The Tertiary sequence of Varkala coastal cliffs, southwestern India: An ideal site for Global Geopark

Varkala, along the southwestern coast of Peninsular India, has a unique place in Indian geology and geomorphology due to the presence of coastal lateritic cliffs, which exposes the entire Mio-Pliocene sequence of Warkalli Formation, and is declared as the type area. Stratigraphically, this formation exposes carbonaceous clay with lenses of lignite and sticks of marcasite, followed by variegated clays and sandstone. The presence of variegated lithounits endows beauty to these cliffs. Varkala cliffs, edging the Arabian Sea, run for a length of 7.5 km. These cliffs, together with confined beaches, made Varkala a popular tourist destination. Several geodiversity spots within the Varkala Cliff geoheritage site make Varkala geologically unique, just like the vestiges of the last separation of Indian subcontinent from the Mascarene Plateau; showcasing lateritization and distribution of beach placers, and jarosite, formed as a diagenetic replacement mineral from marcasite and considered as a Martian analog, are distinctiveness of the cliff. Additionally, Varkala is an internationally acclaimed beach tourist destination. Furthermore, there are several geoheritage sites as well as socio-cultural-historical sites in the hinterland of Varkala Cliff geoheritage site, which are within the proposed Varkala Global Geopark jurisdiction. Thus, this area fulfills all the criteria to be a Global Geopark. The socio-economic-environmental analysis showcases the changes that have occurred in these 3-end members. When the economic sphere was unaffected, the social scenario was slightly affected (25%) whereas the environmental aspect then drastically deteriorated by 75%. But, the SWOT analysis still elects Varkala as a potential Global Geopark. The concept of geopark contributes to at least one of the 17 goals in Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN). Consequently, this work also aims at propagating, not only the need for converting the geologically prominent areas to a geopark, but also attaining SDG, whatever is possible through geoparks

Synthesis, gene silencing, and molecular modeling studies of 4 '-C-aminomethyl-2 '-O-methyl modified small interfering RNAs.

The linear syntheses of 4′-C-aminomethyl-2′-O-methyl uridine and cytidine nucleoside phosphoramidites were achieved using glucose as the starting material. The modified RNA building blocks were incorporated into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by employing solid phase RNA synthesis. Thermal melting studies showed that the modified siRNA duplexes exhibited slightly lower Tm (1 °C/modification) compared to the unmodified duplex. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the 4′-C-aminomethyl-2′-O-methyl modified nucleotides adopt South-type conformation in a siRNA duplex, thereby altering the stacking and hydrogen-bonding interactions. These modified siRNAs were also evaluated for their gene silencing efficiency in HeLa cells using a luciferase-based reporter assay. The results indicate that the modifications are well tolerated in various positions of the passenger strand and at the 3′ end of the guide strand but are less tolerated in the seed region of the guide strand. The modified siRNAs exhibited prolonged stability in human serum compared to unmodified siRNA. This work has implications for the use of 4′-C-aminomethyl-2′-O-methyl modified nucleotides to overcome some of the challenges associated with the therapeutic utilities of siRNAs

Growth Kinetics, Optical studies of Pure and Mg2+ Doped Nickel Cadmium Oxalate Single Crystals

Growth of pure (nickel cadmium oxalate) and Mg2+ doped nickel cadmium oxalate (MNCO) single crystals were grown by the single diffusion gel method at room temperature, by optimizing the various growth parameters such as specific gravity of sodium meta silicate (SMS), gel pH, gel temperature, gel aging, concentration of supernatant solution and concentration of oxalic acid. The morphology and composition of elements present in the crystals were identified using SEM-EDX analysis. The FTIR study shows that the occurrences of C=O, C-O, C-C, O-H and M-O bonding within the crystal lattice. The triclinic crystal system with P-1 space group were identified using, X-ray diffraction method. The absorbance, transmittance, energy gap, refractive index (n), reflectance (R) and insulating behaviour of the grown crystals were analysed using UV-Visible spectrophotometer

MENCA experiment aboard India’s Mars Orbiter Mission

The Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) aboard the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is a quadrupole mass spectrometer-based experiment. Making use of the highly elliptical and low inclination (~150°) orbit of MOM, MENCA will conduct in situ measurements of the composition and radial distribution of the Martian neutral exosphere in the 1–300 amu mass range in the equatorial and low latitudes of Mars. The functionality of MENCA has been tested during the Earth-bound and heliocentric phases of MOM before its operation in the Martian orbit. This article describes the scientific objectives, instrument details, design and development, test and evaluation, and calibration of the MENCA instrument

The SCIDOTS Project: Evidence of benefits of an integrated tobacco cessation intervention in tuberculosis care on treatment outcomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is substantial evidence to support the association between tuberculosis (TB) and tobacco smoking and that the smoking-related immunological abnormalities in TB are reversible within six weeks of cessation. Therefore, connecting TB and tobacco cessation interventions may produce significant benefits and positively impact TB treatment outcomes. However, no study has extensively documented the evidence of benefits of such integration. SCIDOTS Project is a study from the context of a developing nation aimed to determine this.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An integrated TB-tobacco intervention was provided by trained TB directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS) providers at five chest clinics in Malaysia. The study was a prospective non-randomized controlled intervention using quasi-experimental design. Using Transtheoretical Model approach, 120 eligible participants who were current smokers at the time of TB diagnosis were assigned to either of two treatment groups: conventional TB DOTS plus smoking cessation intervention (integrated intervention or SCIDOTS group) or conventional TB DOTS alone (comparison or DOTS group). At baseline, newly diagnosed TB patients considering quitting smoking within the next 30 days were placed in the integrated intervention group, while those who were contemplating quitting were assigned to the comparison group. Eleven sessions of individualized cognitive behavioral therapy with or without nicotine replacement therapy were provided to each participant in the integrated intervention group. The impacts of the novel approach on biochemically validated smoking cessation and TB treatment outcomes were measured periodically as appropriate.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A linear effect on both 7-day point prevalence abstinence and continuous abstinence was observed over time in the intervention group. At the end of 6 months, patients who received the integrated intervention had significantly higher rate of success in quitting smoking when compared with those who received the conventional TB treatment alone (77.5% vs. 8.7%; p < 0.001). Furthermore, at the end of TB treatment (6 months or later), there were significantly higher rates of treatment default (15.2% vs. 2.5%; p = 0.019) and treatment failure (6.5% vs. 0%; p = 0.019) in the DOTS group than in the SCIDOTS group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study provides evidence that connecting TB-tobacco treatment strategy is significant among TB patients who are smokers. The findings suggest that the integrated approach may be beneficial and confer advantages on short-term outcomes and possibly on future lung health of TB patients who quit smoking. This study may have important implications on health policy and clinical practice related to TB management among tobacco users.</p

Qualitative SERS analysis of G-quadruplex DNAs using selective stabilising ligands

Nucleic acids are of key biological importance due to their range of functions and ability to form various different structures, with an example of emerging significance being quadruplexes formed by guanine-rich sequences. These guanine rich sequences are found in different regions of the genome such as telomeres, gene promoters and introns and UTRs of mRNAs. Here a new approach has been developed that utilises surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for the detection of the formation of G-quadruplexes. Three G-quadruplex stabilising ligands that each have their own unique SERS response were used in this study and their ability to act as reporters assessed. A SERS response was only obtained from the ligands in the absence of G-quadruplex formation. This resulted in an "on/off" method which was successfully used to qualitatively detect the formation of G-quadruplex using quadruplex-forming sequences such as human telomeric and C-MYC promoter DNAs. The unique SERS spectra of each stabilising ligand offer the potential for use of SERS to study higher order DNA structures. This work shows that the ligands used can act simultaneously as a potential therapeutic stabilising agent and a SERS reporter, therefore allowing the use of SERS as a method of analysis of the formation of G-quadruplex DNAs

Selective G-quadruplex DNA Stabilizing Agents Based on Bisquinolinium and Bispyridinium Derivatives of 1,8-Naphthyridine

Various biologically relevant G-quadruplex DNA structures offer a platform for therapeutic intervention for altering the gene expression or by halting the function of proteins associated with telomeres. One of the prominent strategies to explore the therapeutic potential of quadruplex DNA structures is by stabilizing them with small molecule ligands. Here we report the synthesis of bisquinolinium and bispyridinium derivatives of 1,8-naphthyridine and their interaction with human telomeric DNA and promoter G-quadruplex forming DNAs. The interactions of ligands with quadruplex forming DNAs were studied by various biophysical, biochemical, and computational methods. Results indicated that bisquinolinium ligands bind tightly and selectively to quadruplex DNAs at low ligand concentration (similar to 0.2-0.4 mu M). Furthermore, thermal melting studies revealed that ligands imparted higher stabilization for quadruplex DNA (an increase in the T-m of up to 21 degrees C for human telomeric G-quadruplex DNA and >25 degrees C for promoter G-quadruplex DNAs) than duplex DNA (Delta T-m < 1.6 degrees C). Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the end-stacking binding mode was favored for ligands with low binding free energy. Taken together, the results indicate that the naphthyridine-based ligands with quinolinium and pyridinium side chains form a promising class of quadruplex DNA stabilizing agents having high selectivity for quadruplex DNA structures over duplex DNA structures

Luminescence Behaviour and Decay Lifetimes of Different Alkaline Earth Metals in Sodium Lead Fluoro-Borate Glass Doped with Pr3+

The glasses with embedded 0.5 mol% of Pr3+ in the composition 20Na2O-5PbF2-5PbO-10MO-(60-x) B2O3-xPr2O3 (where, M=Ba, Ca, Sr) were prepared using melting and quenching techniques. In Na2O-PbF2-PbO-BaO-B2O3 glasses, the BaO is replaced by CaO and SrO showed that for different alkaline in the same host glass resulted in the interesting facts. Luminescence spectra and time decay measurements were made to examine the influence of different alkaline earth metals ions. The variations of optical properties with different alkaline in same host glass are discussed and results leads to an interesting facts. The detailed studied made and have been reported for the better understanding

Growth Kinetics, Optical studies of Pure and Mg²⁺ Doped Nickel Cadmium Oxalate Single Crystals

693-699Growth of pure (nickel cadmium oxalate) and Mg2+ doped nickel cadmium oxalate (MNCO) single crystals were grown by the single diffusion gel method at room temperature, by optimizing the various growth parameters such as specific gravity of sodium meta silicate (SMS), gel pH, gel temperature, gel aging, concentration of supernatant solution and concentration of oxalic acid. The morphology and composition of elements present in the crystals were identified using SEM-EDX analysis. The FTIR study shows that the occurrences of C=O, C-O, C-C, O-H and M-O bonding within the crystal lattice. The triclinic crystal system with P-1 space group were identified using, X-ray diffraction method. The absorbance, transmittance, energy gap, refractive index (n), reflectance (R) and insulating behaviour of the grown crystals were analysed using UV-Visible spectrophotometer