Development of Zein-Pectin Nanoparticle as Drug carrier

Recent years have witnessed tremendous growth of nanotechnology based drug delivery system which reduces drug toxicity and side effects and increases the therapeutic index of the drug. Aim of the study is to develop a biodegradable, non-toxic nanoparticle, solely from natural polymers. Zein – pectin nanoparticle comprising of a hydrophobic zein core and a hydrophilic pectin shell was developed by ultrasonication method. SEM images confirm the nanosize of the nanoparticle. UV- Visible and FT-IR spectroscopic results confirm the incorporation of zein, pectin and the encapsulation of the model drug quercetin in the nanoparticle. Zein is a prolamine class of protein found in wheat, maize etc and pectin is a polymer of galacturonic acid units found in plant cell wal

Obfuscated Malware Detection in IoT Android Applications Using Markov Images and CNN

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI linkThe threat of malware in the Internet of Things (IoT) is ever-present given that many IoT systems today rely on the Android operating system. There has been a consistent rise in Android malware recently, with new variants adopting sophisticated detection avoidance techniques, including various forms of obfuscation. Hence, there is a need to improve the effectiveness of Android malware detection as obfuscation becomes more prevalent in the wild. In this article, we present a novel approach for obfuscated malware detection in IoT Android applications based on the visualization of app executables with Markov images. The app images are trained using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect obfuscated malware and for the identification of the obfuscation type. We evaluate the performance of the proposed system by experimenting with four different classification models using 12000 Android applications. The CNN model created to distinguish between malware and benign apps obtained an accuracy of 99.41%. The model for identifying obfuscated malware from benign applications obtained 99.65% accuracy while the model created to identify obfuscated malware from non-obfuscated malware yielded an accuracy of 99.81%. The model for classifying obfuscated malware into 14 different obfuscation categories obtained an accuracy of 99.67%. These results show that CNN models trained from Markov images generated using application byte code can be highly effective for obfuscated malware detection and classification. Moreover, our proposed system provides a more sustainable and cost-effective method for obfuscated malware detection compared to the manual feature-engineering-based approaches that are more prevalent in the current literature

Coherence Potentials Encode Simple Human Sensorimotor Behavior

Recent work has shown that large amplitude negative periods in the local field potential (nLFPs) are able to spread in saltatory manner across large distances in the cortex without distortion in their temporal structure forming ‘coherence potentials’. Here we analysed subdural electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals recorded at 59 sites in the sensorimotor cortex in the left hemisphere of a human subject performing a simple visuomotor task (fist clenching and foot dorsiflexion) to understand how coherence potentials arising in the recordings relate to sensorimotor behavior. In all behaviors we found a particular coherence potential (i.e. a cascade of a particular nLFP wave pattern) arose consistently across all trials with temporal specificity. During contrateral fist clenching, but not the foot dorsiflexion or ipsilateral fist clenching, the coherence potential most frequently originated in the hand representation area in the somatosensory cortex during the anticipation and planning periods of the trial, moving to other regions during the actual motor behavior. While these ‘expert’ sites participated more consistently, other sites participated only a small fraction of the time. Furthermore, the timing of the coherence potential at the hand representation area after onset of the cue predicted the timing of motor behavior. We present the hypothesis that coherence potentials encode information relevant for behavior and are generated by the ‘expert’ sites that subsequently broadcast to other sites as a means of ‘sharing knowledge’

National Marine Debris Management Strategy to conserve marine ecosystems

Marine debris which is defined as any persistent,manufactured or processed solid material discarded,disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastalenvironment is one of the most pervasive, yetpotentially solvable, pollution affecting the world’soceans, coastal ecosystems and rivers. Whereasimpacts of most anthropogenic activities are usuallyfound near the point source, marine debris has beenfound to impact even distant locations, oftenaffecting uninhabited areas also. According toUnited Nations Joint Group of Experts on theScientific Aspects of Marine EnvironmentalProtection (GESAMP), 60 to 80%, of the global litterfound in the coastal and marine ecosystems hasoriginated from land and only the rest from seabased activities. The slow degradable nature ofmarine litter and the potential to pollute all spheresof oceans irrespective of point source has raisedthe alarm bells

National Marine Debris Management Strategy to conserve marine ecosystems

Marine debris which is defined as any persistent,manufactured or processed solid material discarded,disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastalenvironment is one of the most pervasive, yetpotentially solvable, pollution affecting the world’soceans, coastal ecosystems and rivers. Whereasimpacts of most anthropogenic activities are usuallyfound near the point source, marine debris has beenfound to impact even distant locations, oftenaffecting uninhabited areas also. According toUnited Nations Joint Group of Experts on theScientific Aspects of Marine EnvironmentalProtection (GESAMP), 60 to 80%, of the global litterfound in the coastal and marine ecosystems hasoriginated from land and only the rest from seabased activities. The slow degradable nature ofmarine litter and the potential to pollute all spheresof oceans irrespective of point source has raisedthe alarm bells

Pathobiological Implications of MUC16 Expression in Pancreatic Cancer

MUC16 (CA125) belongs to a family of high-molecular weight O-glycosylated proteins known as mucins. While MUC16 is well known as a biomarker in ovarian cancer, its expression pattern in pancreatic cancer (PC), the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States, remains unknown. The aim of our study was to analyze the expression of MUC16 during the initiation, progression and metastasis of PC for possible implication in PC diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. In this study, a microarray containing tissues from healthy and PC patients was used to investigate the differential protein expression of MUC16 in PC. MUC16 mRNA levels were also measured by RT-PCR in the normal human pancreatic, pancreatitis, and PC tissues. To investigate its expression pattern during PC metastasis, tissue samples from the primary pancreatic tumor and metastases (from the same patient) in the lymph nodes, liver, lung and omentum from Stage IV PC patients were analyzed. To determine its association in the initiation of PC, tissues from PC patients containing pre-neoplastic lesions of varying grades were stained for MUC16. Finally, MUC16 expression was analyzed in 18 human PC cell lines. MUC16 is not expressed in the normal pancreatic ducts and is strongly upregulated in PC and detected in pancreatitis tissue. It is first detected in the high-grade pre-neoplastic lesions preceding invasive adenocarcinoma, suggesting that its upregulation is a late event during the initiation of this disease. MUC16 expression appears to be stronger in metastatic lesions when compared to the primary tumor, suggesting a role in PC metastasis. We have also identified PC cell lines that express MUC16, which can be used in future studies to elucidate its functional role in PC. Altogether, our results reveal that MUC16 expression is significantly increased in PC and could play a potential role in the progression of this disease

Overfishing and Climate Drives Changes in Biology and Recruitment of the Indian Oil Sardine Sardinella longiceps in Southeastern Arabian Sea

The recent fluctuations in abundance of the Indian oil sardine Sardinella longiceps, a tropical small pelagic clupeid fish, was investigated in the light of overfishing and variations in its habitat ecology in southeastern Arabian Sea. In 2012, its landings peaked to an all-time record making it the fifth largest sardine fishery in the world, and within 3 years the catches were reduced to nearly a tenth of that level. This study examined the fishery dependant factors such as effort, catch rates and expansion of fishing area; the biological variations in fish size, maturity and recruitment; and tried to relate this to the environmental variations in the sardine habitat and food availability. The 2012 mega harvest was a result of a 2-time increase in gear size and engine capacity of fishing crafts and a 3.7-time increase in fishing effort. The female maturation process was strongly influenced primarily by rainfall and then by upwelling and the resulting influx of cold nutrient-rich water in the habitat from April much before the start of the monsoon in June. After 2013, the weak monsoons and the 2015 El Nino Southern Oscillation resulted in a warmer (by an average of 1.1°C) period which negatively impacted the maturation process. The abundance of jellyfishes which are larval and young fish predators in the habitat negatively affected recruitment after 2013. The mismatch in timing of phytoplankton productivity and sardine larvae in the habitat also affected the recruitment success. These environmental divergences coupled with the excessive capture (beyond maximum sustainable yields) of spawning stock and juveniles from 2010 has resulted in this biological catastrophe which has affected the livelihood of thousands of small-scale fishers. A more responsive fisheries administration with timely restriction on fishing effort and protection of spawning stocks by way of fishery closure would have helped minimize the impacts

A ring-like accretion structure in M87 connecting its black hole and jet

The nearby radio galaxy M87 is a prime target for studying black hole accretion and jet formation^{1,2}. Event Horizon Telescope observations of M87 in 2017, at a wavelength of 1.3 mm, revealed a ring-like structure, which was interpreted as gravitationally lensed emission around a central black hole^3. Here we report images of M87 obtained in 2018, at a wavelength of 3.5 mm, showing that the compact radio core is spatially resolved. High-resolution imaging shows a ring-like structure of 8.4_{-1.1}^{+0.5} Schwarzschild radii in diameter, approximately 50% larger than that seen at 1.3 mm. The outer edge at 3.5 mm is also larger than that at 1.3 mm. This larger and thicker ring indicates a substantial contribution from the accretion flow with absorption effects in addition to the gravitationally lensed ring-like emission. The images show that the edge-brightened jet connects to the accretion flow of the black hole. Close to the black hole, the emission profile of the jet-launching region is wider than the expected profile of a black-hole-driven jet, suggesting the possible presence of a wind associated with the accretion flow.Comment: 50 pages, 18 figures, 3 tables, author's version of the paper published in Natur

A ring-like accretion structure in M87 connecting its black hole and jet

The nearby radio galaxy M87 is a prime target for studying black hole accretion and jet formation1,2. Event Horizon Telescope observations of M87 in 2017, at a wavelength of 1.3 mm, revealed a ring-like structure, which was interpreted as gravitationally lensed emission around a central black hole3. Here we report images of M87 obtained in 2018, at a wavelength of 3.5 mm, showing that the compact radio core is spatially resolved. High-resolution imaging shows a ring-like structure of [Formula: see text] Schwarzschild radii in diameter, approximately 50% larger than that seen at 1.3 mm. The outer edge at 3.5 mm is also larger than that at 1.3 mm. This larger and thicker ring indicates a substantial contribution from the accretion flow with absorption effects, in addition\ua0to the gravitationally lensed ring-like emission. The images show that the edge-brightened jet connects to the accretion flow of the black hole. Close to the black hole, the emission profile of the jet-launching region is wider than the expected profile of a black-hole-driven jet, suggesting the possible presence of a wind associated with the accretion flow

The implications of rural perceptions of water scarcity on differential adaptation behaviour in Rajasthan, India

Water scarcity is one of the most critical issues facing agriculture today. To understand how people manage the risk of water scarcity and growing pressures of increased climate variability, exploring perceptions of risk and how these perceptions feed into response behaviour and willingness to adapt is critical. This paper revisits existing frameworks that conceptualise perceptions of environmental risk and decision-making, and uses empirical evidence from an in-depth study conducted in Rajasthan, India, to emphasise how individual and collective memories, and experience of past extreme events shape current definitions and future expectations of climatic risks. In doing so, we demonstrate the value of recognising the role of local perceptions of water scarcity (and how they vary between and within households) in constructing social vulnerability. We also discuss the implications of these perceptions of risk when understanding and incentivising local adaptation pathways