Validation of a functional screening instrument for dementia in an elderly sri lankan population: comparison of modified bristol and blessed activities of daily living scales

Abstract Background Cognitive tests have been used in population surveys as first stage screens for dementia but are biased by education. However functional ability scales are less biased by education than the cognitive scale and thus can be used in screening for dementia. Objective To validate Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale appropriate for use in assessing the presence of dementia in an elderly population living in care homes in Sri Lanka. Method Sinhalese version of the modified Bristol and Blessed scale was administered to subjects aged 55 years and above residing in 14 randomly selected elders' homes. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) was used to determine the cut-off scores of both the scales. Results Based on the ROC analysis, optimal cut off score of the modified Bristol scale was 20 with a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 74.2% and the area under the curve 0.933(95% CI: 0.871-0.995) while the optimal cut off score of the modified Blessed scale was 10.5 with a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 71% and the area under the curve 0.892 (95% CI: 0.816-0.967). Conclusion The findings confirm that both the scales can be used in screening for dementia in the elderly living in care homes in Sri Lanka.</p

Assessment of Clinical Outcome of Root Coverage Following Coronally Advanced Flap with or without Amniotic Membrane

Aim: The present study aimed to assess the clinical outcome of root coverage following coronally advanced flap with or without amniotic membrane in Miller's class I or class II localized gingival recession in relation to anteriors. Methods: Five patients with bilaterally symmetrical Miller's class I or class II localized gingival recession were included in the study. Each patient was divided into control (without amniotic membrane) and test sites (with amniotic membrane) arbitrarily. Clinical parameters including plaque index, probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment level (CAL), and depth and width of the gingival recession were recorded in a pro forma at baseline and in the 2nd, 4th, 12th week. The results were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: A 0.600-mm, 0.400-mm, 2.630-mm, and 2.616-mm reduction in PPD and gain in CAL were observed at control and test sites in the 12th week postoperatively and was found to be statistically insignificant (P = 0.580 and P = 0.871, respectively). Changes in depth and width of the gingival recession were observed and found to be maximum between base line (2.28 mm, 3.01 mm, 2.71, and 3.09 mm) and 2nd week (0.00, 0.00 mm, 0.23, and 0.20 mm) but without statistical significance. Conclusion: From the above results of the study, it could be concluded that the use of amniotic membrane as a barrier along with coronally advanced flap did not influence the clinical outcome of root coverage procedure

A Comparative Study of Dust Cleaning Methods for the Solar PV Panels

The present energy consumption scenario is clearly showing the faster depletion of fossil fuel reserves. On the other hand, energy usage index indicates the state of growth of a country.  The use of renewable energy sources like solar PV, wind and such alternatives has increased in the recent years. Considerable loss in conversion efficiency of solar PV system has been noticed due to non-availability of proper insolation and accumulation of dust particles on the panels or shading. A comparative study of various cleaning methods of solar panels has been done in this article with emphasis on innovative idea of separation of dust by electrostatic precipitator (ESP).  Electrostatic precipitators uses static electricity to remove the dust from the panel by applying energy only to the particular matter being collected and therefore is very efficient in its applications unlike conventional cleaning.  This increases the solar panels insolation absorption ability. The weight sensor continuously monitor the weight of the dust on the panel and Arduino controller gives the command to clean the dust when defined feedback is received from the sensors. Electrostatic precipitators work by ionizing the dust on the surface area of solar panel and forcing dirt particles   towards the electrodes which are like electrical terminals. The first electrode is charged to a very high negative voltage and other to the positive. The positively charged electrode collects the dust particles.  The particles attached to the positively charged plates are expelled or removed periodically to keep the panel dust free either manually or automatically

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in Automation

The programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is the central controlling unit in the industry or a process. The effective operation of the process and safety considerations if programmed appropriately can meet the required objectives.  The present technical paper briefly distinguishes the present automation systems and the past technologies to identify and explore the capabilities of PLCs for any process. The relay logic and contactor logics (RLC) were practiced in the olden days which include the human intervention and errors. The advent and application of microprocessors, microcontrollers and new specific tools such as PLCs, Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and Distributed control systems (DCS) have increased productivity, accuracy, precision and efficiency. These systems reduced human intervention and increased the flexibility in the process control. The keyword automation clearly states that the working of a process or repetition in an efficient manner by incorporating mechanisms and control sequences in the proper order several times with acceptable deviations in the output of the process

Residual Disease in a Novel Xenograft Model of RUNX1-Mutated, Cytogenetically Normal Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) patients harboring RUNX1 mutations have a dismal prognosis with anthracycline/cytarabine-based chemotherapy. We aimed to develop an in vivo model of RUNX1-mutated, CN-AML in which the nature of residual disease in this molecular disease subset could be explored. We utilized a well-characterized patient-derived, RUNX1-mutated CN-AML line (CG-SH). Tail vein injection of CG-SH into NOD scid gamma mice led to leukemic engraftment in the bone marrow, spleen, and peripheral blood within 6 weeks. Treatment of leukemic mice with anthracycline/cytarabine-based chemotherapy resulted in clearance of disease from the spleen and peripheral blood, but persistence of disease in the bone marrow as assessed by flow cytometry and secondary transplantation. Whole exome sequencing of CG-SH revealed mutations in ASXL1, CEBPA, GATA2, and SETBP1, not previously reported. We conclude that CG-SH xenografts are a robust, reproducible in vivo model of CN-AML in which to explore mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance and novel therapeutic approaches

Engraftment Properties of CG-SH cells.

<p><b>(A)</b> Sequencing chromatogram demonstrating the <i>RUNX1</i> mutation in CG-SH. <b>(B)</b> Percent hCD45+ engraftment achieved in the bone marrow (BM), peripheral blood (PB), and spleen of non-irradiated NSG mice receiving 1e6 CG-SH cells directly from cell culture via tail vein injection. Each symbol represents a single animal analyzed 6 weeks after transplantation. The horizontal black bars indicate mean engraftment. <b>(C)</b> Limiting dilution analysis of CG-SH and M9-ENL cells to determine the lowest cell dose necessary to achieve engraftment in each cell population. 1e1 – 1e6 cells were injected into non-irradiated NSG mice (5 mice per cell dose) and engraftment levels analyzed 10 weeks post- transplantation.</p

Residual Disease in CG-SH Xenografts Treated with a 5-day regimen of Anthracycline/Cytarabine-Based Chemotherapy.

<p><b>A and B.</b> Flow cytometric plots demonstrating the level of CG-SH engraftment in the bone marrow, peripheral blood, and spleen of a representative saline-treated control mouse <b>(A)</b> and a representative chemotherapy-treated mouse <b>(B)</b>. Treatment was initiated five weeks after tail vein injection of 1e6 CG-SH cells into non-irradiated NSG mice. Mice were analyzed four days after the completion of chemotherapy. <b>(C)</b> Quantification of the impact of chemotherapy in a cohort of CG-SH- xenografted mice. Each symbol represents a single mouse analyzed four days after the completion of treatment. Control mice were treated with saline. <b>(D)</b> Bone marrow histology four days after the completion of chemotherapy in CG-SH xenografts. Magnification is at 20x (left panels) and 40x (right panels), respectively. <b>(E)</b> Chemotherapy fails to eradicate leukemia-initiating cells in CG-SH xenografts. Leukemic cells were harvested from the bone marrow of chemotherapy-treated CG-SH xenografts or saline-treated controls and tested for their ability to engraft secondary NSG recipients. Non-irradiated secondary recipients were transplanted with unsorted cell populations containing 5e4 CG-SH cells and engraftment was determined 6 weeks later. All data were analyzed by the comparison of means using unpaired t-test. ***p = 0.0001, ****p<0.0001, ns = not significant.</p

Target Mechanism-Based Whole-Cell Screening Identifies Bortezomib as an Inhibitor of Caseinolytic Protease in Mycobacteria

ABSTRACT A novel type of antibacterial screening method, a target mechanism-based whole-cell screening method, was developed to combine the advantages of target mechanism- and whole-cell-based approaches. A mycobacterial reporter strain with a synthetic phenotype for caseinolytic protease (ClpP1P2) activity was engineered, allowing the detection of inhibitors of this enzyme inside intact bacilli. A high-throughput screening method identified bortezomib, a human 26S proteasome drug, as a potent inhibitor of ClpP1P2 activity and bacterial growth. A battery of secondary assays was employed to demonstrate that bortezomib indeed exerts its antimicrobial activity via inhibition of ClpP1P2: Down- or upmodulation of the intracellular protease level resulted in hyper- or hyposensitivity of the bacteria, the drug showed specific potentiation of translation error-inducing aminoglycosides, ClpP1P2-specific substrate WhiB1 accumulated upon exposure, and growth inhibition potencies of bortezomib derivatives correlated with ClpP1P2 inhibition potencies. Furthermore, molecular modeling showed that the drug can bind to the catalytic sites of ClpP1P2. This work demonstrates the feasibility of target mechanism-based whole-cell screening, provides chemical validation of ClpP1P2 as a target, and identifies a drug in clinical use as a new lead compound for tuberculosis therapy