Use of Electronic Information Resources by Social Scientists of Banaras Hindu University

The dependency on e-resources in every sphere of intellectual activity is increasing day by day. This study investigates the use of electronic information resources by social scientists of Banaras Hindu University with regard to the advocacy of electronic resources. The study revealed that electronic resources available are fairly accessible to the social scientists. Findings revealed that social scientists fairly used the library for their research and other academic purposes

Usability Analysis of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) Library Websites: A Study

The accessibility, efficiency, and effectiveness of the websites of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) libraries are evaluated in this paper. Online survey and observation methods were considered suitable for conducting the research. A Checklist was prepared and used for the data collection from the websites of IISERs. Study shows that selected IISER libraries have helpful websites but have overlooked the essential usability characteristics and tend to be in the primitive phase. Most of the websites of the selected IISER libraries were relatively simple. They had fundamental and popular usability characteristics in terms of general library information, search features, Web 2.0 applications, ILL, etc. In the selected websites of IISER libraries, tremendous potential for development has been found. The study results would help enhance the usability characteristics of IISERs\u27 libraries\u27 websites, which will eventually support library users who use library services frequently. The research would also encourage webmasters to promptly review their websites to improve usability ratings based on online usability tools

Measuring Growth and Impact of Neuroscience Researches in India: A Scientometric analysis based on Scopus

Present study focuses on growth of neuroscience research in India and its impact on scholarly world. Total 4812 data were collected from Scopus database for the period of 2004-2018. Analysis of the data revealed considerable increase in Annual Growth Rate in neuroscience research with 10.52% CAGR for the entire period. Relative Growth Rate (RGR) was increasing with minor fluctuations i.e. growth in Neuroscience research is not exponential ratio rather than it is arithmetic ratio and Doubling Time is similar to RGR. Trend (Least Square) of the neuroscience publications showed an increase trend during the study period. But the prediction of the trend up to the year 2023 has indicated the downward trend in the growth. Articles were the major form of publication followed by letters. Collaborative Index (CI) ranges from 4.22 to 5.02 with an average of 4.75 per joint authored papers. Degree of collaboration for total publications of the neuroscience was 0.93 i.e. team research, which is confirmed by the value of Collaboration coefficient. Mega-authored papers received highest 24657 (49.88%) citations, whereas single authored papers received lowest 861(1.74%) citations. Author Shukla, D. is the most productive author contributing 42 articles.1934 (40.19%) of total publications did not have any institutional collaboration, 1063 (22.09%) publications were co-authored with other institutes/universities/colleges of India, 764 (15.88%) were collaborated within their own organization/institute/university/college in which they are affiliated and 1051 (21.84%) publications were collaborated with foreign authors

Biofertilizer and chemical fertilizer induced changes in cyto-morphological and biochemical constituents of Foeniculum vulgare Mill.

The agriculture sector requires a revolutionary alternative that makes crop production high and elicits less ill-effects on the environment. At present, agriculture area facade the challenge of low yield of many agronomic crops which lead to economic losses. Experimentally, it is proved that fertilizer use can boost yield two three times more in spite of other factors unchanged. But surplus and unbalanced usage of these soil supplements like fertilizers and irrigation causes serious problems to our soils like water logging and formation of saline soils and ultimately lead to denatured soil. This situation can be alleviated through the use of eco-friendly biofertilizer. So the present appraisal scrutinizes the effect of fertilizer Ammonium Phosphate Sulphate (APS) and biofertilizer (Agrozyme) on the cytology, morphology and pigment constituents of the Foeniculum vulgare Mill. and to trace out a safer crop enhancer among the two. The results revealed that fertilizer expelled to be more chromotoxic and mito-inhibitory at higher concentration in comparison to biofertilizer. Fertilizer negatively affects the plant’s mitotic index while biofertilizer enhances mitotic index parallel to the increasing concentration. Biofertilizer shows positive effect on the germination, survival and plant growth while fertilizer shows this elevation effect at lower concentration. The biochemical constituents (photosynthetic pigments) are greatly affected by higher concentration of both the treatments. The treated system shows various anomalies such as stickiness, precocious movement, loop formation at metaphasic stage and stickiness, laggard and bridge etc at anaphasic stage. Since, biofertilizers area much safer as compared to fertilizers and it also enhances the qualitative and quantitative traits, therefore it could be used in agro-system to obtain sustainable crop upgradation

Changing Scholarly Trends of LIS Research in Asia: A Scientometric Study based on Scopus

Scientometric studies can be of great help not only for researchers and academicians but also for the government officials in setting funds for development as well as policy setting and decision making. Various scientometric studies are being done to assess the publication output of the researchers in the various disciplines, to know their collaboration as well as interdisciplinarity. This present study is furthering the level of the study by assessing the LIS research trend in the Asian countries, using AGR, RCI, CC and PEI etc. as indicators

Environmental Sustainability in libraries through green practices/services

This paper is an attempt to discuss the role of green practices/services which are incorporated within libraries towards environmentally sustainable. With continuous use and easy availability of new technologies like computer printers, faxes, and photocopiers etc. it is very important to protect the environment. Since, all these machines have an impact using paper, ink, and electricity on the environment. This paper begins with an explanation of sustainability, environmental sustainability, green printing, and copying etc. Further, demonstrates the various sustainable strategies for the libraries. And also highlights the strategies for overcoming the impact of paper use, ink use and electricity. This paper will also provide a different approach for librarians to achieve green practices/ services. The adverse impact of new technologies on the environment also increases the requirement of green practices/ services within libraries and reducing the carbon footprint, which will automatically enhance the environmentally sustainable practices, a valuable step for enhancing the lifestyle of society

Characterization of BRCA2 R3052Q variant in mice supports its functional impact as a low-risk variant

Pathogenic variants in BRCA2 are known to significantly increase the lifetime risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. Sequencing-based genetic testing has resulted in the identification of thousands of BRCA2 variants that are considered to be variants of uncertain significance (VUS) because the disease risk associated with them is unknown. One such variant is p.Arg3052Gln, which has conflicting interpretations of pathogenicity in the ClinVar variant database. Arginine at position 3052 in BRCA2 plays an important role in stabilizing its C-terminal DNA binding domain. We have generated a knock-in mouse model expressing this variant to examine its role on growth and survival in vivo. Homozygous as well as hemizygous mutant mice are viable, fertile and exhibit no overt phenotype. While we did not observe any hematopoietic defects in adults, we did observe a marked reduction in the in vitro proliferative ability of fetal liver cells that were also hypersensitive to PARP inhibitor, olaparib. In vitro studies performed on embryonic and adult fibroblasts derived from the mutant mice showed significant reduction in radiation induced RAD51 foci formation as well as increased genomic instability after mitomycin C treatment. We observed mis-localization of a fraction of R3052Q BRCA2 protein to the cytoplasm which may explain the observed in vitro phenotypes. Our findings suggest that BRCA2 R3052Q should be considered as a hypomorphic variant.This research was sponsored by the Intramural Research Program, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, US National Institutes of Health

A review on development and application of plant-based bioflocculants and grafted bioflocculants

Flocculation is extensively employed for clarification through sedimentation. Application of eco-friendly plant-based bioflocculants in wastewater treatment has attracted significant attention lately with high removal capability in terms of solids, turbidity, color, and dye. However, moderate flocculating property and short shelf life restrict their development. To enhance the flocculating ability, natural polysaccharides derived from plants are chemically modified by inclusion of synthetic, nonbiodegradable monomers (e.g., acrylamide) onto their backbone to produce grafted bioflocculants. This review is aimed to provide an overview of the development and flocculating efficiencies of plant-based bioflocculants and grafted bioflocculants for the first time. Furthermore, the processing methods, flocculation mechanism, and the current challenges are discussed. All the reported studies about plant-derived bioflocculants are conducted under lab-scale conditions in wastewater treatment. Hence, the possibility to apply natural bioflocculants in food and beverage, mineral, paper and pulp, and oleo-chemical and biodiesel industries is discussed and evaluated