Nano-hole induction by nanodiamond and nanoplatinum liquid, DPV576, reverses multidrug resistance in human myeloid leukemia (HL60/AR).

Recently nanoparticles have been extensively studied and have proven to be a promising candidate for cancer treatment and diagnosis. In the current study, we examined the chemo-sensitizing activity of a mixture of nanodiamond (ND) and nanoplatinum (NP) solution known as DPV576, against multidrug-resistant (MDR) human myeloid leukemia (HL60/AR) and MDR-sensitive cells (HL60). Cancer cells were cultured with different concentrations of daunorubicin (DNR) (1 × 10 (-9)-1 × 10 (-6) M) in the presence of selected concentrations of DPV576 (2.5%-10% v/v). Cancer cell survival was determined by MTT assay, drug accumulation by flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and holes and structural changes by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Co-treatment of HL60/AR cells with DNR plus DPV576 resulted in the reduction of the IC50 to 1/4th. This was associated with increased incidences of holes inside the cells as compared with control untreated cells. On the other hand, HL60 cells did not show changes in their drug accumulation post-treatment with DPV576 and DNR. We conclude that DPV576 is an effective chemo-sensitizer as indicated by the reversal of HL60/AR cells to DNR and may represent a potential novel adjuvant for the treatment of chemo-resistant human myeloid leukemia

A just fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan

Women have suffered deeply during Afghanistan’s 40 years of war. Violence against women remains one of the most serious human rights issues in Afghanistan. Shivani Sharma explores the challenges that Afghan women face in the context of the ongoing intra-Afghan negotiations and the possible implications on achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan

AYUSH-64 : A Miraculous Remedy in Covid-19

Tracing back to Dec. 2019 when the first case of Novel Corona Virus disease was reported, the global community is still living in fear of Covid-19 disease due to repeatedly emerging new variants of SARS-CoV2. Even the vaccines developed till date cannot fully prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease posing significant global health burden. In such devastating times Ayurveda system of medicine is a beacon of hope for thousands of people. Ayush-64 is an Ayurvedic formulation which was developed by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of AYUSH and Govt. of India for the management of Malaria. It has four ingredients having immunomodulatory, febrifugal, anti-oxidant and antiviral activities. The experimental studies done on Ayush-64 showed that its phytoconstituents have high binding affinity against Covid-19 virus. Therefore, it has also been encompassed in the National Covid management protocol based on Ayurveda and Yoga by GOI for asymptomatic, mild, moderate cases of Covid-19. The potential of Ayurveda has been already seen worldwide during pandemic times. This is our humble attempt to explore the effect of Ayush-64 in Covid-19

Radiative and Seesaw Threshold Corrections to the S3S_3 Symmetric Neutrino Mass Matrix

We systematically analyze the radiative corrections to the $S_3$ symmetric neutrino mass matrix at high energy scale, say the GUT scale, in the charged lepton basis. There are significant corrections to the neutrino parameters both in the Standard Model (SM) and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with large tan$\beta$, when the renormalization group evolution (RGE) and seesaw threshold effects are taken into consideration. We find that in the SM all three mixing angles and atmospheric mass squared difference are simultaneously obtained in their current 3$\sigma$ ranges at the electroweak scale. However, the solar mass squared difference is found to be larger than its allowed 3$\sigma$ range at the low scale in this case. There are significant contributions to neutrino masses and mixing angles in the MSSM with large tan$\beta$ from the RGEs even in the absence of seesaw threshold corrections. However, we find that the mass squared differences and the mixing angles are obtained in their current 3$\sigma$ ranges at low energy when the seesaw threshold effects are also taken into account in the MSSM with large tan$\beta$.Comment: 20 Pages, 2 Figures and 2 Table

Variation in personality states as predicted by interpersonal context

Accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Individual Differences. © 2018 Hogrefe Publishing. All rights reserved.Diary studies of personality have shown that personality is variable, and can help the person deal appropriately with the different interpersonal demands they encounter. This study aims to demonstrate how interpersonal context predicts personality states. Thirty-six participants (9 male, 27 female, M age = 24.72, SD = 7.11) kept an online diary for one month. The diary recorded measurements of HEXACO personality states, momentary interpersonal factors including current interpersonal role (with friend, family member, partner, as employee/student, alone), and social goal orientation (socializing with others, avoidance of others, asserting yourself, personal/work achievement), and dispositional anxiety and depression. Individuals' personality states were found to vary considerably across measurements in a normal distribution. Multilevel modelling analyses showed that interpersonal factors did predict within subject personality variation. Social goal orientations had a greater relative impact than interpersonal roles. Depression had a significant effect on between subject variance in state emotionality. These findings highlight the importance of interpersonal context in predicting stable personality variation.Peer reviewe

Nature and Functioning of Visual Merchandising in Organized Food Retailing

The Indian food retail sector is one of the biggest industries in the country with an annual turnover of around US $18 billion. It has been estimated that organized food retailing in India which is worth US$ 666 million today will increase to US $ 33,333 million by 2015. The inherent attractiveness of the segment is luring more and more investors from both India and abroad, as is clearly indicated by the opening of a number of retail stores by major corporate houses like those of Bharti, Reliance, Pantaloons (Food Bazaar), Subhiksha, ITC (Choupal fresh), etc. However, to build long-term customer loyalty, price, quality, variety, and right image are very much needed. To attain this, the aesthetic appeal of the store and the way the products are displayed at the store are very important. Thus, the visual merchandising (VM) is the need of the hour at the food retail stores. This paper has studied various components of VM at retail stores and has analyzed the impact of indoor signages on customer’s buying behaviour. A comparative analysis of VM has been done at Food Bazaar (Ambala), Subhiksha (Chandigarh) and ITC Choupal Fresh (Chandigarh). Problems faced in implementation of VM at retail stores have been highlighted and some implications have been mentioned.Agribusiness,

Piezoelectric needle sensor reveals mechanical heterogeneity in human thyroid tissue lesions.

Palpable thyroid lesions are common, and although mostly benign, lethal malignant nodules do occur and may be difficult to differentiate. Here, we introduce the use of a piezoelectric system called Smart-touch fine needle (or STFN) mounted directly onto conventional biopsy needles, to evaluate abnormal tissues, through quantitative real-time measurements of variations in tissue stiffness as the needle penetrates tissue. Using well-characterized biomaterials of known stiffness and explanted animal tissue models, we first established experimental protocols for STFN measures on biological tissues, as well as optimized device design for high signal-to-noise ratio. Freshly excised patient thyroids with varying fibrotic and malignant potential revealed discrete variations in STFN based tissue stiffness/stiffness heterogeneity and correlated well with final histopathology. Our piezoelectric needle sensor reveals mechanical heterogeneity in thyroid tissue lesions and provides a foundation for the design of hand-held tools for the rapid, mechano-profiling of malignant lesions in vivo while performing fine needle aspiration (FNA)

EXCEL through IoT (Exploring Cognitive and Emotional Learning through IOT)

Cognitive Learning is a process that involves learner’s knowledge into consideration. It involves the use of human brain. These days understanding students’s emotional state of mind is one of the research area where student face problems in tackling academic tasks. It has been observed that emotions are a crucial part of students' psychosomatic life, and that they may strongly influence academic motivation, cognitive strategies of learning and achieving the desired results.So, our research is to augment student learning and teacher instruction by giving the real-time reaction of students' state of mind, so that teacher can engage students in the learning processes, help them to learn or use the brain in much and far better way to relate thing with the previous one while learning something new.