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2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BDO) has varied applications in chemical, pharmaceutical, & food industry. Microorganisms belonging to Klebsiella, Enterobacter & Serratia genera are well-known producers of 2,3-BDO. However, they have limited usage in industrial-scale owing to their pathogenic nature. A nonpathogenic soil isolate identified as Bacillus licheniformis (BL1) was thus investigated for 2,3-BDO production. Soy flakes, soy flour, defatted soy, and soybean meal-based hydrolysates replaced yeast extract and peptone as nitrogen sources. Defatted soy flakes and soybean meal hydrolysate led to an equivalent 2,3-BDO yield and productivity as compared to that of Yeast Extract and peptone. The pH and oxygen variation influenced the proportion of various products of the mixed acid-butanediol pathway. Further, the batch mode fermentation with soy hydrolysate and optimized process parameter resulted in 2,3-BDO titer, yield and productivity of 11.06 g/L, 0.43 g/g and 0.48 g/L h respectively. Glucose concentration above 5% was inhibitory and led to reduction in the specific growth rate of BL1 in batch cultivation. Intermittent glucose feeding in fed-batch mode overcame this substrate limitation resulting in increased titers (49.8 g/L) and productivity (0.62 g/L h). Modified medium containing soy hydrolysate as nitrogen source with fermentation process optimization resulted in 67% decrease in medium cost for 2,3-BDO production.

PURPOSE To determine macular thickness and its variation with age and sex in healthy Indian eyes using Zeiss spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). DESIGN A prospective, cross-sectional study. METHODS Four hundred healthy adult subjects (≥18 years) underwent macular cube scanning using Zeiss SD-OCT. Macular thickness from all 9 regions of the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study map was documented for each subject. Variations in macular thickness by age and sex were determined. RESULTS The mean age of the subjects was 38.05 ± 12.13 (range, 18-78) years. The mean ages in men and women were 39.19 ± 12.16 and 37.13 ± 12.05 years, respectively (P > 0.05). The mean central subfield thickness (CST) of all subjects was 240.40 ± 18.26 μm, and mean macular thickness was 287.87 ± 18.07 μm. The mean CST in the right and left eyes were 240.40 ± 18.25 μm and 239.65 ± 17.73 μm, respectively (P = 0.55). Males were associated with greater mean CST and mean macular thickness compared with females (P < 0.05). There was an association of mean CST with sex (adjusted r = 0.095; P < 0.05) but not with age. Overall, the nasal quadrant was the thickest followed by the superior, inferior, and temporal subfields. CONCLUSIONS This is the normative data for macular thickness in healthy Indian eyes using Zeiss SD-OCT. This will serve as a baseline for diagnosing and treating macular pathologies in Indian eyes because such data using Zeiss SD-OCT in Indian eyes have previously been lacking.

Azadirachtin is considered as the best pesticide among the biopesticides available in market for crop protection due to its broad spectrum activity and varying mode of action. To meet the increasing demand and primarily due to geographical and variability limitations, its biotechnological production from plant cell culture has gained momentum in last two decades. The major requirement for economic production is to increase the yield as well as the productivity of Azadirachtin production in the bioreactor. In general, different strategies used in the plant cell culture result in either yield or productivity enhancement. The simultaneous increase of both the parameters has remained a challenging task, particularly in plant cell cultivations. In this work, an integrated approach has been adopted by combining the various yield as well as productivity enhancement strategies, i.e. coupling the mathematical model–derived nutrient-feeding strategy for continuous cultivation with elicitation, precursor addition, and permeabilization, etc. With this integrated approach, a yield of 0.0122 g/g and a productivity of 7.25 × 10−4 g/l/h Azadirachtin were obtained, which is so far highest in plant cell suspension culture of Azadirachta indica to the best of our knowledge. Copyright © 2010 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Successful scale-up of Azadirachta indica suspension culture for azadirachtin production was done in stirred tank bioreactor with two different impellers. The kinetics of biomass accumulation, nutrient consumption and azadirachtin production of A. indica cell suspension culture were studied in a stirred tank bioreactor equipped with centrifugal impeller and compared with similar bioreactor with a setric impeller to investigate the role of O 2 transfer efficiency of centrifugal impeller bioreactor on overall culture metabolism. The maximum cell mass for centrifugal impeller bioreactor and stirred tank bioreactor (with setric impeller) were 18.7 and 15.5 g/L (by dry cell weight) and corresponding azadirachtin concentrations were 0.071 and 0.05 g/L, respectively. Glucose and phosphate were identified as the major growth-limiting nutrients during the bioreactor cultivation. The centrifugal impeller bioreactor demonstrated less shearing and improved O 2 transfer than the stirred tank bioreactor equipped with setric impeller with respect to biomass and azadirachtin production.

Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is an incompletely understood multifactorial disease of those who are middle aged characterized by the collection of fluid between the retinal pigment epithelium and the neurosensory retina. The exact etiology of CSCR and the reason of its predominance in middle-aged males are still unknown. Many pharmacologic modalities are suggested for CSCR with no proven efficacy. So this article was written to give a review of the relevant and recent literature on CSCR and to summarize the etiology, clinical features, and diagnostic modalities for CSCR with special emphasis on the treatment options available and those that are still under trial and can be of help in the future to fasten the recovery and reduce the recurrences.

Case report: We document a previously unreported association of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome with intracranial meningioma. A female patient with diminished vision, exudative retinal detachment, and headache was diagnosed with VKH syndrome, more precisely a Harada form of disease with intracranial meningioma, on the basis of exudative retinal detachment, typical fundus fluorescein findings, and magnetic resonance imaging. With intravenous steroid therapy, visual acuity improved and the detachment settled within a week. At 3 months, the detachment recurred but improved after retreatment. At I year, the tumour was unchanged in size. Comments: VKH syndrome may be associated with intracranial meningioma that may affect the patient's overall morbidity or mortality.

Purpose To investigate and report the reliability of detection and grading of diabetic retinopathy by direct ophthalmoscopy through a dilated pupil by general physicians (non-ophthalmologists) and optometrists who have undergone a short period of training. Methods A total of 400 eyes of 200 diabetes patients were examined by two non-ophthalmologists. Their observations were compared with an ophthalmologist's diagnoses for the same patients. Results The diagnoses made by the general physician (kappa = 0.8381, SE = 0.041) and the optometrist (kappa = 0.7186, SE = 0.051) showed good rates of agreement with the ophthalmologist's diagnoses. Conclusions The provision of appropriate screening protocols and follow-up parameters can enable primary care physicians and support personnel to reliably screen individuals for retinopathy in diabetes. This will reduce the workload of tertiary hospitals, and provide optimal services to the huge majority of the Indian population that has limited access to eye care services.

With increasing awareness towards environment-friendly and non-toxic pesticide azadirachtin obtained from neem tree (Azadirachta indica) is gaining more and more importance. Its broad-spectrum activity, peculiar mode of action. eco-friendly and non-toxic action towards beneficial organisms has offered many advantages over chemical pesticides. All currently use commercial formulations based on azadirachtin contains azadirachtin extracted from seeds of naturally grown whole plants which is labour intensive process depending upon many uncontrollable geographical and climatic factors. Plant tissue culture can be a potential process for the production, offering consistent, stable and controlled supply of this bioactive compound, However the research on tissue culture aspects of production are in preliminary stage and requires culture and process optimization for the development of a commercially viable process. This review states the present status and future challenges of plant tissue culture for azadirachtin production.

Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) is characterized by serous retinal detachment at the posterior pole. Several factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis, and endogenous or exogenous corticosteroids are thought to play a major role. Here we present a case of a 35-year-old male with complaints of a dark circle in front of his right eye. Fundus examination, optical coherence tomography and fundus fluorescein angiography were performed. The patient was diagnosed with CSC. CSC resolved completely within seven weeks. Four weeks later the CSC recurred and spontaneously resolved over eight weeks. Overall, the patient had three additional recurrences of CSC in the same eye over the next year. A detailed history taking revealed the patient was using 0.1% dexamethasone eye drops nasally for recurrent rhinitis for few days prior to each episode of CSC. This indicates the strong correlation between steroids given by any route and the pathogenesis of CSC.

A two and half year old female was admitted at the emergency room suffering from gradually worsening headache followed by nausea. The child presented with reduced level of consciousness and bilateral hypoacusis. The patient was lethargic. Ophthalmic examination showed branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO). This finding was crucial to the diagnosis of Susac's syndrome (SS), a rare autoimmune disease characterized by, endotheliopathy of retina, encephalic tissues and cochlea. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain also showed typical features. Thorough blood investigations did not reveal any other abnormality. Patient was treated with immunosuppressive to prevent her from developing severe sequelae of this disease. The child showed dramatic improvement in her systemic condition within 48 h of starting the treatment. This is the youngest ever and first case report from India.

The seeds of Azadirachta indica contain azadirachtin and other limonoids, which can be used as a biopesticide for crop protection. Significant variability and availability of seed only in arid zones has triggered biotechnological production of biopesticides to cope up with its huge requirement. Batch cultivation of A. indica suspension culture was carried out in statistically optimized media (25.0 g/l glucose, 5.7 g/l nitrate, 0.094 g/l phosphate and 5 g/l inoculum) in 3 l stirred tank bioreactor. This resulted in 15.5 g/l biomass and 0.05 g/l azadirachtin production in 10 days leading to productivity of 5 mg l(-1) day(-1). Possible inhibition by the limiting substrates (C, N, P) were also studied and maximum inhibitory concentrations identified. The batch kinetic/inhibitory data were then used to develop and identify an unstructured mathematical model. The batch model was extrapolated to simulate continuous cultivation with and without cell retention in the bioreactor. Several offline computer simulations were done to identify right nutrient feeding strategies (with respect to key limiting substrates; carbon, nitrate and phosphate) to maintain non-limiting and non-inhibitory substrate concentrations in bioreactor. One such continuous culture (with cell retention) simulation was experimentally implemented. In this cultivation, the cells were propagated batch-wise for 8 days. It was then converted to continuous cultivation by feeding MS salts with glucose (75 g/l), nitrate (10 g/l), and phosphate (0.5 g/l) at a feed rate of 500 ml/day and withdrawing the spent medium at the same rate. The above continuous cultivation (with cell retention) demonstrated an improvement in cell growth to 95.8 g/l and intracellular accumulation of 0.38 g/l azadirachtin in 40 days leading to an overall productivity of 9.5 mg l(-1) day(-1).

We describe a previously unreported co-existence of retinitis pigmentosa and congenital toxoplasmosis. An eight year old male presented to our center with complaints of decreased night vision. Fundus evaluations in both the eyes demonstrated features typical of retinitis pigmentosa. There were well-defined punched out healed chorio-retinal scars suggestive of congenital toxoplasmosis. On the basis of history, clinical findings and reduction of a and b wave amplitudes on scotopic and photopic electroretinograph, a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa with congenital toxoplasmosis was made. Retinitis pigmentosa may co-exist with congenital toxoplasmosis that may affect the patient's overall ocular morbidity and visual acuity.

Ultrasound biomicroscopy has become a valuable adjunct in the evaluation of occult ocular foreign bodies. An unusual cause for non-detection of a metallic retained intraocular foreign body is described. In this case, the usual 'shadowing' was not discernible as the foreign body was lying just over the optic disc.