Changes of smooth muscle contractile filaments in small bowel atresia

AIM: To investigate morphological changes of intestinal smooth muscle contractile fibres in small bowel atresia patients. METHODS: Resected small bowel specimens from small bowel atresia patients (n = 12) were divided into three sections (proximal, atretic and distal). Standard histology hematoxylin-eosin staining and enzyme immunohistochemistry was performed to visualize smooth muscle contractile markers α-smooth muscle actin (SMA) and desmin using conventional paraffin sections of the proximal and distal bowel. Small bowel from age-matched patients (n = 2) undergoing Meckel's diverticulum resection served as controls. RESULTS: The smooth muscle coat in the proximal bowel of small bowel atresia patients was thickened compared with control tissue, but the distal bowel was unchanged. Expression of smooth muscle contractile fibres SMA and desmin within the proximal bowel was slightly reduced compared with the distal bowel and control tissue. There were no major differences in the architecture of the smooth muscle within the proximal bowel and the distal bowel. The proximal and distal bowel in small bowel atresia patients revealed only minimal differences regarding smooth muscle morphology and the presence of smooth muscle contractile filament markers. CONCLUSION: Changes in smooth muscle contractile filaments do not appear to play a major role in postoperative motility disorders in small bowel atresia

In Silico profiling of deleterious amino acid substitutions of potential pathological importance in haemophlia A and haemophlia B

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In this study, instead of current biochemical methods, the effects of deleterious amino acid substitutions in <it>F8 and F9 </it>gene upon protein structure and function were assayed by means of computational methods and information from the databases. Deleterious substitutions of <it>F8 and F9 </it>are responsible for Haemophilia A and Haemophilia B which is the most common genetic disease of coagulation disorders in blood. Yet, distinguishing deleterious variants of <it>F8 and F9 </it>from the massive amount of nonfunctional variants that occur within a single genome is a significant challenge.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed an <it>in silico </it>analysis of deleterious mutations and their protein structure changes in order to analyze the correlation between mutation and disease. Deleterious nsSNPs were categorized based on empirical based and support vector machine based methods to predict the impact on protein functions. Furthermore, we modeled mutant proteins and compared them with the native protein for analysis of protein structure stability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 510 nsSNPs in <it>F8</it>, 378 nsSNPs (74%) were predicted to be 'intolerant' by SIFT, 371 nsSNPs (73%) were predicted to be 'damaging' by PolyPhen and 445 nsSNPs (87%) as 'less stable' by I-Mutant2.0. In <it>F9</it>, 129 nsSNPs (78%) were predicted to be intolerant by SIFT, 131 nsSNPs (79%) were predicted to be damaging by PolyPhen and 150 nsSNPs (90%) as less stable by I-Mutant2.0. Overall, we found that I-Mutant which emphasizes support vector machine based method outperformed SIFT and PolyPhen in prediction of deleterious nsSNPs in both <it>F8 </it>and <it>F9</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The models built in this work would be appropriate for predicting the deleterious amino acid substitutions and their functions in gene regulation which would be useful for further genotype-phenotype researches as well as the pharmacogenetics studies. These <it>in silico </it>tools, despite being helpful in providing information about the nature of mutations, may also function as a first-pass filter to determine the substitutions worth pursuing for further experimental research in other coagulation disorder causing genes.</p

Electronic Structure of Sr_2FeMoO_6

We have analysed the unusual electronic structure of Sr_2FeMoO_6 combining ab-initio and model Hamiltonian approaches. Our results indicate that there are strong enhancements of the intraatomic exchange strength at the Mo site as well as the antiferromagnetic coupling strength between Fe and Mo sites. We discuss the possibility of a negative effective Coulomb correlation strength (U_{eff}) at the Mo site due to these renormalised interaction strengths.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

PENGARUH BERAT ROLLER CVT (CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION) DAN VARIASI PUTARAN MESIN TERHADAP TORSI PADA YAMAHA MIO SPORTY TAHUN 2007

The purpose of this research are: (1) To know the effect of CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) roller weight to torque on Yamaha Mio Sporty 2007, (2) To know the effect of variation of engine rotations to torque on Yamaha Mio Sporty 2007, (3) To know the effect of interaction between CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) roller weight and variation of engine rotations to torque on Yamaha Mio Sporty 2007. The research used experimental methods and the types of quantitative research. Data of analysis used two-way analysis of variance (Anova), which is the prerequisite tests previously performed tests of normality (Liliefors test) and tests of homogeneity (Bartlett test), then performed multiple comparison tests (Scheffe test) is done. Based the research can conclude that: (1) There are an effect of CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) roller weight to torque on Yamaha Mio Sporty of 2007. (2) There are an effect of variation of engine rotations to torque on Yamaha Mio Sporty 2007. (3) There are an effect interaction between CVT (continuously variable transmission) roller weight and variation of engine rotations to torque on Yamaha Mio Sporty 2007. Maximum torque is 3.95 N.m, obtained from CVT roller weight 8.5 gr with engine rotations at 6000 RPM. Keywords: CVT roller weight, engine rotation, engine torqu

Customized Semantic Segmentation for Enhanced Disease Detection of Maize Leaf Images

Maize leaf images are affected by various diseases. Though many image processing techniques are available to identify diseased segment of a diseased maize leaf image proper methodology to segment every chunk in the leaf as disease, shadow, healthy and background using a single methodology is still in search of. So, a single line of attack is availed using Semantic Segmentation for diseased maize Leaf images through which every pixel in an image is equated to a class. Initially multiple classes in the maize leaf images are Labeled and trained. ImagedataStore and PixelLabelDatastore are used to distinguish original images and trained images. With different classes defined and trained using the Semanticseg model and later applying semantic segmentation to the diseased maize leaf images they are segmented into various classes such as healthy, diseased, shadow and background. The shadows and background are difficult to handle and with this segmentation the exact pixel count of various classes are displayed. The output of semantic segmentation is a maize Leaf image where each pixel is equated to a particular class whereas in normal CNN the output is not an image but a class

Emerging drugs for sickle cell anemia.

INTRODUCTION: The search for effective therapeutic interventions for sickle cell disease (SCD) has been an ongoing endeavor for over 50 years. During this period, only hydroxyurea (HU), which received US FDA approval in February 1998, was identified as an effective therapeutic agent in preventing or ameliorating the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises, acute chest syndrome and the need for blood transfusion. Approximately 25% of patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA), however, do not respond to HU and some patients experiencing serious side effects of this chemotherapeutic agent. Nevertheless, the success of HU opened the sluice gates to identify other effective drug therapies. The objective of this review is to describe the emerging drug therapies for SCA. AREAS COVERED: In this review, we describe the pathophysiology of SCD and provide an in-depth analysis of the current and new pharmacologic therapies in the field. Literature searches involved multiple databases including Medline In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Scopus. EXPERT OPINION: SCA is a heterogeneous disease that has caused tremendous global morbidity and early mortality. More effective, individualized and inexpensive therapies are needed. New therapies targeting multiple pathways in its complex pathophysiology are under investigation

Understanding the bulk electronic structure of Ca1-xSrxVO3

We investigate the electronic structure of Ca1-xSrxVO3 using careful state-of-the-art experiments and calculations. Photoemission spectra using synchrotron radiation reveal a hitherto unnoticed polarization dependence of the photoemission matrix elements for the surface component leading to a substantial suppression of its intensity. Bulk spectra extracted with the help of experimentally determined electron escape depth and estimated suppression of surface contributions resolve outstanding puzzles concerning the electronic structure in Ca1-xSrxVO3.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure