ERRATUM TO: MOLECULAR AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF COSTUS PICTUS D. DON PLANTS ORIGINALLY OBTAINED FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF KERALA, INDIA

[Reference: JAFS, Vol 2(2), 141, November 2016

TAXONOMIC, MOLECULAR AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF COSTUS PICTUS D. DON PLANTS ORIGINALLY OBTAINED FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF KERALA, INDIA

Costus pictus D. Don is known to have antidiabetic property, and its leaves are traditionally consumed (2-3, twice a day) for the management of diabetes. The plant is popularly known as “insulin plant†and it was introduced in India only recently. However, it is already cultivated in home gardens throughout Kerala. The objectives of this study were to identify and characterize the newly introduced Costus pictus on the basis of a large number of morphological, molecular (RAPD analyses), and selected physiological (gas and water vapour exchange) characteristics. The results of this study confirm that the three accessions of Costus pictus originally collected from different populations growing in south, middle and north Kerala belong to the same gene pool. These findings will be useful marker for the further exploitation of C. pictus scientifically.  Â

Study of Birth-Death Processes with Immigration

Birth-death processes are applied in the modelling of many biological populations, such as tumour cells and viruses. Various studies have established that birth-death processes, which occur when the population size is zero, are not in-line with reality in many situations. Therefore, in this study, the birth-death processes with immigration were investigated. We considered two immigration policies. First, immigration is allowed if and only if the population size is zero. Second, immigration at a constant rate is allowed irrespective of the population size. Birth and death rates were chosen such that the mean population size is a Gompertz function when the immigration rate is zero. The transient population size probability was obtained for both cases. Several tumour growth datasets were fitted using the mean population size of the above models and standard birth-death model without immigration. The two models with immigration provided entirely different probabilities of the population size being zero at an arbitrary epoch when compared with the model without immigration. Moreover, all three models provided a similar fit to the data. For each of the datasets studied, the models that allowed immigration produced less variance than the non-immigration model

Optimization and characterization of silver nanoparticle synthesis from the microalgae, Isochrysis galbana

The present study was aimed to carry out a green synthesis of Silver Nano Particless by using marine micro algae and its characterization by SEM, EDAX, Particle analyzer and Zeta potential. Microalgae samples (Isochrysis galbana and Nannochloropsis sp.) were collected from phytoplankton laboratory, Tuticorin Research Centre of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute. The culture media of I. galbana and Nannochloropsis sp. were taken for the preliminary synthesis of SNPs. Hence, Nannochloropsis sp. was not synthesized for its SNPs, I. galbana was selected for further study. Culture media, cell filtrate and supernatant of I. galbana were subjected to the SNPs synthesis in order to find out the maximum yield of silver with low chloride content. Among these, the supernatant of I. galbana showed maximum yield with low chloride content. It was confirmed by colorimetric reading at 450 nm. Synthesized SNPs from I. galbana contained 80.68% of silver and 15.25% of chloride as detected by EDAX analysis. Size of the SNPs was analyzed by particle analyzer and ranged from 16.6 to 205.3 nm and average size was 40.6 nm. Zeta potential of SNPs from I. galbana was -44.0 mV, which reveals the high stability of SNPs. This is the first authenticated work of I. galbana with respect to complete characterization of its SNPs

ON THE UPLINK-DOWNLINK DUALITY FOR GAUSSIAN VECTOR CHANNELS WITH COLORED NOISE AND APPLICATIONS TO CDMA TRANSMITTER ADAPTATION

ABSTRACT In this paper we study the uplink-downlink duality for Gaussian vector channels with colored noise, and we derive the duality transformations (downlink-to-uplink and vice versa) that imply transmit covariance matrices for which user rates in uplink and downlink are identical. These transformations are then applied for transmitter adaptation in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems to obtain an ensemble of downlink CDMA codewords from an optimal ensemble of uplink codewords

RecombinantWolbachia surface protein (WSP)-induced T cell responses in Wuchereria bancrofti infections

Human lymphatic filariasis is a debilitating parasitic disease characterized by downregulation of the host’s immune response in asymptomatic carriers along with profound hyperreactivity in chronic patients apart from putatively immune endemic normals. The endosymbiont Wolbachia, a bacterium of filarial nematodes has received much attention as possible chemotherapeutic target and its involvement in disease pathogenesis. The role of recombinant Wolbachia surface protein (rWSP), one of the most abundantly expressed proteins of the endosymbiont, in modulating cell-mediated immune responses in patients harboring Wuchereria bancrofti infections was evaluated in the current study. rWSP-induced lymphoproliferation with peripheral blood mononuclear cells suggested an impaired proliferative response in asymptomatic microfilaremic (MF) and symptomatic chronic pathology (CP) patients compared to endemic normals (EN). This was further supported by a significantly diminished expression of CD69 along with elevated levels of CD127 and CD62L in filarial patients (MF and CP) compared to EN. Further, rWSP induced the expression of regulatory T cell markers CTLA-4 and CD25 along with suppressor cytokines IL-10 and TGF-β in MF and CP patients compared to EN. However, the rWSP-stimulated expression of IFN-γ was diminished significantly in filarial patients compared to endemic normals. Thus, these findings suggest that WSP may also contribute to the suppression of immune responses seen in filarial patients

