Financial developments and the rate of growth of output: An alternative approach

This paper uses a new specification and approach to estimate the effects of financial developments on the steady state rate of growth of output in India, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines for the period 1970 to 2006. These growth effects, though small, are found to be significant except for the Philippines. The trend rate of growth of total factor productivity (TFP), which is due to the omitted but trended variables, is the highest for Malaysia and moderate for India and Thailand. However, TFP is insignificant or negative in the Philippines and Korea.Growth Rates. Financial developments, Solow Model, Country Specific Steady State

Cytoadherence and virulence - the case of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria.

BACKGROUND: Cytoadherence of infected red blood cells to brain endothelium is causally implicated in malarial coma, one of the severe manifestations of falciparum malaria. Cytoadherence is mediated by specific binding of variant parasite antigens, expressed on the surface of infected erythrocytes, to endothelial receptors including, ICAM-1, VCAM and CD36. In fatal cases of severe falciparum malaria with coma, blood vessels in the brain are characteristically congested with infected erythrocytes. Brain sections from a fatal case of knowlesi malaria, but without coma, were similarly congested with infected erythrocytes. The objective of this study was to determine the binding phenotype of Plasmodium knowlesi infected human erythrocytes to recombinant human ICAM-1, VCAM and CD36. METHODS: Five patients with PCR-confirmed P. knowlesi malaria were recruited into the study with consent between April and August 2010. Pre-treatment venous blood was washed and cultured ex vivo to increase the proportion of schizont-infected erythrocytes. Cultured blood was seeded into Petri dishes with triplicate areas coated with ICAM-1, VCAM and CD36. Following incubation at 37°C for one hour the dishes were washed and the number of infected erythrocytes bound/mm2 to PBS control areas and to recombinant human ICAM-1 VCAM and CD36 coated areas were recorded. Each assay was performed in duplicate. Assay performance was monitored with the Plasmodium falciparum clone HB3. RESULTS: Blood samples were cultured ex vivo for up to 14.5 h (mean 11.3 ± 1.9 h) to increase the relative proportion of mature trophozoite and schizont-infected red blood cells to at least 50% (mean 65.8 ± 17.51%). Three (60%) isolates bound significantly to ICAM-1 and VCAM, one (20%) isolate bound to VCAM and none of the five bound significantly to CD36. CONCLUSIONS: Plasmodium knowlesi infected erythrocytes from human subjects bind in a specific but variable manner to the inducible endothelial receptors ICAM-1 and VCAM. Binding to the constitutively-expressed endothelial receptor CD36 was not detected. Further work will be required to define the pathological consequences of these interactions

Infant development and weaning in Macaca silenus in the natural habitats of the Western Ghats, India

This article reports the development of behaviour in 31 lion-tailed macaque infants from birth to the age of 15 months. The study was conducted during January 2002-June 2005. The study animals included a large group of lion-tailed macaques inhabiting a rainforest fragment in the Western Ghats, India. Two critical stages were observed during the development of the infants: one at the age of five and a half months, and another at the age of nine months. When the infants were five and a half months old, there was a sudden increase in the occurrence of nipple contact, a sharp decline in the per cent of infants making nipple contact after this age, a peak in the occurrence of retrieve by the mother, a peak in the occurrence of play by the infant, and a peak in the occurrence of environmental exploration by the infant, and stabilization of exploration after this age. Up to the age of nine months, the occurrence of an infant approaching the mother and mother punishing the infant continued to increase, and these two behaviours abruptly ended at the age of nine months. Mother grooming the infant occurred with a peak at the infant's age of nine months. It appears that in lion-tailed macaques, the mother actively initiated weaning. It began at the infant's age of five and a half months and was completed by the time the infant was nine months old. The mother, however, increased the frequency of grooming the infant, and thus continued to care for the infant in ways that cost her less in terms of parental investment. A longer duration of nipple contact by some male infants, more retrieval and grooming of male infants, and more proximity of male infants to mothers indicated higher maternal parental investment on male infants

Methodological considerations in measurement of dominance in primates

The strength of dominance hierarchy in a group of animals needs to be quantitatively measured since it influences many other aspects of social interactions. This article discusses three attempts made by previous researchers to measure the strength of hierarchy. We propose a method which attempts to rectify the lacunae in the previous attempts. Data are used from a group of Japanese macaques housed in a colony. A method to calculate strength of hierarchy has been illustrated and a procedure has been suggested to normalize the dominance scores in order to place the ranks of individuals on an interval scale

