Terzyme: a tool for identification and analysis of the plant terpenome.

BACKGROUND: Terpenoid hydrocarbons represent the largest and most ancient group of phytochemicals, such that the entire chemical library of a plant is often referred to as its 'terpenome'. Besides having numerous pharmacological properties, terpenes contribute to the scent of the rose, the flavors of cinnamon and the yellow of sunflowers. Rapidly increasing -omics datasets provide an unprecedented opportunity for terpenome detection, paving the way for automated web resources dedicated to phytochemical predictions in genomic data. RESULTS: We have developed Terzyme, a predictive algorithm for identification, classification and assignment of broad substrate unit to terpene synthase (TPS) and prenyl transferase (PT) enzymes, known to generate the enormous structural and functional diversity of terpenoid compounds across the plant kingdom. Terzyme uses sequence information, plant taxonomy and machine learning methods for predicting TPSs and PTs in genome and proteome datasets. We demonstrate a significant enrichment of the currently identified terpenome by running Terzyme on more than 40 plants. CONCLUSIONS: Terzyme is the result of a rigorous analysis of evolutionary relationships between hundreds of characterized sequences of TPSs and PTs with known specificities, followed by analysis of genome-wide gene distribution patterns, ontology based clustering and optimization of various parameters for building accurate profile Hidden Markov Models. The predictive webserver and database is freely available at http://nipgr.res.in/terzyme.html and would serve as a useful tool for deciphering the species-specific phytochemical potential of plant genomes

Modeling Sub-Band Information Through Discrete Wavelet Transform to Improve Intelligibility Assessment of Dysarthric Speech

The speech signal within a sub-band varies at a fine level depending on the type, and level of dysarthria. The Mel-frequency filterbank used in the computation process of cepstral coefficients smoothed out this fine level information in the higher frequency regions due to the larger bandwidth of filters. To capture the sub-band information, in this paper, four-level discrete wavelet transform (DWT) decomposition is firstly performed to decompose the input speech signal into approximation and detail coefficients, respectively, at each level. For a particular input speech signal, five speech signals representing different sub-bands are then reconstructed using inverse DWT (IDWT). The log filterbank energies are computed by analyzing the short-term discrete Fourier transform magnitude spectra of each reconstructed speech using a 30-channel Mel-filterbank. For each analysis frame, the log filterbank energies obtained across all reconstructed speech signals are pooled together, and discrete cosine transform is performed to represent the cepstral feature, here termed as discrete wavelet transform reconstructed (DWTR)- Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC). The i-vector based dysarthric level assessment system developed on the universal access speech corpus shows that the proposed DTWRMFCC feature outperforms the conventional MFCC and several other cepstral features reported for a similar task. The usages of DWTR- MFCC improve the detection accuracy rate (DAR) of the dysarthric level assessment system in the text and the speaker-independent test case to 60.094 % from 56.646 % MFCC baseline. Further analysis of the confusion matrices shows that confusion among different dysarthric classes is quite different for MFCC and DWTR-MFCC features. Motivated by this observation, a two-stage classification approach employing discriminating power of both kinds of features is proposed to improve the overall performance of the developed dysarthric level assessment system. The two-stage classification scheme further improves the DAR to 65.813 % in the text and speaker- independent test case

Married women migrating from rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar: juggling family duty and aspirations

This article traces the experiences of accompanying wives who had migrated with their husbands from southern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and returned to their villages during the COVID-19 pandemic. It dwells on post-marriage migration and work which is an under-researched aspect of women’s migration. Our study offers insights into the ways in which married women navigate power relations within the family as well as their places of work to fulfil their family obligations and personal aspirations. The analysis shows how they juggle multiple family roles as wives, mothers, daughters-in-law and daughters in their decisions related to (im)mobility, work and earning. Theoretically, the article speaks to the production of gendered and racialised work and how these fit into capitalist accumulation, women’s productive and reproductive labour, and the tensions between family duties and personal aspirations. The women in the study were ‘factory’ workers, home-based workers and ‘homeworkers’, all with different subjectivities. Although women’s work and mobility are shaped by patriarchal norms in both states, the women in our study were pushing the boundaries of tradition and asserting their views within the family. Work in cities has given them the means of fulfilling aspirations, especially related to their children’s education

Ebola virus VP30 and nucleoprotein interactions modulate viral RNA synthesis

AbstractEbola virus (EBOV) is an enveloped negative-sense RNA virus that causes sporadic outbreaks with high case fatality rates. Ebola viral protein 30 (eVP30) plays a critical role in EBOV transcription initiation at the nucleoprotein (eNP) gene, with additional roles in the replication cycle such as viral assembly. However, the mechanistic basis for how eVP30 functions during the virus replication cycle is currently unclear. Here we define a key interaction between eVP30 and a peptide derived from eNP that is important to facilitate interactions leading to the recognition of the RNA template. We present crystal structures of the eVP30 C-terminus in complex with this eNP peptide. Functional analyses of the eVP30–eNP interface identify residues that are critical for viral RNA synthesis. Altogether, these results support a model where the eVP30–eNP interaction plays a critical role in transcription initiation and provides a novel target for the development of antiviral therapy.</jats:p

A woman presenting with postabortal pyomyoma and treated with exploratory laparotomy with myomectomy and fistulectomy: a case report

Pyomyoma (suppurative leiomyoma of the uterus) is a rare condition resulting from infarction and infection of a leiomyoma. It is more usual in pregnant women or postmenopausal women who have vascular disease. The condition is usually fatal unless treated with appropriate antibiotics and surgical intervention. We report a case of a 42-year-old woman who presented with abdominal pain and lump abdomen for 6 months with fever over a period of one month with anaemia for which she was readmitted. She had a history of incomplete abortion with fibroid with red degeneration for which check evacuation was done one and half months before readmission. During the course of treatment in hospital she developed an umbilical fistula with continuous drainage of pus. Her clinical presentation proved to be a diagnostic dilemma mimicking other clinical entities including Tuberculosis and ovarian cancer. Her blood culture and urine culture were sterile. She was widal (dilution) positive and Mantoux negative. Her pus culture from umbilical wound and vaginal swab culture revealed growth of E- coli sensitive to gentamicin and amoxicillin clavulanic acid. An ultrasound scan suggested uterine fibroid with mixed echogenic collection in pelvic cavity with fistulous communication to the umbilicus, but a Magnetic resonance imaging scan suggested a big mass that appeared heterogeneous with fluid filled areas in posterior wall. She was treated with several courses of antibiotics and finally had to undergo laparotomy. During laparotomy, it was found that a large pyomyoma came into view which was successfully removed followed by fistulectomy by surgeon. The patient had uneventful recovery till discharge from hospital. The diagnosis of pyomyoma should be considered in perimenopausal women with large fibroids and pyrexia of unknown origin

Congenital anomalies in a tertiary care hospital in North East region, India

Background: Congenital anomalies are important cause of morbidity and mortality in newborns and are defined as structural and functional abnormalities including metabolic disorders present at birth. These defects are of prenatal origin resulting from defective embryogenesis or intrinsic abnormalities in the process of development and are associated with various risk factors.Methods: Our study is a cross sectional study done at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal over period of 3 years from January 2015 to December 2017. Aim of study was to find out incidence of congenital anomalies and proportions of different types of congenital anomalies. Outcome was studied in relation to maternal age, religion, parity, and gestational age, sex of the baby, outcome and sex of the baby.Results: Total numbers of congenital anomalies were 257 babies out of 29879 births giving the incidence of 0.86%. Most common congenital anomalies in this study are musculoskeletal followed by craniospinal, genitourinary, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal. It was more common in preterm babies and parity 1-3, more common in 21-30 years of maternal age. Consanguinity was seen in 7 out of 257 patients.Conclusions: Congenital malformations are a major cause of still births and infant mortality. Targeted scan should be done at 18-20 week to find out anomalies and reduce the prevalence. There should be widespread education in the community regarding the common congenital malformations, their outcomes and possible available mode of treatmen

A study of congenital anomalies in a tertiary care hospital in North East region, India

Background: Congenital anomalies are important cause of morbidity and mortality in newborns and are defined as structural and functional abnormalities including metabolic disorders present at birth. These defects are of prenatal origin resulting from defective embryogenesis or intrinsic abnormalities in the process of development and are associated with various risk factors.Methods: Our study is a cross-sectional study done at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal over period of one and half years from May 2016 to October 2017. Aim of study was to find out incidence of congenital anomalies and proportions of different types of congenital anomalies. Outcome was studied in relation to maternal age, religion, parity, gestational age, sex of baby, outcome and birth weight of baby.Results: Total numbers of congenital anomalies were 91 out of 13658 births. Incidence of congenital anomalies was 0.66%. Most common congenital anomaly was cleft lip (17.6%) followed by CTEV (13.2%) and was more common among male term babies. These were most common in 18-24 years of maternal age group (34.1%) followed by 30-34 years (26.4%) and among women of parity P0-P2.Conclusions: Congenital malformations are a major cause of still births and infant mortality. A level II targeted scan should be done at 18-20 weeks to find out anomalies and reduce the prevalence. There should be widespread education in the community regarding the common congenital malformations, their outcomes and possible available modes of treatment.

Evaluation of Ultrasonography with Conventional Clinical Parameters for Predicting Difficult Laryngoscopy

Background: Unanticipated difficult intubation poses a challenge in routine practice for anaesthesiologists. A preoperative airway evaluation helps in the identification of a difficult airway. Airway assessment with ultrasound is a modality recently being used to predict difficult airway. In this study we evaluate ultrasonography parameters with conventional clinical parameters for predicting difficult airway in adults undergoing elective surgeries. Methods: This cross sectional randomised clinical trial analyses ASA class 1 and 2 adults requiring endotracheal intubation for surgeries under general anaesthesia were enrolled following which Modified Mallampatti score and thyromental distance as well as ultrasound distance to epiglottis (DSE) and distance to hyoid bone (DSHB) were measured and based on Cormack Lehane grading they were categorised into easy and difficult airway groups. Results: DSE had the highest sensitivity of 90.48% whereas Modified Mallampatti grading had least sensitivity of 66.67%. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that ultrasonographic measurements at the thyrohyoid and hyoid level have higher sensitivity and specificity than the clinical parameters for airway assessment

Latest Expansions in Lipid Enhancement of Microalgae for Biodiesel Production: An Update

Research progress on sustainable and renewable biofuel has gained motion over the years, not just due to the rapid reduction of dwindling fossil fuel supplies but also due to environmental and potential energy security issues as well. Intense interest in microalgae (photosynthetic microbes) as a promising feedstock for third-generation biofuels has grown over recent years. Fuels derived from algae are now considered sustainable biofuels that are promising, renewable, and clean. Therefore, selecting the robust species of microalgae with substantial features for quality biodiesel production is the first step in the way of biofuel production. A contemporary investigation is more focused on several strategies and techniques to achieve higher biomass and triglycerides in microalgae. The improvement in lipid enhancement in microalgae species by genetic manipulation approaches, such as metabolic or genetic alteration, and the use of nanotechnology are the most recent ways of improving the production of biomass and lipids. Hence, the current review collects up-to-date approaches for microalgae lipid increase and biodiesel generation. The strategies for high biomass and high lipid yield are discussed. Additionally, various pretreatment procedures that may aid in lipid harvesting efficiency and improve lipid recovery rate are described