Search

The importance of differential equations of integer order and fractional order can be seen in many areas of engineering and applied sciences. The present work involves fractional order heat equations that arise in numerous applications of engineering and aims to find series solutions by the Laplace variational iteration method (LVIM). The method combines the Laplace transform and the variational iteration method. To show the efficiency and validity of LVIM, we have exemplarily considered 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D fractional heat equations and solve them by LVIM. Exact solutions are gained in expressions of the Mittag-Leffler function. The results are also explored through graphs and charts.

Introduction: Normative comprehensive echocardiographic measurements data for healthy Indians are not available while data for American and European population is available from American Society of echocardiography and European Society of Cardiology/European Association of Cardio-Vascular Imaging and their publications. Available studies of Indian subjects are small and report only limited measurements with focus on left ventricular (LV) volumes. Objective: We aim to provide comprehensive normative echocardiographic data for healthy Indians from a large sample size. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional single-center study of 707 healthy Indian adults age and sex segregated which presented detailed and comprehensive echocardiographic measurements including two-dimensional, M-mode, tissue Doppler imaging, speckle tracking echocardiography, chamber volumes, LV ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain (GLS), segmental longitudinal strain and effort tolerance. Results: Our findings show healthy Indians, as compared to US and European population, to have higher relative wall thickness. LV volumes, LV mass, LVEF and effort tolerance that were within American Society of Echocardiography described ranges for chamber quantification. Higher GLS values were observed in Indian population compared to European and American population. Women had higher LVEF and GLS values as compared to men and both showed a gradual decline with aging. Conclusion: We present normal reference values for echocardiographic measurements in healthy Indian population, which could be used for future reference and comparison work. Keywords: Echocardiography normative data, Global longitudinal strain, LV ejection fraction, Effort tolerance, Indian adults

Mechanistic investigations coupled with epidemiology, case-control, cohort and observational studies have increasingly linked isocyanate exposure (both chronic and acute) with pulmonary morbidity and mortality. Though ascribed for impairment in endothelial cell function, molecular mechanisms of these significant adverse pulmonary outcomes remains poorly understood. As preliminary studies conducted in past have failed to demonstrate a cause-effect relationship between isocyanate toxicity and compromised pulmonary endothelial cell function, we hypothesized that direct exposure to isocyanate may disrupt endothelial structural lining, resulting in cellular damage. Based on this premise, we comprehensively evaluated the molecular repercussions of methyl isocyanate (MIC) exposure on human pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (HPAE-26). We examined MIC-induced mitochondrial oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory cytokine response, oxidative DNA damage response and apoptotic index. Our results demonstrate that exposure to MIC, augment mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production, depletion in antioxidant defense enzymes, elevated pro-inflammatory cytokine response and induced endothelial cell apoptosis via affecting the balance of mitochondrial-nuclear cross talk. We herein delineate the first and direct molecular cascade of isocyanate-induced pulmonary endothelial cell dysfunction. The results of our study might portray a connective link between associated respiratory morbidities with isocyanate exposure, and indeed facilitate to discern the exposure-phenotype relationship in observed deficits of pulmonary endothelial cell function. Further, understanding of inter- and intra-cellular signaling pathways involved in isocyanate-induced endothelial damage would not only aid in biomarker identification but also provide potential new avenues to target specific therapeutic interventions.

Splenic cysts are rare lesions and only a few cases have been reported in the literature. Among splenic cysts epithelial cysts are still rarer. Symptoms can be due to enlargement, rupture, infection or hemorrhage. We report a case of a 35-year old woman who presented with left hypochondrial pain. Ultrasound and CT revealed cystic swelling arising from spleen. Cyst with spleen was removed and sent for histopathological examination which confirmed the diagnosis and ruled out the clinical diagnosis of hydatid cyst. Keywords: Cyst, Epithelial, Splenic