Complete heart block: an atypical presentation with an atypical diagnosis

Congenital heart block is frequently associated with underlying structural congenital heart disease or connective tissue disorders. Neonatal lupus is considered a form of passively acquired autoimmune disease in which maternal autoantibodies, namely, anti-Ro and anti-La, cross the placenta and injure the previously normal fetal heart. Here, a young female, 30 years of age, who presented with atypical cardiac manifestations, was diagnosed with complete heart block. She was evaluated thoroughly for its etiology, including structural, medication, infective, thyroid and autoimmune panel. Antinuclear antibody (ANA) was positive by immunofluorescence method with 1:160 titre and with fine speckled pattern. Anti-SSA/Ro antibody was positive with a titre of 30.20 units. Anti-Smith antibody was also reported to be positive. On further investigations, her mother also had positive ANA by Immunofluorescence method with a titre of 1:80, with anti dsDNA, anti Ro/SSA, anti La/SSB positivity. The patient was thus diagnosed as a case of lupus causing her to present with complete heart block in adulthood. Patient was managed with TPI followed by PPI and was discharged with no complications. Neonatal lupus can cause heart block of varying degrees that may be noted in utero presenting as congenital heart block. SLE presenting as congenital heart block in young adults is a rare finding. This case report reviews an adult female of SLE presenting to the emergency for the first time with atypical cardiac manifestations and diagnosed as a case of congenital heart block with laboratory investigations revealing lupus as the primary etiology

An infected urachal cyst is a rare differential diagnosis for an acute abdomen in adult female: a case report

An infected urachal cyst is one of a spectrum of presentations of urachal pathology, all of which are rare in adulthood. Patients tend to present in a heterogeneous fashion, making diagnosis difficult. A 45-year old lady presented with sudden onset of lower abdominal pain and fever since 10 days. There was tenderness and focal rigidity in the right iliac fossa. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed suprapubic collection with mixed echogenecity. On diagnostic laparoscopy; urachal abscess was confirmed and excised. Urachal disease is usually detected in infancy and childhood. Infection is the usual mode of presentation amongst adults otherwise the condition usually remains asymptomatic. Diagnosis is often made after exploratory laparotomy or laparoscopy. Ultimately, surgical intervention is the treatment of choice. Complete excision is important because malignant degeneration of the remnant is possible. In cases where a pre-operative diagnosis has been made, a staged approach with antibiotics followed by surgery has been recommended

Attentional Networks and Biological Motion

Our ability to see meaningful actions when presented with pointlight traces of human movement is commonly referred to as the perception of biological motion. While traditionalexplanations have emphasized the spontaneous and automatic nature of this ability, morerecent findings suggest that attention may play a larger role than is typically assumed. Intwo studies we show that the speed and accuracy of responding to point-light stimuli is highly correlated with the ability to control selective attention. In our first experiment we measured thresholds for determining the walking direction of a masked point-light figure, and performance on a range of attention-related tasks in the same set of observers. Mask-density thresholds for the direction discrimination task varied quite considerably from observer to observer and this variation was highly correlated with performance on both Stroop and flanker interference tasks. Other components of attention, such as orienting, alerting and visual search efficiency, showed no such relationship. In a second experiment, we examined the relationship between the ability to determine the orientation of unmasked point-light actions and Stroop interference, again finding a strong correlation. Our results are consistent with previous research suggesting that biological motion processing may requite attention, and specifically implicate networks of attention related to executive control and selection

Computational Spectroscopy in Solution by Integration of Variational and Perturbative Approaches on Top of Clusterized Molecular Dynamics

Multiscale QM/MM approaches have become the most suitable and effective methods for the investigation of spectroscopic properties of medium-or large-size chromophores in condensed phases. On these grounds, we are developing a novel workflow aimed at improving the generality, reliability, and ease of use of the available tools. In the present paper, we report the latest developments of such an approach with specific reference to a general workplan starting with the addition of acetonitrile to the panel of solvents already available in the General Liquid Optimized Boundary (GLOB) model enforcing nonperiodic boundary conditions (NPBC). Next, the solvatochromic shifts induced by acetonitrile on both rigid (uracil and thymine) and flexible (thyrosine) chromophores have been studied introducing in our software a number of new features ranging from rigid-geometry NPBC molecular dynamics based on the quaternion formalism to a full integration of variational (ONIOM) and perturbative (perturbed matrix method (PMM)) approaches for describing different solute-solvent topologies and local fluctuations, respectively. Finally, thymine and uracil have been studied also in methanol to point out the generality of the computational strategy. While further developments are surely needed, the strengths of our integrated approach even in its present version are demonstrated by the accuracy of the results obtained by an unsupervised approach and coupled to a computational cost strongly reduced with respect to that of conventional QM/MM models without any appreciable accuracy deterioration

Design of single switch-boosted voltage current suppressor converter for uninterrupted power supply using green resources integration

