The impact of therapy on the quality of life in asymptomatic patients with freshly detected hypertension

Background: Hypertension is an commonly encountered disease which adversely affect  all aspects of quality of life (QoL). The existing studies are confounded by the presence of multiple comorbidities and inclusion of elderly, which by themselves impairs the QoL. There is thus a need to study the impact of hypertension on QoL, in isolation.Method: This is a single center, prospective, intention to treat, observation study. The aim of the study is to evaluate the change in the QoL over six months, in newly diagnosed asymptomatic patients of hypertension. The tools used to assess the QoL included World Health Organisation’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL- BREF) and Short Form-36 (SF-36).Result: A total of 232 patients (172 males and 60 females) were enrolled in the study. The mean age was 44.66 years. A total of 102 patients (43.97%) had stage-1 and 130 patients (56.03%) had stage-2 hypertension. The female gender is associated with a higher likelihood of presentation with stage-2 hypertension. The male cohort had a better baseline QoL. The desired blood pressures was achieved in 40.52%. With therapy, the QoL improved significantly; sub-hoc analysis showed, the improvement was higher in males and those with stage-1 hypertension. There is an inverse relationship between the QoL and requirement for higher number of antihypertensive mediations.Conclusions: In patients with asymptomatic primary hypertension, treatment improves all aspects of QoL. The factors adversely affecting the QoL include female gender, higher stage of hypertension, poor blood pressure control and requirement of higher numbers of antihypertensive medicine

Manufacturing of Large Metallic Components through Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing(WAAM)

Metal additive manufacturing have been in trend due to its ability to produce components at reduced cost and low buy-to- y ratio. There are various techniques employed for metal additive manufacturing depending on energy source and type of raw materials used. Based on raw materials, metal additive manufacturing can be classi ed as wire-based, powder-based and sheet-based (laminated object manufacturing). Amongst these three, wire based systems have higher material e ciency and high deposition rates. They also better suited for continious and uncluttered material supply. Hence, they are most suitable for large components. These wire based systems can be used in conjuction to di erent energy sources like Laser, Electron Beam and Arc. WLAM (wire and laser based additive manufacturing), EBAM (electron beam additive manufacturing) and WAAM (wire and arc based additive manufacturing) are examples of each of these energy sources respectively. In this study, Weld-depsotion based WAAM is chosen. The objective of this work is to fabricate large (greater than 1m in size) metallic components using WAAM process. Parameter study, kinematic setup for such working volumes and thermal analysis of deposition process to minimize distortions are some of the related aspects. Sample components in both multi-pass and single-pass geometries were also fabricated successfuly. This work was mainly carried out for mild steel (ER70S6); some priliminary studies on extending this to IN625 are also presented. Overall, this thesis presents the sutiability of WAAM in conjuction with a robotic or CNC type kinemetic setup to produce large metallic components

A compendium of molecules involved in vector-pathogen interactions pertaining to malaria

Malaria is a vector-borne disease causing extensive morbidity, debility and mortality. Development of resistance to drugs among parasites and to conventional insecticides among vector-mosquitoes necessitates innovative measures to combat this disease. Identification of molecules involved in the maintenance of complex developmental cycles of the parasites within the vector and the host can provide attractive targets to intervene in the disease transmission. In the last decade, several efforts have been made in identifying such molecules involved in mosquito-parasite interactions and, subsequently, validating their role in the development of parasites within the vector. In this study, a list of mosquito proteins, which facilitate or inhibit the development of malaria parasites in the midgut, haemolymph and salivary glands of mosquitoes, is compiled. A total of 94 molecules have been reported and validated for their role in the development of malaria parasites inside the vector. This compendium of molecules will serve as a centralized resource to biomedical researchers investigating vector-pathogen interactions and malaria transmission. © 2013 Sreenivasamurthy et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Role of Marine National Park for Sustainable Livelihoods of Artisan Fisherfolk: A Case Study of MNP, Jamnagar

Over the past few decades, marine conservation has become a global concern due to increasing anthropogenic activities in the vicinity of coastal areas, which has led to the development of the concept of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for the conservation of marine ecology and its biodiversity. Conservation and acceptance of MPAs can only be achieved if coastal communities and fisherfolk are included as significant stakeholders because MPAs have direct relevance to their livelihood. To capture their acceptance towards the Gulf of Kachchh Marine National Park (MNP), Jamnagar, artisanal fisherfolk fishing in and around the MNP were surveyed to determine whether the presence of a well-managed MNP has any positive effects on the adjacent fishing communities since its establishment. The findings showed that the total fish catch was observed to increase over the years, but there has been a perceived decline in total catch in recent years. Similarly, while the total fish catch data recorded an increasing trend, discussions with the fisherfolk revealed a sharp decline in “catch per unit effort” in recent years. Fisherfolk from all sites showed interest in the development of the MNP and were keen to be involved in conservation planning and the management of the MNP

Co-Application of Silicate and Low-Arsenic-Accumulating Rice Cultivars Efficiently Reduces Human Exposure to Arsenic—A Case Study from West Bengal, India

We investigated the effect of practically realizable doses of silicate on arsenic (As) uptake by differential-As-accumulating rice cultivars grown on geogenically As-polluted soil. The possible health risk from the dietary ingestion of As through rice was also assessed. In addition, a solution culture experiment was conducted to examine the role of root-secreted weak acids in differential As acquisition by rice cultivars. When grown without silicate, Badshabhog accumulated a much smaller amount of As in grain (0.11 mg kg−1) when compared to the other three varieties. Satabdi, IR-36, and Khitish accumulated As in grain beyond the permissible limit (0.2 mg kg−1) for human consumption. The application of silicate effectively reduced the As content in the grain, husk, and straw of all of the cultivars. The grain As content fell to 17.2 and 27.6% with the addition of sodium metasilicate at the rates of 250 and 500 mg kg−1, respectively. In the case of Khitish, the grain As content was brought down within permissible limits by the applied silicate (500 mg kg−1). The integrated use of low-As-accumulating cultivars and silicate has great potential to reduce the public health risks associated with As. A positive correlation between root-secreted total weak acid and grain As content could explain the different rice cultivars’ differential As acquisition capacity

Whole Exome Sequencing in Healthy Individuals of Extreme Constitution Types Reveals Differential Disease Risk: A Novel Approach towards Predictive Medicine

Precision medicine aims to move from traditional reactive medicine to a system where risk groups can be identified before the disease occurs. However, phenotypic heterogeneity amongst the diseased and healthy poses a major challenge for identification markers for risk stratification and early actionable interventions. In Ayurveda, individuals are phenotypically stratified into seven constitution types based on multisystem phenotypes termed “Prakriti”. It enables the prediction of health and disease trajectories and the selection of health interventions. We hypothesize that exome sequencing in healthy individuals of phenotypically homogeneous Prakriti types might enable the identification of functional variations associated with the constitution types. Exomes of 144 healthy Prakriti stratified individuals and controls from two genetically homogeneous cohorts (north and western India) revealed differential risk for diseases/traits like metabolic disorders, liver diseases, and body and hematological measurements amongst healthy individuals. These SNPs differ significantly from the Indo-European background control as well. Amongst these we highlight novel SNPs rs304447 (IFIT5) and rs941590 (SERPINA10) that could explain differential trajectories for immune response, bleeding or thrombosis. Our method demonstrates the requirement of a relatively smaller sample size for a well powered study. This study highlights the potential of integrating a unique phenotyping approach for the identification of predictive markers and the at-risk population amongst the healthy

Identification of <i>Leishmania donovani</i> antigen in circulating immune complexes of visceral leishmaniasis subjects for diagnosis

<div><p>The unreliability of most of the existing antibody-based diagnostic kits to discriminate between active and treated VL cases, relapse situation and reinfection are a major hurdle in controlling the cases of Kala-azar in an endemic area. An antigen targeted diagnostic approaches can be an attractive strategy to overcome these problems. Hence, this study was focused on identifying the <i>Leishmania</i> antigens, lies in circulating immune complex (CICs), can be used for diagnostic as well as prognostic purposes. The present study was conducted on peripheral blood samples of 115 human subjects, based on isolation of CICs. The SDS-PAGE patterns showed an up-regulated expression of 55 kDa and 23 kDa fractions in an antigens obtained from CICs of all clinical and parasitologically proven untreated visceral leishmaniasis patients before treatment (VL-BT), which ensured absolute sensitivity. However, light expressions of these bands were observed in some VL treated cases. To ascertain the prognostic value, 2D expression profiles of circulating antigens were carried out, which revealed 3 upregulated and 12 induced immunoreactive spots. Out of these, ten prominent spots were excised and subjected for enzymatic digestion to generate peptides. Mass spectrometry (MS) analysis successfully explored 20 peptides derived from kinase, kinesin, acetyl Co-A carboxylase, dynein heavy chains (cytoplasmic and axonemal/flagellar), 60S ribosomal protein, nucleoporin protein, RNA polymeraseII, protease gp63, tubulin, DNA polymerase epsilon subunit, GTP-binding protein and tyrosyl-methionyl t-RNA synthetase-like protein and 19 hypothetical protein of unknown function. Presence of <i>L</i>. <i>donovani</i> proteins in circulating antigens were further validated using anti-<i>Ld</i> actin and anti-α tubulin antibody. Besides, MS derived peptides confirmed its reactivity with patients' sera. Therefore, these shortlisted potential antigens can be explored as antigen-based diagnostic as well as prognostic kit.</p></div

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Technical Bulletin on "Integrated Survey of Natural Resources and Land Transformation of Challakere Taluka (Chitradurg District) in Mysore State"Technical Bulletin on "Integrated Survey of Natural Resources and Land Transformation of Challakere Taluka (Chitradurg District) in Mysore State"Not Availabl