Comparison of Physical Activity Measured by Self-Reported Physical Activity and Wearable Device Xiaomi MI2 Band in Preadolescent School Children - A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study.

The purpose of this study is to compare physical activity measured by the wearable device Xiaomi Mi2 Band and self-reported physical activity by YPAQ in preadolescent school children. A pilot cross-sectional study was performed on a subsample (5%=n=60) of preadolescent children within a parallel-group feasibility intervention trial (n=1000). All children aged 9-11 years enrolled in the schools were included in the study and children with any physical disability were excluded. Self-reported physical activity was recorded through the modified version of the Youth Physical Activity Questionnaire (YPAQ) and automatic physical activity was measured by the Xiaomi Mi2 band over 7 days. Data from the Xiaomi Mi2 band was synchronized with its mobile application from where data was transferred to an excel sheet. Data on 7-day total physical activity in minutes and 7-day total step count were recorded by the Xiaomi Mi2 band. Student's t-tests were used to determine whether significant differences were present between self-reported physical activity and by Xiaomi Mi2 band. A Bland-Altman method was also used to assess the degree of agreement between the two methods of measuring physical activity. Mean ± SD age of the children was 9.6 (± 1.0) years and 31 (51.7 %) were boys. The mean ± SD time spent in physical activity reported by YPAQ was 457.5 (± 136) minutes and by the Xiaomi Mi2 band was 594.7 (± 183) minutes. The Bland-Altman plot identified a mean bias between the methods (YPAQ and Xiaomi Mi2 band) of -157.6 (95% CI: 296.3, -611.0) minutes of 7-day physical activity. Physical activity measured by a wearable device, the Xiaomi Mi2 band can give overestimated values of physical activity compared to self-reported physical activity in preadolescent school children. However, when PA is measured through step counts by the Xiaomi Mi2 band converted to minutes, it is comparable to PA measured by YPAQ.

Population structure, genetic diversity and selection signatures within seven indigenous Pakistani goat populations.

Goat farming in Pakistan depends on indigenous breeds that have adapted to specific agro-ecological conditions. Pakistan has a rich resource of goat breeds, and the genetic diversity of these goat breeds is largely unknown. In this study, genetic diversity and population structure were characterized from seven indigenous goat breeds using the goat 50K SNP chip. The genetic diversity analysis showed that Bugi toori goats have the highest inbreeding level, consistent with the highest linkage disequilibrium, lowest diversity and long run of heterozygosity segments. This indicates that this breed should be prioritized in future conservation activities. The population structure analysis revealed four fairly distinct clusters (including Bugi toori, Bari, Black Tapri and some Kamori) and three other breeds that are seemingly the results of admixture between these or related groups (some Kamori, Pateri, Tapri and White Tapri). The selection signatures were evaluated in each breed. A total of 2508 putative selection signals were reported. The 26 significant windows were identified in more than four breeds, and selection signatures spanned several genes that directly or indirectly influence traits included coat colour variation (KIT), reproduction (BMPR1B, GNRHR, INSL6, JAK2 and EGR4), body size (SOCS2), ear size (MSRB3) and milk composition (ABCG2, SPP1, CSN1S2, CSN2, CSN3 and PROLACTIN).

Screening of Methanol Extract and Ethyl Acetate Fraction of Abies webbiana Lindl. for Neuropharmacological Activities.

Despite a long traditional of use of Abies webbiana Lindl. (Talispatra; family-Pinaceae) in the treatment of mental disorders, the plant has not been investigated systematically to validate its traditional claims. Thus, the present investigation was undertaken with an objective to investigate neuropharmacological activities of methanol extract of Abies webbiana aerial parts and its ethyl acetate fraction. Properly identified aerial parts were defatted with petroleum ether and then extracted with methanol in a Soxhlet apparatus. Ethyl acetate fraction was prepared by partitioning methanol extract with ethyl acetate using standard procedure. In acute toxicity study, no mortality was observed in animals after oral administration of 2 g/kg dose of methanol extract. The methanol extract (200 or 400 mg/kg, p.o.) and ethyl acetate fraction (25 or 50 mg/kg, p.o.) were evaluated for antianxiety, anticonvulsant, antidepressant, sedative, antistress and analgesic activities using well established models. The methanol extract and ethyl acetate fraction of Abies webbiana aerial parts exhibited significant antianxiety, anticonvulsant, antidepressant, sedative, antistress and analgesic activities with respect to control. Preliminary phytochemical screening showed presence of flavonoids in bioactive ethyl acetate fraction of Abies webbiana aerial parts. It is finally concluded that flavonoids are the bioactive constituents responsible for most of neuropharmacological activities of Abies webbiana.

