Garcinia Cambogia extracts, had shown to suppress fat accumulation in animals and humans. While, the precise physiological mechanism of HCA has not yet been full clarified, especially its action in broiler chickens. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effect of (−)-HCA on lipid metabolism in broiler chickens.Chicken as a delicious food for a long history, and it is well known that excess fat deposition in broiler chickens will not only induced metabolic diseases, but also lead to adverse effect in the consumer’s health. (−)-Hydroxycitric acid (HCA), a major active ingredient of ad libitum.A total of 120 1-day-old broiler chickens were randomly allocated to four groups, with each group was repeated three times with 10 birds. Birds received a commercial diet supplemented with (−)-HCA at 0, 1000, 2000 or 3000 mg/kg, respectively, for a period of 4 weeks P < 0.05) than that in control group. A significantly decreased of serum triglyceride (TG) and density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) content were observed in 3000 mg/kg (−)-HCA group (P < 0.05). Broiler chickens supplmented with 2000 and 3000 mg/kg (−)-HCA had pronouncedly higher hepatic lipase (HL) activity, hepatic glycogen and non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) contents in liver (P < 0.05). Serum free triiodothyronine (FT3) and thyroxin (T4) contents were significantly higher in 3000 mg/kg (−)-HCA group (P < 0.05) compared with the control group. Supplemental (−)-HCA markedly decreased fatty acid synthase (FAS) and sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) (P < 0.05) mRNA levels, while the mRNA abundance of adenosine 5′-monophosphate-activated protein kinaseβ2 (AMPKβ2) (P < 0.05) was significantly increased. In addition, ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) mRNA level (P < 0.05) was significantly decreased in broiler chickens supplemented with 3000 mg/kg (−)-HCA. No differences was observed on carnitine palmitoyl transferase-I(CPT-I), while peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor α (PPARα) mRNA level (P < 0.05) was significantly increased in broiler chickens supplemented with 2000 and 3000 mg/kg (−)-HCA.Body weight (BW) in the 2000 and 3000 mg/kg (−)-HCA groups was significantly decreased -HCA inhibited lipogenesis by inhibiting ACLY, SREBP-1c and FAS expression, and accelerated lipolysis through enhancing HL activity and PPARα expression, which eventually led to the reduced abdominal fat deposition in broiler chickens. In few decades, the principle aim of poultry production in many coutries has been to increase growth rate. Although intensive genetic selection in broilers has contributed to improve growth rates, modern bird strains often exhibit excessive body fat deposition which is not wanted by most of consumers , since cGarcinia cambogia [in vitro and in vivo that (−)-HCA suppresses the de novo fatty acid synthesis [(−)-Hydroxycitric acid [(−)-HCA] is the principal acid of fruit rinds of cambogia . (−)-HCAcambogia , 5. Manyynthesis , 6. Animynthesis , 8. Moreynthesis –11. Evende novo fatty acid synthesis in birds, accounting for 95 % of all lipid production in young chicks, with the adipose tissue is served only as a lipid storage site . At. At73]. Starter-phase broiler chickens were housed in lighted coops, water was provided at all times, and continuous lighting was maintained. The temperature was maintained at 32 °C for the initial 5 d and then gradually reduced according to normal management practices, until a temperature of 22 °C was achieved. Broilers were reared on the ground under natural lighting during the finisher phase. Chickens were weighed at 1, 21 and 49 d of age to determine average daily gain (ADG). Daily feed consumption per replicate was recorded, the uneaten feed was discarded, and fresh feed was replenished. Average daily feed intake (ADFI) and the feed conversion ratio were then determined. At the end of the experiment, birds were randomly selected, deprived of feed for 12 h, weighed and killed. The abdominal fat pad, liver, pectoral and leg muscles were subsequently removed and weighed.3), thyroxine (T4), insulin (INS), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4) and glucagon (GLU) were measured with the RIA kits provided by Beijing North Institute of Biotechnology .Blood samples were allowed to clot at 4 °C and centrifuged at 1,500 × g for 10min before collecting the serum. Serum samples were stored at −20 °C. Concentrations of serum cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) content were measured by colorimetric enzymatic methods using commercial kits purchased from Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute . Triiodothyronine  according to the method of Folch . The levTotal RNA was extracted from liver using TRIZAOL reagent , according to the manufacturer’s prtocol and quantified by measuring the optical density in a photometer (Eppendorf Biophotometer) at 260 nm. The absorption ratios (260/280 nm) for all preparations were between 1.8 and 2.0. RNA sample aliquots were subjected to electrophoresis through a 1.4 % agarose formaldehyde gel to verify their integrity. The RNA concentrations were adjusted to 1 μg/μL by measuring the optical density (OD) value, and the samples were then stored at −80 °C.Reverse transcription was performed using the method of Zhao S . An aliqP < 0.05, as test by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a multiple range test, using the Statistical Packages for Social Science 16.0 and Excel 2003 in Microsoft. Replicate was considered as the experimental unit for the entire index determined.The experimental data were expressed as the mean ± SE, and differences were considered significant when


TBX1, a lack of pouches correlates with severe craniofacial defects, yet how Tbx1 controls pouch development remains unclear. Using mutant and transgenic rescue experiments in zebrafish, we show that Tbx1 functions in the mesoderm to promote the morphogenesis of pouch-forming endoderm through wnt11r and fgf8a expression. Consistently, compound losses of wnt11r and fgf8a phenocopy tbx1 mutant pouch defects, and mesoderm-specific restoration of Wnt11r and Fgf8a rescues tbx1 mutant pouches. Time-lapse imaging further reveals that Fgf8a acts as a Wnt11r-dependent guidance cue for migrating pouch cells. We therefore propose a two-step model in which Tbx1 coordinates the Wnt-dependent epithelial destabilization of pouch-forming cells with their collective migration towards Fgf8a-expressing mesodermal guideposts.The pharyngeal pouches are a segmental series of epithelial structures that organize the embryonic vertebrate face. In mice and zebrafish that carry mutations in homologs of the DiGeorge syndrome gene  From the embryonic endoderm emerge a number of epithelial outpocketings that generate the initial anlagen of diverse organs. In the head, these include a series of pharyngeal pouches that guide the development of neural-crest-derived cells into bone and cartilage and fuse with ectodermal clefts to generate the gills, thymus, parathyroid and other structures . AlthougTBX1 gene, is characterized by defects in the facial skeleton, thymus and heart  has been proposed to negatively regulate pression , less ispression . Pouchestbx1 mutant zebrafish harboring a her5:mCherryCAAX transgene that labels endodermal cell membranes , her5:mCherryCAAX-positive endodermal cells were present in tbx1 mutants yet failed to display outpocketing behavior within the 10-h timeframe of the recordings . As previously reported , but enhancement of the fluorescent signal revealed segmental expression within the presumptive pouch-forming endoderm  . nkx2.3:Tbx1 and nkx2.5:Tbx1 animals were healthy and viable with no pouch defects on their own . Supporting a role for Tbx1 in the mesoderm, nkx2.5:Tbx1 was able to partially restore pouch formation in tbx1 mutants. Although nkx2.3:Tbx1 alone did not restore pouches to a significant extent, both transgenes together increased the average number of pouches over nkx2.5:Tbx1 alone, indicating that Tbx1 functions in both the mesoderm and endoderm for pouch formation (As . S2A-C) , we inve , we observed severe reductions in pharyngeal arch expression of dlx2a, a marker of neural-crest-derived skeletogenic ectomesenchyme, particularly in the branchial arches that generate the ceratobranchial cartilages . Consistent with the lack of cartilage rescue, dlx2a expression was also not restored by nkx2.5:Tbx1 and nkx2.3:Tbx1 transgenes . However, we note that the skeletal defects observed in our tbx1 mutant line are more severe than those presented in this earlier study. Furthermore, the reduction in dlx2a expression did not appear to be due to earlier defects in neural crest specification or migration. Cranial neural crest cells expressing sox10 were present in normal numbers in tbx1 mutant embryos at 12 hpf , and sox10:GFP-positive neural-crest-derived cells still populated the arches of tbx1 mutants at 30 hpf . We did detect a modest increase in cell death (as determined using LysoTracker Red staining), both in the arches and throughout the head of tbx1 mutants, yet proliferation was unaffected . Our data indicate an important function of Tbx1 in the nkx2.5-positive mesoderm for pouch morphogenesis; however, it is likely that Tbx1 has other requirements for the identity and/or survival of skeletogenic ectomesenchyme.Surprisingly, despite the robust rescue of pouches by combined elopment P-T. Thisrtilages L. Branchansgenes M-O. Our ansgenes , which ftbx1 mutants are reminiscent of those seen upon inhibition of Wnt . This mesodermal expression of fgf8a and wnt11r was lost in tbx1 mutants, and reintroduction of Tbx1 in nkx2.5-positive mesoderm (but not nkx2.3-positive endoderm) restored fgf8a and wnt11r expression . By contrast, expression of wnt4a in the overlying ectoderm, where it regulates the later maturation of pouch epithelia . The abnormal shape of the wnt4a ectodermal expression domain in tbx1 mutants might reflect a requirement of endodermal contacts for proper expression, as wnt4a expression was lost in sox32 mutants that lack endoderm . Hence, abnormal wnt4a expression in tbx1 mutants could be an indirect consequence of defective pouch outpocketing and altered endoderm-ectoderm contacts. In summary, we find that Tbx1 has a mesoderm-autonomous requirement for fgf8a and wnt11r expression, with the related fgf3 and wnt4a ligands, as well as the fzd8a receptor, being regulated independently.Given the crucial role for mesodermal Tbx1 in pouch formation, we next investigated its potential targets in this tissue. As the pouch defects of n of Wnt  or Fgf -tagged functional Fgf8a protein . Compared with non-transgenic tbx1−/− siblings, mutants expressing nkx2.5:Wnt11r or nkx2.5:Fgf8a-GFP alone formed a slightly greater number of pouches, with co-expression of both transgenes rescuing pouch number to a greater extent . By contrast, loss of wnt4a, whose expression does not depend on Tbx1, failed to enhance the pouch and cartilage defects of fgf8a mutants . Also consistent with parallel roles of Wnt11r and Fgf8a, we found that the mesodermal expression of each does not depend on the other .If Wnt11r and Fgf8a are parallel effectors of Tbx1 for pouch morphogenesis, then their combined loss should produce severe pouch defects that are similar to loss of ebrafish . By contanchials D,H,I, wiwnt11r mutants in which the multi-layering of pouch-forming cells is delayed, we found that fgf8a mutant epithelial cells did become multi-layered at the initial stages . Hence, we performed time-lapse recordings of pouch development, using her5:mCherryCAAX to track individual epithelial cells and dusp6:dGFP to monitor dynamic Fgf activity, to assess the