Identification and differentiation of indigenous non- Basmati aromatic rice genotypes of India using microsatellite markers

Aromatic rice is preferred by consumers all over the world due to its flavor and palatability. Although large number of them is available, little analysis of the genetic diversity has been done at molecularlevel so far. Twelve microsatellite primer pairs, one from each chromosome of rice were used for evaluating the genetic diversity of 38 traditional indigenous non-Basmati aromatic rice cultivars. A totalof 32 different reproducible bands were amplified of which 26 (81.25%) were polymorphic. The number of bands per primer ranged from one to six with an average of 2.6 bands per primer. Ten primers(83.3%) revealed polymorphism between cultivars. Polymorphism information content ranged between 0.00 to 0.83. A dendrogram based on cluster analysis by microsatellite polymorphism grouped all the 38aromatic rice genotypes into three major groups effectively differentiating the slender aromatic rice cultivars from the short bold and long bold aromatic cultivars. Interestingly, Katrani, medium slenderaromatic rice from Bihar had to be grouped separately being genotypically different from other cultivars. It could be concluded that microsatellite markers could efficiently identify indigenous non-Basmati aromatic rice genotypes which can help in genetic  conservation management and support intellectual property protection

Ocular morbidity among children attending government and private schools of Kathmandu valley.

INTRODUCTION: Children from the developing world are more prone to going blind from avoidable and preventable causes. In Nepal, children in private schools are reported to have a higher ocular morbidity than those in government schools, with myopia being the major cause of the morbidity. This study was designed to evaluate ocular morbidity in students from both types of school. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional, comparative study among students from government and private schools of Kathmandu. Eye examination was carried out evaluating visual acuity, color vision, refractive status, binocular vision status, and anterior and posterior segment findings. RESULTS: A total of 4,228 students from government and private schools were evaluated. The prevalence of ocular morbidity was 19.56 % with refractive error (11.9 %) being the major cause of the morbidity, followed by strabismus and infective disorders. No significant difference in the prevalence of ocular morbidity and refractive status was found in the students from government and private schools. CONCLUSION: A significant number of children of school-going age have ocular morbidity with no significant difference in the prevalence in the students from government and private schools. Research exploring the effect of various risk factors in the progression of myopia would be helpful to investigate the refractive status in children from these different types of schools

Color vision defects in school going children.

INTRODUCTION: Color vision defect can be observed in various diseases of optic nerve and retina and also a significant number of people suffer from the inherited condition of red and green color defect. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed with purposive sampling of students from various schools of Kathmandu Valley. All children were subjected to color vision evaluation using Ishihara Isochromatic color plates along with other examination to rule out any other causes for color deficiency. RESULTS: A total of 2001 students were examined, 1050 male students and 951 females with mean age of 10.35 (+/- 2.75) and 10.54 (+/- 2.72) respectively. Among the total students examined, 2.1% had some form of color vision defects. Of the male population, 3.9% had color vision defects while none of the female was found with the deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of color vision defect in Nepal is significant and comparable with the prevalence quoted in studies from different countries

Pd Nanoparticles and Thin Films for Room Temperature Hydrogen Sensor

We report the application of palladium nanoparticles and thin films for hydrogen sensor. Electrochemically grown palladium particles with spherical shapes deposited on Si substrate and sputter deposited Pd thin films were used to detect hydrogen at room temperature. Grain size dependence of H2sensing behavior has been discussed for both types of Pd films. The electrochemically grown Pd nanoparticles were observed to show better hydrogen sensing response than the sputtered palladium thin films. The demonstration of size dependent room temperature H2sensing paves the ways to fabricate the room temperature metallic and metal–metal oxide semiconductor sensor by tuning the size of metal catalyst in mixed systems. H2sensing by the Pd nanostructures is attributed to the chemical and electronic sensitization mechanisms

Attitude and Myths Towards Rape among Medical Students in Rajkot, India

Background: Violence against women takes many forms – physical, sexual, psychological and economic. Violence against women harms families and communities across generations and reinforces other violence prevalent in society. Rape myths encompass a set of (false) beliefs about rape that places the blame on the victim and not the perpetrator. Objective: to assess the prevailing attitudes on rape myths among the medical students. Methods: The study was conducted after taking informed consent among 346 undergraduate medical students of P D U Government Medical College, Rajkot, India from January to June, 2013 by using previously validated questionnaire using updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Results: The age range of 346 medical students was 17 to 23 years with 172 male and 174 female students. Total 24.4% male and 23% female students had very good positive attitude. One fourth of male and one fifth of female students had a more negative attitude. No relation was observed for rape myth acceptance among medical students for residential or socio-economic status. Conclusion: The present study provides insight to the prevalence of attitude and rape myths towards rape among medical students. Introduction of education on gender violence with introduction of courses on ‘sexual violence’ in medical curriculum may help to decrease rape incidence and for better management of victims

Ocular morbidity among children studying in private schools of Kathmandu valley: A prospective cross sectional study.

A prospective cross sectional study of students of two private schools was done and students were screened in detail. A total of 1816 students aged 5 to 16 years were evaluated, out of which 52.8% were males and 47.2 % were females. Among the total, 65.8% had no ocular abnormalities and 34.2% had some form of ocular disorders. Refractive error was the commonest problem seen accounting for 21.9% out of total, followed by infective disorders, which accounted for 7.2%, 3.5% of them were noted to have Orthoptic problem including various types of strabismus, 2.2% were color blind, 2.6% were found to have various other disorders. The prevalence of refractive error among private school children seems to be higher. Color blindness also seems to be prevalent among these children. This kind of school screening would help in detecting the eye problems timely and thus would reduce the ocular morbidity as well as prevent children from going blind unnecessarily

Numerical study of interface tracking for the unsteady flow of two immiscible micropolar and Newtonian fluids through a horizontal channel with an unstable interface

The dynamics of the interaction between immiscible fluids is relevant to numerous complex flows in nature and industry, including lubrication and coating processes, oil extraction, physicochemical separation techniques etc. In this article, the unsteady flow of two immiscible fluids i.e. an Eringen micropolar and Newtonian liquid, is considered in a horizontal channel. Despite the no-slip and hyper-stick boundary conditions at the channel wall, it is accepted that the fluid-fluid interface is unstable, and it travels from one position to another, and may even be deformed; hence the single momentum equation in the volume of fluid (VOF) method is combined with the continuum surface approach model to track the interface. The immiscible fluids are considered to flow under three applied pressure gradients (constant, decaying and periodic) and flow is analyzed under seamless shear stress over the entire interface. The modified cubic b-spline differential quadrature method (MCB-DQM) is used to solve the modeled coupled partial differential equations for the fluid interface evolution. The advection and tracking of the interface with time, wave number, and amplitude are illustrated through graphs. It is observed that the presence of micropolar parameters affects the interface with time. The novelty of the current study is that previous studies (which considered smooth and unstable movement of the micropolar fluid, the steady stream of two immiscible fluids and interface monitoring through different modes) are extended and generalized to consider unsteady flow of two immiscible Eringen micropolar and Newtonian fluids with a moving interface in a horizontal channel. For the decaying pressure gradient case, which requires more time to achieve the steady state, the peak of the waves resemble those for the constant pressure gradient case. The interface becomes steady for a more extensive time when a constant pressure gradient is applied. The interface becomes stable quickly with time as the micropolar parameter is decreased for the constant pressure gradient case i.e. weaker micropolar fluids encourage faster stabilization of the interface. With periodic pressure gradient, the interface takes more time to stabilize, and the crest of the waves is significantly higher in amplitude compared to the constant and decaying pressure cases. The simulations demonstrate the excellent ability of MCB-DQM to analyze complex interfacial immiscible flows

Ion slip and hall effects on generalized time-dependent hydromagnetic Couette flow of immiscible micropolar and dusty micropolar fluids with heat transfer and dissipation : a numerical study

