III B.Sc.,
Department of Biochemistry
Thursday, 27 October 2016
Thursday, 20 October 2016
How people type on computer
keboard may help treat Parkinson's
Performing
ordinary tasks such as typing emails or updating Facebook status may help treat
Parkinson's disease, thanks to scientists who have developed a new monitoring
technique to evaluate the patient's symptoms as they interact with a computer
keyboard at home. Although there is no cure for Parkinson's disease, there are
treatments that can reduce the severity of a patient's symptoms. For these
treatments to be effective, doctors need to regularly monitor the patient's
symptoms at home. Researchers, including those at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in the US, have developed a technique to monitor Parkinson's
disease progression as patients interact with a computer keyboard. In this way
the technique, which is based on technology originally developed to replace
computer passwords, allows Parkinson's signs to be monitored as people perform
ordinary tasks such as typing emails or updating their Facebook status,
according to Luca Giancardo, from MIT.
"This approach uses something we do normally - interacting with a digital device - so it does not add any additional burden or take time away from daily activities," he said. Existing methods to evaluate the severity of Parkinson's signs are based on trained medical personnel assessing the patient's ability to perform a number of movement activities. However, these assessments tend to be carried out in a clinical setting, limiting how often they can be undertaken.
Researchers set out to study whether keystroke dynamics, a technique used to identify a computer user by the time they take to press down and release each key - typically around 100 milliseconds - could be used to monitor the motor effects of Parkinson's disease in the home. Researchers asked 42 patients with early stage Parkinson's disease and 43 healthy subjects to type out a text of their choosing for 10-15 minutes on a computer keyboard.
The computer was installed with software designed to measure the timing of each press and release. When they analysed the typing data, they found a significant variation in the timing of each press and release in patients with early stage Parkinson's disease, while in the healthy control group this was much more uniform. "By looking at the variation of this press and release, we were able to find a signature that allows us to detect Parkinson's disease in our cohort," said Giancardo. The system can be installed as software on a standard computer, or added to the hardware of a device, or even deployed on a webpage. Monitoring patients' signs as they go about their daily activities could help doctors determine the most effective dosage of medication to prescribe at that time, and could ultimately help researchers to develop treatments to halt the disease, researchers said.
"This approach uses something we do normally - interacting with a digital device - so it does not add any additional burden or take time away from daily activities," he said. Existing methods to evaluate the severity of Parkinson's signs are based on trained medical personnel assessing the patient's ability to perform a number of movement activities. However, these assessments tend to be carried out in a clinical setting, limiting how often they can be undertaken.
Researchers set out to study whether keystroke dynamics, a technique used to identify a computer user by the time they take to press down and release each key - typically around 100 milliseconds - could be used to monitor the motor effects of Parkinson's disease in the home. Researchers asked 42 patients with early stage Parkinson's disease and 43 healthy subjects to type out a text of their choosing for 10-15 minutes on a computer keyboard.
The computer was installed with software designed to measure the timing of each press and release. When they analysed the typing data, they found a significant variation in the timing of each press and release in patients with early stage Parkinson's disease, while in the healthy control group this was much more uniform. "By looking at the variation of this press and release, we were able to find a signature that allows us to detect Parkinson's disease in our cohort," said Giancardo. The system can be installed as software on a standard computer, or added to the hardware of a device, or even deployed on a webpage. Monitoring patients' signs as they go about their daily activities could help doctors determine the most effective dosage of medication to prescribe at that time, and could ultimately help researchers to develop treatments to halt the disease, researchers said.
By
Chandrasekaran
III
B.Sc.,
Department of Biochemistry
Predominantly
Buddhist Thailand will relax its strict rules against abortion to cover fetuses
with proven birth defects linked to the Zika virus, health officials said on
Thursday, doubling to 24 weeks a deadline for the procedure.
Thailand last week confirmed its first known cases of microcephaly linked to the mosquito-borne virus. The two cases of the birth defect marked by a small head were the first in Southeast Asia, following Zika outbreaks in the Americas. Health experts who met this week to draft guidelines for expectant mothers with Zika concluded that abortions can be carried out at up to 24 weeks in case of serious birth defects. "The difficulty with Zika is to determine microcephaly. It is usually found later in pregnancy," Pisek Lumpikanon, president of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told Reuters. "Legal medical abortions can be done up to 24 weeks," he added. "The reason is that at 24 weeks and after the baby already has a good chance of survival." Abortion is illegal in Thailand, except in cases of rape or to save a woman's life or preserve her health, and if carried out in up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Beyond that time, hospitals must decide on a case-by-case basis.
There are no specific tests to determine if a baby will be born with microcephaly but ultrasound scans can identify it in the third trimester of pregnancy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
Thailand has said it is considering testing all pregnant women for Zika.
Inadequate screening by health authorities across Southeast Asia is likely to lead to significant under-reporting of the spread of Zika, regional experts say.
Thailand has confirmed 392 cases of Zika since January, with 39 pregnant women among them, while the wealthy city-state of Singapore has recorded 393 cases, including 16 pregnant women. Despite its laissez-faire reputation among travellers, Thailand remains largely conservative, and Theravada Buddhism, the form of the religion practiced by up to 95 percent of its people, regards abortion as a sin. That might lead some doctors to decline to terminate pregnancies, Pisek said, adding, "Buddhism won't affect the law, but some doctors might refuse."
Thailand last week confirmed its first known cases of microcephaly linked to the mosquito-borne virus. The two cases of the birth defect marked by a small head were the first in Southeast Asia, following Zika outbreaks in the Americas. Health experts who met this week to draft guidelines for expectant mothers with Zika concluded that abortions can be carried out at up to 24 weeks in case of serious birth defects. "The difficulty with Zika is to determine microcephaly. It is usually found later in pregnancy," Pisek Lumpikanon, president of the Royal Thai College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told Reuters. "Legal medical abortions can be done up to 24 weeks," he added. "The reason is that at 24 weeks and after the baby already has a good chance of survival." Abortion is illegal in Thailand, except in cases of rape or to save a woman's life or preserve her health, and if carried out in up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Beyond that time, hospitals must decide on a case-by-case basis.
There are no specific tests to determine if a baby will be born with microcephaly but ultrasound scans can identify it in the third trimester of pregnancy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
Thailand has said it is considering testing all pregnant women for Zika.
Inadequate screening by health authorities across Southeast Asia is likely to lead to significant under-reporting of the spread of Zika, regional experts say.
Thailand has confirmed 392 cases of Zika since January, with 39 pregnant women among them, while the wealthy city-state of Singapore has recorded 393 cases, including 16 pregnant women. Despite its laissez-faire reputation among travellers, Thailand remains largely conservative, and Theravada Buddhism, the form of the religion practiced by up to 95 percent of its people, regards abortion as a sin. That might lead some doctors to decline to terminate pregnancies, Pisek said, adding, "Buddhism won't affect the law, but some doctors might refuse."
By
Chandrasekaran
III
B.Sc.,
Department of Biochemistry
The
peak of human life span has already been reached and instead of wasting
resources trying to extend life, research should concentrate on extending
health span, the duration of old age spent in good health, says a new study
published online in Nature. Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine
in New York suggest that it may not be possible to extend the human life span
beyond the ages already attained by the oldest people on record.
"Demographers as well as biologists have contended there is no reason to think that the ongoing increase in maximum lifespan will end soon," said senior author Jan Vijg, professor and chair of genetics, at Einstein. "But our data strongly suggest that it has already been attained and that this happened in the 1990s." Using maximum-reported-age-at-death data, the Einstein researchers put the average maximum human life span at 115 years—a calculation allowing for record-oldest individuals occasionally living longer or shorter than 115 years. They calculated 125 years as the absolute limit of human lifespan. Expressed another way, this means that the probability in a given year of seeing one person live to 125 anywhere in the world is less than 1 in 10,000. Since the 19th century, average life expectancy has risen almost continuously thanks to improvements in public health, diet, the environment and other areas. On average, for example, US babies born today can expect to live nearly until age 79 compared with an average life expectancy of only 47 for Americans born in 1900. Since the 1970s, the maximum duration of life—the age to which the oldest people live—has also risen. But according to the Einstein researchers, this upward arc for maximal lifespan has a ceiling—and we've already touched it. "Further progress against infectious and chronic diseases may continue boosting average life expectancy, but not maximum lifespan," said Dr Vijg. "While it's conceivable that therapeutic breakthroughs might extend human longevity beyond the limits we've calculated, such advances would need to overwhelm the many genetic variants that appear to collectively determine the human lifespan. Perhaps resources now being spent to increase lifespan should instead go to lengthening healthspan—the duration of old age spent in good health." Dr. Vijg and his colleagues analyzed data from the Human Mortality Database, which compiles mortality and population data from more than 40 countries. Since 1900, those countries generally show a decline in late-life mortality. But when the researchers looked at survival improvements since 1900 for people aged 100 and above, they found that gains in survival peaked at around 100 and then declined rapidly, regardless of the year people were born. "This finding indicates diminishing gains in reducing late-life mortality and a possible limit to human lifespan," said Dr. Vijg.
