Relationship between the amniotic fluid index at term and the perinatal outcome

Background: Amniotic fluid index (AFI) is commonly used to estimate amniotic fluid volume. A proper AFI is between 10 and 24 centimetres. If it is below 5 cm, it is can represent oligohydramnios, and in case AFI is above 24 cm, it can represent polyhydramnios. This study was undertaken to determine whether measuring AFI at term is useful in the prediction of perinatal outcome.Methods: A prospective study of 250 pregnant women with gestational age between 37 and 42 weeks was conducted at Sola Civil Hospital. AFI was measured in each patient using the Phelan’s technique and the perinatal outcome was studied. The results were analysed and presented in the form of tables and graphs.Results: Total 250 patients were studied. Out of them, 33 patients (13.2%) had AFI =25.19 out of 33 (57.57%) patients with AFI <= 5, had to undergo caesarean section, out of which, 12 caesarean sections (63.15%) were taken for non-reassuring foetal status. 36.27% (78/215) of patients with AFI between 6 and 24 underwent caesarean section, out of which 38.46% (30/78) underwent caesarean section for non-reassuring foetal status.Conclusions: In the presence of oligohydramnios, the rates of LSCS due to foetal distress, the occurrence of low Apgar score and of low birth weight are higher than in patients with normal liquor at term. Thus, measuring the amniotic fluid index at term can be helpful in the prediction of perinatal outcome

Supernumerary heads of biceps brachii muscle in South Indian Cadavers

Biceps brachii is a muscle of the anterior compartment of the arm having a long head and a short head. Distally both heads unite to form a common tendon inserting into the radial tuberosity and the bicipital aponeurosis. Most commonly it may have an additional head but presence of four heads and more is relatively very rare. The present study documents the incidence and morphological characteristics of supernumerary head of biceps brachii in adult South Indian cadavers. We studied 40 arms of 20 adult formalin fixed cadavers in the Department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. The presence of number of additional heads and their details of attachments were studied. We observed presence of supernumerary heads of biceps brachii in 6 (15%) cases, in which having three heads observed in five cases (12.5%) and four heads in one case (2.5%). In one case, we noticed bilateral incidence with three heads on left side and four heads on right side. Knowledge of incidences of such variable numbers of additional heads and pattern of their attachment may facilitate the preoperative diagnosis in addition to the surgical procedures of the upper limbs.Keywords: Biceps brachii, supernumerary heads, additional head

Development of cost-effective phasor measurement unit for wide area monitoring system applications

Sustained growth in the demand with unprecedented investments in the transmission infrastructure resulted in narrow operational margins for power system operators across the globe. As a result, power networks are operating near to stability limits. This has demanded the electrical utilities to explore new avenues for control and protection of wide area systems. Present supervisory control and data acquisition/energy management systems (SCADA/EMS) can only facilitate steady state model of the network, whereas synchrophasor measurements with GPS time stamp from wide area can provide dynamic view of power grid that enables supervision, and protection of power network and allow the operator to take necessary control/remedial measures in the new regime of grid operations. Construction of phasor measurement unit (PMU) that provide synchrophasors for the assessment of system state is widely accepted as an essential component for the successful execution of wide area monitoring system (WAMS) applications. Commercial PMUs comes with many constraints such as cost, proprietary hardware designs and software. All these constraints have limited the deployment of PMUs at high voltage transmission systems alone. This paper addresses the issues by developing a cost-effective PMU with open-source hardware, which can be easily modified as per the requirements of the applications. The proposed device is tested with IEEE standards

Involvement of a periplasmic protein kinase in DNA strand break repair and homologous recombination in Escherichia coli

The involvement of signal transduction in the repair of radiation-induced damage to DNA has been known in eukaryotes but remains understudied in bacteria. This article for the first time demonstrates a role for the periplasmic lipoprotein (YfgL) with protein kinase activity transducing a signal for DNA strand break repair in Escherichia coli. Purified YfgL protein showed physical as well as functional interaction with pyrroloquinoline-quinone in solution; the protein kinase activity of YfgL was strongly stimulated in the presence of pyrroloquinoline-quinone. Transgenic E. coli cells producing Deinococcus radiodurans pyrroloquinoline-quinone synthase showed nearly four log cycle improvement in UVC dark survival, 0-fold increases in gamma radiation resistance as compared with untransformed cells. Pyrroloquinoline-quinone enhanced the UV resistance of E. coli through the YfgL protein; required the active recombination repair proteins. The yfgL mutant showed higher sensitivity to UVC, mitomycin C, gamma radiation as compared with wild-type cells, showed a strong impairment in homologous DNA recombination. The mutant expressing an active YfgL in trans recovered the lost phenotypes to nearly wild-type levels. The results strongly suggest that the periplasmic phosphoquinolipoprotein kinase YfgL plays an important role in radiation-induced DNA strand break repair, homologous recombination in E. coli

Characterization of proteome-size scaling by integrative omics reveals mechanisms of proliferation control in cancer.

