Amniotic membrane as a scaffold in wound healing and diabetic foot ulcer: an experimental technique and recommendations

Background: Human amniotic membrane has been used clinically in a variety of applications for over the past 100 years and produced a significant amount of data in multiple areas of medicine. Its clinical usage ranges from wound coverage for burn victims to healing of the conjunctiva after pterygium repair. The amniotic membrane natural properties provide an easy to use, safe option for various medical applications. There is need to develop a method for storage of amniotic membrane which can retain the biological properties and as well have long shelf life too.Methods: The experimental technique was standardized for cryopreservation of amniotic membrane. For this, amniotic membrane was obtained from mothers who had delivered through caesarean section with their consent.Results: The standardized protocol for cryopreservation of amniotic membrane was found to be safe and preserved amniotic membrane is expected to have long shelf life.  Conclusions: The advantages associated with amniotic membrane such as easily available, inexpensive, non-immunogenic and antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory properties make it a suitable graft to be used in wound healing and diabetic foot ulcers

Concurrent infections by all four dengue virus serotypes during an outbreak of dengue in 2006 in Delhi, India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Co-circulation of multiple dengue virus serotypes has been reported from many parts of the world including India, however concurrent infection with more than one serotype of dengue viruses in the same individual is rarely documented. An outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) occurred in and around Delhi in 2006. This is the first report from India with high percentage of concurrent infections with different dengue virus serotypes circulating during one outbreak.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Acute phase sera from patients were tested for the presence of dengue virus RNA by RT-PCR assay. Of the 69 samples tested for dengue virus RNA, 48 (69.5%) were found to be positive. All the four dengue virus serotypes were found to be co-circulating in this outbreak with DENV-3 being the predominant serotype. In addition in 9 of 48 (19%) dengue virus positive samples, concurrent infection with more than one dengue virus serotype were identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first report in which concurrent infections with different dengue virus serotypes is being reported during an outbreak from India. Delhi is now truly hyperendemic for dengue.</p

Greedy Algorithms for Finding Entanglement Swap Paths in Quantum Networks

The entanglement swap primitive facilitates the establishment of shared entanglement between non-adjacent nodes in a quantum network. This shared entanglement can subsequently be used for executing quantum communication protocols. The fundamental problem in quantum networks is to determine a path for entanglement swapping in response to demands for entanglement sharing between pairs of nodes. We investigate variants of this problem in this work. We propose a framework of Greedy algorithms that can be tweaked towards optimizing on various objective functions. In conjunction with a novel Spatial and Temporal (split across multiple paths) splitting approach to entanglement routing, we use this framework, which we call GST, to investigate the scenario when the demands are specified in terms of a starting time and a deadline. Considering the fragile nature of quantum memory, "bursty"demands are natural, and therefore the setting is important. We study the algorithm for maximizing the number of satisfied demands and the number of entangled pairs shared. We report empirical results on the performance against these objective functions, and compare with a naive algorithm that involves neither temporal and spatial splitting of the demands, nor the greedy approach to scheduling the demands

Real-Time Peak Valley Pricing Based Multi-Objective Optimal Scheduling of a Virtual Power Plant Considering Renewable Resources

In the era of aiming toward reaching a sustainable ecosystem, the primary focus is to curb the emissions generated by non-conventional resources. One way to achieve this goal is to find an alternative to traditional power plants (TPP) by integrating various distributed energy resources (DERs) via a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in modern power systems. Apart from reducing emissions, a VPP enhances the monetary benefits to all its participants, including the DER owners, participants, and utility personnel. In this paper, the multi-objective optimal scheduling of the VPP problem considering multiple renewable energy resources has been solved using the multi-objective black widow optimization (MOBWO) algorithm. Renewable resources consist of solar PV modules, wind turbines, fuel cells, electric loads, heat-only units, and CHP units. The weighting factor method was adopted to handle the multi-objective optimal scheduling (MOOS) problem by simultaneously maximizing profit and minimizing emission while satisfying the related constraints. In this research, a peak valley power pricing strategy is introduced and the optimal scheduling of the VPP is attained by performing a multi-objective scheduling strategy (MOSS), which is day-ahead (on an hourly basis) and 15-min based (for a one-day profile), to observe the behavior of the anticipated system with a better constraint handling method. This algorithm is capable of dealing with a complex problem in a reduced computational time, ensuring the attainment of the considered objective functions. The numerical results obtained by the MOBWO algorithm after 100 independent trials were compared with the latest published work showing the effectiveness and suitability of the developed system

Real-Time Peak Valley Pricing Based Multi-Objective Optimal Scheduling of a Virtual Power Plant Considering Renewable Resources

In the era of aiming toward reaching a sustainable ecosystem, the primary focus is to curb the emissions generated by non-conventional resources. One way to achieve this goal is to find an alternative to traditional power plants (TPP) by integrating various distributed energy resources (DERs) via a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in modern power systems. Apart from reducing emissions, a VPP enhances the monetary benefits to all its participants, including the DER owners, participants, and utility personnel. In this paper, the multi-objective optimal scheduling of the VPP problem considering multiple renewable energy resources has been solved using the multi-objective black widow optimization (MOBWO) algorithm. Renewable resources consist of solar PV modules, wind turbines, fuel cells, electric loads, heat-only units, and CHP units. The weighting factor method was adopted to handle the multi-objective optimal scheduling (MOOS) problem by simultaneously maximizing profit and minimizing emission while satisfying the related constraints. In this research, a peak valley power pricing strategy is introduced and the optimal scheduling of the VPP is attained by performing a multi-objective scheduling strategy (MOSS), which is day-ahead (on an hourly basis) and 15-min based (for a one-day profile), to observe the behavior of the anticipated system with a better constraint handling method. This algorithm is capable of dealing with a complex problem in a reduced computational time, ensuring the attainment of the considered objective functions. The numerical results obtained by the MOBWO algorithm after 100 independent trials were compared with the latest published work showing the effectiveness and suitability of the developed system

Correlation of Sagittal Abdominal Diameter and Other Anthropometric Parameters with Serum Leptin Levels in Young Adults- A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Leptin is secreted in concentrations proportional to body fat mass. The anthropometric parameter among Sagittal Abdominal Diameter (SAD), Body Mass Index (BMI), Hip Circumference (HC), Waist Circumference (WC), Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR), and Waist-Height Ratio (WHtR) that correlates maximally with serum leptin levels could be used preferably to assess adiposity. Aim: The present study aims to correlate serum leptin levels with SAD, BMI, HC, WC, WHR and WHtR in young and healthy North Indian adults. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted jointly in the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry at the King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India from September 2015 to August 2016 and it included apparently healthy individuals, aged 18-25 years, native to North India, after obtaining an informed consent. A convenient sample size of 100 was taken. One investigator took all anthropometric measurements. (SAD, BMI, HC, WC, WHR and WHtR) RayBio human leptin ELISA kit was used for the estimation of leptin level. For statistical analysis, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used. P<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The study involved 55 males and 45 aged 21.4±1.5 years with BMI 22.7±2.7 kg/m2, HC 91.5±6.9 cm, WC 81.9±7.9 cm, WHR 0.9±0.1, WHtR 0.50±0.04, SAD 20.8±3.1 cm and serum leptin level 389.6±102.7 pg. Serum leptin level correlated significantly with HC (r=0.23, p=0.02), WC (r=0.29, p=0.003), WHtR (r=0.36, p<0.001), and SAD (r=0.56, p<0.001). A non significant correlation was obtained with BMI (r=0.15, p=0.12) and WHR (r=0.11, p=0.26). Conclusion: SAD is a better predictor of body fat and hence, cardiometabolic health than other anthropometric parameters in the present study, as it correlated most strongly with serum leptin levels

Biological and synthetic scaffold: an extra cellular matrix for constructive tissue engineering

Worldwide many people suffering from tissue dysfunctions or damages need rapid transplantation. Tissue engineering has attracted attention as therapeutic modality aiming at repairing lost or damaged tissues. Critical step in tissue engineering is fabrication of three dimensional scaffolds which mimic the extracellular matrix of tissues and promote tissue regeneration process. Extensive research has been carried out to develop a compatible scaffold which mimic the anatomical site of injury and as well as accessing the stem cells and growth factors to home on the injured site. The present article provides an overview on different scaffold approaches and materials used to fabricate scaffolds, with their properties and associated advantages and disadvantages. In particular, the therapeutic potential of amniotic membrane and collagen scaffold has been extensively reviewed in here

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Not AvailableDirect Benefit Transfer (DBT) is an initiative of Government of India for transfer of benefits in all government schemes directly to the beneficiaries' account. In the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)-Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the beneficiaries are the farmers, students, faculties and researchers. In the DBT applicable schemes the benefits are received by the beneficiaries either in terms of cash or in kind. A Management Information System (MIS) (https://dbtdare.icar.gov.in) has been developed which captures record of individual transaction under DBT applicable schemes of DARE-ICAR.Agricultural Education Division, ICA

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Not AvailableDirect Benefit Transfer (DBT) is an initiative of Government of India (GoI) for transfer of benefits in all government schemes directly to the beneficiaries. In the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE)-Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), a total of twenty (20) schemes are covered under DBT wherein the beneficiaries are the farmers, students and faculty members and the benefits type are both as cash and in kind. A web based Management Information System (MIS) (https://dbtdare.icar.gov.in) to manage the DBT records of beneficiary in different schemes of DARE-ICAR has been developed and hosted in the ICAR Data Centre at Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi. This application is developed using .NET framework and uses web service for data exchange with national level DBT Bharat portal (https://dbtbharat.gov.in).Not Availabl