INCIDENCE AND VIRULENCE TRAITS OF CANDIDA DUBLINIENSIS ISOLATED FROM CLINICALLY SUSPECTED PATIENTS

            Objective: Fungal infections are caused by Candida species are increasing mainly in immunocompromised patients. Among Candida species, Candida dubliniensis has recently increasing opportunistic pathogenic yeast. The present study was aimed to assess the incidence and virulence factors of C. dubliniensis isolated from urine samples of various hospitalized clinically suspected patients. Methods: Totally 1,406 urine samples were processed, among that 9(0.64%) were identified as C. dubliniensis by germ tube production, biochemical test (Candida identification kit), CHROM agar Candida differential medium and growth at 45°C. Virulence factors of the C. dubliniensis viz., phospholipase, proteinase, esterase, lipase, haemolysin and biofilm production were detected by standard procedures. Results: Maximum number of C.dubliniensis have ability to produce protienase 6(66.66%), followed by esterase 5(55.55%), biofilm formation 4(44.44%), haemolysin 2(22.22%) and phospholipase, lipase 1(11.1%) respectively. Conclusion: The result revealed that these enzymes are potential virulence factors are the most important thing to realize pathogenesis of C. dubliniensis.Â

Multiple regression analysis to estimate height fromdynamic footprint anthropometry in Malaysia Indian sub-ethnic group

Human beings are social animals. The uniqueness human body size would become the basis of what Bertillon would term anthropometry, a system of personal identification based on the theory that no two people were identical in their body measurements. Person identification is a key element in forensic investigation. Footprint is a valuable item of physical evidence encountered in crime scenes that can be used to determine the stature of an individual for the purpose of identification. There is a strong correlation exists between footprint and stature. Researchers have proved that contemporary population specific standards should be used to formulate the accurate biological profile. The present study aimed to derive multiple regression equations to estimate height from dynamic footprints among one of the Malaysian Indian subethnic group, Malayalees living in Malaysia. The study subject consists of 50 males and 60 females from Malaysian Malayalee population living in Malaysia. The footprints and heights were recorded following the standard procedure and derived multiple regression equation to estimate height from footprints for forensic application

Aerosol spectral optical depths over the Bay of Bengal: role of transport

Recent experiments have shown the potential role of air masses in transporting aerosols to locations far away from source regions. Despite the importance of the Bay of Bengal to Indian climate and monsoon, no serious aerosol observations are available for this region. Extensive aerosol optical depth estimates, made for the first time from an island location, Port Blair (11.63°N; 92.71°E) in the Bay of Bengal, during the Indian winter of 2002, are used to examine the impact of air trajectories in modifying the optical depths and their spectral dependences. The results are examined for their distinctiveness with respect to the origin as well as transport. It is seen that the trajectories arriving from the regions east of the station (South China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma) are richer in aerosol abundance, more in the sub micron size range, than those arriving from the west, across the Indian landmass

Large latitudinal gradients and temporal heterogeneity in aerosol black carbon and its mass mixing ratio over southern and northern oceans observed during a trans-continental cruise experiment

Extensive, and collocated measurements of the mass concentrations (MB) of aerosol black carbon (BC) and (MT) of composite aerosols were made over the Arabian Sea, tropical Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean during a trans-continental cruise experiment. Our investigations show that MB remains extremely low (<50 ng m-3) and remarkably steady (in space and time) in the Southern Ocean (20°S to 56°S). In contrast, large latitudinal gradients exist north of ~20°S; MB increasing exponentially to reach as high as 2000 ng m-3 in the Arabian Sea (~8°N). Interestingly, the share of BC showed a distinctly different latitudinal variation, with a peak close to the equator and decreasing on either side. Large fluctuations were seen in MT over Southern Ocean associated with enhanced production of sea-salt aerosols in response to sea-surface wind speed. These spatio-temporal changes in MB and its mixing ratio have important implications to regional and global climate

Comparative study of centrally acting skeletal muscle relaxants nitrazepam and thiocolchicoside in Albino mice

