Exclusive transabdominal trans-amniotic approach for chorionic villus sampling in posterior placenta: a novel approach for prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders

Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate role and safety of transabdominal trans-amniotic approach for Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) for prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders.Methods: Retrospective analytical study carried out on data form couples coming for pre-natal diagnosis from January 2010 to February 2021. Patient related parameters like age, gestational age; procedure related parameters like amount of sample, number of attempts required; different genetic disorder diagnosed and complications by both the approaches of CVS were recorded and analyzed.Results: Total 2287 patients undergoing CVS with mean age of 27±3.3 years were included. Majority (1621;70.9%) had CVS procedure at gestational age of 12-14 weeks. On analyzing physician’s perception, 663 (29%) patients having complete posterior placenta could not be accessible with routine trans-abdominal CVS and opted for trans-amniotic approach. Amount of sample yield and number of attempts were not statistically significant (p>0.05) by both methods of CVS. Thalassemia major was found in 948 (41.45%) followed by thalassemia minor in 525 (22.96%) patients. No statistically significant difference was found for developing complications by both the methods (p>0.05). Most common complication was pain and discomfort which was relieved by simple analgesics. Out of total 17 (0.74%) abortions; 13 (0.80%) from routine transabdominal and 4 (0.60%) from trans-amniotic route CVS with no statistically significant difference among them (p>0.05). No case of post procedure infection was observed.Conclusions: In complete posterior placenta CVS procedures usually postponed by most physicians leading to delay in diagnosis of genetic disorders. The novel method transabdominal trans-amniotic approach for CVS is effective and safe in skilled hands and can help in early prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders.

PYRIMIDINE INCORPORATED SCHIFF BASE OF ISONIAZID WITH THEIR SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND IN VITRO BIOLOGICAL EVALUATION

  Objective: Versatile biological activities of nitrogen containing heterocycles in medicinal chemistry, mainly pyrimidine and pyridine ring based heterocyclic moieties are very important. Pharmaceutical important of pyrimidine and isoniazid moiety prompted us to synthesize isoniazid clubbed pyrimidine derivatives and evaluated for antimicrobial and antituberculosis activity.Method: 2-(2-(3-bromo benzylidene)-1-isonicotinoyl hydrazinyl)-N-(4-(substituted phenyl)-6-(substituted aryl) pyrimidin-2-yl) acetamide 2(A-J) have been synthesized by condensation reaction of 2-chloro-N-[4-(substituted phenyl)-6-(substituted aryl) pyrimidin-2-yl] acetamide and N'-[(E)- (3-bromophenyl) methylidene]pyridine-4-carbohydrazide. All newly synthesized compounds were screened for in vitro antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus pyogenes, antifungal against Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus clavatus, and antituberculosis activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37RV.Results: Majority of the compounds exhibited good antibacterial, antifungal, and antituberculosis activity. All titled compounds were characterized by spectral analyses (infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and mass spectroscopy).Conclusion: 2-(2-(3-bromo benzylidene)-1-isonicotinoyl hydrazinyl)-N-(4-(substituted phenyl)-6-(substituted aryl) pyrimidin-2-yl) acetamide 2(A-J) showed good antimicrobial activity and comparatively good antituberculosis activity. Hence, all the compounds of this series considered for future investigation mainly in area of antibacterial, antifungal study

Growth of mango (Mangifera indica L.) rootstocks as influenced by pre-sowing treatments

An experiment was carried out at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during 2014 to evaluate the effect of pre-sowing treatments on survival percentage and growth of mango rootstocks. Mango stones were soaked in aqueous solutions of GA3 (100 and 200 ppm), Beejamruth (2 % and 3 %) and Thiourea (1 % and 2 %) for 12 and 24 hours. The trial was evaluated in Completely Randomized Design based on factorial concept and the treatments were replicated thrice. Imposition of treatments led to significant differences at 5 % level of significance for all parameters chosen in this study. Mango stones when treated with Thiourea at 1 % had the maximum shoot length (49.93 cm), root length (34.38 cm), shoot dry weight (21.08 g) and total dry weight (26.36 g). The highest number of lateral roots (10.90) and survival percentage (64.17) was observed in mango stones dipped in 100 ppm GA3. Between the two soaking duration, soaking mango stones for 24 hours recorded higher values for shoot length (45.03 cm), root length (32.79 cm), number of lateral roots (9.83), survival percentage (62.72), shoot root fresh weight ratio (4.30), shoot dry weight (21.33 g), total dry weight (26.28 g) and shoot root dry weight ratio (4.32). Thus, survival percentage and growth of mango rootstocks can be substantially improved by soaking mango stones in aqueous solutions of 100 ppm GA3 or Thiourea at 1 % for 24 hours before sowing

A pilot survey of junior doctors’ attitudes and awareness around medication review: time to change our educational approach?

