Association of dietary intake below recommendations and micronutrient deficiencies during pregnancy and low birthweight.

Background Pregnancy is associated with biochemical changes leading to increased nutritional demands for the developing fetus that result in altered micronutrient status. The Indian dietary pattern is highly diversified and the data about dietary intake patterns, blood micronutrient profiles and their relation to low birthweight (LBW) is scarce. Methods Healthy pregnant women (HPW) were enrolled and followed-up to their assess dietary intake of nutrients, micronutrient profiles and birthweight using a dietary recall method, serum analysis and infant weight measurements, respectively. Results At enrolment, more than 90% of HPW had a dietary intake below the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). A significant change in the dietary intake pattern of energy, protein, fat, vitamin A and vitamin C (P < 0.001) was seen except for iron (Fe) [chi-squared (χ2) = 3.16, P = 0.177]. Zinc (Zn) deficiency, magnesium deficiency (MgDef) and anemia ranged between 54-67%, 18-43% and 33-93% which was aggravated at each follow-up visit (P ≤ 0.05). MgDef was significantly associated with LBW [odds ratio (OR): 4.21; P = 0.01] and the risk exacerbate with the persistence of deficiency along with gestation (OR: 7.34; P = 0.04). Pre-delivery (OR: 0.57; P = 0.04) and postpartum (OR: 0.37; P = 0.05) anemia, and a vitamin A-deficient diet (OR: 3.78; P = 0.04) were significantly associated with LBW. LBW risk was much higher in women consuming a vitamin A-deficient diet throughout gestation compared to vitamin A-sufficient dietary intake (OR: 10.00; P = 0.05). Conclusion The studied population had a dietary intake well below the RDA. MgDef, anemia and a vitamin A-deficient diet were found to be associated with an increased likelihood of LBW. Nutrient enrichment strategies should be used to combat prevalent micronutrient deficiencies and LBW.

Variation in composition, protein and pasting characteristics of different pigmented and non pigmented rice (Oryza sativa L.) grown in Indian Himalayan region.

This present study was aimed to evaluate proximate composition, antioxidant activity, amino and phenolic acids, protein profile and pasting characteristics of pigmented rice (PR) and non pigmented rice (NPR) landraces grown in Himalayan region. Higher antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, fat and protein content were observed for PR as compared to NPR. Histidine, iso-leucine, lysine, methionine, phenyl-alanine, valine and threonine were significantly higher for PR. Paste viscosities were higher for NPR (except IC568266) as compared to PR. IC568266 was observed to be waxy landrace. Higher free (gallic acid, catechin, caffeic acid, vanillic acid, sinapic acid and luteolin) and bound phenolics (ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid and quercetin) were observed in PR as compared to NPR. Majority of PR landraces showed higher accumulation of prolamines with low molecular weight polypeptides of 18, 20 and 29 kDa as compared to NPR. PR showed the higher essential amino acids, phenolic acids (p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and quercetin) and antioxidant activity with improved nutritional value and showed potential for developing nutraceutical and functional foods.

Protein and starch characteristics of milled rice from different cultivars affected by transplantation date.

The effects of transplantation date on milled rice (physicochemical, amino acids composition and protein profiling) of different cultivars and their starch characteristics (granules size distribution, pasting and thermal) were investigated. Head rice yield increased (2.0-4.1 %) and chalky grains (5-10 %) decreased with delaying the paddy transplantation of different cultivars by 20 days. Delayed transplantation of paddy significantly increased asparagine, glutamine, threonine, cysteine, methionine, tryptophan, lysine and proline content in milled rice. Early transplantation of paddy showed higher accumulation of glutelin and prolamines than that in milled rice from delayed transplantation. The change in amino acid composition of milled rice with delay in transplantation was related to variation in accumulation of glutelin and prolamines. Starch from delayed transplanted paddy showed higher peak viscosity and lower breakdown viscosity than those from early transplanted paddy. These differences were due to higher accumulation of amylose in starch from delayed transplanted paddy than that from early transplanted paddy due to exposure of former to lower night air temperature during starch synthesis.

Tamper-proof multitenant data storage using blockchain.

Technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, artificial intelligence, blockchain etc. have become a perceptible part of our lives resulting in the generation of enormous amounts of data. Consequently, the systems used for storage and processing of this data are required to be scalable for handling the huge volumes of data. A shared, multitenant system such as a cloud-based storage-as-a-service provides scalability of storage as well as economics of sharing. However, there is a risk of data tampering when multiple tenants work in a shared environment. The benefits of a multitenant solution can be leveraged only if tenants' data is isolated from each other. Further, prevention of data tampering from malicious tenant nodes is also required. Therefore, the paper proposes the use of a private blockchain for an implementation of a multi-tenant-based storage system. The objective is to develop a scalable system where tenants' data is not at a risk of tampering. The efficacy of the proposed system has been demonstrated with synthetic data of multiple tenants using a Software as a Service (SaaS) healthcare application.

Polarons, bipolarons, and side-by-side polarons in reduction of oligofluorenes.