Background: Skeletal muscle relaxants are a heterogeneous group of drugs. As a group, they are structurally and pharmacologically diverse. Skeletal muscle relaxants are usually used as adjunct therapy when initial therapy fails. They are commonly used to treat fibromyalgia, low back pain, neck pain, tension head ache, myofascial pain and muscle spasm.Methods: There were 28 mice were randomly divided into seven groups, each group consists of 4 mice. Group 1(Control): Mice were treated with normal saline and placed on rotating rod with a speed of 18 rpm (ideal speed). Group 2 (Standard-S1): Mice were treated with Nitrazepam at the dose of 2mg/kg body weight and placed on rotating rod. Group 3 (Standard-S2): Mice were treated with Nitrazepam at the dose of 3mg/kg body weight and placed on rotating rod. Group 4 (Standard-S3): Mice were treated with Nitrazepam at the dose of 4mg/kg body weight and placed on rotating rod. Group 5 (Test-T1): Mice were treated with Thiocolchicoside at the dose of 2mg/kg body weight and placed on rotating rod. Group 6 (Test-T2): Mice were treated with Thiocolchicoside at the dose of 3mg/kg body weight and placed on rotating rod. Group 7 (Test-T3): Mice were treated with Thiocolchicoside at the dose of 4mg/kg body weight and placed on rotating rod.Results: In this model inter drug comparisons were carried out with nitrazepam and thiocolchicoside. It was found that both nitrazepam and thiocolchicoside produced central muscle relaxant effect when assessed by rotarod. On iter drug comparision of nitrazepam and thiocolchicoside it was found that by increasing concentration of drug, increased the muscle relaxant property.Conclusions: When assessed by rotarod, it was found that both nitrazepam and thiocolchicoside demonstrated muscle relaxant property but with increased doses of thiocolchicoside produced more muscle relaxant property than the increase in doses of nitrazepam

Upper tropospheric humidity from SAPHIR on-board Megha-Tropiques

Upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) has been derived using a ‘brightness temperature (Tb) transformation’ method from the humidity sounder channels of SAPHIR payload on - board Megha - Tropiques (MT). These channels are very close to the water vapour absorption peak at 183.31 GHz. The channel at 183.31 0.2 GHz enables retrieval of humidity up to the hig h est altitude possible wit h the present nadir - looking microwave humidity sounders. Megha - Tropiques satllite has an equatorially inclined orbit, which e n sures frequent spatial and temporal coverage of the global tropical belt. Transformation coeff i cients for the first three channels for all the incidence angles have been derived and are used to convert brightness temperatures to weighted average upper tropospheric humidity having weighting function peaks at different pressure levels. The methodology has been validated by comparing the SAPHIR - derived UTH with that derived from radiosonde observations. Inter - comparison of the derived UTH has been done with layer averaged humidity product from SAPHIR measurements and with UTH product using infrared measurements from Kalpana satellite ( MOSDAC). UTH over the tropical belt for six months has been studied taking the advantage of the humidity product with high spatial and temporal resolution. The transformation coefficients and methodology to identify the cloud - free pixels to derive UTH from the three channels for all the possible incidence angles are presented here, so that the users can directly derive UTH from the brightness temperature data

Effect of sea surface winds on marine aerosol characteristics and impacts on longwave radiative forcing over the Arabian Sea

Collocated measurements of spectral aerosol optical depths (AODs), total and BC mass concentrations, and number size distributions of near surface aerosols, along with sea surface winds, made onboard a scientific cruise over southeastern Arabian Sea, are used to delineate the effects of changes in the wind speed on aerosol properties and its implication on the shortwave and longwave radiative forcing. The results indicated that an increase in the sea-surface wind speed from calm to moderate (<1 to 8 m s−1) values results in a selective increase of the particle concentrations in the size range 0.5 to 5 μm, leading to significant changes in the size distribution, increase in the mass concentration, decrease in the BC mass fraction, a remarkable increase in AODs in the near infrared and a flattening of the AOD spectrum. The consequent increase in the longwave direct radiative forcing almost entirely offsets the corresponding increase in the short wave direct radiative forcing (or even overcompensates) at the top of the atmosphere; while the surface forcing is offset by about 50%

Large-scale enhancement in aerosol absorption in the lower free troposphere over continental India during spring

