Determination of the presence of metabolic syndrome in patients of erectile dysfunction and assess correlation of its components with erectile dysfunction in a tertiary care hospital in central India

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common medical condition that affects approximately 100 million men worldwide and is currently recognized as a major public health problem. Metabolic syndrome (Met S) is a complex entity consisting of multiple interrelated factors including insulin resistance, central adiposity, dyslipidaemia, endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerotic disease, low-grade inflammation, and in males, low testosterone levels. we aimed to investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome and ED presence and severity.Methods: Patient who came to urology OPD with c/o of ED and were evaluated for it with physical examination, questionnaire, investigations>after confirmation of ED were evaluated for presence of metabolic syndrome and its individual componentsResults: Out of these 202 patients, 98 patients were found to have metabolic syndrome. The mean age of participating patients in this study was 47.2±5.6 years. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 98 (34.78%) of 202 patients. Statistically significant association was found between ED and metabolic syndrome, waist circumference and fasting blood glucose (p<0.001 with each parameter). We also found a significant correlation between hypertension and ED but no significant correlation with triglyceride levels or HDL levels.Conclusions: ED is strongly associated with metabolic syndrome and the efforts for treatment of erectile dysfunction must be made in the context of metabolic syndrome and its constituents with a low threshold to diagnose the cardiovascular disease

Stability indicating analytical method validation for hydralazine hydrochloride related substances method-I by Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography in drug substances

A simple, rapid, precise, accurate and cost effective stability-indicating reversed phase (RP) HPLC related substance method-1 was validated for Hydralazine Hydrochloride (HYD HCl) in Active pharmaceutical ingredient. All the analytical parameters were determined as per ICH Q2B guidelines. Good chromatographic separation was achieved with Inertsil ODS 3V column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 μm particle size) at a wavelength of 230 nm using phosphate buffer pH 2.5 and acetonitrile as mobile phase A and Methanol as mobile phase B with gradient programming with a flow rate of 1.0 ml/ min. The Resolution between Hydralazine peak and impurity-A should not be less than 3.0. From the statistical treatment of the linearity data of Hydralazine HCl, it is clear that the response of Hydralazine HCl is linear between 50 % to 150 % level. The correlation coefficient is greater than 0.998. The developed method showed good linearity, Accuracy, reproducibility, precision and robustness and can be suitably applied for the routine quality control analysis in the estimation of commercial formulations. Keywords: Hydralazine hydrochloride, HPLC, Validation, Estimatio

Surface Wear Studies in Some Materials Using α-induced Reactions

The radio-activity produced during the irradiation of 63,65Cu, 59Co, 93Nb and 121,123Sb targets with α-particles have been measured using activation technique. he yields of radioactive isotopic products 66,67,68 Ga, 61 Cu, 96g,mTc and 123,124,126I have been determined in the energy range ≈ 10-40 MeV using stacked foil Technique. Radioactive counting of samples was performed with a high-resolution gamma-spectrometer. As light ion beams produce an extremely narrow layer of activities in the surface of a material, these reactions may be useful for thin layer activation study

RF Controlled Robotic Vehicle with Metal Detection Project

The project is intended to cultivate a robotic vehicle that can sense metals ahead of it on its path similar to detecting land mines. The robot is controlled by a remote using RF technology. It consists of a metal detector circuit interfaced to the control unit that alarms the user behind it about a doubted land mine ahead. An 8051 series of microcontroller is used for the preferred operation. For controlling the movement of robot either to forward, backward & right or left commands are sent to the receiver by using push buttons of the transmitter. At the receiving end two motors are interfaced to the microcontroller where they are used for the movement of the vehicle. The RF transmitter acts as a RF remote control that has the advantage of sufficient range (up to 200 meters) with proper antenna, while the receiver decodes before serving it to another microcontroller to drive DC motors via motor driver IC for necessary work. A metal detector circuit is attached on the robot body and its operation is carried out automatically on sensing any metal underneath. The instant the robot senses this metal it produces an alarm sound through buzzer. This is to aware the operator of a probable metal (eg: land mine) ahead on its path. Further the project can be enhanced by mounting a wireless camera on the robot so that the operator can govern the movement of the robot remotely by observing it on a screen

Chemical Protection Studies of Activated Carbon Spheres based Permeable Protective Clothing Against Sulfur Mustard, a Chemical Warfare Agent

Technological advancements in the field of chemical threat have made it possible to create extremely dangerous chemical warfare agents (CWA). Hence, the effective protection of personnel is very important in a chemical warfare&nbsp;scenario amidst the current climate of terrorism awareness. In particular, body protection plays a substantial role in the chemical defence considering the urgency of situation in the nuclear, biological and chemical environment. Activated carbon spheres (ACS) based permeable chemical protective clothing (coverall) was developed for protection against CWA. The adsorbent material i.e, ACS used in this protective clothing provided higher adsorption capacity (1029 mg/g in terms of iodine) and low thermal burden (34 °C WBGT index) compared to earlier indigenously developed NBC suit. This article focuses on the extensive evaluation of chemical protective clothing against&nbsp;sulfur mustard (HD), a CWA. The results revealed that the developed protective clothing provided more than 24 h protection against HD. This chemical protective suit is light weight (&lt; 2.75 kg for XL size). It also has higher air permeability (&gt; 30 cm3/s/cm2) as well as less water vapour resistance (&lt; 9.6 m2Pa/W). With continued innovations in materials and attention to key challenges it is expected that advanced, multifunction chemical protective suit will play a pivotal role in the CWA protection scenario

Genetic polymorphism in bubaline mLYS (Exon-IV) and its effect on serum lysozyme activity and somatic cell count

Animals (280) consisting of 4 different buffalo breeds (Murrah, Mehsana, Surti and Bhadawari) spread over 6 different farms across the country were used for this study. A 230 bp fragment spanning from intron-III to exon-IV was screened for SSCP which revealed frequent occurrence of AB genotype and A allele. Although, different values of lysozyme activity and somatic cell count were observed in Murrah buffalo across the genotypes and seasons, no statistically significant association was observed. Nucleotide analysis revealed A allele differed from B and C allele by 2 and 3 nucleotide substitutions, respectively, out of which one was present in intronic region in both cases. The polymorphism identification and characterization may provide a baseline tool for future studies to further delineate the role of this gene as a putative candidate gene for selection against mastitis

Regulatory T Cells Suppress T Cell Activation at the Pathologic Site of Human Visceral Leishmaniasis

Suppression of T cell response is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Regulatory T cell (Treg) mediated immune-suppression is reported in animal models of Leishmania infection. However, their precise role among human patients still requires pathologic validation. The present study is aimed at understanding the frequency dynamics and function of Treg cells in the blood and bone marrow (BM) of VL patients. The study included 42 parasitologically confirmed patients, 17 healthy contact and 9 normal bone marrow specimens (NBM). We show i) the selective accumulation of Treg cells at one of the disease inflicted site(s), the BM, ii) their in vitro expansion in response to LD antigen and iii) persistence after successful chemotherapy. Results indicate that the Treg cells isolated from BM produces IL-10 and may inhibit T cell activation in IL-10 dependent manner. Moreover, we observed significantly higher levels of IL-10 among drug unresponsive patients, suggesting their critical role in suppression of immunity among VL patients. Our results suggest that IL-10 plays an important role in suppression of host immunity in human VL and possibly determines the efficacy of chemotherapy

Effect of projectile on incomplete fusion reactions at low energies

Present work deals with the experimental studies of incomplete fusion reaction dynamics at energies as low as ≈ 4 - 7 MeV/A. Excitation functions populated via complete fusion and/or incomplete fusion processes in 12C+175Lu, and 13C+169Tm systems have been measured within the framework of PACE4 code. Data of excitation function measurements on comparison with different projectile-target combinations suggest the existence of ICF even at slightly above barrier energies where complete fusion (CF) is supposed to be the sole contributor, and further demonstrates strong projectile structure dependence of ICF. The incomplete fusion strength functions for 12C+175Lu, and 13C+169Tm systems are analyzed as a function of various physical parameters at a constant vrel ≈ 0.053c. It has been found that one neutron (1n) excess projectile 13C (as compared to 12C) results in less incomplete fusion contribution due to its relatively large negative α-Q-value, hence, α Q-value seems to be a reliable parameter to understand the ICF dynamics at low energies. In order to explore the reaction modes on the basis of their entry state spin population, the spin distribution of residues populated via CF and/or ICF in 16O+159Tb system has been done using particle-γ coincidence technique. CF-α and ICF-α channels have been identified from backward (B) and forward (F) α-gated γspectra, respectively. Reaction dependent decay patterns have been observed in different α emitting channels. The CF channels are found to be fed over a broad spin range, however, ICF-α channels was observed only for high-spin states. Further, the existence of incomplete fusion at low bombarding energies indicates the possibility to populate high spin state

Ancient genomes reveal a high diversity of Mycobacterium leprae in medieval Europe.

Studying ancient DNA allows us to retrace the evolutionary history of human pathogens, such as Mycobacterium leprae, the main causative agent of leprosy. Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded and most stigmatizing diseases in human history. The disease was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries with over 200,000 new cases reported annually. Previous worldwide studies on modern and European medieval M. leprae genomes revealed that they cluster into several distinct branches of which two were present in medieval Northwestern Europe. In this study, we analyzed 10 new medieval M. leprae genomes including the so far oldest M. leprae genome from one of the earliest known cases of leprosy in the United Kingdom-a skeleton from the Great Chesterford cemetery with a calibrated age of 415-545 C.E. This dataset provides a genetic time transect of M. leprae diversity in Europe over the past 1500 years. We find M. leprae strains from four distinct branches to be present in the Early Medieval Period, and strains from three different branches were detected within a single cemetery from the High Medieval Period. Altogether these findings suggest a higher genetic diversity of M. leprae strains in medieval Europe at various time points than previously assumed. The resulting more complex picture of the past phylogeography of leprosy in Europe impacts current phylogeographical models of M. leprae dissemination. It suggests alternative models for the past spread of leprosy such as a wide spread prevalence of strains from different branches in Eurasia already in Antiquity or maybe even an origin in Western Eurasia. Furthermore, these results highlight how studying ancient M. leprae strains improves understanding the history of leprosy worldwide