Canine vector-borne infections of working dogs of the Sri Lanka Air Force, and free roaming, and privately owned dogs.

Canine vector-borne infections (CVBIs) are a global health problem. The military working dogs of Sri Lanka die at an early age, and CVBIs have been a leading speculated cause. We examined CVBIs in the working dogs of the Sri Lanka air force (SLAF) and free-roaming dogs (FRDs) and privately owned dogs (PODs) country-wide.

Genetic stock structure of the silky shark Carcharhinus falciformis in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

The silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis, is a cosmopolitan species commonly caught as a bycatch for longline fisheries. However, the genetic stock structure for the Indo-Pacific Ocean is not well-defined yet. Here, we used eight microsatellite loci to examine the genetic stock structure and effective population size of 307 silky sharks across 5 Indo-Pacific sampling locations.

Age-Dependent Regulation of Dendritic Spine Density and Protein Expression in Mir324 KO Mice.

Dendritic spines are small, dynamic protrusions along the dendrite that comprise more than 90% of excitatory connections in the brain, making them essential sites for neuronal communication. These synaptic sites change throughout the process of development, reducing in density and shifting morphology as synapses are refined. One important class of dendritic spine regulators is microRNA (miRNA), small-noncoding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression.

Age-dependent regulation of dendritic spine density and protein expression in Mir324 KO mice.

Dendritic spines are small, dynamic protrusions along the dendrite that comprise more than 90% of excitatory connections in the brain, making them essential sites for neuronal communication. These synaptic sites change throughout the process of development, reducing in density and shifting morphology as synapses are refined. One important class of dendritic spine regulators is microRNA (miRNA), small noncoding RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression.

High Asymptomatic Cases of Babesiosis in Dogs and Comparison of Diagnostic Performance of Conventional PCR vs Blood Smears.

Purpose: Babesiosis is one of the most important globally extended and quickly spreading tick-borne infections of dogs. Diagnosis of babesiosis in Sri Lanka is based on clinical signs followed by thin blood smears which could be error-prone due to undetected early infections, absence of clinical signs or low parasitemia. The present study investigated the prevalence of babesiosis in dogs presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Peradeniya, for treatments, vaccinations, and regular check-ups, and compared the diagnosis methods of microscopy and molecular analysis.

Multiscale modeling of the cellular uptake of C6 peptide-siRNA complexes.

In gene therapy utilising short interfering RNA (siRNA), delivery of the siRNA therapeutics to the target site is a major obstacle, due to low cellular uptake. Efficient delivery systems such as cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) are in the forefront for the development of efficient, safe, non-viral gene delivery. The C6 peptide series are a class of synthetic CPPs, developed specifically for the delivery of siRNA.

Occurrence of microplastics in commercial marine dried fish in Asian countries.

The major risk of microplastics in marine environments is the bioaccumulation in marine organisms. Plastic ingestion by marine organisms has been investigated and recently more attention has been given to microplastics in seafood. However, it is seldom reported the occurrence of microplastics in marine commercial dried fish products available for human consumption.

Composition and abundance of marine debris stranded on the beaches of Sri Lanka: Results from the first island-wide survey.

This study provides the first assessment of marine debris washed ashore on 22 beaches along the coast of Sri Lanka. There was an average of 4.1 large (>25 mm) and 158 small (5-25 mm) pieces of debris per square meter of beach.

Natural Carriers for siRNA Delivery.

This review is based on carriers of natural origin such as polysaccharides, proteins, and cell derived entities which have been used for delivery of siRNA. To realize the therapeutic potential of a delivery system, the role of the carrier is of utmost importance. Historical aspects of viral vectors, the first carriers of genes are briefly outlined.

Contribution of fluorophore dynamics and solvation to resonant energy transfer in protein-DNA complexes: a molecular-dynamics study.

In Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments, extracting accurate structural information about macromolecules depends on knowing the positions and orientations of donor and acceptor fluorophores. Several approaches have been employed to reduce uncertainties in quantitative FRET distance measurements. Fluorophore-position distributions can be estimated by surface accessibility (SA) calculations, which compute the region of space explored by the fluorophore within a static macromolecular structure.

Effect of storage conditions on the stability and fermentability of enzymatic lignocellulosic hydrolysate.

To minimize the change of lignocellulosic hydrolysate composition during storage, the effects of storage conditions (temperature, pH and time) on the composition and fermentability of hydrolysate prepared from AFEX™ (Ammonia Fiber Expansion - a trademark of MBI, Lansing, MI) pretreated corn stover were investigated. Precipitates formed during hydrolysate storage increased with increasing storage pH and time. The precipitate amount was the least when hydrolysate was stored at 4 °C and pH 4.

A mean field approach for computing solid-liquid surface tension for nanoscale interfaces.

The physical properties of a liquid in contact with a solid are largely determined by the solid-liquid surface tension. This is especially true for nanoscale systems with high surface area to volume ratios. While experimental techniques can only measure surface tension indirectly for nanoscale systems, computer simulations offer the possibility of a direct evaluation of solid-liquid surface tension although reliable methods are still under development.

Mechanistic implications of the equality of compensation temperatures in chromatography.

A common interpretation of the observation that two processes exhibit similar compensation temperatures in an enthalpy-entropy plot is that the two processes occur via the same "mechanism". We show that this interpretation is not rigorously allowed. In fact, the only thing that can be concluded from the observation of identical compensation temperatures is that the relative contributions of enthalpy and entropy to the overall free energy are the same in the two processes.

Determination of equilibrium constant of alkylbenzenes binding to bovine serum albumin by solid phase microextraction.

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with GC has been applied to study the binding properties between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, propylbenzene and butylbenzene. Their protein-ligand equilibrium constants have been determined. The measurement of free and bound ligand concentrations in the aqueous solution was based on the equilibrium among the analyte in the fiber coating (Cf), headspace (Ch) and aqueous solution (Cs).

A study of the enthalpy and entropy contributions of the stationary phase in reversed-phase liquid chromatography.

The goal of this study was to elucidate the roles played by the stationary and mobile phases in retention in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) in terms of their individual enthalpic and entropic contribution to the Gibbs free energy of retention. The experimental approach involved measuring standard enthalpies of transfer of alkylbenzenes from typical mobile phases used in RPLC (methanol/water and acetonitrile/water mixtures), as well as from n-hexadecane (a simple analogue of the stationary phase) to the gas phase, using high-precision headspace gas chromatography. By combining the measured enthalpies with independently measured free energies of transfer, the entropies of transfer were obtained.