Risk Factors of Diabetes Mellitus in Rural Puducherry

Purpose: Prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing in India. Rural area constitutes 80% of India. Hence it is essential to understand the epidemiology for appropriate interventions. Objectives: to identify risk factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus in rural Puducherry. Methodology: Cross sectional study in two villages of Puducherry, India. 1403 subjects above 25 years from 2 villages. Study measured demographic variables, Body Mass Index (BMI), physical activity, family history of Diabetes Mellitus, smoking and alcohol consumption. Fasting blood glucose was measured for study subjects. Further, those with >126 mg/dl were subjected for Oral Glucose Tolerance Test. Univariate and multivariate analysis was done. Receiver Operating characteristic Curve was plotted to find out cut off for Diabetic Risk Score. Findings: The prevalence of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) was 5.8%. The response rate was (88%). In univariate analysis age, occupation, Socio Economic Status, BMI, physical activity, family history were significant for DM. In multivariate analysis age, BMI, family history of diabetes and occupation were significant for type 2 DM. The ‘diabetes risk score’ generated by the study using age, BMI and family history of DM, had specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of 54%, 77% and 76.2% respectively. The area under curve for scoring system was 0.784 (<0.05). Conclusions: Identified risk factors are useful for early diagnosis by using ‘diabetes risk score’ – thus uncovering the iceberg of disease

Anticancer Effect of AntiMalarial Artemisinin Compounds

The anti‑malarial drug artemisinin has shown anticancer activity in vitro and animal experiments, but experience in human cancer is scarce. However, the ability of artemisinins to kill cancer cells through a variety of molecular mechanisms has been explored. A PubMed search of about 127 papers on anti‑cancer effects of antimalarials has revealed that this class of drug, including other antimalarials, have several biological characteristics that include anticancer properties. Experimental evidences suggest that artemisinin compounds may be a therapeutic alternative in highly aggressive cancers with rapid dissemination, without developing drug resistance. They also exhibit synergism with other anticancer drugs with no increased toxicity toward normal cells. It has been found that semisynthetic artemisinin derivatives have much higher antitumor activity than their monomeric counterparts via mechanisms like apoptosis, arrest of cell cycle at G0/G1, and oxidative stress. The exact mechanism of activation and molecular basis of these anticancer effects are not fully elucidated. Artemisinins seem to regulate key factors such as nuclear factor‑kappa B, survivin, NOXA, hypoxia‑inducible factor‑1α, and BMI‑1, involving multiple pathways that may affect drug response, drug interactions, drug resistance, and associated parameters upon normal cells. Newer synthetic artemisinins have been developed showing substantial antineoplastic activity, but there is still limited information regarding the mode of action of these synthetic compounds. In view of the emerging data, specific interactions with established chemotherapy need to be further investigated in different cancer cells and their phenotypes and validated further using different semisynthetic and synthetic artemisinin derivatives. Keywords: Anticancer agents, Antimalarials, Antitumor activity, Artemisinins, Novel chemotherap

Phonon renormalisation in doped bilayer graphene

We report phonon renormalisation in bilayer graphene as a function of doping. The Raman G peak stiffens and sharpens for both electron and hole doping, as a result of the non-adiabatic Kohn anomaly at the $\Gamma$ point. The bilayer has two conduction and valence subbands, with splitting dependent on the interlayer coupling. This results in a change of slope in the variation of G peak position with doping, which allows a direct measurement of the interlayer coupling strength.Comment: 5 figure

ALTERNATIVE HERBAL DRUGS USED FOR TREATING HAIR DISEASE

Objective: The main objective of present study is to treat Alopecia. Alopecia areata is an unpredictable hair-loss condition. Alopecia is a dermatological disorder with psychosocial implications on patients with hair loss. Herbal systems of medicine have become increasingly popular in recent years. Medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of hair diseases since antiquity. Herbs such as turmeric, fenugreek, ginger, Cyperus rotundus (Nagarmotha), and holy basil are integral parts of ayurvedic formulations. Cyperus rotundus is a well-known ayurvedic herb with purported claims of hair growth promotion. Methods: Extracts are prepared by separating the soluble matter from vegetable tissues by the application of a suitable solvent such as alcohol, water, or ether. The resultant liquid is concentrated by evaporation to obtain a liquid extract or concentrated almost to dryness to obtain the solid extract and its volatile oil. Hair formulation of Cyperus rotundus belonging to family Cyperaceae in the form of herbal formulation (5% herbal cream and oil) was studied and it showed excellent hair growth activity with standard (2% minoxidil ethanolic solution) in Wister albino rats. Results: Hair growth initiation time was significantly reduced to half on treatment with the oil, as compared to control animals. The hair growth promoting effect was evaluated against the control, standard, and test animals at 0, 10, 15, and 20 days with the formulated hair oil and hair cream prepared from the volatile oil extracted from the Cyperus rotundus and the significant hair growth was observed, and the growth was compared with the standard drug used 2% solution of minoxidil. Conclusion: The results of treatment with oil were better than the positive control minoxidil 2% treatment. It holds the promise of potent herbal alternative for minoxidil. Keywords: Alopecia areata, Cyperus rotundus, Hair growth, Extracts, Herbal creams, Hair oil, Hair formulation, Ayurvedic, Cyperaceae.  ORCID iD: - http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0439-606

Environmental quality assessment of Treis Island, Nicobar, India

The physico-chemical, biological and microbiological parameters of surface seawater was studied at Tries Island during a survey in 2009. The physico-chemical parameters like silicate and inorganic phosphate concentration varied significantly from 3.53 to 4.22 and 0.05 to 0.09 μmol/L, respectively at Tries Island. The zooplankton population density ranged from 4696 to 8207 Nos./m3 and the dominant group was Copepod. The zooplankton biomass also varied significantly from 0.31 to 0.72 ml/m3. The phytoplankton density and species number also varied significantly from 1020 to 1220 Nos. /L and 25 to 31 numbers, respectively. Soleniae dominated in coastal waters of Treis Island. Chlorophyll-a, and phaeophytin concentration varied between 0.12 to 0.24 and 0.06 to 0.27 mg/m3, respectively. The chlorophyll-a concentration variation was significant. Apart from that noise level, soil and plant diversity were also investigated. Soil parameters indicated its fertile nature which is being utilized for horticulture by tribal community living in the neighbouring islands. The present study gives an account of the existing environmental quality in and around the island, providing a baseline scenario to assess the environmental impacts due to developments in the future. This study also provides comparison between populated and unpopulated coastal bay/marine ecosystems

Heavy rainfall episode over Mumbai on 26 July 2005: Assessment of NWP guidance

In the present work a qualitative assessment of guidance from NCMRWF operational global and regional Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems in the episode of unprecedented rainfall over Mumbai has been attempted. This also consolidates and examines the predictions that were provided by some of the leading global operational centres. Some hindcast runs were also made with different initial conditions. It reveals that the use of very high resolution global and regional models with advanced data assimilation techniques (4D Var), that optimally utilizes information from satellite observations, could significantly enhance the usefulness of NWP guidance

SQG-Differential Evolution for difficult optimization problems under a tight function evaluation budget

In the context of industrial engineering, it is important to integrate efficient computational optimization methods in the product development process. Some of the most challenging simulation-based engineering design optimization problems are characterized by: a large number of design variables, the absence of analytical gradients, highly non-linear objectives and a limited function evaluation budget. Although a huge variety of different optimization algorithms is available, the development and selection of efficient algorithms for problems with these industrial relevant characteristics, remains a challenge. In this communication, a hybrid variant of Differential Evolution (DE) is introduced which combines aspects of Stochastic Quasi-Gradient (SQG) methods within the framework of DE, in order to improve optimization efficiency on problems with the previously mentioned characteristics. The performance of the resulting derivative-free algorithm is compared with other state-of-the-art DE variants on 25 commonly used benchmark functions, under tight function evaluation budget constraints of 1000 evaluations. The experimental results indicate that the new algorithm performs excellent on the 'difficult' (high dimensional, multi-modal, inseparable) test functions. The operations used in the proposed mutation scheme, are computationally inexpensive, and can be easily implemented in existing differential evolution variants or other population-based optimization algorithms by a few lines of program code as an non-invasive optional setting. Besides the applicability of the presented algorithm by itself, the described concepts can serve as a useful and interesting addition to the algorithmic operators in the frameworks of heuristics and evolutionary optimization and computing

Arylboronate esters mediated self-healable and biocompatible dynamic G-quadruplex hydrogels as promising 3D-bioinks

Extrudable G-quadruplex hydrogels were prepared at physiological pH. Gels with suitable mechanical properties were explored as 3D-bioinks. The 3D printing process is driven by injectability and the highly thixotropic and self-healable nature of the gel. High cell viability and homogeneous cell distribution within the gel make it a promising material as a 3D bioink