potential later requirements for Fgf8a in epithelial cell behavior. In all five wild-type embryos , we observed segmental clusters of dusp6:dGFP-positive cells in both forming pouches and presumptive pre-pouch zones, as well as in the adjacent mesoderm. By tracking individual epithelial cells, we found that those that initially expressed dusp6:dGFP or turned it on during the recording selectively contribute to growing pouches compared with dusp6:dGFP-negative cells, consistent with Fgf activity prefiguring the later contributions of cells to pouches . For fgf8a mutants, several differences were consistently observed in three separate embryos . First, fewer her5:mCherryCAAX-positive epithelial cells expressed dusp6:dGFP in the pre-pouch endoderm and did so at lower levels; mesodermal dusp6:dGFP expression was affected to a lesser extent. Second, nascent mutant pouches comprised mosaics of cells with high, low, or no dusp6:dGFP, compared with the more uniform high expression levels of dusp6:dGFP in wild-type pouches. By tracking individual pouch-forming cells in wild-type and fgf8a mutant zebrafish, we quantified how loss of Fgf8a affects the migratory behavior of these epithelial cells. Although wild-type and −/−fgf8a cells had similar velocities, we found that −/−fgf8a cells had less-directed migration paths, as measured by both the persistence of migration and the distribution of the angles of migration . Eventually, diverted pouch-forming cells resumed their normal lateral migration path, perhaps in response to the endogenous fgf8a-expressing mesodermal cells that were located more ventrally. As a control, we observed no effects on pouch outgrowth in all three wild-type embryos that expressed a nkx2.5:GFP transgene in similar domains of dorsal mesoderm .The analysis of mesoderm A, and thnkx2.5:Fgf8a-GFP mesodermal clones failed to attract adjacent presumptive pouch epithelial cells in all three wnt11r mutants examined . This inability of −/−wnt11r epithelial cells to efficiently respond to Fgf8a was not due to a requirement for Wnt11r in the Fgf transcriptional response, as dusp6:dGFP expression was unaffected in wnt11r mutants . Instead, our data are consistent with the notion that Wnt11r-mediated destabilization of the pre-pouch epithelium is required for cells to be guided by local sources of Fgf8a in the ventral nkx2.5-positive mesoderm . Hence, a parsimonious view is that Tbx1 acts primarily in the mesoderm for pouch morphogenesis yet has additional roles in the endoderm for other aspects of pouch cell biology, such as their proliferative expansion.A mesodermal role for Tbx1 in zebrafish is consistent with mouse studies showing that tissue-specific deletion of  embryos . We usedelopment . This diCre line , or by dth pouch . In mousth pouch . One expfgf3 ligand and Fgf activity itself remain apparent in segmental clusters of tbx1 mutant endodermal cells despite their failure to undergo morphogenesis. Consistent with Tbx1 being dispensable for the initial segmentation of pharyngeal endoderm, hemichordates segment an apparently homologous population of pharyngeal endoderm despite lacking Tbx1 expression in their pharynx 10.5, has not been analyzed. Indeed, the relatively weaker pouch defects of wnt11r mutants versus embryos expressing dominant-negative Wnt signaling constructs indicates the presence of other functionally redundant Wnt proteins downstream of Tbx1 in pouch development  might seem at odds with the chemotactic role that we have revealed using ectopic Fgf8a-GFP mis-expression, with chemotaxis presumably involving rapid cytoskeletal changes in the cytoplasm. By contrast, work in the lateral line system has shown that Fgf signaling can influence collective cell migration by controlling chemokine receptor expression  were raised in strict accordance with good animal practice as defined by the relevant national and/or local animal welfare bodies, and all animal work was approved by the University of Southern California Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Published lines used include tu285tbx1 (van gogh) (fh224wnt11r (ti282afgf8a (acerebellar) (Tg(∼3.4her5:EGFP)ne1911 (Tg(her5:mCherryCAAX)el72 (Tg(nkx2.5:GFP)el83 (Tg(sox10:LOX-GFP-LOX-hDLX3)el8 (Tg(dusp6:dGFP)  Tol2kit  and cloned into pDONR221. The Fgf8a-GFP fusion protein was generated through fusion PCR (cmlc2:GFP) or pDestTol2AB , plasmids were injected at 30 ng/μl with 35 ng/μl Tol2 transposase RNA into one-cell stage embryos. Four independent transgenic lines were isolated for Tg(nkx2.3:Tbx1:pA) and Tg(nkx2.5:Wnt11r:pA) based on cmlc2:GFP heart fluorescence. Two independent transgenic lines were isolated for Tg(nkx2.5:Tbx1:pA) based on α-crystallin:Cerulean lens fluorescence. Four independent transgenic lines were isolated for Tg(nkx2.5:Fgf8a-GFP:pA) based on mesodermal GFP fluorescence. We used stable lines Tg(nkx2.3:Tbx1:pA)el513, Tg(nkx2.5:Tbx1:pA)el567, Tg(nkx2.5:Wnt11r:pA)el493 and Tg(nkx2.5:Fgf8a-GFP:pA)el562 for this study. In order to generate nkx2.5:Fgf8a-GFP mosaics, 30 ng/μl of the nkx2.5:Fgf8a-GFP construct with 35 ng/μl Tol2 RNA was injected into one-cell stage wild-type or wnt11r mutant her5:mCherryCAAX embryos. We then used a Leica M165 FC fluorescence dissecting stereoscope with 3.2× magnification to select mosaic animals displaying desired GFP fluorescence at 22 hpf, use of confocal microscopy allowed further selection for time-lapse imaging. See supplementary Materials and Methods for primers.Zebrafish (an gogh) , wnt11rf11rfh224 , fgf8atiebellar) , Tg(∼3.4P)ne1911 , Tg(her5AAX)el72 , Tg(nkx2GFP)el83 , Tg(sox1DLX3)el8 , and Tg(p6:dGFP) . For geneviously . fgf8atirebellum . nkx2.3: Tol2kit . p5E-nkxeviously . For pMEsion PCR  to insersion PCR . The Fgfin situ hybridizations and GFP immunohistochemistry  protocols have been published previously , and digoxigenin-labeled RNAs were synthesized using T7 or SP6 RNA polymerase. See supplementary Materials and Methods for primers. Direct visualization of LysoTracker Red staining was used to monitor cell death in embryos and antibody-mediated staining of BrdU incorporation was used to follow cell division. Further details are given in the supplementary Materials and Methods.Immunohistochemistry for Alcama/ZN8  was performed as described previously . Alcian eviously . The in nd fzd8a . For tbxin situ hybridization embryos were taken on a Zeiss LSM5 confocal microscope using ZEN software. For time-lapse imaging, live embryos were mounted as previously described  and processed as described previously . Wild-type zebrafish invariantly had five pouches per side at 34 hpf. We scored fusions of two ceratobranchials as 1.5, normal ceratobranchials as 1.0, reduced ceratobranchials as 0.5 and absent ceratobranchials as 0. We utilized the multiple comparison test of Tukey–Kramer for pouch and ceratobranchial defects, one-tailed Student's t-test with unequal variance for cell velocity and persistence, chi-square test of independence for distribution of angles and Fisher's exact test for contributions of dusp6:dGFP-positive cells to pouches.Pouches missing or reduced >50% compared with those of wild type were scored as 0 and mis-shapen or normal pouches as 1 (examples shown for each are shown in


The literature from developed countries suggests a relationship between alcohol use and quality of life and social engagement, where harmful drinkers have lower quality of life and less social engagement. Despite the high rates of harmful alcohol use in South Africa, little is known about the association between drinking pattern and quality of life and social engagement in this context. We aimed to determine if quality of life and social engagement varied across different drinking patterns among older South African adults, contributed to drinking pattern when controlling for socio-demographic factors, and varied differentially between genders.This is a secondary analysis of data from the Survey on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Alcohol use was measured as self-reports of use over the previous seven days, and we constructed gender-specific alcohol variables. The WHO Quality of Life-scale was used to measure quality of life, and social engagement was measured by frequency of participation in social activities. We used ANOVA to observe differences in quality of life and social engagement scores across drinking patterns, and regression models were used to identify factors independently associated with drinking pattern.There were 2572 (84.4%) lifetime abstainers, and 475 (15.6%) persons who had a drink in the last 7 days. In bivariate analysis, quality of life was lowest among at risk drinking men compared to abstainers , although this association was not significant in adjusted analysis. Social engagement did not vary statistically significantly across the drinking patterns in the total sample or within gender.Quality of life and social engagement were not independently associated with drinking pattern among older adults in South Africa in this sample. In order to better understand their alcohol use, further exploratory research is warranted to identify other potentially relevant subjective factors of alcohol use among older adults in South Africa. Alcohol use is an important contributor to the burden of non-communicable diseases in the Republic of South Africa . MoreoveStudies from developed countries have identified a linear or inverse J-shaped relationship between quality of life and alcohol use, such that at the higher levels of alcohol use, including persons diagnosed with alcohol use disorders, quality of life is lower compared to moderate or low risk users and alcohol abstainers ,6. AmongSocial engagement encompasses activities such as attending religious services, participating in clubs or group activities, and spending time with friends and family. It is related to alcohol use and problem drinking in that it can reinforce drinking behaviors, or be consequent to established alcohol using patterns ,9. MoreoSelf-reported lifetime abstention from alcohol is common among the general older adult population in South Africa, yet risky drinking patterns are common among those who do imbibe ,14. ThesThere is scant information on the quality of life and social engagement of abstainers and drinkers among older adults in South Africa, how these aspects may vary across different drinking patterns and what relationship they have to drinking behavior in the context of other socio-cultural determinants. Efforts are underway to develop alcohol policies aimed at the general population to reduce alcohol-related harm in South Africa, and older adults are a growing segment of the general public. Thus, it will benefit national policy makers and community-based program planners to better meet the physical and mental health needs of this important group to have evidence about whether drinking pattern is associated with quality of life and social engagement, and therefore if these measures could be used as motivational tools or treatment outcome measures. This paper addresses the following research questions: (a) How does subjective quality of life and self-reported social engagement differ between lifetime abstainers, ‘low risk’ and ‘at risk’ drinkers stratified by gender?; (b) Does quality of life and social engagement contribute to drinking pattern assignment among men and women separately when controlling for socio-cultural factors and smoking?; and, (c) Are there differences at the item level of the quality of life and social engagement scales between drinking patterns, stratified by gender?Data were collected through Wave 1 of the World Health Organization’s Study on global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE). SAGE was implemented in 2007–2010 in six