Heterogeneity of monosomy 3 in fine needle aspiration biopsy of choroidal melanoma.

PurposeTo report on the heterogeneity of monosomy 3 in a fine needle aspiration biopsy obtained transsclerally from choroidal melanoma for prognosis.MethodsAll clinical records for patients who had been diagnosed with choroidal melanoma and underwent iodine-125 plaque brachytherapy with intraoperative transscleral fine needle aspiration biopsy from January 2005 to August 20, 2011, and who had a positive result for monosomy 3 according to fluorescence in situ hybridization as reported by clinical cytogenetics testing were collected. Patient age and sex, total number of cells evaluated and number of cells positive for monosomy 3, tumor size, and metastatic outcome were recorded for each patient.ResultsA positive result for monosomy 3 was reported in 93 patients who underwent transscleral fine needle aspiration biopsy. Two patients were lost to follow-up immediately post-operatively, and the remaining 91 patients were included in this study. The mean number of cells evaluated in the biopsy was 273 (range 28 to 520). The mean percentage of cells positive for monosomy 3 was 62.9% (range 4.7%-100%). The mean tumor height was 5.91 mm (range 1.99 to 10.85 mm). Larger tumors were associated with a higher percentage of cells positive for monosomy 3. During the average follow-up interval of 28.9 months (range 3-76 months), choroidal melanoma metastasis developed in 18 (20%) patients. Patients whose tumors had 1%-33% of cells positive for monosomy 3 had a significantly lower risk of metastasis-related death compared to patients whose tumors harbored a higher percentage of monosomy 3 (p = 0.04).ConclusionsCytogenetic heterogeneity of fluorescent in situ hybridization for monosomy 3 exists in a biopsy sample. Larger tumors were more likely to have a higher percentage of monosomy 3 positive cells in the sample. Furthermore, patients whose tumors had more than 33% of cells positive for monosomy 3 had a poorer prognosis than patients whose tumors had lower percentages of monosomy 3

Are we eliminating cures with antibiotic abuse? A study among dentists

Context: The theme of “World Health Day 2011” is “combat drug resistance- No action today, No cure tomorrow” which is very pertinent. The present study emphatically demonstrates the current issues related to the overwhelming concerns regarding indiscriminate use of antibiotics, leading to a bleak tomorrow where cures may be few.Aim: To know the prescription pattern of antibiotics for various dental procedures by dental practitioners.Materials and Methods: A pretested questionnaire was used which contained two sections pertaining to prescription of antibiotics for healthy and medically compromised patients during various dental procedures, with therapeutic and prophylactic considerations.Results: Questionnaire response rate of 66.6% was observed. Amoxicillin emerged as the most preferred antibiotic for dental procedures both as a therapeutic and a prophylactic drug. 50% of the endodontists and 40% of the general dentists opted to prescribe antibiotics during root canal therapy where ideally operative intervention would have sufficed. Overuse of antibiotics for routine scaling and extraction was observed.Conclusion: The dental profession as a whole needs to acquire a deeper understanding of the global effects of superfluous antibiotic prescription. Antibiotics when judiciously used are precise life-saving drugs

Application of Supply Chain Tools In Power Plant- A Case of Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant

Inventories are considered to be one of the important weapons of supply chain to improve the efficiency of any manufacturing unit. Continuous availability of inventories are the prime requirement for uninterrupted working .To effectively manage inventory levels, it is essential to consider the appropriate reorder points as well as the optimized ordering quantity. The proposed system uses the Genetic algorithm to find the optimized ordering quantity at proper reorder point , by considering the power plant live data as a practical case study. The proposed approach is implemented in Matlab  platform version 7.10 Key words. Inventories, supply chain, Genetic algorithm, Reorder point, ordering quantity, manufacturing unit, power plant, raw materials

Evaluation of wound healing activity of ethanolic extract of Azadirachta Indica leaves on incision and excision wound models in Wister albino rats

Background: Wound healing is complex cellular and biochemical cascade that lead to restitution of integrity and function. Recently, the traditional use of plants for wound healing has received attention by the scientific community, as traditional medicine is a source of less expensive, comprehensive medical care, especially in developing countries. Azadirachta indica (Neem) is well-known in India, as one of the most versatile medicinal plants having a wide spectrum of biological activity. Hence, this study was undertaken to evaluate the wound healing activity of the ethanolic extract of A. indica leaf in the experimentally-induced wound in rats.Methods: The healing effect produced by A. indica extract was assessed by the rate of wound contraction histopathology and skin breaking strength by using excision wound model and incision wound model in Wister albino rats. This was compared with control (soft white paraffin) and standard (1% w/w framycetin sulfate ointment). The results have been analyzed by calculating the mean values, standard deviation and compared by using student t-test.Results: The ethanol extract of leaves of A. indica significantly promoted the wound healing activity in both excision and incision wound models.Conclusion: The study revealed promising wound healing activity of ethanolic extract of A. indica and provides a scientific rationale for the traditional use in the management of wounds

A review on the components of Prajna

The word Prajna generally refers to know, the wisdom, the intelligence, the sense of discrimination and the judgment. It can be compared with the whole process of discrimination, retention and recalling capacity of an individual. Dhee, dhriti and smriti are considered to be types of prajna. These are also termed as Prajnopastambha and are nothing but the different stages of Prajna. The buddhi which sees the objects as they are (samata darshana) is dhee. The buddhi which restrains (niyamana) is dhruti. And the buddhi which is capable of remembering is smriti. The ability of discrimination of the object perceived is attributed to the function of dhee, while the decision making at that situation is guided and regulated by dhruti. And the retrieval of fast experiences in order to perform further action depends on Smruti. Buddhi also have the same synonyms as that of Prajna viz. Dhee, Prajna, Mati etc. Thus we can assume that the Buddhi and Prajna refer to the same. While the term ‘Medha’ refers to the higher intellect and synonymous to Prajna. Modern science describes the acquisition of knowledge has following cognitive domains such as encoding, storage, and retrieval which refer to the components of prajna. The article deals with conceptual study of Prajna, its components, its comparative terms in contemporary sciences, discussion and conclusion

New Method to Harness More Wind Energy

A new and novel method to harness more wind energy has been designed Details of the experimental results and theoretical explanation is presented in the paper. The simplicity and economic viability of the method is expected to be a boon in converting poor windy sites to usable ones and to harness more energy at the existing windmill sites