ASSOCIATION OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS WITH IRON DEFICIENCY ANAEMIA AMONG THE PREGNANT WOMEN OF THE POOR URBAN POPULATION OF AJMER CITY

Background: Till date Iron deficiency anaemia remains the main cause for anaemia among pregnant women. India stands ahead to all other nations in the world in the prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among pregnant women. However, if left untreated, it can lead to many undue and unhappy adverse results on the mother and the foetus as well. This is an observational study to find relation between socio-demographic factors and anaemia among the poor pregnant women of the target group. Materials and Methods: Questionnaire based survey of random pregnant women coming to Janana Hospital. Descriptive statistics was applied. Results: The median age of women most affected were from the age of 20 to 30 years. Increasing number of gravidas also has an adverse effect on causing anaemia. Educational qualification contributes positively in building the health of the women. Non vegetarian diet had a benefit over the vegetarian diet in controlling anaemia. Women married at 20 or before were more susceptible to anaemia. The best BMI range is 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 . Conclusion: Socio-demographic determinants have a role to play in deciding the commencement of anaemia among the pregnant women. The poor sections of the society are therefore more susceptible to develop anaemia during pregnancy

Coping Ability of Medical and Nursing Students: A Cause of Concern

Background: Medical students today are subject to a variety of stress; academic, social, emotional or stress in the form of affliction of health during their stay at medical school. The physiological response to these depends on various factors including their inherent coping abilities. This study was designed to examine the coping ability of medical and nursing students at the time of admission to medical school. Materials and Methods: 42 medical and 34 nursing students volunteered for the study. They were administered the BAI questionnaire and classified as good and poor adjusters based on their score. Results: The study revealed an unsatisfactory overall coping ability to be prevalent among medical and nursing students. Conclusion: This study showed that there is a need for orientation and counselling of medical and nursing students at the start of college

EuMicroSatdb: A database for microsatellites in the sequenced genomes of eukaryotes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Microsatellites have immense utility as molecular markers in different fields like genome characterization and mapping, phylogeny and evolutionary biology. Existing microsatellite databases are of limited utility for experimental and computational biologists with regard to their content and information output. EuMicroSat<it>db </it>(<b>Eu</b>karyotic <b>MicroSat</b>ellite <b><it>d</it></b>ata<b><it>b</it></b>ase) <url>http://ipu.ac.in/usbt/EuMicroSatdb.htm</url> is a web based relational database for easy and efficient positional mining of microsatellites from sequenced eukaryotic genomes.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>A user friendly web interface has been developed for microsatellite data retrieval using Active Server Pages (ASP). The backend database codes for data extraction and assembly have been written using Perl based scripts and C++. Precise need based microsatellites data retrieval is possible using different input parameters like microsatellite type (simple perfect or compound perfect), repeat unit length (mono- to hexa-nucleotide), repeat number, microsatellite length and chromosomal location in the genome. Furthermore, information about clustering of different microsatellites in the genome can also be retrieved. Finally, to facilitate primer designing for PCR amplification of any desired microsatellite locus, 200 bp upstream and downstream sequences are provided.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The database allows easy systematic retrieval of comprehensive information about simple and compound microsatellites, microsatellite clusters and their locus coordinates in 31 sequenced eukaryotic genomes. The information content of the database is useful in different areas of research like gene tagging, genome mapping, population genetics, germplasm characterization and in understanding microsatellite dynamics in eukaryotic genomes.</p

Low use of statins and other coronary secondary prevention therapies in primary and secondary care in India.

ObjectiveTo determine the frequency of use of pharmacotherapy with aspirin, beta blocker, statin, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor in patients with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) among physicians at different levels of health care in Rajasthan state, India.MethodsPhysicians practicing at tertiary hospitals and clinics at tertiary, secondary and primary levels were contacted. Prescriptions of CHD patients were audited and descriptive statistics reported.ResultsWe evaluated 2,993 prescriptions (tertiary hospital discharge 711, tertiary 688, secondary 1,306, and primary 288). Use of aspirin was in 2,713 (91%) of prescriptions, beta blockers 2,057 (69%), ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) 2,471 (82%), and statins 2,059 (69%). Any one of these drugs was prescribed in 2,991 (100%), any two in 2,880 (96%), any three in 1,740 (58%), and all four in 1,062 (35.5%) (P &lt; 0.001). As compared to tertiary hospital, prescriptions at tertiary, secondary, and primary levels were lower: aspirin (96% vs 95%, 91%, 67%), beta blockers (80% vs 62%, 66%, 70%), statins (87% vs 82%, 62%, 21%): two drugs (98% vs 96%, 98%, 85%), three drugs (75% vs 58%, 55%, 28%), or four drugs (54% vs 44%, 28%, 7%) (P &lt; 0.01). Use of ACE inhibitors/ARBs was similar while nitrates (43% vs 23%, 43%, 70%), dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (12% vs 15%, 30%, 47%), and multivitamins (6% vs 26%, 37%, 47%) use was more in secondary and primary care.ConclusionsThere is suboptimal use of various evidence-based drugs (aspirin, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, and statins) for secondary prevention of CHD in India

DeepSAGE based differential gene expression analysis under cold and freeze stress in Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.)

Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.), an important plant species of Indian Himalayas, is well known for its immense medicinal and nutritional value. The plant has the ability to sustain growth in harsh environments of extreme temperatures, drought and salinity. We employed DeepSAGE, a tag based approach, to identify differentially expressed genes under cold and freeze stress in seabuckthorn. In total 36.2 million raw tags including 13.9 million distinct tags were generated using Illumina sequencing platform for three leaf tissue libraries including control (CON), cold stress (CS) and freeze stress (FS). After discarding low quality tags, 35.5 million clean tags including 7 million distinct clean tags were obtained. In all, 11922 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including 6539 up regulated and 5383 down regulated genes were identified in three comparative setups i.e. CON vs CS, CON vs FS and CS vs FS. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway analysis were performed to assign gene ontology term to DEGs and ascertain their biological functions. DEGs were mapped back to our existing seabuckthorn transcriptome assembly comprising of 88,297 putative unigenes leading to the identification of 428 cold and freeze stress responsive genes. Expression of randomly selected 22 DEGs was validated using qRT-PCR that further supported our DeepSAGE results. The present study provided a comprehensive view of global gene expression profile of seabuckthorn under cold and freeze stresses. The DeepSAGE data could also serve as a valuable resource for further functional genomics studies aiming selection of candidate genes for development of abiotic stress tolerant transgenic plants

Transcriptome Sequencing and Analysis of Seabuckthorn (Hippophae Sp.)

Seabuckthorn (Hippophae Sp.) is known for its immense medicinal, nutritional, and agronomical properties and has been utilized for centuries as traditional medicine and food supplements in various countries of Asia and Europe. The revolutionary development in the field of sequencing from first to the third generation opens a whole new horizon to explore the transcriptome of non-crop but important plant species. Many next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based transcriptome studies exploring different prospects such as therapeutic uses, stress management, and sex determination have been conducted for seabuckthorn in the last decade. Currently, a complete transcriptome profile from leaf and root tissues along with other transcriptomes profiled under different environmental conditions is available in the public domain for seabuckthorn. In the current chapter, we have highlighted the recent developments and techniques used for NGS-based transcriptome profiling for seabuckthorn. We have also discussed the challenges and prospects of NGS-based transcriptome studies in seabuckthorn. The transcriptome profiles generated for seabuckthorn could further be exploited to isolate molecular markers, microRNAs, other small and long non-coding RNAs, and gene families specific to this plant. Finally, a strategy for the utilization of third (next to next) generation sequencing to explore the seabuckthorn transcriptome is also discussed. The current chapter could serve as a good reference for transcriptome studies in seabuckthorn and other related plant species

Next generation sequencing-based exploration of genomes and transcriptomes of medicinal plants

Medicinal plants are known for their therapeutic potential and have been associated with human history for their use in traditional medicine systems in different countries. Recent advances in next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have accelerated research on medicinal plants with reduced cost and efforts. NGS technologies not only provide opportunity for high throughput whole genome sequencing, they also facilitate direct RNA sequencing. The sequence data-sets generated can further be explored for application in various areas of research such as comparative genomics, data mining for small and long non-coding RNAs, mining of molecular markers, gene discovery, etc. Continuous efforts are being made by commercial sequencing service providers in improving technology to overcome bioinformatics challenges in NGS data analysis. In recent past, genome sequence projects on various medicinal plants have been successfully accomplished and few others are in pipeline. Similarly, enormous NGS-based transcriptome data have been generated in a number of medicinal plants. In the present review, we have briefly attempted to address advancement in NGS technology, genomic and transcriptomics studies on medicinal plants with special emphasis on seabuckthorn (Hippophae sp.), a medicinally important plant of Indian Himalayas. Moreover, the scope of implementation of NGS based research on medicinal plants have been explored for the selection of candidate genes involved in particular biosynthesis pathways. The identified genes can be exploited for engineering medicinal plants for producing improved quality biologically active phytocompounds

Sensitivity Analysis for Decisive Design Parameters for Energy and Indoor Visual Performances of a Glazed Façade Office Building

The large size of a glazed component allows greater access to natural light inside and a wider view of the outdoors while protecting the inside from extreme weather conditions. However, glazed components make buildings energy inefficient compared to opaque components if not designed suitably, and sometimes they create glare discomforts too. In order to protect against excessive natural light and direct sunlight and for privacy, dynamic shading devices are integrated into the glazed façade. In this study, the impact of various glazing and shading design parameters has been investigated by performing uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. The uncertainty analysis indicates that the variance coefficients for the source energy use, lighting energy use, useful daylight illuminance (UDI), and shade-deployed time fraction are in the ranges of 15.04–30.47, 39.05–45.06, 40.57–49.92, and 19.35–52%, respectively. The dispersion in the energy and indoor visual performance is evident by the large variation in the source energy consumption and UDI (500–2000), which vary in the ranges of 250–450 kWh/(m2-year) and 5–90%. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis identified the window-to-wall ratio (WWR), aspect ratio (ASR), glazing type (Gt), absorptance of the wall (Aw), and shade transmittance (ST) as major influences of the parameters. Each of the identified parameters has a different proportionate impact depending on the façade orientation and performance parameters