Excellence is the Real Enemy of Practicality! Relevance to Radiation Countermeasure Development

Radiation countermeasures development was undertaken almost six decade ago at AFRRI, USA with the aim to protect military as well as civilian personals against accidental or deliberate radiation exposure. Later on, with the advancement of radiation technologies and exploration of X-ray or γ-rays for diagnostics and therapeutic purposes, probability of radiation exposure was enhanced multifold. Therefore, importance of radiation countermeasures development was recognised globally. However, despite the concentrated efforts, till date not a single FDA approved radio protective drug is available for emergency uses. Major impediments identified in this are included variability in radio protective efficacy with different experimental models, radiation dose rate, radiation types and differential radio sensitivity of various biological systems. No way to evaluate radio protective efficacy of an agent in human volunteers. It is sufficient to realise that uniform excellence may not be achieved in the area of radiation countermeasure development. However, practical excellence based on the radioprotector’s application scenario can be achieved. Different radiation accidental scenarios and feasible practical parameters of excellence for radiation countermeasure development for particular types of incidental, accidental or deliberated radiation exposure are described

Valence electronic structure of Mn in undoped and doped lanthanum manganites from relative K x-ray intensity studies

Relative $K$ x-ray intensities of $Mn$ in $Mn$, $MnO_{2}$, $LaMnO_{3}$ and $La_{0.7}B_{0.3}MnO_{3}$ ($B$ = $Ca$, $Sr$, and $Ce$) systems have been measured following excitation by 59.54 keV $\gamma$-rays from a 200 mCi $^{241}$Am point-source. The measured results for the compounds deviate significantly from the results of pure $Mn$. Comparison of the experimental data with the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) effective atomic model calculations indicates reasonable agreement with the predictions of ionic model for the doped {manganites except} that the electron doped $La_{0.7}Ce_{0.3}MnO_{3}$ and hole doped $La_{0.7}Ca_{0.3}MnO_{3}$ compounds show some small deviations. The results of $MnO_{2}$ and $LaMnO_{3}$ deviate considerably from the predictions of the ionic model. Our measured $K\beta/K\alpha$ ratio of $Mn$ in $La_{0.7}Ca_{0.3}MnO_{3}$ cannot be explained as a linear superposition of $K\beta/K\alpha$ ratios of $Mn$ for the end members which is in contrast to the recent proposal by Tyson et al. from their $Mn$ $K\beta$ spectra.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. to appear in NIM-B.Please send an e-mail for figure

Post-emergence herbicides efficacy for weed managment in kharif maize

Not AvailableThe escalating labour prices have significantly increased the production cost of kharif maize in India. To addressthis, a field experiment was conducted (2017) to evaluate the efficacy of post-emergence herbicide in kharif maize(Zea mays L.) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Pusa Campus, New Delhi. The tank-mix post-emergenceherbicide application, viz. tembotrione (120 g/ha) or topramezone (25.2 g/ha) at 15 DAS with 75% atrazine (750 g/ha) or as a sequential application at 25 DAS after pre-emergence (PE) 75% atrazine gave significant weed control inkharif maize by reducing density and dry weight. Significantly higher weed-control efficiency, weed-control index,herbicide efficiency index and lower weed persistence index were found in weed-free check, which was at par withPE atrazine (1000 g/ha) followed by hand weeding at 25 DAS and the post-emergence herbicide application oftembotrione (120 g/ha) /topramezone (25.2 g/ha) as tank-mix with 75% atrazine dose as early post-emergence at 15DAS or as the sequential application of these combinations. Significantly lowest weed index was observed in thesequential application of tembotrione/topramezone at 25 DAS after 75% atrazine dose as PE while the highest weedindex (49.3) with alone halosulfuron application. It was concluded that the application of post-emergence herbicide,viz. tembotrione (120 g/ha) /topramezone (25.2 g/ha) as tank-mix at 15 DAS with 75% dose of atrazine (750 g/ha)or as a sequential application at 25 DAS after 75% atrazine as PE found promising for better weed control and grainyield in kharif maize.Not Availabl

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele