Cis-acting motifs in artificially synthesized expression cassette leads to enhanced transgene expression in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Efficacy of artificial synthetic expression modules was compared with native CaMV35S and DECaMV35S promoter in transgenic tomato developed by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The promoters under trial were CaMV35S-mec (PcamI), CaMV35S (PcamII), DECaMV35S (PcamIII), synthetic minimal expression cassette (Pmec), complete expression cassette (Pcec), double enhancer expression cassette (Pdec) and triple enhancer expression cassette (Ptec) for driving the uidA gene for β-glucuronidase (GUS) activity. The promoter efficiency based on average of GUS expression in T(0) and T(1) transgenic tomato was in the order Pcec > Pdec > PcamIII > PcamII > PcamI > Ptec > Pmec. The two promoters Pcec and PcamIII were deployed for development of insect-resistant transgenic tomato with optimal expression of modified cry1Ac insecticidal toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The transgenic status and copy number of the cry1Ac in T(0) transgenic tomato was confirmed through PCR, Southern hybridization, RT-PCR and Western immunoassay, while toxin expression was monitored by DAS-ELISA. The expression level of Cry1Ac toxin driven by Pcec in T(0) population ranged from 0.08 to 0.8% of total soluble protein (TSP) that was significantly higher to PcamIII which ranged from 0.02 to 0.13% of TSP. The outcome of insect mortality bioassay with Helicoverpa armigera correlated well with the results of DAS-ELISA. The higher expression of cry1Ac gene driven by Pcec promoter in transgenic tomato did not show any yield penalty and reflected complete protection, while low recovery of promising transgenics expressing Cry1Ac toxin driven by PcamIII was a major limitation for complete protection against the fruit borer insect.

Knowledge and attitude towards tuberculosis amongst the tribal population of Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh

A community-based cross-sectional survey was carried out amongst the tribal population of Jhabuain Madhya Pradesh. A total of 1385 individuals from randomly selected villages were interviewed using structured questionnaire. Eighty five per cent respondents had knowledge of the symptoms of tuberculosis. About a quarter of the respondents were not aware of any method for preventing TB. Though majority of the respondents (68.2%) stated that TB is a curable disease, most of them (67.2%) were not aware of the DOTS programme. The study emphasizes the need for extensive health education programme to create awareness about tuberculosis in tribal population of the region.

Professional Satisfaction among B.Sc. Nursing Graduates of an Institute

Introduction: Professional Satisfaction is a measure of valuation judgment of whether the expectations are met from the profession or not. This study was conducted to find out the professional satisfaction among pass-out B.Sc. Nursing graduates from an institute from batches 1996 to 2004. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted using convenient and snowball sampling technique. Out of 104 graduates, 50 were included in the study. A pre-tested semistructured questionnaire was used by self administration method to collect the information. Results: Highest satisfaction was with status 36 (75%) and lowest with working condition 27 (54%). The areas with decreasing value of satisfaction were growth and development 36 (72%), achievement and recognition 35 (70%), autonomy and challenging work 35 (69%). The majority of the respondents 27 (54%) stated that there is job security in the profession and the opportunity 26 (52%) to help others was the reason for their satisfaction but 28% said that there is no updating of knowledge and autonomy 15 (30%) in nursing profession. Conclusions: There is no difference in professional satisfaction of the respondents living in Nepal and abroad. It is seen that though there are many problems and many areas of dissatisfaction in nursing profession the respondents were satisfied to some extent with it and the reason for brain drain among B.Sc. Nursing graduates were their personal interest. Keywords: graduate; nursing; professional; satisfaction.

Rapid detection of rifampicin, isoniazid and streptomycin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates by high-resolution melting curve analysis

AIMS

This study was carried out to evaluate high-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis assay for detection of mutations in three drug resistance-associated genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Clinical isolates of Myco. tuberculosis phenotypically resistant to rifampicin (n = 29), isoniazid (n = 35) and streptomycin (n = 34) were analysed for mutations in rpoB, katG and rpsL genes, respectively, by HRM curve analysis and DNA sequencing. HRM curve assay resulted in 11 clearly distinguishable melt curves denoting eight types of mutations responsible for drug resistance. For the three drugs, respectively, the sensitivity of HRM curve assay was found to be 93·1, 80 and 61·8% compared to the phenotypic resistance patterns, and 93·1, 93·3 and 100% in comparison with the DNA sequencing.

