Analysing Tuberculosis Trends in South Asia

Tuberculosis (TB) has been one of the top ten causes of death in the world. As per the World Health Organization (WHO) around 1.8 million people have died due to tuberculosis in 2015. This paper aims to investigate the spatial and temporal variations in TB incident in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri-Lanka). Asia had been counted for the largest number of new TB cases in 2015. The paper underlines and relates the relationship between various features like gender, age, location, occurrence, and mortality due to TB in these countries for the period 1993-2012

A study on commercial cultivation and storage of water chestnut (Trapa natans L.) under wetland ecosystem of North Bihar, India

Water chestnut is an excellent economical and medicinal winter crop from fresh water ecosystem. It is well known for its nutrient content including protein and antioxidants. Different water chestnut germplasm viz. Green Spineless, Green Spine, Red Spineless and Red Spine were studied at wetland ecosystem of North Bihar in India under Research Centre on Makhana, Darbhanga, during 2016-17. Under wetland ecosystem, Green Spineless variety of water chestnut produced large quality nut (24.42 g) followed by Red Spineless (23.11 g). Regarding yield, Green Spineless gave rise to the maximum yield of 12.24 t/ha. The Red Spineless variety exhibited the maximum TSS of 9.60B followed by Green Spineless (9.20B). Water chestnut beetle (Galerucella birmanica Jacoby.) was dangerous pest under wet land ecosystem as compared to aphid.  Green colored varieties were resistant to beetle and aphid. Different approaches had been made to enhance the shelf life of water chestnut variety Red Spineless as it was sweetest and attractive in colour among trial varieties. The results revealed that poly packaging with 5% perforation and stored in refrigerator for 40C (T1) increased storage life up to 14.0days as compared to open ambient (T4) (4.72 days) maintaining  fair market acceptability. This treatment (T1) also improved the TSS content of the fruit to 9.80B by slow and gradual PLW about 21.15 % during two weeks of storage. From our present study it may be concluded that irrespective of color, spineless varieties of water chestnut were promising under wetland ecosystem of North Bihar on account of their yield potential and nut quality

Proteomic analysis of heparin-binding proteins from human seminal plasma: a step towards identification of molecular markers of male fertility

Glycosaminoglycans, especially heparin, are involved in various cell processes such as apoptosis, cell cycle control, platelet activation, capacitation, acrosome reaction and sperm decondensation. Heparin-binding proteins (HBPs) are essential constituents of human seminal fluid, which bind to sperm lipids containing the phosphorylcholine group and mediate the fertilization process. We utilized a proteomic set-up consisting of affinity chromatography, isoelectric focusing (IEF) coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF/MS) for protein analysis of human HBPs. We resolved 70 different spots on two-dimensional (2-D) gel and subsequently identified these proteins. Forty different types of proteins were identified. Functional analysis revealed that 38% of the proteins belonged to the enzyme category, 20% were involved in RNA processing and transcription, 18% in structure and transport function, and 16% in cell recognition and signal transduction. We also identified 8% of proteins with unknown functions, although their expression in seminal fluid has been documented. Proteins of seminal fluid that bind heparin may be directly involved in sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction (AR), which are the two critical steps for fertilization. This information on HBPs would be useful for identifying potential biomarkers of fertility in the near future

Performance Levels and Perspective of Graduate Learners’ on Fully Online Learning During Covid-19

Open University Malaysia (OUM) is a leading open and distance learning institution in Malaysia that offers its programs in blended mode. The blended mode of learning comprises self-managed learning, face-to-face tutorials, and online forum. Through its learning platform, named ‘myINSPIRE’, OUM has successfully offered some of its programmes fully online. The outbreak COVID-19 in early 2020 has pushed OUM to offer all its programmes fully online, including programmes for graduates. Measures were taken to improve teaching and learning support online. Part of the efforts included having weekly e-lessons and e-tutorials, as well as online exams. Learners have been exposed to new learning experiences where they faced many challenges. This study is conducted with the aim to investigate how these changes have affected learners’ performance and their perspective towards fully online learning. A total of 143 post graduate learners enrolled in OUM under the Cluster of Applied Sciences participated in this study. The readiness for change model used in the study is based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The model applies perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use to measure user acceptance of technology. The findings indicate that overall, the graduate learners have an acceptable level of readiness for change and are able to adapt and continue learning online despite facing some issues and challenges. It was found that the performance of the learners pre- and post- lockdown seemed to be comparable. Nevertheless, there is a need to find ways to improve and better tailor the online learning environment for our adult learners so as to make their fully online learning experience more rewarding

Response function analysis of excited-state kinetic energy functional constructed by splitting k-space

Over the past decade, fundamentals of time independent density functional theory for excited state have been established. However, construction of the corresponding energy functionals for excited states remains a challenging problem. We have developed a method for constructing functionals for excited states by splitting k-space according to the occupation of orbitals. In this paper we first show the accuracy of kinetic energy functional thus obtained. We then perform a response function analysis of the kinetic energy functional proposed by us and show why method of splitting the k-space could be the method of choice for construction of energy functionals for excited states.Comment: 11 page

Molecular-like hierarchical self-assembly of monolayers of mixtures of particles

We present a technique that uses an externally applied electric field to self-assemble monolayers of mixtures of particles into molecular-like hierarchical arrangements on fluid-liquid interfaces. The arrangements consist of composite particles (analogous to molecules) which are arranged in a pattern. The structure of a composite particle depends on factors such as the relative sizes of the particles and their polarizabilities, and the electric field intensity. If the particles sizes differ by a factor of two or more, the composite particle has a larger particle at its core and several smaller particles form a ring around it. The number of particles in the ring and the spacing between the composite particles depend on their polarizabilities and the electric field intensity. Approximately same sized particles form chains (analogous to polymeric molecules) in which positively and negatively polarized particles alternate

Malaysian nasal polyps: eosinophil or neutrophil-predominant

Eosinophil-type nasal polyp (NP) is common in Western population. This aim of this study was to determine the histology type of NP among different Malaysian ethnic groups. A total of 122 chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) patients were retrospectively enrolled and demographic data was recorded. The histological slides were retrieved. The number of eosinophils and non-eosinophils were counted and average number of inflammatory cells for each high power field was calculated. Eosinophil-predominant was seen in 32.8% of patients and 67.2% was non-eosinophil-predominant. Phenotypes of NP significantly showed an association with ethnicity (x² = 8.322; p < 0.05). A total of 78.9% of Chinese nasal polyps showed non-eosinophil predominant, while Malay and Indian nasal polyps revealed 71.9% and 40.7% of non-eosinophilic phenotype, respectively. Our study showed that Malaysian population had a non-eosinophilic phenotype of nasal polyps. There was a significant association in Malaysian ethnicity with the highest percentage in Chinese population

Fracture analysis of a corner crack in a pinhole of a solid cylinder under torsion loading

Fatigue crack growths of a corner crack emanating from a pinhole of a solid cylinder subjected to cyclic torsion loading were simulated using a Dual-Boundary Element Method (DBEM) based software. For a given crack aspect ratio a/c, larger Mode I stress intensity factor (SIF) was observed at a larger pinhole diameter. Any given initial crack aspect ratio a/c would evolve towards unity. The final evolving crack aspect ratio a/c was shown to be larger than 1. For the same given initial crack length a, a smaller crack depth c was found to result in a shorter fatigue life. A shorter fatigue life yielded a larger orientation angle of the crack growth path

Plasmodium knowlesi Genome Sequences from Clinical Isolates Reveal Extensive Genomic Dimorphism.

Plasmodium knowlesi is a newly described zoonosis that causes malaria in the human population that can be severe and fatal. The study of P. knowlesi parasites from human clinical isolates is relatively new and, in order to obtain maximum information from patient sample collections, we explored the possibility of generating P. knowlesi genome sequences from archived clinical isolates. Our patient sample collection consisted of frozen whole blood samples that contained excessive human DNA contamination and, in that form, were not suitable for parasite genome sequencing. We developed a method to reduce the amount of human DNA in the thawed blood samples in preparation for high throughput parasite genome sequencing using Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq sequencing platforms. Seven of fifteen samples processed had sufficiently pure P. knowlesi DNA for whole genome sequencing. The reads were mapped to the P. knowlesi H strain reference genome and an average mapping of 90% was obtained. Genes with low coverage were removed leaving 4623 genes for subsequent analyses. Previously we identified a DNA sequence dimorphism on a small fragment of the P. knowlesi normocyte binding protein xa gene on chromosome 14. We used the genome data to assemble full-length Pknbpxa sequences and discovered that the dimorphism extended along the gene. An in-house algorithm was developed to detect SNP sites co-associating with the dimorphism. More than half of the P. knowlesi genome was dimorphic, involving genes on all chromosomes and suggesting that two distinct types of P. knowlesi infect the human population in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. We use P. knowlesi clinical samples to demonstrate that Plasmodium DNA from archived patient samples can produce high quality genome data. We show that analyses, of even small numbers of difficult clinical malaria isolates, can generate comprehensive genomic information that will improve our understanding of malaria parasite diversity and pathobiology