An unusual foreign body of esophagus

We report a rare case of an unusually long foreign body (Datun) impacted in the esophagus of a 56 year-old gentleman. He was literate, without any psychiatric illness and had been using “Neem” (Azadirachta indica) stick for cleaning his teeth for the past twenty years. Neem sticks are used for brushing teeth, perhaps one of the earliest and very effective dental care. On closer questioning he revealed his habit of passing the Neem stick into his throat with the aim of cleaning it too while cleaning his teeth. He presented to our emergency early in the morning with this strange long foreign body impacted in his esophagus which was removed successfully using a Jackson’s adult rigid oesophagoscope. We believe this to be the first case of such an unusually long foreign body to be reported in the literature

UTILIZATION OF E- WASTE AND PLASTIC BOTTLE WASTE IN CONCRETE

E-waste from electrical and electronic equipment, that may be old or might have reached end of life and plastic waste from plastic mineral and cold drink bottles were collected and grinded to size of 2 mm using pulverizing machine. The grinded pieces were rubbed against each other with friction roller machine designed and fabricated by the authors. It is done to develop roughness and make grinded pieces shape irregular so that they can bond well with cement when mixed with it. A mix design was done for M20 grade of concrete by IS method. Ordinary Portland cement of 43 grade was selected. Grinded E-waste and plastic waste were replaced by 0%, 2%, and 4% of the fine aggregates. Compressive strength and flexural strength were tested and compared with control concrete. Experiments done shows increase in compressive strength by 5% and reduce cost of concrete production by 7% at optimum percentage of grinded waste. Grinded waste greater than 4.75mm in certain proportion act as a good filler material in concrete and on-going experiments are done to apply gap gradation by grinding the waste into specific sizes. This will ensure better packing density and hence good strength. Moreover decorative tiles were made with the grinded waste and white cement which give appealing look to the wall and are cheaper than the vitrified tiles

The pressure-amorphized state in zirconium tungstate: a precursor to decomposition

In contrast to widely accepted view that pressure-induced amorphization arises due to kinetic hindrance of equilibrium phase transitions, here we provide evidence that the metastable pressure-amorphized state in zirconium tungstate is a precursor to decomposition of the compound into a mixture of simple oxides. This is from the volume collapse ΔV across amorphization, which is obtained for the first time by measuring linear dimensions of irreversibly amorphized samples during their recovery to the original cubic phase upon isochronal annealing up to 1000 K. The anomalously large ΔV of 25.7 ± 1.2% being the same as that expected for the decomposition indicates that this amorphous state is probably a precursor to kinetically hindered decomposition. A P–T diagram of the compound is also proposed

Sub-grid scale representation of vegetation in global land surface schemes: implications for estimation of the terrestrial carbon sink

Terrestrial ecosystem models commonly represent vegetation in terms of plant functional types (PFTs) and use their vegetation attributes in calculations of the energy and water balance as well as to investigate the terrestrial carbon cycle. Sub-grid scale variability of PFTs in these models is represented using different approaches with the "composite" and "mosaic" approaches being the two end-members. The impact of these two approaches on the global carbon balance has been investigated with the Canadian Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (CTEM v 1.2) coupled to the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS v 3.6). In the composite (single-tile) approach, the vegetation attributes of different PFTs present in a grid cell are aggregated and used in calculations to determine the resulting physical environmental conditions (soil moisture, soil temperature, etc.) that are common to all PFTs. In the mosaic (multi-tile) approach, energy and water balance calculations are performed separately for each PFT tile and each tile's physical land surface environmental conditions evolve independently. Pre-industrial equilibrium CLASS-CTEM simulations yield global totals of vegetation biomass, net primary productivity, and soil carbon that compare reasonably well with observation-based estimates and differ by less than 5% between the mosaic and composite configurations. However, on a regional scale the two approaches can differ by > 30%, especially in areas with high heterogeneity in land cover. Simulations over the historical period (1959–2005) show different responses to evolving climate and carbon dioxide concentrations from the two approaches. The cumulative global terrestrial carbon sink estimated over the 1959–2005 period (excluding land use change (LUC) effects) differs by around 5% between the two approaches (96.3 and 101.3 Pg, for the mosaic and composite approaches, respectively) and compares well with the observation-based estimate of 82.2 ± 35 Pg C over the same period. Inclusion of LUC causes the estimates of the terrestrial C sink to differ by 15.2 Pg C (16%) with values of 95.1 and 79.9 Pg C for the mosaic and composite approaches, respectively. Spatial differences in simulated vegetation and soil carbon and the manner in which terrestrial carbon balance evolves in response to LUC, in the two approaches, yields a substantially different estimate of the global land carbon sink. These results demonstrate that the spatial representation of vegetation has an important impact on the model response to changing climate, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, and land cover

MCV Truncated Large T antigen interacts with BRD4 in tumors.

Among Polyomaviridae family of viruses, Merkel Cell Polyomavirus (MCV) is the only human polyomavirus with convincing data supporting its classification as a direct causative agent of a human skin malignancy, Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Oncogenic transformation by MCV requires the integration of the viral genome into the human genome, truncation of the large T antigen (LT) to render the viral genome replication deficient and expression of small T antigen oncoprotein. The chromatin binding protein BRD4, was recently shown to transcriptionally regulate the expression of virus oncoproteins, thereby enhancing the tumorigenesis of virus-associated cancers, such as HPV associated cervical cancer. Previous work by Wang et al. revealed that BRD4 interacts with MCV full length LT during viral replication. In this study, we demonstrated that MCV truncated tumor LT antigen also interacts with BRD4 protein. We showed that the MCV tumor LT antigen and BRD4 protein complex co-localizes within the nucleus. Furthermore, we tested whether BRD4 protein transcriptionally regulates MCV Non Coding Control Region (NCCR), where we found that though full length LT and sT together, along with the BRD4 protein showed enhanced transcriptional activity whereas tumor truncated LT did not. These findings on the interactions of the MCV tumor truncated LT antigen with the BRD4 protein add to existing knowledge about interactions with LT and its role in tumorigenesis, and assist in efforts to more precisely define new therapy targets for this disease

Oral Pemphigus Vulgaris: Case Report

BACKGROUND: Pemphigus is a potentially life threatening autoimmune disease that causes blisters and erosions of the skin and the mucous membrane. The epithelial lesions are a result of auto-antibodies that react with desmosomal glycoproteins that are present on the cell surface of the keratinocyte. The autoimmune  reaction against these glycoproteins causes a loss of cell to cell adhesion, resulting in the formation of  intraepithelial bullae. Eighty to ninety percent of patients with pemphigus vulgaris develop oral lesions and in 60% of cases oral lesions are the first sign. Timely recognition and therapy of oral lesion is critical as it may prevent skin involvement. If treatment is instituted during this time, the disease is easier to control and the chance for an early remission of the disorder is enhanced.CASE DETAILS: This case report describes the case of a patient who complained of ulcers of the mouth and difficulty in swallowing since 20 days, who was diagnosed as having Pemphigus vulgaris. Due to early  diagnosis, lower doses of medication for a shorter period of time could control the disease.CONCLUSION: Dental professionals must be sufficiently familiar with the clinical manifestations of  pemphigus vulgaris to ensure early diagnosis and treatment which in turn determines the prognosis and course of the disease.KEYWORDS: Pemphigus, oral lesions, mucous membrane, chronic oral ulcers, pemphigus vulgari