Comparison between Adductor Pollicis and Orbicularis Oculi as Indicators of Adequacy of Muscle Relaxation for Tracheal Intubation Following Rocuronium Induced Neuromuscular Block: Randomized Comparative Clinical Trial

Background: The purpose of this study was to verify which muscle among the Adductor Pollicis (AP) and Orbicularis Oculi (OO) is a better predictor of optimal intubating condition after administration of Rocuronium.Methods: In this prospective, double blind, randomized study, 80 adult ASA –I and ASA – II undergoing general anaesthesia with tracheal intubation were allocated to two groups (n = 40) according to the reference muscle (AP or OO) used to determine the appropriate intubation time. Induction of anaesthesia was achieved with Inj Thiopentone 5mg/kg, Inj Fentanyl 2 mcg/kg and Inj Rocuronium 0.6mg/kg for muscle relaxation. Supramaximal Train Of Four (TOF–Guard acceleromyograph, neuro muscular monitor) stimulation of the ulnar nerve and facial nerve every 15 secs was used to monitor the neuromuscular block. After Train Of Four responses disappeared at Adductor Pollicis muscle or Orbicularis Oculi muscle, tracheal intubation and quality of intubation assessment was performed by an independent anaesthesiologist. Intubating conditions were scored on a Kreig et al scale.Results: Onset time at Orbicularis Oculi was significantly shorter than Adductor Pollicis muscle (P < 0.001), but adequate intubating condition were significantly increased in the Adductor Pollicis  (Excellent – 87.5%, Good – 12.5%, Poor – 0%) compared with Orbicularis Oculi (Excellent – 27.5%,Good – 45%,Poor – 27.5%) after a dose of 0.6mg/kg of Rocuronium (P < 0.001)Conclusion: After administration of Rocuronium, twitch monitoring at Orbicularis Oculi allows a faster intubation but is associated with an unacceptable incidence of inadequate intubating condition . Adequate intubating conditions were observed with Adductor Pollicis muscle. Hence Monitoring neuromuscular activity of the Adductor Pollicis using Train of Four to determine the appropriate tracheal intubation time and condition is more clinically relevant than monitoring the Orbicularis Oculi muscle

Multi-organ Injuries Due to a Lightning Strike: A Rare Case

Injuries due to a lightning strike are uncommon presentations in the emergency department. Common injuries caused by lightning include burns, muscle pains, cardiac arrest, hearing loss, seizures, behavioral changes and ocular cataracts. We report a case of a 26-year-old primigravida with history of 3 months of amenorrhea who was struck by lightning as she was standing beside a tree. It left her unconscious, immediately after which she was taken to the emergency department of Maharana Bhupal Govt Hospital (MBGH Hospital), Udaipur, Rajasthan. Entry wound was from right ear and the exit wound was on abdomen. Examination confirmed linear first- and superficial second-degree burns. The electrocardiogram (ECG) showed deep and symmetrical T-wave inversion in precordial and lateral leads. There was an associated elevation of troponin T levels (peak: 432 ng/L), suggestive of myocarditis. On otoscopic examination, she was found to have rupture of tympanic membrane bilaterally. A transthoracic echocardiography revealed reduced ejection fraction of the left ventricle to 25% with global left ventricle hypokinesia, moderate mitral regurgitation and tricuspid regurgitation. This case aims to raise awareness among the healthcare providers regarding multiple organ involvement in lightning injury

Design and Analysis of Fusion Algorithm for Multi-Frame Super-Resolution Image Reconstruction using Framelet

A enhanced fusion algorithm for generating a super resolution image from a sequence of low-resolution images captured from identical scene apparently a video, based on framelet have been designed and analyzed. In this paper an improved analytical method of image registration is used which integrates nearest neighbor method and gradient method. Comparing to Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) the Framelet Transform (FrT) have tight frame filter bank that offers symmetry and permits shift in invariance. Therefore using framelet this paper also present a framelet based enhanced fusion for choosing the fused framelet co-efficient that provides detailed edges and good spatial information with adequate de-noising. The proposed algorithm also has high advantage and computationally fast which are most needed for satellite imaging, medical imaging diagnosis, military surveillance, remote sensing etc.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 4, July 2015, pp. 292-299, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.826

Multi-organ Injuries Due to a Lightning Strike: A Rare Case

Injuries due to a lightning strike are uncommon presentations in the emergency department. Common injuries caused bylightning include burns, muscle pains, cardiac arrest, hearing loss, seizures, behavioral changes and ocular cataracts. Wereport a case of a 26-year-old primigravida with history of 3 months of amenorrhea who was struck by lightning as shewas standing beside a tree. It left her unconscious, immediately after which she was taken to the emergency departmentof Maharana Bhupal Govt Hospital (MBGH Hospital), Udaipur, Rajasthan. Entry wound was from right ear and the exitwound was on abdomen. Examination confirmed linear first- and superficial second-degree burns. The electrocardiogram(ECG) showed deep and symmetrical T-wave inversion in precordial and lateral leads. There was an associated elevation oftroponin T levels (peak: 432 ng/L), suggestive of myocarditis. On otoscopic examination, she was found to have rupture oftympanic membrane bilaterally. A transthoracic echocardiography revealed reduced ejection fraction of the left ventricle to25% with global left ventricle hypokinesia, moderate mitral regurgitation and tricuspid regurgitation. This case aims to raiseawareness among the healthcare providers regarding multiple organ involvement in lightning injury

Cosmological Implications of a Scale Invariant Standard Model

We generalize the standard model of particle physics such it displays global scale invariance. The gravitational action is also suitably modified such that it respects this symmetry. This model is interesting since the cosmological constant term is absent in the action. We find that the scale symmetry is broken by the recently introduced cosmological symmetry breaking mechanism. This simultaneously generates all the dimensionful parameters such as the Newton's gravitational constant, the particle masses and the vacuum or dark energy. We find that in its simplest version the model predicts the Higgs mass to be very small, which is ruled out experimentally. We further generalize the model such that it displays local scale invariance. In this case the Higgs particle disappears from the particle spectrum and instead we find a very massive vector boson. Hence the model gives a consistent description of particle physics phenomenology as well as fits the cosmological dark energy.Comment: 12 pages, no figure

Constraints on the Cosmological Constant due to Scale Invariance

We consider the standard model with local scale invariance. The theory shows exact scale invariance of dimensionally regulated action. We show that massless gauge fields, which may be abelian or non-abelian, lead to vanishing contribution to the cosmological constant in this theory. This result follows in the quantum theory, to all orders in the gauge couplings. However we have not considered contributions higher orders in the gravitational coupling. Similarly we also find that massless fermion fields yield null contribution to the cosmological constant. The effective cosmological constant in this theory is non-zero due to the phenomenon of cosmological symmetry breaking, which also gives masses to all the massive fields, besides generating the Planck mass. We find a simple relationship between the curvature scalar and the vacuum value of the Higgs field in the limit when we ignore all other contributions to the energy density besides the vacuum energy.Comment: 17 pages, no figures, revised version, no change in results or conclusion

β

A number of xenobiotic-inducible cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are now known to be localized in the mitochondrial compartment, though their pharmacological or toxicological roles remain unclear. Here, we show that BNF treatment markedly inhibits liver mitochondrial O2 consumption rate (OCR), ADP-dependent OCR, and also reserve OCR, in wild-type mice but not in Cyp1a1/1a2(−/−) double knockout mice. BNF treatment markedly affected mitochondrial complex I and complex IV activities and also attenuated mitochondrial gene expression. Furthermore, under in vitro conditions, BNF treatment induced cellular ROS production, which was inhibited by mitochondria-targeted antioxidant Mito-CP and CYP inhibitor proadefin, suggesting that most of the ROS production was intramitochondrial and probably involved the catalytic activity of mitochondrial CYP1 enzymes. Interestingly, our results also show that the AHR antagonist resveratrol, markedly attenuated BNF-induced liver mitochondrial defects in wild-type mice, confirming the role of AHR and AHR-regulated CYP1 genes in eliciting mitochondrial dysfunction. These results are consistent with reduced BNF-induced mitochondrial toxicity in Cyp1a1/1a2(−/−) mice and elevated ROS production in COS cells stably expressing CYP1A1. We propose that increased mitochondrial ROS production and respiratory dysfunction are part of xenobiotic toxicity. Resveratrol, a chemopreventive agent, renders protection against BNF-induced toxicity

