CURBING ACTINOMYCETES AND THIDIAZURON ENHANCED MICROPROPAGATION IN THE RARE ALPINIA GALANGA - A MEDICINAL ZINGIBER

Objective: Elimination of endophytic actinomycetes before micropropagation using antibiotic pre-treatment in rhizome bud explants of Alpinia galanga. Then, the formulation of an operative protocol for Micropropagation of the same void of endophytic actinomycetes. Methods: A treatment of mercury chloride and carbendazim, alone and in combination was used as surface sterilants. A pre-treatment of rifampicin and fusidic acid was used against actinomycete endophyte disinfection of rhizome bud explants. Then, Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentrations of cytokinins were used for micropropagation of disinfected explants. Results: A treatment of 0.1% (w/v) mercury chloride and 0.1% (w/v) carbendazim, one after the other for 5 minutes gave the best sterility of 83.3%. A pre-treatment of Rifampicin 100 mg/l and fusidic acid 100 mg/l for 2 hrs gave the best disinfection of 70% against actinomycete endophytes. A combination of thidiazuron (TDZ) 0.45 μM and 6-benzyladenine 13.32 μM in MS medium resulted in 9.4 shoots per explant. MS medium fortified with 10.74 μMof 1-naphthaleneacetic acid gave the best rooting of 20 roots/shoot. inter simple sequence repeat marker genetic similarity of regenerants with the mother plant was confirmed. Conclusion: This study shows the potency of Rifampicin and Fusidic acid to disinfect explants from actinomycete endophytes and is significant as the first report on curbing actinomycetes endophytes in plant tissue culture of A. galanga. This is also the first report conferring the dissimilar regeneration capabilities of TDZ in comparison to other cytokinins in Zingiberaceae

Primary pulmonary non hodgkin’s T cell lymphoma

A 55-year-old female presented with history of fever, dry cough and right sided chest pain of two months duration. Radiological examination revealed a soft tissue attenuated lesion involving right middle lobe. Immuno histochemical analysis leads to the diagnosis of Non Hodgkin’s T-cell Lymphoma. The rarity of this disorder and its good clinical and radiological response to chemotherapy prompted us to report this case

Swyer- James -MacLeod syndrome presenting as hemoptysis in an adult

Swyer-James/MacLeod syndrome is an uncommon disease with characteristic radiological feature of unilateral hyperlucency due to loss of pulmonary vasculature and air trapping. Typically, this disorder is diagnosed in childhood during evaluations for recurrent respiratory infections. Here, we report a case in a 30-year-old adult female who presented with dyspnoea, cough with expectoration and recurrent hemoptysis due to associated bronchiectasis. This case highlights the importance of computed tomography in the diagnostic workup of recurrent hemoptysis in pulmonary tuberculosis epidemic countries like India

A survey of emergency department use in patients with cyclic vomiting syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS), a chronic disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of vomiting, is frequently unrecognized and is associated with high utilization of emergency department (ED) services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A web-based survey was posted on the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association (CVSA) website to assess utilization of ED services in patients with CVS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 251 respondents, 104 (41.4%) were adult CVS patients and 147 (58.6%) were caregivers of pediatric and adult patients. In the adult group, the median number of ED visits for CVS symptoms was 15(range 1 - 200), with a median of 7 ED visits prior to a diagnosis of CVS (range 0 - 150). In the caregiver group, the median number of ED visits was 10 (range 1 - 175) and the median number of ED visits prior to a diagnosis of CVS was 5 (range 0 - 65). CVS was not diagnosed in the ED in 89/104 (93%) adults and 119/147 (93%) patients in the caregiver group. CVS was not recognized in the ED in 84/95 (88%) of adults and 97/122 (80%) of patients in the caregiver group, despite an established diagnosis of CVS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a sub-group of adult and pediatric CVS patients who are high utilizers of ED services and CVS is not recognized in the ED in the majority of patients. Improved efforts to educate ED physicians are indicated to optimize treatment of patients with CVS and to decrease potential overuse of ED services.</p

Estimation of the size and structure of the broad line region using Bayesian approach