Milk, milk products, and disease free health: an updated overview.

The cow and its milk have been held sacred in the world since the dawn of human civilization. Indian ancient Vedic texts describe the virtues of milk and dairy products, as is authenticated by modern scientific principles and proofs. Therefore, milk has been considered as one of the most natural and highly nutritive part of a daily balanced diet. Currently, the integration of advanced scientific knowledge with traditional information is gaining incredible momentum toward developing the concept of potential therapeutic foods. Furthermore, new advances toward understanding the therapeutic roles of milk and milk products have also given a new impetus for unraveling the age old secrets of milk. At present, the best-known examples of therapeutic foods are fermented milk products containing health promoting probiotic bacteria. In the present article, we have tried to review the various aspects of the therapeutic nature of milk and fermented dairy products in a highly up-dated manner, and offer an in-depth insight into the development of targeted therapeutic future foods as per the requirements of consumers.

Advances in Proteomics of Mycobacterium leprae.

Although Mycobacterium leprae was the first bacterial pathogen identified causing human disease, it remains one of the few that is non-cultivable. Understanding the biology of M. leprae is one of the primary challenges in current leprosy research. Genomics has been extremely valuable, nonetheless, functional proteins are ultimately responsible for controlling most aspects of cellular functions, which in turn could facilitate parasitizing the host. Furthermore, bacterial proteins provide targets for most of the vaccines and immunodiagnostic tools. Better understanding of the proteomics of M. leprae could also help in developing new drugs against M. leprae. During the past nearly 15 years, there have been several developments towards the identification of M. leprae proteins employing contemporary proteomics tools. In this review, we discuss the knowledge gained on the biology and pathogenesis of M. leprae from current proteomic studies.

Regions of differences encoded antigens as targets for immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis in humans.

Tuberculosis is one of the major global health problems causing nearly 2 million deaths every year. It continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Accurate early diagnosis and proper treatment can control the spread of tuberculosis in the community. Currently used diagnostic tests have certain limitations such as low sensitivity and suboptimal turn-around times. Hence, introduction of diagnostic methods that are comparatively more sensitive and specific can increase the efficiency of strategies to control tuberculosis. In recent years, there has been a remarkable progress in identifying new and potentially useful antigens for diagnosis of both latent and active tuberculosis. Regions of differences (RD) encoded proteins are among such promising candidate antigens (RD antigens). Some of these antigens are encoded by regions of differences located in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. africanum, M. bovis but are absent in all the Bacillus Calmette Guerin substrains and many of the environmental mycobacteria. Over the past few years, RD antigens, particularly RD-based diagnostic methods such as improved tuberculin skin testing, interferon-gamma release assays, and RD1-based serological assays are being tested and have shown promising results. This article provides an overview of the use of RD antigens in the immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis infection and disease.

Vanadium doped tin dioxide as a novel sulfur dioxide sensor.

Considering the short-term exposure limit of SO2 to be 5 ppm, we first time report that semiconductor sensors based on vanadium doped SnO2 can be used for SO2 leak detection because of their good sensitivity towards SO2 at concentrations down to 5 ppm. Such sensors are quite selective in presence of other gases like carbon monoxide, methane and butane. The high sensitivity of vanadium doped tin dioxide towards SO2 may be understood by considering the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide on SnO2 surface through redox cycles of vanadium-sulfur-oxygen adsorbed species.

Antimicrobial property of a herbal preparation containing Dalbergia sissoo and Datura tramonium with cow urine against pathogenic bacteria.

