Inversion dynamics in some population of an emerging vector of malaria Anopheles (Celia) subpictus Grassi (Diptera: Culicidae)

The present paper deals with the polytene chromosome inversion polymorphism based genomic characterization of Anopheles subpictus Grassi (Culicidae: Diptera) which has attained the status of an emerging vector of malaria in Srilanka, West Bengal and some coastal parts of India. The inversion data of the present population from Hoshairpur, Punjab (pop.A), India has also been compared with five other populations of this species worked out earlier in this laboratory so as to have a comprehensive assessment of inversion dynamics in this taxon. From the percentage frequency of inversions it was also evident that both rural and urban populations of An. subpictus had nearly similar inversion frequencies. In addition to these observations, it was interesting to note that irrespective of the number of individuals sacrificed, cells studied and the number of aberrations encountered from each population, inversions always constituted 50% of the total mutational index. On the basis of the present comparative data of inversion polymorphism, it is logical to suggest that, similar to “meiotic drive” and “molecular drive” there is also a type of “inversion drive” which constantly changes population genomics to augment competitive fitness of the species. Our recent studies on the r DNA ITS2 sequence variations also suggest this contension

Pengaruh Peran Keluarga, Aktivitas Fisik, Interaksi Sosial dan Stres terhadap Kualitas Hidup Lansia

Kualitas hidup merupakan suatu konsep yang luas terdiri dari kesehatan fisik, psikologis, hubungan sosial dan hubungan dengan lingkungan. Masa lansia akan mengalami suatu Perubahan dalam segi fisik, kognitif maupun dalam kehidupan psikososialnya sehingga dapat mempengaruhi kualitas hidup lansia tersebut. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh langsung dan tidak langsung serta besaran antara peran keluarga, aktivitas fisik, interaksi sosial, dan stres terhadap kualitas hidup lansia di Puskesmas Petaling Mendobarat Bangka Belitung tahun 2017. Metode penelitian ini adalah pendekatan kuantitatif dengan desain cross-sectional. Jumlah sampel 60 lansia. Metode analisis dengan Structural Equation Model (SEM) mengunakan SmartPLS 2.0. Hasil pengujian hipotesis SEM dengan metode SmartPLS menghasilkan temuan penelitian yaitu peran keluarga (2,14%), aktivitas fisik (13,01%), interaksi sosial (57,41%) dan stres (13,34%). Pengaruh langsung kualitas hidup lansia di Puskesmas Petaling Mendobarat Bangka Belitung sebesar 85,90% dan pengaruh tidak langsung sebesar 6,27%. Total pengaruh langsung dan tidak langsung kualitas hidup lansia sebesar 92,17%. Semakin tinggi interaksi sosial lansia maka semakin baik kualitas hidup lansia dan sebaliknya semakin rendah interaksi sosial lansia maka semakin buruk kualitas hidup lansia. Saran penelitian adalah Puskesmas sebaiknya meningkatkan program posyandu lansia dan lebih mengoptimalkan senam lansia yang sudah ada sehingga para lansia mampu lebih berinteraksi kepada sesama lansia, petugas kesehatan dan kader

Improving the photovoltaic response of a poly(3-octylthiophene)/n-Si heterojunction by incorporating double-walled carbon nanotubes

Poly(3-octylthiophene)/n-Si heterojunction solar cells were studied with and without incorporation of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNs) in the polymer layer. The performance of the device improves significantly by the incorporation of DWCNs. We report a power conversion efficiency, open circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and fill factor of 0.49%, 0.53 V, 5.9 mA cm−2 and 0.15 respectively for an un-optimized cell containing DWCNs. Reference cells without DWCNs show a much lower performance. DWCN incorporation yields better hole transport, easy exciton splitting and suppression of charge recombination, thereby improving photovoltaic action. DWCN seems a promising material for improving hole transport in organic solar cells

Improving photovoltaic response of poly„3-hexylthiophene…/n-Si heterojunction by incorporating double walled carbon nanotubes