Rational design of a planar junctionless field-effect transistor for sensing biomolecular interactions

In the ElectroMed project, we are interested in screening certain peptide sequences for their ability to selectively interact with antibodies or MHC proteins. This poses a combinatorial challenge that requires a highly multiplexed setup of label-free immunosensors. Label-free FET-based immunosensors are good candidates due to their high multiplexing capability and fast response time. Nanowire-based FET sensors have shown high sensitivity but are unreliable for clinical applications due to drift and gate stability issues. To address this, a label-free immuno-FET architecture based on planar junctionless FET devices is proposed. This geometry can improve the signal-to-noise ratio due to its larger planar structure, which is less prone to defects that cause noise and is better suited to the functionalization of different receptor molecules

FMRP Interacts with C/D Box snoRNA in the Nucleus and Regulates Ribosomal RNA Methylation

Summary: FMRP is an RNA-binding protein that is known to localize in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus. Here, we have identified an interaction of FMRP with a specific set of C/D box snoRNAs in the nucleus. C/D box snoRNAs guide 2’O methylations of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) on defined sites, and this modification regulates rRNA folding and assembly of ribosomes. 2’O methylation of rRNA is partial on several sites in human embryonic stem cells, which results in ribosomes with differential methylation patterns. FMRP-snoRNA interaction affects rRNA methylation on several of these sites, and in the absence of FMRP, differential methylation pattern of rRNA is significantly altered. We found that FMRP recognizes ribosomes carrying specific methylation patterns on rRNA and the recognition of methylation pattern by FMRP may potentially determine the translation status of its target mRNAs. Thus, FMRP integrates its function in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm. : Molecular Interaction; Stem Cells Research; Omics Subject Areas: Molecular Interaction, Stem Cells Research, Omic

Identification of B Cell Epitopes of Alcohol Dehydrogenase Allergen of Curvularia lunata

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Epitope identification assists in developing molecules for clinical applications and is useful in defining molecular features of allergens for understanding structure/function relationship. The present study was aimed to identify the B cell epitopes of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) allergen from Curvularia lunata using in-silico methods and immunoassay. METHOD: B cell epitopes of ADH were predicted by sequence and structure based methods and protein-protein interaction tools while T cell epitopes by inhibitory concentration and binding score methods. The epitopes were superimposed on a three dimensional model of ADH generated by homology modeling and analyzed for antigenic characteristics. Peptides corresponding to predicted epitopes were synthesized and immunoreactivity assessed by ELISA using individual and pooled patients' sera. RESULT: The homology model showed GroES like catalytic domain joined to Rossmann superfamily domain by an alpha helix. Stereochemical quality was confirmed by Procheck which showed 90% residues in most favorable region of Ramachandran plot while Errat gave a quality score of 92.733%. Six B cell (P1-P6) and four T cell (P7-P10) epitopes were predicted by a combination of methods. Peptide P2 (epitope P2) showed E(X)(2)GGP(X)(3)KKI conserved pattern among allergens of pathogenesis related family. It was predicted as high affinity binder based on electronegativity and low hydrophobicity. The computational methods employed were validated using Bet v 1 and Der p 2 allergens where 67% and 60% of the epitope residues were predicted correctly. Among B cell epitopes, Peptide P2 showed maximum IgE binding with individual and pooled patients' sera (mean OD 0.604±0.059 and 0.506±0.0035, respectively) followed by P1, P4 and P3 epitopes. All T cell epitopes showed lower IgE binding. CONCLUSION: Four B cell epitopes of C. lunata ADH were identified. Peptide P2 can serve as a potential candidate for diagnosis of allergic diseases