A study on the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome among students of a medical college

Background: Obesity is emerging as a serious problem throughout the world. The overall life expectancy is significantly shortened and the quality of life decreased in those who are excessively overweight. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is characterized by a constellation of individual risk factors of cardiovascular disease. Central obesity is a key feature of this syndrome, reflecting the fact that the syndrome’s prevalence is driven by strong relationship between waist circumference and increasing obesity. Awareness about MetS in medical students is the need of the hour.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Dr. PSIMS and RF, Chinnoutpalli, Andhra Pradesh, India involving 400 medical students. A pre-tested questionnaire, measurement of blood pressure, fasting glucose level, fasting lipid profile, anthropometric variables such as height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference were taken. Metabolic syndrome was defined based on the International Diabetes Federation criteria. Data was processed using SPSS version 16. T-test, chi-square test, fisher’s exact test, anova and odd’s ratio were used for statistical analysis.Results: 59% of the study population was female. The prevalence of obesity was 4%, with majority being males (81.25%) The MetS prevalence as per the International diabetes federation (IDF) criteria was 6% (n=24). The prevalence of MetS in males was 12.19% (n=20) and in females 1.69%. (n=4). The risk of developing metabolic syndrome is high among those who smoke, consume alcohol, consume junk food and sleep for longer durations.Conclusions: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is 6%. A significant association is established between life style habits like smoking, alcohol consumption, junk food consumption, sleep duration and MetS

Identification of Stage-Specific Breast Markers using Quantitative Proteomics

YesMatched healthy and diseased tissues from breast cancer patients were analyzed by quantitative proteomics. By comparing proteomic profiles of fibroadenoma (benign tumors, three patients), DCIS (noninvasive cancer, three patients), and invasive ductal carcinoma (four patients), we identified protein alterations that correlated with breast cancer progression. Three 8-plex iTRAQ experiments generated an average of 826 protein identifications, of which 402 were common. After excluding those originating from blood, 59 proteins were significantly changed in tumor compared with normal tissues, with the majority associated with invasive carcinomas. Bioinformatics analysis identified relationships between proteins in this subset including roles in redox regulation, lipid transport, protein folding, and proteasomal degradation, with a substantial number increased in expression due to Myc oncogene activation. Three target proteins, cofilin-1 and p23 (increased in invasive carcinoma) and membrane copper amine oxidase 3 (decreased in invasive carcinoma), were subjected to further validation. All three were observed in phenotype-specific breast cancer cell lines, normal (nontransformed) breast cell lines, and primary breast epithelial cells by Western blotting, but only cofilin-1 and p23 were detected by multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry analysis. All three proteins were detected by both analytical approaches in matched tissue biopsies emulating the response observed with proteomics analysis. Tissue microarray analysis (361 patients) indicated cofilin-1 staining positively correlating with tumor grade and p23 staining with ER positive status; both therefore merit further investigation as potential biomarkers.Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation, Yorkshire Cancer Researc

Catestatin, vasostatin, cortisol, temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, scores of the short form of the Glasgow composite measure pain scale and visual analog scale for stress and pain behavior in dogs before and after ovariohysterectomy

Background: The stress reaction induced by surgery and associated pain may be detrimental for patient recovery and should be minimized. The neuropeptide chromogranin A (CGA) has shown promise as a sensitive biomarker for stress in humans. Little is known about CGA and its derived peptides, catestatin (CST) and vasostatin (VS), in dogs undergoing surgery. The objectives of this study were to investigate and compare concentrations of CGA epitopes CST and VS, cortisol, body temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, scores of the short form of the Glasgow composite measure pain scale (CMPS-SF) and visual analog scales (VAS) for stress and pain behavior in dogs before and after ovariohysterectomy. Methods: Thirty healthy privately owned female dogs admitted for elective ovariohysterectomy were included. Physical examination, CMPS-SF, pain behavior VAS, and stress behavior VAS were recorded and saliva and blood samples were collected before surgery, 3h after extubation, and once at recall 7–15 days after surgery. Dogs were premedicated with morphine and received carprofen as analgesia for 7 days during the postoperative period. Results: At 3h after extubation, CMPS-SF and pain behavior VAS scores had increased (p<0.0001) and stress behavior VAS scores, temperature, respiratory rate (p<0.0001), plasma CST concentrations (p=0.002) had decreased significantly compared to before surgery. No significant differences were observed in the subjective and physiological parameters between before surgery and at recall, but plasma CST (p=0.04) and serum cortisol (p=0.009) were significantly lower at recall. Plasma VS, saliva CST, and heart rate did not differ significantly at any observed time. Conclusion: Study parameters for evaluating surgery-induced stress and pain changed in dogs subjected to ovariohysterectomy. To further evaluate CST and VS usefulness as pain biomarkers, studies on dogs in acute painful situations are warranted