Biochemical Characterization and Evaluation of a Brugia malayi Small Heat Shock Protein as a Vaccine against Lymphatic Filariasis

Filarial nematodes enjoy one of the longest life spans of any human pathogen due to effective immune evasion strategies developed by the parasite. Among the various immune evasion strategies exhibited by the parasite, Interleukin 10 (IL-10) productions and IL-10 mediated immune suppression has significant negative impact on the host immune system. Recently, we identified a small heat shock protein expressed by Brugia malayi (BmHsp12.6) that can bind to soluble human IL-10 receptor alpha (IL-10R) and activate IL-10 mediated effects in cell lines. In this study we show that the IL-10R binding region of BmHsp12.6 is localized to its N-terminal region. This region has significant sequence similarity to the receptor binding region of human IL-10. In vitro studies confirm that the N-terminal region of BmHsp12.6 (N-BmHsp12.6) has IL-10 like activity and the region containing the alpha crystalline domain and C-terminus of BmHsp12.6 (BmHsp12.6αc) has no IL-10 like activity. However, BmHsp12.6αc contains B cell, T cell and CTL epitopes. Members of the sHSP families are excellent vaccine candidates. Evaluation of sera samples from putatively immune endemic normal (EN) subjects showed IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies against BmHsp12.6αc and these antibodies were involved in the ADCC mediated protection. Subsequent vaccination trials with BmHsp12.6αc in a mouse model using a heterologous prime boost approach showed that 83% protection can be achieved against B. malayi L3 challenge. Results presented in this study thus show that the N-BmHsp12.6 subunit of BmHsp12.6 has immunoregulatory function, whereas, the BmHsp12.6αc subunit of BmHsp12.6 has significant vaccine potential

Early Life Child Micronutrient Status, Maternal Reasoning, and a Nurturing Household Environment have Persistent Influences on Child Cognitive Development at Age 5 years : Results from MAL-ED

Funding Information: The Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development Project (MAL-ED) is carried out as a collaborative project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foundation for the NIH, and the National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center. This work was also supported by the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health (D43-TW009359 to ETR). Author disclosures: BJJM, SAR, LEC, LLP, JCS, BK, RR, RS, ES, LB, ZR, AM, RS, BN, SH, MR, RO, ETR, and LEM-K, no conflicts of interest. Supplemental Tables 1–5 and Supplemental Figures 1–3 are available from the “Supplementary data” link in the online posting of the article and from the same link in the online table of contents at https://academic.oup.com/jn/. Address correspondence to LEM-K (e-mail: [email protected]). Abbreviations used: HOME, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment inventory; MAL-ED, The Etiology, Risk Factors, and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development Project; TfR, transferrin receptor; WPPSI, Wechsler Preschool Primary Scales of Intelligence.Peer reviewe

Early life child micronutrient status, maternal reasoning, and a nurturing household environment have persistent influences on child cognitive development at age 5 years: Results from MAL-ED

Background: Child cognitive development is influenced by early-life insults and protective factors. To what extent these factors have a long-term legacy on child development and hence fulfillment of cognitive potential is unknown. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relation between early-life factors (birth to 2 y) and cognitive development at 5 y. Methods: Observational follow-up visits were made of children at 5 y, previously enrolled in the community-based MAL-ED longitudinal cohort. The burden of enteropathogens, prevalence of illness, complementary diet intake, micronutrient status, and household and maternal factors from birth to 2 y were extensively measured and their relation with the Wechsler Preschool Primary Scales of Intelligence at 5 y was examined through use of linear regression. Results: Cognitive T-scores from 813 of 1198 (68%) children were examined and 5 variables had significant associations in multivariable models: mean child plasma transferrin receptor concentration (β: −1.81, 95% CI: −2.75, −0.86), number of years of maternal education (β: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.45), maternal cognitive reasoning score (β: 0.09, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.15), household assets score (β: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.24, 1.04), and HOME child cleanliness factor (β: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.05, 1.15). In multivariable models, the mean rate of enteropathogen detections, burden of illness, and complementary food intakes between birth and 2 y were not significantly related to 5-y cognition. Conclusions: A nurturing home context in terms of a healthy/clean environment and household wealth, provision of adequate micronutrients, maternal education, and cognitive reasoning have a strong and persistent influence on child cognitive development. Efforts addressing aspects of poverty around micronutrient status, nurturing caregiving, and enabling home environments are likely to have lasting positive impacts on child cognitive development.publishedVersio