In this study, a herbal preparation containing Dalbergia sissoo and Datura stramoium with cow urine (DSDS), was evaluated for its antibacterial potential against pathogenic strains of gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae) bacteria. Antibacterial activity was compared to standard antibiotic drugs i.e. Chloramphenicol (30 mcg), Ampicillin (10 mcg), Nalidixic acid (10 mcg) and Rifampicin (30 mcg). Cow urine extract was found to be most active against both gram-positive as well as gram-negative bacteria. Clinical isolate of S. aureus showed higher sensitivity towards cow urine extract of DSDS than standard strains, and inhibited growth on most regulatory levels such as inhibition of protein, DNA, RNA and peptidoglycan synthesis. The results of the present study shows that the cow urine extract of DSDS may be used as a potent antiseptic preparation for prevention and treatment of chronic bacterial infections.

Performance of recombinant ESAT-6 antigen (ML0049) for detection of leprosy patients.

AIMS: The study was aimed to evaluate the Mycobacterium leprae recombinant early secreted antigenic target-6 (rESAT-6) for its serological performance in leprosy patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Employing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), serum samples were tested for prevalence of immunoglobulin G antibodies against M. leprae rESAT-6. The results revealed that the sensitivity of the assay for smear-positive leprosy patients was 82.4% (14 of 17) while for smear-negative patients it was 19.4% (six of 31). Interestingly, the performance of ESAT-6-based assay was statistically comparable with anti-phenolic glycolipid-I antibody-detecting ELISA, a most widely studied serological assay in leprosy. Regarding specificity, none of the 48 controls was positive indicating that antibody response to ESAT-6 was highly specific. Moreover, a high concordance between bacterial index and anti-ESAT-6 antibody-detecting assay was noted. CONCLUSIONS: Recombinant ESAT-6 seems to be a potential serological reagent for detection of M. leprae infection. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: ESAT-6 serology may have utility for (i) early diagnosis, particularly, of highly infectious form (multibacillary, MB) of leprosy, (ii) monitoring the response in smear-positive leprosy patients during the course of the chemotherapy, (iii) classification of leprosy patients into MB and paucibacillary groups for treatment purpose. Hence, further research on these lines is warranted.

Evaluation of recombinant serine-rich 45-kDa antigen (ML0411) for detection of antibodies in leprosy patients.

The potential of the recombinant serine-rich 45-kDa antigen (ML0411) of Mycobacterium leprae to aid in detecting M. leprae-specific serum antibodies was assessed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in leprosy patients and controls comprising of tuberculosis patients, other unrelated skin-diseased patients and healthy individuals from India. All 18 multibacillary (MB) and 18/38 (47.4%) of the paucibacillary (PB) leprosy patients were found positive. None of the controls was positive, yielding complete (0/49) specificity in the series tested here. On the other hand, an anti-phenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-I) antibody-detecting assay yielded detectable responses in 94.4% (17/18) of MB and 36.8% (14/38) of PB leprosy patients. Only two of 49 (4.1%) controls were positive, giving a specificity of 95.9%. Further, there was a good concordance (agreement of 83.8%; chi(2) = 40.3, P < 0.001; kappa = 0.63) between the two assays. Thus, the 45-kDa-based assay was slightly better than anti-PGL-I antibody-detecting assay. Interestingly, when combining the results of both the assays together for all leprosy patients (MB + PB), the combined sensitivity was significantly higher than that of the anti-PGL-I antibody-detecting ELISA alone (73.2% versus 55.4%; P < 0.05), but not (P > 0.05) compared with the 45-kDa antigen-based assay alone. Similarly, in case of PB patients, using both assays in combination, the sensitivity was significantly higher compared with anti-PGL-I antibody-detecting assay alone (60.5% versus 36.8%; P < 0.05). While adopting the combinatorial approach, the specificity remained invariably high (>95%). In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that the M. leprae 45-kDa protein is a potent B-cell antigen and may be a useful serodiagnostic reagent.

A comparative and combinatorial study on two serological assays for detection of Mycobacterium leprae infection.

The performances of two Mycobacterium leprae specific serological assays namely: phenolicglycolipid-l-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PGL-ELISA) and a monoclonal antibody-based inhibition test (MAIT) were studied for there efficiency to detect M. leprae infection. As usual, both the tests were more sensitive to detect lepromatous leprosy patients than tuberculoid type of leprosy patients. Considering the efficiency to detect leprosy patients, the MAIT was slightly more sensitive and specific than PGL-ELISA. When the results of both assays are considered together, a better sensitivity (over the sensitivity of individual assay) was obtained while maintaining good enough specificity. These findings point out that a combinatorial approach for detection of M. leprae infection would be a better strategy to detect M. leprae infection. Hence, it may act as a better tool for measurement of bacterial load in the patients.

