NaNog: A pluripotency homeobox (master) molecule.

One of the most intriguing aspects of cell biology is the state of pluripotency, where the cell is capable of self-renewal for as many times as deemed necessary , then at a specified time can differentiate into any type of cell. This fundamental process is required during organogenesis in foetal life and importantly during tissue repair in health and disease. Pluripotency is very tightly regulated, as any dysregulation can result in congenital defects, inability to repair damage, or cancer. Fuelled by the relatively recent interest in stem cell biology and tissue regeneration, the molecules implicated in regulating pluripotency have been the subject of extensive research. One of the important molecules involved in pluripotency, is NaNog, the subject of this article

Role of transvaginal sonography and hysteroscopy in abnormal uterine bleeding: does the diagnostic yield increase by combining transvaginal sonography, hysteroscopy and biopsy?

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding is the most common complaint of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. The aim of this study was 1) To evaluate the causes of abnormal uterine bleeding using transvaginal sonography, hysteroscopy and endometrial curettage to achieve the greatest diagnostic accuracy. 2) To determine the sensitivity and specificity of TVS and hysteroscopy in the detection of various uterine pathologies.Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study between January 2013 to June2014 in Sri Manakula Vinayagar medical college and hospital. After obtaining ethics committee approval, 100 consecutive patients with abnormal uterine bleeding between the age group of 35 and 55 years, who consented to participate in the study, were subjected to transvaginal sonography followed by diagnostic hysteroscopy combined with a directed biopsy. TVS and hysteroscopy was performed by two different investigators. The endometrial curettings and any intracavitary lesion were subjected to histopathological examination. Results tabulated and analysed using MS EXCEL and cross tabulation using Epi-info. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV for each pathology by TVS and hysteroscopy with HPE as the gold standard was calculated. Also the pathology causing abnormal uterine bleeding was computed by taking into account the endometrial characteristics and the associated lesions diagnosed by TVS, hysteroscopy and histopathological examination report.Results: 61 patients had only single lesions in the form of normal endometrium, atrophic endometrium, endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial polyp, malignancy and IU synechiae whereas 39 patients had lesions like intramural fibroids, adenomyosis, submucus myoma and polyps associated with different types of endometrium. The diagnostic accuracy of TVS and hysteroscopy were comparable for normal endometrium whereas hysteroscopy was found to be more accurate for endometrial polyps, endometrial hyperplasia and atrophic endometrium.Conclusions: The combination of transvaginal sonography, hysteroscopy and directed biopsy was found to increase the diagnostic yield in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding. As the diagnostic accuracy increased by combining the three modalities, an effective and appropriate management can be planned.

Electrical Properties of Atomic Layer Deposited Aluminum Oxide on Gallium Nitride

We report on our investigation of the electrical properties of metal/Al2O3/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitors. We determined the conduction band offset and interface charge density of the alumina/GaN interface by analyzing capacitance-voltage characteristics of atomic layer deposited Al2O3 films on GaN substrates. The conduction band offset at the Al2O3/GaN interface was calculated to be 2.13 eV, in agreement with theoretical predications. A non-zero field of 0.93 MV/cm in the oxide under flat-band conditions in the GaN was inferred, which we attribute to a fixed net positive charge density of magnitude 4.60x1012 cm-2 at the Al2O3/GaN interface. We provide hypotheses to explain the origin of this charge by analyzing the energy band line-up.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Applied Physics Letter

Record of Thrips on Mango

During a trial in 2009 at Moorapoor Village, Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu, for control of mango hoppers and thrips using entomo-pathogens, inflorescences were seen to harbour different species of thrips. Close microscopic observation revealed presence of Frankliniella schultzei (Tryb.), Thrips palmi Karny, T. hawaiiensis (Morgan) and T. subnudula. However, Thrips palmi was the predominant species whereas, for the first time Frankliniella schultzai and Thrips subnudula (Karny, 1927) are reported here on inflorescence of mango in India

Influence of some Pesticides on Entomopathogenic Fungus Lecanicillium (=Verticillium) lecanii (Zimm.) ZARE & GAMS

