Solid state fermentation studies of citric acid production

Treated sugarcane bagasse supplemented with sucrose medium was found 1.7 fold (citric acid based on sugar consumption) better substrate than untreated bagasse carrier. The performance of packed bed reactor at aeration rate of 0.75 l/min and apparent packing density of 35.0 g/l was superior with citric acid yield of 55.90% (w/w), overall productivity of 0.087 g/100 g DS.h and specific growth rate of 0.055 h-1. However, in flask fermentation citric acid yield of 41.56% (w/w) with overall productivity of 0.064 g/100 gDS.h and specific growth rate of 0.043 h-1 was observed. The system confirmed that citric acid production was Type-II fermentation. Citric acid recovery of 90.39% (w/w) was achieved from fermented broth

Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation of Supraventricular Tachycardia

Supraventricular tachycardias are quite common in clinical practice. Medical treatment of supraventricular tachycardia often involves regular intake of drugs for several years. Problems of drug therapy include poor efficacy and bothersome side effects including proarrhythmia. This has lead to the development of non-pharmacological therapies. Arrhythmia surgery initially demonstrated that many types of supraventricular arrhythmias could be cured. However during the past decade arrhythmia surgery has been largely replaced by catheter ablation. Catheter ablation can be defined as the use of an electrode catheter to destroy small areas of myocardial tissue or conduction system, or both, that are critical to the initiation or maintenance of cardiac arrhythmias. Arrhythmias most likely to be amenable to cure with catheter ablation are those which have a focal origin or involve a narrow, anatomically defined isthmus.1 This review aims to provide an update on the technique and results associated that can be achieved with catheter ablation of supraventricular tachycardias

Evaluation of Daphnia magna as an indicator of Toxicity and Treatment efficacy of Municipal Sewage Treatment Plant

Performance evaluation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with special reference to toxicity reduction using Daphnia magna straus as test organism is very important to study the likely adverse effects of thetreated wastewater on the aquatic ecosystem of receiving waters and to detect common environmentally realistic concentrations of pollutants at different concentration levels and toxicity discriminatory ability to distinguish different degree of toxicity and toxic specificity of the compounds on target organisms. This test can be considered asuseful analytical tool for screening of chemical analysis and early warning system to monitor the different operational units of wastewater treatment plants. Interrelationship between COD, SS with respect to Daphnia toxicity (Gd) suggests that improvement of the toxicological quality of wastewater could be linked to the removal of both COD and suspended solids. Both the parameters (COD & SS) can serve as a regulatory tool in lieu of an explicit toxicological standard. An important feature of this work was to emphasize the significance of toxicity tests. It could help to reduceinfluent toxicity and thereby avoid impacting microorganisms’ population in activated sludge systems. This study shows the difference between using physico-chemical and biological criteria to define the quality or toxicity ofwastewater, making it clear that both methods are indispensable and complimentary and support the earlier view that Daphnia magna can serve as a valuable model for bio- monitoring of water pollution and for evaluation of the toxicity of an effluent and risk assessment in an aquatic body, as it is highly sensitive to pollutants

Mahaim Fiber Accelerated Automaticity and Clues to a Mahaim Fiber Being Morphologically an Ectopic or a Split AV Node

Mahaim Fiber tachycardia characteristically causes a wide QRS tachycardia with left bundle branch morphology and left axis deviation, especially in young patients, having no structural heart disease. Mahaim fiber automaticity further cements the proposition of Mahaim fiber, due to its Atrioventricular (AV) node like property, being called as an ectopic AV node

PREVALENCE OF VARIOUS BETA LACTAMASES AMONG GRAM NEGATIVE BACILLI IN URINARY ISOLATES FROM PATIENTS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF NORTHERN INDIA

