Incidence of ambicolouration in the Malabar tonguesole, <em>Cynoglossus macrostomus</em> (Norman, 1928) collected off Chapora, Goa, central west coast of India

49-51The present report describes the incidence of ambicolouration in the Malabar tonguesole, Cynoglossus macrostomus (Norman, 1928) collected at a depth of 20 m off Chapora, Goa, central west coast of India. The ambicolourate specimen was 130 mm in total length and appeared to be normal on the ocular side except ambicolouration (~65%) on the blind side of the body. Radiographs revealed no skeletal and scaling anomalies between normal and ambicolourate specimens

Self-assembly mechanism in colloids: perspectives from Statistical Physics

Motivated by recent experimental findings in chemical synthesis of colloidal particles, we draw an analogy between self-assembly processes occurring in biological systems (e.g. protein folding) and a new exciting possibility in the field of material science. We consider a self-assembly process whose elementary building blocks are decorated patchy colloids of various types, that spontaneously drive the system toward a unique and predetermined targeted macroscopic structure. To this aim, we discuss a simple theoretical model -- the Kern-Frenkel model -- describing a fluid of colloidal spherical particles with a pre-defined number and distribution of solvophobic and solvophilic regions on their surface. The solvophobic and solvophilic regions are described via a short-range square-well and a hard-sphere potentials, respectively. Integral equation and perturbation theories are presented to discuss structural and thermodynamical properties, with particular emphasis on the computation of the fluid-fluid (or gas-liquid) transition in the temperature-density plane. The model allows the description of both one and two attractive caps, as a function of the fraction of covered attractive surface, thus interpolating between a square-well and a hard-sphere fluid, upon changing the coverage. By comparison with Monte Carlo simulations, we assess the pros and the cons of both integral equation and perturbation theories in the present context of patchy colloids, where the computational effort for numerical simulations is rather demanding.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, Special issue for the SigmaPhi2011 conferenc

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Efficacy of Fungicides, Bioagents and Phytoextracts against Alternaria carthami of Safflower in In Vitro Condition

Safflower leaf spot / blight caused by Alternaria carthami (Chowdhury) is serious diseases in India. Considering the economic importance and seriousness of the disease, the present cost effective management practices against the test pathogen present in vitro studies were conducted during 2012-13. All the experiments were planned with CRD and all the treatments replicated thrice. A total six systemic fungicides @ 500, 1000 and 1500 ppm concentration and seven non-systemic / combi fungicides @ 1000, 2000 and 2500 ppm concentrations was evaluated in vitro against A. carthami, applying Poisoned food technique (Nene and Thapliyal, 1993). Results of the present studies revealed that systemic fungicides most effective than non-systemic against the test pathogen. Among systemic fungicides, average cent per cent inhibition of mycelial growth was observed in Hexaconazole (100 %), followed by Propiconazole (94.07 %) and Penconazole (94.75 %); Among non-systemic and combi- fungicides, significantly highest average mycelial growth inhibition was observed in Carbendazim 12 WP + Mancozeb 63 WP (85.80 %), followed by Mancozeb (82.59 %) and Copper-oxychloride (76.65 %). Among bioagents tested T. viride recorded significantly highest mycelial growth inhibition (87.04 %) of the test pathogen, followed by T. harzianum (82.59 %) and T. koningii (78.89 %). Among botanicals A. sativum was found most fungistatic and recorded significantly highest average mycelial growth inhibition 88.33 %, followed by A. indica (78.58 %), O. sanctum (73.83 %) and E. globulus (66.05 %)

RAPD Based Molecular Diversity Analysis of Different Alternaria carthami Isolates of Safflower in Maharashtra

Genetic diversity in safflower blight pathogen (Alternaria carthami) was analyzed using 20 isolates collected from major safflower growing regions of Maharashtra state in India. Experiment was conducted at Department of Agricultural Bioatechnology, College of Agriculture, Latur, VNMKV, Parbhani (M.S.). Genomic DNA extracted from each isolates of Alternaria carthami was subjected to polymerase chain reaction using 20 random decamer primers from OPA series. Only 08 of the 20 RAPD primers were selected based on repeatability. Result revealed that 100 per cent polymorphism were found. The dendrogram analysis revealed two clusters, Cluster I comprised twelve isolates viz., Ac-1, Ac-8, Ac-4, Ac-5, Ac-7, Ac-11, Ac-18, Ac-15, Ac-17, Ac-9, Ac-20 and Ac-19 with similarity coefficient of 77 per cent. Cluster II comprised of eight isolates viz., Ac-2, Ac-3, Ac-6, Ac-13, Ac-12, Ac-14, Ac-10 and Ac-16 with similarity coefficient of 76 per cent

Total phenolic content and in-vitro antioxidant activities from methanolic extract of alligator pipefish, Syngnathoides biaculeatus (Bloch, 1785)

