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Objective Orchastric changes in the mammary glands are vital, especially during lactation. The secretary epithelial cells together with the supporting myoepithelial and stromal cells function cordially to secrete milk. Increase in the number of luminal epithelial cells and a decrease in adipocytes are visible during lactation, whereas the reverse happens in the involution. However, an early involution occurs if the epithelial cells transdifferentiate towards adipocytes during the lactation period. We aimed to inhibit the adipocyte transdifferentiation of luminal cells by restraining the peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) pathway. Methods Linolenic acid (LA) and thiazolidinediones (TZDs) induced adipogenesis in mammary epithelial cells were conducted in monolayer, mixed culture as well as in transwell plate co-culture with mammary myoepithelial cells. Results Co-culture with myoepithelial cells showed higher adipogenic gene expression in epithelial cells under LA+TZDs treatment. Increase in the expressions of PPARγ, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α and vimentin in both mRNA as well as protein levels were observed. Whereas, bisphenol A diglycidyl ether treatment blocked LA+TZDs induced adipogenesis, as it could not show a significant rise in adipose related markers. Although comparative results were found in both mixed culture and monolayer conditions, co-culture technic was found to work better than the others. Conclusion Antagonizing PPARγ pathway in the presence of myoepithelial cells can significantly reduce the adipogenisis in epithelial cells, suggesting therapeutic inhibition of PPARγ can be considered to counter early involution or excessive adipogenesis in mammary epithelium in animals.

The anti-biofilm and anti-virulence potential of the essential oil (E.O.) extracted from Hedychium larsenii M. Dan & Sathish was determined against Streptococcus pyogenes. A crystal violet assay was employed to quantify the biofilm. Linalool, a monoterpene alcohol from the E.O., showed concentration-dependent biofilm inhibition, with a maximum of 91% at a concentration of 0.004% (v/v). The AlamarBlueTM assay also confirmed Linalool’s non-bactericidal anti-biofilm efficacy (0.004%). Linalool treatment impeded micro-colony formation, mature biofilm architecture, surface coverage, and biofilm thickness and impaired cell surface hydrophobicity and EPS production. Cysteine protease synthesis was quantified using the Azocasein assay, and Linalool treatment augmented its production. This suggests that Linalool destabilizes the biofilm matrix. It altered the expression of core regulons covRS, mga, srv, and ropB, and genes associated with virulence and biofilm formation, such as speB, dltA, slo, hasA, and ciaH, as revealed by qPCR analysis. Cytotoxicity analysis using human kidney cells (HEK) and the histopathological analysis in Danio rerio proved Linalool to be a druggable molecule against the biofilms formed by S. pyogenes. This is the first report on Linalool’s anti-biofilm and anti-virulence potential against S. pyogenes.

We present here results of our study on particle assisted micro-structuring on a metallic surface. For this, dielectric polystyrene spherical particulates were deposited on an optical grade stainless steel (SS) surface, and the fundamental emission from a Nd:YAG laser and its second harmonic, to which the particulates are transparent, were used as the coherent sources for these experiments. The diameters of the particulates were chosen so as to encompass all the possibilities, viz., particulate size ≈ wavelength, particulate size < wavelength, and particulate size > wavelength. While the experimentally measured fluence values for the onset of pitting are in agreement with the analytically estimated field enhancement factors in the former two cases, there is a strong departure noted in the latter case. Percentile absorption of the incident radiation by the SS substrates as measured by an integrating sphere bore testimony to this anomalous behavior. Toward gaining a deeper insight into this phenomenon, atomic force microscopy based topographic analysis of the laser exposed surface was undertaken. This study clearly reveals the formation of double pits underneath the particulate when its size exceeds the wavelength of exposure, thus pointing to the fact that the incident energy is being redistributed, giving rise to the observed anomaly.

Objective To explore the perception of medical students from a private medical college in Perak, Malaysia, on primary care practice and induce the factors influencing their perception and willingness to consider primary care as a career pathway.Design Qualitative study using focus group discussions. Participants’ responses were audio recorded, transcribed, grouped under various domains and listed out and analysed.Setting A private medical college in Perak state, Malaysia.Participants Forty-six medical students from years 2 to 5 were included. Eight focus groups were formed with two focus groups from each academic year (six students each in seven groups and four students in one group). Students were informed through their respective student leader of each year and received a participant information sheet and an informed consent form which were completed and returned if they decided to participate in the focus group discussions.Results The participants had different levels of understanding of primary care depending on their level of exposure to primary care. Senior students with more exposure had a better understanding about primary care and its services. Attractive factors towards choosing primary care as a career included short working hours with a more balanced family and social life, being able to treat patients as a whole with continuity of care and closer relationship with patients. Unattractive factors included routine, unchallenging and boring practice, poor salary, work overload and administrative work in government clinics, being less recognised by other specialties; and the poor perception by other doctors that those pursuing primary care were not ‘brilliant enough’ for more ‘sophisticated disciplines like surgery or paediatrics’.Conclusion This study showed that the medical students’ level of exposure to primary care played a crucial role in determining their understanding of primary care practice and their choice of career in primary care. Issues to be addressed include remuneration, workload and the prejudice against primary care as a career pathway. Suggestions included introducing early exposure to fun and challenging primary care postings in the medical curriculum and producing well trained, skilled and enthusiastic role models.

Based on data from 2083 wind turbines installed in Sweden from 1988 onwards, the accuracy of the predictions of the annual energy production (AEP) from the project planning phases has been compared to the actual wind-index-corrected production. Both the electricity production and the predicted AEP come from Vindstat, a database that collects information directly from wind turbine owners. The mean error for all analyzed wind turbines was 13.0%, which means that, overall, the predicted AEP has been overestimated. There has been an improvement of accuracy with time with an overestimation of 8.2% for wind turbines installed in the 2010s, however, the continuous improvement seems to have stagnated around 2005 despite better data availability and continuous refinement of methods. Dividing the results by terrain, the error is larger for wind turbines in open and flat terrain than in forest areas, indicating that the reason behind the error is not the higher complexity of the forest terrain. Also, there is no apparent increase of error with wind farm size which could have been expected if wind farm blockage effect was a main reason for the overestimations. Besides inaccurate AEP predictions, a higher-than-expected performance decline due to inadequate maintenance of the wind turbines may be a reason behind the AEP overestimations. The main sources of error are insecurity regarding the source of AEP predictions and the omission of mid-life alterations of rated power.

The present work concerns the study of fission dynamics of 48 Ti+ 232 Th reaction resulting in the superheavy composite system 280 Cn 112 at an incident energy of 280 MeV. Mass distribution studies play an important role in understanding the fusion-fission mechanism involved in the heavy-ion induced nuclear reaction. The studies related to the superheavy nucleus 280 Cn are limited till date and in order to achieve a better insight of the reaction dynamics, mass and total kinetic energy (TKE) distribution of the binary fragments populated in the reaction 48 Ti+ 232 Th has been measured at an excitation energy 63.5 MeV. Correlation between the mass and TKE and mass-angle distribution of the binary fragments have been investigated. The mass-energy distribution of the reaction fragments obtained from the analysis confirms the dominance of quasi-fission over fusion-fission. A sudden rise in the width of σ TKE 2 (M) has been observed in the mass symmetric region. This has been interpreted in terms of the mixing of fusion-fission and quasi-fission events. A deviation from the Viola systematic is observed in the measured TKE of the fragments due to the presence of quasi-fission (QF) process. Theoretical results performed to understand the experimental results in the framework of the DNS model show that the peaks in the mass distribution of the binary products around the mass numbers A = 40–60 and A = 220–240 is related with the contribution of the DIC and quasi-fission products. The contribution of the quasi-fission products to the yield of the binary fragments with the mass numbers around A = 80–110 and A = 170–200 is dominant. The contribution of the symmetric quasi-fission products to the yield of the mass symmetric region is comparable with the yield of the fusion-fission products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fission-fragment mass distributions were measured for 225,227Pa nuclei formed in fusion reactions of 19F+206,208Pb around fusion barrier energies. Mass-angle correlations do not indicate any quasi-fission like events in this bombarding energy range. Mass distributions were fitted by Gaussian distribution and mass variance extracted. At below-barrier energies, the mass variance was found to increase with decrease in energy for both nuclei. Results from present work were compared with existing data for induced fission of 224,226Th and 228U around barrier energies. Enhancement in mass variance of 225,227Pa nuclei at below-barrier energies shows evidence for presence of asymmetric fission events mixed with symmetric fission events. This is in agreement with the results of mass distributions of nearby nuclei 224,226Th and 228U where two-mode fission process was observed. Two-mode feature of fission arises due to the shell effects changing the landscape of the potential-energy surfaces at low excitation energies. The excitation-energy dependence of the mass variance gives strong evidence for survival of microscopic shell effects in fission of light actinide nuclei 225,227Pa with initial excitation energy ∼30–50 MeV.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with a high degree of mortality and morbidity around the world with the burden of the disease being more in the developing countries. In the Indian context data is limited. This study was carried out to determine the predictors of outcome in patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD in a rural Tertiary Care Center in the state of Kerala. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective cohort study. Patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD in the Intensive Care Unit between August 2013 and July 2014 was included in the study. Sociodemographic data, clinical variables, and investigations were collected. Mortality with respect to relevant risk factors was compared using Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazard model. Results: Seventy patients were enrolled in the study of whom 58 (82.9%) were above the age of 60 years. Majority of the patients (87.1%) were males. Tobacco smoking was the main risk factor in them. All the females had a history of exposure to biomass fuel in the form of firewood; none of them were smokers. Majority of patients (80.0%) had a history of one or more co-existing illnesses. Anemia was found to be an independent risk factor for mortality (adjusted hazard ratio: 3.167, 95% confidence interval: 1.516–6.616). Risk factors for poor outcome in COPD patients reported from other centers in India were not found to be relevant in this study. Conclusions: Anemia could be an independent risk factor for mortality in COPD patients. India already has a high prevalence of iron deficiency anemia especially in the rural area and in the geriatric population. Henceforth, family practitioners and primary care physicians may remain vigilant regarding the development of anemia in their COPD patients and institute remedial measures without delay. Futhermore, the wide variation reported in the predictors of outcome of COPD along with the finding of this study calls for an urgent need for more studies.

Stem cells have attracted many scientists because of their unique properties and therapeutic applications. However, very little is known on the environmental toxins that could affect their biological features. This study focuses on the consequences of the exposure of a cell line representative of the mouse gastric stem/progenitor (mGS) cells to diesel exhaust particles (DEPs). These immortal cells were cultured using routine protocols. The DEPs were added to the culture media at 1, 10, and 100 µg/mL for 1 to 72 h. The cells were assayed for their viability, migration, oxidative stress, and the expression of genes specific for cell proliferation, pluripotency, and death. DEPs induced a reduction in the metabolic activity of mGS cells, only at a high concentration of 100 µg/mL. However, no significant effects were detected on cell migration, oxidative stress markers (glutathione and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances), and cell death related proteins/genes. Interestingly, these findings were associated with down-regulation of Notch 2 and 3 and Bmi-1 proteins and activation of STAT3 involved in the regulation of the fate of stem cells. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that mGS cells have some resistance to oxidative stress and apoptosis when exposed to DEPs at the expense of their stemness.

We report on the generation of nano-structures on semiconductor substrates through particle assisted dry laser exposure technique. Of particular interest is the formation of nano rings in case of Silicon substrate following exposure with sub nano-second laser pulse at 532 nm wavelength. Usage of such a laser pulse enabled us to realise a condition wherein the dominating thermo-capillary force allowed the formation of nano rings. With gradual increase in the laser fluence the nano rings gave way to formation of nano bumps and nano pits. In case of GaAs, on the other hand, nano rings could be observed for irradiation at 1064 nm at substantially higher value of fluence, in line with its poor absorption in the substrate. For exposure to 532 nm wavelength, onset of ablation even for low incident fluence precluded the formation of rings or bumps.

Background: Cognitive performance is relatively well preserved during early cognitive impairment owing to compensatory mechanisms.Methods: We explored functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) alongside a semantic verbal fluency task (SVFT) to investigate any compensation exhibited by the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). In addition, a group of healthy controls (HC) was studied. A total of 61 volunteers (31 HC, 12 patients with MCI and 18 patients with mild AD) took part in the present study.Results: Although not statistically significant, MCI exhibited a greater mean activation of both the right and left PFC, followed by HC and mild AD. Analysis showed that in the left PFC, the time taken for HC to achieve the activation level was shorter than MCI and mild AD (p = 0.0047 and 0.0498, respectively); in the right PFC, mild AD took a longer time to achieve the activation level than HC and MCI (p = 0.0469 and 0.0335, respectively); in the right PFC, HC, and MCI demonstrated a steeper slope compared to mild AD (p = 0.0432 and 0. 0107, respectively). The results were, however, not significant when corrected by the Bonferroni-Holm method. There was also found to be a moderately positive correlation (R = 0.5886) between the oxygenation levels in the left PFC and a clinical measure [Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score] in MCI subjects uniquely.Discussion: The hyperactivation in MCI coupled with a better SVFT performance may suggest neural compensation, although it is not known to what degree hyperactivation manifests as a potential indicator of compensatory mechanisms. However, hypoactivation plus a poorer SVFT performance in mild AD might indicate an inability to compensate due to the degree of structural impairment.Conclusion: Consistent with the scaffolding theory of aging and cognition, the task-elicited hyperactivation in MCI might reflect the presence of compensatory mechanisms and hypoactivation in mild AD could reflect an inability to compensate. Future studies will investigate the fNIRS parameters with a larger sample size, and their validity as prognostic biomarkers of neurodegeneration.