Introduction. Uninterrupted power supply is the major requirement in the areas since it involves human lives. In the current scenario the demand and price of fossil fuels is increasing rapidly and availability also is not sufficient to the needs, an alternative identification to power generation is solar and wind energies. The purpose of designing an aimed, single switch boosted voltage and current suppressor (SS-BVCS) converter topology that interfaces both the wind and solar hybrid model. The method involves in the proposed chopper converter is derived by simply merging a switch and a pair of diodes and CLC filter which is used in realization of zero voltage switching for the main switch and a reversing diode to extract high voltage gain. The designed SS-BVCS converter topology can able to have a tight self-control on two power-processing paths. The novelty of the SS-BVCS converter module is designed to ensure maximum throughput, feeding to the load with high quality uninterrupted output, by boosting the DC voltage to a required amount and thereby supressing the current. Practical value obtained by the developed model utilizes both the sources for supply to the load individually or combined based on the extraction availability of the feeder. Also, the proposed SS-BVCS module delivers with efficient lesser component count and gaining maximum power from the harvest of green energy.Вступ. Джерело безперебійного живлення є основною вимогою в галузях, що пов'язані з людськими життями. У поточній ситуації, коли попит та ціна на викопне паливо швидко зростають, а їх доступність також недостатня для задоволення потреб, альтернативною технологією виробництва електроенергії є сонячна та вітрова енергія. Метою є розробка цільової топології перетворювача з підвищеною напругою та пригнічувачем струму з одним перемикачем (SS-BVCS), яка взаємодіє як з вітровою, так і з гібридною моделлю сонячної енергії. Метод включає запропонований перетворювач переривника, отриманий шляхом простого злиття перемикача, пари діодів і CLC-фільтра, який використовується для реалізації перемикання при нульовому напрузі для основного ключа і реверсивного діода для вилучення високого коефіцієнта посилення по напрузі. Розроблена топологія перетворювача SS-BVCS може забезпечити жорсткий самоконтроль на двох ланцюгах обробки енергії. Новизна модуля перетворювача SS-BVCS призначена для забезпечення максимальної пропускної здатності, живлення навантаження з якісним безперебійним виходом шляхом підвищення напруги постійного струму до необхідної величини і, таким чином, придушення струму. Практична цінність, отримана завдяки розробленій моделі, дозволяє використовувати як джерела живлення навантаження окремо, так і комбіновано залежно від можливості відбору фідера. Крім того, запропонований модуль SS-BVCS забезпечує ефективне використання меншої кількості компонентів та отримання максимальної потужності за рахунок збирання зеленої енергії

CULTIVATION PROSPECTS OF DENDROCALAMUS ASPER BACKER.FOR EDIBLE SHOOTS IN SEMIARID AND HUMID TROPICS OF PENINSULAR INDIA

ABSTRACT: Dendrocalamus asper also known as 'Sweet Bamboo' is the most widely accepted species globally for edible shoots. The prospects of cultivation of D.asper in humid tropics and semiarid conditions of peninsular India was assessed using various financial indicators and through quantitative and qualitative analysis of juvenile shoots. Growth parameters in on-farm field trials by IWST, Bangalore suggest that this species grows well in humid tropical conditions as compared to semi-arid conditions in Peninsular India. In semiarid conditions in Hosakote, Bangalore on an average 16 shoots were produced in a five year old clump with the average shoot diameter of 18±1.1mm and extractable volume of > 0.75 kg. In humid tropical conditions in Thithimathi, Kodagu, D. asper clumps of same age produced around 25 shoots. The average shoot diameter was 55±2mm at the end of fifth year which translated into higher volume (> 2kg) of edible portion in harvested shoots. In D.asper, 30% extraction of the total new shoots emerging from the fifth year was ideal. There was no difference in nutritional composition of the species between semiarid and humid tropics in terms of protein, carbohydrates, crude fibre and fat.Financial indicators at different discount rates (10%, 12% and 15%) suggest that cultivation of D.asper for shoot production may be a profitable venture in humid tropics with a high equivalent annual net income (EAI) around 7.6 -9 lakhs as compared to a lower EAI in semiarid conditions (0.22 to 0.59 lakhs)

The Human Cytomegalovirus UL116 Glycoprotein Is a Chaperone to Control gH-Based Complexes Levels on Virions

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) relies in large part upon the viral membrane fusion glycoprotein B and two alternative gH/gL complexes, gH/gL/gO (Trimer) and gH/gL/UL128/UL130/UL131A (Pentamer) to enter into cells. The relative amounts of Trimer and Pentamer vary among HCMV strains and contribute to differences in cell tropism. Although the viral ER resident protein UL148 has been shown to interact with gH to facilitate gO incorporation, the mechanisms that favor the assembly and maturation of one complex over another remain poorly understood. HCMV virions also contain an alternative non-disulfide bound heterodimer comprised of gH and UL116 whose function remains unknown. Here, we show that disruption of HCMV gene UL116 causes infectivity defects of ∼10-fold relative to wild-type virus and leads to reduced expression of both gH/gL complexes in virions. Furthermore, gH that is not covalently bound to other viral glycoproteins, which are readily detected in wild-type HCMV virions, become undetectable in the absence of UL116 suggesting that the gH/UL116 complex is abundant in virions. We find evidence that UL116 and UL148 interact during infection indicating that the two proteins might cooperate to regulate the abundance of HCMV gH complexes. Altogether, these results are consistent with a role of UL116 as a chaperone for gH during the assembly and maturation of gH complexes in infected cells