Comparison of serum calcium and magnesium levels between preeclamptic and normotensive healthy pregnant women

Background: Preeclampsia is idiopathic multisystem disorder specific to human pregnancy. Its incidence is 8-10% of total pregnancies in India. It is one of the leading causes of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Alterations in serum calcium and magnesium levels have been suggested as effective factors in causing preeclampsia. The aim of this study was to compare serum calcium and magnesium levels in preeclamptic and normal pregnant women in third trimester of pregnancy.Methods: The study was conducted in the department of biochemistry in collaboration with department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Sri Aurobindo medical college & P. G. institute, Indore during the period January 2012 to January 2013. Subjects were divided into two groups: group-I included 100 preeclamptic women group-II included 100 age matched, healthy pregnant women. Serum calcium and magnesium was estimated by Arsenazo III method and by Calmagite method in ERBA CHEM-5 respectively (Enzymatic kit method).Results: Serum levels of calcium (8.27 ± 0.37 mg/dL vs. 9.06 ± 0.27 mg/dL) and magnesium (1.99 ± 0.13 mEq/L vs. 2.03 ± 0.13 mEq/L) were significantly lower in preeclamptic women than the control group (i.e. healthy pregnant women).Conclusions: Hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia are seen in the preeclamptic women may be responsible for the vascular pathology associated with onset of preeclampsia. Hence it can be concluded that adjuvant supplementation of calcium and magnesium may prevent further progression of preeclampsia.

PCR and microarray analysis of AmpC and ESBLs producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from intensive care units

Detection of AmpC and ESBL producing P. aeruginosa by phenotypic methods is challenging, especially in low-income countries such as Pakistan. Therefore, a molecular method was developed for rapid detection of these resistance markers. A total of 303 clinical samples were collected from intensive care units (ICUs) of the Jinnah postgraduate medical centre (JPMC) Karachi, Pakistan. The isolates were identified by traditional and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). Isolates were phenotypically analyzed for AmpCs and ESBL by D-test and by double disc synergy, respectively. The Check MDR CT103 XL and PCR techniques were used for the detection AmpCs and ESBLs. Out of 303 isolates, 148 (48.8%) were P. aeruginosa. The resistance pattern of P. aeruginosa against piperacillin, cefatizidime and cefepime was 59.4%, 64.8% and 59.4% respectively. More than 60% isolates were resistant to aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin. All (148) strains were found sensitive to colistin. Phenotypic ESBL prevalence was 8.8% whereas genotypic resistance was 29.1%. bla was the most prevalent ESBL. Although 25.67% of P. aeruginosa isolates were positive phenotypically for AmpC, microarray (Check-MDR) analysis did not detect chromosomally located AmpC in any of the isolates. VE

Effect of various nutrient combinations on growth and body composition of rohu (Labeo rohita)

A total of 80 Labeo rohita fingerlings (mean body weight, 14.7 ± 0.08 g and length, 11.0 ± 0.16 cm) were randomly distributed into four treatments with 20 replicates each, for 60 days, to determine the effect of different feed compositions on the growth and body composition of L. rohita. Four isoenergetic (17.05 ± 0.24 kJ g-1) experimental diet viz., control (C), protein rich (PR), fat rich (FR) and carbohydrate rich (CR) were formulated. The proximate composition protein/fat/carbohydrate (P/F/C) of formulated feed were C: P35/F8/C2, PR: P40/F8/C2, FR: P35/F10/C2 and CR: P35/F8/C5. The daily ration size was 5% of fish body weight. The result reveals a highly significant (P≤0.001) difference in specific growth rate (SGR), weight gain (WG) and protein efficiency (PE) among four feeding groups, while differences were significant for feed conversion ratio (FCR). FR showed maximum growth together with high body fat, CR showed low body fat and high proteins. Results indicate that increasing fat up to 9% in diet showed better growth as compared to increasing dietary protein and carbohydratesKey words: Labeo rohita, diet composition, specific growth rate, protein efficiency, body composition

Stability Analysis of Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer of Fe2O3 and Fe-Water Base Nanofluid οver a Stretching/Shrinking Sheet with Radiation Effect

