A comparative study of the conduction velocity of motor and sensory fibres of ulnar and median nerves among leprosy patients and normal subjects

Background: Leprosy and the associated scourge have affected humanity for thousands of years. One of the most debilitating consequences of leprosy is peripheral neuropathy. Nerve Conduction Velocity study provides us with a non-invasive modality to assess peripheral nerve involvement in leprosy.Methods: With this in mind, a cross-sectional observational study was conducted including 30 leprosy patients as "Cases" and 30 age-matched healthy subjects, not suffering from any kind of neurological disorders, as "Controls". Using a digital electromyography machine, the Latency, Amplitude and Conduction Velocities of Motor and Sensory fibres of Ulnar and Median nerves were recorded. The results were compared among controls and cases using suitable statistical tests (descriptive statistics and significance testing using unpaired t-test).Results: In this study, with regard to Sensory Nerve conduction Velocity (SNCV), statistically very significant difference was noted in case of right (p 0.0011) and left (p 0.0037) ulnar nerves among controls and cases. The difference in the amplitude of Motor Action potential (MAP) with regard to right median nerve, among cases and controls, was also statistically significant (p 0.0127). Further the amplitude of Sensory Nerve Action Potential (SNAP) values were higher among cases compared to controls.Conclusions: As such, the findings of this study (and which is also corroborated by many previous studies) lead us to the conclusion that NCV studies can detect lepromatous neuropathy much before the emergence of frank clinical signs and this type of neuropathy is predominantly demyelinating in nature with occasional axonal loss

Associations between Body Mass Index and Breast Cancer Markers

Body mass index (BMI) and breast cancer biomarkers (BCBs) such asresistin, leptin adiponectin, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) arehighly associated with each other. The report has focused the inter-relationship between BMI and BCBs based on probabilistic modeling. It hasbeen shown that mean BMI is directly associated with leptin (P<0.0001)and MCP-1 (P=0.0002), while it is inversely associated with adiponectin(P=0.0003), HOMA-IR (P<0.0001), and it is higher for healthy women(P=0.0116) than breast cancer women. In addition, variance of BMIis inversely associated with resistin (P=0.1450). On the other hand,mean MCP-1 is directly associated with BMI (P<0.0001). Mean resistin is directly associated with the interaction effect of BMI and leptin(BMI*Leptin) (P=0.0415), while its variance is directly associated withBMI (P=0.0942), and it is inversely associated with BMI*Adiponectin(P=0.1518). Leptin is directly associated with BMI (P<0.0001). Alsoadiponectin is inversely associated with BMI (P<0.0001), BMI*Leptin(P=0.1729), while it is directly associated with Age*BMI (P=0.0017)and BMI*Resistin (P=0.0615). It can be concluded that BMI and BCBsare strongly associated with each other. Care should be taken on BMI forbreast cancer women

Agonistic Association of Lepidoptera and Fungus in the Development of Leaf-spot Disease in High Altitude Mango and its Control

Plants are common prey for pests, though plants at high altitudes are less prone to diseases. However, our sample proved to be an exception, as disease in plants have become a major problem in North India, especially in old, crowded orchards where there is excessive shade .Mango, our test plant, is well adapted to tropical and subtropical climate. Here we considered the mechanism of disease initiation in the mango leaves by the entry of a fungal pathogen- Cercospora mangiferae, and its possible agonistic association with an insect of the Lepidoptera group, Procontarinia sp . Our aim is to suggest a pesticide to avert the entry and reduce the occurrence of the disease. The specimen, collected from a place called Jorolle (NH 88) near Sundernagar, is 10 kms away from the Beas-Sutlej confluence in the state of Himachal Pradesh, during the months of January-February, the temperature recorded was between 7-14°C. The environment in the vicinity of the mango orchard was dry, windy, and grimy and plagued by vehicular emissions. There were predominantly 2 kinds of leaf spots-a white and a brown spot. The spread of the disease started from the lower mature leaves to the upper younger leaves. Enormity of the infection was much greater in leaves having galls along their margins. The gall formation results due to the mechanical damage caused by the infection due to a midge fly (Procontarinia sp). The average diameter of galls ranged between 3-4mm. As affirmed earlier, the leaves with large number of galls are the primary  home for the fungus- Cercospora mangiferae where they reside in larger numbers. Although the mechanism of an agonistic association is obscure but the possibility of such an association cannot be ruled out completely; where the primary infection caused by the midge insect paves the way for secondary infection by the fungus. Our sole intention was to prevent occurrence of such an association, by inhibiting both the infections from occurring individually. Our test pesticide belonged to the Malathione group. Its main component is monocrotophos which interferes not only with the nerve impulse transmission of the insect but also damages the cell wall of the fungal pathogen thereby attending both the problems. The experiment was performed with different concentrations of pesticide and it was observed that at 43.5%w/w it was effective enough to prevent 100% germination. Our studies provide a conclusive result which suggests that if the pesticide, at the effective concentration is sprayed till run-off, the young tender leaves of Mangifera indica will be protected from both the midge insect as well as the fungal pathogen.Key words: Chausa, Langra, Dashehari, Leaf spot, Cercospora mangiferae, White spot, Brown Spot, Gall, Procontarinia sp., pesticide, Malathione, Hilcron, Monocrotophos Arup Kumar Mitra et al. Agonistic Association of Lepidoptera and Fungus in the Development of Leaf-spot Disease in High Altitude Mango and its Control.  J Phytol 2/7 (2010) 28-36

