Interactions Between Forage, Recruitment and Activity Patterns of the Indian Blackbuck

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Ectopic pregnancy: a cause for maternal morbidity

Background: Despite the scientific and technological advances maternal morbidity and mortality continue to occur across the globe with regional variation. Ectopic pregnancy is one such cause which contributes to devastating fate of pregnant ladies. Over a period of time there have been variations in the incidence, cause, clinical presentation and management of ectopic pregnancy. The objective is to observe variations with respect to incidence, cause, clinical presentation and management of ectopic pregnancyMethods: The present study was a 1year prospective and 1 year retrospective study from Dec 2012 to Nov 2014 at a tertiary medical college in Karnataka.  All diagnosed cases of ectopic pregnancy were enrolled in the study. Statistical methods employed in the present study were contingency table, chi-square test and contingency coefficient analysis (cross tabs procedure).Results: 38 cases were studied during two year period out of which 94.8% were tubal pregnancies, 2.6% each were cervical pregnancy and pregnancy in the rudimentary horn of the uterus. Maximum incidence of tubal gestation was noticed between the age group of 21-30 years (60.1%). 55.2% were nulliparous and 29% were multiparas. Commonest mode of termination was rupture in 57.9% of the cases; tubal abortion was seen with haemoperitoneum in 26.3% of the cases.Conclusions: Ectopic pregnancy remains a significant gynaecologic emergency, delay in diagnosis and treatment can be catastrophic, but early diagnosis and timely treatment can virtually eliminate need for surgical intervention

TP53-PTEN-NF1 Depletion in Human Brain Organoids Produces a Glioma Phenotype

Glioblastoma (GBM) is fatal and the study of therapeutic resistance, disease progression, and drug discovery in GBM or glioma stem cells is often hindered by limited resources. This limitation slows down progress in both drug discovery and patient survival. Here we present a genetically engineered human cerebral organoid model with a cancer-like phenotype that could provide a basis for GBM-like models. Specifically, we engineered a doxycycline-inducible vector encoding shRNAs enabling depletion of the TP53, PTEN, and NF1 tumor suppressors in human cerebral organoids. Designated as inducible short hairpin-TP53-PTEN-NF1 (ish-TPN), doxycycline treatment resulted in human cancer-like cerebral organoids that effaced the entire organoid cytoarchitecture, while uninduced ish-TPN cerebral organoids recapitulated the normal cytoarchitecture of the brain. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a proneural GBM subtype. This proof-of-concept study offers a valuable resource for directly investigating the emergence and progression of gliomas within the context of specific genetic alterations in normal cerebral organoids

Results from the centers for disease control and prevention's predict the 2013-2014 Influenza Season Challenge

Background: Early insights into the timing of the start, peak, and intensity of the influenza season could be useful in planning influenza prevention and control activities. To encourage development and innovation in influenza forecasting, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) organized a challenge to predict the 2013-14 Unites States influenza season. Methods: Challenge contestants were asked to forecast the start, peak, and intensity of the 2013-2014 influenza season at the national level and at any or all Health and Human Services (HHS) region level(s). The challenge ran from December 1, 2013-March 27, 2014; contestants were required to submit 9 biweekly forecasts at the national level to be eligible. The selection of the winner was based on expert evaluation of the methodology used to make the prediction and the accuracy of the prediction as judged against the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet). Results: Nine teams submitted 13 forecasts for all required milestones. The first forecast was due on December 2, 2013; 3/13 forecasts received correctly predicted the start of the influenza season within one week, 1/13 predicted the peak within 1 week, 3/13 predicted the peak ILINet percentage within 1 %, and 4/13 predicted the season duration within 1 week. For the prediction due on December 19, 2013, the number of forecasts that correctly forecasted the peak week increased to 2/13, the peak percentage to 6/13, and the duration of the season to 6/13. As the season progressed, the forecasts became more stable and were closer to the season milestones. Conclusion: Forecasting has become technically feasible, but further efforts are needed to improve forecast accuracy so that policy makers can reliably use these predictions. CDC and challenge contestants plan to build upon the methods developed during this contest to improve the accuracy of influenza forecasts. © 2016 The Author(s)

A Systematic Analysis of Eluted Fraction of Plasma Post Immunoaffinity Depletion: Implications in Biomarker Discovery

Plasma is the most easily accessible source for biomarker discovery in clinical proteomics. However, identifying potential biomarkers from plasma is a challenge given the large dynamic range of proteins. The potential biomarkers in plasma are generally present at very low abundance levels and hence identification of these low abundance proteins necessitates the depletion of highly abundant proteins. Sample pre-fractionation using immuno-depletion of high abundance proteins using multi-affinity removal system (MARS) has been a popular method to deplete multiple high abundance proteins. However, depletion of these abundant proteins can result in concomitant removal of low abundant proteins. Although there are some reports suggesting the removal of non-targeted proteins, the predominant view is that number of such proteins is small. In this study, we identified proteins that are removed along with the targeted high abundant proteins. Three plasma samples were depleted using each of the three MARS (Hu-6, Hu-14 and Proteoprep 20) cartridges. The affinity bound fractions were subjected to gelC-MS using an LTQ-Orbitrap instrument. Using four database search algorithms including MassWiz (developed in house), we selected the peptides identified at <1% FDR. Peptides identified by at least two algorithms were selected for protein identification. After this rigorous bioinformatics analysis, we identified 101 proteins with high confidence. Thus, we believe that for biomarker discovery and proper quantitation of proteins, it might be better to study both bound and depleted fractions from any MARS depleted plasma sample

Cloning and sequence analysis of hsf, an outer membrane protein gene of Pasteurella multocida serotype B:2

Aim: The present study was undertaken to clone, sequence and analyze the hsf, an outer membrane protein gene of Pasteurella multocida serotype B:2 Materials and Methods: hsf gene was amplified from genomic DNA of P. multocida. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product was cloned in pET-32a vector and was characterized. hsf gene was sequenced, analyzed and phylogenetic tree was constructed taking sequences of other strains. Results: Amplicon size was found to be 785 bp. Recombinant got characterized through colony PCR and restriction enzyme analysis. Conclusion: hsf gene of P. multocida serotype B is similar to serotype A, but different from serotype D. Further work is needed to evaluate role of Hsf protein in protection studies and to study the antigenic properties of this recombinant protein as a candidate for vaccine

Ectopic pregnancy: a cause for maternal morbidity

Background: Despite the scientific and technological advances maternal morbidity and mortality continue to occur across the globe with regional variation. Ectopic pregnancy is one such cause which contributes to devastating fate of pregnant ladies. Over a period of time there have been variations in the incidence, cause, clinical presentation and management of ectopic pregnancy. The objective is to observe variations with respect to incidence, cause, clinical presentation and management of ectopic pregnancyMethods: The present study was a 1year prospective and 1 year retrospective study from Dec 2012 to Nov 2014 at a tertiary medical college in Karnataka.  All diagnosed cases of ectopic pregnancy were enrolled in the study. Statistical methods employed in the present study were contingency table, chi-square test and contingency coefficient analysis (cross tabs procedure).Results: 38 cases were studied during two year period out of which 94.8% were tubal pregnancies, 2.6% each were cervical pregnancy and pregnancy in the rudimentary horn of the uterus. Maximum incidence of tubal gestation was noticed between the age group of 21-30 years (60.1%). 55.2% were nulliparous and 29% were multiparas. Commonest mode of termination was rupture in 57.9% of the cases; tubal abortion was seen with haemoperitoneum in 26.3% of the cases.Conclusions: Ectopic pregnancy remains a significant gynaecologic emergency, delay in diagnosis and treatment can be catastrophic, but early diagnosis and timely treatment can virtually eliminate need for surgical intervention

Sc(OTf)<SUB>3</SUB> catalyzed highly rapid and efficient synthesis of β-enamino compounds under solvent-free conditions

β-Dicarbonyl compounds undergo smooth condensation with aliphatic and aromatic amines in the presence of scandium triflate (Sc(OTf)3) under solvent-free conditions to afford the corresponding β-enamino compounds in excellent yields. The catalyst can be recovered by simple filtration and can be recycled in subsequent reactions. The method is simple, cost-effective and environmentally benign