Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is one of the major crops for grain and fodder, widely grown in India under rain fed conditions. Rabi sorghum is grown in an area of 5.5 million hectares mainly in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with average productivity of 854 kg/ha. Despite low productivity, Rabi sorghum continues to be an important component of dry land economy i...

BACKGROUND IL-12B is a strong candidate gene for asthma. OBJECTIVES We investigated the relationship between IL-12B and asthma, allergic rhinitis, familial asthma, and levels of eosinophils and total immunoglobulin (Ig) E in the serum of asthma patients. METHODS The study group consisted of 53 asthma patients and 60 control patients. Serum total IgE levels, eosinophil count, and the presenc...

Background. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex immune disease. The genetic variation in the IL-12b gene was found to associate with SLE in Caucasian population. In this study, we examined this association in Chinese Han population by a recently developed method, unlabeled probe-based high resolution melting analysis. Methods. A total of 297 SLE patients and 351 controls were recrui...

We present Warm Spitzer/IRAC secondary eclipse time series photometry of three short-period transiting exoplanets, HAT-P-3b, HAT-P-4b and HAT-P-12b, in both the available 3.6 and 4.5μm bands. HAT-P-3b and HAT-P-4b are Jupiter-mass, objects orbiting an early K and an early G dwarf stars, respectively. For HAT-P-3b we find eclipse depths of 0.112% −0.030% (3.6μm) and 0.094% +0.016% −0.009% (4.5μm...

Systemic lupus erythmatosus is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by abnormal immune response with overproduction of auto-antibodies, self-destructive complexes and hyperactivity of both T and B lymphocytes. Although the exact pathogenesis of SLE remains unclear, it has been found that the imbalance of Th1/Th2, subsequent cytokines and antior pro-inflammatory mediators could reflect the...

Nucleic acid probes (Gen-Probe, San Diego, Calif.) can be used to identify mycobacteria in BACTEC 12B broth cultures prior to detection of growth on solid media. We developed an algorithm that can be used to make an initial choice of a probe (either Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex [MTB] or M. avium complex [MAC]) for use in testing respiratory specimens. The algorithm was based on both the f...

The aim of our study was to investigate the association between common polymorphisms in interleukin-12 (IL-12) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk using meta-analysis. A search was conducted in the PubMed database, covering all papers published by October 14, 2015. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to evaluate the strength of this association. Publication bias was asse...