Assessment of Menopausal Symptoms During Perimenopause and Postmenopause in Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Issues related to menopausal symptoms are very complicated in terms of experience, severity, and dynamics of the symptoms. Studies have shown that these symptoms vary among individuals depending on the menopausal stage, ethnicity, geographical location, and other factors. Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) is an effective tool to assess the severity of these symptoms. Aim: This study was done to compare the frequency and severity of menopausal symptoms during peri‑ and postmenopause using the MRS. Subjects and Methods: Ninety‑two perimenopausal women and 95 postmenopausal women who attended Gynecology out patient department ( OPD) for treatment of menopausal complaints were assessed using the MRS questionnaire before starting therapy. Informed consent and ethics committee clearance was obtained prior to the study. Response was recorded and statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). Result: The mean total MRS score was comparable in both the groups. The mean psychological score was significantly higher in perimenopausal group in comparison to postmenopausal group (P<0.01). The mean urogenital score was higher in postmenopausal women (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Fatigue, depression, anxiety, hot flashes, and sexual disturbances were the common symptoms that appeared first during the perimenopausal phase. As the age advanced and women progressed in the postmenopausal stage, the psychological symptoms of depression, irritability, and sleep disturbances decreased; while the urogenital symptoms, fatigue, and generalized body ache became more prominent.Keywords: Africa, menopause, menopause rating scale, perimenopause, postmenopause, severity of menopausal symptom

Euphorbia royleana, a botanical pesticide affects ultimobranchial gland of the catfish Heteropneustes fossilis

Heteropneustes fossilis were subjected to high and low doses of the latex of Euphorbia royleana for short-term and long-term exposures, respectively. The blood was analyzed for plasma calcium levels, and the ultimobranchial glands fixed and examined. Serum calcium levels declined after 48 h following short-term exposure, and this decrease continued until the end of the experiment. The ultimobranchial cells exhibited a decrease in the cytoplasmic staining response after 96 h following treatment, and the nuclear volumes slightly decreased. Chronically exposed fish also exhibited a decline in serum calcium levels, but much later, on day 7, again progressively declining until the close of the experiment. Up to day 14 following treatment there was no change in histological structure of the ultimobranchial glands, but then there was a decrease in nuclear volume and the cytoplasm displayed a weak staining response. There was some vacuolization and degeneration.Keywords: Botanicals, calcitonin, calcium, teleos

Salient Object Detection Techniques in Computer Vision-A Survey.

Detection and localization of regions of images that attract immediate human visual attention is currently an intensive area of research in computer vision. The capability of automatic identification and segmentation of such salient image regions has immediate consequences for applications in the field of computer vision, computer graphics, and multimedia. A large number of salient object detection (SOD) methods have been devised to effectively mimic the capability of the human visual system to detect the salient regions in images. These methods can be broadly categorized into two categories based on their feature engineering mechanism: conventional or deep learning-based. In this survey, most of the influential advances in image-based SOD from both conventional as well as deep learning-based categories have been reviewed in detail. Relevant saliency modeling trends with key issues, core techniques, and the scope for future research work have been discussed in the context of difficulties often faced in salient object detection. Results are presented for various challenging cases for some large-scale public datasets. Different metrics considered for assessment of the performance of state-of-the-art salient object detection models are also covered. Some future directions for SOD are presented towards end

Voice Navigation Effects on Real-World Lane Change Driving Analysis Using an Electroencephalogram

© 2018 IEEE. Improving the degree of assistance given by in-car navigation systems is an important issue for the safety of both drivers and passengers. There is a vast body of research that assesses the usability and interfaces of the existing navigation systems but very few investigations study the impact on the brain activity based on navigation-based driving. In this paper, a real-world experiment is designed to acquire the electroencephalography (EEG) and in-car information to analyze the dynamic brain activity while the driver is performing the lane-changing task based on the auditory instructions from an in-car navigation system. The results show that auditory cues can influence the speed and increase the frontal EEG delta and beta power, which is related to motor preparation and decision making during a lane change. However, there were no significant results on the alpha power. A better lane-change assessment can be obtained using specific vehicle information (lateral acceleration and heading angle) with EEG features for future naturalized driving study

