Translational Chickpea Genomics Consortium to Accelerate Genetic Gains in Chickpea ( L.).

The Translational Chickpea Genomics Consortium (TCGC) was set up to increase the production and productivity of chickpea ( L.). It represents research institutes from six major chickpea growing states (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh) of India.

The utility of Vibratip in accurate identification of loss of protective sensation in the contralateral foot of patients admitted with a diabetic foot ulcer.

Background And Aims: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a debilitating complication of type 2 DM. Complexity of foot examination often precludes proper clinical assessment of the foot during routine evaluation. We assessed the utility of novel device, vibratip, both singly and in combination with standard bedside tools for assessment of loss of protective sensation.

Update on the management of acute liver failure.

Purpose Of Review: The aim of this article is to provide the reader with an overview of established standards of care and to summarize important newer research findings in acute liver failure (ALF).

Recent Findings: New international guidelines are now in place with recommendations for medical care and nutritional support. Large-scale retrospective studies have confirmed the low level of bleeding complications observed, despite apparently severe coagulopathy on standard laboratory testing, and the improved survival seen with continuous rather than intermittent forms of renal replacement therapy.

Crystallizing galactocele: Report of a rare variation.

The physiological changes of the breast during pregnancy and lactation make the clinical, radiological and pathological evaluation of a breast mass challenging. Galactoceles are benign lesions containing milk, and generally occur post partum. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a simple, quick and effective technique for the diagnosis of the same during this period, and in case of galactocele the same can be both diagnostic and therapeutic.

Refractory status epilepticus due to pneumococcal meningitis in an infant with congenital immunodeficiency.

Pneumococcal meningitis remains a life-threatening infection, with varied presentations. A 3 month-old-baby with pneumococcal meningitis presented with clusters of seizures evolving into refractory status epilepticus despite standard antibiotic and aggressive anticonvulsant therapy. Progressive illness despite antibiotic initially suggested possible antibiotic resistance and resulted in addition of another antibiotic.

Susceptibility profile of Gram-negative bacteremic isolates to beta lactam-beta lactamase inhibitor agents in comparison to other antibiotics.

Background: Comprehensive understanding about the local antibiogram is an essential requirement for preparation of hospital or unit based antibiotic policy. Bacteremic isolates are the most useful ones for this purpose, representing invasive disease.

Objective: To analyze susceptibility pattern of bacteremic Gram-negative isolates in our center, to various antibiotics, including beta lactam-beta lactamase inhibitor (BL-BLI) agents and carbapenem.

Nonhemophilic hemosiderotic synovitis of the knee: a case report and review of literature.

Synovium is specialized mesenchymal tissue lining the inner surface of the joint capsule and is the site for a series of pathologic processes that are characteristic, and in some cases specific, to this distinctive tissue. Hemosiderotic synovitis is a rare and inadequately defined synovial proliferative disorder, which develops with recurrent hemorrhages in the joint. The most affected joint from bleeding is the knee whatever the etiology is.

Genetic dissection of drought tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Analysis of phenotypic data for 20 drought tolerance traits in 1-7 seasons at 1-5 locations together with genetic mapping data for two mapping populations provided 9 QTL clusters of which one present on CaLG04 has a high potential to enhance drought tolerance in chickpea improvement. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most important grain legume cultivated by resource poor farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world.

Soft glass rheology in liquid crystalline gels formed by a monodisperse dipeptide.

Thermal and extensive rheological characterization of a nematic liquid crystal gelated with a novel monodisperse dipeptide, also a liquid crystal, has been carried out. For certain concentrations, the calorimetric scans display a two-peak profile across the chiral nematic-isotropic (N*-I) transition, a feature reminiscent of the random-dilution to random-field crossover observed in liquid crystal gels formed with aerosil particles. All samples show shear thinning behavior without a Newtonian plateau region at lower shear rates.

Fast responding robust nematic liquid crystalline gels formed by a monodisperse dipeptide: electro-optic and rheological studies.

Realization of mechanically robust electrically fast responding liquid crystal devices with low operating voltage is one of the current research interests. Here we report a gel system comprising a commercially available nematic liquid crystal material and a new monodisperse dipeptide liquid crystalline organogelator that results in these properties. The gels exhibit nearly 2 orders of magnitude faster switching response than the pure nematic liquid crystal while having 3 orders of magnitude higher zero shear rate viscosity, and with the attractive feature that the switching threshold voltage is hardly altered.

