Ojit Singh

Drought yield index to select high yielding rice lines under different drought stress severities.

BackgroundDrought is the most severe abiotic stress reducing rice yield in rainfed drought prone ecosystems. Variation in intensity and severity of drought from season to season and place to place requires cultivation of rice varieties with different level of drought tolerance in different areas. Multi environment evaluation of breeding lines helps breeder to identify appropriate genotypes for areas prone to similar level of drought stress. From a set of 129 advanced rice (Oryza sativa L.) breeding lines evaluated under rainfed drought-prone situations at three locations in eastern India from 2005 to 2007, a subset of 39 genotypes that were tested for two or more years was selected to develop a drought yield index (DYI) and mean yield index (MYI) based on yield under irrigated, moderate and severe reproductive-stage drought stress to help breeders select appropriate genotypes for different environments.ResultsARB 8 and IR55419-04 recorded the highest drought yield index (DYI) and are identified as the best drought-tolerant lines. The proposed DYI provides a more effective assessment as it is calculated after accounting for a significant genotype x stress-level interaction across environments. For rainfed areas with variable frequency of drought occurrence, Mean yield index (MYI) along with deviation in performance of genotypes from currently cultivated popular varieties in all situations helps to select genotypes with a superior performance across irrigated, moderate and severe reproductive-stage drought situations. IR74371-70-1-1 and DGI 75 are the two genotypes identified to have shown a superior performance over IR64 and MTU1010 under all situations.ConclusionFor highly drought-prone areas, a combination of DYI with deviation in performance of genotypes under irrigated situations can enable breeders to select genotypes with no reduction in yield under favorable environments compared with currently cultivated varieties. For rainfed areas with variable frequency of drought stress, use of MYI together with deviation in performance of genotypes under different situations as compared to presently cultivated varieties will help breeders to select genotypes with superior performance under all situations.

Prevalence and prognostic factor in patients with good therapeutic response in a cohort of 172 patients with the homoeopathic medicine Aranea diadema: A multicentre, open-label, observational study

Aim: To assess the prevalence and prognostic factor of Aranea diadema in a population responding well to Aranea diadema. Material and Methods: It was an open label, multicentric observational study wherein patients having minimum two known symptoms matching with the pathogenesis of Aranea diadema were prescribed the remedy in 6C, 30C, 200C, and 1M potencies. The collected data were presented in terms of descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 6806 cases were enrolled. Out of which a total of 172 cases were analysed, and demographic analysis shows male/female: 109/63; mean age 28.3 years. There were “clinical successes” in 115 cases (67.0%) and no response in 57 (33.1%) cases. The number of symptoms found prevalent in responders included proving (n = 13) and literature (n = 8). Symptoms coming from provings guide homoeopathic practitioners in prescribing their medicines, but should also be confirmed in patients responding well to these medicines. Significantly higher prevalence was observed among responders in respect of six tentatively confirmed symptoms (prevalence): Forgetfulness (0.11), white coated tongue (0.21), epistaxis (0.10), thirstlessness (0.13), seminal emissions (0. 23), and fever (0.12). Conclusion: This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of symptoms in a population responding well to Aranea diadema and to compare this with the prevalence of these symptoms in other populations. If a symptom has a higher prevalence in a population responding well to Aranea it indicates the increase of likelihood of a curative action of Aranea when that symptom is present. Our “test”is not meant to diagnose an illness but to increase the accuracy of prescribing Aranea diadema.

Symptom prevalence in a cohort of 65 patients improved with the homoeopathic medicine Mangifera indica: A multicentric open observational clinical verification study

Introduction: Clinical verification is an ongoing research program of the Council that verified many rare homoeopathic drugs. Aim: To clinically verify the ‘symptomatology’ of Mangifera indica by ascertaining the symptoms improved during verification. Materials and Methods: The study was a multicentric open label observational trial. Total 114 patients were enrolled after matching with the available symptom compendium and eligibility criteria in five centres of the Council. The medicine was prescribed in 6C, 30C, 200C and 1M potencies, as per need of the patient following the homoeopathic principles and protocol developed by the Council. The collected data were presented in terms of descriptive statistics. Prevalence of symptoms in the responding and non-responding population has been compared using Chi-square test. Results: Among the total 114 patients enrolled in the study, 77 patients who completed the follow up were analysed, as there were 37 drop out cases. The demographic analysis shows, male/female: 41/36, mean age 28.61 years. There was “clinical success” in 65 cases (84.41%) and failures in 12 cases (15.59%), judged subjectively by the physicians. A minimum of two prescriptions were considered for pick listing each symptom as a rule of thumb. Conclusions: Total 16 CCRH proving symptoms were verified, 4 symptoms from other literatures were also verified. 51 new clinical symptoms/symptom components were identified. Further replication and estimation of likelihood ratio in general practice setting is crucial for confirmation and inclusion of such symptoms in homoeopathic literatures.

Mygale lasiodora: A multicentric observational homoeopathic clinical verification study

Context: Clinical verification is an ongoing research program of the Council that verified many rare homoeopathic drugs. Aims: To clinically verify the symptomatology of Mygale lasiodora by ascertaining the symptoms improved during verification. Settings and Design: In this multicenter observational study, 166 patients were enrolled after matching with the available drug symptomatology and specified eligibility criteria. The medicine was prescribed in 6C, 30C, 200C, and 1M potencies, as per homoeopathic principles. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were presented in terms of descriptive statistics. Results: One sixty-six cases were analyzed; male/female: 105/61; mean age 29.13 years. There were “clinical successes” in 104 cases and failures in 62, judged subjectively by the physicians. A minimum of two prescriptions was considered for pick-listing each symptom as a rule of thumb. The number of symptoms verified was as follows: proving symptoms (n = 18), symptoms from other literature (n = 16), and new observations (n = 47). The data were presented as mean, standard deviations, N (%), and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Conclusions: Total 34 available symptoms were verified, and 47 new symptoms were identified. Cautious interpretation is necessary. Further replication on larger sample and estimation of likelihood ratio, in general, practice settings in prospective Bayesian approach is necessary before inclusion of the symptoms in homoeopathic literature.