IoT-Based Wireless Polysomnography Intelligent System for Sleep Monitoring

© 2013 IEEE. Polysomnography (PSG) is considered the gold standard in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The diagnosis of OSA requires an overnight sleep experiment in a laboratory. However, due to limitations in relation to the number of labs and beds available, patients often need to wait a long time before being diagnosed and eventually treated. In addition, the unfamiliar environment and restricted mobility when a patient is being tested with a polysomnogram may disturb their sleep, resulting in an incomplete or corrupted test. Therefore, it is posed that a PSG conducted in the patient's home would be more reliable and convenient. The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in the e-Health system. In this paper, we implement an IoT-based wireless polysomnography system for sleep monitoring, which utilizes a battery-powered, miniature, wireless, portable, and multipurpose recorder. A Java-based PSG recording program in the personal computer is designed to save several bio-signals and transfer them into the European data format. These PSG records can be used to determine a patient's sleep stages and diagnose OSA. This system is portable, lightweight, and has low power-consumption. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed PSG system, a comparison was made between the standard PSG-Alice 5 Diagnostic Sleep System and the proposed system. Several healthy volunteer patients participated in the PSG experiment and were monitored by both the standard PSG-Alice 5 Diagnostic Sleep System and the proposed system simultaneously, under the supervision of specialists at the Sleep Laboratory in Taipei Veteran General Hospital. A comparison of the results of the time-domain waveform and sleep stage of the two systems shows that the proposed system is reliable and can be applied in practice. The proposed system can facilitate the long-Term tracing and research of personal sleep monitoring at home

Seed Quality Markers: A Review

INTRODUCTION Seed provides food, feed, fibre and most importantly conserve the species in the form of a tiny size to adapt to the environment. Seed is the harbinger for agricultural productivity; however, burgeoning population, reduction in land holding size due to urbanization and tremendous demand for quality food is an upcoming challenges to be confronted. Under such odds, it is inevitable to have quality seeds that enable successful stand establishment and crop improvement. Seed quality comprises of seed germination, vigour, genetic purity and health estate of seed [1] . Quality seeds germinate completely at faster rate with vigorous seedlings of little sensitivity to climatic changes that enable them to adapt broad range of environmental conditions Recent studies have demonstrated some evidence as potential markers at biochemical, molecular levels. Antioxidants, integrity of membrane determination by electrolyte leakage, ethylene production during imbitions phase, changes in raffinose family oligosachharides and 11 S globulin β-subunit, late embyrogenesis abundant protein and heat shock protein changes are reliable indicators of seed germination, performance, maturity and seed priming treatments Antioxidants Seed quality maintenance during seed production is inevitable as reactive oxygen species (ROS) synthesis takes place during metabolic process. ROS comprises of superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen which has adverse Review Article ABSTRACT Seed is a basic input for agriculture productivity and germplasm conservation. Seed quality predominantly comprises of germination and vigour which are quintessential for successful stand establishment. On the other hand, seed industries are thriving to improve the crop yield through control of seed vigour. Possibilities of seed vigour could be improved by seed priming and post-harvest processing. So far, during seed production at a commercial scale, maturity used to monitor visually which necessitates the expertise of growers. It is the need of the hour to develop markers that aid in identifying optimum harvest time. Markers could be developed by clearly understanding the physiological, biochemical, molecular mechanisms involved in seed quality (germination and vigour). From the recent studies, several promising markers such as cell cycle markers, electrolyte leakage, ethylene production, sugar metabolism, proteins, antioxidants and telomeres have been suggested as reliable markers to monitor the seed quality process. Such markers not only help to identify the seedling stages but also facilitate a better understanding of seed priming treatments. effects on lipids, DNA, RNA, and proteins that ultimately leads to cell death. The condition could be more deteriorative if the seed biochemical composition is enriched with oil/lipid content. For example, ROS damages the integrity of cell membranes, alters the permeability and fluidity through peroxidation of lipids Antioxidants such as tocopherols, phenols, carotenoids, ascorbic acid and thiols are non-enzymatic in nature whereas, catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase are the major enzymatic moieties. The enzymatic antioxidants mainly execute its function through detoxification mechanisms. For example, superoxide (free radical) has been dismutated by SOD to hydrogen peroxide and oxygen. Further, catalase detoxifies the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. These enzyme activities are directly correlated with ROS maintenance at non-toxic levels which may serve as markers. Bailley et al. Membrane Integrity Unlike recalcitrant seeds, orthodox seeds undergo desiccation tolerance after maturation. Membrane integrity is one of the important features to confront the desiccation tolerance to remain seed viability Ethylene as Indicator Ethylene synthesis in higher plants takes place through 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylic acid (ACC) oxidase activity Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides (RFO) In addition to the above markers, some molecules such as RFO are of particular interest. RFO accumulates during seed maturation and helps to maintain the intracellular contents in glassy state through increase in cytoplasmic viscosity and glass to liquid transition temperatures. These modifications help in to restrain ageing effect Cell Cycle Markers In higher plants, the embryo development needs endosperm nourishment. In angiosperms, the embryo is formed by the fusion of one nucleus from male gametophyte and the other from female gametophyte. Thus, the embryo is in 2 n stage representing a dploid genome (2n). In seeds, at different developmental stages mitotic/endoreduplication takes place, as a result, physiological state of a seed could be easily understood. In embryo, a typical proliferative cell undergoes mitosis where 2 n is duplicated to 4 n condition after 'S' phase; thereafter, in mitosis where the DNA content is divided into two daughter nuclei (4 n to 2 n) as depicted in Unlike embryonic cells, some endosperm cells undergo endoreduplication where repeated rounds of DNA replication occur in nuclei without the mitotic stage which leads to formation of endopolyploid cells. This striking feature could be studied through flow cytometry to estimate the DNA content with fluorochrome Figure 2. Typical proliferative cell cycle stages in embryo. In embryo, a typical proliferative cell undergoes mitosis where 2n is duplicated to 4n condition after 'S' phase; thereafter, in mitosis where the DNA content is divided into two daughter nuclei (4n to 2n). In case of non-proliferative cells (seed maturation stage) it undergoes quiescent G 0 stage from G 1 phase. From the above discussion, it is imperative to deduce a yardstick of seed maturity with the ratio of endosperm to embryo nuclei which will provide the insights. Several reports suggested the utility of endosperm to embryo ratio; for example, in sugarbeet, it is about 3:2 and 9:1 at 21 day old developing and 36 (mature) day old seeds respectivel