Almost all living cells maintain size uniformity through successive divisions. Proteins that over and underscale with size can act as rheostats, which regulate cell cycle progression. Using a multiomic strategy, we leveraged the heterogeneity of melanoma cell lines to identify peptides, transcripts, and phosphorylation events that differentially scale with cell size. Subscaling proteins are enriched in regulators of the DNA damage response and cell cycle progression, whereas super-scaling proteins included regulators of the cytoskeleton, extracellular matrix, and inflammatory response. Mathematical modeling suggested that decoupling growth and proliferative signaling may facilitate cell cycle entry over senescence in large cells when mitogenic signaling is decreased. Regression analysis reveals that up-regulation of TP53 or CDKN1A/p21CIP1 is characteristic of proliferative cancer cells with senescent-like sizes/proteomes. This study provides one of the first demonstrations of size-scaling phenomena in cancer and how morphology influences the chemistry of the cell

Heat Energy Recovery Using Thermo Electric Generator

Internal combustion Engines converts only a small portion of heat energy into useful work resulting in a very low thermal efficiency. Most of the heat energy is lost in forms of cooling, exhaust gas, friction and unaccounted losses. Though energy lost in exhaust gas can be recovered by using thermoelectric generators (TEGs, also known as peltier element), which converts heat into electrical energy. A model has been prepared which helps TEG to extract heat from exhaust gas efficiently. This electrical energy obtained is used for powering hybrid drive

SALL4 Expression in Gonocytes and Spermatogonial Clones of Postnatal Mouse Testes

The spermatogenic lineage is established after birth when gonocytes migrate to the basement membrane of seminiferous tubules and give rise to spermatogonial stem cells (SSC). In adults, SSCs reside within the population of undifferentiated spermatogonia (Aundiff) that expands clonally from single cells (Asingle) to form pairs (Apaired) and chains of 4, 8 and 16 Aaligned spermatogonia. Although stem cell activity is thought to reside in the population of Asingle spermatogonia, new research suggests that clone size alone does not define the stem cell pool. The mechanisms that regulate self-renewal and differentiation fate decisions are poorly understood due to limited availability of experimental tools that distinguish the products of those fate decisions. The pluripotency factor SALL4 (sal-like protein 4) is implicated in stem cell maintenance and patterning in many organs during embryonic development, but expression becomes restricted to the gonads after birth. We analyzed the expression of SALL4 in the mouse testis during the first weeks after birth and in adult seminiferous tubules. In newborn mice, the isoform SALL4B is expressed in quiescent gonocytes at postnatal day 0 (PND0) and SALL4A is upregulated at PND7 when gonocytes have colonized the basement membrane and given rise to spermatogonia. During steady-state spermatogenesis in adult testes, SALL4 expression overlapped substantially with PLZF and LIN28 in Asingle, Apaired and Aaligned spermatogonia and therefore appears to be a marker of undifferentiated spermatogonia in mice. In contrast, co-expression of SALL4 with GFRα1 and cKIT identified distinct subpopulations of Aundiff in all clone sizes that might provide clues about SSC regulation. Collectively, these results indicate that 1) SALL4 isoforms are differentially expressed at the initiation of spermatogenesis, 2) SALL4 is expressed in undifferentiated spermatogonia in adult testes and 3) SALL4 co-staining with GFRα1 and cKIT reveals distinct subpopulations of Aundiff spermatogonia that merit further investigation. © 2013 Gassei, Orwig

A combinatorial approach of comprehensive QTL-based comparative genome mapping and transcript profiling identified a seed weight-regulating candidate gene in chickpea

High experimental validation/genotyping success rate (94–96%) and intra-specific polymorphic potential (82–96%) of 1536 SNP and 472 SSR markers showing in silico polymorphism between desi ICC 4958 and kabuli ICC 12968 chickpea was obtained in a 190 mapping population (ICC 4958 × ICC 12968) and 92 diverse desi and kabuli genotypes. A high-density 2001 marker-based intra-specific genetic linkage map comprising of eight LGs constructed is comparatively much saturated (mean map-density: 0.94 cM) in contrast to existing intra-specific genetic maps in chickpea. Fifteen robust QTLs (PVE: 8.8–25.8% with LOD: 7.0–13.8) associated with pod and seed number/plant (PN and SN) and 100 seed weight (SW) were identified and mapped on 10 major genomic regions of eight LGs. One of 126.8 kb major genomic region harbouring a strong SW-associated robust QTL (Caq'SW1.1: 169.1–171.3 cM) has been delineated by integrating high-resolution QTL mapping with comprehensive marker-based comparative genome mapping and differential expression profiling. This identified one potential regulatory SNP (G/A) in the cis-acting element of candidate ERF (ethylene responsive factor) TF (transcription factor) gene governing seed weight in chickpea. The functionally relevant molecular tags identified have potential to be utilized for marker-assisted genetic improvement of chickpea