Long term temperature trends at major, medium, small cities and hill stations in India during the period 1901-2013

Industrialization and urbanization are the most dominant causal factors for long-term changes in surface air temperatures. To examine this fact, the long term changes in the surface-air temperatures have been evaluated by the linear trend for the different periods, i.e. 1901-2013, 1901-1970 and recent period 1971-2013 as rapid industrialization was observed during the recent four decades. In the present study, seasonal and annual mean, maximum and minimum temperature data of 36 stations for the period 1901-2013 have been used. These stations are classified into 4 groups, namely major, medium, small cities and hill stations. During the period 1901-1970, less than 50% stations from each group showed a significant increasing trend in annual mean temperature, whereas in the recent period 1971-2013, more than 80% stations from all the groups except small city group showed a significant increasing trend. The minimum temperature increased faster than that of the maximum temperature over major and medium cities, while maximum temperature increased faster than the minimum temperature over the small cities and hill stations. The annual mean temperature of all the coastal stations showed a significant increasing trend and positive correlation with Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV). The effect of PWV is more pronounced on minimum temperature than that of the maximum

A comprehensive study on Regional Anatomy of Adho Shaakhaagata Maamsa Marma by Cadaver Dissection and their Applied Anatomy

Marma is the meeting point where Mamsa, Sira, Snayu, Asthi and Sandhi along with Prana resides which on injury produce death or death like miseries. Maamsa Marma is one such category based on predominant Marma Vasthu. They are eleven in number. Among them four are present in Adho Shakhaa i.e., two Talahrudaya and two Indrabasthi. Talahrudaya Marma is located in the middle of Paada in the line of middle finger, which on injury causes Ruja and Marana.  Indrbasthi Marma is located in the middle of Janghain the side of Paarshni and it causes death due to Shonitha Kshaya. Both of them are Kaalantarapraanahara Marmas. Methods: Literature regarding Marma and its Viddhalakshana were collected from various sources and its Viddha Lakshanas are analysed scientifically. Anatomical structures found in the region of Adhoshakhaagata Maamsa Marmas were confirmed with the help of cadaveric dissection in five bodies. Results: Muscles of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, layer of the sole, Medial & lateral plantar nerves, deep plantar arch, shielded by thick layer of skin, superficial facia and plantar aponeurosis are the important structures present in the Talahrudaya Marma Sthaana. Superficial & deep calf muscles, posterior tibial vessels, peroneal vessels, tibial nerve and short saphenous nerve are the important structures present in the Indrabasthi Marma Pradesha. The Viddha Lakshanas are analyzed with applied aspects of these regions. Conclusion: Centre of the sole along the line of middle finger can be considered as the region of Talahrudaya Marma which on injury results in Ruja & Marana. Indrabasthi Marma is located in the middle of the Jangha (calf) in the side of Paarshni (heel) about 12 Angula above heel, which on injury results in Shonitha Kshaya & Marana

αV β5 and CD44 are oxygen-regulated human embryonic stem cell attachment factors

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have great potential for clinical therapeutic use. However, relatively little is known of the mechanisms which dictate their specificity of adhesion to substrates through adhesion proteins including integrins. Previous observations demonstrated enhanced clonogenicity in reduced oxygen culture systems. Here, we demonstrated via antibody blocking experiments that αV β5 and α 6 significantly promoted hESC attachment in 2% O2 only, whereas blockage of CD44 inhibited cell attachment in 21% O2 alone. Immunofluorescence confirmed expression of αV β5 and CD44 in both 2% O2 and 21% O2 cultured hESCs while flow cytometry revealed significantly higher αV β5 expression in 2% O2 versus 21% O2 cultured hESCs and higher CD44 expression in 21% O2 versus 2% O2 cultured hESCs. Adhered hESCs following blockage of αV β5 in 2% O2 displayed a reduction in nuclear colocalisation of Oct-4 and Nanog with little effect observed in 21% O2. Blockage of CD44 had the converse effect with dramatic reductions in nuclear colocalisation of Oct-4 and Nanog in 21% O2 cultured hESC which retained adherence, but not in 2% O2 cultured cells. Identification of oxygen-dependent substrate attachment mechanisms in hESCs has the potential to play a role in the development of novel substrates to improve hESC attachment and culture

CONSUMPTION OF ANTIBIOTICS AS SELF-MEDICATION FROM OVER-THE-COUNTER PURCHASE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ARUNKUMAR

Objective: The primary objective of this study is to find the reasons behind the practice of self-medication (SM) by the people with over-the-counter (OTC) drugs which are usually available in all medical stores. Methods: This article presents an empirical view of SM practice with OTC drugs. The research design of the study is descriptive, and the population of the study is customers who buy OTC drugs. The target population of this research is the common public who are all having the possibility to consume OTC drugs ever. The sampling technique used for this study is a systematic random sampling, and the sample size is 144. An instrument used for collecting data is a self-administered questionnaire and personal interview with the pharmacists. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The study results that most of the OTC customers consider SM is not a good practice, even though they practice SM of antibiotics in certain circumstances, due to reasons such as time-saving, convenience, cost saving, avoid waiting time to consult a doctor, easy and quick availability of antibiotics in neighbourhood drug stores, etc. Conclusion: The study concludes the reasons behind the SM practice and some remedies to overcome OTC drug-related problems from SM.Â

Identification of micro satellite markers on chromosomes of bread wheat showing an association with karnal bunt resistance

A set of 104 wheat recombinant inbred lines developed from a cross between parents resistant (HD 29) and susceptible (WH 542) to karnal bunt (caused by Neovossia indica) were screened and used toidentify SSR markers linked with resistance to karnal bunt as these would allow indirect marker assisted selection of karnal bunt resistant genotypes. The two parents were analysed with 46 SSR primer pairs. Of these, 15 (32%) were found polymorphic between the two parental genotypes. Using these primer pairs, we carried out bulked segregate analysis on two bulked DNAs, one obtained by pooling DNA from 10 karnal bunt resistant recombinant inbred lines and the other similarly derived by pooling DNA from 10 karnal bunt susceptible recombinant inbred lines. Two molecular markers, Xgwm 337-1D and Xgwm 637-4A showed apparent linkage with resistance to karnal bunt. This was confirmed following selective genotyping of individual recombinant inbred lines included in the bulks. These markers may be useful in marker assisted selection for karnal bunt resistance in wheat

Designing fuzzy rule based classifier using self-organizing feature map for analysis of multispectral satellite images

We propose a novel scheme for designing fuzzy rule based classifier. An SOFM based method is used for generating a set of prototypes which is used to generate a set of fuzzy rules. Each rule represents a region in the feature space that we call the context of the rule. The rules are tuned with respect to their context. We justified that the reasoning scheme may be different in different context leading to context sensitive inferencing. To realize context sensitive inferencing we used a softmin operator with a tunable parameter. The proposed scheme is tested on several multispectral satellite image data sets and the performance is found to be much better than the results reported in the literature.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

Estimating net primary productivity of croplands in Indo-Gangetic Plains using GOME-2 sun-induced fluorescence and MODIS NDVI

© 2018 Current Science Association, Bengaluru. Recently evolved satellite-based sun-induced fluorescence (SIF) spectroscopy is considered as a direct measure of photosynthetic activity of vegetation. We have used monthly averages of satellite-based SIF retrievals for three agricultural year cycles, i.e. May to April for each of the three years, viz. 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 to assess comparative performance of SIF and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for predicting net primary productivity (NPP) over the Indo-Gangetic Plains, India. Results show that SIF values for C4 crop-dominated districts were higher than C3 crop-dominated districts during summer and low during winter for all three years. SIF explained more or less above 70% of variance in NPP. The variance explained by integrated NDVI ranged from 60% to 67%. Thus the present study has shown the potential of SIF data for improved modelling of agricultural productivity at a regional scale

Cellular interaction of folic acid conjugated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and its use as contrast agent for targeted magnetic imaging of tumor cells

The purpose of the study was to develop tumor specific, water dispersible superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and evaluate their efficacy as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We have developed SPIONs capped with citric acid/2-bromo-2-methylpropionic acid which are compact, water dispersible, biocompatible having narrow range of size dispersity (8–10 nm), and relatively high T2 relaxivity (R2 = 222L · mmol−1 · sec−l). The targeting efficacy of unconjugated and folic acid-conjugated SPIONs (FA-SPIONS) was evaluated in a folic acid receptor overexpressing and negative tumor cell lines. Folic acid receptor-positive cells incubated with FA-SPIONs showed much higher intracellular iron content without any cytotoxicity. Ultrastructurally, SPIONs were seen as clustered inside the various stages of endocytic pathways without damaging cellular organelles and possible mechanism for their entry is via receptor mediated endocytosis. In vitro MRI studies on tumor cells showed better T2-weighted images in FA-SPIONs. These findings indicate that FA-SPIONs possess high colloidal stability with excellent sensitivity of imaging and can be a useful MRI contrast agent for the detection of cancer