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Islamic financing products are modes of finance based on principles of profit and loss sharing, no interest and no remunerative betting or speculation. Islamic home financing is one such mode of financing which is based on ownership sharing or deferred payment arrangement with the bank, hence avoiding chances of interest and speculation. This study examines the factors that affect customers' decision in selecting Islamic home financing services. A quantitative research methodology was adopted to study the dynamics of Islamic home financing by determining the level of key factors in Pakistani consumer market. Using stratified random sampling technique, data was collected from 250 bank customers through five‐point Likert scale questionnaires. Various tests were applied to check the reliability, sampling adequacy and correlation. Multiple regression analysis was applied for hypothesis testing. The findings of the study reveal that the level of knowledge, media advertisement, bank reputation, product choices and Shariah compliance are the key factors for the Pakistani bank customers who selected Islamic home financing. More importantly, we find no significant impact of price and bank services on selection of Islamic home financing. The results of the study enable the Islamic banking professionals and managers to identify the factors that are most valuable to customers for the selection of Islamic home financing over conventional home financing modes. They are suggested to develop strategies and plans to educate people more about Islamic home finance and develop their product portfolio to provide people with more Shariah compliant choices. This study contributes to the Islamic banking literature by extending and identifying the factors of Islamic home financing.

Background: Patient satisfaction occupies a central position in measuring the quality of care as it provides information on the provider’s success, meeting the patient’s values and expectations. Hence, it is an essential tool for assessing health services outcomes. This study aimed to assess patients’ satisfaction level and factors influencing healthcare quality of general hospitals in the Jazan region, Saudi Arabia (SA).Methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 423 patients selected through stratified random sampling from general hospitals of the Jazan region.Results: The overall satisfaction rate among the study participants was 80.9%. Satisfaction with food services was the highest (91.15%) followed by doctor services (81.0%), reception and entry procedures (80%), and nursing services (78.15%). The various aspects of satisfaction with doctors and nurses included the treatment prescribed by physicians, clarity in communication with patients, compassion and providing clear explanation of what they were doing. However, about 27.3% of the patients were dissatisfied with the length of waiting period before seeing a doctor. Binary logistic regression analysis suggested that uneducated patients and patients with secondary school education were more likely to have higher satisfaction level than university-educated patients (OR = 3.40, 95% C.I. [1.56–7.45], p = 0.002), (OR = 2.66, 95% C.I. [1.28–5.55], p = 0.009), and (OR = 2.29, 95% C.I. [1.40–3.73], p = 0.001), respectively.Conclusion: The health services satisfaction level was high in the Jazan population. However, some aspects of dissatisfaction were reported, such as the long waiting period before seeing a doctor. These aspects are recommended to be improved to ensure that the services provided by general hospitals are of high quality. Keywords: satisfaction; health services; general hospitals; Jazan

Management of excess water from the pavements and road surfaces, due to rainfall, is not only important for the safety of the traffic but also important for the long life of the road structures. Drainage inlets improperly designed or constructed may lead to an unsafe depth of stormwater on the road surfaces leading to hydroplaning, which may cause the skidding of the vehicles and an increased number of road accidents. As such, the hydraulic behaviour of the most common road drainage inlets was investigated using lab-scale models and the findings are reported in this paper. A rainfall-runoff simulator was used to produce rain of various intensities on the lab-scale roadside drainage system. The main intention was to study the effect of rainfall on the commonly used circular, rectangular, and grated inlets. Rainfall intensity, inflow, water depth on the model road surface, and outflow rates through the inlets were monitored. Experimental results indicated that open rectangular inlets are the best compared to circular and grated inlets, with regards to quickly releasing water from the road surface to the roadside drains. Based on the lab-scale model study, the grated and circular inlets held 64 % and 28% more runoff depth (respectively) on the road surface, compared to that the rectangular inlet. For the same rainfall intensity, a rectangular roadside inlet was found to cause less stagnant water on the road surface.

The improvement in thermal comfort of a building passively helps in reducing its energy utilization, throughout the year. Several factors are directly related to reducing the cooling and heating load of the building such as orientation and the material used in it. In this study, authors have proposed a new wall and roof panel system namely Ferro Cellular lightweight-concrete Insulated Panel Assembly (FCIPA) for a building. This panel system has been tested experimentally in direct axial compression and is compared with brick masonry wall at small scale. Further, it has been tested theoretically for thermal analysis using eQUEST energy simulation program. The thermal study was conducted on an existing residential building of New Delhi, India, by changing the components of wall and roof of the building with three different kinds of construction material namely brick, concrete, and FCIPA. Moreover, the effect of orientation and the type of window glass on the thermal efficiency of the building were also studied. It was found that the FCIPA has the load-bearing capacity equivalent to half brick thick (120 mm) masonry wall. In addition, in terms of the energy use, FCIPA based building consumes nearly half of the thermal energy to that of the precast concrete and brick masonry based buildings. The results of the theoretical analysis also show that the north-south orientated building with longer axis running toward east-west having gray glasses window/doors openings is the most energy-efficient.

