Demonstration of follicle-stimulating hormone receptor in cauda epididymis of rat

FSH receptor has been shown to be specifically expressed only in the Sertoli cells in males. In one of our studies that consisted of deprival of endogenous FSH in immature rats and adult bonnet monkeys, atrophy of the epididymis was observed, cauda region being the most affected. Although epididymis is an androgen-dependent tissue, the changes in histology of the cauda region were observed without any associated change in the levels of testosterone in FSH-deprived animals. Considering this, it was of interest to evaluate the possibility of epididymis being a direct target for FSH action. In the present study, we have examined the expression of FSH receptor in the epididymis of rat and monkey. In the cauda region of rat epididymis, FSH receptor expression was demonstrated by RT-PCR and Northern and Western blot analyses. FSH receptor was found to be functional as observed by its ability to bind 125IoFSH, by an increase in cAMP production, and by BrdU incorporation following addition of FSH under in vitro conditions. These results suggest the possibility of a role for FSH in regulating the growth of the epididymis

Profile Closeness in Complex Networks

We introduce a new centrality measure, known as profile closeness, for complex networks. This network attribute originates from the graph-theoretic analysis of consensus problems. We also demonstrate its relevance in inferring the evolution of network communities. Keywords: Complex networks, Centrality, Community, Median, Closeness, Consensus theor

Opioid Dispensing Practices in the Acute Care Setting: A Retrospective Study

Background: Ohio remains one of the most afflicted states nationally with 46.3 per 100 000 deaths due to drug overdose. Opioids are commonly administered in emergency departments for the management of pain. Given the high volume of patients presenting with pain, emergency clinicians must be cognizant of responsible opioid dispensing practices. Ohio established guidelines in April 2012 to provide a general approach for responsible opioid prescribing practices in the emergency setting. The purpose of this study assesses clinician opioid dispensing before and after the implementation of the Ohio Opioid Prescribing Guidelines. Methods: The study design used retrospective data analysis of opioid medications ordered by emergency clinicians to be administered in the emergency room between January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2017, at the University of Toledo Medical Center. A segmented regression analysis with an interrupted time series was used to determine impact. Results: All opioid medication usage showed a significant decrease after guideline implementation except for morphine and fentanyl which showed statistically significant increases in administration over time (P < 0.05). Conclusion: There was a significant decrease in the use of opioids since the implementation of the Ohio Opioid Prescribing Guidelines, yet morphine and fentanyl use has generally increased across all age groups. Age demographics frequently receiving opioids in the emergency room have seemed to shift over time as well as specific opioid drugs dispensed for the management of pain in certain age groups. Further study is needed to evaluate the use of opioids prescribed by emergency physicians after discharge from the emergency department

A clinico-pathological study of pigmented cutaneous lesions: a one-year prospective study in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Pigmented lesions are group of lesions which have melanocytic proliferation with very common clinical presentation. Diagnosing these pigmented lesions and differentiating cutaneous melanocytic lesions from non-melanocytic lesions poses a great challenge for the pathologist.Methods: A Prospective study was conducted for one year from June 2016 to June 2017 sent to the Department of Pathology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, a tertiary care centre in southern India consisting of 44 pigmented lesions. Specimens were formalin fixed and the tissue was adequately processed for histopathological examination. The sections were stained routinely with hematoxylin and eosin stain and examined under light microscopy.Results: Out of 44 cases, 24 cases were cutaneous melanocytic lesions which include benign naevi 22 (50%) and 2 (4.6%) malignant melanoma cases. The other 20 cases were cutaneous non melanocytic lesions which include 5 (11.4%) pigmented seborrheic keratosis, 6 (13.7%) pigmented basal cell carcinoma, 1 (2.3%) pigmented actinic keratosis and 8 (18%) cases of naevus sebaceous. Most common effected age group was <21 years (31.81%), male: female ratio is 1:2 and most common site involved was face 29 cases (65.9%). Most common pigmented lesions were benign melanocytic nevi 22 (50%) followed by naevus sebaceous 8 (18%) cases. 32 (72.71%) cases were consistent with both clinico-histopathological correlation.Conclusions: Benign melanocytic nevi are most common lesions obtained, seborric keratosis and pigmented basal cell carcinoma were most common mimickers of melanocytic lesions, hence a careful histopathological diagnosis is important

Drinking motives as mediator in the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use among private university students in the Klang Valley

As social anxiety becomes a threat, drinking alcohol becomes a trend in experiencing relaxation, acceptance and decreases performance fear. Alcohol use continues to be a major concern among people within the age group 15 – 29, particularly first year university students. This thesis sought to assist in integrating a detailed analysis of potential unique mediator of alcohol use among socially anxious people through a quantitative study among 600 private university students in the Klang Valley using Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and Drinking Motive Questionnaires-Revised. Coping and conformity motives were hypothesized to be the most significant mediator in the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use. By examining the beta weights, coping motives (β = .27, p < .001) followed by conformity motives (β = .13, p < .05) were making relatively large contributions to the prediction model, followed by social anxiety (β = .15, p < .01) while controlling the mediators. Students with high social anxiety endorsed greater negative reinforcing drinking motives (coping, conformity) which independently mediated the relation between the two variables studied; in which the coping motives were believed to lead to adverse long-term consequences because the discrepancies that foster negative affects have never been adequately addresse

Lymphocytic thyroiditis: a correlation of cytological grades with clinical, biochemical and ultrasound findings

Background: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis sometimes referred to as goitrous thyroiditis is a synonym of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis or autoimmune thyroiditis. Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) is one of the most common cause of goiter and hypothyroidism, it is found most commonly in middle aged and young female, but can also occur in other age groups, including children. Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis can be graded based on cytomorphology. In this study an attempt has been made to correlate the grades with clinical findings, biochemical levels and ultrasonography findings.Methods:This is a prospective study conducted on 309 patients in the Department of Pathology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam. The various parameters like patient’s clinical presentation, biochemical levels and thyroid ultrasound were studied. Fine needle aspiration of thyroid gland and grading of thyroiditis was done on smears. The grades were correlated with above parameters and the correlation indices were evaluated statistically. Chi-square tests were used for statistical correlation and p value of <0.05 was considered significant.Results: Most of the patients were females (297, 96.11%) who commonly presented with a diffuse goiter (263, 85.11%). Asymptomatic cases (193, 62.46%) and elevated TSH (194, 62.78%) were common. Most of the cases had grade I/II disease (299, 96.76%) by cytology. Conclusion:FNAC is a simple, safe and cost effective procedure and is a sensitive and specific diagnostic tool in diagnosing chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis. Cytological grading of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis helps in assessing the severity of the disease and can predict the thyroid functional status. A combined approach of cytological grading of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis along with ultrasonography and biochemical levels can detect subclinical hypothyroid states and provide a guide to therapy

Air-sea interaction in the Bay of Bengal

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 29, no. 2 (2016): 28–37, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2016.36.Recent observations of surface meteorology and exchanges of heat, freshwater, and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere in the Bay of Bengal are presented. These observations characterize air-sea interaction at 18°N, 89.5°E from December 2014 to January 2016 and also at other locations in the northern Bay of Bengal. Monsoonal variability dominated the records, with winds to the northeast in summer and to the southwest in winter. This variability included a strong annual cycle in the atmospheric forcing of the ocean in the Bay of Bengal, with the winter monsoon marked by sustained ocean heat loss resulting in ocean cooling, and the summer monsoon marked by strong storm events with dark skies and rain that also resulted in ocean cooling. The spring intermonsoon was a period of clear skies and low winds, when strong solar heating and weak wind-driven mixing led to ocean warming. The fall intermonsoon was a transitional period, with some storm events but also with enough clear skies and sunlight that ocean surface temperature rose again. Mooring and shipboard observations are used to examine the ability of model-based surface fluxes to represent air-sea interaction in the Bay of Bengal; the model-based fluxes have significant errors. The surface forcing observed at 18°N is also used together with a one-dimensional ocean model to illustrate the potential for local air-sea interaction to drive upper-ocean variability in the Bay of Bengal.Deployment of the WHOI mooring and R. Weller and J.T. Farrar were supported by the US Office of Naval Research, grant N00014-13-1-0453. N. Suresh Kumar and B. Praveen Kumar acknowledge the financial support from Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES, Government of India)

Effect of mechanical treatment on properties of cellulose nanofibrils produced from bleached hardwood and softwood pulps

Bleached hardwood and softwood South African kraft pulps were passed through a commercially available micro grinder for varying number of passes and the properties of the resultant pulps were assessed periodically using microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray crystallography (XRD) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The ultrastructural analysis of the pulp fibres revealed that after 120 passes both hardwood and softwood bleached fibres showed the presence of cellulose nanofibres (CNFs). The FTIR analysis showed no modification to the cellulose structure and side groups upon treatment with the supermasscolloider (SMC). Both hardwood and softwood pulp fibres showed a decline in crystallinity after SMC treatment. For the hardwood pulps there were no major differences between the untreated pulps and those passed through the SMC. In the case of the softwood pulps, the SMC treatment resulted in more thermally stable CNFs compared with the untreated bleached pulps. This was observed at several levels of treatment (40, 120 and 200 passes). After 200 passes both the hardwood and softwood kraft pulp fibres produced CNFs with an average width of 11 nm and lengths with several micrometers

Gender-Responsive Budgeting as Fiscal Innovation: Evidence from India on 'Processes'

Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is a fiscal innovation. Innovation, for the purposes of this paper, is defined as a way of transforming a new concept into tangible processes, resources, and institutional mechanisms in which a benefit meets identified problems. GRB is a fiscal innovation in that it translates gender commitments into fiscal commitments by applying a "gender lens" to the identified processes, resources, and institutional mechanisms, and arrives at a desirable benefit incidence. The theoretical treatment of gender budgeting as a fiscal innovation is not incorporated, as the focus of this paper is broadly on the processes involved. GRB as an innovation has four specific components: knowledge processes and networking, institutional mechanisms, learning processes and building capacities, and public accountability and benefit incidence. The paper analyzes these four components of GRB in the context of India. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy has been the pioneer of gender budgeting in India, and also played a significant role in institutionalizing gender budgeting within the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, in 2005. The Expert Committee Group on "Classification of Budgetary Transactions" makes recommendations on gender budgeting - Ashok Lahiri Committee recommendations - that will become part of the institutionalization process, integrating the analytical matrices of fiscal data through a gender lens and also the institutional innovations for GRB. Revisiting the 2004 Lahiri recommendations and revamping the process of GRB in India is inevitable, at both ex ante and ex post levels