Star varietal cube: A New Large Scale Parallel Interconnection Network

This paper proposes a new interconnection network topology, called the Star varietalcube SVC(n,m), for large scale multicomputer systems. We take advantage of the hierarchical structure of the Star graph network and the Varietal hypercube to obtain an efficient method for constructing the new topology. The Star graph of dimension n and a Varietal hypercube of dimension m are used as building blocks. The resulting network has most of the desirable properties of the Star and Varietal hypercube including recursive structure, partionability, strong connectivity. The diameter of the Star varietal hypercube is about two third of the diameter of the Star-cube. The average distance of the proposed topology is also smaller than that of the Star-cube

An analytical study on integration of pedagogy and technology in secondary science classes of India during COVID-19

This study examines the importance of integration of pedagogy and technology in secondary science classroom of India in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers in this study focused on four types schools. Twenty-two teachers and eighty students have taken part in this research. Looking to the COVID-19 situation data is generated through telephonic contacts, e- mails and Google meets. Researchers used a mixed method and followed qualitative as well as quantitative data analysis. According to teachers from all four kinds of schools, technology is a necessary instrument for advancing education in the COVID-19 period. According to the study, factors influencing effective pedagogy and technology integration include necessary infrastructure, technical support, teacher training, supportive school management, skilled and motivated teachers etc. Integration of ICT with pedagogy makes learning engaging and entertaining. It encourages inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, creative and critical thinking among students. It provides opportunity for students to receive materials in multiple formats like videos audio recordings, text materials etc..

HOSPITAL-BASED PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF COMPLICATIONS IN CHILDREN WITH SNAKE BITE IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTER.

Objective: We attempted to study the complications of snake bites so that early recognition and institution of proper treatment can save the lives of many children. Methods: This Hospital based prospective observational study was conducted in Srirama Chandra Bhanj Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack from December 2020 to November 2022 among children aged 1-14 years with a history of snake bites admitted to our ward, through the outpatient department and emergency department. Results: Our study showed, that snake bite cases were predominantly seen in 8 -11 years of age with a male: female ratio of 2.9:1, as these age group children are actively engaged in outdoor games like playing near riverside and bushy areas in playgrounds. Acute markers as depicted by serum LDH, D-Dimer, Fibrinogen, and Ferritin were significantly high among haematotoxic cases due to secondary infection and correlated with cellulitis and necrotic ulcers which accounted for 57.1%. Conclusion: Healthcare providers should be made aware that a history of circumstantial evidence such as sleeping on the floor at night with sudden onset of pain abdomen, vomiting, and inability to keep the eyes open should prompt neurotoxic snake bite and ASV as well as Atropine, Neostigmine should be started. Recommendation: We recommend spreading more awareness, people should be counseled to use toilets more, to use mosquito nets while sleeping, avoid sleeping on the floor

Deciphering the epigenetic mechanism of gene regulation and evaluation of medicinal plant products in modulation of chromatin modifications in cancer.

The development and progression of cancer is predominantly regulated by both tumor suppressor genes as well as oncogenes. Either gene mutation causes hyper-activation of ‘oncogenes’ and suppression of ‘cell cycle control and tumor suppressor genes’; or alleles of these sets of genes expression profiles are modulated by epigenetic mechanisms. Hence, cancer is the manifestation of both genetic and epigenetic alternations modulating the metabolic profile and cellular homeostasis. Since cellular metabolism is mostly controlled by enzymatic activities and enhanced during the disease progression, chemo-preventive bioactive molecules from edible and medicinal plants are being increasingly evaluated which could be one of the desired ‘toxicity free’ therapeutic strategies against cancer. This thesis attempts to investigate the anticancer and epigenetic regulatory activity of Paederia foetida (P. foetida) and its active constituents; lupeol and β-sitosterol. The regulation mechanism(s) of tumor suppressor gene E-cadherin (CDH1) is tested considering multiple modalities of epigenetic modulations; like, DNA methylation, histone methylation, acetylation and phosphorylation. The cellular environment(s)/metabolism(s) were experimentally modulated by ectopic application of drugs and/or H2O2 with the cell culture media/buffer executing in vitro cell cultures. Crude methanolic leaf extract of P. foetida (MEPL) and two of the identified products, lupeol and β-sitosterol exhibit anticancer activity through inhibition of ‘cellular viability and migration’ by up regulation of CDH1 gene expression. Along with this, it also induces apoptosis through up regulation of pro-apoptotic gene Bax and down regulation of the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl2 in human prostate (PC-3 and DU-145) and breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) cell lines. Ectopic applications of MEPL, lupeol and β-sitosterol also significantly down regulated the expression of DNMTs and HDACs as well as reduced the total DNMT and HDAC activity. Loss of CDH1 protein and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) are key steps in cancer progression. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) within cells are the products of metabolic reactions and play some crucial roles in cellular metabolism, physiological functions and homeostasis. Roles of E-cadherin, EMT and ROS are discretely and intriguingly illustrated in many cancers focusing their collective concert during cancer progression. We report that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment modulate CDH1 gene expression by epigenetic modification(s). Sublethal dosage of H2O2 treatment decrease of E-cadherin, increase DNMT1, HDAC1, Snail, Slug and enrich H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 in the CDH1 promoter. The effect of H2O2 was attenuated by ROS scavengers; NAC, lupeol and β-sitosterol. DNMT inhibitor, AZA prevented the H2O2induced promoter-CpG-island methylation of CDH1. Treatment of cells with U0126 (inhibitor of ERK) reduced the expression of DNMT1, Snail and Slug, increased CDH1. This implicates that CDH1 is synergistically repressed by histone methylation, DNA methylation and histone deacetylation mediated chromatin remodelling and activation of Snail and Slug through ERK pathway. Increased ROS leads to activation of epigenetic machineries and EMT activators Snail/Slug which in their course of action inactivates CDH1 gene and lack of E-cadherin protein promotes EMT in breast cancer cells. ROS and ERK signaling facilitate epigenetic silencing and support the fact that subtle increase of ROS above basal level act as key cell signaling molecules. Free radical scavengers, lupeol and β-sitosterol may be tested for therapeutic intervention of breast cancer. In aggressive tumors, there is increase expression of enhancer of zeste homologue (EZH2) and silencing of CDH1 genes. EZH2 is histone-lysine N-methyltransferase enzyme encoded by EZH2 gene. It participates in histone methylation and, ultimately, transcriptional repression. EZH2 specifically catalyses the addition of methyl groups to histone H3 at lysine 27(H3K27). The role of oxidative stress upon EZH2 and EZH2 mediated CDH1 regulation is still not explored. To decipher this, this thesis aimed to investigate the effect of H2O2 induced ROS on EZH2 expression. Data obtained reveals the induced expression of EZH2 in H2O2 treated cells suggesting the role of oxidative stress in EZH2 expression. Again treatment with EZH2 siRNA results in enhanced expression of CDH1 and reduced expression of EZH2 suggesting the role of EZH2 in negative regulation of CDH1 (CDH1) expression. Simultaneous treatment with EZH2 siRNA and H2O2 results in enhanced CDH1 (CDH1) expression and decrease expression of EZH2 which reveals the involvement of oxidative stress in enhanced expression of EZH2 and thus reduced the expression of CDH1 in breast cancer. Moreover, other studies also demonstrate the regulation of CDH1 and EZH2 by DNA methylation and histone modifications. DNMT1 is overexpressed and inversely correlated with CDH1 expression in breast cancer. Our thesis here demonstrates the negative regulation of CDH1 by EZH2. Most importantly it was found that, by inhibiting DNMT1 with 5-AZA-cytidine, it induced the expression of CDH1 indicating DNA methylation as well as EZH2 methylation is responsible for CDH1 down regulation in breast cancer. H3K27me3 also helps in the methylation of EZH2 and EZH2 mediated trimethylation of H3K27 is a prerequisite for promoter DNA methylation. This thesis demonstrates the expression of EZH2 and occupancy H3K27me3 is notably higher in untreated control cells as compared to EZH2 siRNA treated cells suggesting that CDH1 expression is regulated by higher expression of EZH2 thus results in H3K27 hyper-methylation. Inhibition of histone deacetylation by TSA (HDAC inhibitor) also restores the expression of CDH1 by inhibiting the EZH2 expression. This suggests that, histone deacetylation also plays an important role in regulation of EZH2 expression. Collectively, this work broadens the amplitude of the epigenome, enhance the understanding of the modulation of the epigenome and open avenues for investigations on conjoint effects of canonical and intrinsic metabolite signaling and epigenetic modulations of genes during tumor development and cancer progression

Detection and Inhibition of Amyloid Fibrillation using Functional Molecules and Nanoparticles

The research was conducted under DST fellowshipThe research was carried out under the supervision of Prof. N R Jana of SMS [School of Materials Sciences

Genital ulcers in children: A comprehensive review

Genital ulcers in children can be of serious concern for both the child and the parents. The diagnosis can be difficult, as eliciting proper history regarding the cause and evolution can be challenging. The dermatologist has to rely to a great extent on the clinical clues for appropriate diagnosis and prompt management. Counseling and addressing the parental concerns are also important. We have compiled the etiological causes, diagnostic clues, and the management of genital ulcers in children in this article

An Approach to Image Compression by Using Sparse Approximation Technique

AbstractImage compression has been a widely researched field for decades. Recently, there has been a growing interest in using basis selection algorithms for signal approximation and compression. Signal approximation using a linear combination of basis from an over-complete dictionary has proven to be an NP-hard problem. By selecting a smaller number of basis than the span of the signal, we achieve glossy compression in exchange for a small reconstruction error. For the past few decades orthogonal and bi-orthogonal complete dictionaries such as Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) or wavelets were the dominant transform domain representations of signals. Over-complete dictionaries have been intensively studied and successfully applied to various application such as image de-noising, compression etc. The DCT and wavelet based compression methods suffer from blocking and ringing artefacts and also they are unable to capture the directional information. So, in this context an investigation has been made by using sparse coding method by Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) algorithm. In this proposed work, conventional DCT can be replaced by a set of trained dictionaries. For dictionary construction we have used a combination of DCT and Gabor basis and to encode the trained dictionary elements we have employed OMP algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method provides gains in Rate Distortion (RD) performance and improvements in perceptual quality

Acute methotrexate toxicity due to overdosing in psoriasis: A series of seven cases

Overdosing is the major cause of acute methotrexate toxicity in psoriasis patients. There are no published data regarding the acute cumulative dose causing acute toxicity, duration to achieve acute cumulative toxic dose and various reasons for wrong dosing of methotrexate in Indian patients. We are presenting a series of seven cases of toxicity due to overdosing of methotrexate in psoriasis. The acute cumulative dose of methotrexate ranging from 35 mg to 150 mg, taken over 3–7 days was responsible for acute toxicity in the psoriasis cases. Lack of counselling regarding the disease course, drug dosing, schedule and awareness about possible outcome of high and daily dose were found to be the causes of overdosing and toxicity in our patients. All cases presented with ulceration, bleeding and pain in skin lesions and five cases had oral mucosal ulceration and genital mucosa was involved in two cases. All cases were given injectable folinic acid. Five cases recovered and two cases expired. Authors postulate counselling about the course of disease, regarding dosing schedule of methotrexate and consequences of methotrexate overdosing is mandatory for all patients of psoriasis in country like India where drug regulation is not strict to prevent methotrexate toxicity and its dreaded consequences