Design of an R.F. Excited Helium Neon Visible Gas Laser and Study of the Optimal Conditions for Gas Mixtures and Pressures

Design of a continuous were helium-neon visible gas laser has been described. Brewster angle window of fused quartz and external concave mirrors of B.S.C. glass have been used in the fabrication of resonant cavity. An RF oscillator having variable frequency in the range of 20-30 MHz and an out-put power of about 50 watts served as excitation source. Different mixture ratios of He and Ne have been tried and for each ratio power output was measured versus total pressure inside the discharge tube keeping cavity length constant. The optimum power output has been obtained for 5:1 mixture at 1.4 torr for a tube of length 55 cm and internal diameter 0.5 cm. Laser action at 1.53 meu has been achieved.

Laser Sources for Underwater Applications

Blue-green lasers are finding potential use in underwater applications both civil as well as military. An attempt has been made to review the present state-of art of the blue-green lasers technology and future plans for achieving the desired goal

Case Report and Short Communication: Rectal prolapse associated with an unusual combination of pinworms and citrobacter species infection in FVB mice colony

Spontaneous cases of rectal prolapse in a breeding colony of FVB mice were found to be due to infection with Syphacia obvelata and Citrobacter freundii. Microbiology, biochemical and parasitological examination revealed Citrobacter freundii and eggs of Syphacia obvelata. After treatment with antibiotics, antihelminthic drugs and manual reduction prevented further occurrence

An overview of the predictors of symptomatic urinary tract infection among nursing students

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common infection experienced by humans after respiratory and gastro‑intestinal infections, and also the most common cause of nosocomial infections for patients admitted to hospitals indeed UTIs are the most frequent bacterial infection in women. Aim: The aim was to determine the prevalence of UTI and to identify factors associated with an increased risk of UTI among nursing students. Subjects and Methods: The cross‑sectional study involved 177 unmarried nursing students aged 18–30 years studying in the SRMSIMS, Nursing College Bareilly. A structured questionnaire was used, and study subjects were asked regarding the symptoms of UTI in the previous 3 months. Chi‑square test and Univariate Logistic Regression was used to analyze the data. Results: The overall prevalence of UTI was found to be 19.8% (35/177). Rural background, inadequate water intake, and unsatisfactory toilet habits were found to be strong predictors of UTI. Conclusions: There is an urgent need to sensitize the nursing students regarding the growing need of the issue so that they themselves become aware in addition to raising the awareness of other high‑risk groups.Keywords: Nursing students, Prevalence, Urinary tract infectio

Renal Agenesis in New Zealand White Rabbit

This report describes some cases of unilateral renal agenesis, a congenital anomaly, in a breeding colony of New Zealand white rabbits, detected on physical and necropsy examination. The cases show absence of one of the kidneys, without involvement of the other parts of the genitourinary system or any other part of the body. The animals exhibited no clinical sign of renal failure. Serum biochemical and urine analysis of the animals showed a decrease in specific gravity of the urine with slight increase in the blood urea with no marked changes in other blood and urine parameters

Transethnic analysis of the human leukocyte antigen region for ulcerative colitis reveals not only shared but also ethnicity-specific disease associations

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gut. Genetic association studies have identified the highly variable human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region as the strongest susceptibility locus for IBD, and specifically DRB1*01:03 as a determining factor for ulcerative colitis (UC). However, for most of the association signal such a delineation could not be made due to tight structures of linkage disequilibrium within the HLA. The aim of this study was therefore to further characterize the HLA signal using a trans-ethnic approach. We performed a comprehensive fine mapping of single HLA alleles in UC in a cohort of 9,272 individuals with African American, East Asian, Puerto Rican, Indian and Iranian descent and 40,691 previously analyzed Caucasians, additionally analyzing whole HLA haplotypes. We computationally characterized the binding of associated HLA alleles to human self-peptides and analysed the physico-chemical properties of the HLA proteins and predicted self-peptidomes. Highlighting alleles of the HLA-DRB1*15 group and their correlated HLA-DQ-DR haplotypes, we identified consistent associations across different ethnicities but also identified population-specific signals. We observed that DRB1*01:03 is mostly present in individuals of Western European descent and hardly present in non-Caucasian individuals. We found peptides predicted to bind to risk HLA alleles to be rich in positively charged amino acids such. We conclude that the HLA plays an important role for UC susceptibility across different ethnicities. This research further implicates specific features of peptides that are predicted to bind risk and protective HLA proteins

NOD2-C2 - a novel NOD2 isoform activating NF-κB in a muramyl dipeptide-independent manner

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The innate immune system employs several receptor families that form the basis of sensing pathogen-associated molecular patterns. NOD (nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain) like receptors (NLRs) comprise a group of cytosolic proteins that trigger protective responses upon recognition of intracellular danger signals. NOD2 displays a tandem caspase recruitment domain (CARD) architecture, which is unique within the NLR family.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Here, we report a novel alternative transcript of the <it>NOD2 </it>gene, which codes for a truncated tandem CARD only protein, called NOD2-C2. The transcript isoform is highest expressed in leucocytes, a natural barrier against pathogen invasion, and is strictly linked to promoter usage as well as predominantly to one allele of the single nucleotide polymorphism rs2067085. Contrary to a previously identified truncated single CARD NOD2 isoform, NOD2-S, NOD2-C2 is able to activate NF-κB in a dose dependent manner independently of muramyl dipeptide (MDP). On the other hand NOD2-C2 competes with MDPs ability to activate the NOD2-driven NF-κB signaling cascade.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>NOD2 transcripts having included an alternative exon downstream of exon 3 (exon 3a) are the endogenous equivalents of a previously described <it>in vitro </it>construct with the putative protein composed of only the two N-terminal CARDs. This protein form (NOD2-C2) activates NF-κB independent of an MDP stimulus and is a potential regulator of NOD2 signaling.</p

Genome-wide association studies of autoimmune vitiligo identify 23 new risk loci and highlight key pathways and regulatory variants

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease in which depigmented skin results from the destruction of melanocytes1, with epidemiological association with other autoimmune diseases2. In previous linkage and genome-wide association studies (GWAS1 and GWAS2), we identified 27 vitiligo susceptibility loci in patients of European ancestry. We carried out a third GWAS (GWAS3) in European-ancestry subjects, with augmented GWAS1 and GWAS2 controls, genome-wide imputation, and meta-analysis of all three GWAS, followed by an independent replication. The combined analyses, with 4,680 cases and 39,586 controls, identified 23 new significantly associated loci and 7 suggestive loci. Most encode immune and apoptotic regulators, with some also associated with other autoimmune diseases, as well as several melanocyte regulators. Bioinformatic analyses indicate a predominance of causal regulatory variation, some of which corresponds to expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) at these loci. Together, the identified genes provide a framework for the genetic architecture and pathobiology of vitiligo, highlight relationships with other autoimmune diseases and melanoma, and offer potential targets for treatment