Plant-expressed Fc-fusion protein tetravalent dengue vaccine with inherent adjuvant properties.

Dengue is a major global disease requiring improved treatment and prevention strategies. The recently licensed Sanofi-Pasteur Denvaxia vaccine does not protect children under the age of nine and additional vaccine strategies are thus needed to halt this expanding global epidemic. Here, we employed a molecular engineering approach and plant-expression to produce a humanised and highly immunogenic Poly-Immunoglobulin G Scaffold (PIGS) fused to the consensus dengue envelope protein III domain (cEDIII). The immunogenicity of this IgG Fc receptor targeted vaccine candidate was demonstrated in transgenic mice expressing human FcγRI/CD64, by induction of neutralising antibodies and evidence of cell-mediated immunity. Furthermore, these molecules were able to prime immune cells from human adenoid/tonsillar tissue ex vivo as evidenced by antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell proliferation, IFN-γ and antibody production. The purified polymeric fraction of dengue PIGS (D-PIGS) induced stronger immune activation than the monomeric form, suggesting a more efficient interaction with the low affinity Fcγ receptors on antigen-presenting cells. These results show that the plant-expressed D-PIGS have the potential for translation towards a safe and easily scalable single antigen based tetravalent dengue vaccine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Retinal Blood Vessel Segmentation Algorithm for Diabetic Retinopathy using Wavelet: A Survey

Blood vessel structure in retinal images have an important role in diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. There are several method present for automatic retinal vessel segmentation. For developing retinal screening systems blood vessel segmentation is the basic foundation since vessels serve as one of the main retinal landmark features. The most common signs of diabetic retinopathy include hemorrhages, cotton wool spots, dilated retinal veins, and hard exudates. A patient with diabetic retinopathy disease has to undergo periodic screening of eye. For the diagnosis, doctors use color retinal images of a patient required from digital fundus camera. We present a method that uses Gabor wavelet for vessel enhancement due to their ability to enhance directional structures and euclidean distance technique for accurate vessel segmentation. Retinal angiography images are mainly used in the diagnosis of diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and hypertension etc. In diabetic retinopathy structure of retinal blood vessels change that leads to adult blindness. To overcome this problem automatic biomedical diagnosis system is required.The main stage of diabetic retinopathy are Non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Eye care specialist can screen vessel abnormalities using an efficient and effective computer based approach to the automated segmentation of blood vessels in retinal images. Automated segmentation reduces the time required by a physician or a skilled technician for manual labeling. Thus a reliable method of vessel segmentation would be valuable for the early detection and characterization of changes due to such diseases. This article presents the automated vessel enhancement and segmentation technique for colored retinal images. Segmentation of blood vessels from image is a difficult task due to thin vessels and low contrast between vessel edges and background. The proposed method enhances the vascular pattern using Gabor wavelet and then it uses euclidean distance technique to generate gray level segmented image. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15030

Multiplicity Distributions and Charged-neutral Fluctuations

Results from the multiplicity distributions of inclusive photons and charged particles, scaling of particle multiplicities, event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations, and charged-neutral fluctuations in 158$\cdot A$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions are presented and discussed. A scaling of charged particle multiplicity as $N_{part}^{1.07\pm 0.05}$ and photons as $N_{part}^{1.12\pm 0.03}$ have been observed, indicating violation of naive wounded nucleon model. The analysis of localized charged-neutral fluctuation indicates a model-independent demonstration of non-statistical fluctuations in both charged particles and photons in limited azimuthal regions. However, no correlated charged-neutral fluctuations are observed.Comment: Talk given at the International Symposium on Nuclear Physics (ISNP-2000), Mumbai, India, 18-22 Dec 2000, Proceedings to be published in Pramana, Journal of Physic

Rapidity and Centrality Dependence of Proton and Anti-proton Production from Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of |y|<0.5 and 0.35 <p_t<1.00GeV/c. For both protons and anti-protons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within |y|<0.5. Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton(anti-proton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of pre-hadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to PR

Perceived Stress, Quality of Life and Pregnancy Outcomes Among Women with Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) And Role of Midwives in It: A Systematic Review

Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are one of the leading causes of maternal &amp; newborn death across the world. Many of the hypertensive antenatal women often end of with admission to ICU due to severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, or delivering dead babies of term pregnancy, even if live baby delivered, they mostly admitted to NICU due to respiratory distress and prematurity. Hence, they need continuous educational intervention and follow up by healthcare personnel. And a midwife is the right person for this. Midwives play an important role in encouraging pregnant mothers to adhere to treatment through various education and follow up resulting in safe pregnancy outcome among these mothers. But in Indian scenario in many places the role of midwives are often ignored while managing pregnancy complications. Therefore, current paper aimed to explore the expanded role of midwives in identifying the affected quality of life and its impact on pregnancy outcome among women with HDPs. The empirical research papers of various countries were searched through the electronic databases like Pro-Quest, Embase, Research Gate, Science direct, PUBMED, MEDLINE, CINAHL-EBSCO, web of science, Google Scholar etc and the references were also searched of those primary articles. A total of 15 out of 275 studies including both RCTs, Systematic &amp; narrative review papers were analysed. In this paper 4 relevant points were analyzed, like- perceived stress, quality of life (QOL), pregnancy outcomes and role of midwife in GHTN management in rural India. The research papers on pregnancy outcomes as well as stress and QOL secondary to gestational outcome were plenty, but very less studies were retrieved on role of midwives. Mother’s with GHTN has more stress regarding the fetal wellbeing which ultimately affects the quality of life. Interventional studies revealed reduction in stress and improved perinatal outcome secondary to some integrated midwifery management approach. More research on addressing quality of life and exploring the stressors and interventional programs by midwifes are recommended to bring solution to this problem. The result of this review can be incorporated into nursing research to empower the women with gestational hypertension to have a positive pregnancy experience

