City of Ideas: Reinventing Boston's Innovation Economy: The Boston Indicators Report 2012

Analyzes indicators of the city's economic, social, and technological progress; potential for creating innovative solutions to global and national challenges; and complexities, disparities, and weaknesses in the indicators and innovation economy paradigm

Correlation between prolactin, thyroid, LH, FSH, estradiol and progesterone in the infertile women

Background: An important global health issue, infertility affects a couple’s social, psychological, economic, and sexual well-being. A variety of issues stemming from abnormal hypothalamus pituitary ovarian axis dysfunction make up the hormonal diseases of the female reproductive system. The aim of the study was to find correlation between prolactin, thyroid, LH, FSH, estradiol and progesterone in the infertile women. Methods: Present study was hospital based descriptive, cross-sectional study. 150 infertile women were required in sample size. Serum LH, FSH, estradiol was measured on day 2 of menstrual cycle and also serum TSH and serum progesterone on day 21. Results: Around one third (38%) of the cases was married since more than 10 years. Majority 108 (72%) had primary infertility and 50% of the women had history of irregular menstrual cycles. There was significant positive correlation between TSH and prolactin (p value <0.05) and significant negative correlation of TSH with FSH and LH (p value <0.05) and there was insignificant negative correlation of TSH with estrogen (D2) and progesterone (D21). The mean value of TSH in our study was 7.47±1.82 μIU/ml. Conclusions: TSH has strong positive co-relation between prolactin, FSH and LH indicating role in female infertility. These hormonal evaluations allow a routine etiological approach to the diagnosis of infertility.

CRISPR-cas gene-editing as plausible treatment of neuromuscular and nucleotide-repeat-expansion diseases: A systematic review

Introduction The system of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (cas) is a new technology that allows easier manipulation of the genome. Its potential to edit genes opened a new door in treatment development for incurable neurological monogenic diseases (NMGDs). The aim of this systematic review was to summarise the findings on the current development of CRISPR-cas for therapeutic purposes in the most frequent NMGDs and provide critical assessment. Methods and data acquisition We searched the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases, looking for original studies on the use of CRISPR-cas to edit pathogenic variants in models of the most frequent NMGDs, until end of 2017. We included all the studies that met the following criteria: 1. Peer-reviewed study report with explicitly described experimental designs;2. In vitro, ex vivo, or in vivo study using human or other animal biological systems (including cells, tissues, organs, organisms);3. focusing on CRISPR as the gene-editing method of choice;and 5. featured at least one NMGD. Results We obtained 404 papers from MEDLINE and 513 from EMBASE. After removing the duplicates, we screened 490 papers by title and abstract and assessed them for eligibility. After reading 50 full-text papers, we finally selected 42 for the review. Discussion Here we give a systematic summary on the preclinical development of CRISPR-cas for therapeutic purposes in NMGDs. Furthermore, we address the clinical interpretability of the findings, giving a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art. Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD) paves the way forward, with 26 out of 42 studies reporting different strategies on DMD gene editing in different models of the disease. Most of the strategies aimed for permanent exon skipping by deletion with CRISPR-cas. Successful silencing of the mHTT gene with CRISPR-cas led to successful reversal of the neurotoxic effects in the striatum of mouse models of Huntington's disease. Many other strategies have been explored, including epigenetic regulation of gene expression, in cellular and animal models of: myotonic dystrophy, Fraxile X syndrome, ataxias, and other less frequent dystrophies. Still, before even considering the clinical application of CRISPR-cas, three major bottlenecks need to be addressed: efficacy, safety, and delivery of the systems. This requires a collaborative approach in the research community, while having ethical considerations in mind

Secure Digital Content Management on Cloud

Cloud Computing is one of the new emerging technologies in today’s world. With increase in use of services available with different cloud infrastructures, it is very important to have secure access to confidential data shared over cloud. This can be achieved using Digital Rights Management (DRM) along with the established cryptographic mechanisms to curb illegal access to the content without its owner’s knowledge. In this paper, it is our approach to propose some method to have a secure digital content management on cloud. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15029

Supporting LGBTQ Employees in the Workplace: The Role of HR Policies and Practices

The inclusion of LGBTQ individuals in the workplace has become an increasingly important topic in recent years. While progress has been made in terms of legal protections and social acceptance, discrimination and harassment continue to be major issues faced by LGBTQ employees. This study aimed to explore the role of HR policies and practices in supporting LGBTQ employees in the workplace. Through a review of existing literature and interviews with HR professionals, five key findings were identified. Firstly, non-discrimination policies that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are essential in creating an inclusive workplace. Secondly, the use of gender-neutral language in HR policies and documents is important in creating an environment that is welcoming to all employees. Thirdly, equal benefits and leave policies for LGBTQ employees, including domestic partner benefits and parental leave for same-sex couples, are important in supporting LGBTQ families. Fourthly, training and education for employees on LGBTQ issues, including how to support LGBTQ colleagues and prevent discrimination, is crucial in creating a culture of inclusion. Finally, the formation of employee resource groups for LGBTQ employees provides a safe space for support, connection, and advocacy within the workplace. Based on these findings, this study recommends that HR professionals work to develop and implement policies and practices that support LGBTQ employees. This includes creating non-discrimination policies that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, using gender-neutral language in HR documents, providing equal benefits and leave policies for LGBTQ employees, and providing training and education on LGBTQ issues for all employees. Additionally, the formation of employee resource groups for LGBTQ employees should be encouraged and supported. By implementing these recommendations, HR professionals can help create a more inclusive and supportive workplace for LGBTQ employees, leading to improved job satisfaction, employee engagement, and overall business success

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A rare presentation of perioperative myocardial infarction as a consequence of stent thrombosis in non-cardiac surgery

Perioperative myocardial infarction (PMI) is a major cause of long term morbidity and mortality associated with non-cardiac surgery. In patients with recent coronary artery stent placement undergoing non-cardiac surgery perioperative management is always challenging. We reported an interesting case of a 67 year old man posted for head neck surgery with recent history of angioplasty with drug eluting stent developing perioperative MI and the challenges faced by an anaesthesiologist

Chromatin remodeling protein HELLS is critical for retinoblastoma tumor initiation and progression.

Retinoblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer of the developing retina that initiates by biallelic RB1 gene inactivation. Tumor progression in retinoblastoma is driven by epigenetics, as retinoblastoma genomes are stable, but the mechanism(s) that drive these epigenetic changes remain unknown. Lymphoid-specific helicase (HELLS) protein is an epigenetic modifier directly regulated by the RB/E2F pathway. In this study, we used novel genetically engineered mouse models to investigate the role of HELLS during retinal development and tumorigenesis. Our results indicate that Hells-null retinal progenitor cells divide, undergo cell-fate specification, and give rise to fully laminated retinae with minor bipolar cells defects, but normal retinal function. Despite the apparent nonessential role of HELLS in retinal development, failure to transcriptionally repress Hells during retinal terminal differentiation due to retinoblastoma (RB) family loss significantly contributes to retinal tumorigenesis. Loss of HELLS drastically reduced ectopic division of differentiating cells in Rb1/p107-null retinae, significantly decreased the incidence of retinoblastoma, delayed tumor progression, and increased overall survival. Despite its role in heterochromatin formation, we found no evidence that Hells loss directly affected chromatin accessibility in the retina but functioned as transcriptional co-activator of E2F3, decreasing expression of cell cycle genes. We propose that HELLS is a critical downstream mediator of E2F-dependent ectopic proliferation in RB-null retinae. Together with the nontoxic effect of HELLS loss in the developing retina, our results suggest that HELLS and its downstream pathways could serve as potential therapeutic targets for retinoblastoma