Incongruities of a Socialistic Smart City: a Case of Area Based Development in T. T. Nagar, Bhopal

The Smart City mission, launched in 2015, has selected 99 cities all over India to participate in the vision of smart and sustainable living. This further initiated a chain of urban renewal projects among these cities in an attempt to produce a perfect model to instigate close association and development of nearby towns and villages, in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Urban Development. Bhopal has acted swiftly in response to this challenge, coming up with an Area Based Development(ABD) plan right in the city core in T.T. Nagar. Being a provincial city possesing several contextual assets like state-owned lands in the city centre, Bhopal has introduced this ABD as the first in India to be a redevelopment and rehabilitation project. It has been envisaged to develop with state of the art infrastucture and technological and ‘smart’ interventions. However, the project proposes extensive involvement of private sector and joint ventures which produces a requirement of huge capital of 2500 crores for execution (Bhopal Smart City Corporation Limited, 2016). The government of Bhopal intends to recover this investment through large-scale real estate models and commercial frameworks catering for the needs of higher socio-economic sections of the area and private organisations, leaving behind a cluster of untended and economically weak communities. This contradicts the socialistic role of government in policy-making and execution. This research intends to assess and re-imagine criterias for site selection of ABD in a smart city to act as a driver of development, rather than a caterer of developed city-centres. The study also examines the role of government and people indeciding these criterias by assessing varying scenarios of deliverables at core and periphery, establishing the need of additional participatory frameworks in centre-introduced initiatives such as the Smart City mission

The prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in out-patients above 40 years of a tertiary care hospital in Delhi

Background: Osteoporosis is a common bone disorder among Indian population but is still underdiagnosed. Being a treatable disease, early diagnosis can significantly reduce osteoporotic fractures and other morbidities. Despite multiple studies globally regarding the prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia, the data about Indian population especially in males is limited. In this study, we aim to calculate the prevalence of osteoporosis in patients over 40 years of age attending the out-patients department of a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done including 231 patients (147 females and 84 males) over the age of 40 years. Calcaneal quantitative ultrasonography (QUS) was used to measure the bone mineral density and the results were divided into normal, osteopenic and osteoporotic groups on the based on equivalent heel T score.Results: Of the total 231 patients, 78 patients had a normal bone mass density as measured by calcaneal QUS. 123 patients (53.2%) were found to be osteopenic while 30 patients (13.1%) were osteoporotic. Of the 147 females, 84 (57%) were osteopenic while 27 (18%) patients were found to be osteoporotic. Among the 84 males, 39 (46%) were osteopenic and 3 (4%) were found to be osteoporotic.Conclusions: The prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia in outpatients over 40 years was high in our study and similar in values with other studies involving the Indian population. Hence, we recommend regular screening and early detection of osteoporosis to reduce the burden of the disease

Genotoxicity of Graphene in Escherichia coli

Rapid advances in nanotechnology necessitate assessment of the safety of nanomaterials in the resulting products and applications. One key nanomaterial attracting much interest in many areas of science and technology is graphene. Graphene is a one atom thick carbon allotrope arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. In addition to being extremely thin, graphene has several extraordinary physical properties such as its exceptional mechanical strength, thermal stability, and high electrical conductivity. Graphene itself is relatively chemically inert and therefore pristine graphene must undergo a process called functionalization, which is combination of chemical and physical treatments that change the properties of graphene, to make it chemically active. Functionalization of graphene is of crucial importance as the end application of graphene depends on proper functionalization. In the field of medicine, graphene is currently a nanomaterial of high interest for building biosensors, DNA transistors, and probes for cancer detection. Despite the promising applications of graphene in several areas of biomedicine, there have been only few studies in recent years that focus on evaluating cytotoxicity of graphene on cells, and almost no studies that investigate how graphene exposure affects cellular genetic material. Therefore, in this study we used a novel approach to evaluate the genotoxicity, i.e., the effects of graphene on DNA, using Escherichia coli as a prokaryotic model organism

Mcm10 proteolysis initiates before the onset of M-phase

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mcm10 protein is essential for initiation and elongation phases of replication. Human cells proteolyze Mcm10 during mitosis, presumably to ensure a single round of replication. It has been proposed that anaphase promoting complex ubiquitinates Mcm10 in late M and early G₁phases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In contrast to the previous work, we report that the degradation of Mcm10 is initiated at the onset of mitosis. Immunoblotting and immunofluorescence assays display that Mcm10 levels are low in all phases of mitosis. We report that Mcm10 degradation is not dependent on anaphase promoting complex. Further, the proteolysis in M-phase can be independently mediated by non-overlapping regions of Mcm10, apparently employing a redundant mechanism to ensure downregulation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It is believed that the proteolysis of Mcm10 during mitosis is a vital mechanism to prevent aberrant initiation of replication and the present study describes the regulation of Mcm10 during this phase of the cell-cycle.</p

Drug utilization study in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending diabetes clinic of a tertiary care hospital in rural Bengal