© 2015, BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.Objectives Our aim was to explore junior doctors attitudes and awareness around concepts related to medication review, in order to find ways to change the culture for reviewing, altering and stopping inappropriate or unnecessary medicines. Having already demonstrated the value of team working with senior doctors and pharmacists and the use of a medication review tool, we are now looking to engage first year clinicians and undergraduates in the process. Method An online survey about medication review was distributed among all 42 foundation year one (FY1) doctors at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in November 2014. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Results Twenty doctors completed the survey (48%). Of those, 17 believed that it was the pharmacists duty to review medicines; and 15 of 20 stated the general practitioner (GP). Sixteen of 20 stated that they would consult a senior doctor first before stopping medication. Eighteen of 20 considered the GP and consultant to be responsible for alterations, rather than themselves. Sixteen of 20 respondents were not aware of the availability of a medication review tool. Seventeen of 20 felt that more support from senior staff would help them become involved with medication review. Conclusions Junior doctors report feeling uncomfortable altering mediations without consulting a senior first. They appear to be building confidence with prescribing in their first year but not about the medication review process or questioning the drugs already prescribed. Consideration should be given to what we have termed a bottom-up educational approach to provide early experience of and change the culture around medication review, to include the education of undergraduate and foundation doctors and pharmacists

Projecting prevalence by stage of care for prostate cancer and estimating future health service needs: protocol for a modelling study

Introduction Current strategies for the management of prostate cancer are inadequate in Australia. We will, in this study, estimate current service needs and project the future needs for prostate cancer patients in Australia. Methods and analysis First, we will project the future prevalence of prostate cancer for 2010-2018 using data for 1972-2008 from the New South Wales (NSW) Central Cancer Registry. These projections, based on modelled incidence and survival estimates, will be estimated using PIAMOD (Prevalence, Incidence, Analysis MODel) software. Then the total prevalence will be decomposed into five stages of care: initial care, continued monitoring, recurrence, last year of life and long-term survivor. Finally, data from the NSW Prostate Cancer Care and Outcomes Study, including data on patterns of treatment and associated quality of life, will be used to estimate the type and amount of services that will be needed by prostate cancer patients in each stage of care. In addition, Central Cancer Registry episode data will be used to estimate transition rates from localised or locally advanced prostate cancer to metastatic disease. Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits data, linked with Prostate Cancer Care and Outcomes Study data, will be used to complement the Cancer Registry episode data. The methods developed will be applied Australia-wide to obtain national estimates of the future prevalence of prostate cancer for different stages of clinical care. Ethics and dissemination This study was approved by the NSW Population and Health Services Research Ethics Committee. Results of the study will be disseminated widely to different interest groups and organisations through a report, conference presentations and peer-reviewed articles.This work is supported by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (grant number: PCFA – YI 0410). Both David Smith and Xue Qin Yu are supported by an Australian NHMRC Training Fellowship (Ref 1016598, 550002). Mark Clements is supported by an Australian NHMRC Career Development Award (Ref 471491)

Energy Efficient Stepped Basin Type Solar Still: A Review

Energy efficient stepped basin type solar still is used to enhance the productivity of solar still. The efficiency of flat basin type solar still is low which is known as conventional solar still. In order to increase the efficiency of solar still we use stepped basin by replacing the flat basin. It is found that the efficiency of stepped basin type solar still is higher than the conventional solar still because of its large absorbing area or basin area. The number of step in basin is five. The tray of galvanized iron sheet with minimum depth is mounted on each steps of basin. In addition we also introduced internal reflector. The effect of installing a reflecting mirror on vertical side of the steps of stepped still also help to enhance the productivity of solar still. This project mainly focus on maximizing the production of distilled water by emphasizing the three important factors; decrease in depth of water, increase in exposure area and temperature of saline water

Algorithms to automatically quantify the geometric similarity of anatomical surfaces

