Host protective immunity and vaccine development studies in lymphatic filariasis

Lymphatic filariasis caused mainly by infection fromWuchereria bancrofti andBrugia malayi remains as the major cause of clinical morbidity in tropical and subtropical countries. Development of vaccine against filarial infection can act as additional measure to the existing therapeutic and vector control methods in the control of this disease. The main hurdles in the development of anti-filarial vaccine are the strict primate specificity ofWuchereria bancrofti, the paucity of parasite material, the diversity of clinical manifestations and their associated complex immune responses, lack of clear understanding on host-parasite interactions and the mechanisms involved in protective immunity. However in the past few years, the information generated in immuno-epidemiological studies, correlated with observations in experimental animals suggests that a filarial vaccine is feasible. Initially live irradiated infective larvae have been successfully used to induce high level of protective immunity in several animal models. Applying diverse strategies, variety of purified or recombinant filarial antigens have been explored for their ability to induce protection in different host-parasite systems. Some of these targeted filarial antigens induced high level of resistance in experimental animals against challenge infections. More focussed studies on thorough characterization of parasitological and immunological changes associated with resistance induced by such candidate protective antigens and on delivery mechanisms and safety aspects will be crucial in their selection for possible use in humans.     

Immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis: An update

Tuberculosis is still a major health problem in most developing countries and its incidence is rising in many developed countries. This resurgence has been attributed to the HIV epidemic and TB has been declared as a global health emergency by WHO in 1993. The diagnosis of tuberculosis mainly depends upon initial clinical suspicion and radiographic findings with subsequent bacteriological confirmation by sputum smear examination and culture. Lack of sensitivity in smear examination, non specificity of radiological findings, extended tum around time ofMycobacterium tuberculosis culture and difficulties in diagnosing paucibacillary, childhood and extrapulmonary tuberculosis has necessitated to explore the utility of immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis as a convenient and cost effective test to supplement clinical information for definite diagnosis. Many commercial tests are available in the market for diagnosis of TB. Most of these tests are based on the detection of IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies to specific mycobacterial antigen or mixture of antigens. Indigenous immunoassay systems have explored excretory-secretory ES-31 mycobacterial antigen for immunodiagnosis of TB. Many a time there is lack of consistent elevation in all the three Ig classes in active infection thus making it more important to determine the ideal antibody isotype assay for reliable diagnosis of tuberculosis and to save the costs of the patient for unnecessary investigations.     

Web-based interaction: A review of three important human factors

With the rapid development of information technology, the World Wide Web has been widely used in various applications, such as search engines, online learning and electronic commerce. These applications are used by a diverse population of users with heterogeneous backgrounds, in terms of their knowledge, skills, and needs. Therefore, human factors are key issues for the development of Web-based applications, leading research into human factors to grow significantly in the past decade. This paper identifies and reviews three important human factors that have been examined in existing empirical studies, including gender differences, prior knowledge, and cognitive styles. The main results from the analysis include that: (a) females have more disorientation problems than males; (b) flexible paths are more beneficial to experts while structured content is more useful to novices; and (c) Field Dependent and Field Independent users prefer to employ different search strategies. In addition to reviewing the existing empirical studies, this paper also highlights areas of future research.     

Micro-optofluidic Lenses: A review

This review presents a systematic perspective on the development of micro-optofluidic lenses. The progress on the development of micro-optofluidic lenses are illustrated by example from recent literature. The advantage of micro-optofluidic lenses over solid lens systems is their tunability without the use of large actuators such as servo motors. Depending on the relative orientation of light path and the substrate surface, micro-optofluidic lenses can be categorized as in-plane or out-of-plane lenses. However, this review will focus on the tunability of the lenses and categorizes them according to the concept of tunability. Micro-optofluidic lenses can be either tuned by the liquid in use or by the shape of the lens. Micro-optofluidic lenses with tunable shape are categorized according to the actuation schemes. Typical parameters of micro-optofluidic lenses reported recently are compared and discussed. Finally, perspectives are given for future works in this field.     

Expertise seeking: A review

Expertise seeking is the activity of selecting people as sources for consultation about an information need. This review of 72 expertise-seeking papers shows that across a range of tasks and contexts people, in particular work-group colleagues and other strong ties, are among the most frequently used sources. Studies repeatedly show the influence of the social network – of friendships and personal dislikes – on the expertise-seeking network of organisations. In addition, people are no less prominent than documentary sources, in work contexts as well as daily-life contexts. The relative influence of source quality and source accessibility on source selection varies across studies. Overall, expertise seekers appear to aim for sufficient quality, composed of reliability and relevance, while also attending to accessibility, composed of access to the source and access to the source information. Earlier claims that seekers disregard quality to minimise effort receive little support. Source selection is also affected by task-related, seeker-related, and contextual factors. For example, task complexity has been found to increase the use of information sources whereas task importance has been found to amplify the influence of quality on source selection. Finally, the reviewed studies identify a number of barriers to expertise seeking.     

