Identifying and treating people in a pre-frail state may be an effective way to prevent or delay frailty and preserve their functional capacity. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of, and ...compliance with, a 12 week individualized nutritional supplementation (INS) and Nordic walking (NW) program in pre-frail older Indians. The primary measure is physical performance, as indicated by Fried's Frailty scale. Other measures include: cognition, as indicated by the Hindi Mental Status Examination; mood, by the Geriatric Depression Scale; and nutritional status, by the Mini Nutritional Assessment.
This is an open-labeled experimental pre-test and post-test study, which took place from October 2012 to December 2014. The study was approved by Institute Ethics committee (IEC/NP-350/2012/RP-26/2012) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Participants were sixty-six pre-frail elderly, who were randomly allocated into three subgroups, namely: A (NW only), B (INS only), and C (NW and INS). One-way ANOVA was used to statistically assess differences in baseline characteristics for quantitative variables, with the Chi-Square/Fischer exact test utilized for qualitative variables. Paired t-tests were used to assess pre and post intervention difference within the group for quantitative variables, with McNemar's Chi-Square test used for qualitative variables. Kruskal Wallis test was used to assess significant intervention effects among the groups. A p-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
There was significant effect of intervention in gait speed in group A (p = 0.001) and C (p = 0.002), but not in group B (p = 0.926). While there was no significant change in grip strength in Group A (p = 0.488) and B (p = 0.852), a statistically significant increase was observed in group C (p = 0.013). Mood significantly improved in group B (p = 0.025) and C (p = 0.021). No significant difference was noted in cognitive status across groups. Following the interventions, a total of 18.18% of pre-frail participants were classified as non-frail.
Combining NW and INS provides a simple, pragmatic intervention with efficacy in the management of functionally vulnerable older adults, and allows their maintained independence. Future studies should replicate this readily applicable intervention in a larger cohort with a longer follow-up period.
Clinical Trial Registry-India CTRI/2016/05/006937 Registered on: 16/05/2016; Trial was Registered Retrospectively.
Background: With demographic shifts, there is an unprecedented increase in noncommunicable diseases, multimorbidity, and geriatric syndromes among older adults, especially in economically weaker ...sectors. However, there is no socioculturally appropriate tool to screen older adults for age-related health needs, multimorbidity, and geriatric syndromes at their doorstep. Objective: Our objective was to create a self-assessment tool, "integrated care tool" (ICT), and to assess its psychometric properties by applying it on older adults from multiple settings such as hospital, community, and old-age home (assisted living services). Methods: new questionnaire was developed using standardized procedure including item development, pilot testing, and psychometric validation. After obtaining the institutional ethics committee clearance, data were collected from consenting respondents attending the Outpatient Department of Geriatric Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, community settings through health camps, and long-term care center, between May 2016 and February 2017. Data were computerized and analyzed by principal component analysis as extraction method and orthogonal varimax as rotation method. Results: The final 30-item questionnaire was arranged into various domains as per rotated component matrix analysis. Overall internal consistency of the final questionnaire, as calculated by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.79, and the measure of sampling adequacy was 0.79. Conclusion: ICT-BRIEF is a simple, self-assessment/caregiver-assisted tool to screen the health needs of older adults. This tool can be validated for developing risk score and scaled up to generate a large database to create elderly centered care plans.
The soybean
root necrosis 1
(
rn1
) mutation causes progressive browning of the roots soon after germination and provides increased tolerance to the soil-borne oomycete pathogen
Phytophthora sojae
in ...soybean. Toward understanding the molecular basis of the
rn1
mutant phenotypes, we conducted tandem mass tag (TMT)-labeling proteomics and phosphoproteomics analyses of the root tissues of the
rn1
mutant and progenitor T322 line to identify potential proteins involved in manifestation of the mutant phenotype. We identified 3,160 proteins. When the
p
-value was set at ≤0.05 and the fold change of protein accumulation between
rn1
and T322 at ≥1.5 or ≤0.67, we detected 118 proteins that showed increased levels and 32 proteins decreased levels in
rn1
as compared to that in T322. The differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) are involved in several pathways including cellular processes for processing environmental and genetic information, metabolism and organismal systems. Five pathogenesis-related proteins were accumulated to higher levels in the mutant as compared to that in T322. Several of the DAPs are involved in hormone signaling, redox reaction, signal transduction, and cell wall modification processes activated in plant–pathogen interactions. The phosphoproteomics analysis identified 22 phosphopeptides, the levels of phosphorylation of which were significantly different between
rn1
and T322 lines. The phosphorylation levels of two type II metacaspases were reduced in
rn1
as compared to T322. Type II metacaspase has been shown to be a negative regulator of hypersensitive cell death. In absence of the functional Rn1 protein, two type II metacaspases exhibited reduced phosphorylation levels and failed to show negative regulatory cell death function in the soybean
rn1
mutant. We hypothesize that Rn1 directly or indirectly phosphorylates type II metacaspases to negatively regulate the cell death process in soybean roots.
Biofilms are colonies of microbial cells encased in a self-produced organic polymeric matrix. The biofilm production is more important for nonalbicans Candida (NAC); as C. albicans possess many other ...mechanisms to establish infections. Correct identification of Candida species has gained importance due to persistent rise in infections caused by NAC. We sought to isolate, identify Candida species in clinical isolates and study biofilm formation.
Modified microtiter plate method was performed to study biofilm formation by isolates in Sabouraud's dextrose broth. It was then quantitatively assessed using a spectrophotometer. Biofilm formation was graded as negative, +1, +2, +3 and + 4 on the basis of percentage absorbance.
Biofilm formation was observed in 16 of 40 (40.0%) isolates of C. albicans as compared to 39 of 78 (50.0%) of isolates of NAC. Strong (+4) biofilm production was seen in maximum biofilm producers in C. tropicalis (12 of 27) followed by C. albicans (8 of 16). Total biofilm producers were significantly more among high vaginal swab isolates 63.2% (12 of 19) and urine isolates 59.2% (29 of 49), when compared to blood isolates 34.2% (13 of 38) as well as other isolates 27.5% (11 of 40).
NAC species are qualitatively and quantitatively superior biofilm producers than C. albicans. Biofilm production is the most important virulence factor of NAC species and compared to other lesions, it is more significantly associated with luminal infections.
Transformer ageing is an irreversible process due to moisture, temperature; in presence of copper, oxygen and acidity; thus affecting life span of the equipment. This paper mainly explains about four ...tests i.e. Density, Interfacial Tension, Acidity and Dissolved Decay Content of oil which help in proper maintenance by reclamation or replacement wherever required avoiding failure. The fuzzy classification technique has been used for classification of UV area which depend on inputs used has a specific relation. It was observed that density and acidity has direct proportion relation and IFT has inverse proportion relation for increase in UV area indicates decay content.
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