Tropical Grassland Ecosystems and Climate Change

Grasses are unique group of flowering plants that form the foundation for the trophic structure in terrestrial communities. The grasses are found in every conceivable habitat where plants can thrive – from sea to deserts and from wetlands to peaks of highest mountains. The grasses form a distinct biome – a major ecological formation in the global classification of vegetation

STABILITY INDICATING CHIRAL HPLC METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF PIOGLITAZONE ENANTIOMERS IN PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATION

Objective: A stability indicating chiral high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed and validated for the separated (S)and (R) pioglitazone in raw material and its determination in the presence of degradation products formed during forced degradation studies.Methods: In the present study, an isocratic normal phase-HPLC method was developed with stationary phase as ACI Cellu 1 (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.,5  μ)  column  and  n-hexane:  N-propyl  alcohol  (80:20,  V/V)  as  mobile  phase.  The  entire  study  was  performed  using  1.0  ml/minute  as  flow  rate  and the detection wavelength at  233 nm. The pioglitazone (R and S) was exposed to various stress condition such as hydrolytic (acid and base), neutral, oxidative, and photolytic. The stressed samples were analyzed by the proposed method.Result:  The  described  method  was  linear  over  the  range  of  5-15 µg/ml  for  R-pioglitazone  and  4-14 µg/ml  for  S-pioglitazone.  The  limit  of  detection and limit of quantification of S-pioglitazone and R-pioglitazone were found to be 1.4 μg/ml and 4.26 μg/ml, respectively. The recovery study of S and R-Pioglitazone from tablets formulation ranged from 97.14% to 100.04%, respectively.Conclusion: The developed method can be applied in the quality control of drug products.Keywords: Stability-indicating method, Validation, Chiral, Pioglitazone

IoT Based Real Time Energy Management of Virtual Power Plant using PLC for Transactive Energy Framework

The high penetration of renewable sources owing to less environmental pollution creates challenges for the grid operators. Virtual Power Plant is a novel concept that will integrate the small distributed energy resources and will act as a single conventional power plant in the electricity market. As a core energy management system in VPP, the energy should be dispatched optimally for achieving the maximum profit. Therefore, smart energy management is developed in this article of VPP with PLC and IoT in a unified market environment that integrates the DA and RT market. The cost characteristics for the interruptible load, battery storage system are modelled individually. The proposed scheme can efficiently handle the energy demand for the VPP domain. Four different scenarios are considered with different loading conditions for validation of the concept of smart energy management. The profitability for each scenario is shown with the experimental results

Decreased Prevalence of Lymphatic Filariasis among Diabetic Subjects Associated with a Diminished Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Response (CURES 83)

Epidemiological studies have shown an inverse correlation between the incidence of lymphatic filariasis (LF) and the incidence of allergies and autoimmunity. However, the interrelationship between LF and type-2 diabetes is not known and hence, a cross sectional study to assess the baseline prevalence and the correlates of sero-positivity of LF among diabetic subjects was carried out (n = 1416) as part of the CURES study. There was a significant decrease in the prevalence of LF among diabetic subjects (both newly diagnosed [5.7%] and those under treatment [4.3%]) compared to pre-diabetic subjects [9.1%] (p = 0.0095) and non-diabetic subjects [10.4%] (p = 0.0463). A significant decrease in filarial antigen load (p = 0.04) was also seen among diabetic subjects. Serum cytokine levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines—IL-6 and GM-CSF—were significantly lower in diabetic subjects who were LF positive, compared to those who were LF negative. There were, however, no significant differences in the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines—IL-10, IL-13 and TGF-β—between the two groups. Although a direct causal link has yet to be shown, there appears to be a striking inverse relationship between the prevalence of LF and diabetes, which is reflected by a diminished pro-inflammatory cytokine response in Asian Indians with diabetes and concomitant LF

Low-smoke chulha in Indian slums: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background Biomass fuel is used as a primary cooking source by more than half of the world’s population, contributing to a high burden of disease. Although cleaner fuels are available, some households continue using solid fuels because of financial constraints and absence of infrastructure, especially in non-notified slums. The present study documents a randomised controlled study investigating the efficacy of improved cookstove on the personal exposure to air pollution and the respiratory health of women and children in an Indian slum. The improved cookstove was based on co-creation of a low-smoke chulha with local communities in order to support adaption and sustained uptake. Methods The study will be conducted in a non-notified slum called Ashrayanagar in Bangalore, India. The study design will be a 1:1 randomised controlled intervention trial, including 250 households. The intervention group will receive an improved cookstove (low-smoke chulha) and the control group will continue using either the traditional cookstove (chulha) or a combination of the traditional stove and the kerosene/diesel stove. Follow-up time is 1 year. Outcomes include change in lung function (FEV1/FVC), incidence of pneumonia, change in personal PM2.5 and CO exposure, incidence of respiratory symptoms (cough, phlegm, wheeze and shortness of breath), prevalence of other related symptoms (headache and burning eyes), change in behaviour and adoption of the stove. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Indian Institute of Public Health Hyderabad- Bengaluru Campus. Discussion The findings from this study aim to provide insight into the effects of improved cookstoves in urban slums. Results can give evidence for the decrease of indoor air pollution and the improvement of respiratory health for children and women. Trial registration The trial was registered with clinicaltrials.gov on 21 June 2016 with the identifier NCT02821650; A Study to Test the Impact of an Improved Chulha on the Respiratory Health of Women and Children in Indian Slums

