A study of histological changes of human placenta in rural population of eastern India

Background: Placenta is essential for maintenance of pregnancy and for promoting normal growth and development of fetus. It forms the morphological record of anatomical condition, intrauterine events and intrapartum events of gestation. Present study has been undertaken to record the data on the morphology and histology of placenta from mothers with hypertension and diabetes.Methods: This study showed several significant morphological and histological differences in the placenta of the mother with GDM and hypertensive placenta. The histological study of the placenta was done under microscope and number of syncytial knots, cytotrophoblastic cellular proliferation, fibrinoid necrosis, endothelial proliferation, calcified and hyalinised villous spots were noted per low power field in the diabetics and hypertensive group in comparison to control group.Results: All other parameters including area, thickness, diameter, and circumference of GDM placenta show a significant increase when compared with normal placenta. The gross anatomic features of placentae e.g infarcted areas, calcified areas and marginal insertion of the umbilical cord in the study group show significant increase in value (p>0.01) in diabetic and hypertensive groups when compared to that of the control or normal group.Conclusions: In present study we found that hypertensive placentae tend to be slightly smaller in size, weight, volume, area, thickness, diameter, circumference and feto-placental ratio than normal placentae but the parameters were found to be significantly greater than that of normal placentae in case of diabetic placentae. No significant differences were found in umbilical cord insertion. In normal pregnancy cases we found several histological findings which were increased in hypertensive and diabetic cases

Primary malignant giant cell tumor of the sternum

Primary malignant giant cell tumor (PMGCT) is a diagnosis based on the presence of a high-grade sarcomatous component along with a typical benign giant cell tumor (GCT). We report the first case of PMGCT of the sternum in a 28-year-old male with painless swelling over the manubrium sterni. The differential diagnoses of PMGCT and giant cell-rich osteosarcoma were considered. Surgical resection was performed, and the reconstruction was done with a neosternum using polymethyl methacrylate and prolene mesh. At 30 months follow-up, the patient is disease-free

Change Management in Enterprise IT Systems: Process Modeling and Capacity-optimal Scheduling

Abstract—We provide a formal model for the Change Management process for Enterprise IT systems, and develop change scheduling algorithms that seek to attain the “change capacity ” of the system. The change management process handles critical updates in the system that often use overlapping sets of servers, resulting in scheduling conflicts between the corresponding change classes. Furthermore, applications are typically associated with certain permissible downtime windows, which impose constraints on the timing of the change executions. Scheduling of changes for such systems represent a complex dynamic optimization question. In a limiting fluid regime, where changes are assumed nonatomic, we develop a scheduling policy that provably attains the change capacity of the system. We then propose and evaluate an atomic approximation of the optimal fluid scheduling policy, which is well suited for application to a real change management system. Simulation results demonstrate that the expected change execution delay and the capacity attained by the approximate policy is close to the best attainable values, when unavoidable capacity losses due to fragmentation effects are taken into account and is significantly better than a randomized scheduling policy. I

Knowledge, awareness and attitude about human papilloma virus infection and its vaccine among medical students in West Bengal

Background: HPV infection is commonly found in the anogenital tract of men and women with and without clinical lesions. The aetiological role of HPV infection among women with cervical cancer is well-established, and there is growing evidence of its central role in other anogenital sites. The key to preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is education and immunization of youth. We investigated the awareness and knowledge of HPV infection/HPV vaccine and potential acceptability to HPV vaccine and explore the acceptability of vaccination among the medical students in West Bengal. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in Jan-Feb 2019 to know the level of knowledge, awareness and attitude about various aspects of HPV infection and vaccine among medical students in two different medical colleges of West Bengal. There were 200 medical students between 18‑25 years who participated in the study, out of which 137 were males and 63 were females. A self-administered questionnaire designed for the study was given to the students. Students were educated on the purpose of the study and contents and completion of questionnaire. Results: Majority of the students were well aware of the viral etiology of cervical cancer. The survey sample consisted of 200 medical students aged between 18‑25 years with a mean age of 21.8 ± 1.57 years. There were 133 (66.5%) males and 67 (33.5%) females studying in second or third year of M.B.B.S and all of them were unmarried. Almost all the students heard about of HPV. Majority of the students (52%) thought lack of access and knowledge was the most important obstacle for receiving HPV vaccination followed by doubt about effectiveness. The most common source of information for our study population was teachers and textbooks (94%) followed by classroom teaching 43.5%. Other sources of information include internet (31%), news papers and television (10.5%) and friends (4.5%). Majority of the study group (99%) like to update their knowledge by experts. About 14.2% of our study participants had been questioned by friends and relatives regarding HPV vaccination. Conclusion: To conclude gaps in knowledge regarding HPV infection and vaccination existed amongst the medical students and a more integrated teaching regarding HPV carcinogenesis, vaccination and cervical cancer needs to be introduced

Analysis of Transport Experiments using Pseudo-absorbance Data

The measurement of the concentration distribution of a macromolecule across a solution column by absorption optics usually requires optical transmission profiles of both the sample solution and the buffer, measured under identical conditions, to calculate the absorbance as the logarithm of the ratio of reference to sample intensity. For transport experiments, however, where the changes in the local macromolecule concentration with time are measured, a reference buffer intensity is not necessarily required. We demonstrate that the logarithm of the light transmitted through the sample solution, referred to as pseudo-absorbance, can suffice to determine macromolecular transport parameters of interest, with little loss of precision. Local changes in illumination of the sample column or in the detection efficiency of the transmitted light, as well as temporal fluctuations of the light source intensity can be well-described by consideration of time-invariant and radial-invariant signal components in the pseudo-absorbance data, using the systematic noise decomposition techniques developed recently (Schuck, P., and Demeler, B. (1999) Biophys. J. 76, 2288–2296). The practical use of the method is demonstrated with double-sector and single-sector sedimentation velocity experiments, and with analytical electrophoresis experiments. It is shown that pseudo-absorbance analysis can increase the capacity of a sedimentation velocity experiment in ultracentrifugation, and, in general, can considerably simplify the requirements of optical design

A study on the morphology and the morphometry of the human placenta and its clinical significance in rural population in Eastern India

Background: The placenta is a dynamic organ which is unique in its development and functions. It is the only organ in the body which is derived from two separate individuals, the mother and the fetus. The aim of the present study was to study the morphology, morphometry, and site of umbilical cord insertion in the placenta of women with normal, hypertensive, and diabetic pregnant women. Materials and Methods: A total number of 150 cases were included in this study. Results: In our study, we found that hypertensive placentae tend to be slightly smaller in size, weight, volume, area, thickness, diameter, circumference, and fetoplacental ratio than normal placentae, but the parameters were found to be significantly greater than that of normal placentae in case of diabetic placentae. Conclusion: An adequate knowledge of the morphometry of the placenta and its clinical relevance can prove to be valuable in the early assessment of the fetal well-being

Detection and Identification of the Vibrational Markers for the Quantification of Methionine Oxidation in Therapeutic Proteins

Methionine oxidation is a major degradation pathway in therapeutic proteins which can impact the structure and function of proteins as well as risk to drug product quality. Detecting Met oxidation in proteins by peptide mapping followed by liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC–MS) is the industry standard but is also labor intensive and susceptible to artifacts. In this work, vibrational difference spectroscopy in combination with ¹⁸O isotopic shift enabled us to demonstrate the application of Raman and FTIR techniques for the detection and quantification of Met oxidation in various therapeutic proteins, including mAbs, fusion proteins, and antibody drug conjugate. Vibrational markers of Met oxidation products, such as sulfoxide and sulfone, corresponding to SO and C–SO stretching frequencies were unequivocally identified based ¹⁸O isotoptic shifts. The intensity of the isolated νC–S Raman band at 702 cm^–1 was successfully applied to quantify the average Met oxidation level in multiple proteins. These results are further corroborated by oxidation levels measured by tryptic peptide mapping, and thus the confirmed Met oxidation levels derived from Raman and mass spectrometry are indeed consistent with each other. Thus, we demonstrate the broader application of vibrational spectroscopy to detect the subtle spectral changes associated with various chemical or physical degradation of proteins, including Met oxidation as well as higher order structural changes