countries, including South Africa. SAGE collected individual level data from nationally representative household samples of older adults (aged 50-plus years) using a multi-stage cluster sampling design, and included a smaller sample of younger adults (aged 18–49 years) for comparison purposes. We did not use the sample of younger adults in this analysis. Standardized questionnaires were used to collect data, including measures of health, behavioral risk factors, quality of life and social engagement. SAGE protocols and procedures were approved by the WHO Ethical Review Committee and ethics committees in each participating country, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. SAGE is described in detail elsewhere .The sample of adults aged 50-plus included 3666 participants in South Africa, 2108 (56.1%) of whom were women. This analysis focused on lifetime abstainers and current alcohol consumers; we therefore did not include the 506 people who reported ever having had a drink but who did not consume alcohol in the last seven days. A total of 97 respondents had missing data on key variables including alcohol consumption, quality of life or social engagement, and were thus excluded. The final sample size was comprised of 3047 persons, where 1811 (59.4%) were women.In this final sample, approximately 10% of the ethnicity and religion variables were missing. Given the relevance of these factors to drinking patterns and the potential for introducing biased estimates if cases were excluded, multiple imputation was used to address the missing values. Data were missing at random according to correlation matrices between missingness for ethnicity and religion and other covariate values, and logistic regression models assessing the association between missingness and the value of the missing variables controlling for other covariates . Ten datAlcohol measures followed the WHO STEPS guidelines , with liThe SAGE Survey used the 8-item WHO Quality of Life scale (WHOQoL-8) to measure subjective quality of life. The individual items queried about the level of satisfaction one felt in regards to various aspects of one’s life, such as money, health and relationships. The WHOQoL has been used widely in many settings, including countries in Africa . The resThe measures of social engagement included nine questions about how often participants engaged in a particular social activity in the last 12 months, including attendance at a public meeting discussing local affairs, personally meeting a community leader, attending any group meeting , working with other people in the neighborhood to improve or fix something, having friends visit their home, being in the home of or hosting someone from a different neighborhood, socializing with coworkers outside work, attending religious services, and leaving the house to attend meetings, activities, visit family or friends. The subject responded to each item according to the response options “never”, “once or twice per year”, “once or twice per month”, “once or twice per week” or “daily”, coded numerically from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“daily”). We calculated a social engagement index score by summing the corresponding responses, where higher scores indicated higher social engagement. Scores ranged from a minimum of nine to a maximum of 45, and were normally distributed. We also dichotomized responses into “regularly” vs. “irregularly”, where “regular” participation included monthly, weekly and daily responses, and “irregular” included annual (once or twice per year) or no participation (never). In this sample, the Cronbach’s alpha of the entire scale was 0.76.The question “do you currently use any tobacco products?” was used to define current smokers as those who responded “yes, daily” and “yes, but not daily”. Any chronic illness in the last 12 months was based on self-reported symptoms in the previous 12 months for arthritis, angina, diabetes, chronic lung disease and asthma.All SAGE Wave 1 data were weighted, with post-stratification adjustments for age and sex based on UN population estimates (UN Pop Div World Pop Prospects: The 2010 Revision. 2011). Descriptive statistics are presented as weighted proportions for categorical variables, weighted means with standard errors for continuous variables, and stratified by sex. All sample sizes are un-weighted raw numbers. Proportions for ethnicity and religion are based on the imputed datasets. Proportions for lifetime abstainers are presented out of the total sample, and low- and at-risk drinkers out of respondents who reported drinking in the last seven days unless otherwise noted.Analysis of variance was used to test for differences in means of quality of life and social engagement scores across the drinking patterns within gender and overall. Multinomial logistic regression was used to test for differences between lifetime abstainers and low- and at-risk drinkers on quality of life or social engagement, with lifetime abstainers as the referent group. Chi-square test of independence was used for analyses of categorical variables and drinking patterns, and an F statistic was reported that accounts for survey design effects and is equivalent to the chi-square . We consMultinomial logistic regression models were fitted to estimate the independent contribution of quality of life and social engagement scores on drinking pattern assignment. Models were adjusted for covariates significantly associated with drinking pattern in bivariate analysis, including age, ethnicity, marital status, ever educated, religion, any chronic illness in the last 12 months and current smoking status. Adjusted odds ratios and p-values are reported.To further explore the relationship between quality of life and social engagement and drinking patterns, the frequency of the dichotomized individual items of each index in each drinking category by gender was calculated and tested for differences across the drinking patterns using the chi-square test of independence. To compare drinking patterns and responses at the individual item level, we fit bivariate logistic regression models with the dichotomous item response as the dependent variable and drinking pattern as the independent variable. Lifetime abstainers were the referent group. Only data for the items that showed variation across the drinking patterns are presented.There were 2572 (84.4%) lifetime abstainers, and 475 15.6%) persons who had a drink in the previous seven days. Of these, 308 (64.8%) were low risk drinkers and 167 (35.2%) were at risk drinkers. The mean quality of life and social engagement scores were 27.4 (SE = 0.19) and 21.2 (SE = 0.22), respectively. Demographics and quality of life and social engagement scores by drinking pattern for men and women are presented in Table 5.6% persIn bivariate analysis, quality of life varied statistically significantly among men, where at risk drinking men had the lowest score, and was significantly lower relative to lifetime abstainers . Among women, the mean quality of life score varied by only 0.4 points across the three drinking categories.Social engagement did not vary significantly across the drinking patterns in the total sample or by sex Table . Among tGiven that quality of life among women and social engagement in the whole sample and by sex were not associated with drinking category in bivariate analysis, a multivariable model for quality of life and drinking pattern among men only was fitted. In multivariable analysis, adjusting for socio-demographics, chronic conditions and smoking status, quality of life among men was not significantly associated with being a low risk  or at risk drinker  relative to lifetime abstainers.There were no significant variations between the drinking categories on any quality of life items among women. For individual items on the social engagement index, low risk drinking women had the lowest proportion of regular attendance at community improvement activities  and public meetings  as compared to lifetime abstainers. At risk drinking women had the lowest proportion of regular attendance to religious services  compared to lifetime abstainers , oneself  and money  (Table This analysis observed no differences in social engagement between different types of drinking patterns among adults aged 50 and above in South Africa. Similarly, in the total sample and among women, we found no differences in quality of life between the different drinking patterns. Among men, quality of life was significantly lowest among at risk drinkers in bivariate analysis, but did not contribute to drinking pattern status when controlling for other covariates. Regular participation in religious activities was lowest among both at risk drinking men and women, while the other social engagement items associated with drinking pattern differed between the genders.The observation of a lower quality of life among at risk drinking men is consistent with other population-based studies using the Wool scale  and otheThe few investigations of quality of life and drinking among older adults include positive findings between psychological distress and binge drinking among women, but not men , and a mReports of a higher quality of life among moderate, current drinkers compared to former drinkers, abstainers or high consumers, suggests an inverse U-shaped relationship between quality of life and alcohol use ,33,34. WAt risk drinking men and women reported the lowest regular participation in religious activities. There are at least two possible mechanisms for this association. One mechanism is that active participation in religious gatherings is an important factor in determining alcohol use through positive social reinforcement of moderate drinking behavior. Another mechanism is that those who develop harmful drinking patterns are selected out among those regular religious participants through the negative reinforcement of at risk drinking behavior . SeveralThe limitations of this study deserve mention. Self-reported measures for alcohol consumption are subject to under-reporting and desirable response bias, and may have contributed to heterogeneity within the drinking categories through misidentification of participants actual drinking habits. Further, the lack of a specific measure of alcohol use disorders or alcohol problems, such as a diagnostic instrument or a validated screener, may have reduced the accuracy of the drinking categories and limited our ability to detect any associations. Also, the small absolute numbers of low and at risk drinking women may have contributed to a limited ability to detect differences. Finally, the number of statistical tests run with the individual items of the quality of life and social engagement scales increases the likelihood of a Type I error.The associations between quality of life and social engagement with alcohol use previously observed in European countries and the US were not replicated in this study among older South African adults. The reasons for this divergence could be different “timing” in the epidemic of alcohol related harm across continents or cultural differences affecting the relationship between drinking patterns and how it relates to quality of life and social engagement. In contrast to other regions of the world, the utility of assessing quality of life as a motivational tool for people with alcohol use disorders or as a measure of treatment efficacy may be limited in South Africa. Further exploratory research is warranted to identify other potentially relevant subjective factors of alcohol use among older adults in South Africa in order to better understand the context, predictors and consequences of their alcohol use and to ensure fidelity between public health interventions and local needs.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.PM, TC, and LL conceived and designed the study. PK collected data. PM conducted data analysis and wrote the first manuscript. All authors contributed to interpretation and critical revisions of the article. All authors had access to the data in the study, and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis, and edited and approved the final version.The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/316/prepub


The goal of this paper is to estimate peer influence in video gaming time among adolescents. Using a nationally representative sample of the U.S. school-aged adolescents in 2009–2010, we estimate a structural model that accounts for the potential biases in the estimate of the peer effect. Our peer group is exogenously assigned and includes one year older adolescents in the same school grade as the respondent. The peer measure is based on peers’ own reports of video gaming time. We find that an additional one hour of playing video games per week by older grade-mates results in .47 hours increase in video gaming time by male responders. We do not find significant peer effect among female responders. Effective policies aimed at influencing the time that adolescents spend video gaming should take these findings into account. Global sales and popularity of video games have been rising steadily in the recent decade and are expected to continue their growth in the foreseeable future . Playersth and 9th graders in the U.S. Midwestern schools [The existing literature suggests significant social, behavioral and clinical effects of video gaming. Some of the literature has linked violent video games to aggressive and antisocial behaviors among children and adolescents. Early literature suggests that excessive arcade video gaming may develop into a behavior which resembles a gambling addiction . It was  schools  and late schools  found th schools  found th schools ,8 and co schools  found th schools . Among o schools  found a  schools  found a  schools  using lo schools , there w schools  that vid schools , however schools . Other l schools ; and gam schools . In a lo schools , it was  schools ,19,20. C schools , found t schools . The linIn this paper, we focus on estimating peer effects in the time spent video gaming by adolescents in the U.S. The literature hypothesized that the social network and peer influence play an important role in video gaming behavior of adolescents. Support to this hypothesis is lent by survey data, which indicated that video gaming often happens in group setting—with friends or family members ,24. If pMost of the previous research on peer influence has looked at screen time in general, which included television watching, video gaming and internet usage ,27,28. Fth generation systems, including Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox) in 1998 allowed for development of much more realistic video games, which could change the nature of the experience. Furthermore, this new technology could have potentially changed the type of audience playing these games and the nature of social interactions, as these devices saw a significant rise in the popularity of large-scale online gaming, namely with the introduction of Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network online gaming platforms in 2002 and 2006 respectively. Today, these platforms provide a unified gaming experience and cater to millions of console, PC and even smartphone gamers. It seems likely that such platforms make online gaming much more accessible and appealing to a wide audience, while previously online gaming was more restricted to tech-savvy PC gamers. These innovations coincided with the rapid increase in popularity of video gaming since late 1990’s; only four out of the ten best-selling video game consoles in history were made before the year 2000 . Even today, video gaming constantly evolves into a more realistic and immersive experience, yet most studies on media consumption were conducted using data that preceded this expansion. Another important aspect of modern video games and consoles is that many of them can be played on-line with friends and even strangers and do not require physical presence of the participants–which is in contrast to the previous generations in arcades that were mainly played only in social spheres or together in the sofa.The existing research into peer effects in media consumption (including video gaming) has several flaws and shortcomings, which we attempt to address in this study. Most importantly, most studies used outdated data, convenience samples or failed to address statistical issues surrounding the estimation of peer effects. For example, samples from 1996 and 1995 were used to look at television viewing and general screen activities ,27. HoweWhile some of the existing studies rely on more recent data, the data used were quite limited in coverage: Sirard et al. , who stuThere are also methodological issues that arise when estimating behavioral peer effects. As noted by Manski , the ideOur updated analysis relies on a recent nationally representative sample of the U.S. school-aged adolescents in 2009–2010 school year. Our empirical methods account for the problems of contextual effects, correlated effects, and peer selection and thereby reduce the potential biases from the estimates of peer effects. Our peer group is comprised of non-nominated peers–older adolescents in the same grade in the school—who are unlikely to be selected by the individual yet are likely to exert significant influence on video gaming behavior of an adolescent. We also use instrumental variable strategy where we use measures of peer’s parental control and relationship as instruments. Our analysis also accounts for a number of individual and family-level covariates, which were identified in the literature as important determinants of video gaming behavior and the omission of which may bias the estimates of the peer effects. For example, video gaming has been found to vary by gender, race and ethnicity, body weight, urban status, grade level in school, school performance, and socio-economic status of the household ,28,26,35There is a significant peer effect in adolescents’ video gaming time.Peer effect in video gaming time is stronger among males compared to females.th grade and ages 5–10), middle or junior high school (grades 6th to 8th and ages 11–13), and high school (grades 9th to 12th and ages 14–18). In addition, education is mandatory starting between the ages of five and eight and ending between ages sixteen and eighteen, depending on the state . HBSC 2009–2010 data are maintained and distributed to the general public free of charge (upon registration and agreement with the terms of use) by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. . The objectives of HBSC are to monitor health-risk behaviors of adolescents in order to identify targets for health promotion initiatives and to help explain the development of health attitudes and behaviors through early adolescence. HBSC contains extensive information on substance use  and various health behaviors and attitudes  in addition to demographic and socio-economic conditions of the student’s family. . Students were also asked about their relationship with their parents and the level of parental control over their activities. These questions are used for creating instrumental variables (IV), which are used to help identify the peer effects. Because HBSC surveyed multiple students in the same school and grade, we were able to create same-grade peer group measure of video gaming.We utilize data from Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC), which is a school-based study of health-related attitudes and behaviors based on a series of cross-sectional national surveys of school-aged children. We use HBSC 2009–2010 data for the U.S. , which cThe dependent variable of our analysis is a continuous variable measuring the number of hours a day that student spent video gaming and is based on the survey questions “About how many hours a day do you usually play games on a computer or games console  in your free time on weekdays/weekends?” The reported number of hours played on weekdays multiplied by 5 was added to the number of hours played on weekends multiplied by 2 and the sum was divided by 7 to create a weighted average number of hours spent video gaming by the adolescent during a typical week.Our peer measure of video gaming is based on co-location and is the average number of hours spent video gaming among students who are one year older than the respondent and belong to the same grade level in the same school as the responder.Previous studies of peer effects often used nominated peers ,29 to deAn advantage of using grade-level peers is that they are assigned exogenously (based on age) and independently of other individual’s characteristics that might be correlated with his/her video-gaming behavior. As a result, the estimated peer effects are less likely to capture correlated effects. In addition, because our grade-level peer measures are based on peers’ own reports, they do not to suffer from the reporting bias from using respondents’ own reports of peers’ activities ,46. FrieOur multivariate analysis includes several important individual- and family-level determinants of video gaming among adolescents. Individual characteristics include sex, race , Hispanic ethnicity, whether student is U.S. born, student’s body mass index (BMI), whether student has ever smoked, whether student is a current drinker, whether student used drugs in the past year and whether student resides in an urban area. Other individual characteristics include a categorical measure of student-reported teacher’s evaluation of student’s performance on school tests  and a categorical measure of student’s feeling about school . We also use indicators for student’s school and grade level (grade 5 through grade 10 with grade 5 being an omitted category). Family-level variables include indicators of whether the student’s father and mother have a job, whether he or she has siblings, whether mother and father are at home, whether there is a second home, number of computers at home, and a categorical affluence scale measuring how wealthy the family is .We also use measures of parental control and relationship with the parent. Parental control and monitoring of adolescent’s activities appears to be an important determinant of adolescent’s media use , while lThe full sample used in the analysis contains 11,888 observations with non-missing values on all variables. In order to reduce measurement error in the estimates of peer group averages, we only used peer group averages that were based on at least two observations. As a result, we have 7,978 non-missing observations for the peer measure. Manski  describeEndogenous effect–individual’s behavioral response to changes in the behavior of others in his or her peer group. This effect is present if video gaming among peers creates a social norm and social acceptance of gaming and thus leads individual to increase his or her time playing video games. Here, the behavior of peers leads to a change in behavior of an individual, whose behavior, in turn, becomes part of peer group’s behavior. The policy significance of the existence of such a behavioral effect is that targeting some individuals in a group would affect the behavior of other individuals in the group.Exogenous  effect–effect of exogenous (background) characteristics of the peers on individual’s behavior. For example, if most peers come from households with permissive parenting style which allowed peers to spend long hours gaming, individual’s own gaming could also be high as a result. While exogenous effect is also a type of social influence, targeting the behavior of peers will not lead to the same effect as in the case of endogenous effect and the behavior of others in the peer group will not change.Correlated effect–describes similarities in behavior of individuals who share the same environment . For example, students in urban schools could all have greater attachment to electronic gadgets compared to students from rural schools. Correlated effect also describes similarities in behavior of individuals who sort themselves into groups based on personal traits. For example, students who have preference for sedentary activities may be more likely to become friends. Again, if one of these students starts spending less time video gaming as a result of an intervention, this change in behavior is not going to spill over to his friends because something else is driving the correlated effects in the first place.Given these alternative interpretations of a significant peer effect, standard linear regression is unable to distinguish between the endogenous, the exogenous and the correlated effects and a successful policy aimed at changing gaming behaviors will depend upon the mechanism driving peer effect in each particular case. If the purpose is devising an effective policy that would exploit behavioral influences among the peers, the econometric strategy needs to control for all other influences in order to identify the endogenous peer effect . Our empy* related to the observed values of variable y as follows:Because approximately 18 percent of the students in our sample  do not spend any time playing video games, the dependent variable (hours spent video gaming by a student) is left-censored at zero. In order to account for the censoring, we employ the Tobit regression model, which models the outcomes of the latent variable i belonging to peer group j in school s, yjs. Xijs is a vector of personal and family demographic and socio-economic characteristics including a set of grade-level dummy variables. Ss is a vector of school indicator variables (school-level fixed effects), which are included in order to control for the confounding factors that all students in the same school are exposed to. These could include any influences on video gaming at the level of school district  as well as community-level environmental influences that might change the way students use their time . School and grade fixed effects also control for the correlated effects (including selection via sorting into same grade and school) in the estimate of the peer effect. The endogenous peer effect, β, captures peer effect on a student’s time spent video gaming. If β is estimated to be positive, then policy intervention that alters video gaming behavior of an individual would have an indirect effect on video gaming of other students in the same peer group [In this model, individual hours of video gaming by student er group .β is not identified because group behavior is by definition the aggregation of individual behavior [If individual’s behavior is a linear function of peer group average as in behavior . Therefobehavior ,55,25,56behavior ,58, wherbehavior .The key to implementing the IV technique is having access to instrumental variables which satisfy two properties. First, instruments must have a strong effect on the endogenous regressor, which in our case is peer measure of video gaming time. Second, instruments must have no effect on the outcome of interest, individual’s gaming time, other than through their effect on the peer measure. We use six variables that describe peers’ relationship with their parents and the level of parental control over their activities: The percentage of peers whose parent (or guardian) (i) “tries to control everything they do”, (ii)“understands their problems”, (iii) “helps them as much as they need”, (iv) “lets them make their own decisions”, (v) “is loving”; and (vi) “treats them like a baby”. These peer level variables are expected to directly impact peers’ behavior but should otherwise not predict an individual’s behavior. The intuition for the identification using instruments is that, while individuals whose parents are more permissive or less involved are likely to spend more time playing video games, the parenting style of peer’s parents will only affect the individual via peers. The use of instrumental variables in combination with school-level fixed effects, exogenous peer group and important individual-level controls would allow us to obtain more consistent estimates of the peer effects.We begin by presenting Tobit regression estimates of the peer effects of video gaming time in The naïve estimates in We report estimates of instrumental variable Tobit regression with school fixed effects in After stratifying by gender, peer effect is statistically significant only for males and indicates that an increase in the average amount of time playing video games among older grade-mates by an hour leads to .47 hours increase in video gaming by a male student. The peer effect for females is insignificant. These results are consistent with our second hypothesis and partially consistent  with our first hypothesis. In addition, we note that the magnitude of the effect is larger than the corresponding coefficient in The objective of this paper is to estimate peer effect in video gaming time among adolescents. We use a nationally representative sample of the U.S. school-aged adolescents surveyed in 2009–2010 to estimate a structural model that accounts for the potential biases in the estimate of the peer effect. Our results suggest that the amount of time spent video gaming by school peers significantly affects own time playing video games among male adolescents; an additional one hour of playing video games per week by peers results in .47 hours increase in video gaming time by male adolescent. We do not find significant peer effect among female adolescents.Our finding of a significant peer effect in video gaming among males is in line with the earlier research , which eThe Sims2 [While our paper does not examine the reasons why there is a significant peer effect in video gaming time for males but not females, there are at least two possibilities for this gender difference. One possibility is that there are simply more opportunities for male gamers to interact and influence each other’s gaming habits compared to female gamers, given that the research commonly finds that males play video games much more than females ,38,39,40he Sims2 .As with any empirical strategy, our results may only be viewed as suggesting a strong association. Our study points in that direction provided that our assumptions hold. Specifically we assume that our instrumental variables, which reflect parental control over an adolescent’s video-gaming, are plausibly uncorrelated with the video-gaming time of students who are in the same grade. In addition, the data that we use and our estimates only suggest the existence of peer effects in video gaming time, but not the mechanism underlying the process . Another limitation of our study is that it uses self-reported time spent playing video games. In fact, it has been found that gamers tend to under-estimate the time they play ,64. As lOur findings imply that future policies aimed at changing video gaming behavior among adolescents could potentially benefit from relying on the spread of this behavior among peers, where even the individuals who did not directly participate or were not included in the program could nevertheless be affected by the program. Policies involving only a subset of the target population would have a spillover effect on other individuals and may be more cost effective than previously thought.Given that video gaming is a global phenomenon, future research could focus on cross-country comparisons to better understand the influence of cultural, ethnic, and other differences on the magnitudes of peer effects in video gaming. It would also be valuable to learn about the mechanisms through which peer effect in video gaming might operate by conducting qualitative analysis of players and by estimating peer effects for different types of games . Future studies should also confirm whether the gender difference in the peer effect found here exists in other datasets and try to ascertain the reasons behind it.


Microrchidia (MORC) family CW-type zinc-finger 2 (MORC2) regulates chromatin remodeling during the DNA-damage response, represses gene transcription, promotes lipogenesis. Here, we found that MORC2 down-regulated p21 by recruiting HDAC1 to the p21 promoter, in a p53-independent manner. MORC2-mediated down-regulation of p21 in turn promoted cell cycle progression in gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, MORC2 expression correlated negatively with p21 expression in gastric tumors in patients. We suggest that MORC2 may be a potential therapeutic target in cancer. Waf/Cip1 (referred to as p21 hereafter) has been considered as key regulator of cell proliferation and survival [Gastric cancer is the second-third most common cause of cancer-related death in the world . To imprsurvival , 4.Human MORC2 (microrchidia family CW-type zinc-finger 2), also known as KIAA0852, ZCW3 or ZCWCC1, containing a CW-type zinc-finger and three coiled-coil domains . Recent In our previous study, we found that MORC2 may act as a transcriptional repressor and play a role in cancer , 9, whicTo uncover new function of MORC2, we carried out a microarray experiment and found a lot of MORC2 target genes which are involved in a variety of biological functions including cell cycle and cell apoptosis, material transport and metabolism, cell adhesion and cell motility, immune response and etc. Most of these MORC2 target genes were down-regulated, among which p21 is down-regulated markedly in Flag-MORC2/SGC-7901 cells (an exogenous MORC2 stable expression gastric cancer cell line) compared to vector control. Then we performed qPCR and western blot assays to confirm the result. Our results showed that the mRNA and protein levels of p21 were reduced with the ectopic MORC2 expression in SGC-7901 cells and MGC-803 cells Figure  and 1b, P53 is one of the most frequently mutated genes in gastric cancer and one of its target genes is p21. To determine that the repression of p21 is caused by MORC2 rather than mutant p53, we treated cells with doxorubicin  to induce p53 accumulation in a time-dependent manner. The wild type p53 of HCT-116 colon cancer cells were used as control. Our results indicated that Dox treatment resulted in an increase of p21 expression in both HCT-116 cells and SGC-7901 cells, and a reduction of p21 was shown in BGC-823 cells Figure , which sleft panel). The results showed that these p21 promoters activity  were repressed by overexpressed MORC2 compared with vector control, whereas the p21SMA2 promoter (containing only 62 bp) activity was abolished by MORC2. Furthermore, MORC2 repressing p21 promoter activity was eliminated when this segment of p21ΔSMA between the −114 bp (p21SMA1 construct) and −62 bp (p21SMA2 construct) was removed from the p21 full-length promoter . These results indicate that overexpressed MORC2 repressing p21 promoter activity requires the sequence between −114 bp and −62 bp in p21 promoter. We then performed ChIP experiments with MORC2 antibody to demonstrate endogenous MORC2 binding to p21 promoter. We designed two independent primer sets (p21p-1 and p21p-2), including the sequence between −114 bp and −62 bp in p21 promoter, which contains HDAC1 binding sites and was efficient in amplifying ChIP DNA in quantitative real-time PCR (Q-ChIP). As a control, we also designed primers at 4 Kb upstream from the transcriptional start site (p21p-up) of the p21 promoter and of the GAPDH promoter. As shown in Figure Next step was to determine which regions are required for the repression function of MORC2 on p21 transcription. A series of 5′ promoter deletion mutants of the p21 promoter  proximalPrevious studies have demonstrated that the class I and II histone deacetylases (HDACs) , includiupper panel), when anti-HDAC1 immunoprecipitation was performed on eluted chromatin obtained from an initial anti-Flag immunoprecipitation. Likewise, similar results were also observed by the reverse sequence of ChIP experiments . To confirm the MORC2-HDAC1 association in vivo, we carried out immunoprecipitation and found that MORC2 strongly bound to HDAC1 compared to control vector . Then, to analysis the effect of MORC2 siRNA on cell cycle progression, shRNA-MORC2/BGC-823 cells increased the percentage of G1 phase cells, and decreased the percentage of S phase cells , Taken together, these data suggest that MORC2-mediated p21 repression can promote cell cycle progression.To examine whether p21 repression by MORC2 affects cell cycle progression, we performed flow cytometry assays and found that Flag-MORC2/SGC-7901 cells showed significant decrease in the percentage of G1 phase cells, and significant increase in the percentage of S and G2/M phase compared with vector control cells ; while in p21-deficient (−/−) MEF cells, Flag-MORC2 did not show cell cycle alterations compared with vector control . Our findings therefore, suggest that MORC2-induced cell cycle alteration is mediated by p21.To confirm that cell cycle alterations induced by MORC2 are mediated by p21, we repeated the FCM experiments with p21-deficient MEF cells . In p21-in vitro compared with vector control, while BGC-823 cells with stable expressing shRNA-MORC2 formed less and smaller colonies compared with shRNA-control. Taken together, overexpression of MORC2 contributes to cell cycle progression and proliferation of gastric cancer cells.In order to confirm the role of MORC2 in gastric cancer cells, colony formation assays were performed with Flag-MORC2/SGC-7901 cells and shRNA-MORC2/BGC-823 cells. As shown in Figure P = 0.038; Figure To show the correlation between MORC2 and p21 in gastric cancer samples, we tested the expressions MORC2 and p21 in freshly frozen gastric cancer tissues and matched adjacent normal tissues from 68 gastric tumor patients. Western blot showed that MORC2 was high expression in 58% (40 of 68) of gastric tumor samples, of which p21 was down-regulated in 50% (20 of 40). Representative samples were shown in Figure P = 0.043; Figure After that, Immunohistochemical staining for MORC2 and p21 was also performed using sequential sections from the same tissue. To better understand the correlation between them, we divided tumor samples into two groups on the basis of MORC2 amounts (cut off at the median score). The expression levels of MORC2 by immunohistochemistry are correlated with that by western blotting Figure . The datThe transcriptional regulation of p21 has been extensively studied through both p53-dependent  and p53-in vitro in response to DNA-damaging agents [Expression of p21 has been shown to be up-regulated by the p53 tumor suppressor or gene g agents , 23. HowMost reports indicate that HDAC1 repress p53-independent expression of p21 via Sp1-binding sites in the p21 promoter , 25. HerHere, we found that MORC2-mediated p21 expression plays a role in cell cycle progression, cell proliferation and tumorigenicity of gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, MORC2 negatively correlates with p21 expression in clinical gastric cancer. Besides, among the MORC protein family, MORC4 is regarded as a potential lymphoma biomarker . Thus, wThe full length and various deletions of p21 promoter-luciferase reporter constructs were generously provided by Dr. Wang XF . Human FpGC-Flag-vector-Lentivirus and pGC-Flag-MORC2-Lentivirus were purchased from Shanghai Gene Chem Company. Stable-overexpression-MORC2, stable-shRNA-MORC2 and control cell lines were selected with puromycin (2 μg/ml) after infection by lentivirus.Real-time PCR, luciferase reporter assay, Immunoprecipitation (IP) and western blot have been described previously in detail , 28. TheA chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay was performed with the EZ-ChIP kit (Upstate Biotechnology). Chromatin samples were immunoprecipitated with MORC2 (Bethyl) antibody. Anti-rabbit IgG (Santa Cruz) was used as a negative control. Nonimmunoprecipitated chromatin fragments were used as an input control. Precipitated DNA was amplified by PCR using primers provided in For Sequential ChIP, cross-linked chromatin was immunoprecipitated with an antibody against Flag-tagged as described in Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, except that chromatin was eluted in 10 mM DTT for 30 min at 37°C. Eluted chromatin was diluted 1:50 in buffer subjected to a second immunoprecipitation with antibody against HDAC1, and then eluted with standard elution buffer. A “reverse” sequential ChIP was carried out first with anti-HDAC1 and then with anti-Flag-tagged. Input DNA was calculated from an aliquot of diluted chromatin obtained from the first elution.2 incubator. After 2 weeks, the number of colonies was counted. Data represent the mean ± SD from 3 independent experiments performed in triplicate wells.Stable overexpressing MORC2 SGC-7901 cell lines were seeded in 60-mm plates to perform the flow cytometry as described in our previous paper , 29. ForSamples of human gastric cancer tissues and paired-adjacent non-tumor gastric tissues further than 5 cm from the tumors were obtained from 210 gastric cancer patients who were underwent gastric resection surgery in the 1st hospital of China Medical University. These gastric cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues of them were performed to immunohischemical staining. 68 pairs of fresh samples were snap frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after resection and stored at −80°C until protein extraction for Western Blot. All samples were obtained with patients' informed consent.The samples were histologically confirmed by staining with hematoxylin-eosin. The histological grade of cancers was assessed according to criteria set by the World Health Organization.2O2 and 0.03% 3, 3′-diaminobenzidine in 0.05 mol/L Tris-HCl.Paraffin-embedded gastric tumor tissues were obtained from the First Hospital of China Medical University. Five-micrometer-thick consecutive sections were cut and mounted on glass slides. The slides were deparaffinized, and rehydrated, prior to antigen retrieval, and blocking endogenous peroxidases. The sections were then washed three times in 0.01 mol/L PBS for 5 minutes each and blocked for 1 h in 5% normal goat serum. The sections were exposed to anti-MORC2 (1:100) and anti-p21 (1:200) 4°C overnight. After brief washes in 0.01 mol/L PBS, sections were exposed for 2 h to 0.01 mol/L PBS containing horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G (1:200), followed by development with 0.003% HAll of the immunostained sections were reviewed by two authors who had no knowledge of the patients' clinical status. Five areas selected at random were scored. All sections were scored in a semiquantitative manner according to a previously described method, which reflects both the intensity and percentage of cells staining at each intensity . IntensiP value was <0.05. Data are presented as mean ± SD from at least three separate experiments. Statistical analysis was performed with Student's t-test, non-parametric test . The statistical significance of correlations was calculated by a chi-square test and Spearman's rank correlation.All statistical analyses were carried out using the SPSS 16.0 software and the results were considered to be significant when the


The earliest clinical sign of esophageal atresia (EA) is excessive salivation and the diagnosis is made by failure to pass an infant feeding tube (IFT) into the stomach. The diagnostic errors may occur due to presence of an unusually long upper pouch, when the IFT seems to pass into the stomach. We describe one such case and review the relevant literature.  A 7-hour-old, full-term male neonate born to G1 mother by normal vaginal delivery was antenatally diagnosed to have an absent stomach shadow and associated polyhydramnios. The baby was presented to emergency with complaints of excessive salivation since birth. The insertion of infant feeding tube (IFT) showed coiling of the IFT at a distance of 18cm from the lower lip at the level of T-8 vertebra . Contrast esophagogram showed dilated upper esophageal pouch seen ending just above the diaphragm . However, the abdomen showed a normal gas pattern but the amount of gas was less than that of a usual patient of EA and TEF. A search was made for the associated anomalies. A 2D- echocardiography revealed small ASD (3mm) and PDA (5mm). With a provisional diagnosis of EA and TEF, the patient was taken up for rigid bronchoscopy. The bronchoscopy showed the presence of a fistula posteriorly at the level of carina . The patient underwent thoracotomy through the 5th intercostal space in view of the caudally extending upper pouch and a lower location of the distal fistula. Both upper and lower pouches were overlapping each other for about 3cms. As the upper pouch was redundant, a part of it was resected in order to obtain a straight end-to-end anastomosis. Patient required postoperative ventilation for a period of 5 days. The anastomosis healed well and the patient was discharged on full oral feeds.Development of the esophagus seems to be more complex than just the cranio-caudal separation of the foregut into respiratory and esophageal components. Probably, the middle esophagus not only separates from the respiratory tract but also fuses with the proximal esophagus to complete formation of the esophageal tube.[1] What triggers the length of the upper pouch to vary from a short high pouch in the neck to a long pouch like the one seen in our case is unknown? Pediatric surgeons need to be aware of the variants of EA –TEF and the proceedings of the treatment. There are several case reports that describe about EA and TEF infants with a delay in diagnosis resulting from initial passage of an oral tube via the trachea through distal TEF into the stomach.  The authors stress on the importance using a stiff rubber catheter in place of a soft feeding tube, for diagnosis of EA. Similarly, the passage of infant feeding tube into long upper pouch gives an impression of it being in the stomach; however, the radiograph will show its position near the diaphragm. The contrast study delineates unusually long upper pouch. Preoperative bronchoscopy is particularly helpful to look for fistula, the presence of which is indicated by gas in the abdominal X-ray. Location of fistula may vary in such patients and prior endoscopic visualization is helpful during surgery. In addition, the bronchoscopy can also reveal abnormalities such as a laryngo-tracheo-esophageal cleft, tracheal stenosis, or other tracheal anomalies. [4-6]Source of Support: NilConflict of Interest: Nil


Objective: There is no consensus on whether, when and how to surveil an ileal pouch. The aims of this study were to evaluate experts’ opinions and practice patterns on pouch surveillance and to determine if they were associated with detection of neoplasia.Methods: Eligible physicians were identified by searching the literature in MEDLINE and the physician list of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America and surveying by questionnaire.Results: Fifty-two eligible participants from 32 tertiary institutions were identified. Forty-one physicians (79%) felt that surveillance pouchoscopy was necessary, and 36 (69%) believed that pouchoscopy with biopsy was effective for the detection of neoplasia. Great variation exists with regard to the frequency of surveillance pouchoscopy. Eighteen physicians (35%) reported the detection of a total of 4 pouch dysplasias and 15 pouch cancers within the previous 5 years. The follow-up number of ileal pouches per year was significantly higher in the neoplasia detection group . Those who reported detecting neoplasia took even fewer biopsies from the ileal pouch body during the pouchoscopy examination . Multivariable analysis showed that the number of patients with ileal pouches followed up per year was the only independent factor associated with the detection of pouch neoplasia .Conclusion: Most experts agree with performing pouchoscopy and biopsy for surveillance of ileal pouch neoplasia, although the optimal interval varies greatly. The detection of pouch neoplasia appears to be related to patient volume and physician experience. Restorative proctocolectomy (RPC) with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) was developed by Parks and Nicholls in 1978. The procedure involves removal of diseased large bowel in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) while preserving continuity of the gastrointestinal tract , especiaWith refinement of the surgical technique, the majority of IPAA procedures are performed using a double-stapling technique without mucosectomy  that hasThere is no consensus on the need and interval of surveillance for neoplasia in patients with RPC and IPAA. One possible reason may be due to the low incidence of this complication with scant available data . HoweverConsidering the lack of standard surveillance guidelines for neoplasia after IPAA for UC, we speculated that the practice pattern of physicians is likely guided by personal experience and preference. A standard surveillance program, taking into account the individual risk factors, should be considered. The primary aim of this survey study was to assess the consensus on neoplasia surveillance using pouchoscopy among practicing clinicians and their practice patterns. Other aims of this study were to investigate the variations in the physicians’ opinions, practice patterns and experience on pouch surveillance and to evaluate whether they were associated with the detection of pouch neoplasia.Gastroenterologists and colorectal surgeons potentially taking care of patients who have undergone RPC for UC or indeterminate colitis were identified by searching the literature on PubMed, Scopus, U.S. National Library of Medicine database (MEDLINE) and the physician member list of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. The keywords used were as follows: “restorative proctocolectomy,” “ulcerative colitis,” “indeterminate colitis,” “carcinoma,” “adenocarcinoma” and “neoplasms.” The communication information from published papers (i.e. email address of the corresponding author) was used for contact.Those physicians who responded and returned the questionnaire were considered to have consented to participate in this study. The questionnaire was re-sent twice in cases of no response or partially completed response. Incomplete questionnaires or physicians who indicated they did not routinely follow up IBD patients with ileal pouch were excluded from statistical analysis.Supplementary file).The questionnaire, which requested basic information about the physician’s years in practice, experience in caring for IBD patients, knowledge of neoplasia after RPC and opinion on standard pouchoscopy surveillance, were sent by email using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) survey. The REDCap survey option being used was the anonymous survey form  was used for all analyses.Univariable group comparisons were performed using Pearson’s chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test or Cochran-Armitage trend test to assess the associations between neoplasia detection and categorical variables. The relationship between neoplasia and continuous variables was evaluated using the A total of 118 physicians, including 86 gastroenterologists and 32 colorectal surgeons, was identified and surveyed by the questionnaire through REDcap. Of the 58 physicians (49%) who responded, six were excluded from analysis including one incomplete questionnaire and five physicians who reported that they do not routinely follow up IBD patients with ileal pouch. Altogether, 52 eligible participants (44%) from 32 tertiary institutions and their survey results were included. Six participants (11%) identified themselves as general gastroenterologists, 31 (60%) were gastroenterologists specializing in IBD, and 15 (29%) were colorectal surgeons. They had a mean of 16.1 ± 9.8 years of experience in providing IBD care and routinely followed a mean of 63  patients with IPAA per year.Forty-one physicians (79%) agreed that it is necessary to perform routine pouch surveillance for neoplasia arising from ileal pouch or ATZ/rectal cuff in all IBD patients undergoing IPAA. Forty-five physicians (87%) also agreed that patients who undergo mucosectomy may develop pouch neoplasia. Thirty-six physicians (69%) agreed that pouchoscopy with biopsy is effective for the detection of neoplasia. Twenty-two physicians (55%) believed that pouchoscopy solely for neoplasia surveillance should be performed every 2–3 years. Nine physicians (23%) believed that surveillance pouchoscopy should be performed annually. Seven physicians (18%) agreed about using an individualized protocol, and only two (5%) favored a 5-year plan.n = 49, 94%), ileal pouch  and ATZ/rectal cuff  during the pouchoscopy. Forty-eight (92%) and 46 (89%) physicians agreed with taking biopsies from the ileal pouch and ATZ/rectal cuff, respectively. However, only 24 (46%) and one (2%) physicians thought it was necessary to take biopsies from the afferent limb and perianal regions, respectively. Thirty-six (69%) physicians usually took >3 biopsies from the ileal pouch, while only 18 (36%) physicians took >3 biopsies from the ATZ/rectal cuff. Thirty-eight (73%) physicians thought bowel preparation with an oral agent was not necessary before pouchoscopy. The adult esophagogastroduodenoscope (EGD)  was the most frequently used scope for the pouch examination.The majority of the participants agreed about routine examination of the afferent limb  . There was no difference in years of physicians’ practice between the 2 groups. The physicians’ opinions on surveillance pouchoscopy between the 2 groups were also comparable   within the prior 5 years. We then divided the participants into 2 groups: the neoplasia-reported group and the non-neoplasia-reported group. Univariable analysis demonstrated that the follow-up number of patients with IBD pouch per year was significantly higher in the neoplasia-detection group (50 = 0.041) . Colorecmparable . There w= 0.005) .Table 1P = 0.005)  .Table 4There is no published consensus or guidelines for endoscopy surveillance following RPC. Unlike surveillance protocol for pouch patients with underlying familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) , standaret al. reported that 28 of 32 patients who developed pouch-related cancer in ATZ underwent mucosectomy [Based on our data, 41 79%) out of the 52 experienced gastroenterologists and colorectal surgeons from 32 US tertiary institutions have an aggressive stance about the surveillance for neoplasia arising from the ileal pouch body or ATZ/rectal cuff in all IBD patients undergoing IPAA. Moreover, the majority of the experts (87%) also believe that mucosectomy cannot completely eliminate the risk of pouch neoplasia. As to the approach of surveillance, 69% of physicians felt that pouchoscopy with biopsy was effective for the detection of neoplasia. The data indicate consensus among experienced physicians about the necessity and method of surveillance for pouch neoplasia after RPC, which warrants development of a standard surveillance program in the future. However, there are still >20% of physicians who disagree with this. One reason may be the low incidence of pouch-related neoplasia, which may discourage physicians from performing routine surveillance. Pouch neoplasia has been regarded as a rare complication, and routine surveillance is not advocated by some investigators . Based o% out of The optimal interval between the surveillance pouchoscopies is still controversial. As shown in our data, more than half of the physicians (55%) agreed that pouchoscopy should be performed every 2–3 years solely for the surveillance of neoplasia. An annual surveillance pouchoscopy plan was favored by 23% of the physicians surveyed, and 18% preferred an individualized plan. Only 2% of the physicians favored a 5-year surveillance protocol, reflecting their concern about the risk of pouch neoplasia. The diversity in physicians’ opinions might be attributed to the great difference in the volume of IBD patients with the ileal pouch (not FAP) who are routinely followed up every year (ranging from 6–1 200 patients).As to surveillance method, approximately two-thirds of participants agreed that surveillance endoscopy with biopsy is effective for detecting pouch neoplasia. There were 11 physicians 21%) who felt that pouchoscopy with biopsy was not effective for the detection of neoplasia. Although pouch endoscopy with surveillance biopsy remains the gold standard for early detection and diagnosis of pouch neoplasia, the accuracy of early detection of dysplasia with endoscopy has been suboptimal ,21. Some% who felvs 28% vs 11%, P < 0.001). The possible underlying explanation is that surgeons generally treat pouch cancers rather than gastroenterologists. The median follow-up number of IBD pouches per year was significantly higher in the neoplasia detection group , which by itself may increase the likelihood of detecting neoplasia. Another possibility of higher neoplasia detection might be attributed to the experience gained from the high volume of patient follow-up. We also found that those who reported successful detection of neoplasia took fewer biopsies from the ileal pouch during the pouchoscopy examination, implying that the physician’s experience significantly influenced the detection of pouch neoplasia. Multivariable analysis also demonstrated that the number of IBD-IPAA patients followed up per year is the only independent factor associated with the detection of ileal pouch neoplasia.We then analyzed if physicians’ opinions and practice patterns were associated with the physician-reported neoplasia detection. To our knowledge, there are no reports on which factors are associated with the detection of neoplasia after IPAA for UC. Our data indicated that most of the aspects in physicians’ opinions and practice patterns were comparable between the two groups. Interestingly, univariable analysis showed that colorectal surgeons reported finding more pouch neoplasia than either gastroenterologists specializing in IBD or general gastroenterologists . However, this is the first report specifically designed for this topic, which will lay the groundwork for future multicenter studies investigating the reasons for variations in practice and the subsequent ideal parameters that should be considered for standard surveillance protocols.In conclusion, most experts agree with performing pouchoscopy and biopsy for ileal pouch neoplasia surveillance, although the optimal interval varies greatly. A standard surveillance protocol, taking into account the individual risk factors, should be considered instead. The detection of developing pouch neoplasia may be associated with the physician’s experience and patient volume.


