402 research outputs found
Preliminary account on the intensity of fouling in Karwar waters
Biology of fouling in Karwar waters is presented. The composition of fouling communities, their fluctuations in relation to hydrographical factors such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity and the influence of the nature and texture of the substratum on fouling communities are discussed
Role of Apamarga Yavakshara in the management of Mutrashmari - A Conceptual Study
Mutrashmari is one of the most common disorders of the Mutravaha Srotas. It is one of the Astamahagada and considered as "Yamaâ because sometimes it causes acute excruciating pain.[1] In contemporary medical science it is correlated with urolithiasis. Symptoms in general include radiating pain from loin to groin, hematuria, burning micturition, malaise. Prevalence of Urolithiasis varies according to geographical distribution, sex and age. The treatment modalities of urolithiasis in conventional science are conservative medications and surgical procedures which are expensive, involve invasive treatments, needs hospitalization and in most of the cases recurrence rate is high. Ayurveda explains variety of Yogas for the management of Mutrashmari. A combination of Apamarga and Yava Kshara is indicated in Mutrashmari as per Rasatarangini.[2] So this study is taken up, to explore the combined effect of Apamarga and Yava Kshara in Mutrashmari keeping in view the shortcomings of different modern medical treatments
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Adding Resolution to an Old Problem: Eye Movements as a Measure of Visual Search
Human Synaptic Plasticity Gene Expression Profile and Dendritic Spine Density Changes in HIV-Infected Human CNS Cells: Role in HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND)
HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) is characterized by development of cognitive, behavioral and motor abnormalities, and occur in approximately 50% of HIV infected individuals. Our current understanding of HAND emanates mainly from HIV-1 subtype B (clade B), which is prevalent in USA and Western countries. However very little information is available on neuropathogenesis of HIV-1 subtype C (clade C) that exists in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Therefore, studies to identify specific neuropathogenic mechanisms associated with HAND are worth pursuing to dissect the mechanisms underlying this modulation and to prevent HAND particularly in clade B infection. In this study, we have investigated 84 key human synaptic plasticity genes differential expression profile in clade B and clade C infected primary human astrocytes by using RT2 Profile PCR Array human Synaptic Plasticity kit. Among these, 31 and 21 synaptic genes were significantly (â„3 fold) down-regulated and 5 genes were significantly (â„3 fold) up-regulated in clade B and clade C infected cells, respectively compared to the uninfected control astrocytes. In flow-cytometry analysis, down-regulation of postsynaptic density and dendrite spine morphology regulatory proteins (ARC, NMDAR1 and GRM1) was confirmed in both clade B and C infected primary human astrocytes and SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cells. Further, spine density and dendrite morphology changes by confocal microscopic analysis indicates significantly decreased spine density, loss of spines and decreased dendrite diameter, total dendrite and spine area in clade B infected SK-N-MC neuroblastoma cells compared to uninfected and clade C infected cells. We have also observed that, in clade B infected astrocytes, induction of apoptosis was significantly higher than in the clade C infected astrocytes. In conclusion, this study suggests that down-regulation of synaptic plasticity genes, decreased dendritic spine density and induction of apoptosis in astrocytes may contribute to the severe neuropathogenesis in clade B infection
Simulation Studies on Arrival Time Distributions of Cherenkov Photons in Extensive Air Showers
Atmospheric Cherenkov technique is an established methodology to study TeV
energy gamma rays. Here we carry out systematic monte carlo simulation studies
of the timing information of Cherenkov photons. Extensive studies have already
been carried out in this regard. Most of these are carried out at higher
energies with the aim of studying the elemental composition of cosmic rays.
However not much attention is paid to the species dependent signatures at TeV
energies. In this work, functional fits have been carried out to the spherical
Cherenkov shower fronts and the radii of curvature have been found to be equal
to the height of shower maximum irrespective of the species or the observation
level. Functional fits have also been carried out to describe the pulse shapes
at various core distances in terms of well known probability density
distribution functions (PDF). Two types of PDF's have been tried viz. gamma
function and lognormal function. The variation of the pulse shape parameters as
a function of primary energy, observation height and incident angles have been
studied. The possibility of deriving the pulse shape parameters like the rise &
decay times, full width at half maximum from the easily measurable quantities
like the mean and RMS variation of photon arrival times offers a very important
new technique which can be easily applied in an observation.Comment: 34 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
Possible Discrimination between Gamma Rays and Hadrons using Cerenkov Photon Timing Measurements
Atmospheric \v{C}erenkov Technique is an established methodology to study
energy gamma rays. However the challenging problem has always been the
poor signal to noise ratio due to the presence of abundant cosmic rays. Several
ingenious techniques have been employed to alleviate this problem, most of
which are centred around the \v{C}erenkov image characteristics. However there
are not many techniques available for improving the signal to noise ratio of
the data from wavefront sampling observations. One such possible technique is
to use the \v{C}erenkov photon arrival times and identify the species dependent
characteristics in them. Here we carry out systematic monte carlo simulation
studies of the timing information of \v{C}erenkov photons at the observation
level. We have parameterized the shape of the \v{C}erenkov shower front as well
as the pulse shapes in terms of experimentally measurable quantities. We
demonstrate the sensitivity of the curvature of the shower front, pulse shape
parameters as well as the photon arrival time jitter to primary species and
show their efficiency in improving the signal to noise ratio. The effect of
limiting the \v{C}erenkov telescope opening angle by using a circular focal
point mask, onthe efficacy of the parameters has also been studied for each of
the parameters. Radius of the shower front, pulse decay time and photon arrival
time jitter have been found to be the most promising parameters which could be
used to discriminate ray events from the background. We also find
that the efficiency of the first two parameters increases with zenith angle and
efficiency of pulse decay time decreases with increasing altitude of
observation.Comment: 30 pages, 5 postscript figures, uses elsart.sty; To appear in
Astroparticle Physic
Positional isomerism markedly affects the growth inhibition of colon cancer cells by NOSH-aspirin: COX inhibition and modelingâ
We recently reported the synthesis of NOSH-aspirin, a novel hybrid that releases both nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). In NOSH-aspirin, the two moieties that release NO and H2S are covalently linked at the 1, 2 positions of acetyl salicylic acid, i.e. ortho-NOSH-aspirin (o-NOSH-aspirin). In the present study, we compared the effects of the positional isomers of NOSH-ASA (o-NOSH-aspirin, m-NOSH-aspirin and p-NOSH-aspirin) to that of aspirin on growth of HT-29 and HCT 15 colon cancer cells, belonging to the same histological subtype, but with different expression of cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes; HT-29 express both COX-1 and COX-2, whereas HCT 15 is COX-null. We also analyzed the effect of these compounds on proliferation and apoptosis in HT-29 cells. Since the parent compound aspirin, inhibits both COX-1 and COX-2, we also evaluated the effects of these compounds on COX-1 and COX-2 enzyme activities and also performed modeling of the interactions between the positional isomers of NOSH-aspirin and COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes. We observed that the three positional isomers of NOSH aspirin inhibited the growth of both colon cancer cell lines with IC50s in the nano-molar range. In particular in HT-29 cells the IC50s for growth inhibition were: o-NOSH-ASA, 0.04±0.011 ”M; m-NOSH-ASA, 0.24±0.11 ”M; p-NOSH-ASA, 0.46±0.17 ”M; and in HCT 15 cells the IC50s for o-NOSH-ASA, m-NOSH-ASA, and p-NOSH-ASA were 0.062 ±0.006 ”M, 0.092±0.004 ”M, and 0.37±0.04 ”M, respectively. The IC50 for aspirin in both cell lines was \u3e5 mM at 24 h. The reduction of cell growth appeared to be mediated through inhibition of proliferation, and induction of apoptosis. All 3 positional isomers of NOSH-aspirin preferentially inhibited COX-1 over COX-2. These results suggest that the three positional isomers of NOSH-aspirin have the same biological actions, but that o-NOSH-ASA displayed the strongest anti-neoplastic potential
A rare presentation of the Klinefelter's syndrome
A 16 years old boy with Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) was not suspected of having Klinefelter's syndrome until he complained of painful gynecomastia. He was under haemodialysis for 2 years. At first, he was in an approximately full pubertal development (P5, G5), but he had a small and a firm testis (length 2.2cm) and some degree of facial male pattern hair. He also had a decreased upper to lower body segment ratio and despite having chronic renal failure, he was taller than his parents and siblings. His laboratory tests showed high levels of FSH and normal levels of LH and testosterone. With regards to all these findings, we suspected that there might be an occult Klinefelter's syndrome. So, we made his karyotype that showed a 47XXY pattern. Because there are only a few number of cases that have occult Klinefelter's syndrome in the basis of chronic renal failure, we decided to report this case
Lathyrus genetic resources network: Proceedings of a IPGRI-ICARDA-ICAR Regional Working Group Meeting, 8-10 December 1997, New Delhi, India
Neglected and underutilized crops âhave received relatively less attention in national or international priorities. IPGRI has recognized the potential importance of such crops, and in partnership with others around the world, has undertaken a series of activities to understand and promote the role of such crops in helping to achieve food security and agricultural sustainability through local peoplesâ maintenance of diversity and in realizing their potential for improvement. The potential of Lathyrus sativus (Grass pea) as a nutritious pulse with high quality grain and fodder, is well recognized in South Asia, Ethiopia and parts of Central, West and North Asia, where other species of this genepool also occur. The local types are tolerant to flood and drought conditions and possess unique adaptation as a post-rice crop across much of South Asia. Other cultivated species of Lathyrus are L. ochrus and L. cicera mainly grown in Central, West and North Africa as a fodder crop. These proceedings are the outcome of the first meeting of this Working Group. This meeting, which took place at NBPGR, New Delhi in December 1997, reviewed progress, reaffirmed the concern and interest of the participating countries in this crop and worked out on the modalities of the Lathyrus Genetic Resources Network (LGRN) - its proposed structure and functioning
Cerenkov Photon Density Fluctuations in Extensive Air Showers
The details of Cerenkov light produced by a gamma ray or a cosmic ray
incident at the top of the atmosphere is best studied through systematic
simulations of the extensive air showers. Recently such studies have become all
the more important in view of the various techniques resulting from such
studies, to distinguish gamma ray initiated showers from those generated by
much more abundant hadronic component of cosmic rays. We have carried out here
such systematic simulation studies using CORSIKA package in order to understand
the Cerenkov photon density fluctuations for 5 different energies at various
core distances both for gamma ray and proton primaries incident vertically at
the top of the atmosphere. Such a systematic comparison of shower to shower
density fluctuations for gamma ray and proton primaries is carried out for the
first time here. It is found that the density fluctuations are significantly
non-Poissonian. Such fluctuations are much more pronounced in the proton
primaries than gamma ray primaries at all energies. The processes that
contribute significantly to the observed fluctuations have been identified. It
has been found that significant contribution to fluctuations comes from photons
emitted after shower maximum. The electron number fluctuations and correlated
emission of Cerenkov photons are mainly responsible for the observed
fluctuations.Comment: 31 pages, latex, 16 figures in ps files, Accepted for publication in
"Astroparticle Physics
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