CONCLUSIONS

The sensitivity and specificity of HRM curve assay was found to be comparable to DNA sequencing. The assay offers the advantage of high throughput, single step, rapid work flow and cost effectiveness and can be utilized as a rapid screening method for detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

HRM curve assay may prove to be an important tool for the development of rapid molecular diagnostic assays for detection of mutation-based drug resistance.

Professional satisfaction among B.Sc. nursing graduates of an institute

INTRODUCTION

Professional Satisfaction is a measure of valuation judgment of whether the expectations are met from the profession or not. This study was conducted to find out the professional satisfaction among pass-out B.Sc. Nursing graduates from an institute from batches 1996 to 2004.

METHODS

Descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted using convenient and snowball sampling technique. Out of 104 graduates, 50 were included in the study. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used by self administration method to collect the information.

RESULTS

Highest satisfaction was with status 36 (75%) and lowest with working condition 27 (54%). The areas with decreasing value of satisfaction were growth and development 36 (72%), achievement and recognition 35 (70%), autonomy and challenging work 35 (69%). The majority of the respondents 27 (54%) stated that there is job security in the profession and the opportunity 26 (52%) to help others was the reason for their satisfaction but 28% said that there is no updating of knowledge and autonomy 15 (30%) in nursing profession.

CONCLUSIONS

There is no difference in professional satisfaction of the respondents living in Nepal and abroad. It is seen that though there are many problems and many areas of dissatisfaction in nursing profession the respondents were satisfied to some extent with it and the reason for brain drain among B.Sc. Nursing graduates were their personal interest.

Non-motor features in essential tremor

INTRODUCTION

Essential tremor (ET) is increasingly recognized to have several non-motor manifestations. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of non-motor manifestations in ET and its impact on the quality of life (QOL).

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional case-control questionnaire-based study. The subjects were 50 patients with ET and 50 matched healthy controls. All subjects were assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Parkinson Fatigue Scale, Brief Pain Inventory, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. In addition, QOL in Essential Tremor questionnaire was administered to patients with ET.

RESULTS

Patients with ET, when compared with controls, had significantly higher prevalence and higher mean scores of sleep disturbances (46% vs 8%, P < 0.001; 5.9 ± 4.6 vs 2.6 ± 2.3, P < 0.001), fatigue (30% vs 8%, P = 0.009; 5.8 ± 0.8 vs 2.5 ± 0.4, P < 0.001), anxiety (66% vs 18%, P = 0.009; 7.4 ± 9.0 vs 0.7 ± 2.6, P < 0.001), depression (44% vs 8%, P = 0.009; 7.8 ± 7.9 vs 1.7 ± 3.3, P < 0.001) as well as higher mean score of pain severity (1.9 ± 2.3 vs 0.6 ± 1.2, P = 0.001) and interference owing to pain (2.0 ± 2.9 vs 0.5 ± 1.2, P = 0.001). Following hierarchical regression analysis, depression was the only non-motor feature that affected the QOL.

CONCLUSION

There was a significantly higher prevalence and greater severity of sleep disturbances, fatigue, pain, anxiety, and depression in patients with ET and depression significantly affected the QOL.

Morphology-based automatic seizure detector for intracerebral EEG recordings

In this paper, a new seizure detection system aimed at assisting in a rapid review of prolonged intracerebral EEG recordings is described. It is based on quantifying the sharpness of the waveform, one of the most important electrographic EEG features utilized by experts for an accurate and reliable identification of a seizure. The waveform morphology is characterized by a measure of sharpness as defined by the slope of the half-waves. A train of abnormally sharp waves resulting from subsequent filtering are used to identify seizures. The method was optimized using 145 h of single-channel depth EEG from seven patients, and tested on another 158 h of single-channel depth EEG from another seven patients. Additionally, 725 h of depth EEG from 21 patients was utilized to assess the system performance in a multichannel configuration. Single-channel test data resulted in a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 71%. The multichannel test data reported a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 58.9%. The new system detected a wide range of seizure patterns that included rhythmic and nonrhythmic seizures of varying length, including those missed by the experts. We also compare the proposed system with a popular commercial system.

Model-based seizure detection for intracranial EEG recordings

This paper presents a novel model-based patient-specific method for automatic detection of seizures in the intracranial EEG recordings. The proposed method overcomes the complexities in the practical implementation of the patient-specific approach of seizure detection. The method builds a seizure model (set of basis functions) for a priori known seizure (the template seizure pattern), and uses the statistically optimal null filters as a building block for the detection of similar seizures. The process of modeling the template seizure is fully automatic. Overall, the detection method involves the segmentation of the template seizure pattern, rejection of the redundant and noisy segments, extraction of features from the segments to generate a set of models, selection of the best seizure model, and training of the classifier. The trained classifier is used to detect similar seizures in the remaining data. The resulting seizure detection method was evaluated on a total of 304 h of single-channel depth EEG recordings from 14 patients. The system performance is further compared to the Qu-Gotman patient-specific system using the same data. A significant improvement in the proposed system, in terms of specificity, is observed over the compared method.

Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the gall bladder

Primary gallbladder carcinoma is a malignant neoplasm with an incidence of 1.2 cases per 100 000 people each year. Its occurrence increases with age, particularly in women. It is the fifth most common cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, and the most common malignancy in the biliary tract. Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of gallbladder neoplasm whereas sarcomatoid carcinoma is rare with an incidence of less than one percent of all malignant gall bladder neoplasms. Sarcomatoid carcinomas are composed of malignant epithelial and sarcomatous components, sometimes with heterologous sarcomatous elements. In general, conservative treatments are thought to be unfavourable to the tumor. Prognosis is poor following curative resection for carcinosarcoma of the gall bladder because of recurrence as systemic metastasis of the liver and peritoneal dissemination.

Rapid identification of epileptogenic sites in the intracranial EEG

The paper presents a novel computationally simple, easy-to-interpret compressed EEG display for multichannel intracranial EEG recordings. The compressed display is based on the level of sharp activity (relative sharpness index (RSI)) in the EEG, which profoundly increases during paroxysmal activities. RSI is graphically presented as a color-intensity plot that allows compressing several hours of EEG into a single display page. RSI display is a bird's-eye-view of the EEG that may reveal seizure evolution ('build-up'), seizure precursors, or sites associated with the seizures. We present examples from two patients to illustrate the method's ability to identify epileptogenic sites that may be difficult to observe in the conventional review process. RSI is compared with the color density spectral array (CDSA) and amplitude integrated EEG (aEEG) display. Examples demonstrate the RSI display to be simple, easy to interpret, computationally light and fast enough for online application.

Yield of culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in sputum samples transported from tribal areas

BACKGROUND

There is little information on the recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex from sputum samples collected in the field for bacteriological examination.

SETTING

Tribal areas in the State of Madhya Pradesh, in central India.

METHODS

Sputum specimens collected from subjects with chest symptoms in a disease prevalence survey were refrigerated until transportation to the laboratory. The specimens were processed for microscopy and culture. The samples were grouped based on the delay in processing for culture from the day of collection into three groups: 0-3, 4-7 and ≥8 days, and the recovery of M. tuberculosis complex in these groups was analysed. The statistical analysis was performed using χ(2) test.

RESULTS

Of the 3651 processed specimens, 114 were positive for M. tuberculosis complex by culture and 96 by smear microscopy. The differences in the proportion of 'smear-positive, culture-positive', 'smear-positive, culture-negative' and 'smear-negative, culture-positive' samples between the three groups were not significant.

CONCLUSION

In difficult-to-reach areas with limited resources, refrigeration of sputum specimens until they are transported for processing at a reference laboratory for culture seems not to significantly affect the recovery of M. tuberculosis complex isolates.