A Comparison of CP-OFDM with IOTA-OFDM under Typical System Imperfections

In this paper we compare the performance of OFDM with a cyclic prefix (CP) and isotropic orthogonal transform algorithm (IOTA) OFDM without cyclic prefix under typical system imperfections such as channel estimation errors and frequency offset. The IOTA-OFDM system is based on offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM) and promises an increased immunity to both inter-carrier interference (ICI) and inter-symbol interference (lSI). Moreover, IOTA-OFDM does not require a CP which makes it spectrally more efficient. Our simulation results show that compared to CP-OFDM, IOTA-OFDM is spectrally efficient and more tolerant to interference and frequency offset. Imperfect channel estimation may reduce the gains of IOTA-OFDM but considerable throughput advantages are still obtained for a fixed BER

Effect of Molybdenum Incorporation on the Structure and Magnetic Properties of Cobalt Ferrite

We report on the effect of molybdenum (Mo) incorporation on the crystal structure, surface morphology, Mo chemical valence state, and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4, referred to CFO). Molybdenum incorporated cobalt ferrite (CoFe2–xMoxO4, referred to CFMO) ceramics were prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction method by varying the Mo concentration in the range of x = 0.0–0.3. X-ray diffraction studies indicate that the CFMO materials crystallize in inverse spinel cubic phase. Molybdenum incorporation induced lattice parameter increase from 8.322 to 8.343 Å coupled with a significant increase in density from 5.4 to 5.7 g/cm3 was evident in structural analyses. Scanning electron microscopy imaging analyses indicate that the Mo incorporation induces agglomeration of particles leading to larger particle size with increasing x(Mo) values. Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analyses indicate the increasing Mo content with increasing x from 0.0 to 0.3. XPS confirms that the chemistry of Mo is complex in these CFMO compounds; Mo ions exist in the lower oxidation state (Mo4+) for higher x while in a mixed chemical valence state (Mo4+, Mo5+, Mo6+) for lower x values. From the temperature-dependent magnetization, the samples show ferrimagnetic behavior including the pristine CFO. From the isothermal magnetization measurements, we find almost 2-fold decrease in coercive field (Hc) from 2143 to 1145 Oe with the increase in Mo doping up to 30%. This doping-dependent Hc is consistently observed at all the temperatures measured (4, 100, 200, and 300 K). Furthermore, the saturation magnetization estimated at 4 K and at 1.5 T (from M–H loops) goes through a peak at 92 emu/g (at 15% Mo doping) from 81 emu/g (pristine CFO), and starts decreasing to 79 emu/g (at 30% Mo doping). The results demonstrate that the crystal structure, microstructure, and magnetic properties can be tuned by controlling the Mo-content in the CFMO materials.</p

The Determination of the Minimum Anaesthetic Concentration of Halothane in the Rock Dove (Columba livia) Using an Electrical Stimulus

This study aims to determine the minimum anaesthetic concentration (MAC) of halothane in the Rock Dove using electrical stimulus. Seven Rock Doves are anaesthetised with halothane, and the MAC is determined using the bracketing method. An electrical stimulus (two single pulses and two five-second stimuli, all separated by five-second pauses; 30 Hz, 30 V, 7.5 ms) is applied to the legs via subcutaneous electrodes. A maximum of eight periods of electrical stimulation, each with a preceding 15 min stable phase, is applied to each bird. If the non-reflexive movement occurred following stimulation, the end-tidal halothane (Fe’Hal) is increased by 10% before the next stimulus delivery. If no movement occurred, Fe’Hal is decreased by 10%. The MAC is the average of the highest concentration that allowed movement and the lowest that prevented movement. Physiological variables and ventilatory settings are recorded every five minutes. The current delivered is calculated offline. The mean ± SD MAC of halothane is 1.62 ± 0.29%, calculated from five birds. During the entire anaesthesia, all birds had cardiac arrhythmias —with three having sporadic recurrent periods of prolonged ventricular standstill followed by marked sinus tachycardia. The mean recorded voltage and calculated current and resistance are 27.6 ± 2.7 V, 20.3 ± 7.3 mAmp and 1.6 ± 0.9 kΩ, respectively. The advantage of halothane for prolonged anaesthesia in Rock Doves may be limited when noxious stimulation is used, due to the development of severe ventricular arrhythmias