Carotid intima media thickness and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in South Asian immigrants: could dysfunctional HDL be the missing link?

IntroductionSouth Asian immigrants (SAIs) in the US exhibit higher prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and its risk factors compared with other ethnic populations. Conventional CAD risk factors do not explain the excess CAD risk; therefore there is a need to identify other markers that can predict future risk of CAD in high-risk SAIs. The objective of the current study is to assess the presence of sub-clinical CAD using common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT), and its association with metabolic syndrome (MS) and pro-inflammatory/dysfunctional HDL (Dys-HDL).Material and methodsA community-based study was conducted on 130 first generation SAIs aged 35-65 years. Dys-HDL was determined using the HDL inflammatory index. Analysis was completed using logistic regression and Fisher's exact test.ResultsSub-clinical CAD using CCA-IMT ≥ 0.8 mm (as a surrogate marker) was seen in 31.46%. Age and gender adjusted CCA-IMT was significantly associated with type 2 diabetes (p = 0.008), hypertension (p = 0.012), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (p < 0.001) and homocysteine (p = 0.051). Both the presence of MS and Dys-HDL was significantly correlated with CCA-IMT, even after age and gender adjustment. The odds of having Dys-HDL with CCA-IMT were 5 times (95% CI: 1.68, 10.78).ConclusionsThere is a need to explore and understand non-traditional CAD risk factors with a special focus on Dys-HDL, knowing that SAIs have low HDL levels. This information will not only help to stratify high-risk asymptomatic SAI groups, but will also be useful from a disease management point of view

A Comprehensive Review of Modulation Techniques used in Long Term Evolution

3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has come up with a technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) to attain a new high-speed radio access in the field of mobile communications. Design of wireless communication system has been an important and challenging problem due to the nature of wireless channel. There are number of factors involved in the performance of a LTE system. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Single Carrier Frequency Division (SC-FDMA) are a dominant part of future mobile communication. This paper describes about LTE physical layer, OFDMA and SC-FDMA receiver and transmitter structures, draw attention on the factor that influences the performance and improvement of multiple access techniques. The substantial use of the adaptive modulation in LTE is the main highlight of the paper. The selection of modulation techniques on the basis of BER, Error probability and SNR are computed

Assessment of traffic pollution by using mosses Entodon concinnus and Herpetineuron toccoae

Lead pollution resulting from vehicular traffic in Chandigarh,India was assessed by using two pleurocarpic, ectohydric mosses (Entodon concinnus and Herpetineuron toccoae) collected from pollution free area in Kasauli. Of the two mosses tested for lead accumulation, E. concinnus was found to be more efficient than H. toccoae (50.3ppm vs 34.4ppm)

OncoLog Volume 39, Number 03 July-September 1994

Familial cancer syndromes a focus of cancer genetics research New test identifies Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukemiashttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1047/thumbnail.jp

An unusual initial presentation of mantle cell lymphoma arising from the lymphoid stroma of warthin tumor.

BackgroundWarthin tumors presenting concomitantly with a lymphoma is vanishingly rare with only 15 reported cases in English literature. Herein, we report an unusual initial presentation of a mantle cell lymphoma involving the lymphoid stroma of a Warthin tumor.Case presentationA seventy-seven year old otherwise healthy gentleman with a 50-pack year smoking history presents with a slowly enlarging left cheek mass. CT scan of the neck demonstrated a left parotid gland tumor measuring 3.4 cm in greatest dimension. He underwent a left superficial parotidectomy, with subsequent histopathologic examination revealing a Warthin tumor with extensive expansion of the lymphoid stroma. Flow cytometric, immunohistochemical, and cytogenetic studies of the stromal component of the tumor confirmed the presence of a mantle cell lymphoma. Clinical staging demonstrated stage IVa disease, and was considered to be at low to intermediate risk due to the slow growth of the parotid lesion. The patient is undergoing close follow up with repeat PET-CT scans at six months.ConclusionTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first well documented collision tumor between mantle cell lymphoma and a Warthin tumor. This case also brings to light the significance of thorough evaluation of the lymphoid component of Warthin tumor

CDHA Ceramic Microspheres for Periodontitis Treatment: Synthesis, Characterization and Doxycycline Release Profiles

The present study is focused on the development of doxycycline loaded calcium–deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA) microspheres for the treatment of periodontitis. The CDHA microspheres were formed by liquid immiscibility effect using gelatin and paraffin oil with varying Ca/P ratios using calcium hydroxide and diammonium hydrogen orthophosphate as precursors. The morphology of the microspheres as characterized by SEM was optimized by varying the gelatin content. The doxycycline incorporation and its release profiles were studied by UV-Visible spectroscopy in phosphate buffer at physiological conditions. The pH of the buffer solution was initially optimized to have maximum amount of drug loading. Doxycycline loading around the physiological pH of 7 has the highest amount of drug incorporation. All the microspheres exhibit similar release profiles with an initial gradual increase reaching a maximum value and then nearly constant release. The microspheres formed using 6% gelatin shows maximum amount of drug release of 80%

Gestational diabetes mellitus diagnosed with single test glucose screening test and its outcome in a tertiary hospital in South India

Background: 1) To assess maternal and neonatal outcomes after screening, diagnosing and treating GDM. 2) Role of single test glucose screening test (GST) in diagnosing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in our population.Methods: A one year retrospective study of women diagnosed with and treated for GDM from Jan 2014 to Dec 2014   at SDM medical college and hospital, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Case records were retrieved to collect data on maternal and neonatal outcome, glycemic control and diabetic management. Single test GST, as per the latest DIPSI guideline was the test used to diagnose GDM i.e. 75 gm of glucose was given to all pregnant women between 24- 34 weeks of pregnancy, irrespective of the last meal and time of the day and after two hours, plasma glucose was estimated. Women with a 2-hr plasma glucose value of >140 mg/ dl were diagnosed to have GDM and were not subjected further for oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). In women with high risk factors for GDM, the test was performed in the Ist trimester or at their first visit to the hospital.Results: All booked women in the study period underwent GST i.e. we could do universal screening .The incidence of GDM was 4.8%. 147 women were diagnosed to have GDM out of 3050 women screened for GDM. Of the affected women, 74.1% were managed with diet alone and 24.9% received insulin treatment. Good glycemic control improved both maternal and neonatal outcome. Poor glycemic control and presence of preeclampsia were risk factors for   maternal and neonatal complications.Conclusions: Single test GST is a patient friendly and effective approach to screen women for GDM especially in high risk ethnic population. Timely and aggressive management helps improve maternal and neonatal outcomes and also decrease the future risk of development of diabetes both in the mother and the fetus

Classification of Atrial Fibrillation using Random Forest Algorithm

The electrocardiogram is indicates the electrical activity of the heart and it can be used to detect cardiac arrhythmias. In the present work, we exhibited a methodology to classify Atrial Fibrillation (AF), Normal rhythm, and Other abnormal ECG rhythms using a machine learning algorithm by analyzing single-lead ECG signals of short duration. First, the events of ECG signals will be detected, after that morphological features and HRV features are extracted. Finally, these features are applied to the Random Forest classifier to perform classification. The Physionet challenge 2017 dataset with more than 8500 ECG recordings is used to train our model. The proposed methodology yields an F1 score of 0.86, 0.97, and 0.83 respectively in classifying AF, normal, other rhythms, and an accuracy of 0.91 after performing a 5-fold cross-validation

Pharmaceutical analytical study and their nutritive evaluation of Samsarjanopayogi Pathya Kalpas and their modified form

In present era demand for quick, more convenient, healthy and quality instant food preparations are increasing and there is a leading edge to pharmaceutically modify them in accordance to the patient compliance, portability, and to provide best quality and hygiene by utilizing the presently available sophisticated modern technology. Hence, the study has been specially planned to modify the Peyadi Pathya Kalpas into instant form and assess their physico chemical properties and to evaluate their nutritive values. Flaking technique was used for raw ingredients of Peyadi Pathya preparations. Fresh form of Manda, Peya and Vilepi were prepared using Shashtika Shali and white rice (Tandula) respectively. In same way Yusha was prepared using Mudga and Kulattha separately. The cooking time required for raw grains were 35±1.42, 12±0.41, 35±1.17 and 45±0.73 minutes respectively. The flaked ingredients cooking time was 6±1.35, 3±1.13, 3±1.40, 4±1.20 minutes respectively. The percentage of Carbohydrate observed in raw samples i.e. Shashtika Shali 75.2%, white rice 78.52% respectively and percentage of carbohydrate content in flaked samples were 77.43%, 79.49%. The protein content of raw samples of Mudga and Kulattha are 22.93% and 21.91% respectively and flaked samples were 22.93%, 20.91% respectively, so the flaking technique was used to convert the raw ingredients into flakes which were helpful to reduce the cooking time, energy consumption and less compromising with the nutritive values as concerned

Negative Subtraction Hybridization: An efficient method to isolate large numbers of condition-specific cDNAs

BACKGROUND: The construction of cDNA libraries is a useful tool to understand gene expression in organisms under different conditions, but random sequencing of unbiased cDNA collections is laborious and can give rise to redundant EST collections. We aimed to isolate cDNAs of messages induced by switching Aspergillus nidulans from growth on glucose to growth on selected polysaccharides. Approximately 4,700 contigs from 12,320 ESTs were already available from a cDNA library representing transcripts isolated from glucose-grown A. nidulans during asexual development. Our goals were to expand the cDNA collection without repeated sequencing of previously identified ESTs and to find as many transcripts as possible that are specifically induced in complex polysaccharide metabolism. RESULTS: We have devised a Negative Subtraction Hybridization (NSH) method and tested it in A. nidulans. NSH entails screening a plasmid library made from cDNAs prepared from cells grown under a selected physiological condition with labeled cDNA probes prepared from another physiological condition. Plasmids with inserts that failed to hybridize to cDNA probes through two rounds of screening (i.e. negatives) indicate that they are transcripts present at low concentration in the labeled probe pool. Thus, these transcripts will be predominantly condition-specific, along with some rare transcripts. In a screen for transcripts induced by switching the carbon source from glucose to 12 selected polysaccharides, 3,532 negatives were isolated from approximately 100,000 surveyed colonies using this method. Negative clones were end-sequenced and assembled into 2,039 contigs, of which 1,722 were not present in the previously characterized glucose-grown cDNA library. Single-channel microarray hybridization experiments confirmed that the majority of the negatives represented genes that were differentially induced by a switch from growth in glucose to one or more of the polysaccharides. CONCLUSIONS: The Negative Subtraction Hybridization method described here has several practical benefits. This method can be used to screen any existing cDNA library, including full-length and pooled libraries, and does not rely on PCR or sequence information. In addition, NSH is a cost-effective method for the isolation of novel, full-length cDNAs for differentially expressed transcripts or enrichment of rare transcripts