3D Arbitrary Channel Fabrication for Lab on a Chip Applications using Chemical Decomposition

This article demonstrate a simple method to use of three-dimensionally (3D) printed molds that are chemically decomposable for rapid fabrication of complex and arbitrary microchannel geometries. These complex microchannel are unachievable through existing soft lithography techniques. The molds are printed directly from hand held 3D printing pen that can print in midair, making rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices possible in hours. PLA based copper filament is used to print the arbitrary channels. The printed channels are then placed inside PDMS and PDMS is cured. The cured sample is then immersed in chemical solution (Acetic Acid + Sodium Chloride+ Hydrogen peroxide), which decomposes the PLA based copper channel thus leaving an empty channel inside the PDMS block. This method enable precise control of various device geometries, such as the profile of the channel cross-section and variable channel diameters in a single device

Prevalence of Giardia intestinalis and Hymenolepis nana in Afghan refugee population of Mianwali district, Pakistan.

Background: Present study aimed to investigate prevalence of Giardia intestinalis and Hymenolepis nana in Afghan refugees visiting Central Health Unit (CHU), Kot Chandana (Mianwali, Northern Punjab) during two years period (February 2007 to December 2009).Methods: A total of 687 stool samples were collected from different age groups of both genders. Samples were processed under sterile conditions after gross examination. Microscopic examination was done on same day along with eggs (H. nana), cyst and trophozoites (G. intestinalis) detection after staining.Results: The prevalence of G. intestinalis was significantly higher (x2=59.54, p<0.001) than that of H. nana. Females were found more likely to be infected as compared to males (OR: 1.40, 95% CI=1.03-1.92). Prevalence of both parasites decreased with age and highest prevalence was observed in young individuals belonging to 1-15 years of age group (41.8% and 48.7% respectively for H. nana and G. intestinalis, p<0.001). Abdominal distress (OR: 1.13, 95%CI=0.83-1.53), vomiting (OR: 1.13, 95%CI=1.13-1.81) and rectal prolapse (OR: 4.26, 95%CI=1.38-13.16) were the gastro-intestinal clinical symptoms observed in G. intestinalis. Whereas, bloody diarrhea (OR: 1.56, 95%CI=1.00-2.43) and rectal prolapse (OR: 5.79, 95%CI=1.87-17.91) were associated with H. nana infections.Conclusions: Intestinal parasitic infections are common among Afghan refugees and serious preventive measures should be implemented to promote the safety and healthy lifestyle of these people.Keywords: Giardia intestinalis, Hymenolepis nana, Prevalence, Afghan Refugees, Punjab

Piperidinols that show anti-tubercular activity as inhibitors of arylamine N-acetyltransferase: an essential enzyme for mycobacterial survival inside macrophages

Latent M. tuberculosis infection presents one of the major obstacles in the global eradication of tuberculosis (TB). Cholesterol plays a critical role in the persistence of M. tuberculosis within the macrophage during latent infection. Catabolism of cholesterol contributes to the pool of propionyl-CoA, a precursor that is incorporated into cell-wall lipids. Arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT) is encoded within a gene cluster that is involved in the cholesterol sterol-ring degradation and is essential for intracellular survival. The ability of the NAT from M. tuberculosis (TBNAT) to utilise propionyl-CoA links it to the cholesterol-catabolism pathway. Deleting the nat gene or inhibiting the NAT enzyme prevents intracellular survival and results in depletion of cell-wall lipids. TBNAT has been investigated as a potential target for TB therapies. From a previous high-throughput screen, 3-benzoyl-4-phenyl-1-methylpiperidinol was identified as a selective inhibitor of prokaryotic NAT that exhibited antimycobacterial activity. The compound resulted in time-dependent irreversible inhibition of the NAT activity when tested against NAT from M. marinum (MMNAT). To further evaluate the antimycobacterial activity and the NAT inhibition of this compound, four piperidinol analogues were tested. All five compounds exert potent antimycobacterial activity against M. tuberculosis with MIC values of 2.3-16.9 µM. Treatment of the MMNAT enzyme with this set of inhibitors resulted in an irreversible time-dependent inhibition of NAT activity. Here we investigate the mechanism of NAT inhibition by studying protein-ligand interactions using mass spectrometry in combination with enzyme analysis and structure determination. We propose a covalent mechanism of NAT inhibition that involves the formation of a reactive intermediate and selective cysteine residue modification. These piperidinols present a unique class of antimycobacterial compounds that have a novel mode of action different from known anti-tubercular drugs

Accuracy of Imputation of Microsatellite Markers from BovineSNP50 and BovineHD BeadChip in Hanwoo Population of Korea

Until now microsatellite (MS) have been a popular choice of markers for parentage verification. Recently many countries have moved or are in process of moving from MS markers to single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for parentage testing. FAO-ISAG has also come up with a panel of 200 SNPs to replace the use of MS markers in parentage verification. However, in many countries most of the animals were genotyped by MS markers till now and the sudden shift to SNP markers will render the data of those animals useless. As National Institute of Animal Science in South Korea plans to move from standard ISAG recommended MS markers to SNPs, it faces the dilemma of exclusion of old animals that were genotyped by MS markers. Thus to facilitate this shift from MS to SNPs, such that the existing animals with MS data could still be used for parentage verification, this study was performed. In the current study we performed imputation of MS markers from the SNPs in the 500-kb region of the MS marker on either side. This method will provide an easy option for the labs to combine the data from the old and the current set of animals. It will be a cost efficient replacement of genotyping with the additional markers. We used 1,480 Hanwoo animals with both the MS data and SNP data to impute in the validation animals. We also compared the imputation accuracy between BovineSNP50 and BovineHD BeadChip. In our study the genotype concordance of 40% and 43% was observed in the BovineSNP50 and BovineHD BeadChip respectively

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Search for R-parity-violating supersymmetry in events with four or more leptons in sqrt(s) =7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for new phenomena in final states with four or more leptons (electrons or muons) is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of $\sqrt{s}=7\;\mathrm{TeV}$ proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in two signal regions: one that requires moderate values of missing transverse momentum and another that requires large effective mass. The results are interpreted in a simplified model of R-parity-violating supersymmetry in which a 95% CL exclusion region is set for charged wino masses up to 540 GeV. In an R-parity-violating MSUGRA/CMSSM model, values of m 1/2 up to 820 GeV are excluded for 10 < tan β < 40

Search for high-mass resonances decaying to dilepton final states in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for high-mass resonances decaying to an electron-positron pair or a muon-antimuon pair. The search is sensitive to heavy neutral Z′ gauge bosons, Randall-Sundrum gravitons, Z * bosons, techni-mesons, Kaluza-Klein Z/γ bosons, and bosons predicted by Torsion models. Results are presented based on an analysis of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb−1 in the e + e − channel and 5.0 fb−1 in the μ + μ −channel. A Z ′ boson with Standard Model-like couplings is excluded at 95 % confidence level for masses below 2.22 TeV. A Randall-Sundrum graviton with coupling k/MPl=0.1 is excluded at 95 % confidence level for masses below 2.16 TeV. Limits on the other models are also presented, including Technicolor and Minimal Z′ Models

Search for the neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data were recorded in 2011 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb-1 to 4.8 fb-1. Higgs boson decays into oppositely-charged muon or τ lepton pairs are considered for final states requiring either the presence or absence of b-jets. No statistically significant excess over the expected background is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived. The exclusion limits are for the production cross-section of a generic neutral Higgs boson, φ, as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for h/A/H production in the MSSM as a function of the parameters mA and tan β in the mhmax scenario for mA in the range of 90GeV to 500 GeV. Copyright CERN