AWARENESS AND USAGE OF E-RESOURCES OF N-LIST CONSORTIUM: A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO ACADEMIC COLLEGES OF MUMBAI

The higher educational institutions in India are awarded ratings and rankings by the national agencies like NAAC and NIRF. In this competitive environment the higher educational institutions need to keep pace with the developments that are taking place all over the world and prepare students to compete with their counter parts with greater skills and knowledge. Here comes the role of the library and it is the responsibility of the institutes to acquire e-resources and strengthen the library collection. An attempt has been made in this paper to assess the use of electronic resources particularly N-LIST programme by the college students of Mumbai Suburban area. A structured questionnaire was distributed among 300 respondents, 200 duly filled in questionnaires were received and the data is analyzed. The major findings of the study revealed that 50% of respondents are using e-resources of N –LIST Programme and 50% of them are not using, e-books are the most used e-resources of N-LIST as much as 88 respondents have accessed these resources for their study. Further the study revealed that the majority of the respondents said their main purpose of using e-resources through N-LIST is to prepare ‘Class Notes’ (92) & ‘Assignments’ (88). However, the situation is still alarming in colleges as amny as 89 respondents said they do not know about e-resources of N-LIST consortium. Based on the findings it is suggested that regular training programmes should be conducted by the college libraries to create awareness and optimum utilization of e-resources particularly of N-LIST consortium

Procoagulant serine glycoprotease from Cucumis sativus L.: action on human fibrinogen and fibrin clot

Upon examination of the fruit extract of Cucumis sativus L. for its pharmacological benefits, it was previously observed that it has potential proteolytic, fibrinogenolytic and procoagulant activities. These properties can be attributed to the presence of the protease. In this regard, the present study comprised of purification and characterization of protease. Purification of the enzyme involved ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by gel filtration and ion exchange chromatography. The purified cucumis protease (CPro) exhibits homogeneity as attested by SDS-PAGE and RP-HPLC with a retention time of 14.246 min with molecular mass ~75.3 kDa. CPro was identified as a glycoprotein and serine protease. Azocasein is the preferred substrate for CPro as it showed low Km value of 0.3809 mg/ml. Purified CPro exhibits optimum activity at 37 °C and pH 8. CPro shows its involvement in hemostasis---the very first step in wound healing. CPro degrades the subunits of human fibrinogen in the order Aα > Bβ > γ. It also hydrolyzes the subunits of the partially cross-linked fibrin clot in the order α-polymer > γ—γ dimer > β-chain. CPro reduced the clotting time of citrated plasma, prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time of plasma. CPro is neither hemorrhagic nor edema-inducing, thus considered to be a non-toxic protease. This work provides evidence for the use of cucumber extract in wound healing and authenticates its use in cosmetics

Application and Comparative Evaluation of Fluorescent Antibody, Immunohistochemistry and Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Tests for the Detection of Rabies Virus Antigen or Nucleic Acid in Brain Samples of Animals Suspected of Rabies in India

Accurate and early diagnosis of animal rabies is critical for undertaking public health measures. Whereas the direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) technique is the recommended test, the more convenient, direct rapid immunochemistry test (dRIT), as well as the more sensitive, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), have recently been employed for the laboratory diagnosis of rabies. We compared the three methods on brain samples from domestic (dog, cat, cattle, buffalo, horse, pig and goat) and wild (leopard, wolf and jackal) animals from various parts of India. Of the 257 samples tested, 167 were positive by all the three tests; in addition, 35 of the 36 decomposed samples were positive by RT-PCR. This is the first study in which such large number of animal samples have been subjected to the three tests simultaneously. The results confirm 100% corroboration between DFA and dRIT, buttress the applicability of dRIT in the simple and rapid diagnosis of rabies in animals, and reaffirm the suitability of RT-PCR for samples unfit for testing either by DFA or dRIT