Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Macrophage Takeover and Modulation of Innate Effector Responses

Macrophages mediate the first line of defense in the host against various intracellular pathogens. They are armed with several immune-effector mechanisms to detect and combat pathogens. However, intracellular pathogens have developed strategies to overcome the macrophage protective immune responses and colonize inside the macrophages. Tuberculosis (TB), both pulmonary and extrapulmonary, is an infectious disease of global concern caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. M. tuberculosis is a highly successful pathogen and has acquired various strategies to downregulate critical innate-effector immune responses of macrophages such as phagosome-lysosome fusion, antigen presentation, autophagy, and inhibition of reactive oxygen (ROI) and reactive nitrogen (RNI) species to ensure its longer survival inside the macrophages. In addition to these, the bacilli also modulate T cell immune response which can help the bacilli to survive inside the host for a long time. In this chapter, we focus to describe important macrophage innate defense mechanisms and the signaling that can influence T cell adaptive response and the strategies adopted by the bacilli to exploit these signaling cascades to favor its replication and persistence inside the macrophages for establishing a productive infection

An Empirical Analysis of Women Participation in Farm Activities in Rural Kashmir

The present paper analyses the participation of women in farm activities in Kashmir valley. Information has been collected from 200 households with the help of multi- stage sampling. Our analysis reveals that  in Rice cultivation all the activities except weeding and ploughing is dominated by women in the sample area, likewise in  maize all the activities are dominated by women. Only one activity in the sample area which is a joint venture is horticulture. It has been found that over load of work and extreme weather conditions affect the health of women workers as majority of them reported different types of ailments related to their work. Keywords: Women, Rice, Maize, Apple, Health, Farm activities

Effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation on nutrient uptake, growth and productivity of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) varieties

The objective of the present study is to find out the effect of Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungal inoculation on growth, productivity and nutrient uptake in two cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) varieties. The AM inoculated plants out performed than non-inoculated plants (control) in terms of growth, productivity parameters and nutrient uptake. AM fungal inoculation had a significant effect on productivity of cowpea attributed to growth, plant height, number of nodules, mycorrhizal dependency and number of flowers per plant.Key words: Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM), cowpea, nutrient uptake, mycorrhizal dependency (MD)

An Analysis of Working Conditions and Impact of Work on Child Labor

The present paper is an attempt to analyze the terms of employment and working conditions of the child workersin the carpet weaving industry. Employer's consideration to employ child labor, area from where child workersare recruited and surety for employment after training is also included. In addition to the terms of work likemonthly wages, hours of work, rest period, provision of leave, holidays etc. The data on the working conditionsand the impact of the work on health, social behavior of the child labor, physical and welfare facilities have alsobeen discussed in this paper. An attempt has been made to highlight the nature of supervision, grievance handling,job satisfaction and other allied aspects related with the work life of the child workers. The data has beencollected from 162 child labors, 82 parents and 50 employers with the help interview schedules. Our analysisreveals that the conditions of child workers who had been working in their own family carpet weaving units wereslightly better in comparison to the employed ones. By and large, employers preferred children from lower castesat cheaper rates. Children usually work 6 to 8 hours per day. Half of the child labors were earning ` 500 to `700 per month and the rest were earning below ` 500 per month.Key words: working conditions, health, behavior, employers, parents, wages, carpet weaving

Image Formation Free Rotation in Triple Pole-Piece Magnetic Lenses

Present work is mainly concern with the mathematical function, considered to represent the axial magnetic flux density distributions of proposed triple pole-pieces magnetic lenses which is used as rotation free lenses. This function has, in fact, three-optimization parameters. The only important parameter is the bore radius of the lens in the proposed model. This parameter can be affect on the projector properties of the lens, when the other two optimization parameters (maximum value of flux density and lens length) are constants, where the literature survey proved that unaffected on the lens properties. Results have clearly shown that the optimization parameter for current function, have a considerable effect on the lens distortion, lens magnification, and the reconstructed pole-pieces. Furthermore, the results obviously show the excellent ability for converting the form of the chosen mathematical function in order to represent the magnetic field of triple pole-pieces lenses. Keywords: Electron Optics, Projector Lens, Distortion, Magnificatio

Numerical Solution of Nonlinear Black – Scholes Equation by Accelerated Genetic Algorithm

