Huntington's disease: An immune perspective

Copyright © 2011 Annapurna Nayaketal. This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by abnormal expansion of CAG trinucleotide repeats. Neuroinflammation is a typical feature of most neurodegenerative diseases that leads to an array of pathological changes within the affected areas in the brain. The neurodegeneration in HD is also caused by aberrant immune response in the presence of aggregated mutant huntingtin protein. The effects of immune activation in HD nervous system are a relatively unexplored area of research. This paper summarises immunological features associated with development and progression of HD.U. Kishore acknowledges funding via BRIEF and Brunel University’s strategic funding for the Centre of Infection, Immunity and Disease Mechanisms

Flotation of Low Grade Copper ore from Kallur, Raichur District, Karnataka

Copper, an important non-ferrous metal, is in great demand in India, resulting in a continuous important of large quantities. The total copper ore reserves in India(Raghunandan et. al.1981) have been estimated to be 497 million tons of which an average of 2 million tons are being processed at present. In this c ontext the deve-lopment and exploitation of new reserves assumes impor-tance in order to meet the increasing demand from inter-nal production rather than through imports of the metal. Out of 19.4 million tons of reserves of the ore in Kar-nataka, 4.5 million tons are at present commercially exploited at Ingaldhal and Kalyadi. New ore reserves have been found at Tintini, Kailur, Machanur and Aladahalli and exploratory drilling for copper in these areas have been started by the Department of Mines and Geology. In this paper a detailed account of the beneficiation studies carried out on the low grade copper ore from Kallur, Raichur District, Karnataka are described for possible commercial exploitation in future

Influence of surface roughness on superhydrophobicity

Superhydrophobic surfaces, with liquid contact angle theta greater than 150 degree, have important practical applications ranging from self-cleaning window glasses, paints, and fabrics to low-friction surfaces. Many biological surfaces, such as the lotus leaf, have hierarchically structured surface roughness which is optimized for superhydrophobicity through natural selection. Here we present a molecular dynamics study of liquid droplets in contact with self-affine fractal surfaces. Our results indicate that the contact angle for nanodroplets depends strongly on the root-mean-square surface roughness amplitude but is nearly independent of the fractal dimension D_f of the surface.Comment: 5 Pages, 6 figures. Minimal changes with respect to the previous versio

Storage Life of an Aluminised HE Composition .

Most high explosive compositions are organic in nature and they tend to undergo slow decomposition during storage under different environmental conditions. The decomposition degrade the molecular stability of the explosive, thereby resulting in reduced performance and service life. The knowledge of decomposition behaviour of the explosive mass determines the storage life of the composition. Hence, change in the chemical stability, sensitivity, mechanical strength and performance are of utmost importance in the prediction of storage life of explosive/ammunitions systems. This paper presents the results on the rate of gas evolution, change in sensitivity, and thermal stability and weight loss of high explosive compositions, viz., Dentex and TNT when exposed to elevated temperature. Based on the collected data, a tentative storage life for the aluminised (Dentex) composition has been computed to be 15 years. The data has been compared with TNT, a standard explosive for assessing the storage life

Gamow-Teller transitions and deformation in the proton-neutron random phase approximation

We investigate reliability of Gamow-Teller transition strengths computed in the proton-neutron random phase approximation, comparing with exact results from diagonalization in full $0\hbar\omega$ shell-model spaces. By allowing the Hartree-Fock state to be deformed, we obtain good results for a wide variety of nuclides, even though we do not project onto good angular momentum. We suggest that deformation is as important or more so than pairing for Gamow-Teller transitions.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; added references, clarified discussion with regards to stabilit

Tagging of Explosives for Detection

This paper gives the results of a study on estimation of shelf life of2,3-dimethyI2,3-dinitrobutane (DMNB)-tagged RDX and PETN expiosives by monitoring DMNB depletion by high performanceliquid chromatography and simultaneously recording the detectability of the tagged explosive composition using explosive vapoUf detector Model-97 HS. DMNB was incorporated in the explosive using methanol as solvent for DMNB and the explosive compositions were stored at 35,55 and 75 °C over a long period. Methods developed for preparing the homogeneously tagged composition with DMNB at 0.5 per cent level and for the analysis ofDMNB for ensuring homogeneity of DMNB in the composition are described. The results show no change in compatibility and sensitivity on the incorporation of DMNB in the explosive. Estimation of shelf life of DMNB in the explosive was done for a period of storage of 202-304 days at different temperatures

A Quantum-Proof Non-Malleable Extractor, With Application to Privacy Amplification against Active Quantum Adversaries

In privacy amplification, two mutually trusted parties aim to amplify the secrecy of an initial shared secret $X$ in order to establish a shared private key $K$ by exchanging messages over an insecure communication channel. If the channel is authenticated the task can be solved in a single round of communication using a strong randomness extractor; choosing a quantum-proof extractor allows one to establish security against quantum adversaries. In the case that the channel is not authenticated, Dodis and Wichs (STOC'09) showed that the problem can be solved in two rounds of communication using a non-malleable extractor, a stronger pseudo-random construction than a strong extractor. We give the first construction of a non-malleable extractor that is secure against quantum adversaries. The extractor is based on a construction by Li (FOCS'12), and is able to extract from source of min-entropy rates larger than $1/2$. Combining this construction with a quantum-proof variant of the reduction of Dodis and Wichs, shown by Cohen and Vidick (unpublished), we obtain the first privacy amplification protocol secure against active quantum adversaries

A Composite Chiral Pair of Rotational Bands in the odd-A Nucleus 135Nd

High-spin states in 135Nd were populated with the 110Pd(30Si,5n)135Nd reaction at a 30Si bombarding energy of 133 MeV. Two Delta(I)=1 bands with close excitation energies and the same parity were observed. These bands are directly linked by Delta(I)=1 and Delta(I)=2 transitions. The chiral nature of these two bands is confirmed by comparison with three-dimensional tilted axis cranking calculations. This is the first observation of a three-quasiparticle chiral structure and established the primarily geometric nature of this phenomenon.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures (1 in color), 1 table, submitted to Physics Review Letters, written in REVTEX4 forma

Changes in soil properties following the establishment of exclosures in Ethiopia : a meta-analysis

Acknowledgements This work is part of the RALENTIR (Reducing land degradation and carbon loss from Ethiopia's soils to strengthen livelihoods and resilience) project, funded by GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund) and University of Aberdeen. We are grateful to Abeyou Wale for his assistance in developing the map of agroecological zones of Ethiopia.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In-beam spectroscopy of medium- and high-spin states in 133^{133}Ce

Medium and high-spin states in $^{133}$Ce were investigated using the $^{116}$Cd($^{22}$Ne, $5n$) reaction and the Gammasphere array. The level scheme was extended up to an excitation energy of $\sim22.8$ MeV and spin 93/2 . Eleven bands of quadrupole transitions and two new dipole bands are identified. The connections to low-lying states of the previously known, high-spin triaxial bands were firmly established, thus fixing the excitation energy and, in many cases, the spin parity of the levels. Based on comparisons with cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations and tilted axis cranking covariant density functional theory, it is shown that all observed bands are characterized by pronounced triaxiality. Competing multiquasiparticle configurations are found to contribute to a rich variety of collective phenomena in this nucleus.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure