To study changes in cognitive performance between atomoxetine and methylphenidate in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD)

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to evaluate the difference in cognitive performance produced by Methylphenidate and Atomoxetine in children with ADHD after four weeks of starting treatment. It was hypothesized that Methylphenidate is not significantly different in terms of increased working memory and executive functions after four weeks of starting treatment compared to Atomoxetine. METHODS: 54 children (44 male; mean age = 10.5 +/− 2.7 years) with ADHD received ATX and MPH in a double blind prospective comparative interventional design. Medication was titrated in 4weeks to reach optimum doses. Working memory (visuospatial, verbal and working memory span), Inhibitory control, sustained attention and set shifting measures were obtained at baseline and at the end of each treatment using NIMHANS neuropsychological battery of tests. Standard tests of significance like t test and ANOVA was used for normally distributed data and Wilcoxon rank test for analysis of non-normal or skewed data. RESULTS: Both MPH and ATX significantly improved scores in most of the EF tests from baseline, Atomoxetine was found to be superior to MPH in improving Verbal N Back task errors whereas MPH improved visuospatial N Back Task errors more significantly than Atomoxetine.MPH was also better than Atomoxetine in improving shifting time measured by the Colour Trail Test. CONCLUSIONS: ATM has greater effects than MPH on N Back measures of verbal working memory in children with ADHD. However, the superiority of MPH was demonstrable in visuospatial working memory errors and shifting time. All other parameters did not show significant differences between the two groups

Dynamic Voltage Scaling With Reduced Frequency Switching And Preemptions

Dynamic Voltage Scaling is an innovative technique for reducing the power consumption of a processor by utilizing its hardware functionality. Dynamic Voltage Scaling processors are mainly focusing on power management. Such processors can be switch between discrete frequency and voltage levels. The main challenges of Dynamic Voltage Scaling are increased number of preemptions and frequency switching. A part of dynamic energy as well as CPU time is lost due to these processes. To limit such processes, an algorithm is proposed which reduces both unwanted frequency switching and preemptions

Evolution of ecophenotypic plasticity in Indian Oyster, Crasssostrea madrasensis (Preston) population from Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala, India

The Indian Oyster, Crassostrea madrasensis are abundant in the coastal waters of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Since, they are benthic filter feeders, the external environmental conditions impose ceaseless effects on their shell affecting one or more of size, sculpture, anatomy pattern, shape and colour resulting in ecophenotypic plasticity. However, the identification of Oyster species is still based on phenotypic characters that are highly plastic. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the phenotypic plasticity of the Indian Oyster, C. madrasensis population of Ashtamudi Lake with respect to certain ecological parameters. Individuals were collected from the barmouth and upper reaches of Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala and apparent variations were measured. Significant variations were found in the Shell colour and shell pattern. Accordingly, two morphotypes of C. madrasensis were recorded. Since, the two population exhibit remarkable differences in morphology, species confirmation was made possible using mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene. Even though 2.7% genetic distance observed between the two morphotypes of C. madrasensis is not enough to consider them as different species, it calls attention to the possibility of evolutionary divergence in the near future

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

The impact of HIV/AIDS on the quality of life: a cross sectional study in north India

Objective: To determine the impact of Human Deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) on the quality of life (QOL) on such patients in North India. Design: A cross sectional study. Setting: Outpatient setting and wards, Department of Medicine at a premier tertiary health care center, North India. Participants: Sixty-eight consecutive HIV/AIDS patients attending Medicine out patient department and/or admitted to the wards of All India Institute of Medical Sciences were administered a structured questionnaire by the HIV nurse coordinator. QOL was evaluated using the WHOQOL-Bref (Hindi) instrument. Analysis: One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to find out significant difference between the clinical categories and socio-demographic variables on QOL domains. Results: The overall QOL mean score on a scale of 0-100 was found to be 25.8. Similarly, on the scale of 0-100 the mean scores in the four domains of QOL in descending order were social (80.9); psychological (27.5); physical (17.7) and environmental domain (11.65). There was a significant difference of quality of life in the physical domain between asymptomatic patients (14.6) and patients with AIDS (10.43) defining illnesses (p< 0.001) and asymptomatic and early symptomatic (12) patients (p=0.014). QOL in the psychological domain was significantly poorer in early symptomatic (12.1) (p< 0.05) and AIDS patients (12.4) (p< 0.006) as compared to asymptomatic individuals (14.2). A significant difference in QOL scores in the psychological domain was observed with respect to the educational status (p< 0.037) and income of patients (p< 0.048). Significantly better QOL scores in the physical (p< 0.040) and environmental domain (p< 0.017) were present with respect to the occupation of the patients. Patients with family support had better QOL scores in environmental domain. Conclusions: In our study, QOL is associated with education, income, occupation, family support and clinical categories of the patients

A regioselective multicomponent protocol for the synthesis of novel bioactive 4-hydroxyquinolin-2(1H)-one grafted monospiropyrrolidine and thiapyrrolizidine hybrids

An expedient route toward the synthesis of 4-hydroxyquinolone grafted spiropyrrolidines or pyrrolizidines has been accomplished through 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of various azomethine ylides derived from isatin or acenaphthalene and sarcosine with 4-hydroxyquinolone derivatives as dipolarophile. The regio and stereo chemical outcome of the cycloaddition reaction is ascertained by X-ray crystallographic studies and spectroscopic techniques of the cycloadducts. Furthermore, cytotoxicity evaluation of selected compounds showed significant inhibition of cell proliferation against cervical as well as colon cancer cell lines

Not Available

Not AvailableNot AvailableNot Availabl