Prevalence of sub clinical atherosclerosis among UK South Asians and Europeans

Background: South Asians demonstrate high coronary heart disease mortality, largely unexplained by conventional risk factors and unidentified by risk stratification tools. Developments in technology allow us to visualize coronary atherosclerosis non-invasively, thus providing the potential to identify presence of coronary atherosclerosis before it manifests clinically. Coronary artery calcification is closely correlated with total plaque burden and provides an assessment of coronary plaque burden. Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy provides an estimate of myocardial blood flow and thus, severity of coronary artery disease. Increased coronary artery calcification and silent myocardial ischemia predict future risk of coronary heart disease mortality, independent of conventional factors. Inflammation is a key factor in initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important marker of active inflammation and is considered an independent predictor of future cardiovascular events. Thus, markers of subclinical atherosclerosis and inflammation could provide us with a tool for early identification of South Asians at risk of coronary events, unidentified by traditional means. However, majority of the data for such markers is from North American and European populations, with no data evaluating the role of coronary artery calcification, myocardial perfusion scintigraphy and CRP in assessing the coronary heart disease risk in South Asians. Methods and Results: I carried out assessments including coronary artery calcium, myocardial perfusion imaging and assessment of high sensitivity C-reactive protein for a cohort of asymptomatic South Asians and Europeans men and women, aged 35 to 75 years, who were part of the London Life Sciences Population (LOLIPOP) study. I found that: 1) Coronary artery calcification scores were closely associated with age, male gender, cigarette smoking, hypertension, systolic blood pressure, diabetes and total cholesterol. 2) There were no differences in either coronary artery calcification prevalence or mean levels of coronary artery calcification between South Asians and Europeans, after adjustment for the measured cardiovascular risk factors. 3) Presence of diabetes and increasing coronary artery calcification were independent predictors for silent myocardial ischemia. 4) South Asian ethnicity did not influence the prevalence or the extent of silent myocardial ischemia, after adjustment for conventional risk factors. 5) C-reactive protein levels did not correlate with measures of plaque burden. 5) South Asian ethnicity was an independent predictor of inflammation as seen by levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein. This effect was independent of, and remained significant after adjusting for conventional cardiovascular risk factors and novel factors linked to inflammation such as diabetes and indices of abdominal obesity. Conclusions: While traditional risk factor correlate well with markers of atherosclerosis, the higher coronary heart disease risk and mortality observed in South Asians is not identified by markers of atherosclerotic burden such as coronary artery calcification and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. South Asians have elevated levels of inflammation as seen by high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels. C-reactive protein levels are not correlated with coronary artery calcium or myocardial ischemia measured by myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. These findings suggest a role of factors such as systemic and plaque inflammation, unrelated to and unmeasured by plaque burden assessment in the higher coronary heart disease mortality observed among South Asians. The study therefore suggests a role of potential risk stratification tools reflecting the multisystem nature of CHD. These could be a combination of clinical risk factors contributing towards CHD, imaging of atherosclerotic plaque and assessment of plaque or systemic inflammation.Open Acces

A REVIEW ON TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF DIABETES MELLITUS

Diabetes mellitus is an endocrinological and metabolic disorder with an increasing global prevalence and incidence. High blood glucose levels are symptomatic of diabetes mellitus as a consequence of inadequate pancreatic insulin secretion or poor insulin-directed mobilization of glucose by target cells. Diabetes mellitus is aggravated by and associated with metabolic complications that can subsequently lead to premature death. The diagnosis of diabetes in an asymptomatic subject should never be made on the basis of a single abnormal blood glucose value. For the asymptomatic person, at least one additional plasma/blood glucose test result with a value in the diabetic range is essential, either fasting, from a random (casual) sample, or from the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). If such samples fail to confirm the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, it will usually be advisable to maintain surveillance with periodic re–testing until the diagnostic situation becomes clear. In these circumstances, the clinician should take into consideration such additional factors as ethnicity, family history, age, adiposity, and concomitant disorders, before deciding on a diagnostic or therapeutic course of action. An alternative to blood glucose estimation or the OGTT has long been sought to simplify the diagnosis of diabetes. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that can be prevented through lifestyle modification, diet control, and control of overweight and obesity. Education of the populace is still key to the control of this emerging epidemic. Novel drugs are being developed, yet no cure is available in sight for the disease, despite new insight into the pathophysiology of the disease

Deepfakes in India: regulation and privacy

While the use of deepfake videos are relatively rare in Indian politics, Simran Jain and Piyush Jha (Independent Researchers, India) argue that the potential of their misuse in other domains, and subsequent infringement of individual privacy, cannot be underestimated. Only rapid governmental intervention in the form of new legislative and regulatory frameworks can help the country deal with this rapidly evolving technology

Topics in Ultra-cold Bose Gases: the Bose-Hubbard Model; Analogue Models for an Expanding Universe and for an Acoustic Black Hole

In this thesis we consider the application of phase-space methods to Bose-Einstein condensates; the work comprises of three main parts: Part I: A phase-space method for the Bose-Hubbard model; Part II: An analogue model of an expanding universe in Bose-Einstein condensates. and Part III: An analogue model of an acoustic Black Hole in Bose-Einstein condensates. In part I we present a phase-space method for the Bose-Hubbard model based on the Qfunction representation. In particular, we consider two model Hamiltonians in the mean-field approximation; the first is the standard “one site” model where quantum tunneling is approximated entirely using mean-field terms; the second “two site” model explicitly includes tunneling between two adjacent sites while treating tunneling with other neighbouring sites using the meanfield approximation. The ground state is determined by minimising the classical energy functional subject to quantum mechanical constraints, which take the form of uncertainty relations. For each model Hamiltonian we compare the ground state results from the Q-function method with the exact numerical solution. The results from the Q-function method, which are easy to compute, give a good qualitative description of the main features of the Bose-Hubbard model including the superfluid to Mott insulator. We find the quantum mechanical constraints dominate the problem and show there are some limitations of the method particularly in the weak lattice regime. Analogue models of gravity have been motivated by the possibility of investigating phenomena not readily accessible in their cosmological counterparts. In particular, the prediction of quasiparticle creation in ultra-cold Bose gases in specific configurations can be viewed as an analogue to either cosmological particle creation or the Hawking effect. In part II of this thesis we investigate the analogue of cosmological particle creation in an expanding universe by numerically simulating a Bose-Einstein condensate with a time-dependent scattering length. In particular, we simulate a 2D homogeneous condensate using the classical field method via the truncated Wigner approximation. We show that for several different expansion scenarios the calculated particle production is consistent with the underlying theory. For inflationary models we find the particle production for long wavelength modes coincides with the analytic theory within the acoustic approximation, whereas the particle production is suppressed for short wavelength (ie. free-particle like) modes. Moreover, particle production is enhanced for faster expansions, approaching the analytic result for the sudden expansion in the limit of a very fast expansion. For the case of a cyclic expansion, particle production peaks for a mode frequency that is approximately half of the driving frequency as expected for parametric resonance. In part III of this thesis we investigate an acoustic black hole in a Bose-Einstein condensate, formed by two de Laval nozzles in a ring configuration — a system we refer to as the quantum de Laval nozzle. Our model is formulated in one dimension with a sinusoidal potential. For nonzero superfluid flow, this system can exhibit stable transonic flow with both black and white hole sonic horizons. Stationary states are found by solving the time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation subject to a phase quantisation constraint. By solving the projected Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for the system, we also find the discrete spectrum and quasiparticle modes. There are dynamical instabilities for certain values of winding number and potential depth, for which it is possible to construct pairs of normalisable modes. We further investigate the dynamics of the system using a classical field method based on the truncated Wigner approximation. For a low winding number and unstable configuration, we find exponential growth for the pair of unstable modes, whereas there is no growth in these modes for a stable configuration. This can be interpreted as non-degenerate parametric amplification, valid for short times. In contrast, for a large winding number, there is significant growth in modes for both stable and unstable configurations. This is indicative of higher order processes neglected in the quasiparticle picture, which is further reinforced by that fact that large winding number solutions require large nonlinearities. Finally, we consider the connection of our results with the usual semi-classical prediction of the Hawking effect. For an unstable configuration, the normalised unstable modes couple equal and opposite real frequencies, so that the growth in these modes represents the closest analogy with the Hawking effect for our quantum system

Topics in Ultra-cold Bose Gases: the Bose-Hubbard Model; Analogue Models for an Expanding Universe and for an Acoustic Black Hole

In this thesis we consider the application of phase-space methods to Bose-Einstein condensates; the work comprises of three main parts: Part I: A phase-space method for the Bose-Hubbard model; Part II: An analogue model of an expanding universe in Bose-Einstein condensates. and Part III: An analogue model of an acoustic Black Hole in Bose-Einstein condensates. In part I we present a phase-space method for the Bose-Hubbard model based on the Qfunction representation. In particular, we consider two model Hamiltonians in the mean-field approximation; the first is the standard “one site” model where quantum tunneling is approximated entirely using mean-field terms; the second “two site” model explicitly includes tunneling between two adjacent sites while treating tunneling with other neighbouring sites using the meanfield approximation. The ground state is determined by minimising the classical energy functional subject to quantum mechanical constraints, which take the form of uncertainty relations. For each model Hamiltonian we compare the ground state results from the Q-function method with the exact numerical solution. The results from the Q-function method, which are easy to compute, give a good qualitative description of the main features of the Bose-Hubbard model including the superfluid to Mott insulator. We find the quantum mechanical constraints dominate the problem and show there are some limitations of the method particularly in the weak lattice regime. Analogue models of gravity have been motivated by the possibility of investigating phenomena not readily accessible in their cosmological counterparts. In particular, the prediction of quasiparticle creation in ultra-cold Bose gases in specific configurations can be viewed as an analogue to either cosmological particle creation or the Hawking effect. In part II of this thesis we investigate the analogue of cosmological particle creation in an expanding universe by numerically simulating a Bose-Einstein condensate with a time-dependent scattering length. In particular, we simulate a 2D homogeneous condensate using the classical field method via the truncated Wigner approximation. We show that for several different expansion scenarios the calculated particle production is consistent with the underlying theory. For inflationary models we find the particle production for long wavelength modes coincides with the analytic theory within the acoustic approximation, whereas the particle production is suppressed for short wavelength (ie. free-particle like) modes. Moreover, particle production is enhanced for faster expansions, approaching the analytic result for the sudden expansion in the limit of a very fast expansion. For the case of a cyclic expansion, particle production peaks for a mode frequency that is approximately half of the driving frequency as expected for parametric resonance. In part III of this thesis we investigate an acoustic black hole in a Bose-Einstein condensate, formed by two de Laval nozzles in a ring configuration — a system we refer to as the quantum de Laval nozzle. Our model is formulated in one dimension with a sinusoidal potential. For nonzero superfluid flow, this system can exhibit stable transonic flow with both black and white hole sonic horizons. Stationary states are found by solving the time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation subject to a phase quantisation constraint. By solving the projected Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for the system, we also find the discrete spectrum and quasiparticle modes. There are dynamical instabilities for certain values of winding number and potential depth, for which it is possible to construct pairs of normalisable modes. We further investigate the dynamics of the system using a classical field method based on the truncated Wigner approximation. For a low winding number and unstable configuration, we find exponential growth for the pair of unstable modes, whereas there is no growth in these modes for a stable configuration. This can be interpreted as non-degenerate parametric amplification, valid for short times. In contrast, for a large winding number, there is significant growth in modes for both stable and unstable configurations. This is indicative of higher order processes neglected in the quasiparticle picture, which is further reinforced by that fact that large winding number solutions require large nonlinearities. Finally, we consider the connection of our results with the usual semi-classical prediction of the Hawking effect. For an unstable configuration, the normalised unstable modes couple equal and opposite real frequencies, so that the growth in these modes represents the closest analogy with the Hawking effect for our quantum system

Synergistic anti-cancer activity of combined 5-fuorouracil and gallic acid-stearylamine conjugate in A431 human squamous carcinoma cell line

Purpose: To evaluate the individual and synergistic anti-cancer effects of 5-fuorouracil (5-FU) and synthesized gallic acid-stearylamine (GA-SA) conjugate in A431 human squamous cancer cell line. Methods: Characterisation of the synthesised conjugate was performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and mass spectrometry (MS). The synergistic effect of the combination therapy (5-FU/GA-SA) was assessed by determining their inhibitory concentration (IC30) whereby A431 cells were treated with 5-FU:GA–SA conjugate at various ratios ranging from 5:1 to 1:5. Results: The cytotoxicity of 5-FU was 29 %, while that of the combination of 5-FU with GA–SA conjugate was as high as 60 %. Thus, this combination showed significant synergistic enhancement in cytotoxicity (p < 0.05). The results obtained also revealed that the IC30 values of 5-FU and the GA–SA conjugate were 1 and 10 µg/mL, respectively. The IC30 values of the combination ratios indicated that the dosages used in the study were safe in HaCaT normal cell line. Conclusion: These results indicate that 5-FU/GA–SA conjugate at a ratio of 1:1 is effective against A431 cell line (cancer cells)) but safe in HaCaT cell lines (normal cells)

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF MOUTH DISSOLVING TABLETS OF OMEPRAZOLE

Objective: The aim of present study is to formulate mouth dissolving tablet of omeprazole, the drug will be directly absorbed into systemic circulation through buccal mucosa and lead to produce immediate action. Methods: Mouth dissolving tablets of Omeprazole were prepared by wet granulation method. Required quantity of drug and other excipients were weighed and sieved from sieve no.60 for finding homogenous mixer, then a damp mass of mixer was prepared by using distilled water as a solvent, Damp mass was passed through sieve no. 10 and dried the granules at 50 °C till moisture remaining less than 2% Results: All the formulated tablets met the pharmacopoeias standard of uniformity of weight, percentage friability, thickness, and drug content. The in vitro disintegration and dispersion studies were also performed, which shows very good bioavailability and drug release profile. Accelerated stability studies were done for four weeks and found that no significant change in drug content and other parameters like hardness and in vitro dispersion time after four weeks even at 50 °C. It may be predicted that formulation will be stable for more than one year. Conclusion: The present investigation successfully formulated mouth dissolving tablets of omeprazole with improved drug release profile. The formulation was chosen because it showed good results in terms of cumulative drug release, disintegration time, hardness and friability. The dissolution study of this formulation showed an increase in the cumulative % drug release