An in vitro study was conducted to determine the interaction effect of ten pesticides tested at field recommended dose on conidial germination, vegetative growth and sporulation of Lecanicillium lecanii(ZIMM.) ZARE&GAMS. Compatibility of L. lecanii to different pesticides was found to be varied. Conidial germination was 99.3 and 85.7% in Pongamia oil and acephate, whereas, it was totally inhibited by the presence of chlorothalonil, iprodion + carbendazim, carbendazim and thiophanate methyl indicating that these pesticides were highly toxic. Dinocap recorded as moderately toxic while endosulfan, abamectin and ethion were least toxic based to the germination of conidia. So also Iprodion + carbendazim did not and carbendazim allow L. lecanii to put forth mycelium growth in their presence. Thiophanate methyl, Pongamia oil, acephate, endosulfan, ethion and chlorothalonil were observed to be innocuous pesticides registering growth of mycelium upto 2.33, 2.23, 2.23, 2.03, 2.03 and 2.00 cm dia., respectively, from 0.6 cm dia. held in the center of Petri plate on 14th day after treatment. As far as sporulation is concerned, Pongamia oil alone recorded the maximum yield of 47.2x106 conidia/ml followed by 18x106 conidia/ml, in chlorothalonil as against 20x106 conidia/ml in control, which means that the pongamia oil exhibited synergistic effect on L. lecanii, yielding more conidial spores. Thus, based on in vitro interaction study, pongamia oil alone was found to be safe to the entamopathogenic fungus L. lecanii in nature and iprodion + carbendazim and carbendazim were found to be highly toxic

Assessment of sustainable vermiconversion of water hyacinth by Eudrilus eugeniae and Eisenia fetida

The present work has assessed sustainable vermiconversion of aquatic weed water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes). The garden soil, water hyacinth and cow dung were taken in the following the combinations of 1: 2 : 1, 2: 1: 1 and 1 : 1: 2. Two species of earthworms Eudrilus eugeniae and Eisenia fetida was used for the experiment. The total nitrogen (0.18% in control and 1.68% in earthworm treated) and phosphate (0.63 % in control and 1.64 % in earthworm treated) levels were increased and toxic heavy metals zinc (7.66 ppm in control and 2.58 ppm in earthworm treated) and copper (6.68 ppm in control and 1.15 ppm in earthworm treated) were significantly decreased. The earthworm enriches the compost with various nutrients for plant and microbial growth. Plant growth studies were conducted in all the combination of water hyacinth, maximum growth of root length (8.9cm and 7.2 in control) and shoot length (21.6cm and 16.2 in control) observed compare to control. Gut microbial analysis revealed that Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus were predominantly present in the earthworm. The study recommended that the aquatic weed compost was suitable of agricultural usage

Comparative Study of Pesticide Residue Pattern in Vegetables Grown Using IPM and Non-IPM Practices

Pesticide residue persistence pattern in three vegetable crops, viz., tomato, cabbage and cauliflower, cultivated following previously developed pesticide residue-free IPM packages, was compared with a crop cultivated under conventional or non - IPM conditions. It was observed that vegetables grown as per IPM practices were safer to consume at harvest compared to those grown as per conventional cultivation practices, with chemical control as the sole means of plant protection. Pesticide residues, if present, were mostly in trace amounts (< 0.01 ppm) in vegetables grown as per IPM practices, except the residues of methomyl and monocrotophos in cabbage, where slightly higher levels of pesticides were observed

Topological Transitions in Metamaterials

The ideas of mathematical topology play an important role in many aspects of modern physics - from phase transitions to field theory to nonlinear dynamics (Nakahara M (2003) in Geometry, Topology and Physics, ed Brewer DF (IOP Publishing Ltd, Bristol and Philadelphia), Monastryskiy M (1987) in Riemann Topology and Physics, (Birkhauser Verlag AG)). An important example of this is the Lifshitz transition (Lifshitz IM (1960) Anomalies of electron characteristics of a metal in the high-pressure region, Sov Phys JETP 11: 1130-1135), where the transformation of the Fermi surface of a metal from a closed to an open geometry (due to e.g. external pressure) leads to a dramatic effect on the electron magneto-transport (Kosevich AM (2004) Topology and solid-state physics. Low Temp Phys 30: 97-118). Here, we present the optical equivalent of the Lifshitz transition in strongly anisotropic metamaterials. When one of the components of the dielectric permittivity tensor of such a composite changes sign, the corresponding iso-frequency surface transforms from an ellipsoid to a hyperboloid. Since the photonic density of states can be related to the volume enclosed by the iso-frequency surface, such a topological transition in a metamaterial leads to a dramatic change in the photonic density of states, with a resulting effect on every single physical parameter related to the metamaterial - from thermodynamic quantities such as its equilibrium electromagnetic energy to the nonlinear optical response to quantum-electrodynamic effects such as spontaneous emission. In the present paper, we demonstrate the modification of spontaneous light emission from quantum dots placed near the surface of the metamaterial undergoing the topological Lifshitz transition, and present the theoretical description of the effect