Clinical Evaluation of Oxidative Stress in Women with Breast Cancer

Breast cancers are potentially life-threatening malignancies in women. Development of cancer produces oxidative stress, which increases with disease progression. Hence, studies on antioxidants may be the most promising area of research for this clinical menace. We analysed serum Uric acid (UA) and Bilirubin (BR) in women with breast cancer. The changes in the levels of serum uric acid and bilirubin are measured in breast cancer patients to assess the oxidative stress. A significant increase in the levels of uric acid and an insignificant increase in the levels of bilirubin was observed in all the three categories of breast cancer patients compared to normal individuals. The results suggested that high ROS production supports the oxidative stress in breast cancer. So, the treatment with antioxidants in the initial stages of the disease may be useful as secondary therapy

Online Trajectory Reshaping for a Launch Vehicle to Minimize the Final Error Caused by Navigation and Guidance

Autonomous launch vehicles, once lifted off from the launch pad, equipped with an onboard intelligence which aids in achieving the mission objectives with high accuracy. The accuracy of the mission depends basically on navigation and guidance errors caused at burnout condition, after which the vehicle follows an elliptical path upto impact. The paper describes how to handle the final impact and injection error caused by these navigation and guidance errors. In the current work the initial burnout conditions are tuned and corrected such that the terminal impact point is achieved within the desired tolerance bounds. A two point boundary value problem is solved using the gradient method, for determining the impact errors. The algorithm is validated by simulation studies for various burnout conditions.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(3), pp.254-261, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.241

The PhD Journey: What You Need to Know Before You Start

The decision to pursue a PhD degree can be a significant and life-changing one. While a doctoral degree can lead to numerous career opportunities and personal fulfillment, it is important to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks before embarking on this challenging journey. This article provides an overview of key factors to consider before joining a PhD program, including the pros and cons of pursuing a PhD, the financial realities of graduate school, the importance of selecting the right program and advisor, and the potential impact on personal and professional priorities. Additionally, alternative career paths beyond academia are explored. By understanding the various aspects of the PhD experience and carefully weighing the decision to pursue this degree, prospective students can make informed choices that align with their personal and professional goals.The decision to pursue a PhD degree can be a significant and life-changing one. While a doctoral degree can lead to numerous career opportunities and personal fulfillment, it is important to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks before embarking on this challenging journey. This article provides an overview of key factors to consider before joining a PhD program, including the pros and cons of pursuing a PhD, the financial realities of graduate school, the importance of selecting the right program and advisor, and the potential impact on personal and professional priorities. Additionally, alternative career paths beyond academia are explored. By understanding the various aspects of the PhD experience and carefully weighing the decision to pursue this degree, prospective students can make informed choices that align with their personal and professional goals

PROMISING AYURVEDIC HERBS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF KITIBHA (PSORIASIS)- A REVIEW

Psoriasis is one of the commonest skin disorders seen in routine clinical scenario, in entire world around 80 million people suffering from psoriasis. Psoriasis is differentiated by patches of abnormal skin. These skin patches are typically red, itchy, and scaly. Psoriasis varies in severity from small, localized patches to complete body coverage. It typically presents as red patches with white scales on top. Areas of the body most commonly affected are the back of the forearms, chin, navel area, and scalp. Diagnosis is typically based on the signs and symptoms. Men and women are affected with equal frequency. The disease may begin at any age, but typically starts in adulthood. Psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of psoriatic arthritis, lymphomas, cardiovascular disease and depression. Psoriatic arthritis affects up to 30 percent of individuals with Psoriasis. It is noted that around 2% of population are touching with Psoriasis. In present study review on Herbs frequently used in treating psoriasis were compiled. The Herbs Nimba, Stri Kutaja, Guduchi, Daruharidra, Bhallataka Haritaki, Aragvadha, Amalaki, Karveera, Saptaparna, Khadira, Vasa, Guggulu, Chitraka & Katuki are reviewed to be having Vata or Kapha balancing properties. The pharmacological studies showing that Nimbidin of Neem having anti psoriatic property, The Methanolic and ethanolic extracts of Stri Kutaja and Guduchi are having anti oxidant and anti psychotic properties which are helpful in reducing the symptoms of psoriasis.

Size at birth and cognitive ability in late life: A systematic review

Recent evidence suggests that growth restriction in utero may lead to neurocognitive disorders in late life, either through impaired brain development or adverse metabolic programming

Effect of Corrugation Angle on Heat Transfer Studies of Viscous Fluids in Corrugated Plate Heat Exchangers

In the present investigation heat transfer studies are conducted in corrugated plate heat exchangers (PHEs) having three different corrugation angles of 300, 400 and 500. The plate heat exchangers have a length of 30 cm and a width of 10 cm with a spacing of 5 mm. Water and 20% glycerol solution are taken as test fluids and hot fluid is considered as heating medium. The wall temperatures are measured along the length of exchanger at seven different locations by means of thermocouples. The inlet and outlet temperatures of test fluid and hot fluid are measured by means of four more thermocouples. The experiments are conducted at a flowrate ranging from 0.5 lpm to 6 lpm with the test fluid. Film heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number are determined from the experimental data. These values are compared with different corrugation angles. The effects of corrugation angles on heat transfer rates are discussed

Estimating the Precursor Frequency of Naive Antigen-specific CD8 T Cells

The constraint of fitting a diverse repertoire of antigen specificities in a limited total population of lymphocytes results in the frequency of naive cells specific for any given antigen (defined as the precursor frequency) being below the limit of detection by direct measurement. We have estimated this precursor frequency by titrating a known quantity of antigen-specific cells into naive recipients. Adoptive transfer of naive antigen-specific T cell receptor transgenic cells into syngeneic nontransgenic recipients, followed by stimulation with specific antigen, results in activation and expansion of both donor and endogenous antigen-specific cells in a dose-dependent manner. The precursor frequency is equal to the number of transferred cells when the transgenic and endogenous responses are of equal magnitude. Using this method we have estimated the precursor frequency of naive CD8 T cells specific for the H-2Db–restricted GP33–41 epitope of LCMV to be 1 in 2 × 105. Thus, in an uninfected mouse containing ∼2-4 × 107 naive CD8 T cells we estimate there to be 100–200 epitope-specific cells. After LCMV infection these 100–200 GP33-specific naive CD8 T cells divide >14 times in 1 wk to reach a total of ∼107 cells. Approximately 5% of these activated GP33-specific effector CD8 T cells survive to generate a memory pool consisting of ∼5 × 105 cells. Thus, an acute LCMV infection results in a >1,000-fold increase in precursor frequency of DbGP33-specific CD8 T cells from 2 × 102 naive cells in uninfected mice to 5 × 105 memory cells in immunized mice

Reconstruction for Time-Domain In Vivo EPR 3D Multigradient Oximetric Imaging—A Parallel Processing Perspective

Three-dimensional Oximetric Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging using the Single Point Imaging modality generates unpaired spin density and oxygen images that can readily distinguish between normal and tumor tissues in small animals. It is also possible with fast imaging to track the changes in tissue oxygenation in response to the oxygen content in the breathing air. However, this involves dealing with gigabytes of data for each 3D oximetric imaging experiment involving digital band pass filtering and background noise subtraction, followed by 3D Fourier reconstruction. This process is rather slow in a conventional uniprocessor system. This paper presents a parallelization framework using OpenMP runtime support and parallel MATLAB to execute such computationally intensive programs. The Intel compiler is used to develop a parallel C++ code based on OpenMP. The code is executed on four Dual-Core AMD Opteron shared memory processors, to reduce the computational burden of the filtration task significantly. The results show that the parallel code for filtration has achieved a speed up factor of 46.66 as against the equivalent serial MATLAB code. In addition, a parallel MATLAB code has been developed to perform 3D Fourier reconstruction. Speedup factors of 4.57 and 4.25 have been achieved during the reconstruction process and oximetry computation, for a data set with 23 × 23 × 23 gradient steps. The execution time has been computed for both the serial and parallel implementations using different dimensions of the data and presented for comparison. The reported system has been designed to be easily accessible even from low-cost personal computers through local internet (NIHnet). The experimental results demonstrate that the parallel computing provides a source of high computational power to obtain biophysical parameters from 3D EPR oximetric imaging, almost in real-time