ALBERT

Description: Identification of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) is important to understand the bacteria structure and function, host-pathogen interaction, development of novel vaccine candidates, and diagnostic antigens. But till now the key antigens of P. multocida B:2 isolate causing haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) in animals are not clearly defined. In this study, P52 strain of P. multocida serotype B:2 was grown in vitro under iron-rich and iron-limited condition. The OMPs were extracted by sarkosyl method followed by SDS-PAGE and the proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF/MS analysis. In total, 22 proteins were identified, of which 7 were observed exclusively under iron-limited condition. Most of the high molecular weight proteins (TbpA, HgbA, HgbB, HasR, IroA, and HemR) identified in this study were involved in iron acquisition. Some hypothetical proteins (HP-KCU-10206, HP and AAUPMB 08244, HP AAUPMB 21592, HP AAUPMB 19766, AAUPMB 11295) were observed for the first time in this study which could be unique to serotype B:2. Further functional in vivo study of the proteins identified are required to explore the utility of these proteins in developing diagnostics and vaccine against HS.

Description: In this study, 108 P. multocida isolates recovered from various host animals such as cattle, buffalo, swine, poultry (chicken, duck, and emu) and rabbits were screened for carriage of 8 virulence associated genes. The results revealed some unique information on the prevalence of virulence associated genes among Indian isolates. With the exception of toxA gene, all other virulence associated genes were found to be regularly distributed among host species. Association study between capsule type and virulence genes suggested that pfhA, nanB, and nanH genes were regularly distributed among all serotypes with the exception of CapD, whereas toxA gene was found to be positively associated with CapD and CapA. The frequency of hgbA and nanH genes among swine isolates of Indian origin was found to be less in comparison to its equivalents around the globe. Interestingly, very high prevalence of tbpA gene was observed among poultry, swine, and rabbit isolates. Likewise, very high prevalence of pfhA gene (95.3%) was observed among Indian isolates, irrespective of host species origin.

Description: In mobile ad hoc networks the congestion is a major issue, which affects the overall performance of the networks. The load balancing in the network alongside the congestion is another major problem in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing due to difference in link cost of the route. Most of the existing routing protocols provide solutions to load balancing or congestion adaptivity separately. In this paper, a congestion adaptive routing along with load balancing, that is, load balanced congestion adaptive routing (LBCAR), has been proposed. Transferring of load from congested nodes to less busy nodes and involvement of other nodes in transmission that can take part in route can improve the overall network life. In the proposed protocol two metrics, traffic load density and link cost associated with a routing path, have been used to determine the congestion status. The route with low traffic load density and maximum life time is selected for packet transmission using this protocol. Performance of the network using LBCAR has been analyzed and compared with congestion adaptive routing protocol (CRP) for packet delivery ratio, average end-to-end delay, and normalized routing overhead.

Description: Inflationary scenario in locally rotationally symmetric (LRS) Bianchi Type II space-time with massless scalar field with flat potential is discussed. To get the deterministic solution in terms of cosmic time , we have assumed that the scale factor , that is, and  = constant where is effective potential and is Higg's field. We find that spatial volume increases with time and the model isotropizes for large value of under special condition. The Higg's field decreases slowly and tends to a constant value when . The model represents uniform expansion but accelerating universe and leads to de-Sitter type metric.

Description: In this study, 108P. multocidaisolates recovered from various host animals such as cattle, buffalo, swine, poultry (chicken, duck, and emu) and rabbits were screened for carriage of 8 virulence associated genes. The results revealed some unique information on the prevalence of virulence associated genes among Indian isolates. With the exception oftoxAgene, all other virulence associated genes were found to be regularly distributed among host species. Association study between capsule type and virulence genes suggested thatpfhA, nanB,andnanHgenes were regularly distributed among all serotypes with the exception of CapD, whereastoxAgene was found to be positively associated with CapD and CapA. The frequency ofhgbAandnanHgenes among swine isolates of Indian origin was found to be less in comparison to its equivalents around the globe. Interestingly, very high prevalence oftbpAgene was observed among poultry, swine, and rabbit isolates. Likewise, very high prevalence ofpfhAgene (95.3%) was observed among Indian isolates, irrespective of host species origin.

Description: Identification of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) is important to understand the bacteria structure and function, host-pathogen interaction, development of novel vaccine candidates, and diagnostic antigens. But till now the key antigens ofP. multocidaB:2 isolate causing haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) in animals are not clearly defined. In this study, P52 strain ofP. multocidaserotype B:2 was grownin vitrounder iron-rich and iron-limited condition. The OMPs were extracted by sarkosyl method followed by SDS-PAGE and the proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF/MS analysis. In total, 22 proteins were identified, of which 7 were observed exclusively under iron-limited condition. Most of the high molecular weight proteins (TbpA, HgbA, HgbB, HasR, IroA, and HemR) identified in this study were involved in iron acquisition. Some hypothetical proteins (HP-KCU-10206, HP and AAUPMB 08244, HP AAUPMB 21592, HP AAUPMB 19766, AAUPMB 11295) were observed for the first time in this study which could be unique to serotype B:2. Further functionalin vivostudy of the proteins identified are required to explore the utility of these proteins in developing diagnostics and vaccine against HS.

