966 research outputs found
Fetal gender determination through Y-STR analysis of maternal plasma during the third trimester of pregnancy
Background: The passage of nucleated cells between mother and fetus is well recognized (Lo et al., 1989, 1996). As well as, cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma or serum is at present widely investigated as a source of fetal genetic material (Stanghellini et al., 2006) [18]. There has been much recent interest in the use of DNA derived from plasma or serum (Boland, 1996). This DNA can be utilized for molecular diagnosis as well as prenatal sex discernment.Objective: To establish an easy, reliable, and completely safe method for fetal gender determination alternative to conventional exhausting current techniques applied in gynecologic hospitals and clinics, besides its further applications in forensic casework.Methods: EDTA-Blood samples were taken from 30 pregnant women all in the third trimester of pregnancy, then plasma was separated from each sample, from which DNA was isolated using a QIAamp DNA Mini Kit, with special modifications done in the extracting procedure to concentrate and obtain minute quantities of fetal DNA, together with maternal DNA, from maternal plasma. In addition, bloodstain samples were taken from the husbands of women who were pregnant with male fetuses from which DNA was isolated using a QIAamp DNA Micro Kit for comparison. DNA quantification was done using a Real-time PCR utilizing Quantifiler Duo Kit. PCR was done using an AmpFlSTR Y-Filer Kit, then amplified products were typed using a 3130 Genetic Analyzer.Results: Full and partial Y-STR profiles (6–17 STR loci) were obtained from all plasma samples taken from pregnant women with male fetuses, while negative Y-STR profiles (no single STR locus) were obtained from all plasma samples taken from pregnant women with female fetuses.Conclusion: It is recommended to use Y-STR profiling as an alternative technique for fetal gender determination during the third trimester of pregnancy, in addition to its significance in forensic casework.Keywords: Fetal gender; Maternal plasma; Y-STR analysis; Pregnancy; Forensic casewor
Preoperative predictors of death and sustained ventricular tachycardia after pulmonary valve replacement in patients with repaired tetralogy of fallot enrolled in the INDICATOR Cohort
Background -Risk factors for adverse clinical outcomes have been identified in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) before pulmonary valve replacement (PVR). However, pre-PVR predictors for post-PVR sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) and death have not been identified. Methods -Patients with rTOF enrolled in the INDICATOR cohort-a 4-center international cohort study- who had a comprehensive preoperative evaluation and subsequently underwent PVR were included. Pre-procedural clinical, electrocardiogram, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), and postoperative outcome data were analyzed. Cox proportional hazards multivariable regression analysis was used to evaluate factors associated with time from pre-PVR CMR until the primary outcome-death, aborted sudden cardiac death, or sustained VT. Results -Of the 452 eligible patients (median age at PVR 25.8 years), 36 (8%) reached the primary outcome (27 deaths, 2 resuscitated death, and 7 sustained VT) at a median time after PVR of 6.5 years. Cox proportional hazards regression identified pre-PVR right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction < 40% (hazard ratio [HR] 2.39; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18 to 4.85; P = 0.02), RV mass-to-volume ratio ≥ 0.45 g/mL (HR 4.08; 95%, CI 1.57 to 10.6; P = 0.004), and age at PVR ≥ 28 years (HR 3.10; 95% CI 1.42 to 6.78; P = 0.005) as outcome predictors. In a subgroup analysis of 230 patients with Doppler data, predicted RV systolic pressure ≥40 mm Hg was associated with the primary outcome (HR 3.42; 95% CI 1.09 to 10.7; P = 0.04). Preoperative predictors of a composite secondary outcome-postoperative arrhythmias and heart failure-included older age at PVR, pre-PVR atrial tachyarrhythmias, and a higher left ventricular end-systolic volume index. Conclusions -In this observational investigation of patients with rTOF, an older age at PVR and pre-PVR RV hypertrophy and dysfunction were predictive of shorter time to postoperative death and sustained VT. These findings may inform the timing of PVR if confirmed by prospective clinical trials
The Accelerations of Stars Orbiting the Milky Way's Central Black Hole
Recent measurements, of the velocities of stars near the center of the Milky
Way have provided the strongest evidence for the presence of a supermassive
black hole in a galaxy, but the observational uncertainties poorly constrain
many of the properties of the black hole. Determining the accelerations of
stars in their orbits around the center provides much more precise information
about the position and mass of the black hole. Here we report measurements of
the accelerations for three stars located ~0.005 pc from the central radio
source Sgr A*; these accelerations are comparable to those experienced by the
Earth as it orbits the Sun. These data increase the inferred minimum mass
density in the central region of the Galaxy by an order of magnitude relative
to previous results and localized the dark mass to within 0.05 +- 0.04 arcsec
of the nominal position of Sgr A*. In addition, the orbital period of one of
the observed stars could be as short as 15 years, allowing us the opportunity
in the near future to observe an entire period.Comment: To appear in September 21 2000 issue of Natur
Un-oriented Quiver Theories for Majorana Neutrons
In the context of un-oriented open string theories, we identify quivers
whereby a Majorana mass for the neutron is indirectly generated by exotic
instantons. We discuss two classes of (Susy) Standard Model like quivers,
depending on the embedding of SU(2)_W in the Chan-Paton group. In both cases,
the main mechanism involves a vector-like pair mixing through a
non-perturbative mass term. We also discuss possible relations between the
phenomenology of Neutron-Antineutron oscillations and LHC physics in these
models. In particular, a vector-like pair of color-triplet scalars or
color-triplet fermions could be directly detected at LHC, compatibly with
n-\bar{n} limits. Finally we briefly comment on Pati-Salam extensions of our
models.Comment: More comments on phenomenology and fluxes, Re-discussion of
SM-quivers compatible with n-cycles conditions Version accepted by JHE
Macrophage-derived human resistin is induced in multiple helminth infections and promotes inflammatory monocytes and increased parasite burden.
Parasitic helminth infections can be associated with lifelong morbidity such as immune-mediated organ failure. A better understanding of the host immune response to helminths could provide new avenues to promote parasite clearance and/or alleviate infection-associated morbidity. Murine resistin-like molecules (RELM) exhibit pleiotropic functions following helminth infection including modulating the host immune response; however, the relevance of human RELM proteins in helminth infection is unknown. To examine the function of human resistin (hResistin), we utilized transgenic mice expressing the human resistin gene (hRetnTg+). Following infection with the helminth Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb), hResistin expression was significantly upregulated in infected tissue. Compared to control hRetnTg- mice, hRetnTg+ mice suffered from exacerbated Nb-induced inflammation characterized by weight loss and increased infiltration of inflammatory monocytes in the lung, along with elevated Nb egg burdens and delayed parasite expulsion. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of the infected tissue revealed that hResistin promoted expression of proinflammatory cytokines and genes downstream of toll-like receptor signaling. Moreover, hResistin preferentially bound lung monocytes, and exogenous treatment of mice with recombinant hResistin promoted monocyte recruitment and proinflammatory cytokine expression. In human studies, increased serum resistin was associated with higher parasite load in individuals infected with soil-transmitted helminths or filarial nematode Wuchereria bancrofti, and was positively correlated with proinflammatory cytokines. Together, these studies identify human resistin as a detrimental factor induced by multiple helminth infections, where it promotes proinflammatory cytokines and impedes parasite clearance. Targeting the resistin/proinflammatory cytokine immune axis may provide new diagnostic or treatment strategies for helminth infection and associated immune-mediated pathology
Promising Technologies for dry land Agriculture
Not AvailableNatural Resource Management has important research agenda in view of
the climate change, degradation of land and declining productivity in
greenrevolution areas. Efficient methods of soil and rain water conservation and
water harvesting become important areas of dryland agriculture research to achieve
sustainability. Variation in crop yields is more in dry lands due to non receipt of
timely rainfall and prolonged dry spells during crop periods. Adoption of soil and
moisture conservation measures and improved management practices will help in
getting higher yields.A large number of location specific practices for insitu moisture
conservation, water harvesting and supplemental irrigation have been developed
and tested successfully at All India Co-ordinated Research Project for Dryland
Agriculture (AICRPDA), Agricultural Research Station, Ananthapuramu.
