Oxidative stress and calcium-phosphorus levels in Rheumatoid arthritis

Generation of reactive oxygen species is an important factor in the development and maintenance of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in humans. This study was undertaken to investigate interplay among oxidants, antioxidants and pathogenesis of Rheumatoid arthritis. Serum levels of lipid peroxides, nitric oxide, vitamin E and ratio of calcium/phosphorus in RA patients were determined and compared with normal healthy controls. Significant increases in lipid peroxides (p<0.001) and nitric oxide (p<0.001) levels were found in patients presenting with RA as compared to controls. Whereas significant decrease in vitamin E (P<0.001) and calcium/phosphorus ratio (p<0.001) were found in Rheumatoid arthritis patients as compared to controls. Positive correlation was found between lipid peroxides and nitric oxide as well as between vitamin E and calcium. While lipid peroxides and nitric oxide were correlated negatively with vitamin E. whereas negative correlation was observed between MDA and Calcium/Phosphorus ratio in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Our findings suggest that there is a close association between bone loss and oxidative threat in patients presenting with Rheumatoid arthritis.     

钒对遗传性Ⅱ型糖尿病ＫＫ小鼠降糖作用的实验研究

以遗传性非胰岛素依赖型糖尿病ＫＫ小鼠为动物模型,研究钒对雌雄性糖尿病小鼠的降糖作用．实验选择３周龄的ＫＫ小鼠,雌雄各半,通过自由饮水方式给予雌雄性小鼠０ｍｇ/Ｌ、０.１ｍｇ/Ｌ和１００ｍｇ/Ｌ的钒酸铵,实验周期为１７周,观察不同剂量钒酸铵对血糖、甘油三酯和总胆固醇代谢的影响．研究结果表明,０１ｍｇ?Ｌ钒酸铵对雌雄性小鼠的血糖水平和血液生化指标没有明显的影响,高剂量钒酸铵（１００ｍｇ?Ｌ）明显降低雄性糖尿病小鼠的饮水量、血糖水平、糖基化血红蛋白、甘油三酯和总胆固醇等,葡萄糖耐量水平得到显著改善,对糖尿病小鼠的肝肾功能没有影响．结果提示钒酸铵对雌性小鼠和雄性小鼠具有降血糖作用,其作用效果有明显的性别差异．     

Quantitation of proteinuria by spot urine sampling

Few studies have shown that calculation of protein/creatinine ratio in a spot urine sample correlates well with the 24-hour urine collection. A study was conducted to compare the accuracy of a spot urinary protein/creatinine ratio (P/C ratio) and urinary dipstick (albustix) with the 24-hour urine protein (24-HUP). Fifty samples from 26 patients were collected. This included a 24-hour urine sample followed by the next voided spot sample. The protein/creatinine ratio was calculated and dipstick (albustix) was performed on the spot sample. This was compared with the 24-hour urine protein excretion. The correlation between the three samples was statistically highly significant (p=<0.001) for all levels of proteinuria. The normal value of protein/creatinine ratio in Indian children was also estimated on 100 normal children attending the OPD and was calculated to be 0.053 (S.E of mean±0.003).     

Audit of the Prevalence of Noncorrelation of Immunofixation with Protein Electrophoresis and Serum Free Light Chain Assays in Multiple Myeloma in a Tertiary Cancer Care Center

Multiple myeloma (MM) is diagnosed and monitored by correlating panel of test results including serum Protein electrophoresis (SPE), Immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), serum Free Light chain (sFLC) measurements. This audit is aimed to evaluate the prevalence of non-correlation and discrepancies amongst the three investigations (SPE/IFE/sFLC) for assessment of MM. 106 MM patients were reviewed over 16 months in a tertiary cancer care center by the availability of 3 serum test results (SPE/IFE/sFLC). Patients were divided into 2 groups: group1, newly diagnosed MM patients who were yet to receive myeloma specific treatment (n = 48); and group2, already diagnosed MM patients on treatment and followup (n = 58). Treatment modalities included stem cell transplantation and standard chemotherapy regimens. Non-correlation between the three test results (IFE/SPE/sFLC) was observed (21% in group1 and 45% in group2). Three types of discrepancies were detected as follows: (a) IFE showing less number of restriction bands as compared to SPE (8.6% patients in group2); (b) SPE/IFE negative with an abnormal sFLC ratio (12.5% patients in group1 and 13.7% in group2); (c) SPE/IFE positive but normal sFLC ratio (8% in group1 and 22% in group2). To conclude, IFE may sometimes provide information that does not always correlate with either of the SPE or sFLC results due to different sensitivities, antigen–antibody interactions, or treatment. Hence, SPE plus sFLC may be more useful particularly for patients on follow-up while IFE plus sFLC may help screen the new patients. The judicious selection of the biochemical assays can effectively reduce the treatment cost in a developing country like India.     

Comparison of Freelite and N-Latex serum free light chain assays: a critical review

IntroductionThe measurement of serum free light chain (FLC) represents a fundamental aspect on the assessment of patients with monoclonal gammopathies (MG). Different analytical methods for FLC have become available with the possibility to obtain different value with a substantial impact on the assessment of patients with MG. This study aimed to evaluate FLC results obtained with two different assays and how the difference value obtained can impact in the patient’s assessment.Materials and methodsNinety-three patient serum samples that underwent analysis for FLC with two different methods, Serum Freelite (The Binding Site, Birmingham, UK) and N-Latex FLC (Siemens, Marburg, Germany), were included in this retrospective study. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate correlation, difference, and the grade of concordance between the results obtained with the two methods.ResultsSignificant statistical differences between the results obtained from the two methods were found (P < 0.05). A good correlation was found (0.99 for κ FLC, 0.95 for λ FLC, and 0.94 for the κ/λ ratio, respectively). We found a weighted kappa value of 0.65 for κ/λ ratio, 0.65 for λ FLC and 0.90 for κ FLC. A positive bias found with the Bland-Altman plot mirrors overestimation of κ FLC and κ/λ ratio with Freelite compared to N-Latex, whilst a negative bias underscores underestimation of λ FLC by Freelite compared to N-Latex.ConclusionAlthough in general the concordance between Freelite and N-Latex appears satisfactory, several discrepancies could be evidenced and consequently the two assays are not interchangeable.     

Hypocholesterolemic and hepatoprotective effects of flaxseed chutney: Evidence from animal studies

Rats fed with hypercholesterolemic diet showed a significant increase in serum total—cholesterol, liver homogenate total-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and changed LDL-cholesterol, and HDL/LDL ratio in comparison to control. Flaxseedchutney (FC) supplemented diet (15%, w/w) was found to be more effective in restoring lipid profile changes in rats fed with cholesterol, (1.0%). The activities of serum marker enzymes glutamate oxaloacetate transminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were elevated significantly in carbon tetrachloride induced rats. Administration of flaxseedchutney (15%, w/w) resulted in depletion of serum marker enzymes and exhibited recoupment thus showing significant hepatoprotective effect. It was observed that flaxseedchutney supplemented diet could lower the serum cholesterol and as a potential source of antioxidants it could exert protection against hepatotoxic damage induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) in rats.     

Diagnostic Potential of Circulating Biomarkers in Adenosine Deaminase Diagnosed Pleural Tuberculosis Cases

Pleural tuberculosis accounts for nearly 20% of Extra pulmonary tuberculosis. Adenosine deaminase, commonly used biomarker for the diagnosis, is non specific and there is paucity of literature on its correlation with conventional or newer methods for the diagnosis of extra pulmonary forms of TB. The aim of the study was to assess diagnostic potential of T cell function markers [interferon (IFN-γ), interleukin (IL-2) and IFN-γ/IL-2 ratio]; macrophage activation marker [neopterin]; and oxidative stress markers [protein carbonyl and malondialdehyde (MDA)] in pleural tuberculosis. 26 pleural TB cases diagnosed on the basis of suggestive chest X-ray and raised serum ADA levels and healthy controls were included in the study. Pleural fluid specimens were subjected to Zeihl Neelsen staining and culture on Lowenstein Jensen medium. Serum IFN-γ, IL-2, neopterin and protein carbonyl levels detection were done by ELISA and MDA levels were determined by measuring the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. Median serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-2, IFN-γ/IL-2 ratio, neopterin, protein carbonyl and MDA were significantly different between cases and controls. Levels of all biomarkers except IL-2 were significantly higher in cases with contact history. Mean levels of ADA and ESR were 46.27 U/L and 46.62 mm/hr in PTB cases. AUC for IFN-γ, IL-2, IFN-γ/IL-2 ratio, neopterin, protein carbonyl and MDA were significantly discriminative for cases and controls. IFN-γ/IL-2 ratio was best discriminatory biomarker with highest area under ROC curve. Though no correlation was seen between ADA and any of the six biomarkers, ESR levels correlated significantly with all biomarkers except IL-2 by spearman’s correlation coefficient. Though all the circulating biomarkers under study provide useful supportive evidence for the diagnosis of PTB, further studies involving diverse control groups particularly non-PTB effusion are needed to validate these results.     

A privacy preserving framework for federated learning in smart healthcare systems

Federated Learning (FL) is a platform for smart healthcare systems that use wearables and other Internet of Things enabled devices. However, source inference attacks (SIAs) can infer the connection between physiological data in training datasets with FL clients and reveal the identities of participants to the attackers. We propose a comprehensive smart healthcare framework for sharing physiological data, named FRESH, that is based on FL and ring signature defense from the attacks. In FRESH, physiological data are collected from individuals by wearable devices. These data are processed by edge computing devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablet PCs) that train ML models using local data. The model parameters are uploaded by edge computing devices to the central server for joint training of FL models of disease prediction. In this procedure, certificateless ring signature is used to hide the source of parameter updates during joint training for FL to effectively resist SIAs. In the proposed ring signature schema, an improved batch verification algorithm is designed to leverage additivity of linear operations on elliptic curves and to help reduce the computing workload of the server. Experimental results demonstrate that FRESH effectively reduces the success rate of SIAs and the batch verification method significantly improves the efficiency of signature verification. FRESH can be applied to large scale smart healthcare systems with FL involving large numbers of users.     

Does LDL-C Estimation Using Anandaraja’s Formula Give a Better Agreement with Direct LDL-C Estimation than the Friedewald’s Formula?

Estimation of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is crucial in management of coronary artery disease patients. Though a number of homogenous assays are available for estimation of LDL-C, use of calculated LDL-C by Friedewald’s formula (FF) is common in Indian laboratories for logistic reasons. Recently Anandaraja and colleagues have derived a new formula for calculating LDL-C. This formula needs to be evaluated before it is extensively applied in diagnosis. We measured LDL-C by homogenous method (D-LDL-C) in 515 fasting samples. Friedewald’s and Anandaraja’s formulas were used for calculation of LDL-C (F-LDL-C and A-LDL-C, respectively). The mean LDL-C levels were 123.3 ± 53.2, 112.4 ± 50.2 and 109.2 ± 49.8 mg/dl for D-LDL-C, F-LDL-C and A-LDL-C, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the results (P > 0.001) obtained by calculation formulas compared to the measured LDL-C. There was underestimation of LDL-C by 10.8 and 14 mg/dl by Friedewald’s and Anandaraja’s formulas respectively. The Pearson’s correlation between F-LDL-C and D-LDL-C was 0.931 and that between A-LDL-C and D-LDL-C was 0.930. Bland–Altman graphs showed a definite agreement between mean and differences of the calculation formulas and direct LDL-C with 95% of values lying with in ±2 SD limits. The mean percentage difference (calculated as {(Calculated LDL-C)-(D-LDL-C)}/D-LDL-C × 100) for F-LDL-C was maximum (−11.6%) at HDL-C ≥ 60 mg/dl and TG levels of 200–300 mg/dl (−10.4%) compared to D-LDL-C. A-LDL-C results gave highest mean percentage difference at total cholesterol concentrations <100 mg/dl (−37.3%) and HDL-C < 40 mg/dl (−17.1%), respectively. The results of our study showed that FF is better in agreement with D-LDL-C than Anandaraja’s formula for estimation of LDL-C by calculation though both lead to its underestimation.     