The nature of charge carriers in conjugated polymers was elucidated through optical spectroscopy following single- and multielectron reduction of 2,7-(9,9-dihexylfluorene) oligomers, F(n), n = 1-10, yielding spectra with the two bands typical of polarons upon single reduction. For short oligomers addition of a second electron gave a single band demonstrating the classic polaron-bipolaron transition. However, for long oligomers double reductions yielded spectra with two bands, better described as two polarons, possibly residing side-by-side in the F(n) chains. The singly reduced anions do not appear to delocalize over the entire length of the longer conjugated systems; instead they are polarons occupying approximately four fluorene repeat units. The polarons of F(3) and F(4) display sharp absorption bands, but for longer oligomers the bands broaden, possibly due to fluctuations of the lengths of these unconfined polarons. DFT calculations with long-range-corrected functionals were fully consistent with the experiments describing polarons in anions, bipolarons in dianions of short oligomers, and side-by-side polarons in dianions of long oligomers, while results from standard functionals were not compatible with the experimental results. The computations found F(10)(2-), for example, to be an open-shell singlet ( ≈ 1), with electrons in two side-by-side orbitals, while dianions of shorter oligomers experienced a gradual transition to bipolarons with states of intermediate character at intermediate lengths. The energies and extinction coefficients of each anionic species were measured by ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared absorption spectroscopy with chemical reduction and pulse radiolysis. Reduction potentials determined from equilibria mirrored oxidation potentials reported by Chi and Wegner. Anions of oligomers four or more units in length contained vestigial neutral (VN) absorption bands that arise from neutral parts of the chain. Energies of the VN bands correspond to those of oligomers shorter by four units.

Estimates of Sepsis Prevalence and Outcomes in Adult Patients in the ICU in India: A Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a global health problem. Limited data exist on the prevalence of sepsis using current definitions in ICUs in India. RESEARCH QUESTION: In adult patients admitted to ICUs in India, what is the prevalence of sepsis using the previous (Second International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock [Sepsis-2]) and current (Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock [Sepsis-3]) definitions? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Prospective, observational, multicentre, 1-day, cross-sectional study. The primary outcome was the sepsis prevalence using both the Sepsis-2 and Sepsis-3 definitions and their concordance (using Cohen's κ coefficient). Additional outcomes included reporting on current microbiological characteristics, antimicrobial use, multidrug-resistant infections, and 30-day discharge and mortality status in patients with sepsis. RESULTS: A total of 35 ICUs (85.7% private, 14.3% public) participated, enrolling 680 patients (median age, 60 years [interquartile range, 24 years]; 62.1% men). The most common primary diagnosis was renal disease, and common comorbidities were diabetes (44.0%) and chronic renal failure (11.6%). The sepsis prevalence on the study day was 382 of 677 patients (56.4%). Prevalence by Sepsis-3 and Sepsis-2 definitions was 33.2% and 46.2%, respectively, with minimal concordance (κ = 0.32). In patients with sepsis, the most common microorganisms were bacterial (77.9%) followed by fungal (14.1%) infections. Approximately 45% of infections were caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. Mortality at 30 days after the study day (27.6% vs 5.3%; P < .01) and rates of discharge against medical advice (12.8% vs 4.9%; P < .01) were significantly higher in the sepsis cohort compared with the cohort without sepsis, respectively. INTERPRETATION: This multicenter point prevalence study in Indian ICUs showed a high burden of sepsis using both Sepsis-2 and Sepsis-3 criteria, with associated high rates of antimicrobial resistance and mortality. These findings have implications for public health and future research.

Switching Frontal Polymerization Mechanisms: FROMP and FRaP.

Two frontal polymerization (FP) mechanisms, frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) of dicyclopentadiene and frontal radical polymerization (FRaP) of benzyl acrylate and hexanediol diacrylate, were combined for rapid manufacturing of welded thermoset materials. Leveraging the immiscibility of the two different FP resins, welded thermosets and gradient foams of varying composition were achieved by switching of FP mechanisms. The adhesion strength of the welded thermoset materials differed depending on the originating mechanism. Finally, welded thermoset foams of varying porosity and homogeneity were generated through initiation from the bottom of the two resins.

TOSDS: Tenant-centric Object-based Software Defined Storage for Multitenant SaaS Applications.

Enormous amounts of unstructured data such as images, videos, emails, sensors' data and documents of multiple types are being generated daily by varied applications. Apart from the challenges related to collection or processing of this data, its efficient storage is also a significant challenge since this data do not conform to any predefined storage model. Therefore, any enterprise dealing with huge unstructured data requires a scalable storage system that can provide data durability and availability at a low cost. The paper proposes a tenant-centric approach to develop an object-based software defined storage system for SaaS multi-tenant applications. We present TOSDS (Tenant-centric Object-based Software Defined Storage), a system that can efficiently meet the storage requirements of users or tenants with diverse needs who are using a multitenant SaaS application. The experimental verification of TOSDS illustrates its effectiveness in storage utilization as well as tenant isolation.

