A study to assess the level of knowledge regarding prevention and management of acute respiratory infection among mothers of children 0-5 years in selected hospital in Siliguri

Background: In developing countries like India acute respiratory infection (ARI) contributes in child mortality upto 75% and out of 10, 7 deaths are due to ARI. The knowledge of the mothers towards the disease is a significant determinant of child’s health.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study included 100 mothers of children 0-5 years admitted in pediatric ward and postnatal ward in selected hospital Siliguri during the year 2022 in the month of March. Data was collected using structured interview method.Results: 20% of mothers have good knowledge in prevention and 33% had good knowledge in management of ARI.Conclusions: As the leading cause of death among children, knowledge assessment about ARI among the mothers is very important, which helps for better understanding of the intensity of the problem

Seroprevalence of contagious ecthyma in goats of Assam: An analysis by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

Aim: The objective of this study was to screen the prevalence of contagious ecthyma (CE) among the goat population of Assam owing to its high prevalence rate. Materials and Methods: In this study, a total of 231 serum samples were collected from 12 districts of Assam during September 2013 to July 2014. The serum samples were tested for the presence of antibodies against Orf virus (ORFV) by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Indirect ELISA was standardized using purified Orf reference virus produced in bulk in primary lamb testes cells. Results: Studies on seroprevalence showed 76.62% of goats were seropositive. The total number of animals were divided into different age groups starting from 0-2 months, 2-4 months, 4-6 months, and above 8 months and accordingly highest prevalence of antibodies against ORFV was recorded in the age-group above 8 months of age. Significantly, lower rates of infection were observed in goats of age group 2-4 months. This study recorded that seropositivity from naturally infected animals and in contact apparently healthy animals to be 53.67% and 46.32%, respectively. Conclusion: The results indicated that CE is a prevalent infection in goats of Assam, and the healthy population is at increased risk of infection

Comparative molecular dynamics simulation studies for determining factors contributing to the thermostability of chemotaxis protein “CheY”

<div><p>Comparative molecular dynamics simulations of chemotaxis protein “CheY” from thermophilic origin <i>Thermotoga maritima</i> and its mesophilic counterpart <i>Salmonella enterica</i> have been performed for 10 ns each at 300 and 350 K, and 20 ns each at 400 and 450 K. The trajectories were analyzed in terms of different factors like root-mean-square deviation, root-mean-square fluctuation, radius of gyration, solvent accessible surface area, H-bonds, salt bridge content, and protein–solvent interactions which indicate distinct differences between the two of them. The two proteins also follow dissimilar unfolding pathways. The overall flexibility calculated by the trace of the diagonalized covariance matrix displays similar flexibility of both the proteins near their optimum growth temperatures. However, at higher temperatures mesophilic protein shows increased overall flexibility than its thermophilic counterpart. Principal component analysis also indicates that the essential subspaces explored by the simulations of two proteins at different temperatures are nonoverlapping and they show significantly different directions of motion. However, there are significant overlaps within the trajectories and similar direction of motions are observed for both proteins at 300 K. Overall, the mesophilic protein leads to increased conformational sampling of the phase space than its thermophilic counterpart. This is the first ever study of thermostability of CheY protein homologs by using protein dynamism as a main impact. Our study might be used as a model for studying the molecular basis of thermostability of two homologous proteins from two organisms living at different temperatures with less visible differences.</p></div

Characterization and Density Functional Theory Optimization of a Simultaneous Binder (FSG-XO) of Two Different Species Exploiting HOMO–LUMO Levels: Photoelectronic and Analytical Applications

A cost-time effective mesoporous ion-exchange material (FSG-XO) has been synthesized by immobilizing xylenol orange on functionalized silica gel. Its spatially separated highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) have been used for the simultaneous sorption of two different metal centers at their respective high and low oxidation states. The characterization of its corresponding nanomaterial, {Si­[OSi]_{<i>p</i>=2–4}[OH]_{<i>m</i>=2–0} <i>x</i>H_<i>2</i>O}_<i>n</i>[−Si­(CH₃)₂–NH–C₆H₄–NN–XO]₄ has been assessed by a set of sophisticated analysis. FSG-XO possesses high SA_BET (346.22 m²/g), PV (0.431549 cm³/g), uniform pore size (width, 47.1; and diameter, 50.3 nm), high chemical (4 M HNO₃) and thermal stability (140 °C), high level of reusability (<1000 cycles), high BTC (240 μM g^–1) and high PF (111). The spatially well separated (931.6 pm) HOMO (−6.1631 eV)–LUMO (4.2795 eV) with a band gap of 10.44 eV denies any sort of charge recombination and proves its utility as a light emitting diode source and it shows its applicability as good donor–acceptor organic electronic device. The extractor exhibits its outstanding performance in binding molecular I₂ at its LUMO and enhances its breakthrough capacity by the same amount as obtained after the full saturation of HOMO by an electrophile (Zn­(II))

Synthesis, crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface, and DFT studies of a Copper(II) complex of 5,5′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine and 1,2,2-trimethylcyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxylic acid

A new metal-organic hybrid complex [Cu(5,5′-dmbipy) (D-cam) (H2O)]n (1), (5,5′-dmbipy = 5,5′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine, D-cam = D-camphoric acid anion) was hydrothermally synthesized. This complex was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, TGA, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Crystallographic studies show that the title complex 1 crystallizes in an orthorhombic system with a P212121 space group with a = 06.9518(05) Ǻ, b = 13.5516(13) Ǻ, c = 22.6380(02)Ǻ; V = 2132.7(3) Ǻ3. The title CuII complex adopts a square pyramidal configuration. DFT study and Hirshfeld topology analysis of complex 1 was also done. The crystal achieves its three-dimensional structure and stability through polymeric chains having helical motifs of arrangement in between moieties and interconnected through hydrogen bonding interactions between the apical water molecule and non-coordinated oxygen atoms of the D-cam2- ligands. TGA, DFT calculations and Hirshfeld topology analysis revealed that the title complex 1 was stable