Green tea: a new option for the prevention or control of osteoarthritis

IL-1β is a major cytokine driving the inflammatory processes leading to the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis and other inflammatory diseases. Blockade of IL-1β activity using substances such as the naturally occurring IL-1 receptor antagonist or anti-IL-1β monoclonal antibody are currently being used or tested as therapy. However, such treatments are ineffective in osteoarthritis. In a recent study, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, a green tea polyphenol, was found to be effective in reducing IL-1β-induced inflammatory cytokines, TNFα, IL-6, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and several chemokines from human chondrocytes. The use of green tea polyphenols may be beneficial as a therapeutic addition to biologics that control IL-1β activity by increasing effectiveness and/or reducing dosage

Vocational Education and Training Reform in India: Business Needs in India and Lessons to be Learned from Germany. Working paper

India is among the countries with the lowest proportion of trained youth in the world. Even worse, vocational education in secondary schools has received very limited funding since the mid-1980s;nit has remained non-aspirational, of poor quality and involves little industry collaboration. The Vocational Education and Training (VET) system in Germany, in contrast, shows a much higher proportion of youth participation, more intense involvement of the private sector and is anchored in the law

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY DONE TO EVALUATE THE FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME OF KNEE AFTER ARTHROSCOPIC POSTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION USING IPSILATERAL PERONEUS LONGUS AUTOGRAFT.

Background: PCL is one of the major ligaments of the knee joint which stabilizes the tibia on the femur. It prevents posterior translation of the tibia. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the functional outcome of knee joint after arthroscopic posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using ipsilateral peroneus longus autograft and also to assess the donor site morbidity. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 24 patients in the department of orthopaedics, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science, Sheikhpura, Patna. All patients (male or female; age range 18-40 years) with PCL tear coming in OPD and emergency department of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna; were included in the study. Results: The mean age of the patients was 29.5 years with a range from 19 years to 39 years. Most of the patients (37.5%) were in the age group of 25-32 years followed by 33.3% in the age group of 33-40 years, and 29.2% aged 18-25 years. All the patients were males. There was a significant improvement in IKDC and Tegner Lysholm score at 6-weeks, 3-months, 6-months, 1-year, 1.5 years, and 2-years compared with pre-operative IKDC and Tegner Lysholm score. The donor site morbidity was assessed with Foot and Ankle Disability Index (FADI) and found to be unaffected. Conclusion: Arthroscopic single bundle PCL reconstruction using ipsilateral peroneus  longus  tendon  autograft had significant improvement in functional outcome of the knee based on IKDC and Tegner Lysholm score. Ankle function was also found to be preserved based on FADI score at 2-years follow-up

Vistaar: Diverse Benchmarks and Training Sets for Indian Language ASR

Improving ASR systems is necessary to make new LLM-based use-cases accessible to people across the globe. In this paper, we focus on Indian languages, and make the case that diverse benchmarks are required to evaluate and improve ASR systems for Indian languages. To address this, we collate Vistaar as a set of 59 benchmarks across various language and domain combinations, on which we evaluate 3 publicly available ASR systems and 2 commercial systems. We also train IndicWhisper models by fine-tuning the Whisper models on publicly available training datasets across 12 Indian languages totalling to 10.7K hours. We show that IndicWhisper significantly improves on considered ASR systems on the Vistaar benchmark. Indeed, IndicWhisper has the lowest WER in 39 out of the 59 benchmarks, with an average reduction of 4.1 WER. We open-source all datasets, code and models.Comment: Accepted in INTERSPEECH 202

A study of brainstem auditory evoked responses in normal human subjects and normal variations as a function of stimulus and subject characteristics

Background: Brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAERs) are electrophysiological investigations have widespread clinical utility in neurology, audiology, neonatology and anesthesiology. BAER responses exhibit a normal variability due to various non-pathologic factors and age is one of the variables suggested to have considerable influence on normal BAE responses. Aging changes in the auditory system may significantly influence the interpretation of the auditory brainstem responses in comparison with younger adults. The present study was undertaken to study the different parameters of brainstem evoked responses in normal subjects and their variations with changing stimulus and subject characteristics among average Indian people.Methods: The test was conducted on 50 neuro-audiologically normal subjects (age-group of 5-60 years) selected from the OPD of ENT Department. Various audio-vestibular tests they were subjected to brainstem evoked response audiometry and responses were studied regarding various parameters of ABR details. An attempt was made to find out a normal range, normative values of various parameters and their variations with respect of their stimulus intensity and subject characteristics.Results: In the present study it was observed that absolute latencies of all waves decreased with increasing stimulus intensity. The mean absolute latency values of all waves were prolonged in male than those of female subjects. The mean inter-peak latency values of I-III, III-V and I-V were also prolonged in male. Effects of change in stimulus rate on absolute latencies of all waves were observed. There were increases in absolute latencies of all waves with increasing stimulus rate.Conclusions: Increased stimulus intensity caused decrease in latency values of all values. Wave V showed lesser degree of variation than the other components. Increase in stimulus rate caused increase in latency of all waves. Wave V showed lesser degree of variation than the other components. BERA can be performed with a wide range of stimulus variations. But what was clear in conclusion was that 60dB SL was the suitable intensity level. Also a wide variety of stimulus rate can be used in combination with either of the stimulus polarity. So any combination of stimulus intensity, rate and polarity may be used for clinical application of BERA. But essence is that there should be a prior adjustment of parameter norms according to subject and stimulus characteristics