Poly(3-hexylthiophene)/n-Si heterojunction solar cells were studied with and without incorporation of double walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNs) in the polymer layer. Performance of the device improves by manyfold by incorporation of DWCN. The authors report power conversion efficiency, open circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, and fill factor of 0.026%, 0.446 V, 0.3398 mA/cm2, and 0.17, respectively, for an unoptimized cell containing DWCN. Reference cells without DWCNs show much lower performance. DWCN incorporation yields better hole transport, easy exciton splitting, and suppression of charge recombination, thereby improving photovoltaic action. DWCN seems promising materials for improving hole transport in organic solar cells

Status of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 infection

COVID-19 causing virus is a single stranded RNA virus which has spread across the globe causing human respiratory tract infection. The novel virus which started from Wuhan was named as Wuhan coronavirus or 2019 novel corona virus (2019-nCov) by the Chinese researchers. The international committee on taxonomy of viruses named the virus as SARS-CoV-2 and the disease as COVID-19. There is preliminary in vitro evidence of the ability of CQ and HCQ to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 activity. Various small group clinical studies conducted in china indicated efficacy of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 cases but results were inconclusive. Based on these studies national agencies in various countries issued guidelines mentioning that chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine are only to be used in clinical trials or emergency use programs. However, USFDA does not recommend use of both these drugs for treatment of COVID-19 cases. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are known to produce dose dependent toxicity including fatal arrhythmias therefore its possible benefit has to be assessed against its risk. Large number of international and national studies are ongoing to assess exact status of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for treatment and prophylaxis of COVID-19 infection. Based on these results ICMR recommend to use hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis of COVID-19 in India and hydroxychloroquine has been is included  in schedule H1 hence they can be sold by pharmaceutical chemists only strictly with a valid prescription and require record to be maintained but chloroquine is still under schedule H which require to be sold with prescription.

Field electron emission of double walled carbon nanotube film prepared by drop casting method

Thick films of double walled carbon nanotubes (DWCN) were deposited on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates by drop casting method and were studied for their field electron emission property in a parallel plate configuration using bare ITO coated glass as counter electrode. They show excellent field electron emission property with low turn-on-field of about 0.8 V/lm and threshold field of about 1.8 V/lm. Field enhancement factor calculated from the non-saturated region of the FN plot is about 1715. Field electron emission current was observed to be stable up to 3000 min, indicating thereby that DWCNs are excellent electron emitters with appreciable stable performance

Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) approach on Nutritional Diagnosis in Fruit crops- A Review

Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) is widely used statistical approach for interpretation of the plant tissue analysis data and to diagnose the plant nutreint needs much earlier than the reduction of crop yield with greater accuracy. It helps in simultaneous identifying imbalances, deficiencies and excesses of crop nutrients and ranks them in the order of their importance for their remedial steps. The DRIS norms based on foliar composition can developed in any crop and at any stage of its development. It provides a mathematical means of ordering large number of nutrient ratios into nutrient indices that can be easily interpreted. The nutrient ranges been established as deficient, low, optimum, high and excessive based on the mean of nutrient concentration and standard deviation from high yielding population to serve as a guide for a quick and routine diagnostic and advisory purpose. The major advantage of DRIS lies in its ability to minimize the effect of variation in tissue age on diagnosis, which allows a choice of wider range of tissues than permissible under the conventional critical value approach. Thus, DRIS is holistic in nature for identification of nutrient imbalance in crops and formulation of nutrient management strategies for achieving higher yields

Volatile organic compounds are ghosts for organic solar cells

All our efforts to demonstrate a multifunctional device – photovoltaic gas sensor (i.e. solar cell which show photovoltaic action depending on the gas / volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the surrounding atmosphere) yielded negative results. Photovoltaic performance of the organic solar cells under study degraded – almost permanently by exposing them to volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Although, the proposed multifunctional device could not be demonstrated; Present investigations yielded very important result that organic solar cells have problems not only with oxygen and humidity (known facts) but also with many VOCs and hazardous gases – making lamination / encapsulation step mandatory for their practical utilizatio