Metabolomics of carotenoids: The challenges and prospects – A review

Considerable progress in carotenoids research has been made to understand the carotenoid metabolism in animals including human. Epidemiological and clinical studies have correlated with dietary intake of carotenoids on reduction of vitamin A deficiency, age-related macular degeneration, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Recent findings demonstrate the existence of carotenoid metabolites in vivo and their efficacy have made greater insight on prospecting carotenoid metabolites. Owing to their biological activity, exploration of analytical methods for the characterization of carotenoid metabolites is considered to be important before addressing the stability and bioactivity. Although few studies are available on carotenoid metabolites, their structural characterization in biological samples require a substantial refining of analytical protocols like isolation, purification, prerequisite of equipment parameters and robustness in hyphenated techniques. Recently, researchers have focused on biotransformation of carotenoids and made an attempt to screen their metabolites by high-throughput analytical strategies. However, till date there is no detailed analytical techniques available to fingerprint carotenoid metabolites, due to interference with complex biological matrices. This review highlights the carotenoid metabolism, possible bioconversion and available bio-analytical techniques to characterize metabolites in vivo. Further, advancement in sensitivity, mode of ionization and fragmentation patterns of metabolites were also discussed. The identification of carotenoid metabolites in system specific will have further insight in the emerging field of nutritional metabolomics

Crystal structure of 1-benzylsulfonyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline

SJ thanks the Vision Group on Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka, for the award of a major project under the CISE scheme (reference No. VGST/CISE/GRD192/2013-14). BSPM thanks Rajegowda, Department of Studies and Research in Chemistry, UCS, Tumkur University, Karnataka 572 103, India, for his support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

SECURED PRIVACY AND SHARE WITH THE DESTINATION IN CLOUD

Cloud computing refers to applications and services that run on a distributed network using virtualized resources and accessed by common Internet protocols and networking standards. Cloud computing takes the technology, services, and applications that are similar to those on the Internet and turns them into a self-service utility. Without adequate privacy protection, the system can be easily misused, e.g., to track users target them for home invasion. introduce LocX, a novel alternative that provides significantly-improved location privacy without adding uncertainty into query results or relying on strong assumptions about server security. Our key aim is to apply secure user-specific, distance-preserving coordinate transformations to all location data shared with the server. The friends of a user share this user’s secrets, so they can apply the same transformation to destination. This allows all location queries to be evaluated correctly by the server, but our privacy mechanisms guarantee that servers are unable to see or infer the actual location data from the transformed data or from the data access. show that LocX provides privacy even against a powerful adversary model, and we use prototype measurements to show that it provides privacy with very little performance overhead, making it suitable for today’s mobile devices

Marginal and internal fit evaluation of conventional metal-ceramic versus zirconia CAD/CAM crowns

The purpose of this in vivo study was to compare the marginal and internal gap widths of monolithic zirconia crowns fabricated by CAD/CAM technique and metal-ceramic crowns fabricated by conventional technique. 10 participants needing a single restoration were selected. Zirconia crowns using CAD/CAM technology (Group A) (n=10) and metal-ceramic crowns (Group B) (n=10) using lost wax casting technique were fabricated for each selected tooth. The marginal and internal gaps of crowns were recorded using a replica technique with light body silicone material stabilized with a regular set putty. Each replica was sectioned buccolingually and mesiodistally and then evaluated at five pre-determined sites. The points measured were PM for marginal gap, PA for axial gap, PAO for axio-occlusal transition gap and PO and PCO for occlusal gaps using a stereomicroscope at 30× magni?cation. The Paired Sample (t) test was used to detect significant differences between the two groups in terms of marginal and internal fit (?= 0.05). The mean for the marginal gap was 77.42?m (±39.5?m) for Group A compared with 95.86?m (±55.12?m) for Group B. Mean values for internal gap was 87.24 (±21.7 µm) for Group A and 132.91 µm (± 50.63 µm) for Group B. Significant differences were observed between both the groups for marginal (p=.010) and internal (p=.000) fit. The CAD/CAM fabricated zirconia crowns demonstrated a better accuracy of fit when compared to metal-ceramic crowns fabricated by conventional technology

Ectopic pregnancy: a cause for maternal morbidity

Background: Despite the scientific and technological advances maternal morbidity and mortality continue to occur across the globe with regional variation. Ectopic pregnancy is one such cause which contributes to devastating fate of pregnant ladies. Over a period of time there have been variations in the incidence, cause, clinical presentation and management of ectopic pregnancy. The objective is to observe variations with respect to incidence, cause, clinical presentation and management of ectopic pregnancyMethods: The present study was a 1year prospective and 1 year retrospective study from Dec 2012 to Nov 2014 at a tertiary medical college in Karnataka.  All diagnosed cases of ectopic pregnancy were enrolled in the study. Statistical methods employed in the present study were contingency table, chi-square test and contingency coefficient analysis (cross tabs procedure).Results: 38 cases were studied during two year period out of which 94.8% were tubal pregnancies, 2.6% each were cervical pregnancy and pregnancy in the rudimentary horn of the uterus. Maximum incidence of tubal gestation was noticed between the age group of 21-30 years (60.1%). 55.2% were nulliparous and 29% were multiparas. Commonest mode of termination was rupture in 57.9% of the cases; tubal abortion was seen with haemoperitoneum in 26.3% of the cases.Conclusions: Ectopic pregnancy remains a significant gynaecologic emergency, delay in diagnosis and treatment can be catastrophic, but early diagnosis and timely treatment can virtually eliminate need for surgical intervention

Characterization, hemolysis and multidrug resistance among Aeromonas spp. isolated from Bhavani river, Erode, South India

A total of 87 strains of Aeromonas spp. were identified biochemically. The strains were isolated from 50 samples of water from Bhavani river Erode, Tamil Nadu, India. In the present study among 87 Aeromonas spp. the prevalence strain was identified as A.hydrophila (60.9%), while the other strains belonged to the species A. sobria (20.7%), A. caviae (11.5%) and A.salmonicida (6.9%). The virulence factors like hemolysin, lipase, and serine protease were present in 96%, 93% and 94% of the strains respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility of Aeromonas spp. was determined by disc diffusion method. All Aeromonas spp. were examined for resistance against 16 antibiotics. All strains showed 100% of resistance to Ampicillin,Carbenicillin and Cephalothin. The highest resistances encountered were 91.9% to streptomycin,90.8% to polymyxin-B, 85% to rifampicin while the rest were under 50%.In contrast all the strains were sensitive to cefotaxime.The present work highlights the important incidence of Aeromonas spp., with virulence potential and antimicrobial resistance, isolated from river bhavani

Healthcare seeking for diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia among children in four poor rural districts in Sierra Leone in the context of free health care: results of a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: To plan for a community case management (CCM) program after the implementation of the Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI), we assessed health care seeking for children with diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia in 4 poor rural districts in Sierra Leone. METHODS: In July 2010 we undertook a cross-sectional household cluster survey and qualitative research. Caregivers of children under five years of age were interviewed about healthcare seeking. We evaluated the association of various factors with not seeking health care by obtaining adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence limits using a multivariable logistic regression model. Focus groups and in-depth interviews of young mothers, fathers and older caregivers in 12 villages explored household recognition and response to child morbidity. RESULTS: The response rate was 93% (n=5951). Over 85% of children were brought for care for all conditions. However, 10.8% of those with diarrhoea, 36.5% of those with presumed pneumonia and 41.0% of those with fever did not receive recommended treatment. In the multivariable models, use of traditional treatments was significantly associated with not seeking outside care for all three conditions. Qualitative data showed that traditional treatments were used due to preferences for locally available treatments and barriers to facility care that remain even after FHCI. CONCLUSION: We found high healthcare seeking rates soon after the FHCI; however, many children do not receive recommended treatment, and some are given traditional treatment instead of seeking outside care. Facility care needs to be improved and the CCM program should target those few children still not accessing care

Importance of supervised learning in prediction analysis

Counterfeit medicines are fake medicines which are either contaminated or contain the wrong or no active ingredient. Up to 30% of medicines in developing countries are counterfeit. Using Supervised Machine learning techniques we build a predictive model for predicting sales figures given other information related to counterfeit medicine selling operations. Thus, by predicting the values we can identify these illegal operations and counter them. In this paper we have also mentioned the importance of Data mining and Machine Learning algorithms with some comparison analysis

The evolutionary young miR-1290 favors mitotic exit and differentiation of human neural progenitors through altering the cell cycle proteins.

Regulation of cellular proliferation and differentiation during brain development results from processes requiring several regulatory networks to function in synchrony. MicroRNAs are part of this regulatory system. Although many microRNAs are evolutionarily conserved, recent evolution of such regulatory molecules can enable the acquisition of new means of attaining specialized functions. Here we identify and report the novel expression and functions of a human and higher primate-specific microRNA, miR-1290, in neurons. Using human fetal-derived neural progenitors, SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line and H9-ESC-derived neural progenitors (H9-NPC), we found miR-1290 to be upregulated during neuronal differentiation, using microarray, northern blotting and qRT-PCR. We then conducted knockdown and overexpression experiments to look at the functional consequences of perturbed miR-1290 levels. Knockdown of miR-1290 inhibited differentiation and induced proliferation in differentiated neurons; correspondingly, miR-1290 overexpression in progenitors led to a slowing down of the cell cycle and differentiation to neuronal phenotypes. Consequently, we identified that crucial cell cycle proteins were aberrantly changed in expression level. Therefore, we conclude that miR-1290 is required for maintaining neurons in a differentiated state