Description: A simple, precise and accurate high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method has been established for the determination of rutin in the stem extract ofHibiscus micranthusLinn. A flavonoid fraction of methanolic extract of the stem powder was used for the experimental work. Separation was performed on silica gel 60 F254HPTLC plates withn-butanol: acetic acid: water: ammonia 3:1:1:1(v/v), as mobile phase. The determination was carried out using the densitometric absorbance mode at 286 nm. Rutin response was linear over the range 50–400 ng/μL. The concentration of rutin in the flavanoidal fraction was found to be 9.93%. The HPTLC method was evaluated in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, precision and reproducibility.

Description: BACKGROUND: Superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant acting against superoxide (oxygen radical, O2.-), it is released in inflammatory pathways and causes connective tissue breakdown. Increased SOD activity in inflamed gingiva may indicate increased O2.-radical generation by neutrophils and other inflammatory cells at the diseased site. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of non-surgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) on SOD levels in gingival tissues of chronic periodontitis patients.METHODS: Forty subjects: 20 periodontally healthy (Control) and 20 chronic periodontitis (Test); age range 24–55 years were recruited. Gingival tissue samples were collected by excising the inner lining of the periodontal pocket at baseline (prior to non-surgical periodontal therapy) and 2 months post therapy. In controls, tissue samples were obtained immediately after tooth extraction scheduled for orthodontic reasons. Clinical parameters included probing depth, clinical attachment level, gingival index, bleeding index, plaque index. SOD activities were assessed spectrophotometrically at baseline and 2 months post NSPT, results were analysed statistically.RESULTS: At baseline, patients with chronic periodontitis had higher mean SOD activity (2.73 ± 1.36) than the control subjects (1.12 ± 1.13) withp= 0.00003 (p〈 0.05). At 2 months post NSPT median SOD level (1.00) had come close to median SOD value of control group (0.85);p= 0.99 (p〉 0.05). The resolution of inflammation with successful NSPT resulted in decreased SOD levels as in control group. Clinical parameters in patients with chronic periodontitis showed a significant improvement 2 months post NSPT (p〈 0.05).CONCLUSION: Non-surgical periodontal therapy significantly improves the clinical parameters and restores previously increased SOD levels to normal in chronic periodontitis patients.

Description: Soft contact lenses provide perfect conditions for the breeding of pathogens. The study is a prospective, experimental study, conducted to know the antimicrobial ability of multipurpose contact lens solution against standard strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by the stand-alone test. The test method is based on the procedures in the ISO 14729 standard primary stand-alone test. Three multipurpose contact lens care solutions commercially available in Mangalore markets, namely, Biotrue (Bausch & Lomb), Opti-Free Replenish (Alcon), and Aquasoft (Stericon Pharma), were tested for its antimicrobial effect in the microbiology lab at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. According to this study, the solutions named “Biotrue” and “Aquasoft” met the primary stand-alone and reached the 3log reduction and 5log reduction criteria in the manufacturer recommended time, respectively. No conclusion could be drawn for Opti-Free Replenish since the minimum recommended disinfection time was overnight, whereas it was noted for 6 hr only, and it should have been experimented further. The effectiveness of multipurpose solutions varies against different bacterial species. We have observed that the antimicrobial activity of different solutions varies with respect to time of incubation, and also there was a marked difference in the activity of some solutions against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. So, it is necessary for the contact lens users to store their lenses in solutions for longer duration of hours. It is also recommended to use solutions that clear the ISO 14729 standards for better health conditions of the eye.

Description: With the emerging trend of restructuring in the electric power industry, many transmission lines have been forced to operate at almost their full capacities worldwide. Due to this, more incidents of voltage instability and collapse are being observed throughout the world leading to major system breakdowns. To avoid these undesirable incidents, a fast and accurate estimation of voltage stability margin is required. In this paper, genetic algorithm based back propagation neural network (GABPNN) has been proposed for voltage stability margin estimation which is an indication of the power system's proximity to voltage collapse. The proposed approach utilizes a hybrid algorithm that integrates genetic algorithm and the back propagation neural network. The proposed algorithm aims to combine the capacity of GAs in avoiding local minima and at the same time fast execution of the BP algorithm. Input features for GABPNN are selected on the basis of angular distance-based clustering technique. The performance of the proposed GABPNN approach has been compared with the most commonly used gradient based BP neural network by estimating the voltage stability margin at different loading conditions in 6-bus and IEEE 30-bus system. GA based neural network learns faster, at the same time it provides more accurate voltage stability margin estimation as compared to that based on BP algorithm. It is found to be suitable for online applications in energy management systems.