Documentary of Woody flora and its usage in Maruthamalai Hills of the Southern Western Ghats of Coimbatore district, India

The present study described the occurrence of woody species and its usage inMaruthamalai Hills of the southern Western Ghats. A total of 119 species were collected ofwhich one individual categorized as gymnosperm and the remaining 118 individualscategorized as an angiosperms. Among the life habit the trees are the dominant species (86)other than shrubs (28) and lianas (5). The Fabaceae, Mimosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae andBignoniaceae are the dominant families of woody flora of the Maruthamalai Hills. Theimportance of recording the usage of plants in this region is imperative because of rapid lossof forest wealth and traditional wisdom. In view of the various resources use, habitatuniqueness and anthropological pressure on the forest resources, the need for conservation isstressed

The Impact of Organizational Environmental Support on Organizational Sustainable Performance: The Mediating Role of Employee Green Behaviour in selected Commercial banks in Batticaloa Region of Sri Lanka

Sustainability is a major global concern and there has been increased pressure on organizations from the stakeholders to broaden the focus of business performance beyond financial performance. Companies should have a balance among financial, social and environmental performance in order to be competitive and survive in the long term. Committed employees are the key asset of every organization and organizations can engage employees in improving their sustainable performance. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the associations between organizational environmental support and organizational sustainable performance with the mediating role of employee green behaviour within the selected commercial banks in the Batticaloa Region of Sri Lanka. Data collection was made from 173 employees who are working in commercial banks in the Batticaloa Region of Sri Lanka. Univariate, bivariate, and multi-step mediation analyses have been used to analyze the data. The results indicate that there is a significant positive association between organizational environmental support, employee green behaviour and organizational sustainable performance. It is also concluded that employee green behaviour significantly mediates the relationship between organizational environmental support and organizational sustainable performance. The research concerns the understanding of various environmental support initiatives and sustainable performance from the viewpoint of employees in the banking sector at imparting employee green behaviour as one of the important factors to meet challenges relevant to environmental sustainability in the dynamic banking sector. This study contributes to the field by bringing together the concepts of employee green behaviour with organizational environmental support and organizational sustainable performance in the context of the Sri Lankan banking sector and suggests the banks provide resources and a supportive environment for the employees to implement eco-initiatives. Keywords: Employee Green Behaviour, Organizational Environmental Support, Organizational Sustainable Performanc

Hypoxia and hyperglycaemia determine why some endometrial tumours fail to respond to metformin

High expression of Ki67, a proliferation marker, is associated with reduced endometrial cancer-specific survival. Pre-surgical metformin reduces tumour Ki-67 expression in some women with endometrial cancer. Metformin's anti-cancer activity may relate to effects on cellular energy metabolism. Since tumour hypoxia and glucose availability are major cellular redox determinants, we evaluated their role in endometrial cancer response to metformin. Endometrial cancer biopsies from women treated with pre-surgical metformin were tested for the hypoxia markers, HIF-1α and CA-9. Endometrial cancer cell lines were treated with metformin in variable glucose concentrations in normoxia or hypoxia and cell viability, mitochondrial biogenesis, function and energy metabolism were assessed. In women treated with metformin (n = 28), Ki-67 response was lower in hypoxic tumours. Metformin showed minimal cytostatic effects towards Ishikawa and HEC1A cells in conventional medium (25 mM glucose). In low glucose (5.5 mM), a dose-dependent cytostatic effect was observed in normoxia but attenuated in hypoxia. Tumours treated with metformin showed increased mitochondrial mass (n = 25), while in cultured cells metformin decreased mitochondrial function. Metformin targets mitochondrial respiration, however, in hypoxic, high glucose conditions, there was a switch to glycolytic metabolism and decreased metformin response. Understanding the metabolic adaptations of endometrial tumours may identify patients likely to derive clinical benefit from metformin

Detailed ab initio first-Principles study of the magnetic anisotropy in a family of trigonal pyramidal iron(II) pyrrolide complexes

A theoretical, computational, and conceptual framework for the interpretation and prediction of the magnetic anisotropy of transition metal complexes with orbitally degenerate or orbitally nearly degenerate ground states is explored. The treatment is based on complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) wave functions in conjunction with N-electron valence perturbation theory (NEVPT2) and quasidegenerate perturbation theory (QDPT) for treatment of magnetic field- and spin-dependent relativistic effects. The methodology is applied to a series of Fe(II) complexes in ligand fields of almost trigonal pyramidal symmetry as provided by several variants of the tris-pyrrolylmethyl amine ligand (tpa). These systems have recently attracted much attention as mononuclear single-molecule magnet (SMM) complexes. This study aims to establish how the ligand field can be fine tuned in order to maximize the magnetic anisotropy barrier. In trigonal ligand fields high-spin Fe(II) complexes adopt an orbitally degenerate ⁵E ground state with strong in-state spin–orbit coupling (SOC). We study the competing effects of SOC and the ⁵E⊗ε multimode Jahn–Teller effect as a function of the peripheral substituents on the tpa ligand. These subtle distortions were found to have a significant effect on the magnetic anisotropy. Using a rigorous treatment of all spin multiplets arising from the triplet and quintet states in the d⁶ configuration the parameters of the effective spin-Hamiltonian (SH) approach were predicted from first principles. Being based on a nonperturbative approach we investigate under which conditions the SH approach is valid and what terms need to be retained. It is demonstrated that already tiny geometric distortions observed in the crystal structures of four structurally and magnetically well-documented systems, reported recently, i.e., [Fe(tpa®)]⁻ (R = tert-butyl, Tbu (1), mesityl, Mes (2), phenyl, Ph (3), and 2,6-difluorophenyl, Dfp (4), are enough to lead to five lowest and thermally accessible spin sublevels described sufficiently well by S = 2 SH provided that it is extended with one fourth order anisotropy term. Using this most elementary parametrization that is consistent with the actual physics, the reported magnetization data for the target systems were reinterpreted and found to be in good agreement with the ab initio results. The multiplet energies from the ab initio calculations have been fitted with remarkable consistency using a ligand field (angular overlap) model (ab initio ligand field, AILFT). This allows for determination of bonding parameters and quantitatively demonstrates the correlation between increasingly negative D values and changes in the σ-bond strength induced by the peripheral ligands. In fact, the sigma-bonding capacity (and hence the Lewis basicity) of the ligand decreases along the series 1 > 2 > 3 > 4

Drift Correction in a Porphyrin-coated ZnO Nanorods Gas Sensor

AbstractPhotoconductivity and gas sensitivity cooperate in porphyrins coated ZnO nanostructures. However, in organic coated semiconductors the former is regulated by a number of mechanisms, involving the charge transfer in the organic layer. Since organic layers are poor conductors these processes are quite slow and the sensor may exhibits a long time drift before to be operative as gas sensor. In this paper we show that under light modulation, the carrier frequency component of the signal is free of drift and it can readily indicate the interaction with volatile compounds

Ranching of clams in the Ashtamudi lake

Ranching of clams in the Ashtamudi lak

Gas Sensitivity of the Surface Potential of Hybrid Porphyrin-ZnO Nanorods

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An acridine derivative, [4,5-bis{(N-carboxy methyl imidazolium)methyl}acridine] dibromide, shows anti-TDP-43 aggregation effect in ALS disease models

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease associated with aggregation of TAR DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43) in neuronal cells and manifests as motor neuron dysfunction & muscle atrophy. The carboxyl-terminal prion-like domain of TDP-43 can aggregate in vitro into toxic β-sheet rich amyloid-like structures. So far, treatment options for ALS are very limited and Riluzole, which targets glutamate receptors, is the only but highly ineffective drug. Therefore, great interest exists in developing molecules for ALS treatment. Here, we have examined certain derivatives of acridine containing same side chains at position 4 & 5, for inhibitory potential against TDP-43 aggregation. Among several acridine derivatives examined, AIM4, which contains polar carboxyl groups in the side arms, significantly reduces TDP-43-YFP aggregation in the powerful yeast model cell and also abolishes in vitro amyloid-like aggregation of carboxyl terminal domain of TDP-43, as observed by AFM imaging. Thus, AIM4 can be a lead molecule potentiating further therapeutic research for ALS