T-lymphocyte activation in steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome in childhood

We undertook a sequential study in 29 children with steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) off treatment to seek evidence for T-cell activation in relapse. T-cell subsets and activation markers were analysed using two-colour flow cytometry. Soluble IL2 receptor (sIL2R) was measured in serum and urine by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Fifteen children were examined in remission and subsequent relapse (group A) and fourteen remained in remission (group B). In group A the proportion of CD4+ cells expressing the activation marker CD25 (alpha-chain of the IL2 receptor) increased significantly from remission to relapse: CD4+25+ cells rose from 5.6 to 7.0% of total lymphocytes, and from 15.8 to 19.1% of CD4+ lymphocytes (paired t test: P<0.0005 and <0.001 respectively). No correlations were found between CD4+25+ cells and plasma albumin or cholesterol concentrations. SIL2R concentration in serum did not change in relapse, but increased significantly in urine from 272 to 592 U/mg creatinine (P<0.01). No significant difference was found in remission between groups A and B. We conclude that early relapse in SSNS is associated with activation of CD4+ (T-helper) cells which is not secondary due to the nephrotic state itsel

EXTENDED MODELLING AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF PHASED ARRAY SYNTHETIC JET CROSS-FLOW INTERACTIONS

A classical analysis of incompressible unsteady Navier-Stokes equation have been under discussion for a long time by various reasearchers, it has been found that the exact analytical unique solution existed only below and undefined Reynolds number limit. Several solutions were existed for a range of Reynolds number above the limit, and that has no solution exsisted above the second undefined Reynolds number (i.e, solution enter into turbulent region and one has to solve another set of equations for turbulance). A useful study was done for two dimensional unsteady incompressible flow in which vorticity is propotional to stream function perturbed by uniform stream. Recently this unsteady sloution was used to analyse the flow behaviour on flat plate using Synthetic Jet Actuators (SJA) which consists of oscillating membrane expels in fluid through orifice. The results obtained at different time level were presented and it was found as the time progresses streamlines, on the flat plate with number of actuators placed in an array, become flatter caused rapidly decay in vortices on trailing edge. The authentication of these results were needded to be validated through experiment or numerical simulation. In this paper, an attempt has been made to solve incompressible unsteady Navier-Stokes equations numerically to analyse the behaviour of single and multiple sythetic jet actuator in a cross flow conditions. The behaviour of SJA implemented by imposing a special kind of boundary condition on the bottom of flate plate was studied. Results have been obtained for various Reynolds numbers and were presented. These numerical results were in close agreement with [1]

CicArMiSatDB: the chickpea microsatellite database

Background Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a widely grown legume crop in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions. Molecular breeding approaches seem to be essential for enhancing crop productivity in chickpea. Until recently, limited numbers of molecular markers were available in the case of chickpea for use in molecular breeding. However, the recent advances in genomics facilitated the development of large scale markers especially SSRs (simple sequence repeats), the markers of choice in any breeding program. Availability of genome sequence very recently opens new avenues for accelerating molecular breeding approaches for chickpea improvement. Description In order to assist genetic studies and breeding applications, we have developed a user friendly relational database named the Chickpea Microsatellite Database (CicArMiSatDB http://cicarmisatdb.icrisat.org). This database provides detailed information on SSRs along with their features in the genome. SSRs have been classified and made accessible through an easy-to-use web interface. Conclusions This database is expected to help chickpea community in particular and legume community in general, to select SSRs of particular type or from a specific region in the genome to advance both basic genomics research as well as applied aspects of crop improvement

Solubility-pH profile of desipramine hydrochloride in saline phosphate buffer: Enhanced solubility due to drug-buffer aggregates

Although solubility-pH data for desipramine hydrochloride (DsHCl) have been reported previously, the aim of the present study was to critically examine the aqueous solubility-pH behavior of DsHCl in buffer-free and buffered solutions, in the presence of physiologically-relevant chloride concentration, using experimental practices recommended in the recently-published “white paper” (Avdeef et al., 2016). The computer program pDISOL-X was used to design the structured experiments (pH-RSF method), to process the data, and to refine the equilibrium constants. Low-to-high and high-to-low pH assays (using HCl, H 3 PO 4 , or NaOH to adjust pH) were performed on phosphate-buffered (0.12‑0.15 M) saturated solutions of DsHCl in the pH 1.3–11.6 range. After equilibration (stirring 6 h, followed by 18 h stir-free sedimentation), filtration or centrifugation was used for phase separation. Concentration was measured using HPLC with UV/VIS detection. The 2:1 drug-phosphate solubility product (K sp 2:1 = [DsH + ] 2 [HPO 4 2− ]) was determined from data in the pH 4–9 region. The free base of desipramine was prepared and used to determine the K sp 1:1 ([DsH + ][H 2 PO 4 − ]) in chloride-free acidified suspension. In addition, phosphate-free titrations were conducted to determine the intrinsic solubility, S 0 , and the 1:1 drug-chloride solubility product, K sp DsH [rad] Cl = [DsH + ][Cl − ]. Under the assay conditions, only the phosphate-free solutions showed some supersaturation near pH max 8.0. In phosphate-containing solutions, pH max was indicated at higher pH (8.8–9.6). Oils mixed with solids were observed to form in alkaline solutions (pH &gt; 11). Notably, soluble drug-phosphate complexes appeared to form below pH 3.9 and above pH max in saturated phosphate‑containing saline solutions. This was indicated by the systematic pH shift to higher values in the log S-pH curve in alkaline solution than expected from the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. For pH &lt; 3.9, saturated phosphate-containing saline solutions exhibited elevated solubility, with drug-hydrochloride as the sole precipitate. Salt solubility products, intrinsic solubility, and complexation constants, which rationalized the data, were determined. Elemental, thermogravimetric (TGA), differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analyses were used to characterize the precipitates isolated from suspensions at different pH.This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Marković, O. S.; Pešić, M. P.; Shah, A. V.; Serajuddin, A. T. M.; Verbić, T. Ž.; Avdeef, A. Solubility-PH Profile of Desipramine Hydrochloride in Saline Phosphate Buffer: Enhanced Solubility Due to Drug-Buffer Aggregates. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 2019, 133, 264–274. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejps.2019.03.014]Supplementary material: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/2926

Medium-chain triglyceride supplementation may increase working memory in older adults: A pilot study

Poster presentatio

Investigation of possible solubility and dissolution advantages of cocrystals, I: Aqueous solubility and dissolution rates of ketoconazole and its cocrystals as functions of pH

Since there are conflicting reports in the literature on solubility and dissolution advantages of cocrystals over free forms, we systematically studied solubility and intrinsic dissolution rates of a weakly basic drug, ketoconazole, and its cocrystals with fumaric acid and succinic acid as functions of pH to determine what advantages cocrystals provide. pH-solubility profiles were determined in two different ways: one by lowering pH of ketoconazole aqueous suspensions using HCl, fumaric acid and succinic acid, and the other by adjusting pH of cocrystal suspensions using respective coformer acids or NaOH. Similar pH-solubility profiles were obtained whether free base or cocrystals were used as starting materials to determine solubility. With the addition of fumaric and succinic acids to aqueous suspensions of free base to lower pH, the maximum solubility (pHmax) was reached at pH ~3.5-4.0, below which the solubility decreased and cocrystals formed. The solubility, however, continued increasing when HCl was added to ketoconazole suspension as no cocrystal or salt was formed. During determination of cocrystal solubility, a conversion to free base was observed when pH was raised above pHmax. Thus, pH-solubility profiles of cocrystals resembled solubility profiles commonly encountered with salts. Above pHmax, both free base and cocrystal had similar solubility under identical pH conditions; the solubility of cocrystal was higher only if the pH differed. In contrast, intrinsic dissolution rates of cocrystals at pH>pHmax under identical bulk pH were much higher than that of free ketoconazole since cocrystals had lower microenvironmental pH at the dissolving surface, where the solubility was high. Thus, cocrystals of basic drugs can potentially provide higher dissolution rates under intestinal pH conditions

More on scattering of Chern-Simons vortices

I derive a general formalism for finding kinetic terms of the effective Lagrangian for slowly moving Chern-Simons vortices. Deformations of fields linear in velocities are taken into account. From the equations they must satisfy I extract the kinetic term in the limit of coincident vortices. For vortices passing one over the other there is locally the right-angle scattering. The method is based on analysis of field equations instead of action functional so it may be useful also for nonvariational equations in nonrelativistic models of Condensed Matter Physics.Comment: discussion around Eq.(45) is generalised, one more condition for the local right-angle scattering is adde

Screening for Ascochyta Blight Resistance in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Ten chickpea lines CM1966/93, CMC77S, CM843/98, CM1223/98, CM1441/98, CM2070/98, CC 104/99, CC106/99, CC124/00 were found highly resistant to Ascochyta blight with disease rating of 2 followed by 34 lines that were resistant and 21 lines were tolerant. None was found immune to blight. The highly resistant lines have exhibited higher level of resistance against blight as compared to earlier released varieties (CM72, CM88 and CM2000)

Expansion for the solutions of the Bogomolny equations on the torus

We show that the solutions of the Bogomolny equations for the Abelian Higgs model on a two-dimensional torus, can be expanded in powers of a quantity epsilon measuring the departure of the area from the critical area. This allows a precise determination of the shape of the solutions for all magnetic fluxes and arbitrary position of the Higgs field zeroes. The expansion is carried out to 51 orders for a couple of representative cases, including the unit flux case. We analyse the behaviour of the expansion in the limit of large areas, in which case the solutions approach those on the plane. Our results suggest convergence all the way up to infinite area.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, slightly revised version as published in JHE

Screening for Ascochyta blight resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Ten chickpea lines CM1966/93, CMC77S, CM843/98, CM1223/98, CM1441/98, CM2070/98, CC 104/99, CC106/99, CC107/99, CC124/00 were found highly resistant to Ascochyta blight with disease rating of 2 followed by 34 lines that were resistant and 21 lines were tolerant. None was found immune to blight. The highly resistant lines have exhibited higher level of resistance against blight as compared to earlier released varieties (CM72, CM88 and CM2000)