Bancroftian filariasis in south east Madhya Pradesh: Pre-control epidemilogical observations

Lymphatic filariasis caused byWuchereria bancrofti is a major health problem next only to malaria. A study had been conducted to estimate the prevalence of microfilaraemia in a rural endemic community near Raipur. The incidence of microfilaramia in the community was found to be about 14% when studied by night finger prick method. The incidence appears to be more in males as compared to females. The infection rate in vector population i.e.,Culex quinquefasciatus was recorded at a rate of 10%. No relationship could be drawn between the rates of vector and human filarial infections or between the density of vector population and the rate of vector/human infection(s). Prior health education is essential before taking up control and preventive measures in given endemic zone.     

产业集群升级研究述评

全球化和产业集群的风险的存在都需要对产业集群的升级进行研究。集群成长阶段模型和集群竞争力理论与产业集群升级研究密切相关。对集群升级基本概念、升级的形 式、途径和政策等的述评以为我国产业集群升级理论研究和实践奠定理论基础。     

国外企业声誉理论研究述评

作为企业的重要无形资产,企业声誉是企业竞争优势的主要来源,如何提升企业的声誉正日益成为企业关注的焦点之一。本文简述了企业声誉的概念与内涵,着重对企业声誉的价值及其评估、测量维度与方法、企业声誉的管理模型等方面的研究进行述评,并对其发展趋势及如何加强我国企业的声誉管理进行了初步的探讨。     

The biochemical womb of schizophrenia: A review

The conclusive identification of specific etiological factors or pathogenic processes in the illness of schizophrenia has remained elusive despite great technological progress. The convergence of state-of-art scientific studies in molecular genetics, molecular neuropathophysiology, in vivo brain imaging and psychopharmacology, however, indicates that we may be coming much closer to understanding the genesis of schizophrenia. In near future, the diagnosis and assessment of schizophrenia using biochemical markers may become a “dream come true” for the medical community as well as for the general population. An understanding of the biochemistry/ visa vis pathophysiology of schizophrenia is essential to the discovery of preventive measures and therapeutic intervention.     

Information and productivity: A review of research

Research into the relationship between information-related investments and organizational productivity is reviewed. The concepts of cost, price and value are discussed and a variety of approaches for assessing the organizational impact of information inputs and information technology investments considered.     

Natural carriers in bioremediation: A review

Bioremediation of contaminated groundwater or soil is currently the cheapest and the least harmful method of removing xenobiotics from the environment. Immobilization of microorganisms capable of degrading specific contaminants significantly promotes bioremediation processes, reduces their costs, and also allows for the multiple use of biocatalysts. Among the developed methods of immobilization, adsorption on the surface is the most common method in bioremediation, due to the simplicity of the procedure and its non-toxicity. The choice of carrier is an essential element for successful bioremediation. It is also important to consider the type of process (in situ or ex situ), type of pollution, and properties of immobilized microorganisms. For these reasons, the article summarizes recent scientific reports about the use of natural carriers in bioremediation, including efficiency, the impact of the carrier on microorganisms and contamination, and the nature of the conducted research.     

Cast iron street furniture: A historical review

The term “street furniture” indicates objects mostly made of cast iron alloys and aimed to improve the quality of life in urban settlements, such as street lamps, fountains and gazebos. These objects are often ancient and relevant as cultural heritage. Despite the constant presence of street furniture in urban settlements, studies of its evolution along centuries are limited. Since functional aspects have been often considered prevalent against artistic and historical values, many objects have been considered obsolete, thus replaced or re-melted. Street furniture rarely received attention by scholars, and studies on this topic have been often incomplete.This study reviews the history of street furniture made of cast iron (CI street furniture), first examining the reasons behind the choice of this material, closely related to its diffusion during the First Industrial Revolution. The review discusses the relationship between CI street furniture and cultural heritage based on artistic, aesthetic and ethical issues, also examining historical catalogs. The development of CI street furniture in United Kingdom, France and Italy is reported, together with their local aspects. The production technique is discussed and the importance of preservation of CI street furniture is highlighted, emphasizing the need for globally planned interventions in this field.     

负责任创新：研究述评与展望

   全球范围内技术发展的变革性和复杂性在技术应用层面带来了一些创新伦理问题,许多高新技术的快速发展实际是双刃剑,创新在推动发展的同时,也会对自然和社会带来一系列不好的影响。负责任创新是一个让公众和所有利益相关者都参与创新研究并且重视社会预期与潜在影响的过程,开展相关研究能有效缓解人们对于技术安全的担忧。文章通过对以往文献进行梳理,将相关研究分为负责任创新参与主体、概念方法、案例应用及存在问题四个维度进行归纳总结。在此基础上,结合国家创新驱动发展战略、“双循环”战略,及现阶段中美技术脱钩问题,分别从宏观-国家,中观-行业、产业的角度对负责任创新的未来发展提出建设性意见。     

基于科学的创新：研究回顾与展望

基于科学的创新是指强烈依赖于科学进展、由前沿科学知识推动的产业技术创新,包含了新想法的产生、研究、开发、试制、生产制造和首次商业化的全过程。时至今日,基于科学的创新受到了西方学者的重点关注,他们围绕西方情境进行了大量的理论探讨与实证检验。但由于研究比较分散,研究视角、层次、问题的差异,特别是缺乏系统的文献梳理,导致这一创新范式在国内还没有得到足够的关注和讨论。因此,本文采用系统性文献综述法,对国内外相关文献进行检索,共识别出英文文献258篇、中文文献52篇。基于这些文献,本文全面梳理了国内外基于科学的创新的研究脉络,包括相关概念、特征、过程与模式以及创新范式的演进。同时,本文从创新维和企业维梳理了基于科学的创新知识框架。最后,本文提出了未来潜在的研究方向,以期为后续研究提供参考。     

学术创业：研究综述与展望

    以1980至2020年发表的相关文献为基础,对学术创业的研究内容进行梳理,内容如下：（1）总结了已有研究中常用的学术创业概念和分类;（2）围绕学术创业主体,重点阐述了个体层面学术创业活动的研究成果;（3）对学术创业领域常用的理论及其适用问题进行了诠释;（4）从社会经济和基础科学两个方面介绍了学术创业的影响;（5）提出学术创业的研究展望,即关注数智经济阶段学术创业类型的变化、拓展学术创业研究的理论视角、扩充学术创业的研究主题以及在进一步完善国内学术创业研究体系的同时,深化中国制度背景下学术创业问题的探索,如儒家文化环境中的学术创业动机,不同地区/省份的学术创业差异等。通过对已有研究的梳理,为中国学术创业的研究和发展提供了参考。     

Modulation of cellular immune response by cytokines in bancroftian filariasis

Human lymphatic filariasis is a chronic helminth infection caused byWuchereria bancrofti andBrugia malayi. Wide spectrum of clinical manifestations are seen in different clinical groups of filariasis patients which comprises asymptomatic patients with circulating microfilaria (MF), individuals with chronic lymphatic obstruction (CP), Endemic normals (EN) who are asymptomatic and amicrofilaraemic or the relatively rare tropical pulmonary eosinophilia (TPE). The cellular immune response to this infection varies in different clinical groups of filarial patients. ranging from normal lymphocyte proliferative response in EN individuals to lymphocyte hyporesponsiveness in MF to total parasite antigen [Brugia malayi antigen (BMA)]. But in response to recombinant filarial antigen (pRJ51) the lymphocyte proliferation is restored in MF patients. Interestingly the lymphocytes from MFs responded normally to parasite antigen when EN serum was added in the culture whereas sera from MFs failed to revert the lymphocyte hyporesponsiveness. In order to study the molecular mechanisms responsible for parasite antigen specific lymphocyte hyporesponsiveness, we analysed both the Th1 and Th2 type cytokine gene expression profile in different clinical groups of filarasis patients. MF individuals expressed elevated Th2 type cytokines like IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10 and decreased levels of IL-2 and IFN-γ in response to parasite antigen. Chronic patients have elevated levels of both Th1 and Th2 type cytokines in response to parasite antigen. The EN individuals had a purely Th1 type pattern with absence of IL-4 and IL-5 expression. These studies clearly demonstrate the role of Th2 cytokine like IL-10 in antigen specific hyporesponsiveness seen in MF patients. Any methods to arrest the progression of this disease should concentrate on the means to revert the Th2 type into Th1 type response in the MF patients either by Th1 type cytokine therapy or by using recombinant filarial antigen which stimulates the Th1 response. Further the recombinant filarial antigen which induces Th1 type cytokine response could be used for immunoprophylactic studies.     

User resistance in IT: A literature review

User resistance is a complex phenomenon long viewed as a major constraint in successful information technology implementation. User resistance, which can vary between passive and active, could be a source of guidance towards reducing problems associated with organisational change. However, rather than embracing user resistance and seeing it as a learning opportunity and a tool for managing current and future difficulties around user resistance, organisations fear it. There exist a wide literature on user resistance spanning decades; focusing separately on user resistance, and various related factors. However, there is no comprehensive overview of the research work published. This study presents a comprehensive literature review to gain a better understanding of the contents of the current user resistance literature. Based on the findings from the literature review, areas of concern and the impact of user resistance on the development of new information technology are identified and how to overcome the resistance is suggested.