Prevalence of generalized & abdominal obesity in urban & rural India--the ICMR-INDIAB Study (Phase-I) [ICMR- NDIAB-3].

Background & Objectives: Overweight and obesity are rapidly increasing in countries like India. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of generalized, abdominal and combined obesity in urban and rural India.

Methods: Phase I of the ICMR-INDIAB study was conducted in a representative population of three States [Tamil Nadu (TN), Maharashtra (MH) and Jharkhand (JH)] and one Union Territory (UT)[Chandigarh (CH)] of India.

Reliability and validity of a new physical activity questionnaire for India.

Background: Measurement of physical activity in epidemiological studies requires tools which are reliable, valid and culturally relevant. We attempted to develop a physical activity questionnaire (PAQ) that would measure physical activity in various domains over a year and which would be valid for use in adults of different age groups with varying levels of activity in urban and rural settings in low and middle income countries like India. The present paper aims to assess the reliability and validity of this new PAQ- termed the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation- Physical Activity Questionnaire (MPAQ).

Touch imprint cytology: a rapid diagnostic tool for oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Techniques for intraoperative pathologic examination of oral squamous cell carcinoma are rare in the literature. We evaluated the advantages and limitations of touch imprint cytology for intraoperative diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma. We used 30 incisional biopsies of clinically diagnosed oral squamous cell carcinoma and compared touch imprint cytology to histopathological sections.

Metabolic obesity, adipocytokines, and inflammatory markers in Asian Indians--CURES-124.

Aim: This study looked at the association of adipokines, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers in subjects with the following phenotypes: metabolically healthy, nonobese (MHNO), metabolically healthy, obese (MHO), metabolically obese, nonobese (MONO), and metabolically obese, obese (MOO).

Materials And Methods: Subjects with MHNO (n=462), MHO (n=192), MONO (n=315), and MOO (n=335) were randomly selected from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study. Adiponectin, visfatin, resistin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Prevalence and clinical profile of metabolic obesity and phenotypic obesity in Asian Indians.

Background: We estimated the prevalence of metabolically obese nonobese (MONO), metabolically obese obese (MOO), and metabolically healthy obese (MHO) individuals and correlated this with the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to metabolically healthy nonobese (MHNO) in urban South Indians.

Method: Study subjects (n = 2350) were recruited from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study. Generalized obesity was defined as a body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m(2), based on the World Health Organization Asia Pacific guidelines.

Anesthetic management for foramen magnum decompression in a patient with Morquio syndrome: a case report.

Morquio syndrome is a hereditary mucopolysaccharide disorder presenting with an abnormality of the craniocervical junction from childhood. We describe an adult patient who presented with Morquio syndrome who had subglottic narrowing of the airway, restrictive pulmonary disease, and mild mitral regurgitation and trivial aortic regurgitation. The anesthetic management of this patient for atlantoaxial stabilization is presented.

Rhythm and soul in the avian pineal.

The avian pineal gland, like that of mammals, displays a striking circadian rhythm in the synthesis and release of the hormone melatonin. However, the pineal gland plays a more prominent role in avian circadian organization and differs from that in mammals in several ways. One important difference is that the pineal gland in birds is relatively autonomous.

Uniform discrimination of pattern orientation by honeybees.

To explore how honeybees, Apis cerana, discriminate the orientation of patterns, we trained workers to discriminate between a black stripe of a certain orientation on a white disc and a pure white disc. We tested trained bees for their ability to discriminate between the trained orientation and deviations from it. This was done either in a dual choice situation where the bees had to choose between the trained orientation and one deviation from it at a time, or in a multiple choice situation where bees had to choose simultaneously between the trained orientation and 11 successive deviations from it.

Correlations between sleep and wake in internally synchronized and desynchronized circadian rhythms in humans under prolonged isolation.

The authors report the results of their experiments performed on the sleep-wake and rectal temperature rhythms of human subjects, who were held in prolonged social isolation for periods of 15-43 days in a specially constructed facility. Of 13 experiments performed with 11 subjects, the sleep-wake and rectal temperature rhythms free ran with circadian periods, remaining internally synchronized for the entire duration of the experiments in 9 subjects. The relationship between sleep and wake that is highlighted in this article is a trend that clearly and significantly expresses itself in four long-term experiments performed on a male subject and a female subject in separate experiments.

Responses of the circadian locomotor activity rhythm of Mus booduga to shifts in LD schedules.

The responses of the field mouse Mus booduga to shifts in schedules of LD cycles were monitored and the results were interpreted with the help of a PRC constructed for the same species. The results reveal that, M. booduga reentrained faster with a lesser number of transients after delay shifts than advance shifts, thus exhibiting "asymmetry effect.

Green light evokes maximum phase shifts in the locomotor activity rhythm of the field mouse Mus booduga.

The effect of pulses of different monochromatic light wavelengths was investigated on the circadian locomotor activity rhythm of the tropical rodent Mus booduga. Blue (480 nm), green (549 nm) and red (649 nm) light were used for pulses at circadian time (CT) 14 and 20, the maximum delay and advance eliciting phases of the white light phase response curve (PRC). All three wavelengths evoked qualitatively similar responses in terms of the signs of the phase shifts.