THE IMPACT OF COBALAMIN DEFICIENCY ON HEART FUNCTION; A STUDY ON ABNORMALITIES IN ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY PATTERNS

Objective: Cobalamin deficiency may cause a lack of dietary methyl donors, which alter the heart metabolism. Cobalamin deficiency is common in patients with malnutrition, gastric ulcers, diabetes mellitus, and alcoholism. Most studies on cobalamin deficiency are focused on its relationship with oxidative stress and atherogenesis. Therefore, this study aims to find the correlation between cardiomyocyte’s energy metabolism in cobalamin deficiency and the risk of heart abnormalities through analysis of electrocardiography (ECG) patterns. Methods: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (aged 24-28 w) were divided into 2 groups: the control group and cobalamin-deficient group. The control group was given standard diet while the treatment group received a modified diet, type AIN-93M (deficient in cobalamin), for a period of 16 w. ECG was performed in both groups on the last day of the 16-week period. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test was also performed to evaluate plasma Hcy and B12 levels in each group at the end of the treatment period. Results: At the end of the 16-week period, higher Hcy level and lower plasma B12 level were observed in the treatment group when compared to the control group. ECG patterns showed sinus rhythms in both groups, with a higher QRS amplitude and duration in the treatment group. Two of the seven rats in the treatment group developed cardiac arrhythmia. Conclusions: Cobalamin deficiency impairs the heart’s energy metabolism with left ventricular enlargement and arrhythmia

How Farmers Benefit from Integration of EO, Meteorological, Positioning and Field Data in an Analytics Engine – The AGRI-GIS Example of S Odisha, India

Today, space-based EO data, meteorological observations and positioning information, integrated with ground data and maps, plays an important role in bringing logical decision-making, intelligence and wisdom in society - even at grass-root level. World over, society is generating, referencing, archiving and using vast amount of time-stamped geographically referenced data sets – enabling the development of integrated solutions that benefits individual citizens, societies, nations and humanity, in general. Because of this large amounts of spatial data availability the science of Spatial Analytics is becoming highly prevalent and relevant.   The Centre for Spatial Analytics and Advanced GIS (C-SAG; www.csag.res.in) is developing an Agri-GIS - a suite of Spatial Analytics solutions based on EO images, meteorological data, Positioning data, various maps and different field data sets. The focus of the Agri-GIS is to address Smallholder Farmers – farm level aggregation and dis-aggregation of crop and socio-economic parameters; assess crop suitability of beneficiary land; assess crop-water model; help farmers on nutrition management; provide information on available production technologies, financing options, insurance options, access to inputs and market access etc. The strength of the C-SAG Agri-GIS model stems on a “single, common, standardized, integrated robust and reliable” multi-layered (about 304 parameters), spatially referenced and geo-tagged database – modelling for individual farmer's social, economic and natural resources queries. Out of the 304 parameters, space based inputs provide the critical 25% - mainly from near real-time EO images of various resolutions/receptivity and meteorological data. Another 20-30% of field observations are based on space-based Positioning - the rest are geo-tagged tables and records. Agri-GIS is developed in 613 villages of S Odisha in India and covers almost 80,000 farmers.   This Agri-GIS is an end-to-end solution that combines ground-, space-based EO/meteorological/positioning data into a GIS model to address specific farmer requirements at bettering his crop production and yield and also his economic condition by increased income. The paper will address how assessment of farmer’s needs of information in the various farming communities in Odisha state was taken up, the chain of Spatial Analytics and the final deliverables of 5 Farmer Advisories in each crop season. The paper will also highlight the partnerships of C-SAG, Tata Trusts and the farming communities and how a good working relationships between various stakeholders have been developed for the projec

Shear Resistance of portal Frame Reinforced with Bamboo and Steel Rebar: Experimental and Numerical Evaluation

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the shear resistance of portal frame fabricated with bamboo and steel rebar by following experimental and numerical approaches. In support of sustainable construction, bamboo stripes were utilized as a partial replacement of steel rebar at tension zone of members that are subjected to lateral loading. The performance of nominal portal frame, which are fabricated with steel reinforcement was compared to the portal frames having several replacements of steel reinforcement with bamboo, in terms of seismic resistance and lateral load capacity. The experimental data was correlated based on software analysis using ABAQUS. The partial replacement of steel with bamboo under tension zone of the beams in portal frame was found to be highly effective, and also that the flexural rigidity of the partial bamboo reinforced frame was slightly higher than the nominal portal frame. This study provides insight on the possibility of reinforcing structural members with bamboo, when lateral loading is imminent on the structure

First trimester placental endothelial cells from pregnancies with abnormal uterine artery Doppler are more sensitive to apoptotic stimuli.

Failure of the placental capillary network to develop normally is associated with early onset fetal growth restriction (FGR) and pre-eclampsia (PE). Although the symptoms are observed at term, the problem begins in the first trimester. However, investigations at this clinically relevant time are hindered by difficulties in identifying earlystage pregnancies that are at risk of developing FGR/PE. Using uterine artery Doppler ultrasound in the first trimester as a proxy measure of poor placentation, we have identified pregnancies at increased risk of developing early onset FGR/PE. Placental endothelial cells (PEC) isolated from pregnancies at increased risk of developing FGR/PE grew more slowly and their basal rate of apoptosis was significantly higher than that seen in the normal group. The pro-apoptotic stimulus, TNFα, induced apoptosis in cells from both groups but this was significantly greater in the high risk group. TNF receptor expression was unaffected. Inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production significantly increased the sensitivity of cells from the normal pregnancies to TNFα but not in the high risk group establishing a functional role for NO in this system. In conclusion, first trimester PEC from pregnancies at increased risk of developing early onset FGR/PE were inherently more sensitive to apoptotic stimuli and this was functionally linked to the synthesis of NO. This may contribute to the poor placental vascular development seen in on going pregnancies

Illegal births and legal abortions – the case of China

BACKGROUND: China has a national policy regulating the number of children that a woman is allowed to have. The central concept at the individual level application is "illegal pregnancy". The purpose of this article is to describe and problematicize the concept of illegal pregnancy and its use in practice. METHODS: Original texts and previous published and unpublished reports and statistics were used. RESULTS: By 1979 the Chinese population policy was clearly a policy of controlling population growth. For a pregnancy to be legal, it has to be defined as such according to the family-level eligibility rules, and in some places it has to be within the local quota. Enforcement of the policy has been pursued via the State Family Planning (FP) Commission and the Communist Party (CP), both of which have a functioning vertical structure down to the lowest administrative units. There are various incentives and disincentives for families to follow the policy. An extensive system has been created to keep the contraceptive use and pregnancy status of all married women at reproductive age under constant surveillance. In the early 1990s FP and CP officials were made personally responsible for meeting population targets. Since 1979, abortion has been available on request, and the ratio of legal abortions to birth increased in the 1980s and declined in the 1990s. Similar to what happens in other Asian countries with low fertility rates and higher esteem for boys, both national- and local-level data show that an unnaturally greater number of boys than girls are registered as having been born. CONCLUSION: Defining a pregnancy as "illegal" and carrying out the surveillance of individual women are phenomena unique in China, but this does not apply to other features of the policy. The moral judgment concerning the policy depends on the basic question of whether reproduction should be considered as an individual or social decision

Deaths in the Family

The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the relative strengths of economic and social status in determining deaths in households in India. The first part of the chapter focuses on the “age at death” using National Sample Survey data for 2004 and 2014. The purpose was to ask whether after controlling for non-community factors, the fact that Indians belonged to different social groups, encapsulating different degrees of social status, exercised a significant influence on their age at death? The existence of a social group effect would suggest that there was a “social gradient” to health outcomes in India. The second part of the chapter, using data from the Indian Human Development Survey of 2011, investigated the determinants of infant and child mortality. The overriding concern now is gender bias with girls more likely to die than boys before attaining their first (infant) and fifth (child) birthdays. As this study has shown, gender bias in infant and child mortality rates is, with singular exceptions, a feature of all the social groups. In conducting this investigation, the chapter addresses for India an issue which lies at the heart of social epidemiology: estimating the relative strengths of individual and social factors in determining mortality outcomes

Gender Based Within-Household Inequality in Childhood Immunization in India: Changes over Time and across Regions

Background and Objectives: Despite India’s substantial economic growth in the past two decades, girls in India are discriminated against in access to preventive healthcare including immunizations. Surprisingly, no study has assessed the contribution of gender based within-household discrimination to the overall inequality in immunization status of Indian children. This study therefore has two objectives: to estimate the gender based within-household inequality (GWHI) in immunization status of Indian children and to examine the inter-regional and inter-temporal variations in the GWHI. Data and Methods: The present study used households with a pair of male-female siblings (aged 1–5 years) from two rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 1992–93 and 2005–06). The overall inequality in the immunization status (after controlling for age and birth order) of children was decomposed into within-households and between-households components using Mean log deviation to obtain the GWHI component. The analysis was conducted at the all-India level as well as for six specified geographical regions and at two time points (1992–93 and 2005–06). Household fixed-effects models for immunization status of children were also estimated. Results and Conclusions: Findings from household fixed effects analysis indicated that the immunization scores of girls were significantly lower than that of boys. The inequality decompositions revealed that, at the all-India level, the absolute level of GWHI in immunization status decreased from 0.035 in 1992–93 to 0.023 in 2005–06. However, as a percentage o