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10 × 10 half diallel excluding reciprocals was evaluated to study the combing ability and gene action involved in respect of yield and its attributers in pearl millet. Analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among mean squares due to general and specific combining ability for all characters studied. The estimates of general combining ability (GCA) effects indicated that the parents D-23, SB-220 and J-2467 emerged as good general combiners for grain yield and its components. Out of 45 crosses combinations only five combinations such as J-2467 × J- 2474, J -2454 × J-108, SB -220 × D-23, J- 2475 × D-23 and J -2340 × D -23 showed significant and positive specific combining ability (SCA) effects for grain yield and other yield attributing characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten newly developed inbred lines of pearl millet were studied in a set of 10 × 10 diallel cross excluding reciprocals for hybrid vigour. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes, parents and hybrids for all the characters expect for grain yield, number of effective tillers and number of nodes for hybrids. Mean squares due to parents vs hybrids were also observed significant for all the characters expect ear head girth, ear head weight and harvest index. Thus, the study revealed presence of considerable genetic variability in the material studied. High magnitude of parents vs hybrids mean square (except ear head weight and harvest index) indicated presence of conspicuous mean heterosis. The magnitude of heterosis varied from cross to cross for all the characters. Ear head weight and grain yield per plant exhibited the highest heterotic values, whereas, least heterosis was observed for days to flowering. The crosses, SB- 220 × D-23, J-2467 × J-2474 and J-2367 × D-23 exhibited the highest heterotic effect and mean performance for grain yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between religiosity in 175 psychiatric inpatients as measured by the subscales of the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) and sociodemographic (age, sex, and race), clinical (primary diagnosis, suicidality, and psychotic symptoms), and outcome (length of stay [LOS] and readmission rates) measures. Psychosis was assessed by Clinician-Rated Dimensions of Psychosis Symptom Severity (CRDPSS) scale. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the association between the DUREL subscales and the outcome measures. High scorers on the nonorganized religiosity subscale were less likely to have psychosis (47% vs. 52%; p < 0.05) but had greater psychosis severity (mean ± SD, 14.5 ± 5 vs.12.4 ± 6; p < 0.05), as measured by the CRDPSS scale, and significantly longer LOS (mean ± SD, 8.3 ± 3.8 vs. 6.9 ± 3.4; p < 0.05). Conversely, they were less likely to report previous suicide attempts than low scorers (p < 0.05). These results suggest that a brief measure of religious activities may identify psychiatric inpatients at greater risk for psychosis, suicidality, and longer hospitalizations.

Patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder have a high prevalence of comorbid cannabis use disorder (CUD). CUD has been associated with poorer outcomes in patients. We compared doses of antipsychotic medications at the time of discharge from hospital among inpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder with or without concurrent cannabis use. We reviewed the medical records of patients (N = 8157) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder discharged from the hospital between 2008 and 2012. The patients were divided into two groups; those with urine drug tests positive for cannabis and those negative for cannabis. Doses of antipsychotic medications were converted to chlorpromazine equivalents. Bivariate analyses were done with Student's t test for continuous variables and χ 2 test for categorical variables. Linear regression was carried out to adjust for potential confounders. Unadjusted analysis revealed that the cannabis positive group was discharged on lower doses of antipsychotic medication compared with the cannabis negative group (geometric mean chlorpromazine equivalent doses 431.22 ± 2.20 vs 485.18 ± 2.21; P < 0.001). However, the difference in geometric mean chlorpromazine equivalent doses between the two groups was no longer significant after adjusting for sex, age, race, and length of stay (geometric mean difference 0.99; 95 % CI 0.92-1.10). Though limited by lack of information on duration, amount and severity of cannabis use, as well as inability to control for other non-antipsychotic medications, our study suggests that cannabis use did not significantly impact on doses of antipsychotics required during the periods of acute exacerbation in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

