The “Uneconomics” of Ballet,

Haskell (1977) described the life of a ballet dancer as: “She lives definitely for her art, and not for what it can bring. Its rewards are painfully meagre; many years of over work at a bare living wage, a very generous share of applause from a small public, a few press cuttings with her name misspelt, bouquets, photographs, with the end almost inevitably a school, and the grind all over again, this time vicariously.” Despite the “meagre rewards”, millions of people around the world, given half the chance, are enrolled in ballet classes, many aspiring toward a career in dance almost from the first lesson. My personal interest in this topic began with my own foray into beginner’s ballet several months ago. After personally experiencing the rigors of ballet – the intense physical and emotional demands, and willingly bearing the tremendous cost in lesson fees and appropriate gear (despite knowing that my own career as a ballerina is virtually nonexistent), the economist in me was motivated to discover the intrinsic desire fuelling ballet dancers to pursue their ambition - behaviour that could be considered economically irrational but which makes sense within the cultural context (Plattner 1998)

KUTIPRAVESHIK RASAYANA- A REVIEW

The Vedas have seriously considered the problem of aging and its prevention. It has been the cherished wish of human race to achieve long life and to live at least 100 year in perfect health; probably this idea at a later stage necessitated the development of complete clinical discipline like Rasayana to deal with the problem of aging, its prevention, and rejuvenation of body. In Sushruta Samhita being a text preliminarily dealing with surgical discipline has discussed different problem of Rasayana therapy in a different way. The most important contribution of Sushruta and Dalhana to development of Rasayana tantra is the classification of Rasayana measures and made Rasayana therapy more practical, applied and useful. One distinct observation made by Sushruta regarding the age factor in selection of the subject for Rasayana therapy is the indication in younger and middle age groups. At the same time, the main aim of Geriatrics is to study the changes in the tissue during the aging process and attempt to make the lives of old persons comfortable. If we compare Rasayana with gerontology we can find the major difference between them. In addition to prevention of ageing, Rasayana is aimed for longevity; maintenance of positive health; the improvement in mental faculties like intelligence, perseverance and memory; and resistance against disease. Rasayana essentially refers to the acceleration of the process of nutrition for the correct condition of the body tissue

Testing for HER2 in Breast Cancer: A Continuing Evolution

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is an important prognostic and predictive factor in breast cancer. HER2 is overexpressed in approximately 15%–20% of invasive breast carcinomas and is associated with earlier recurrence, shortened disease free survival, and poor prognosis. Trastuzumab (Herceptin) a “humanized” monoclonal antibody targets the extracellular domain of HER2 and is widely used in the management of HER2 positive breast cancers. Accurate assessment of HER2 is thus critical in the management of breast cancer. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of HER2 with reference to its discovery and biology, clinical significance, prognostic value, targeted therapy, current and new testing modalities, and the interpretation guidelines and pitfalls

On nearly Hausdorff compactifications

[EN] We introduce and study here the notion of nearly Hausdorffness, a separation axiom, stronger than T1 but weaker than T2. For a space X, from a subfamily of the family of nearly Hausdorff spaces, we construct a compact nearly Hausdorff space rX containing X as a densely C*-embedded subspace. Finally, we discuss when rX is βX.Shah, S.; Das, T. (2006). On nearly Hausdorff compactifications. Applied General Topology. 7(1):125-130. doi:10.4995/agt.2006.1937.SWORD1251307

ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS GARLIC EXTRACT ON BETA-LACTAMASE PRODUCING ACINETOBACTER ISOLATES FROM SKIN AND SOFT TISSUE INFECTIONS

