Exploring the role of PTN1 in ustilago maydis.

Signal transduction is a key aspect of biological life. Cell signaling involves a series of biochemical and molecular steps that regulate the normal cellular functions, and any disruption at any of these steps is likely to have substantial impacts on cell physiology. The current study was aimed at the characterization of ptn1 of Ustilago maydis, a basidiomycete fungus. When the U. maydis, ptn1 gene was either deleted or overexpressed, it was found that the deletion of this gene lead to reduced virulence, spore production, and germination rate; effects of the overexpression were more subtle or not discernable. Previous studies have indicated that two other signaling proteins, Rho1 and Pdc1, are physical interactors of Ptn1. The goal of the latter part of the present study was to explore the functional interaction of Ptn1 with Rho1 and Pdc1. Our experiments indicated a functional connection between these genes, especially in processes that are related to stress tolerance, cellular morphology, and virulence of the fungus, suggesting that they may be elements of the same regulatory pathway. We predict that the pdc1 interaction with ptn1 may be the reverse of that of rho1 with ptn1. The current phenotypes of these mutant strains when considered in the context of already available information about the role of these genes in other systems indicate that they may be part of a pathway that modulates cytoskeletal rearrangements

Pharmacological and therapeutical basis of torsades de pointes

Torsades de pointes (TdP) is a specific form of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, which is a dreadful condition, severity varies from mild asymptomatic condition to severe life threatening state. In this review, i would like to highlight the physiological, pathological and pharmacological causes, prevention and management of torsades de pointes. In this present world of therapeutic jungle, due to wide spread use of medication (poly pharmacy), there is a reasonable chance of getting drug interactions resulting in prolonged QTc interval leading to tosades de pointes. The main aim of this study is to bring awareness about risk of developing torsades de pointes in patients receiving multiple drugs and also to make clinicians and pharmacologists little more cautious while prescribing drugs

Imidazolium-based co-poly(ionic liquid) membranes for CO2/N2 separation

Unformatted post printThe development of efficient carbon dioxide capture and separation technologies is at the fore front of the priorities in the climate change policies. Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) have been emerging as extremely promising materials for the fabrication of membranes for CO2 separation. This work is a step forward to evaluate the performance of PIL-based copolymers in the preparation of membranes for CO2/N2 separation. In particular, imidazolium-based homo and copolymers were synthesized by RAFT co-polymerization of different imidazolium salts and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) analysis. The membrane forming ability of the synthesized PILs, as well as the influence of different side chain groups (ethyl, pentyl, benzyl and napthyl) at imidazolium ring, were evaluated using the solvent casting technique. In order to improve membrane forming ability and CO2 separation performance, different amounts of free ionic liquid (IL), [C2mim][NTf2], were added into the synthesized homo and copolymers, and PIL–IL composite membranes were prepared. The CO2 and N2 permeation properties of the obtained free standing PIL–IL membranes were measured at 20 ºC and 100 kPa and the results obtained compared through the Robeson plot.K. Vijayakrishna and N. Pothanagandhi thank “International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) 7th Framework of European Union People-2012-IRSES” (Project No: 318873), for exchange programme. K. Vijayakrishna also thank DST-SERB, India (Project NO: SR/S1/OC-22/2012) for the financial support. L.C. Tomé is grateful to FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) for her Post-doctoral research grant (SFRH/BPD/101793/2014). This work was supported by FCT through the project PTDC/CTM-POL/2676/2014 and R&D units UID/Multi/04551/2013 (GreenIT) and UID/QUI/00100/2013 (CQE). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 745734

SPECIFIC POWER OPTIMIZATION OF 0.1MWe CLOSED CYCLE OTEC POWER PLANT

Abstract: The search for renewable sources of energy resulted in the revival of a concept based on the utilization of the differences in temperature between the warm tropical surface waters and the cold deep ocean water available at depths of about 1000 m as the source of the thermal energy required to vaporize and condense the working fluid of a turbinegenerator system respectively. This concept is referred to as "Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion". As the temperature in the top surface is equal to the ambient temperature and the temperature in the bottom surface is much cooler when compared to the top surface, there exists a temperature difference between the layers of the ocean and this temperature difference is utilized to run an OTEC power plant. In this work, simulation of the OTEC power plant is done to optimize the specific power output by varying the intake velocities and depth. Ammonia is used as the working fluid. The maximum specific power output is obtained for a depth of 600m

Layer-by-layer coated imidazolium – styrene copolymers fibers for improved headspace-solid phase microextraction analysis of aromatic compounds

The design of poly(ionic liquids) (PILs) and their application as solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers has been attracting enormous attention mainly due to the need for new SPME coating materials with improved analytical sensitivity. In this work, the tunability of PILs is explored by preparing different imidazolium monomers bearing benzyl, naphtylmethyl or pentyl pending groups that were subsequently co-polymerized, by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization with styrene. The obtained co-polymers showed excellent thermal stability up to 275 °C, with no melting point up to 250 °C. SPME fibers were prepared by an innovative approach based on layer-by-layer spray coating. The thin (<10 μm) SPME coatings were tested in GC-FID for the detection of volatile aromatic compounds such as benzene (B), toluene (T), ethylbenzene (E) and xylene (X) present in aqueous samples and the extraction parameters optimized. Superior results were obtained when comparing these LbL PILS-based SPME fibers with a commercial fiber composed of poly(dimethylsiloxane), with an increase in the detectable areas of 83%, 69%, 57% and 58% for B, T, E and X, respectively. Low relative standard deviations were obtained for the same fiber (< 5.6%) and also for different fibers (< 9.8%). Furthermore, a spiked soil sample was used to mimic a real contaminated soil sample and excellent recovery results, ranging from 67.0% to 102.2%, were obtained.publishe