Background Diabetes is among the most prevalent diseases worldwide, of all the affected individuals a significant proportion of the population remains undiagnosed due to lack of specific symptoms early in this disorder and inadequate diagnostics. Diabetes and its associated sequela, i.e., comorbidity are associated with microvascular and macrovascular complications. As diabetes is characterized by an altered metabolism of key metabolites and regulatory pathways. Metabolic phenotyping can provide us with a better understanding of the unique set of regulatory perturbations that predispose to diabetes and its associated complication/comorbidities. Methodology The present study utilizes the analytical platform NMR spectroscopy coupled with Random Forest statistical analysis to identify the discriminatory metabolites in diabetes (DB = 38) vs. diabetes-related complication (DC = 35) along with the healthy control (HC = 50) subjects. A combined and pairwise analysis was performed to identify the discriminatory metabolites responsible for class separation. The perturbed metabolites were further rigorously validated using t-test, AUROC analysis to examine the statistical significance of the identified metabolites. Results The DB and DC patients were well discriminated from HC. However, 15 metabolites were found to be significantly perturbed in DC patients compared to DB, the identified panel of metabolites are TCA cycle (succinate, citrate), methylamine metabolism (trimethylamine, methylamine, betaine), -intermediates; energy metabolites (glucose, lactate, pyruvate); and amino acids (valine, arginine, glutamate, methionine, proline, and threonine). Conclusion The 1H NMR metabolomics may prove a promising technique to differentiate and predict diabetes and its complication on their onset or progression by determining the altered levels of the metabolites in serum.

Chemokine receptors and ligands are crucial for extensive immune response against infectious diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, HIV and tuberculosis and a wide variety of other diseases. Role of chemokines are evidenced in the activation and regulation of immune cell migration which is important for immune response against diseases. Outcome of disease is determined by complex interaction among pathogen, host genetic variability and surrounding milieu. Variation in expression or function of chemokines caused by genetic polymorphisms could be associated with attenuated immune responses. Exploration of chemokine genetic polymorphisms in therapeutic response, gene regulation and disease outcome is important. Infectious agents in human host alter the expression of chemokines via epigenetic alterations and thus contribute to disease pathogenesis. Although some fragmentary data are available on chemokine genetic variations and their contribution in diseases, no unequivocal conclusion has been arrived as yet. We therefore, aim to investigate the association of CCR5-CCL5 and CCR2-CCL2 genetic polymorphisms with different infectious diseases, transcriptional regulation of gene, disease severity and response to therapy. Furthermore, the role of epigenetics in genes related to chemokines and infectious disease are also discussed.

Introduction/Objective Bacterial infection is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Prompt identification of microorganisms and their susceptibilities to antimicrobial therapies is critical in the management of patients with bloodstream infections. Blood cultures are collected in paired aerobic and anaerobic bottles. However, transport delays might allow some organisms to grow extensively prior to incubation in the blood culture instruments, leading to false-negative culture results. The Detroit Medical Center utilizes the BD Bactec™ instruments for blood culture incubation and the Verigene DNA-based molecular assay for the identification of bacteria and major resistance genes. It has a core microbiology lab that serves 6 hospitals, however, 2 of the hospitals are remotely located. The aim of this project was to determine if transportation delays led to significant false-negative culture results. If significant false negativity occurred, additional Bactec™ instruments would need to be purchased. Methods For one month, we tracked the collection of blood cultures to incubation time at one of the remote hospitals. All blood cultures that remain negative after 164 hours of incubation are routinely discarded. However, in this case, they were subcultured to a Petri plate containing chocolate agar for 30 days. Any organisms that grew were identified by standard lab techniques. Results Of the 547 negative culture bottles that were subcultured for possible false-negative results, only 3 (0.5%) bottles grew bacteria. All three were isolated from different patients. The mean time from blood collection to incubation in the instrument was 4-8 hours. The isolates either met criteria for contaminated cultures, or they grew the same pathogen that had previously been identified in the paired bottle from the same culture. The organisms isolated include coagulase negative Staphylococcus species, Staphylococcus pettenkoferi, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. No unexpected pathogenic organisms were detected. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that prolonged pre-analytical time does not lead to false-negative blood culture results. The patients’ diagnoses were not changed, therefore, the purchase of additional blood culture instruments was not necessary. However, transportation time from the patient floors to the main microbiology lab needs to be improved to meet the recommended 2 hours pre-analytical time.

