Effects of advanced maternal age on pregnancy outcome

Background: Advanced maternal age, generally signify age after 35 years at the time of delivery. It is associated with decreased fertility and increased risk.Methods: This was a prospective study conducted in Kamla Raja Hospital, G.R. Medical College, Gwalior (M.P.) during the period of one year from July 2015 to June 2016.  Pregnant women aged 35 years and older at the time of delivery were selected and analyzed for maternal and perinatal outcome.Results: A total no. of 288 elderly pregnant patients were selected for the study. Most of the cases were in the age group 35 to 39 years (89.93%). Multi gravida (71.8%) and grand multi para (22.22%) constituted the largest group. Most of the cases belong to lower socio-economic status (90%). Percentage of unbooked cases was 82.98%. The causes of delay in pregnancy were preference for male child (23.95%) and unwareness of contraception (21.52%). The incidence of diabetes mellitus and chronic hypertension were increased. Overall cesarean rate was increased (35%). Incidence of abortions 28(9.72%), preterm delivery 18(6.25%), oligohydramnios 18(6.25%), APH 18(6.25%) and PROM 17(5.90%), low birth weight baby 30(13.19%), NICU admission 20 (6.94%), IUGR 11(3.81%) all were high. The preference for male child 69(23.95%) and lack of awareness 62(21.52%) were two major reason for continuing pregnancies and deliveries till late age.Conclusions: The present study showed that pregnancy at advanced age is a higher risk pregnancy in term of increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality

PARTICIPATORY COTTON BREEDING AND CULTIVAR EVALUATION FOR ORGANIC SMALLHOLDERS IN INDIA

Stakeholders of the organic movement are highly concerned about this development in the cotton sector in India. Organic farming can only present a viable alternative to conventional production if farmers have access to suitable cultivars. A national workshop on 'Disappearing non-GM cotton – ways forward to maintain diversity, increase availability, and ensure quality of non-GM cotton seed' initiated by bioRe, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL Switzerland) and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Dharwad presents the first agreement (Dharwad Declaration) towards safeguarding the heritage of Indian Desi cotton, maintaining genetic diversity, avoiding GM contamination as well as supporting the organic farmers with suitable cultivars. The activities on participatory cotton breeding for organic and low input farming is the first step of implementation towards the goals set in the Dharwad Declaration in June 2011. The Cotton Cultivar Evaluation Project started in 2011 with systematic evaluation of available non GM cultivars and is focusing on the fast identification of suitable cultivars and the reestablishment of a cotton seed supply chain under control of the farmers to safeguard the organic cotton production. This is urgently needed, as GM free cotton seeds completely vanished from the market. The Green Cotton Project is a long term project aiming for developing new cotton cultivars, that are specifically suited for organic farming. Here the focus is on networking, capacity building, training farmers in cross breeding and single plant selection. In collaboration with the University of Agricultural Science Dharwad and Chetna organic it starts with new crosses that are selected under local conditions and has a special focus on the original desi cotton species. The aim is the establishment of decentralized participatory cotton breeding programs that will allow the improvement of organic cotton in the future

Influence of the Fast Spread of Bt Cotton on Organic Cotton Production: Examples from India and Burkina Faso

COTTON is grown in more than 120 countries by over 20 million cotton producers on 35 million ha in 2012 (Truscott, 2010, www.fas.usda.gov). In 2011, around 27 million tons of cotton were produced, mostly by smallholder producers in 'developing' countries which cultivate cotton as a cash crop on their own land averaging under 2 ha in size, or as contracted workers for bigger land owners. Cotton is usually grown as a monoculture. In industrialised countries, the level of mechanisation is high, thus cotton production does not provide a lot of work in rural communities. In contrast, in developing countries, the cultivation and harvest is mostly done by hand labour and thus provides a lot of work for the rural population. Cotton, particularly as a monoculture, uses significant amounts of pesticides, fertilisers, fossil fuels and water (Truscott, 2010). There are four commercially exploited cotton species: Gossypium hirsutum and G. barbadense, the 'New World Species', and G. arboreum and G. herbaceum, the Old World Species. Though Old World cottons are still grown in some areas of Africa and Asia, they have been almost totally replaced by New World cottons. Most dominant today are G. hirsutum cultivars, which are spread across 45 countries. About 90% of the annual global cotton harvest is derived from G. hirsutum. One negative outcome of the wide cultivation of G. hirsutum cultivars is the increased pest attacks, particularly by the American bollworm. Hence, cotton cultivation had a very bad reputation as the single largest user of pesticides in the world (Truscott, 2010). In the mid-1990s, conventional cotton production posed a serious threat to the environment, farmers' health and the economy. At one stage cotton accounted for the use of 15% of the world's pesticides and 25% of the world's insecticides.This resulted in two major responses. One response was the development of genetically modified (GM) insect-resistant cotton cultivars, which were rapidly adopted by many countries since its first commercial introduction in 1996. Approximately 82% of the world's cotton-growing area was grown under genetically modified cotton in 2011 (www.isaaa.org2). The other response was the adoption of organic methods of cotton production by farmers who believed that holistic, earth-friendly responses, optimised crop rotation and organic fertiliser could reverse the trend of the soaring use of chemical pesticides. The rapid spread of GM seeds in cotton has resulted in problems for the organic cotton sector, a few of which can be briefly examined, taking India and Burkina Faso as examples (Truscott, 2010)

ISSN 2347-954X (Print) Seroprevalence of Hepatitis A Virus Infection in Children

Abstract: Hepatitis A is one of the most common cause of hepatitis in paediatric age group and the most common cause of Fulminant Hepatic Failure (FHF) in children in India. Hepatitis A is a water born disease and its seroprevalence reflect the status of water sanitation & hygiene. High endemicity obviates the need for vaccine in the community but it is required as individual immunization. We studied 116 children in Outdoor Patient Department to know the seroprevalence of Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) total Antibodies and effect of various demographic and water sanitation variables on it. Study includes children attending Pediatric outpatient department with minor problems in medical college hospital. It is a descriptive, cross-sectional, sero-epidemiologic investigational study. Blood sample of randomly selected children was collected and Competitive ELISA test was done for detection of total (both IgM and IgG) anti HAV antibody using commercial available ELISA kit. The statistical analysis was performed by chi-squared test using Epi Info software 3.5.4.Version 2012. Seroprevalence in Children from upper social class was 54.5% Vs 87.2% in lower social class (p=0.00075). Among children from rural background 90.9% were seropositive Vs 77.1 % among urban children. Mother's education above and below secondary level had a seropositivity for HAV in children up to 69.23% and 87.1% respectively. Method of water treatment using Boiled water, Mechanical filtration, filtration plus UV treatment and no treatment had a seropositivity of 50.0% , 83.33% , 37.5% and 84 % respectively(p= 0.0036 ). Seropositivity was highest in water source using Municipal bore well pipeline88.88% followed by municipal dam water through pipeline79.16% and personal bore well 68.16% (p= 0.026). In conclusion, children of this geographical area have high seroprevalence for HAV antibodies at younger age with a significant difference between social classes and water source and treatment methods. Very high seroprevalence at a younger age is observed. Water sanitation needs to be improved and immunization in low seroprevalence group children should be recommended

Acute mania after thyroxin supplementation in hypothyroid state

The current literature variedly ascribes depressive and manic symptoms to hypo- and hyperthyroid state, respectively, reporting mania in hypothyroidism as an unusual entity. More unusual is precipitation of manic state in hypothyroid subjects after thyroxine supplementation for which studies report otherwise treating manic symptoms in hypothyroid state with thyroxine. We report a case of a patient whose acute mania appears to have been precipitated by thyroxine supplementation in hypothyroidism state. This case underscores the importance of thyroid screening in patients with mood and psychotic disorders, as well as the potency of thyroxine in producing manic symptoms

Highly efficient generation of isogenic pluripotent stem cell models using prime editing.

