Search

Zinc, an essential micronutrient, is an important mediator of sperm function. Supplementation of zinc oxide nanoparticle (ZnONPs) to semen cryopreservation medium has shown beneficial effects on sperm function, mainly due to its antioxidant and membrane stabilization properties. However, the ZnONPs are known to be membrane impermeable. In the current study, we explored the beneficial properties of membrane permeable zinc oxide nanoparticles on semen cryopreservation outcome. For the study, 52 liquefied human ejaculates were cryopreserved with chitosan-coated ZnONPs and stored in liquid nitrogen for one week. Samples were thawed and assessed for the sperm functional characters and DNA integrity. Significantly higher motility (P

Background and Aim: Deformities and disabilities in leprosy lead to significant morbidity to the individual and financial burden to the family. As the prevalence of leprosy is higher in central India, this study was conducted to know the burden of deformity and disability among leprosy patients in central India and the factors associated with it. Materials and methods: This was a hospital-based, cross-sectional study, conducted on 50 new or on treatment or released from treatment leprosy patients, attending the Dermatology OPD of a tertiary care institute in Central India. Disability was graded as per the WHO criteria for disability grading of hands and feet. Results: Grade 2 disability was found among 32% of the patients with leprosy, whereas a total of 60% of our patients had either grade 1 or grade 2 disabilities. Trophic ulcer was found among 20% and claw hand among 14% of leprosy patients. We found significant associations of lepromatous leprosy with trophic ulcer (p = 0.004) and grade 2 disability (p = 0.012). All patients with claw hands and 80% of the patients with trophic ulcers presented to the healthcare facility at least 6 months after the onset of symptoms. Conclusions: We found very high rates of disability and deformity among leprosy patients indicating possible huge burden of morbidity among leprosy patients in central India. The significant association of lepromatous leprosy with trophic ulcer and grade 2 disability indicated delayed presentation and diagnosis of lepromatous leprosy patients. Our results underlined the need for large scale community-based studies on disability and deformity among leprosy patients in Central India. These results also call for better training of primary level healthcare workers for early detection and management of deformities and disabilities as well as better patient education for leprosy patients regarding hand and foot care.

Subcutaneous zygomycosis is a rare fungal infection caused by Basidiobolus ranarum. This entity is usually endemic in South India and only limited numbers of cases have been reported from central India. We report a case of 4-year-old male child from Chhattisgarh, who presented with a painless, non-tender, large, subcutaneous swelling of 4 months duration on the right upper arm, which was initially misdiagnosed as benign spindle cell tumor and advised surgical resection. But the fungal culture of the affected tissue grown Basidiobolus ranarum and the child responded very well to itraconazole therapy only. Keywords: Basidiobolus ranarum, Subcutaneous zygomycosis, Fungal infection, Spindle cell tumor, Itraconazole therapy

A sixty-one year-old-married postmenopausal lady presented with complaints of recurrent itching and intermittent clear fluid discharge from the right nipple for last one year. The dermoscopic examination, the histopathology and the radiological findings were suggestive of Paget's disease of the breast. We report this case to reinforce the importance of suspecting malignancy in the clinical scenario of persistent unilateral breast eczema, particularly in elderly females.

Fasciola hepatica infection of ruminants leads to non-resolving chronic infection, as patency develops, there is switching to a TGF-β and IL-10 led response. Here, we explore the responses of CD4 T-cells within the major draining lymph nodes. We found minimal expression of Foxp3 within CD4 cells but elevated levels within the γδ (WC1+) population. There is a strong T-cell-intrinsic exhaustion phenotype within the hepatic lymph node (HLN) characterized by a lack of antigen-specific proliferation and cytokine secretion. CD4 T-cells recovered from the HLN had high levels of PD-1 expression and low levels of IL-2 secretion. Exogenous IL-2 partially rescued this defect; when combined with neutralization of IL-10 and TGF-β, full restoration of proliferation, and cytokine production was achieved. Moreover, there is a clear uncoupling of the mechanisms that facilitate this regulation with parasite-specific proliferation and cytokine secretion being governed by independent means. These data would suggest that there is a CD4 T-cell-intrinsic regulation in place early in chronic infection, potentially leading to failure in resistance to reinfection.

Cellular neurothekeoma is a rare cutaneous tumor that occurs more frequently in women. A 68-year-old female with a history of left nasal alar basal cell carcinoma and Guillain-Barré syndrome presented to the clinic with a 3-mm firm skin-colored papule with scattered telangiectasias. Histopathologic examination with immunochemistry of the lesion was consistent with cellular neurothekeoma. It stained positive for microphthalmia transcription factor and NKI-C3 and negative for HMB-45 and S-100. The lesion was excised with 3-mm margins, and no recurrence was noted within 1 year of follow-up. We present a case of cellular neurothekeoma in a patient with a history of Guillain-Barré syndrome as well as a review of the literature. Our case report is unique in that no prior association has been found in the literature between cellular neurothekeoma and Guillain-Barré syndrome. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel

Abstract In this work, we explore the effect of neutrino nonstandard interactions (NSI) involving the charm quark at SND@LHC. Using an effective description of new physics in terms of four-fermion operators involving a charm quark, we constrain the Wilson coefficients of the effective interaction from two and three-body charmed meson decays. In our fit, we include charmed meson decays not only to pseudoscalar final states but also to vector final states and include decays to the η and η ′ final states. We also consider constraints from charmed baryon decays. We then study the effect of new physics in neutrino scattering processes, involving charm production at SND@LHC, for various benchmark new physics couplings obtained from the low energy fits. Finally, we also study the effects of lepton universality violation (LUV) assuming that the new physics coupling is not lepton universal.

We analyze the lepton flavor universality violation (LFV) in process b→sℓ+ℓ− in an R-parity violating supersymmetric (RPV-SUSY) scenario. The most recent update on RK from the LHCb collaboration suggests approximately 3.1σ deviation from the Standard Model predictions, strengthening the case of LFV New Physics. In this work, we show that RK(⁎) anomaly can be addressed via only sneutrinos within the framework of R-parity violating interactions assuming phenomenologically viable values of the couplings. While our proposed solution is by no means the only solution to these anomalies, it is a phenomenologically plausible one and, notably, quite a minimal one in the context of RPV-SUSY.

Abstract The minimal Universal Extra Dimension scenario is highly constrained owing to opposing constraints from the observed relic density on the one hand, and the non-observation of new states at the LHC on the other. Simple extensions in five-dimensions can only postpone the inevitable. Here, we propose a six-dimensional alternative with the key feature being that the SM quarks and leptons are localized on orthogonal directions whereas gauge bosons traverse the entire bulk. Several different realizations of electroweak symmetry breaking are possible, while maintaining agreement with low energy observables. This model is not only consistent with all the current constraints opposing the minimal Universal Extra Dimension scenario but also allows for a multi-TeV dark matter particle without the need for any fine-tuning. In addition, it promises a plethora of new signatures at the LHC and other future experiments.

Abstract Adopting a model independent approach, we constrain the various effective interactions of leptophilic DM particles with the visible world from the WMAP and Planck data. The thermally averaged indirect DM annihilation cross section and the DM–electron direct-detection cross section for such a DM candidate are observed to be consistent with the respective experimental data. We study the production of cosmologically allowed leptophilic DM in association with $$Z\, (Z\rightarrow f\bar{f})$$ Z ( Z → f f ¯ ) , $$f\equiv q,\,e^-,\, \mu ^-$$ f ≡ q , e - , μ - at the ILC. We perform the $$\chi ^2$$ χ 2 analysis and compute the 99% C.L. acceptance contours in the $$m_\chi $$ m χ and $$\varLambda $$ Λ plane from the two-dimensional differential distributions of various kinematic observables obtained after employing parton showering and hadronisation to the simulated data. We observe that the dominant hadronic channel provides the best kinematic reach of 2.62 TeV ( $$m_\chi $$ m χ = 25 GeV), which further improves to $$\sim $$ ∼ 3 TeV for polarised beams at $$\sqrt{s} = 1$$ s = 1 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 1 ab $$^{-1}$$ - 1 .