Studies on cucurbit viruses in Madras State. IV. Some aspects of the relationships of Melon Mosaic Virus strain to its three aphid vectors

Melon Mosaic Virus (MMV) was non-persistent in its three aphid vectors. The pre-acquisition fasting threshold, acquisition threshold and the inoculation feeding threshold were 5 minutes, 10 seconds and 60 seconds respectively for Myzus persicae, 15 minutes, 30 seconds and 3 minutes respectively for Aphis gossypii, 60 minutes, 60 seconds and 5 minutes respectively for A. nerii. The optimum number of viruliferous aphids per plant for maximum transmission was 30 in all the vectors. Increasing the number of aphids above this optimum decreased the percentage transmission of the virus. In the case of myzus persicae, the reduction in the percentage transmission was conspicuous when 240 aphids per plant were used whereas in A. nerii the decrease was noticed even when 100 aphids per plant were used. The percentage transmission by fasted aphids was more than by the non-fasted ones. Persistance of the virus during fasting was for 90, 45 and 30 minutes respectively in M. persicae, A. gossypii and A. nerii while during feeding it was 30, 15 and 10 minutes respectively. The aphid vectors were ranked in the following descending order of transmission efficiency: Myzus persicae, Aphis gossypii and A. nerii. The length of the pre-acquisition fasting period varied inversely as the efficiency. More efficient the vector, shorter was the fasting period. The acquisition threshold and incoulation feeding threshold also varied inversely as the efficiency of the vector. The fall in the efficiency of transmission when the number of aphid vector was increased above the optimum was considered to be due to a salivary inhibitor. Apterous forms of the aphid vectors were more efficient transmitters of the viruses than the alate forms. It was concluded that all aphids have a salivary inactivator, the quantity secreted varied from species to species, the efficiency of transmission being inversely correlated with the quantity of inhibitor secreted

Fourier-transform infrared anisotropy in cross and parallel sections of tendon and articular cartilage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging (FTIRI) is used to investigate the amide anisotropies at different surfaces of a three-dimensional cartilage or tendon block. With the change in the polarization state of the incident infrared light, the resulting anisotropic behavior of the tissue structure is described here.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thin sections (6 μm thick) were obtained from three different surfaces of the canine tissue blocks and imaged at 6.25 μm pixel resolution. For each section, infrared imaging experiments were repeated thirteen times with the identical parameters except a 15° increment of the analyzer's angle in the 0° – 180° angular space. The anisotropies of amide I and amide II components were studied in order to probe the orientation of the collagen fibrils at different tissue surfaces.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For tendon, the anisotropy of amide I and amide II components in parallel sections is comparable to that of regular sections; and tendon's cross sections show distinct, but weak anisotropic behavior for both the amide components. For articular cartilage, parallel sections in the superficial zone have the expected infrared anisotropy that is consistent with that of regular sections. The parallel sections in the radial zone, however, have a nearly isotropic amide II absorption and a distinct amide I anisotropy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>From the inconsistency in amide anisotropy between superficial to radial zone in parallel section results, a schematic model is used to explain the origins of these amide anisotropies in cartilage and tendon.</p

Tele-sleep Medicine: An Opportunity in a Crisis

The countrywide lockdown in India has necessitated healthcare providers consider alternate options for providing care during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there has been a tremendous focus in coping with emergency and inpatient care for COVID-19 related illness, there is also an increasing need to address management of non-communicable disease. The pandemic and the associated lockdown have witnessed the onset or worsening of sleep disorders often related to changing lifestyle, including inactivity, fear of the disease, and generalised anxiety caused by the uncertainty of the future. We propose the term ‘Lockdown Sleep Syndrome’ to describe this grouping of signs and symptoms. The wide coverage and extensive use of smartphones and more importantly, the appropriately timed Telemedicine Practice Guidelines from the Government of India, have made telehealth an attractive option, particularly in specialities such as Sleep Medicine which involves minimal physical examination. The experience of restricting personal visits to the clinic and promoting teleconsultation during the initial fifty days of lockdown is described. It was observed that two thirds of consultations shifted to a telehealth platform, and this was effective in giving satisfactory care and valid prescriptions, including to those outside the city of Chennai. Telemedicine not only helped provide uncompromised care to existing patients but also helped in identifying and managing the onset of new sleep problems with a pattern of signs and symptoms which are described as “Lockdown Sleep Syndrome”

