TLR3 Deficiency Leads to a Dysregulation in the Global Gene-Expression Profile in Murine Oviduct Epithelial Cells Infected with Chlamydia muridarum

OBJECTIVE Describe the implementation and effects of Mobile Acute Care for Elders (MACE) consultation at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). DESIGN Retrospective cohort analysis. INTERVENTION Veterans aged 65 or older who were admitted to the medicine service between October 1, 2012, and September 30, 2014, were screened for geriatric syndromes via review of medical records within 48 hours of admission. If the screen was positive, the MACE team offered the admitting team a same-day consultation involving comprehensive geriatric assessment and ongoing collaboration with the admitting team and supportive services to implement patient-centric recommendations for geriatric syndromes. RESULTS Veterans seen by MACE (n = 421) were compared with those with positive screens but without consultation (n = 372). The two groups did not significantly differ in age, comorbidity, sex, or race. All outcomes (30-day readmission, 30-day mortality, readmission costs) were in the expected direction for patients receiving MACE but did not reach statistical significance. Patients receiving MACE had lower odds of 30-day readmission (11.9% vs 14.8%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.54-1.25; p = .360) and 30-day mortality (5.5% vs 8.6%; OR = 0.64; CI = 0.36-1.12; p = .115), and they had lower 30-day readmission costs (MACE $15,502; CI =$12,242-$19,631; comparison =$18,335; CI = $14,641-$22,962; p = .316) than those who did not receive MACE after adjusting for age and Charlson Comorbidity Index. CONCLUSION Our MACE consultation model for older veterans with geriatric syndromes leverages the limited supply of clinicians with expertise in geriatrics. Although not statistically significant in this study of 793 subjects, MACE patients had lower odds of 30-day readmission and mortality, and lower readmission costs. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:818–824, 2019

To Determine the Frequency of Thyroid Malignancy in Nodular Goitre in Our Institution

INTRODUCTION: Cancer is becoming a leading cause of death in many countries of the world. Thyroid malignancy is relatively rare, but represents the most frequent form of cancer of the endocrine glands. It may present as solitary nodule or as a dominant nodule in multinodular goitre. Therefore both conditions should be carefully evaluated to detect any underlying malignant foci. In India thyroid cancer responsible for 1.2% cases of all malignant tumors. Exposure to ionizing radiation, changing levels of iodine nutrition and improvement in the various investigations to identify malignant foci have all proposed as explanations for world wide increase in the incidence of thyroid malignancy. AIM OF THE STUDY: To determine the frequency of thyroid malignancy in solitary nodular goitre and multinodular goitre patients who are undergoing thyroidectomy in our institution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study was carried out in our hospital over the period of two years from 2008 to 2009. All patients who are underwent different types of thyroid surgery during this period were included in this study. All data including age gender, relevant history, investigations like untrasonography and fine needle aspiration cytology, duration of hospital stay, and final histopathology report were recorded on a standard form. CONCLUSION: Average age group of patients present with nodular goitre in our institution is 16-35, it is omparable to other studies. • Females are predominant sex group presented with nodular goitre. • Majority of the malignancies are presented as solitary nodule. • Maximum number of malignancies occurred in 16 to 35 age group. • Frequency of malignancy is greater in solitary nodular goitre than multi nodular goitre. • Frequency of malignancy in nodular goitre is 20% it is comparable to other studies. • Papillary type of carcinoma is the predominant type of malignancy presented. • All postoperative thyroid specimens should be subjected to detailed histopathology to detect microscopic malignant foci. • Due to its high accuracy and cost effectiveness FNAC plays significant role in the diagnosis of thyroid malignancy and management. • Incidence of thyroid malignancy in nodular goitre it present in our hospital is significant. FNAC and Ultra sound are important tools for the assessment of this goitres. • The risk of malignancy in MNG should not be under estimated as the incidence of malignancy in MNG is raising. • Dominant nodule in MNG should be considered as significant like solitary nodule. • Total thyroidectomy in MNG removes the disease process completely and avoids the substantial risk of re-operative surgery

Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch using Crow Search Algorithm

The optimal reactive power dispatch is a kind of optimization problem that plays a very important role in the operation and control of the power system. This work presents a meta-heuristic based approach to solve the optimal reactive power dispatch problem. The proposed approach employs Crow Search algorithm to find the values for optimal setting of optimal reactive power dispatch control variables. The proposed way of approach is scrutinized and further being tested on the standard IEEE 30-bus, 57-bus and 118-bus test system with different objectives which includes the minimization of real power losses, total voltage deviation and also the enhancement of voltage stability. The simulation results procured thus indicates the supremacy of the proposed approach over the other approaches cited in the literature

Influence of Recreational Games on Selected Fitness Components, Cognitive Skills and Psychomotor Abilities among Mild Intellectually Challenged Children

Most children have the option to participate in recreation, after school activities, weekend team sports, and summer camps. At school, they have a chance to exercise in physical education classes and in the playground at recess. However, these are limited for children with disabilities. Children with disabilities want to have friends, enjoy activities, and be included like everyone else. Like other children their interests range from swimming and sports, to visiting parks and playgrounds and attending summer camps with friends. The purpose of this study was to find out Influence of Recreational games on selected fitness components, cognitive skills and psychomotor abilities among mild intellectually challenged children from age group of 10 to 15 years both boys and girls and forty five students who were study in Coimbatore District. The subjects were divided in to three groups, each group consisting of 15 each. Experimental group I participated in unified play activities with partner who is normal for a period of 12 weeks training. Experimental group II participated in unified play activities among themselves for a period of 12 weeks training. Control group did not participate in unified play activities. The subjects were tested on selected criterion variables physical fitness variables as flexibility, leg explosive power and balance, Cognitive skills span of memory and span of attention and psychomotor ability reaction time, finger – eye coordination and hand – eye coordination before the training and after 12 weeks of training. The analysis of covariance was applied to find out the significant difference among the 10 -14 years of all groups in the selected variables. The “t” ratio was applied to find out significant improvement in the selected variables in each group

Dynamics of Team Teaching and Research in a Management School: Learning and Imperatives

This paper discusses the experience of team teaching to address the issues of integration of academic inputs by bringing multi-disciplinary perspective together and thereby enhance learning experience of participants. The paper delves on the process, events and outcome of team teaching by four faculty members at IIM Ahmedabad who collaborated in teaching, writing cases, and doing research for a period of more than three years. The experience has been summarized using the following dimensions: need for team-teaching, existing mechanisms and barriers, opportunities and potential, imperatives, fall-outs and challenges experienced in the process. The cohesion, trust and mutual respect are key imperatives. The other factors contributing to the success of team-teaching are strong felt need by the members for integration in programmes, complementary skills and experiences of team members, frequent programmes with integrated components that provided continuous opportunities for learning, co-location of the instructors, and off-site programmes that provided opportunities for close get-togethers. The autonomy granted by the institution to instructors and co-coordinators to design and execute learning opportunities was also instrumental in the success. In an environment where the rule of the game is individualism, forming teams creates fears of loss of importance and recognition. The experience shows that the competency of the members and the overall effectiveness of the tasks are strengthened if the team believes in “reciprocating interdependence”. This can be possible only if members allow themselves opportunities to experiment, improvise and review

Screening of in vitro derived mutants of banana against nematodes

Investigations were carried out to screen the in vitro derived mutants of banana cv. Robusta (Caveidish- AAA) and Rasthali (Silk- AAB) by using certain bio-chemical parameters including some enzyme activities. The mutants tested were Ro Im V4 6-1-1, Ro Im V4 6-1-2, Ro Im V4 6-2-1, Si Im V4 10-5-3, Si Im V4 4 6-2-5 along with respective susceptible checks (Robusta and Rasthali), tolerant check (Anaikomban- AA) and resistant check (Pisang Lilin- AA). Various biochemical assays used were total phenol, tannin content, lignin content, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, phenyl alanine ammonia lyase and ascorbic acid oxidase. The results revealed that the mutants namely Ro Im V4 6-1-1 and Si Im V4 10-5-3 were found to be resistant while the mutant Ro Im V4 6-2-1 was moderately resistant. The rest of the mutants namely Ro Im V4 6-1-2 and Si Im V4 6-2-5 were found to be susceptible to nematodes. The resistant and moderately resistant mutants of banana could be further used in breeding programmes as well as being recognized as potential cultivars of commerce.Key words: Banana, nematode, resistance, biochemical parameters, enzymes, screening

Scanning electron microscope studies on the radula teeth of four species of marine gastropods from the Gulf of Mannar, India