The present research project involves development and validation of a stability-indicating HPTLC method for the estimation of naratriptan-HCl in their pharmaceutical dosage forms and its content uniformity testing. Naratriptan-HCl was subjected to alkaline, acidic, oxidative, neutral, thermal (dry heat) and photo-degradation conditions. The chromatographic separation was carried out using a precoated silica gel G 60 F254 TLC plate as the stationary phase and dichloromethane-toluene-methanol-triethylamine (4 : 4 : 2 : 1, v/v/v/v) as the mobile phase. The spots of NRT-HCl and its degradation products were detected at 290 nm. The Rf value of NRT-HCl was found to be 0.60 ± 0.02. The linearity was obtained in the range of 100-500 ng/spot. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were found to be 6.07 ng/spot and 18.41 ng/spot, respectively. The percentage recovery was found in the range of 98.87-99.55%. NRT-HCl was degraded under acidic, alkaline and oxidative conditions while stable under photolytic, neutral and dry heat conditions. The developed method was applied for estimation of naratriptan-HCl in marketed formulations and its content uniformity testing., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are highly prevalent in populations with HIV, but there is limited data on predictors for suboptimal levels., Methods: To determine risk factors for Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency, 185 charts were retrospectively reviewed., Results: Proportions with Vitamin D levels < 10 ng/ml, 10 - 20 ng/ml, 20 - 30 ng/ml and > 30 ng/ml were 14.6%, 44.8%, 24.9%, and 15.7%, respectively. Bivariate analysis showed that Vitamin D levels < 20 ng/ml were associated with a lower albumin level (p =.02), female gender (p = .0003), and African-American (AA) race (p = .0001). Tenofovir exposure showed borderline significance (p = .09). AA race was the only significant factor in multivariate modeling., Conclusions: Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency was high. AA race was an independent risk factor. Although not significant, obese persons with a poorer nutritional status and possibly those on tenofovir may also be at higher risk.

The HIV-infected population in the United States is aging. A retrospective study of 132 patients (26 women, 106 men) ≥59 years of age was undertaken to evaluate the effect of race and sex on selected outcomes. With the exception of women being more likely to have diagnosis of depression compared with men, sex had little influence on risk for other conditions among elderly patients with HIV. In contrast, African American race was significantly associated with the risk for several selected disorders and outcomes. These results can assist in future prevention efforts among senior individuals with HIV infection.

Background: Given the growing availability of multilevel data from national surveys, researchers interested in contextual effects may find themselves with a small number of individuals per group. Although there is a growing body of literature on sample size in multilevel modelling, few have explored the impact of group sizes of less than five., Methods: In a simulated analysis of real data, the impact of a group size of less than five was examined on both a continuous and dichotomous outcome in a simple two-level multilevel model. Models with group sizes one to five were compared with models with complete data. Four different linear and logistic models were examined: empty models; models with a group-level covariate; models with an individual-level covariate and models with an aggregated group-level covariate. The study evaluated further whether the impact of small group size differed depending on the total number of groups., Results: When the number of groups was large (N=459), neither fixed nor random components were affected by small group size, even when 90% of tracts had only one individual per tract and even when an aggregated group-level covariate was examined. As the number of groups decreased, the SE estimates of both fixed and random effects were inflated. Furthermore, group-level variance estimates were more affected than were fixed components., Conclusions: Datasets in which there is a small to moderate number of groups, with the majority of very small group size (n<5), size may fail to find or even consider a group-level effect when one may exist and also may be underpowered to detect fixed effects.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships among campus violence, student drinking levels, and the physical availability of alcohol at off-campus outlets in a multisite design., Method: An ecological analysis of on-campus violence was conducted at 32 U.S. colleges. Dependent variables included campus-reported rates of rape, robbery, assault, and burglary obtained from a U.S. Department of Education online database for the years 2000-2004. Measures of student alcohol use and demographics were obtained from student surveys conducted for the Social Norms Marketing Research Project from 2000 to 2004. Measures of alcohol-outlet density within 3 miles of each campus were obtained from state alcohol-licensing authorities for 2004., Results: Both on- and off-premise alcohol-outlet densities were associated with the campus rape-offense rate but not with the assault or robbery rates. Student drinking level was associated with both campus rape and assault rates but not with the campus robbery rate. The apparent effect of on-premise outlet density on campus rape-offense rates was reduced when student drinking level was included in the model, suggesting that the effect of on-premise outlet density may be mediated by student drinking level. Separate analyses revealed a similar mediational role for off-premise outlet density., Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that there is a campus-level association between sexual violence and the campus-community alcohol environment.