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Hypertension is a major contributor to global morbidity and mortality. In South Africa, the government has employed a whole systems approach to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. We used a novel incident care cascade approach to measure changes in the South African health system's ability to manage hypertension between 2011 and 2017. We used data from Waves 1-5 of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) to estimate trends in the hypertension care cascade and unmet treatment need across four successive cohorts with incident hypertension. We used a negative binomial regression to identify factors that may predict higher rates of hypertension control, controlling for socio-demographic and healthcare factors. In 2011, 19.6% (95%CI 14.2, 26.2) of individuals with incident hypertension were diagnosed, 15.4% (95%CI 10.8, 21.4) were on treatment and 7.1% had controlled blood pressure. By 2017, the proportion of individuals with diagnosed incident hypertension had increased to 24.4% (95%CI 15.9, 35.4). Increases in treatment (23.3%, 95%CI 15.0, 34.3) and control (22.1%, 95%CI 14.1, 33.0) were also observed, translating to a decrease in unmet need for hypertension care from 92.9% in 2011 to 77.9% in 2017. Multivariable regression showed that participants with incident hypertension in 2017 were 3.01 (95%CI 1.77, 5.13) times more likely to have a controlled blood pressure compared to those in 2011. Our data show that while substantial improvements in the hypertension care cascade occurred between 2011 and 2017, a large burden of unmet need remains. The greatest losses in the incident hypertension care cascades came before diagnosis. Nevertheless, whole system programming will be needed to sufficiently address significant morbidity and mortality related to having an elevated blood pressure., Competing Interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests:Dr Stokes reported receiving grants from Swiss Re and Johnson & Johnson outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported., (Copyright: © 2023 Benade et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Flexible endoscopic therapy of Zenker's diverticulum using submucosal tunneling (Z-POEM) similar to esophageal Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) is becoming increasingly common. However, data comparing Z-POEM with traditional flexible endoscopic septotomy (FES) are sparse. The aim of this study was to compare outcomes of Z-POEM with traditional FES over a medium-term follow-up period., Methods: This was a prospective study of patients who underwent Z-POEM for treatment of Zenker's diverticulum between 2018 and 2020 at a tertiary academic medical center compared to prior patients who had FES (between 2015 and 2018). Procedural characteristics and clinical outcomes (technical and clinical success, and adverse events) were compared between patients who underwent each treatment., Results: A total of 28 patients underwent ZD therapy during the study period. 13 patients (mean age 70 years; 77% male) underwent Z-POEM and 15 patients (mean age 72 years; 73% male) underwent traditional FES. The mean Zenker's diverticulum size was 2.4 ± 0.6 cm in the ZPOEM group vs 2.5 ± 0.8 cm in the FES group. The mean procedure time was similar between groups: 43.9 min (range 26-66) in the Z-POEM group and 60.2 min (range 25-92) in the traditional FES group (t = 1.74 p = 0.19). Overall technical success was seen in 100% of patients. There was one adverse event in the FES group (dehydration resulting in near-syncope) (1/28, 3.6%). Overall clinical success was seen in 92.8% (26/28) of patients and was not significantly different between groups (Z-POEM; 13/13, 100% vs FES; 13/15, 86.7%, t = - 1.36 p = 0.18)., Conclusion: This prospective study suggests that ZPOEM is an effective technique for the treatment of Zenker's diverticulum with no significant differences in clinical outcomes or adverse event rates when compared to traditional FES., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Histological assessment of smooth muscle is a critical step particularly in staging malignant tumors in various internal organs including  the urinary bladder. Nonetheless, manual segmentation and classification of muscular tissues by pathologists is often challenging. Therefore, a fully automated and reliable smooth muscle image segmentation system is in high demand., Methods: To characterize muscle fibers in the urinary bladder, including muscularis mucosa (MM) and muscularis propria (MP), we assessed 277 histological images from surgical specimens, using two well-known deep learning (DL) model groups, one including VGG16, ResNet18, SqueezeNet, and MobileNetV2, considered as a patch-based approach, and the other including U-Net, MA-Net, DeepLabv3 + , and FPN, considered as a pixel-based approach. All the trained models in both the groups were evaluated at pixel-level for their performance., Results: For segmenting MP and non-MP (including MM) regions, MobileNetV2, in the patch-based approach and U-Net, in the pixel-based approach outperformed their peers in the groups with mean Jaccard Index equal to 0.74 and 0.79, and mean Dice co-efficient equal to 0.82 and 0.88, respectively. We also demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of the models in terms of speed and prediction accuracy., Conclusions: This work not only creates a benchmark for future development of tools for the histological segmentation of smooth muscle but also provides an effective DL-based diagnostic system for accurate pathological staging of bladder cancer., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

COVID-19 has spread all over the world, causing serious panic around the globe. Chest computed tomography (CT) images are integral in confirming COVID positive patients. Several investigations were conducted to improve or maintain the image reconstruction quality for the sample image reconstruction. Deep learning (DL) methods have recently been proposed to achieve fast reconstruction, but many have focused on a single domain, such as the image domain of k-space. In this research, the highly under-sampled enhanced battle royale self-attention based bi-directional long short-term (EBRSA-bi LSTM) CT image reconstruction model is proposed to reconstruct the image from the under-sampled data. The research is adapted with two phases, namely, pre-processing and reconstruction. The extended cascaded filter (ECF) is proposed for image pre-processing and tends to suppress the noise and enhance the reconstruction accuracy. In the reconstruction model, the battle royale optimization (BrO) is intended to diminish the loss function of the reconstruction network model and weight updation. The proposed model is tested with two datasets, COVID-CT- and SARS-CoV-2 CT. The reconstruction accuracy of the proposed model with two datasets is 93.5 % and 97.7 %, respectively. Also, the image quality assessment parameters such as Peak-Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Structural Similarity Index metric (SSIM) are evaluated, and it yields an outcome of (45 and 46 dB), (0.0026 and 0.0022) and (0.992, 0.996) with two datasets., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Plastic biliary stents are commonly placed during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography for various indications, and stent-related complications are uncommon. We describe a case in which a plastic biliary stent migrated proximally through the liver capsule and diaphragm after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, leading to pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade. It is important for clinicians managing patients with biliary stents to be aware of this significant adverse event., (© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The American College of Gastroenterology.)

Objective: To determine the influence of in vivo dehydration and rehydration on color and whiteness variations in maxillary anterior teeth of younger, middle-aged, and older individuals., Methods and Materials: The spectrophotometric shade of maxillary anterior teeth from younger (20 to 30 years, n=20), middle-aged (50 to 60 years, n=20) and older (65 to 80 years, n=20) participants were assessed at baseline and every 10 minutes for 30 minutes after rubber dam isolation (dehydration). The teeth were then allowed to rehydrate, and shade values were assessed every 10 minutes for 30 minutes, after 24 hours, and after 48 hours. Data were collected as International Commission on Illumination (CIE) L*a*b* color coordinates. Color differences (ΔE*ab) and whiteness differences (ΔWID) were evaluated. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance with the Tukey Honest Significant Difference test., Results: The color and whiteness changes of maxillary anterior teeth in older individuals after dehydration for 30 minutes were significantly lower than that of younger and middle-aged individuals. In younger participants, after 10 minutes of dehydration, mean ΔE*ab values of maxillary anterior teeth were above the acceptability threshold (AT), while mean ΔWID values were above AT only in maxillary canines. In middle-aged participants, mean ΔE*ab values were above AT, and mean ΔWID values were above the perceptibility threshold (PT) and below AT after 10 minutes of dehydration. In older participants, mean ΔE*ab values were above PT and below AT at 20 minutes of dehydration, while mean ΔWID values were above PT at 10 minutes of dehydration, and both were above AT at 30 minutes of dehydration. The mean ΔE*ab values were above AT after 20 minutes of rehydration in younger and middle-aged participants, while they were below AT in older participants after 10 minutes of rehydration. Mean ΔWID values were below AT for older participants after 20 minutes of rehydration. All mean ΔWID values were below AT and above PT after 30 minutes of rehydration except central incisors of younger participants. After 24 hours of rehydration, mean ΔE*ab and mean ΔWID values of participants in all age groups were below AT. After 48 hours of rehydration, mean ΔE*ab and ΔWID values of participants in all age groups were below PT except mean ΔE*ab values of canines and mean ΔWID values of central incisors in younger participants. L*, a*, and b* values were significantly different between age groups at 30 minutes of dehydration and after 48 hours of rehydration (p<0.05)., Conclusion: Color and whiteness changes due to dehydration were less pronounced in older participants. Dehydration for 10 minutes in most maxillary anterior teeth of younger and middle-aged participants led to perceptible and clinically unacceptable color and whiteness changes. Maxillary anterior teeth of older participants showed color and whiteness changes that were perceptible at 10 minutes of dehydration but clinically acceptable up to 30 minutes of dehydration. After 30 minutes of dehydration, a 10- and 20-minute rehydration was needed, respectively, for color and whiteness changes to be clinically acceptable in maxillary anterior teeth of older individuals, while a 30-minute rehydration was recommended for the middle aged group and for maxillary laterals and canines of the younger group. Color and whiteness changes in most maxillary anterior teeth were imperceptible only after 48 hours of rehydration., (© Operative Dentistry, 2023.)

A cyst is defined as a pathological cavity which may or may not have an epithelial lining and which has a fluid, semi-fluid, or gaseous contents and is not formed by the accumulation of pus. The calcifying epithelial odontogenic cyst (CEOC) was first reported by Gorlin et al. in 1962. At that time, it was classified as a cyst related to the odontogenic apparatus. It was later renamed as calcifying cystic odontogenic tumor (CCOT) in the World Health Organization classification devised in 2005 due to its histological complexity, morphological diversity, and aggressive proliferation. CCOT was later recognized by numerous names including Gorlin cyst, calcifying ghost cell odontogenic cyst and/or dentogenic ghost cell tumor. It has a peak incidence during the second and third decades of life and does not demonstrate any gender predilection. Radiographically, CEOC may appear as a unilocular or multilocular radiolucent lesion with either well-circumscribed or poorly-defined margins and may also be observed in association with unerupted teeth. Calcification is an important radiographic feature for the interpretation of CEOC/CCOT. The typical histopathological features of CEOC include a fibrous wall and lining of the odontogenic epithelium with either columnar or cuboidal basal cells resembling ameloblasts. The treatment of choice for CEOC is conservative surgical enucleation; however, recurrence is also not found to be uncommon. Herein, we are reporting a case of the same in a 21-year-old female which was a great dilemma during the diagnostic workup., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Nigerian Medical Association.)

Background: The inaccuracies in clinical examination have been well-documented while advanced imaging modalities including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been shown to have superior diagnostic accuracy in detecting occult and nodal metastasis. The aim of the present study was to identify as well as evaluate the inaccuracies in clinical examination and of clinical diagnostic criteria in known cases of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) with the help of MRI., Methodology: A total of 24 patients attending as outpatients were included in the study while clinically diagnosed and histopathologically proven cases of OSCC were examined clinically and then, subjected to advanced imaging with the help of MRI. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) while paired t-test was performed for evaluating size of tumor and lymph node recorded on clinical and imaging findings. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: Detection of tumor size and lymph node metastasis were found to be higher in case of MRI than when accomplished by clinical staging alone while paired t-test values for difference in results were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05)., Conclusions: The present study showed that clinical diagnostic criteria alone were not sufficient and reliable for detecting metastatic lymphadenopathy highlighting the significance of advanced imaging modalities like MRI for an efficient pre-operative diagnostic work-up as well as, as a tool for planning treatment in patients with OSCCs., (Copyright © 2021 Nigerian Medical Association.)

Background: Most transcription factors (TFs) compete with nucleosomes to gain access to their cognate binding sites. Recent studies have identified several TF-nucleosome interaction modes including end binding (EB), oriented binding, periodic binding, dyad binding, groove binding, and gyre spanning. However, there are substantial experimental challenges in measuring nucleosome binding modes for thousands of TFs in different species., Results: We present a computational prediction of the binding modes based on TF protein sequences. With a nested cross-validation procedure, our model outperforms several fine-tuned off-the-shelf machine learning (ML) methods in the multi-label classification task. Our binary classifier for the EB mode performs better than these ML methods with the area under precision-recall curve achieving 75%. The end preference of most TFs is consistent with low nucleosome occupancy around their binding site in GM12878 cells. The nucleosome occupancy data is used as an alternative dataset to confirm the superiority of our EB classifier., Conclusions: We develop the first ML-based approach for efficient and comprehensive analysis of nucleosome binding modes of TFs.

Introduction: Maxillary molars may frequently require root canal therapy and can have complex anatomy. It is important to locate and treat the second mesiobuccal canal to significantly improve prognosis., Aim of the Study: The purpose of this study was to evaluate direct vision, dental operating microscope (DOM), selective dentin removal under DOM, and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in clinical detection of second mesiobuccal root canal (MB2) in maxillary molars., Materials and Methods: A total of 122 maxillary first and second molars indicated for root canal treatment were included in our study. Following access cavity preparation, the presence of MB2 canal orifice was assessed in four stages. Stage I: with direct vision. Stage II: under DOM, Stage III: after selective dentin removal under DOM and Stage IV: teeth in which MB2 canal was not identified by Stage III were further investigated with CBCT. The number of canals identified during each stage was analyzed statistically., Results: Clinical detection of MB2 canal in our study was 90%, with 93% in maxillary first molar and 86% in maxillary second molar. 64% MB2 canals were located at Stage I (direct vision) which improved to 84% at Stage II (under DOM) and 90% at Stage III (selective dentin removal under DOM). CBCT investigation (Stage IV) further improved the identification of MB2 canal leading to overall prevalence of 93%., Conclusion: The results of our study demonstrated that MB2 canal can be clinically detected in up to 90% of maxillary molars by the use of DOM and selective dentin removal. CBCT investigation is indicated when MB2 canals are not clinically detected., Competing Interests: None

Introduction The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of three different polishing systems on the microhardness, surface roughness, and gloss of resin composites. Materials and Methods The materials evaluated were 3M™ ESPE™ Filtek™ Z-350 XT (3M™, St. Paul, MN, USA), Grandio (Voco, Cuxhaven, Germany), 3M™ ESPE™ Filtek™ Z250 (3M™, St. Paul, MN, USA), Shofu-Beautifil Flow (Shofu, Kyoto, Japan), and RestoFill HV N-FLO (Anabond Stedman, Chennai, India). A total of 450 samples were fabricated. Three finishing and polishing systems: PoGo® (Dentsply Caulk, Milford, DE, USA), Sof-Lex Spiral, and Sof-Lex Pop-On (3M™, St Paul, MN, USA) were evaluated. Hardness, roughness, and gloss were evaluated after finishing and polishing. The surface roughness was measured with a surface profilometer, microhardness was measured with the Struers Duramin-5 microhardness tester (Struers A/S, Ballerup, Denmark) and gloss was measured using a gloss meter. The measurement values were analysed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilks test, and two-way ANOVA. Results The Sof-Lex Spiral group exhibited higher mean microhardness (p < 0.001), less surface roughness (p < 0.001), and higher gloss (p < 0.001). Filtek Z-250 exhibited higher mean microhardness (p < 0.001) than Grandio (p < 0.001) and Shofu Beautifil Flow (p < 0.001), and Filtek Z-350 XT exhibited more microhardness than Shofu Beautifil Flow (p < 0.001). Filtek Z-350 XT exhibited lower mean surface roughness than Filtek Z-250 (p < 0.05). Filtek Z-250 polished with Sof-Lex Spiral proved to have higher gloss (34.89 gloss units (GU)) than Grandio and RestoFill HV N-FLO (p < 0.05). Conclusions Hardest, smoothest, and glossiest surfaces were obtained with the Sof-Lex Spiral finishing/polishing system. The mean microhardness of Filtek Z-250 and Filtek Z-350 XT was found to be higher than other composites used in this study. Filtek Z-350 showed a lower mean surface roughness and Filtek Z-250 exhibited a higher mean gloss., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2020, Nithya et al.)

Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate CD4 cell counts, lipid profile, and oral manifestations in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and their correlation with seronegative controls., Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional, hospital-based study, there were three groups of subjects: group A consisting of 500 healthy patients (controls), group B composed of 500 HIV-infected patients, and group C comprised of 500 AIDS patients based on their CD4 cell counts. CD4 cell counts were assessed using the CyFlow counter. Lipid profile was evaluated with the Erba EM 360 analyzer., Results: The results were statistically significant for CD4 cell counts (P<0.001). The levels of total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) were significantly decreased while triglycerides (TGs) and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs) were significantly increased in AIDS patients compared to the controls and HIV-infected patients. Various results were obtained regarding oral manifestations with different levels of significance., Conclusion: CD4 cell counts, TC, LDLs, TGs, and VLDLs were significantly changed in HIV-infected and AIDS patients compared to the controls., Competing Interests: CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT None declared, (Copyright© Dental Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.)

Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the styloid process (SP) and its anatomical variations on digital panoramic radiographs from the database and also to synthesize the current evidence of literature on SP and anatomical variations along with the systematic review of the relevant studies after making the necessary exclusions., Materials and Methods: A total of 500 panoramic radiographs from the database were examined and evaluated for the length of SP using OmniVue software and for the calcification patterns which were categorized into three types as described by Langlais. The obtained values were analyzed using t -test and Chi-square tests with a significance level of 0.005 and SPSS version 20.0 software., Results and Conclusion: The mean length of the SP in females was found to be 3.7 cm on the right side and 3.8 cm on the left side. The mean length of the SP in males was found to be 3.4 cm on the right side and 3.3 cm on the left side with significant difference between the genders with the P values of 0.0002 and 0.0001, respectively. The length of the SP was significantly longer in females than in males. Type I was the most common SP and was more prevalent in females. The results of the present study along with the wide range of reported incidence of anatomical variations in the form of elongation from the literature extracted through the systematic review suggests the need to reevaluate the range of the normal length of the SP., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Introduction: The incidence, survival, and propensity for nodal metastasis in early-stage gastric signet ring cell carcinoma have not been defined in the United States. These data are critical determinants for treatment allocation., Methods: Cases of gastric signet ring cell carcinoma were extracted from the national SEER database for the years 2004-2013. Age-standardized incidence was derived. Survival was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictors of nodal metastasis. Exclusion criteria included neoadjuvant radiotherapy and lack of histologic or nodal data., Results: A total of 10,624 cases were initially identified. The analysis cohort included 506 cases with early T-stage N0M0 disease following exclusions. The incidence was 0.094 per 100,000 person-years. The 5-year survival rate was 82.8%. Tumor stage (p < 0.001) and size (p < 0.001) were independent predictors of nodal metastasis. The incidence of nodal involvement for T1a tumors <2 cm was 5.4% (p < 0.004)., Conclusion: The incidence of potentially resectable signet ring gastric carcinoma has not changed significantly over the past decade. While presenting with predominantly high-grade histology, early T-stage disease has a high survival rate. Small T1a tumors have low rates of nodal metastasis, suggesting that an endoscopic resection could be considered in this subset.

Aim: Dental tissues such as enamel, dentinoenamel junction (DEJ), dentin, and root dentin can react differently to demineralization and remineralization. The aim of this study was to evaluate the remineralization ability of sodium fluoride on the microhardness of enamel, dentin, and dentinoenamel junction., Materials and Methods: Ten extracted third molar teeth were sectioned mesiodistally to form control and test groups. For the test group, initial demineralization was done with acetic acid for 24 h followed by remineralization for 28 days by application of sodium fluoride (226 ppm) for 2 min twice a day. Vickers microhardness test was done to control and test groups at different sites after initial demineralization and on the 3 rd , 5 th , 7 th , 14 th , and 28 th day of remineralization., Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance and post hoc test with a significance level of P < 0.001 with SPSS (21) software., Results: Microhardness values in the demineralization group were significantly lower than controls ( P < 0.001). Evaluation of remineralization samples showed that microhardness similar to control values were achieved at the 3 rd day in root predentin and on the 5 th day in coronal dentin and coronal predentin. On the 7 th day, remineralization coronal predentin was significantly higher than the control ( P < 0.001). On the 14 th day, DEJ axial zone and root dentin were similar to control and coronal dentin was significantly higher than the control ( P < 0.001). Enamel was similar to control on the 28 th day. Microhardness of DEJ-cusp tip and DEJ-center of the fissure was significantly lower than control even at the 28 th day ( P < 0.001)., Conclusion: Long-term repeated application of sodium fluoride (226 ppm) can improve the microhardness of demineralized dental tissues on enamel, dentin, and DEJ-axial zone, except in the DEJ-cusp tip and DEJ-center of fissure., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

In a hybrid upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (HUASB) reactor, biodegradation in association with biohydrogen production was studied using distillery wastewater as substrate. The experiments were carried out at ambient temperature (34±1°C) and acidophilic pH of 6.5 with constant hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24h at various organic loading rates (OLRs) (1-10.2kgCODm(-3)d(-1)) in continuous mode. A maximum hydrogen production rate of 1300mLd(-1) was achieved. A back propagation neural network (BPNN) model with network topology of 4-20-1 using Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm was developed and validated. A total of 231 data points were studied to examine the performance of the HUASB reactor in acclimatisation and operation phase. The statistical qualities of BPNN models were significant due to the high correlation coefficient, R(2), and lower mean absolute error (MAE) between experimental and simulated data. From the results, it was concluded that BPNN modelling could be applied in HUASB reactor for predicting the biodegradation and biohydrogen production using distillery wastewater., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: To promote oral health among the elderly, we need to know their prosthetic status and prosthetic need. Hence, a survey of prosthetic status and need of elderly inmates of geriatric homes in Hyderabad was done., Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken, and 174 subjects aged 60 years and above were examined of which 103 were male and 71 were female (59.2% males and 40.8% females). The oral examination of the study subjects was carried out using basic oral health surveys, WHO 1997 criteria., Results: Majority of the subjects, 73 (70.8%) males and 53 (74.6%) females had no prosthesis. Only 4.6% had complete dentures and 21.1% had removable partial dentures and 10.9% had single/multiple bridges. Need for any prosthesis was (83.5%) male and 63 (88.7%) female subjects and nearly 82. 8% subjects required one-unit prosthesis., Conclusion: Dental prosthetic status of people living in geriatric homes is very poor and there is high unmet need for prosthetic care existed among the institutionalized elderly surveyed.

The management of solid waste disposal had been a perennial problem every where in our country. In order to overcome this problem one possible solution is to compost the solid waste in the presence of air, so that it may be converted into an useful manure. With this intention, solid wastes like coir waste and water hyacinth had been collected and composted with the addition of cow dung. The composted material had been examined for the physical and chemical parameters. The content of macronutrients was found to be higher as the period of composting increased. There were gradual variations in the case of other parameters. A comparative account of the two types of solid waste is also given.

Vitex glabrata (Verbenaceae) is commonly employed for the treatment of various ailments in traditional medicine. In this study, ethanol extract of Vitex glabrata (EEVG) was evaluated for the anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced paw edema and cotton pellet induced granuloma formation in rat models. EEVG showed significant anti-inflammatory activity in rats in dose dependant manner. At a dose of 400 mg/kg, p.o. maximum effect was observed and was comparable (p<0.05) to that of diclofenac sodium (standard, 50 mg/kg, p.o.). Results of the study suggested that the anti-inflammatory activity of EEVG may be due to inhibition of prostaglandins synthesis and cessation of inflammatory events like fibroblast cell formation, neutrophils infiltration, and accumulation of fluids. Therefore, this study provides a support for the plant in the management of inflammatory related disorders.

Rho GTPases are key regulators of the actin-based cytoskeleton; Rab GTPases are key regulators of membrane traffic. We report here that the atypical Rho GTPase family member, RhoBTB3, binds directly to Rab9 GTPase and functions with Rab9 in protein transport from endosomes to the trans Golgi network. Gene replacement experiments show that RhoBTB3 function in cultured cells requires both RhoBTB3's N-terminal, Rho-related domain and C-terminal sequences that are important for Rab9 interaction. Biochemical analysis reveals that RhoBTB3 binds and hydrolyzes ATP rather than GTP. Rab9 binding opens the autoinhibited RhoBTB3 protein to permit maximal ATP hydrolysis. Because RhoBTB3 interacts with TIP47 on membranes, we propose that it may function to release this cargo selection protein from vesicles to permit their efficient docking and fusion at the Golgi.

Mannose 6-phosphate receptors (MPRs) deliver newly synthesized lysosomal enzymes to endosomes and then recycle to the Golgi. MPR recycling requires Rab9 GTPase; Rab9 recruits the cytosolic adaptor TIP47 and enhances its ability to bind to MPR cytoplasmic domains during transport vesicle formation. Rab9-bearing vesicles then fuse with the trans-Golgi network (TGN) in living cells, but nothing is known about how these vesicles identify and dock with their target. We show here that GCC185, a member of the Golgin family of putative tethering proteins, is a Rab9 effector that is required for MPR recycling from endosomes to the TGN in living cells, and in vitro. GCC185 does not rely on Rab9 for its TGN localization; depletion of GCC185 slightly alters the Golgi ribbon but does not interfere with Golgi function. Loss of GCC185 triggers enhanced degradation of mannose 6-phosphate receptors and enhanced secretion of hexosaminidase. These data assign a specific pathway to an interesting, TGN-localized protein and suggest that GCC185 may participate in the docking of late endosome-derived, Rab9-bearing transport vesicles at the TGN.

Andrographis paniculata extract is traditionally used as a medicine to treat different diseases in India, China and Southeast Asia. In the present study, we evaluated the anticancer and immunomodulatory activity of the methanolic extract of Andrographis paniculata in human cancer and immune cells. The methanolic extract of Andrographis paniculata was fractionated into dichloromethane, petroleum ether and aqueous extracts and screened for bioactivity. Our results indicate that the dichloromethane fraction of the methanolic extract retains the active compounds contributing for both the anticancer and immunostimulatory activity. Dichloromethane fraction significantly inhibits the proliferation of HT-29 (colon cancer) cells and augments the proliferation human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBLs) at low concentrations. On further fractionation of the dichloromethane extract we could isolate three diterpene compounds, i.e. [1] andrographolide, [2] 14-deoxyandrographolide and [3] 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide. Andrographolide showed anticancer activity on diverse cancer cells representing different types of human cancers. Whereas all the three molecules showed enhanced proliferation and interleukin-2 (IL-2) induction in HPBLs.

Yersinia pestis is the etiological agent of pneumonic and bubonic plague. As the currently licensed vaccines for plague have their own limitations, there is a need for a rational and more effective form of a subunit vaccine to combat both forms of the disease. Newer methods of antigen delivery coupled with adjuvant offer an alternative approach toward a plague vaccine. In order to develop a new generation vaccine against plague, we chose an immunodominant, outer membrane capsular protein, F1 of Y. pestis. The immunogenicity of the peptide sequences, predicted to possess B (three sequences, B1, B2 and B3) and T (two sequences, T1 and T2) cell determinants, was studied in a murine model with different genetic backgrounds, using alhydrogel and liposomes as delivery vehicles. All the peptide sequences are immunogenic in all mouse strains and showed primary and secondary immune response. B2 peptide was found to be most immunogenic, followed by B1 and B3 peptides. Chimeras made between B and T structures proved highly immunogenic and the antibody levels are comparable with native F1 antigen, thereby proving that T1 and T2 are helper sequences. Interestingly, the liposome mode of immunization was found to be more immunogenic and generated higher affinity antibodies than the alum-based preparation. Immunization using a mixture of all the peptides further proved B2 to be immunodominant. The IgG isotype profile showed predominance of IgG1, IgG2b followed by IgG2a for all the formulations irrespective of mode of antigen delivery. Lymphocyte proliferation of spleen cells primed in vivo with peptides, B-T conjugates and F1 antigen followed by in vitro stimulation with these antigens in soluble (medium) and particulate (liposome) form, showed dose-dependent stimulation of T cells, while B-T constructs showed a higher stimulation index, comparable to F1 antigen. The liposome mode of antigen presentation showed higher lymphoproliferation of spleen cells. Of all the peptides tested, T1 and T2 sequences showed the highest stimulation indices. The pattern of cytokine levels was in the following order: interferon-gamma>interleukin-2>interleukin-4. In vivo protective studies of the B-T conjugates revealed that B1T1 and a mixture of conjugates showed a survival rate of 10 days. Thus, the study highlights the importance of B and T cell epitopes as peptide-based immunogens, being a serious alternative for plague vaccine.

The folding and unfolding rates of the small protein, barstar, have been monitored using stopped-flow measurements of intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence at 25 degrees C, pH 8.5, and have been compared over a wide range of urea and guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) concentrations. When the logarithms of the rates of folding from urea and from GdnHCl unfolded forms are extrapolated linearly with denaturant concentration, the same rate is obtained for folding in zero denaturant. Similar linear extrapolations of rates of unfolding in urea and GdnHCl yield, however, different unfolding rates in zero denaturant, indicating that such linear extrapolations are not valid. It has been difficult, for any protein, to determine unfolding rates under nativelike conditions in direct kinetic experiments. Using a novel strategy of coupling the reactivity of a buried cysteine residue with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB) to the unfolding reaction of barstar, the global unfolding and refolding rates have now been determined in low denaturant concentrations. The logarithms of unfolding rates obtained at low urea and GdnHCl concentrations show a markedly nonlinear dependence on denaturant concentration and converge to the same unfolding rate in the absence of denaturant. It is shown that the native protein can sample the fully unfolded conformation even in the absence of denaturant. The observed nonlinear dependences of the logarithms of the refolding and unfolding rates observed for both denaturants are shown to be due to the presence of (un)folding intermediates and not due to movements in the position of the transition state with a change in denaturant concentration.