Pharmacological activity and biochemical interaction of zingerone: a flavour additive in spice food

Zingerone (4-(4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-butanone) is one of the non-volatile and nontoxic compounds of ginger. It is also called vanillylacetone with a crystalline solid form which is sparingly soluble in water and more soluble in ether. The contribution of this compound in ginger is about 9.25%. The chemical structure is made of a phenolic ring with methoxy group attached to benzene ring. Gingerol can be heated to form zingerone by retroaldol reaction. It has been reported that zingerone has multiple pharmacological activities. It is effective against diarrhoea causing enterotoxigenic bacteria that leads to infant death. It is also used against intestinal gastric, oxidative stress, weak immunity, obesity. During its activity against cancer, it governs the expression of different cell cycle protein and TGF-?1 expression. Antioxidant response is controlled by inducing the activity of ROS neutralising enzymes like superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione reductase. It can also reduce various inflammations by restricting the activity of interleukins. This review summarizes the multiple pharmacology activities of zingerone against various important diseases like cancers, tumors, inflammations, oxidative conditions, microbial infections, biofilm formations, thrombosis and other diseases. In addition, the molecular regulation of these pharmacological responses by zingerone is also critically discussed

In-silico structural modelling of cytochrome complex proteins of white turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria)

Curcuma zedoaria (Christm.) Roscoe (white turmeric) is a perennial herbaceous plant of family Zingiberaceae and mainly found in the wild areas of tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. The cytochrome proteins in plants play important roles in promoting their growth and development, as well as protecting them from stresses and diseases. Cytochrome proteins like psbF, psbE, petB, petD, petN, petG, and ccsA play important roles in degradation of mis-folded proteins, ATP formation, cyclic electron flow and biogenesis of c-type cytochrome of C. zedoaria. However, due to lack of structural availability of these C. zedoaria cytochrome proteins in structural databases, the physiochemical parameters of sequences were estimated using Expasy ProtParam web tool. Self-Optimized Prediction Method with Alignment (SOPMA) server and MODELLER version 9.23 were used for modelling along with Qualitative Model Energy Analysis (QMEAN) and Protein Structure Analysis (ProSA) servers were implemented for validating the secondary and tertiary structures of these proteins. The obtained QMEAN4 values of the modelled cytochrome proteins were -2.04, -1.20, -3.01, -1.57, -2.11, -1.74 and -12.87. The Z-scores obtained from ProSA server were 0.5, -0.83, -1.5, -0.58, -0.02, 0.14 and -3.73. All seven modelled structures have been submitted to protein model database (PMDB). The derived results will be helpful in further investigations towards determining the crystal structure of the hypothetical proteins, structural motifs, physiochemical properties, and also protein-protein interaction studies of various cytochrome proteins

Dielectric relaxation of benzonitrile and tetramethyl urea with N, methylformamide in C6H6 under 9.885 GHz electric field

Dielectric relaxation of binary (jk) polar mixtures of benzonitrile and tetramethyl urea (TMU) with N,methylformamide (NMF) dissolved in benzene (i) for different weight fractions wjk’s of polar solutes and mole function xj’s of NMF at 25, 30, 35 and 40 °C have been studied in terms of relaxation time τjk and dipole moment µjk from conductivity measurement of solution under 9.885 GHz electric field using Debye Model. Solute-solvent and solute-solute association have been predicted from plot of τjk and µjk against xj’s of NMF up to xj=0.5 and beyond xj=0.5 to xj= 1.0, respectively. Estimated τ and µ from both the proposed methods agree with the reported values. Theoretically µ’s have been calculated from bond angles and bond moments of polar groups due to existence of inductive, mesmeric and electromeric effect arising out of microscopic inhomogeneity in them. Molecular dynamics of polar mixtures have been ascertained from Eyring rate equation to establish Debye relaxation mechanism for all systems

Measurement of rheological and thermal properties and the freeze-thaw characteristics of nanofluids

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2008"This research investigates the rheological and thermal properties and the freeze-thaw characteristics of nanofluids. Nanofluids are dispersions of nano-scale particles (<100 nm) in a base fluid such as water, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol or a mixture of more than one fluid. In cold regions, a mixture of 60% ethylene glycol in water by mass (60:40 EG/W) is normally used as the heat transfer fluid due to its low freezing point. Rheological properties of aluminum oxide nanofluid in the 60:40 EG/W base fluid were investigated and new correlations, expressing viscosity as a function of temperature and particle concentration, were developed. Results from the specific heat experiments on zinc oxide nanofluid in the 60:40 EG/W were compared with available correlations and a new model was developed. The thermal conductivity of silicon dioxide nanofluid in a 60:40 EG/W was measured and compared with existing models, considering the Brownian motion of nanoparticles. A new correlation, expressing thermal conductivity as a function of particle concentration, size, base fluid properties and temperature, was proposed by improving an existing model. Freeze-thaw characteristics of copper oxide nanoparticle dispersions in water were studied for a single freeze-thaw cycle. The freezing rate, agglomeration of nanoparticles and the effect on the freezing point of nanofluid were examined"--Leaf iii1. Introduction -- 2. Determination of rheological behavior of aluminum oxide nanofluide and development of new viscosity correlations -- 3. Experimental investigation on the specific heat of zinc oxide nanofluid -- 4. New correlations for the thermal conductivity of silicon dioxide nanofluid from experiments -- 5. Freeze-thaw characteristics of water-based copper oxide nanofluid -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 6. Conclusions

Informality in Non-Cultivation Labour market in India with Special Reference to North-East India

Recent estimate of central statistics office for 2014-15 indicates that share of agriculture in GDP (market price) is about only 14.9 per cent, whereas it employs about 49.5 per cent of India’s total workforce. So moving out of agriculture is itself a desirable outcome for improving productivity in agriculture and also of the economy. But the question is “where will the workers of agriculture sector move to?” given the fact that Indian labour market is becoming more and more informal. Therefore, creation of decent jobs outside agriculture is one of the biggest challenges that confront policymakers. The present paper examines the trend and patterns of informal and formal employment in organised and unorganised non-agriculture sectors with special reference to North-East India. The paper, following National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) defined organised and unorganised sector by taking into account enterprise type and number of workers in enterprise. However, where both these information are missing, social security was taken as a yard stick to measure organised or unorganised sector. We applied logit regressions to find out what are the personal characteristics, household characteristics, and sectoral characteristics to determine the participation in informal sector, and examine whether these determinants are changing over time or not. The study is based on NSSO 2004-05 and 2011-12 employment and unemployment unit level data. The initial result suggests that in the non-agriculture sector, informal employment in unorganised sectors has declined from about 87 per cent to 85 per cent. Thereby it is suggesting, a rise in formal employment within non-cultivation sector. In addition, it is interesting to note that within informal employment in 2004-05 about 29 per cent are female but the corresponding figure for 2011-12 is about 24 per cent. This indicates that proportion of female participation in the informal economy has declined over the years. Similarly it is observed that informality for poorer household has declined for the study period. The logit regression result indicated that being a male reduced the odd of informality by more than 20 per cent in both the periods. Given the slow economic growth in the first half of the new millennium, married female labours were forced to join the informal sector; however, because of rising income in recent past they are not so keen to join the informal employment. Looking at the sectors, it is observed that, being a worker in construction sector and trade, hotel and transport sector increased the odd of joining informal sector many fold. This paper also examines these trends, patterns and determinants, with special reference to North-East region. Finally, the paper looks at the determinants of informality at the macro-level using panel data of the Indian states. The study finds a multitude of factors driving informality thereby implying that a multi-pronged strategy would be required to tackle the problem

Informality in Non-Cultivation Labour market in India with Special Reference to North-East India

Recent estimate of central statistics office for 2014-15 indicates that share of agriculture in GDP (market price) is about only 14.9 per cent, whereas it employs about 49.5 per cent of India’s total workforce. So moving out of agriculture is itself a desirable outcome for improving productivity in agriculture and also of the economy. But the question is “where will the workers of agriculture sector move to?” given the fact that Indian labour market is becoming more and more informal. Therefore, creation of decent jobs outside agriculture is one of the biggest challenges that confront policymakers. The present paper examines the trend and patterns of informal and formal employment in organised and unorganised non-agriculture sectors with special reference to North-East India. The paper, following National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) defined organised and unorganised sector by taking into account enterprise type and number of workers in enterprise. However, where both these information are missing, social security was taken as a yard stick to measure organised or unorganised sector. We applied logit regressions to find out what are the personal characteristics, household characteristics, and sectoral characteristics to determine the participation in informal sector, and examine whether these determinants are changing over time or not. The study is based on NSSO 2004-05 and 2011-12 employment and unemployment unit level data. The initial result suggests that in the non-agriculture sector, informal employment in unorganised sectors has declined from about 87 per cent to 85 per cent. Thereby it is suggesting, a rise in formal employment within non-cultivation sector. In addition, it is interesting to note that within informal employment in 2004-05 about 29 per cent are female but the corresponding figure for 2011-12 is about 24 per cent. This indicates that proportion of female participation in the informal economy has declined over the years. Similarly it is observed that informality for poorer household has declined for the study period. The logit regression result indicated that being a male reduced the odd of informality by more than 20 per cent in both the periods. Given the slow economic growth in the first half of the new millennium, married female labours were forced to join the informal sector; however, because of rising income in recent past they are not so keen to join the informal employment. Looking at the sectors, it is observed that, being a worker in construction sector and trade, hotel and transport sector increased the odd of joining informal sector many fold. This paper also examines these trends, patterns and determinants, with special reference to North-East region. Finally, the paper looks at the determinants of informality at the macro-level using panel data of the Indian states. The study finds a multitude of factors driving informality thereby implying that a multi-pronged strategy would be required to tackle the problem

Heterogeneity and participation in Informal employment among non-cultivator workers in India

Labour informality is one of the most serious challenges for the world and more so for developing economy like India with large scale poverty and little unemployment protection. The provision of decent working conditions becomes prerogative bringing the issue of labour informality into the forefront. This study scrutinized possible heterogeneity within informal employment among the non-cultivator workers in India. It has studied the trend, pattern, and determinants of the various components of the informal employment. It found significant heterogeneity within the informal employment with respect to poverty, age, gender, socio-religious communities, educational attainment, and industrial classification. . Complexity of heterogeneity in informal employment has been rising over time, hence posing serious policy challenges. Cluster analysis carried out to demonstrate the relationship between informality in employment and quality of works. The evidence suggests significant diversity within the informal employment. Multinominal logit was applied to determine the determinants of participation in informal employment. The result further reinforces the complexity in informal employment. The convolution is more with respect to rural and urban area, dependency ratio, marital status, social groups, and poverty. With respect to education the dual market hypothesis was supported. Co-existence of voluntary and involuntary informal employment was also observed. Given the diversity of employment, the paper suggests specific policy deign for different segment of employment to achieve eatable and inclusive growth

Heterogeneity and participation in Informal employment among non-cultivator workers in India

Labour informality is one of the most serious challenges for the world and more so for developing economy like India with large scale poverty and little unemployment protection. The provision of decent working conditions becomes prerogative bringing the issue of labour informality into the forefront. This study scrutinized possible heterogeneity within informal employment among the non-cultivator workers in India. It has studied the trend, pattern, and determinants of the various components of the informal employment. It found significant heterogeneity within the informal employment with respect to poverty, age, gender, socio-religious communities, educational attainment, and industrial classification. . Complexity of heterogeneity in informal employment has been rising over time, hence posing serious policy challenges. Cluster analysis carried out to demonstrate the relationship between informality in employment and quality of works. The evidence suggests significant diversity within the informal employment. Multinominal logit was applied to determine the determinants of participation in informal employment. The result further reinforces the complexity in informal employment. The convolution is more with respect to rural and urban area, dependency ratio, marital status, social groups, and poverty. With respect to education the dual market hypothesis was supported. Co-existence of voluntary and involuntary informal employment was also observed. Given the diversity of employment, the paper suggests specific policy deign for different segment of employment to achieve eatable and inclusive growth

The STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector

Details concerning the design, fabrication and performance of STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) are presented. The PMD will cover the forward region, within the pseudorapidity range 2.3--3.5, behind the forward time projection chamber. It will measure the spatial distribution of photons in order to study collective flow, fluctuation and chiral symmetry restoration.Comment: 15 pages, including 11 figures; to appear in a special NIM volume dedicated to the accelerator and detectors at RHI

Rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and antiproton production from 197Au + 197Au collisions at √SNN = 130 GeV

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and antiproton transverse mass distributions from 197Au + 197Au collisions at sqrt[sNN ]=130 GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of |y| <0.5 and 0.35< pt <1.00 GeV/c . For both protons and antiprotons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within |y| <0.5 . Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton (antiproton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of prehadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account