Communication is the foremost and basic necessity of a person. The ability to speak without any problem is a boon; nevertheless, woefully we have often seen people around us who are the victim of speech or hearing impairments. Thus, the ‘Sign Language’ (SL) appears as an alternate standard language that is globally understood and adopted by the deaf community. Though SL is a communication tool, but in practice, we still see most of the normal people do not understand the SL properly; thus, it is again a problem in communication between a speech/hearing impaired and normal persons. In this regard, many research attempts have been made to resolve this problem via wearable technology and other different paradigms of computational solutions. However, almost all of them focused on English or western languages, which provide a trivial resolution for the people of the Indian subcontinent. Thus, in this paper, we propose a solution to address this issue by employing Kinect Motion Sensor for detecting the signs (in SL) through hand movements and gestures and translating them in Urdu/Hindi language, which is readable and audible to normal persons. The proposed system is developed on a feature-based model; hence, we stored signs in a dictionary/training set for the development of the baseline system; however, the users can customize the system by adding their sign patterns in the future.

Herein, pore size, crystalinity, and Si/Al ratio of mesoporous ZSM-5 (MFI) nanocrystals was controlled by synthesis parameters, such as surfactant concentration ([3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl] hexa-decyl dimethyl ammonium chloride), sodium hydroxide concentrations, synthesis temperature and time. The morphology, surface structure and composition of the MFI particles was systematically investigated. More notably, the mesopore-dependent catalytic activity of ZSM-5 was evaluated by studying the cracking of n-hexane. The findings suggest the porosity has pronounced impact on the catalytic activity, selectivity and stability of ZSM-5 nanocrystals. Critical surface attributes such as nature of acid sites (Brønsted and Lewis), concentration, and strength are obtained by the infrared study of adsorbed probe molecules (pyridine) and the temperature programmed desorption. In spite of being weaker in Si/Al ratio or acidic strength, mesoporous catalysts showed more stable and efficient cracking of n-hexane suggesting that acidity seems not the predominant factor operative in the activity, selectivity and stability.

Purpose – The study aims at providing a reliable system of real-time monitoring for underground mine and tunnels which detects any structural change in the network and reconfigures it for resuming the data delivery process. In high stress environments, e.g. underground mines and tunnels, real-time activity monitoring is an emerging issue. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play a key role in ensuring the safety of people working in underground mines and tunnels. WSN not only provide real-time monitoring of underground environment but also detects any structural change in the network itself. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, results of empirical implementation of a re-configurable WSN, capable of self-healing approach, reconfigure the network connectivity upon failure or addition of nodes in the system. An open-source radio-frequency identification standard for WSN, named as DASH7, is used for practical implementation. The proposed system is capable of determining cluster breakage by sudden disruptions caused by roof falls, explosions and node failures, sensor coverage hole, node re-addition to the network and distress priority signal generation by the miner. Findings – The proposed platform contributes to re-attain network state for establishing a communication link with fusion center in terms of: instant and accurate detection of collapse holes, acceptable error rate, time to re-attain network state, rapid distress signal propagation and low deployment cost. This platform is deployed in four different environments of anechoic chamber, hallway, outdoor and underground mine environment, to test the aforementioned scenarios using DASH7-compatible Bitsense Sensor Motes operating at 433 MHz. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been experimentally validated for the single and multiple adjacent and disjoint node failures in all the four environments. Originality/value – The number of monitoring systems was implemented for safety assurance in high stress environments before, but the novelty of our platform is long range, cost effectiveness, quick response to any structural change in the network, rapid and accurate data delivery using WSN operated on DASH7 protocol stack.

Biocatalytic activity of soluble against immobilized cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) bud peroxidase (CBP) on calcium alginate gel beads have been assessed; internal conditions including temperature, pH and stability with denaturants optimized for application in removing color of textile industrial effluent. CBP–concanavalin A complex expressed ~84% of original peroxidase whereas in entrapped state on calcium alginate pectin gel the activity reduced to ~64%. Immobilized CBP–Con A complex retained ~56.6% activity even at 70 °C which was achieved at pH 4.0. Prolonged urea treatment resulted in activity loss of entrapped CBP-Con A complex by ~19.8%. With dioxane at 50% (v/v), entrapped CBP-Con A complex exhibited an activity of over 58.7%; whereas an increasing concentration of dimethylformide caused reduction in peroxidase activity to 35.8% at 80% (v/v). With immobilized proteins there was considerable color removal upto ~90.6% and ~81.1% from disperse red 19 and dye mixture (disperse red 19+disperse black 9) respectively, in continuous two reactor system and total organic carbon analysis was quite comparable to color loss. Entrapped CBP-Con A complex were reusable upto ten cycles in dye color removal. This study suggests that immobilized and entrapped CBP catalytic system can be efficiently exploited for dye color removal from industrial effluent due to its sustainability, durability and reusability over its soluble counterpart.