Leveraging heuristic client selection for enhanced secure federated submodel learning

As the number of clients for federated learning (FL) has expanded to the billion level, a new research branch named secure federated submodel learning (SFSL) has emerged. In SFSL, mobile clients only download a tiny ratio of the global model from the coordinator’s global. However, SFSL provides little guarantees on the convergence and accuracy performance as the covered items may be highly biased. In this work, we formulate the problem of client selection through optimizing unbiased coverage of item index set for enhancing SFSL performance. We analyze the NP-hardness of this problem and propose a novel heuristic multi-group client selection framework by jointly optimizing index diversity and similarity. Specifically, heuristic exploration on some random client groups are performed progressively for an empirical approximate solution. Meanwhile, private set operations are used to preserve the privacy of participated clients. We implement the proposal by simulating large-scale SFSL application in a lab environment and conduct evaluations on two real-world data-sets. The results demonstrate the performance (w.r.t., accuracy and convergence speed) superiority of our selection algorithm than SFSL. The proposal is also shown to yield significant computation advantage with similar communication performance as SFSL.     

采暖季北京大气PM10中硫酸盐与硫氧化率的观测研究;

SO42-是PM10中的重要组成成分，其形成过程受到多个因子的影响。本文利用高频的自动在线分析系统连续观测了采暖季北京大气中的SO42-与硫氧化率，并探讨了它们与气态前体物、氧化剂、气象因子等的关系。结果表明在采暖季SO42－仍然是PM10中的重要组成部分，并且与SO2显著线性相关，燃煤仍然是采暖季的主要污染来源；非污染期的SO42-来源于远距离输送的老化气团，硫氧化率高，O3浓度的增加对SO2的转化有促进作用；污染期SO42-来源于局地的一次排放，硫氧化率低；整个观测期内风速对颗粒物中SO42-浓度影响较大，温度、相对湿度与SO42-和硫氧化率无明显相关关系。     

Correlation of Microalbuminuria with Estimated GFR (eGFR) by Cockcroft–Gault and MDRD Formula in Type 2 Diabetics and Hypertensives

Increase in urine albumin excretion rate (AER) precede a fall in glomerular filtration rate in patients developing diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD). Our results have shown that 7 (50 %) of diabetic and hypertensive individuals with decreased GFR do not have increased AER. In this cross-sectional study, we measured AER of 75 patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension by immunoturbidimetric method. We correlated the results with eGFR values obtained by Cockcroft–Gault and MDRD method. The method used was not a compensated method. We measured serum creatinine by modified Jaffe’s kinetic method in autoanalyzer XL-600. Analysis of data showed positive correlation between eGFR and microalbuminuria by both the methods with eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m². Pearson’s correlation co-efficient (r) was 0.9 (p = 0.0001) by Cockcroft–Gault formula and 0.69 (p = 0.0063) by MDRD formula. Our results concluded that there was positive correlation between AER and eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m². We have recognized that these two parameters provide a complimentary benefit in management of cases with CKD.     

科技项目专家评审的元评价综合模型研究

科技项目的评选越来越多采用专家评价的方式，评审专家的打分质量直接影响科技项目的立项结果。为了提升科技项目的评价效果，管理部门通常建立评审专家库，并动态调整。本研究从第三方的角度，借鉴元评价的概念，基于评审专家的匿名打分结果对评审专家进行评价以支持专家库的动态调整。专家评审质量从三个方面进行定义，包括单项得分，最终得分，排序得分等角度；具体选取偏差系数、秩相关系数和二值法系数等评价指标。基于某政府科技部门2015年的1634个项目，分析了99位评审专家的实际评价数据。基于实证分析结果引入变异系数、参与度和立项率等调整系数建立了元评价综合模型。由管理部门结合评价过程和专家的实际身份特征等信息对综合评价模型的得分进行了验证分析，结果表明本研究提出的综合模型的可靠性和实践性满足项目管理部门的需求。最后，基于该模型，对科技项目管理部门如何提升专家评审质量给出了具体建议。     

