Caenispirillum salinarum sp. nov., a member of the family Rhodospirillaceae isolated from a solar saltern

A novel Gram-negative, vibrio-shaped, motile bacterium, designated strain AK4T, was isolated from a sediment sample collected from a solar saltern at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. Strain AK4T was positive for oxidase, urease and DNase activities but negative for gelatinase, catalase, ornithine decarboxylase, lysine decarboxylase, nitrate reduction, aesculin, indole and lipase activities. The fatty acids were dominated by unsaturated components, with a high abundance of summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) and C17 : 1ω6c. Strain AK4T contained Q-10 as the major respiratory quinone and phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine as major polar lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain AK4T was 71.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain AK4T was most closely related to the type strain of Caenispirillum bisanense of the family Rhodospirillaceae (phylum ‘ Proteobacteria ’) (96.6 % sequence similarity). It shared <93.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with other members of the family. Based on phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic inference, strain AK4T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Caenispirillum , for which the name Caenispirillum salinarum sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is AK4T ( = MTCC 10963T = JCM 17360T).

Interdistrict variations in child health status and health services utilization: lessons for health sector priority setting and planning from a cross-sectional survey in rural India

BACKGROUND

There are limited data on interdistrict variations in child health status and health services utilization within the states of India. We conducted this study to identify and understand district-wise variations in child morbidity, mortality, healthcare seeking, and the status of health facilities in India.

METHODS

A cross-sectional population-based cluster survey was conducted from April to July 2007 in 16 districts of eight states in India. Two districts with similar demographic profile and health criteria were selected from each study state.

RESULTS

A total of 216 794 households and 24 812 under-5 children were surveyed. There were wide interdistrict variations in the health status of children within the same state and between different states across India. Interdistrict difference of >5 points/1000 live-births was found for infant mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate in all eight study states, while in six out of eight states this difference was >10 points/1000 live-births. Four states had a difference of >10 points/1000 live-births between respective districts for neonatal mortality rate. The interdistrict differences were also noted in childhood morbidity and health-seeking behaviour. Analysis of proportion of health facilities conforming to Indian public health standards revealed that the difference was m10% for availability of vaccines in five states, emergency services in three, laboratory services and logistics in four each, and referral facility in three of the eight study states.

CONCLUSION

This study underscores an important information gap in the country where planners seem to rely heavily on a few selected national-level databases that may not be adequate at the micro level. The current process of sporadic health surveys also appears inadequate and inappropriate. There is a need for district-specific data for planning, improving quality of service and generating demand for health service utilization to improve child survival in India. The findings of this study may prove useful for child health programme planning in India.

Evidence based communication for health promotion: Indian lessons of last decade

Good health promotion programs which help achieve public health goals are derived from using a mix of epidemiological and social and behavioral science research information. Social data informed by behavioral theories provides a lens of understanding how recommended behaviors are adopted by different individuals within the population over a period of time. In addition to social and epidemiological data, evidence based and scientifically planned and monitored strategic communication interventions have to be linked to available service components of the program. Communication is increasingly understood as an enabler of individual and social level change to achieve established developmental goals including health. Democratization movements and the advent of the internet have changed the environment around any program communication from top-down, expert-to-consumer (vertical) communication towards non-hierarchical, dialogue-based (horizontal) communication, through which the public increasingly questions recommendations of experts and public institutions on the basis of their own, often web based, research. The amount of information available has increased greatly, including scientifically valid data and evidence-based recommendations alongside poor quality data, personal opinions, and misinformation. Evidence-based approaches include engagement with and listening to stakeholders, and being transparent about decision making, and honest and open about uncertainty and risks. Decision and policy makers cannot assume what the public wants without undertaking social science and decision science research. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative and Integrated Disease Surveillance Projects (IDSP) in India haves shown that monitoring of public concerns needs to be continuous and responsive, and hand in hand with the monitoring of technical strategies and appropriate Information Technology support for, not only data transmission but also for videoconferencing and community involvement through toll free 24 × 7 call service with universal access. This article elucidates the vital role of Health Promotion, a research based communication process, in achieving developmental, particularly health goals. It underscores that communication is as much a science as an art, as much process as it is about outcomes. It advocates for increased linkages between epidemiological research and social science research in planning effective health promotion interventions with quality service delivery.

Genotoxicity assessment in smokeless tobacco users: a case-control study

India has a long history of tobacco, which includes chewing tobacco and smoking tobacco in various forms. Initially, the smokeless tobacco chewing habit was seen among the majority of the farmers who cultivated tobacco; but in recent years, smokeless tobacco is available in many forms and is cheaper as well and hence it is widely being used among literate and illiterate people. The subjects of our study are living in hilly regions of Yerkaud in Salem district, South India. Most of the inhabitants of our study area are illiterate and more particularly they are unaware of the health effects due to tobacco use. Recent epidemiological reports have strongly indicated the association of cancer risk with usage of smokeless tobacco. The prime aim of our study is to evaluate the genotoxic effects of tobacco use by analysing the cytogenetic end points such as chromosome aberrations in peripheral blood and micronucleus in peripheral blood and buccal cells. About 85 smokeless tobacco users were enrolled for the study and same numbers of age- and sex-matched nontobacco users were also enrolled to serve as controls. The result of our study revealed that tobacco users displayed varied levels of elevated chromosomal damage and micronucleated cells than nontobacco users. The variation in the extent of genetic damage was dependent on the duration of the tobacco use. In conclusion, this study might be helpful in creating awareness on the hazards of the smokeless tobacco products among the global population as a whole for those who chose such products as a cheap alternative to tobacco smoke.

Modified Field stain - rapid viability test for Trichomonas vaginalis

AIMS

We previously reported that Modified Field Stain (MF) can be used as a rapid stain for diagnosis. In the present study we extend the observation to include the stain as an alternative method to assess viability of the cells.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Six isolates of Trichomonas vaginalis were used to assess the utility of the Modified Field stain as a rapid viability test for T. vaginalis and to compare with 0·4% Trypan Blue dye exclusion test in three conditions; normal in vitro culture growth using Hollander medium, lysed in distilled water and treated with metronidazole. MF stain showed similar growth profile pattern as Trypan Blue dye exclusion for identifying viable cells of T. vaginalis. Although, Trypan Blue dye exclusion test is ready made, rapid and widely used in laboratory as reliable viability assay, however, the limitation using Trypan Blue is the dye was unable to show internal morphological changes during the parasite's transition from being viable to non-viable. On day 3 where cultures peaked the correlation factor of both assays done to assess the viability of parasites harvested from the controls, metronidazole and distilled water treated parasites were more than 0·9 respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This confirms that MF staining does not only record permanently the morphological changes and retain internal structural details but also provides a reliable and rapid viability assay for the parasites.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Therefore, in our study, Modified Field's stain may offer the researchers and laboratory technologists the opportunity to get the result on the same day and the most important thing is the ability to differentiate between viable and non-viable of T. vaginalis under three different conditions (normal culture, drug and distilled water condition). Modified Field's staining method enhanced the morphological identification of T. vaginalis compared to Trypan Blue dye exclusion.

XRCC1 gene variants and possible links with chromosome aberrations and micronucleus in active and passive smokers

Tobacco addiction is a major risk for diseases such as cancers, heart attack, etc. Tobacco smoke constitutes environmental toxins that are the major preventable leading cause of death worldwide. We investigated the influence of tobacco smoke on cytogenetic parameters (chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei) and the influence of XRCC1 arg399gln polymorphism on the cytogenetic parameters of the exposed subjects. The cases for this study include active and passive smokers. They were divided into three groups in accordance with duration of exposure to tobacco smoke. We observed changes in the frequency of chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei among the exposed subjects and controls. Of the three groups of exposed subjects, group III of active smokers and group III of passive smokers showed higher number of chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei when compared to controls, group I and group II of active and passive smokers. The XRCC1 arg399gln polymorphic variant gln/gln, influenced the extent of genotoxic damage in chromosomes and frequency of in micronuclei the three variants (arg/arg, arg/gln and gln/gln), gln/gln harbored significantly (P<0.05) higher number of aberrations than the arg/arg and arg/gln. In this context, the results observed in our study indicated that the single nucleotide polymorphism on XRCC1codon 399 influenced the frequencies of chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei.

Two cases of a rare treatable limb girdle muscle disease

We report two cases of limb girdle pattern of muscle weakness caused by hyperparathyroidism due to parathyroid adenoma. It can be easily missed as early symptoms are non specific but once diagnosed it is easily treatable and complete recovery occurs over a period of time.

The medical treatment of endomyocardial fibrosis in 2009

OBJECTIVES

To study the natural history of medically treated patients with endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) and to see whether the usage of common drugs affected survival.

DESIGN

A real-world all-comers analysis with follow-up.

SETTING

A teaching hospital.

ANALYSIS

Cox proportional hazards multiple regression and Kaplan-Meier curves for survival with both univariate and multivariate analysis.

RESULTS

The mean age of this population was 40.5±5 years at first symptom. The mortality was also less than previous reports at 10.38%. The dominant type of EMF was dominant left ventricular EMF in 49, right ventricular EMF in 52 and biventricular EMF in 53. On univariate analysis by Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test patients on warfarin had a better survival (at 5, 10 and 15 years-97.3, 87.54% and 87.54%, respectively) compared with no warfarin at 5, 10 and 15 years (91.37%, 88.9% and 66.68%), log rank test NS. On multivariate analysis when sex, the presence of complications, use of ACE inhibitors, use of aldactone, use of digoxin, frusemide and warfarin and age (age at entering the study) were entered into the analysis, the following results were obtained-men had a shorter time to death. Furthermore, when patients taking aldactone and those not taking aldactone were examined it was found that those on aldactone had a higher mortality and shorter time to death.

CONCLUSION

On analysis of the usage of warfarin, those not on it had a shorter time to death; likewise did older patients.

Rao B. Ceramic Materials (Phosphors) for Display Applications

<p>Phosphors the ceramic materials should able to work in tough environment surrounded and bombarded by high energy Vacuum Ultra Violet (VUV), UV or electron beam radiations in any discharge tube. The plasma display panel (PDP) is increasingly gaining attention over conventional cathode ray tube (CRT)- based TVs as a medium of large format (60+”) television (TV), particularly high definition TVs (HDTVs). Improvements have been made not only in size but also in other areas such as resolution, luminescence efficiency, brightness, contrast ratio, power consumption, and cost reduction. The formation of a phosphor host and doping process by solid solution is critical and is highly dependent on the reaction temperature and conditions. Since the purity of starting chemicals is very important to the synthesis of phosphors, the starting chemicals are typically 99.9%, 99.999% in purity. Required amounts of starting ingredients are mixed in the presence of an appropriate flux (if necessary) and fired at high temperatures (1200 °C) in air or in a controlled atmosphere (N₂, C, CO, or N₂ with 2-5% of H₂). The present paper reports the synthesis and luminescence characteristics of different ceramic materials (phosphors) for display applications.</p>

Synthesis and Characterization of Sr2CeO4 Phosphor Doped with Erbium

<p>The present paper reports the Photoluminescence (PL) of the Sr₂CeO₄ phosphor, singly doped with Erbium rare-earth ion with different concentrations (0.01, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1%).The phosphor samples were synthesized using the standard solid state reaction technique. The effect of Er dopant on the structural, morphological, and Photoluminescent properties of the samples are studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD), PL and SEM analysis. The PL emission of undoped Sr₂CeO₄ phosphor was observed at 470 nm with high intensity followed by the primary Er emissions with good intensity at 525, 530, 549, 557 and 565 nm.</p>

No association between the Trp53 codon 72 polymorphism and head and neck cancer: a case-control study in a South Indian population

Genetic polymorphisms are important for predispositions to several human cancers. In the tumour suppressor Trp53 gene, a codon 72 polymorphism is frequent in the form of a single nucleotide polymorphism that leads to substitution of an arginine for a proline. In the present study, we analysed the association of Trp53 codon 72 polymorphs with head and neck cancer through a case-control study approach with PCR-RFLP of DNA from blood of 47 clinically confirmed patients and 52 healthy controls. The Pro (Trp5372P) and Arg (Trp5372R) allele frequencies in the healthy controls were 0.44 and 0.56, and not significantly different from those in the cancer patients at 0.56 and 0.44. The genotype distribution in the controls was 32.7% Arg/Arg, 46.2% Arg/Pro and 21.2% Pro/Pro and in the cancer patients 17.0% Arg/Arg, 53.2% Arg/Pro and 29.8% Pro/Pro. No significant difference in the distribution of genotypes between head and neck cancer patients and healthy controls (P=0.18, χ2 test) was observed. We conclude no association of Trp53 codon 72 polymorphism was observed with head and neck cancer susceptibility.

Adsorption of nickel by bentonite clays. A comparative study

Wastewater from chemical process industry contains soluble metal ions and metal ion complexes that are toxic and difficult to remove. Here, adsorption of Ni(+2) has been investigated by using bentonites from Kutch, Gujarat. Synthetic nickel ion solutions of concentrations 100-1000 ppm were prepared in aqueous medium for the study. The amount of adsorbent is varied from 0.5-2.5% (w/v). Equilibrium concentrations of the metal ions have been analyzed by ICPS, UV-VIS and titrimetric methods. Adsorption of the metal ions is found to be influenced by the concentration of the salt solutions and the form of the metal ions. Basic medium allows better removal. Converting metal ions to metal ammines enhanced their adsorption.

Maximizing the hemodynamic benefit of enhanced external counterpulsation

BACKGROUND

Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for angina and exertional ischemia in patients with coronary disease.

HYPOTHESIS

It is hypothesized that the ability of EECP to enhance the recruitment or development of coronary collaterals in coronary artery disease may be determined by the relative magnitude of diastolic augmentation (DA) and systolic unloading (SU). This study examines the relation between the proposed EECP effectiveness ratio (DA/SU), as assessed by finger plethysmography, and changes in descending aortic flow as assessed by Doppler echocardiography in 15 patients during EECP.

METHODS

Varying external cuff pressures (0-275 mmHg) were used to generate a range of DA/SU ratios. The effect on aortic antegrade systolic and retrograde diastolic flow was assessed by Doppler echocardiography to determine whether there was an optimal EECP effectiveness ratio that maximizes the hemodynamic effects of EECP. With increasing DA/SU there was an initial positive linear increase in both systolic and diastolic flow volume. Systolic flow maximized at an effectiveness ratio of 1.5 and diastolic flow at a ratio of 2.0

RESULT

Therefore, effectiveness ratios (DA/SU) in the range of 1.5-2.0 are optimal for maximizing the hemodynamic effects of EECP.