Nutritional Status of School Age Children (5-14 years) in a Rural Health Block of North India (Kashmir) Using WHO Z-Score System

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of school going children in Rural Block Hajin. Methods: School children from various primary and middle level educational facilities from a rural health block were surveyed during the School Health Program. Height and weight was measured following standard procedures. MS Excel and Interactive statistics page were used for analysis of data. Results: Both mean weight and height were higher in females than males. The overall prevalence of under nutrition was 19.2%. The prevalence of underweight was lowest in 5 year female (0.0%) and highest in 6 year male (21.5%). For Stunting 7 year males recorded the lowest (0.0%) and 12 year males the highest (28.5%) prevalence. The highest and lowest prevalence of wasting was recorded in 6 year old females (2.56%) and 9 year old males (24.6%) respectively. Prevalence of thinness was lowest in 13 year old females (14.2%) and highest in 13 year old males (47.1%).Conclusion: The nutritional status of school age children in this health block are comparatively better even though a large number of children still fall below the cutoff for various nutritional indicators

Remodelling of human atrial K+ currents but not ion channel expression by chronic β-blockade

Chronic β-adrenoceptor antagonist (β-blocker) treatment in patients is associated with a potentially anti-arrhythmic prolongation of the atrial action potential duration (APD), which may involve remodelling of repolarising K+ currents. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic β-blockade on transient outward, sustained and inward rectifier K+ currents (ITO, IKSUS and IK1) in human atrial myocytes and on the expression of underlying ion channel subunits. Ion currents were recorded from human right atrial isolated myocytes using the whole-cell-patch clamp technique. Tissue mRNA and protein levels were measured using real time RT-PCR and Western blotting. Chronic β-blockade was associated with a 41% reduction in ITO density: 9.3 ± 0.8 (30 myocytes, 15 patients) vs 15.7 ± 1.1 pA/pF (32, 14), p < 0.05; without affecting its voltage-, time- or rate dependence. IK1 was reduced by 34% at −120 mV (p < 0.05). Neither IKSUS, nor its increase by acute β-stimulation with isoprenaline, was affected by chronic β-blockade. Mathematical modelling suggested that the combination of ITO- and IK1-decrease could result in a 28% increase in APD90. Chronic β-blockade did not alter mRNA or protein expression of the ITO pore-forming subunit, Kv4.3, or mRNA expression of the accessory subunits KChIP2, KChAP, Kvβ1, Kvβ2 or frequenin. There was no reduction in mRNA expression of Kir2.1 or TWIK to account for the reduction in IK1. A reduction in atrial ITO and IK1 associated with chronic β-blocker treatment in patients may contribute to the associated action potential prolongation, and this cannot be explained by a reduction in expression of associated ion channel subunits

Nonlinear cancellation in weakly coupled MEMS resonators

© 2017 IEEE. For the first time, this paper demonstrates the cancellation of nonlinear response in weakly coupled resonators. It has been observed that by working in the region where the mechanical nonlinearity of the resonators and the electrical nonlinearity of the electrostatic coupling cancel, the output current amplitudes are increased by 4x while the trend of vibration amplitude variation upon stiffness perturbations is preserved as seen in the linear regime of the resonators

Closed-loop tracking of amplitude and frequency in a mode-localized resonant MEMS sensor

In this paper, the amplitude and frequency stability of a mode-localized sensor are characterized in a closed loop setup. The system describes an absolute amplitude ratio sensitivity of 5250 to stiffness perturbations in linear operation. A stability of 432ppm at 500s integration time is observed for amplitude ratio measurements. A resolution of 85ppb corresponding to normalised stiffness perturbations in amplitude ratio measurements is thus demonstrated at 500s integration time. Comparisons to frequency shift sensing within the same device shows that amplitude ratio sensing provides higher accuracies for long term measurements due to intrinsic common mode rejection properties in a mode-localized system

A mode-localized MEMS accelerometer with 7μg bias stability

This paper reports on the experimental characterization of the resolution, sensitivity and common mode rejection metrics for a mode-localized MEMS accelerometer. A bias stability of 7μg is achieved for closed-loop amplitude ratio measurements at an integration time of 30s representing a significant advancement in the development of high-stability accelerometers employing this transduction principle.This work is supported by funding from Innovate UK and Natural Environment Research Council

Atrial arrhythmogenicity of KCNJ2 mutations in short QT syndrome: Insights from virtual human atria

