Tre1 GPCR initiates germ cell transepithelial migration by regulating Drosophila melanogaster E-cadherin

Despite significant progress in identifying the guidance pathways that control cell migration, how a cell starts to move within an intact organism, acquires motility, and loses contact with its neighbors is poorly understood. We show that activation of the G protein–coupled receptor (GPCR) trapped in endoderm 1 (Tre1) directs the redistribution of the G protein Gβ as well as adherens junction proteins and Rho guanosine triphosphatase from the cell periphery to the lagging tail of germ cells at the onset of Drosophila melanogaster germ cell migration. Subsequently, Tre1 activity triggers germ cell dispersal and orients them toward the midgut for directed transepithelial migration. A transition toward invasive migration is also a prerequisite for metastasis formation, which often correlates with down-regulation of adhesion proteins. We show that uniform down-regulation of E-cadherin causes germ cell dispersal but is not sufficient for transepithelial migration in the absence of Tre1. Our findings therefore suggest a new mechanism for GPCR function that links cell polarity, modulation of cell adhesion, and invasion

Beneficiation studies on reject dump magnesite sample from Talur Magnesite Mines, Karnataka

Flotation studies on reject dump magnesite sample were conducted using oleic acid emulsion as collector and sodium silicate as depressant. The representative sample assayed SiO, 6.1 %, MgO 41.85%, CaO 2.25% and Fe2O3 1.2%. Mineralogical studies showed that gangue minerals were mostly quartz liberated at grind below 208µ except for serpentine which needs a still finer grind of 107µ Flotation studies in batch scale (I kg batch) indicated that a concentrate analysing 2.02% silica with a yield of 58.5% could he obtained by roughing followed by one cleaning while by adding two more cleaning stages, a concentrate with a silica content of 0.9% with a yield of 32.0% could be produce

In vitro biomechanical comparison of various implants in Pauwels type 3 fracture neck femur

Background: The objective of this study was to find out the correlation among type of implant, type of fracture and quality of bone in a cadaveric model of unstable fracture neck of femur (Pauwels type 3) fixed with either; proximal femoral nail (PFN), dynamic hip screw (DHS), dynamic hip screw with an anti-rotation screw (DHS and ARS) or cannulated cancellous screws (CCS).Methods: This study was conducted on 24 cadaveric bones (6 in each group) in which unstable fracture neck of femur (Pauwels type 3) were created and fractures in each group were fixed with different implants after creating a comparable group using DEXA scan. These were tested on a cyclic physiological loading machine at 2 cycles per second with a load of 200kg. The test was observed for 10,000 loading cycles or till failure whichever occurred earlier. Subsidence was measured and analyzed.Results: Five specimens in the PFN group, 3 specimens in the DHS and ARS and DHS group completed 10,000 cycles while all the specimens in CCS group failed before 10000 cycles. Mean subsidence of the PFN group was significantly lower than the other groups.Conclusions: PFN constructs were stronger than the other constructs. However, these data must be interpreted as strictly biomechanical, representing only part of the scenario at work in vivo. Nonetheless, the significant findings of increased strength of fixation over the DHS, DHS with ARS and CCS certainly appear to support the use of PFN clinically.

Transcriptional regulation of Drosophila gonad formation

The formation of the Drosophila embryonic gonad, involving the fusion of clusters of somatic gonadal precursor cells (SGPs) and their ensheathment of germ cells, provides a simple and genetically tractable model for the interplay between cells during organ formation. In a screen for mutants affecting gonad formation we identified a SGP cell autonomous role for Midline (Mid) and Longitudinals lacking (Lola). These transcriptional factors are required for multiple aspects of SGP behaviour including SGP cluster fusion, germ cell ensheathment and gonad compaction. The lola locus encodes more than 25 differentially spliced isoforms and we have identified an isoform specific requirement for lola in the gonad which is distinct from that in nervous system development. Mid and Lola work in parallel in gonad formation and surprisingly Mid overexpression in a lola background leads to additional SGPs at the expense of fat body cells. Our findings support the idea that although the transcription factors required by SGPs can ostensibly be assigned to those being required for either SGP specification or behaviour, they can also interact to impinge on both processes

Towards Automated Weed Detection Through Two-Stage Semantic Segmentation of Tobacco and Weed Pixels in Aerial Imagery

