Astudy on mycobacterial proteins in the serodiagnosis of tuberculosis using ELISA and western blot

Protein fraction termed P₂ was obtained from sonicates of Mycobacterium smegmatis, subjected to ammonium sulphate precipitation. P₂ fraction was further fractionated into 4 fractions (PeakI-IV) by DEAE cellulose ion-exchange chromatography. ELISA was performed on the sera of 104 tuberculous cases and 62 controls, using P₂ fractions Peak I as test antigens. Though the mean ELISA values in tuberculous cases were higher than the controls, no statistically significant difference was found between the two. Antigens P₂, Peak I and IV were tested on Western blots with pooled sera from tuberculous cases as well as controls. P₂ fraction, Peak-I and IV were separated on PAGE-SDS, electroblotted onto nitrocellulose Sheets and the blots were subjected to ELISA. Peak IV appeared as a single band (M.W. 55,000). P₂ fraction exhibited some discriminatory bands on development of blots.     

Nature, not books: scientists and the origins of the nature-study movement in the 1890s

Scientists played a key role in the first systematic introduction of nature study into North American public schools in the late nineteenth century. The initiatives of Wilbur Jackman and John Merle Coulter, affiliated with the young University of Chicago, and Liberty Hyde Bailey and Anna Botsford Comstock, at Cornell University, coincided with the "new education" reform movement that found object lessons and experience-based education superior to textbook teaching. Educational psychologists and philosophers of the 1890s, including G. Stanley Hall, related curriculum methods to perceived developmental stages in children, with a focus on immediate experience. Putting these pedagogical ideas--gained in summer institutes, normal schools, and programs at Chicago and Cornell--into practice were administrators and classroom teachers in both urban and rural classrooms. By 1900, a consensus about the value of nature study among scientists, community leaders, and teachers established it as the recognized general method of studying the natural world in public schools across much of the United States.     

Transform domain technique for windowing the DCT and DST

In this paper, an algorithm is developed to apply Hann, Hamming, Blackman and related windows directly in the transform domain for the discrete cosine transform and discrete sine transform. These algorithms are useful in applications where windowing is required in order to minimize edge effects caused by implicit symmetries in the transform domain that are not replicated in the real-world data. Examples of such applications include data communication, adaptive system identification and filtering, real-time analysis of financial market data, etc. Software implementations in C language are also given.     

Hyperlipidemia in guinea pigs induced by chronic vitamin C deficiency

Sixteen weeks of chronic vitamin C deficiency, induced in guinea pigs by restricted vitamin C intake, resulted in a marked increase in the serum total LDL- and VLDL- cholesterol, triglycerides and total lipids. HDL-cholesterol decreased resulting in a highly significant increase in LDL/HDL ratio. The results reconfirm that vitamin C deficiency causes changes in blood lipid profile which could promote atherogenesis.     

Study of magnesium,glycosylated hemoglobin and lipid profile in diabetic retinopathy

The present study was undertaken in 100 subjects, 30 diabetics without complication (group I), 40 diabetics with retinopathy (group II) and 30 non diabetic as normal control group (group III). Blood sugar levels, magnesium, cholesterol and triglyceride were analyzed from plasma and serum. The results were correlated with degree of diabetic control from the levels of glycosylated hemoglobin. Serum magnesium levels in group II were found to be significantly lowered than in group I. There was also significant difference in magnesium levels of group I and group III. We found a significant correlation between the glycosylated hemoglobin and magnesium levels in our study. The results also indicate that the patients with diabetic retinopathy showed significant rise in serum cholesterol and triglyceride. Probably hypomagnesemia and increased serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels are responsible for microvascular changes in diabetes leading to retinopathy. The purpose of this study was thus to gather information about the degree of control of diabetes and magnesium status.     

Immune response to n-terminal and c-terminal deletion mutants of Aspergillus fumigatus major allergen ASP F 3

The ubiquitous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus causes allergic rhinitis, asthma, sinusitis and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. A number of major allergens from A. fumigatus are purified, but their structure-function role in the pathogenesis of disease is not known. Such information is essential for devising alternative therapy of fungal allergic diseases. In the present study, N-terminal and C-terminal deletion mutants ofAsp f 3 were constructed and their immunopathological responses studied in a mice model of allergy. Three mutants viz,Asp f 3 (aa 33–168), (aa 1–142), and (aa 23–142) were made by deleting certain amino acids from epitopic regions of full lengthAsp f 3, a major allergen of A. furnigatus. TheAsp f 3 and three mutated proteins were expressed in pET vector. The C-terminal deletion mutantAsp f 3 (aa 1–142) induced elevated IFN-γ but low levels of IL-4 by spleen cells. This mutant also showed significant downregulation of peripheral blood eosinophils and lung inflammation in immunized mice. The N-terminal deletion mutantAsp f 3 (aa 33–168) also exhibited an immuno-suppressive effect in terms of IgE production and induction of Th2 cytokine. The results indicate thatrAsp f 3 and its deletion mutants induced distinct immune-inflammatory responses in mice on challenge with these proteins. The non-IgE binding deletion mutants ofAsp f 3 (aa 1–142 and aa 33–168) could deviate Th2 immune response with a concomitant reduction in airway inflammation and infiltration of inflammatory cells.     

Breast cancer in developing population: A nutrition caveat

From January 1992-January 1998, 1404 patients attended the “Breast Clinic” of R.N.T. Medical College M.B. Hospital, Udaipur. Out of these, 11% and 81% patients had breast cancer (B.C.) and benign breast cancer (B.B.D.) respectively. The oxidative load in B.C. was 2.32 times higher than controls, but comparable to B.B.D. β-Carotene deficiency was uncommon in patients, whereas vitamin A deficiency was almost equally common in both B.C. and controls. Most of the patients had almost depleted levels of α-tocopherol and ascorbic acid but their TBAR levels were in normal range. The data in the present study when compared with B.B.D. and other local normal subjects point out: a) oxidative burden in B.C. is a consequence and not the cause of the disease, (b) oxidative stress could be one of the etiological factors in tumor expression, which need not to be malignant and c) α-tocopherol and ascorbic acid are not importantly responsible for higher oxidative burden in B.C.     

The ex ante assessment of knowledge spillovers: Government R&D policy, economic incentives and private firm behavior

This paper investigates the role of government R&D subsidy programs in stimulating knowledge spillovers. R&D subsidies are an effective public policy instrument when knowledge spillovers exist yet ex ante it is difficult to identify projects that have the greatest potential to increase innovation and economic growth. This paper derives a set of project and firm attributes that the literature finds generate knowledge spillovers and uses data on project proposals to estimate the degree to which a government R&D program conforms. We find that projects that were awarded R&D subsidies were more likely to have attributes such as participation in new research joint ventures and connections to universities and other firms. Following the post-award activities of firm, we find that receipt of a government R&D subsidy increased the funding from other sources when compared to firms that were not awarded funding.