Agricultural Fertility Rituals of Sangam Tamil people and their Cultural Celebrations

With land, plowing, agriculture, the age-old knowledge, relationship, labor, and feeling associated with paddy and cows are still present in the social context as agricultural cultural customs and plowing cultural traditions. Most of the cultural expressions and ritual traditions of the Tamils are symbols of the prosperity of the agricultural production process. Whatever was part of the agricultural tradition, they have been carried forward through the ages as symbols, idols, and rituals of worship

Objectives of Teaching and Interactive Learning

An important aspect of teaching is to promote learners’ awareness and an appropriate learning strategy can enhance success with the learning task. The different types of Strategies like Memory, Cognitive, Compensation, Social Strategies and skills provide the learners with the opportunity to practice progress in their own way. The main role of the English teacher is to help students discover effective approaches to learning and to stimulate knowledge and provides kills to the learners. They must adapt various approaches to teaching in order to serve the needs of the students. Teaching methodologies define specific roles for a teacher as an analyst, curriculum developer, counselor, mentor, and a researcher. Researchers of class room interaction have developed observational systems to describe and classify patterns of student-teacher interaction. Teachers create their own roles within the classroom based on their theories of teaching and learning. A more recent model of teaching used in mainstream education, known as active teaching reflects the management and monitoring of learning as a primary role for teachers. The study highlights the ways in which the teachers and learners can collaboratively engage in developing effective approaches to interactive learning

Kurunthogai Heroine- Cultural Records

Evidence for the Archaic Antiquity of the Tamil Language is Sangam literature. As explained in the Sangam literature, the Tamil word 'Pan' means merit. If 'padu' also means worldly morality then it can mean qualified worldly morality. Cultural levels are prevalent in Sangam literature. Domestic life is also defined as the specialty of living together even without a home. It can be realized that culture is seen in Sangam literature from the fact that the hero was very fond of the heroine and both the hero and heroine were very happy in their lives. The purpose of the article is that the culture of the poets of the Sangam period is manifested in that even though there are various emotions like hospitality, friendship, enmity, love, hatred and love. The poets of the Sangam period have chosen the high quality

Protective effects of Marine Sponge Extract MS01 on Neuronal Cell Lines

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), byproducts of aerobic respiration, play a crucial role in cellular signal transduction. However, excessive ROS production can lead to cell death by damaging DNA, proteins, and lipids. Neuroprotection, a defensive mechanism that mitigates cell degeneration and initiates cell regeneration, can be facilitated by bioactive proteins and other substances abundant in marine sponges. In this study, we employed flow cytometry to investigate the protective effects of the sponge extract MS01 against ROS in fibroblast cell lines (L929) as well as human neuronal cell lines (HMC3 and U251). Results: Our findings indicate that MS01 exhibits notable AChE inhibitory activity, with an IC50 value of 265.13 µg/ml. Furthermore, assessments conducted on the human malignant glioma cell line and human microglial clone 3 revealed no potential for cell death, demonstrating the non-toxic nature of the extract. Flow cytometry analysis using FITC antibody in L929 cells demonstrated a reduction in iNOS activity with a mean fluorescent intensity of 62.12 MFI, indicating therapeutic potential. Moreover, MS01 significantly decreased H2DCFDA fluorescence expression in H2O2-treated cells, indicating its protective properties. Conclusion: The results of this study show that MS01, an extract obtained from marine sponges, appears promising for the treatment for neurodegeneration. The findings demonstrate that MS01 has characteristics that may reduce acetylcholinesterase activity, scavenge nitric oxide radicals, and efficiently suppress reactive oxygen species. The test compound additionally demonstrated no evidence of causing apoptosis or toxicity in healthy brain cells, confirming its potential therapeutic utility.&nbsp

Bioefficacy of ethiprole + pymetrozine against the white-backed planthopper Sogatella furcifera (Howard), in rice (ADT – 46)

The nymphs and adults of white-backed planthoppers (Sogatella furcifera, Howard) remove plant sap resulting in yield loss. Indiscriminate use of insecticides, results in the development of resistance by insects and ill effects on the environment opening the new era of chemicals with novel modes of action with good bioefficacy, higher selectivity, low mammalian toxicity and safety to the environment. Therefore, the introduction of newer insecticide molecules with alternate modes of action will play a serious role in pest management programs. Hence, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the bioefficacy of ethiprole + pymetrozine against white-backed planthopper of rice (ADT – 46) under laboratory and field conditions at Annamalai University, Chidambaram during 2018-20. Ethiprole + pymetrozine @ (T1 - 36.91 + 138), (T2 - 40.13 + 150) and (T3 - 45.47 + 170) g a.i ha-1 with standard checks T4 - pymetrozine @ (150) g a.i ha-1, T5 - buprofezin @ (200) g a.i ha-1 and T6 - ethiprole + imidacloprid @ (50 + 50) g a.i ha-1 were evaluated against white-backed planthopper. The standard checks were of positive control i.e., reference insecticides which is in common use The results revealed that T3 recorded the lowest population of white-backed planthopper/hill at 15 day after spraying (1.13 hoppers/hill in August – December 2018 and 1.79 hoppers/hill in August – December 2019 respectively) giving better yield. The population of natural enemies was comparatively lower in all insecticidal treatments than in the control

