Bracelet Creases among Twins

Bracelet creases among the twins were examined. A total of 42 pairs of twins (monozygotic twins-16 pairs, dizygotic like sex twins-20 pairs and dizygotic unlike sex twins-6 pairs) from the states of West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh of India were studied for this purpose. High discordance value in dizygotic twins in various types of bracelet creases is found to be sufficient to account for the high estimates of heritability. Estimated value of heritability (0.80), however, corroborates this finding. This is indicative of major role played by genetic factors in the expression of the trait as compared to environmental factors

Bayesian object classification of gold nanoparticles

The properties of materials synthesized with nanoparticles (NPs) are highly correlated to the sizes and shapes of the nanoparticles. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging technique can be used to measure the morphological characteristics of NPs, which can be simple circles or more complex irregular polygons with varying degrees of scales and sizes. A major difficulty in analyzing the TEM images is the overlapping of objects, having different morphological properties with no specific information about the number of objects present. Furthermore, the objects lying along the boundary render automated image analysis much more difficult. To overcome these challenges, we propose a Bayesian method based on the marked-point process representation of the objects. We derive models, both for the marks which parameterize the morphological aspects and the points which determine the location of the objects. The proposed model is an automatic image segmentation and classification procedure, which simultaneously detects the boundaries and classifies the NPs into one of the predetermined shape families. We execute the inference by sampling the posterior distribution using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) since the posterior is doubly intractable. We apply our novel method to several TEM imaging samples of gold NPs, producing the needed statistical characterization of their morphology.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOAS616 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Mapping Hidden Potential Identity Elements by Computing the Average Discriminating Power of Individual tRNA Positions

The recently published discrete mathematical method, extended consensus partition (ECP), identifies nucleotide types at each position that are strictly absent from a given sequence set, while occur in other sets. These are defined as discriminating elements (DEs). In this study using the ECP approach, we mapped potential hidden identity elements that discriminate the 20 different tRNA identities. We filtered the tDNA data set for the obligatory presence of well-established tRNA features, and then separately for each identity set, the presence of already experimentally identified strictly present identity elements. The analysis was performed on the three kingdoms of life. We determined the number of DE, e.g. the number of sets discriminated by the given position, for each tRNA position of each tRNA identity set. Then, from the positional DE numbers obtained from the 380 pairwise comparisons of the 20 identity sets, we calculated the average excluding value (AEV) for each tRNA position. The AEV provides a measure on the overall discriminating power of each position. Using a statistical analysis, we show that positional AEVs correlate with the number of already identified identity elements. Positions having high AEV but lacking published identity elements predict hitherto undiscovered tRNA identity elements

Periodontal plastic surgery: Made easy with acellular dermal matrix

Esthetics has become an important part in periodontal plastic surgery, and soft-tissue architecture plays an important role in achieving it. Among the various techniques, the use of autogenous connective tissue graft has been proved to be an effective and a successful approach in treating gingival recession. Recently, acellular dermal matrix (ADM) allograft has been used as a substitute for palatal connective tissue and it has shown to be a successful alternative for root coverage. This case report is an effort to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of ADM in coverage of denuded root with 6-month follow-up

Oncogenic human papilloma virus and cervical pre-cancerous lesions in brothel-based sex workers in India

Summary: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in brothel-based sex workers of West Bengal, Eastern India, to determine their oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) status and the presence of pre-cancerous lesions. A total of 229 sex workers from three districts of West Bengal participated in the study. All the study participants were interviewed with the aid of a pre-tested questionnaire to determine their sociodemographics, risk behaviour and risk perceptions after obtaining informed verbal consent. The interview was followed by collection of cervical cells from all participants using a disposable vaginal speculum and cervical cytobrush. Oncogenic HPV DNA was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A simultaneous Papanicolaou test (‘Pap smear’) was performed to detect cervical cytological abnormalities. Overall, the prevalence of oncogenic HPV was found to be 25% (58/229) among the studied population. A subset (n = 112) of the sample was tested separately to determine the existence and magnitude of HPV genotypes 16 and 18. The results showed that genotype 16 was prevalent in 10% (11/112), genotype 18 in 7% (8/112) and both genotype 16 and 18 in 7% (8/112). The HPV prevalence rate showed a decreasing trend with age, being 71.4% in the 10–19 years age group, 32.3% in the 20–29 years age group, 18.3% in the 30–39 years age group and 2.5% in the ≥40 years age group (statistically significant differences, P ≤ 0.00001). Considering the duration of sex work, oncogenic HPV prevalence was found to be 55% (n = 21) and 19% (n = 35) in sex workers with a sex working duration of ≤1 year and >1 year, respectively. This difference was found to be statistically significant both by univariate and multivariate analysis. In this study, it was observed that sex workers with an average number of daily clients of six or more had an HPV prevalence of 67% (n = 6), those with four to five clients had a prevalence of 45% (n = 9), those with two to three clients had a prevalence of 30% (n = 34) and those with one or less clients had a prevalence of 10% (n = 9) (statistically significant differences, P = 0.00003). Multivariate analysis showed a statistical association only with a duration of sex work of ≤1 year [odds ratio (OR) = 3.3; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4–7.6] and daily income of Rupees (Rp) ≥101 (OR = 2.5; 95% CI 1.3–5). Regarding pre-cancerous lesions, 2 of 229 sex workers showed the presence of a low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion along with high-risk HPV. Thus, 1% of the studied population suffer from a pre-cancerous lesion caused by high-risk HPV. This study concludes that young sex workers are particularly vulnerable to high-risk HPV, similar to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The observation of older sex workers relatively free from HPV supports the view of acquired immunity against HPV, which needs to be studied in-depth further. There is a need for a suitable community-based intervention programme targeted towards sex workers, with special reference to younger sex workers, for control and prevention of HPV and cervical cancer. Vaccination against HPV for newly entrant sex workers may be an important component for a successful intervention programme. Keywords: Human papillomavirus, Oncogenic HPV, Sex workers, India, Risk factors, Cervicitis, Cervical pre-cancerous lesion, ST

Bayesian object classification of gold nanoparticles

The properties of materials synthesized with nanoparticles (NPs) are highly correlated to the sizes and shapes of the nanoparticles. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging technique can be used to measure the morphological characteristics of NPs, which can be simple circles or more complex irregular polygons with varying degrees of scales and sizes. A major difficulty in analyzing the TEM images is the overlapping of objects, having different morphological properties with no specific information about the number of objects present. Furthermore, the objects lying along the boundary render automated image analysis much more difficult. To overcome these challenges, we propose a Bayesian method based on the marked-point process representation of the objects. We derive models, both for the marks which parameterize the morphological aspects and the points which determine the location of the objects. The proposed model is an automatic image segmentation and classification procedure, which simultaneously detects the boundaries and classifies the NPs into one of the predetermined shape families. We execute the inference by sampling the posterior distribution using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) since the posterior is doubly intractable. We apply our novel method to several TEM imaging samples of gold NPs, producing the needed statistical characterization of their morphology.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOAS616 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org