Bacterial enteritis in an oriental white backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and its successful management

An oriental white backed vulture weighing about 8 kg was rescued from a farmer’s field in a moribund condition. The vulture was showing signs of drooping feathers and wings, anorexia, unable to stand, and severe enteritis with dehydration. Bacterial culture from the cloaca of the bird revealed association of hemolytic E. coli that was sensitive to enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin. The bird was treated successfully with injectable enrofloxacin and oral rehydration solution. No parasitic eggs/protozoal oocysts or hemoprotozoan parasites could be detected in the bird. The bird recovered uneventfully and started taking feed and water normally

Steady state, relaxation and first-passage properties of a run-and-tumble particle in one-dimension

We investigate the motion of a run-and-tumble particle (RTP) in one dimension. We find the exact probability distribution of the particle with and without diffusion on the infinite line, as well as in a finite interval. In the infinite domain, this probability distribution approaches a Gaussian form in the long-time limit, as in the case of a regular Brownian particle. At intermediate times, this distribution exhibits unexpected multi-modal forms. In a finite domain, the probability distribution reaches a steady state form with peaks at the boundaries, in contrast to a Brownian particle. We also study the relaxation to the steady state analytically. Finally we compute the survival probability of the RTP in a semi-infinite domain. In the finite interval, we compute the exit probability and the associated exit times. We provide numerical verifications of our analytical results

Intracellular locations of replication proteins and the origin of replication during chromosome duplication in the slowly growing human pathogen Helicobacter pylori

We followed the position of the replication complex in the pathogenic bacterium Helicobacter pylori using antibodies raised against the single-stranded DNA binding protein (HpSSB) and the replicative helicase (HpDnaB). The position of the replication origin, oriC, was also localized in growing cells by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with fluorescence-labeled DNA sequences adjacent to the origin. The replisome assembled at oriC near one of the cell poles and the two forks moved together toward the cell center as replication progressed in the growing cell. Termination and resolution of the forks occurred near midcell, on one side of the septal membrane. The duplicated copies of oriC did not separate until late in elongation, when the daughter chromosomes segregated into bilobed nucleoids, suggesting sister chromatid cohesion at or near the oriC region. Components of the replication machinery, viz., HpDnaB and HpDnaG (DNA primase), were found associated with the cell membrane. A model for the assembly and location of the H. pylori replication machinery during chromosomal duplication is presented

Should the Core Information Systems Curriculum be Structured Around a Fundamental Question?

This panel will discuss and debate whether the core Information Systems course in a business school should be structured around one central, fundamental question, and if so, what are the competing alternatives for this question. A recent Assocation to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) report strongly recommends including IT as part of the MBA core education. But there is little consensus at the current time on whether this core education should address a fundamental question, and if so, what the question should be. Moreover, a substantial fraction of leading MBA programs do not have an IS core course. The current situation is especially striking for the following reasons: • Information technology continues to be both a major factor in productivity as well as the major driver of changes in industry structure and business models • There is evidence of significant variance in the performance of companies based on how they use information technology • Knowledge about how systems work and how they enable commerce is becoming increasingly important for people in their careers • Using and managing systems as an executive requires a clear understanding of the possibilities that are enabled by information technologies in markets and organizations, as well as an appreciation of the risks and time scales associated with management of technology projects and personne

Precision nitrogen, irrigation and cultivation regimes for enhanced yield, and nutrient accumulation in direct-seeded basmati rice (Oryza sativa)