In this paper we using an accelerated genetic algorithm to find the numerical solution of the nonlinear versions of the standard Black–Scholes partial differential equation  with stochastic volatility (transaction coast) for European call option .  We study this equation with different models of volatility and comparison these solutions with the solution of linear model of Black-Scholes equation without transaction coast . Keywords: Nonlinear Black-Scholes Equation , Accelerated Genetic Algorithm , Option Pricin

Preparation, Characterization and Spectroscopic Study of New Tridentate Schiff Base and its Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) Metal Complexes

A new tridentate ligand has been synthesized derived from phenyl(pyridin-3-yl)methanone. Three coordinated metal complexes were prepared by complexation of the new ligand with Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) metal salts. The new Schiff base “benzyl -2-[phenyl(pyridin-3-yl)methylidene]hydrazinecarbodithioate” and the new metal complexes were characterized using various physico-chemical and spectroscopic techniques. From the analysis results, the expected structure to the metal complexes are octahedral in geometry for Cu(II) complex, square planner for Ni(II) and tetrahedral for Zn(II) complex. The new compounds are expected to show strong bioactivity against bacteria and cancer cells

Difficulties of Nursing Students During Clinical Training

Background: Nursing practice in the 21st century faces a number of challenges including increased nursing teaching schools and institutes, in adequate nursing staff, increasing healthcare costs, limited facilities, need for preceptor (link teacher), in adequate quality and numbers of hospitals. Clinical practice is crucial in nursing to integrate theory and practice to acquire skills and capability of critical thinking, solve problems and decision making. Aim of the Study: identify the difficulties which encountered the students of nursing college in the hospitals of Kirkuk city during study year 2011-2012, also to assess the extent of benefit from clinical training in the hospitals.   Methodology: A descriptive study, using the assessment approach was conducted on students of college of nursing /Kirkuk University from 2/5/2012 to 24/4/2013. A purposive, non-probability sample composed of (200) students (male & female) from the (2nd, 3rd &4th) classes were selected for the study. A questionnaire was developed for purposive of study & included 3 parts were demographic data, difficulties which encountered student & benefit of student from clinical training. The analysis of data was done by application of descriptive statistical data analysis approach (frequency, percentage, and the mean of scores).   Results: The age group (22-24) years was represent (51%) of the sample, the female represent (80%) from the sample, 2nd class were (42%) from the sample, & (68, 5%) were living in urban.   Conclusions: Most of the students were young, female, live in urban, and from the 2nd class. The findings were moderate for the teacher related factors, Health staff & patients related factors, student & tasks performance related factors, place and time related factors, And most of the students were moderately benefited from clinical training in the hospitals

Performance optimization of the electro-optic Q-Switching for high power laser using RTP crystal

In order to study the performance of proposal model crystal constructed from (Rubidium Titanly Phosphate, RTP) the birefringence, electric field application, optical, Influences of the most parametric on the electro-optical Q-switching operated for high power lasers are accomplished. The voltage requirements for productions Q-switching operation with electro-optical pockels-cells by means of this proposal as transversal configuration cellcrystal have been minimized from 1.900 kV to 1.808 kV for RTP cell these values were reduced in this work owing to the reduction of the thickness to length ratio of this crystal cell. The RTP crystal can be used with longitudinal electric field which is more suitable for high electro-optical modulation of high power lasers, but with extreme half-wave voltage, which is measured in this work and found to be 9.143 kV and 6.363 kV for x and y directionrespectively . Also, in this work, interpolated treatments on the measurements were applied using quarter-wave plate (Vλ/4) arrangement, which offered high improvement for using the linear of the transmission-voltage schemes to select the suitable requirement voltage for any levels switching

Design an Electronic Amplifier Circuit for Hearing Impaired

Low-cost hearing aid device was designed and constructed to produce an amplified sound for people with hearing loss. A 3V DC was used as the power supply. The condenser microphone was used as input transducer to pick up sound from the environment for conversion to electrical signal, npn transistor (BC337) along with tow capacitors and three resistors were used as pre-amplifier.to amplify. The integrated circuit available in 8-pin mini chip package and specially designed for portable power amplification was used for the amplification function a 32 ohms ear phone was used as the output transducer to convert the amplified electricáksignals back to sound