Synthesis and characterization of Guar gum based biopolymeric hydrogels as carrier materials for controlled delivery of methotrexate to treat colon cancer.

Guar Gum has been evaluated for its importance in food and pharmaceutical industry. A blended biopolymeric hydrogel was prepared by solution casting technique using guar gum (GG), chitosan (CS), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), chemically crosslinked with tetra orthosilicate (TEOS) and impregnated with methotrexate (MTX) to assess its drug carrying capacity against colon cancer (HCT-116). The surface morphology, chemical bonding, hydrophilicity and water absorbing capacity were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), contact angle measurements and swelling properties in variable conditions. Furthermore, degradation, drug release kinetics, hemocompatibility, and cytotoxicity of MTX-loaded hydrogel was tested. The release of MTX from GG/CS/PVA biopolymeric blend occurred in sustained manner. Results displayed that in 7 h 25 min duration 96% of the drug was released in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) at pH 7.4. These blends were non-hemolytic, and antiproliferative against HCT-116. Furthermore, the MTT assay has revealed that MTX-loaded hydrogel had prominently decreased the cell viability (with IC50 11.7 µg/ml) as compared to free MTX (with IC50 21.57 µg/ml). Hence, these results suggest that guar gum based hydrogels are potential biomaterials for colon cancer treatment.

Decomposing acute malnutrition by educational inequality of mother's among under five children in Jammu and Kashmir.

Health outcomes in the state of Jammu and Kashmir have shown improvement in recent decades. However, nutritional achievements, particularly among children under the age of five, have not seen similar progress. Various factors influence the nutritional status of this age group, with the socio-cultural and biological attributes of mothers being considered significant determinants. While some studies have examined these attributes, there is a scarcity of research exploring the causal link between socio-culturally determined factors, such as maternal education, and child nutritional achievements, especially in Indian states located in North India. This paper aims to address this gap by analysing the prevalence of acute malnutrition (stunting) among children under five in Jammu and Kashmir in relation to educational inequality among mothers. The latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) is used to assess the levels of stunting (low height for age) among children, considering the literacy status of mothers and other control variables. Bivariate and multivariable methods are employed to study the association and identify risk factors. Additionally, the Oaxaca decomposition method is used to analyse the educational gap in factors associated with child stunting. The results indicate a higher prevalence of stunting among children of uneducated mothers (29%) compared to those of educated mothers (25%). The findings demonstrate a lower risk of stunting among children whose mothers are literate (OR 0.89). The Oaxaca decomposition analysis reveals a statistically significant difference in stunting between children based on their mother's education. These results highlight the wide disparities in acute malnutrition among children due to variations in maternal education. It is therefore crucial for policymakers to prioritize efforts to reduce educational disparities in order to alleviate the nutritional burden faced by children.

The surgical management for isolated scaphotrapeziotrapezoid (STT) osteoarthritis : a systematic review of the literature.

We performed a systematic review to find out the safety and efficacy of various procedures for isolated scaphotrapeziotrapezoid osteoarthritis. Eleven articles were included. The most common procedure was arthroplasty with pyrocarbon implant (28%), followed by resection of distal pole of scaphoid with proximal trapezium and trapezoid resection (18%). The other procedures included trapeziectomy with ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition (LRTI) (14%), arthroscopic resection of distal scaphoid (11%), trapezium and trapezoid resection with LRTI (10%) and arthrodesis (10%). Complications were noted in 18 (15%) patients. The most common complication (7.5%) was asymptomatic dorsal intercalated segmental instability (DISI) followed by dislocation of the pyrocarbon implant (3%). Fusion resulted in decreased range of motion and grip strength. The distal scaphoid resection was related to high rate of DISI. Although the pyrocarbon implant has a higher dislocation rate which requires revision surgery, this complication is avoidable with good surgical technique. Arthroplasty with pyrocarbon implant may be the first choice in younger patients.

Hidradenitis suppurativa, a rare skin disease.

Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is a rare, chronic and recurrent skin disease involving folliculopilosebaceous unit. It is a debilitating disease due to its chronicity, painful relapses and cosmetic outcomes. It affects the patient's personal, family, social and professional life. It is often diagnosed late during its course,due to lack of awareness and knowledge among general practitioners.Management is symptomatic, as ultimate treatment is latest and has limitations due to cost and availability issues. Reported here is a case of HS, being treated at Hearts International Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

A Rare Case of Spinal Schwannoma in a Child Presenting with Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Case Report with Review of Literature.

Pediatric spinal schwannomas/neurofibromas constitute only 2.5%-4% of all pediatric spinal tumors. However, subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) because of spinal pathologies is very rare, representing 1.5% of all cases of SAH. Spinal nerve sheath tumors such as schwannomas rarely present with SAH, especially before the appearance of overt signs of spinal cord or root compression. We report a case of dorsolumbar schwannoma in an 11-year-old girl presenting clinically with signs and symptoms mimicking meningitis, but meningeal signs later proved to be due to SAH associated with spinal (D12-L1) schwannoma and hydrocephalus. Mass was excised and ventriculoperitoneal shunt was inserted. In our clinical practice, we may sometimes come across some uncommon diseases with even more uncommon presentations as happened with us at our institute. We must always consider that there is a possibility of SAH owing to silent spinal lesion in patients with angiographic negative intracranial SAH as in this case.

Morphometric variation and molecular characterization of snow trout species from Kashmir valley, India.

There is a significant taxonomic ambiguity among snow trout species due to their morphometric similarities. In view of this, a morphometric and molecular study was conducted on five different species of genus Schizothorax that have been reported from Kashmir valley. Morphometric data analyzed using multivariate statistics (Principal component analysis and cluster analysis) indicated the significant grouping of species to individual clusters. Mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene analysis revealed 0.2%-4.5% genetic divergence among the five species. This study confirms that utility of cytochrome oxidase I in species delineation along with morphometric data. Phylogenetic tree obtained using Neighbor-Joining method revealed that all the five species represented distinct species group. The Schizothorax genus formed two distinct clades; one containing S. niger, S. curvifrons and S. plagiostomus, while other clade containing S. esocinus and S. labiatus. This phlogeny trend was also supported by cluster analysis of morphometric characters. The phylogenetic analysis with other published COI sequences revealed distinct nature of these five species. The study may aid in the taxonomic identification of snow trout species in India. This may further increase the knowledge of the ichthyologists in planning conservation and management strategies for these important fish species along with their natural habitat.

Morphological, molecular characterization and taxonomic status of Triplophysa marmorata and Triplophysa kashmirensis (Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae) from Kashmir valley, India.

In India the distribution of genus Triplophysa has been reported only in the upper drainage of the Indus River in Jammu and Kashmir and Lahul and Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh. There is no study on the taxonomic characterization of this genus from Kashmir Himalaya. Therefore the present study was aimed to characterize two important fish species Triplophysa marmorata and T. kashmirensis from Kashmir valley, by using morphometric and molecular tools. It is difficult to discriminate these two species due to the poor quality of original descriptions, and the lack of good reviews. Keeping this in view, a morphometric and molecular study was conducted. Morphometric data were analyzed by using univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analyses (Principal component analysis) and mtDNA marker Cytochrome oxidase 1 was used for molecular support. Altogether, 22 morphometric characters were used and 15 characters were found significantly variable (P < 0.05). First two components of principal component analysis (PCA) i.e. PC1 and PC2 grouped these two species into separate clusters. The Cytochrome oxidase 1 analysis showed that the mean intraspecific nucleotide divergence (K2P) was 0.001 and interspecific nucleotide divergence was 0.007. Despite having low K2P divergence, these two species got separated into two distinct clades in both Neighbour joining (NJ) and Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) tree building methods. But the pattern of clade formation showed that these species were recently radiated from each other and may have the same ancestor. Furthermore, these two species were found closer to Nemacheilidae than to Balitoridae family in the phylogenetic analysis. The molecular divergence between these species was also supported by variance in morphometric data. This work may build the base for the revision of taxonomic identity of these two important fishes of genus Triplophysa. The present investigation formulated that, based on morphological and mtDNA COI sequences analysis, these two taxonomic Triplophysa species should be considered as valid. The results may further assist to enhance the knowledge of the ichthyologists in understanding the ichthyofauna of Kashmir Valley and will help them in planning strategies for conservation and management of these less studied small indigenous species along their natural range of distribution.

Phenotypic differentiation of Barilius bendelisis (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) in four rivers from Central Indian Himalaya.

Barilius bendelisis, commonly known as Indian Hill Trout is an upland water fish of South East Asia. It belongs to the family Cyprinidae and dwells in shallow, clear and cold water. In this study, the intraspecific variation of Barilius bendelisis, on the basis of morphometric characters, was investigated. Altogether, 402 specimens were collected from four rivers in the Central Indian Himalaya. A truss network was constructed by interconnecting 12 landmarks to yield 30 distance variables that were extracted from digital images of specimens using tpsDig2 and PAST software. Allometric transformed truss measurements were subjected to univariate analysis of variance, factor analysis and discriminant analysis. All variables exhibited significant differences between the populations. Altogether 88% of the specimens were classified into their original populations (81.98% under a 'leave-one-out' procedure). With factor analysis measurements of the head region, the middle portion and the caudal region had high loadings on the first and second axis. The results indicated that B. bendelisis has significant phenotypic heterogeneity between the geographically isolated regions of Central Indian Himalaya. We hypothesize that the marked interspecific variation in B. bendelisis is the result of local ecological conditions.

Detection of morphometric differentiation in Sattar snowtrout, Schizothorax curvifrons (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from Kashmir Himalaya using a truss network system.

Schizothorax curvifrons is a morphometrically and meristically most variable and economically valuable promising fish food from Kashmir Valley. Since there is a lack of information on stock structure of wild populations on this species, this study was aimed to investigate the intraspecific variation of this important snowtrout. For this, two rivers and one lake in Kashmir Himalaya were sampled from January 2011 to October 2012. Fish body measurements were taken and morphometric characters using the truss network system was constructed. Altogether, 506 fish specimens were collected. Data were subjected to principal component analysis, discriminant function analysis and univariate analysis of variance. The first principal component explained 63.44% of total variation, while second and third components explained 8.34% and 5.31%, respectively. The step-wise discriminant function analysis retained two variables that significantly discriminated the populations. Using these variables 83.4% of the original specimens were classified into their correct groups and 81.1% of the cross-validated (leave one out procedure) specimens were classified into their correct groups. All of the total 31 transformed truss measurements exhibited highly significant (p<0.001) differences between the populations. This represents the first attempt on stock structure of S. curvifrons; therefore, this study will hopefully guide fisheries taxonomists about its current stock structure and would help in its management and conservation programme across Kashmir Himalaya area.

Significance of serum magnesium levels in critically ill-patients.

BACKGROUND: Magnesium is one of the major electrolytes, deficiency of which is frequently overlooked in critical illness, leading to an adverse clinical outcome if not monitored regularly. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Single center prospective observational study of 2 years duration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects studied were monitored for serum magnesium levels 2 times: Day 1 and day 4 of intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Patients were divided into normomagnesemic and hypomagnesemic groups and compared for various parameters. RESULTS: Out of 70 critically ill-patients, 50 patients (71.43%) were normomagnesemic, 17 patients (24.29%) were hypomagnesemic and three patients were hypermagnesemic. The stay of the patients in ICU (P > 0.05), Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-II (APACHE-II) scoring (P = 0.34) and co-morbidity (P = 0.360) showed an insignificant variation between the two groups. Associated electrolyte abnormalities in hypomagnesemic patients were hypokalemia (58.82%), hyponatremia (47.05%), hypocalcemia (70.58%) and hypophosphatemia (29.41%). About 76.47% of hypomagnesemic population was on magnesium lowering drugs while as 46% of normomagnesemic population was on magnesium lowering drugs (P = 0.030). Mortality of hypomagnesemic group was 74.47% while that of normomagnesemic group was 36% (P = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Hypomagnesemia is a significant electrolyte abnormality in critically ill-patients. Critically ill hypomagnesemic patients have higher mortality than the normomagnesemic patients.