Understanding the geometry and kinematics of the broad line region (BLR) of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is important to estimate black hole masses in AGN and study the accretion process. The technique of reverberation mapping (RM) has provided estimates of BLR size for more than 100 AGN now; however, the structure of the BLR has been studied for only a handful number of objects. Towards this, we investigated the geometry of the BLR for a large sample of 57 AGN using archival RM data. We performed systematic modelling of the continuum and emission line light curves using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method based on Bayesian statistics implemented in PBMAP (Parallel Bayesian code for reverberation - MAPping data) code to constrain BLR geometrical parameters and recover velocity integrated transfer function. We found that the recovered transfer functions have various shapes such as single-peaked, double-peaked, and top-hat suggesting that AGN have very different BLR geometries. Our model lags are in general consistent with that estimated using the conventional cross-correlation methods. The BLR sizes obtained from our modelling approach is related to the luminosity with a slope of 0.583 +/- 0.026 and 0.471 +/- 0.084 based on H beta and H alpha lines, respectively. We found a non-linear response of emission line fluxes to the ionizing optical continuum for 93 per cent objects. The estimated virial factors for the AGN studied in this work range from 0.79 to 4.94 having a mean at 1.78 +/- 1.77 consistent with the values found in the literature

Bio-nanotechnology application in wastewater treatment

The nanoparticles have received high interest in the field of medicine and water purification, however, the nanomaterials produced by chemical and physical methods are considered hazardous, expensive, and leave behind harmful substances to the environment. This chapter aimed to focus on green-synthesized nanoparticles and their medical applications. Moreover, the chapter highlighted the applicability of the metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) in the inactivation of microbial cells due to their high surface and small particle size. Modifying nanomaterials produced by green-methods is safe, inexpensive, and easy. Therefore, the control and modification of nanoparticles and their properties were also discussed

Universal time-dependent deformations of Schrodinger geometry

We investigate universal time-dependent exact deformations of Schrodinger geometry. We present 1) scale invariant but non-conformal deformation, 2) non-conformal but scale invariant deformation, and 3) both scale and conformal invariant deformation. All these solutions are universal in the sense that we could embed them in any supergravity constructions of the Schrodinger invariant geometry. We give a field theory interpretation of our time-dependent solutions. In particular, we argue that any time-dependent chemical potential can be treated exactly in our gravity dual approach.Comment: 24 pages, v2: references adde

Late presentation of a mucinous ovarian adenocarcinoma which was initially diagnosed as a primary pancreatic carcinoma: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Adenocarcinoma of the ovary is an aggressive neoplasm which often metastasizes to the lung or liver. Metastases rarely occur to the pancreas, but a tissue diagnosis is required to confirm this event. Although most tumors of the pancreas are primary pancreatic neoplasms, metastatic lesions have been reported most commonly as arising from renal cell carcinoma.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 51-year-old Caucasian woman with ovarian mucinous adenocarcinoma with metastasis to the head of the pancreas that was originally misdiagnosed as a pancreatic primary tumor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Mucinous ovarian adenocarcinomas rarely metastasize to the pancreas. New pancreatic lesions should be investigated through tissue biopsy and tumor markers, while keeping an open-minded differential diagnosis to avoid a misdiagnosis or a delay in treatment.</p

Thiolated chitosan nanoparticles enhance anti-inflammatory effects of intranasally delivered theophylline

BACKGROUND: Chitosan, a polymer derived from chitin, has been used for nasal drug delivery because of its biocompatibility, biodegradability and bioadhesiveness. Theophylline is a drug that reduces the inflammatory effects of allergic asthma but is difficult to administer at an appropriate dosage without causing adverse side effects. It was hypothesized that adsorption of theophylline to chitosan nanoparticles modified by the addition of thiol groups would improve theophylline absorption by the bronchial epithelium and enhance its anti-inflammatory effects. OBJECTIVES: We sought to develop an improved drug-delivery matrix for theophylline based on thiolated chitosan, and to investigate whether thiolated chitosan nanoparticles (TCNs) can enhance theophylline's capacity to alleviate allergic asthma. METHODS: A mouse model of allergic asthma was used to test the effects of theophylline in vivo. BALB/c mice were sensitized to ovalbumin (OVA) and OVA-challenged to produce an inflammatory allergic condition. They were then treated intranasally with theophylline alone, chitosan nanoparticles alone or theophylline adsorbed to TCNs. The effects of theophylline on cellular infiltration in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, histopathology of lung sections, and apoptosis of lung cells were investigated to determine the effectiveness of TCNs as a drug-delivery vehicle for theophylline. RESULTS: Theophylline alone exerts a moderate anti-inflammatory effect, as evidenced by the decrease in eosinophils in BAL fluid, the reduction of bronchial damage, inhibition of mucus hypersecretion and increased apoptosis of lung cells. The effects of theophylline were significantly enhanced when the drug was delivered by TCNs. CONCLUSION: Intranasal delivery of theophylline complexed with TCNs augmented the anti-inflammatory effects of the drug compared to theophylline administered alone in a mouse model of allergic asthma. The beneficial effects of theophylline in treating asthma may be enhanced through the use of this novel drug delivery system