How Ubiquitin Unfolds after Transfer into the Gas Phase

The structural evolution of ubiquitin after transfer into the gas phase was studied by electron capture dissociation. Site-specific fragment yields show that ubiquitin’s solution fold is overall unstable in the gas phase, but unfolding caused by loss of solvent is slowest in regions stabilized by salt bridges

Antibody responses to the BBV152 vaccine in individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2: A pilot study

Background & objectives: Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is a recommendation from the World Health Organization as the foremost preference in the current situation to control the COVID-19 pandemic. BBV152 is one of the approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in India. In this study, we determined SARS-CoV-2–specific antibody levels at day 0 (baseline, before vaccination), day 28 ± 2 post-first dose (month 1) and day 56 ± 2 post-first dose (month 2) of BBV152 whole-virion–inactivated SARS-CoV-2 recipients, and compared the antibody responses of individuals with confirmed pre-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection to those individuals without prior evidence of infection. Methods: Blood samples were collected from 114 healthcare professionals and frontline workers who received BBV152 vaccine from February to May & June 2021. Prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 was determined at baseline. Serum samples were used to estimate SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein-specific IgG [IgG (N)], spike protein-specific IgG [IgG (S)] and neutralizing antibodies (NAb). Results: Participants with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection after a single vaccine dose elicited IgG (N) and IgG (S) antibody levels along with NAb binding inhibition responses levels were similar to infection-naïve vaccinated participants who had taken two doses of vaccine. Interpretation & conclusions: Our preliminary data suggested that a single dose of BBV152-induced humoral immunity in previously infected individuals was equivalent to two doses of the vaccine in infection-naïve individuals. However, these findings need to be confirmed with large sized cohort studies

Wilson Lines and a Canonical Basis of SU(4) Heterotic Standard Models

The spontaneous breaking of SU(4) heterotic standard models by Z_3 x Z_3 Wilson lines to the MSSM with three right-handed neutrino supermultiplets and gauge group SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1) x U(1) is explored. The two-dimensional subspace of the Spin(10) Lie algebra that commutes with su(3)_C + su(2)_L is analyzed. It is shown that there is a unique basis for which the initial soft supersymmetry breaking parameters are uncorrelated and for which the U(1) x U(1) field strengths have no kinetic mixing at any scale. If the Wilson lines "turn on" at different scales, there is an intermediate regime with either a left-right or a Pati-Salam type model. We compute their spectra directly from string theory, and adjust the associated mass parameter so that all gauge parameters exactly unify. A detailed analysis of the running gauge couplings and soft gaugino masses is presented.Comment: 59 pages, 9 figure

An Android Application for Blind: Third Eye

With advances in new technologies, mobile devices have grown in popularity to become one of the most common consumer devices. Many of us can make a call or send a message at anytime from anywhere. As our society farther expands, there have been many supports for second-class citizens, disabled. There are a lot of visually impaired persons in and round the world. Physical disability of blind people makes their life difficult. They find themselveschallenging to meet daily challenges independently. One amongst several supports that are urgent is that the guarantee of quality for blind individuals.Several auxiliary tools are available to help blind people.But these could not able to help the user with basic mobile phone features. The main aim of this paper is to help the blind person to use basic features of smart phones by audible feedback and a single shake on this application identifies the location of place through GPS and sends a message comprising this location URL to the registered contacts and also make a call on the first registered contact to help the one in dangerous situations. Continuous location trailing info via SMS helps to seek out the situation of the victim quickly and might be saved safely

Site of Allergic Airway Narrowing and the Influence of Exogenous Surfactant in the Brown Norway Rat

Background: The parameters RN (Newtonian resistance), G (tissue damping), and H (tissue elastance) of the constant phase model of respiratory mechanics provide information concerning the site of altered mechanical properties of the lung. The aims of this study were to compare the site of allergic airway narrowing implied from respiratory mechanics to a direct assessment by morphometry and to evaluate the effects of exogenous surfactant administration on the site and magnitude of airway narrowing. Methods: We induced airway narrowing by ovalbumin sensitization and challenge and we tested the effects of a natural surfactant lacking surfactant proteins A and D (InfasurfH) on airway responses. Sensitized, mechanically ventilated Brown Norway rats underwent an aerosol challenge with 5 % ovalbumin or vehicle. Other animals received nebulized surfactant prior to challenge. Three or 20 minutes after ovalbumin challenge, airway luminal areas were assessed on snap-frozen lungs by morphometry. Results: At 3 minutes, RN and G detected large airway narrowing whereas at 20 minutes G and H detected small airway narrowing. Surfactant inhibited RN at the peak of the early allergic response and ovalbumin-induced increase in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cysteinyl leukotrienes and amphiregulin but not IgE-induced mast cell activation in vitro. Conclusion: Allergen challenge triggers the rapid onset of large airway narrowing, detected by RN and G, and subsequen