A Study on Etiology and Clinical Profile of Chronic Cor Pulmonale

SUMMARY: 1. The objective of the study was to know the etiology and clinical profile including radiological features and ECG changes in chronic corpulmonale. 2. 50 cases of chronic corpulmonale, of which 40 were males and 10 were female were included in the study. 3. Chronic corpulmonale was predominantly found to be a disease of middle and older age groups with a peak incidence in the fifth and sixth decades. 4. Smoking plays a significant role in precipitating and aggravating the primary lung disease and hence corpulmonale. 5. Thorough interrogation with reference to symptoms of breathlessness, cough with expectoration swelling of the feet etc, was done. 6. Detailed clinical examination was carried out to confirm the diagnosis of corpulmonale and to find out any associated evidence of lung parenchymatous lesion. Nine cases had sequelae of pulmonary tuberculosis Six cases had bilateral bronchiectasis and 5 cases had bronchial asthma 1 case had kyphoscoliosis and 2 had ILD. The remaining cases were chronic bronchitis with or without emphysema. 7. Chest X-ray was done in all cases. Chest X-ray showed details of relevant clinical profile. Thus the changes included chronic bronchitis with or without emphysema (54%), braonchiectasis (12%). Bilateral pulmonary tuberculosis with fibrosis with or without compensatory emphysema (18%). One case (2%) showed kyphoscoliosis with gross thoracic deformity. Two (4%) had reticulo nodular pattern suggestive of ILD. CT scan was done in necessary cases. 8. In all the clinically proved cases of corpulmonale Electro cardiogram was recorded in all the 12 leads along with V3R, V4R. It was recorded at a speed of 25 mm/sec with standardization of 1 mv – 10 mm. 9. ECG varies between normal (only sinus tachycardia) to evidece of dominant right ventricular activity. The latter was evidenced by RVH (16%). Righ Axis deviation (54%) RBBB (20%) and P – Pulmonale (28%). One case had ventricular ectopics. 10. Response to treatment was better in patients with symptoms of lesser duration compared to patients with symptoms of longer duration. CONCLUSION: The major cause of chronic cor pulmonale in our study was found to be Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease followed by sequelae of pulmonary tuberculosis. Smoking formed the major and most important causal association in the present study

Recognition of characters in document images using morphological operation

In this paper, we deal with the problem of document image rectification from image captured by digital cameras. The improvement on the resolution of digital camera sensors has brought more and more applications for non-contact text capture. It is widely used as a form of data entry from some sort of original paper data source, documents, sales receipts or any number of printed records. It is crucial to the computerization of printed texts so that they can be electronically searched, stored more compactly, displayed on-line, and used in machine processes such as machine translation, text-to-speech and text mining. Unfortunately, perspective distortion in the resulting image makes it hard to properly identify the contents of the captured text using traditional optical character recognition (OCR) systems. In this work we propose a new technique; it is a system that provides a full alphanumeric recognition of printed or handwritten characters at electronic speed by simply scanning the form. Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated as OCR is the mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. OCR software detects and extracts each character in the text of a scanned image, and using the ASCII code set, which is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, converts it into a computer recognizable character. Once each character has been converted, the whole document is saved as an editable text document with a highest accuracy rate of 99.5 per cent, although it is not always this accurate. The basic idea of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is to classify optical patterns (often contained in a digital image) corresponding to alphanumeric or other characters

An efficient protocol for shoot regeneration and genetic transformation of pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] using leaf explants

A protocol for efficient plant regeneration from leaf explants of pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] was developed for the production of transgenic plants. Leaf explants from 4- to 5-day-old in vitro raised seedlings were most efficient in producing multiple adventitious shoots in 90% of the explants on shoot induction medium [Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium +5.0 µM benzyladenine +5.0 µM kinetin]. Shoot buds originated from the petiolar cut end of the explants and elongated rapidly on medium containing 0.58 µM gibberellic acid. Over 80% of the elongated shoots rooted well on MS medium containing 11.42 µM indole-3-acetic acid and were transplanted with 100% success. The procedure reported here is very simple, efficient and reproducible, and is applicable across diverse genotypes of pigeonpea. The usefulness of this system for further studies on the genetic transformation of pigeonpea has been demonstrated in biolistics-mediated gene transfer by using nptII and uidA as marker genes, where 50% of the selected plants showed gene integration and expression

Genetic engineering of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) with the P5CSF129A gene for osmoregulation with implications on drought tolerance.

Abiotic stresses including water deficit severely limits crop yields in the semi-arid tropics. In chickpea, annual losses of over 3.7 million tones have been estimated to be due to water deficit conditions alone. Therefore, major efforts are needed to improve its tolerance to water deficit, and genetic engineering approaches provide an increasing hope for this possibility. We have used transgenic technology for the introduction of an osmoregulatory gene P5CSF129A encoding the mutagenized Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) for the overproduction of proline. A total of 49 transgenic events of chickpea were produced with the 35S:P5CSF129A gene through Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer through the use of axillary meristem explants. Eleven transgenic events that accumulated high proline (2-6 folds) were further evaluated in greenhouse experiments based on their transpiration efficiency (TE), photosynthetic activity, stomatal conductance, and root length under water stress. Almost all the transgenic events showed a decline in transpiration at lower values of the fraction of transpirable soil water (dryer soil), and extracted more water than their untransformed parents. The accumulation of proline in the selected events was more pronounced that increased significantly in the leaves when exposed to water stress. However, the overexpression of P5CSF129A gene resulted only in a modest increase in TE, thereby indicating that the enhanced proline had little bearing on the components of yield architecture that are significant in overcoming the negative effects of drought stress in chickpea

Stress-inducible expression of At DREB1A in transgenic peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) increases transpiration efficiency under water-limiting conditions

Water deficit is the major abiotic constraint affecting crop productivity in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.). Water use efficiency under drought conditions is thought to be one of the most promising traits to improve and stabilize crop yields under intermittent water deficit. A transcription factor DREB1A from Arabidopsis thaliana, driven by the stress inducible promoter from the rd29A gene, was introduced in a drought-sensitive peanut cultivar JL 24 through Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer. The stress inducible expression of DREB1A in these transgenic plants did not result in growth retardation or visible phenotypic alterations. T3 progeny of fourteen transgenic events were exposed to progressive soil drying in pot culture. The soil moisture threshold where their transpiration rate begins to decline relative to control well-watered (WW) plants and the number of days needed to deplete the soil water was used to rank the genotypes using the average linkage cluster analysis. Five diverse events were selected from the different clusters and further tested. All the selected transgenic events were able to maintain a transpiration rate equivalent to the WW control in soils dry enough to reduce transpiration rate in wild type JL 24. All transgenic events except one achieved higher transpiration efficiency (TE) under WW conditions and this appeared to be explained by a lower stomatal conductance. Under water limiting conditions, one of the selected transgenic events showed 40% higher TE than the untransformed control

Plasma chemokines CXCL10 and CXCL9 as potential diagnostic markers of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis still remains to be a challenge with the currently used immune based diagnostic methods particularly Interferon Gamma Release Assay due to the sensitivity issues and their inability in differentiating stages of TB infection. Immune markers are valuable sources for understanding disease biology and are easily accessible. Chemokines, the stimulant, and the shaper of host immune responses are the vital hub for disease mediated dysregulation and their varied levels in TB disease are considered as an important marker to define the disease status. Hence, we wanted to examine the levels of chemokines among the individuals with drug-resistant, drug-sensitive, and latent TB compared to healthy individuals. Our results demonstrated that the differential levels of chemokines between the study groups and revealed that CXCL10 and CXCL9 as potential markers of drug-resistant and drug-sensitive TB with better stage discriminating abilities

Long-term follow-up of persons diagnosed with multidrug-resistant TB in Chennai, India, 2013-2020

India has the largest number of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases, defined as Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to at least isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RIF).1 However, less than half of all persons with MDR-TB in India successfully complete treatment.1 Although initial end-of-treatment outcomes offer a standardised time point to assess the effect of treatment, these tend to underestimate the overall burden of unfavourable long-term outcomes among persons treated for TB.2,3 The long-term outcomes of persons diagnosed with MDR-TB in India, including the proportion with recurrent TB disease or mortality, are unknown. This analysis was conducted under programmatic conditions in a high-burden setting, with no regular check-ups after treatment. The results can be used to show the burden of recurrent illness and death following treatment, and can be used as a benchmark to measure improvement

Analysis of Antibody and Cytokine Markers for Leprosy Nerve Damage and Reactions in the INFIR Cohort in India

Leprosy is one of the oldest known diseases. In spite of the established fact that it is least infectious and a completely curable disease, the social stigma associated with it still lingers in many countries and remains a major obstacle to self reporting and early treatment. The nerve damage that occurs in leprosy is the most serious aspect of this disease as nerve damage leads to progressive impairment and disability. It is important to identify markers of nerve damage so that preventive measures can be taken. This prospective cohort study was designed to look at the potential association of some serological markers with reactions and nerve function impairment. Three hundred and three newly diagnosed patients from north India were recruited for this study. The study attempts to reflect a model of nerve damage initiated by mycobacterial antigens and maintained by ongoing inflammation through cytokines such as Tumour Necrosis Factor alpha and perhaps extended by antibodies against nerve components

Tunable plasmonic devices for active control of molecular coupling and optical trapping

Plasmonics is the study of interaction of light with subwavelength metallic structures. Plasmonic nanostructures have been used for manipulating and enhancing light-matter interaction leading to numerous applications in sensing, non-linear signal enhancement and pho- tovoltaic efficiency enhancement. Typically noble metals like gold, silver and copper are the materials of choice due their low loss in the visible domain. The characteristics of plasmon resonances like the resonance wavelength and full width at half maximum can be controlled by altering the shape, size, material and assembly of the structure. In fact, spatial assembly of such subwavelength metal nano-structures in 2D planar arrays leads to the realization of the so called plasmonic metasurfaces that exhibit properties not found in nature. Furthermore, integration of single layer graphene (SLG) with plasmonic metasurfaces makes it possible to actively control the resonance wavelength by applying a gate voltage. Such electrically configurable devices have been used in earlier studies to actively control phase, amplitude and polarisation state of light in mid-IR wavelength regime. In the first part of this thesis, I extend the applications of these devices to demonstrate that it is possible to actively control the strong coupling between plasmonic and molecular resonances. Resonance tunability using both graphene and molecular integration has been exploited in this work. In particular, the Fermi energy of SLG, strength of molecule (in terms of concentration) and proximity of molecule to metasurface on the strong coupling are shown to control the resulting optical properties. Dispersion diagrams (plots of reflectivity versus Ef and λ) clearly illustrate anti-crossing of the resonance bands providing clear proof of control over strong coupling. Such devices can potentially be used for controlling and mediating molecular transitions at nanosecond time scales. In the second part of this thesis, I utilize graphene integrated devices for optical trapping of gold nano partciles. The high field confinement and the strong field gradients in the vicinity of the structure enables trapping of sub-100 nm particles. Note that it is difficult to trap such particles using convenstional optical tweezers. A multi-resonant structure is used for potentially realizing multiple trap positions depending on the illumination conditions. The stability of each of the equilibrium positions (where optical forces are zero) is analyzed using both the Maxwell’s stress tensor method and the gradient approximation. Control over the forces is shown by modifying the Fermi energy of SLG. It is observed that at equilibrium positions the surface averaged field on the nanoparticle’s surface is enhanced by a factor of almost 40 at resonance. Such enormous enhancement in the electric field magnitude can potentially be used for surface enhanced IR absorption spectroscopy of molecules present on the surface of the nanoparticle.

Morpho-molecular Characterization of Carrot Soft Rot Incitant, Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp carotovoroum

Carrot is an important root vegetable which plays an important role in human health. Globally, Post harvest diseases are the major constraint in carrot production, especially soft rot which resulting in severe yield loss. Early diagnosis of these post-harvest diseases paves a way for reducing the economic losses. Carrot samples showing typical rotting symptoms were collected from markets of four different districts of Tamil Nadu and the pathogen involved were isolated. Severe carrot soft rot incidence (66.74%) was observed in samples collected from Ooty area of The Nilgiris district and the least disease incidence of (16.21%) was recorded in Perundurai of Erode district. Pathogenicity of soft rot pathogen were conducted and the virulent isolates were identified based on Percent Disease Index (PDI) showing >50% rotting falls under disease grade 9 using disease grade scale (0 to 9). The bacterial isolates (KPB-7 and OCB-5) causing soft rot were characterized using various biochemical assays where in they showed positive response for methyl red, H2S gas production, KOH and catalase tests besides showing negative response for gram’s reaction. Furthermore, molecular characterization of 16s rRNA region revealed the soft rot isolate (KPB-7) as Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp carotovorum (with an accession number OR251119)