Dendritic Cell Regulation of Peripheral Tolerance in Polyclonal T Cell Repertoires

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in determining whether the outcome of the immune system\u27s encounter with antigen will be immunity or tolerance. Using an antibody against the DEC-205 receptor, antigens have been delivered specifically to DCs in vivo. Under steady state conditions, such presentation of antigen leads to peripheral tolerance in transgenic T cells, either by deletion, anergy or the induction of regulatory T cells. We wanted to examine whether delivery of autoantigens to DCs using this approach, could be used to tolerize autoreactive polyclonal T cells, thereby preventing autoimmunity in mouse models. We succeeded in inducing tolerance to the myelin oligodendrocyte protein and preventing disease in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis model. However no halt or delay in onset of autoimmune diabetes was observed when insulin was targeted to DCs in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse model. Also, foreign antigen-specific T cell responses could not be abolished by targeting antigen to DCs in the NOD mouse. These results strongly suggested that establishing peripheral tolerance in disease-prone polyclonal repertoires such as in the NOD model, would be far more challenging than the previously studied tolerance in non-autoreactive transgenic models had been. We recognized that success in DC-targeting-based autoimmune therapy would first require a better understanding of tolerance in non-disease prone polyclonal T cell repertoires. Towards that end, we examined T cell tolerance in C57BL/6 mice. In the steady state, targeting ovalbumin (OVA) to DCs resulted in polyclonal CD4 and CD8 T cell tolerance. This tolerance was non-deletional and characterized by persistence of T cells that produced IFNγ, but no IL-2. CD4 dependent antibody production by B cells in vivo was abrogated. Also, both CD4 and CD8 proliferative responses in vitro were abolished. Subsequent to tolerization, depending on the strength of the costimulatory stimulus that the CD4 and CD8 T cells are exposed to, tolerance can be reversed both in vivo and in vitro. Thus our results demonstrate that while tolerance in non-autoreactive polyclonal repertoires in steady state DC environments can be achieved, reversal of the tolerized state can also occur. This suggests that in autoreactive T cell repertoires in chronically inflamed DC environments, the prevention or treatment of autoimmune disease is a challenge that will require comprehensive understanding of the balance between immunity and tolerance

SIDOARJO MUD AS A CEMENTITIOUS MATERIAL: A MYTH OR REALITY

Since the production of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), an essential constituent of concrete, leads to the release of significant amount of C02 , it has created some greenhouse effects. Many researches have been carried out to replace partially this OPC such as using Rice Husk Ash (RHA), Silica Fume, Lime Pozzolan, Fly Ash and many more. All this research shows and gives good result on concrete properties. Volcanic ash is believed to have some cementitious properties that can replace OPC. Volcanic emption and earthquake is known as a major problem in Indonesia and in Jawa Timur (East Jawa) there is new type of catastrophe has been discovered known as Sidoarjo Hot Mud. This abundant nature waste is used as a research item to find its effect as cementitious material. The main objective of the study is to find the oxide and amorphous content in this mud (cementitious component) and use this mud to improve the quality of the concrete. The scope of study comprises of research on this mud as cement replacement material using XRD and XRF equipment. Several tests were carried out to find the compression and tensile strength. Porosity and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) tests were also employed to determine the effect of this mud. The tests were carried out with mixture ratio of 0, 5, I 0, 15 and 20% of Sidoarjo mud and OPC to find the optimum ratio. The result showed that the mud can be used as cementitious material with optimum ratio of 10% Sidoarjo mud. It was found that Sidoarjo mud mortar achieved 30% of higher strength compared to OPC mortar. It was also noticed that the porosity level decrease 7% compare to control specimen. In term of tensile, and UPV tests Sidoarjo mud mortar showed 9% and 3% increases compare to OPC mortar respectively

Expression, subcellular localization and functional characterization of RBM5 and RMB10 during the differentiation of C2C12 skeletal myoblasts (skeletal myogenesis)