He and his colleagues then looked at "maximum reported age at death" data from the International Database on Longevity. They focused on people verified as living to age 110 or older between 1968 and 2006 in the four countries (the U.S., France, Japan and the U.K.) with the largest number of long-lived individuals. Age at death for these supercentenarians increased rapidly between the 1970s and early 1990s but reached a plateau around 1995—further evidence for a lifespan limit. This plateau, the researchers note, occurred close to 1997—the year of death of 122-year-old French woman Jeanne Calment, who achieved the maximum documented lifespan of any person in history.
"Demographers as well as biologists have contended there is no reason to think that the ongoing increase in maximum lifespan will end soon," said senior author Jan Vijg, professor and chair of genetics, at Einstein. "But our data strongly suggest that it has already been attained and that this happened in the 1990s." Using maximum-reported-age-at-death data, the Einstein researchers put the average maximum human life span at 115 years—a calculation allowing for record-oldest individuals occasionally living longer or shorter than 115 years. They calculated 125 years as the absolute limit of human lifespan. Expressed another way, this means that the probability in a given year of seeing one person live to 125 anywhere in the world is less than 1 in 10,000. Since the 19th century, average life expectancy has risen almost continuously thanks to improvements in public health, diet, the environment and other areas. On average, for example, US babies born today can expect to live nearly until age 79 compared with an average life expectancy of only 47 for Americans born in 1900. Since the 1970s, the maximum duration of life—the age to which the oldest people live—has also risen. But according to the Einstein researchers, this upward arc for maximal lifespan has a ceiling—and we've already touched it. "Further progress against infectious and chronic diseases may continue boosting average life expectancy, but not maximum lifespan," said Dr Vijg. "While it's conceivable that therapeutic breakthroughs might extend human longevity beyond the limits we've calculated, such advances would need to overwhelm the many genetic variants that appear to collectively determine the human lifespan. Perhaps resources now being spent to increase lifespan should instead go to lengthening healthspan—the duration of old age spent in good health." Dr. Vijg and his colleagues analyzed data from the Human Mortality Database, which compiles mortality and population data from more than 40 countries. Since 1900, those countries generally show a decline in late-life mortality. But when the researchers looked at survival improvements since 1900 for people aged 100 and above, they found that gains in survival peaked at around 100 and then declined rapidly, regardless of the year people were born. "This finding indicates diminishing gains in reducing late-life mortality and a possible limit to human lifespan," said Dr. Vijg.
He and his colleagues then looked at "maximum reported age at death" data from the International Database on Longevity. They focused on people verified as living to age 110 or older between 1968 and 2006 in the four countries (the U.S., France, Japan and the U.K.) with the largest number of long-lived individuals. Age at death for these supercentenarians increased rapidly between the 1970s and early 1990s but reached a plateau around 1995—further evidence for a lifespan limit. This plateau, the researchers note, occurred close to 1997—the year of death of 122-year-old French woman Jeanne Calment, who achieved the maximum documented lifespan of any person in history.
By
Chandrasekaran
III
B.Sc.,
Department
of Biochemistry
Nutrient Profile of Native
Woody Species and Medicinal Plants in Northeastern Mexico:
A
Synthesis Woody plants and medicinal plants possesss various macro nutrients
and micronutrients. These are essential to bring about the growth and
development of the plants. These because of their medicinal values are used
traditionally to cure various diseases. We made a short synthesis of researches
undertaken on macro and micronutrients of woody species and medicinal plants.
Woody plants of Tamaulipan Thornscrubs in the semiarid regions are of great
economic importance for various uses such as timber for furniture, fences,
firewood and serve as sources of forage for wild animal grazing. Few studies
are undertaken on nutrient contents of woody plants.
Magic Angle Spinning NMR
Metabolomics
Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a nondestructive, quantitative,
reproducible, untargeted and unbiased method that requires no or minimal sample
preparation, and is one of the leading analytical tools for metabolomics
research. The easy quantification and the no need of prior knowledge about
compounds present in a sample associated with NMR are advantageous over other
techniques. 1H NMR is especially attractive because protons are present in
virtually all metabolites and its NMR sensitivity is high, enabling the
simultaneous identification and monitoring of a wide range of low molecular
weight metabolites.
Salivary Progesterone as a
Biomarker in Pregnancy
Progesterone
is considered as the pregnancy hormone. Already in 1958 Short was able to
determine progesterone in blood and found that during pregnancy its levels
increase from <0.1 μg/100 mL (nonpregnant) up to 87 μg/100 ml. In addition,
Eton and Short found that in early abortion or premature delivery the
concentration of progesterone was relatively low, which finding were confirmed
by Wiest for fetal death. The role of progesterone during pregnancy includes
the preparation of the uterus for implantation, to keep the uterus quiescent
during gestation and lower immune responses of the mother.
By
Chandrasekaran
III
B.Sc.,
Department
of Biochemistry
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