Forecasting Indian summer monsoon rainfall by outgoing longwave radiation over the Indian Ocean

The satellite derived outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) over the Indian Ocean (30°N-30°S and 40°E-100°E) from 1974 to 1996 has been analysed for the relationship with the Indian summer monsoon total (June-September) rainfall. The OLR of two regions appears to be related to summer monsoon rainfall. One of the regions is located over the Head Bay of Bengal (near 22.5°N and 92.5°E) during May and the other one over the south Indian Ocean (near 30°S and 97.5°E) during April. The average OLR (index) for these two regions shows a strong and stable relationship with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall and they are found to be independent. A multiple linear regression equation is developed to predict the Indian summer monsoon rainfall using these indexes and the empirical relations are verified on independent data. Good results were obtained in forecasting the summer monsoon rainfall for the whole of India. The forecast of summer monsoon rainfall for west-central India and all-India rainfall for July also appears to be encouraging. The indexes, thus, seem to be useful in long-range forecasting of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall

Holographic phase transition from dyons in an AdS black hole background

We construct a dyon solution for a Yang-Mills-Higgs theory in a 4 dimensional Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter black hole background with temperature T. We then apply the AdS/CFT correspondence to describe the strong coupling regime of a 2+1 quantum field theory which undergoes a phase transition exhibiting the condensation of a composite charge operator below a critical temperature $T_c$.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. Minor corrections, references added. Version published in JHEP

Health information-seeking behavior among hypothyroid patients at Saveetha Medical College and Hospital

BACKGROUND: Hypothyroidism causes considerable morbidity. Low knowledge coupled with inadequate health literacy may lead to poor prevention and management. This study aimed to assess health information-seeking behavior and hypothyroid knowledge among South Indian hypothyroid patients.METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2013 in Saveetha Medical College, Chennai, India. Hundred clinically diagnosed hypothyroid patients >18 years were interviewed in a hospital using a 57-item questionnaire to gather information on their socio-demographics, self-reported disease history, hypothyroid-related knowledge, health information sources, health literacy and health information-seeking behavior. Hypothyroidism was assessed by free T3 and T4 levels.RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 38 years (SD=12) with median age of 39.5 years, majority of the participants being females (77%) and living in urban setting (52%). Mean free T3 level was 0.0137ng/dl (SD= 0.003) and mean free T4 was 0.7ng/dl (SD= 0.06). Ninety three percent of the participants received initial hypothyroidism education from their physicians at the time of diagnosis. Half of the participants had incorrect hypothyroidism-related knowledge; similar between both genders. Participants with inadequate health literacy had poor knowledge about the hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism-related health information was sought almost exclusively from health professionals, predominantly regarding treatment, linked to their faith in qualified medical assistance. Economic status primarily determined healthcare-seeking behavior. Marital status, education level, annual household income and health literacy were significantly associated with knowledge.CONCLUSION: Participants having higher educational qualification, higher annual household income and adequate health literacy had considerable knowledge about hypothyroidism. Developing multi-factorial and tailored health education for patients with marginal or inadequate health literacy is needed. Exploring healthcare institutions as a medium for delivery of such education should be explored.KEYWORDS: Hypothyroidism, Health Information-seeking Behavior, Knowledge, Health Literac

Holographic Phase Transition to Topological Dyons

The dynamical stability of a Julia-Zee solution in the AdS background in a four dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs theory is studied. We find that the model with a vanishing scalar field develops a non-zero value for the field at a certain critical temperature which corresponds to a topological dyon in the bulk and a topological phase transition at the boundary.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, sections 2 and 4 are shortened, an error in the last part of section 5 is corrected and equations are modified. This version to be published in JHE

Distinguished non-Archimedean representations

For a symmetric space (G,H), one is interested in understanding the vector space of H-invariant linear forms on a representation \pi of G. In particular an important question is whether or not the dimension of this space is bounded by one. We cover the known results for the pair (G=R_{E/F}GL(n),H=GL(n)), and then discuss the corresponding SL(n) case. In this paper, we show that (G=R_{E/F}SL(n),H=SL(n)) is a Gelfand pair when n is odd. When $n$ is even, the space of H-invariant forms on \pi can have dimension more than one even when \pi is supercuspidal. The latter work is joint with Dipendra Prasad

Anti-Hyperglycemic And Anti-Hyperlipidemic Potential Of A Polyherbal Preparation “Diabegon” In Metabolic Syndrome Subject With Type 2 Diabetes

Background: In the present study, “Diabegon” a poly-herbal preparation, with hypoglycemic activity, was evaluated for its preventive effect inmetabolic syndrome subjects with type 2 diabetes and also to reveal its side effects, on liver and kidney.Materials and Methods: Type 2 diabetic subjects with metabolic syndrome (N=58) were categorized on the basis of age and fasting blood glucose.The grouping was as follows: Group I (35-50 yrs), Group II (51-65 yrs), Group III >65 yrs, Group IV FBS<145.9, Group V FBS>145. Each group wasadministered 4 gm of diabegon daily. Blood glucose levels, lipid profile, liver and kidney function of the subjects were regularly monitored within 3months of interval to 18 months.Results: The reduction in fasting blood glucose level ranged from 12.3% (P<0.05) to 42% (P<0.001) after 18 month of therapy whereas in postprandial blood glucose, the decrease ranged from 28% (P<0.05) to 32% (P<0.05) after 18 month of therapy. Overall reductions in the individual parameters of the metabolic syndrome subjects were significantly higher in Group I. Cholesterol level decreased from 11% to 27.2% (P<0.001), triglyceride levels decreased from 24% to 55%, VLDL and LDL levels reduced by 60% & 54% respectively after 18 months of therapy. The HDL-C level increased in all groups. Moreover, diabegon administration for 1.5 years exhibited no alteration in liver and kidney function tests, which indicate its non-toxicity.Conclusion: Our study suggests that diabegon could be included as a preventive treatment in metabolic syndrome subjects with type 2 diabetesespecially for long term treatment as it efficiently shows anti-hyperglycemic and anti-lipidemic effects with no adverse impacts on the liver and kidney.Key words: Metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, Diabegon, Polyherbal preparation

Dietary fatty acid composition alters 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 gene expression in rat retroperitoneal white adipose tissue

The enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) amplifies intracellular glucocorticoid action by converting inactive glucocorticoids to their active forms in vivo. Adipose-specific overexpression of 11β-HSD1 induces metabolic syndrome in mice, whereas 11β-HSD1 null mice are resistant to it. Dietary trans and saturated fatty acids (TFAs and SFAs) are involved in the development of metabolic syndrome, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) offer protection against this. Here, we report the effects of chronic feeding of different diets containing vanaspati (TFA rich), palm oil (SFA rich) and sunflower oil (PUFA rich) at 10%level on 11β-HSD1 gene expression in rat retroperitoneal adipose tissue. 11β-HSD1 gene expression was significantly higher in TFA rich diet-fed rats compared to SFA rich diet-fed rats, which in turn was significantly higher than PUFA rich diet-fed rats. Similar trend was observed in the expression of CCAAT-enhancer binding protein-α (C/EBP-α), the main transcription factor required for the expression of 11β-HSD1. We propose that TFAs and SFAs increase local amplification of glucocorticoid action in adipose tissue by upregulating 11β-HSD1 by altering C/EBP-α-gene expression. The increased levels of glucocorticoids in adipose tissue may lead to development of obesity and insulin resistance, thereby increasing the risk of developing metabolic syndrome

A novel genetically-obese rat model with elevated 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 activity in subcutaneous adipose tissue

11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) catalyzes the conversion of inactive glucocorticoids to active glucocorticoids and plays an important role in the development of obesity and metabolic syndrome. 11β-HSD1 activity is lower in liver and higher in omental adipose tissue of obese rodent models like obese zucker rats, Ob/Ob and db/db mice. Here, we report the 11β-HSD1 activity in liver and adipose tissue of lean and obese rats of WNIN/Ob strain, a new genetic rat model of obesity. 11β-HSD1 activity in liver, omental and subcutaneous adipose tissues of 3 month-old male WNIN/Ob lean and obese rats was assayed. As observed in other rodent models, 11β-HSD1 activity was lower in liver and higher in omental adipose tissue. In contrast to other rodent obese models, WNIN/Ob obese rats had elevated 11β-HSD1 activity in subcutaneous adipose tissue, which is in line with the observation in human obesity. Here, we conclude that dysregulation of 11β-HSD1 in WNIN/Ob obese rat model is identical to human obesity, which makes it an excellent model for studying the effect of 11β-HSD1 inhibitors in ameliorating obesity and metabolic syndrome

Global regulatory architecture of human, mouse and rat tissue transcriptomes

Background Predicting molecular responses in human by extrapolating results from model organisms requires a precise understanding of the architecture and regulation of biological mechanisms across species. Results Here, we present a large-scale comparative analysis of organ and tissue transcriptomes involving the three mammalian species human, mouse and rat. To this end, we created a unique, highly standardized compendium of tissue expression. Representative tissue specific datasets were aggregated from more than 33,900 Affymetrix expression microarrays. For each organism, we created two expression datasets covering over 55 distinct tissue types with curated data from two independent microarray platforms. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the tissue-specific architecture of transcriptomes is highly conserved between human, mouse and rat. Moreover, tissues with related biological function clustered tightly together, even if the underlying data originated from different labs and experimental settings. Overall, the expression variance caused by tissue type was approximately 10 times higher than the variance caused by perturbations or diseases, except for a subset of cancers and chemicals. Pairs of gene orthologs exhibited higher expression correlation between mouse and rat than with human. Finally, we show evidence that tissue expression profiles, if combined with sequence similarity, can improve the correct assignment of functionally related homologs across species. Conclusion The results demonstrate that tissue-specific regulation is the main determinant of transcriptome composition and is highly conserved across mammalian species

Spinal Subdural Haematoma in association with anticoagulant therapy, an unusual presentation: a case report and review of literature

A case of spontaneous, atraumatic subdural haematoma involving thoracic region in a 78-year-old woman on an anticoagulant therapy (Warfarin) for atrial fibrillation presented. This patient initially presented with sudden onset headache and giddiness (signs of increased intracranial pressure) followed by an acute onset neuro-deficit in lower limb. After appropriate investigations she was treated with an emergency surgical decompression of involved spinal segment. Post-operatively the patients had complete neurological recovery