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The perinatal period is very critical as the embryo or the new born is more susceptible to Cd toxicity. This study was done to measure Cd levels in brain tissue of F1 and F2 generation mice whose mothers were exposed to Cd during lactation or during the entire period of gestation and lactation and also to investigate whether quercetin could modulate this effect. Dams were exposed to cadmium during lactation and during the entire perinatal period. F1 and F2 generations were reared till 100 days of age. After being sacrificed, their brains were extracted, and cadmium levels were estimated using Atomic absorption spectrophotometer. It was found that Cd levels in brain tissue were significantly higher in the F1 generation when animals were exposed in lactation. There was slight increase in Cd in brain tissue of animals exposed during gestation as well as lactation, but the change was not statistically significant. Quercetin reduced the Cd levels significantly in a dose dependent manner in lactation group. In the other two groups it reduced the Cd levels even lower than the controls. This study shows that Cd is passed on to the next generation more efficiently when exposed during lactation. Lesser transmission is seen when exposure is during gestation followed by lactation. Quercetin effectively reduces Cd levels in brain tissue irrespective of the type of exposure.

Fossil-based palaeoclimate reconstruction is an important area of ecological science that has gained momentum in the backdrop of the global climate change debate. The hierarchical Bayesian paradigm provides an interesting platform for studying such important scientific issue. However, our cross-validation based assessment of the existing Bayesian hierarchical models with respect to two modern proxy data sets based on chironomid and pollen, respectively, revealed that the models are inadequate for the data sets. In this paper, we model the species assemblages (compositional data) by the zero-inflated multinomial distribution while modelling the species response functions using Dirichlet process-based Gaussian mixtures. This modelling strategy yielded significantly improved performances, and a formal Bayesian test of model adequacy, developed recently, showed that our new model is adequate for both the modern data sets. Furthermore, combining together the zero-inflated assumption, Importance Resampling Markov Chain Monte Carlo (IRMCMC) and the recently developed Transformation-based Markov Chain Monte Carlo (TMCMC), we develop a powerful and efficient computational methodology. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A male patient aged 45 years presented in March 2016 at the Glocal Hospital, Krishnanagore, West Bengal, India, with the complaint of sweating only in the left half of the body, particularly in the face, while the other half does not sweat (Figure 1). He had noticed this phenomenon for the last several years. BP was 120/85 mmHg. There were no rashes or itching in the body. Routine examination of blood, urine and stool did not reveal any abnormalities. The thyroid function tests of both the patients were normal. The patient was not diabetic or hypertensive.

A new method to diagnose and estimate secondary porosity and absolute permeability of fractured and vuggy carbonate formations based on the numerical simulation of the process of matrix solution technique developed and validated. The method includes the geological characterization of core laboratory data and their integration with well logs and rock production measurements. The new method to the interpretation of data acquired in a tertiary reservoir in Bai Hassan oil field applied. Cretaceous reservoir behaves as a triple-porosity petrophysical system which exhibits inter-crystalline, intra-crystalline, moldic, vuggy (connected and non-connected) and fractured porosity. Rockcore data and well tests indicate that vugs are the mayor component of secondary porosity while fractures and interconnected vugs account for most of the permeability. The initial phase of our interpretation method consists of integrating core measurements with well logs and well tests to calculate static and dynamic petrophysical properties via standard carbonate evaluation procedures. This procedure tested on several key wells with and without core measurements and well-testing measurements. Final estimates of porosity and permeability are in good agreement with the properties of the global petrophysical system been founded.

A 30 year old female patient complained of pain and swelling of the small joints of the hands and legs. On enquiry, she informed that her skin over the tips of the fingers of both hands show episodes of colour changes (blanching, followed by cyanosis and then rubor; tri-phasic colour response). This is Raynaud’s phenomenon in a case of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Brief Case History: DS, aged about 30 years, female patient reported to the Outpatients’ department of Peerless Hospitex Hospital in Kolkata, India in April 2015, complaining of pain and swelling of the joints mostly the small joints of the hands and legs. On enquiry, she informed that her skin over the tips of the fingers of both hands show episodes of colour changes (blanching, followed by cyanosis and then rubor; tri-phasic colour response). This colour changes typically occurred when she exposed her hands to cold as well as when she is emotionally upset (Image). She had fever, malaise, weakness and typical butterfly rashes in the face as well as reddish rashes all over the chest, some in the back and a few in the legs. Laboratory investigations revealed that ESR and C-reactive protein were high; ANA and DsDNA reactive. She was diagnosed to be suffering from Raynaud’s phenomenon in the context of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). It affects more females than men. She was treated following standard guidelines as outpatient and after some time she left for her village. Acknowledgment: We are grateful to the patient (name not disclosed) for allowing us to publish this photograph.

In recent times, complex computer models have received wide attention in scientific research. However, in order to make conventional statistical statements regarding the scientific research, many expensive runs of the computer model are usually needed. New statistical theories, making their appearances, hold promise to alleviate the technical challenges. However, in cases where the underlying complex system is evolving with time, an effective theory for statistical analyses is lacking. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian methodology that extends the existing methodologies to the case of complex dynamic systems. The approach described in the paper exploits the recursive nature of dynamic simulation models to give a more efficient and accurate emulator. ¶ The motivating example, although not a real model for any physical process, may be thought of as a proxy for a model representing climate change, where it is of interest to predict, over time $t$, the four-dimensional proxy time series $\mathbb{y}_t=\mbox{(temperature},$ $\mbox{ice melting rate}$, $\mbox{barren land, $\mbox{CO}_2$ emission)}$. Also available are proxy observations on deforestation, recorded over time; hence treated as known. The latter is known as forcing input, denoted by $z_t$. The computer model is treated as a black box. ¶ Typically, Gaussian processes are used to model unknown computer models, which we adopt in our article. In order to exploit the recursive nature of dynamic computer models, we introduce a grid within the range of the unknown function where the entire dynamic sequence is expected to lie. This grid essentially defines a look-up table. %Instead of the full high-dimensional posterior %predictive distribution for the future time series, Our proposed method then assumes that conditional on the response surface on the grid, and the available training data, the future responses are approximately independent. Exploiting the properties of Gaussian process, we justify our proposal theoretically and with ample simulation studies. We also apply our proposed methodology to the motivating example.

Objective: To investigate the effect of Ocimum sanctum, ascorbic acid, and verapamil on macrophage function and oxidative stress in experimental animals exposed to cocaine. Materials and Methods: Mice were used in this study and were divided randomly into different groups of six animals each. They were either treated with intraperitoneal injection of saline or cocaine hydrochloride or an oral feeding of oil of Ocimum sanctum, ascorbic acid or verapamil, or both (ascorbic acid and verapamil), and were evaluated for a respiratory burst of macrophages, superoxide and nitric oxide (NO) production, estimation of TNF-a in the serum and supernatant of cultured macrophages, estimation of lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde- MDA) in the serum, and superoxide dismutase activity in the erythrocytes. Results: Unstimulated respiratory burst as well as superoxide production was enhanced on treatment with cocaine and all the three drugs were found to attenuate this enhancement. The bactericidal capacity of macrophages decreased significantly on chronic cocaine exposure, as it was associated with decreased respiratory burst and superoxide production. There was a significant decrease in NO production by macrophages on chronic cocaine exposure and all the test drugs were found to restore nitrite formation to a normal level. There was an increase in the malonylodialdehyde (MDA) level and decrease in the superoxide dismutase level on chronic cocaine exposure, and all the three drugs effectively decreased the MDA level and increased superoxide dismutase level. There was an increase in serum TNF-α on chronic cocaine exposure, which was decreased significantly by ascorbic acid and verapamil. Conclusion: O. sanctum, ascorbic acid, and verapamil were equally effective in improving the macrophage function and reducing oxidative stress. These findings suggested that O. sanctum, ascorbic acid, and verapamil attenuated acute and chronic cocaine-mediated effects.

The behavioral activity profile of a therapeutically used alcoholic hypericum extract containing hyperforin (4.5%) in rodent models was compared with that of an experimental CO 2 extract devoid of hypericines but highly enriched in hyperforin (38.8%). The antidepressant activities of 50, 150 and 300 mg/ kg/day of the alcoholic extract were similar to those of 5, 15 and 30 mg/kg/day respectively of the CO 2 extract. The ethanol extract in the same dose range potentiated dopaminergic behavioral responses, whereas these effects were either absent or less pronounced in the CO 2 extract treated groups. By contrast, serotoninergic effects of the CO 2 extract were more pronounced than those of the alcoholic extract. These and various other observations made during the study confirm that although the antidepressant action of hypericum extracts depends on their hyperforin contents, their spectrums of central activity are due to other component(s). Our working hypothesis that hyperforin and serotoninergic mechanisms are involved in the therapeutically observed antidepressant activities of hypericum extracts is in agreement with these observations.

As a part of an ongoing multidisciplinary biomedical research programme, initiated by the Indian Statistical Institute in early 1976, entitled "Human Adaptability Programme", the present study was undertaken among the Lepchas of Kalimpong subdivision, Darjeeling district, West Bengal (India) to enquire at a micro-level into the possible relationship between the major sociocultural factors, viz. religious practices and rural/urban residence, on the one hand, and haematological traits such as haemoglobin level, haematocrit and anaemia, on the other. The results show that while effects of religious practices do not seem to exist on the haematological traits considered, significant effects of rural/urban residence do.