Gain-of-function mutations in KCNJ2-encoded Kir2.1 channels underlie variant 3 (SQT3) of the short QT syndrome, which is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). Using biophysically-detailed human atria computer models, this study investigated the mechanistic link between SQT3 mutations and atrial arrhythmogenesis, and potential ion channel targets for treatment of SQT3. A contemporary model of the human atrial action potential (AP) was modified to recapitulate functional changes in IK1 due to heterozygous and homozygous forms of the D172N and E299V Kir2.1 mutations. Wild-type (WT) and mutant formulations were incorporated into multi-scale homogeneous and heterogeneous tissue models. Effects of mutations on AP duration (APD), conduction velocity (CV), effective refractory period (ERP), tissue excitation threshold and their rate-dependence, as well as the wavelength of re-entry (WL) were quantified. The D172N and E299V Kir2.1 mutations produced distinct effects on IK1 and APD shortening. Both mutations decreased WL for re-entry through a reduction in ERP and CV. Stability of re-entrant excitation waves in 2D and 3D tissue models was mediated by changes to tissue excitability and dispersion of APD in mutation conditions. Combined block of IK1 and IKr was effective in terminating re-entry associated with heterozygous D172N conditions, whereas IKr block alone may be a safer alternative for the E299V mutation. Combined inhibition of IKr and IKur produced a synergistic anti-arrhythmic effect in both forms of SQT3. In conclusion, this study provides mechanistic insights into atrial proarrhythmia with SQT3 Kir2.1 mutations and highlights possible pharmacological strategies for management of SQT3-linked AF

Novel Modeling of Combinatorial miRNA Targeting Identifies SNP with Potential Role in Bone Density

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators that bind to their target mRNAs through base complementarity. Predicting miRNA targets is a challenging task and various studies showed that existing algorithms suffer from high number of false predictions and low to moderate overlap in their predictions. Until recently, very few algorithms considered the dynamic nature of the interactions, including the effect of less specific interactions, the miRNA expression level, and the effect of combinatorial miRNA binding. Addressing these issues can result in a more accurate miRNA:mRNA modeling with many applications, including efficient miRNA-related SNP evaluation. We present a novel thermodynamic model based on the Fermi-Dirac equation that incorporates miRNA expression in the prediction of target occupancy and we show that it improves the performance of two popular single miRNA target finders. Modeling combinatorial miRNA targeting is a natural extension of this model. Two other algorithms show improved prediction efficiency when combinatorial binding models were considered. ComiR (Combinatorial miRNA targeting), a novel algorithm we developed, incorporates the improved predictions of the four target finders into a single probabilistic score using ensemble learning. Combining target scores of multiple miRNAs using ComiR improves predictions over the naïve method for target combination. ComiR scoring scheme can be used for identification of SNPs affecting miRNA binding. As proof of principle, ComiR identified rs17737058 as disruptive to the miR-488-5p:NCOA1 interaction, which we confirmed in vitro. We also found rs17737058 to be significantly associated with decreased bone mineral density (BMD) in two independent cohorts indicating that the miR-488-5p/NCOA1 regulatory axis is likely critical in maintaining BMD in women. With increasing availability of comprehensive high-throughput datasets from patients ComiR is expected to become an essential tool for miRNA-related studies. © 2012 Coronnello et al

Conserved genes and pathways in primary human fibroblast strains undergoing replicative and radiation induced senescence

Additional file 3: Figure S3. Regulation of genes of Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy pathway during senescence induction in HFF strains Genes of the “Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy” pathway which are significantly up- (green) and down- (red) regulated (log2 fold change >1) during irradiation induced senescence (120 h after 20 Gy irradiation) in HFF strains. Orange color signifies genes which are commonly up-regulated during both, irradiation induced and replicative senescence

The evolutionary significance of polyploidy

Polyploidy, or the duplication of entire genomes, has been observed in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, and in somatic and germ cells. The consequences of polyploidization are complex and variable, and they differ greatly between systems (clonal or non-clonal) and species, but the process has often been considered to be an evolutionary 'dead end'. Here, we review the accumulating evidence that correlates polyploidization with environmental change or stress, and that has led to an increased recognition of its short-term adaptive potential. In addition, we discuss how, once polyploidy has been established, the unique retention profile of duplicated genes following whole-genome duplication might explain key longer-term evolutionary transitions and a general increase in biological complexity

Azimuthal Charged-Particle Correlations and Possible Local Strong Parity Violation

Parity-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the system’s orbital momentum axis. We investigate a three-particle azimuthal correlator which is a P even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We report measurements of charged hadrons near center-of-mass rapidity with this observable in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √sNN=200  GeV using the STAR detector. A signal consistent with several expectations from the theory is detected. We discuss possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity violation