Human surfactant protein D alters oxidative stress and HMGA1 expression to induce p53 apoptotic pathway in eosinophil leukemic cell line

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright: © 2013 Mahajan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Surfactant protein D (SP-D), an innate immune molecule, has an indispensable role in host defense and regulation of inflammation. Immune related functions regulated by SP-D include agglutination of pathogens, phagocytosis, oxidative burst, antigen presentation, T lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine secretion, induction of apoptosis and clearance of apoptotic cells. The present study unravels a novel ability of SP-D to reduce the viability of leukemic cells (eosinophilic leukemic cell line, AML14.3D10; acute myeloid leukemia cell line, THP-1; acute lymphoid leukemia cell lines, Jurkat, Raji; and human breast epithelial cell line, MCF-7), and explains the underlying mechanisms. SP-D and a recombinant fragment of human SP-D (rhSP-D) induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest, and dose and timedependent apoptosis in the AML14.3D10 eosinophilic leukemia cell line. Levels of various apoptotic markers viz. activated p53, cleaved caspase-9 and PARP, along with G2/M checkpoints (p21 and Tyr15 phosphorylation of cdc2) showed significant increase in these cells. We further attempted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of rhSP-D induced apoptosis using proteomic analysis. This approach identified large scale molecular changes initiated by SPD in a human cell for the first time. Among others, the proteomics analysis highlighted a decreased expression of survival related proteins such as HMGA1, overexpression of proteins to protect the cells from oxidative burst, while a drastic decrease in mitochondrial antioxidant defense system. rhSP-D mediated enhanced oxidative burst in AML14.3D10 cells was confirmed, while antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, abrogated the rhSP-D induced apoptosis. The rhSP-D mediated reduced viability was specific to the cancer cell lines and viability of human PBMCs from healthy controls was not affected. The study suggests involvement of SP-D in host’s immunosurveillance and therapeutic potential of rhSP-D in the eosinophilic leukemia and cancers of other origins.Department of Biotechnology, Indi

Antimicrobial activity assessment of time-dependent release bilayer tablets of amoxicillin trihydrate

O objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a atividade antimicrobiana de formulações de comprimidos de dupla camada contendo amoxicilina triidratada para liberação tempo dependente e avaliação da liberação in vitro do fármaco pelo ensaio de atividade antimicrobiana utilizando o método de difusão em placa de ágar. Os comprimidos de dupla camada consistem em uma camada para liberação retardada e outra sustentada. O método de compressão direta foi usado para a preparação dos comprimidos de dupla camada contendo Eudragit-L 100 D55 como polímero para liberação retardada e HPMCK4M ou HPMCK15 como polímeros para liberação sustentada. As formulações de comprimidos de dupla camada contendo amoxicilina triidratada foram avaliadas quanto a dureza, espessura, friabilidade, variação de peso e conteúdo de fármaco. Além disso, a liberação do fármaco in vitro foi avaliada por ensaio de atividade antimicrobiana usando S. aureus e E. coli como microrganismos teste. A alíquota das amostras do estudo de liberação do fármaco in vitro demonstrou ser efetiva contra ambos os microrganismos por um período de 16 horas devido à ação sustentada. O estudo de liberação do fármaco in vitro e o ensaio de atividade antimicrobiana mostraram que os comprimidos de dupla camada tiveram um perfil de liberação sustentada do fármaco com um pico de liberação após 2 horas de ensaio. O menor valor de MIC (2 ug/mL) dos comprimidos de dupla camada quando comparados à formulação comercial (5 ug/mL) representa uma boa atividade antimicrobiana.The aim of present study was the assessment of antimicrobial activity of prepared time-dependent release bilayer tablets of amoxicillin trihydrate and in vitro evaluation of drug release by antimicrobial assay using agar plate diffusion method. The bilayer tablets comprised of a delayed and sustained release layer. Direct compression method was used for the preparation of bilayer tablets containing Eudragit-L100 D55 as delayed release polymer, and HPMCK4M and HPMCK15 as sustained release polymers. The prepared bilayer tablets containing amoxicillin trihydrate were evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability, weight variation and drug content. Further, in vitro drug release was assessed by antimicrobial assay using S. aureus and E. coli as test microorganisms. The aliquot samples of in vitro drug release study were found to be effective against both microorganisms for 16 hours due to sustained action. The in vitro drug release study and antimicrobial assay showed that bilayer tablets have sustained release profile of drug delivery with time-dependent burst release after a lag-time of 2 hours. The lower MIC value (2 µg/mL) of prepared bilayer tablets vis-à-vis marketed preparation (5 µg/mL) represented its good antimicrobial activity

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns