Care of the newborn in perinatal units in New Brunswick.

A survey of 23 perinatal units in New Brunswick hospitals was conducted by means of a mailed questionnaire to determine the type of care provided to newborns. The results showed various degrees of conformity with published guidelines for the care of newborns. Deficiencies were noted in several areas of care: failing to give or improperly giving vitamin K1 prophylaxis (in 7 of the units), flushing the eyes after silver nitrate prophylaxis (in 10), using hexachlorophene to bathe newborns (in 11) and delaying the first feeding up to 12 hours (in 3). It is essential to provide appropriate support to newborns as they adjust to a new environment and to ensure that alternative practices are in keeping with current scientific knowledge.     

Purification and Characterization of Protease Inhibitor from Rice Bean (Vigna umbellata T.) Seeds

A Protease inhibitor from seeds of rice bean has been purified to apparent homogeneity as judged by native-PAGE with about 29% recovery using ammonium sulfate fractionation, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, and gel filtration through Sephadex G-100. The purified preparation with molecular weight of 16.8 kD was found to be a monomer as revealed by SDS-PAGE under reducing and non-reducing conditions. The purified inhibitor in solution was stable upto 40°C. However, it lost its activity gradually and was completely inactive when heated at 100°C for 2 h and 125°C for 1 h. Heating at 125°C changed the conformation of the inhibitor as was evident from the altered UV spectrum compared to that of native. It had two pH optima at pH 6.0 and at 10.0 and was stable over a wide range of pH (pH 3.0 to 10.0). It lost its activity on exposure to 2-mercaptoethanol, indicating the role of S-S linkages in maintaining the three dimensional structure of the protein inhibitor. The inhibitor was completely inactive towards papain, while it inhibited pepsin only slightly. Trypsin and chymotrypsin were inhibited upto the extent of 60% and 30%, respectively. Trypsin inhibition was of non-competitive type with dissociation constant for the enzyme-inhibitor complex in the region of 2.07 mg ml^-1. The rice bean inhibitor appears to be of Bowman-Birk type as it has molecular weight lower than that generally observed for Kunitz type inhibitors and seems to be double headed - a characteristic specific of Bowman - Birk type inhibitor.     

Direct plant regeneration from cultured young leaf segments of sugarcane

Young leaf segments (1.0–1.5 cm) excised from spindle explants of three commercial sugarcane varieties viz. Co J 64, Co J 83 and Co J 86 were cultured on different media compositions based on Murashige and Skoog (1962) salts. Cultured explants exhibited swelling followed by direct shoot regeneration on media containing naphthaleneacetic acid, in all the three varieties. Highest frequency 83.12% shoot regeneration occurred on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with naphthaleneacetic acid (5.0 mg l⁻¹) and kinetin (0.5 mg l⁻¹) in variety Co J 83. Medium devoid of naphthaleneacetic acid and supplemented with only kinetin did not induce direct shoot regeneration in any of the varieties thus tried. Subsequently profuse rooting of shoots was observed on the same medium and complete plantlets were recovered within 6 weeks. The plantlets were hardened and transferred to soil. Tissue culture derived field-grown plants were normal and exhibited faster growth and better tillering. This developed single step method of direct plant regeneration can be used for rapid mass cloning and genetic transformation of sugarcane.     

Microfluidic-integrated biosensors: Prospects for point-of-care diagnostics

There is a growing demand to integrate biosensors with microfluidics to provide miniaturized platforms with many favorable properties, such as reduced sample volume, decreased processing time, low cost analysis and low reagent consumption. These microfluidics-integrated biosensors would also have numerous advantages such as laminar flow, minimal handling of hazardous materials, multiple sample detection in parallel, portability and versatility in design. Microfluidics involves the science and technology of manipulation of fluids at the micro- to nano-liter level. It is predicted that combining biosensors with microfluidic chips will yield enhanced analytical capability, and widen the possibilities for applications in clinical diagnostics. The recent developments in microfluidics have helped researchers working in industries and educational institutes to adopt some of these platforms for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. This review focuses on the latest advancements in the fields of microfluidic biosensing technologies, and on the challenges and possible solutions for translation of this technology for POC diagnostic applications. We also discuss the fabrication techniques required for developing microfluidic-integrated biosensors, recently reported biomarkers, and the prospects of POC diagnostics in the medical industry.     

Therapeutic agents from endophytes harbored in Asian medicinal plants

Phytochemistry Reviews - Endophytes are a diverse group of microorganisms present in plant tissues which include fungi and bacteria and have been utilized as therapeutic agents. They are known to...     

Chemical biology: Paper alert

A selection of interesting papers that were published in the two months before our press date in major journals most likely to report significant results in chemical biology.