Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Body Fatness Effect on Submaximal Systolic Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Prognosis among Young Adults

Cardiovascular (CV) diseases (CVDs) are known to be the leading cause of death globally, as CVDs account for the highest rate of mortality compared to any other causes. The mortality from CVDs, is projected to increase to nearly 23.3 million by 2030. Mortality number due to CVD in the United States is 600,000 per year, thus representing nearly 1 in every 4 deaths. Exercise blood pressure (BP) is an important marker of CV events that are associated with incident CV morbidity and mortality among individuals with or without any CVD at present. Elevated exercise BP among individuals with normal resting BP is a marker of incidence of hypertension and other CV events later in life. Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), body mass index (BMI) and body fatness are known predictors for CVD risk factors, morbidity, and mortality. It is important to examine how CRF, BMI and body fatness effect submaximal systolic blood pressure (SSBP). We therefore examined the independent and combined associations of CRF, BMI and body fatness with SSBP in young healthy adults. This dissertation is comprised of three studies that were designed to 1) analyze the relation and trend of SSBP with CRF among young healthy men; 2) analyze the relation and trend of SSBP with body fatness among young healthy men; and 3) examine the association and trend displayed by SSBP with different levels of CRF and body fatness among young healthy women. Data used in these studies were drawn from the Energy Balance Study, an observational study done in Columbia, SC involving young healthy adults (N=430). We calculated body fat percentage (BF%) and fat mass index using total body fat (BF) measured by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); BMI was calculated using the average of two height and two weight measurements. Graded exercise tests (GXT) using a Modified Bruce protocol on a motorized treadmill were used to measure CRF and SSBP was measured at each stage of GXT. Study 1 found that a quadratic trend was evident between SSBP and CRF in a model adjusted for age, race, BF%, resting systolic blood pressure (SBP), alcohol intake and smoking, with the largest reduction in SSBP observed between men in Quintile (Q) 1 and 2. This is followed by a plateau at Q 3, and increase in the higher quintiles although still lower than Q 1. Study 2 found that there was no significant change in SSBP with increase in weight and fatness from normal to overweight range but a significant rise with further increase in obese range at minutes 6, 8, and 10 (P\u3c0.05 in most or borderline associations in few) after adjusting for age, race, resting SBP, alcohol intake, smoking, and CRF. Study 3 found that CRF appeared to be independently associated with SSBP at the lower exercise intensities whereas, BMI at the higher intensities. BF% was not independently associated with SSBP at any intensity of exercise

Biocatalytic route to C-3?-azido/-hydroxy-C-4?-spiro-oxetanoribonucleosides

The lipase, Novozyme®-435, exclusively deacetylates the 5-O-acetyl over 4-C-acetyloxymethyl group of almost identical reactivity in 5-O-acetyl-4-C-acetyloxymethyl-3-azido-3-deoxy-1,2-O-isopropylidene-?-D-ribofuranose that led to the development of first and efficient synthesis of 3?-azido-/3?-amino-C-4?-spiro-oxetanoribonucleosides T, U, C and A in 20–24% overall yields. The X-ray study on the compound obtained by tosylation of lipase-mediated monodeacetylated product unambiguously confirmed the point of diastereoselective monodeacetylation on diacetoxy-azido-ribofuranose derivative. The capability of Novozyme®-435 for selective deacylation of 5-O-acetyl group in 5-O-acetyl-4-C-acetyloxymethyl-3-O-benzyl-1,2-O-isopropylidene-?-D-ribofuranose recently discovered by us has been successfully used for the synthesis of C-4?-spiro-oxetanoribonucleosides A and C in good yields. These results clearly indicate that the broader substrate specificity and highly selective capability of Novozyme®-435 for carrying out acetylation/deacetylation reactions can be utilized for the development of environment friendly selective methodologies in organic synthesis

Epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and outcome of SARS-COV-2 cases in Uttar Pradesh: descriptive analysis

