Towards the revival of oscillation from complete cessation in stochastic systems for application in molecular biology.

Delay and noise are inevitable in complex systems that are common in biochemical networks. The system is often disturbed at various states irrespective of the size (small or large) of delay and noise. Therefore, it is of interest to describe the significance of delay and noise in stochastic Willamowski-Rossler chemical oscillator model using a delay stochastic (having random probability distribution) simulation algorithm. Oscillating dynamics moves to stable fixed point when delay at a fixed magnitude of noise drives the system from oscillating state to stochastic amplitude death state (complete cessation). However, the amplitude death state is induced to a revived oscillating state in stochastic system (which is far from equilibrium state) for noise with a fixed value of delay. Thus, significantly large and small noise induces the dynamics of the system to amplitude death state. Hence, we describe the interplay of delay and noise in stochastic systems for the proper and efficient functioning of the complex system that are frequent in biological networks.

Comparison between Three Rare Cases of Co-Infection with Dengue, Leptospira and Hepatitis E: Is Early Endothelial Involvement the Culprit in Mortality?

Co-infection in immunocompetent patients is rare. Though co-infection with dengue and leptospira cases is increasingly reported, a co-infection of this combination along with hepatitis E is rarely thought of. Until date only two case of triple co-infection have been reported world-wide. Here, we are reporting a patient with co-infection of dengue, leptospirosis and hepatitis E admitted to our intensive care unit. Early septic shock and increasing procalcitonin in dengue patient raised suspicion of co-infection. Our aim is to educate intensivists about this rare co-infection and hence that timely initiation of appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic and supportive measures can alter outcome favorably.

Aedes aegypti indices and KAP study in Sangam Vihar, south Delhi, during the XIX Commonwealth Games, New Delhi, 2010.

Dengue fever (DF) cases were reported in Delhi during August 2010. As the XIXth Commonwealth Games were to be held in Delhi in October 2010, entomological and community knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) studies were carried out to assist the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for better implementation of vector control activities in the city. A total of 495 houses were searched for Aedes aegypti breeding in all kinds of temporary and permanent water receptacles in both indoors and outdoors in a thickly-populated, illegally-constructed locality, named Sangam Vihar, in south Delhi. The overall House Index (HI), Container Index (CI) and Breteau Index (BI) were 44.44%, 19.01% and 91.92 respectively. For KAP, a pre-tested, structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Out of the 384 households surveyed, 156 were aware about dengue and only 12 households knew that virus was the causative agent for DF. A majority (378) of the households practised water storage and 48 of them stored water for more than one week. No preventive/control measures were adopted to prevent mosquito breeding in the water-holding containers by a majority of the households (45.57%). 57% of them did not know the biting habits of dengue vector mosquitoes. The results of the study indicated that the community’s knowledge about dengue fever, its transmission, vector breeding sources, biting habits and preventive measures was poor.

Periampullary carcinoma in a patient with agenesis of dorsal pancreas.

Agenesis of dorsal pancreas is a rare developmental anomaly. We here report a case of agenesis of dorsal pancreas in a patient of periampullary carcinoma and highlight its implications on the management.

Giant lipoma of posterior neck with bleeding decubitus ulcer: a rare entity.

Giant lipomas are benign soft tissue tumours. They are found relatively rarely on the posterior part of the neck. Bleeding pressure ulcer in this giant tumour is a rare presentation. Surgical interventions in these tumours are very challenging because, sometimes, extension to the spinal cord and malignant change may occur, especially in old age. Knowledge of the anatomy and meticulous surgical techniques are needed for such giant lipomas.

Home C-ABPM for Preventive and Curative Health Care and Transdisciplinary Science.

The clinical everyday management of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) can be greatly improved by the mapping of time structures in home ambulatory BP and HR assessment. Thereby, we change focus from the BP and the HR to the dynamics of these variables. This change is achieved by computer-implemented chronomics, the mapping of chronomes, consisting of cyclicities (our concern herein) along with chaos and trends, in the service of cardiologists, general health care providers, the educated public, and transdisciplinary science. We here further illustrate the yield of chronomics in research on long BP and HR series covering years, some several decades long, and on archives of human sudden cardiac death revealing magnetoperiodisms, e.g., "years" longer than a calendar year, i.e., transyears. In this case of cardiac arrest, what we do not see, the 16- to 20-month transyear is prominent, in the absence of any signature of the calendar year, and so can be a cis-half-year of about 5 months.

Prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in school-going children of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.

BACKGROUND: Rheumatic heart disease is a major health problem in our country. There is evidence from South India that its prevalence is declining. This study attempts to confirm whether this is so in North India as well. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 118,212 (68,357 males, 49,855 females) schoolchildren in the age group of 4-18 years were examined for the presence of heart disease. Evaluation, including echocardiography, confirmed that of a total of 389 suspected to have heart disease, 61 had rheumatic heart disease. Thus, the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease was found to be approximately 0.5 per 1000 children. CONCLUSION: In a fairly large school survey conducted by us, the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease turned out to be approximately 0.5 per 1000 children. This is the lowest figure reported from our country so far and confirms the decline of this disease in our country.

Adhesion between Nanoscale Rough Surfaces.

Nanoscale surface roughness strongly affects the adhesion force between surfaces. In this investigation, a model that more accurately describes the size of an asperity based on the measurable parameters of root-mean-square (rms) roughness and the distance between the asperities is derived. The radius of the asperity from the proposed model is much larger than the radius used in previous approaches, considering the same surface with nanoscale roughness. Using the proposed geometry and previously suggested models, this paper elucidates the contributions from contact and noncontact interactions of a particle adhered to a surface with nanoscale roughness (approximately less than 20 nm rms). For most surfaces considered, the contact interaction of the asperity and the adhering particle are found to dominate the interaction. In the second paper of this series, the proposed model is compared to the experimentally determined force of adhesion in systems with nanoscale roughness. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Adhesion between Nanoscale Rough Surfaces.

In this investigation, the adhesion between particles and plates with root-mean-square, rms, surface roughness of 0.17-10.5 nm was measured by atomic force microscopy. Measurements obtained with particles both larger and smaller than the surface asperities are presented. Results indicate adhesion force decreases sharply with increasing surface roughness in the nanometer scale (<2 nm), followed by a gradual and slow decrease with further increase in roughness. Existing models were found to significantly underestimate adhesion force. Hence, a new model based on a geometry that considers both the height and breadth of asperities yielding an increased asperity radius compared to previous approaches, as detailed in Part I of this series, is applied using both van der Waals and elastic deformation/work of adhesion based approaches. For the system studied in this investigation, the adhesion forces predicted by the proposed model are considerably more accurate than those predicted by past models. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Synthesis of Microporous Silica Spheres.

Spherical microporous silica powders with a narrow size distribution have been prepared by a precipitation technique involving the hydrolysis reaction of a silicon alkoxide in ethanol. The formation of the important microporosity has been investigated following two templating methods: the co-hydrolysis and condensation of two alkoxides, one of which presents porogen function, and the adsorption of an organic compound (glycerol) as the porogen. In both processes, the organic porogen is removed by a simple calcination. In the first method, the addition of more than 20 mol% of the porogen alkoxide, necessary for generating enough microporosity, disturbs completely the condensation process resulting in microporous, nonuniform silica particles of large size distribution. The best result has been obtained with the glycerol method where submicrometer-sized silica spheres with a very narrow size distribution and about 40 vol% porosity have been synthesized. The presence of glycerol during the synthesis considerably affects the precipitation mechanism, resulting in a larger mean particle size. The use of an aggregative growth model has successfully been employed to explain the effect of the porogen during particle formation. The precipitation mechanism of silica involves the aggregation between particles of similar size until a critical size is reached, resulting in a uniform particle size distribution. In the presence of glycerol, it has been shown that a second aggregative growth between still-nucleating primary particles and large particles occurred with increasing reaction time. This second aggregative growth appears at an intermediate stage of the precipitation process and is due to both the precipitation of smaller primary particles and the destabilization of the colloidal stability of the system. This explains why the final particle size reached in this system is larger compared to silica particles synthesized without glycerol and shows how glycerol is incorporated in the silica particles. The synthesis of silica microporous spheres of narrow size distribution, by varying particle size and porosity, should yield a wide range of aqueous silica slurries for particular chemical mechanical polishing applications. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.