Epidemiological study of dilated cardiomyopathy from eastern India with special reference to left atrial size

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common cause of emergency visit in our country. The disease is often misdiagnosed and mistreated. There are very few studies on DCM from India. We undertook a small study on DCM patients from Eastern India to find the demographic and echocardiographic characteristics. Patients and methods: We under took this study in a tertiary care Medical College of Eastern India. All patients coming to the emergency with dyspnea were evaluated for cardiac dysfunction. Emergency echocardiography was done to diagnose dilated cardiomyopathy. Patients with DCM were then evaluated as per protocol. After stabilization, echocardiography was repeated to note the study parameters like left atrial diameter. Standard statistical tests were used. Results: we had a total of 70 patients in our study with a male: female ratio of 43:27. Most patients were aged over 40 years. Patients with COPD, history of radiation, malignancy or drug abuse were excluded. Most patients (47%) were on NYHA stage 3 at the time of presentation. In our patient cohort, 24% were alcoholic and 46% were smokers. Atrial fibrillation was present in 15.7% of the patients and right and left bundle branch block had been present in 8 and 15 patients respectively. In echocardiography, increased left atrial (LA) size (>40 mm) was found in 45 patients. Many patients had valvular regurgitation, mitral, aortic or tricuspid. LA size was positively correlated with left ventricular systolic diameter (r=0.403) and negatively correlated with ejection fraction (r= -0.23). Analysis and conclusion: different ECG abnormalities like bundle branch block and arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation are quite common in DCM. In echocardiography, left atrial size is an important prognostic marker and correlates with left ventricular function

Parametric Optimization of MIG Welding on 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel by Grey-based Taguchi Method

AbstractIn the present work, visual inspection and X-ray radiographic test has been conducted in order to detect surface and sub-surface defects of weld specimens made of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steels. Effect of current, gas flow rate and nozzle to plate distance on quality of weld in metal inter gas arc welding of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel has been studied in the present work through experiments and analyses. Butt welded joints have been made by using several levels of current, gas flow rate and nozzle to plate distance. The quality of the weld has been evaluated in terms of yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and percentage of elongation of the welded specimens. The observed data have been interpreted, discussed and analyzed by using Grey - Taguchi methodology

Optimization of process parameters of TIG welding of duplex stainless steel without filler rod by grey-Taguchi method

Input parameters of welding have played an important role in producing the quality of welding joint. Welding quality has been improved using proper process parameters with sound knowledge base. Current, welding speed and the shielding gas flow rate have been used as the most important influencing parameters of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding on Duplex Stainless Steel (DSS). In the present work, multi-objective optimization of TIG welding process parameters of Duplex Stainless Steel - ASTM/UNS 2205 has been determined. These welding process parameters have been optimized to achieve the required quality of DSS welding joints. The quality of the TIG welding on DSS has been evaluated in term of tensile test. The grey-based Taguchi technique has been used to solve this multi- optimization problem. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been applied to evaluate the significanc e of the individual factors on desired results which are ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and percentage of elongation. Additional confirmatory experiment has been done to verify the optimal results. The application possibilities of the grey-based Taguchi method for incessant development of welding quality of DSS in many fields, like chemical industries, oil refineries, gas manufacturing industries etc. have been shown by this work

Optimization of process parameters of TIG welding of duplex stainless steel without filler rod by grey-Taguchi method

385-392Input parameters of welding have played an important role in producing the quality of welding joint. Welding quality has been improved using proper process parameters with sound knowledge base. Current, welding speed and the shielding gas flow rate have been used as the most important influencing parameters of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding on Duplex Stainless Steel (DSS). In the present work, multi-objective optimization of TIG welding process parameters of Duplex Stainless Steel - ASTM/UNS 2205 has been determined. These welding process parameters have been optimized to achieve the required quality of DSS welding joints. The quality of the TIG welding on DSS has been evaluated in term of tensile test. The grey-based Taguchi technique has been used to solve this multi- optimization problem. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been applied to evaluate the significance of the individual factors on desired results which are ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and percentage of elongation. Additional confirmatory experiment has been done to verify the optimal results. The application possibilities of the grey-based Taguchi method for incessant development of welding quality of DSS in many fields, like chemical industries, oil refineries, gas manufacturing industries etc. have been shown by this work

The Prion Protein Has RNA Binding and Chaperoning Properties Characteristic of Nucleocapsid Protein NCp7 of HIV-1

International audienc

A Rare HBV Subgenotype D4 with Unique Genomic Signatures Identified in North-Eastern India –An Emerging Clinical Challenge?

BACKGROUND/AIMS: HBV has been classified into ten genotypes (A-J) and multiple subgenotypes, some of which strongly influence disease outcome and their distribution also correlate with human migration. HBV infection is highly prevalent in India and its diverse population provides an excellent opportunity to study the distinctiveness of HBV, its evolution and disease biology in variegated ethnic groups. The North-East India, having international frontiers on three sides, is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse region of the country. Given the paucity of information on molecular epidemiology of HBV in this region, the study aimed to carry out an in-depth genetic characterization of HBV prevailing in North-East state of Tripura. METHODS: From sera of chronically HBV infected patients biochemical/serological tests, HBV DNA quantification, PCR-amplification, sequencing of PreS/S or full-length HBV genomes were done. HBV genotype/subgenotype determination and sequence variability were assessed by MEGA5-software. The evolutionary divergence times of different HBV subgenotypes were estimated by DNAMLK/PHYLIP program while jpHMM method was used to detect any recombination event in HBV genomes. RESULTS: HBV genotypes D (89.5%), C (6.6%) and A (3.9%) were detected among chronic carriers. While all HBV/A and HBV/C isolates belonged to subgenotype-A1 and C1 respectively, five subgenotypes of HBV/D (D1-D5) were identified including the first detection of rare D4. These non-recombinant Indian D4 (IndD4) formed a distinct phylogenetic clade, had 2.7% nucleotide divergence and recent evolutionary radiation than other global D4. Ten unique amino acids and 9 novel nucleotide substitutions were identified as IndD4 signatures. All IndD4 carried T120 and R129 in ORF-S that may cause immune/vaccine/diagnostic escape and N128 in ORF-P, implicated as compensatory Lamivudine resistance mutation. CONCLUSIONS: IndD4 has potential to undermine vaccination programs or anti-viral therapy and its introduction to North-East India is believed to be linked with the settlement of ancient Tibeto-Burman migrants from East-Asia

A genome-wide association study identifies risk alleles in plasminogen and P4HA2 associated with giant cell arteritis

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of vasculitis in individuals older than 50 years in Western countries. To shed light onto the genetic background influencing susceptibility for GCA, we performed a genome-wide association screening in a well-powered study cohort. After imputation, 1,844,133 genetic variants were analysed in 2,134 cases and 9,125 unaffected controls from ten independent populations of European ancestry. Our data confirmed HLA class II as the strongest associated region (independent signals: rs9268905, P = 1.94E-54, per-allele OR = 1.79; and rs9275592, P = 1.14E-40, OR = 2.08). Additionally, PLG and P4HA2 were identified as GCA risk genes at the genome-wide level of significance (rs4252134, P = 1.23E-10, OR = 1.28; and rs128738, P = 4.60E-09, OR = 1.32, respectively). Interestingly, we observed that the association peaks overlapped with different regulatory elements related to cell types and tissues involved in the pathophysiology of GCA. PLG and P4HA2 are involved in vascular remodelling and angiogenesis, suggesting a high relevance of these processes for the pathogenic mechanisms underlying this type of vasculitis

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe