Are X-Chrome Lenses An Occupational Succor for the Colour Vision Defectives?

Purpose: To understand total visual experience of a colour vision defective, this study evaluated responses with X-Chrome lenses on three most prevalent colour vision testing techniques.Methods: The colour vision responses were assessed at baseline and after wearing X-Chrom lenses on Ishihara’s plates, Edridge Green Lantern and anomaloscope of 51 defective males in the age range of 13-41 years in a non-randomized intervention study.Results: While red and orange lenses gave better results on Ishihara’s plates in terms of SS increase in mean number of plates read (p=0.03) and on anomaloscope by shift of Aq values towards normal range (not SS, p=0.44) but green lenses increased mean number of colours seen on Edridge Green Lantern (p=0.03).Conclusions: The red and orange lenses absorb shorter wavelengths of light facilitating red-green blinds to improve on techniques testing red/green defect i.e. Ishihara’s and anomaloscope. However, green lenses may have improved hue discrimination on Edridge Green Lantern

Pre-Clinical Evaluation of a Novel Nanoemulsion-Based Hepatitis B Mucosal Vaccine

Hepatitis B virus infection remains an important global health concern despite the availability of safe and effective prophylactic vaccines. Limitations to these vaccines include requirement for refrigeration and three immunizations thereby restricting use in the developing world. A new nasal hepatitis B vaccine composed of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in a novel nanoemulsion (NE) adjuvant (HBsAg-NE) could be effective with fewer administrations.Physical characterization indicated that HBsAg-NE consists of uniform lipid droplets (349+/-17 nm) associated with HBsAg through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. Immunogenicity of HBsAg-NE vaccine was evaluated in mice, rats and guinea pigs. Animals immunized intranasally developed robust and sustained systemic IgG, mucosal IgA and strong antigen-specific cellular immune responses. Serum IgG reached > or = 10(6) titers and was comparable to intramuscular vaccination with alum-adjuvanted vaccine (HBsAg-Alu). Normalization showed that HBsAg-NE vaccination correlates with a protective immunity equivalent or greater than 1000 IU/ml. Th1 polarized immune response was indicated by IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha cytokine production and elevated levels of IgG(2) subclass of HBsAg-specific antibodies. The vaccine retains full immunogenicity for a year at 4 degrees C, 6 months at 25 degrees C and 6 weeks at 40 degrees C. Comprehensive pre-clinical toxicology evaluation demonstrated that HBsAg-NE vaccine is safe and well tolerated in multiple animal models.Our results suggest that needle-free nasal immunization with HBsAg-NE could be a safe and effective hepatitis B vaccine, or provide an alternative booster administration for the parenteral hepatitis B vaccines. This vaccine induces a Th1 associated cellular immunity and also may provide therapeutic benefit to patients with chronic hepatitis B infection who lack cellular immune responses to adequately control viral replication. Long-term stability of this vaccine formulation at elevated temperatures suggests a direct advantage in the field, since potential excursions from cold chain maintenance could be tolerated without a loss in therapeutic efficacy

Characterizing and demonstrating the role of Klebsiella SSN1 exopolysaccharide in osmotic stress tolerance using neutron radiography

Abstract Exopolysaccharides (EPS) are organic macromolecules naturally secreted by many microorganisms. EPS is increasingly used for agriculture and industrial purposes. This study focuses on isolate Klebsiella pneumonia SSN1, Klebsiella quasipeumonniae SGM81 isolated from rhizosphere to explore its water retention efficiency under drought conditions. Neutron Radiography was used to visualise water distribution in the sand under normal and drought conditions in the presence and absence of EPS producing bacteria. The EPS production was studied by applying Box Behnken design (BBD) under drought stress which was artificially induced by using polyethene glycol 6000 under osmotic stress condition 3.65% w/v of EPS dry weight was obtained. The relative water content (RWC) is used to calculate the amount of water present in the sand and was further studied by Neutron Radiography imaging with appropriate controls. FTIR and HPLC were also carried out for the characterisation of the extracted EPS. The sand experiments revealed that after 24 h of evaporation, the highest RWC was maintained by SSN1 at 29.7% compared to SGM81 (19.06%). SSN1 was found to release L-arabinose as the main sugar of its EPS under drought stress conditions by HPLC method. The FTIR data indicated the presence of β-glucans and polysaccharide α-pyranose between wavenumber 700 cm−1–1500 cm−1 and 1017 cm−1–1200 cm−1 respectively. The HPLC characterization of extracted EPS from osmotic stressed cells (run 3) displayed a peak designated to L-arabinose at 10.3 retention time (RT) for 132.4 mM concentration. While from run 5 with the controlled condition indicated the presence of L-rhamnose at 7.3 RT for 87 mM concentration. Neutron radiography enables the visualisation of water distribution in the sand as well as water transport in root-soil systems in situ. SSN1 has elicited EPS production in drought conditions with a low level of nitrogen and carbon

Comparative evaluation and Immunohistochemical expression of Syndecan-1 in Ameloblastoma and Dentigerous cyst.

Background: Syndecans are type-1 heparan sulphate proteoglycans which play significant role in cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interaction. Syndecans are involved in tooth development and differentiation of mesenchymal cells. Amongst odontogenic lesions, ameloblastomas and dentigerous cysts are routinely encountered lesions with difference in treatment modality based on its aggressiveness. The objective of the present research was to study and compare immunohistochemical expression of syndecan-1 in ameloblastoma and dentigerous cyst. Method:  40 retrospectively diagnosed cases of ameloblastomas and dentigerous cysts were immunohistochemically stained against syndecan-1. The intensity of immunostaining and percentage of positive cells was assessed by three independent blind observers. Weighted kappa test was used to find out inter-observer reliability. Comparative evaluation of syndecan-1 expression between the two lesions was done using student t-test. Results:  There was statistically significant difference between the mean of score for intensity, mean of score for percentage of positive cells and total mean score of syndecan-1 between ameloblastoma and dentigerous cyst. Conclusion: Syndecan-1 may be involved in aetiopathogenesis of odontogenic lesions like ameloblastoma and dentigerous cyst. Also, weak expression in ameloblastoma indicates that tumor invasion and aggressiveness is related to cell adhesion molecule like syndecan-1