Objective: Urinary tract infections are considered among the most common infections, occurring either in the community or health-care setting. We are left with very few options for the treatment due to rapid development of antibiotic resistance among the organisms. To find out the prevalence of various types of β-lactamases among urinary isolates.Methods: Seven antibiotic discs (HiMedia) were placed in combinations and approximation in a particular sequence on a 90 mm diameter MuellerHintonagar plate.Results: Out of a total 165 urinary isolates, 66 (40%) isolates were positive for extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production, AmpC β-lactamases(AmpC) activity was present in 31 (18.78%) isolates, co-production of both ESBL and AmpC was seen in 16 (9.69%) isolates, 3 (1.81%) isolatesproduced metallo β-lactamase (MBL), 2 (1.21%) isolates produced both MBL, and ESBL and 1 (0.60%) isolates were positive for inducible third generation cephalosporin resistance.Conclusion: With the presence of such high prevalence of various β-lactamases in clinical isolates of gram-negative bacilli and also other types ofantibiotic resistance, antibiotic policy should be made, and strict adherence should be followed.Keywords: Extended spectrum β-lactamase, AmpC β-lactamase, Metallo β-lactamase

Energy saving through passive cooling measures using bags with sawdust

In recent times, due to limited availability of energy from conventional sources, its effects on the environment (depletion of the ozone layer and an increase in the average temperature of the earth) and their rising prices has drawn the attention of engineers and scientists, throughout the world. The need is being felt to conserve conventional sources of energy or to depend less and less on these sources of energy. One area, where considerable amount of energy is consumed is in creating comfort conditions in residential buildings. In the present work, a passive measure has been used to create comfort conditions in buildings using low cost material in summer. The comfort index used is ‘Tropical Summer Index’. In the test room of size (length = 7.8m, breath = 6m, and height = 3.8m), three fans are needed consuming about 225 watthour of electrical energy to keep the room in the comfort zone. This will eliminate the use of an air conditioner, which consumes a much larger amount of about 4 tons of refrigeration (15 kW). For residential buildings with smaller rooms, the number of fans required will be less. By adopting this measure, the use of an air conditioner can be avoided leading to a saving of electrical energy. It has been observed that during the summer season in India, present passive measures keep the room air conditioned well, within the comfort zone by using a meagre amount of electrical energy

PIM kinase inhibition: co-targeted therapeutic approaches in prostate cancer

PIM kinases have been shown to play a role in prostate cancer development and progression, as well as in some of the hallmarks of cancer, especially proliferation and apoptosis. Their upregulation in prostate cancer has been correlated with decreased patient overall survival and therapy resistance. Initial efforts to inhibit PIM with monotherapies have been hampered by compensatory upregulation of other pathways and drug toxicity, and as such, it has been suggested that co-targeting PIM with other treatment approaches may permit lower doses and be a more viable option in the clinic. Here, we present the rationale and basis for co-targeting PIM with inhibitors of PI3K/mTOR/AKT, JAK/STAT, MYC, stemness, and RNA Polymerase I transcription, along with other therapies, including androgen deprivation, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Such combined approaches could potentially be used as neoadjuvant therapies, limiting the development of resistance to treatments or sensitizing cells to other therapeutics. To determine which drugs should be combined with PIM inhibitors for each patient, it will be key to develop companion diagnostics that predict response to each co-targeted option, hopefully providing a personalized medicine pathway for subsets of prostate cancer patients in the future

Genetic characterization of mango anthracnose pathogen Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz. by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis

Twenty-five isolates of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides causing mango anthracnose were collected from different agroclimatic zones of India. The isolates were evaluated for their pathogenic variability on mango seedlings and genetic characterization using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD molecular techniques). The random primers OPA-1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 15, 16 and 18 were used and the twenty five isolates were grouped into two. The amplified DNA fragments (amplicons) obtained was comparedby agarose gel electrophoresis. Isolate specific RAPD fingerprints were obtained. Out of eight primers in RAPD, OPA-1, 3 and 18 were able to produce reproducible banding pattern. Each of these primers generated a short spectrum of amplicons, located between 661 and 2291-bp markers, indicative of genetic polymorphism. Dendogram revealed more than 75% level of similarity. 4.36% polymorphism was also found in individual isolates that was not statistically significant (P > 0.05) among the sample, it also indicates that all the isolates tested had approximately same genetic identity. The data suggest that RAPD may be of value by virtue of its rapidity, efficiency and reproducibility in generating genetic fingerprints of C. gloeosporioides isolates