Acarbose versus orlistat in weight management of infertile women with polycystic ovarian syndrome: a prospective randomized controlled trial

Background: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) affects about 4 to 12% of women worldwide. PCOS is the most common cause of anavulation in infertile women. The endocrine dysfunction of PCOS is aggravated by obesity. Weight management is the first line treatment of this condition. In this study, we tried to compare acarbose versus orlistat in weight management of infertile women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of acarbose and orlistat in weight management of infertile polycystic ovarian syndrome women.Methods: This open label randomized controlled trial study was conducted in the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, BSMMU, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study period was 1 year from July 2019 to June 2020. A total of 32 obese infertile women with PCOS were included in the study and randomized to two treatment arms: acarbose 100 mg tds for 3 months and orlistat 120 mg tds for 3-months.Results: The response of adequate (>10%) weight reduction with acarbose was 67% of that with orlistat. The side effects with acarbose were 15% of that with orlistat. Acanthosis nigricans was reduced in 18.8% (n=3/16) of those receiving acarbose.Menstrual cycle regularized in 37.5% (n=6/16) in experimental (acarbose) group and in 18.8% (n=3/16) in control (orlistat) group.Conclusions: The therapeutic potential of acarbose in reducing weight was relatively less than orlistat in obese infertile PCOS women

Effect of aromatase inhibitor, letrozole on semen parameters in eugonadotropic hypoandrogenic men with oligozoospermia

Background: Some men with severely defective sperm production commonly have excess aromatase activity, reflected by low serum testosterone and relatively elevated estradiol levels. Elevated levels of estrogen lead to feedback inhibition of the hypothalamic -pituitary-gonadal axis, and the end result is a decrease in LH necessary for the production of testosterone, and FSH to optimize sperm production. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of aromatase inhibitor, letrozole on the semen parameters of infertile male having oligozoospermia, low serum testosterone level and testosterone to estradiol ratio <10.Methods: This Prospective study was conducted in the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from May 2019 to April 2020. The sample size was 30 subfertile men with oligozoospermia (≤ 10 million/ml), low serum testosterone level (<300 ng/dl) and low testosterone to estradiol ratio (<10). All patients were treated with letrozole 2.5 mg daily for 4 months. At the end of the 4 months the semen analysis was performed. Statistical analysis was carried out by using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 for windows (SPSS version 25.0).Results: The sperm concentration, sperm motility and total motile sperm count significantly increased after letrozole treatment. The side effects were mild and well tolerated.Conclusions: This study suggests that some men with oligozoospermia, low serum testosterone levels and normal gonadotropin concentration may have a treatable endocrinopathy. Letrozole may be used to improve sperm parameters in infertile men with low serum testosterone to estradiol ratio

Electrical Power Profile Prediction by Using Rice Statistics in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT: In developing country like Bangladesh, the demand of electrical power is very higher than the available production. Bangladesh is an agriculture based country and production of rice is increasing in tremendous amount in the last decade. Rice husk based power plants are already installed in India, Indonesia and South Korea. However there are some locations in which rice husk based power station projects could be feasible in Bangladesh. By analyzing the previously collected data on the selected location, this work has been carried out to predict if these resources are sufficient for rice husk power, in the hope to extract electrical power. By analyzing this data, this work has been carried out to predict if these energy resources are sufficient for power extraction

Directionally Dependent Multi-View Clustering Using Copula Model

In recent biomedical scientific problems, it is a fundamental issue to integratively cluster a set of objects from multiple sources of datasets. Such problems are mostly encountered in genomics, where data is collected from various sources, and typically represent distinct yet complementary information. Integrating these data sources for multi-source clustering is challenging due to their complex dependence structure including directional dependency. Particularly in genomics studies, it is known that there is certain directional dependence between DNA expression, DNA methylation, and RNA expression, widely called The Central Dogma. Most of the existing multi-view clustering methods either assume an independent structure or pair-wise (non-directional) dependency, thereby ignoring the directional relationship. Motivated by this, we propose a copula-based multi-view clustering model where a copula enables the model to accommodate the directional dependence existing in the datasets. We conduct a simulation experiment where the simulated datasets exhibiting inherent directional dependence: it turns out that ignoring the directional dependence negatively affects the clustering performance. As a real application, we applied our model to the breast cancer tumor samples collected from The Cancer Genome Altas (TCGA)

