COVID-19 is exacerbating South Asia’s impending food and malnutrition crisis

Countries across South Asia not only face an unprecedented public health challenge in responding to the spread of COVID-19, but also an impending food and nutrition crisis. Here Deepali Sharma (University of Delhi, India) analyses health data from across the region to explain why the public health crisis is impacting the pre-existing food and malnutrition crisis across the region

Comparative analysis of life tables of Bactrocera tau (Diptera: Tephritidae) collected from different geographical regions of North India

The tomato fruitfly, Bactrocera tau (Walker) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is one of the most important pests of the family Cucurbitaceae. Toinvestigate local adaptation, we measured the variations in life-histories and life-table parameters among populations from five different geographical regions of North India, Ludhiana (262 mt amsl), Solan (1,502 mt amsl), Hisar (215 mt amsl), Pantnagar (344 mt amsl) and Jaach (733 mt amsl). The principal components analysis showed the life-history and life-table parameters of B. tau differed among the five geographical populations. The highest fecundity of 233.20 eggs/female was recorded in the Jaach population and was statistically at par with Hisar (209.21 eggs/female) followed by Solan (202.60 eggs/female), Pantnagar (178.60 eggs/female) and Ludhiana population (105.88 eggs/female). The total developmental period among the five populations of B. tau was the longest for the Pantnagar population (16.20 days) followed by Solan (13.90 days), Hisar (12.60 days), Ludhiana (12.30 days) and Jaach (11.60 days). The true intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) was 0.120, 0.138, 0.140, 0.116 and 0.153 for the respective geographical regions while the finite rate of increase (?) was 1.13, 1.15, 1.15, 1.12 and 1.16, thus indicating that the fruit fly from Jaach location is more reproductive than the other five geographical regions of North India. Since the study will be useful in knowing the multiplication rate of fruit fly in specific area, accordingly the management practices for this species can be formulated on the bases of these studies. The results thus indicated the geographical variations among different populations of B. tau

Bone mineral changes during pregnancy: a cross-sectional study

Background: Changes in bone mineral density during pregnancy are not widely studied because of the risk of radiation hazard to the fetus. But newer technology like DEXA has made it possible to measure bone density accurately with low dose radiations which are safe even during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in maternal bone turnover markers and bone mineral content at forearm during pregnancy.Methods: A total of 32 pregnant women with singleton pregnancy of more than thirty five weeks gestational age and thirty non-pregnant, non-lactating women as controls were recruited. Baseline blood investigations, serum calcium, serum alkaline phosphatase and DEXA of the forearm at ultra-distal, mid radius and proximal 1/3rd of radius were done at the time of recruitment into the study.Results: Bone mineral density of forearm of pregnancy group was compared with non-pregnant, non-lactating control group to see the effect of pregnancy. Bone turnover markers like serum calcium and serum ALP were also compared among pregnancy group and controls. The mean bone mineral density of controls at ultra-distal radius was 0.437±0.058g/cm2, while in pregnant women it was 0.431±0.58g/cm2 that was not statistically significant. Bone mineral density at mid radius in control was 0.599±0.051g/cm2 and in pregnant women it was 0.597±0.048 g/cm2 with no significant difference. BMD at proximal 1/3rd radius in controls was 0.670±0.36 g/cm2 as compared to pregnant women where it was 0.660±0.036 g/cm2 without any statistical significance. Total BMD at forearm in control and pregnant women was 0.586±0.035 and 0.582±0.036 respectively and again there was no statistically significant difference.Conclusions: There is no significant impact of pregnancy on bone mineral density of forearm. Although more bone areas need to be investigated for the further confirmation

Secondary recurrent miscarriage and sex of previous child

Background: Secondary Recurrent Miscarriage (SRM) is defined as occurrence of three or more spontaneous consecutive abortions following the birth of one child. Mothers of boys often get immunized against male-specific minor histocompatibility (H-Y) antigens due to transfer of fetal cells into the maternal circulation. The birth of a boy is significantly more common than a girl prior to secondary recurrent miscarriage (SRM) and is known to be associated with a poorer chance of a subsequent live birth. Children born after Secondary Recurrent Miscarriage are more likely to be girls. Aberrant H-Y immunity may be a causal factor for SRM.Methods: The study was conducted over a period of one year from January 2012 to December 2012. All the women presenting with full term pregnancy and previous history of unexplained, three or more spontaneous consecutive abortions at 8 to 20 weeks gestation were taken as cases. Sex of the previous child was sought. The patients were followed till delivery and sex of the child born subsequently was also noted. Association of history of SRM to sex of the previous and present child was calculated by appropriates statistical methods.Results: A total of 34 patients with history of SRM were studied. 23 out of them had a previous male child and 11 had given birth to a female (p=0.004). The male: female sex ratio of children born prior and subsequent to SRM was 2.09 and 0.79 respectively.Conclusions: Study supports the hypothesis that aberrant maternal H-Y immune response may have a pathogenic role in SRM

Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding smoking amongst young females

Background: Smoking amongst women is increasing in the developing countries like India. There is paucity of data on the knowledge, attitude and practices of smoking amongst females in India. Hence a study was planned to assess the same.Methods: It was a qualitative research using descriptive questionnaire, prepared using the basic protocols available as per WHO Global Adult Tobacco Survey, conducted by self-reporting, from February to March, 2018 in the University Institute of Applied Management Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh. It was administered to 111 females aged 18 to 35 years, residing in Chandigarh.Results: Total22.5% of the female respondents were current smokers. Majority of them belonged to the age group of 26-35years; were either employed or were studying and felt that females resorted to smoking for gaining pleasure and relieving stress. Most of them were aware of passive smoking. Majority felt that people who smoke should quit for their own health and for their families and street plays, public awareness camps, television and cinema halls are important mediums for helping to quit. Will power be found to be most important to help smokers quit. Some quoted the role of nicotine replacement therapy, exercise, individual counseling etc also. Majority of the females started smoking early, at an age of 16-25years, consuming 1-10cigarettes per day and had been smoking since more than a year when interviewed. Smoking was primarily introduced by peers. All the smokers were aware of different types of smoking hazards, most commonly reported as cancer and asthma. 16/25 smokers wanted to quit and 14/16 had tried in the past but were unsuccessful.Conclusions: This study gives an indication of rising smoking trend in females. Smoking cessation measures need to be made more gender-sensitive, targeting females in their early ages