Deformation properties between fluid and periodic circular obstacles in polydimethylsiloxane microchannels: Experimental and numerical investigations under various conditions

Understanding the mechanical properties of optically transparent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannels was essential to the design of polymer-based microdevices. In this experiment, PDMS microchannels were filled with a 100 μM solution of rhodamine 6G dye at very low Reynolds numbers (∼10⁻³). The deformation of PDMS microchannels created by pressure-driven flow was investigated by fluorescence microscopy and quantified the deformation by the linear relationship between dye layer thickness and intensity. A line scan across the channel determined the microchannel deformation at several channel positions. Scaling analysis widely used to justify PDMS bulging approximation was allowed when the applied flow rate was as high as 2.0 μl/min. The three physical parameters (i.e., flow rate, PDMS wall thickness, and mixing ratio) and the design parameter (i.e., channel aspect ratio = channel height/channel width) were considered as critical parameters and provided the different features of pressure distributions within polymer-based microchannel devices. The investigations of the four parameters performed on flexible materials were carried out by comparison of experiment and finite element method (FEM) results. The measured Young''s modulus from PDMS tensile test specimens at various circumstances provided reliable results for the finite element method. A thin channel wall, less cross-linker, high flow rate, and low aspect ratio microchannel were inclined to have a significant PDMS bulging. Among them, various mixing ratios related to material property and aspect ratios were one of the significant factors to determine PDMS bulging properties. The measured deformations were larger than the numerical simulation but were within corresponding values predicted by the finite element method in most cases.     

东北黑土区小流域侵蚀产沙WaTEM/SEDEM模型模拟

东北黑土区是我国重要的商品粮基地。近年来,受自然因素及人类不合理活动的影响,土壤侵蚀严重。土壤侵蚀模型是预测侵蚀产沙的重要工具,Wa TEM/SEDEM模型是一个分布式模型,本文以黑龙江省拜泉县25个水库控制流域为研究对象,采用Wa TEM/SEDEM模型模拟小流域侵蚀产沙特征,得到如下结论:研究区模型泥沙输移系数KTC最佳组合为0.38和0.55;利用Wa TEM/SEDEM模型模拟得到的产沙量(SY)与实际值相近,相关系数为0.95;产沙模数(SSY)的模拟值与实际值相关系数为0.34,相关程度相对较低,但均比回归方程模拟得到的产沙量和产沙模数相关程度高。流域泥沙输移比平均值为0.32。以齐心水库控制流域为例,模型模拟发现,流域平均侵蚀模数为351.2t/(km2·a),将齐心水库控制流域模拟结果与临近研究区的有关研究进行对比,证实Wa TEM/SEDEM在黑土区模拟流域侵蚀产沙有很好的应用前景。该研究可为黑土区土壤侵蚀与水土保持措施实施提供科学依据。     

Incidence of microalbuminuria in hypertensive patients

The prevalence of microalbuminuria was assessed in 174 albustix negative hypertensive patients by estimating albumin in the morning random urine samples by immunoturbidimetric method within four hours of voiding of urine. The urine samples were not stored and collected without any preservatives. The urinary albumin was calculated in terms of ratio with respect to urinary creatinine and expressed as albumin creatinine ratio (mg/g). Out of 174 albustix negative hypertensives, 58 (33.3%) patients were found to have microalbuminuria. The prevalence of microalbuminuria in males and females was found to be 34% and 30.7% respectively. No correlation was found between the Body Mass Index (BMI) and albumin excretion (r² = 0.0271) and between duration of hypertension and urinary albumin excretion (r² = 0.0042). Prevalence of microalbuminuria in nonsmokers and non-alcoholic hypertensives was 20%. The prevalence in alcoholics, smokers and both smokers and alcoholics was found to be 35%, 42% and 41% respectively. The high prevalence of microalbuminuria than the various reported studies on the subject demands establishment of a screening programme for microalbuminuria, implementation of specific intervention methods and education of hypertensive patients about the consequences of smoking and alcohol on possible involvement of renal system.     

