Effect of Included Experience Program on the Attitudes of Pre-Service Teachers towards Students with Special Needs

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an included experience as well as professional development programme on the attitudes of pre-service teachers toward students with special needs. The intervention programme was given in 7 weeks to the pre-service teachers. The sample consisted of 42 pre-service teachers studying in bachelor degree programme of special education. Results provided evidence that after completing an included experience and receiving professional development programme, pre-service teachers had positive attitudes towards students with special needs.  The overall findings suggest that the included experience programme had significant effects on changing the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards students with special needs with special reference to all the aspects i.e academic, cognitive, emotional and social development. Key words: Included Experience, Pre-service Teachers, Students with Special Need

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in the coastal districts of Odisha

Ethnobotanical study was carried out in the coastal districts of Odisha during 2010-2011 to document the medicinal utility of plants. The present paper deals with traditional uses of 46 plant species belonging to 44 genera and 32 families along with correct botanical identification, local names, parts used and mode of administration in respect to different diseases.  The documented ethnomedicinal plants are mostly used to cure skin diseases, diarrhoea, jaundice, piles and urinary troubles

Inheritance of deleterious mutations at both BRCA1 and BRCA2 in an international sample of 32,295 women

Background: Most BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers have inherited a single (heterozygous) mutation. Transheterozygotes (TH) who have inherited deleterious mutations in both BRCA1 and BRCA2 are rare, and the consequences of transheterozygosity are poorly understood. Methods: From 32,295 female BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, we identified 93 TH (0.3 %). "Cases" were defined as TH, and "controls" were single mutations at BRCA1 (SH1) or BRCA2 (SH2). Matched SH1 "controls" carried a BRCA1 mutation found in the TH "case". Matched SH2 "controls" carried a BRCA2 mutation found in the TH "case". After matching the TH carriers with SH1 or SH2, 91 TH were matched to 9316 SH1, and 89 TH were matched to 3370 SH2. Results: The majority of TH (45.2 %) involved the three common Jewish mutations. TH were more likely than SH1 and SH2 women to have been ever diagnosed with breast cancer (BC; p = 0.002). TH were more likely to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OC) than SH2 (p = 0.017), but not SH1. Age at BC diagnosis was the same in TH vs. SH1 (p = 0.231), but was on average 4.5 years younger in TH than in SH2 (p < 0.001). BC in TH was more likely to be estrogen receptor (ER) positive (p = 0.010) or progesterone receptor (PR) positive (p = 0.013) than in SH1, but less likely to be ER positive (p < 0.001) or PR positive (p = 0.012) than SH2. Among 15 tumors from TH patients, there was no clear pattern of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) for BRCA1 or BRCA2 in either BC or OC. Conclusions: Our observations suggest that clinical TH phenotypes resemble SH1. However, TH breast tumor marker characteristics are phenotypically intermediate to SH1 and SH2

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

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Not AvailableThe adoption behaviour of upland rice growers and their different socio-economic characteristics related to their adoption level were analysed in two selected districts viz. Angul and Dhenkanal of Orissa. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the upland rice growers exhibited medium level of adoption trend and 25 per cent of the farmers adopted rice+pigeon pea mixed cropping, as it was an age old practice. It was done to utilize the available moisture in the field to get more yield with assured economic return in the event of loss of rice crop due to drought. The big farmers were found to adopt more technologies compared to the small farmers, owing to more urban contact, extension contact, mass media exposure, risk preference and total knowledge on upland rice cultivation technologies. Further, the study also revealed major constraints in upland rice cultivation. The important constraints as perceived by them were heavy rain at the time of harvesting, more damage of crop due to gundhi bug attack during dough stage, non-availability of improved agricultural implements etc.Not Availabl

In Silico Characterization and Homology Modeling of Thylakoid bound Ascorbate Peroxidase from a Drought Tolerant Wheat Cultivar

Ascorbate peroxidase, a haem protein (EC 1.11.1.11), efficiently scavenges hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in cytosol and chloroplasts of plants. In this study, a full-length coding sequence of thylakoid-bound ascorbate peroxidase cDNA (TatAPX) was cloned from a drought tolerant wheat cultivar C306. Homology modeling of the TatAPX protein was performed by using the template crystal structure of chloroplastic ascorbate peroxidase from tobacco plant (PDB: 1IYN). The model structure was further refined by molecular mechanics and dynamic methods using various tools such as PROCHECK, ProSA and Verify3D. The predicted model was then tested for docking with H2O2, the substrate for TatAPX enzyme. The results revealed that Arg233 and Glu255 in the predicted active site of the enzyme are two important amino acid residues responsible for strong hydrogen bonding affinity with H2O2, which might play an important role in scavenging of H2O2 from the plant system

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Not AvailableScrutinizing various nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLR) genes in higher eukaryotes is very important for understanding the intriguing mechanism of host defense against pathogens. The nucleotide-binding domain (NACHT), leucine-rich repeat (LRR) and pyrin domain (PYD) containing protein 3 (Nalp3) is an intracellular innate immune receptor, and is associated with several immune system related disorders. Despite of Nalp3’s protective role during pathogenic invasion, the molecular feature, and structural organization of this crucial protein is poorly understood. Using comparative modeling and molecular dynamics simulations, we have studied the structural architecture of Nalp3 domains, and characterized the dynamic and energetic parameters of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding in NACHT and pathogen derived ligands muramyl dipeptide (MDP) and imidazoquinoline with LRR domains. The results anticipated walker A, B and extended walker B motifs as the key ATP binding regions in NACHT that mediates self-oligomerization. Analysis of binding sites of MDP and imidazoquinoline revealed LRR7-9 being the most energetically favored site of imidazoquinoline interaction. However, binding free energy calculations using Molecular Mechanics/Possion-Boltzman Surface Area (MM/PBSA) method advocated that MDP is incompatible for activating Nalp3 molecule in monomeric form and suggest its complex nature with NOD2 or other NLRs for MDP recognition. The high binding affinity of ATP with NACHT is correlated to the experimental data for human NLRs. Our binding site prediction for imidazoquinoline in LRR warrants further investigation via in vivo models. This is the first study that provides ligand(s) recognition in mouse Nalp3 and its spatial structural arrangements.Not Availabl