Safety and efficacy of methyldopa and labetalol in controlling blood pressure in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Background: Hypertensive disorders represent the most common medical complication of pregnancy, with a reported incidence of 6-10% and accounts for 15% of maternal mortality. Effective management of pregnancy induced hypertension is vital to improve maternal and foetal outcomes. As data are scarce on comparison of labetolol and methyldopa this study was undertaken. The objective of present study is compare the efficacy and safety of Labetalol versus Methyldopa in the management of Mild to Moderate pregnancy induced hypertension. To evaluate effect of both drugs on maternal and foetal outcomes.Methods: A comparative observational study is designed. 30 patients who received methyldopa and 30 patients who received labetalol were included in the study. Methyldopa was started at a dose of 250-500 mg thrice daily while labetalol was started at a dose of 100-400 mg twice daily. Patients were followed up during antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum period for efficacy, safety, maternal, and perinatal outcomes.Results: Methyldopa and Labetalol reduced mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressures significantly. safety profile of both drugs was similar. Spontaneous vaginal deliveries were observed more with labetolol significantly.Conclusions: Labetalol is equally efficacious as methyldopa and well tolerated in the treatment of new onset hypertension during pregnancy

Identification of Ideal Locations and Stable High Biomass Sorghum Genotypes in semiarid Tropics

The dearth of proper delineation for energy sorghum cultivation has led to a prerequisite for evaluation and identification of test environments for the newly developed lines. This becomes of vital importance as the biomass yield is highly influenced by genotype and environmental (G × E) interactions. Several agronomic traits were considered to assess the biomass yield and the combined analysis of variance for G (genotype), L (location) and interaction effect of G × L. The variations in the yield caused by the interaction of G × L are very essential to acquire knowledge on the specific adaptation of a genotype. Thus, the multi-location trials conducted across locations and years have helped to identify the stable environments with specific adaptation for biomass sorghum. The presence of close association between the test locations suggested that the same information about the genotypes could be obtained from fewer test environments, and hence the potential to reduce evaluation costs. The two genotypes—IS 13762 and ICSV 25333—have shown stable performance for biomass traits across all the locations, in comparison with CSH 22SS (check). The top ten entries with stable and better performance for fresh biomass yield, dry biomass yield, grain yield and theoretical ethanol yield were ICSV 25333, IS 13762, CSH 22SS, IS 25302, IS 25301, IS 27246, IS 16529, DHBM2, ICSSH 28 and IS 17349

Spatial epigenetic control of mono- and bistable gene expression

Bistability in signaling networks is frequently employed to promote stochastic switch-like transitions between cellular differentiation states. Differentiation can also be triggered by antagonism of activators and repressors mediated by epigenetic processes that constitute regulatory circuits anchored to the chromosome. Their regulatory logic has remained unclear. A reaction-diffusion model reveals that the same reaction mechanism can support both graded monostable and switch-like bistable gene expression, depending on whether recruited repressor proteins generate a single silencing gradient or two interacting gradients that flank a gene. Our experiments confirm that chromosomal recruitment of activator and repressor proteins permits a plastic form of control; the stability of gene expression is determined by the spatial distribution of silencing nucleation sites along the chromosome. The unveiled regulatory principles will help to understand the mechanisms of variegated gene expression, to design synthetic genetic networks that combine transcriptional regulatory motifs with chromatin-based epigenetic effects, and to control cellular differentiation