Personality Assessment of Officer Cadre of Indian Armed Forces: A De Novo Approach

The present selection system of the officer cadre of the Armed Forces has stood the test of time. However, owing to the transformations and developments in the society, a need was felt to upgrade this system. After a number of interactions and deliberations, a new programme called ‘De Novo system for the Selection of Personnel in the Armed forces’ was initiated. To identify the domains that need to be assessed through this system, job analysis was carried out. Data were collected from the presently employed officers of the Armed Forces, and the officers were asked to fill out survey performa, critical incidents record, task inventory and attribute questionnaire. Job analysis identified 5 domains of assessment, namely, cognition, affect, behaviour, psychomotor, and values. 16 Attributes of military leaders under these 5 domains were also identified. Tests were developed under the three techniques (psychological, group testing, and interview) to assess these 16 attributes and the 5 domains. The prototype of the tests was developed following an assessment centre approach and the trials for the same are due in the coming months

Stringent Response Regulation of Virulence Factors in Vibrio Cholera

Vibrio cholerae colonization of the host requires stringent response activation of TCP, the Toxin-Coregulated Pilus Cholera is an epidemic diarrheal disease caused by the Gramnegative bacterium Vibrio cholerae. In order to colonize a host, V. cholerae must express the toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP), and diarrheal symptoms are primarily produced by the virulence factor cholera toxin (CT). CT and TCP expression is regulated by the ToxR regulon. Components of the ToxR regulon include ToxT, a transcription factor that directly initiates transcription of the CT and TCP genes. Upstream regulators include the integral membrane proteins TcpP and ToxR, transcription factors necessary for expression of toxT. ToxR may also directly initiate transcription of the CT genes independently of ToxT. It is thought that TCP is required early in infection to colonize the small intestine and that CT is expressed later in order to produce diarrhea and escape the host. We found that stringent response, the universally-conserved low nutrient stress response, was necessary for colonization of the mouse small intestine. The hypothesis tested was that bacterial evaluation of nutrient environment regulated virulence genes through the stringent response control of the ToxR regulon. Deletions in the stringent response genes and of the ToxR regulon genes were made and these mutants used to determine where stringent response fit into the virulence gene regulatory system. Stringent response activated gene expression of virulence factors (those encoding CT and TCP) and some ToxR regulon components (toxT and tcpP) while it repressed others (toxR). The gene expression data was consistent with the requirement for stringent response-dependent colonization of the mouse; stringent response was required for TCP expression, with TCP required for colonization. The gene expression data showing that stringent response had differential effects on components in the ToxR regulon may explain how CT and TCP may be differentially regulated in infection despite being controlled by the same transcriptional activators

Identification of inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum phosphoethanolamine methyltransferase using an enzyme-coupled transmethylation assay

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The phosphoethanolamine methyltransferase, PfPMT, of the human malaria parasite <it>Plasmodium falciparum</it>, a member of a newly identified family of phosphoethanolamine methyltransferases (PMT) found solely in some protozoa, nematodes, frogs, and plants, is involved in the synthesis of the major membrane phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine. PMT enzymes catalyze a three-step S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methylation of the nitrogen atom of phosphoethanolamine to form phosphocholine. In <it>P. falciparum</it>, this activity is a limiting step in the pathway of synthesis of phosphatidylcholine from serine and plays an important role in the development, replication and survival of the parasite within human red blood cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have employed an enzyme-coupled methylation assay to screen for potential inhibitors of PfPMT. In addition to hexadecyltrimethylammonium, previously known to inhibit PfPMT, two compounds dodecyltrimethylammonium and amodiaquine were also found to inhibit PfPMT activity <it>in vitro</it>. Interestingly, PfPMT activity was not inhibited by the amodiaquine analog, chloroquine, or other aminoquinolines, amino alcohols, or histamine methyltransferase inhibitors. Using yeast as a surrogate system we found that unlike wild-type cells, yeast mutants that rely on PfPMT for survival were sensitive to amodiaquine, and their phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis was inhibited by this compound. Furthermore NMR titration studies to characterize the interaction between amoidaquine and PfPMT demonstrated a specific and concentration dependent binding of the compound to the enzyme.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The identification of amodiaquine as an inhibitor of PfPMT <it>in vitro </it>and in yeast, and the biophysical evidence for the specific interaction of the compound with the enzyme will set the stage for the development of analogs of this drug that specifically inhibit this enzyme and possibly other PMTs.</p

Analysis of Recent Trends in Continuous Sign Language Recognition using NLP

Oralism is an ideology and practice that advocates communication that is based solely on speech. This practice is encouraged from a pretty early age in our country. As a consequence, the hard of hearing are constantly forced to negotiate with schools, colleges, organisations, workspaces, and families that don’t acknowledge the need and preference for sign language over oral languages. This results in inconsideration of an entire community for admissions, jobs and general social position. We aim to close that communication gap a little and take a step towards fighting the stigma associated with Sign Language. The aim is to provide a system for efficient communication with the deaf

Inhibition of β-lactamase function by de novo designed peptide.

Antimicrobial resistance is a great public health concern that is now described as a "silent pandemic". The global burden of antimicrobial resistance requires new antibacterial treatments, especially for the most challenging multidrug-resistant bacteria. There are various mechanisms by which bacteria develop antimicrobial resistance including expression of β-lactamase enzymes, overexpression of efflux pumps, reduced cell permeability through downregulation of porins required for β-lactam entry, or modifications in penicillin-binding proteins. Inactivation of the β-lactam antibiotics by β-lactamase enzymes is the most common mechanism of bacterial resistance to these agents. Although several effective small-molecule inhibitors of β-lactamases such as clavulanic acid and avibactam are clinically available, they act only on selected class A, C, and some class D enzymes. Currently, none of the clinically approved inhibitors can effectively inhibit Class B metallo-β-lactamases. Additionally, there is increased resistance to these inhibitors reported in several bacteria. The objective of this study is to use the Resonant Recognition Model (RRM), as a novel strategy to inhibit/modulate specific antimicrobial resistance targets. The RRM is a bio-physical approach that analyzes the distribution of energies of free electrons and posits that there is a significant correlation between the spectra of this energy distribution and related protein biological activity. In this study, we have used the RRM concept to evaluate the structure-function properties of a group of 22 β-lactamase proteins and designed 30-mer peptides with the desired RRM spectral periodicities (frequencies) to function as β-lactamase inhibitors. In contrast to the controls, our results indicate 100% inhibition of the class A β-lactamases from Escherichia coli and Enterobacter cloacae. Taken together, the RRM model can likely be utilized as a promising approach to design β-lactamase inhibitors for any specific class. This may open a new direction to combat antimicrobial resistance

Myofibroma of the gingiva – A rare case of diagnostic predicament

Myofibroma is a very uncommon benign soft-tissue neoplasm occurring very rarely in the oral cavity with rare occurrence seen in the gingiva. Being a rare entity, the knowledge about microscopic features is important in its diagnosis and treatment planning. We hereby report the case of a 21-year-old male patient diagnosed with myofibroma based on the histopathological and immunohistochemistry analysis such as immunohistochemical antibodies for alpha-smooth muscle actin, CD34, S-100, and desmin