Cystatin C based eGFR - for early detection of diabetic kidney disease

Background: Diabetic kidney disease is the leading cause of premature death in young diabetic patients. Detection of diabetic kidney disease as early as possible in the disease process currently offers the best chance of delaying or possibly preventing progression to end-stage renal disease. The present study was aimed to evaluate utility of serum cystatin C based eGFR for early diagnosis of diabetic kidney disease.Methods: Diagnosed patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus having frank proteinuria were excluded. Patients without proteinuria were tested for microalbuminuria.  50 patients having microalbuminuria were tested for 24 hour urine creatinine, serum creatinine and serum cystatin C. Both cystatin C based eGFR and eGFR by Cockcroft and Gault equation were compared with standard GFR by 24 hour urine Creatinine clearance respectively.Results: There was statistically significant positive correlation between cystatin C based eGFR and standard GFR by 24 hr Creatinine clearance (r=0.87). For eGFR by Cockcroft-Gault equation, it was 0.36 (r=0.36).Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that serum cystatin C based eGFR  measurement is a useful, practical tool for the evaluation of renal involvement in the course of diabetes. As serum creatinine values are affected by many factors like age, sex, muscle mass and diet, serum cystatin C based eGFR estimation offers a hope that diabetic kidney disease can be well prevented with appropriate interventions

Ionic liquid catalyzed one pot green synthesis of isoxazolone derivatives via multicomponent reaction

459-464A series of 3-methyl-4-((3-aryl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)methylene)isoxazol-5(4H)-one derivatives have been efficiently synthesized by environmentally benign, one-pot three component condensation of substituted 1,3-diaryl-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxyaldehyde, β-keto ester and hydroxyl amine hydrochloride in the presence of ionic liquid [HNMP][HSO4] as a catalyst in ethanol. These derivatives have been synthesized by conventional, ultrasound and microwave irradiation methods. The combination of ionic liquid with ultrasound as well as microwave irradiation makes the protocol fascinating and environmentally benign. In addition, it has several benefits such as simple work-up procedure, clean reaction profile, short reaction time and good yields

Variation in the Interactions among soil K+, Ca++, Mg++ and Na+ ions as influenced by the variety and rootstock in grape

A nutritional survey was conducted to study the influence of variety and rootstock on interactionamong K+, Ca++, Mg++and Na+ ions in grape during 2012-14. Soil cation contents did not correlatewith their respective contents in petioles indicating a strong antagonism among them. Quadraticrelationship of soil cations with the absorption (ratio of petiole content to soil content) of otherions revealed that the antagonism among cations was observed in case of soil K+ with Ca++ andNa+ absorption on 110R and Dog Ridge rootstocks, soil Ca+ with K+ and Mg++ and Na+ in Sonakavariety and Na+ in own rooted vines, soil Mg++ with Ca++ and Na+ also in own rooted vines; andNa++ with Ca++ and Mg++ respectively in 2A clone and Dog Ridge. Contrarily, increased absorptionof K+ by soil Ca++ on 110R, Na+ and K+ by soil Mg++ respectively in Sonaka and 110R, and Ca++by soil Na+ on Dog Ridge was also observed. All the soil cations together influenced K+ absorptionmost in Sonaka followed by Mg++ absorption in 2A clone, but Ca++ absorption on Dog Ridgefollowed by K+ on 110R

Study of Properties of Al LM-25/SIC fabricated by using Stir Casting Method and Wear Analysis by RSM

Aluminum MMC’s are widely used in various applications because of their higher mechanical and physical properties when compared with their base Al alloy. This paper focuses on the change in mechanical properties of various Al/SiC composites fabricated by using stir casting method. Effect of SiC reinforcement in different Al alloys on mechanical properties like hardness, tensile strength, wear test, percentage elongation, residual stress measurements are discussed in detail. For this purpose various reinforcement of SiC with 0,4,8 percent weight and different particle sizes are considered along with Al alloys. Variations in process parameters of stir casting are also made and taken into consideration

High-resolution aerial monitoring using DL for identifying abnormal activity based on visual patterns in drone videos

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and sophisticated deep learning (DL) models have made the application of artificial intelligence (AI) more popular. This has resulted in an increase in the number of attempts to improve high-resolution aerial monitoring using DL for identifying abnormal activity based on visual patterns in drone videos. The study introduces a one-class support vector machine (OC-SVM) oddity locator for low-altitude, limited-scope UAVs used for ethereal video surveillance. The primary goal is to improve UAV-based observation capabilities by identifying areas or things of interest without prior knowledge, hence improving tasks like queue control, vehicle following, and hazardous product identification. The framework makes use of OC-SVM because of its quick and lightweight setup, making it suitable for continuous operation on low-computational UAVs. It empowers the identification of several peculiarities necessary for low-elevation reconnaissance by using textural characteristics to recognise both large-scale and tiny structures. Examine the UAV mosaicking and change location (UMCD) dataset to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework, which achieves excellent accuracy and outperforms traditional methods by about one fifth in a variety of metrics. The suggested model compares with current methods, demonstrating superior accuracy and performance in recognition of peculiarities. Evaluation metrics include F1-score, review, exactness, and accuracy. The model demonstrates that it always encounters an oddity with a review compromise of up to seven on ten, achieving complete accuracy