Quantitative Analysis of STD-NMR Spectra of Reversibly Forming Ligand-Receptor Complexes.

We describe our work on the quantitative analysis of STD-NMR spectra of reversibly forming ligand-receptorcomplexes. This analysis is based on the theory of complete relaxation and conformational exchange matrixanalysis of saturation transfer (CORCEMA-ST) effects. As part of this work, we have developed two separateversions of the CORCEMA-ST program.

Evidence of wormlike micellar behavior in chromonic liquid crystals: rheological, X-ray, and dielectric studies.

We report rheological, X-ray, and dielectric investigations on a chromonic liquid-crystalline system formed by aqueous solutions of a food coloring agent, Sunset Yellow, in the absence and upon addition of salt. The salt-concentration dependence of the steady-state viscosity at low shear rates has a non-monotonic variation and is qualitatively similar to the behavior seen in wormlike micellar systems, a surprising result since chromonic systems are expected to be non-micellar in character. More interestingly, for a particular low concentration of the salt (20 mM), the viscosity increases by 3 orders of magnitude in comparison with that of the pure chromonic material.

Kinetics of the thermal back relaxation time of the photoinduced nematic-isotropic transition.

We report on the temperature dependence of the response time for the photochemical and thermal back relaxation processes observed in a material exhibiting a photostimulated, isothermal nematic-isotropic phase transition. It is found that the time required for the system to achieve the photostationary state as well as to recover the original state after photoirradiation with a uv beam is a smooth function of the absolute temperature of the sample, except in the vicinity of the transition. The duration of the recovery can be split into two parts: delay time and response time.

Determination of the conformation of trimethoprim in the binding pocket of bovine dihydrofolate reductase from a STD-NMR intensity-restrained CORCEMA-ST optimization.

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is a pharmacologically important intracellular target enzyme for folate antagonists, including the antibacterial agent trimethoprim (TMP). The structures of DHFR from various sources with and without the bound ligands have been determined by X-ray crystallography and solution NMR spectroscopy. However, there is no crystal or solution NMR structure for the bovine DHFR/TMP complex.

Refinement of the conformation of UDP-galactose bound to galactosyltransferase using the STD NMR intensity-restrained CORCEMA optimization.

The STD NMR technique has originally been described as a tool for screening large compound libraries to identify the lead compounds that are specific to target proteins of interest. The application of this technique in the qualitative epitope mapping of ligands weakly binding to proteins, virus capsid shells, and nucleic acids has also been described. Here we describe the application of the STD NMR intensity-restrained CORCEMA optimization (SICO) procedure for refining the bound conformation of UDP-galactose in galactosyltransferase complex using STD NMR intensities recorded at 500 MHz as the experimental constraints.

CORCEMA refinement of the bound ligand conformation within the protein binding pocket in reversibly forming weak complexes using STD-NMR intensities.

We describe an intensity-restrained optimization procedure for refining approximate structures of ligands within the protein binding pockets using STD-NMR intensity data on reversibly forming weak complexes. In this approach, the global minimum for the bound-ligand conformation is obtained by a hybrid structure refinement method involving CORCEMA calculation of intensities and simulated annealing optimization of torsion angles of the bound ligand using STD-NMR intensities as experimental constraints and the NOE R-factor as the pseudo-energy function to be minimized. This method is illustrated using simulated STD data sets for typical carbohydrate and peptide ligands.

Saturation transfer difference NMR and computational modeling of a sialoadhesin-sialyl lactose complex.

The siglecs are a family of I-type lectins binding to sialic acids on the cell surface. Sialoadhesin (siglec-1) is expressed at much higher levels in inflammatory macrophages and specifically binds to alpha-2,3-sialylated N-acetyl lactosamine residues of glycan chains. The terminal disaccharide alpha-D-Neu5Ac-(2-->3)-beta-D-Gal is thought to be the main epitope recognized by sialoadhesin.

Complete relaxation and conformational exchange matrix (CORCEMA) analysis of intermolecular saturation transfer effects in reversibly forming ligand-receptor complexes.

A couple of recent applications of intermolecular NOE (INOE) experiments as applied to biomolecular systems involve the (i) saturation transfer difference NMR (STD-NMR) method and (ii) the intermolecular cross-saturation NMR (ICS-NMR) experiment. STD-NMR is a promising tool for rapid screening of a large library of compounds to identify bioactive ligands binding to a target protein. Additionally, it is also useful in mapping the binding epitopes presented by a bioactive ligand to its target protein.