An IOT based smart metering development for energy management system

The worldwide energy demand is increasing and hence necessity measures need to be taken to reduce the energy wastage with proper metering infrastructure in the buildings. A Smart meter can be used to monitor electricity consumption of customers in the smart grid technology. For allocating the available resources proper energy demand management is required. During the past years, various methods are being utilized for energy demand management to precisely calculate the requirements of energy that is yet to come. A large system presents a potential esteem to execute energy conservation as well as additional services linked to energy services, extended as a competent with end user is executed. The supervising system at the utilities determines the interface of devices with significant advantages, while the communication with the household is frequently proposing particular structures for appropriate buyer-oriented implementation of a smart meter network. Also, this paper concentrates on the estimation of vitality utilization. In this paper energy is measured in units and also product arrangement is given to create bill for energy consumption and implementing in LabVIEW software. An IOT based platform is created for remote monitoring of the metering infrastructure in the real time. The data visualization is also carried out in webpage and the data packet loss is investigated in the remote monitoring of the parameters

CD4 Effectors Need to Recognize Antigen Locally to Become Cytotoxic CD4 and Follicular Helper T Cells [preprint]

T follicular helper (TFH) and Cytotoxic CD4 (ThCTL) are tissue-restricted CD4 effector subsets, functionally specialized to mediate optimal Ab production and cytotoxicity of infected cells. Influenza infection generates robust CD4 responses, including lung ThCTL and SLO TFH, that protect against reinfection by variant strains. Antigen (Ag) presentation after infection, lasts through the effector phase of the response. Here, we show that this effector phase Ag presentation, well after priming, is required to drive CD4 effectors to ThCTL and TFH. Using in vivo influenza models, we varied Ag presentation to effectors acutely, just at the effector phase. Ag presentation was required in the tissue of effector residence. We suggest these requirements contain unnecessary or potentially pathogenic CD4 responses, only allowing them if infection is uncleared. The results imply that providing effector phase Ag, would lead to stronger humoral and CD4 tissue immunity and thus can be applied to improve vaccine design

The functional and structural associations of aberrant microglial activity in major depressive disorder

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating mental illness that has been linked to increases in markers of inflammation, as well as to changes in brain functional and structural connectivity, particularly between the insula and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC). In this study, we directly related inflammation and dysconnectivity in treatment-resistant MDD by concurrently measuring the following: microglial activity with [18F]N-2-(fluoroethoxyl)benzyl-N-(4phenoxypyridin-3-yl)acetamide ([18F]FEPPA) positron emission tomography (PET); the severity of MDD; and functional or structural connectivity among insula or sgACC nodes. Methods: Twelve patients with treatment-resistant MDD (8 female, 4 male; mean age ± standard deviation 54.9 ± 4.5 years and 23 healthy controls (11 female, 12 male; 60.3 ± 8.5 years) completed a hybrid [18F]FEPPA PET and MRI acquisition. From these, we extracted relative standardized uptake values for [18F]FEPPA activity and Pearson r-to-z scores representing functional connectivity from our regions of interest. We extracted diffusion tensor imaging metrics from the cingulum bundle, a key white matter bundle in MDD. We performed regressions to relate microglial activity with functional connectivity, structural connectivity and scores on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Results: We found significantly increased [18F]FEPPA uptake in the left sgACC in patients with treatment-resistant MDD compared to healthy controls. Patients with MDD also had a reduction in connectivity between the sgACC and the insula. The [18F]FEPPA uptake in the left sgACC was significantly related to functional connectivity with the insula, and to the structural connectivity of the cingulum bundle. [18F]FEPPA uptake also predicted scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Limitations: A relatively small sample size, lack of functional task data and concomitant medication use may have affected our findings. Conclusion: We present preliminary evidence linking a network-level dysfunction relevant to the pathophysiology of depression and related to increased microglial activity in MDD

The phosphatase PTEN-mediated control of PI-3 kinase in Tregs cells maintains homeostasis and lineage stability

Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are required for immune homeostasis. One notable distinction between conventional T cells (Tconv) and Tregs is differential phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activity: only Tconv downregulate PTEN, the primary negative regulator of PI3K, upon activation. Here, we show that control of PI3K in Tregs is essential for lineage homeostasis and stability. Mice lacking Pten in Tregs developed an autoimmune-lymphoproliferative disease characterized by excessive TH1 responses and B cell activation. Diminished control of PI3K activity in Tregs led to reduced CD25 expression, accumulation of Foxp3+CD25− cells and ultimately, loss of Foxp3 expression in these cells. Collectively, these data demonstrate that control of PI3K signaling by PTEN in Tregs is critical to maintain their homeostasis, function and stability