Studies on the growth behavior of Chlorella, Haematococcus and Scenedesmus sp. in culture media with different concentrations of sodium bicarbonate and carbon dioxide gas

Growth studies were conducted on green algae Chlorella, Scenedesmus and Haematococcus strains in batch mode cultures. In this study, the effect of sodium bicarbonate salt (NaHCO3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas as carbon source on microalgal cultures were investigated. For this purpose, growth response of the aforementioned three strains under varying concentrations of NaHCO3 (15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 mg/L,) and CO2 gas (7929, 4758 and 4400 mg/L,) were investigated. The best growth response showed by chlorella strain was observed at 75 mg/L (ppm) bicarbonate (% increase in biomass=82.6mg/L/day for 12 days) and 4758 mg/L CO2 gas concentration (189.1 mg/L/day for 7 days). While Haematococcus strain showed its best growth in 30 ppm bicarbonate (72.9 mg/L/day for 17 days) and 4758 mg/L CO2 gas (134.1 mg/L for 7 days), the Scenedesmus strain showed its best growth in 45 ppm bicarbonate (30.9 mg/L/day for 17 days) and 4758 mg/L CO2 gas (103.8 mg/L for 7 days). All the strains showed good growth when CO2 gas was supplied in terms of increase in cell number, biomass and lipid content compared to bicarbonate utilization as carbon source, except Haematococcus strain which fail to grow when high concentration of CO2 gas (7929 ppm) was supplied. Out of the three strains, it was Chlorella sp. which showed highest growth rate and lipid content when CO2 gas was supplied, (specific growth=0.704; 189.1% increase in biomass, g/L/day and 1.015 doubling/day, 31% lipid content in terms of dry cell weight).Key words: Microalgae, bicarbonate, biomass, lipid

A study of changing trends of maternal mortality at the tertiary care centre, MMC & RI Mysore, India

Background: Maternal mortality is a reflection of the care given to women by the society. It is tragic that deaths occur during the natural process of child birth and most of them are preventable. Aims and objectives: To study the maternal mortality and the causes resulting in maternal death over 5 years in a tertiary care centre, Cheluvamba hospital, MMC & RI, Mysore. To find out avoidable factors and use information thus generated to reduce maternal mortality.Methods: A retrospective study of all maternal deaths from June 2008 to June 2013. All maternal deaths were reviewed and studied in detail including admission death interval and cause of death.  Results: Maternal mortality ratio ranged between 262 to 109/100000 births. The causes of death were hypertensive disorders (30.4%), haemorrhage (24.8%), anaemia (14.8%), sepsis (6.8%) and others (23.2%). Maximum deaths (70.6%) occurred in women between 20-29 years of age, multigravida contributed to 54.96% of maternal mortality. 42 % were unbooked, 97% were referred cases. Conclusions: Overall maternal mortality was 215/100000 live births. Maternal deaths due to direct obstetric causes were 87% and indirect were 13 %. The causes of potentially preventable deaths include haemorrhage, anaemia, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation and its complications. Hypertensive disorders were the leading cause of death, followed by haemorrhage. Anaemia was an important indirect cause of death. Most maternal deaths are preventable by optimum utilization of existing MCH facilities, identifying the bottlenecks in health delivery system, early identification of high risk pregnancies and their timely referral to tertiary care centre

Entanglement sudden birth of two trapped ions interacting with a time-dependent laser field

We explore and develop the mathematics of the two multi-level ions. In particular, we describe some new features of quantum entanglement in two three-level trapped ions confined in a one-dimensional harmonic potential, allowing the instantaneous position of the center-of-mass motion of the ions to be explicitly time-dependent. By solving the exact dynamics of the system, we show how survivability of the quantum entanglement is determined by a specific choice of the initial state settings.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Identification of miR-379/miR-656 (C14MC) cluster downregulation and associated epigenetic and transcription regulatory mechanism in oligodendrogliomas

Introduction Although role of individual microRNAs (miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of gliomas has been well studied, their role as a clustered remains unexplored in gliomas. Methods In this study, we performed the expression analysis of miR-379/miR-656 miRNA-cluster (C14MC) in oligodendrogliomas (ODGs) and also investigated the mechanism underlying modulation of this cluster. Results We identified significant downregulation of majority of the miRNAs from this cluster in ODGs. Further data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) also confirmed the global downregulation of C14MC. Furthermore, we observed that its regulation is maintained by transcription factor MEF2. In addition, epigenetic machinery involving DNA and histone-methylation are also involved in its regulation, which is acting independently or in synergy. The post- transcriptionally regulatory network of this cluster showed enrichment of key cancer-related biological processes such as cell adhesion and migration. Also, there was enrichment of several cancer related pathways viz PIK3 signaling pathway and glioma pathways. Survival analysis demonstrated association of C14MC (miR-487b and miR-409-3p) with poor progression free survival in ODGs. Conclusion Our work demonstrates tumor-suppressive role of C14MC and its role in pathogenesis of ODGs and therefore could be relevant for the development of new therapeutic strategies

Spontaneous mode non-invasive ventilation fails to treat respiratory failure in a patient with Multi-mincore disease: a case report

The increased morbidity and mortality resulting from respiratory failure in patients with neuromuscular disorders and/or kyphoscoliosis can be reversed with non-invasive ventilation. Spontaneous mode bilevel pressure ventilation is preferred to other modes of ventilation, due to relative ease of use, but may not be suitable for all patients. We report a 27-year old woman with Multi-minicore disease whose respiratory failure was refractory to spontaneous mode bilevel pressure ventilation. When we altered settings and provided mandatory inspiratory rise time and respiratory rate, it augmented her respiratory efforts and improved ventilation. Our case report describes the benefit of individualising non-invasive ventilation in the management of respiratory failure due to neuromuscular weakness and kyphoscoliosis

The cholesterol ester cycle regulates signalling complexes and synapse damage caused by amyloid-ß

Cholesterol is required for the formation and function of some signalling platforms. In synaptosomes, amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers, the causative agent in Alzheimer's disease, bind to cellular prion proteins (PrPC) resulting in increased cholesterol concentrations, translocation of cytoplasmic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2, also known as PLA2G4A) to lipid rafts, and activation of cPLA2. The formation of Aβ-PrPC complexes is controlled by the cholesterol ester cycle. In this study, Aβ activated cholesterol ester hydrolases, which released cholesterol from stores of cholesterol esters and stabilised Aβ-PrPC complexes, resulting in activated cPLA2. Conversely, cholesterol esterification reduced cholesterol concentrations causing the dispersal of Aβ-PrPC complexes. In cultured neurons, the cholesterol ester cycle regulated Aβ-induced synapse damage; cholesterol ester hydrolase inhibitors protected neurons, while inhibition of cholesterol esterification significantly increased Aβ-induced synapse damage. An understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the dispersal of signalling complexes is important as failure to deactivate signalling pathways can lead to pathology. This study demonstrates that esterification of cholesterol is a key factor in the dispersal of Aβ-induced signalling platforms involved in the activation of cPLA2 and synapse degeneration

Safety of selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) with yttrium-90 microspheres combined with systemic anticancer agents: expert consensus

Selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) with microspheres labelled with the β-emitter yttrium-90 (Y-90) enables targeted delivery of radiation to hepatic tumors. SIRT is primarily used to treat inoperable primary or metastatic liver tumors. Eligible patients have usually been exposed to a variety of systemic anticancer therapies, including cytotoxic agents, targeted biologics, immunotherapy and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). All these treatments have potential interactions with SIRT; however, robust evidence on the safety of these potential combinations is lacking. This paper provides current clinical experiences and expert consensus guidelines for the use of SIRT in combination with the anticancer treatment agents likely to be encountered in clinical practice. It was agreed by the expert panel that precautions need to be taken with certain drugs, but that, in general, systemic therapies do not necessarily have to be stopped to perform SIRT. The authors recommend stopping vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors 4-6 weeks before SIRT, and restart after the patient has recovered from the procedure. It may also be prudent to stop potent radiosensitizers such as gemcitabine therapy 4 weeks before SIRT, and restart treatment at least 2‒4 weeks later. Data from phase III studies combining SIRT with fluorouracil (5FU) or folinic acid/5FU/oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) suggest that hematological toxicity is more common from the combination than it is from chemotherapy without SIRT. There is no evidence to suggest that chemotherapy increases SIRT-specific gastro-intestinal or liver toxicities