PROTEIN DEGRADATION AND 14C AMINO-ACID INCORPORATION RATES INTO THE FOOT MUSCLE PROTEINS OF POND SNAIL PILA GLOBOSA DURING AESTIVATION

Protein degradation and14C amino-acid incorporation rates in the foot muscle proteins of the pond snail,Pila globosa were studied with reference to aestivation. Lysosomal enzymes like: cathepsin, acid phosphatase except β-glucoronidase showed a decrease in activity on aestivation. Cathepsin activity showed an elevated temperature optimum on aestivation. Decreased proteolysis and autolysis on aestivation indicated a lowered turnover of proteins. To test this14C amino-acid incorporation rates were examined. Total proteins, myosin, actin, actomyosin, and tropomyosin did not exhibit any change in their incorporation rates. Sarcoplasmic proteins and collagen fraction decreased significantly in contrast to paramyosin on aestivation. It was concluded that aestivation resulted in changes in heterogeneous turnover of certain protein molecules

Protein degradation and14C amino-acid incorporation rates into the foot muscle proteins of pond snailPila globosa during aestivation

Protein degradation and14C amino-acid incorporation rates in the foot muscle proteins of the pond snail,Pila globosa were studied with reference to aestivation. Lysosomal enzymes like: cathepsin, acid phosphatase except β-glucoronidase showed a decrease in activity on aestivation. Cathepsin activity showed an elevated temperature optimum on aestivation. Decreased proteolysis and autolysis on aestivation indicated a lowered turnover of proteins. To test this14C amino-acid incorporation rates were examined. Total proteins, myosin, actin, actomyosin, and tropomyosin did not exhibit any change in their incorporation rates. Sarcoplasmic proteins and collagen fraction decreased significantly in contrast to paramyosin on aestivation. It was concluded that aestivation resulted in changes in heterogeneous turnover of certain protein molecules

Machine-Learning-Based Exploration of Bending Flexoelectricity in Novel 2D Van der Waals Bilayers

Accurate examination of electricity generation stemming from higher-order deformation (flexoelectricity) in 2D layered materials is a highly challenging task to be investigated with either conventional computational or experimental tools. To address this challenge herein an innovative and computationally efficient approach on the basis of density functional theory (DFT) and machine-learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) with incorporated long-range interactions to accurately investigate the flexoelectric energy conversion in 2D van der Waals (vdW) bilayers is proposed. In this approach, short-range interactions are accurately defined using the moment tensor potentials trained over computationally inexpensive DFT-based datasets. The long-range electrostatic (charge and dipole) and vdW interaction parameters are calibrated from DFT simulations. Elaborated comparison of mechanical and piezoelectric properties extracted from the herein proposed approach with available data confirms the accuracy of the devised computational strategy. It is shown that the bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides can show a flexoelectric coefficient 2–7 times larger than their monolayer counterparts. Noticeably, this enhancement reaches up to 20 times for Janus diamane and fluorinated boron-nitrogen derivatives of diamane bilayers. The presented results improve the understanding of the flexoelectric effect in vdW heterostructures and moreover the proposed MLIP-based methodology offers a robust tool to improve the design of novel energy harvesting devices. © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Energy Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH

Vertical and longitudinal electron density structures of equatorial E- and F-regions

From global soundings of ionospheric electron density made with FORMOSAT 3/COSMIC satellites for September 2006–August 2009, day-night variations in vertical and longitudinal structures of the electron densities in equatorial E- and F-regions for different seasons are investigated for the first time. The results reveal that the wavenumber-3 and wavenumber-4 patterns dominated the nighttime (22:00–04:00 LT) F-region longitudinal structures in solstice and in equinox seasons, respectively. In daytime (08:00–18:00 LT) F-region, the wavenumber-4 patterns governed the longitudinal structures in the September equinox and December solstice, and wavenumber-3 in March equinox and June solstice respectively. A comparison of the daytime and nighttime longitudinal electron density structures indicates that they are approximately 180° out of phase with each other. It is believed that this out of phase relation is very likely the result of the opposite phase relation between daytime and nighttime nonmigrating diurnal tidal winds that modulate background E-region dynamo electric field at different places, leading to the day-night change in the locations of the equatorial plasma fountains that are responsible for the formation of the F-region longitudinal structures. Further, a good consistency between the locations of the density structures in the same seasons of the different years for both daytime and nighttime epochs has been noticed indicating that the source mechanism for these structures could be the same

State of Primary Education among Tribals: Issues and Challenges

Scheduled Tribes have always been a geographically and socially isolated group in Indian society, besides being a culturally-economically marginalized society. Their areas were by and large sparsely populated and had evolved over centuries their own system of maintaining law and order. The British also allowed them to live according to their own way of life. The national leaders, however, were aware of their backwardness and were eager to take measures for their betterment.  As a result a few provisions were adopted in the Government of India Act 1935.During the post-Independence period, the policy makers have made sincere and concerted efforts for overall development of these groups both economically as well as educationally. Despite these efforts the performance of the tribal groups is much lower when compared to other marginalized groups like Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Castes. The available literature on tribal primary education suggests, most of the time the policymakers’ approach was only to develop a national curriculum instead of giving importance to their skill-oriented, practical capabilities which has impacted their life in a more serious manner

Highly anisotropic mechanical and optical properties of 2D NbOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) revealed by first-principle

In the latest experimental success, NbOI2 two-dimensional (2D) crystals with anisotropic electronic and optical properties have been fabricated (Adv. Mater. 33 (2021), 2101505). In this work inspired by the aforementioned accomplishment, we conduct first-principles calculations to explore the mechanical, electronic, and optical properties of NbOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) nanosheets. We show that individual layers in these systems are weakly bonded, with exfoliation energies of 0.22, 0.23, and 0.24 J m-2, for the isolation of the NbOCl2, NbOBr2, and NbOI2 monolayers, respectively, distinctly lower than those of the graphene. The optoelectronic properties of the single-layer, bilayer, and bulk NbOCl2, NbOBr2, and NbOI2 crystals are investigated via density functional theory calculations with the HSE06 approach. Our results indicate that the layered bulk NbOCl2, NbOBr2, and NbOI2 crystals are indirect gap semiconductors, with band gaps of 1.79, 1.69, and 1.60 eV, respectively. We found a slight increase in the electronic gap for the monolayer and bilayer systems due to electron confinement at the nanoscale. Our results show that the monolayer and bilayer of these novel 2D compounds show suitable valence and conduction band edge positions for visible-light-driven water splitting reactions. The first absorption peaks of these novel monolayers along the in-plane polarization are located in the visible range of light which can be a promising feature to design advanced nanoelectronics. We found that the studied 2D systems exhibit highly anisotropic mechanical and optical properties. The presented first-principles results provide a comprehensive vision about direction-dependent mechanical and optical properties of NbOX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) nanosheets

Simulations of silicon nanowire sensor and an integrated smart bio-nano sensor

Background: Simulation-based nano biosensors have been introduced in recent times that will provide a model for the researchers to verify various critical functions of them, which could effectively save time, money, and effort. Materials and Methods: In this study, we have performed simulations of a silicon nanowire (Si-NW) biosensor, and its various parameters were evaluated. This silicon sensor was designed using the BiosensorLab tool, a simulator from the nanohub website. This paper also presented an Integrated Smart Bio-nano Sensor. The motivation behind this smart sensor was that an incident happened in one of the southern states of India, in the year 2020; the leakage of styrene gas (C8H8) from the Polymers industry caused 12 deaths and several people hospitalized. Most people died after they inhaled styrene gas because they thought the pungent smell (of styrene gas) was also part of their kitchen’s emissions. This incident prompted us to propose an Integrated Smart Bio-nano Sensor. Results: The proposed sensor was capable of classifying the origin of sources of emissions dynamically (smart), even under lower concentrations of gas levels (25 ppm) and could alert the habitants in case of untoward danger. Conclusions: After verifying settling time vs. analyte concentration, the density of captured target molecules concentration with time vs. time, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the biosensor in the presence of parasitic molecules vs. receptor density, it was concluded that these three parameters have helped in identifying the characteristics of the proposed bio-nano sensor