Chronic renal insufficiency among Asian Indians with type 2 diabetes: I. Role of RAAS gene polymorphisms

BACKGROUND: Renal failure in diabetes is mediated by multiple pathways. Experimental and clinical evidences suggest that renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) has a crucial role in diabetic kidney disease. A relationship between the RAAS genotypes and chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) among type 2 diabetes subjects has therefore been speculated. We investigated the contribution of selected RAAS gene polymorphisms to CRI among type 2 diabetic Asian Indian subjects. METHODS: Twelve single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from six genes namely-renin (REN), angiotensinogen (ATG), angiotensin converting enzyme I (ACE), angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1) and aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) gene from the RAAS pathway and one from chymase pathway were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method and tested for their association with diabetic CRI using a case-control approach. Successive cases presenting to study centres with type 2 diabetes of ≥2 years duration and moderate CRI diagnosed by serum creatinine ≥3 mg/dl after exclusion of non-diabetic causes of CRI (n = 196) were compared with diabetes subjects with no evidence of renal disease (n = 225). Logistic regression analysis was carried out to correlate various clinical parameters with genotypes, and to study pair wise interactions between SNPs of different genes. RESULTS: Of the 12 SNPs genotyped, Glu53Stop in AGT and A>T (-777) in AT1 genes, were monomorphic and not included for further analysis. We observed a highly significant association of Met235Thr SNP in angiotensinogen gene with CRI (O.R. 2.68, 95%CI: 2.01–3.57 for Thr allele, O.R. 2.94, 95%CI: 1.88–4.59 for Thr/Thr genotype and O.R. 2.68, 95%CI: 1.97–3.64 for ACC haplotype). A significant allelic and genotypic association of T>C (-344) SNP in aldosterone synthase gene (O.R. 1.57, 95%CI: 1.16–2.14 and O.R. 1.81, 95%CI: 1.21–2.71 respectively), and genotypic association of GA genotype of G>A (-1903) in chymase gene (O.R. 2.06, 95%CI: 1.34–3.17) were also observed. CONCLUSION: SNPs Met235Thr in angiotensinogen, T>C (-344) in aldosterone synthase, and G>A (-1903) in chymase genes are significantly associated with diabetic chronic renal insufficiency in Indian patients and warrant replication in larger sample sets. Use of such markers for prediction of susceptibility to diabetes specific renal disease in the ethnically Indian population appears promising

Reproductive Behaviour Evolves Rapidly When Intralocus Sexual Conflict Is Removed

Background Intralocus sexual conflict can inhibit the evolution of each sex towards its own fitness optimum. In a previous study, we confirmed this prediction through the experimental removal of female selection pressures in Drosophila melanogaster, achieved by limiting the expression of all major chromosomes to males. Compared to the control populations (C1-4) where the genomes are exposed to selection in both sexes, the populations with male-limited genomes (ML1-4) showed rapid increases in male fitness, whereas the fitness of females expressing ML-evolved chromosomes decreased [1]. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we examine the behavioural phenotype underlying this sexual antagonism. We show that males expressing the ML genomes have a reduced courtship level but acquire the same number of matings. On the other hand, our data suggest that females expressing the ML genomes had reduced attractiveness, stimulating a lower rate of courtship from males. Moreover, females expressing ML genomes tend to display reduced yeast-feeding behaviour, which is probably linked to the reduction of their fecundity. Conclusion/Significance These results suggest that reproductive behaviour is shaped by opposing selection on males and females, and that loci influencing attractiveness and foraging were polymorphic for alleles with sexually antagonistic expression patterns prior to ML selection. Hence, intralocus sexual conflict appears to play a role in the evolution of a wide range of fitness-related traits and may be a powerful mechanism for the maintenance of genetic variation in fitness