Rhabdomyolysis from influenza b infection: A case report

Rhabdomyolysis is a syndrome characterized by muscle necrosis and the release of intracellular muscle constituents into the&nbsp;circulation. Here, we report the case of an 18-year-old male with cerebral palsy who was admitted to the hospital with symptoms&nbsp;of lower respiratory tract infection and with high-grade fever. His initial blood workup revealed an elevated creatinine and CPK of&nbsp;32,000 which was suggestive of rhabdomyolysis. His worsening renal function with acidosis and hyperkalemia required initiation&nbsp;of hemodialysis. A respiratory viral PCR profile revealed Influenza B. He was re-started on Oseltamivir with gradual clinical&nbsp;improvement. Respiratory viral PCR testing should be considered in patients with features of lower respiratory tract infection and&nbsp;rhabdomyolysis as this can detect influenza B and other viruses which cannot be detected by doing H1N1 PCR

EgoEnv: Human-centric environment representations from egocentric video

First-person video highlights a camera-wearer's activities in the context of their persistent environment. However, current video understanding approaches reason over visual features from short video clips that are detached from the underlying physical space and capture only what is immediately visible. To facilitate human-centric environment understanding, we present an approach that links egocentric video and the environment by learning representations that are predictive of the camera-wearer's (potentially unseen) local surroundings. We train such models using videos from agents in simulated 3D environments where the environment is fully observable, and test them on human-captured real-world videos from unseen environments. On two human-centric video tasks, we show that models equipped with our environment-aware features consistently outperform their counterparts with traditional clip features. Moreover, despite being trained exclusively on simulated videos, our approach successfully handles real-world videos from HouseTours and Ego4D, and achieves state-of-the-art results on the Ego4D NLQ challenge. Project page: https://vision.cs.utexas.edu/projects/ego-env/Comment: Published in NeurIPS 2023 (Oral

Three chemotherapy studies of tuberculous meningitis in children

Chemotherapy studies were undertaken in 180 patients with tuberculous meningitis. They were treated for 12 months withlof3 regimens: the first consisted of streptomycin, isoniazid and rifampicin daily for the first 2 months, followed by ethambutol plus isoniazid for 10 months; in the second, pyrazinamide was added for the first 2 months, and in the third, rifampicin was re-duced to twice weekly in the first 2 months. In the first regimen alone, streptomycin was also given twice weekly from the third to the sixth month. Steroids were prescribed for all the patients in thc initial weeks of treatment. Approximately 50% of the patients were aged less than 3 years. On admission, 13%of the patients were classified as stage 1,77% as stage Hand 9% as stage III. Cere-brospinal fluid (CSF) culture results were available for all the 180 patients and M. tuberculosis was isolated in 59 (33%). CSF smear results for acid fast bacilli were available only for the 103 patients admitted to the second and the third studies, and of these, in 60 (58%) the CSF was positive cither by smear or culture. The response to therapy was similar in the 3 studies. Despite administration of rifampicin for 2 months, the mortality was high. In all, 27% of the patients died of tuberculous meningitis, 39% had neurological sequelae and 34% recovered completely. There was a strong association between ilu stage on admission and the mortality rate, the deaths being highest in stage III. In the first study; when isoniazid was prescribed daily in a dosage of 20 mg/kg, 39 % of the patients developed jaundice however, when the dosage was reduced to 12 mg/kg, the incidence was only 16%. In the third study. where rifampicin was administered twice a week, the incidence of jaundice was low (5%)

Mobile Apps Making a Socio-Economic Impact for Managing Power at Underprivileged Homes

The paper presents how connectivity feature integrated into a roof-top solar power system, Inverterless500, designed and developed to electrify off-grid and near off-grid homes in an energy efficient manner, is critical in optimum service delivery, especially for lower income homes. It makes such products not only suitable for different categories of homes, but also economically viable, offering a promising business solution. Monitoring and manageability are unique features that help in maintaining the solution at remote areas of installation where manual intervention is not routinely feasible. The paper the describes the technology and learnings gained from deployment of these systems that helped in improving the product and overall management process

Prevalence of frailty and association with patient centered outcomes:A prospective registry-embedded cohort study from India

Purpose:We aimed to study the prevalence of frailty, evaluate risk factors, and understand impact on outcomes in India. Methods:This was a prospective registry-embedded cohort study across 7 intensive care units (ICUs) and included adult patients anticipated to stay for at least 48hrs. Primary exposure was frailty, as defined by a score ≥5 on the Clinical Frailty Scale and primary outcome was ICU mortality. Secondary outcomes included in-hospital mortality and resource utilization. We used generalized linear models to evaluate risk factors and model association between frailty and outcomes. Results:838 patients were included, with median (IQR) age 57 (42,68) yrs.; 64.8% were male. Prevalence of frailty was 19.8%. Charlson comorbidity index (OR:1.73 (95%CI:1.39,2.15)), Subjective Global Assessment categories mild/moderate malnourishment (OR:1.90 (95%CI:1.29, 2.80)) and severe malnourishment [OR:4.76 (95% CI:2.10,10.77)] were associated with frailty. Frailty was associated with higher odds of ICU mortality (adjusted OR:2.04 (95% CI:1.25,3.33)), hospital mortality (adjusted OR:2.36 (95%CI:1.45,3.84)), development of stage2/3 AKI (unadjusted OR:2.35 (95%CI:1.60, 3.43)), receipt of non-invasive ventilation (unadjusted OR:2.68 (95%CI:1.77, 4.03)), receipt of vasopressors (unadjusted OR:1.47 (95%CI:1.04, 2.07)), and receipt of kidney replacement therapy (unadjusted OR:3.15 (95%CI:1.90, 5.17)). Conclusions:Frailty is common among critically ill patients in India and is associated with worse outcomes. <br/

Nutrition therapy for critically ill patients across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East Regions: a consensus statement

Background & Aims: Guidance on managing the nutritional requirements of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) has been issued by several international bodies. While these guidelines are consulted in ICUs across the Asia Pacific and Middle East, there is little guidance available that is tailored to the unique healthcare environments and demographics across these regions. Furthermore, the lack of consistent data from randomized controlled clinical trials, reliance on expert consensus, and differing recommendations in international guidelines necessitate further expert guidance on regional best practice when providing nutrition therapy for critically ill patients in ICUs in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Methods: The Asia-Pacific and Middle East Working Group on Nutrition in the ICU has identified major areas of uncertainty in clinical practice for healthcare professionals providing nutrition therapy in Asia Pacific and Middle East and developed a series of consensus statements to guide nutrition therapy in the ICU in these regions. Results: Accordingly, consensus statements have been provided on nutrition risk assessment and parenteral and enteral feeding strategies in the ICU, monitoring adequacy of, and tolerance to, nutrition in the ICU and institutional processes for nutrition therapy in the ICU. Furthermore, the Working Group has noted areas requiring additional research, including the most appropriate use of hypocaloric feeding in the ICU. Conclusions: The objective of the Working Group in formulating these statements is to guide healthcare professionals in practicing appropriate clinical nutrition in the ICU, with a focus on improving quality of care, which will translate into improved patient outcomes

Net ultrafiltration prescription and practice among critically ill patients receiving renal replacement therapy : a multinational survey of critical care practitioners

Objectives: To assess the attitudes of practitioners with respect to net ultrafiltration prescription and practice among critically ill patients with acute kidney injury treated with renal replacement therapy. Design: Multinational internet-assisted survey. Setting: Critical care practitioners involved with 14 societies in 80 countries. Subjects: Intensivists, nephrologists, advanced practice providers, ICU and dialysis nurses. Intervention: A cross-sectional survey. Measurement and Main Results: Of 2,567 practitioners who initiated the survey, 1,569 (61.1%) completed the survey. Most practitioners were intensivists (72.7%) with a median duration of 13.2 years of practice (interquartile range, 7.2-22.0 yr). Two third of practitioners (71.0%; regional range, 55.0-95.5%) reported using continuous renal replacement therapy with a net ultrafiltration rate prescription of median 80.0 mL/hr (interquartile range, 49.0-111.0 mL/hr) for hemodynamically unstable and a maximal rate of 299.0 mL/hr (interquartile range, 200.0-365.0 mL/hr) for hemodynamically stable patients, with regional variation. Only a third of practitioners (31.5%; range, 13.7-47.8%) assessed hourly net fluid balance during continuous renal replacement therapy. Hemodynamic instability was reported in 20% (range, 20-38%) of patients and practitioners decreased the rate of fluid removal (70.3%); started or increased the dose of a vasopressor (51.5%); completely stopped fluid removal (35.8%); and administered a fluid bolus (31.6%), with significant regional variation. Compared with physicians, nurses were most likely to report patient intolerance to net ultrafiltration (73.4% vs 81.3%; p = 0.002), frequent interruptions (40.4% vs 54.5%; p < 0.001), and unavailability of trained staff (11.9% vs 15.6%; p = 0.04), whereas physicians reported unavailability of dialysis machines (14.3% vs 6.1%; p < 0.001) and costs associated with treatment as barriers (12.1% vs 3.0%; p < 0.001) with significant regional variation. Conclusions: Our study provides new knowledge about the presence and extent of international practice variation in net ultrafiltration. We also identified barriers and specific targets for quality improvement initiatives. Our data reflect the need for evidence-based practice guidelines for net ultrafiltration