General Acceptance among Experts of Eyewitness Research Findings: Sources of Influence

Recent advances in eyewitness identification research has been rapidly expanding with emergence of new eyewitness phenomena. At the same time, the number of experts being call upon to testify in court to the reliability of these various phenomena are also increasingly. For such testimony to be admissible, it must meet various criteria of general acceptance established by the courts. In the current study, 54 experts responded to a survey to assess the extent of their consensus of general acceptance of various eyewitness phenomena, collect information on their demographics, opinions regarding various other courtroom phenomenon and assess the impact of recent literature on perceptions of reliability and general acceptance of the same phenomena. The findings revealed that there are high levels of agreement amongst experts on a variety of topics such as Showups, Blind Administration, Description Matched Lineup, Weapons Focus, Elderly Witness, High Identification Confidence, Lineup Fairness and Change Blindness. Familiarity with various eyewitness research publications was also noted to have an effect on expert’s perception of general acceptance, assessments of reliability of eyewitness phenomena and willingness to testify in court. The implications of these findings with regards to the development of eyewitness consensus and expert testimony are discussed

A study on epidermal growth factor receptor and KI 67 expression in correlation with grading of glioma

INTRODUCTION: Gliomas are the most common brain tumor in adults, accounting for about 70% of primary neoplasms of the central nervous system (CNS). The most frequent immunohistochemical findings associated with Grade III and IV gliomas are increased EGFR and Ki67 expression. The over expression of EGFR and Ki 67 have poor prognosis and decreased overall survival. Hence EGFR expression and Ki 67 evaluation have a further role in targeted therapy and management of high grade gliomas. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate the expression of EGFR and Ki-67 immunolabelling in gliomas. A correlation of EGFR and Ki 67 with WHO grading of gliomas, as well as histological parameters like necrosis and vascular proliferation, will provide a useful tool for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. MATERIALS & METHODS: A retrospective and prospective descriptive clinicopathological analysis of patients with Gliomas, was conducted in the Institute of Neuropathology, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. All cases with Gliomas between October 2015 to June 2017 were included in the study, and 50 cases out of these were randomly selected for EGFR and Ki 67 immunohistochemistry. The cases were analysed for their histological features, namely vascular proliferation, mitosis, necrosis. WHO grading of Gliomas was done, EGFR and Ki 67 immunohistochemistry was performed and positivity was assessed for both the markers. RESULTS: A total of 181 cases were collected between the study period. Out of the 50 cases analysed for Immunohistochemistry, 25 cases each were low grade (WHO grade I, II) & high grade (WHO grade III, IV) Gliomas. 100% of Grade III and 90.5% of Grade IV gliomas showed EGFR positivity with a significant difference from low grade gliomas (p=0.004). Ki 67 positivity was also seen to be increased in high grade gliomas in comparison with low grade gliomas (p=0.008). EGFR immunohistochemistry showed a sensitivity of 74.29% and specificity of 100% (95%CI). DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION: Demographics and results of the study were found to be comparable to previous studies. EGFR and Ki 67 labelling was predominantly seen to be increased in higher grade gliomas with good specificity and sensitivity. The expression of EGFR was strongly associated with increase in Ki 67 labelling index, reflecting the increased mitotic activity of high grade tumors and proving the predictive value for identification of behaviour of these tumors, and thereby the prognosis. This further opens realms in targeted therapy of high grade gliomas

International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering Smart Body Monitoring system using IoT and Machine Learning

International audienceIn the modern health care environment, the usage of IoT technologies brings convenience of physicians and patients, since they are applied to various medical areas. The body sensor network (BSN) technology is one of the core technologies of IoT developments in healthcare system, where a patient can be monitored using a collection of tiny-powered and lightweight wireless sensor nodes. However, the development of this new technology in healthcare applications without considering security makes patient privacy vulnerable. In this paper, at first, we highlight the major security requirements in BSN-based modern healthcare system. Subsequently, we propose a secure IoT-based healthcare system using BSN, called BSN-Care, which can efficiently accomplish those requirements. The body sensor network (BSN) technology is one of the most imperative technologies used in IoT-based modern healthcare system. It is basically a collection of low-power and lightweight wireless sensor nodes that are used to monitor the human body functions and surrounding environment. Since BSN nodes are used to collect sensitive (life-critical) information and may operate in hostile environments, accordingly, they require strict security mechanisms to prevent malicious interaction with the system

Impact of Fatty-Acid Labeling of Bacillus subtilis Membranes on the Cellular Lipidome and Proteome

Developing cultivation methods that yield chemically and isotopically defined fatty acid (FA) compositions within bacterial cytoplasmic membranes establishes an in vivo experimental platform to study membrane biophysics and cell membrane regulation using novel approaches. Yet before fully realizing the potential of this method, it is prudent to understand the systemic changes in cells induced by the labeling procedure itself. In this work, analysis of cellular membrane compositions was paired with proteomics to assess how the proteome changes in response to the directed incorporation of exogenous FAs into the membrane of Bacillus subtilis. Key findings from this analysis include an alteration in lipid headgroup distribution, with an increase in phosphatidylglycerol lipids and decrease in phosphatidylethanolamine lipids, possibly providing a fluidizing effect on the cell membrane in response to the induced change in membrane composition. Changes in the abundance of enzymes involved in FA biosynthesis and degradation are observed; along with changes in abundance of cell wall enzymes and isoprenoid lipid production. The observed changes may influence membrane organization, and indeed the well-known lipid raft-associated protein flotillin was found to be substantially down-regulated in the labeled cells – as was the actin-like protein MreB. Taken as a whole, this study provides a greater depth of understanding for this important cell membrane experimental platform and presents a number of new connections to be explored in regard to modulating cell membrane FA composition and its effects on lipid headgroup and raft/cytoskeletal associated proteins

