Preparation and Evaluation of Olive Apple Blended Leather

The aim of the study was to evaluate a suitable combination of olive and apple pulp for the preparation of olive apple blended leather, stored at ambient temperature. The treatments were T0, T1, T2 and T3. The samples were wrapped in aluminum foil and then packed in polyethylene plastic bags and evaluation was carried out for a total period of 150 days. Physiochemically analysis; acidity and moisture and sensory characteristics; color, texture, taste and overall acceptability (using Larmond Scale) were evaluated at 30 days interval. A significant decrease was recorded in moisture (from 13.60% to 11.53%), color (from7.20 to 4.60), taste (from 7.53 to 5.40), texture (from 7.23 to 5.13) and overall acceptability (from 7.33 to 4.85). A significant increase was recorded in acidity (from 0.67% to 0.84%). Among all the treatments T3 was found most acceptable both physiochemically and organoleptically

IL-2: Fine-tuning the Germinal Center Reaction

T follicular cells help B cells to drive germinal center formation. In this issue of Immunity, Ballesteros-Tato et al. (2012) demonstrate that high amounts of interleukin-2 inhibit production of this critical T effector subset

Assessment of knowledge & practice of contraceptives in females of reproductive age group at a tertiary care hospital

Abstract Objectives: To assess the knowledge & practice of contraceptives in females of reproductive age group.Study Design: Cross sectional descriptive. Place and Duration of Study: OPD of Fauji Foundation Hospital from February 2008 – September 2008.Subjects and Method: 339 Females of age b/w of 15 – 49 years attending OPD of Fauji Foundation Hospital were included in study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data.Results: Eighty eight percent of the females in our study sample were familiar with one or more methods of contraception (72.7%were familiar with combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), 60.7% were aware of intra uterine contraceptive device (IUCD) &76% knew about condoms) whereas 12% showed ignorance. 64.6% of the study population was contraceptive users & 35.4% were not using any method of contraception. Regarding preferred method of contraception 34.6% of females said they are using COCP, about 21.8% females said their tubes had been liagated whereas 26.9%& 16.7% were using IUCD & Condoms respectively. Almost 46%of our study population said that contraceptive method they were using was suggested by their husbands, 44 % said by health professional .Only 10 % of the study population were using a method of their own choice.Conclusion: The present study concludes that there is a gap between knowledge (88%) and use (64.6%) of contraceptives among females of reproductive age group. Another important inference drawn from the study is that men should be made equal targets of such programs in since 46% females in our study population were using method of contraceptive suggested by their husban

Micro-scale flow cytometry-based and biochemical analysis of lipid signaling in primary B cell subpopulations

B cell subpopulations in the spleen have been extensively characterized phenotypically; however, biochemical properties of these cell populations following B cell antigen receptor engagement have not been fully determined due to technical difficulties and limiting cell numbers. We therefore employed mini-scale protocols to assess lipid signaling, particularly that of diacylglycerol and inositol trisphosphate, with as few as 0.5x106 purified early (T1) and late (T2) transitional B cells. Additionally, utilizing flow cytometric techniques, we determined levels of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate and calcium mobilization in T1 and T2 cells, as well as mature follicular and marginal zone B cells using less than 1x106 primary B cells. Thus, these biochemical and flow cytometric methodologies can be used to analyse signal-induced changes in phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate levels, diacylglycerol and inositol triphosphate production and calcium in each B cell population

Damage detection in a fixed-fixed beam using natural frequency changes

This paper presents a damage detection technique which uses change in Frequency Response Function (FRF) and Modal Strain Energy (MSE) for damage detection in beam and truss like structures. It’s a robust approach for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) using natural frequency for structural damage assessment. This technique couples FRF with Iterative Modal Strain Energy (IMSE) method to accurately localize and quantify the damage with only few frequencies, overcoming the limitation of mode shape based damage detection methods which requires mode shapes at full coordinates but damage is either over/underestimated. In the current approach, a damage detection algorithm is developed and validated by conducting numerical studies for a Fixed-Fixed beam, both noise-free and noise-effected cases are simulated. The numerical studies reveal that proposed algorithm is capable of identifying, localizing and quantifying the damage accurately at reduce computational cost

Effect of routing flexibility on the performance of manufacturing system

[EN] This work presented in this paper is based on the simulation of the routing flexibility enabled manufacturing system. In this study four levels of each factor (i.e. routing flexibility, system load conditions, system capacity and four part sequencing rules) are considered for the investigation. The performance of the routing flexibility enabled manufacturing system (RFEMS) is evaluated using three performance measures like make-span time, resource utilization and work-in-process. The analysis of results shows that the performance of the manufacturing system may be improved by adding in routing flexibility at the initial level along with other factors. However, the benefit of this flexibility diminishes at higher levels of routing flexibilities.Khan, WU.; Ali, M. (2019). Effect of routing flexibility on the performance of manufacturing system. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 7(2):133-144. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2019.8726SWORD1331447

Augmented B Lymphocyte Response to Antigen in the Absence of Antigen-Induced B Lymphocyte Signaling in an IgG-Transgenic Mouse Line

IgG-containing B cell antigen receptor (IgG-BCR), the BCR mostly expressed on memory B cells, contains a distinct signaling function from IgM-BCR or IgD-BCR expressed on naïve B cells. Because naïve B cells transgenic for IgG exhibit augmented response to antigens similar to memory B cells, the distinct signaling function of IgG-BCR appears to play a role in augmented antibody responses of memory B cells. However, how IgG-BCR signaling augments B cell responses is not yet well understood. Here we demonstrate that B cells from IgG-transgenic mice are anergic with defect in generation of BCR signaling upon BCR ligation. However, these IgG-transgenic B cells generate markedly augmented antibody response to a T cell-dependent antigen, probably due to hyper-responsiveness to a T cell-derived signal through CD40. Both BCR signaling defect and augmented response to CD40 ligation are partially restored in xid IgG-transgenic mice in which BCR signaling is down-modulated due to a loss-of-function mutation in the tyrosine kinase Btk crucial for BCR signaling. Thus, IgG-BCR induces augmented B cell responses in the absence of antigen-induced BCR signaling probably through high ligand-independent BCR signaling that may “idle” B cells to make them ready to respond to T cell help. This finding strongly suggests a crucial role of ligand-independent signaling in receptor function

Label-Free Proteomics Reveals Decreased Expression of CD18 and AKNA in Peripheral CD4+ T Cells from Patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Syndrome

Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome is a systemic autoimmune disease. CD4+ T cells have been shown to be involved in autoimmune diseases including VKH syndrome. To screen aberrantly expressed membrane proteins in CD4+ T cell from patients with active VKH syndrome, blood samples were taken from five patients with active VKH syndrome and five healthy individuals. A label-free quantitative proteomic strategy was used to identify the differently expressed proteins between the two groups. The results revealed that the expression of 102 peptides was significantly altered (p<0.05) between two groups and matched amino acid sequences of proteins deposited in the international protein index (ipi.HUMAN.v3.36.fasta). The identified peptides corresponded to 64 proteins, in which 30 showed more than a 1.5-fold difference between the two groups. The decreased expression of CD18 and AKNA transcription factor (AKNA), both being three-fold lower than controls in expression identified by the label-free method, was further confirmed in an additional group of five active VKH patients and six normal individuals using the Western blot technique. A significantly decreased expression of CD18 and AKNA suggests a role for both proteins in the pathogenesis of this syndrome