Dental caries and the associated factors influencing it in tribal, suburban and urban school children of Tamil Nadu, India: a cross sectional study

Background. The study was planned to assess the prevalence of dental caries among tribal, suburban and urban children of Tiruchengode and Erode of Tamil Nadu state, India. The objective of the study was to assess the association of dental caries with family background, dental service availability, transportation and knowledge on preventive dental measures among these three groups. Design and methods. Cross-sectional study. A total of 1028 school children in the age range of 9-12 years from various government schools located in Palamalai and Kolli Hills (tribal), Tiruchengode (suburban) and Erode (urban), Tamil Nadu, were included in the study. Decayed, filled, and missing teeth (DMFT), decayed and filled teeth (dft) and Significant Caries Index were recorded. A specially prepared questionnaire was used to record all the data regarding oral hygiene practices, socioeconomic background, dental treatment availability, parent’s education level were used for the study. ANOVA t-test and post hoc test were used for comparing quantitative variables between the 3 subgroups. Results. The tribal school children had 89.3% caries prevalence, where as it was 77% in suburban and 55% in urban school children. The mean DMFT score among tribal, suburban and urban school children were statistically significant different (P=0.001) between the three groups. There was a highly significant difference (P=0.001) in the mean DMFT score based on brushing frequency. There was a statistically significant difference (P=0.018) in the mean DMFT scores in the urban group based on the mothers education status. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean DMFT scores based on the presence or absence of television in their house and the parents’ income. Conclusions. Oral hygiene practices, dietary habits and access to dental care services played an important role in prevalence of dental caries. It was observed that the socioeconomic status, parents’ educational status and mass media influenced the oral health of these children but without a significant contribution

Developing hydro-climatic services for water security: opportunities for collaboration between UK and Indian hydrologists, climatologists and stakeholders

The India-UK Water Centre (IUKWC) promotes cooperation and collaboration between the complementary priorities of NERC-MoES water security research. This State of the Science Water Brief was produced as an output of the IUKWC workshop on “Developing hydro–climatic services for water security” held in Pune, India in Nov/Dec 201

The structure and dynamics of young star clusters: King 16, NGC 1931, NGC 637 and NGC 189

In this paper, using 2MASS photometry, we study the structural and dynamical properties of four young star clusters viz. King 16, NGC 1931, NGC 637 and NGC 189. For the clusters King 16, NGC 1931, NGC 637 and NGC 189, we obtain the limiting radii of 7', 12', 6' and 5' which correspond to linear radii of 3.6 pc, 8.85 pc, 3.96 pc and 2.8 pc respectively. The reddening values $E(B-V)$ obtained for the clusters are 0.85, 0.65--0.85, 0.6 and 0.53 and their true distances are 1786 pc, 3062 pc, 2270 pc and 912 pc respectively. Ages of the clusters are 6 Myr, 4 Myr, 4 Myr and 10 Myr respectively. We compare their structures, luminosity functions and mass functions ($\phi(M) = dN/dM \propto M^{-(1+\chi)}$) to the parameter $\tau = t_{age}/t_{relax}$ to study the star formation process and the dynamical evolution of these clusters. We find that, for our sample, mass seggregation is observed in clusters or their cores only when the ages of the clusters are comparable to their relaxation times ($\tau \geq 1$). These results suggest mass seggregation due to dynamical effects. The values of $\chi$, which characterise the overall mass functions for the clusters are 0.96 $\pm$ 0.11, 1.16 $\pm$ 0.18, 0.55 $\pm$ 0.14 and 0.66 $\pm$ 0.31 respectively. The change in $\chi$ as a function of radius is a good indicator of the dynamical state of clusters.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

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Not AvailableAt present environmental scenario global climate change is a reality and its affect all living organism includingfish. The aquatic ecosystem is the most affected system as it is the biggest sink for global warming and elevatedtemperature and obviously affects all the aquatic life forms. With this hypothesis an experiment was conductedto evaluate the effect of elevated temperature on Labeo rohita fingerlings and potential of dietaryL-tryptophan(TRP) in mitigating the effects elevated temperature and enhancing the non-specific immunity. Seven hundredand twenty fishes were randomly distributed in three diff erent thermal groups each with three replicates. Thethermal groups were ambient temperature (26 °C), 34 and 38 °C. Then each thermal groups were fed with fourdifferent formulated diets containing 0. 0.36%, 0.72% and 1.44% TRP. The effect of dietary TRP supple-mentation was studied on stress responses, such as cortisol, blood glucose, histopathological changes in liver andkidney and immuno-hematological changes such as red blood cell count (RBC), haemoglobin (Hb), white bloodcell count (WBC), lysozyme, nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT), total serum protein, albumin, globulin and albumin-globulin ratio. Subsequently the treated fish were subjected to challenge test with Aeromonas hydrophila. In thepresent study, primary stress markers were noticeably (p < 0.01) elevated with temperature stress and levelswere reduced with nutritional supplementation of TRP. Similarly, immuno-hematological parameters were al-tered with the exposure of temeparture stress and got improved with dietary TRP supplementation. Results of thepresent study suggest that dietary supplementation of 1.44% tryptophan has definitive role in the mitigation oftemperature stress and gives protection against bacterial infection to L. rohitaNot Availabl

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Not AvailableThis article critically reviews the information regarding potassium (K) status of Indian soils based on research conducted since 1929. The patterns and lacunae regarding potassium consumption in India are also mentioned. The role of minerals in potassium availability vis-à-vis forms of potassium is discussed and elucidated with suitable clay mineralogical evi- dences. The article also highlights concepts of potassium availability to plants in Indian shrink-swell soils. Authors have pointed out the inefficacy of the universal method used for assessing plant-available K (1N NH4OAc) in Indian shrink-swell soil, as observed from extensive K response studies. The current practicesof assessing only plant available K arenot adequate to detect native changes in soil potassium. This paradoxical situation necessitates revision and revalidation of the existing potassium fertilizer rec- ommendations, which are being adopted since four decades. A holistic research envisaging soil test crop response and mineralogical studies will help in revising potassium evaluation methods in India,leading to judicious fertilizer application by the farmers.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableVertisols have the capacity to swell and shrink, inducing cracks and forming distinctive soil structure and wedge-shaped aggregates. The formation of these specific features is caused by heavy texture, dominance of swelling type of clay and marked by high moisture holding capacity. In India they occur in different agro-ecological regions such as humid tropical (HT), sub-humid moist (SHM), sub-humid dry (SAD) and arid dry (AD) climate and thus represent an array of soils in a climosequence which vary in their properties.Therefore a study has been undertaken using benchmark Vertisols from from two different agro-ecological regions namely, Panjri soil series, Nagpur, (sub-humid dry) and Nimone soil series, Rahuri, Ahmednagar (arid dry) in Maharashtra. . Both the Vertisols are characterized by dark colour, angular to sub-angular blocky structure and clayey texture. Sand fractions are composed of quartz, feldspars and anatase. The XRD analysis of these Benchmark Vertisols indicated that coarse clay fraction composed dominantly of smectite in addition to small amounts of chlorite, vermiculite and mica minerals. with traces of feldspars and quartz. Fine clay also contained predominantly smectite with little amounts of mica, vermiculite and kaolinite. Fine clay fractions (˂200 nm) consisted of higher amount of smectite mineral compared to the total clay fractions. The smectites in the fine clay fractions having higher surface area are more reactive owing to consisting of size fractions that are comparable to nano-particles (˂100 nm)Not Availabl

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Computational insights of K1444N substitution in GAP-related domain of NF1 gene associated with neurofibromatosis type 1 disease: a molecular modeling and dynamics approach

The NF1 gene encodes for neurofibromin protein, which is ubiquitously expressed, but most highly in the central nervous system. Non-synonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) in the NF1 gene were found to be associated with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 disease, which is characterized by the growth of tumors along nerves in the skin, brain, and other parts of the body. In this study, we used several in silico predictions tools to analyze 16 nsSNPs in the RAS-GAP domain of neurofibromin, the K1444N (K1423N) mutation was predicted as the most pathogenic. The comparative molecular dynamic simulation (MDS; 50?ns) between the wild type and the K1444N (K1423N) mutant suggested a significant change in the electrostatic potential. In addition, the RMSD, RMSF, Rg, hydrogen bonds, and PCA analysis confirmed the loss of flexibility and increase in compactness of the mutant protein. Further, SASA analysis revealed exchange between hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues from the core of the RAS-GAP domain to the surface of the mutant domain, consistent with the secondary structure analysis that showed significant alteration in the mutant protein conformation. Our data concludes that the K1444N (K1423N) mutant lead to increasing the rigidity and compactness of the protein. This study provides evidence of the benefits of the computational tools in predicting the pathogenicity of genetic mutations and suggests the application of MDS and different in silico prediction tools for variant assessment and classification in genetic clinics