DNA sequence variations [copy number variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and microsatellite repeats] play an important role in susceptibility ⁄ resistance to tuberculosis and other infectious diseases like malaria and HIV. Different population exhibit variable associations with tuberculosis susceptibility and severity because of DNA sequence variations in both host and parasite. A number of genes and their polymorphisms have been identified that appear to be important in tuberculosis. In this article, several case–control studies of tuberculosis including a number of genes in different population have been explored. Furthermore, this review summarizes the current studies of host polymorphisms and their association with tuberculosis in different population. We have computationally predicted 275 SNPs which occur in transcription factor binding sites for transcription factors in 19 genes involved in pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Some common SNPs are rs1327474, rs755622, rs1801274, rs396991, rs5030737, rs1800451, rs1800450, rs3763313 rs3763313, rs9268494 and rs9268492 that have been found to play a role in disease. Presence of non-synonimous polymorphisms in coding region might affect the structure of protein, whereas polymorphisms in promoter region affect the level of gene products, consequently altering the susceptibility ⁄ resistance to disease. Based on this prediction, we hypothesize that these genes play an important role in susceptibility to tuberculosis through an altered expression of gene product via the modification of transcriptional regulation of gene.

Plant serine protease inhibitors are defense proteins crafted by nature for inhibiting serine proteases. Use of eco-friendly, sustainable and effective protein molecules which could halt or slow down metabolism of nutrients in pest would be a pragmatic approach in insect pest management of crops. The host-pest complexes that we observe in nature are evolutionary dynamic and inter-depend on other defense mechanisms and interactions of other pests or more generally speaking symbionts with the same host. Insects have co-evolved and adapted simultaneously, which makes it necessary to investigate serine protease inhibitors in non-host plants. Such novel serine protease inhibitors are versatile candidates with vast potential to overcome the host inhibitor-insensitive proteases. In a nutshell exploring and crafting plant serine proteinase inhibitors (PIs) for controlling pests effectively must go on. Non-host PI seems to be a better choice for coevolved insensitive proteases. Transgenic plants expressing wound inducible chimaeric PIs may be an outstanding approach to check wide spectrum of gut proteinases and overcome the phenomenon of resistance development. Thus, this article focuses on an entire array of plant serine protease inhibitors that have been explored in the past decade, their mode of action and biological implications as well as applications.