Revisiting Prostate Cancer in India: A Genomic View

In the recent past, there has been a rise in Prostate Cancer (PCa) in Asia, particularly India.  Although systematic reviews on PCa have dealt on the genetics, genomics and the environmental influence in causal of PCa, no predictive analytics in comparing the PCa from Caucasian, American to Asian population was attempted. In this review article, we have attempted to elaborate this aspect of PCa and deliberated on challenges related to next generation sequencing methods of PCa’s manifestation when compared to the west

Enhanced Cas12a editing in mammalian cells and zebrafish

Type V CRISPR-Cas12a systems provide an alternate nuclease platform to Cas9, with potential advantages for specific genome editing applications. Here we describe improvements to the Cas12a system that facilitate efficient targeted mutagenesis in mammalian cells and zebrafish embryos. We show that engineered variants of Cas12a with two different nuclear localization sequences (NLS) on the C terminus provide increased editing efficiency in mammalian cells. Additionally, we find that pre-crRNAs comprising a full-length direct repeat (full-DR-crRNA) sequence with specific stem-loop G-C base substitutions exhibit increased editing efficiencies compared with the standard mature crRNA framework. Finally, we demonstrate in zebrafish embryos that the improved LbCas12a and FnoCas12a nucleases in combination with these modified crRNAs display high mutagenesis efficiencies and low toxicity when delivered as ribonucleoprotein complexes at high concentration. Together, these results define a set of enhanced Cas12a components with broad utility in vertebrate systems

Impact of newborn screening for SCID on the management of congenital athymia

BACKGROUND: Newborn screening (NBS) programmes for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) facilitate early SCID diagnosis and promote early treatment with haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, resulting in improved clinical outcomes. Infants with congenital athymia are also identified through NBS due to severe T-cell lymphopaenia. With the expanding introduction of NBS programmes, referrals of athymic patients for treatment with thymus transplantation have recently increased at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), London, United Kingdom. OBJECTIVE: We studied the impact of NBS on timely diagnosis and treatment of athymic infants with thymus transplantation at GOSH. METHODS: We compared the age at referral and complications between athymic infants diagnosed after clinical presentation (N=25) and patients identified through NBS (N=19), referred for thymus transplantation at GOSH between 10/2019 and 02/2023. We assessed whether age at time of treatment influences thymic output at 6 and 12 months after transplantation. RESULTS: Infants referred after NBS identification were significantly younger and had less complications, in particular less infections. All deaths occurred in the non-NBS group, including six patients before and two after thymus transplantation because of pre-existing infections. In the absence of significant co-morbidities or diagnostic uncertainties, timely treatment was more frequently achieved after NBS. Treatment at <4 months of age was associated with higher thymic output at 6- and 12-months post-transplantation. CONCLUSION: NBS contributes to earlier recognition of congenital athymia, promoting referral of athymic patients for thymus transplantation prior to acquiring infections or other complications, and facilitating treatment at younger age, thus playing an important role in improving their outcomes

Bronchiectasis in India:results from the European Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration (EMBARC) and Respiratory Research Network of India Registry

BACKGROUND: Bronchiectasis is a common but neglected chronic lung disease. Most epidemiological data are limited to cohorts from Europe and the USA, with few data from low-income and middle-income countries. We therefore aimed to describe the characteristics, severity of disease, microbiology, and treatment of patients with bronchiectasis in India. METHODS: The Indian bronchiectasis registry is a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study. Adult patients ( 6518 years) with CT-confirmed bronchiectasis were enrolled from 31 centres across India. Patients with bronchiectasis due to cystic fibrosis or traction bronchiectasis associated with another respiratory disorder were excluded. Data were collected at baseline (recruitment) with follow-up visits taking place once per year. Comprehensive clinical data were collected through the European Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration registry platform. Underlying aetiology of bronchiectasis, as well as treatment and risk factors for bronchiectasis were analysed in the Indian bronchiectasis registry. Comparisons of demographics were made with published European and US registries, and quality of care was benchmarked against the 2017 European Respiratory Society guidelines. FINDINGS: From June 1, 2015, to Sept 1, 2017, 2195 patients were enrolled. Marked differences were observed between India, Europe, and the USA. Patients in India were younger (median age 56 years [IQR 41-66] vs the European and US registries; p&lt;0\ub70001]) and more likely to be men (1249 [56\ub79%] of 2195). Previous tuberculosis (780 [35\ub75%] of 2195) was the most frequent underlying cause of bronchiectasis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most common organism in sputum culture (301 [13\ub77%]) in India. Risk factors for exacerbations included being of the male sex (adjusted incidence rate ratio 1\ub717, 95% CI 1\ub703-1\ub732; p=0\ub7015), P aeruginosa infection (1\ub729, 1\ub710-1\ub750; p=0\ub7001), a history of pulmonary tuberculosis (1\ub720, 1\ub707-1\ub734; p=0\ub7002), modified Medical Research Council Dyspnoea score (1\ub732, 1\ub725-1\ub739; p&lt;0\ub70001), daily sputum production (1\ub716, 1\ub703-1\ub730; p=0\ub7013), and radiological severity of disease (1\ub703, 1\ub701-1\ub704; p&lt;0\ub70001). Low adherence to guideline-recommended care was observed; only 388 patients were tested for allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and 82 patients had been tested for immunoglobulins. INTERPRETATION: Patients with bronchiectasis in India have more severe disease and have distinct characteristics from those reported in other countries. This study provides a benchmark to improve quality of care for patients with bronchiectasis in India. FUNDING: EU/European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations Innovative Medicines Initiative inhaled Antibiotics in Bronchiectasis and Cystic Fibrosis Consortium, European Respiratory Society, and the British Lung Foundation