Severe malaria - a case of fatal Plasmodium knowlesi infection with post-mortem findings: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Zoonotic malaria caused by Plasmodium knowlesi is an important, but newly recognized, human pathogen. For the first time, post-mortem findings from a fatal case of knowlesi malaria are reported here. CASE PRESENTATION: A formerly healthy 40 year-old male became symptomatic 10 days after spending time in the jungle of North Borneo. Four days later, he presented to hospital in a state of collapse and died within two hours. He was hyponatraemic and had elevated blood urea, potassium, lactate dehydrogenase and amino transferase values; he was also thrombocytopenic and eosinophilic. Dengue haemorrhagic shock was suspected and a post-mortem examination performed. Investigations for dengue virus were negative. Blood for malaria parasites indicated hyperparasitaemia and single species P. knowlesi infection was confirmed by nested-PCR. Macroscopic pathology of the brain and endocardium showed multiple petechial haemorrhages, the liver and spleen were enlarged and lungs had features consistent with ARDS. Microscopic pathology showed sequestration of pigmented parasitized red blood cells in the vessels of the cerebrum, cerebellum, heart and kidney without evidence of chronic inflammatory reaction in the brain or any other organ examined. Brain sections were negative for intracellular adhesion molecule-1. The spleen and liver had abundant pigment containing macrophages and parasitized red blood cells. The kidney had evidence of acute tubular necrosis and endothelial cells in heart sections were prominent. CONCLUSIONS: The overall picture in this case was one of systemic malaria infection that fit the WHO classification for severe malaria. Post-mortem findings in this case were unexpectedly similar to those that define fatal falciparum malaria, including cerebral pathology. There were important differences including the absence of coma despite petechial haemorrhages and parasite sequestration in the brain. These results suggest that further study of knowlesi malaria will aid the interpretation of, often conflicting, information on malaria pathophysiology in humans

Effect of Pheromone Lure-Distance and Direction in Trapping Brinjal Fruit and Shoot Borer (Leucinodes orbonalis Guen.) Male Moths

An experiment was conducted at Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, to study the presence of male Brinjal Shoot and Fruit Borer (BSFB) outside cropping area and the effect of wind direction on male BSFB trap catches. Water traps with 4 mg of synthetic BSFB pheromone lure in rubber septa were placed at 0, 50, 100, 150 and 350 m away from a brinjal field in all four directions i.e., North, South, East and West. Water level in the traps was maintained constant and lures were changed at 20 days interval. Count of BSFB trapped males and record of wind direction was made every 24 h for 61 days. Results indicated that the number of male BSFB moths in distantly located traps (350 m from the brinjal field) was at par with the numbers observed in traps placed in the main brinjal field. Traps located at 50 and 100 m from brinjal field attracted less male BSFB moths than those at 0, 150 and 350 m indicating the feasibility of trapping male BSFB moths even in non-brinjal area. Trap direction did not significantly influence trap catch. Nearly 60% of BSFB male moths were observed in traps placed against direction of the wind

Highly Sensitive Electrospun Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Embedded Zinc Oxide Nanowire Based Interface for Label Free Biosensing

We demonstrate synthesis of Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MW CNTs) embedded highly oriented Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanowires targeted towards development of ultrasen sitive electrochemical nanobiosensors using electrospinning method. The synthesized composite nanowires combines advantages of ZnO such as biocompa tibility, electrostatic affinity towards biomolecules with the excellent conductivity and surface functi onalization capabilities of MWCNTs. Calcinatio n temperature is optimized so as to ensure MWCNTs are present in their original form and at the same time highly crystalline ZnO is obtained. The key advantage o f this process is that there is no separate functionalization pr ocess is required to create functional groups on MWCNTs. Furthermore, the electrochemical activity of MWCNTs embedded ZnO nanowires is much higher as compared to pure ZnO nanowires. We have demonstrated the performance of electrochem ical nanobiosensor using Biotin -streptavidin interaction as model system. The sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity in the range 10 μ gmL -1 - 0.5 fgmL -1 of streptavidin with 0.5fgmL -1 limit of detection

Pheromone Trapping Protocols for Brinjal Shoot and Fruit Borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae): Evaluation of Trap Design, Quantity and Dispenser

Studies were conducted at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, and Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Bhubaneshwar, India, to evaluate trap design, quantity of pheromone loading and dispensers for attracting brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) using indigenously synthesized pheromone lure [synthesized by Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad], during 2003 and 2004. A water trap consisting of plastic container (20 cm dia. and 7.5 cm depth) with a facility to place the pheromone septum was designed. Pheromone load of 4 mg in both water trap and Pest Control India (PCI®) delta trap was observed to catch higher number of male moths compared to dispensers with lesser loading. When trap designs were compared, water trap with pheromone lure was observed to attract higher number of males than Pest Control India (PCI®) delta trap. Among the different pheromone dispensers tested, rubber septum was superior to plastic vial or plastic septum. Rubber septum supplied by Bio Pest Management® captured significantly higher number of moths compared to rubber and plastic septum supplied by difTerent firms. A comparison of IICT synthesized lures along with some commercially available lures indicated that Bio Pest Management® lure dispensed in rubber outperformed PCI® and IICT lures

Studies on the uptake of benzanthrone by rat skin and its efflux through serum

The uptake of benzanthrone by rat skin showed saturation kinetics and was dependent upon the weight of skin and time, temperature and pH of the incubation medium. Heating of segments above 50°C caused significant lowering of the uptake. The uptake was irreversibly inhibited by HgCl2 and not by sodium arsenate, KCN, NaF, p-chloromercuribenzoate, N-ethyl-maleimide, cycloheximide, iodoacetic acid and 2,4-dinitrophenol suggesting that the uptake was not energy-dependent. Lipid micelles of the skin accounted for a part of the binding. Most of the benzanthrone taken up by the skin was effluxed through serum proteins