74 research outputs found
Effect of PEG-6000 Imposed Water Deficit on Chlorophyll Metabolism in Maize Leaves
Drought stress is one of the major abiotic constraint limiting plant growth and productivity world wide. The current study was undertaken with the aim to investigate the effect of water deficit imposed by PEG-6000, on chlorophyll metabolism in maize leaves to work out the mechanistic details. Leaf segments prepared from primary leaves of etiolated maize seedlings were treated with varying concentrations of polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG-6000; w/v- 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%) in continuous light of intensity 40 Wm-2 at 26±2 °C for 24 h in light chamber. The results demonstrate a concentration dependent decline in chlorophyll content with increasing concentration of polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG-6000). Reduction in chlorophyll ‘a’ level was to a greater extent than the chlorophyll ‘b’. The RNA content decreased in a concentration dependent manner with PEG, however, proline content increased significantly. Relative water content decreased significantly with the supply of 30% PEG only. A substantial decrease in chlorophyll synthesis due to significant reduction in ALA content and ALAD activity, with no change in chlorophyllase activity with the supply of PEG suggests that water deficit affects chlorophyll formation rather than its degradation
CT Perfusion in Evaluation of Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis in Head and Neck Malignancies: A Cross-sectional Study
Introduction: Though, many cross-sectional modalities are
available for evaluation of cervical lymph node metastasis but
their results are highly variable. There is paucity of the literature
in India, regarding lymph nodal assessment using Computed
Tomography (CT) perfusion in head and neck malignancies even
though, there is high incidence of oral cancer in India.
Aim: To assess the role of Computed Tomography Perfusion
(CTP) in evaluation of cervical lymph nodes in head and neck
malignancies, by using CT perfusion parameters as compared
to histopathology.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was
conducted in the Department of Radiodiagnosis in collaboration
with the Department of Surgery and Pathology at Vardhman
Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, India,
from October 2017 to April 2019. The study included 30 newly
diagnosed head and neck cancer patients, with 46 nodes
planned for surgical neck dissection. Computed tomography
scan of neck was acquired using Siemens Somatom Definition
Flash 256CT scanner. Reconstruction and post processing
was performed on workstation and perfusion parameters were
obtained to generate the CT perfusion maps. Differentiation
between benign and malignant lymph nodes was done, on the
basis of CT perfusion parameters such as Blood Flow (BF),
Blood Volume (BV), Mean Transit Time (MTT) and Permeability
Surface (PS), which were compared with histopathological
findings of resected lymph nodes. McNemar’s test was applied for comparison and statistical analysis. Receiver Operating
Characteristic (ROC) curve of quantitative parameters were
obtained, for the detection of sensitivity, specificity, Positive
Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPP) and
diagnostic accuracy.
Results: Out of 46 nodes, 23 were metastatic and 23 were non
metastatic. The average value of BF in metastatic nodes was
174.61±71.76 mL/100g/min, BV was 16.32±11.9 mL/100g,
MTT was 4.83±2.54 seconds and PS was 49.3±28.59
mL/100g/min. The average values for non metastatic nodes
were: BF 88.06±34.4 mL/100g/min, BV: 9.89±7.63 mL/100g,
MTT: 13.11±18.58 seconds and PS: 37.07±29.26 mL/100g/
min. The differences between the parameters like blood flow
(p-value <0.0001), blood volume (p-value=0.005) and MTT
(p-value=0.002) in malignant and benign nodes were significant.
In case of blood flow, sensitivity was 82.61% and diagnostic
accuracy was 84.78%. In case of blood volume, sensitivity was
91.30% and diagnostic accuracy was 73.91%. In case of mean
transit time, sensitivity was 56.52% and diagnostic accuracy
was 73.91%. In case of permeability surface, sensitivity was
91.30% and diagnostic accuracy was 67.39%.
