Manganese blocks intracellular trafficking of Shiga toxin and protects against Shiga toxicosis

Infections with Shiga toxin (STx)-producing bacteria cause more than a million deaths each year and have no definitive treatment. To exert its cytotoxic effect, STx invades cells through retrograde membrane trafficking, escaping the lysosomal degradative pathway. We found that the widely available metal manganese (Mn(2+)) blocked endosome-to-Golgi trafficking of STx and caused its degradation in lysosomes. Mn(2+) targeted the cycling Golgi protein GPP130, which STx bound in control cells during sorting into Golgi-directed endosomal tubules that bypass lysosomes. In tissue culture cells, treatment with Mn(2+) yielded a protection factor of 3800 against STx-induced cell death. Furthermore, mice injected with nontoxic doses of Mn(2+) were completely resistant to a lethal STx challenge. Thus, Mn(2+) may represent a low-cost therapeutic agent for the treatment of STx infections.     

UV spectral fingerprinting and analysis of variance-principal component analysis: a useful tool for characterizing sources of variance in plant materials

UV spectral fingerprints, in combination with analysis of variance-principal components analysis (ANOVA-PCA), can differentiate between cultivars and growing conditions (or treatments) and can be used to identify sources of variance. Broccoli samples, composed of two cultivars, were grown under seven different conditions or treatments (four levels of Se-enriched irrigation waters, organic farming, and conventional farming with 100 and 80% irrigation based on crop evaporation and transpiration rate). Freeze-dried powdered samples were extracted with methanol-water (60:40, v/v) and analyzed with no prior separation. Spectral fingerprints were acquired for the UV region (220-380 nm) using a 50-fold dilution of the extract. ANOVA-PCA was used to construct subset matrices that permitted easy verification of the hypothesis that cultivar and treatment contributed to a difference in the chemical expression of the broccoli. The sums of the squares of the same matrices were used to show that cultivar, treatment, and analytical repeatability contributed 30.5, 68.3, and 1.2% of the variance, respectively.     

Leveraging the Antibacterial Properties of Knitted Fabrics by Admixture of Polyester-Silver Nanocomposite Fibres

Leveraging the antibacterial properties of polyester-cotton knitted fabrics has been attempted in this research by admixture of small proportion of polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres. Polyester-cotton (50:50) yarns were spun by mixing 10, 20 and 30 % (wt.%) polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres with normal polyester fibres so that overall proportion of polyester fibre becomes 50 %. The proportion of cotton fibre was constant (50 %) in all the yarns. Three parameters, namely blend proportion (wt.%) of nanocomposite fibres, yarn count and knitting machine gauge were varied, each at three levels, for producing 27 knitted fabrics. Polyester-cotton knitted fabrics prepared from polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres showed equally good antibacterial activity (65-99 %) against both S. aureus and E. coli bacteria. Antibacterial properties were enhanced with the increase in the proportion of polyester-silver nanocomposite fibres, yarn coarseness and increased compactness of knitted fabrics. Yarn count and blend proportion of nanocomposite fibre were found to have very dominant influence in determining the antibacterial properties of knitted fabrics.     

Partial Replacement of Fishmeal by Fermented Fish-Offal Meal in the Formulation of Diet for Indian Minor Carp Labeo bata

Fermented fish-offal (FO) meal was used as a protein supplement to replace fishmeal (FM) in the formulation of experimental diets for the Indian minor carp Labeo bata. The two supplementary diets, one containing 25% FM plus 25% FO and the other containing 20% FM and 30% FO, showed significantly higher digestibility, growth, and protein deposition than the reference diet containing 40% FM. Partial budgeting of diet formulation and net return revealed that 50% replacement of FM by fermented fish-offal meal rendered a total positive benefit of 134% as compared with the reference diet.     

