Trichoderma harzianum ThU and Its Metabolites Underscore Alteration in Essential Oils of Ocimum basilicum and Ocimum sanctum

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences - Ocimum, an important commercial aromatic crop, is well known for the industrially acclaimed essential oil. In...     

Investigation of crystal structure,microstructure and low temperature magnetic behavior of Ce4+ and Zn2+ co-doped barium hexaferrites (BaFe12O19)

Ce⁴⁺ and Zn²⁺ co-doped barium hexaferrites (BFO) have been synthesized via a citrate-nitrate autocombustion route. Phase purity has been confirmed by high resolution (HR) powder X-ray diffraction analysis. Rietveld refinement on HR-XRD data has been carried out to reveal the crystal structure, bond angles and bond lengths. High-resolution scanning electron microscope (HR-SEM) has been used to study the effect of Ce⁴⁺ and Zn²⁺ on microstructure. Magnetic behavior of co-doped barium hexaferrites in the low temperature regime, 2–300 K has been studied. Further, it has been explained on the basis of superexchange interactions and formation of Bloch walls due to the presence of imperfections in the doped samples. It has been found that BFO changes hard to soft magnetic behavior when the temperature is decreased from 300 K to 2 K. Moreover, doping of Ce⁴⁺ and Zn²⁺ at Fe³⁺ site also brings similar effects which strengthens with decreasing temperature.

Preparation of Ce–Zn substituted barium hexaferrites and investigation of their magnetic behavior in low temperature regime (2–300 K).     

A community-based, comparative evaluation of direct agglutination and rK39 strip tests in the early detection of subclinical Leishmania donovani infection

In the Indian state of Bihar, the sensitivities and specificities of direct agglutination tests (DAT) and rK39 test strips for the detection of Leishmania donovani infection in humans were explored and found to be generally good (92%-100%). When 172 asymptomatic individuals [16 'case-contacts' who lived in the same households as past or current, confirmed cases of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and 156 other subjects from neighbouring households] were tested, the same 36 (21%) individuals, including all 16 'case-contacts', were found seropositive using each type of test. When followed-up after 3 months, 18 of the individuals who had been found seropositive in the baseline survey remained seropositive, and eight (44%) of these had developed symptomatic VL, with amastigotes in their splenic aspirates. Seven (44%) of the 16 'case-contacts' but only one (5%) of the other 20 subjects found seropositive at baseline went on to develop VL within 3 months. Although the strip test appeared slightly better than DAT for predicting the development of VL in the 172 subjects, either type of test may be very useful for the early detection of asymptomatic L. donovani infection and thus the identification of those at relatively high risk of developing VL.     

Hypertriglyceridemia: a possible diagnostic marker of disease severity in visceral leishmaniasis

Purpose

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a protozoan disease, is 100 % fatal if left untreated. Anemia is common in VL which plays a role in expression of clinically overt VL disease. Laboratory clues are scarce for strengthening clinical suspicion for severity in VL. Hypertriglyceridemia has emerged as a new concept for the diagnosis and prognosis in VL. The present study is aimed at correlating the magnitude of hypertriglyceridemia with the severity in VL.

Materials and methods

A retrospective case–control study was conducted between January 2012 to December 2013 among 124 patients coming for treatment from VL endemic areas, who had fever of more than 15 days and did not respond to antimalarials and antibiotics. The parasitologically confirmed VL cases (n = 87) were categorized as mild/moderate (n = 60) and severe (n = 27) groups according to WHO classification for anemia and parasite burden. Serum triglycerides were assayed in VL groups along with controls (n = 37).

Results

Serum triglyceride level was significantly higher in VL than controls [mean values were 173.50 ± 47.67 versus 127.1 ± 53.79 mg/dl, respectively (p < 0.0001)]. Triglyceride level was significantly higher in severe than in mild/moderate group of VL [211.3 ± 50.2 mg/dl versus 134 ± 45.09 mg/dl, respectively (p < 0.0001)]. Hypertriglyceridemia (>161.7 mg/dl) was noted in all severe VL patients, compared to 31.66 % of mild or moderate group (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference between mild/moderate VL and controls.

Conclusions

It is hypothesized that hypertriglyceridemia could be of additional diagnostic benefit to assess the probability and severity of VL in endemic areas.

     

Oesophago-pleuro-cutaneous fistula

We describe a case of oesophago-pleuro-cutaneous fistula occurring as a complication of tuberculous pyopneumothorax in a young adult.     

Distributional Properties and Criterion Validity of a Shortened Version of the Social Responsiveness Scale: Results from the ECHO Program and Implications for Social Communication Research

Prior work proposed a shortened version of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a commonly used quantitative measure of social communication traits. We used data from 3031 participants (including 190 ASD cases) from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program to compare distributional properties and criterion validity of 16-item “short” to 65-item “full” SRS scores. Results demonstrated highly overlapping distributions of short and full scores. Both scores separated case from non-case individuals by approximately two standard deviations. ASD prediction was nearly identical for short and full scores (area under the curve values of 0.87, 0.86 respectively). Findings support comparability of shortened and full scores, suggesting opportunities to increase efficiency. Future work should confirm additional psychometric properties of short scores.