Orientation Dependence of Stress Corrosion Crack in Cold Rolled Alpha Brass

The phenomenon of stress corrosion cracking has been investigated in its various aspects starting from as early as 1914. Upto date the phenomenon has been investigated at different conditions of temperature, stress, strain, work hardening, heat treatment and grain size in different media. The results indicate that the suceptibility of brass is extreme in presence of ammonia. Suceptibility decreases with grain refininement and alloying of elements such as Si, Ba, Mg, As, P. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the phenomenon. But he knowledge is not yet complete to formulate a general theory to explain the phenomenolo gy of stress corrosion failure of alloys. There is general agreement that failur e is due to combined effects of corrosion and stress. The confu- sion lie in share of th e responsibilities of the two agents, corrosion and Stress, in the initiation and propagation of the crack

Vaccine Efficacy of Bm86 Ortholog of H. a. anatolicum, rHaa86 Expressed in Prokaryotic Expression System

The use of tick vaccine in controlling ticks and tick borne diseases has been proved effective in integrated tick management format. For the control of H. a. anatolicum, Bm86 ortholog of H. a. anatolicum was cloned and expressed as fusion protein in E. coli as E. coli-pETHaa86. The molecular weight of the rHaa86 was 97 kDa with a 19 kDa fusion tag of thioredoxin protein. The expressed protein was characterized immunologically and vaccine efficacy was evaluated. After 120 hours of challenge, only 26% tick could successfully fed on immunized animals. Besides significant reduction in feeding percentages, a significant reduction of 49.6 mg; P < .01 in the weight of fed females in comparison to the females fed on control animals was recorded. Following oviposition, a significant reduction of 68.1 mg; P < .05 in the egg masses of ticks fed on immunized animals in comparison to the ticks fed on control animals was noted. The reduction of number of females, mean weight of eggs, adult females and efficacy of immunogen were 73.8%, 31.3%, 15.8%, and 82.3%, respectively. The results indicated the possibility of development of rHaa86 based vaccine as a component of integrated control of tick species

Insulin autoantibodies as determined by competitive radiobinding assay are positively correlated with impaired beta-cell function — The Ulm-Frankfurt population study

Out of a random population of 4208 non-diabetic pupils without a family history of Type I diabetes 44 (1.05%) individuals had islet cell antibody (ICA) levels greater or equal to 5 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDF) units. 39 of these ICA-positives could be repeatedly tested for circulating insulin autoantibodies (CIAA) using a competitive radiobinding assay. The results were compared with the insulin responses in the intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTT) and with HLA types. Six pupils were positive for CIAA. All of them had complement-fixing ICA, and 5 of them were HLA-DR4 positive. Three of the 6 showed a first-phase insulin response below the first percentile of normal controls. Our data indicate that in population-based studies CIAA can be considered as a high risk marker for impaired beta-cell function in non-diabetic ICA-positive individuals

Utilisation of antimicrobial agents in intensive care unit at a tertiary care teaching hospital in eastern India

Background: Antimicrobial agents (AMAs) are the most frequently used drugs in the intensive care units (ICU) and regular auditing can prevent the development of resistance to AMAs, reduce the cost and incidence of adverse drug reactions. The present study was conducted to assess the drug utilisation pattern by measuring the defined daily dose (DDD) per 100 bed days for the AMAs used and their correlation with the APACHE score II.Methods: This was a prospective observational study, conducted in the Central ICU of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, Odisha for 4 months. Data regarding demographic profile, diagnosis, APACHE II score, microbiologic investigation, length of stay, outcome and utilisation pattern of AMAs assessing anatomic therapeutic chemical (ATC) classification and measuring the antimicrobial consumption index (ACI) equal to DDD per 100 bed days were collected and subjected to descriptive analysis. Multinomial logistic regression model was used to predict probabilities of different possible outcomes of categorically distributed variables and independent variables.Results: Mean age of study population was 44.70±14.814 with male and female ratio of 1.63:1. Septicaemia was the most common cause of admission. AMAs were prescribed to 92.66% of patients during their stay which constitutes 37.32% of the total drugs used. The DDD per 100 bed days for the AMAs were 118.59 and ceftriaxone was found to be most frequently used. Patients having higher APACHE II score received more no of AMAs (4.20±1.30). Patients having low APACHE II Scores received less number of antibiotics as compared to patients having higher score.Conclusions: AMAs were prescribed to 92.66% patients in the central ICU and there is significant relation between the APACHE II score and number of AMAs prescribed

Antibodies to the Mr 64,000 (64K) protein in islet cell antibody positive non-diabetic individuals indicate high risk for impaired Beta-cell function

A prospective study of a normal childhood population identified 44 islet cell antibody positive individuals. These subjects were typed for HLA DR and DQ alleles and investigated for the presence of antibodies to the Mr 64,000 (64K) islet cell antigen, complement-fixing islet cell antibodies and radiobinding insulin autoantibodies to determine their potency in detecting subjects with impaired Beta-cell function. At initial testing 64K antibodies were found in six of 44 islet cell antibody positive subjects (13.6%). The same sera were also positive for complement-fixing islet cell antibodies and five of them had insulin autoantibodies. During the follow-up at 18 months, islet cell antibodies remained detectable in 50% of the subjects studied. In all six cases who were originally positive, 64K antibodies were persistently detectable, whereas complement-fixing islet cell antibodies became negative in two of six and insulin autoantibodies in one of five individuals. HLA DR4 (p < 0.005) and absence of asparic acid (Asp) at position 57 of the HLA DQ chain (p < 0.05) were significantly increased in subjects with 64K antibodies compared with control subjects. Of 40 individuals tested in the intravenous glucose tolerance test, three had a first phase insulin response below the first percentile of normal control subjects. Two children developed Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus after 18 and 26 months, respectively. Each of these subjects was non-Asp homozygous and had persistent islet cell and 64K antibodies. We conclude that 64K antibodies, complement-fixing islet cell antibodies and insulin autoantibodies represent sensitive serological markers in assessing high risk for a progression to Type 1 diabetes in islet cell antibody positive non-diabetic individuals