The hydrodynamics of immiscible micropolar fluids are important in a variety of engineering problems, including biofluid dynamics of arterial blood flows, pharmacodynamics, Principle of Boundary layers, lubrication technology, short waves for heat-conducting fluids, sediment transportation, magnetohydrodynamics, multicomponent hydrodynamics, and electrohydrodynamic. Motivated by the development of biological fluid modeling and medical diagnosis instrumentation, this article examines the collective impacts of ion slip, viscous dissipation, Joule heating, and Hall current on unsteady generalized magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Couette flow of two immiscible fluids. Two non-Newtonian incompressible magnetohydrodynamic micropolar and micropolar dusty (fluid-particle suspension) fluids are considered in a horizontal duct with heat transfer. No-slip boundary conditions are assumed at the channel walls and constant pressure gradient. Continuous shear stress and fluid velocity are considered across the interface between the two immiscible fluids. The coupled partial differential equations are formulated for fluids and particle phases and the velocities, temperatures, and microrotation profiles are obtained. Under the physically realistic boundary and interfacial conditions, the Modified cubic-Bspline differential quadrature approach (MCB-DQM) is deployed to obtain numerical results. The influence of the magnetic, thermal, and other pertinent parameters, i.e. Hartmann magnetic number, Eckert (dissipation) number, Reynolds number, Prandtl number, micropolar material parameters, Hall and ion-slip parameters, particle concentration parameter, viscosity ratio, density ratio, and time on velocity, microrotation, and temperature characteristics are illustrated through graphs. The MCB-DQM is found to be in good agreement with accuracy and the skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number are also explored. It is found that fluids and particle velocities are reduced with increasing Hartmann numbers whereas they are elevated with increment in ion-slip and Hall parameters. Temperatures are generally enhanced with increasing Eckert number and viscosity ratio. The simulations are relevant to nuclear heat transfer control, MHD energy generators, and electromagnetic multiphase systems in chemical engineering

Therapeutic benefits of distal ventricular pacing in mid-cavity obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

INTRODUCTION: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients with left ventricular (LV) mid-cavity obstruction (LVMCO) often experience severe drug-refractory symptoms thought to be related to intraventricular obstruction. We tested whether ventricular pacing, guided by invasive haemodynamic assessment, reduced LVMCO and improved refractory symptoms. METHODS: Between December 2008 and December 2017, 16 HCM patients with severe refractory symptoms and LVMCO underwent device implantation with haemodynamic pacing study to assess the effect on invasively defined LVMCO gradients. The effect on the gradient of atrioventricular (AV) synchronous pacing from sites including right ventricular (RV) apex and middle cardiac vein (MCV) was retrospectively assessed. RESULTS: Invasive haemodynamic data were available in 14 of 16 patients. Mean pre-treatment intracavitary gradient was 77 ± 22 mmHg (in sinus rhythm) versus 21 ± 21 mmHg during pacing from optimal ventricular site (95% CI: -70.86 to -40.57, p < 0.0001). Optimal pacing site was distal MCV in 12/16 (86%), RV apex in 1/16 and via epicardial LV lead in 1/16. Pre-pacing Doppler-derived gradients were significantly higher than at follow-up (47 ± 15 versus 24 ± 16 mmHg, 95% CI: -37.19 to -13.73, p < 0.001). Median baseline NYHA class was 3, which had improved by ⩾1 NYHA class in 13 of 16 patients at 1-year post-procedure (p < 0.001). The mean follow-up duration was 4.6 ± 2.7 years with the following outcomes: 8/16 (50%) had continued symptomatic improvement, 4/16 had symptomatic decline and 4/16 died. Contributors to symptomatic decline included chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) (n = 5), phrenic nerve stimulation (n = 3) and ventricular ectopy (n = 1). CONCLUSION: In drug-refractory symptomatic LVMCO, distal ventricular pacing can reduce intracavitary obstruction and may provide long-term symptomatic relief in patients with limited treatment options. A haemodynamic pacing study is an effective strategy for identifying optimal pacing site and configuration