Open Access

CXCL-10-induced neuro-glial toxicity in vitro by PKC activato

Stand Still A Moment

I began senior project with the intention of creating an entirely sculptural body of work. This ambition changed with my summer internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in New York. It was here within the exquisite architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s museum that I decided to focus on two-dimensional work. This change came about because I was inspired by the Lee Ufan retrospective: Marking Infinity, on view at the time. I was specifically intrigued by Mr. Lee’s use of emptiness. The vast empty spaces within his paintings and prints provided the viewer with a moment of meditation. Curator Alexandra Monroe described this phenomenon as “stand still a moment”, and I witnessed bustling tourists and city dwellers do exactly that, daily, for an entire summer. I too wanted to encourage the viewer of my work to Stand Still A Moment. By contrast I was mesmerized by the bustling aesthetic of Julie Mehretu. Mehretu’s work seemed to convey the constant motion and evolution of the city outside of the museum. The tension between these two artist’s works interested me as I began the second semester of my senior project. I was determined to create images both teeming with motion and filled with resonant empty spaces. Yet while I knew my objectives, I had no idea what any of the final pieces in my show would look like. With these objectives in mind I began to experiment with materials immediately. Material initiates my work. I knew that the sculpture, cascade, on view in my senior show, would be made of recycled inner tube tires before I had any idea that it would be a wall sculpture. I knew that Cascade would be made of rubber because I was obsessed with the versatility and color variations in the rubber, which I seemed to have an abundant and free supply of. Once I discovered a way of working with rubber that yielded a result that I liked, I envisioned a composition for the finished piece and executed it with clarity. My printing process was similar in that the accidental discovery of a technique transformed my material explorations with rubber stamps, gampi paper, and cardboard colographs into finished piece. I was attracted to printmaking because of its process. The act of carving into woodblocks, dry point, and making colograph plates resonated with me as a very physical process, more related to the sculpture-making techniques that I was comfortable with then drawing and painting. Although it is a physical process, printmaking yields a two-dimensional image, which was important to me because my sources of influence were the two-dimensional images of both Julie Mehretu and Lee Ufan. I enjoyed the process of creating a plate, inking the plate, dampening the paper, printing the image, then washing the plate. The repetition of these steps becomes a meditation. The meditative state that I reached while printing reminds me of the state that my work invites the viewer to enter as they Stand Still A Moment with each piece. My hope is that the 10 prints and two sculptures exhibited in my senior thesis show will share a visual language that unifies them into one body of work. The show is hung in a progression from two-dimensional to three-dimensional pieces. I hope that this dimensional shift will encourage the viewer to first experience the prints as a meditation of the mind, then gradually shift to a meditation of the whole body, or vice versa

Modeling and animation of orb webs

Modeling of natural phenomena has been of particular interest in the graphics ommunity in recent years. This thesis will explore a method for creating and animating orb webs using a coupled spring-mass system. Using a spring-mass system for creating the orb web is ideal as we can represent each web strand using coupled spring-mass pairs. This allows the orb web simulator to be physically based, i.e., the simulation follows the laws that act on objects in the real world. This in turn simplifies the process of animating the web, as the animation emerges from the simulator without anyone having to set it up explicitly. Since this model is physically based, it would allow for realistic visualization of effects such as observing an orb web under a wind. In the children's book ``Charlotte's Web', the spider creates orb webs with words inscribed on them. Charlotte's web is used as an inspiration, in this thesis, to create webs which no real world spider could possibly create, while keeping the model physically based. This involves modifying the orb web such that the target text shows up on the orb web while keeping the web looking as natural as possible