In this study scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to elucidate the surface morphology of radula teeth of four species of marine gastropods belonging to muricids and tonnoideans from the Gulf of Mannar. The species studied were Tonna dolium (Linne, 1758), Phalium glaucum (Linne, 1758), Murex virgineus (Roding, 1798) and Rapana rapiformis (Born, 1778). The radulae of muricid gastropods were of stenoglossan type (1+R+1) while the radulae of tonnoidean gastropods were of taenioglossate type (2+1+R+1+2). Very large radula and solid teeth in all four species indicate that they are well adapted to capture of prey and showed characteristic representation of the sharp and pointed apex. The shafts of the teeth of R. rapiformis, T. dolium and M virgeneus are thickened and expanded at the base to form a butt and the basal spur as well as their marginal and central teeth are sickle shaped. Radulae of both groups are well suited for tearing and rasping. The examination of the central tooth, the lateral and marginal ones, by SEM provides further information for species differentiation

Sustaining Productivity in Aonla Based Hortipasture System through \u3cem\u3eIn-Situ\u3c/em\u3e Soil Moisture Conservation in Semi-Arid Region of India

Globally land degradation affects about one sixth of the world population. In India, about 120 m ha area is affected with different kinds of land degradation. Under such situation, horti-pasture system provides best and economic alternative in conjunction with in-situ soil moisture conservation in general and semi-arid tropics in particular. India supports 55% buffaloes, 16% cattle, 20 % goats and about 4% sheep with deficit of 35% green fodder (525.51 mt), 10% dry fodder (453.28 mt) and 44% feed (28.4 mt) (IGFRI Vision, 2050). The per capita/day availability of fruits is 85 g as compared to average requirement of 120 g (CISH Vision, 2050). The above target could be achieved through adopting horti-pasture system in degraded land in combination of in-situ moisture conservation practices with suitable fruit and forage specie. Aonla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn.) is an important fruit crop and grown commercially because of its high economic return, therapeutic and neutraceutical value and its suitability for marginal lands (Kumar and Chaubey, 2008). Stylosanthes seabrana is perennial legume having good persistency under semi-arid condition and well adapted to tropical and subtropical environments with summer-dominant rainfall between 500-1,000 mm and very drought tolerant (Maass and Mannetje, 2002). Cenchrus ciliaris is also an important pasture easy to establish and provides comparatively high value forage suitable for direct feeding as well as quality hay (Trivedi, 2010). Establishment of hortipasture system in semi-arid tropicsis challenging task due to topography, soil and water related constraints. In-situ soil moisture conservation facilitates surface water to concentrate in one area, around the base of a newly planted tree (Samra, 2010 and Singh et al., 2008). Keeping above facts in view an experiment was conducted to evaluate different soil and moisture conservation measures for sustaining productivity with Aonla based hortipasture system at experimental farm of IGFRI, Jhansi, U. P. India

Hybrid optimization techniques based automatic artificial respiration system for corona patient

Artificial ventilation is widely used for various respiratory problems of human beings. The oxygen level of the corona patients has to be maintained for smooth breathing which is very difficult. For achieving this state, the air pressure should be controlled in the respiration system that has a piston mechanism driven by a motor. An Automatic respiration system model is designed and controller parameters are tuned using hybrid Optimization techniques. Hybrid Controllers like genetic algorithm based Fractional Order Proportional Integral Derivative controller (FOPID), Fmincon-Pattern search Algorithm based Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller, and Hybrid Model predictive control (MPC) – Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers were designed and verified. Integral Square Error is considered as the objective function of the optimization technique to find the controller parameters. The output responses of all three hybrid controllers are compared based on the error indices, time domain specifications, set-point tracking and Convergence speed graph. The genetic algorithm-based FOPID controller gives better results when compared with the Fmincon-Pattern search Algorithm based Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller and Hybrid Model predictive control (MPC) – Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) for the proposed artificial ventilation system

Investigation on physical and mechanical behaviour of A356 - x wt. % SiC/Gr hybrid composites

The experiments were planned to fabricate an A356 as a matrix material with 3, 6, 9, 12 wt. % of SiC and 3 wt. % of Gr as reinforcements to cast the hybrid composites at optimal process variable conditions using squeeze casting technique. Further T6 heat treated casted samples are prepared for testing as per standard procedure to record the responses like density, porosity, hardness, ultimate tensile strength, and percentage elongation respectively. There is a gradual increment in density because of adding an optimal level of up to 9 wt. % of SiC and 3 wt. % of Gr strengthening particles available in the A356 matrix and the porosity present in the sample diminishes, which in turn increases the hardness