The recent development of prime editing (PE) genome engineering technologies has the potential to significantly simplify the generation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-based disease models. PE is a multicomponent editing system that uses a Cas9-nickase fused to a reverse transcriptase (nCas9-RT) and an extended PE guide RNA (pegRNA). Once reverse transcribed, the pegRNA extension functions as a repair template to introduce precise designer mutations at the target site. Here, we systematically compared the editing efficiencies of PE to conventional gene editing methods in hPSCs. This analysis revealed that PE is overall more efficient and precise than homology-directed repair of site-specific nuclease-induced double-strand breaks. Specifically, PE is more effective in generating heterozygous editing events to create autosomal dominant disease-associated mutations. By stably integrating the nCas9-RT into hPSCs we achieved editing efficiencies equal to those reported for cancer cells, suggesting that the expression of the PE components, rather than cell-intrinsic features, limit PE in hPSCs. To improve the efficiency of PE in hPSCs, we optimized the delivery modalities for the PE components. Delivery of the nCas9-RT as mRNA combined with synthetically generated, chemically-modified pegRNAs and nicking guide RNAs improved editing efficiencies up to 13-fold compared with transfecting the PE components as plasmids or ribonucleoprotein particles. Finally, we demonstrated that this mRNA-based delivery approach can be used repeatedly to yield editing efficiencies exceeding 60% and to correct or introduce familial mutations causing Parkinson's disease in hPSCs

Molecular nanoinformatics approach assessing the biocompatibility of biogenic silver nanoparticles with channelized intrinsic steatosis and apoptosis

The developmental rapidity of nanotechnology poses higher risks of exposure to humans and the environment through manufactured nanomaterials. The multitude of biological interfaces, such as DNA, proteins, membranes, and cell organelles, which come in contact with nanoparticles, is influenced by colloidal and dynamic forces. Consequently, the ensued nano-bio interface depends on dynamic forces, encompasses many cellular absorption mechanisms along with various biocatalytic activities, and biocompatibility that needs to be investigated in detail. Addressing the issue, the study offers a novel green synthesis strategy for antibacterial AgNPs with higher biocompatibility and elucidates the mechanistic in vivo biocompatibility of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at the cellular and molecular levels. The analysis ascertained the biosynthesis of G-AgNPs with the size of 25 +/- 10 nm and zeta potential of -29.2 +/- 3.0 mV exhibiting LC50 of 47.2 mu g mL(-1) in embryonic zebrafish. It revealed the mechanism as a consequence of abnormal physiological metabolism in oxidative stress and neutral lipid metabolism due to dose-dependent interaction with proteins such as he1a, sod1, PEX protein family, and tp53 involving amino acids such as arginine, glutamine and leucine leading to improper apoptosis. The research gave a detailed insight into the role of diverse AgNPs-protein interactions with a unique combinatorial approach from first-principles density functional theory and in silico analyses, thus paving a new pathway to comprehending their intrinsic properties and usage

The posterity of Zebrafish in paradigm of in vivo molecular toxicological profiling

The aggrandised advancement in utility of advanced day-to-day materials and nanomaterials has raised serious concern on their biocompatibility with human and other biotic members. In last few decades, understanding of toxicity of these materials has been given the centre stage of research using many in vitro and in vivo models. Zebrafish (Danio rerio), a freshwater fish and a member of the minnow family has garnered much attention due to its distinct features, which make it an important and frequently used animal model in various fields of embryology and toxicological studies. Given that fertilization and development of zebrafish eggs take place externally, they serve as an excellent model organism for studying early developmental stages. Moreover, zebrafish possess a comparable genetic composition to humans and share almost 70% of their genes with mammals. This particular model organism has become increasingly popular, especially for developmental research. Moreover, it serves as a link between in vitro studies and in vivo analysis in mammals. It is an appealing choice for vertebrate research, when employing high-throughput methods, due to their small size, swift development, and relatively affordable laboratory setup. This small vertebrate has enhanced comprehension of pathobiology and drug toxicity. This review emphasizes on the recent developments in toxicity screening and assays, and the new insights gained about the toxicity of drugs through these assays. Specifically, the cardio, neural, and, hepatic toxicology studies inferred by applications of nanoparticles have been highlighted