A field experiment was conducted during rainy (kharif) seasons of 2019 and 2020 at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to monitor the effect of precision nitrogen (N) and water management options on yield and nutrient acquisition in grain and straw of direct-seeded rice (DSR, basmati) (Oryza sativa L.). Experiment was conducted under two cultivation methods, in a triplicate split-plot design (SPD). The main-plots were allocated to 6 combinations of 2 DSR cultivation approaches, viz. growing DSR in ploughed land (CTDSR); and growing DSR without tilling the land (ZTDSR); and 3 water regimes [adequate water; water supply at 20% available soil moisture exhaustion (ASME); and 40% ASME + silicon (Si) supply @80 kg/ha]. Sub-plots had 3 N supply decisions, viz. 100% recommended rate of N (RRN: 150 kg/ha); NutrientExpert (NE) + leaf colour chart (LCC); and NE + soil plant analysis development (SPAD) meter-based N scheduling. Conventional till-direct seeded rice produced 1.9, 3.1 and 5.7% greater grain yield, grain protein content and protein yield, respectively, over ZTDSR; the respective improvement in grain N, P and K uptake was 5.9, 7.9 and 4.9%. Adequate water regime resulted in 11.5, 7.3 and 18.7% more grain yield, grain protein content and protein yield, respectively, over water supply at 20% ASME with concomitant enhancement in grain N, P and K uptake of 19, 24 and 23%, respectively. A significant improvement in grain yield (9.2%), grain protein (11.7%) content and protein yield (22.1%) was detected with NE® + SPAD meter- based N application over RRN; the N, P and K uptake in grain also spiked by 22.1, 42.1 and 31.7%, respectively. Hence, NE + SPAD-based N application and adequate water regime (irrigation at 72 h of drying of surface water) could be beneficial for improving yield and quality of both CA-based and conventionally cultivated DSR

The Library of Babel: On the origin of gravitational thermodynamics

We show that heavy pure states of gravity can appear to be mixed states to almost all probes. For AdS_5 Schwarzschild black holes, our arguments are made using the field theory dual to string theory in such spacetimes. Our results follow from applying information theoretic notions to field theory operators capable of describing very heavy states in gravity. For half-BPS states of the theory which are incipient black holes, our account is exact: typical microstates are described in gravity by a spacetime ``foam'', the precise details of which are almost invisible to almost all probes. We show that universal low-energy effective description of a foam of given global charges is via certain singular spacetime geometries. When one of the specified charges is the number of D-branes, the effective singular geometry is the half-BPS ``superstar''. We propose this as the general mechanism by which the effective thermodynamic character of gravity emerges.Comment: LaTeX, 6 eps figures, uses young.sty and wick.sty; Version 2: typos corrected, minor rewordings and clarifications, references adde

Albumin Nano-Encapsulation of Piceatannol Enhances Its Anticancer Potential in Colon Cancer Via Downregulation of Nuclear p65 and HIF-1 alpha

Piceatannol (PIC) is known to have anticancer activity, which has been attributed to its ability to block the proliferation of cancer cells via suppression of the NF-kB signaling pathway. However, its effect on hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is not well known in cancer. In this study, PIC was loaded into bovine serum albumin (BSA) by desolvation method as PIC-BSA nanoparticles (NPs). These PIC-BSA nanoparticles were assessed for in vitro cytotoxicity, migration, invasion, and colony formation studies and levels of p65 and HIF-1α. Our results indicate that PIC-BSA NPs were more effective in downregulating the expression of nuclear p65 and HIF-1α in colon cancer cells as compared to free PIC. We also observed a significant reduction in inflammation induced by chemical colitis in mice by PIC-BSA NPs. Furthermore, a significant reduction in tumor size and number of colon tumors was also observed in the murine model of colitis-associated colorectal cancer, when treated with PIC-BSA NPs as compared to free PIC. The overall results indicate that PIC, when formulated as PIC-BSA NPs, enhances its therpautice potential. Our work could prompt further research in using natural anticancer agents as nanoparticels with possiable human clinical trails. This could lead to the development of a new line of safe and effective therapeutics for cancer patients

Correction: Aljabali, A.A.A.; et al. Albumin Nano-Encapsulation of Piceatannol Enhances Its Anticancer Potential in Colon Cancer via down Regulation of Nuclear p65 and HIF-1α. Cancers 2020, 12, 113

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...]