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are a highly regulated, evolutionarily conserved and functionally distinct family of proteins involved in key RNA metabolic processes. The RNA-binding motif protein RBM5 is an anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, putative tumor suppressor. A paralogue of RBM5, RBM10, which shares 50% identity with RBM5, functions in development. RBM5 and RBM10 are spliceosomal components involved in alternative splicing. RBM5 and RBM10 are ubiquitously expressed with higher levels in muscle (heart and skeletal) and pancreas. Most of the studies on RBM5 and RBM10 have been focused on cancer cells. Several factors such as 1) abundance in muscle, 2) developmental and temporal regulation, 3) alternative splicing activity and 4) association with functional events related to muscle development led us to hypothesize that both RBM5 and RBM10 are involved in skeletal muscle differentiation. The mechanism of action through which these two RBPs effect differentiation is hypothesized to involve alternative splicing of muscle differentiation-specific mRNAs. RBM5 and RBM10 expression and intracellular distribution was analyzed during muscle differentiation in the C2C12 murine model using qPCR, end-point PCR, immunoblotting and confocal microscopy. Also, RBM5 and RBM10 levels were transiently down-regulated using siRNA either separately and/or together and the associated changes in cell phenotype, expression of myogenic proteins plus a few alternative splicing events were analyzed. We observed a decrease in RBM5 and RBM10 protein expression levels in the differentiated myotubes compared to the myoblasts and myocytes, which indicates a time-dependent potential regulatory role during differentiation. Further, changes in RBM5 and RBM10 protein expression without modulating the levels of mRNA variants suggests posttranscriptional and/or post-translational regulation. Stage-specific differential localization suggests multiple functions related to mRNA biogenesis. RBM5-depleted cells showed a reduction in the total cell number during differentiation, and exhibited a delay in differentiation, fusion and maturation with down-regulated expression of myogenin and myosin heavy chain (MyHC). This implies that RBM5 is necessary to maintain the cell population to execute the myogenic differentiation process in a timely manner. RBM10- depleted cells showed an increase in total cell number immediately after transfection, and exhibited a delay in differentiation with a decrease in inclusion of exon 11 in Dtna mRNA. This indicates that RBM10 is required to maintain the necessary cell population before induction and acts as a splicing regulator during differentiation. RBM5- and RBM10- depleted cells differentiated and matured slowly, and had an increase in Mef2c γ exon inclusion. Therefore, these two RBPs are associated with the alternative splicing of Mef2cγ during differentiation. This is the first study to analyze the expression and the function of these two RBPs in a murine skeletal muscle differentiation model, and has implicated them in myogenesis, paving a way for further characterization. Future studies can investigate the involvement of RBM5 and RBM10 in disease states such as muscular dystrophy and rhabdomyosarcomas, given the known functions of RBPs in tumorigenesis in other cell types.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biomolecular Science

Feminist Inscriptions in Gandharvan Works

Superiority of women is one of the factors that hinder the progress of the society. Both men and women are part of society. Today's society will be better if both the genders are treated equally in knowledge, have equal rights, and live in harmony with love and virtue. But today's society is a patriarchal society. Women remain enslaved and marginalized, even though some rights have been given to women, the fundamental changes for complete women's emancipation have not yet taken place. Human emancipation will be complete only when fundamental changes take place and women's emancipation is complete. Feminine is the characteristic of love, female is the form of virtue. Woman is the primary source of life and growth she is the source of strength, the pinnacle of sacrifice, the protector of duty and the abode of patience. Poets have described about such feminine qualities in their works. In the field of Tamil literature, the term "Penniyam" refers to feminism and many works are created based on it. Feminism is one of the various academic fields that are emerging today. Today's research on feminism through the fields of anthropology, psychology, linguistics, sociology, and history is increasing. Similarly, many researches have appeared in the field of literature on women's creative issues. Thus, this article examines the ideology of women in kandarvan's works

Problems of Social Relations in Gandharvan Poetry

History shows that new poetry emerged through revolutions all over the world. New poetry began to infiltrate society as a propaganda weapon in a way that was easily understood by lay people. In the Tamil environment, Bharatiyar started Pudukavitha as a platform for developing the spirit of liberation and reprimanding the existing inequalities in human relations. In the subsequent period, many thinkers and reformers appeared and contributed to awaken the Tamil people in the Tamil society, which had a practice of secrecy and endless ignorance. Magazines like ‘Eluththu’, ‘Zhla’ and poetry organizations like ‘Vanampaadi’ supported it and popularized the new poetry. The poets expressed the ideas of social awareness and social thinking, solutions to the problems of reformation as advices gently, and with prudence and revolutionary attitude that immediate change in the society is needed. The reason for this is the objective of revitalizing social relations and living together in an unequal manner. Based on this, the themes of literature, especially poetry, began to emerge in a new direction, in a new perspective, with concepts from new angles according to the times. In this background, social problems, social reform ideas and ideas about social change are taking place as the main ideas in the Tamil poems of this era and are causing various impacts. These are creative in a way that sheds light on the social factors that prevent human relationships from coming together

