Community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) in India: a position paper

Considering the burden of Severely Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in India and the availability of SAM treatment at facility level, it is operationally not feasible to treat all SAM children. The community- based approach involves timely detection of severe acute malnutrition in the community and the provision of treatment for those without medical complications with ready-to-use therapeutic foods or other nutrient-dense foods at home. Community based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) is an integrated approach which on one hand focuses on treatment and on the other prevention. CMAM has a key component of community mobilization which is crucial for prevention. The present paper emphasizes the position of CMAM in India in terms of preventive vs curative, integrative approach, multi sectoral engagement, mental health perspective as per the facts available through secondary sources in India and also experiences of CMAM-I phase implemented in Rajasthan. A CMAM programme can be an ideal and well established programme considering the inclusion of different aspects such as alternative feasible solution, convergent action, multi-stakeholders roles and accountabilities

Cytopathology Using High Resolution Digital Holographic Microscopy

We summarize a study involving simultaneous imaging of cervical cells from Pap-smear samples using bright-field and quantitative phase microscopy. The optimization approach to phase reconstruction used in our study enables full diffraction limited performance from single-shot holograms and is thus suitable for reducing cost of a quantitative phase microscope system. Over 48000 cervical cells from patient samples obtained from three clinical sites have been imaged in this study. The clinical sites used different sample preparation methodologies and the subjects represented a range of age groups and geographical diversity. Visual examination of quantitative phase images of cervical cell nuclei show distinct morphological features that we believe have not appeared in the prior literature. A PCA based analysis of numerical parameters derived from the bright-field and quantitative phase images of the cervical cells shows good separation of superficial, intermediate and abnormal cells. The distribution of phase based parameters of normal cells is also shown to be highly overlapping among different patients from the same clinical site, patients across different clinical sites and for two age groups (below and above 30 years), thus suggesting robustness and possibility of standardization of quantitative phase as an imaging modality for cell classification in future clinical usage

Strategic Metamorphoses of ICT Sector for Human Development in India

As Indian economy gets integrated to the global economy and strives to improve in terms of human development indicators, a special role exists for information and communication technologies (ICT) in this process. The strategic metamorphoses and the resultant expansion of ICT linked telecommunication services in India have favorably influenced the effort to accelerate the pace of human development by enabling equality in access to information, creation of employment, improving the quality of life, better livelihood opportunities in rural areas, growth of agriculture, impetus to business development, environmental management and many more. After the initiation of economic planning in India, telecom services were assumed to be natural monopoly and were provided by one entity without competition. The government launched ambitious ICT infrastructure initiatives, radically changing its communication policy framework. The resultant growth of ICT services in India has led to significant improvement in human development levels. It has led to a reduction in information asymmetry between the rich and the poor, improvement in telecom density and ICT accessibility in rural areas, fostering inclusive growth, providing better access to market information to people in remote and rural areas, facilitating technological leapfrogging, enhancing business networking and offering new opportunities from the perspective of human development.</p

Strategic Metamorphoses of ICT Sector for Human Development in India

As Indian economy gets integrated to the global economy and strives to improve in terms of human development indicators, a special role exists for information and communication technologies (ICT) in this process. The strategic metamorphoses and the resultant expansion of ICT linked telecommunication services in India have favorably influenced the effort to accelerate the pace of human development by enabling equality in access to information, creation of employment, improving the quality of life, better livelihood opportunities in rural areas, growth of agriculture, impetus to business development, environmental management and many more. After the initiation of economic planning in India, telecom services were assumed to be natural monopoly and were provided by one entity without competition. The government launched ambitious ICT infrastructure initiatives, radically changing its communication policy framework. The resultant growth of ICT services in India has led to significant improvement in human development levels. It has led to a reduction in information asymmetry between the rich and the poor, improvement in telecom density and ICT accessibility in rural areas, fostering inclusive growth, providing better access to market information to people in remote and rural areas, facilitating technological leapfrogging, enhancing business networking and offering new opportunities from the perspective of human development.</jats:p

Congenital acute megakaryocytic leukemia

Congenital leukemia (CL) is an extremely rare disorder in the newborn, significant proportion of which is of myeloid origin, primarily of M4 or M5 morphology. As compared to pediatric leukemia, CL is a more aggressive disease. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML-M7) or acute megakaryocytic leukemia is a rare type of AML with an incidence of 0.5 per million per year. Median age of presentation is 6 years, and children may present with a broad variety of symptoms including low-grade fever, diarrhea, easy bruising, failure to gain weight and life-threatening conditions

Optimization of guggulsterone production in callus cultures of Commiphora wightii (Arnott.) Bhandari

525-531Commiphora wightii (Arnott.) Bhandari is an endangered, slow growing medicinal tree. Its hypolipidemic and hypocholesterolemic activity is due to the presence of two closely related steroidal ketones guggulsterone-E and guggulsterone-Z in the resin. The callus cultures derived from zygotic embryos and leaf explants were exploited for the optimal production of these bioactive molecules. The production of guggulsterone in callus cultures was maximal during 35-d growth on modified MS medium. A correlation has been observed between guggulsterone yield in callus and in vivo in the plant. Guggulsterone content of callus was maximum during January to July, the period of gum exudation in nature. The cultures, which were grown on modified MS medium (950 mg/L KNO₃, 825 mg/L NH₄NO₃ and 220 mg/L CaCl₂.2H₂O) containing 2, 4, 5-T (0.25 mg/L) and kinetin (0.1 mg/L) (referred to as CM2 medium) accumulated ~15 µg/g guggulsterone. The optimal level of nitrogen [NH₄NO₃ (1650 mg/L), KNO₃ (475 mg/L)], CaCl₂ (110 mg/L) KH₂PO₄ (170 mg/L) in different media resulted in maximum accumulation of total guggulsterone up to 19 µg/g dry weight basis. The significant increase in total guggulsterone accumulation (59 µg/g) was recorded in the tissues grown on CM2 medium containing 40 g/L maltose. Significant increase in guggulsterone content was recorded in the tissues grown on the production medium with either sucrose or maltose alone (40 g/L) or glucose:sucrose ratio (20:20 g/L). Combination of all the optimal concentrations of salts and sugars did not further increase the guggulsterone accumulation. It appears that guggulsterone production reached to its maximum possible level (~3 fold increase) with medium salt manipulation containing 40 g/L maltose or glucose: sucrose (~60 μg/g dry weight) and further increase was not possible within these condition

Somatic embryo proliferation in <i style="">Commiphora wightii</i> and evidence for guggulsterone production in culture

217-222 A method for obtaining somatic embryos consistently in Commiphora wightii (Arnott.) Bhandari has been developed. Somatic embryos when sub-cultured on modified MS medium containing ABA (10 µg L-1) produced more embryos directly by meristematic activity of the epidermal and subepidermal cells at the hypocotyl region or also from the root tip region. Embryo proliferation was also observed on auxin-cytokinin free modified MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of activated charcoal, abscisic acid, mannitol and sucrose. Modified MS hormone-free medium containing activated charcoal 0.5 g L-1 and sucrose 10 g L-1 was most suitable for multiplication and maturation of embryos. Embryo formation was also recorded from callus produced by earlier formed somatic embryos (indirect). Embryos obtained from various maturation treatments when desiccated under laminar airflow bench for 5-9 d showed maximum germination percentage. Guggulsterone-E and -Z contents of in vitro embryonic cultures were ¼ - and ½ -fold of that found in zygotic embryos, but several fold higher than callus cultures, therefore, hold promise for the production of bioactive guggulsterones. </smarttagtype