Impact of biodegradable versus durable polymer drug-eluting stents on clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis of 15 randomized trials / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Drug eluting stents (DESs) made with biodegradable polymer have been developed in an attempt to improve clinical outcomes. However, the impact of biodegradable polymers on clinical events and stent thrombosis (ST) remains controversial.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We searched Medline, the Cochrane Library and other internet sources, without language or date restrictions for articles comparing clinical outcomes between biodegradable polymer DES and durable polymer DES. Safety endpoints were ST (definite, definite/probable), mortality, and myocardial infarction (MI). Efficacy endpoints were major adverse cardiac event (MACE) and target lesion revascularization (TLR).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>We identified 15 randomized controlled trials (n = 17 068) with a weighted mean follow-up of 20.6 months. There was no statistical difference in the incidence of definite/probable ST between durable polymer- and biodegradable polymer- DES; relative risk (RR) 0.83; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62-1.11; P = 0.22. Biodegradable polymer DES had similar rates of definite ST (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.66-1.33, P = 0.72), mortality (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.82-1.09, P = 0.43), MI (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.92-1.26. P = 0.35), MACE (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.91-1.09, P = 0.85), and TLR (RR, 0.94, 95% CI 0.83-1.06, P = 0.30) compared with durable polymer DES. Based on the stratified analysis of the included trials, the treatment effect on definite ST was different at different follow-up times: ≤ 1 year favoring durable polymer DES and >1 year favoring biodegradable polymer DES.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Biodegradable polymer DES has similar safety and efficacy for treating patients with coronary artery disease compared with durable polymer DES. Further data with longer term follow-up are warranted to confirm the potential benefits of biodegradable polymer DES.</p>

Age and growth in the indian major carp Labeo rohita (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from tropical rivers of Ganga basin, India.

Labeo rohita is a member of the Indian major carp species and originally an inhabitant of the Ganga river network in India. It is among the top ten aquaculture species of the world. Since there is a lack of information on the growth pattern of the wild populations of this species, this study aimed at evaluating the pattern of age and growth, to support the development of effective management plans. A total of 1082 samples of L. rohita were obtained from May 2009 to July 2012 in six drainages of the Ganga basin. Scales of the fish were used to determine the age and growth by analyzing the annual rings growth. Out of six populations, a maximum 8+ age classes were recorded from two rivers (Betwa and Sharda). The back-calculated lengths at 8+ age class ranged from 86.22 cm to 91.66 cm. However, for the rest of rivers up to 7+ age classes were recorded. Among growth parameters, specific rate of length increase (C(l)) and specific rate of weight increase (Cw) showed decreasing trend, and three distinct life stages of L. rohita were recorded based on growth constant data (C(lt)). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the back-calculated length data set of six populations indicated a significant difference (p < 0.05). All three populations showed significant variation in length attainment during 1+ and 3+ age groups, while two populations showed significant variation in length attainment during the 2+ and 7+ age classes. Additionally, analysis of age frequency at different length intervals indicated that with increase in age class, number of fish samples was reduced. Since the pattern of life history traits of L. rohita have not been attempted in the recent past; therefore, this study will guide fisheries biologists about the current stock structure of this fish across different spatial scale of the Ganga basin.

Effects of virus concentration and ultraviolet irradiation on the activity of corn earworm and beet armyworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) nucleopolyhedroviruses.

Laboratory studies were initiated to determine the relationship between virus concentration and radiation-caused inactivation of NPVs from Helicoverpa zea (HzSNPV) and Spodoptera exigua (SeMNPV). In the laboratory, a UV-B/UV-A system was used for inactivation studies. For both viruses inactivation was dependent upon both length of UV exposure and virus concentration. At all virus concentrations HzSNPV was more sensitive to UV than SeMNPV. In the field HzSNPV was used and virus persistence was significantly affected by virus concentration (i.e., inactivation was inversely related to virus concentration).