Improving Quality of Life during Androgen Deprivation Therapy in Prostate Adenocarcinoma Patients: Effect of Prescribed Clinic-Based Exercise Program

Context: The mainstay of treatment of advanced prostate adenocarcinoma is androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT invariably results in a progressive loss of bone density and muscle mass and diminishing cardiopulmonary and cognitive function. Exercise is beneficial as adjuvant treatment during ADT. Aim: This study seeks to identify the benefit of prescribed exercise programs beyond routine physical activities of daily living in low‑income patients on ADT. Settings and Design: Men on ADT for 12 months who were in the remission phase of the disease were recruited for a 6 week supervised aerobic and resistive exercise program. Subjects and Methods: The effects of the prescribed exercise on muscle strength (MS), peak expiratory flow rate ( PEFR), maximum  oxygen uptake (MOU) and brief fatigue inventory (BFI) were assessed. 10R max test was deployed for MS while the modified Young Men Christian Association protocol for bicycle ergometer was used for PEFR and MOU. All measures were taken pre‑ and post‑intervention with a check for adverse events at week 3. Statistical Analysis Used: Simple frequency in SPSS version 21 was used. Results: Only 5 of 34 recruited subjects completed the study. There was 34.0% improvement in MOU, 34.9% improvement in PEFR, 130.0% increase in exercise duration, and 29.2% reduction in reported BFI. Improvement in parameters was more among those that had lower values at recruitment. Compliance with exercise prescription was a major challenge. All participants reported improvement in activities of daily living. Conclusions: Prescribed aerobic and resistive exercise program is beneficial during ADT for prostate adenocarcinoma. Those with poorer reserves tend to benefit more. Keywords: Androgen deprivation therapy, muscle strength, peak exploratory flow rate, prescribed exercise, prostate adenocarcinom

Effect of Combined Intake of Garcinia Kola and Ascorbic Acid on Intraocular Pressure of Normotensive Nigerians.

This study was carried out to determine the effect of combined intake of Garcinia kola and Ascorbic acid on Intraocular pressure (IOP) of normotensive Nigerians. A total of one hundred and sixty (n= 160) parcipants, males, and females within the age range of 18-50 years (Mean age = 29.29± 8.74) were used for this study. The participants were randomly assigned to four groups: A, B, C, D (n=40 in each group). About 500mg of Ascorbic acid only was administered to subjects in Group A; 7.4g of Garcinia kola only was administered to subjects in Group B; combined 7.4g of Garcinia kola and 500mg of Ascorbic acid was administered to subjects in group C, while 100ml of water was administered to Group D to serve as a control. The IOP of each subject was measured with a Tonopen Tonometer pre and post ingestions of the assigned treatment at 30 minutes interval for 120 minutes. The findings showed a statistically significant reduction (p< 0.05) in mean IOP from baseline values in groups A, B, and C at 60minutes and 90 minutes post administration of assigned treatment, with peak reducon at 60 minutes. The percentage change in mean IOP at 60 minutes in Groups A, B, C were 6.76%, 15.07%, 23.04% respectively. This change was statistically significant (p<0.05) in the three groups, with group C recording the highest reduction in mean IOP. There was, however, an increase in mean IOP towards baseline after 60 minutes. Group D recorded no statistically significant change in mean IOP. The reduction in mean IOP recorded in group C was statistically significant at all times of assessment post ingeson. (P<0.005). It was concluded from this study that combined intake of Garcinia kola and Ascorbic acid had a greater effect on IOP than Garcinia kola or Ascorbic acid alone. However, this effect was transient, since the reduction was not sustained after 60 minutes of ingestion. This may form the basis for the development of affordable medicine for lowering IOP.Keywords: Garcinia kola, Ascorbic acid, intraocular pressure, tonometer

Rare occurrence of the Torpedo shrimp

Torpedo shrimps Kishinouyepenaeopsis maxillipedo (synonym of Parapenaeopsis maxillipedo) occur along the Indo-West Pacific, Sri Lanka, Malaya and Australia. In India, K. maxillipedo has been reported from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman Islands and recently from Kerala. On 8th July 2019 seven specimens of Torpedo shrimps were found in the gill net catch at Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram district, on the south west coast of Keral

महाराष्ट्र की डोल जाल मात्स्यिकी

महाराष्ट्र की डोल जाल मात्स्यिक

New distributional record of spiny lobster Panulirus longipes longipes

Among the known species of spiny lobsters in India, Panulirus longipes longipes is striking due to its colorful appearance. Globally, fishery of this species is of low volume distributed along eastern Africa to Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and India. Purely marine inhabiting up to a depth of 130 m it is mostly found within 18 m depth along shallow coral reefs or rocky sea bottom. Live lobsters of this species occasionally exported from the Philippines and Indonesi

Towards a standardised informed consent procedure for live donor nephrectomy:the PRINCE (Process of Informed Consent Evaluation) project-study protocol for a nationwide prospective cohort study

Introduction: Informed consent is mandatory for all (surgical) procedures, but it is even more important when it comes to living kidney donors undergoing surgery for the benefit of others. Donor education, leading to informed consent, needs to be carried out according to certain standards. Informed consent procedures for live donor nephrectomy vary per centre, and even per individual healthcare professional. The basis for a standardised, uniform surgical informed consent procedure for live donor nephrectomy can be created by assessing what information donors need to hear to prepare them for the operation and convalescence. Methods and analysis: The PRINCE (Process of Informed Consent Evaluation) project is a prospective, multicentre cohort study, to be carried out in all eight Dutch kidney transplant centres. Donor knowledge of the procedure and postoperative course will be evaluated by means of pop quizzes. A baseline cohort (prior to receiving any information from a member of the transplant team in one of the transplant centres) will be compared with a control group, the members of which receive the pop quiz on the day of admission for donor nephrectomy. Donor satisfaction will be evaluated for all donors who completed the admission pop-quiz. The primary end point is donor knowledge. In addition, those elements that have to be included in the standardised format informed consent procedure will be identified. Secondary end points are donor satisfaction, current informed consent practices in the different centres (eg, how many visits, which personnel, what kind of information is disclosed, in which format, etc) and correlation of donor knowledge with surgeons' estimation thereof. Ethics and dissemination: Approval for this study was obtained from the medical ethical committee of the Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, on 18 February 2015. Secondary approval has been obtained from the local ethics committees in six participating centres. Approval in the last centre has been sought. Results: Outcome will be published in a scientific journal

