Indian Schistosomes: A Need for Further Investigations

India is uniquely positioned with regard to schistosomes and schistosomiasis—discovering seven new mammalian species with the existence of three more schistosome species: Orientobilharzia turkestanicum, O. harinasutai, and Schistosoma haematobium(?). An endemic focus of urinary schistosomiasis was reported from Gimvi village of Ratnagiri, Maharashtra with infrequent occurrence of schistosome eggs in human stools. Cercarial dermatitis has been reported to be more abundant in rural population using ponds, tanks, and so forth, for their domestic purposes. Few dermatitis cases were tested positive by CHR. Schistosome antigen was also detected in urine of five cases suggesting existence of active schistosomiasis in India. Nevertheless, human kind does not appear to be the usual host for Indian schistosomes in contrast to S. haematobium, S. mansoni, or S. japonicum. Various reasons for this phenomenon are discussed including evolution of Indian schistosomes, immune mechanisms, and environmental conditions. These and other aspects such as seasonal effect on the prevalence, snail infectivity, heterologous mating, existence of hybrids, and number of schistosomes in heterologous infections need further investigations with application of molecular techniques. Joint efforts by the national as well as international scientific community would be much more rewarding for better understanding of the parasite and the infection

High frequency occurrence of single cotyledonary embryo morphotype and repetitive somatic embryogenesis in ‘Thompson Seedless’ crossed with seven grapevine male parents

Direct somatic embryogenesis was observed in zygotic embryos rescued from intra- and inter-specific crosses between ‘Thompson Seedless’ and seven male parents of grapevine when the embryos were cultured on Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with benzyladenine (1 μM). Repetitive somatic embryogenesis occurred on the same medium, which also supported a high percentage of embryo maturation, germination and plantlet development. The cultures retained embryogenic potential for more than two years. We observed a high frequency occurrence of monocotyledonous embryo morphotype and other morphological variations in somatic embryos of all the crosses. The percentage of embryos having mono-, di-, tri-, multiple and abnormal cotyledons varied among the crosses. The overall percentage of monocot embryos was 35.50 %, as against 38.64 % of dicot embryos, while the germination rates for mono- and dicot- embryos were 24.44 % and 24.15 %, respectively. Shoot development was poor in tri- and multiple-cotyledonary embryos, while there was no shoot formation in abnormal embryos. We assume that the relatively high occurrence of single cotyledonary morphotype may be due to the repetitive exposure of embryogenic tissues to a medium containing benzyladenine

Space astronomy and interplanetary exploration

A brief overview of Indian contributions to space astronomy and planetary studies, mainly through the satellite-borne experiments is presented in this article. Some important results obtained in X-ray and low energy gamma-ray astronomy are summarized. Highlights of the salient results from lunar explorations are discussed. Important features of the Indian multi-wave length astronomy satellite, Astrosat and expected science from it are described. Details of the Chandrayaan-1 mission and studies initiated by the Indian Space Research Organization aimed at various aspects of lunar science are presented

Life threatening severe Influenza A Virus (H1N1) infection in Pregnancy

ABSTRACT: H1N1 influenza is an emerging threat that is life threatening to pregnant women in the third trimester. Pregnant women are a high-risk group for morbidity and mortality from influenza (H1N1). During the current pandemic of H1N1 influenza, few cases of H1N1 have been reported in pregnancy. We report a case of H1N1 influenza in a 23-year old female with 28 weeks of gestation, who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, required mechanical ventilation and eventually recovered. KEYWORDS: H1N1; Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome; Pregnancy; InfluenzaInternet Journal of Medical Update 2012 January;7(1):73-7

Multiple hydrodynamical shocks induced by Raman effect in photonic crystal fibres

We theoretically predict the occurrence of multiple hydrodynamical-like shock phenomena in the propagation of ultrashort intense pulses in a suitably engineered photonic crystal fiber. The shocks are due to the Raman effect, which acts as a nonlocal term favoring their generation in the focusing regime. It is shown that the problem is mapped to shock formation in the presence of a slope and a gravity-like potential. The signature of multiple shocks in XFROG signals is unveiled

Separation & Quantitative Determination of Be(II) & Ce(IV) with N-m-Tolylm-nitrobenzohydroxamic Acid

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