Impact of Tandem Repeats on the Scaling of Nucleotide Sequences

Techniques such as detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and its extensions have been widely used to determine the nature of scaling in nucleotide sequences. In this brief communication we show that tandem repeats which are ubiquitous in nucleotide sequences can prevent reliable estimation of possible long-range correlations. Therefore, it is important to investigate the presence of tandem repeats prior to scaling exponent estimation.Comment: 14 Pages, 3 Figure

Livestock farming and fodder trees in Lamjung District

Livestock farming and fodder trees in Lamjung District, Nepa

Potential impact and controversy of stem cells in public health

Stem cells are versatile in the bodies which are able to both reproduce themselves and to produce more specialized cells. As such, they are of great potential values in repairing and regenerating damaged cells and tissues. Many different kinds of stem cells have been discovered. The most common are embryonic, foetal and adult stem cells. Stem cell research has the potential to provide an increased understanding of development and differentiation, as well as leading to treatments and cures for many diseases. They are important to the future of medicine and public health because with adequate research, stem cells have the potential to treat degenerative conditions through transplanting human stem cells into patients. With sufficient development of stem cell medicine, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease will be effectively managed. Embryonic stem cell (ESC) research has been a source of ethical, legal, and social controversy which has slowed the pace of stem cell science and shaped many aspects of its subsequent development

Effect of Paclobutrazol on Fruit Quality Attributes in Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Cv. Totapuri

Paclobutrazol application restricts vegetative growth while improving flowering and fruiting in mango. In the present study, effect of soil drenching with Paclobutrazol @ 3.0ml m-1 canopy diameter, applied during the 3rd week of August, on fruit quality attributes was investigated in cv. Totapuri. Parameters like fruit weight, total soluble solids (TSS), % acidity, and content of ascorbic acid, carotenoids, lycopene and individual sugars was estimated. Paclobutrazol application increased average fruit weight, TSS and content of ascorbic acid and total carotenoids, and reduced the acidity in fruits compared to fruits in untreated trees. Lycopene content was only marginally influenced by paclobutrazol. In fruits of paclobutrazol treated trees, increase of 23.4% in total sugars, 29.6% in reducing sugars, 77.4% in glucose and 27.8% in sucrose content was recorded over fruits from the untreated trees. Results indicated that, paclobutrazol application improved quality in mango fruit

A comparative study of obstetrics outcome of placenta previa in scarred versus unscarred uterus at tertiary Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal

Background: Placenta previa is an obstetric life-threatening condition with several maternal and fetal complications. The objective of this study is to compare the maternal and fetal outcome of placenta previa in scarred and unscarred uterus.Methods: A retrospective case control study was carried out on 85 cases of placenta previa in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Paropakar Maternity and Womens Hospital (PMWH) Kathmandu from April 2019 to May 2020 of which 46 had scarred uterus and 39 cases had unscarred uterus.Results: Sixty-one of patients were less than 30 years of age, 62% presented with gestational age 28 to 37 weeks and 67% had parity between 1 to 5. Frequency of placenta previa in scarred uterus was 54% and that in unscarred uterus was 46%. Eighty percent cases with scarred uterus had anterior placenta compared to 33% of cases of unscarred uterus with p value of 0.009. 42% had grade 4 placenta previa on ultrasonography. 45 percent of patient with scarred uterus had PPH compared to 23% in unscarred group with p value of 0.03. Malpresentation was found in 7 cases in scarred group and in one case in unscarred. Cesarean hysterectomy was performed in 6 cases in scarred category compared to 2 in unscarred. Low birth weight was present in 28 cases in scarred category compared to 15 cases in unscarred category with p value 0.03.Conclusions: This study concluded that fetal and maternal outcome is adverse for cases of placenta previa with scarred uterus compared to unscarred uterus

Chemical Constituents during the Main and Off-Season in Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Cv. Royal Special

Evaluation and quantification of fruit quality parameters like carbohydrates, phenolics, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, titrable acidity, Total Soluble Solids (TSS), carotenoids and lycopene content was done in fruits of mango cv. Royal Special, at ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, India, during the off-season (October, 2012) and main-season (June, 2013), respectively. 'Royal Special' is a typical off-season bearing cultivar, often characterized by multiple flushing and flowering under South Indian conditions. Major phytonutrients such as total sugars, reducing sugars, starch, total carotenoids, lycopene, total phenols, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, TSS, titrable acidity and average fruit yield per plant, were recorded during the off- and main- seasons. Results indicated that fruits from off-season were higher in the major chemical constituents studied compared to the main-season crop, except for fruit yield per plant. This may be attributed to poor competition for nutrients among the developing fruits which act as a sink, besides fluctuating environmental conditions during the off-season, compared to the main-season

Suboptimal chlorine treatment of drinking water leads to selection of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The present study was undertaken to investigate the spectrum of bacteria present in the River Gomti water before and after chlorination for drinking purposes. We observed that the strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that survived chlorination on three out of seven occasions were resistant to almost all the antibiotics tested. The chlorine-resistant bacteria had mucoid colonies and grew better at 24° C. All attempts to isolate the plasmid responsible for chlorine resistance were unsuccessful. Laboratory experiments using different strains of the P. aeruginosa in distilled water showed that only the resistant strain survived chlorine treatment at a dose of ≤500 μ g/L. Similar results were obtained when water collected from seven different sites on the River Gomti was treated with graded doses of chlorine. At the higher dose of chlorine, all the bacteria died in 30 min, whereas with lower doses all the bacteria survived. The present study underscores the importance of measuring water chlorine concentrations to assure they are sufficiently high to remove pathogenic bacteria from drinking water. To our knowledge, this is the first report in the literature of the selection of multidrug-resistant bacteria by suboptimal chlorine treatment of water

Nanostructured carriers as innovative tools for cancer diagnosis and therapy

Cancer accounts for millions of deaths every year and, due to the increase and aging of the world population, the number of new diagnosed cases is continuously rising. Although many progresses in early diagnosis and innovative therapeutic protocols have been already set in clinical practice, still a lot of critical aspects need to be addressed in order to efficiently treat cancer and to reduce several drawbacks caused by conventional therapies. Nanomedicine has emerged as a very promising approach to support both early diagnosis and effective therapy of tumors, and a plethora of different inorganic and organic multifunctional nanomaterials have been ad hoc designed to meet the constant demand for new solutions in cancer treatment. Given their unique features and extreme versatility, nanocarriers represent an innovative and easily adaptable tool both for imaging and targeted therapy purposes, in order to improve the specific delivery of drugs administered to cancer patients. The current review reports an in-depth analysis of the most recent research studies aiming at developing both inorganic and organic materials for nanomedical applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy. A detailed overview of different approaches currently undergoing clinical trials or already approved in clinical practice is provided