Human resource management and performance at the Indian railway

High-performance-work-practices (HPWP) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. This paper aims to work towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public-sector undertaking (PSU), also the world’s largest commercial public sector employer: The Indian Railways

Dietary methionine improves the european seabass (dicentrarchus labrax) immune status, inflammatory response, and disease resistance

Methionine presents a pivotal role in the regulation of many cellular events with crucial impact on the immune system, such as in processes involved in the control of inflammation and polyamines synthesis. Accordingly, the present study aimed to assess the modulatory effects of dietary methionine on the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) immune status, inflammatory response and disease resistance to Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Phdp). For this purpose, fish were randomly distributed in three independent groups (three replicates per group) and each was fed the corresponding diet: a control diet (CTRL) formulated to meet the established amino acid requirements for the species; a diet supplemented with methionine at 0.5% of feed weight relative to the CTRL diet (8.2% of methionine concentration above CTRL); and one supplemented with methionine at 1% of feed weight to the CTRL diet (11.8% of methionine concentration above CTRL). To evaluate the immune status of fish fed with each of the diets before being submitted to bacterial infection fish were sampled from each group at 2 and 4 weeks after the beginning of feeding. Non- sampled fish were injected intraperitoneally with Phdp (5 × 103 cfu/fish) at 4 weeks after initiation of feeding and the inflammatory response (at 4, 24, and 48 h post-infection) and survival (lasting 21 days post-infection) evaluated. Fish hematological profile, peripheral cell dynamics, plasma humoral immune parameters, leucocyte migration to the inflammatory focus and head-kidney gene expression were evaluated. Results show that methionine dietary supplementation improves seabass cellular immune status without evidence of activation of pro-inflammatory mechanisms. Additionally, the observed enhanced immune status provided by methionine supplementation translated into an improved immune response to infection, as higher cellular differentiation/proliferation and recruitment toThis work was partially supported by Projects ALISSA (reference ALG-01-0247-FEDER-3520) and F/00197/2015, financed by Portugal and the European Union through FEDER, COMPETE 2020 and CRESC Algarve 2020, in the framework of Portugal 2020, and through the COMPETE and Operational Human Potential Programmes and national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal). MM and BC were supported by FCT, Portugal (SFRH/BD/108243/2015 and IF/00197/2015, respectively). The authors also acknowledge Dr. Nuno Santos and Dr. Ana do Vale (i3S/IBMC) support during the study and for critically reviewing the manuscript

Chemical composition of the leaf oil of Crithmum maritimum L. from Madeira

Crithmum maritimum L., which belongs to the family Umbeliferae, is a common plant from Madeira and Canary Islands. It is commonly named Perrexil or Funcho marinho. Its habitat is on coastal basaltic formations where the climate is characterized by intense heat and scarce humidity during summer. C. maritimum is used in traditional cooking as spice. A review of the literature reveals that the volatiles of this plant have not been the subject of previous studies

Adenosine A(2A) receptor blockade reverts hippocampal stress-induced deficits and restores corticosterone circadian oscillation

Maternal separation (MS) is an early life stress model that induces permanent changes in the central nervous system, impairing hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial working memory. There are compelling evidences for a role of hippocampal adenosine A(2A) receptors in stress-induced modifications related to cognition, thus opening a potential window for therapeutic intervention. Here, we submitted rats to MS and evaluated the long-lasting molecular, electrophysiological and behavioral impairments in adulthood. We then assessed the therapeutic potential of KW6002, a blocker of A(2A) receptors, in stress-impaired animals. We report that the blockade of A(2A) receptors was efficient in reverting the behavior, electrophysiological and morphological impairments induced by MS. In addition, this effect is associated with restoration of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) activity, as both the plasma corticosterone levels and hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor expression pattern returned to physiological-like status after the treatment. These results reveal the involvement of A(2A) receptors in the stress-associated impairments and directly in the stress response system by showing that the dysfunction of the HPA-axis as well as the long-lasting synaptic and behavioral effects of MS can be reverted by targeting adenosine A(2A) receptors. These findings provide a novel evidence for the use of adenosine A(2A) receptor antagonists as potential therapy against psychopathologiesWe acknowledge Alexandre de Mendonca, David Blum and Rodrigo Cunha for helpful discussions. VLB is thankful to Joao Baiao and Carla Batalha for technical assistance. VLB has been awarded a PhD fellowship from Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (BD/63041/2009). LVL is funded by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (PTDC/SAU-NEU/099853/2008) and by EU programme Egide-Pessoa. YB and CEM were funded by the Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF, Grant number 01EW0911) in the frame of ERA-NET NEURON

Drug-Derived Surface-Active Ionic Liquids: A Cost-Effective Way To Expressively Increase the Blood-Stage Antimalarial Activity of Primaquine (ChemMedChem, (2022), 17, 5, 10.1002/cmdc.202100650)

Scheme 1 and Figure 1 in this article were incorrect. The correct ones, and their respective captions, follow: 1 Scheme (Figure presented.) Synthesis route to PQ-derived organic salts 3a–g. (i) 1a (1 molar equivalent, eq), 2a–g (1 eq), methanol (MeOH), room temperature (RT), 30 min. 1 Figure (Figure presented.) Surface tension plots and cmc determination, at 25 °C, of aqueous CTAB/SAIL mixtures: A) surface tension vs. the logarithm of total CTAB+SAIL concentration, expressed in molality; the cmc values are obtained from the intersection points of the linear fit in each system; B) cmc vs. molar fraction of 3c in mixtures with CTAB, showing the marked effect of 3c in reducing cmc.publishersversionpublishe

A Cost-Effective Way To Expressively Increase the Blood-Stage Antimalarial Activity of Primaquine

Funding Information: The authors thank Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), for funding Research Units LAQV‐REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020), CIQUP (UIDB/00081/2020), and GHTM (UID/Multi/04413/2013), and for project grant PTDC/BTM‐SAL/29786/2017. ATS thanks FCT and Sociedade Portuguesa de Química (SPQ, Portugal) for her doctoral grant SFRH/BD/150649/2020 Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbHInspired by previous disclosure of room-temperature ionic liquids derived from primaquine and cinnamic acids, which displayed slightly enhanced blood-stage activity compared to the parent drug, we have now combined this emblematic antimalarial with natural fatty acids. This affords surface-active ionic liquids whose liver-stage antiplasmodial activity is either retained or slightly enhanced, while revealing blood-stage antiplasmodial activity at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the parent compound. These findings open new perspectives towards the cost-effective recycling of classical drugs that are either shelved or in decline, and which is not limited to antimalarial agents.publishersversionpublishe

Adenosine A2A receptor modulation of hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapse plasticity during associative learning in behaving mice

© 2009 Nature Publishing Group All rights reservedPrevious in vitro studies have characterized the electrophysiological and molecular signaling pathways of adenosine tonic modulation on long-lasting synaptic plasticity events, particularly for hippocampal long-term potentiation(LTP). However, it remains to be elucidated whether the long-term changes produced by endogenous adenosine in the efficiency of synapses are related to those required for learning and memory formation. Our goal was to understand how endogenous activation of adenosine excitatory A2A receptors modulates the associative learning evolution in conscious behaving mice. We have studied here the effects of the application of a highly selective A2A receptor antagonist, SCH58261, upon a well-known associative learning paradigm - classical eyeblink conditioning. We used a trace paradigm, with a tone as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and an electric shock presented to the supraorbital nerve as the unconditioned stimulus(US). A single electrical pulse was presented to the Schaffer collateral–commissural pathway to evoke field EPSPs (fEPSPs) in the pyramidal CA1 area during the CS–US interval. In vehicle-injected animals, there was a progressive increase in the percentage of conditioning responses (CRs) and in the slope of fEPSPs through conditioning sessions, an effect that was completely prevented (and lost) in SCH58261 (0.5 mg/kg, i.p.)-injected animals. Moreover, experimentally evoked LTP was impaired in SCH58261- injected mice. In conclusion, the endogenous activation of adenosine A2A receptors plays a pivotal effect on the associative learning process and its relevant hippocampal circuits, including activity-dependent changes at the CA3-CA1 synapse.This study was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Research (BFU2005-01024 and BFU2005-02512), Spanish Junta de Andalucía (BIO-122 and CVI-02487), and the Fundación Conocimiento y Cultura of the Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain).B. Fontinha was in receipt of a studentship from a project grant (POCI/SAU-NEU/56332/2004) supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), and of an STSM from Cost B30 concerted action of the EU

New national and regional bryophyte records, 52

Marchantia paleacea is a new species for the Umbria Region and is rare in central and southern Italy. This record is in a Site of Community Importance (SCI) IT5220017 and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) of the Natura 2000 EU-wide network due to the presence of the 7220* ‘Petrifying springs with tufa formation (Cratoneurion)’ Annexe I priority habitat. The particular environment, with a gorge and waterfall, created a very special microclimate that allowed the establishment of interesting liverworts and mosses

AMP Affects Intracellular Ca2+ Signaling, Migration, Cytokine Secretion and T Cell Priming Capacity of Dendritic Cells

The nucleotide adenosine-5′-monophosphate (AMP) can be released by various cell types and has been shown to elicit different cellular responses. In the extracellular space AMP is dephosphorylated to the nucleoside adenosine which can then bind to adenosine receptors. However, it has been shown that AMP can also activate A1 and A2a receptors directly. Here we show that AMP is a potent modulator of mouse and human dendritic cell (DC) function. AMP increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration in a time and dose dependent manner. Furthermore, AMP stimulated actin-polymerization in human DCs and induced migration of immature human and bone marrow derived mouse DCs, both via direct activation of A1 receptors. AMP strongly inhibited secretion of TNF-α and IL-12p70, while it enhanced production of IL-10 both via activation of A2a receptors. Consequently, DCs matured in the presence of AMP and co-cultivated with naive CD4+CD45RA+ T cells inhibited IFN-γ production whereas secretion of IL-5 and IL-13 was up-regulated. An enhancement of Th2-driven immune response could also be observed when OVA-pulsed murine DCs were pretreated with AMP prior to co-culture with OVA-transgenic naïve OTII T cells. An effect due to the enzymatic degradation of AMP to adenosine could be ruled out, as AMP still elicited migration and changes in cytokine secretion in bone-marrow derived DCs generated from CD73-deficient animals and in human DCs pretreated with the ecto-nucleotidase inhibitor 5′-(alpha,beta-methylene) diphosphate (APCP). Finally, the influence of contaminating adenosine could be excluded, as AMP admixed with adenosine desaminase (ADA) was still able to influence DC function. In summary our data show that AMP when present during maturation is a potent regulator of dendritic cell function and point out the role for AMP in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders

Geographic variation in the leaf essential oils of Juniperus cedrus Webb. & Berthol. from Madeira and the Canary Islands

The volatile leaf oils of J. cedrus from Madeira, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma and Tenerife were analyzed and the compositions reported and compared with J. oxycedrus, France. The oil of J. cedrus from Madeira Island was moderately high in α-pinene (24.9%), limonene (10.9%), β-phellandrene (7.3%), δ-3-carene (5.6%), (E)-caryophyllene (4.3%), with considerable amounts of diterpenes: sandaracopimara-8(14),15-diene (2.8%), abietatriene (1.4%), iso- abienol (7.2%), nezukol (0.4%), sempervirol (0.6%), trans-totarol (8.6%), and trans-ferruginol (1.2%). In contrast, J. cedrus from the Canary Islands was very high in α-pinene (54.6 - 66.3%), with moderate amounts of β-pinene (2.2-3.3%), myrcene (3.6-5.9%), α- phellandrene (0.5-3.0%), β-phellandrene (4.1-13.1%), with little or no δ-3-carene (0.0-0.1%), and almost no diterpenes. The major geographic trend was the divergence of J. cedrus, Madeira, from the populations in the Canary Islands. The level of divergence of the Madeira population from the Canary Islands populations was comparable to the divergence of J. cedrus from J. oxycedrus, implying considerable evolutionary differences.Peer reviewe