Mast cell activation symptoms are prevalent in Long-COVID

OBJECTIVES: Hyper-inflammation caused by COVID-19 may be mediated by mast cell activation (MCA) which has also been hypothesized to cause Long-COVID (LC) symptoms. We determined prevalence/severity of MCA symptoms in LC. METHODS: Adults in LC-focused Facebook support groups were recruited for online assessment of symptoms before and after COVID-19. Questions included presence and severity of known MCA and LC symptoms and validated assessments of fatigue and quality of life. General population controls and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) patients were recruited for comparison if they were ≥18 years of age and never had overt COVID-19 symptoms. RESULTS: There were 136 LC subjects (89.7% females, age 46.9 ±12.9 years), 136 controls (65.4% females, age 49.2 ±15.5), and 80 MCAS patients (85.0% females, age 47.7 ±16.4). Pre-COVID-19 LC subjects and controls had virtually identical MCA symptom and severity analysis. Post-COVID-19 LC subjects and MCAS patients prior to treatment had virtually identical MCA symptom and severity analysis. CONCLUSIONS: MCA symptoms were increased in LC and mimicked the symptoms and severity reported by patients who have MCAS. Increased activation of aberrant mast cells induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection by various mechanisms may underlie part of the pathophysiology of LC, possibly suggesting routes to effective therapy

Antidiabetic Effects of Momordica Charantia (Karela) in Male Long Evans Rat

The hypoglycemic effect of Momordica charantia (Karela) has been reported from many laboratories. To our knowledge, the underlying biochemical mechanism of action of this important clinical effect has not been reported. During the course of investigation of this aspect of the herbal fruit, it was reported from our laboratory that ethanolic extract of Momordica charantia suppressed gluconeogenesis in normal and streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats by depressing the hepatic gluconeogenic enzymes fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase and glucose-6-phosphatase. The herbal extract had also enhanced the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, the rate-limiting enzyme of hexose monophosphate shunt (a pathway for the oxidation of glucose)

Knowledge attitude and behavior practices regarding clinical presentation, transmission, preventive measures and management of malaria and dengue among the health care personnel

Background: According to WHO, in 2020, there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria worldwide. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 627000 in 2020. Similarly, the global incidence of dengue has grown dramatically with about half of the world's population now at risk. The present study is an attempt to assess the knowledge attitude and behaviour practices regarding clinical presentation, transmission, preventive measures and management of malaria and dengue among the health care personnel (HCPs).Methods: The present cross-sectional study was carried out in the department of community medicine, MGM medical college Indore. Among one tribal (Barwani) and one non-tribal district of Indore, participant selection was done by simple random sampling technique using chit method of all districts covered under Indore division. The ethical clearance was obtained from our institute ethical committee.  Results: The advice given by all the HCPs for the prevention of malaria infection is eradication of breeding site of mosquito by preventing water stagnation. The 75% ANMs, 90% lab technicians, 100% MOs, malaria inspectors and MPWs were aware of the time of the bite of female anopheles’ mosquito. Majority of the HCPs were aware of the time of the bite of female Aedes mosquito, the warning signs dengue infection and were of the opinion that they give advice of keeping drinking water containers (Cisterns, tanks) tight closed.Conclusions: All the HCPs were aware of the prominent symptoms of malaria and promoted actively the integrated vector control measures in their allocated areas of work

Calibration of the LIGO displacement actuators via laser frequency modulation

We present a frequency modulation technique for calibration of the displacement actuators of the LIGO 4-km-long interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. With the interferometer locked in a single-arm configuration, we modulate the frequency of the laser light, creating an effective length variation that we calibrate by measuring the amplitude of the frequency modulation. By simultaneously driving the voice coil actuators that control the length of the arm cavity, we calibrate the voice coil actuation coefficient with an estimated 1-sigma uncertainty of less than one percent. This technique enables a force-free, single-step actuator calibration using a displacement fiducial that is fundamentally different from those employed in other calibration methods.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

The Influence of In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion on the Anticancer Activity of Manuka Honey

Manuka honey (MH) is a natural food with many beneficial properties to human health, thanks to its high variety of bioactive compounds; however, little is known about its bioaccessibility. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the polyphenol compounds, the antioxidant capacity and the anticancer activity of MH subjected to an in vitro gastrointestinal digestion in human HCT-116 colon cancer cells. Raw MH and digested MH (DMH) were assessed for total polyphenols and flavonoids by spectrophotometric and HPLC-ESI-MS/MS analysis, and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) using different methods. Cell viability, intracellular ROS production, apoptosis, cell cycle and colony formation capacity were tested after treatment with MH or DMH. Results showed that total polyphenols, total flavonoids and TAC were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced after in vitro digestion. In addition, MH and DMH at 8, 16 and 24 mg/mL had similar effects in inducing intracellular ROS production and in inhibiting the colon formation ability; MH induced a more marked apoptosis compared to DMH, while cell cycle was blocked in S phase by MH and in Sub G1 phase by DMH. Our results increase knowledge of the effect of gastrointestinal digestion on the biological effect of honey against colorectal cancer