A Halotolerant Bacterium Bacillus licheniformis HSW-16 Augments Induced Systemic Tolerance to Salt Stress in Wheat Plant (Triticum aestivum)

Certain plant growth promoting bacteria can protect associated plants from harmful effects of salinity. We report the isolation and characterization of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase bacterium Bacillus licheniformis HSW-16 capable of ameliorating salt (NaCl) stress in wheat plants. The bacterium was isolated from water of Sambhar salt lake, Rajasthan, India. The presence of ACC deaminase activity was confirmed by enzyme assay and analysis of AcdS gene, a structural gene for ACC deaminase. Inoculation of B. licheniformis HSW-16 protected wheat plants from growth inhibition caused by NaCl and increased plant growth (6-38%) in terms of root length, shoot length, fresh weight, and dry weight. Ionic analysis of plant samples showed that the bacterial inoculation decreased accumulation of Na+ content (51%), and increased K+ (68%), and Ca2+ content (32%) in plants at different concentration of NaCl. It suggested that bacterial inoculation protected plants from the effect of NaCl by decreasing level of Na+ in plants. Production of exopolysaccharide by the B. licheniformis HSW-16 can also protect from Na+ by binding this ion. Moreover, application of test isolate resulted in an increase in certain osmolytes such as total soluble sugar, total protein content and a decrease in malondialdehyde content, illustrating their role in the protection of plants. The ability of B. licheniformis HSW-16 to colonize plant root surface was examined by staining the bacterium with acridine orange followed by fluorescence microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA fingerprinting analysis. These results suggested that B. licheniformis HSW-16 could be used as a bioinoculant to improve the productivity of plants growing under salt stress

Hepatotoxicity of Microcystis aeruginosa Strains Growing as Blooms in Certain Eutrophic Ponds

Critical assessment of five eutrophicated ponds of Varanasi city (India) revealed the presence of heavy blooms of cyanobacteria consisting mainly of Microcystis aeruginosa. Crude aqueous extracts of blooms as well as laboratory grown M. aeruginosa isolated from three ponds, namely Lakshmikund, Durgakund and Adityanagar showed toxicity in mouse bioassay test. Crude aqueous extracts from these samples caused death of test mice within 1h of administration (i.p.) with a LD50 of 60 mg/kg body weight and the treated animals showed clinical signs of hepatotoxicity. However such an effect was not associated with the blooms from Laatbhairov and Surajkund ponds suggesting that not all strains of M. aeruginosa are toxic. Based on spectral properties (?max 230 nm), and comparison with standard microcystin-LR, the toxin is tentatively identified as microcystin-LR. The purified toxin caused death of test mice within 40 min of its administration with a LD50 of 100 µg/ kg body weight and induced gross morphological and functional changes in liver. A 1.55 fold increase in liver weight accompanied by deep red coloration most probably due to hemorrhage and blood pooling suggested the hepatotoxic properties of the toxin. Hepatotoxicity was also evident from the drastic increase (up to 2.5 fold) in activity of serum enzymes such as glutamate pyruvate transaminase/alanine aminotransferase (GPT/ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and alkaline phosphatase (APase) following toxin treatment. ^14C-labelling experiments demonstrated maximum accumulation (~15%) of ^14C- toxin after 20 min. of toxin administration. Appreciable level of toxin was also detected in water of four ponds. In conclusion these results clearly demonstrate that microcystin-producing blooms of M. aeruginosa are common in eutrophicated ponds of Varanasi city but not all ponds harbour toxic blooms

Multifocal Epithelial Hyperplasia of Oral Cavity Expressing HPV 16 Gene: A Rare Entity

Focal epithelial hyperplasia is a rare contagious disease caused by human papilloma virus. Usually HPV involves either cutaneous or mucosal surfaces, whereas concomitant mucocutaneous involvement is extremely rare. We report such a unique case of multifocal epithelial hyperplasia involving multiple sites of oral cavity along with skin lesions in a 65-year-old female. We also discuss the probable multifactorial etiology and variable clinical presentations of the lesions, including evidence of HPV 16 expression, as detected by polymerase chain reaction. The present report illustrates the need for careful examination and prompt diagnosis of the disease, as it might be associated with high risk genotypes such as HPV 16 and 18

Experimental Implementation of Adaptive-Critic Based Infinite Time Optimal Neurocontrol for a Heat Diffusion System

Recently the synthesis methodology for the infinite time optimal neuro-controllers for PDE systems in the framework of adaptive-critic design has been developed. In this paper, first we model an experimental setup representing one dimensional heat diffusion problems. Then we synthesize and implement an adaptive-critic based neuro-controller for online temperature profile control of the experimental setup

Applicability of genetic algorithms to reconstruction of projected data from ultrasonic tomography

In this paper simulation studies of the ultrasound computerized tomography (CT) technique employing time of flight data is presented. An enhanced genetic algorithm based reconstruction technique is proposed that is capable of detecting multiple types of inclusions in the test specimen to be reconstructed. It is assumed that the physical properties of the inclusions are known a priori. The preliminary results of our algorithm for a simple configuration are found to be better than those reported with MART1. In addition to being able to identify inclusions of different materials, both the shape and location of the inclusions could be reconstructed using the proposed algorithm. The results are found to be consistent and satisfactory for a wide range of grid sizes and geometries of inclusion(s). Based on the regression analysis an empirical relation between the number of unknowns and the reconstruction time is found which enables one to predict the reconstruction time for higher resolutions

Proper Orthogonal Decomposition Based Modeling and Experimental Implementation of a Neurocontroller for a Heat Diffusion System

Experimental implementation of a dual neural network based optimal controller for a heat diffusion system is presented. Using the technique of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), a set of problem-oriented basis functions are designed taking the experimental data as snap shot solutions. Using these basis functions in Galerkin projection, a reduced-order analogous lumped parameter model of the distributed parameter system is developed. This model is then used in an analogous lumped parameter problem. A dual neural network structure called adaptive critics is used to obtain optimal neurocontrollers for this system. In this structure, one set of neural networks captures the relationship between the states and the control, whereas the other set captures the relationship between the states and the costates. The lumped parameter control is then mapped back to the spatial dimension, using the same basis functions, which results in a feedback control. The controllers are implemented at discrete actuator locations. Modeling aspects of the heat diffusion system from experimental data are discussed. Experimental results to reach desired final temperature profiles are presented

Analysis of maternal deaths: autopsy study at tertiary health care center

Background: Every day thousands women died due to complications of pregnancy and child birth globally. Almost all of these deaths occurred in low-resource settings, and most could have been prevented. Maternal mortality is a health indicator that shows very wide gaps between rich and poor, urban and rural areas, both between countries and within them. The present study was carried out with view to determine factors causing maternal deaths, causes of maternal deaths and utility of autopsy with autopsy record as a useful and adjunct data source for ascertainment of maternal deaths.Methods: Total 95 cases of maternal deaths which were brought for postmortem were studied during period of August 2012 to July 2014.Results: Maximum number of maternal deaths were seen in age group of 21 to 25 years comprising 38 (40.0%) and with maximum cases from low socioeconomic strata. Analyzing the pregnancy outcome, live birth to child were given by 66 (69.5%) against negative outcome in 29 (30.5%) of cases. Post-partum hemorrhage remains the leading cause followed by sepsis 13 (13.7%) in direct causes of maternal deaths. In indirect causes hepatitis leads the list with 4 (4.2%) cases.Conclusions: Despite the improved methodology, global database on maternal mortality remains weak. Hence forensic pathologist plays important role in identifying these cases with appropriate cause of death. Review of autopsy findings along with hospital records can prove to be one of the useful sources to identify pregnancy related deaths and elucidating the emerging trends

Characterization of the restriction enzyme-like endonuclease encoded by the Entamoeba histolytica non-long terminal repeat retrotransposon EhLINE1

The genome of the human pathogen Entamoeba histolytica, a primitive protist, contains non-long terminal repeat retrotransposable elements called EhLINEs. These encode reverse transcriptase and endonuclease required for retrotransposition. The endonuclease shows sequence similarity with bacterial restriction endonucleases. Here we report the salient enzymatic features of one such endonuclease. The kinetics of an EhLINE1-encoded endonuclease catalyzed reaction, determined under steady-state and single-turnover conditions, revealed a significant burst phase followed by a slower steady-state phase, indicating that release of product could be the slower step in this reaction. For circular supercoiled DNA the km was 2.6 × 10-8 m and the kcat was 1.6 × 10-2 sec-1. For linear E. histolytica DNA substrate the Km and kcat values were 1.3 × 10-8 m and 2.2 × 10-4 sec-1 respectively. Single-turnover reaction kinetics suggested a noncooperative mode of hydrolysis. The enzyme behaved as a monomer. While Mg2+ was required for activity, 60% activity was seen with Mn2+ and none with other divalent metal ions. Substitution of PDX12-14D (a metal-binding motif) with PAX12-14D caused local conformational change in the protein tertiary structure, which could contribute to reduced enzyme activity in the mutated protein. The protein underwent conformational change upon the addition of DNA, which is consistent with the known behavior of restriction endonucleases. The similarities with bacterial restriction endonucleases suggest that the EhLINE1-encoded endonuclease was possibly acquired from bacteria through horizontal gene transfer. The loss of strict sequence specificity for nicking may have been subsequently selected to facilitate spread of the retrotransposon to intergenic regions of the E. histolytica genome

Reference tracking stochastic model predictive control over unreliable channels and bounded control actions

A stochastic model predictive control framework over unreliable Bernoulli communication channels, in the presence of unbounded process noise and under bounded control inputs, is presented for tracking a reference signal. The data losses in the control channel are compensated by a carefully designed transmission protocol, and that of the sensor channel by a dropout compensator. A class of saturated, disturbance feedback policies is proposed for control in the presence of noisy dropout compensation. A reference governor is employed to generate trackable reference trajectories and stability constraints are employed to ensure mean-square boundedness of the reference tracking error. The overall approach yields a computationally tractable quadratic program, which can be iteratively solved online