Isolation of Trichophyton mentogrophytes var mentogrophytes from naturally infected laboratory albino rats: experimental infection and treatment in rabbits

The present study demonstrated for the first time the occurrence of dermatophytosis in naturally infected rats and from asymptomatic and from breeding boxes of white rats kept in animal housing of college of Veterinary Medicine, University of Dohuk, Iraq. The prevalence rate of infection was (28%), clinically infected rats characterized by appearance of scaly ovoid type lesions with crusty edge and patch of hair loss mostly seen on the back, neck and face of the infected rats, itching was reported in some rats. Only one species of the trichophyton, T. mentogrophytes var mentogrophytes was isolated with growth rate (85.71%) of samples collected from clinically infected rats, and (28.57%) from asymptomatic and from breeding cages, the growth was observed within the 21 days at 25ºC on Sabouraud's Dextrose Agar. Lacto phenol cotton blue staining slides of T. mentogrophytes var mentogrophytes revealed both microconidia and macroconidia. Microconidia found in numerous numbers often in dense cluster which were hyaline, smooth walled and predominantly spherical to sub spherical in shape, varying numbers of chlamydoconidia. Spiral hyphae and smooth, thin walled clavate shaped multicelled macroconidia were also present. The study also dealt with experimental infection in rabbits with T. mentogrophytes var mentogrophytes and treated by two drugs, natural herbal preparation of acidic pomegranate (Punica granatum) fruit and synthetic nystatine ointment. The complete recovery of lesions was recorded after 14 days and 21 days of topical application of a pomegranate and nystatine ointment for 5 successive days respectively

An individualized super Gaussian single microphone Speech Enhancement for hearing aid users with smartphone as an assistive device

In this letter, we derive a new super Gaussian Joint Maximum a Posteriori based single microphone speech enhancement gain function. The developed Speech Enhancement method is implemented on a smartphone, and this arrangement functions as an assistive device to hearing aids. We introduce a tradeoff parameter in the derived gain function that allows the smartphone user to customize their listening preference, by controlling the amount of noise suppression and speech distortion in real-time based on their level of hearing comfort perceived in noisy real world acoustic environment. Objective quality and intelligibility measures show the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison to benchmark techniques considered in this paper. Subjective results reflect the usefulness of the developed Speech Enhancement application in real-world noisy conditions at signal to noise ratio levels of 0 dB and 5 dB.Comment: 5 page

Multiple Unit Pooled Umbilical Cord Blood is a Viable Source of Therapeutic Regulatory T Cells

BACKGROUND: Regulatory T cells (Treg) are potentially a useful therapeutic option for the treatment of immunopathological conditions including graft-versus-host disease. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) offers certain advantages over adult peripheral blood (APB) as a source of Treg for cellular therapy but yields far fewer Treg per unit. Pooling of Treg from multiple donors may overcome this challenge. METHODS: In this study, we assessed the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of multiple donor pooled UCB or APB-derived Treg. RESULTS: In vitro, pooled freshly isolated UCB-derived Treg were as suppressive as APB-derived Treg. However, in a mouse model of human skin allodestruction, pooled UCB-derived Treg were more potent at suppressing alloresponses and prolonging skin survival compared with pooled APB-derived Treg. Improved survival of UCB Treg in an in vivo cell survival assay and their lower expression of human leukocyte antigen-ABC suggested that lower immunogenicity may account for their superior efficacy in vivo. CONCLUSION: Multiple-unit UCB is therefore a viable source of human Treg for cellular therapy, and pooling of Treg from multiple donors offers a useful strategy for achieving required therapeutic doses

Pinwheel stabilization by ocular dominance segregation

We present an analytical approach for studying the coupled development of ocular dominance and orientation preference columns. Using this approach we demonstrate that ocular dominance segregation can induce the stabilization and even the production of pinwheels by their crystallization in two types of periodic lattices. Pinwheel crystallization depends on the overall dominance of one eye over the other, a condition that is fulfilled during early cortical development. Increasing the strength of inter-map coupling induces a transition from pinwheel-free stripe solutions to intermediate and high pinwheel density states.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

DC link voltage control during sudden load changes in AC microgrids

Parallel inverters in AC microgrids can achieve accurate power sharing using droop control. However, different grid line impedances will result in different transient power and thus different energy being delivered or absorbed by the inverters during sudden load changes. This might lead the DC link voltage to rise beyond the trip limit causing the inverter to shut down, which reduces the reliability of the whole microgrid. This paper investigates the effect of the mismatch in line impedances on the stability of the DC link voltage during a sudden load changes and proposes a scheme to control the DC link voltage during disturbances. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed controller

Abundant dust found in intergalactic space

Galactic dust constitutes approximately half of the elements more massive than helium produced in stellar nucleosynthesis. Notwithstanding the formation of dust grains in the dense, cool atmospheres of late-type stars, there still remain huge uncertainties concerning the origin and fate of galactic stardust. In this paper, we identify the intergalactic medium (i.e. the region between gravitationally-bound galaxies) as a major sink for galactic dust. We discover a systematic shift in the colour of background galaxies viewed through the intergalactic medium of the nearby M81 group. This reddening coincides with atomic, neutral gas previously detected between the group members. The dust-to-HI mass ratio is high (1/20) compared to that of the solar neighborhood (1/120) suggesting that the dust originates from the centre of one or more of the galaxies in the group. Indeed, M82, which is known to be ejecting dust and gas in a starburst-driven superwind, is cited as the probable main source.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. ApJ Letters in pres

A Quantitative Comparison of SMC, LMC, and Milky Way UV to NIR Extinction Curves

We present an exhaustive, quantitative comparison of all of the known extinction curves in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC) with our understanding of the general behavior of Milky Way extinction curves. The R_V dependent CCM relationship and the sample of extinction curves used to derive this relationship is used to describe the general behavior of Milky Way extinction curves. The ultraviolet portion of the SMC and LMC extinction curves are derived from archival IUE data, except for one new SMC extinction curve which was measured using HST/STIS observations. The optical extinction curves are derived from new (for the SMC) and literature UBVRI photometry (for the LMC). The near-infrared extinction curves are calculated mainly from 2MASS photometry supplemented with DENIS and new JHK photometry. For each extinction curve, we give R_V = A(V)/E(B-V) and N(HI) values which probe the same dust column as the extinction curve. We compare the properties of the SMC and LMC extinction curves with the CCM relationship three different ways: each curve by itself, the behavior of extinction at different wavelengths with R_V, and behavior of the extinction curve FM fit parameters with R_V. As has been found previously, we find that a small number of LMC extinction curves are consistent with the CCM relationship, but majority of the LMC and all of the SMC curves do not follow the CCM relationship. For the first time, we find that the CCM relationship seems to form a bound on the properties of all of the LMC and SMC extinction curves. This result strengthens the picture of dust extinction curves exhibit a continuum of properties between those found in the Milky Way and the SMC Bar. (abridged)Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, ApJ in pres

X-Ray Spectral Study of AGN Sources Content in Some Deep Extragalactic XMM-Newton Fields

We undertake a spectral study of a sample of bright X-ray sources taken from six XMM-Newton fields at high galactic latitudes, where AGN are the most populous class. These six fields were chosen such that the observation had an exposure time more than 60 ksec, had data from the EPIC-pn detector in the full-Frame mode and lying at high galactic latitude $|b| > 25^o$ . The analysis started by fitting the spectra of all sources with an absorbed power-law model, and then we fitted all the spectra with an absorbed power-law with a low energy black-body component model.The sources for which we added a black body gave an F-test probability of 0.01 or less (i.e. at 99% confidence level), were recognized as sources that display soft excess. We perform a comparative analysis of soft excess spectral parameters with respect to the underlying power-law one for sources that satisfy this criterion. Those sources, that do not show evidence for a soft excess, based on the F-test probability at a 99% confidence level, were also fitted with the absorbed power-law with a low energy black-body component model with the black-body temperature fixed at 0.1 and 0.2 keV. We establish upper limits on the soft excess flux for those sources at these two temperatures. Finally we have made use of Aladdin interactive sky atlas and matching with NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) to identify the X-ray sources in our sample. For those sources which are identified in the NED catalogue, we make a comparative study of the soft excess phenomenon for different types of systems