AI in Fighting Covid-19: Pandemic Management.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses found in several animal species, such as bats, cattle, cats, camels, and humans. With more than 1.6 million people dead worldwide, as of December 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a unified need to address global health crises more aggressively. There is great urgency in decreasing the impact of a potential future outbreak, which can be done by gathering information about the disease and its effects on humans. Various artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be utilized for the pandemic, such as COVID (CoV) management, a vast scientific field involving computers performing tasks capable of only human brains. Among the subsets of AI, there are Machine Learning (ML) techniques, which can learn from historical data examples without programming. While no prior data regarding the virus exists, the growing cases make for more data. In this research, we employ a literature review method to understand pandemic management's current state and how it can benefit by utilizing AI capabilities.

Evaluation of head and broken rice of long grain Indica rice cultivars: Evidence for the role of starch and protein composition to head rice recovery.

Brown rice of different long-grain Indica cultivars was polished to variable degree of milling (DoM) to see the difference in proteins and starches characteristics in head (HR) and broken rice (BR). Study revealed differential accumulation of starch, fat and proteins in both HR and BR. Extended DoM of brown rice resulted in a progressive decrease in HR yield and increase in BR yield. The extended DoM caused a decrease in protein and fat content in both HR and BR, whereas; an increase in peak viscosity and final viscosity was observed. On the contrary, the setback viscosity of HR and BR of different rice cultivars was influenced by cultivars and extended DoM. Milled rice from different cultivars milled to 6% DoM showed higher levels of 59 kDa, 54 kDa, 51 kDa, 32 kDa, 31 kDa, 30 kDa, 28 kDa, 24 kDa, 23 kDa, 15 kDa, 13 and 12 kDa PPs, while 28 kDa, 24 kDa, 23 kDa, 15 kDa, 13 kDa and 12 kDa PPs was the least or not observed in BR. The major quantitative changes were observed in 28 kDa, 24 kDa, and 23 kDa PPs. MALDI-ToF/MS analysis revealed the identity of 28 kDa PP as 60S ribosomal protein L10a and glutelin type-D 1 proteins. Whereas, the identity of 24 and 23 kDa PP, respectively was established as pathogenesis-related protein 1 (Oryza sativa Japonica Group) and Oryza sativa 1-Cys peroxiredoxin A. HR showed the presence of highly condensed packaged starch granules with smooth edges, which were tightly imbibed in the proteins matrix. However, the inter-cultivar differences in the starch structure and packaging were also observed. On the contrary, BR revealed lesser accumulation of starch particles with abnormal protein filling and several fissures and cracks in the starch granules of BR of different cultivars.

Recent Advances in Pathophysiology of Traumatic Brain Injury.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) constitutes the primary reason for mortality and morbidity in persons worldwide below 45 years of age. 1.7 million Traumatic events occur yearly in the United States alone, considering for 50,000 deaths. In severe traumatic brain injury sufferers, a considerable achievement attained in treating short-term consequences; but till date, huge failures are occurring in researcher's capability to render severe traumatic brain injury sufferers to an elevated degree of performing. METHODS: Initial damage force results in Primary brain injury, causing tissue destruction and distortion in the early post-injury period. These secondary injuries from TBI cause changes in cell performance and dissemination of trauma via activities like free-radical generation, depolarization, and formation of edema, excitotoxicity, and disruption of blood brain barrier, calcium homeostasis, and intracranial hematoma. The expectation for developing effect in TBI sufferers is the best knowledge of these activities and enhancement of remedies that restrict secondary brain damage. RESULTS: The focal point of this study is on knowing the complex outburst of secondary impairments and studying the pathophysiology of TBI which provides alternative treatment benefits. CONCLUSION: While injured persons demonstrate dissimilar levels of harm and every case is novel with specific recovery profiles, this article strengthens the recent pathophysiological sight of TBI mainly attention on oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, cerebral oxygenation and cerebral blood flow (CBF), development of edema, and inflammatory activities. For initial research acknowledgment of these recurring factors could permit clarification of possible beneficial targets.

Effect of Parboiling on Phenolic, Protein, and Pasting Properties of Rice from Different Paddy Varieties.

The present study evaluated the effect of parboiling on milling, chemical constituents, pasting and cooking properties of different paddy varieties. Parboiling decreased L* and a* values and increased b* and head rice recovery. Parboiling significantly increased the protein content and antioxidant activity on a dry basis. Parboiling decreased whiteness, fat content, and paste viscosities. The parboiling process increased the hydrophobicity of rice from all the varieties. Parboiled milled rice showed higher free and bound phenolic acids as compared to unparboiled milled rice. Parboiled milled rice showed higher content of essential amino acid than unparboiled milled rice. Variety PB1121 was suited best for parboiling on the basis of total color (ΔE), protein content, essential amino acid, and phenolic acids among the evaluated paddy varieties. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The present study revealed that parboiled milled rice had higher antioxidant activity, amino acids, ferulic acid, and p-coumaric acids. Indeed, parboiled milled rice showed better textural and nutritional properties and would be more suitable for canning, puffed rice and biryani (rice cooked with chicken/mutton).