to symptom palliation and as a bridge to definitive therapy for patients undergoing conventional surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). In the TAVI era, BAV may also be undertaken to assess the ‘therapeutic response’ of a reduction in aortic gradient in borderline patients often with multiple comorbidities, to assess symptomatic improvement prior to consideration of definitive TAVI intervention. This narrative review aims to update the reader on the current indications and practical techniques involved in undertaking a BAV procedure. In addition, a summary of the haemodynamic and clinical outcomes, as well as the frequently encountered procedural complications is presented for BAV procedures conducted during both the pre-TAVI and post-TAVI era

Does co-transcriptional regulation of alternative splicing mediate plant stress responses?

Plants display exquisite control over gene expression to elicit appropriate responses under normal and stress conditions. Alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNAs, a process that generates two or more transcripts from multi-exon genes, adds another layer of regulation to fine-tune condition-specific gene expression in animals and plants. However, exactly how plants control splice isoform ratios and the timing of this regulation in response to environmental signals remains elusive. In mammals, recent evidence indicate that epigenetic and epitranscriptome changes, such as DNA methylation, chromatin modifications and RNA methylation, regulate RNA polymerase II processivity, co-transcriptional splicing, and stability and translation efficiency of splice isoforms. In plants, the role of epigenetic modifications in regulating transcription rate and mRNA abundance under stress is beginning to emerge. However, the mechanisms by which epigenetic and epitranscriptomic modifications regulate AS and translation efficiency require further research. Dynamic changes in the chromatin landscape in response to stress may provide a scaffold around which gene expression, AS and translation are orchestrated. Finally, we discuss CRISPR/Cas-based strategies for engineering chromatin architecture to manipulate AS patterns (or splice isoforms levels) to obtain insight into the epigenetic regulation of AS