Scalable fabrication of gap-plasmon-based dynamic and chromogenic nanostructures by capillary-interaction driven self-assembly of liquid-metal

Dynamically tunable nanoengineered structures for coloration show promising applications in sensing, displays, and communication. However, their potential challenge remains in having a scalable manufacturing process over large scales in tens of cm of area. For the first time, we report a novel approach for fabricating chromogenic nanostructures that respond to mechanical stimuli by utilizing the fluidic properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a substrate and the interfacial tension of liquid metal-based plasmonic nanoparticles. Relying on the PDMS tunable property and a physical deposition method, our approach is single-step, scalable, and does not rely on high carbon footprint lithographic processes. By tuning the oligomer content in PDMS, we show that varieties of structural colors covering a significant gamut in CIE coordinates are achieved. We develop a model which depicts the formation of Ga nanodroplets from the capillary interaction of oligomers in PDMS with Ga. We showcase the capabilities of our processing technique by presenting prototypes of reflective displays and sensors for monitoring body parts, smart bandages, and the capacity of the nanostructured film to map force in real time. These examples illustrate this technology's broad range of applications, such as large-area displays, devices for human-computer interactions, healthcare, and visual communication

Deep phenotyping and genomic data from a nationally representative study on dementia in India

The Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI-DAD) is a nationally representative in-depth study of cognitive aging and dementia. We present a publicly available dataset of harmonized cognitive measures of 4,096 adults 60 years of age and older in India, collected across 18 states and union territories. Blood samples were obtained to carry out whole blood and serum-based assays. Results are included in a venous blood specimen datafile that can be linked to the Harmonized LASI-DAD dataset. A global screening array of 960 LASI-DAD respondents is also publicly available for download, in addition to neuroimaging data on 137 LASI-DAD participants. Altogether, these datasets provide comprehensive information on older adults in India that allow researchers to further understand risk factors associated with cognitive impairment and dementia.Peer reviewe