Corona virus is one of the major pathogens that primarily target the human respiratory system. Previous outbreaks of corona viruses include the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV which have been previously characterized as agents that are a great public health threat. In late December 2019, a cluster of patients was admitted to hospitals with an initial diagnosis of pneumonia of an unknown etiology. These patients were epidemiologically linked to a sea food and wet animal wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. In India on 30th January 2020 first positive case in a student from Kerala of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, who was studying in Wuhan University and had travelled to India, tested positive by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). As of 15th March 2021, in India total confirmed cases 94,61,901 recovery 88,47,600 death 1,37,582 have been reported from 32 states/union territories in U.P. state has 6,05,290 confirmed cases, resulting in 8,746 deaths and 595,637 recoveries. The case fatality rate in Uttar Pradesh was stands at 1.4%. Among different districts of U.P., the Lucknow was listed as first with 82,213 cases, 80,740 recovered and 1,190 deaths. Next states were Kanpur; 33,111 cases, and 839 deaths, Prayagraj 29,436 cases, and 409 deaths, Meerut; 22477 cases, and 442 deaths, Ghaziabad 26902 cases, 26694 recovered, 102 death and Gorakhpur 21510 confirmed case 21115 recovered and 366 deaths till 15th March 2021

Anaemia in acute coronary syndrome patients: a study from rural tertiary care centre of India

Background: Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are an imbalance between myocardial oxygen supply and demand, and the presence of anaemia further potentiates this imbalance. The burden of anaemia in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is significant. Anaemia has the potential to worsen myocardial ischemic insult by decreasing the oxygen content of the blood supplied to the jeopardized myocardium.Methods: A total of 148 patients with ACS were recruited in the study from October 2016 to December 2017 in Medicine and Cardiology Department of UPUMS Saifai, India. All patients were subjected to a detailed history and thorough clinical examination and investigations after obtaining informed consent. Patient having any other diseases known to cause anaemia were excluded.Results: Mean age of patients was 58.5 years. 72.97% were vegetarian and 27.03% were non-vegetarian. Most common morphological type of anaemia was dimorphic anaemia followed by macrocytic and microcytic hypochromic respectively. Iron deficiency anaemia was most common type of anaemia followed by vitamin B12 deficiency and mixed (Iron and vitamin B12 deficiency). 45.28% anaemic patients had no symptoms of blood loss. Most common symptom of blood loss was bleeding per rectum followed by malena. Severity of acute coronary syndrome was more in subjects having anaemia which was evident by higher incidence of anaemia in subjects having ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The incidence of anaemia was low in case of Non ST elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI) and Unstable angina (UA). The results of the present study have been compared to those from India.Conclusions: Higher incidence of anaemia was reported in subjects having acute coronary syndrome. Incidence of anaemia in STEMI patients was greater than NSTEMI and unstable angina patients. Severe form of acute coronary syndrome i.e. STEMI was associated with higher incidence of anaemia.

Topological entanglement and hyperbolic volume

The entanglement entropy of many quantum systems is difficult to compute in general. They are obtained as a limiting case of the R\'enyi entropy of index $m$, which captures the higher moments of the reduced density matrix. In this work, we study pure bipartite states associated with $S^3$ complements of a two-component link which is a connected sum of a knot $\mathcal{K}$ and the Hopf link. For this class of links, the Chern-Simons theory provides the necessary setting to visualise the $m$-moment of the reduced density matrix as a three-manifold invariant $Z(M_{\mathcal{K}_m})$, which is the partition function of $M_{\mathcal{K}_m}$. Here $M_{\mathcal{K}_m}$ is a closed 3-manifold associated with the knot $\mathcal K_m$, where $\mathcal K_m$ is a connected sum of $m$-copies of $\mathcal{K}$ (i.e., $\mathcal{K}\#\mathcal{K}\ldots\#\mathcal{K}$) which mimics the well-known replica method. We analyse the partition functions $Z(M_{\mathcal{K}_m})$ for SU(2) and SO(3) gauge groups, in the limit of the large Chern-Simons coupling $k$. For SU(2) group, we show that $Z(M_{\mathcal{K}_m})$ can grow at most polynomially in $k$. On the contrary, we conjecture that $Z(M_{\mathcal{K}_m})$ for SO(3) group shows an exponential growth in $k$, where the leading term of $\ln Z(M_{\mathcal{K}_m})$ is the hyperbolic volume of the knot complement $S^3\backslash \mathcal{K}_m$. We further propose that the R\'enyi entropies associated with SO(3) group converge to a finite value in the large $k$ limit. We present some examples to validate our conjecture and proposal.Comment: 38 pages, 24 figures & 15 tables; v2: Introduction & Conclusion modified, new subsection added in section 3, three new references added; matches published versio