Application of natural preservatives and sweeteners in fruit products to reduce health risks - a review

The costs of food deterioration in terms of both money and health are rising. Fungi, bacteria, yeast, insects, and rodent contamination of food supplies continue to be a major public health concern. Chemical preservatives are effective but can be potentially fatal to human health in certain cases. As potent food preservatives, essential oils made from plants are a great alternative to synthetic preservatives. They also possess a variety of anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant effects. The use of artificial sweeteners in food products, which raises safety questions and health issues while also having reduced nutritional value, is another problem in the food industry. Because natural sweeteners are linked to a healthy lifestyle and have superior nutritional qualities, consumers today prefer them. This article goes through the issues with artificial sweeteners and preservatives and goes into great length about the many different essential oils and natural sweeteners that are much safer and healthier alternatives

Studies on the Structural and Energetic Aspects of the Interaction of Phenazinium Dyes with Deoxyribonucleic Acids

Nucleic acids are the central molecules in transmission, expression and conservation of genetic information. Nucleic acids were first discovered by Friedrich Miescher in 1871. This Swiss physician and biologist isolated various phosphate-rich chemicals, which he called nuclein (now nucleic acids), from the nucleic acids of white blood cells in 1869. After Miescher’s initial description in 1871, other scientists also started investigations into nuclein. However, for long after Miescher’s death, nuclein still received comparatively little attention. The role of DNA as the carrier of genetic information has been amply demonstrated beginning with the classic experiments of Avery1and Hershey and Chase2. Identifying DNA as the code of life was a remarkable discovery. However, uncovering the structure of DNA would prove to be the key to understand the role it plays in the formation of life. This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. The classic example of how biological functions follow from biomolecular structures comes from the elucidation of the structure of DNA as a double helix by Watson and Crick3 using the X-ray fiber diffraction patterns generated by Franklin, Wilkins, and their associates.4,5 “We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)” –this was the opening remark in the paper published in the Nature magazine by Watson and Crick announcing discovery of the structure of DNA in the year 1953. This discovery is often said to mark the birth of modern molecular biology

RFID and cloud computing in supply chain tracking system

Radio-frequency identification or RFID is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. This technology has found application in many industries. In this project, the application of RFID in supply chain industry has been explored. In the supply chain industry is it of utmost importance that the location and product details of the goods being moved from one point in the supply chain to another be known at all times. This is the issue that has been addressed in this project. The first part of the project deals with implementing RFID technology in supply chain system. The RFID data is extracted from tags and readers using RFID Middleware. Integrating this RFID data with enterprise applications for business use is an important factor. Different techniques for doing this have been studied and the most effective solution has been provided using Service-Oriented Architecture. In the second part of the project, a prototype supply chain management application has been designed. Small and medium enterprises often cannot afford expensive software tools for managing the business effectively and the cost of setting up Information Technology infrastructure becomes very high. Thus, an approach using Cloud Computing has been suggested here. A cloud based supply chain management application has been developed to cater to such enterprises. Finally, these two parts of the project has been integrated to form an end-to-end system for supply chain tracking using RFID and Cloud computing technology.Master of Science (Communications Engineering

Bilateral Delegation, Wage Bargaining and Managerial Incentives: Implications for Efficiency and Distribution

We develop a model of bilateral delegation in wage and employment bargaining to study efficiency and distributional implications in monopoly and in Cournot duopoly. In both markets delegation causes underproduction, but has contrasting implications for bargaining pie and for its distribution. In monopoly the bargaining pie contracts. In duopoly the bargaining pie expands, sometimes even up to the collusive level suggesting that delegation is conducive to implicit collusion. Surprisingly, a partyÂ’s payoff can be inversely related to its bargaining power. The well-known duopoly result of overproduction occurs only in unilateral delegations and when the delegating party is sufficiently strong.Managerial incentives, ecient bargaining, bilateral delegation, implicit collusion

Spectroscopic Characterization of the Interaction of Phenosafranin and Safranin O with Double Stranded, Heat Denatured and Single Stranded Calf Thymus DNA

Interaction of phenosafranin and safranin O with double stranded, heat denatured and single stranded calf thymus DNA has been studied by fluorescence, absorbance and circular dichroic techniques. Binding to the double stranded and heat denatured DNA conformations induced strong quenching in the fluorescence spectra of both dyes. Linear Scatchard plots indicated the binding to be of one type and the affinity evaluated to be of the order of 105 M−1 with double stranded and heat denatured DNAs. Fluorescence quenching was much weaker with the single stranded DNA and the binding affinity was one order lower. Ferrocyanide quenching studies revealed that the fluorescence emission of the dye molecules bound to the double stranded and heat denatured DNAs was quenched much less compared to that bound to the single stranded DNA. Further, there was significant emission polarization for the bound dyes and strong energy transfer from the DNA base pairs to the dye molecules indicating intercalative binding. Salt dependence of the binding phenomenon revealed that electrostatic forces have significant role in the binding process. The intercalation of these molecules to double stranded and heat denatured DNA and simple stacking to single strands was proved by these fluorescence techniques. Support to the fluorescence results have been derived from absorption and circular dichroic results. Phenosafranin was revealed to be a stronger binding species compared to safrani

Thermodynamic Investigations of Ligand–Protein Interactions: Binding of the Phenazinium Dyes Phenosafranin and Safranin O with Human Serum Albumin

The binding of the phenazinium dyes, phenosafranin (PSF) and safranin O (SO) with human serum albumin was investigated by calorimetry and spectroscopic techniques. Binding parameters revealed that PSF has a higher affinity (K = 1.60 � 105 M�1) compared to SO (K = 0.97 � 105 M�1). The binding of both dyeswas favoured by negative enthalpy and a stronger favourable entropy contribution. The heat capacity values were similar indicating the involvement of similar hydrophobic forces in the complexation. Enthalpyentropy compensation was also observed for both dyes. Both polyelectrolytic and non-polyelectrolytic forces contributed towards the binding but the later was dominant. The fluorescence data suggested a static quenching mechanism. Forster resonance energy transfer studies showed that the specific binding distances between Trp (donor) residue of the protein and the dye (acceptor) molecules were 3.95 and 4.07 nm, respectively, for PSF and SO. Both dyes bind to same site, viz. site I (subdomain II A) of HSA but SO having bulkier groups binds weakly due to steric hindranc

EGCG prevents tryptophan oxidation of cataractous ocular lens human γ-crystallin in presence of H₂O₂

Disruption of the short range order of proteins present in the ocular lens leads to cataract resulting in a loss of transparency. Human γ-crystallin (HGC), a water soluble protein present in the lens is known to aggregate with aging. A modified form of HGC (HGCc) was isolated from cataractous human ocular lens extract and the number of Trp residues that undergo oxidation was determined. The extent of oxidized Trp (N-formyl kynurenine) in HGC due to cataract formation was determined, primarily using fluorescence spectroscopy. The ability of (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) to retain its antioxidant effect even in the presence of H2O2 was investigated. This was monitored by its ability to prevent the modification of intact Trp residues in HGCc isolated from cataractous human eye lens. Significant Trp fluorescence quenching occurs on interaction of the green tea component, EGCG with HGCc accompanied by a red shift. Docking studies were employed to substantiate the experimental results. As eye lens proteins are prone to oxidative stress it is essential that a clear understanding of the effects of the components generated in vivo vis-à-vis the antioxidant effects of natural polyphenols be obtained