Light fishing - conflicts and concerns in Maharashtra

Technological intervention in the Indian fishing industry are intended to increase marine fish production of the country. Crude light fishing methods practiced in Mandapam was reported for catching silverbellies (Sekharan 1955, Indian J. Fish., 1955; Anon., 1957, Indian J. Fish). Fishing experiments with light attraction for pelagic fishes using purseseines was conducted by Fishery Survey of India (Ninan and Sudarsan, 1988, Occasional papers of Fishery Survey of India No. 5) who reported that no aggregation was noticed in the areas where water turbidity was high and strong current (above 2 Knots) was present. Mohamed (2016) reviewed light fishing practices in India and suggested restrictions in power of lights used, area of operation, mesh size for exploitation etc (Marine Fisheries Policy Brief No. 4, 2016, ICAR- CMFRI)

Clonal evolution of CD8+ T cell responses against latent viruses: relationship among phenotype, localization, and function

Human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) infection is characterized by a vast expansion of resting effector-type virus-specific T cells in the circulation. In mice, interleukin-7 receptor α (IL-7Rα)-expressing cells contain the precursors for long-lived antigen-experienced CD8(+) T cells, but it is unclear if similar mechanisms operate to maintain these pools in humans. Here, we studied whether IL-7Rα-expressing cells obtained from peripheral blood (PB) or lymph nodes (LNs) sustain the circulating effector-type hCMV-specific pool. Using flow cytometry and functional assays, we found that the IL-7Rα(+) hCMV-specific T cell population comprises cells that have a memory phenotype and lack effector features. We used next-generation sequencing of the T cell receptor to compare the clonal repertoires of IL-7Rα(+) and IL-7Rα(-) subsets. We observed limited overlap of clones between these subsets during acute infection and after 1 year. When we compared the hCMV-specific repertoire between PB and paired LNs, we found many identical clones but also clones that were exclusively found in either compartment. New clones that were found in PB during antigenic recall were only rarely identical to the unique LN clones. Thus, although PB IL-7Rα-expressing and LN hCMV-specific CD8(+) T cells show typical traits of memory-type cells, these populations do not seem to contain the precursors for the novel hCMV-specific CD8(+) T cell pool during latency or upon antigen recall. IL-7Rα(+) PB and LN hCMV-specific memory cells form separate virus-specific compartments, and precursors for these novel PB hCMV-specific CD8(+) effector-type T cells are possibly located in other secondary lymphoid tissues or are being recruited from the naive CD8(+) T cell pool. IMPORTANCE: Insight into the self-renewal properties of long-lived memory CD8(+) T cells and their location is crucial for the development of both passive and active vaccination strategies. Human CMV infection is characterized by a vast expansion of resting effector-type cells. It is, however, not known how this population is maintained. We here investigated two possible compartments for effector-type cell precursors: circulating acute-phase IL-7Rα-expressing hCMV-specific CD8(+) T cells and lymph node (LN)-residing hCMV-specific (central) memory cells. We show that new clones that appear after primary hCMV infection or during hCMV reactivation seldom originate from either compartment. Thus, although identical clones may be maintained by either memory population, the precursors of the novel clones are probably located in other (secondary) lymphoid tissues or are recruited from the naive CD8(+) T cell pool

Transition, Integration and Convergence. The Case of Romania

This volume comprises several studies and papers published in the last decades. They have been selected and ranged so that to provide a minimum of coherence concerning the phases which Romania has crossed in her way to the advanced socio-economic system of European type: transition to the market economy, accession to the EU, the economic convergence in the three fundamental domains: institutions, real economy, and nominal economy. The readers may find in this volume a description of debates, difficulties and solutions adopted for building-up the market economy by a state being in a profound transformation from weak transition institutions towards hard democratic institutions. Because the transition to the market economy and the association of Romania with the EU and then the integration presenting strategic political decisions, I have included in this work two studies devoted to the political forces state and political parties that elaborated and applied these strategic decisions underlining their structure, role and function and their transformation. Integration into the EU of a country like Romania, which emerged from a different system comparing with the West-European one, has proved to be difficult and lasting many years because of the structural transformations. In five chapters I am referring to the essential characteristics of the integration process, such as: market liberalization, competitiveness of the local (national) firms on the national and EU markets, institutional reforms so that the institutions of candidate countries have to become compatible with those of the EU and finally the perspective assessment to find out the real and nominal convergence. Putting into practice the EU competitivity and cohesion principles, Romania has good prospects to close, in a reasonable time, the economic gap and to be admitted into the Euro Zone. Although the real convergence of Romania with the EU requires higher growth rates for the former, a new approach is compulsory to take into consideration the environment quality, the natural resources and the equity between the present and the future generations as natural resource consumers. Just these problems have determined me to include in this volume the last two chapters which, on the one hand, try to prove the necessity of the economy growth harmonization with the environment evolution as well as the saving of the energy resources, and, on the other hand, to point out the main ways to be followed and instruments to be used