ϕ\phi- meson Production at RHIC energies using the PHENIX Detector

Light vector mesons are among the most informative probes to understand the strongly coupled Quark Gluon Plasma created at RHIC. The suppression of light mesons at high transverse momentum, compared to expectations from scaled $p+p$ results, reflects the properties of the strongly interacting matter formed. The $\phi$-meson is one of the probes whose systematic measurement in $p+p$, $d+Au$ and $Au+Au$ collisions can provide useful information about initial and final state effects on particle production. The mass, width and branching ratio of the $\phi$-meson decay in the di-kaon and di-electron decay channels could be modified in \au collisions due to the restoration of chiral symmetry in the QGP. The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured $\phi$-meson production in various systems ranging form $p+p$, $d+Au$ to $Au+Au$ collisions via both its di-electron and di-kaon decay modes. A summary of PHENIX results on invariant spectra, nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow of the $\phi$-meson are presented here

TWEEZER – Tweets Analysis

Twitter is one in all the foremost used applications by the people to precise their opinion and show their sentiments towards different occasions. Sentiment analysis is an approach to retrieve the sentiment through the tweets of the general public. Twitter sentiment analysis is application for sentiment analysis of information which are extracted from the twitter(tweets). With the assistance of twitter people get opinion about several things round the nation .Twitter is one such online social networking website where people post their views regarding to trending topics .It s huge platform having over 317 million users registered from everywhere the globe. a decent sentimental analysis of information of this huge platform can result in achieve many new applications like – Movie reviews, Product reviews, Spam detection, Knowing consumer needs, etc. during this paper, we used two specific algorithm –Naïve Bayes Classifier Algorithm for polarity Classification & Hashtag classification for top modeling. this system individually has some limitations for Sentiment analysis. The goal of this report is to relinquish an introduction to the present fascinating problem and to present a framework which is able to perform sentiment analysis on online mobile reviews by associating modified naïve bayes means algorithm with Naïve bayes classification

A large posterior vaginal wall cyst simulating rectocele: an account of an unusual perplexing case

Benign cystic lesions of the vagina are uncommon, often being an asymptomatic incidental finding revelled during routine gynaecological examination. Large vaginal wall cysts > 5cm size are a rare gynaecological entity. Most of the work available in literature accounts their mullerian genesis. Large epidermal inclusion cysts are further rarer. Thus, here is described a case illustrating an exceptional case of large epidermal inclusion vaginal wall cyst mimicking rectocele. Also, clinical considerations and relevant literature review on the same has been addressed. A 40 year old lady P2L2 presented in gynecology OPD with complaints of feeling of fullness in the vagina associated with some mass protruding out of the vagina for last few years. Careful evaluation indicated it to be a large posterior vaginal wall cyst 7x6 cm, aping enterocele, lying separate from rectum. The cyst was then surgically excised without any intraoperative or postoperative complications. Giant vaginal cysts are an uncommon occurrence. Meticulous clinical evaluation, bolstered with pertinent investigations can help in clinching the diagnosis early

Composition, production, physicochemical properties and applications of lecithin obtained from rice (Oryza sativa L.) - A review

Rice bran oil is a rich source of lecithin and has many beneficial effects on human health. Apart from phospholipids (1-2%), different nutrients like ?-oryzanol, ferulic acid, phytosterols and vitamin B are also present in rice bran oil. These impart emulsifying property, anti-spattering property etc. and therefore, serve as potential nutritional food and nutraceutical. This review describes the composition, production, physicochemical properties, separation of individual phospholipids from rice bran lecithin and its applications in food industry. It is difficult to handle as compared to soyabean lecithin due to the problem of wax entrapment during the isolation of gums. It is characterised on the basis of physicochemical properties viz. solubility in acetone and hexane, colour, peroxide value, moisture content and acid value. Rice bran lecithin can serve as an excellent substitute to the available lecithins as it is non-GM and its nutritional and fatty acid composition imparts many properties which help it to find applications in the food industry. Future work must focus on proper processing of rice bran oil so that the lecithin obtained during processing is of high quality so that it can pave a way in the food sector

Melanotic medullary carcinoma of thyroid – report of a rare case with brief review of literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Melanin production in medullary carcinoma is extremely uncommon.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a rare variant of medullary carcinoma of thyroid with melanin production in a 52-year-old woman who presented with swelling in the thyroid of 3 months duration. This tumor recurred thrice in two years after surgery and patient died with metastasis. Microscopic examination showed typical morphology of medullary carcinoma with numerous cells loaded with melanin pigment as confirmed by bleached Fontana-Masson, negative iron and immunohistochemical stains. Tumor cells were diffusely immunopositive for calcitonin, HMB-45, chromogranin, synaptophysin, CEA but showed focal paranuclear dot positivity for cytokeratin. No C-cell hyperplasia was seen in the adjacent thyroid gland. Nature of the pigment was further confirmed on ultra structural examination.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Melanotic medullary carcinoma is an extremely uncommon entity. There is a need to report more number of cases in the literature for exact categorization and prognostication of this subtype of medullary carcinoma.</p