Efficacy of supplementation of probiotics on maternal glycaemic control – A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Aim: To evaluate the evidence pertaining to the efficacy of the supplementation of probiotics on the blood glucose level of pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Background: Women with the GDM are subsequently at risk to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus, within three to six years after delivery. This makes it crucial for all pregnant women with the GDM, to monitor their blood glucose levels regularly to minimize the adverse pregnancy outcomes. The earlier studies revealed that the probiotics could improve glycaemic control and mitigate the adverse effects of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: The Google Scholar, Pubmed/Medline, Cochrane library, ProQuest, Ovid, and EMBASE were systematically searched for the available clinical trials. Review methods: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for evaluating the effects of the probiotics on the pregnancy outcomes such as glycaemic control as primary outcome were included to achieve the aim of this review and meta-analysis. Two reviewers from the team extracted the data and assessed the risk of bias in the eligible studies independently. The meta-analysis was performed by applying a model of fixed effects using the Revman 5.3 software. Results: Nine clinical trials involving 1053 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Though the components of probiotics varied significantly, Lactobacillus species was given to all the participants in all the trials included in this review. The results showed that the probiotics asignificantly improved the glycaemic control biomarkers (Fasting blood glucose and insulin sensitivity level) (P < 0.005). Conclusion: Probiotic-supplements seemed to improve the glycaemic control biomarkers. Thus, this review highlights the considerable evidence that the supplementation of probiotics has the beneficial effects on the glycaemic control markers and may be useful as a supplementary therapy among the women with the GDM. This finding would foster the health care professionals and the nurses to create awareness on the potential benefits of the supplementation of the probiotics among the women with the GDM and elevated glycaemic control biomarkers

Drought yield index to select high yielding rice lines under different drought stress severities

BACKGROUND Drought is the most severe abiotic stress reducing rice yield in rainfed drought prone ecosystems. Variation in intensity and severity of drought from season to season and place to place requires cultivation of rice varieties with different level of drought tolerance in different areas. Multi environment evaluation of breeding lines helps breeder to identify appropriate genotypes for areas prone to similar level of drought stress. From a set of 129 advanced rice (Oryza sativa L.) breeding lines evaluated under rainfed drought-prone situations at three locations in eastern India from 2005 to 2007, a subset of 39 genotypes that were tested for two or more years was selected to develop a drought yield index (DYI) and mean yield index (MYI) based on yield under irrigated, moderate and severe reproductive-stage drought stress to help breeders select appropriate genotypes for different environments. RESULTS ARB 8 and IR55419-04 recorded the highest drought yield index (DYI) and are identified as the best drought-tolerant lines. The proposed DYI provides a more effective assessment as it is calculated after accounting for a significant genotype x stress-level interaction across environments. For rainfed areas with variable frequency of drought occurrence, Mean yield index (MYI) along with deviation in performance of genotypes from currently cultivated popular varieties in all situations helps to select genotypes with a superior performance across irrigated, moderate and severe reproductive-stage drought situations. IR74371-70-1-1 and DGI 75 are the two genotypes identified to have shown a superior performance over IR64 and MTU1010 under all situations. CONCLUSION For highly drought-prone areas, a combination of DYI with deviation in performance of genotypes under irrigated situations can enable breeders to select genotypes with no reduction in yield under favorable environments compared with currently cultivated varieties. For rainfed areas with variable frequency of drought stress, use of MYI together with deviation in performance of genotypes under different situations as compared to presently cultivated varieties will help breeders to select genotypes with superior performance under all situations.Anitha Raman, Satish Verulkar B, Nimai Mandal P, Mukund Variar, V Shukla D, J Dwivedi L, B Singh N, O Singh N, Padmini Swain, Ashutosh Mall K, S Robin, R Chandrababu, Abhinav Jain, Tilatoo Ram, Shailaja Hittalmani, Stephan Haefele, Hans-Peter Piepho, and Arvind Kuma

Caring burden and quality of life among the caregivers of people living with dementia–a cross-sectional study in Udupi district of Karnataka

Dementia is a chronic disorder of the brain that affects cognitive performance. The caregivers of individuals with dementia experience a greater burden that affects their Quality of Life (QoL). This cross-sectional study conducted in India was designed to assess the caring burden and QoL among the caregivers of people with dementia, as well as to ascertain the relationship between QoL scores and burden. Our sample included 80 caregivers of people with dementia. Most of the caregivers (n = 59, 73.8%) had a higher level of caregiver burden. There was a negative correlation between caregiver burden scores and QoL. A higher level of caregiver stress and low QoL were experienced by caregivers of dementia patients. In developing countries like India, counseling, and education on home health care for people with dementia should be provided to reduce the burden and enhance the QoL of caregivers.</p

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High-yielding, drought-tolerant, stable rice genotypes for the shallow rainfed lowland drought-prone ecosystem

Abstract not availableA. Kumar, S.B. Verulkar, N.P. Mandal, M. Variar, V.D. Shukla, J.L. Dwivedi, B.N. Singh, O.N. Singh, P. Swain, A.K. Mall, S. Robin, R. Chandrababu, A. Jain, S.M. Haefele, H.P. Piepho and A. Rama

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Breeding resilient and productive genotypes adapted to drought-prone rainfed ecosystem of India

Abstract not availableS.B. Verulkar ... S. Haefele ... et al