Sciatic Nerve to Pudendal Nerve Transfer: Anatomical Feasibility for a New Proposed Technique.

Aim Restoration of bladder and bowel continence after pudendal nerve anastomosis has been shown successfully in animal models and may be applicable in humans. Aim of this cadaveric study was to assess feasibility of pudendal nerve neurotization using motor fascicles from sciatic nerve. Methods Pudendal and sciatic nerves were exposed via gluteal approach in 5 human cadavers (10 sites). Size of pudendal and sciatic nerves and the distance between two nerves was measured. Results There were four male and one female cadavers. Mean age was 62 (range, 50-70) years. Mean pudendal nerve diameter was 2.94 mm (right side) and 2.82 mm (left side). Mean sciatic nerve diameter was 11.2 mm (right side) and 14.2 mm (left side). The distance between two nerves was 23.4 mm on both sides. Conclusion Transfer of the motor fascicles from sciatic nerve to pudendal nerve to restore the bladder and bowel continence is feasible.

Production of inulinase from Kluyveromyces marxianus using Dahlia tuber extract

Various carbon sources were evaluated for production of inulinase by yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus MTCC 3995. Highest inulinase activity was observed with Dahlia extract (25.3 nkat mL-1) as carbon source. The enzyme activity was 1.4 folds higher than that observed in media containing pure chicory inulin (17.8 nkat mL-1). The yeast showed good growth on a simple medium containing dahlia extract (20% w/v) and yeast extract (2%w/v) as carbon and nitrogen source respectively, in 96 h. at 28°C and 120 rpm. Lowest inulinase yield (4.8 nkat mL-1) was seen in the medium containing glucose as C-source. Although varied inulinase levels were noticed on different C- sources, Inulinase: Sucrase (I/S) ratios were noticed to be similar. Among various protein sources tested, yeast extract was found to be the best source followed by beef extract (17.9 nkat mL-1) and peptone (13.8 nkat mL-1). The enzyme was optimally active at pH (4.0) and 50°C. TLC analysis of end product revealed that inulinase hydrolyzed inulin exclusively into fructose. Results suggest that the dahlia extract induced exoinulinase synthesis in Kluyveromyces marxianus and can be utilized as a potential substrate for inulinase production.

Production of inulinase from Kluyveromyces marxianus using dahlia tuber extract.

Various carbon sources were evaluated for production of inulinase by yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus MTCC 3995. Highest inulinase activity was observed with Dahlia extract (25.3 nkat mL(-1)) as carbon source. The enzyme activity was 1.4 folds higher than that observed in media containing pure chicory inulin (17.8 nkat mL(-1)). The yeast showed good growth on a simple medium containing dahlia extract (20% w/v) and yeast extract (2%w/v) as carbon and nitrogen source respectively, in 96 h. at 28°C and 120 rpm. Lowest inulinase yield (4.8 nkat mL(-1)) was seen in the medium containing glucose as C-source. Although varied inulinase levels were noticed on different C- sources, Inulinase: Sucrase (I/S) ratios were noticed to be similar. Among various protein sources tested, yeast extract was found to be the best source followed by beef extract (17.9 nkat mL(-1)) and peptone (13.8 nkat mL(-1)). The enzyme was optimally active at pH (4.0) and 50°C. TLC analysis of end product revealed that inulinase hydrolyzed inulin exclusively into fructose. Results suggest that the dahlia extract induced exoinulinase synthesis in Kluyveromyces marxianus and can be utilized as a potential substrate for inulinase production.

Production and partial characterization of collagenase of Streptomyces exfoliatus CFS 1068 using poultry feather.

Streptomyces exfoliatus CFS 1068, an isolate of cultivated field soil, produced maximum collagenase activity (58.19 +/- 0.83 U ml-1 min-1) in 5 days when soybean meal and starch were used as nitrogen and carbon sources, respectively at pH 7 and 30 degrees C in shake cultures (150 rpm). Production of collagenase was higher (40.43 +/- 0.63 U ml(-1) min(-1)) when poultry feathers were used as nitrogen source. Thus, the strain was found to be of biotechnological importance. The purified enzyme showed 30.34 fold increase in collagenase activity and was stable at 70 degrees C for 1h. The enzyme was found to be of serine type.

Feather degradation by strains of Bacillus isolated from decomposing feathers

Feather waste is generated in large amounts as a by-product of commercial poultry processing. This residue is almost pure keratin, which is not easily degradable by common proteolytic enzymes. Eight strains of Bacillus, isolated from decomposing feathers were tested for the hydrolysis of feather wastes in the laboratory. Among these strains, Bacillus cereus KB043 was the best feather degrading organism when grown on basal medium containing 1 percent hen feather as sole source of carbon and nitrogen. It caused 78.16 ± 0.4 percent degradation with a significant release of soluble protein (1206.15 ± 14.7 µg mL-1) and cysteine (20.63 ± 0.4 µg mL-1) in the cultivation fluid. The strain also showed the highest level of keratinase activity (39.10 ± 0.4 U mL-1). These data indicates that the Bacillus cereus KB043 could be useful in management of poultry wastes.

Feather degradation by strains of Bacillus isolated from decomposing feathers.

Feather waste is generated in large amounts as a by-product of commercial poultry processing. This residue is almost pure keratin, which is not easily degradable by common proteolytic enzymes. Eight strains of Bacillus, isolated from decomposing feathers were tested for the hydrolysis of feather wastes in the laboratory. Among these strains, Bacillus cereus KB043 was the best feather degrading organism when grown on basal medium containing 1% hen feather as sole source of carbon and nitrogen. It caused 78.16 ± 0.4 % degradation with a significant release of soluble protein (1206.15 ± 14.7 µg mL(-1)) and cysteine (20.63 ± 0.4 µg mL(-1)) in the cultivation fluid. The strain also showed the highest level of keratinase activity (39.10 ± 0.4 U mL(-1)). These data indicates that the Bacillus cereus KB043 could be useful in management of poultry wastes.

Production of feather hydrolysate by Elizabethkingia meningoseptica KB042 (MTCC 8360) in submerged fermentation.

A keratinolytic bacterium Elizabethkingia meningoseptica KB042 was isolated from dropped off feathers. The bacterium showed 82.50 ± 0.3% feather degradation when grown on medium containing 10 g/l chicken feathers with initial pH 7.0 at 37°C, 150 rpm in 6 days. The pH of the medium was increased up to 10.02 ± 0.10 during 6 days of incubation. Soluble protein and amino acids concentration in the culture fluid was also found increased until the end of incubation. During the cultivation of strain KB042 on feather as sole source of carbon and nitrogen, the maximum cysteine release was noted on the 3rd day. Varying feather concentration 1.0-2.0% in basal medium resulted in soluble protein release between 1814.42 and 1954.61 µg/ml. The amino acid concentration was found to be maximum, i.e. 937.85 ± 11.9 µg/ml in the cultures grown with 2% feather. The hydrolysate was also found rich in essential amino acids valine, tryptophan, threonine, leucine and cysteine and contains minor amount of methionine and arginine. These data indicate a potential biotechnology for biotransformation and utilization of feather keratin as a source of protein which can be used as animal feed after successful animal trials.

Combined off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and thyroidectomy.

A 70-year-old Indian woman presented with an acute anterior wall myocardial infarction and a large multinodular goiter causing tracheal compression and dyspnea. Coronary artery angiography revealed severe triple-vessel disease, with an 80% occlusion of the left main stem, necessitating early coronary artery bypass grafting combined with total thyroidectomy. The procedure was performed successfully. At the 1-year follow-up, the patient remains euthyroid and in New York Heart Association functional class I. This case provides further evidence that combined coronary artery bypass grafting and total thyroidectomy is both feasible and safe.

Geo-spatial analysis of land-water resource degradation in two economically contrasting agricultural regions adjoining national capital territory (Delhi).

The present study was aimed at characterizing the soil-water resource degradation in the rural areas of Gurgaon and Mewat districts, the two economically contrasting areas in policy zones-II and III of the National Capital Region (NCR), and assessing the impact of the study area's local conditions on the type and extent of resource degradation. This involved generation of detailed spatial information on the land use, cropping pattern, farming practices, soils and surface/ground waters of Gurgaon and Mewat districts through actual resource surveys, standard laboratory methods and GIS/remote sensing techniques. The study showed that in contrast to just 2.54% (in rabi season) to 4.87% (in kharif season) of agricultural lands in Gurgaon district, about 11.77% (in rabi season) to 24.23% (in kharif season) of agricultural lands in Mewat district were irrigated with saline to marginally saline canal water. Further, about 10.69% of agricultural lands in the Gurgaon district and 42.15% of agricultural lands in the Mewat district were drain water irrigated. A large part of this surface water irrigated area, particularly in Nuh (48.7%), Nagina (33.5%), and Punhana (24.1%) blocks of Mewat district, was either waterlogged (7.4% area with 0.05 ppm). In fact, sub-surface drinking waters of some areas around battery and automobile manufacturing units in Gurgaon and Pataudi blocks were associated with exceptionally high (>0.1 ppm) Ni concentrations. In general, the ground waters of waterlogged or potentially waterlogged areas in the rural areas of Mewat were more contaminated than the ground waters in the rural areas of Gurgaon district with deeper (>5 m) water depths.Though Cr concentrations in the surface and sub-surface irrigation waters of both Gurgaon and Mewat districts were far above the maximum permissible limit of 1 ppm, their bio-available soil-Cr concentrations were well within permissible limit. Even bio-available Ni concentrations in agricultural lands of Gurgaon district associated with Ni contaminated sub-surface irrigations were well within desirable limit of 0.20 ppm. This was primarily attributed to the calcareous nature of the soils of the study area. About 35% of Gurgaon district and 59% of Mewat district irrigated with poor quality waters were salt-affected. These waterlogged/potentially waterlogged calcareous-salt affected soils of Mewat district were having acute zinc (Zn) deficiency (<0.6 ppm). Some areas with extremely high iron (Fe: 20-25 ppm) and Mn (10-25 ppm) concentrations were also noticed in the Gurgaon, Nuh and Punhana blocks. Generation of reduced conditions owing to paddy cultivation in areas with 3-3.5 m water depths appeared to be the main cause of such point contaminations. Extensive cadmium (Cd) contamination was also noticed in the waterlogged sodic agricultural lands of Nagina village in Mewat district associated with a large scale scrap automobile and battery business. The study could document the processes and provide spatially accurate information to the managers (e.g., National Capital Region Planning Board) and the concerned citizen groups. It could, in fact, clearly point out that dumping of industrial and domestic wastewaters especially from NCT-Delhi into river Yamuna and, to some extent, from NCT-Delhi re-located hazardous industrial units into Najafgarh drain tributaries at Delhi-Gurgaon boundary, and poor "off-farm" water management practices were the main reasons for extensive (point/non-point source) land-water degradation in Gurgaon and Mewat districts of NCR.

Isolation, characterization and antifungal activity of Streptomyces sampsonii GS 1322.

For new antifungal antibiotics from actinomycetes, a strain of Streptomyces GS 1322 was isolated from a sample of garden soil. The strain was found to possess antagonistic activity against four fungi i.e., Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton sp. The strain was identified as Streptomyces sampsonii and the antifungal compound produced by it was found to be the heptaene group of polyene antibiotics.

Studies on controlled potential coulometric determination of gallium in sodium perchlorate and sodium thiocyanate.

Controlled potential coulometric (CPC) studies were carried out for developing a method to determine gallium at milligram levels, in the mixed supporting electrolyte medium (4M NaClO(4)+0.5M NaSCN), employing stirring mercury as a working electrode. Investigations for optimization of working electrode potentials, quantity of charge, level of background current and electrolysis time for achieving quantitative reduction of Ga(III) to Ga and its oxidation back to Ga(III), were undertaken. Effect of gallium content and interference of zinc in of gallium determination were also studied. The developed methodology was employed for the determination of gallium in pure Ga as well as in synthetic U+Ga mixture solutions. Accuracy and precision values of better than 0.5% were obtained at 1-2mg levels.

Cortical activation during finger tapping in thyroid dysfunction: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Thyroid dysfunction is associated with attention deficit and impairment of the motor system (muscle weakness and fatigue). This paper investigates possible motor function deficit in thyroid patients,compared to the controls. Functional MRI studies (fMRI)were carried out in five hypo and five hyperthyroid patients and six healthy volunteers. Whole brain imaging was performed using echo planar imaging (EPI)technique, on a 1.5T whole body MR system (Siemens Magnetom Vision). The task paradigm consisted of 8 cycles of active and reference phases of 6 measurements each, with right index finger tapping at a rate of 120 taps/min. Post-processing was performed using statistical parametric mapping on a voxel-by-voxel basis using SPM99. Clusters of activation were found in the contralateral hemisphere in primary somatomotor area (M1), supplementary motor area (SMA), somatosensory,auditory receptive and integration areas, inferior temporal lobe, thalamus and cerebellum. Increased clusters of activation were observed in M1 in thyroid subjects as compared to controls and with bilateral activation of the primary motor cortex in two hyperthyroid patients. The results are explained in terms of increased functional demands in thyroid patients compared to volunteers for the execution of the same task.

Production of heptaene antifungal antibiotic by Streptomyces purpeofuscus CM 1261.

A strain of Streptomyces purpeofuscus CM 1261 isolated from a sample of compost collected locally was found to possess strong antagonistic activity against 4 human pathogenic fungi i.e., Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton sp. The active antifungal compound produced by it was found to be a heptaene group of polyene antifungal antibiotic.

Phase diagram studies in two-surfactant ternary systems employing positron annihilation spectroscopy.

Positron annihilation lifetime parameters in condensed media are sensitive to structural and conformational changes. This property has been exploited to study the phase diagrams of two ternary cationic surfactant systems. Positron lifetime measurements were performed in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/water/hexanol and tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB)/water/pentanol systems having varying concentrations of hexanol and pentanol respectively. For both the systems, changes were observed in the positron lifetime parameters whenever a phase transformation occurred. The various phase boundaries demarcated by this technique agrees well with those obtained by other conventional techniques. Besides this, the present work suggests the existence of two kinds of lamellar structures referred to as DI and DII phases in both the systems, which were otherwise considered to be a single D phase by other conventional techniques. The existence of such lamellar structures has been demonstrated by a change in the trend of o-Ps lifetime when the system passes from one type of lamellar structure to the other type. The results of these investigations are presented.

Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis on face caused by Cladophialophora bantiana.

We report the case of a patient suffering from subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis caused by Cladophialophora bantiana. The face of the upper site was involved with small, stellate, pyogranulomatous foci and low inflammation. The patient was treated by topical and systemic corticosteriod and amphotericin B. After 3 months of treatment, the patient showed good response.

Antifungal activity of some actinomycetes isolated from various habitats.

A total of 287 actinomycetes were isolated from 79 samples collected from five different habitats i.e., cultivated field soil (CFS), garden soil (GS), compost (CM), decaying organic matter (DOM) and stored agricultural products (SAP) of different localities of Sagar, Madhya Pradesh (23 degrees 50 degrees N latitude and 78 degrees 40 degrees E longitude). These were screened for antagonistic activity against Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Microsporum gypseun and Trichophyton sp. using 'Cross streak method'. Out of these, a total of 166 isolates were found antagonistic to Candida albicans, while 164, 134 and 132 actinomycetes showed antagonistic properties against A. niger, M. gypseum and Trichophyton sp., repectively. A total of 17 isolates showed very strong anticandidal activity causing total inhibition in the growth of C. albicans and hence, distribution of isolated test actinomycetes in different habitats and the cultural and antagonistic properties of selected 17 promising strains are reported here.

Production of industrially important enzymes by some actinomycetes producing antifungal compounds.

Seventeen strains of actinomycetes antagonistic to yeast and moulds have been tested for their ability to produce amylase, lipase, gelatinase and caseinase using solid media containing starch, Tween-20, gelatin and skimmed milk, respectively, Enzyme producing potential of test strains is expressed in ternis of relative enzyme activity (REA). Actinomycetes strain Streptomyces somaliensis GS 1242 and Streptomyces sampsonii GS 1322 showed higher amylase production (REA 6.5) while maximum lipase activity was noted in Streptomyces strain SAP 1089 (REA 7.0). Gelatinase activity was noted higher is S. sampsonii GS 1322 (REA 9.6) and S. somaliensis GS 1242 (REA 8.8). Enzyme producing potential of these strains has been discussed in terms of their industrial significance.

In vitro evaluation of sulfadrugs against fungi causing otomycosis.

The efficacy of four sulfadrugs i.e., sulfadiazine, sulfamethoxazole, sulfaguanidine and sulfamoxole were taken in different doses (500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 ppm) to test their effectiveness against five pathogenic organisms for the control of mycelial growth and sporulation. Amongst the drugs tested sulfamethoxazole seems to be most effective against most of the test fungi showing 96.78, 90.53, 86.62, 54.16 and 43.91 percent inhibition in mycelial growth of P. nigricans, A. flavus, A. corymbifera, A. niger and C. albicans, respectively at its 2500 ppm dose in the basal medium. Gradual reduction in sporulation in all the test organisms almost in all the sulfadrugs have caused inhibition in sporulation, in comparison to their respective controls. Maximum inhibitory effect of sulfadiazine was recorded in A. niger showing 77.26 percent inhibition in the mycelial growth at a dose of 2500 ppm. Sulfaguanidine at its higher dose i.e., 2500 ppm proved to be most toxic against A. corymbifera causing 56.39 percent inhibition in the mycelial growth, while the same dose could not be found much effective against other test fungi. Sulfamoxole was found to be quite effective against most of the test fungi causing 47.16 to 85.86 percent inhibition in the mycelial growth. A gradual inhibition in the vegetative growth and sporulation or budding in all the test fungi was noted by increasing the concentrations of the test sulfadrugs.

Evidence for droplet reorientation and interfacial charges in a polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal cell.

We observe a new feature ( plateau), sandwiched between two exponentially decaying components, in the switching response of a polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal (PDLC) cell. Upon application of square-wave electrical pulses, the cell response exhibits a complex decay whose characteristics are significantly different within and outside the applied field. We interpret these results in terms of reorientation dynamics of nonspherical droplets in the PDLC. Irradiation of the PDLC with gamma rays induces significant changes in the cell response in a manner that is consistent with redistribution of charges at the liquid-crystal-polymer interface in the PDLC.