Infertility and Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Study in North Indian Women

The present study assessed the relationship between primary infertility and obesity in women of Delhi, India, independently, and in light of various demographic trait, lifestyle and reproductive variables. The present study was a part of a major project funded by the National Commission for Women of India, Government of India. The data were collected from 334 women, including 167 fertile and 167 infertile individuals. A two-part pretested modified quantitative interview schedule was used to collect data. The first part of the interview schedule included demographic traits, reproductive profile and lifestyle variables. The second part consisted of anthropometric measurements for BMI which were taken using an anthropometric rod (height) and digital weighing scale (weight). All the data were analysed through SPSS 22.0. The results revealed a higher prevalence of obesity and underweight among infertile women. There is a clear-cut indication that usual risk factors of obesity like physical inactivity, increasing age, higher age at marriage, and infertility-related biological issues seem to be promoting obesity in combination with infertility. Public health education is needed to increase awareness about the age at marriage. As physical inactivity leads to obesity among infertile women, counselling, awareness raising or improvement of lifestyle factors should be considered in the infertility treatment protocol

A Comparative Analysis of Machine-learning Models for Solar Flare Forecasting : Identifying High-performing Active Region Flare Indicators

Solar flares create adverse space weather impacting space- and Earth-based technologies. However, the difficulty of forecasting flares, and by extension severe space weather, is accentuated by the lack of any unique flare trigger or a single physical pathway. Studies indicate that multiple physical properties contribute to active region flare potential, compounding the challenge. Recent developments in machine learning (ML) have enabled analysis of higher-dimensional data leading to increasingly better flare forecasting techniques. However, consensus on high-performing flare predictors remains elusive. In the most comprehensive study to date, we conduct a comparative analysis of four popular ML techniques (k nearest neighbors, logistic regression, random forest classifier, and support vector machine) by training these on magnetic parameters obtained from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory for the entirety of solar cycle 24. We demonstrate that the logistic regression and support vector machine algorithms perform extremely well in forecasting active region flaring potential. The logistic regression algorithm returns the highest true skill score of 0.967 +/- 0.018, possibly the highest classification performance achieved with any strictly parametric study. From a comparative assessment, we establish that magnetic properties like total current helicity, total vertical current density, total unsigned flux, R_VALUE, and total absolute twist are the top-performing flare indicators. We also introduce and analyze two new performance metrics, namely, severe and clear space weather indicators. Our analysis constrains the most successful ML algorithms and identifies physical parameters that contribute most to active region flare productivity.Peer reviewe

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

An unusual cause of hoarseness of voice in an immunocompetent individual

A 43-year-old female patient presented with the complaints of progressive hoarseness of voice for 6 months. There was no apparent evidence of immunodeficiency, abuse of voice, systemic infection, or trauma. Fiberoptic laryngoscopy revealed whitish plaques mimicking leukoplakia that involved both the vocal cords. Investigations ruled out malignancy and confirmed primary vocal cord aspergillosis. The lesions responded dramatically to oral antifungal drugs. High index of suspicion and micropathological awareness regarding such an entity are of utmost importance since the management depends on accurate diagnosis and timely introduction of proper antifungal therapy

Production and characterization of arabinogalactan protein (AGP) from a hairy root line of <i style="">Catharanthus roseus</i> (L.) G. Don

211-216Arabinogalactan protein (AGP), a class of cell wall proteoglycan, was isolated from the hairy root cultures of a newly developed hairy root line IIT-BT/D1 of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. AGP was found to be present both in the roots (0.3 mg/g fresh weight) and in the spent media (47 mg/L). The compositional analysis revealed the predominance of arabinose and galactose sugar, a characteristic feature of AG

Conjunctival oculosporidiosis: A case report from a nonendemic zone in India

Oculosporidiosis or rhinosporidial infection of eye, a rarely encountered disease outside the endemic coastal areas of South India, is caused by Rhinosporidium seeberi. A 12-year-old patient presented with polypoidal conjunctival lesion of the right eye in a tertiary care hospital at West Bengal, India. Excision of the lesion followed by microbiological and histopathological examination confirmed the unique infectious etiology of the lesion. Oculosporidiosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of conjunctival polypoidal lesions even in nonendemic areas because misdiagnosis and improper management may lead to increased incidence in the same zones

A Retrospective Study on Pre Exposure Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin Prophylaxis for COVID-19 in Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background:COVID-19 was declared a ‘pandemic’ by the WHO on 11th March, 2020. The high infectivity and unique transmission potentials of the causative agent of COVID-19, namely, SARS-CoV-2 were the reasons behind its wide-scale spread and made health care workers (HCWs), the most ‘at-risk population’ for acquiring the infection.The administration of HCQs and/or Ivermectin prophylaxis was one of the most commonly used stratagems recommended to protect the HCWs prior to the development of an effective vaccine. But data on its effectiveness, if any, were not conclusive. Also the above strategy was not accepted by many HCWs themselves for a plethora of reasons. Hence a systematic enquiry into the above conundrums was felt to be the need of the hour. Objective: 1.To assesses the effectiveness of HCQs and Ivermectin as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs against SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs in a tertiary care hospital. 2. To identify the reason(s) behind avoidance of PrEPamong HCWs. Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective study based on an online/ offline/ telephonic survey on HCWs directly related to COVID care services. Results: Total 336 HCWs responded to our survey. There were segregated intotwo cohort groups, namely, those taking PrEP (n=148; exposed) and those avoidingPrEP (n=188; control). In the PrEPgroup, 26 (17.56%) out of 148 participants reported to have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during some point of time, whereas, in the control group, 38 (20.21%) out of 188 participants reported to have been SARS-CoV-2 positive. We found no significant reduction SARS-CoV-2 cases in exposed group with relative risk of 0.8691 (95% Confidence Intervals 0.5542 to 1.363, p &lt;0.3181).Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that voluntary consumption of PrEP by HCWs is not associated with a statistically significant reduction in risk of SARS-CoV-2

Over-Expression of Telomere Binding Factors (TRF1 & TRF2) in Renal Cell Carcinoma and Their Inhibition by Using SiRNA Induce Apoptosis, Reduce Cell Proliferation and Migration Invitro

<div><p>Telomere binding factors viz. TRF1 and TRF2 are a part of sheltrin complex that are present exclusively at the ends of chromosomes. These factors play an important role in maintaining chromosomal integrity at the ends. However, their status and role are not clear in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate TRF1 and TRF2 expressions in RCC tissues. Further, the role of these factors involved in tumorigenesis was elucidated by gene silencing using siRNA in RCC cell line (A498). The present study documented a significant over-expression of TRF1 (P = 0.005) and TRF2 (P = 0.0048) mRNAs by real time PCR in RCC tissues as compared with adjacent normal kidney tissues. Immunohistochemistry studies also revealed higher expression of TRF1 and TRF2 proteins in RCC. Moreover, TRF1 or TRF2 gene silencing using siRNA showed marked reduction in proliferation of RCC cells (P = 0.000). Further, significantly induced cell cycle arrest (P = 0.000) and apoptosis of RCC cells (P = 0.000) was documented upon TRF1 or TRF2 gene silencing. Henceforth, the results deduce that TRF1 or TRF2 inhibitions play an important role in the induction of apoptosis in A498 cells, which may serve as a potential therapeutic target in RCC.</p></div