Importance of surfactant adsorption in soil & ground water remediation

The term surfactant is derived from the words surface active agent. Surfactants provide remarkable benefits in many textile wet processes. A surface active chemical is one which tends to accumulate at a surface or interface. An interface is the area of contact between two substances. Where the interface is between two substances not in the same phase, the interface is usually called a surface

A retrospective study of fungal corneal ulcer from the western part of Uttar Pradesh

Background: Infectious keratitis is a major cause of avoidable blindness worldwide. Fungus is an important aetiological agent of infectious keratitis following corneal trauma with vegetative matter. This infection should be promptly treated to limit the morbidity and dangerous sequelae. The purpose of this study was to detect causative agents from corneal scrapings and to identify the predisposing factors of mycotic keratitis.Methods: Corneal scrapings were taken in full aseptic precautions in total 112 suspected patients for fungal etiology and were subjected to direct examination by 10% KOH mount, gram stain and culture.Results: A total 112 cases of suspected corneal ulcers were subjected to KOH mount to detect fungal elements in corneal scraping and culture to isolate aetiological agents. In our study 29 (25.8%) samples were found positive in KOH mount and fungus was isolated from the all KOH positive samples. Males were more commonly affected and were mostly in the age group of 30-50 years. Fusarium species was the most common fungus isolated followed by Aspergillus species.Conclusion: Mycotic keratitis is a serious problem usually following corneal trauma, it requires rapid detection and identification of fugal agents for treatment to prevent disastrous consequences.

Detection of substrate binding motifs for morphine biosynthetic pathway intermediates in novel wound inducible (R,S)-reticuline 7-O-methyltransferase of Papaver somniferum

The benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIA) comprise a large and diverse group of nitrogen-containing secondary metabolites with about 2500 compounds identified in plants. BIA biosynthesis begins with the condensation of the tyrosine derived precursors dopamine and p-hydroxyphenylacetaldehyde to (S)-norcoclaurine. Subsequent regiospecific O- and N-methylations and aromatic ring hydroxylation lead to (S)-reticuline, which is the central intermediate for almost all BIAs. For morphinan alkaloid biosynthesis, (S)-reticuline undergoes an inversion of stereochemistry to (R)-reticuline, followed by C-C phenol coupling catalyzed by a unique cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase to yield salutaridine. The cDNA sequence of enzymes leading to (S)-reticuline, as well as those involved in the conversion of (R)-reticuline to salutaridine-7-O-acetate are already characterized. The inversion of (S)-reticuline to (R)-reticuline represent the important steps in morphine biosynthesis. Wound induced transcript accumulation in Papaver reveals a novel wound inducible EST (NCBI DbEST: GO238757) showing homology with (R,S)-reticuline 7-O-methyltransferase (ID: Q6WUC2) isolated from Papaver somniferum. We compare the substrate binding homology of this novel wound inducible (R,S)-reticuline 7-O-methyltransferase (7-OMT) using template of P. somniferum (Q6WUC2; gb|AAQ01668) as experimental control. Homology modeling with 70% identity & 85% similarity with catalytic site of template protein i.e., (Q6WUC2) short chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR), showed docking energy -69.9 and -75.8 kcal/mol with (S)-Reticuline (CID:439653) and (R)-Reticuline (CID:440586) respectively, which are comparable with experimental control binding site interaction energies. Docking of S- & R-reticuline into the active site revealed eight (F(5), E(18), W(24), C(47), F(44), P(45), C(46) and I(47) amino acids presumably responsible for the high substrate specificity of (R,S)-reticuline 7-O-methyltransferase

Understanding Public Speaking: A Learner’s Guide to Persuasive Oratory by Braj Mohan

Understanding Public Speaking: A Learner’s Guide to Persuasive Oratory by Braj Mohan, London: Routledge India, 2019, ISBN:  9780367222734, Pages 146, Price- 695/

Jadassohn Lewandowsky syndrome: Type 1 pachyonychia congenita

Pachyonychia congenita (PC) is a rare, usually autosomal dominant, genodermatosis characterized by tetrad of wedge shaped nail hypertrophy, focal palmoplantar keratoderma, oral leucokeratosis and follicular hyperkeratosis due to mutation in either of the three keratin genes, KRT6, KRT16 and KRT17. Classically, it has been subdivided into 2 major types: PC-1 (Jadassohn Lewandowsky syndrome) and PC-2 (Jackson-Lawler syndrome) but, genotypically, now PC has been classified into 5 types depending upon the underlying keratin gene mutations: PC-K6a, PC-K6b, PC-K6c, PC-K16 and PC-K17. Since 1904 when Muller documented the first case of PC, around 700 cases have been reported till now. Hence, in the view of rarity of such crippling and debilitating dermatosis of congenital or early life onset, we herein report a clinically diagnosed case of Pachyonychia congenita- type 1(Jadassohn Lewandowsky syndrome) in a 16 years old girl with affection of 2 other members of her family with the same disorder

A unique porokeratotic variant of inflammatory linear verrucous epidermal nevus

Inflammatory linear verrucous epidermal nevus (ILVEN) is a rare variant of nevoid linear inflammatory dermatoses which appear most often in the first 6 months of life and persists for many years or even whole life. Clinically, it often shares many features with linear psoriasis, linear porokeratosis, and other linear dermatoses which can usually be differentiated by an established set of clinical and histopathological criteria. Herein, we are reporting an interesting and rare case fulfilling all the clinical and histopathological criteria of ILVEN in a 13-year-old boy which uniquely revealed cornoid lamella on histopathology so we termed it as “porokeratotic variant of inflammatory linear verrucous epidermal nevus.” To the best of our knowledge, only two such cases were reported previously in the literature and none from our country