A rare case of thyroid storm following caesarean section

Thyroid storm in pregnancy is a rare life threatening emergency, with very high maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Here we present an unusual case of a 30 year-old G2P1L1 woman, a known case of post caesarean pregnancy with hyperthyroidism who presented with severe preeclampsia and on second post op day developed thyroid storm. Early recognition and timely institution of appropriate management resulted in good outcome in this case

Microwave-convective hot air and vacuum drying of Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels seeds and its effect on total phenolics content, vitamin C and antioxidant activity

Seeds of (Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels) are rich in medicinal values. In this work, the effect of drying on its total phenolics content (TPC), vitamin C (vit C) and antioxidant activity (AA) was studied. Seeds were dried at 60, 70, 80, and 100 °C using both microwave-convective hot air drying (MCD) at 1, 2, and 3 W/g, keeping air velocity fixed at 0.5 m/s, and vacuum drying (VD) at 60, 160, and 260 mm Hg. Dried seeds were powdered and evaluated. Statistically, MCD at 60 °C, 2 W/g was selected as the best drying method and condition that retained the highest functional properties. Compared to fresh seed powder, this drying condition retained 82% of TPC and ≈ 34% vit C and increased AA by about 52%. The drying curve at 60 °C, 2 W/g was fitted to four different mathematical models, viz., Lewis, Page, Henderson and Pabis, and Logarithmic. Logarithmic model was found to be best suited for characterising the drying profile. The final product was non-hygroscopic and free-flowing with a negligible degree of caking

Microwave-convective hot air and vacuum drying of Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels seeds and its effect on total phenolics content, vitamin C and antioxidant activity

136-144Seeds of (Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels) are rich in medicinal values. In this work, the effect of drying on its total phenolics content (TPC), vitamin C (vit C) and antioxidant activity (AA) was studied. Seeds were dried at 60, 70, 80, and 100 °C using both microwave-convective hot air drying (MCD) at 1, 2, and 3 W/g, keeping air velocity fixed at 0.5 m/s, and vacuum drying (VD) at 60, 160, and 260 mm Hg. Dried seeds were powdered and evaluated. Statistically, MCD at 60 °C, 2 W/g was selected as the best drying method and condition that retained the highest functional properties. Compared to fresh seed powder, this drying condition retained 82% of TPC and ≈ 34% vit C and increased AA by about 52%. The drying curve at 60 °C, 2 W/g was fitted to four different mathematical models, viz., Lewis, Page, Henderson and Pabis, and Logarithmic. Logarithmic model was found to be best suited for characterising the drying profile. The final product was non-hygroscopic and free-flowing with a negligible degree of caking

Voyaging in the Pacific

Teaching Oceania is a publication series created with the collaboration of scholars from around the Pacific region to address the need for appropriate literature for undergraduate Pacific Islands Studies students throughout Oceania. The series is designed to take advantage of digital technology to enhance texts with embedded multimedia content, thought-provoking images, and interactive graphs.Teaching Oceania is a publication series created with the collaboration of scholars from around the Pacific region to address the need for appropriate literature for undergraduate Pacific Islands Studies students throughout Oceania. The series is designed to take advantage of digital technology to enhance texts with embedded multimedia content, thought-provoking images, and interactive graphs

Closing the delivery gaps in pediatric HIV care in Togo, West Africa: using the care delivery value chain framework to direct quality improvement

ABSTRACT Providing quality care for all children living with HIV/AIDS remains a global challenge and requires the development of new healthcare delivery strategies. The care delivery value chain (CDVC) is a framework that maps activities required to provide effective and responsive care for a patient with a particular disease across the continuum of care. By mapping activities along a value chain, the CDVC enables managers to better allocate resources, improve communication, and coordinate activities. We report on the successful application of the CDVC as a strategy to optimize care delivery and inform quality improvement (QI) efforts with the overall aim of improving care for Pediatric HIV patients in Togo, West Africa. Over the course of 12 months, 13 distinct QI activities in Pediatric HIV/AIDS care delivery were monitored, and 11 of those activities met or exceeded established targets. Examples included: increase in infants receiving routine polymerase chain reaction testing at 2 months (39–95%), increase in HIV exposed children receiving confirmatory HIV testing at 18 months (67–100%), and increase in patients receiving initial CD4 testing within 3 months of HIV diagnosis (67–100%). The CDVC was an effective approach for evaluating existing systems and prioritizing gaps in delivery for QI over the full cycle of Pediatric HIV/AIDS care in three specific ways: (1) facilitating the first comprehensive mapping of Pediatric HIV/AIDS services, (2) identifying gaps in available services, and (3) catalyzing the creation of a responsive QI plan. The CDVC provided a framework to drive meaningful, strategic action to improve Pediatric HIV care in Togo