Recently, the role of cerebral oximetry, using near-infrared spectroscopy, during ALS was investigated. In this study we determined whether the magnitude of increase in cerebral saturation (rSO2 during ALS in consecutive OHCA patients. One sensor of the Equanox™ 7600 (NONIN) was applied on the patient's forehead's right side when the medical emergency team arrived in an OHCA. ROSC was defined as ROSC >20 minutes.With IRB approval, we prospectively measured rSOP = 0.161), time between emergency call and start of ALS (P = 0.788) and duration of basic life support performed by bystanders, general practitioners or paramedics (P = 0.649). The initial rhythm was asystole in one (12.5%) survivor and in 50 (62.5%) nonsurvivors (P = 0.009), ventricular fibrillation in six (75%) survivors and 13 (16%) nonsurvivors (P = 0.001), and pulseless electrical activity in one (12.5%) survivor and 17 (21%) nonsurvivors (P = 1.00). The cardiac arrest was witnessed in all survivors (100%) and in 49 (61%) nonsurvivors (P = 0.046). First measured rSO2 was 38% (27 to 67) in the survivor group compared with 22% (8 to 32) in the nonsurvivor group (P = 0.004). Also a significant difference was found in mean rSO2 until 1 minute before ROSC between survivors and nonsurvivors, respectively 46% (40 to 74) and 34% (22 to 42). We observed no significant difference in increase of rSO2 until 1 minute before ROSC between survivors 12.5% (5 to 21) and nonsurvivors 11% (5 to 18) (P = 0.719).We included 88 prehospital cardiac arrest patients between December 2011 and October 2014 with eight (9%) patients with CPC 1 or 2. Twenty-seven patients of the nonsurvivors had ROSC >20 minutes and one patient had CPC 3 at hospital discharge. We observed no significant difference between both groups in age  at hospital discharge and patients with worse neurological outcome or nonsurvivors (CPC 3 or 4 or 5). However, no significant difference was observed in the increase between both groups. Larger studies are necessary to confirm these results.We observed a significant difference in first measured rSO


The emergence of video surveillance is the most promising solution for people living independently in their home. Recently several contributions for video surveillance have been proposed. However, a robust video surveillance algorithm is still a challenging task because of illumination changes, rapid variations in target appearance, similar nontarget objects in background, and occlusions. In this paper, a novel approach of object detection for video surveillance is presented. The proposed algorithm consists of various steps including video compression, object detection, and object localization. In video compression, the input video frames are compressed with the help of two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (2D DCT) to achieve less storage requirements. In object detection, key feature points are detected by computing the statistical correlation and the matching feature points are classified into foreground and background based on the Bayesian rule. Finally, the foreground feature points are localized in successive video frames by embedding the maximum likelihood feature points over the input video frames. Various frame based surveillance metrics are employed to evaluate the proposed approach. Experimental results and comparative study clearly depict the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Recently, several contributions have been proposed and successfully demonstrated for foreground detection and tracking. However, these algorithms need to resolve the difficulties such as radical changes and target drift encountered during tracking process. Main challenge involved in motion tracking algorithm is to estimate object motion as more precisely and efficiently as possible. Moving object detection is an important aspect in any surveillance applications such as video analysis, video communication, traffic control, medical imaging, and military service . UsuallyIn video compression, the input video frames are compressed by the 2D discrete cosine transform with acceptable blocking artifacts to reduce storage requirements.In object detection, the matching feature points are derived by calculating the correlation coefficients between compressed video frame and target template.Then the posterior probabilities are formulated and maximum likelihood densities are estimated by calculating the peak correlation coefficients over the entire image frame. These highly matching feature points are localized based on Bayesian rule.Finally, the matching feature points are localized in the successive video frames by embedding the maximum likelihood densities over the input frames.In general, video surveillance system involves two major building blocks such as motion detection and motion estimation. Object detection is the first and foremost step as it is directly influenced by the background information. Since there is considerable irrelevant and redundant information in the video across space and time, the video data need to be compressed at the earliest in video surveillance applications . CompresThe flow diagram and Simulink model of proposed framework are shown in Figures F be the transformed frame and let f be the original frame. Consider an image frame with dimensions of (M × N), where M and N are the rows and columns involved in each image frame. The transformed and compressed image frames are estimated as follows:In the first phase of proposed framework, the input video frames are compressed using block processing algorithm called 2D discrete cosine transform (DCT) . Let F and applying the 2D DCT  over eacal frame . Higher The PSNR can be calculated as follows:S be the compressed video frame with a dimension (M × N) and T be the template frame with a dimension (P × Q). Cross correlation C is calculated by using the following equation:i < (M + N − 1); 0 ≤ j < (P + Q − 1).Object detection is mainly concentrated to detect the target position in each frame with coordinates, scale, and orientation. In object detection phase, the feature vectors are derived using 2D correlation. Correlation is one of the statistical approaches which provide a direct measure of the similarity between two video frames and it will not be influenced by illumination variation and object translations. However, it cannot cope with image rotation and scaling. The proposed model can further be extended to deal with an image rotation and scaling by incorporating the sophisticated object detection algorithm such as multiresolution analysis. In proposed Simulink model, the 2D correlation block computes the two-dimensional cross correlation between compressed frame and template frame. At each location, the cross correlation coefficient has inflated scores for matching feature points and deflated scores for others. Let S be the input image frame at time t in the position k, T be the template frame, and fv,t be the feature vector of target in the position k at time t. The posterior probability of feature vector that appears from the background at position k is calculated as follows:fback is the background and P is the probability of feature vector fv,t being observed as background. The prior probability of feature vector being identified at the position k is denoted by P and P(fback) is the prior probability of feature vector belonging to background. Similarly, the posterior probability of feature vector that appears from foreground at position k is calculated as follows:ffore represents the foreground and P is the probability of feature vector fv,t being observed as foreground. The prior probability of feature vector belonging to foreground is P(ffore). Thus, a probability map is constructed over the compressed video frames and the target is localized by searching the maximum likelihood density. When the template is centered at coordinates , the peak cross correlation coefficient indicates a good match of target location between compressed frame and the target template. Thus, the maximum likelihood density for foreground is estimated using the following equation:In this phase, an effective classifier is constructed to classify the matched features points into foreground and background using Bayesian rule . Let S can be estimated as follows:C1 denotes normalization factor. Similarly, the matching feature points other than peak correlation coefficients in each image frame are considered as maximum likelihood densities for the background and are calculated as follows:P can be estimated as follows:C2 represents normalization constant. At the end, the feature vectors {fv,t}n=1,2,3,…,N can be classified asThus, the posterior probability This section elaborates the tracking results of proposed algorithm under challenging environments such as target variations, illumination changes, and occlusion conditions. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the testing platform of Pentium Dual-core CPU E5200@2.5 GHz and 2 GB RAM with MATLAB Simulink tool. The proposed scheme is tested on various video sequences including “cat_video.bin,” “FaceOcc2,” and “Dog1” with a frame rate of 30 fps, 28 fps, and 30 fps, respectively. This section is categorized into four parts such as performance analysis, quantitative evaluation, comparative study, and discussions.In the proposed method, 2D discrete cosine transform, which is block based transform, is used for video compression because of its highest energy compaction. It simply decorrelates the similarities among the pixels. Initially, the given input frame is divided into several subblocks of size (8 × 8) and transform coefficients are obtained by applying 2D DCT over the entire subblocks of each frame. Then, transform coefficients with small magnitudes are discarded and the remaining coefficients are quantized and coded. Finally, the compressed image frame is obtained by applying inverse 2D DCT over the transformed frame. Since most of the DCT coefficients are removed for further processing, it greatly reduces the storage requirements. The compression ratio achieved by the proposed approach is enumerated in Figures Occlusion is one of the main challenges in object detection and tracking. Majority of the tracking systems are struggled to trace the target or even sometimes failed to follow the target during partial or complete occlusion conditions due to the unavailability of target information. Hence, it is mandatory to develop a robust algorithm to effectively cope with the partial and complete occlusions. Figures Cmax is the peak correlation coefficient and σ are the mean and standard deviation of the other coefficients. Additionally, the proposed algorithm employs the peak-to-side lobe ratio (PSR)  to estims).Though the competency of proposed approach is proved by the above visual analysis, it is necessary to analyze the performance in quantitative manner. The true negatives (Tn) are the objects which are not wrongly detected as background. In this paper, the detection is considered as success only when the bounding box overlaps the foreground object more than 50%. The performance metrics such as false alarm rate, precision, accuracy, and occlusion rate are computed using the following equations –17:(15)FThe robustness of the object detection algorithm can be quantitatively evaluated by the above frame based metrics. For best performance, the metric false alarm rate must be lower whereas the metrics such as precision, accuracy, and occlusion rate should be higher. Relatively high scores in occlusion rate will indicate the success of object detection system in occlusion conditions.For the comparative study, the existing algorithms , 9 are iNonetheless, the proposed method is efficient in terms of all surveillance metrics, some issues yet to be addressed further. In view of rapid variations on both camera and target under dynamic environments, the target information is not enough for accurate object detection. Hence, the proposed algorithm does not perform well in dynamic backgrounds. In future, the research work will focus on deriving the most promising camera motion models and detection methods for online learning process. In proposed algorithm, 2D cross correlation is used for feature extraction to detect the presence of object in the given video frames. It is insensitive to illumination changes and object translations. However, it is sensitive to the image rotation and scaling which degrade the tracking performance.In future, the performance of proposed method can further be improved by adding sophisticated feature extraction algorithm such as multiresolution analysis. Moreover, the target which is stationary for long time in video sequence misleads the object tracker into false detections. Future work will concentrate on this issue and try to improve the tracking performance.In this paper, a robust algorithm has been proposed to detect and track the moving target in compressed video domain using statistical approach. In the proposed model, the input video frames are compressed using 2D DCT  to reduc