Conclusion: Blood flow and blood volume values were
significantly increased in metastatic cervical lymph nodes
as compared to non metastatic nodes, whereas MTT was
significantly low. Permeability surface showed equivocal
results
Diagnostic efficacy of FNAC by liquid based technique versus conventional smear in lung and mediastinal masses
Background: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) has proven to be less costly and less invasive procedure than biopsy for diagnosing benign and malignant lesions. Of the two methods liquid based cytology (LBC) and conventional cytology (CC), LBC has been standardized as more efficacious in reporting in Gynaecological cases. But, this is still lacking in non-gynaecological cases and many studies are now focusing on studying LBC due to its proven advantages in Pap smear evaluation.Methods: An observational study of 72 patients with lung mass and 11 with mediastinal mass was done for a period of six months in a tertiary care hospital in Gurugram to compare the diagnostic efficacy of LBC and CC in fine needle aspirates from lung/mediastinal mass.Results: Of the 83 cases, reporting of LBC was adequate in 75 cases and CC in only 53 cases. LBC was better when differentiating malignant and benign lesions than CC. CC smears had better cellularity in comparison to LBC smears (36%), but rest cytological features of cytoplasmic detailing, cell architecture, less background debris and blood were all more appreciable in LBC smears than CC preparations.Conclusions: LBC is a better method than conventional smear for smear preparation and processing of aspirates obtained from lung and mediastinal mass
Cooperation of Notch and Ras/MAPK signaling pathways in human breast carcinogenesis
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
Role of levonorgestrel releasing intra-uterine system in the treatment of menorrhagia due to dysfunctional uterine bleeding and fibroid uterus
Background: This study was carried out to assess the clinical effectiveness of levonorgestrel releasing intrauterine device (LNG-IUS) in the treatment of menorrhagia due to either Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding (DUB) or fibroid in Indian patients, and to assess patient satisfaction with this treatment modality. Methods: Sixty women with menorrhagia, 30 due to fibroid and 30 due to DUB, meeting inclusion criteria, received LNG-IUS and were prospectively followed up for 9 months with periodic clinical assessments and transvaginal ultrasounds. Patient satisfaction was assessed on a five-point scale.Results: One patient in DUB group was lost to follow-up. In DUB patients, the treatment failure rate was only 3.4% (1 out of 29 patients). The median PBAC score reduced by 95% at 9 months. Fibroid patients also had an equally impressive 97.7% reduction of PBAC score at 9 months, although the failure rate was higher (23.3%; 7 out of 30). Majority of patients were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ with the treatment, although this percentage was more in DUB (82.8%) than in the fibroid group (66.7%). Haemoglobin and serum ferritin levels significantly increased in both groups. No major side effect was noted.Conclusions: LNG-IUS is an excellent treatment modality for patients of DUB, with good patient satisfaction. It is also a useful treatment option in non-submucosal small fibroids for the symptoms of menorrhagia, can reduce uterine volume and can help avoid hysterectomy, but there is no effect on fibroid volume. Majority of patients are satisfied, although satisfaction rates are less than in DUB patients
Health problems in adolescent girls
Background: Adolescents form precious human resources in every country, constitutes large number of populations. Adolescence is a period of rapid physical growth, sexual and psychological changes. The aim of the study is to assess the health problems in Adolescent girls and to take measures to prevent and treat their health problems.
Methods: This prospective study was conducted from October 2014 to September 2016 in Hindu Rao hospital, North DMC medical college. Patients attending to gynecological outpatient department included in this study. The Statical analysis was done by using Microsoft excel.
Results: Majority of patients in our study belongs to 15 to 19 years. Menstrual dysfunction (67.7%) is the most common complaint followed by leucorrhea (14.1%) and infections (10.6%).
Conclusions: Adolescence girls presented with various gynaecological problems in our study. Setting up adolescent friendly clinics and privacy to discuss their problems is desirable for early diagnosis and management
TPFNet: A Novel Text In-painting Transformer for Text Removal
Text erasure from an image is helpful for various tasks such as image editing
and privacy preservation. In this paper, we present TPFNet, a novel one-stage
(end-toend) network for text removal from images. Our network has two parts:
feature synthesis and image generation. Since noise can be more effectively
removed from low-resolution images, part 1 operates on low-resolution images.
The output of part 1 is a low-resolution text-free image. Part 2 uses the
features learned in part 1 to predict a high-resolution text-free image. In
part 1, we use "pyramidal vision transformer" (PVT) as the encoder. Further, we
use a novel multi-headed decoder that generates a high-pass filtered image and
a segmentation map, in addition to a text-free image. The segmentation branch
helps locate the text precisely, and the high-pass branch helps in learning the
image structure. To precisely locate the text, TPFNet employs an adversarial
loss that is conditional on the segmentation map rather than the input image.
On Oxford, SCUT, and SCUT-EnsText datasets, our network outperforms recently
proposed networks on nearly all the metrics. For example, on SCUT-EnsText
dataset, TPFNet has a PSNR (higher is better) of 39.0 and text-detection
precision (lower is better) of 21.1, compared to the best previous technique,
which has a PSNR of 32.3 and precision of 53.2. The source code can be obtained
from https://github.com/CandleLabAI/TPFNetComment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, Neurips Proceeding
Phytochemical Investigation and Evaluation of Antibacterial Activity of Zizyphus Xylopyrus (Retz) Willd Leaf Extract
An experiment was carried out to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the Zizyphus xylopyrus ethanolic fractions, which was related to the phytoconstituents present. The plant's root powder was extracted using an ethanol extraction procedure that involved several consecutive steps. Following this, the extracted product displayed a distinct scent feature. Tannic acid, phenol, and flavonoids were found, indicating the existence of the required phytochemicals. The flavonoids were isolated using spectroscopic characterisation using the ethanolic extract. After then, this extract was used for additional pharmacological testing because in the study, only ethanolic extracts and saponins were used. Based on each sample's results from a variety of qualitative tests, this analysis was carried out. The discovery of new illnesses, especially those brought on by Enterococcus and Staphylococcus species, has sparked increased interest in the study of therapeutic plants in recent decades. These microorganisms have become resistant to widely used antibiotics and are the cause of a considerable proportion of hospital-acquired illnesses. For example, S. aureus, which was once sensitive to a number of antibiotics, is now showing signs of resistance to several medication
Creation of subject index to NUCSSI database with CDS/ISIS package
52-62<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">An
attempt has been made to use CDS/ISIS package (version 1.0) for the creation of
subject index to National Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials in India (NUCSSI)
data base. The subject index helps the user to know the titles available under
a particular subject covered in the data base. The subject index has subject
code, UDC number and subject heading selected from the key title of the serial.
Searches can be made through anyone of them.</span
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