Incidence of intussusception in Singaporean children aged less than 2 years: A hospital-based prospective study

10.1186/1471-2431-13-161BMC Pediatrics131-BPME

Amperometric Biochemical Characterization of Isolated Fungal Strains

The identification and biochemical characterization of microbial species by electrochemical methods have helped to develop microbial sensors that are rapid and effective. In this article, we present results of biochemical characterization of five fungi, the assimilation and biochemical characterization of various substrates and tolerance to selected inhibitors. The results are based on the respiratory rate and assimilatory profile of these fungi and are more rapid and reliable. The experimental results are discussed here with reference to individual fungus. Further, the advantages of the electrochemical assimilation for the biochemical characterization of the microbes have been discussed

Cyclic voltammetric measurements of growth of Aspergillus terreus

A detailed study using the cyclic voltammogram was done on the live cells of Aspergillus terreus. The peak current values were obtained for different days of growth and plotted against time. The response of cyclic voltammogram showed the phases of the growth of the fungus. The growth curve obtained matched well with the conventional methodology, which assesses the increase of dry weight of the organisms against time. The electrochemical method is more advantageous because it is easy to assess and consumes less time. Further the electrochemical method clearly shows the decline phase which is generally not very defined in the conventional method of assessment of the growth curve. It was confirmed by further experiments that the metabolites were responsible for the anodic peak and not the biomass. Further work is in progress in order to analyze the metabolite(s) that is/are responsible for the anodic peak

Dissecting spatial knowledge from spatial choice by hippocampal NMDA receptor deletion

Hippocampal NMDA receptors (NMDARs) and NMDAR-dependent synaptic plasticity are widely considered crucial substrates of long-term spatial memory, although their precise role remains uncertain. Here we show that Grin1ΔDGCA1 mice, lacking GluN1 and hence NMDARs in all dentate gyrus and dorsal CA1 principal cells, acquired the spatial reference memory water maze task as well as controls, despite impairments on the spatial reference memory radial maze task. When we ran a spatial discrimination water maze task using two visually identical beacons, Grin1ΔDGCA1 mice were impaired at using spatial information to inhibit selecting the decoy beacon, despite knowing the platform's actual spatial location. This failure could suffice to impair radial maze performance despite spatial memory itself being normal. Thus, these hippocampal NMDARs are not essential for encoding or storing long-term, associative spatial memories. Instead, we demonstrate an important function of the hippocampus in using spatial knowledge to select between alternative responses that arise from competing or overlapping memories

Hippocampal synaptic plasticity, spatial memory and anxiety

Recent studies using transgenic mice lacking NMDA receptors in the hippocampus challenge the long-standing hypothesis that hippocampal long-term potentiation-like mechanisms underlie the encoding and storage of associative long-term spatial memories. However, it may not be the synaptic plasticity-dependent memory hypothesis that is wrong; instead, it may be the role of the hippocampus that needs to be re-examined. We present an account of hippocampal function that explains its role in both memory and anxiety