Predictors of Risky Sex Behavior among Adolescents in a Traditional Indian Society: Implications for Program Intervention Strategies

Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess the risk behavior and its effect on involvement in sex among school-going adolescents as a part of assessing implementation of Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Scheme (ARSH) in a state of India.Methods: The sample covered 3069 randomly selected adolescents (students) from 9th to 12th standard in various government, private and missionary-run schools from two districts, namely, Aizawl and Champhai in the state of Mizoram.Results: It was found that more than one-third of adolescents (37%) accepted taking alcohol and 72% of adolescents accepted seeing pornographic movies. Nearly 23% respondents were aware about premarital pregnancy among friends and 7.5% were aware about complication due to unsafe abortion among them. About 10% accepted involvement in premarital sex and majority of them (70%) had premarital sex between age group 15 and 19 years and 54% never used condom. Influence of peer group who were taking alcohol, tobacco and drug and exposure to erotic materials was found to be the major risk factors for indulgence in unsafe sex practices among adolescents.Conclusion: Better awareness and counseling against tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse, and pornographic literature among adolescents is needed through school health education.

Evaluation and utilization of Aegilops germplasm for biofortification of wheat for high grain iron and zinc content

Contains fulltext : 135415.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)24 p

Genetic Algorithms as a Feature Selection Tool in Heart Failure Disease

A great wealth of information is hidden in clinical datasets, which could be analyzed to support decision-making processes or to better diagnose patients. Feature selection is one of the data pre-processing that selects a set of input features by removing unneeded or irrelevant features. Various algorithms have been used in healthcare to solve such problems involving complex medical data. This paper demonstrates how Genetic Algorithms offer a natural way to solve feature selection amongst data sets, where the fittest individual choice of variables is preserved over different generations. In this paper, a Genetic Algorithm is introduced as a feature selection method and shown to be effective in aiding understanding of such data

Evaluation of free-radical quenching properties of standard Ayurvedic formulation Vayasthapana Rasayana

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cellular damage induced by free-radicals like Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (ROS and RNS) has been implicated in several disorders and diseases, including ageing. Hence naturally occurring anti-oxidant rich-herbs play a vital role in combating these conditions. The present study was carried out to investigate the <it>in vitro </it>free-radical quenching capacity of a known <it>Ayurvedic </it>poly-herbal formulation called <it>Vayasthapana Rasayana.</it></p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Methanol extracts of <it>Vayasthapana Rasayana </it>formulation (VRF) were studied for <it>in vitro </it>total antioxidant activity along with phenolic content and reducing power. <it>In vitro </it>assays like DPPH, FRAP, ABTS scavenging to evaluate radical quenching potential were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The formulation has shown 94% at 0.1 mg/ml DPPH free-radical scavenging activity as against 84% at 0.1 mg/ml for standard ascorbic acid (IC₅₀value 5.51 μg/ml for VRF and 39 μg/ml for standard). It has a significant higher ferric reducing potential also (OD 0.87 at 700 nm & 0.21 at 0.1 mg/ml for VRF and standard, respectively). The total phenolic content (gallic acid equivalent) of the VRF is 8.3 mg per g of dry mass. Total antioxidant capacity of the formulation, estimated by FRAP was 1150 ± 5 μM Fe(II)/g dry mass. ABTS radical scavenging activity of VRF was 69.55 ± 0.21% at 100 μg/ml concentration with a IC₅₀value of 69.87 μg/ml as against 9% and 95% by ascorbic acid and Trolox (at 70.452 μg/ml and 0.250 μg/ml concentrations, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In Indian traditional <it>Ayurvedic </it>system, use of VRF is in regular practice for mainly combating age-related disorders and diseases as many of the components of the <it>Rasayana </it>are known for their free-radical scavenging activity. This study has validated the potential use of VRF as an anti-oxidant to fight age-related problems.</p

Genetic dissection of grain zinc concentration in spring wheat for mainstreaming biofortification in CIMMYT wheat breeding

Wheat is an important staple that acts as a primary source of dietary energy, protein, and essential micronutrients such as iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) for the world’s population. Approximately two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiency, thus breeders have crossed high Zn progenitors such as synthetic hexaploid wheat, T. dicoccum, T. spelta, and landraces to generate wheat varieties with competitive yield and enhanced grain Zn that are being adopted by farmers in South Asia. Here we report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the wheat Illumina iSelect 90 K Infinitum SNP array to characterize grain Zn concentrations in 330 bread wheat lines. Grain Zn phenotype of this HarvestPlus Association Mapping (HPAM) panel was evaluated across a range of environments in India and Mexico. GWAS analysis revealed 39 marker-trait associations for grain Zn. Two larger effect QTL regions were found on chromosomes 2 and 7. Candidate genes (among them zinc finger motif of transcription-factors and metal-ion binding genes) were associated with the QTL. The linked markers and associated candidate genes identified in this study are being validated in new biparental mapping populations for marker-assisted breeding

Working Group Report: Heavy-Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma

This is the report of Heavy Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma at WHEPP-09 which was part of Working Group-4. Discussion and work on some aspects of Quark-Gluon Plasma believed to have created in heavy-ion collisions and in early universe are reported.Comment: 20 pages, 6 eps figures, Heavy-ion physics and QGP activity report in "IX Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-09)" held in Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India, during January 3-14, 2006. To be published in PRAMANA - Journal of Physics (Indian Academy of Science

Metal-Free ALS Variants of Dimeric Human Cu,Zn-Superoxide Dismutase Have Enhanced Populations of Monomeric Species

Amino acid replacements at dozens of positions in the dimeric protein human, Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) can cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Although it has long been hypothesized that these mutations might enhance the populations of marginally-stable aggregation-prone species responsible for cellular toxicity, there has been little quantitative evidence to support this notion. Perturbations of the folding free energy landscapes of metal-free versions of five ALS-inducing variants, A4V, L38V, G93A, L106V and S134N SOD1, were determined with a global analysis of kinetic and thermodynamic folding data for dimeric and stable monomeric versions of these variants. Utilizing this global analysis approach, the perturbations on the global stability in response to mutation can be partitioned between the monomer folding and association steps, and the effects of mutation on the populations of the folded and unfolded monomeric states can be determined. The 2- to 10-fold increase in the population of the folded monomeric state for A4V, L38V and L106V and the 80- to 480-fold increase in the population of the unfolded monomeric states for all but S134N would dramatically increase their propensity for aggregation through high-order nucleation reactions. The wild-type-like populations of these states for the metal-binding region S134N variant suggest that even wild-type SOD1 may also be prone to aggregation in the absence of metals

Natural Terpenes Prevent Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Oxidative Stress and Release of Apoptotic Proteins during Nimesulide-Hepatotoxicity in Rats

Nimesulide, an anti-inflammatory and analgesic drug, is reported to cause severe hepatotoxicity. In this study, molecular mechanisms involved in deranged oxidant-antioxidant homeostasis and mitochondrial dysfunction during nimesulide-induced hepatotoxicity and its attenuation by plant derived terpenes, camphene and geraniol has been explored in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Hepatotoxicity due to nimesulide (80 mg/kg BW) was evident from elevated SGPT, SGOT, bilirubin and histo-pathological changes. Antioxidants and key redox enzymes (iNOS, mtNOS, Cu/Zn-SOD, Mn-SOD, GPx and GR) were altered significantly as assessed by their mRNA expression, Immunoblot analysis and enzyme activities. Redox imbalance along with oxidative stress was evident from decreased NAD(P)H and GSH (56% and 74% respectively; P<0.001), increased superoxide and secondary ROS/RNS generation along with oxidative damage to cellular macromolecules. Nimesulide reduced mitochondrial activity, depolarized mitochondria and caused membrane permeability transition (MPT) followed by release of apoptotic proteins (AIF; apoptosis inducing factor, EndoG; endonuclease G, and Cyto c; cytochrome c). It also significantly activated caspase-9 and caspase-3 and increased oxidative DNA damage (level of 8-Oxoguanine glycosylase; P<0.05). A combination of camphene and geraniol (CG; 1∶1), when pre-administered in rats (10 mg/kg BW), accorded protection against nimesulide hepatotoxicity in vivo, as evident from normalized serum biomarkers and histopathology. mRNA expression and activity of key antioxidant and redox enzymes along with oxidative stress were also normalized due to CG pre-treatment. Downstream effects like decreased mitochondrial swelling, inhibition in release of apoptotic proteins, prevention of mitochondrial depolarization along with reduction in oxidized NAD(P)H and increased mitochondrial electron flow further supported protective action of selected terpenes against nimesulide toxicity. Therefore CG, a combination of natural terpenes prevented nimesulide induced cellular damage and ensuing hepatotoxicity