Pectinases are the growing enzymes of biotechnological sector, showing gradual increase in their market. They hold a leading position among the commercially produced industrial enzymes. These enzymes are ecofriendly tool of nature that are being used extensively in various industries like wine industry; food industry; paper industry for bleaching of pulp and waste paper recycling; in the processing of fruit–vegetables, tea–coffee, animal feed; extraction of vegetable oil and scouring of plant fibres. Moreover, enzymatic catalysis is preferred over other chemical methods, since it is more specific, less aggressive and saves energy. This is the review which covers the information available on the applicability potential of this group of enzymes in various sectors.

Supersonic impinging jets, such as those occurring in the next generation of short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft, generate a highly oscillatory ow with very high unsteady loads on the nearby aircraft structures and the landing surfaces. These high-pressure and acoustic loads are also accompanied by a dramatic loss in lift during hover. Previous studies of supersonic impinging jets suggest that the highly unsteady behavior of the impinging jets is due to a feedback loop between the uid and acoustic elds, which leads to these adverse effects. A unique active control technique was attempted with the aim of disrupting the feedback loop, diminishing the ow unsteadiness, and ultimately reducing the adverse effects of this ow. Flow control was implemented by placing a circular array of 400-¹m-diam supersonic microjets around the periphery of the main jet. This control approach was very successful in disrupting the feedback loop in that the activation of the microjets led to dramatic reductions in the lift loss (40%), unsteady pressure loads (11 dB), and near-eld noise (8 dB). This relatively simple and highly effective control technique makes it a suitable candidate for implementation in practical aircraft systems.

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ObjectiveTo analyse ocular and systemic findings of patients presenting with systemic metastasis.Methods and analysisIt is an international, multicentre, internet-enabled, registry-based retrospective data analysis. Patients were diagnosed between 2001 and 2011. Data included: primary tumour dimensions, extrascleral extension, ciliary body involvement, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)-tumour, node, metastasis staging, characteristics of metastases.ResultsOf 3610 patients with uveal melanoma, 69 (1.9%; 95% CI 1.5 to 2.4) presented with clinical metastasis (stage IV). These melanomas originated in the iris, ciliary body and choroid in 4%, 16% and 80% of eyes, respectively. Using eighth edition AJCC, 8 (11%), 20 (29%), 24 (35%), and 17 (25%) belonged to AJCC T-categories T1–T4. Risk of synchronous metastases increased from 0.7% (T1) to 1.5% (T2), 2.6% (T3) and 7.9% (T4). Regional lymph node metastases (N1a) were detected in 9 (13%) patients of whom 6 (67%) had extrascleral extension. Stage of systemic metastases (known for 40 (59%) stage IV patients) revealed 14 (35%), 25 (63%) and 1 (2%) had small (M1a), medium-sized (M1b) and large-sized (M1c) metastases, respectively. Location of metastases in stage IV patients were liver (91%), lung (16%), bone (9%), brain (6%), subcutaneous tissue (4%) and others (5%). Multiple sites of metastases were noted in 24%. Compared with the 98.1% of patients who did not present with metastases, those with synchronous metastases had larger intraocular tumours, more frequent extrascleral extension, ciliary body involvement and thus a higher AJCC T-category.ConclusionsThough higher AJCC T-stage was associated with risk for metastases at diagnosis, even small T1 tumours were stage IV at initial presentation. The liver was the most common site of metastases; however, frequent multiorgan involvement supports initial whole-body staging.

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Leishmaniasis is one of the six diseases regarded most neglected by World Health Organization which is predominant in developing countries. Clinically, among the different forms of leishmaniasis, visceral leishmaniasis is the most fatal, serious disease, in which several organs of the body such as liver and spleen are affected. A limited number of drugs against leishmaniasis are available for the treatment and also, no suitable vaccine is available for the control of leishmaniasis. However, the drugs currently used for the treatment of leishmaniasis have serious side effects as well as drug resistance issues. Therefore, search for alternative drugs to treat leishmaniasis is widely pursued; often targeting the metabolic pathways of Leishmania which are either absent or different from the mammalian host and involved in survival, pathogenesis and drug resistance of parasite. Herein, we review the aspects of chemotherapy of leishmaniasis by synthetic and natural drugs, their mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics and involvement in the development of drug resistance. Furthermore, regulatory role of trypanothione as key molecule for redox homeostasis via antioxidant enzymes and proteins like tryparedoxin, tryparedoxin peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and ascorbate peroxidase are presented. We have comprehensively discussed thiol metabolism as drug target and its role in parasite survival.

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