Aerosol absorption in the lower troposphere over continental India was assessed using extensive measurements of the vertical distribution of absorption coefficients aboard an instrumented aircraft. Measurements were made from seven base stations during winter (November–December 2012) and spring (April–May 2013), supplemented by the data from the networks of surface observatories. A definite enhancement in aerosol absorption has been observed in the lower free troposphere over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) during spring, along with a reduction near the surface. The regional mean aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) over IGP, which was derived from aircraft observations (integrated from the ground to 3 km), increased from 0.020 ± 0.009 in winter to 0.048 ± 0.01 in spring. The columnar AAOD depicted weak and distinctly different seasonal variations than that of surface level black carbon mass concentrations. This contrasting difference in the seasonality indicates the presence of elevated layers of absorbing aerosols during spring in association with the long-range transport and vertical convective lofting of aerosols

The optical and physical properties of atmospheric aerosols over the Indian Antarctic stations during southern hemispheric summer of the International Polar Year 2007-2008

The properties of background aerosols and their dependence on meteorological, geographical and human influence are examined using measured spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD), total mass concentration (MT) and derived number size distribution (NSD) over two distinct coastal locations of Antarctica; Maitri (70° S, 12° E, 123 m m.s.l.) and Larsemann Hills (LH; 69° S, 77° E, 48 m m.s.l.) during southern hemispheric summer of 2007–2008 as a part of the 27th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (ISEA) during International Polar Year (IPY). Our investigations showed comparable values for the mean columnar AOD at 500 nm over Maitri (0.034±0.005) and LH (0.032±0.006) indicating good spatial homogeneity in the columnar aerosol properties over the coastal Antarctica. Estimation of Angstrom exponent α showed accumulation mode dominance at Maitri (α~1.2±0.3) and coarse mode dominance at LH (0.7±0.2). On the other hand, mass concentration (MT) of ambient aerosols showed relatively high values (≈8.25±2.87 μg m−3) at Maitri in comparison to LH (6.03±1.33 μg m−3)

Integrated campaign for aerosols, gases and radiation budget (ICARB): an overview

During March-May 2006, an extensive, multi-institution, multi-instrument, and multi-platform integrated field experiment 'Integrated Campaign for Aerosols, gases and Radiation Budget' (ICARB) was carried out under the Geosphere Biosphere Programme of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO-GBP). The objective of this largest and most exhaustive field campaign, ever conducted in the Indian region, was to characterize the physico-chemical properties and radiative effects of atmospheric aerosols and trace gases over the Indian landmass and the adjoining oceanic regions of the Arabian Sea, northern Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal through intensive, simultaneous observations. A network of ground-based observatories (over the mainland and islands), a dedicated ship cruise over the oceanic regions using a fully equipped research vessel, the Sagar Kanya, and altitude profiling over selected regions using an instrumented aircraft and balloonsondes formed the three segments of this integrated experiment, which were carried out in tandem. This paper presents an overview of the ICARB field experiment, the database generated, and some of its interesting outcomes though these are preliminary in nature. The ICARB has revealed significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity in most of the aerosol characteristics both over land and ocean. Observed aerosol loading and optical depths were comparable to or in certain regions, a little lower than those reported in some of the earlier campaigns for these regions. The preliminary results indicate: - low (< 0.2) aerosol optical depths (AOD) over most part of the Arabian Sea, except two pockets; one off Mangalore and the other, less intense, in the central Arabian Sea at ~18°N latitude - High Angstrom exponent in the southern Arabian Sea signifying steep AOD spectra and higher abundance of accumulation mode particles in the southern Arabian Sea and off Mangalore - Remarkably low Angstrom exponents signifying increased concentration of coarse mode aerosols and high columnar abundance in the northern Arabian Sea - Altitude profiles from aircraft showed a steady BC level up to 3 km altitude with structures which were associated with inversions in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) - A surprisingly large increase in the BC mass fraction with altitude - Presence of a convectively mixed layer extending up to about 1 km over the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal - A spatial off shore extent of < 100 km for the anthropogenic impact at the coast; and - Advection of aerosols, through airmass trajectories, from west Asia and NW arid regions of India leading to formation of elevated aerosol layers extending as far as 400 km off the east coast