Non decent vaginal hysterectomy: personal experience of 105 cases

Background: Objective of current study was to evaluate the feasibility of performing vaginal hysterectomy for non-prolapsed uterus as a primary route.Methods: A hospital based prospective study was conducted at department of obstetrics and gynaecology of SMS & R from 1st January 2011 to 31st August 2014. All the patients undergoing non-descent vaginal hysterectomy for benign indication, without suspected adnexal pathology were included in the study. Vaginal hysterectomy was done in usual manner. In bigger size uterus morcellation techniques like bisection, debulking, myomectomy, slicing, or combination of these were used to remove the uterus. Data regarding age, parity, uterine size, estimated blood loss, length of operation, complication and hospital stay were recorded.  Results: A total of 105 cases were selected for non-descent vaginal hysterectomy. All 105 cases successfully underwent non-descent vaginal hysterectomy. Commonest age group was (41-45 years) i.e. 48.6%. All patients were parous. Uterus size was 8 weeks in 33 cases. Commonest indication was AUB (45.7%). Mean duration of surgery was 90 minutes. Mean blood loss was 205 ml. The most common complication was post –operative pain in 21.9% of cases. Febrile morbidity was present in 9.5% of cases. Blood transfusion was required in 4 cases. Average duration of hospital stay was four days.Conclusions: Vaginal hysterectomy for benign gynecological causes other than prolapse is safe and feasible, more economical and effective. For successful outcome size of uterus, size in all dimensions and location of fibroid should be taken into consideration. Today in the era of minimally invasive surgery, non-descent vaginal hysterectomy needs to be considered and seems to be a safe option.

A comparison of three different gauge Quincke’s spinal needles in patients undergoing elective surgery under spinal anaesthesia: a prospective randomized study

Background: The present study was conducted to compare three different Quincke’s spinal needles i.e. 23, 25 and 26 gauge in patients undergoing elective surgery under spinal anaesthesia (SA).Methods: The prospective randomized double-blind study was conducted on 150 male patients in the age group of 18-50 yrs., having physical status class I to II, scheduled for elective surgery under SA. Patients were randomly divided into three groups comprising 50 patients each. SA was administered using Quincke’s spinal needles of 23, 25 and 26 gauge in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Ease of insertion, number of attempts and time of appearance of CSF and incidence of PDPH was recorded in all the patients.Results: Ease of insertion was graded easy in 98%, 84% and 82% in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively. First attempt success rate was highest in group 1, (98%). Meantime for appearance of CSF beyond hub was maximum in group 3 i.e. 14.60±2.56 sec. Mild PDPH was reported in 6% and 2% patients after 24 hrs in group 1 and group 2 respectively.Conclusions: Finer spinal needle proved to be more dependable in generating less traumatic effect on the dura and preventing PDPH but are technically more difficult thus decreasing first attempt success rate

Anti-inflammatory activity of leaves of Michelia champaca investigated on acute inflammation induced rats

Natural products play a significant role in human health in relation to the prevention and treatment of inflammation conditions. Although not fully understood, several action mechanisms are proposed to explain in vivo inflammatory action. The aim of this study was to assay different extracts from leaves of Michelia champaca (Magnoliaceae) on carrageenan induced inflammation rat model. The results were analyzed by One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The ethanolic extract (200 mg/kg) was found to be highly significant (p < 0.0001) with maximum inhibition (60.99 %) at 3 h against to positive control group. The findings conclude that M. champaca leaves extract exhibits an anti-inflammatory activity in pro-inflammatory conditions.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Awareness and acceptance of contraception in post-partum women in a tertiary care hospital of Delhi

Background: India is second most populous country of the world and in next few decades it will cross china if it will keep on increase by this exponential growth. This calls for steps to stabilize India’s population. India was the first country in the world to launch the Family Planning Programme in 1951. Despite this fact, India still lags behind in practicing contraception and limiting their family size.  Methods: A prospective cross-sectional interview based study was conducted on a sample of 492 post partum women who underwent their deliveries in this hospital in six months duration in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. The women were counseled regarding post-partum contraception after assessment of their knowledge and practices. The interview included socio demographic profile of the participants, their awareness for contraceptive methods and reasons for its acceptance/refusal.Results: Out of 492 post-partum women, 56.9 % accepted one of the contraceptive methods during their hospital stay only. The most common contraceptive method chosen was intrauterine device (45.0%). The main reason for non-acceptance of contraception was expectation of a male child.  Conclusions: Providing effective, high quality antenatal and post-partum contraceptive counseling can reduce unintended pregnancies, decrease maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality and prevent unsafe abortions. In order to improve the situation, health authorities should be encouraged to provide counseling on postpartum contraceptive methods during antenatal and immediate postpartum period

Morphological Changes and Antihyperglycemic Effect of M. champaca Leaves Extract on Beta-cell in Alloxan Induced Diabetic Rats

Rapidly increasing diabetes mellitus is becoming a serious threat to mankind health in all parts of the world. The control of treatment depends upon the availability medicines without any side effects. Traditional anti-diabetic plants, which can counter the high cost and poor availability of the current medicines. So an attempt was made to study the beneficial effects of M. champaca leaves extracts on pancreas morphology of diabetic rat model. M. champaca leaf extracts (Ethanolic, Chloroform and Petroleum Ether) were administered at dose levels of 200 mg/kg body weight orally. A positive control and normal group received distilled water orally. Blood samples were collected from retro-orbital plexus of each rat and analyzed by GOD-POD test. After 21 days treatment among different extracts, the maximum reduction of serum glucose level showed significantly (

Genetic variation, linkage mapping of QTL and correlation studies for yield, root, and agronomic traits for aerobic adaptation

BACKGROUND: Water scarcity and drought have seriously threatened traditional rice cultivation practices in several parts of the world, including India. Aerobic rice that uses significantly less water than traditional flooded systems has emerged as a promising water-saving technology. The identification of QTL conferring improved aerobic adaptation may facilitate the development of high-yielding aerobic rice varieties. In this study, experiments were conducted for mapping QTL for yield, root-related traits, and agronomic traits under aerobic conditions using HKR47 × MAS26 and MASARB25 × Pusa Basmati 1460 F(2:3) mapping populations. RESULTS: A total of 35 QTL associated with 14 traits were mapped on chromosomes 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 in MASARB25 x Pusa Basmati 1460 and 14 QTL associated with 9 traits were mapped on chromosomes 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 in HKR47 × MAS26. Two QTL (qGY(8.1) with an R(2) value of 34.0% and qGY(2.1) with an R(2) value of 22.8%) and one QTL (qGY(2.2) with an R(2) value of 43.2%) were identified for grain yield under aerobic conditions in the mapping populations MASARB25 × Pusa Basmati 1460 and HKR47 × MAS26, respectively. A number of breeding lines with higher yield per plant, root length, dry biomass, length-breadth ratio, and with Pusa Basmati 1460-specific alleles in a homozygous or heterozygous condition at the BAD2 locus were identified that will serve as novel material for the selection of stable aerobic Basmati rice breeding lines. CONCLUSIONS: Our results identified positive correlation between some of the root traits and yield under aerobic conditions, indicating the role of root traits for improving yield under aerobic situations possibly through improved water and nutrient uptake. Co-localization of QTL for yield, root traits, and yield-related agronomic traits indicates that the identified QTL may be immediately exploited in marker-assisted-breeding to develop novel high-yielding aerobic rice varieties

Microscale Gene Expression Analysis of Tumor-Associated Macrophages

Macrophages, apart from being the key effector cells of the innate immune system, also play critical roles during the development and progression of various complex diseases, including cancer. Tumor-associated macrophages, infiltrate tumors during different stages of cancer progression to regulate motility, invasion, and intravasation to metastatic sites. Macrophages can exist in different polarization states associated with unique function in tumors. Since tumor-associated macrophages constitute a very small proportion of tumor cells, analysis of gene expression pattern using normal extraction buffer-based methods remains a challenging task. Therefore, it is imperative to develop low-throughput strategies to investigate transcriptional regulations from a small number of immune cells. Here, we describe an efficient, sensitive, and cost-effective approach for gene expression analysis of a small number of fluorescence-activated sorted tumor-associated macrophages. Our analyses from the different number of stable, primary, and sorted macrophages suggest 5,000 cells is an optimal number for performing quantitative, real-time PCR analysis of multiple genes. Our studies could detect expression of macrophage-specific genes from cultured primary macrophages, and FACS-sorted macrophages from different biological tissues without introducing biases in comparative gene expression ratios. In conclusion, our kit-based method for quantitative gene expression analysis from a small number of cells found in biological tissues will provide an opportunity to study cell-specific, transcriptional changes