Dryland Agriculture occupies a prominent place in rural livelihoods of
Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh out of 92.04 lakh ha of cultivable land an area
of 34.56 lakh ha is under rainfed agriculture, mainly in scarce rainfall and southern
agro climatic zones.
AICRPDA, ARS, Ananthapuramu is continuing efforts to generate location
specific technologies in the areas of rain water management, integrated nutrient
management, cropping systems, farming systems, alternate land use and energy
management.Not Availabl
Non-standard interactions versus non-unitary lepton flavor mixing at a neutrino factory
The impact of heavy mediators on neutrino oscillations is typically described
by non-standard four-fermion interactions (NSIs) or non-unitarity (NU). We
focus on leptonic dimension-six effective operators which do not produce
charged lepton flavor violation. These operators lead to particular
correlations among neutrino production, propagation, and detection non-standard
effects. We point out that these NSIs and NU phenomenologically lead, in fact,
to very similar effects for a neutrino factory, for completely different
fundamental reasons. We discuss how the parameters and probabilities are
related in this case, and compare the sensitivities. We demonstrate that the
NSIs and NU can, in principle, be distinguished for large enough effects at the
example of non-standard effects in the --sector, which basically
corresponds to differentiating between scalars and fermions as heavy mediators
as leading order effect. However, we find that a near detector at superbeams
could provide very synergistic information, since the correlation between
source and matter NSIs is broken for hadronic neutrino production, while NU is
a fundamental effect present at any experiment.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures. Final version published in JHEP. v3: Typo in Eq.
(27) correcte
Attenuation of Toll-Like Receptor Expression and Function in Latent Tuberculosis by Coexistent Filarial Infection with Restoration Following Antifilarial Chemotherapy
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and filarial coinfection is highly prevalent, and the presence of filarial infections may regulate the Toll-like receptor (TLR)-dependent immune response needed to control Mtb infection. By analyzing the baseline and mycobacterial antigen–stimulated expression of TLR1, 2, 4, and 9 (in individuals with latent tuberculosis [TB] with or without filarial infection), we were able to demonstrate that filarial infection, coincident with Mtb, significantly diminishes both baseline and Mtb antigen-specific TLR2 and TLR9 expression. In addition, pro-inflammatory cytokine responses to TLR2 and 9 ligands are significantly diminished in filaria/TB-coinfected individuals. Definitive treatment of lymphatic filariasis significantly restores the pro-inflammatory cytokine responses in individuals with latent TB. Coincident filarial infection exerted a profound inhibitory effect on protective mycobacteria-specific TLR-mediated immune responses in latent tuberculosis and suggests a novel mechanism by which concomitant filarial infections predispose to the development of active tuberculosis in humans
Enhancing lepton flavour violation in the supersymmetric inverse seesaw beyond the dipole contribution
In minimal supersymmetric models the -penguin usually provides
sub-dominant contributions to charged lepton flavour violating observables. In
this study, we consider the supersymmetric inverse seesaw in which the
non-minimal particle content allows for dominant contributions of the
-penguin to several lepton flavour violating observables. In particular, and
due to the low-scale (TeV) seesaw, the penguin contribution to, for instance,
\Br(\mu \to 3e) and conversion in nuclei, allows to render some of
these observables within future sensitivity reach. Moreover, we show that in
this framework, the -penguin exhibits the same non-decoupling behaviour
which had previously been identified in flavour violating Higgs decays in the
Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables; v2: minor corrections, version to
appear in JHE
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