Do Cues Facilitate Retrieval of Verbs in Persons with Bilingual Aphasia?

Word retrieval difficulty is commonly seen in persons with aphasia. The cues would repair word retrieval difficulty. The effect of cues during verb retrieval was gauged via Action Naming Test (ANT) in Kannada and English languages in persons with aphasia (PWAs).  A total of eight persons with bilingual Aphasia (Broca's, conduction, and isolation type) were recruited for the study. The participants were expected to have a minimum quantum of verbal output were considered for the study. Specifically, the study used phonemic, semantic, and verbal contextual cues to assess verb retrieval abilities. The result of the study manifested that all participants of the study were able to perform better with phonemic cues followed by semantic and verbal contextual cues in both Kannada and English languages

Photo-degradation of Di Azo Dye Bismarck Brown by Advanced photo-Fenton Process: Influence of Inorganic Anions and Evaluation of Recycling Efficiency of Iron Powder

The present research work has demonstrated the usage of zero valent metallic iron (ZVMI) in the photo-Fenton process under UV light as a promising and novel technique for the complete degradation of di azo dye Bismarck Brown (BB) in aqueous medium. The influence of various reaction parameters like concentration of oxidants/dye/iron powder and pH of the solution was investigated and optimum conditions are reported. Ammonium persulfate (APS) proved to be better oxidant in comparison with hydrogen peroxide for enhancing the degradation rate and effectively inhibited the precipitation of iron hydroxides at higher dosages of iron powder which is attributed to the acidity provided by APS which is crucial for Fenton process. The rate constant for the kinetics of degradation using various oxidation processes follows the order: Fe0/APS/UV > Fe0/H2O2/UV > Fe0/APS/dark > Fe0/UV > Fe0/H2O2/dark > Fe0/dark > H2O2/UV > APS/UV. The effects of inorganic anions that are commonly found in the industrial effluents like NaCl, KNO3, Na2SO4, Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 at different concentrations on the degradation rate were studied in detail. The degradation was followed by UV-vis and GC-MS techniques

Influence of various aromatic derivatives on the advanced photo Fenton degradation of Amaranth dye

The photo degrdn. of Amaranth (AR) dye by advanced photo Fenton process in the presence of sym. peroxides like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ammonium persulfate (APS) are investigated. The influence of various reaction parameters like the effect of iron dosage, concn. of H2O2/APS, initial dye concn., effect of pH and the influence of various arom. derivs. were studied and optimum conditions are reported. The efficiency of the oxidant was strongly influenced by the nature of arom. photoproducts formed during the course of the degrdn. reaction. To study their effect on the rate of degrdn. these arom. derivs. were added in known concn. (10 ppm)​. The influence of various arom. derivs. on the degrdn. kinetics shows the following order: hydroquinones > chlorophenol > dichlorobenzene > arom. carboxylic acids > anilidine > nitrophenol. The addn. of these derivs. did not influence the degrdn. pathway although it altered the reaction rate. The percentage COD and TOC removal were detd. in presence of arom. derivs. to evaluate the complete removal of the pollutant. Based on the intermediates obtained in the UV-​vis and GC-​MS spectroscopic techniques probable degrdn. mechanism has been proposed

Methotrexate promotes platelet apoptosis via JNK-mediated mitochondrial damage: Alleviation by N-acetylcysteine and N-acetylcysteine amide

Thrombocytopenia in methotrexate (MTX)-treated cancer and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients connotes the interference of MTX with platelets. Hence, it seemed appealing to appraise the effect of MTX on platelets. Thereby, the mechanism of action of MTX on platelets was dissected. MTX (10 μM) induced activation of pro-apoptotic proteins Bid, Bax and Bad through JNK phosphorylation leading to Îm dissipation, cytochrome c release and caspase activation, culminating in apoptosis. The use of specific inhibitor for JNK abrogates the MTX-induced activation of pro-apoptotic proteins and downstream events confirming JNK phosphorylation by MTX as a key event. We also demonstrate that platelet mitochondria as prime sources of ROS which plays a central role in MTX-induced apoptosis. Further, MTX induces oxidative stress by altering the levels of ROS and glutathione cycle. In parallel, the clinically approved thiol antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and its derivative N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) proficiently alleviate MTX-induced platelet apoptosis and oxidative damage. These findings underpin the dearth of research on interference of therapeutic drugs with platelets, despite their importance in human health and disease. Therefore, the use of antioxidants as supplementary therapy seems to be a safe bet in pathologies associated with altered platelet functions. © 2015 Paul et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The Polygenic and Monogenic Basis of Blood Traits and Diseases