Oxidative stress versus inflammation, a better predictor of cardiovascular disease risk in polycystic ovary syndrome

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is also known as hyperandrogenic anovulation (HA) or Stein-Leventhal syndrome. PCOS has a diverse range of causes that are not entirely understood, but there is evidence that it is largely a genetic disease. Aim of the study was to evaluate better predictor of cardiovascular disease risk in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.Methods: 50 diagnosed patients of PCOS and 50 age matched healthy females were included in this study. Cases were diagnosed based on new Rotterdam criteria formulated by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). Fasting Blood samples were collected. Serum High sensitivity-C reactive protein (hs-CRP) and Malondialdehyde (MDA) were estimated.Results: Results were analyzed using unpaired t-test and p-value was calculated. Statistically non-significant increased levels of serum hs-CRP in PCOS cases as compared with controls were observed. MDA was found to be significantly increased in cases as compared to controls. ROC curve analysis shows MDA as a more specific predictor of cardiovascular disease risk in PCOS compared to hs-CRP.Conclusions: Increase in the serum MDA level indicates increased formation of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation which leads to increased oxidative stress and this may increase cardiovascular disease risk in PCOS. hs-CRP a marker of chronic inflammation was not significantly increased in PCOS

A validated RP-HPLC method for simultaneous determination of Metformin HCl and Vildagliptin in pharmaceutical formulation

A selective and sensitive reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method has been developed for the separation and quantification of metformin HCl (MET) and vildagliptin (VILD) in tablet dosage form. The determination was carried out using phenomenax C18 column (4.6150 mm) as a stationary phase and mobile phase comprised of phosphate buffer (pH6.0): methanol (65:35v/v). The pH of phosphate buffer is adjusted to 6.0 by using orthophosphoric acid. The flow rate was maintained at 1.0ml/min and the eluent was monitored at 255nm.The retention time of MET and VILD were 1.503 min and 5.530 min respectively. The method was validated in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, ruggedness, specificity and robustness. The method was linear over the range 50-150 g/ml for both MET (r = 0.999) and VILD (0.998). For precision studies; RSD for MET and VILD were 0.24 and 0.14 respectively. The percentage recoveries for both drugs from their tablets were 100.16 and 99.98 respectively. Inter-day; intra-day RSD for both drugs were found be 0.27 and 0.26, 0.13 and 0.29 respectively

Modulation of Sn concentration in ZnO nanorod array: intensification on the conductivity and humidity sensing properties

Tin (Sn)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays (TZO) were synthesized onto aluminum-doped ZnO-coated glass substrate via a facile sonicated sol–gel immersion method for humidity sensor applications. These nanorod arrays were grown at different Sn concentrations ranging from 0.6 to 3 at.%. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the deposited TZO arrays exhibited a wurtzite structure. The stress/strain condition of the ZnO film metamorphosed from tensile strain/compressive stress to compressive strain/tensile stress when the Sn concentrations increased. Results indicated that 1 at.% Sn doping of TZO, which has the lowest tensile stress of 0.14 GPa, generated the highest conductivity of 1.31 S cm− 1. In addition, 1 at.% Sn doping of TZO possessed superior sensitivity to a humidity of 3.36. These results revealed that the optimum performance of a humidity-sensing device can be obtained mainly by controlling the amount of extrinsic element in a ZnO film

Seroepidemiology of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus infections in Pune, India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In India, Pune was one of the badly affected cities during the influenza A (H1N1) 2009 pandemic. We undertook serosurveys among the risk groups and general population to determine the extent of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus infections.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pre-pandemic sera from the archives, collected during January 2005 to March 2009, were assayed for the determination of baseline seropositivity. Serosurveys were undertaken among the risk groups such as hospital staff, general practitioners, school children and staff and general population between 15^thAugust and 11^thDecember 2009. In addition, the PCR-confirmed pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 cases and their household contacts were also investigated. Haemagglutination-inhibition (HI) assays were performed using turkey red blood cells employing standard protocols. A titre of ≥1:40 was considered seropositive.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Only 2 (0.9%) of the 222 pre-pandemic sera were positive. The test-retest reliability of HI assay in 101 sera was 98% for pandemic H1N1, 93.1% for seasonal H1N1 and 94% for seasonal H3N2. The sera from 48 (73.8%) of 65 PCR-confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases in 2009 were positive. Seropositivity among general practitioners increased from 4.9% in August to 9.4% in November and 15.1% in December. Among hospital staff, seropositivity increased from 2.8% in August to 12% in November. Seropositivity among the schools increased from 2% in August to 10.7% in September. The seropositivity among students (25%) was higher than the school staff in September. In a general population survey in October 2009, seropositivity was higher in children (9.1%) than adults (4.3%). The 15-19 years age group showed the highest seropositivity of 20.3%. Seropositivity of seasonal H3N2 (55.3%) and H1N1 (26.4%) was higher than pandemic H1N1 (5.7%) (n = 2328). In households of 74 PCR-confirmed pandemic H1N1 cases, 25.6% contacts were seropositive. Almost 90% pandemic H1N1 infections were asymptomatic or mild. Considering a titre cut off of 1:10, seropositivity was 1.5-3 times as compared to 1:40.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus infection was widespread in all sections of community. However, infection was significantly higher in school children and general practitioners. Hospital staff had the lowest infections suggesting the efficacy of infection-control measures.</p