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common and important health problem affecting the citizens of developed as well as developing nations. Not only does it require long term therapy, it is also crippling in terms of cost of management. Drug utilization studies help to determine rational drug use especially in poorer and rural populations. The objective of this study was to evaluate drug utilization pattern in type-2 diabetes patients in a diabetic clinic of a tertiary care teaching hospital in rural Bengal.Methods: This was a prospective observational study including 181 patients for a period of 6 months in Bankura Sammilani Medical College. Patients diagnosed as type 2 diabetes mellitus were included in the study. The demographic data, disease data and utilization of different classes of oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin as well as other individual drugs were analysed using the World Health Organization (WHO) indicators for drug utilization studies.Results: The study population was predominantly male (61.33%) and nearly a third (30.9%) belonged to the age group of 50-59 years. Co-morbid conditions were found in 74% patients, among which hypertension (51.1%) was the most common co-morbid condition. The average number of drugs per prescription was 4.22 and the average number of antidiabetic drugs per prescription was 2.18. Metformin was the most commonly prescribed drug (79.6%), followed by sulfonylurea class of drugs (66.9%). Nearly 17.7% patients were on insulin preparations. Glimepiride and metformin was the most common combinations used (45.5%). Antibiotics were included in 15.5% prescriptions and proton pump inhibitors were prescribed in 32% cases. All the medicines were prescribed as generics and injections were prescribed in 17.7% cases.Conclusions: This study gives a picture of the pattern of drug use among diabetes patients in our set up. While metformin was the commonest drug used, glimepiride and metformin combination was the commonest combination therapy

Diagnosis of Ectopic Pregnancy

Ectopic pregnancy is defined as the implantation of a fertilised egg outside the uterine cavity. The site of ectopic pregnancy are Fallopian tube. Cervix, ovary, peritoneal cavity, or uterine scars. Other two site of implantation are cornual pregnancy and interstitial pregnancy. Diagnostic tests for ectopic pregnancy include a urine pregnancy tests, Serum beta hcG and ultrasound. The instant result of a urine pregnancy test is a useful pointer for the clinician to suspect an ectopic pregnancy. The test is a useful triage tool for clinicians to rule out a pregnancy when the clinical situation is not clear such as a patient who is not sure of dates, does not remember or is in a state of shock and the history cannot be elicited. Ultrasound remains the mainstay of the diagnosis and high index of suspicion and a detailed history are pre-requisite of scanning. Different ultrasonography feature are diagnostic of different site of implantation. For uterine scar pregnancy ultrasonologic criteria are not validated still now

Multiscale 3D hybrid carbon microelectrodes with candle soot and reduced GO nanoparticles as binder-free anode: An approach beyond 3D for high rate & high performance Li-ion batteries

The full potential of electrodes for superior electrochemical performance in lithium-ion batteries (LIB) is beyond the limits of conventional planar electrodes with higher mass loadings. In this article, we report a unique way to fabricate a hierarchical hybrid 3D microelectrodes architecture with low mass loading (~1.3 mg/cm2) for more effective and efficient lithium charge transport in LIB. To fabricate such hierarchical 3D microelectrodes, first, 3D carbon microelectrodes are prepared on stainless steel (SS) wafer via the carbon-MEMS approach followed by drop-casting reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanoflakes and candle soot carbon nanoparticles solution on these 3D microelectrodes. As-fabricated hierarchical 3D microelectrodes are then tested as an anode in LIB that enabled high current density operations with enhanced specific capacities. 3D carbon hierarchical microelectrodes based on rGO and candle soot carbon nanoparticles with SS substrate deliver high specific capacities of 560 and 462 mAhg−1 at 250 mAg−1 current density after 100 cycles, respectively. Post cycling analysis after 100 cycles confirms the structural integrity of the electrodes. Further, the finite element method is used to investigate and predict the time-dependent Li-ion gradient within the 3D microelectrodes that confirms much improved Li-ion diffusion kinetics over conventional flat electrodes. © 2020 Elsevier B.V

Design and Synthesis of Heterocyclic Cations for Specific DNA Recognition: From AT-Rich to Mixed-Base-Pair DNA Sequences

The compounds synthesized in this research were designed with the goal of establishing a new paradigm for mixed-base-pair DNA sequence-specific recognition. The design scheme starts with a cell-permeable heterocyclic cation that binds to AT base pair sites in the DNA minor groove. Modifications were introduced in the original compound to include an Hbond accepting group to specifically recognize the G-NH that projects into the minor groove. Therefore, a series of heterocyclic cations substituted with an azabenzimidazole ring has been designed and synthesized for mixed-base-pair DNA recognition. The most successful compound, 12a, had an azabenzimidazole to recognize G and additional modifications for general minor groove interactions. It binds to the DNA site −AAAGTTT− more strongly than the −AAATTT− site without GC and indicates the design success. Structural modifications of 12a generally weakened binding. The interactions of the new compound with a variety of DNA sequences with and without GC base pairs were evaluated by thermal melting analysis, circular dichroism, fluorescence emission spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, and molecular modeling