In precision farming, weed detection is required for precise weedicide application, and the detection of tobacco crops is necessary for pesticide application on tobacco leaves. Automated accurate detection of tobacco and weeds through aerial visual cues holds promise. Precise weed detection in crop field imagery can be treated as a semantic segmentation problem. Many image processing, classical machine learning, and deep learning-based approaches have been devised in the past, out of which deep learning-based techniques promise better accuracies for semantic segmentation, i.e., pixel-level classification. We present a new method that improves the precision of pixel-level inter-class classification of the crop and the weed pixels. The technique applies semantic segmentation in two stages. In stage I, a binary pixel-level classifier is developed to segment background and vegetation. In stage II, a three-class pixel-level classifier is designed to classify background, weeds, and tobacco. The output of the first stage is the input of the second stage. To test our designed classifier, a new tobacco crop aerial dataset was captured and manually labeled pixel-wise. The two-stage semantic segmentation architecture has shown better tobacco and weeds pixel-level classification precision. The intersection over union (IOU) for the tobacco crop was improved from 0.67 to 0.85, and IOU for weeds enhanced from 0.76 to 0.91 with the new approach compared to the traditional one-stage semantic segmentation application. We observe that in stage I shallower, a smaller semantic segmentation model is enough compared to stage II, where a segmentation network with more neurons serves the purpose of good detection

An approach to the management of patients with residual Cushing’s disease

The evaluation and management of patients with residual Cushing’s disease is one of the more complex issues facing neurosurgeons and neuroendocrinologists in clinical practice. There is considerable controversy over several relevant issues such as the timing of the assessment of whether a patient is in remission, what biochemical parameters define remission, the most appropriate course of action to take after residual disease has been defined, etc. As a consequence of the controversies, treating physicians develop notions and fall into certain practice patterns based on evidence of varying levels, their anecdotal experiences, and information gleaned from scientific meetings. This practice pattern, we believe, constitutes the “art of medicine.” We conducted a PubMed literature search to identify manuscripts containing data relevant to Cushing’s disease, outcomes of various therapeutic modalities, and recurrences. Reference lists were used to identify additional relevant manuscripts. We focused our review on manuscripts that included reasonably large series of patients, those reflecting the experience of pituitary centers and physicians recognized as experts in the field, and those papers felt to represent seminal contributions to the literature. Furthermore, trends in the evaluation and management of relevant patients have been incorporated by the senior author who has seen and evaluated over 750 patients with documented Cushing’s syndrome over the past 18 years in clinical practice. An analysis of current evidence indicated that, despite advances in neurosurgical techniques and recent developments in adjuvant therapies, patients with residual Cushing’s disease present significant management challenges to treating physicians. In this era, however, it is indeed possible to gain control of the hypercortisolism in most patients. Despite the wide variability in research methodology designed to collect relevant data, a step-wise approach to the management of these patients can be achieved. A logical step-wise approach to the evaluation of postoperative patients with Cushing’s disease is essential. Patients with residual disease require the development of an individualized plan of management that takes into account numerous factors pertaining to status of disease, the experience of treating physicians, and available therapeutic modalities

Ultrasound-based techniques as alternative treatments for chronic wounds: A comprehensive review of clinical applications

Ultrasound (US) waves have been recently developed for the treatment of different chronic wounds with promising therapeutic outcomes. However, the clinical efficacy of these techniques is still not fully understood and standard guidelines on dose ranges and possible side effects should be determined. This paper aims to comprehensively review the recent advances in US techniques for chronic wound treatment, their therapeutic efficacies, and clinical considerations and challenges. The databases of PubMed (1985-2017), EMBASE (1985-2017), Web of Sciences (1985-2017), Cochrane central library (1990-2017), and Google Scholar (1980-2017) were searched using the set terms. The obtained results were screened for the title and abstract by two authors and the relevant papers were reviewed for further details. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown strong evidence on the therapeutic efficiency of US in chronic wounds. The main limitation on developing clinical standard protocols of US for treatment of wounds is the lack of definite dose-response for each wound. However, spatial average temporal average is the main parameter for defining US dosage in wound treatment. The range of 0.5 to 3 W/cm2 is a range of dose exerting significant therapeutic outcomes and minimum adverse effects. Low-frequency US waves can accelerate the healing speed of open wounds as well as deep-tissue injuries. In addition, US waves show promising therapeutic efficacy for chronic wounds. To develop clinical US protocol for each wound type, further in vitro and in vivo preclinical and clinical trials are needed to reach an exact dose-response for each wound type

Recovery of Values from Mining and Industrial Wastes

Studies were carried out on the recovery of valuesfrom wastesfrom magnesite mines and sponge iron plant. Rougher flotation followed by cleaning of the rougher float resulted in decreasing the silica content to below 1 % in thefinal concentrate from the magnesite mines 'waste dump' sample. The apparent porosity, bulk density and water absorption of the pelletsfired at 1750°C were 3.4-4.9%, 3.25 gm/cc and]-1-5% respectively. Results on the 'altered dunite rock'sample from the magnesite mines was also encouraging. Considering the beneficiation characteristics of coal and the associated impurities in the ESP-dust' and 'coal-char'samplesfrom sponge iron plant, a combination of magnetic separation and froth flotation was adopted for their processing. In the f nal products the ash could be brought down to -- 33 %