In this paper, the radiation and slip effects are investigated on the boundary layer flow and heat transfer of Fe2O3 and Fe-water base nanofluids over a porous stretching/shrinking sheet. A similarity transformation is used to convert the system of governing partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations, which are then numerically solved in Maple software with the help of the shooting technique. At different ranges of the applied parameters, dual solutions are found. The effects of the different physical factors such as radiation, nanoparticle volumetric fractions, suction, and slip parameters are determined and discussed. The skin-friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are influenced significantly by the applied parameters. In the boundary layer regime, the increase in nanoparticle volume fractions and radiation parameters enhance the temperature and boundary-layer thicknesses, while increasing Prandtl number, suction, and thermal slip parameters decrease the temperature and reduce thermal boundary-layer thicknesses. The suspension of iron nanoparticles shows more enhancement in skin friction and Nusselt number than the iron oxide nanoparticles in base fluid water

Time-dependent integration of solar thermal technology in industrial processes

Solar energy is currently an underutilized renewable energy source that could fulfill low-temperature industrial heat demands with significant potential in high solar irradiance counties such as Malaysia. This study proposes a new systematic method for optimization of solar heat integration for different process options to minimize the levelized cost of heat by combining different methods from the literature. A case study from the literature is presented to demonstrate the proposed method combined with meteorological data in Malaysia. The method estimates capital cost and levelized cost of solar heating considering important physical constraints (e.g., available space) and recovery of waste heat. The method determines and optimizes important physical dimensions, including collector area, storage size, and control design. As the result of the case study, the solar thermal integration with Clean-In-Place streams (hot water) gives the lowest levelized cost of heat with RM 0.63/kWh (0.13 EUR/kWh) due to its lowest process temperature requirement. The sensitivity analysis indicates that collector price and collector efficiency are the critical parameters of solar thermal integration

AstroStat—A VO tool for statistical analysis

AstroStat is an easy-to-use tool for performing statistical analysis on data. It has been designed to be compatible with Virtual Observatory (VO) standards thus enabling it to become an integral part of the currently available collection of VO tools. A user can load data in a variety of formats into AstroStat and perform various statistical tests using a menu driven interface. Behind the scenes, all analyses are done using the public domain statistical software—R and the output returned is presented in a neatly formatted form to the user. The analyses performable include exploratory tests, visualizations, distribution fitting, correlation & causation, hypothesis testing, multivariate analysis and clustering. The tool is available in two versions with identical interface and features—as a web service that can be run using any standard browser and as an offline application. AstroStat will provide an easy-to-use interface which can allow for both fetching data and performing power statistical analysis on them

Impaired Prefrontal Synaptic Gain in People with Psychosis and Their Relatives during the Mismatch Negativity

The mismatch negativity (MMN) evoked potential, a preattentive brain response to a discriminable change in auditory stimulation, is significantly reduced in psychosis. Glutamatergic theories of psychosis propose that hypofunction of NMDA receptors (on pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons) causes a loss of synaptic gain control. We measured changes in neuronal effective connectivity underlying the MMN using dynamic causal modeling (DCM), where the gain (excitability) of superficial pyramidal cells is explicitly parameterised. EEG data were obtained during a MMN task—for 24 patients with psychosis, 25 of their first‐degree unaffected relatives, and 35 controls—and DCM was used to estimate the excitability (modeled as self‐inhibition) of (source‐specific) superficial pyramidal populations. The MMN sources, based on previous research, included primary and secondary auditory cortices, and the right inferior frontal gyrus. Both patients with psychosis and unaffected relatives (to a lesser degree) showed increased excitability in right inferior frontal gyrus across task conditions, compared to controls. Furthermore, in the same region, both patients and their relatives showed a reversal of the normal response to deviant stimuli; that is, a decrease in excitability in comparison to standard conditions. Our results suggest that psychosis and genetic risk for the illness are associated with both context‐dependent (condition‐specific) and context‐independent abnormalities of the excitability of superficial pyramidal cell populations in the MMN paradigm. These abnormalities could relate to NMDA receptor hypofunction on both pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons, and appear to be linked to the genetic aetiology of the illness, thereby constituting potential endophenotypes for psychosis