Silver(I) ion selective PVC membrane based on bis-pyridine tetramide macrocycle.

A PVC membrane based on bis-pyridine tetramide macrocycle exhibits a good response for silver ion over a wide concentration range (1.0x10(-1)-4.0x10(-5) mol l(-1)). The electrode has a relatively fast response time and can be used for more than 5 months without observing any divergence. High selectivity for Ag(+) ions over that of Na(+), K(+), Ca(2+), Sr(2+), Pb(2+) and Hg(2+) have been observed.

Levels of IgG subclasses in active and inactive cases in the disease spectrum of leprosy.

The present study was carried out to establish the role of IgG subclasses in leprosy. IgG subclasses to Mycobacterium leprae sonicated antigens (MLSA) and phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) were determined in 124 patients with active leprosy across the disease spectrum and in 76 cases with inactive disease after completion of chemotherapy. IgG2 antibodies were found to be the predominant subclass across the disease spectrum. Lepromatous patients showed elevated levels of IgGI. IgG3 antibody levels were higher in lepromatous than that in tuberculoid patients. Patients with erythema nodosum leprosum showed a significant fall in IgG3 antibody to MLSA. While chemotherapy induced a reduction in IgG1, IgG2 and IgG3 to PGL-I in almost all types of leprous patients, for MLSA the reduction was noticed for these subclasses only in lepromatous patients. IgG4 responses to these antigens were low through out the disease spectrum and did not alter with chemotherapy.

Role of antineural antibodies in perpetuation of a pre-existing peripheral nerve damage in leprosy.

This study was carried out in order to find out whether antineural antibodies had a role to play in perpetuating pre-existing nerve damage in leprosy. Indirect ELISA was carried out on sera from 20 leprosy patients and five normal controls using antigen prepared from peripheral nerves of a cured bacteriologically negative leprosy patient. None of the patients had significant levels of IgG antibodies whereas eight of them (40%) had significant levels of IgM antibodies. However, there was no correlation with duration of disease, treatment received, nerve enlargement or active neuritis. The nature of these antibodies is discussed.

A study on performance of two serological assays for diagnosis of leprosy patients.

We compared 2 serological tests for the diagnosis of leprosy to test their performances. The tests include the serum antibody competition test (SACT) for the detection of antibodies to Mycobacterium leprae-specific epitope on 35 KDa protein molecule, and M. leprae gelatin particle agglutination assay (MLPA), for the detection of antiphenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-1) antibodies. In both the assays a higher serological positivity was seen amongst multibacillary (MB) patients than those in paucibacillary (PB) patients. Taking all leprosy patients together, the sensitivity of SACT (59.7%) was observed to be statistically comparable to that of MLPA (66.9%). However, SACT proved to be more specific (97.7%) than MLPA (75.0%). The agreement between these 2 assays was observed to be moderate.

Membrane attack complex in thickened cutaneous sensory nerves of leprosy patients.

Membrane attack complex (MAC) is a terminal end product produced as a result of complement activation. The deposition of MAC, in tissues, is known to have a local tissue damaging effect in several clinical conditions. Therefore, an attempt was made to demonstrate MAC in peripheral nerve biopsies, collected from leprosy patients. Interestingly, we could demonstrate deposition of MAC in involved cutaneous sensory nerves from most of the lepromatous leprosy patients. Contrary to this, majority of nerve biopsies from tuberculoid leprosy patients did not stain for MAC. Though MAC positive sections showed reactivity for S-protein, our observations support the possibility that MAC, either acting directly or indirectly, may be implicated in nerve damage, at least, in lepromatous leprosy patients.

The role of antiperipheral nerve antibodies in nerve damage in leprosy.

The objective of this study was to determine the role of antineural antibodies in leprosy. Indirect ELISA using antigen prepared from normal human peripheral nerves was carried out on the sera from 100 leprosy patients and 18 normal controls. In total, 9% of the patients had demonstrable levels of IgG antineural antibodies and 11% had demonstrable levels of IgM antibodies. There was no correlation with the type of leprosy, bacteriological index, treatment taken, the presence of a reactional state, the presence of enlarged nerves or active neuritis.