Objective: The present study evaluates the antibacterial effect of aqueous garlic extract (AGE) on beta-lactamase producing Acinetobacter strains isolated from skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs).Methods: A total of 41 non-duplicate strains of Acinetobacter isolated from SSTIs specimens were tested for their antibiotic susceptibility pattern by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Ceftazidime-resistant Acinetobacter strains were screened for beta-lactamase production by Phenotypic confirmatory disc diffusion test (PCDDT) and E-test. Antibacterial activity of AGE was examined by the disc diffusion method and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of AGE and Cefotaxime was determined by the agar dilution technique. The combined activity of AGE and Cefotaxime was evaluated by calculating the fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index by the checkerboard method.Results: 21 Acinetobacter strains were confirmed to be beta-lactamase producers, out of which 6 were Metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) producers, 3 were Ambler Class C (AmpC) and 12 were multiple beta-lactamase producers. AGE exhibited significant antibacterial activity as the observed zones of inhibition ranged from 18 - 31 mm against the test strains. The MIC of AGE was in the range of 0.5% - 2% (2.5 mg/ml – 10 mg/ml) with a mean of 0.86% (4.28 mg/ml). 11 test strains showed synergism, 5 strains exhibited additive and indifferent effect, each. By HPLC analysis the concentration of allicin was found to be 0.20, expressed as percentage w/w.Conclusion: It can be stated that aqueous garlic extract might have therapeutic value against beta-lactamase producing Acinetobacter isolates from SSTIs

Pattern distribution of abnormal hemoglobin variants by cation exchange High Performance Liquid Chromatography: a study of 9,116 subjects

Background: The present study was conducted to identify pattern distribution of abnormal haemoglobin variants by using HPLC method in a tertiary care hospital, Surat, Gujrat, India.Methods: A cross sectional study of one-year duration was conducted including 9,116 patients screened for the presence of abnormal haemoglobin variants. Blood samples were initially tested for solubility test and run on automated haemoglobin analyzer for complete haemogram. All the suspected and family study cases were processed for HPLC (Bio-Rad Variant II) for conclusive diagnosis. Patients with a history of recent blood transfusion of less than 3 months duration were excluded from the study.Results: A total of 9,116 cases (1390 males, 7726 females) were included in the present study. The age group of patients ranged from 1 month to 95 years. Solubility test and complete haemogram were performed in all the cases. Out of the 9,116 cases, 8409(92.24%)cases had normal HPLC pattern. 492(5.40%)cases were diagnosed as sickle cell trait, 176(1.93%) cases as sickle cell disease, 29(0.32%) cases as β thalassaemia trait, 1(0.01%) case as β thalassaemia major, 2(0.02%)cases as Hb E heterozygous and 03 (0.07%) cases as Hb D Punjab heterozygous. One case of double heterozygous for Hb E-β thalassaemia was also found.Conclusions: HPLC is a rapid, accurate and useful method for diagnosing haemoglobinopathies. It serves as an reliable tool in diagnosing the presence of abnormal haemoglobin variants in suspected cases on routine haematology in developing countries like India, where the resources for detection of haemoglobinopathies are limited. Early diagnosis may help in proper management of patients

A note on uniform entropy for maps having topological specification property

[EN] We prove that if a uniformly continuous self-map $f$ of a uniform space has topological specification property then the map $f$ has positive uniform entropy, which extends the similar known result for homeomorphisms on compact metric spaces having specification property. An example is also provided to justify that the converse is not true.The second author is supported by UGC Major Research Project F.N. 42-25/2013(SR)Shah, S.; Das, R.; Das, T. (2016). A note on uniform entropy for maps having topological specification property. Applied General Topology. 17(2):123-127. https://doi.org/10.4995/agt.2016.4555SWORD123127172Adler, R. L., Konheim, A. G., & McAndrew, M. H. (1965). Topological entropy. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 114(2), 309-309. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1965-0175106-9Amigó, J., Keller, K., & Unakafova, V. A. (2015). On entropy, entropy-like quantities, and applications. Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series B, 20(10), 3301-3343. doi:10.3934/dcdsb.2015.20.3301Bowen, R. (1971). Entropy for group endomorphisms and homogeneous spaces. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 153, 401-401. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1971-0274707-xCeccherini-Silberstein, T., & Coornaert, M. (2013). Sensitivity and devaney’s chaos in uniform spaces. Journal of Dynamical and Control Systems, 19(3), 349-357. doi:10.1007/s10883-013-9182-7Das, T., Lee, K., Richeson, D., & Wiseman, J. (2013). Spectral decomposition for topologically Anosov homeomorphisms on noncompact and non-metrizable spaces. Topology and its Applications, 160(1), 149-158. doi:10.1016/j.topol.2012.10.010Dikranjan, D., Sanchis, M., & Virili, S. (2012). New and old facts about entropy in uniform spaces and topological groups. Topology and its Applications, 159(7), 1916-1942. doi:10.1016/j.topol.2011.05.046Furstenberg, H. (1967). Disjointness in ergodic theory, minimal sets, and a problem in diophantine approximation. Mathematical Systems Theory, 1(1), 1-49. doi:10.1007/bf01692494Goodman, T. N. T. (1971). Relating Topological Entropy and Measure Entropy. Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, 3(2), 176-180. doi:10.1112/blms/3.2.176Hood, B. M. (1974). Topological Entropy and Uniform Spaces. Journal of the London Mathematical Society, s2-8(4), 633-641. doi:10.1112/jlms/s2-8.4.63

Correlations of adherence to iron supplements and prevalence of anemia in antenatal women

Background: The prevalence of anemia in pregnant women has remained unacceptably high worldwide despite the fact that routine iron supplementation during pregnancy has been almost universally recommended to prevent maternal anemia. The major problem with iron supplementation during pregnancy is compliance. The objective of this study was to correlate iron supplements compliance among pregnant women and incidence of anemia during pregnancy.Methods: A Prospective observational study was conducted over a period of nine months from August 2015 to April 2016 in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Bharati Hospital and Research Center, Pune. Pregnant women more than 14 weeks who attended antenatal care unit were enrolled in this study. Data for compliance was collected by two methods - first by personal interview as well as looking for the empty iron tablet strips. Pregnant women were followed till the date of delivery and maternal outcome were noted.Results: Our results show that 64% were strictly compliant, 33% with partially complaint and 3% with non-complaint with iron supplements. The mean Hemoglobin concentration of pregnant women who strictly complies with iron supplements were 11.6 g/dl where the non-compliant and partially complaint to iron supplements were 9.7 g/dl. The prevalence of anemia was found to be more in partial and non-compliant to iron supplements (13% p value <0.001).Conclusions: Anaemia, low haemoglobin levels were found more in non-complaint and partially complaint pregnant women. The findings from our study highlighted that antenatal health and a nutritional intervention program for pregnant women is needful

Methylglyoxal Binding to Bovine Liver Catalase Results in Loss of Activity and Heme Dislocation

Glycation, the non-enzymatic attachment of glucose to protein, is one of the important events in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases. Methylglyoxal (MG), a dicarbonyl compound formed during glycation, monosaccharide autoxidation, and metabolism is elevated during diabetes mellitus. Among other antioxidant enzymes, catalase is important for the defense against oxidative damage. However, antioxidant enzymes including catalase can themselves become targets of non-enzymatic modification by methylglyoxal. In this study, catalase was incubated with increasing concentrations of MG for different time intervals. Structural and functional alterations to catalase were monitored by a variety of approaches, namely, assay of enzyme activity, staining of gels for activity as well as heme, measurement of protein carbonyls and Arg pyrimidine, which is a specific MG modification product. A progressive increase in electrophoretic mobility and detachment of heme from the monomer were observed with increasing concentrations of methylglyoxal. The MG-modified enzyme showed reduced affinity towards the substrate hydrogen peroxide. Molecular modeling studies revealed that MG can access the heme and arginine residues close to it. Thus, the decrease in activity of methylglyoxal-modified catalase may be important in aggravating the severity of secondary complications seen in diabetes mellitus.HIGHLIGHTS•Increase in concentration of methylglyoxal caused a progressive increase in electrophoretic mobility and detachment of heme from the monomer.•MG-modified enzyme showed reduced affinity towards the substrate hydrogen peroxide.•Molecular modeling studies showed that MG can access the heme and arginine residues close to it