Blood cells play essential roles in human health, underpinning physiological processes such as immunity, oxygen transport, and clotting, which when perturbed cause a significant global health burden. Here we integrate data from UK Biobank and a large-scale international collaborative effort, including data for 563,085 European ancestry participants, and discover 5,106 new genetic variants independently associated with 29 blood cell phenotypes covering a range of variation impacting hematopoiesis. We holistically characterize the genetic architecture of hematopoiesis, assess the relevance of the omnigenic model to blood cell phenotypes, delineate relevant hematopoietic cell states influenced by regulatory genetic variants and gene networks, identify novel splice-altering variants mediating the associations, and assess the polygenic prediction potential for blood traits and clinical disorders at the interface of complex and Mendelian genetics. These results show the power of large-scale blood cell trait GWAS to interrogate clinically meaningful variants across a wide allelic spectrum of human variation. Analysis of blood cell traits in the UK Biobank and other cohorts illuminates the full genetic architecture of hematopoietic phenotypes, with evidence supporting the omnigenic model for complex traits and linking polygenic burden with monogenic blood diseases

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Factor Xa-like and fibrin(ogen)olytic activities of a serine protease from Hippasa agelenoides spider venom gland extract

In the recent past, a low molecular mass serine protease, the Hag-protease that caused pro-coagulant activity and as well as local toxicity was isolated and characterized from the Hippasa agelenoides spider venom gland extract (Devaraja et al., Toxicon 52:130-138, 2008). In the current study, the pro-coagulant property has been investigated further and the results are presented. The Hag-protease reduced the re-calcification time of citrated human plasma. It reduced the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and prothrombin time (PT) suggesting its participation in common pathway of blood coagulation. Interestingly, it coagulated the citrated human plasma in the absence of CaCl2 but, it was lacking thrombin-like activity as it did not clot the purified fibrinogen. Strikingly, the enzyme coagulated the factor X deficient congenital human plasma, suggesting the factor Xa-like activity. However, the cumulative augmented activity was observed in presence of CaCl 2 and phospholipids. Further, the Hag-protease preferentially hydrolyzed the Aα chain and then the Bβ-chain, but not the γ-chain. As a result, truncated fibrinogen generated was lacking in the polymerization property. It hydrolyzed all the subunits of partially cross-liked fibrin clot (α-polymer, α-chain, β-chain, and γ-γ dimers). Further, at low concentrations, the Hag-protease stimulated the aggregation of human platelets in platelet rich plasma, but at high concentrations caused spontaneous clumping. In contrast, it inhibited the collagen induced aggregation of washed human platelets. In summary, the present study for the first time reporting the factor Xa-like activity of a serine protease especially from the spider venom that exhibited opposing effects on hemostasis, the pro-coagulant activity and the anti-coagulant activity including fibrin(ogen)olytic and platelet aggregation inhibition activities. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Not AvailableA study was conducted as an attempt to generate farm level data on soil nutrient status of lands under floricultural crops in Pune and Satara districts of Maharashtra. The chemical analysis of fifty soil samples collected from Shindawane, Waghapur, Sortapwadi, Talegaon, Pandegaon, Sasurve and Chiroli villages indicated that soil reaction and salt concentration were not in harmful range in these soils to support the plant growth except in few soil samples [highly acidic and highly alkaline pH were observed in Talegaon (one sample) and Sasurve (one sample) respectively and EC was in harmful range in Talegaon (one sample), Sortapwadi (two samples) and Waghapur (four samples)]. Soil organic carbon and available nitrogen status were at alarming status as out of fifty samples none of the soil samples had sufficient amount of available nitrogen and only 18 % of soil samples were high in organic carbon content. Soil samples analyzed had medium to excess available phosphorous except for one sample from the village Sasurve which had low available phosphorous. Available potassium content of the soil samples studied was in sufficient range in most of the samples. Out of fifty soil samples analyzed 42 %, 22 %, 62% and 54 % of samples were found deficient in DTPA-extractable Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu contents respectively and about 14 % of samples were deficient in hot water soluble boron content.Not Availabl

Mechanism of charge transfer in the transition metal ion doped TiO 2 with bicrystalline framework of anatase and rutile: Photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic activity

The high photocatalytic activity of the Mn2+ doped TiO 2 with bicrystalline framework of anatase and rutile is probed for the degradation of benzene under solar light with/without applied bias. The enhanced activity is attributed to the transfer of electrons from the rutile to electron trapping/lattice trapping sites of anatase and also to the impurity level created by the dopant which favours effective charge separation. The shallow detrapping nature of Mn2+ dopant additionally contributes to the overall enhancement in the photocatalytic activity especially in the presence of applied electric field