Effect of <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-Thyroxine on Micronuclei Frequency in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes in Clinical and Experimental Conditions

The aim was to study the genotoxic effect of high concentration of thyroxine (T₄) in vivo in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of the patients suffering from thyroid disorders. The effect was compared by performing in vitro experiments with addition of increasing concentration of T₄ (0.125–1 µM) in whole blood samples from healthy donors. Cytokinesis-blocked micronuclei (CBMN) assay method was used to assess the DNA damage in the PBL. The study included 104 patients which were grouped as control (n = 49), hyperthyroid (n = 31) and hypothyroid (n = 24). A significant increase in micronuclei (MN) frequency was observed in hyperthyroid patients when compared with the hypothyroid and euthyroid group thereby suggesting increased genotoxicity in hyperthyroidism (p < 0.001). A significant increase in MN frequency was observed at T₄ concentration of 0.5 µM and above when compared to lower T₄ concentrations (0.125 and 0.25 µM) and basal in in vitro experiments (p = 0.000). The results indicate that the T₄ in normal concentration does not exhibit the genotoxic effect, as observed in both the in vivo and in vitro experiments. The toxicity of T₄ increases at and above 0.5 μM concentration in vitro. Therefore acute T₄ overdose should be handled promptly and effectively so as to avoid the possible genotoxic effect of high concentration of T₄ in vivo.     

Place of salivary β glucuronidase activity in head & neck cancers

Salivary β-glucuronidase activity was studied in 20 healthy subjects without habits and 10 with habits, 38 untreated patients of advanced head and neck cancer and 21 patients after treatment either after surgery or radiation. Salivary β-glucuronidase activity was elevated in untreated cases of head and neck cancer (p<0.001), with a fall in the activity after treatment. The post operative fall in the activity of salivary β-glucuronidase activity was highly significant (p<0.001) as compared to post radiation. This test can be utilized in the diagnosis and also for monitoring the course of the disease.     

A citation-based document retrieval system for finding research expertise

Current citation-based document retrieval systems generally offer only limited search facilities, such as author search. In order to facilitate more advanced search functions, we have developed a significantly improved system that employs two novel techniques: Context-based Cluster Analysis (CCA) and Context-based Ontology Generation frAmework (COGA). CCA aims to extract relevant information from clusters originally obtained from disparate clustering methods by building relationships between them. The built relationships are then represented as formal context using the Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) technique. COGA aims to generate ontology from clusters relationship built by CCA. By combining these two techniques, we are able to perform ontology learning from a citation database using clustering results. We have implemented the improved system and have demonstrated its use for finding research domain expertise. We have also conducted performance evaluation on the system and the results are encouraging.     

Some biochemical markers in various neoplasms: A multivariate analysis

The analysis of biochemical parameters in 162 patients with various neoplastic disorders along with 50 normal subjects showed significant rise in serum alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase as compared to normal subjects. 21 patients with other monoclonal gammopathies which include infection and immunological diseases were also studied. Parameters such as serum calcium, uric acid, total protein, albumin and globulin were also analyzed in 42 (26%) cases of multiple myeloma, 27 (17%) cases of gastro-intestinal malignancies, 22 (14%) cases of urogenital malignancies, 11 (6%) cases of carcinoma breast, 4 (2%) cases of bone tumors, 21 (12%) cases of other monoclonal gammopathies, including 7 (4%) cases of infection and 14 (8%) cases of immunological diseases. The results indicate use of enzymes alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase in neoplastic disorders.     

Unusual changes in colostrum composition in lactating Indian women having medical complications during pregnancy—A pilot study

Colostrum, the mammary secretion during first 2–4 days of lactation, provides all the essential components of nutrition and passive immunity required by the newborn. Pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH), glucose intolerance and anaemia are common medical complications observed during pregnancy in Indian women and their effects were studied on the composition of colostrum collected within 24 hours of delivery from lactating women included in the study. PIH during pregnancy significantly decreased colostrum IgA and total proteins, but showed a significant increase in K⁺ levels, where as women with glucose intolerance showed a significant decrease in total lipids and lactose and an increase in Na⁺ levels in colostrum compared to normal controls. The group with anaemia also showed a significant decrease in colostrum IgA and total protein levels when compared with the control group. Awareness about the changes that occur in the composition of colostrum during complicated pregnancies can be an important and useful tool for preventive and protective paediatrics.     

Subspace design of low-rank estimators for higher-order statistics

Higher-order statistics (HOS) are well known for their robustness to additive Gaussian noise and ability to preserve phase. HOS estimates, on the other hand, have been criticized for high complexity and the need for long data in order to maintain small variance. Since rank reduction offers a general principle for reduction of estimator variance and complexity, we consider the problem of designing low-rank estimators for HOS. We propose three methods for choosing the transformation matrix that reduces the mean-square error (MSE) associated with the low-rank HOS estimates. We also demonstrate the advantages of using low-rank third-order moment estimates for blind system estimation. Results indicate that the full rank MSE corresponding to some data length N can be attained by a low-rank estimator corresponding to a length significantly smaller than N.     

A preliminary report on the role of yoga asanas on oxidative stress in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

Nineteen subjects of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) between the age group of 30–60 yrs were studied to see the effect of specific yoga asanas on fasting and postprandial blood glucose (FBG, PPG), serum malondialdehyde (MDA) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA₁) in addition to drug treatment and diet control. The duration of diabetes ranged from 1–10 years. Patients with renal, cardiac and proliferative retinal diseases were excluded from the study. The same patients served as their own control. Subjects were called in the morning to the cardio-respiratory laboratory and were given training by a yoga expert. Yoga asanas included Suryanamskar, Tadasan, TriKonasan, Padmasan, Pranayam, Paschimottanasan, Ardhmatsyendrasan, Pavanmukthasan, Sarpasan and Shavasan. The asanas were done every day for 40 days for 30–40 min. FBG, PPG, serum MDA and HbA₁ were estimated before and after 40 days of yoga asanas regimen. Significant reduction was seen in FBG from 220 mg/dl to 162 mg/dl, PPG from 311 mg/dl to 255 mg/dl, MDA from 6 nmol/l to 3 nmol/l and HbA₁, from 8.8% to 6.4%. Subjects felt better and were relieved of their stresses and had an improvement in their day to day performance. The decrease was statistically significant (p<0.0001 for FBG and PPG, p<0.001 for MDA and for HbA₁).