જિલ્લા સહકારી ખરીદ-વેચાણ સંઘોની કામગીરીની કાર્યક્ષમતા અને અસરકારકતાના સંચાલનનો અભ્યાસ” (સૌરાષ્ટ્ર વિસ્તારના સંદર્ભમાં)

સહકારની વૃત્તિ મનુષ્યમાં જન્મજાત છે. સહકારની ભાવના કે સહકારી વૃતિ મનુષ્ય જીવનની શરૂઆતથી જ ચાલતી આવે છે. ઘણાં પ્રાણીઓમાં પણ સામૂહિક પ્રયાસ દ્વારા જીવન જીવવાની કળા જોવા મળે છે, જેમાં બુધ્ધિજીવી માનવી જીવનની સફળતા કાજ પરસ્પરના સહકારની જરૂરિયાતો સ્વિકારી જીવનમાં સિધ્ધિઓ અને સફળતા હાંસલ કરતો આવ્યો છે. પ્રાશ્ર્ચાત્ય વિશ્ર્વના જીવનમાં અનેક કામો અરસપરસના સહકારથી પાર પાડવાની પ્રથા ચાલતી આવે છે. સહકારને લીધે જ માનવજીવન ગરિમાવંત જીવન દીસે છે. સામાન્યતઃ સમાન આર્થિક જરૂરિયાતવાળા શખ્સો ભેગા મળી લોકશાહી પધ્ધતિએ પોતાના આર્થિક ધ્યેયો કે ઉદ્દેશો પ્રાપ્ત કરવા જે માધ્યમથી પ્રયાસો કરે તેને ‘સહકાર’ કહેવાય અને આવા પ્રયાસો જે માધ્યમો દ્વારા કાયમી ધોરણે કરવામાં આવે તો કાયમી સંસ્થા કે તંત્ર ઊભું થાય છે, જેને ‘સહકારી મંડળ’ કહેવાય. ટૂંકમાં, સ્વૈચ્છિક રીતે સંગઠિત થયેલ વ્યક્તિઓનું મંડળ એટલે સહકારી મંડળ. આવી મંડળીઓના સંચાલન અને વહીવટ માટે બંધારણ કે પેટા-નિયમો (By-Laws) હોય છે. તેમજ સરકાર દ્વારા નિયત કરેલ ‘સહકારી અધિનિયમો’ અનુસાર રચના, સંચાલન અને વહીવટ થાય છે. સહકારી સંસ્થા લોકોની સામાન્ય આર્થિક જરૂરિયાતોને લીધે ઊભી થાય છે, તેથી સહકાર એ મૂલ્યો ઉપર આધારિત પધ્ધતિ છે. આ પધ્ધતિ દ્વારા દેશના અર્થતંત્રમાં શોષક વલણોનાં દબાણ સામે આર્થિક રીતે નબળા શોષિત વર્ગના લોકોને ટકી રહેવા સંગઠીત માળખું પૂરું પાડે છે. આર્થિક વ્યવસ્થા, વિકાસ, પ્રગતિ તેમજ સામાજિક ન્યાય માટે ‘સહકાર’ એ મુખ્ય માધ્યમ અને સાધન છે

Infertility: Ongoing Global challenge of new millennium

Background: Infertility tends to be the global challenge even in the second decade of the new millennium. Especially in developing countries like India, it is still one the most lethal social evil responsible for a big proportion of cases of psychological disturbances including suicide. Again, recently, few conditions other than communicable or Non-communicable diseases are given place among the categories of significant public health problems like Road Traffic Accidents, Burns, Poisoning, drowning and few more. But, for developing countries like India, the list is incomplete without inclusion of Infertility (there may be several others also). In public health, tuberculosis, leprosy and some other diseases are considered social diseases which produce social stigma for the patients and/or his family members.1 In same manner, Infertility is an important cause of social stigmatization since centuries for a couple suffering from, especially for woman involved. During a transitory phase of industrialization and socio-economic development, the situation is changed a minute smidgen at urban areas of India but at rural parts, sub-urban or even at urban slums (mainly among pockets of recent migrants) the situation is as same as a few hundred years ago. A female of no religion, caste, social status or higher level of education are barred from some stringent mores related to infertility. Infertile females are still not allowed to take part in so many religious or social ceremonies; on the contrary, they have to face more harassment including domestic violence than their counterparts, who have given birth to the child. Due to social, psychological, economic disturbances, they are forced to take multiple sorts of treatments including religious quacks. So many infertile women are exploited physically and economically also in such weird ways of treatment to gain a pregnancy

सुभद्राकुमारी चौहान की कहानियों में नारी'

Not availabl

1. On the occurrence of gelatinous fibres, with special reference to root wood. 2. Histological studies in the secondary xylem of species of Ephedra

The occurence of reaction wood in numerous trees, small shrubs and herbs is described both in stems and roots, and the possible relation between gelatinous fibres and tension wood considered. In the roots of a number of dicotyledonous plants, gelatinous fibres were found to be abundant and more or less regularly distributed irrespective of the orientation of the organ with respect to gravity. It is suggested that gelatinous fibres, irrespective of their position in a stem or root and tension wood fibres are the cytological expression of the same phenomenon and should be considered as one type of fibre. The formation of tension wood bears less relation to the position of the ontogenetic centre of stems and roots than is generally thought. There was evidence that in horizontal branches, the distribution of tension wood fibres within a ring is more common in the early wood on the upper side and in the late wood on the lower side, but this is not invariable.The occurrence of gelatinous axial parenchyma in branch and root wood of robinia is recorded for the first time. Compression wood was not found in horizontally lying roots of a few gymnosperms examined. <p

HIV prevention and treatment research in sub-Saharan Africa: where are the adolescents?

CorrespondenceNo abstract available

Changes in Natural Killer Cell Activation and Function during Primary HIV-1 Infection

Background: Recent reports suggest that Natural Killer (NK) cells may modulate pathogenesis of primary HIV-1 infection. However, HIV dysregulates NK-cell responses. We dissected this bi-directional relationship to understand how HIV impacts NK-cell responses during primary HIV-1 infection. Methodology/Principal Findings: Paired samples from 41 high-risk, initially HIV-uninfected CAPRISA004 participants were analysed prior to HIV acquisition, and during viraemic primary HIV-1 infection. At the time of sampling post-infection five women were seronegative, 11 women were serodiscordant, and 25 women were seropositive by HIV-1 rapid immunoassay. Flow cytometry was used to measure NK and T-cell activation, NK-cell receptor expression, cytotoxic and cytokine-secretory functions, and trafficking marker expression (CCR7, α$_4$β$_7$). Non-parametric statistical tests were used. Both NK cells and T-cells were significantly activated following HIV acquisition (p = 0.03 and p<0.0001, respectively), but correlation between NK-cell and T-cell activation was uncoupled following infection (pre-infection r = 0.68;p<0.0001; post-infection, during primary infection r = 0.074;p = 0.09). Nonetheless, during primary infection NK-cell and T-cell activation correlated with HIV viral load (r = 0.32'p = 0.04 and r = 0.35;p = 0.02, respectively). The frequency of Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptor-expressing (KIR$_{pos}$) NK cells increased following HIV acquisition (p = 0.006), and KIR$_{pos}$ NK cells were less activated than KIR$_{neg}$ NK cells amongst individuals sampled while seronegative or serodiscordant (p = 0.001;p<0.0001 respectively). During HIV-1 infection, cytotoxic NK cell responses evaluated after IL-2 stimulation alone, or after co-culture with 721 cells, were impaired (p = 0.006 and p = 0.002, respectively). However, NK-cell IFN-y secretory function was not significantly altered. The frequency of CCR7+ NK cells was elevated during primary infection, particularly at early time-points (p<0.0001). Conclusions/Significance: Analyses of immune cells before and after HIV infection revealed an increase in both NK-cell activation and KIR expression, but reduced cytotoxicity during acute infection. The increase in frequency of NK cells able to traffic to lymph nodes following HIV infection suggests that these cells may play a role in events in secondary lymphoid tissue

Monocyte, Lymphocyte and Neutrophil Ratios – Easy-to-Use Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Pediatric Tuberculosis

Background: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte-ratio (NLR), neutrophil-to-monocyte-plus-lymphocyte-ratio (NMLR) and monocyte-to-lymphocyte-ratio (MLR) may have diagnostic potential for tuberculosis (TB). Methods: Data of two prospective multicenter studies in Switzerland were used, which included children <18 years with TB exposure, infection or disease or with febrile non-TB lower-respiratory-tract infection (nTB-LRTI). Results: Of the 389 children included 25 (6.4%) had TB disease, 12 (3.1%) TB infection, 28 (7.2%) were healthy TB exposed and 324 (83.3%) nTB-LRTI. Median (IQR) NLR was highest with 2.0 (1.2, 2.2) in children with TB disease compared to TB exposed [0.8 (0.6, 1.3); P = 0.002] and nTB-LRTI [0.3 (0.1, 1.0); P < 0.001]. Median (IQR) NMLR was highest with 1.4 (1.2, 1.7) in children with TB disease compared to healthy exposed [0.7 (0.6, 1.1); P = 0.003] and children with nTB-LRTI [0.2 (0.1, 0.6); P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curves to detect TB disease compared to nTB-LRTI for NLR and NMLR had an area under the curve of 0.82 and 0.86, the sensitivity of 88% and 88%, and specificity of 71% and 76%, respectively. Conclusion: NLR and NMLR are promising, easy-to-obtain diagnostic biomarkers to differentiate children with TB disease from other lower respiratory tract infections. These results require validation in a larger study and in settings with high and low TB endemicity

Embolic stroke from common carotid pseudo-aneurysm

Clinical images: A 52 year old man presented with signs of a stroke in the territory of the right middle cerebral artery. He was also found to have a large pulsatile mass at the base of his neck on the right side. Subsequent clinical imaging revealed a pseudoaneurysm (false aneurysm) of the right common carotid artery

No evidence for selection of HIV-1 with enhanced Gag-Protease or Nef function among breakthrough infections in the CAPRISA 004 tenofovir microbicide trial

BACKGROUND: Use of antiretroviral-based microbicides for HIV-1 prophylaxis could introduce a transmission barrier that inadvertently facilitates the selection of fitter viral variants among incident infections. To investigate this, we assessed the in vitro function of gag-protease and nef sequences from participants who acquired HIV-1 during the CAPRISA 004 1% tenofovir microbicide gel trial. Methods and RESULTS: We isolated the earliest available gag-protease and nef gene sequences from 83 individuals and examined their in vitro function using recombinant viral replication capacity assays and surface protein downregulation assays, respectively. No major phylogenetic clustering and no significant differences in gag-protease or nef function were observed in participants who received tenofovir gel versus placebo gel prophylaxis. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that the partial protective effects of 1% tenofovir gel use in the CAPRISA 004 trial were not offset by selection of transmitted/early HIV-1 variants with enhanced Gag-Protease or Nef fitness

Distinct Transcriptional and Anti-Mycobacterial Profiles of Peripheral Blood Monocytes Dependent on the Ratio of Monocytes: Lymphocytes.

The ratio of monocytes and lymphocytes (ML ratio) in peripheral blood is associated with tuberculosis and malaria disease risk and cancer and cardiovascular disease outcomes. We studied anti-mycobacterial function and the transcriptome of monocytes in relation to the ML ratio. Mycobacterial growth inhibition assays of whole or sorted blood were performed and mycobacteria were enumerated by liquid culture. Transcriptomes of unstimulated CD14 + monocytes isolated by magnetic bead sorting were characterised by microarray. Transcript expression was tested for association with ML ratio calculated from leucocyte differential counts by linear regression. The ML ratio was associated with mycobacterial growth in vitro (β = 2.23, SE 0.91, p = 0.02). Using sorted monocytes and lymphocytes, in vivo ML ratio (% variance explained R(2) = 11%, p = 0.02) dominated over in vitro ratios (R(2) = 5%, p = 0.10) in explaining mycobacterial growth. Expression of 906 genes was associated with the ML ratio and 53 with monocyte count alone. ML-ratio associated genes were enriched for type-I and -II interferon signalling (p = 1.2 × 10(− 8)), and for genes under transcriptional control of IRF1, IRF2, RUNX1, RELA and ESRRB. The ML-ratio-associated gene set was enriched in TB disease (3.11-fold, 95% CI: 2.28-4.19, p = 5.7 × 10(− 12)) and other inflammatory diseases including atopy, HIV, IBD and SLE. The ML ratio is associated with distinct transcriptional and anti-mycobacterial profiles of monocytes that may explain the disease associations of the ML ratio