Fast recovery of transgenic submergence tolerant rice cultivars of North-East India by early co-cultivation of Agrobacterium with pre-cultured callus

Agro-climatic conditions of North-East India are very complex and rice cultivars present in the region have been adapted to grow under harsh environmental conditions. Germplasm present in the region is considered to possess several important and unique traits that are of importance in rice improvement programs. Genetic engineering is a powerful tool to introduce new traits into crop plants. However, not much information is available on the methods to introduce foreign genes into North-East rice cultivars. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop transformation procedures for fast recovery of transgenic plants from North-East rice cultivars. To achieve this objective, a systematic study was carried out to identify media components and culture conditions for efficient embryogenic callus induction from the mature seeds and differentiation of callus into plantlets from two North-East deep water rice cultivars, Taothabi and Khongan. Also, role of preculture of callus on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation was studied. Co-cultivation of Agrobacterium with 1-5 days precultured callus was found to result in high frequency of transformation. Detailed characterization of transgenic lines confirmed stable integration of transgenes and expression of reporter gfp gene. The whole process starting from callus induction to regenerating of transgenic rice plants that can be established in the soil was achieved in about 35-45 days. The procedures developed were found to be applicable to a popular variety IR 64. Therefore, methods developed in this study should be useful not only to introduce new traits quickly but also to validate the function(s) of several candidate gene(s) identified under the functional genomics of rice.

Correlates of inpatient healthcare seeking behavior in India

OBJECTIVES

The present study was attempted to study the in-patient health care behaviour, particularly choice of health care providers and their determinants.

METHODS

An analysis for treatment seeking behavior of 5989 inpatients which implied to 6726 hospitalized cases due to five ailments namely, heart, diarrhea, tuberculosis, urinary and gynecology diseases in India during the last 365 days prior to survey date has been revealed in this paper using data from the 60th round of National Sample Survey, 2004. Multivariate logistic regression model has been adopted to understand the correlates of being inpatients and of opting private hospitals.

RESULTS

It is evident that crowded household, being female, having higher educational level, living in lower income households, and living in urban residents have lower chances of being hospitalized compared to their respective counterparts. Maximum people opted for expensive private health sector which accounts for around 59 per cent. This study also reveals that many people had some form of treatment before being an inpatient where 59 per cent had past treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients from the highest quintile of MPCE have higher chances of being hospitalized and also of choosing costly private health care sector. Significant differences were found within age, sex, education, residence and monthly per capita consumption expenditure for hospitalization. Older age groups, highly educated and urban patients have higher instances of choosing a private sector.

Costs, resource utilisation and financing of public and private hospitals in Uganda

A descriptive cross-sectional, retrospective cost analysis was conducted in a public and private hospitals in Arua district, Uganda with the aim of assessing the resource use, costs, and financing of those hospitals. It employed the "full costing" approach to hospital costing. The results showed that most of the government recurrent expenditure on health facilities in the district went to the public hospital, while most of the revenues at the private hospital was from donations. The distribution of costs by category of inputs showed that materials and supplies costs were highest in both hospital, followed by employee costs. The administration, pharmacy and store had the highest cost at both hospitals. The cost of the kitchen was very high in the public hospital. The ratio of the unit costs of an out patient visit to an inpatient day and to the unit cost per case treated was 1:1:6 in the private and 1:7:46 in the public. This indicates the relative low cost of public hospital outpatient service and the relative high cost of the outpatient in the private hospital. The employee costs and the drug costs were the most important components of the unit costs in the OPD at both hospitals while in the inpatient wards, besides the above mentioned components, there were also the kitchen, blood bank (public) and theatre in both hospitals. It is concluded that hospitals should look for ways of increasing the level of recurrent funding available to them by increasing the efficiency of their operations and by mobilising additional resources from other sources other than government.

B cell lymphoma of the thyroid in Hashimoto's thyroiditis monitored by fine-needle aspiration cytology

An 80-yr-old female with a grade I diffuse goiter was diagnosed on fine-needle aspiration cytology as having Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Two years later, she developed a hard nodular growth in the right lobe of the thyroid, which was subjected to fine-needle aspiration and diagnosed as a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Immunocytology demonstrated the monoclonal B cell nature of the lesion. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy and is alive and free of the disease 27 mo after surgery.