Serum proteins analysis by capillary electrophoresis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of multi-capillary electrophoresis instrument in clinical laboratory. An automated clinical capillary electrophoresis system was evaluated for performing serum proteins electrophoresis and immuno-fixation electrophoresis by subtraction. In this study the performance of capillary electrophoresis was compared with the cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis and agarose gel immunofixation electrophoresis for serum proteins. The results of capillary electrophoresis and cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis were good (r=0.89∼0.97) for protein fractions and A/G ratio except for β-gobulin fraction (r=0.60). Both within-run and day to day precisions (CVs) of assay results for 5 main fractions and A/G ratio (n=10) were between 0.3∼6.3%. The reference ranges of serum protein fractions obtained from 200 healthy individuals by cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis were almost equal to that of capillary electrophoresis except for α-1 globulin fraction. No significant difference of electropherograms between cellulose acetate electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis was observed in the abnormal serum such as presence of bilirubin (<20mg/dl), hemoglobin (<300 mg/dl), lipid (Intralipos <1%) and samples from patients with acute phase response, liver injury, polyclonal hyper gammaglobulinemia or M-proteinemia. The method of capillary immuno-fixation electrophoresis by subtraction showed good agreement with agarose gel immunofixation electrophoresis by subtraction identifying 30 monoclonal gammmopathy patient samples.     

超声波辅助提取草珊瑚中反丁烯二酸工艺研究

针对草珊瑚（三明）中反丁烯二酸的提取工艺的研究,采用超声波法进行优选,用液相色谱法（测量条件：Agilent 1200C18（250mm×4.6mm,5μm）色谱柱,流动相为乙腈-0.1%磷酸溶液,比例为（2：98）,流速为1.0mL/min,柱温30℃,检测波长208nm,出峰时间为1.471min）测定不同条件下样品的吸收峰,以吸收峰大小为指标定性分析从而确立单因素设计正交实验,通过正交实验研究5因素（溶剂浓度、pH、超声波功率、超声波温度、料液比）对草珊瑚中反丁烯二酸的提取效果的影响。通过正交实验最终确立了最优提取工艺：溶剂浓度70%;pH=4;超声波功率50w;超声温度50℃;料液比1：35,提取时间为40min。通过该实验确立最优工艺提取效果好,简便易行。     

水果含水率与CT值相关性的研究

通过试验及对水果CT图片特性的检测、数据分析,发现水果果肉的含水率与其相应的CT值之间存在着相关性。通过试验得到水果内各点的含水率与其在CT图像上对应点的CT值之间的相互关系。菠萝、梨和猕猴桃等样品的含水率与CT值的关系可用指数函数来拟合。     

Lipid peroxide levels and antioxidant status in alcoholic liver disease

The present study was conducted to evaluate some of the components of antioxidant defense system and oxidative damage in 20 male patients of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). The results were compared with 20 healthy male smokers and 20 healthy male non-smokers volunteers. Patients were subjected to detailed clinical examination and laboratory investigations. Blood samples were collected for estimating reduced glutathione (GSH), total thiols (T-SH) malondialdehyde (MDA), transaminases (AST, ALT), glutathione-S-transferease (GST) and gammaglutamyl transferase (GGT). Serum aspartate amino transferase (AST)/alanine amino transferase (ALT) ratio was significantly (p<0.01) reduced in ALD patients as compared to the controls. However, the core of utility of MDA and GST was found to be significantly (p<0.01) increased in ALD patients compared to controls. There was a significant negative correlation of MDA with both GSH and TSH. Plasma GGT levels were significantly (p<0.01) increased in alcoholics and the enzyme showed a significant positive correlation with MDA. These results give enough evidence of increased oxidative stress and compromised antioxidant defense system in patients with ALD.