Rural Development through Village Knowledge Centers in India

Information and Communications technologies (ICTs) have played a major role in the development of societies. For the past several years, India has experimented with extending the reach of ICTs to rural areas with a view to bringing development to these areas. Several projects are currently underway. This paper examines the implementation of Village knowledge Centers in rural Southern India. We first describe the developmental disparity that exists between urban and rural areas in India, and justify the implementation of rural projects that extend ICTs to rural areas. We examine prior work, and then describe in detail the Village knowledge Center Project, conceived, developed and implemented by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) located in Chennai, India. We describe our field visits and observations, and conclude with an analysis of the role and benefits of such projects, unresolved questions and issues, and possible directions for future work in this area

Shuffle on array languages generated by array grammars

Motivated by the studies done by G. Siromoney et al. (1973) and Alexan- dru Mateescu et al. (1998) we examine the language theoretic results related to shuf- fle on trajectories by making use of Siromoney array grammars such as (R : R)AG, (R : C F )AG, (C F : R)AG, (C F : C F )AG, (C S : R)AG, (C S : C S)AG and (C F : C S)AG which are more powerful than the Siromoney matrix grammars (1972) and are used to make digital pictures

Prospects of biodrainage to mitigate problems of waterlogging and soil salinity in context of India - A review

Major parts of agricultural lands in arid and semi-arid regions of India are affected by soil salinity and waterlogging in canal command area and outside. Waterlogging is caused by a rising water table and poor drainage conditions.  Stress due to waterlogging and salinity are serious to plants in all stages from seed germination to active growth and maturity. Unmanaged affected agricultural lands turn into low productive marshlands in the long run. Physical provision of surface or sub-surface drainage structures can rescue in such a situation. Yet, high skill and investment are required in the installation and maintenance of such structures. Alternatively, biodrainage method has been evolved as an effective method recently world over. In biodrainage, plants are raised over a larger area, which can transpire and remove an enormous amount of water from the soil. Plants having adequate adaptive traits and tolerance mechanisms are desirable to mitigate waterlogging and salinity. Biodrainage is suitable in rainfed and irrigated conditions. Planting of right plant species in optimum population and geometry decides the efficiency of biodrainage. Further, combining biodrainage with the conventional drainage can improve land and water productivity. Eucalyptus is the most suitable tree species for biodrainage as it has well performed in versatile environments. It possesses appreciable tolerance to salinity, sodicity and waterlogged conditions of the soil.  Fast-growing with a straight trunk, deep rooting ability, low shading effect and high transpiration capacity are promising characteristics of this tree.  Prominent woody species like Acacia nilotica, Dalbergia sissoo, Hardwickia binata can also be grown for high profit

Decreased levels of serum soluble complement receptor-II (CR2/CD21) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. The soluble cluster of differentiation 21 (sCD21) represents the extracellular portion of the CD21 glycoprotein and is released by shedding from cell surfaces into plasma. Soluble CD21 binds complement fragments and activates monocytes through binding to membrane CD23. Elevated levels of sCD21 are found during Epstein-Barr virus EBV infections, B-cell lymphoma and other lymphoblastoid tumours. The present study was undertaken to investigate levels of sCD21 in rheumatoid arthritis. Methods. A specific enzyme-linked immunoassay was developed using sCD21, biochemically purified to homogeneity from human plasma as a standard for the determination of sCD21 concentration in patient sera. Peripheral blood B and T lymphocytes were isolated from healthy donors and rheumatoid arthritis patients and cultured, and supernatants were analysed for CD21 shedding. Results. The normal values of serum sCD21 in healthy individuals between 20 and 40 yr of age ranged from 100 to 477 ng/ml (median 292 ng/ml), decreasing with age but not differing with gender. In rheumatoid arthritis patients, sCD21 levels ranged from 50 to 300 ng/ml (median 182 ng/ml), did not differ with age and were independent of rheumatoid factor. Conclusions. In contrast to healthy donors, patients with rheumatoid arthritis have significantly lower sCD21 levels (P < 0.0001), independently of the age of the patients. Sorted B cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients released amounts of CD21 comparable with those of normal controls. Possible causes and consequences of the findings are discusse