Evaluation of Challenges Encountered by Dental Students in The Study of Orthodontics

Orthodontic education plays a crucial role in preparing dental students for the specialized field of orthodontics. This study aimed to evaluate the challenges encountered by dental students during their orthodontic studies. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative data collection through surveys and qualitative insights through interviews. A total of 321 dental students from various dental schools participated in the research, providing their experiences and perceptions of challenges in orthodontic education. The survey questionnaire comprised 15 close-ended questions, covering academic, clinical, technological, psychological, and motivational challenges. The results revealed diverse perceptions of the difficulty level of orthodontic theoretical concepts, with participants expressing varied opinions on the intensity of coursework. Challenges in applying different orthodontic techniques were frequently reported, highlighting the importance of practical training and clinical support. Participants expressed concerns regarding the sufficiency of academic resources provided by institutions to address challenges, indicating scope for improvements in teaching methodologies and learning materials. Stress levels due to the demands of orthodontic studies were evident, underscoring the need for support systems to promote students' emotional well-being. The study also explored participants' self-confidence and motivation in pursuing orthodontics as a career. While self-confidence in clinical decision-making was reported by a significant proportion, motivation levels varied among participants. Despite these challenges, dental students generally expressed satisfaction with their overall orthodontic education, reflecting the dedication and interest in the specialized field

Rapid Node Cardinality Estimation in Heterogeneous Machine-to-Machine Networks

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) networks are an emerging technology with applications in various fields, including smart grids, healthcare, vehicular telematics and smart cities. Heterogeneous M2M networks contain different types of nodes, e.g., nodes that send emergency, periodic, and normal type data. An important problem is to rapidly estimate the number of active nodes of each node type in every time frame in such a network. In this paper, we design two schemes for estimating the active node cardinalities of each node type in a heterogeneous M2M network with $T$ types of nodes, where $T \ge 2$ is an arbitrary integer. Our schemes consist of two phases-- in phase 1, coarse estimates are computed, and in phase 2, these estimates are used to compute the final estimates to the required accuracy. We analytically derive a condition for one of our schemes that can be used to decide as to which of two possible approaches should be used in phase 2 to minimize its execution time. The expected number of time slots required to execute and the expected energy consumption of each active node under one of our schemes are analysed. Using simulations, we show that our proposed schemes require significantly fewer time slots to execute compared to estimation schemes designed for a heterogeneous M2M network in prior work, and also, compared to separately executing a well-known estimation protocol designed for a homogeneous network in prior work $T$ times to estimate the cardinalities of the $T$ node types, even though all these schemes obtain estimates with the same accuracy.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figure

Tapping the Potential of Traditional Knowledge Associated with Medicinal Plants of Tribal Communities in Central India: Perspective and Avenues

India is known to have over 700 scheduled tribes which are native to five different regions viz., Himalayan, Central, Western, Dravidian and islands, each having its own primitive trait and cultural distinction. Out of these diverse territories, Central Indian region has the distinction of hosting 55% of the total tribal population of India which provides diverse region for bioprospecting. This region provides a natural, invaluable store house of indigenous medicinal plant diversity that is of great importance for mankind. Protection of traditional knowledge of these tribal communities residing in central India is the need of hour as overexploitation of natural resources due to increase in population may lead to extinction of important medicinal plant species. With careful management of the natural resources a sustainable balance can be achieved. The review envisages providing baseline data on important tribal communities and their status, traditional knowledge, medicinal properties of native plants of tribals and gives an insight for exploitation of these plants by pharmaceutical industry as well as insilico approach for screening new active compounds and drug designing