Customer Service--A Need for Survival

Customers are the ones who make or break a firm. It has become of utmost importance for today’s organizations to understand the true value of customers.Customer Service

Innovation and Development in Information Technology in India: Specific to Software Industry

Information technology (IT) plays an important role in development of business, boosting economic growth and employment by energising higher education sector. Software sector is a major component of IT industry. Development of indigenous software products is necessary for nation’s economy through development in software industry. Under ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make In India programmes major institutions are involved in policies and initiative programmes, R&D and innovation for growth of software industry. The paper attempts to highlight the crucial contribution of key stakeholders such as universities, technical research institute and private-public software firms, STPI and industrial association for development of software products and services. The Indian Government has taken many initiatives for promotion and adoption of Free & Open Source Software for increasing foreign exchanges, developing indigenous products and achieving vendor’s independence. The paper raise question about unavailability of indigenous software products as compared to Microsoft and other foreign vendor’s products in Indian market. Various institutions are still working on creation of indigenous software and in upcoming time novel products and technologies will be provided by India to domestic and global IT market

Probing the Dynamic Organization of Transcription Compartments and Gene Loci within the Nucleus of Living Cells

AbstractThe three-dimensional organization of nuclear compartments within living cells determines genome function and yet their underlying self-organizing principles are unclear. We visualize in real-time transcriptionally active compartments (TCs) by the transient enrichment of fluorescently-labeled uridine 5′-triphosphate molecules within living cells. These TCs partially colocalize with active RNA-Pol II in the cell nucleus. Fluorescence anisotropy maps of chromatin compaction evidences a more open chromatin structure at the TCs. Using live-cell timelapse imaging, heterogeneity in the dynamic behavior of TCs has been revealed which falls into three distinct classes: subdiffusive, super-diffusive, and normal diffusive behavior. In contrast, the mobility of a candidate gene locus, either in the repressed or activated state, undergoes a differential restricted motion that is coupled to TC movement. Further TC dynamics is directly affected by small molecule chromatin structure modulators and adenosine triphosphate depletion. This heterogeneous behavior in TC dynamics within living cells could provide an interesting paradigm to explore the spatiotemporal dimension to gene transcription control

Kinetic measurement of ribosome motor stalling force

We measure the ribosome motor stalling forces to unzip mRNA polymers during gene expression. An approach of using the changes in the reaction rate constants to determine the molecular motor forces is presented. Specific antisense DNA oligomers complementary to mRNA templates are used as kinetic barriers for estimating the ribosome forces using real time bioluminescence detection of luciferase gene expression. The rate constants are determined by comparing the experimental data with numerical simulation of gene expression to deduce the ribosome force (26.5±1 pN) required to unzip mRNA polymers. Understanding the forces generated by the ribosome may also enable the construction of information-based artificial nanoscale machines

MANGIFERIN PROTECTS RENAL IMPAIRMENT AGAINST BENZO(A)PYRENE INDUCED TOXICITY BY REGULATING MITOCHONDRIAL AND DNA INTEGRITY

Contaminated food and water ingestion and inhalation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon are the main sources of human exposure to benzo(a)pyrene leading to cause renal injury and provoking a nephropathic response. Mangiferin is a highly potent antioxidant present in mango and known for several medicinal properties. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the renoprotective effect of mangiferin against benzo(a)pyrene induced toxicity. Benzo(a)pyrene was administered at a dose of 120.0 mg/kg once alone or in combination with mangiferin at 10.0 and 20.0 mg/kg for seven days in Swiss albino mice. Exposure to benzo(a)pyrene decreased the activities of glutathione peroxidase and increased glutathione-S-transferase level in the kidneys of mice. Moreover, DNA alkaline unwinding assay exhibit a significant decrease in F-value for the toxic control group in comparison to the normal mice, which is a marker for alteration in DNA integrity. Benzo(a)pyrene treatment also revealed an increased number of micronuclei in polychromatic erythrocytes in comparison with the control group indicating chromosomal damage in erythrocytes of bone marrow. Mangiferin pretreatment significantly improved the renal mitochondrial antioxidant status and restored the renal DNA integrity, thus demonstrating the protective effect in benzo(a)pyrene-treated mice. Dietary inclusion of mangiferin could exert protective effects against renal toxicity resulting from benzo(a)pyrene exposure.Keywords: Benzo(a)pyrene, GPx, GST, Mangiferin, Micronucleus Â

Metabolic fingerprinting of joint tissue of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rat

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease whose major characteristics persistent joint inflammation that results in joint destruction and failure of the function. Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rat is an autoimmune disease model and in many ways shares features with RA. The CIA is associated with systemic manifestations, including alterations in the metabolism. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy-based metabolomics has been successfully applied to the perchloric acid extract of the joint tissue of CIA rat and control rat for the analysis of aqueous metabolites. GPC (Glycerophosphocholine), carnitine, acetate, and creatinine were important discriminators of CIA rats as compared to control rats. Level of lactate (significance; p = 0.004), alanine (p = 0.025), BCA (Branched-chain amino acids) (p = 0.006) and creatinine (p = 0.023) was significantly higher in CIA rats as compared to control rats. Choline (p = 0.038) and GPC (p = 0.009) were significantly reduced in CIA rats as compared to control rats. Choline to GPC correlation was good and negative (Pearson correlation = -0.63) for CIA rats as well as for control rats (Pearson correlation = -0.79). All these analyses collectively considered as metabolic fingerprinting of the joint tissue of CIA rat as compared to control rat. The metabolic fingerprinting of joint tissue of CIA rats was different as compared to control rats. The metabolic fingerprinting reflects inflammatory disease activity in CIA rats with synovitis, demonstrating that underlying inflammatory process drives significant changes in metabolism that can be measured in the joint tissue. Therefore, the outcome of this study may be helpful for understanding the mechanism of metabolic processes in RA. This may be also helpful for the development of advanced diagnostic methods and therapy for RA

Large intramuscular plexiform neurofibroma of thigh: a multidisciplinary team approach

Large plexiform neurofibroma of lower extremity involving the muscle is a rare entity. In this article we present the case of plexiform neurofibroma of right thigh involving the muscular plane and entrapment of the sciatic nerve. A 28 year lady presented with a plexiform neurofibroma of right thigh of size 60 cm×30 cm×25 cm with a positive family history of neurofibromatosis type 1. MRI was done for the assessment of the tumour and the adjacent structure involvement. The neurofibroma was removed with a multidisciplinary team approach with an intensive peri operative management. The pathological diagnosis was plexiform neurofibroma with diffuse neurofibroma. We have reported a rare case of large plexiform neurofibroma of lower extremity with muscle involvement and nerve entrapment

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network Data Optimization with Enhanced Void Avoidance and Routing Protocol

Deployment of a multi-hop underwater acoustic sensor network (UASN) in a larger region presents innovative challenges in reliable data communications and survivability of network because of the limited underwater interaction range or bandwidth and the limited energy of underwater sensor nodes. UASNs are becoming very significant in ocean exploration applications, like underwater device maintenance, ocean monitoring, ocean resource management, pollution detection, and so on. To overcome those difficulties and attains the purpose of maximizing data delivery ratio and minimizing energy consumption of underwater SNs, routing becomes necessary. In UASN, as the routing protocol will guarantee effective and reliable data communication from the source node to the destination, routing protocol model was an alluring topic for researchers. There were several routing techniques devised recently. This manuscript presents an underwater acoustic sensor network data optimization with enhanced void avoidance and routing (UASN-DAEVAR) protocol. The presented UASN-DAEVAR technique aims to present an effective data transmission process using proficient routing protocols. In the presented UASN-DAEVAR technique, a red deer algorithm (RDA) is employed in this study. In addition, the UASN-DAEVAR technique computes optimal routes in the UASN. To exhibit the effectual results of the UASN-DAEVAR technique, a wide spread experimental analysis is made. The experimental outcomes represented the enhancements of the UASN-DAEVAR model

Cloning and functional characterization of a vertebrate low-density lipoprotein receptor homolog from eri silkmoth, Samia ricini

The lipophorin receptor (LpR) is the insect lipoprotein receptor and belongs to the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) superfamily. It has a vital role in the uptake of lipophorin (Lp) into various tissues. Here we report the full length cloning and functional characterization of an LpR from eri silkmoth, Samia ricini. The full length cDNA of SrLpR7-1 is 4132 bp including an open reading frame (ORF) of 2595 bp. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed well structured ligand binding, epidermal growth factor, glycosylation, transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains. The ligand binding domain consisted of seven cysteine repeats instead of the common eight cysteine repeats indicating it as a homolog of human LDLR. We identified another splice variant, SrLpR7-2 with a deletion of 27 amino acids in the O-glycosylation domain. Apart from the fat body, both isoforms are expressed in ovary, brain and other tissues at different developmental stages of the silkworm. RNAi experiments did not show any marked effects except that the adult emergence was delayed compared to controls. In addition, the SrLpR7 cDNA was recombinantly expressed and ligand binding experiments confirmed that the receptor protein binds not only to SrLp but also to Bombyx mori Lp