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Byline: Mudaliar. Elango, Arokiam. Bosco, S. Thanikachalam, R. Kavitha Background: Posterior polar cataracts (PPC) pose a great surgical challenge to ophthalmic surgeons. Main intraoperative surgical concerns are increased risk of [...]

Byline: Mudaliar. Elango, Arokiam. Bosco, S. Thanikachalam, R. Kavitha Choroidal tubercles in miliary tuberculosis have been rarely reported. A 65-year-old male diagnosed with miliary tuberculosis was started on antitubercular therapy [...]

ABSTRACTQuantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method that enables two parties to securely exchange a secret key. The secure key rate is a crucial metric for assessing the efficiency and practical viability of a QKD system. There are several approaches that are utilized in practice to calculate the secure key rate. In this manuscript, QKD and error rate optimization based on optimized multi-head self-attention and gated-dilated convolutional neural network (QKD-ERO-MSGCNN) is proposed. Initially, the input signals are gathered from 6G wireless networks which face obstacles to channel. For extending maximum transmission distances and improving secret key rates, the signals are fed to the variable velocity strategy particle swarm optimization algorithm, then the signals are fed to MSGCNN for analysing the quantum bit error rate reduction. The MSGCNN is optimized by intensified sand cat swarm optimization. The performance of the QKD-ERO-MSGCNN approach attains 15.57%, 23.89%, and 31.75% higher accuracy when analysed with existing techniques, like device-independent QKD utilizing random quantum states, practical continuous-variable QKD and feasible optimization parameters, entanglement and teleportation in QKD for secure wireless systems, and QKD for large scale networks methods, respectively.

Synthetically produced pigments have great demand in various industries; however, the toxic effects of synthetic pigments make their use in industries burdensome. This has led to the production of alternate eco-friendly methods. Pigments produced from microbes play a significant role as safe pigments are needed for sensitive industries like food, dyeing, and the textile industry. Potential bacterial pigments have attracted attention as they have better prospects, are eco-friendly, and are non-toxic. The current work was aimed at the isolation and characterization of pigment-producing halotolerant bacterial strains from saline environments. Their growth parameters such as pH, temperature, NaCl concentrations, and carbon and nitrogen sources for effective pigment production were optimized. The extracted bio-pigment was purified and characterized by FTIR, GC-MS, and HPLC analysis. GC-MS data of the pigment revealed three possible structures – 5-oxo-N-phenyl-3-(o-toluidinyl) 3-pyrrolidine Carboxamide (A), dibenzoate ester of phenyl 1,4-dihydroxylamine (B), and 9-acetyl phenanthrene (C). FTIR spectrum of the pigment showed characteristic bands for nitrogen, indicating the pigment structure to be either (A) or (B). Furthermore, the extracted pigment was applied to cotton fabric as a dye to study its effect. The pigment was found to bind well with cotton fabric at 40 °C in the presence of thiourea. The wash performance of the pigment was also found to be superior in the presence of thiourea. The halotolerant bacterial strain was identified by 16s RNA sequencing as Bacillus cereus. Hence, the pigment produced by Bacillus cereusindicates that the pigment has an affinity to cellulose that could possibly be used for textile coloring in a range of clothing in various materials.

Deep learning is the most spelt word and habitually used technology of the researchers around the globe of technical arena. With the tremendous growth of technologies like data analytics, data mining, machine learning methods and IoT applications like health monitoring, safety and security, and smart control, human movement acknowledgement has become a more noteworthy achievement in the field of science. Utilising the most booming technology, we propose a unique approach for monitoring human activities who aspire to live and lead an independent life, mostly the elderly people. In this experiment we discovered a novel method in identifying the human activities and the forte of this approach is the privacy of the monitored person is ensured. This investigation is moved forward by utilising an improved convolution neural network (CNN) with enriched bi-directional LSTM (BLSTM). The activity recognition model is still optimised by using a heaped LSTM (HLSTM) and a fine trained data clustering algorithm. Our proposed approach, when trained and tested with a prominent dataset that contains sensor data, achieved overall accuracy of 99.43% for all the considered nine activities.

Purpose: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of brainwave entrainment on pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients. Methods: The study protocol received approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee under reference number 3010/IEC/2021. Pediatric patients (252) aged from 7 to 12 years, who reported to the dental department were randomized pre-operatively and presented either with brainwave entrainment (experimental), delivered using a “David delight plus device” or a standard behavior management protocol (control). Baseline and post-assessment of anxiety and fear levels were done using the Visual Facial Anxiety Scale and Frankl’s behavior rating scale with Wright’s modification. Vitals such as blood pressure and pulse rate were also measured. Results: The study sample (n= 252) comprised 118 females and 134 males. The non-significant differences for values of (VFAS1,FRS1,HR1,and BP1)indicated similar baseline characteristics. In the brainwave entrainment group, the p values of the Mann–Whitney Utest and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test (p< 0.01) between the two-timepoints indicated a statistical difference for the values of (VFAS1,FBRS1,HR1,BP1)and (VFAS2,FBRS2,HR2,BP2). Conclusions: Brainwave entrainment effectively reduces pre-operative fear and anxiety in pediatric dental patients. Therefore, they can be a non-pharmacological and non-invasive behavior management aid. Trial Registration: Clinical Trial Registry of India database CTRI/2023/03/051066.

Multispectral image classification has received significant attention among research communities and academicians. Recently, several artificial intelligence (AI) models can be used for the extraction of prominent features. Besides, deep learning (DL) methods become more familiar and gained interest in the remote sensing community for the classification of multispectral and hyperspectral images. With this motivation, this paper presents an optimized feature learning with deep transfer learning enabled multispectral image classification (OFLDTL-MSIC) technique. The proposed OFLDTL-MSIC technique aims to categorize the different class labels of the multispectral images. Besides, the OFLDTL-MSIC technique applies multi-level discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based image decomposition technique. Moreover, the EfficientNet technique is applied as a feature extractor to generate a collection of features. Furthermore, selecting optimal features extracted by a EfficientNet involves identifying and retaining the most relevant and informative features The improved chaotic satin bowerbird optimization (CSBO) algorithm which uses dynamic population size is proposed for feature selection and kernel extreme learning machine (KELM) model is applied for the classification process. In order to ensure the enhanced performance of the OFLTDL-MSIC technique, a wide range of simulations take place using the Madurai LISS IV multispectral images and the results are examined under several aspects. The extensive comparative study highlighted the better performance of the OFLTDL-MSIC technique over the recent methods.

In the healthcare industry, security and privacy are major concerns. For effective diagnosis the medical practitioners need to access the healthcare data of the patient and similarly, the patient also needs to access the data. Sharing such a sensitive health data needs to be secured and privacy-preserving is ensured. Before uploading and downloading private health data, the data should be secured. To ensure security and privacy-preserving of health data stored in the cloud by implementing the improved Quaternion-based neural network with the blockchain mechanism. Improved Quaternion neural network cryptography is executed for encrypting the shared health data. Encrypted data’s secret key is stored by utilizing blockchain which is converted into blocks and the SHA algorithm is employed for identifying key events in the blocks which are stored in cloud storage. The modified genetic algorithm is used to generate a key which would be used for encryption and decryption. The authorized patient or physician can access the medical data by using the secret key to decrypt and download the medical data. The proposed network is evaluated in terms of time taken and cost and compared with the existing study. The results show that the time taken for the encryption and decryption process and the transaction and execution cost are reduced compared with the existing study.

Heterostructuring the g-C3N4(GCN) with wide gap oxide photocatalysts is of prominent interest as they can harvest photons spanning the UV–visible region. In this regard, GCN/ZnO have garnered remarkable attention due to their admirable structure, optical, dimensional anisotropy, and electronic properties. The 2D sheet-like structure of GCN can serve as a suitable substrate for the growth of distinct ZnO nanostructures under the multitude of reaction conditions. This review focuses on the progress in the rational design and interface engineering of GCN/ZnO to from Type-II and Z/S-scheme heterojunctions, followed by their relevant photocatalytic applications toward H2evolution, CO2reduction, pollutant degradation, and bacteria inactivation. The mechanism underlying the crystallization of GCN and ZnO together with their intimate contact in the composite are emphasized under the light of diverse preparation methods. The modification of GCN/ZnO with cocatalysts such as metals, alloy, semiconductors, and carbon materials to form ternary systems to highlight their advancements. The gap analysis and future prospectus of this intricate heterostructure concerning the challenges in synthetic approaches and the charge carrier dynamics are discussed. This review envisages the development of efficient GCN/ZnO-based heterostructures for multiscale applications.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate if bioceramic sealers had superior sealing properties to epoxy resin-based sealers.

International war crimes tribunals have been established to restore justice in those states that have suffered from genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In this quest for justice, it [...]

Video event recognition plays an important role in the various research fields particularly in surveillance detection system. In the existing system it is done by deep hierarchical context model which utilizes several contextual data which contains various context information at level of feature, semantic and priority for the video recognition process. However, this research method might perform low with increased volume of videos and might be failed to predict the events accurately with less interrelation contextual features. The standstill challenges are solved via improved hybridized deep structured model. The three primary features of contextual data are to discriminate resultant neighborhood. Here hybrid textual perceptual descriptor and concept-based attribute extraction is performed for accurate recognition of video events. These extracted interaction context features are grouped by using improved K means algorithm. In addition, improved deep structured model that combines convolutional neural networks and conditional random fields are developed for learning middle level representations and mingle the bottom feature level, mid-semantic and top-level meanings for the identification of incidents. This proposed research method is evaluated by using VIRAT data set whose simulation analysis is performed using Matlab simulation toolkit. The overall evaluation of the proposed research method proves that the suggested method can provide better output in terms of accurate recognition of events.

Plasmonic metal structure that can host size-tunable optical properties and tailored catalytic surface active sites elicits peculiar functionalities upon integrating with semiconductors. In the case of metal–semiconductor composites, formation of Schottky barrier height and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect stimulated by the metallic dispersion cooperatively separates the charge carriers and alters the optical response to longer wavelength region, respectively, which are of paramount importance in the light-induced redox reactions. From the view point of attaining maximum synergy, bimetallic deposition over the titania support has impelled interest due to the supportive interactions arising from metal–metal and metal–TiO2heterojunctions. In this review article, bimetallic systems constituting mainly Cu, Ni, Au, Ag, Pd and Pt over the titania surface are discussed under the light of preparative methods, their distribution, electronic interactions between the metals and with the titania support, charge carrier transfer pathways, structural stability and optimized content towards achieving maximum efficiency in various applications such as pollutant degradation, CO2reduction, H2evolution reaction (HER) and in the functional group conversion of few organic compounds. The role of each metal in the bimetallic system and the effects arising from structure–morphology features of titania are considered to furnish insightful discussion into this exquisite heterojunction. The bimetallic deposition over the other emerged semiconductors are briefly surmised to attest the versatility of this strategy and its reliability from several prospects are brought to the fore to provide the room for developing efficient bimetallic–semiconductor heterostructures.

The Cucumis pubescensWilld. belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. This is found in its natural habitat as a wild plant. Its fruit extract contains a significant number of phytochemicals, contributing to its antioxidant properties. This fruit is edible and used in various traditional medicines for treating diverse ailments. This study focuses on the phytochemical constituents, antibacterial activity against selected microbes, antioxidant potential, and toxicity to zebrafish embryos, all of which are responsible for imparting the medicinal values of C.pubescensfruit. The ethanolic extract of C.pubescensfruit contains various phytochemical constituents such as alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, phenolics, sugar, tannins, terpenoids, coumarins, proteins, and aminoacids. The total phenolic content was found to be 27.745±0.4765 GAE a/g extract, the total flavonoids were found to be 36.205±0.3854 TAE b/g extract, and total tannins were found to be 31.478±0.2478 RE c/g extract. The antibacterial activity showed an increase in zone of inhibition on increasing the concentration of fruit extract, with ampicillin serving as positive control. The antioxidant assays such as DPPH, reducing power assay, percentage of molybdenum assay, H2O2 scavenging assay, and nitric oxide assay were performed using 25,50,75,100, and 125 μg/mL concentrations of the fruit extract. The results revealed that increasing the concentration of the fruit extract and increased the antioxidant activity up to 95% at higher concentrations. The mortality rate of zebrafish embryo confirmed the nontoxic nature of C.pubescensfruit extract at different concentrations, observed at 24,48,72, and 98h. This work highlights the presence of phytochemicals in C.pubescensethanolic fruit extract, which are responsible for its greater antibacterial and antioxidant activities, and exhibits its nontoxicity on the zebrafish embryo model.

At present, scams and malicious websites are one of the most widespread and dangerous problems on the website. It brings enormous economic suffering and irretrievable losses to companies and individuals. This approach can strengthen the Internet’s legitimacy and impose sanctions on criminals who engage in prohibited or malicious activities. However, governments still need a derivation to classify websites as dangerous or non-dangerous. However, several malicious and counterfeit goods are published on fraudulent websites to cheat consumers and make high and unfair profits. Due to the proliferation of such fraudulent websites, it is difficult to detect and identify them through manual inspection. Phishing attacks include various attacks, including spoofing malicious-based, DNS-based, data theft, email/spam, web-based delivery, and telephone-based phishing. We propose an integrated machine learning (ML) framework for fraudulent website detection to solve this problem. Artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), random forests (RF), and K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) are algorithms to detect phishing websites accurately. Some URLs can be used to classify them as appropriate or phishing. Data from publicly available phishing websites can be collected from the UCIrvine ML repository for training and testing. Then, the results can be predicted using the features of the dataset. We conduct an in-depth literature review and propose methods for detecting phishing websites using ML methods.

An emerging feature of nanofluids is its thermo physical properties, which leads to develop an enormous application in various fields especially in automotive sector as an engine coolant. Experimental and mathematical models were developed to predict the thermal properties of nanofluids but there is no accordance between them. For accurate prediction various machine - learning algorithms were used. In this paper, thermal conductivity ratio of CNT/H2O were predicted using Gaussian process regression method with different covariance functions and optimised using hyper parameters. The predicted results were compared with the experimental values both possess a good agreement between them. The root mean square error (RMSE) value of squared exponential covariance function with hyper parameters is 0.014926 and regression coefficient value (R2) for overall data is 0.98. The outcome of the proposed model will reduce the experimental test runs and used for accurate prediction.

ABSTRACTThe chromosomal observations were carried out on 66 taxa collected from Kolli Hills belongs to 38 genera and 20 families. Sixty two ferns were studied cytologically for the first time in this study area. The present study has revealed the presence of 32 sexual diploids, 20 sexual tetraploids, 2 apogamous tetraploids, 9 sexual octoploids, 2 apogamous triploids and one 12-ploid sexual species. The sexuality of polyploids has also been calculated. The maximum number of chromosomes (n=171) were observed in Adiantum hispidulumwhile a minimum number of chromosomes (n=30) were in Adiantum latifolium, Cheilanthes tenuifoliaand Pellaea boivinii. About the 20 genera were observed to be with more than one base number and remaining 18 genera with a single base number.

Describe the presentation and management of superior limbic keratoconjunctivitis (SLK)-like inflammation and secondary limbal stem cell dysfunction in the setting of ocular chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD).

Purpose:Resuscitation promoting factor (Rpf)-like gene of Mycobacterium aviumsubspecies paratuberculosishas been known to stimulate the growth of mycobacteria and enhances the recovery of replicating cells from non-replicating phases. The objective of the study was to produce recombinant rpf-like protein of M. aviumsubspecies aviumprotein for purification and physico-chemical characterisation. Materials and Methods:The identified rpf gene of M. aviumsubspecies aviumwas cloned, subcloned, sequenced and expressed in Escherichia coliexpression system for the production of the recombinant protein. The expressed recombinant Rpf protein was confirmed by Western blot and the extract was purified to yield a pure recombinant protein. Results:An rpf-like gene of 675 bp size in the M. aviumsubspecies aviumwas identified. This gene was expressed and the recombinant Rpf weighed 65 kDa as confirmed by Western blot. The M. aviumrecombinant Rpf protein was extracted under denatured conditions and purified yielding a recombinant protein with >90% purity. Conclusions:Identification, cloning, sequencing and expression of a rpf-like gene from M. aviumsuggest that RpfA is present in this species also, which might be involved in reactivation phenomenon in this high-risk pathogen.

Background: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is used to provide enteral access in patients who are unable to swallow. Infection of the stoma is an important complication and there is little data from India on this problem, which can be used to inform infection prevention and prophylactic strategies.Aim: The objective was to assess the prevalence and the role of contributory factors in PEG site infections.Methods: A total of 173 patients underwent PEG insertion from January 2011 to May 2012. Clinical and microbiological data were collected for culture-positive cases. Insertion was performed using a standard sterile pull-through technique. Infections were defined as two of: peristomal erythema, induration, and purulent discharge.Results: A total of 54 PEG infections occurred in 43 patients (28.85%). Seventy-seven organisms were isolated. Pseudomonas aeruginosawas the most common (n=29) followed by coliforms (n=21) and meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) (n=6). Thirty-one (72%) received amoxicillin-clavulanic acid as prophylaxis and 12 (28%) were receiving concomitant antibiotics for their underlying conditions. The occurrence of PEG site infections was statistically independent of the administered prophylactic antibiotics (p=0.3).Conclusions: This study has demonstrated the importance of PEG sites as a cause of healthcare associated infections. Educating patients on wound care practices would play a significant role in prevention of PEG site infections.

IMPORTANCE: Retroprosthetic membrane (RPM) formation is the most common complication associated with the Boston type 1 keratoprosthesis and has been associated with corneal melt. OBJECTIVE: To identify the histological and immunohistochemical characteristics of RPMs associated with corneal melt. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Observational histopathological case series at a tertiary eye care referral center among patients who underwent Boston type 1 keratoprosthesis explantation because of donor corneal melt at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary between January 1, 2011, and January 1, 2012. EXPOSURES: Seven RPM specimens from 7 eyes were stained with hematoxylin-eosin, cytokeratin 7, cytokeratin AE1/3, smooth muscle actin, vimentin, and CD34. Light microscopy was used to evaluate specimens for inflammation and epithelial ingrowth. XY-karyotyping using fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed on 4 specimens with known donor-recipient sex mismatch. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Histological and immunohistochemical characteristics of RPMs. RESULTS: Inflammatory cells were present in 4 of 7 RPMs. In 3 of 4 sex-mismatched specimens, tissue XY-karyotyping of the RPM interphase cells was consistent with the host sex karyotype. The fourth specimen showed a mixture of recipient-type and donor-type cells. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Melt-associated RPMs show variable degrees of inflammation. Most membranes seem to originate from a proliferation of host cells, but donor tissue may contribute in some cases.

In this paper, Based on the Pulse swallow topology a low power single phase clock multiband flexible divider is designed for frequency synthesizer.The modified divider has wideband multimodulus 32/33/47/48 and 64/65/79/80 prescalar and improved bit cell for swallow counter, it divide frequencies in three band ranges.

Digital watermarking is a technique developed to help copyright protection of Image, audio & video files. It has been spurred by the growth of the Internet, and the ease of copying. This has led to an unprecedented numbers in copyright infringements. The digital audio & video watermarking is concerned with embedding data in a signal the watermark data can be accurately detected. Watermarking algorithm based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is introduced. The signal is divided into frames and each one is decomposed adaptively by Empirical Mode Decomposition into intrinsic oscillatory components. The data embedding rate of EMD algorithm is 46.9-50.3 b/s; the robustness of hidden watermark is identified using Mp3 compression, additive noise, and quantization, cropping, filtering and resampling.

Visible light-sensitive carbon doped titanium dioxide (C-TiO2) was prepared by grinding anatase TiO2with anhydrous D-glucose solution as carbon source followed by calcination. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), BET surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), FTIR analysis and photoluminescence (PL) techniques. The results confirmed the interstitial incorporation of carbon atoms in the TiO2lattice via OTiC and TiOC surface states. The calculation of valence band (VB) edge position of C-TiO2by using electronegativity values shows cathodic shift with increase in the carbon concentration and this renders high oxidative power for photogenerated holes. The observed new electronic state above the VB edge was responsible for the electronic origin of band gap narrowing and visible light photoactivity of C-TiO2. The carbon atom was also present as carbonaceous species on the surface which acts as sensitizer. The photocatalytic activity of C-TiO2was evaluated for the degradation of 4-chlorophenol under both UV and solar irradiation. The undoped TiO2showed better activity under UV light whereas C-TiO2showed higher photocatalytic activity under visible light. The pretreatment of C-TiO2with UV light reduced the visible light activity due to the removal of surface carbonaceous species. The synergistic effect of surface carbonaceous species along with interstitial carbon is discussed in detail and accounted for visible light activity.

Abstract: Twenty tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) cultivars were screened for resistance against bacterial spot disease incited byXanthomonas axonopodis pv.vesicatoria under field conditions with and without pathogen infection. Screening was done by artificially inoculating aX. axonopodis pv.vesicatoria suspension to 4-week-old tomato seedlings and observing them for typical symptoms of the disease. Seedlings were categorized into highly resistant, resistant, susceptible and highly susceptible cultivars on the basis of disease incidence. Tomato cultivars were screened for defense-related enzymes, total phenols and lignin contents. The temporal patterns of all these enzymes were estimated with a moderately susceptible tomato cultivar. Native PAGE analysis of both peroxidase (POX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was carried out for the time course of enzyme activities and also by selecting three different tomato cultivars, following infection with the pathogen. Based on the inducible amounts of these enzymes upon pathogen infection, the tomato cultivars were correlated with the disease incidence under field conditions. A significant (P≤0.05) correlation was observed between the degree of host resistance and the enzyme levels. In highly resistant tomato cultivars the enzyme levels, total phenols and lignin contents were increased in comparison with highly susceptible tomato cultivars. Isoform analysis of POX and PPO enzymes indicated a clear difference between resistant and susceptible tomato cultivars in the number of isoforms and also in the intensity of each isoform in the presence of pathogen infection. The possible regulation of defense-related enzymes in imparting host resistance is discussed.

A strain of Bacillusproduced an amylase with properties characteristically different from known bacterial amylases. The purified 80 kDa protein of pI 5.1 dextrinized starch, glycogen and pullulan. The temperature and pH optima of the enzyme were 60 °C and 6.6 respectively. In the presence of 0.05 M CaCl2, the enzyme retained stability for 15 min at 80 °C. Antibodies raised to the amylase protein showed no reaction with α-amylases of Bacillussp. and B. licheniformis. In culture, proteolytic degradation of the enzyme was observed.

A 125‐kDa starch hydrolysing enzyme of Aspergillus nigercharacterised by its ability to dextrinise and saccharify starch [Suresh et al. (1999) Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 51, 673–675] was also found to possess activity towards raw starch. Segregation of these activities in the 71‐kDa glucoamylase and a 53‐kDa α‐amylase‐like enzyme supported by antibody cross‐reactivity studies and the isolation of mutants based on assay screens for the secretion of particular enzyme forms revealed the 125‐kDa starch hydrolysing enzyme as their precursor. N‐terminal sequence analysis further revealed that the 71‐kDa glucoamylase was the N‐terminal product of the precursor enzyme. Immunological cross reactivity of the 53‐kDa amylase with antibodies raised against the precursor enzyme but not with the 71‐ and 61‐kDa glucoamylase antibodies suggested that this enzyme activity is represented by the C‐terminal fragment of the precursor. The N‐terminal sequence of the 53‐kDa protein showed similarity to the reported Taka amylase of Aspergillus oryzae. Antibody cross‐reactivity to a 10‐kDa non‐enzymic peptide and a 61‐kDa glucoamylase described these proteins as products of the 71‐kDa glucoamylase. Identification of only the precursor starch hydrolysing enzyme in the protein extracts of fungal protoplasts suggested proteolytic processing in the cellular periplasmic space as the cause for the secretion of multiple forms of amylases by A. niger.

Low pectinase production by Aspergillus carbonarius growing on wheat bran solid substrate was found to be due to reduced colonizational ability of the fungus. Since A. niger showed higher growth rates on wheat bran, strain improvement to obtain higher pectinase production in solid state was carried out by inter-specific fusion of protoplasts of A. carbonarius and A. niger. One of the mutants selected for higher activities of α-glucosidase showed improved growth rates on wheat bran solid substrate together with increased pectinase production. Size similarities of amplified polymorphic DNA of the mutant with the two parents and identification of a 66 kDa polygalacturonase specific to A. niger suggested genetic recombination in the mutant. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 67: 121–125, 2000.

Of the 2 species of Chromobacterium, Chromobacterium violaceumhas been rarely implicated in human disease. It is a bacterium of low virulence causing occasional localized infection and sepsis. We report a case of C. violaceuminfection of pancreatic pseudocyst. The patient was treated by cystojejunostomy with Roux-en-Y jejunal loop and antimicrobial therapy with ciprofloxacin and amikacin. As sepsis due to this organism is associated with high mortality, empiric therapy with fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides is recommended, along with proper surgical management.

ABSTRACTCoryneform bacteria belonging to the genus Brevibacteriumhave emerged as opportunistic pathogens. Of the nine known species of Brevibacteriumisolated from human clinical samples, Brevibacterium caseiis the most frequently reported species from clinical specimens. We report the first case of B. caseibrain abscess in an immunocompetent patient successfully treated by surgery and antimicrobial therapy.

Coryneform bacteria belonging to the genus Brevibacterium have emerged as opportunistic pathogens. Of the nine known species of Brevibacterium isolated from human clinical samples, Brevibacterium casei is the most frequently reported species from clinical specimens. We report the first case of B. casei brain abscess in an immunocompetent patient successfully treated by surgery and antimicrobial therapy.

A 35-year-old man presented with a gradually worsening left-sided loin pain and high-grade fever 10 days in duration. He gave a history of left flank injury due to a road traffic accident 4 months previously, accompanied by pain and transient mild hematuria that was managed conservatively without further evaluation. Computed tomographic scan revealed undisplaced fracture of the left 10th rib with a large perinephric hematoma/abscess causing significant compression and displacement of the left kidney. The collection was evacuated by open drainage, and its culture yielded a hydrogen sulfide (H2S)-producing variant of Salmonella paratyphi Aresistant to nalidixic acid. Blood and urine cultures were sterile. Drainage with culture-specific antibiotics (ceftriaxone followed by cefixime) was curative. Primary perinephric abscess due to S. paratyphi Awithout any evidence of systemic involvement is rare and classically S. paratyphi Ais H2S-negative. We hereby report a case of H2S-positive S. paratyphi Acausing primary perinephric abscess of posttraumatic hematoma.

Surface modified CdS based nanomaterials for photocatalytic applications.

Estimates of nonstarchy polysaccharide (NSP) contents and compositions are reported for flours from three sorghum cultivars varying in hardness at four developmental stages. Samples were collected at 21, 28, 35, and 42 days after anthesis (DAA),. The total NSP content in flour appeared to increase slightly from 21 to 35 DAA and then level off or decrease slightly for all three cultivars. Gas liquid chromatography analysis of the water-insoluble NSP fraction revealed that the pentose content decreased and hexose content increased as the grain matured. The soft and intermediate cultivars contained higher contents of NSP than did the hard cultivar at all the four stages of development studied. Also, the pentose content was higher than the hexose content in the water-insoluble NSP fraction of soft sorghum endosperm when compared to the hard sorghum endosperm.

Monomicrobial nonneutrocytic bacterascites and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), the variants of ascitic fluid infection, are commonly seen in association with liver cirrhosis. Monomicrobial nonneutrocytic bacterascites may progress rapidly to SBP resulting in increased morbidity and mortality in advanced liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension. The most common pathogens associated with both conditions are gram-negative bacilli like Escherichia coliand Klebsiella pneumoniaefollowed by gram-positive bacteria. We present a case of monomicrobial nonneutrocytic bacterascites in a chronic alcoholic patient with advanced liver cirrhosis, due to an unusual pathogen, Achromobacter xylosoxidans. This case is remarkable as A xylosoxidansis not associated with SBP until now as per available literature.

ABSTRACTReports of oxacillin-susceptible mecA-positive Staphylococcus aureusstrains are on the rise. Because of their susceptibility to oxacillin and cefoxitin, it is very difficult to detect them by using routine phenotypic methods. We describe two such isolates that were detected by chromogenic medium and confirmed by characterization of the mecAgene element.