Preliminary Target Selection for the DESI Milky Way Survey (MWS)

International audienceThe DESI Milky Way Survey (MWS) will observe $\ge$8 million stars between $16 < r < 19$ mag, supplemented by observations of brighter targets under poor observing conditions. The survey will permit an accurate determination of stellar kinematics and population gradients; characterize diffuse substructure in the thick disk and stellar halo; enable the discovery of extremely metal-poor stars and other rare stellar types; and improve constraints on the Galaxy's 3D dark matter distribution from halo star kinematics. MWS will also enable a detailed characterization of the stellar populations within 100 pc of the Sun, including a complete census of white dwarfs. The target catalog from the preliminary selection described here is public

Deep phenotyping and genomic data from a nationally representative study on dementia in India

The Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI-DAD) is a nationally representative in-depth study of cognitive aging and dementia. We present a publicly available dataset of harmonized cognitive measures of 4,096 adults 60 years of age and older in India, collected across 18 states and union territories. Blood samples were obtained to carry out whole blood and serum-based assays. Results are included in a venous blood specimen datafile that can be linked to the Harmonized LASI-DAD dataset. A global screening array of 960 LASI-DAD respondents is also publicly available for download, in addition to neuroimaging data on 137 LASI-DAD participants. Altogether, these datasets provide comprehensive information on older adults in India that allow researchers to further understand risk factors associated with cognitive impairment and dementia.Peer reviewe

GTC Follow-up Observations of Very Metal-Poor Star Candidates from DESI

The observations from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will significantly increase the numbers of known extremely metal-poor stars by a factor of ~ 10, improving the sample statistics to study the early chemical evolution of the Milky Way and the nature of the first stars. In this paper we report high signal-to-noise follow-up observations of 9 metal-poor stars identified during the DESI commissioning with the Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (OSIRIS) instrument on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). The analysis of the data using a well-vetted methodology confirms the quality of the DESI spectra and the performance of the pipelines developed for the data reduction and analysis of DESI data.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to ApJ, data available from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.802084

Anti-HIV-1 Response Elicited in Rabbits by Anti-Idiotype Monoclonal Antibodies Mimicking the CD4-Binding Site

Antibodies against conserved epitopes on HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins (Env), such as the gp120 CD4-binding site (CD4bs), could contribute to protection against HIV-1. Env-based immunogens inducing such a response could be a major component of future anti-HIV-1 strategies. In this proof-of-concept study we describe the generation of two anti-idiotype (AI) murine antibodies mimicking the CD4bs epitope. Sera were collected from long-term non-progressor patients to obtain CD4bs-directed IgG, through sequential purification steps. The purified IgG were then used as Fab fragments to immunize mice for hybridoma generation. Two hybridomas (P1 and P2), reacting only against the CD4bs-directed IgG, were identified and characterized. The P1 and P2 antibodies were shown to recognize the idiotype of the broadly neutralizing anti-CD4bs human mAb b12. Both P1 and P2 Fabs were able to induce a strong anti-gp120 response in rabbits. Moreover, the rabbits' sera were shown to neutralize two sensitive tier 1 strains of HIV-1 in an Env-pseudotype neutralization assay. In particular, 3/5 rabbits in the P1 group and 1/5 in the P2 group showed greater than 80% neutralizing activity against the HXB2 pseudovirus. Two rabbits also neutralized the pseudovirus HIV-MN. Overall, these data describe the first anti-idiotypic vaccine approach performed to generate antibodies to the CD4bs of the HIV-1 gp120. Although future studies will be necessary to improve strength and breadth of the elicited neutralizing response, this proof-of-concept study documents that immunogens designed on the idiotype of broadly neutralizing Abs are feasible and could help in the design of future anti-HIV strategies

Astro2020 APC White Paper: The MegaMapper: a z &gt; 2 spectroscopic instrument for the study of Inflation and Dark Energy

MegaMapper is a proposed ground-based experiment to measure Inflation parameters and Dark Energy from galaxy redshifts at