Evolution of Dark Energy Perturbations for Slotheon Field and Power Spectrum

Within the framework of modified gravity model namely Slotheon model, inspired by the theory of extra dimensions, we explore the behaviour of Dark Energy and the perturbations thereof. The Dark Energy and matter perturbations equations are then derived and solved numerically by defining certain dimensionless variables and properly chosen initial conditions. The results are compared with those for standard quintessence model and $\Lambda$CDM model. The matter power spectrum is obtained and also compared with that for $\Lambda$CDM model. It appears that Dark Energy in Slotheon model is more akin to that for $\Lambda$CDM model than the standard quintessence model.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, 6 figure

STRUCTURAL BREAK IN RICE PRODUCTION : A STUDY WITH ASIAN COUNTRIES

As rice is the most important staple diet in Asia because of its high concentration of production and consumption in the region it is key to global food security. In this backdrop, understanding the stable growth of rice production through structural break analysis is quite important. This study attempts to investigate the presence of structural change in annual rice production for the major ten Asian rice producing countries for the period 1961 to 2016 following the Bai-Perron multiple breakpoint test and found significant changes after Asian Green revolution in level values but no break in growth. This study also found a sharp rise in intercept following intervention analysis and mixed results using linear trend analysis. Countries like China and India exhibited positive impact following structural change but the countries like Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam experienced negative effect which might be associated with major institutional and/or technological changes of these countries involved including the rice crisis of 2008

Regional disparities in health outcome indicators : A study across Indian states

This paper focuses on the disparities that persist in India’s health sector across different states. Following the conventional measures of regional inequality such as standard deviation and coefficient of variation, we investigate the spatial variations across the Indian states in terms of three basic health indicators viz. infant mortality rate (IMR), under five mortality and maternal mortality rates. We analyzed the temporal variations of regional disparities of IMR for the period 1998 to 2012. A multiple cross regression of IMR on medical and non-medical conditions show the role of socio-economic and the health infrastructure as significant in determining health outcomes

Cytotoxicity of naphthoquinones and their capacity to generate reactive oxygen species is quenched when conjugated with gold nanoparticles

Several reports have demonstrated the anticancer activities of plumbagin, a naphthoquinone derivative isolated from plants belonging to Plumbaginaceae family. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports which describe gold nanoconjugation with plumbagin, even though plumbagin is considered to be a promising therapeutic agent. In this report, we demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of gold nanoparticles conjugated with plumbagin (AuPB) that can reduce the toxicity of the latter, and their capacity for cellular localization and generation of reactive oxygen species. The anticancer activity and ability of plumbagin to produce reactive oxygen species was studied and compared with that of bromoderivatives of 1,4 naphthoquinones such as 2-bromo-1,4-naphthoquinone (2-BNQ) and 2,3-dibromo-1, 4-naphthoquinone (2,3-DBNQ) and their gold nanoconjugates. Plumbagin and bromoderivatives of 1,4 naphthoquinones in the form of gold nanoconjugates showed reduced cytotoxicity and apoptosis compared with the pristine compounds, ie, plumbagin, 2-BNQ, and 2,3-DBNQ. Interestingly, we observed that the gold nanoparticles could quench the reactive oxygen species-generating capacity of plumbagin, 2-BNQ, and 2,3-BNQ, which is one of the main mechanisms of action of the naphthoquinones. Therefore, it can be concluded that conjugation with gold nanoparticles can reduce the cytotoxicity of these compounds

Inorganic phosphate nanorods are a novel fluorescent label in cell biology

We report the first use of inorganic fluorescent lanthanide (europium and terbium) ortho phosphate [LnPO(4)·H(2)O, Ln = Eu and Tb] nanorods as a novel fluorescent label in cell biology. These nanorods, synthesized by the microwave technique, retain their fluorescent properties after internalization into human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), 786-O cells, or renal carcinoma cells (RCC). The cellular internalization of these nanorods and their fluorescence properties were characterized by fluorescence spectroscopy (FS), differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, confocal microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). At concentrations up to 50 μg/ml, the use of [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation assays, apoptosis assays (TUNEL), and trypan blue exclusion illustrated the non-toxic nature of these nanorods, a major advantage over traditional organic dye

A Comparative Study between Antibody and Peptide Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles for In Vivo Targeting of EGFR in Pancreatic Cancer Bearing Mice Models [abstract]

Nanoscience Poster SessionPancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States due to its severe aggressiveness and lethal malignancy. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is over expressed in more than 95% of human pancreatic cancer patients. A number of peptides and monoclonal antibodies have been developed to target the EGFR in pancreatic cancer. Our research has focused on developing EGFR targeting biomolecule conjugated gold nanoparticles for the diagnosis and staging of various cancers. In this study, we synthesized a series of Antibody EGFR and EGFR-peptide conjugated AuNPs. We investigated the in vivo EGFR targeting characteristics of these conjugates in pancreatic tumor bearing SCID mice models. Our investigation establishes that the peptide conjugated AuNPs have high in vivo mobility and targets pancreatic tumor effectively. We have also established that EGFR-peptide -AuNP conjugates act as better X-ray contrast agents for early detection of pancreatic cancer in mice models. The details of this comparative study will be presented in this poster