Job Stress and Turnover Intention among Call Center Employees

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Personality profiles, emotional maturity and parental acceptance/rejection of children of working and non-working mothers.

The family is regarded as one of the primary group of society concerned with face to face relationship. A child receives his earliest education in his family. It is here that his basic ideas, ideals as well as many attitudes towards himself and his associates are initiated which determine his later adjustment to school and other out of home situations. The attitudes, economic status, behavioural experiences of his/her parents and family environment, all influence the child’s behaviour both directly and indirectly. Woman as a mother has a great role to play in the development of her children. The mother’s interaction with the child has a profound impact on the development of child. In the absence of mother a child feels lonely, insecure and this adversely affects not only the initial activities of the child but also the social and personal development of the child. A mother has more opportunities than the father to influence the child’s growth and behaviour. However it is obvious that when mother enters the employment market their children face crisis from their early age, because they are then usually reared by servants. They cannot take proper care of these children as their mothers can. So, they face hardships in terms of emotional support and rearing. Working Mothers usually place their children in childcare, which results less attention & instruction. It may have significant cognitive effects later in child hood. It has also been found that working mothers had a negative impact on their children, because after work they are sometimes too tired to interact with their children (Reynolds et al., 2003).Digital copy of Ph.D thesis.University of Kashmir

Pesticide Residues: Impacts on Fauna and the Environment

Pesticide residues are the traces of pesticide compounds that remain on or in the crop, water, soil and air after the application. Pesticide residues get into the environment as a result of application or by accident and can be found in the air, water and soil. Pesticide residues, if present in air, soil and water can pose a serious threat to biological diversity and human health. After depositing in the environment, the pesticides start to break down and forms metabolites that are more or less toxic. Pesticide residues decline as the pesticide breaks down over time, therefore the levels of residues are highest immediately after the application and diminish as the crops continue to grow. When exposed to sunlight or microorganisms in the soil, most pesticides degrade easily however, the utmost number of pesticides after application scatter into non-target areas or leach into groundwater or move in surface runoff by misuse and misapplication while handling or spraying. The impact of widespread usage of chemical pesticides has made an uncountable number of effects on human health, environment and other life forms and has turned into a serious issue across the globe. The present study aims to present an introduction to the environmental pesticide residues and various aspects highlighting their impact on nature and biodiversity

Insect Conservation and Management: A Need of the Hour

Insects play a very vital role in divergent ecosystems and have gained great economic and medical importance as pollinators, pests, predators, parasitoids, decomposers and vectors. With the large-scale practice of synthetic pesticides, the diminishing rate of beneficial and pollinator insects is increasing rapidly. Environmental pollution, climate change, global warming, urbanization, industrialization and some natural calamities like wildfires add more fuel to the acceleration of insect decline all over the world. Alternative steps should be employed to replace the toxic pesticides and implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) should be put forward to reduce the overuse of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, which have a great impact on beneficial insects as well as birds, aquatic organisms, and also on human health. The present study aims to create awareness among the researchers and general public by providing a brief review of insect importance, decline and conservation strategies

Comparative analysis of the mitochondrial genome of Hypospila bolinoides and Lygephila dorsigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Erebidae), with implications for their phylogeny

To analyse the phylogenetic relationships of members of the family Erebidae, the mitogenomes of two species namely, Hypospila bolinoides Guenée, 1852 and Lygephila dorsigera (Walker, 1865) were sequenced. H. bolinoides and L. dorsigera have circular genomes that are 15,640 bp and 15,567 bp long, respectively. Despite their different lengths, both genomes contain an identical gene order, which includes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes and an A+T-rich region. The nucleotide composition of the H. bolinoides mitogenome vis-à-vis the A+T rich region was 80.08%, which is higher than that of L. dorsigera (78.03%). The AT skew and GC skew were mostly negative for both species. The A+T-rich regions of H. bolinoides and L. dorsigera were 287 bp and 383 bp long, respectively, and confined to common characteristics of Noctuoidea. Concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs from 170 taxa belonging to the five families of the superfamily Noctuoidea and two butterfly mitogenomes used as outgroups were utilized for Bayesian inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) analyses. The first-ever comprehensive analysis of the mitogenomes of the genera Lygephila (Billberg, 1820) and Hypospila (Guenée, 1852) revealed that the superfamily Noctuoidea has a well supported monophyletic relationship with (Notodontidae + (Erebidae + (Nolidae + (Euteliidae + Noctuidae))). In support of previous partial genome analyses, the present study provides phylogenomic evidence that L. dorsigera, hitherto classified as a member of the subfamily Erebinae, can be placed within the subfamily Toxocampinae

IGF2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IMP3) mediated regulation of transcriptome and translatome in glioma cells

RNA binding proteins mediate global regulation at the level of transcriptome and translatome of a cell. We studied the global level expression changes regulated by IMP3 in transcriptome and translatome by performing microarray using total cellular RNA and heavy polysome derived RNA of IMP3 silenced glioma cells respectively. Differentially regulated transcripts at the transcriptome level (n = 2388) and at the level of translatome (n = 479) were identified. Further, these transcripts were classified as direct and indirect targets on the basis of presence of IMP3 binding site. Additional investigation revealed that direct targets at transcriptome level were found to be associated with processes related to cell cycle, whereas direct targets at the translatome level participated in apoptosis related pathways. Probable mechanism of indirect regulation at both the levels is also investigated. Collectively, our study reveals multi-level gene expression regulation imposed by IMP3 in glioma cells

Habitat Suitability Modelling of Endangered Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in North Kashmir, India

Habitat Suitability Modelling of Endangered Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in North Kashmir, India Zaffar Rais Mir1*, Junid Nazeer Shah2, Riyaz Ahmad3, Khursheed Ahmad1, Athar Noor4, Intesar Suhail5. 1Division of Wildlife Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology- Kashmir, 190025, Jammu and Kashmir, India. 2Natural Resources Conservation Section, Environment Department, Dubai Municipality, Dubai. 3Wildlife Trust of India, Noida, India,201301. 4Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand India, 248007. 5Department of Wildlife Protection Jammu and Kashmir, India, 190001. Abstract: The Kashmir Grey Langur (Semnopithecus ajax), distributed along some parts of Pakistan, Nepal and India, is endangered [1] mainly due to habitat loss. Its distribution limits are still uncertain and need to be resolved in order to determine its true conservation status. Here, we studied the distribution and the status of this threatened species in North Kashmir, India (Area ~ 10000 km2). From April to July 2016, we surveyed several protected and non-protected forests to collect primary as well as secondary information pertaining to distribution and threats of Kashmir Grey Langur. Program ‘Maxent’ was used for modelling and mapping the current distributional range of the langur in North Kashmir. Rainfall, elevation, slope, aspect, human foot print and other climatic variables were used as environmental layers for running ‘Maxent’. Best model was selected on the basis of highest AUC value. Results indicated that Kashmir Grey Langur is distributed in all the protected areas of North Kashmir including some non protected areas with encounter rates ranging from 0.21 to 5.67 individuals/km. Langur probability distribution map was produced using presence point data and environmental variable raster data in the ‘Maxent’ program. The predictive map indicated probability values ranging from 0.0 – 0.87, indicating different levels of habitat suitability and hence different langur presence probabilities. Based on these considerations, we propose the extension of present distributional range of langur to Kashmir Valley. Key Words: Maxent, Langur distribution, Habitat suitability, Predictive modeling. References: 1. IUCN (2017) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Accessed 24 December 2017 *Email-Address: [email protected]

Deregulated AUF1 Assists BMP-EZH2-Mediated Delayed Wound Healing during Candida albicans Infection

Tissue repair is a complex process that necessitates an interplay of cellular processes, now known to be dictated by epigenetics. Intriguingly, macrophages are testimony to a large repertoire of evolving functions in this process. We identified a role for BMP signaling in regulating macrophage responses to Candida albicans infection during wound repair in a murine model. In this study, the RNA binding protein, AU-rich element-binding factor 1, was posttranslationally destabilized to bring about ubiquitin ligase, NEDD4-directed activation of BMP signaling. Concomitantly, PI3K/PKC delta mobilized the rapid phosphorylation of BMP-responsive Smad1/5/8. Activated BMP pathway orchestrated the elevated recruitment of EZH2 at promoters of genes assisting timely wound closure. In vivo, the repressive H3K27 trimethylation was observed to persist, accompanied by a robust upregulation of BMP pathway upon infection with C. albicans, culminating in delayed wound healing. Altogether, we uncovered the signaling networks coordinated by fungal colonies that are now increasingly associated with the infected wound microbiome, resulting in altered wound fate

An extended Shine-Dalgarno sequence in mRNA functionally bypasses a vital defect in initiator tRNA

Initiator tRNAs are special in their direct binding to the ribosomal P-site due to the hallmark occurrence of the three consecutive G-C base pairs (3GC pairs) in their anticodon stems. How the 3GC pairs function in this role, has remained unsolved. We show that mutations in either the mRNA or 16S rRNA leading to extended interaction between the Shine-Dalgarno (SD) and anti-SD sequences compensate for the vital need of the 3GC pairs in tRNA(fMet) for its function in Escherichia coli. In vivo, the 3GC mutant tRNA(fMet) occurred less abundantly in 70S ribosomes but normally on 30S subunits. However, the extended SD:anti-SD interaction increased its occurrence in 70S ribosomes. We propose that the 3GC pairs play a critical role in tRNA(fMet) retention in ribosome during the conformational changes that mark the transition of 30S preinitiation complex into elongation competent 70S complex. Furthermore, treating cells with kasugamycin, decreasing ribosome recycling factor (RRF) activity or increasing initiation factor 2 (IF2) levels enhanced initiation with the 3GC mutant tRNA(fMet), suggesting that the 70S mode of initiation is less dependent on the 3GC pairs in tRNA(fMet)

Lamotrigine compromises the fidelity of initiator tRNA recruitment to the ribosomal P-site by IF2 and the RbfA release from 30S ribosomes in Escherichia coli

Lamotrigine (Ltg), an anticonvulsant drug, targets initiation factor 2 (IF2), compromises ribosome biogenesis and causes toxicity to Escherichia coli. However, our understanding of Ltg toxicity in E. coli remains unclear. While our in vitro assays reveal no effects of Ltg on the ribosome-dependent GTPase activity of IF2 or its role in initiation as measured by dipeptide formation in a fast kinetics assay, the in vivo experiments show that Ltg causes accumulation of the 17S precursor of 16S rRNA and leads to a decrease in polysome levels in E. coli. IF2 overexpression in E. coli increases Ltg toxicity. However, the overexpression of initiator tRNA (i-tRNA) protects it from the Ltg toxicity. The depletion of i-tRNA or overexpression of its 3GC mutant (lacking the characteristic 3GC base pairs in anticodon stem) enhances Ltg toxicity, and this enhancement in toxicity is synthetic with IF2 overexpression. The Ltg treatment itself causes a detectable increase in IF2 levels in E. coli and allows initiation with an elongator tRNA, suggesting compromise in the fidelity/specificity of IF2 function. Also, Ltg causes increased accumulation of ribosome-binding factor A (RbfA) on 30S ribosomal subunit. Based on our genetic and biochemical investigations, we show that Ltg compromises the function of i-tRNA/IF2 complex in ribosome maturation