Introduction: The number of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) approaches 100,000 in US after adjusting for early mortality (Hassell Am J Prev Med 2010). Management of SCD and its complications require frequent access to healthcare system lifelong, thus impacting patients' quality of life and cost of healthcare. Chronic pain inducing illnesses are known to increase susceptibility to mental health disorders (Rayner Pain 2016). Psychosocial disorders are common in this population and impact the course of hospitalization, however we have limited published data in this area. Hence, we performed a large retrospective study utilizing the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data to evaluate the prevalence of mental health disorders in hospitalized sickle cell patients, and their influence on length of hospitalization. Methods: We identified hospitalized sickle cell patients using ICD 9 codes (282.5,282.6X -282.6X ) in the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. Similarly, ICD-9 codes were used to identify patients with mental health disorders of interest. The demographics and length of hospital stay of patients with and without mental health disorders were then compared. Surveyfreq was used to calculate proportions and surveymeans was used to calculate median length of stay and hospital charges. Cochran-Armitage test was used for analyzing trends. We used chi-square for categorical data frequency, P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. All analysis was performed using SAS 9.4. Results: We identified a total of 1,349,701 hospitalizations for sickle cell patients between 2003-2014, of which 221,279 (16%) had associated mental health disorders. Mood disorders were most common (40%), followed by substance abuse (28%) and anxiety disorder (16%) (Table 1). Over the timeline of our study, we found a longitudinal trend towards higher prevalence of mental health disorders in hospitalized sickle cell patients (Figure 1). There was higher prevalence of mental health disorders among patients aged between 21-40 years (24%). No difference in the rate of mental health disorders was noted in patients admitted with or without acute sickle cell pain episode. Median length of hospital stay (LOS) was 4 days in patients with mental health disorders (95% CI 4.04-4.12) compared to 3 days in those without (95% CI 3.17-3.20). Conclusion: The prevalence of mental health disorders in hospitalized sickle cell patients has been gradually increasing from 2003 to 2014 and approaches 16% overall. The length of hospital stay is longer for the individuals with these disorders than those without hence, increasing the cost of health care and reducing patient satisfaction. Therefore, early recognition and intervention for mental health disorders is paramount to promote quality of life and reduce health care costs. This demands for a multidisciplinary approach to provide better access to mental health resources to this population in the outpatient setting. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a common hemoglobinopathy, characterized by vaso-occlusive crises and affects over 100,000 people in United States. It afflicts long-lasting organ damage with a spectrum of clinical severity. Median survival for SCD is shortened to the 6th decade of life despite advances in medical care (Elmariah et al Am J Hematol 2014). Allogeneic stem cell transplant (SCT) is a potentially curative option and is increasingly considered in patients with severe symptomatic SCD. The use of SCT is limited by donor availability and treatment related complications. Several advancements in conditioning regimen and use of alternate donor source have favorably impacted the feasibility of this approach. We identified SCT performed for sickle cell disease in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) from 2002-2014 in an attempt to identify hospitalization outcomes, factors affecting length of stay and healthcare utilization. Methods: HCUP-NIS is a 20% stratified sample of all discharges from hospitals across 46 states in the United States and incorporates weighting algorithms to predict nationwide estimates. We used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) procedure codes to identify HCT hospitalizations {Bone marrow (BM):41.02, 41.03, Peripheral blood (PB): 41.05, 41.08 and Cord blood (CB): 41.06} for sickle cell disease (282.5,282.6X -282.6X). We excluded patients who underwent SCT for indications other than SCD. Surveyfreq was used to calculate proportions and surveymeans was used to calculate median length of stay and hospital charges. Kruskal-Wallis test was used for non-parametric data. Chi-square for categorical data frequency, P value of < 0.05 was statistically significant. All analysis was performed using SAS 9.4. Results: Outcomes were analyzed from a total of 742 hospitalizations for SCT from 2002-2014 (table 1). Median age for stem cell transplant was 9 years. GVHD occurred in 14% of stem cell transplants. Overall, in-hospital mortality was low at 2.6% while mortality in patients who developed GVHD was 14%. Bacterial infections (including C.difficile) occurred more commonly than viral or fungal infections (table 2). Patients who developed graft vs host disease (GVHD) were also more likely to have bacterial, viral and fungal infections than those without. Pain crisis was noted in 9% of total admissions while stroke occurred in 6%. Median length of stay (LOS) was 35 days and median charges were $359,646. If GVHD developed, median LOS increased to 54 days while median charges increased to $712,324. Similarly, bacterial sepsis was associated with a longer median LOS of 63 days while median charges increased to $626,986 (table 3). Conclusions: The rate of inpatient mortality with SCT in sickle cell disease is lower than the overall inpatient mortality rate for allogeneic SCT (7%; Godara et al bbmt 2018), indicating a favorable outcome for these patients. Infections do occur commonly during the course of hospitalization, especially in association with GVHD. Length of stay is adversely impacted by occurrence of GVHD, bacterial sepsis, C.difficile infection and viral infections. While we are limited by duration of follow up in our study, these patterns suggest some essential modifiers for inpatient morbidity and mortality, therefore require validation in a large prospective study. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

DNA topoisomerases are ubiquitous enzymes which are involved in replication, transcription, recombination and repair of nucleic acids. DNA topoisomerase II of filarial parasite Setaria cervi was purified to homogeneity by use of cation exchange and affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme migrated on SDS-PAGE as a single band with molecular weight of ∼80 kDa and native molecular weight of the enzyme was found to be 175 kDa indicating the dimeric nature of the protein. Topo II of S. cervi required ATP and dATP for its activity and optimal activity was observed at 1.0 mM ATP concentration. The filarial enzyme also utilized nucleotides, namely GTP, UTP and CTP for its activity. The divalent metal ions requirement of the enzyme showed that beside Mg+2 other ions viz., Ca+2, Mn+2, Cu+2 and Sr+2 were also utilized as cofactor for the activity. Antifilarial compounds ivermectin and diethylcarbamazine inhibited 100 % topo II activity at 100 μM concentration but suramin showed similar effect at 20 μM concentration. Nalidixic acid and novobiocin exhibited 100 % inhibition of the enzyme activity while mAMSA and etoposide inhibited the activity to different extents at 100 μM concentration. In view of significant differences in properties exhibited by the filarial topoisomerase as compared to other parasitic and eukaryotic topoisomerases, the filarial topoisomerase can be usefully exploited to devise new antifilarial compounds.

Fifteen intact male goats of Jamunapari breeds, 12–15 months old weighing 22.0 kg were divided into three groups of five animals in each in a completely randomized design to determine the effect of feeding Leucaena leucocephala leaves and twigs (LLLT) on heat production (HP) and energy balance (EB). Animals in treatment I (Control) was supplied with a conventional ration consisting of a concentrate mixture and vegetative parts of Zea mays and in treatments II and III received similar rations except that LLLT provided about 0.40 and 0.50 parts crude protein (CP) of total protein in ration, respectively by replacing 0.50 and 1.00 parts each of the solvent extracted groundnut cake and wheat bran in the concentrate mixture, respectively. The dry matter (DM) supplemented through LLLT was 0, 121 and 224 g in treatments I, II and III, respectively and it corresponds to 0, 0.19 and 0.34 parts of total DM intake. Supplementation of increasing amount of LLLT did not affect (P=0.303) DM intake but digestibility of DM decreased (P=0.002) linearly. The digestible energy (DE) intake was not affected (P=0.161) due to supplementation of LLLT. Urinary energy (UE) loss per kg metabolic body size per day and as proportion of gross energy (GE) or DE intake increased (P

Joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is due to tissue injury in the area caused by inflammatory reactions, release of MMPs and free radicals produced by neutrophils and macrophages. The control of free radical production may have therapeutic roles thus the study was done to check the status of lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) and a few antioxidant enzymes in RA patients. 45 RA patients and 40 controls were selected. Controls were asymptomatic and RA patients were selected according to ACR criteria. RA patients had significantly high MDA, SOD and ALP and reduced activity of catalase and GR as compared to controls. SOD showed positive correlation with ALP. GR was positively related with MDA, SOD and ALP. The study shows that MDA is involved in the pathogenesis of RA. The system is trying to quench free radicals by high SOD activity. Higher production of H2O2 or some other mechanism is responsible for inhibition of catalase and GR. However system is trying to reduce the damage by neutralizing superoxide anion. Therapeutic intervention of the oxidative stress may be considered for effective control of inflammation in RA patients.

Partial Ordering and Extended Defects In Ö-Ga2Se3

Carbide phase transformation and alloying element partitioning in service exposed (about 45 000-160 000 h) 2.25Cr-1Mo boiler tubes from a thermal power station were studied using X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence techniques on electrochemically extracted carbide precipitates. The objective of the present investigation was to develop a faster method of health assessment of this steel at elevated temperatures on a routine basis. Various carbide phases were detected with different lengths of service. The molybdenum content in extracted carbide specimens showed a systematic decrease with aging. Replenishment of molybdenum in the matrix may be a useful indicator in life assessment of this steel. When the dissolved molybdenum content in the matrix was less than ~0.8 wt-%, the hardness of service exposed specimens was found to decrease. However, carbide precipitates extracted from new specimens subjected to accelerated heat treatment at 600 and 700 ° C showed an increase in molybdenum content with...

In the present study, a fear-conditioning model in rats was used to gauge the changes in the histone acetylation level in thedifferent nuclei of amygdala during fear memory consolidation and its extinction. It was found by immunohistochemicalexamination of Amygdala that during the fear memory consolidation histone H3 acetylation level was significantlyincreased in the Central amygdala (CeA), the output of the fear circuitry, as compared to the unconditioned group andsubsequently, when this fear memory was extinguished during fear extinction, the histone H3 acetylation levels decreasedsignificantly as compared to the conditioned group. However, in another nuclei of the amygdala, the intercalated cells(ITCs) the Acetyl H3 levels increased during extinction and but not in the conditioned group as compared to theunconditioned group. The p-ERK and p-CREB levels also significantly varied in the different nuclei of amygdalabetween the two groups and showed correlation with the Histone acetylation changes observed in these groups. Inconclusion the present study points out that the memory formation, during fear memory consolidation and its extinction,may be dependent on differential neuronal activity under epigenetic control through acetylation at k-9 residue of histoneH3, in different regions of the amygdala as evident by the p-ERK and p-CREB activation, which are the markers foractivity of neurons and memory formation.

Energy balance studies through C–N balance were conducted on 15 adult male sheep of Muzaffarnagari breed. The animals weighing 42 kg were randomly assigned to three groups of five animals each and were fed ad lib wheat straw treated with urea (4 kg urea per 100 kg DM) with a storage time of 21 days (group I, control) or urea (1.5 kg per 100 kg DM) without storage time (group II) or urea plus calcium hydroxide (3 kg urea plus 3 kg calcium hydroxide per 100 kg DM) with a storage time of 21 days (group III). The cell wall and dry matter digestibility was higher ( P P P P P P −1 W 0.75 per day in groups I, II and III, respectively. It was significantly ( P

Design Retrospective chart and radiographic review of all cases admitted to the authors' hospital and diagnosed to have tuberculous spondylitis. Objective To identify the frequency, presenting features, utility of diagnostic tests, and treatment outcome of spinal tuberculosis in a tertiary care center. Methods All cases of spinal tuberculosis treated in the authors' hospital over 14 years were reviewed. Only those with histologic or microbiologic confirmation or those who responded to antituberculous spondylitis therapy were included. Outcome was assessed according to predefined criteria. Results Between 1985 and 1998, 69 cases of tuberculous spondylitis were found, i.e., 5% of all tuberculous spondylitis cases diagnosed. The mean age was 52.8 years (range, 15-80 years), and 37 (53.6%) were male. Only five patients had a history of tuberculosis. The most frequent symptoms were backache (84%) and fever (32%), and the most frequent sign was spinal tenderness (45%). Nineteen (28%) patients had paraparesis and 12 (17%) had kyphosis. Except for elevated sedimentation rate (94.5%), the laboratory workup was not helpful. Both computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were found to be helpful in diagnosis, often with complementary information. Thirty-eight patients (55%) had thoracic spine involvement and 55 patients (80%) had paraspinal abscesses. Tissue aspirates had a yield of 70%, 35%, and 57% for granulomas, acid-fast bacilli smear, and culture, respectively. Medical therapy alone was given in 37 cases (54%), whereas 32 patients (46%) required additional surgical intervention, mainly those with spinal cord compression, spinal deformity, or risk of spinal instability. There was definite improvement in 63 cases (91%). The best outcome was in those patients presenting early before the occurrence of spinal deformity or neurologic symptoms. Conclusion Tuberculous spondylitis is prevalent in the authors' hospital. Both computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are extremely helpful for diagnosis, and tissue aspirate is a good confirmatory method. A good outcome is expected if the diagnosis is made in early stages before the appearance of spinal deformity and neurologic symptoms. Surgical intervention can be avoided in these cases regardless of the presence or absence of paraspinal abscesses.

Central obesity in all individuals aged 65 years and over [n = 810] in the catchment areas of three primary health care centres in Abha was determined from the waist circumference [WC] and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]. The age-adjusted prevalence of central obesity was 32.4% and 43.5% based on the WC and WHR indicators respectively. WC was significantly associated with the risk of diabetes and hypertension, while WHR was significantly associated with the risk of diabetes only. These findings suggest that reducing the prevalence of central obesity in old age would decrease the risk of diabetes and hypertension. WC is a powerful independent predictor mainly of hypertension risk, while WHC is a good predictor of the risk of diabetes.

Psychosocial assessment of geriatric subjects was carried out through a home-based survey of people aged 65 years and over [n = 810] in the catchment areas of 3 primary health care centres. All the participants had a structured interview and were given a short version of the geriatric depression scale. Depression was found in 17.5% of the subjects, more commonly in women [27.7% versus 12.7%]. The combined effect of impaired perceived health status [52.4%] and functional capacity [26.6%], loneliness [4.5%], single status [24.3%], and lack of education [80.5%] explained 23.7% of the variance in depression score by multiple regression analysis. Depression is a problem among the geriatric population in the region, especially women. Periodic home psychosocial screening of geriatrics is recommended.

Twelve adult Muzaffarnagari rams (mean weight 41.4 2.09) were used to study fasting heat production (FHP) using open circuit respiration calorimetry. After a maintenance level of feeding for 60, sheep were fasted for three days and later subjected to gaseous exchange studies for 72‐96 h. Mean oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide and methane production (l/d) and urinary nitrogen excretion (g/d) values for sheep were 187.9, 130.4, 0.346 and 2.94, respectively. Mean fasting heat production of sheep was 54.1 kcal/kg W 0.75 per day and feeding rations with different roughage to concentrate ratio at maintenance level

Preferences of women living in remote areas regarding delivery place and attendant were surveyed, opinions of primary health care [PHC] doctors about traditional birth attendants’ [TBA] maternal care were assessed and training needs for TBAs were identified using questionnaires and a focus group discussion. Home deliveries and TBAs were preferred by approximately 24% and 38% of the women respectively. The fact that they were women and psychological comfort were the main reasons for preferring TBAs. TBAs disclosed many harmful practices. No PHC centre help was sought by 75% of TBAs. Lack of cooperation between PHC centres and TBAs was a concern of most of the doctors. Training and links to PHC services for TBAs are needed

Three groups (I II and III) of Muzaffarnagari sheep comprising each of four sheep were fed diets containing 92:8, 50:50 and 30:70 roughage (R) and concentrate (C) ratio. Conventional metabolic trial was followed by gaseous exchange study in open circuit respiration chamber. The carbon content of feed, feces and urine was estimated by adopting soda lime method whereas carbon loss as carbondioxide and methane was determined from gaseous exchange in respiration chamber. Nutritive value in terms of DP (%) and TDN (%) was significantly (p

Ram lambs of the Muzaffarnagari breed weighing 42 kg were randomly assigned to three groups of five animals. These animals were used to study the effect of chemically treated wheat straw on methane production and energy balance. Wheat straw was treated either with urea (4 kg urea per 100 kg DM) with a storage time of 21 days (treatment I; control) or with urea (1.5 kg per 100 kg DM) without storage time (treatment II) or with urea plus calcium hydroxide (3 kg urea plus 3 kg calcium hydroxide per 100 kg DM) with a storage time of 21 days (treatment III). All straws were fed ad libitum. The crude protein content of wheat straw during feeding was 7.8%, 7.9% and 7.6% in treatments I–III, respectively. Corresponding dry matter (DM) intake was 43.7, 34.9 and 49.5 g kg −1 W 0.75 , respectively which was significantly higher in treatment III than that of treatment II. The DM digestibility in treatments I (54.2%) and III (50.9%) was higher than that of treatment II (42.7%). The digestible energy (DE) intake that was measured in kJ kg −1 W 0.75 d −1 was higher in treatments I (412) and III (471) than that of treatment II (282). Similar trend was observed in metabolizable energy (ME) intake. Methane production per kg digested organic matter (OM) per d was lower in treatments I (301) and III (291) than that of treatment II (461). The energy balance was measured in kJ kg −1 W 0.75 d −1 in treatments I–III, respectively. The energy balance in treatments I (113) and III (170) was higher than that of treatment II (−40). It is concluded that treatment of straw with urea and/or a mixture of urea with calcium hydroxide followed by storage can improve digestibility compared to spraying with urea solution prior to feeding and also reduce methane production per kg digested OM and increase energy balance.

Eight male goats of Cheghu breed, 1–2 years old, weighing 19.5–35.2 kg were divided into two groups of four animals in each. Digestibility and N-balance measurements were made on berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum) based rations which were given either alone (T1 group) or supplemented with crushed maize (T2 group) to provide different levels of energy about their maintenance requirements. Energy and N balances were determined by conducting respiration calorimetry trials on all the individual animals in an open circuit respiration chamber. The DM intake was 50.1 and 65.2 g kg−1W0.75 per day in T1 and T2 groups, respectively, which were different (P < 0.05) from each other. The animals in both groups were in positive N balance. The ME intake per kgW0.75 per day in T2 group (696.2 kJ) was higher (P < 0.05) than T1 group (482 kJ). The retention of energy per kgW0.75 per day in T2 group was 149.2 kJ which was higher (P < 0.05) than that in T1 (6 kJ) group. The energy requirement for maintenance (MEm), determined from regression of energy retention (ER) on metabolizable energy intake (MEI), was 476 kJ kg−1W0.75 per day. Fasting heat production (FHP) was 326 kJkg−1W0.75 per day with efficiency of utilization of ME for maintenance (km) 0.686. It is concluded that the ME requirements for maintenance of pashmina bearing Cheghu goats which inhabit the higher altitude of Himalayan range under severe cold and dry climate is similar to the goats found in the plains of India.

Emergence of rapid drug resistance to existing antimalarial drugs inPlasmodium falciparumhas created the need for prediction of novel targets as well as leads derived from original molecules with improved activity against a validated drug target. The malaria parasite has a plant plastid-like apicoplast. To overcome the problem of falciparum malaria, the metabolic pathways in parasite apicoplast have been used as antimalarial drug targets. Among several pathways in apicoplast, isoprenoid biosynthesis is one of the important pathways for parasite as its multiplication in human erythrocytes requires isoprenoids. Therefore targeting this pathway and exploring leads with improved activity is a highly attractive approach. This report has explored progress towards the study of proteins and inhibitors of isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway. For more comprehensive analysis, antimalarial drug-protein interaction has been covered.