1352-1357Alligator pipefish, Syngnathoides biaculeatus (Bloch, 1785) is one of the heavily traded and expensive ingredient in traditional Chinese medicines and there were no reports on its antioxidant activities. Total phenolic content (TPC) and in-vitro antioxidant activities in terms of reducing power (RP), metal chelating activity (MCA), 2,2 diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), inhibition of lipid peroxidation (LPX) and hydroxyl radical scavenging (HRS) activity were evaluated at extract concentrations ranging between 200 and 800 µg. Levels of TPC, RP, MCA, DPPH scavenging, FRAP, LPX and HRS activity measured was 19.81±1.10 to 64.04±0.45 mg gallic acid g-1 dried extract, from 0.16 to 0.31 Abs, from 6.20±0.21% to 29.33±1.73%, from 16.59±0.01 to 40.21±0.02%, from 75.46±0.90 to 167.25±0.41 mg ascorbic acid g-1 dried extract, from 54.59±1.5% to 84.28±3.5% and from 84.89±0.26 to 91.02±0.01%, respectively. Significant correlation (P<0.05) between TPC and other antioxidant properties confirm the antioxidant potential of S. biaculeatus. Results of this study would form a baseline information on the antioxidant potential of alligator pipefish

Моделювання біосенсора у вигляді циліндричного кремнієвого нанодроту на основі польового транзистора: вплив довжини і радіусу нанодроту

In the present report, we have simulated the FET based silicon nanowire biosensor and studied the effect of nanowire length and radius on the different functional characteristics of the silicon nanowire biosensor. We have used BioSensorLab open source simulation tool for the present investigation. Particularly, we have studied the effect of nanowire length and radius on conductance modulation with respect to target molecule density, conductance modulation with respect to buffer ion concentration, nanowire surface potential with respect to pH, signal to noise ratio (SNR) with respect to receptor density, settling time with respect to analyte concentration and density of captured molecule with respect to detection time. We have taken into account the electrostatic interaction between receptor molecules and target biomolecules, which is based on the Diffusion-Capture model. The results suggested that the higher conductance modulation can be achieved at the higher target molecule density with a larger radius of the silicon nanowire. On the other hand, maximum conductance modulation is observed at the lower radius of the silicon nanowire with lower buffer ion concentration. The simulation results suggested that the surface potential of the nanowire tends to decrease as the pH increases for both cases (nanowire length and radius). No significant effect on the signal to noise ratio due to the change in the nanowire length and radius was observed. It is observed that the nanowire length does not affect the settling time; however, change in the nanowire radius shows the significant effect on the settling time. In the nutshell, the nanowire length and radius significantly affect the performance parameters of the FET based silicon nanowire biosensor.У даній статті ми моделювали біосенсор у вигляді кремнієвого нанодроту на основі польового транзистора і вивчали вплив довжини та радіусу нанодроту на різні функціональні характеристики біосенсора. Для цього дослідження ми використали інструмент моделювання BioSensorLab з відкритим вихідним кодом. Зокрема, ми вивчали вплив довжини і радіусу нанодоту на модуляцію провідності по відношенню до щільності молекул-мішеней, модуляцію провідності щодо концентрації буферних іонів, варіацію потенціалу поверхні нанодроту щодо рН, зміну відношення сигнал/шум щодо щільності рецептора, варіацію часу осадження щодо концентрації і зміну щільності захопленої молекули щодо часу виявлення. Ми взяли до уваги електростатичну взаємодію між молекулами рецептора і біомолекулами-мішенями, що базується на моделі дифузійного захоплення. Результати показали, що більш високу модуляцію провідності можна досягти при більш високій щільності молекул-мішеней з більшим радіусом кремнієвого нанодроту. З іншого боку, максимальна модуляція провідності спостерігається при меншому радіусі кремнієвого нанодроту з меншою концентрацією буферних іонів. Результати моделювання показали, що поверхневий потенціал нанодроту має тенденцію до зменшення, оскільки величина рН зростає в обох випадках (довжина і радіус нано-дроту). У свою чергу, істотного впливу на відношення сигнал/шум через зміну довжини і радіусу нанодроту не спостерігалося. Було також виявлено, що довжина нанодроту не впливає на час осадження, проте на нього значним чином впливає зміна радіуса нанодроту. Таким чином, довжина і радіус нанодроту суттєво впливають на робочі параметри біосенсора на базі польового транзистора

Not Available

Not AvailableThe important reason for investigating an outbreak is to identify the source of ongoing outbreaks and prevent subsequent cases thereby controlling the disease. The present study highlighting the investigation of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in organized cattle and pig farm at Mannuthy, Kerala was done between January and March 2013. A total of 14 serum samples from cattle, 30 serum samples from pigs along with 7 snout epithelial samples from pigs were collected. In 3AB non-structural protein (NSP) ELISA, 92.85% cattle and 43.33% pig sera were found positive indicating high to moderate virus activity in the animals. All serum samples were also subjected to liquid phase blocking (LPB) ELISA to assess the level of protective antibody titre against FMD virus (FMDV) serotypes O, A and Asia 1, where 64.28% cattle and 23.33% pigs were found to have protective log10 antibody titre of >1.8 against all three serotypes. This indicates poor herd immunity against FMDV in pigs and moderate in case of cattle. Further, 4 snout epithelial samples from pigs were found to be positive for serotype O in serotype differentiating antigen detection ELISA and 3 were subsequently found positive in multiplex PCR. In VP1 region based phylogenetic analysis, the serotype O isolates clustered within ‘Ind2001’ lineage. Poor level of herd immunity might have been one of the contributing factors behind the outbreak in the farm.Not Availabl