A neural network model for prediction of strength loss in threads during high speed industrial sewing

In this paper artificial neural network (ANN) model has been designed to predict the strength loss in threads during high speed industrial sewing. Four different types of threads (Mercerized cotton, polyester staple spun, polyester-cotton core spun and polyester-polyester core spun) were taken for the study. The other input parameters include thread linear density, fabric area density, number of fabric layers, stitch density and needle size. In order to reduce the dependency of the results on a specific partition of the data into training and testing sets, a four-way cross validation tests were performed, i.e. total data was divided into training and testing set in four different ways. The predicted tenacity loss was correlated to the experimental tenacity loss and correlation coefficient between the actual and predicted tenacity loss obtained. It was observed that the neural network system is able to predict the tenacity loss of threads after sewing with good correlation and less average error. The relative contribution of each parameter to the overall prediction of the tenacity loss was studied by carrying out the sensitivity analysis of the test data set. The results of sensitivity analysis show that thread type is the most important input parameter followed by thread linear density, number of fabric layers, fabric area density, needle size and the stitch density.     

Management of Tibial Fractures Using a Circular External Fixator in Two Calves

Objectives: To report the repair of tibial diaphyseal fractures in 2 calves using a circular external skeletal fixator (CEF). Study Design: Clinical report. Animals: Crossbred calves (n=2; age: 6 months; weight: 55 and 60 kg). Methods: Mid‐diaphyseal tibial fractures were repaired by the use of a 4‐ring CEF (made of aluminum rings with 2 mm K‐wires) alone in 1 calf and in combination with hemicerclage wiring in 1 calf. Results: Both calves had good weight bearing with moderate lameness postoperatively. Fracture healing occurred by day 60 in 1 calf and by day 30 in calf 2. The CEF was well maintained and tolerated by both calves through fracture healing. Joint mobility and limb usage improved gradually after CEF removal. Conclusions: CEF provided a stable fixation of tibial fractures and healing within 60 days and functional recovery within 90 days. Clinical Relevance: CEF can be safely and successfully used for the management of selected tibial fractures in calves.     

Micropropagation of Darjeeling orange (Citrus reticulata Blanco) by shoot-tip grafting

Summary

Micropropagation of Darjeeling orange (Darjeeling mandarin) was done by shoot-tip grafting on the local rootstocks rough lemon, sour orange and Rangpur lime. Seedlings of these plants were raised in MS medium in standard conditions of temperature, light duration and plant age. Microbuds (0.2 mm long), aseptically excised from the scion, were grafted onto the decapitated rootstock seedlings. The micrografts in culture medium were grown under standard lighting. Rootstock seedlings showed optimum growth at 25–30°C. Optimum growth of the micrografts resulted from treatment in complete darkness for 4 d after grafting followed by exposure to 750 W for 16 h d^?1 for 15 d and 1500–2000 W for 16 h d^?1 for 39 d. The success of micrografting depended on the age of the rootstock seedling which was 21 d, 14 d and 14 d for sour orange, rough lemon and Rangpur lime respectively. The micrografts were then double grafted to the two year old rootstocks seedlings of the respective species and the age of the micrografts for the successful double grafts was also standardized. The survival rate was high with 40 d, 45 d and 45 d micrografts on sour orange, rough lemon and Rangpur lime respectively. The double-grafts were then indexed for tristeza virus and greening disease after six months’ growth in an insect-proof screenhouse and found to be free from these graft transmissible diseases.     

Growth, feed utilization and carcass composition of catfish Clarias batrachus (Linn.) fingerlings fed on dried fish and chicken viscera incorporated diets

A 30‐day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate dried fish and chicken viscera, and a combination of oil cakes as complete substitutes for fish meal in the diet of catfsh Clarias batrachus (Linn.) fingerlings. Triplicate groups of fingerlings with a mean initial body weight of 2.0 g were each fed four isonitrogenous diets at 4% of wet body weight. Performance of the diets was judged on the basis of feed acceptability, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio. A significant increase (P < 0.05) in body weight gain, protein efficiency ratio and a decreased feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05) was observed in fish fed on fish meal, followed by fish viscera, chicken viscera and only plant protein incorporated diets. Although inferior to fish meal and dried fish viscera, growth and feed utilization responses of fingerlings fed on dried chicken viscera and plant protein diets were similar. The fish accumulated a significantly greater (P < 0.05) amount of fat (18.3%) in the body carcass when fish viscera was incorporated in the diet. The study revealed that satisfactory growth and feed utilization responses could be achieved through replacement of fish meal by dried fish and chicken viscera in the diet of catfish fingerlings.