Diabetic nephropathy: early markers for monitoring and prevention

Background: Type 2 diabetes, with its complications is perpetually on the rise more so in India .Diabetic Nephropathy progresses silently, and manifests at a stage where, patient can be offered only renal replacement. This study was undertaken to detect early markers of Diabetic Nephropathy. Aims and objective of the study was to study early nephropathy by UACR (urinary albumin/creatinine ratio), RFT (renal function test) and e-GFR in Type 2 diabetic patients of more than 2 years duration, with and without hypertension.Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional observational study, of 100 patients, 18-60 years of age, of type 2 Diabetes of 2 year duration and above, of which 50 were only diabetic and 50 had diabetes and hypertension. Patients who had an established renal disease were excluded from study.Results: Our study of 100 patients, 18-60 years of age, had 23 male and 77 female patients. Maximum patients were in age group 41-50 years, and 52% had diabetes of 2-4 years duration. Of the renal parameters studied, BUN was normal in 72% and S. Creatinine normal in 67%. UACR was normal in only 38%, and e-GFR was normal in 49%.Conclusions: In our study age and sex, duration of Diabetes and HbA1c did not have any bearing on renal parameters. UACR followed by e-GFR, were deranged early. UACR was more deranged in diabetics with hypertension.

A Comparative Study on the Physicochemical Parameters of Camel and Buffalo Milk

This research work was carried out to compare the various physicochemical parameters of two species, camel and buffalo. Camel milk samples were collected at National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner and buffaloes milk samples were collected from the surroundings villages of Bikaner. After collection milk samples were brought to the laboratory of NRCC Bikaner and they were analyzed for fat, SNF (Solid Not Fat), protein, lactose, total ash and pH using milk analyzer (Lactoscan). Camel milk had 2.71±0.11 fat, 6.91±0.03 SNF, 2.23±0.02 protein, 3.86±0.02 lactose, 0.79±0.004 total ash and 6.95±0.01 pH while buffalo milk had 8.71±0.82 fat, 8.44±0.19 SNF, 4.11±0.02 protein, 4.46±0.15 lactose, 0.98±0.05 total ash and 7.59±0.02 pH. Fat, SNF, protein and pH of buffalo milk was significantly (P<0.001) higher than camel milk. Lactose and total ash in buffalo milk was also higher than camel milk but at P<0.05 level. So it can be concluded that all the studied parameters were high in buffalo milk than camel milk

Comprehensive comparison of in silico MS/MS fragmentation tools of the CASMI contest: database boosting is needed to achieve 93% accuracy.

In mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics, rarely more than 30% of the compounds are identified. Without the true identity of these molecules it is impossible to draw conclusions about the biological mechanisms, pathway relationships and provenance of compounds. The only way at present to address this discrepancy is to use in silico fragmentation software to identify unknown compounds by comparing and ranking theoretical MS/MS fragmentations from target structures to experimental tandem mass spectra (MS/MS). We compared the performance of four publicly available in silico fragmentation algorithms (MetFragCL, CFM-ID, MAGMa+ and MS-FINDER) that participated in the 2016 CASMI challenge. We found that optimizing the use of metadata, weighting factors and the manner of combining different tools eventually defined the ultimate outcomes of each method. We comprehensively analysed how outcomes of different tools could be combined and reached a final success rate of 93% for the training data, and 87% for the challenge data, using a combination of MAGMa+, CFM-ID and compound importance information along with MS/MS matching. Matching MS/MS spectra against the MS/MS libraries without using any in silico tool yielded 60% correct hits, showing that the use of in silico methods is still important

Mean Spectral Energy Distributions and Bolometric Corrections for Luminous Quasars

We explore the mid-infrared (mid-IR) through ultraviolet (UV) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 119,652 luminous broad-lined quasars with 0.064<z<5.46 using mid-IR data from Spitzer and WISE, near-infrared data from Two Micron All Sky Survey and UKIDSS, optical data from Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and UV data from Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The mean SED requires a bolometric correction (relative to 2500A) of BC=2.75+-0.40 using the integrated light from 1um-2keV, and we further explore the range of bolometric corrections exhibited by individual objects. In addition, we investigate the dependence of the mean SED on various parameters, particularly the UV luminosity for quasars with 0.5<z<3 and the properties of the UV emission lines for quasars with z>1.6; the latter is a possible indicator of the strength of the accretion disk wind, which is expected to be SED dependent. Luminosity-dependent mean SEDs show that, relative to the high-luminosity SED, low-luminosity SEDs exhibit a harder (bluer) far-UV spectral slope, a redder optical continuum, and less hot dust. Mean SEDs constructed instead as a function of UV emission line properties reveal changes that are consistent with known Principal Component Analysis (PCA) trends. A potentially important contribution to the bolometric correction is the unseen extream-UV (EUV) continuum. Our work suggests that lower-luminosity quasars and/or quasars with disk-dominated broad emission lines may require an extra continuum component in the EUV that is not present (or much weaker) in high-luminosity quasars with strong accretion disk winds. As such, we consider four possible models and explore the resulting bolometric corrections. Understanding these various SED-dependent effects will be important for accurate determination of quasar accretion rates.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figure

Identifying metabolites by integrating metabolome databases with mass spectrometry cheminformatics.

Novel metabolites distinct from canonical pathways can be identified through the integration of three cheminformatics tools: BinVestigate, which queries the BinBase gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolome database to match unknowns with biological metadata across over 110,000 samples; MS-DIAL 2.0, a software tool for chromatographic deconvolution of high-resolution GC-MS or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); and MS-FINDER 2.0, a structure-elucidation program that uses a combination of 14 metabolome databases in addition to an enzyme promiscuity library. We showcase our workflow by annotating N-methyl-uridine monophosphate (UMP), lysomonogalactosyl-monopalmitin, N-methylalanine, and two propofol derivatives

Astrometric Redshifts for Quasars

The wavelength dependence of atmospheric refraction causes differential chromatic refraction (DCR), whereby objects imaged at different optical/UV wavelengths are observed at slightly different positions in the plane of the detector. Strong spectral features induce changes in the effective wavelengths of broad-band filters that are capable of producing significant positional offsets with respect to standard DCR corrections. We examine such offsets for broad-emission-line (type 1) quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spanning 0<z<5 and an airmass range of 1.0 to 1.8. These offsets are in good agreement with those predicted by convolving a composite quasar spectrum with the SDSS bandpasses as a function of redshift and airmass. This astrometric information can be used to break degeneracies in photometric redshifts of quasars (or other emission-line sources) and, for extreme cases, may be suitable for determining "astrometric redshifts". On the SDSS's southern equatorial stripe, where it is possible to average many multi-epoch measurements, more than 60% of quasars have emission-line-induced astrometric offsets larger than the SDSS's relative astrometric errors of 25-35 mas. Folding these astrometric offsets into photometric redshift estimates yields an improvement of 9% within Delta z+/-0.1. Future multi-epoch synoptic surveys such as LSST and Pan-STARRS could benefit from intentionally making ~10 observations at relatively high airmass (AM~1.4) in order to improve their photometric redshifts for quasars.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures (3 color); AJ, accepte

Variable Star Observation and Search

Variable stars are stars that vary in their light output over time. We have used the on‐campus observatory facility, as well as supplies purchased with a Sigma Pi Sigma undergraduate research grant, to locate, observe, and collect data on these stars. The main objective of the project is to learn to perform accurate CCD photometry while also to engage members of SPS with a long‐term research project. Our goal is to match our gathered data to verified data recorded by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) and eventually to begin contributing original results to the organization. Results obtained from this project will also help to determine the best observing and calibration techniques for photometry in the heavily light‐polluted skies of Philadelphia. I

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Not AvailableSire evaluation through estimation of breeding value was done for seven dromedary sires utilising 74 lactation records spanning over last five years. The average daily milk production (Mean ą SEM) from two-teat was 3.13 ą0. 15 litres and 300 days’ yield was 905.18 ą46. 3 litres. The effect of breed on daily milk production and 300 days’ yield was non-significant (P> 0.05) but the effect of parity was significant (P< 0.05) with highest production in third parity (3.54 ą0. 24 litres). The effect of year was also highly significant with highest average daily production in the year 2008 (4.02 ą0. 28 litres). The unadjusted two-teat average daily milk yield and the 300 days’ milk yield was utilised for the estimation of random effect due to sire and fixed effects due to parity and year after deleting records of progeny with unknown sires. The breeding values for sires used ranged from 2.88 ą0. 25 to 3.42 ą0. 23 litres for daily milk yield and 828.78 ą72. 00 to 975.93 ą67. 13 litres for 300 days’ yield. Though, the mean ą 1 standard deviation (SD) encompassed the entire range of the breeding values of all the sires evaluated, still the top ranking sires or their progeny may be preferred over others in breeding. The repeatability of average daily milk yield and 300 days ‘yield was estimated to be 0.40 and 0.39 respectively, indicating the potential use of present performance as an indicator of future performance. In order to rank the females, the production data was adjusted for the significant effects of parity and year. The overall mean ą standard deviation for the two-teat average daily yield was 3.18 ą 0.70 litres and that for 300 days’ yield was 922.9 ą 211.2 litres. The animals …Not Availabl