Surface and interface study of pulsed-laser-deposited off-stoichiometric NiMnSb thin films on Si(100) substrate

We report a detailed study of surface and interface properties of pulsed-laser deposited NiMnSb films on Si (100) substrate as a function of film thickness. As the thickness of films is reduced below 35 nm formation of a porous layer is observed. Porosity in this layer increases with decrease in NiMnSb film thickness. These morphological changes of the ultra thin films are reflected in the interesting transport and magnetic properties of these films. On the other hand, there are no influences of compositional in-homogeneity and surface/interface roughness on the magnetic and transport properties of the films.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

An incidental finding of primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube: a case report

Primary fallopian tube carcinoma (PFTC) is a rare malignancy of female genital tract that histologically and clinically resemble epithelial ovarian cancer. Diagnosis of PFTC is difficult, especially at earlier stages. Most of the time it is an incidental finding. Careful surgical and pathological staging is important. It has worse prognosis than ovarian cancer as it is not routinely suspected, hence treatment is delayed.We, hereby, report a rare case of PFTC diagnosed incidentally while doing bilateral salpingoopherectomy for removal of ovarian cyst

Comparative efficacy of biological control agents for the management of cumin wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cumini

Field experiments were conducted during rabi 2008-09 and 2009-10 for the management of cumin wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cumini. The results showed that seed treatment with Trichoderma viride (10 g kg-1 of seed) and soil application (2.5 kg ha-1) recorded minimum percent disease incidence (PDI) of 18.5 (disease reduction of 51.8%) versus 38.4 in the control. It was on par with seed treatment and soil application with Aspergillus versicolor at 10 g kg-1 of seed and 2.5 kg ha-1, respectively which reduced the disease incidence by 45.4%. The chemical treatment i.e. seed treatment with carbendazim at 2.5 g kg-1 seed recorded PDI of 23.9 with 37.7% disease reduction. Among different treatments seed treatment and soil application with A. versicolor gave a seed yield of 246 kg ha-1 followed by P. fluorescens (222.6 kg ha-1). Treatment T. viride, recorded the highest yield of 258.2 kg ha-1. Hence, seed treatment at 10 g kg-1 and soil application at 2.5 kg ha-1 of T. viride was the most effective, eco-friendly disease management. &nbsp

Solvent evaporation driven entrapment of magnetic nanoparticles in mesoporous frame for designing a highly efficient MRI contrast probe

The present work reports a novel strategy of assembling maghemite (?-Fe2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) in mesoporous silica host for developing a highly efficient MRI contrast probe. Shrinkage of hydrophobic environment due to the continuous evaporation of chloroform from Chloroform-in-Water emulsions pushes the hydrophobic ?-Fe2O3 NPs towards the hydrophobic pores of silica spheres resulting in a water soluble dense assembly structure. Mesoporous silica only with straight pores is found to be suitable for this particular entrapment process, while with curved and twisted pores, NPs are found to be seated on the surface only. So-developed assembly system has retained the superparamagnetic behaviour of its comprising NPs and exhibited high colloidal stability and biocompatibility. A significant enhancement in MRI transverse relaxivity to 386.2?mM?1?s?1 from 191.8?mM?1?s?1 of isolated primary ?-Fe2O3 NPs, has been obtained due to the strong magnetic field generated by the large number of NPs packed in the porous channels and consequent faster relaxation process. The fabrication strategy can be extended for the development of designed secondary nanostructures with new magnetic effects and physical properties

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND QUANTITATION OF REGIOISOMERIC IMPURITY IN NIMODIPINE BULK AND FORMULATION

Objective: The present research work was directed towards the synthesis characterization and quantitation of regioisomeric impurity of Nimodipine i.e. diethyl 1, 4-dihydro-2,6-dimethyl pyridine dicarboxylate in bulk and tablet formulation, by UV,IR,NMR and GC-MS techniques and a RP-HPLC method was developed as per ICH Q2B guidelines for quantitation of 1, 4-Dihydro-2, 6-Dimethyl-4-(p-nitro phenyl) pyridine-3,5 dicarboxylate (NI) from bulk and formulation. Methods: The synthesis of NI was carried out by Hantzch pyridine synthesis, by using p-nitrobenzaldehyde, ethylacetoacetate, in presence of ammonia and methanol as a catalyst. The percentage yield was found to be 89.29%. Recrystallization and purification of NI was done. The preliminary evaluation was done on laboratory scale via melting point, elemental analysis and TLC. Results: The melting point of impurity was found to be 156-1580C. The TLC of impurity was carried by using Chloroform: Methanol (9:1) and the Rf was found to be 0.79. The confirmation of structure of NI was carried out by using sophisticated techniques i.e., FT-IR, NMR (13C and 1H), GC-MS etc. The RP-HPLC method was developed to quantify the NI in Nimodipine bulk and formulation as per ICH Q2B guidelines. The method validation was done as per ICH guidelines. Conclusion: The validated optimized method was found to be linear, précised, robust, rugged and accurate. Finally NI was quantified from bulk Nimodipine and its marketed tablet formulation. It was concluded that the amount of NI, present in tablet was found to be 0.1% and in the bulk 0.067% respectively. Thus it was revealed that the NI was found to be within the limit laid down ICH guidelines (Not more than 0.1 %)

Chikungunya Infection in India: Results of a Prospective Hospital Based Multi-Centric Study

Chikungunya (CHIKV) has recently seen a re-emergence in India with high morbidity. However, the epidemiology and disease burden remain largely undetermined. A prospective multi-centric study was conducted to evaluate clinical, epidemiological and virological features of chikugunya infection in patients with acute febrile illness from various geographical regions of India.A total of 540 patients with fever of up to 7days duration were enrolled at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Karnataka (South); Sawai Man Singh Medical College (SMS) Rajasthan (West), and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi (North) from June 2008 to May 2009. Serum specimens were screened for chikungunya infection concurrently through RT-PCR and serology (IgM). Phylogenetic analysis was performed using Bioedit and Mega2 programs. Chikungunya infection was detected in 25.37% patients by RT-PCR and/or IgM-ELISA. Highest cases were detected in south (49.36%) followed by west (16.28%) and north (0.56%) India. A difference in proportion of positives by RT-PCR/ELISA with regard to duration of fever was observed (p<0.05). Rashes, joint pain/swelling, abdominal pain and vomiting was frequently observed among chikungunya confirmed cases (p<0.05). Adults were affected more than children. Anti-CHIK antibodies (IgM) were detected for more than 60days of fever onset. Phylogenetic analysis based on E1 gene from KIMS patients (n = 15) revealed ∼99% homology clustering with Central/East African genotype. An amino acid change from lysine to glutamine at position 132 of E1 gene was frequently observed among strains infecting children.The study documented re-emergence of chikungunya in high frequencies and severe morbidity in south and west India but rare in north. The study emphasizes the need for continuous surveillance for disease burden using multiple diagnostic tests and also warrants the need for an appropriate molecular diagnostic for early detection of chikungunya virus

Discriminating visible speech tokens using multi-modality

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.We present a multimodal interactive data exploration tool that facilitates discrimination between visible speech tokens. The multimodal tool uses visualization and sonification (non-speech sound) of data. Visible speech tokens is a class of multidimensional data that have been used extensively in designing talking head that has been used in training of deaf individuals by watching speech [1]. Visible speech tokens (consonants), referred to as categories, differ along a set of pre-measured feature dimensions such as mouth height, mouth narrowing, jaw rotation and upper-lip retraction. The data set was visualized with a series of 1D scatter-plots that differed in color for each category. Sonification was performed by mapping three qualities of the data (within-category variability, between category variability, and category identity) to three sound parameters (noise amplitude, duration, and pitch). An experiment was conducted to assess the utility of multimodal information compared to visual information alone for exploring this multidimensional data set. Tasks involved answering a series of questions to determine how well each feature or a set of features discriminate among categories, which categories are discriminated and how many. Performance was assessed by measuring accuracy and reaction time to 36 questions varying in scale of understanding and level of dimension integrality. Scale varied at three levels (ratio, ordinal, and nominal) and integrality also varied at three levels (1, 2 , and 3 dimensions). A between-subjects design was used by assigning subjects to either the multimodal group or visual only group. Results show that accuracy is better for the multimodal group as the number of dimensions required to answer a question (integrality) increased. Also, accuracy was 10% better for the multimodal group for ordinal questions. For discriminating visible speech tokens, sonification provides useful information in addition to that given by visualization, particularly for representing three dimensions simultaneously

Genome‐wide analysis of epigenetic and transcriptional changes associated with heterosis in pigeonpea

Hybrids are extensively used in agriculture to deliver an increase in yield, yet the molecular basisof heterosis is not well understood. Global DNA methylation analysis, transcriptome analysis andsmall RNA profiling were aimed to understand the epigenetic effect of the changes in geneexpression level in the two hybrids and their parental lines. Increased DNA methylation wasobserved in both the hybrids as compared to their parents. This increased DNA methylation inhybrids showed that majority of the 24-nt siRNA clusters had higher expression in hybrids thanthe parents. Transcriptome analysis revealed that various phytohormones (auxin and salicylicacid) responsive hybrid-MPV DEGs were significantly altered in both the hybrids in comparison toMPV. DEGs associated with plant immunity and growth were overexpressed whereas DEGsassociated with basal defence level were repressed. This antagonistic patterns of gene expressionmight contribute to the greater growth of the hybrids. It was also noticed that some common aswell as unique changes in the regulatory pathways were associated with heterotic growth inboth the hybrids. Approximately 70% and 67% of down-regulated hybrid-MPV DEGs werefound to be differentially methylated in ICPH 2671 and ICPH 2740 hybrid, respectively. Thisreflected the association of epigenetic regulation in altered gene expressions. Our findings alsorevealed that miRNAs might play important roles in hybrid vigour in both the hybrids byregulating their target genes, especially in controlling plant growth and development, defenceand stress response pathways. The above finding provides an insight into the molecularmechanism of pigeonpea heterosis