We describe new approaches for distances between pairs of 2-dimensional surfaces (embedded in 3-dimensional space) that use local structures and global information contained in inter-structure geometric relationships. We present algorithms to automatically determine these distances as well as geometric correspondences. This is motivated by the aspiration of students of natural science to understand the continuity of form that unites the diversity of life. At present, scientists using physical traits to study evolutionary relationships among living and extinct animals analyze data extracted from carefully defined anatomical correspondence points (landmarks). Identifying and recording these landmarks is time consuming and can be done accurately only by trained morphologists. This renders these studies inaccessible to non-morphologists, and causes phenomics to lag behind genomics in elucidating evolutionary patterns. Unlike other algorithms presented for morphological correspondences our approach does not require any preliminary marking of special features or landmarks by the user. It also differs from other seminal work in computational geometry in that our algorithms are polynomial in nature and thus faster, making pairwise comparisons feasible for significantly larger numbers of digitized surfaces. We illustrate our approach using three datasets representing teeth and different bones of primates and humans, and show that it leads to highly accurate results.Comment: Changes with respect to v1, v2: an Erratum was added, correcting the references for one of the three datasets. Note that the datasets and code for this paper can be obtained from the Data Conservancy (see Download column on v1, v2

Національномовна специфіка категоризації світу

У статті реалізовано системний підхід до вивчення національної специфіки мовної категоризації світу, який передбачає розгляд одиниць мови, передусім слова, у його зв’язку з реаліями життя народу, його історією, культурою, географічними умовами проживання, особливостями світосприйняття, менталітету, життєвим досвідом. З цією метою до аналізу семантики слів на позначення особи за місцем її проживання, крім дефініцій тлумачних словників української мови, залучено відомості з аспектних лінгвістичних словників (синонімів, антонімів) та спеціальних етнолінгвістичних і лінгвокультурологічних джерел. Окрему увагу приділено методам виявлення етноконотацій в ідеографічній параметризації української лексики.The article deals with the system approach to studying national language specificities that provides examination of a word in interrelation with life realities, history, culture, geographical conditions, features of world view, national mentality, life experience reflected in language. Such work demanded, except for the analysis of definitions of available explanatory dictionaries, attraction of data from aspect dictionaries (synonyms, antonyms) and special ethno linguistic and linguistic cultural source. The research has been carried on the basis of nouns-names of person according to the residence. The significant attention is given to the methods of research national language specificities of the world’s categorization

The occipital lateral plate mesoderm is a novel source for vertebrate neck musculature

In vertebrates, body musculature originates from somites, whereas head muscles originate from the cranial mesoderm. Neck muscles are located in the transition between these regions. We show that the chick occipital lateral plate mesoderm has myogenic capacity and gives rise to large muscles located in the neck and thorax. We present molecular and genetic evidence to show that these muscles not only have a unique origin, but additionally display a distinct temporal development, forming later than any other muscle group described to date. We further report that these muscles, found in the body of the animal, develop like head musculature rather than deploying the programme used by the trunk muscles. Using mouse genetics we reveal that these muscles are formed in trunk muscle mutants but are absent in head muscle mutants. In concordance with this conclusion, their connective tissue is neural crest in origin. Finally, we provide evidence that the mechanism by which these neck muscles develop is conserved in vertebrates

How specific is the immune response to malaria in adults living in endemic areas?

It is documented that people living in malaria endemic areas acquire immunity against malaria afterrepeated infections. Studies involving passive transfer of IgG from immune adults to the nonimmunesubjects have shown that circulating antibodies play an important role, and that immuneadults possess protective antibodies, which susceptible malaria patients do not. Through a differentialimmunoscreen, we have identified several novel cDNA clones, which react exclusively andyet extensively with immune sera samples. Specific antisera raised against the immunoclones inhibitthe growth of parasites in culture. The clones studied so far turn out to be novel conserved Plasmodiumgenes. In order to study the response of sera of adults from malaria endemic areas of Indiaand Africa to these immunogens, we carried out ELISA assays using these immunopeptides, otherP. falciparum specific antigens, peptides, antigens from other infections such as mycobacterial infectionsand other proteins such as BSA. Children from the same areas and normal healthy urbanpeople showed very little activity to each of these categories. A large percentage of adults from endemicareas responded positively to all the malarial immunogens tested. However, the same personsalso showed high response to other antigens and proteins as well. The implications of theseresults are reported in this paper