Estimates, trends, and drivers of the global burden of type 2 diabetes attributable to PM2.5 air pollution, 1990-2019 : an analysis of data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Experimental and epidemiological studies indicate an association between exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In view of the high and increasing prevalence of diabetes, we aimed to quantify the burden of type 2 diabetes attributable to PM2.5 originating from ambient and household air pollution.Methods We systematically compiled all relevant cohort and case-control studies assessing the effect of exposure to household and ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution on type 2 diabetes incidence and mortality. We derived an exposure-response curve from the extracted relative risk estimates using the MR-BRT (meta-regression-Bayesian, regularised, trimmed) tool. The estimated curve was linked to ambient and household PM2.5 exposures from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019, and estimates of the attributable burden (population attributable fractions and rates per 100 000 population of deaths and disability-adjusted life-years) for 204 countries from 1990 to 2019 were calculated. We also assessed the role of changes in exposure, population size, age, and type 2 diabetes incidence in the observed trend in PM2.5-attributable type 2 diabetes burden. All estimates are presented with 95% uncertainty intervals.Findings In 2019, approximately a fifth of the global burden of type 2 diabetes was attributable to PM2.5 exposure, with an estimated 3.78 (95% uncertainty interval 2.68-4.83) deaths per 100 000 population and 167 (117-223) disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) per 100 000 population. Approximately 13.4% (9.49-17.5) of deaths and 13.6% (9.73-17.9) of DALYs due to type 2 diabetes were contributed by ambient PM2.5, and 6.50% (4.22-9.53) of deaths and 5.92% (3.81-8.64) of DALYs by household air pollution. High burdens, in terms of numbers as well as rates, were estimated in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. Since 1990, the attributable burden has increased by 50%, driven largely by population growth and ageing. Globally, the impact of reductions in household air pollution was largely offset by increased ambient PM2.5.Interpretation Air pollution is a major risk factor for diabetes. We estimated that about a fifth of the global burden of type 2 diabetes is attributable PM2.5 pollution. Air pollution mitigation therefore might have an essential role in reducing the global disease burden resulting from type 2 diabetes. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Estimates, trends, and drivers of the global burden of type 2 diabetes attributable to PM2.5 air pollution, 1990-2019 : An analysis of data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Experimental and epidemiological studies indicate an association between exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In view of the high and increasing prevalence of diabetes, we aimed to quantify the burden of type 2 diabetes attributable to PM2·5 originating from ambient and household air pollution. Methods We systematically compiled all relevant cohort and case-control studies assessing the effect of exposure to household and ambient fine particulate matter (PM2·5) air pollution on type 2 diabetes incidence and mortality. We derived an exposure–response curve from the extracted relative risk estimates using the MR-BRT (meta-regression—Bayesian, regularised, trimmed) tool. The estimated curve was linked to ambient and household PM2·5 exposures from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019, and estimates of the attributable burden (population attributable fractions and rates per 100 000 population of deaths and disability-adjusted life-years) for 204 countries from 1990 to 2019 were calculated. We also assessed the role of changes in exposure, population size, age, and type 2 diabetes incidence in the observed trend in PM2·5-attributable type 2 diabetes burden. All estimates are presented with 95% uncertainty intervals. Findings In 2019, approximately a fifth of the global burden of type 2 diabetes was attributable to PM2·5 exposure, with an estimated 3·78 (95% uncertainty interval 2·68–4·83) deaths per 100 000 population and 167 (117–223) disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) per 100 000 population. Approximately 13·4% (9·49–17·5) of deaths and 13·6% (9·73–17·9) of DALYs due to type 2 diabetes were contributed by ambient PM2·5, and 6·50% (4·22–9·53) of deaths and 5·92% (3·81–8·64) of DALYs by household air pollution. High burdens, in terms of numbers as well as rates, were estimated in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. Since 1990, the attributable burden has increased by 50%, driven largely by population growth and ageing. Globally, the impact of reductions in household air pollution was largely offset by increased ambient PM2·5. Interpretation Air pollution is a major risk factor for diabetes. We estimated that about a fifth of the global burden of type 2 diabetes is attributable PM2·5 pollution. Air pollution mitigation therefore might have an essential role in reducing the global disease burden resulting from type 2 diabetes

Mapping development and health effects of cooking with solid fuels in low-income and middle-income countries, 2000-18 : a geospatial modelling study

Background More than 3 billion people do not have access to clean energy and primarily use solid fuels to cook. Use of solid fuels generates household air pollution, which was associated with more than 2 million deaths in 2019. Although local patterns in cooking vary systematically, subnational trends in use of solid fuels have yet to be comprehensively analysed. We estimated the prevalence of solid-fuel use with high spatial resolution to explore subnational inequalities, assess local progress, and assess the effects on health in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) without universal access to clean fuels.Methods We did a geospatial modelling study to map the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking at a 5 km x 5 km resolution in 98 LMICs based on 2.1 million household observations of the primary cooking fuel used from 663 population-based household surveys over the years 2000 to 2018. We use observed temporal patterns to forecast household air pollution in 2030 and to assess the probability of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target indicator for clean cooking. We aligned our estimates of household air pollution to geospatial estimates of ambient air pollution to establish the risk transition occurring in LMICs. Finally, we quantified the effect of residual primary solid-fuel use for cooking on child health by doing a counterfactual risk assessment to estimate the proportion of deaths from lower respiratory tract infections in children younger than 5 years that could be associated with household air pollution.Findings Although primary reliance on solid-fuel use for cooking has declined globally, it remains widespread. 593 million people live in districts where the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking exceeds 95%. 66% of people in LMICs live in districts that are not on track to meet the SDG target for universal access to clean energy by 2030. Household air pollution continues to be a major contributor to particulate exposure in LMICs, and rising ambient air pollution is undermining potential gains from reductions in the prevalence of solid-fuel use for cooking in many countries. We estimated that, in 2018, 205000 (95% uncertainty interval 147000-257000) children younger than 5 years died from lower respiratory tract infections that could be attributed to household air pollution.Interpretation Efforts to accelerate the adoption of clean cooking fuels need to be substantially increased and recalibrated to account for subnational inequalities, because there are substantial opportunities to improve air quality and avert child mortality associated with household air pollution. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe