Dramatic Increases in Obesity and Overweight Prevalence and Body Mass Index Among Ethnic-Immigrant and Social Class Groups in the United States, 1976–2008

This study examined trends in US obesity and overweight prevalence and body mass index (BMI) among 30 immigrant groups, stratified by race/ethnicity and length of immigration, and among detailed education, occupation, and income/poverty groups from 1976 to 2008. Using 1976–2008 National Health Interview Surveys, differentials in obesity, overweight, and BMI, based on self-reported height and weight, were analyzed by using disparity indices, logistic, and linear regression. The obesity prevalence for the US population aged ≥18 tripled from 8.7% in 1976 to 27.4% in 2008. Overweight prevalence increased from 36.9% in 1976 to 62.0% in 2008. During 1991–2008, obesity prevalence for US-born adults increased from 13.9 to 28.7%, while prevalence for immigrants increased from 9.5 to 20.7%. While immigrants in each ethnic group and time period had lower obesity and overweight prevalence and BMI than the US-born, immigrants’ risk of obesity and overweight increased with increasing duration of residence. In 2003–2008, obesity prevalence ranged from 2.3% for recent Chinese immigrants to 31–39% for American Indians, US-born blacks, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans, and long-term Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrants. Between 1976 and 2008, the obesity prevalence more than quadrupled for those with a college education or sales occupation. Although higher prevalence was observed for lower education, income, and occupation levels in each period, socioeconomic gradients in obesity and overweight decreased over time because of more rapid increases in prevalence among higher socioeconomic groups. Continued immigrant and socioeconomic disparities in prevalence will likely have substantial impacts on future obesity trends in the US

Formulation and In Vitro Evaluation of pH-Sensitive Oil-Entrapped Buoyant Beads of Clarithromycin

Purpose: To develop pH-sensitive controlled release formulation of clarithromycin in oil-entrapped calcium pectinate microgel bead.Methods: Pectin-based oil-entrapped microgel beads were prepared by ionic gelation technique. The gel beads were formed instantly after adding the liquid formulation mixture dropwise into calcium chloride solution. The beads were optimized by coating with ethylcellulose solution and then evaluated for their diameter, floating lag time, encapsulation efficiency and drug release.Results: Particle size, encapsulation efficiency and buoyancy were significantly affected by the concentration of the polymer and calcium chloride .The formulation exhibited sustained release profile and was best fitted to the Peppas model with n < 0.45. Ethylcellulose-coated formulation batch, C16, was the most suitable controlled formulation with drug release of 65 ± 2.61 % in 8 h.Conclusion: An ethylcellulose-coated formulation with potential for sustained delivery of clarithromycin in the acidic region of the gastrointestinal tract was successfully developed.Keywords: Clarithromycin; Calcium pectinate bead; Gastric residence time; pH-sensitive; Ethyl cellulose; Oil-entrappedTropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research December 2010; 9 (6): 533-53

Are Future Doctors Healthy?-Study of Lifestyle Behavior of First-Year Medical Students of Delhi

Background: The current study was done to find out the prevalence of risk factors of non-communicable diseases among students of government medical and dental colleges of Delhi.Methods: The newly admitted medical and dental students filled a pre-tested proforma pertaining to their lifestyle behavior and sociodemographic features. Anthropometric examination was conducted to find out the prevalence of overweight and truncal obesity. Blood pressure was measured. Chi-square and independent t-test was applied to find out the difference in proportion and mean values of the risk factors in males and females.Results: Around two-thirds of students were males. The prevalence of ever use of alcohol was more than current use of tobacco (2.2% vs. 1.1%). Truncal obesity was more in females (37%) and overweight was more common in males (26%). More students were doing physical activities of duration less than 30 minutes a day.Conclusion: The prevalence of truncal obesity and overweight was more in the fresh entrants of a medical and dental college of Delhi

Tidal and gravity waves study from the airglow measurements at Kolhapur(India)

Simultaneous photometric measurements of the OI 557.7 nm and OH (7, 2) band from a low latitude station, Kolhapur (16.8° N, 74.2° E) during the period 2004-2007 are analyzed to study the dominant waves present in the 80-100 km altitude region of the atmosphere. The nocturnal intensity variations of different airglow emissions are observed using scanning temperature controlled filter photometers. Waves having period lying between 2 and 12 hours have been recorded. Some of these waves having subharmonic tidal oscillation periods 4, 6, 8 and 12 hours propagate upward with velocity lying in the range 1.6-11.3 m/s and the vertical wave length lying between 28.6 and 163 kms. The other waves may be the upward propagating gravity waves or waves resulting from the interaction of inter-mode tidal oscillations, interaction of tidal waves with planetary waves and gravity waves. Some times, the second harmonic wave has higher vertical velocity than the corresponding fundamental wave. Application of these waves in studying the thermal structure of the region is discussed

Multiscale quantum simulation of quantum field theory using wavelets

© 2015 American Physical Society. ©2015 American Physical Society. A successful approach to understand field theories is to resolve the physics into different length or energy scales using the renormalization group framework. We propose a quantum simulation of quantum field theory which encodes field degrees of freedom in a wavelet basis - a multiscale description of the theory. Since wavelet families can be constructed to have compact support at all resolutions, this encoding allows for quantum simulations to create particle excitations which are local at some chosen scale and provides a natural way to associate observables in the theory to finite-resolution detectors

AI-Based Sustainable and Intelligent Offloading Framework for IIoT in Collaborative Cloud-Fog Environments

The cloud paradigm is one of the most trending areas in today’s era due to its rich profusion of services. However, it fails to serve the latency-sensitive Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications associated with automotives, robotics, oil and gas, smart communications, Industry 5.0, etc. Hence, to strengthen the capabilities of IIoT, fog computing has emerged as a promising solution for latency-aware IIoT tasks. However, the resource-constrained nature of fog nodes puts forth another substantial issue of offloading decisions in resource management. Therefore, we propose an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled intelligent and sustainable framework for an optimized multi-layered integrated cloud fog-based environment where real-time offloading decisions are accomplished as per the demand of IIoT applications and analyzed by a fuzzy based offloading controller. Moreover, an AI based Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) has been incorporated into a framework that promises to search for the best possible resources and make accurate decisions to ameliorate various Quality-of-Service (QoS) parameters. The experimental results show an escalation in makespan time up to 37.17%, energy consumption up to 27.32%, and execution cost up to 13.36% in comparison to benchmark offloading and allocation schemes

Comparative evaluation of egg based solid media for primary isolation of Paratuberculosis bacilli

81-87Paratuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is a prevalent infection and is highly expensive to livestock industry. Paratuberculosis also has zoonotic concerns with Crohn&rsquo;s disease. Isolation of MAP from infected individuals/samples is the most vital for downstream studies. However, MAP is extremely fastidious organism and primary isolation is extremely difficult. Mycobacterial growth indicator tube (MGIT) medium is most recommended for primary isolation, but this medium is highly expensive and requires sophisticated instrument and is unaffordable for developing and underdeveloped world. Present study aimed to investigate the comparative performance of three different egg based solid media (MB7H10, LJ and HEYM) for the primary isolation of MAP from clinically suspected animals. Animals having signs of paratuberculosis were sampled either from farms in Jaipur District of Western India or slaughterhouse. Slaughtered animals were sampled having swollen &amp; enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) with thickened/ corrugated intestine near ileo-cecal junction (ICJ). Fecal samples were collected from suspected cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep. MB7H10 medium showed maximum recovery of MAP isolates from clinical samples. Most of the isolates grew on MB7H10 (41.9 %) followed by LJ (22.3%) and HEYM (6.25 %). In case single medium is to be used MB7H10 is the first choice and combination of MB7H10+LJ is better. In conclusion, combination of MB7H10+LJ is the best choice for solid media for the isolation of the MAP in laboratories

Polyarticular tuberculosis in a young boy: A rare presentation

Abstract Polyarticular tuberculosis involving bilateral hip and bilateral knee joints without obvious pulmonary or disseminated form of tuberculosis in a young boy is presented along with literature review

Risk of prostate cancer after isolated high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) detected on extended core needle biopsy : a UK hospital experience.

Background High-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) is a precursor lesion to prostate cancer (CaP). UK-based studies examining the occurrence of isolated HGPIN and subsequent risk of CaP are lacking. Our aim was to assess the occurrence of HGPIN in a regional UK population and to determine whether in a retrievable cohort of such patients that had repeat extended core biopsies, there was an elevated risk of CaP. Methods A retrospective analysis of the pathology database was conducted at our institution (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) for prostate biopsies recorded between January 2001 and December 2005 (all extended core biopsies). Those patients with isolated HGPIN on 1st set of biopsies were identified and, their clinical characteristics and pathological findings from subsequent biopsies (if any) were determined. The risk of CaP on subsequent biopsies based on presenting baseline PSA was stratified. Results Of 2,192 biopsied patients, there were 88 cases of isolated HGPIN of which 67 patients underwent one or more repeat biopsies. In this repeat-biopsy group, 28 CaP diagnoses were made. Age at first biopsy (P 20 ng/ml – 87.5%. Conclusion Based on our results, we recommend delaying the 1st repeat biopsy at low PSA range but to have a shorter interval to repeat biopsies at intermediate and higher PSA ranges

The relationship between area poverty rate and site-specific cancer incidence in the United States

BACKGROUND The relationship between socioeconomic status and cancer incidence in the United States has not traditionally been a focus of population-based cancer surveillance systems. METHODS Nearly 3 million tumors diagnosed between 2005 and 2009 from 16 states plus Los Angeles were assigned into 1 of 4 groupings based on the poverty rate of the residential census tract at time of diagnosis. The sex-specific risk ratio of the highest-to-lowest poverty category was measured using Poisson regression, adjusting for age and race, for 39 cancer sites. RESULTS For all sites combined, there was a negligible association between cancer incidence and poverty; however, 32 of 39 cancer sites showed a significant association with poverty (14 positively associated and 18 negatively associated). Nineteen of these sites had monotonic increases or decreases in risk across all 4 poverty categories. The sites most strongly associated with higher poverty were Kaposi sarcoma, larynx, cervix, penis, and liver; those most strongly associated with lower poverty were melanoma, thyroid, other nonepithelial skin, and testis. Sites associated with higher poverty had lower incidence and higher mortality than those associated with lower poverty. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate the importance and relevance of including a measure of socioeconomic status in national cancer surveillanc