Outbreak of encephalitic listeriosis in red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa)

An outbreak of neurological disease was investigated in red-legged partridges between 8 and 28 days of age. Clinical signs included torticollis, head tilt and incoordination and over an initial eight day period approximately 30–40 fatalities occurred per day. No significant gross post mortem findings were detected. Histopathological examination of the brain and bacterial cultures followed by partial sequencing confirmed a diagnosis of encephalitis due to Listeria monocytogenes. Further isolates were obtained from follow-up carcasses, environmental samples and pooled tissue samples of newly imported day-old chicks prior to placement on farm. These isolates had the same antibiotic resistance pattern as the isolate of the initial post mortem submission and belonged to the same fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (fAFLP) subtype. This suggested that the isolates were very closely related or identical and that the pathogen had entered the farm with the imported day-old chicks, resulting in disease manifestation in partridges between 8 and 28 days of age. Reports of outbreaks of encephalitic listeriosis in avian species are rare and this is to the best of our knowledge the first reported outbreak in red-legged partridges

Efficacy of alternate day versus everyday dosing of rosuvastatin in hyperlipidemia

Background: Hyperlipidemia is one of the common risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Statins are well established in treatment for lowering LDL-C, triglycerides, TC and improving HDL-C levels. Rosuvastatin is long acting and more efficacious than other statins in lesser dosages with good safety profile.Methods: In this prospective open label study, 42 patients with plasma LDL cholesterol of more than 130 mg/dl and total cholesterol more than 200 mg/dl were selected. After baseline tests they were randomly allocated to two groups. Oral 10 mg of rosuvastatin was given to group-A daily and group-B on alternative day for six weeks. Fasting plasma lipid profile was measured on 0 day, 4th and 6th week and serums ALT, AST were estimated in both the groups on 0 day, 6th week.Results: Statistical analysis was done with Student paired t-test. There was significant reduction in total cholesterol, LDL-C, triglycerides and elevation of HDL after 4 weeks and 6weeks of the treatment in both the groups compared to baseline. The mean percentage change of TC-24%and 21.60%; LDL- 33.50% and 31%; HDL-19.89% and 17.09%; TG - 36.70%and 41.33%in once daily group and alternate day group respectively p<0.0001***. No significant elevation of the mean serum ALT and AST levels at any point of study.Conclusions: Rosuvastatin 10 mg on alternate days has similar efficacy in decreasing lipid levels and raising HDL levels compared to daily dose. The decrease in triglyceride levels was more significant than daily doses. Hence alternate day dosing of rosuvastatin may be an alternate regime and cost effective without a major decrease in therapeutic benefits and also decrease in adverse events in patients with hyperlipidemia

Skewed X-chromosome inactivation in scleroderma.

Scleroderma is a female-prevalent autoimmune disease of unclear etiology. Two fundamental gender differences, skewed X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) and pregnancy-related microchimerism, have been implicated in scleroderma. We investigated the XCI patterns of female scleroderma patients and the parental origin of the inactive X chromosome in those patients having skewed XCI patterns (>80%). In addition, we investigated whether a correlation exists between XCI patterns and microchimerism in a well-characterized cohort. About 195 female scleroderma patients and 160 female controls were analyzed for the androgen receptor locus to assess XCI patterns in the DNA extracted from peripheral blood cells. Skewed XCI was observed in 67 (44.9%) of 149 informative patients and in 10 of 124 healthy controls (8.0%) [odds ratio (OR) = 9.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) 4.3-20.6, P 90%) was present in 44 of 149 patients (29.5%) but only in 3 of 124 controls (2.4%; OR = 16.9; 95% CI 4.8-70.4, P < 0.0001). Parental origin of the inactive X chromosome was investigated for ten patients for whom maternal DNA was informative, and the inactive X chromosome was of maternal origin in eight patients and of paternal origin in two patients. Skewed XCI mosaicism could be considered as an important risk factor in scleroderma

Case-Control Study of Fetal Microchimerism and Breast Cancer

Prior pregnancy is known to protect against development of breast cancer. Recent studies have demonstrated that pregnancy has the capacity to establish small numbers of immunologically active fetal-derived cells in the mother, a phenomenon known as fetal microchimerism (FMc). We asked whether presence of FMc, routinely acquired during pregnancy, is a protective factor for breast cancer.DNA extracts from peripheral blood specimens were obtained from a population-based case-control study of risk factors for breast cancer in women 21 to 45 years old. Specimens were tested with quantitative PCR for presence and concentrations of male DNA presumed to derive from prior pregnancies with a male fetus. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated with consideration of multiple established reproductive and environmental risk factors for breast cancer. FMc results were generated on 99 parous women, 54 with primary invasive breast cancer and 45 general population controls. FMc prevalence was 56% (25/45) and 26% (14/54) in controls and cases, respectively. Women harboring FMc were less likely to have had breast cancer (OR = 0.29, 95% CI 0.11-0.83; p = 0.02, adjusting for age, number of children, birth of a son, history of miscarriage, and total DNA tested). In addition, FMc concentrations were higher in controls versus cases (p = 0.01). Median concentrations were 2 (0-78) and 0 (0-374) fetal genomes/10(6) maternal genomes in controls and cases, respectively.Results suggest that the enigma of why some parous women are not afforded protection from breast cancer by pregnancy might in part be explained by differences in FMc. Mechanistic studies of FMc-derived protection against breast cancer are warranted