COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF DEVELOPING READING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS IN UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY

Dr. B.M.N. College of Home Science is situated in a central suburb of Mumbai and caters to the undergraduate education of women students from across class, linguistic, religious backgrounds. The vision of the institute is “Empowerment of Women through Quality in Education” and the library’s collection incorporates representative materials in a wide variety of formats covering a broad range of interest to support the vision. It was observed that a large number of women students admitted into the college had problems with fluency in English language and communication skills, as they had done their secondary education in vernacular medium. This led to problems in academic and co curricular performances. The library in collaboration with the English Department decided to work on a strategy to improve their overall academic and co curricular performance by providing remediation. This has led to establishing a sizeable collection to improve and enhance communication skills, fluency in English language of such students. The present study looks at the collection development practice followed library in order to help develop reading, fluency and presentation skills and thus augment the present day teaching – learning process. The paper will discuss the need for the collection, process of collection, use and evaluation of the collection developed for the purpose of developing and improving reading and presentation skills of the student

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF DEVELOPING READING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS IN UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY

Dr. B.M.N. College of Home Science is situated in a central suburb of Mumbai and caters to the undergraduate education of women students from across class, linguistic, religious backgrounds. The vision of the institute is “Empowerment of Women through Quality in Education” and the library’s collection incorporates representative materials in a wide variety of formats covering a broad range of interest to support the vision. It was observed that a large number of women students admitted into the college had problems with fluency in English language and communication skills, as they had done their secondary education in vernacular medium. This led to problems in academic and co curricular performances. The library in collaboration with the English Department decided to work on a strategy to improve their overall academic and co curricular performance by providing remediation. This has led to establishing a sizeable collection to improve and enhance communication skills, fluency in English language of such students. The present study looks at the collection development practice followed library in order to help develop reading, fluency and presentation skills and thus augment the present day teaching – learning process. The paper will discuss the need for the collection, process of collection, use and evaluation of the collection developed for the purpose of developing and improving reading and presentation skills of the student

H2A.Z: a molecular rheostat for transcriptional control

The replacement of nucleosomal H2A with the histone variant H2A.Z is critical for regulating DNA-mediated processes across eukaryotes and for early development of multicellular organisms. How this variant performs these seemingly diverse roles has remained largely enigmatic. Here, we discuss recent mechanistic insights that have begun to reveal how H2A.Z functions as a molecular rheostat for gene control. We focus on specific examples in metazoans as a model for understanding how H2A.Z integrates information from histone post-translational modifications, other histone variants, and transcription factors (TFs) to regulate proper induction of gene expression programs in response to cellular cues. Finally, we propose a general model of how H2A.Z incorporation regulates chromatin states in diverse processes

Antiulcer Activity of Indigenous Plant Operculina turpethum

In the Indian traditional system of medicine Operculina turpethum is commonly used to treat various ailments including peptic ulcer, inflammation, and pain. Ulcer preventive and ulcer protective activities of HAOP and MOP stem bark extracts of Operculina turpethum (100 mg/kg, b.w., orally) were evaluated employing aspirin + pylorus ligation (APL) model in experimental rats. The results suggested that both extracts (HAOP and MOP) possess enhanced ulcer preventive and protective activities when compared with the standard drug ranitidine. HAOP showed more pronounced effect when compared to MOP. Further the result of the histopathological and biochemical studies also confirms potent ulcer preventive and protective nature of a extracts in a similar manner

Broadly Neutralizing Influenza Hemagglutinin Stem-Specific Antibody CR8020 Targets Residues that Are Prone to Escape due to Host Selection Pressure

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAb) that target a conserved region of a viral antigen hold significant therapeutic promise. CR8020 is a bNAb that targets the stem region of influenza A virus (IAV) hemagglutinin (HA). CR8020 is currently being evaluated for prophylactic use against group 2 IAVs in phase II studies. Structural and computational analyses reported here indicate that CR8020 targets HA residues that are prone to antigenic drift and host selection pressure. Critically, CR8020 escape mutation is seen in certain H7N9 viruses from recent outbreaks. Furthermore, the ability of the bNAb Fc region to effectively engage activating Fcγ receptors (FCγR) is essential for antibody efficacy. In this regard, our data indicate that the membrane could sterically hinder the formation of HA-CR8020-FcγRIIa/HA-IgG-FcγRIIIa ternary complexes. Altogether, our analyses suggest that epitope mutability and accessibility to immune complex assembly are important attributes to consider when evaluating bNAb candidates for clinical development.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Merit Award R37 GM057073-13)Singapore. National Research Foundation (Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology

Epidemiology and risk factors of chronic kidney disease in India – results from the SEEK (Screening and Early Evaluation of Kidney Disease) study

Background: There is a rising incidence of chronic kidney disease that is likely to pose major problems for both healthcare and the economy in future years. In India, it has been recently estimated that the age-adjusted incidence rate of ESRD to be 229 per million population (pmp), and >100,000 new patients enter renal replacement programs annually. Methods: We cross-sectionally screened 6120 Indian subjects from 13 academic and private medical centers all over India. We obtained personal and medical history data through a specifically designed questionnaire. Blood and urine samples were collected. Results: The total cohort included in this analysis is 5588 subjects. The mean ± SD age of all participants was 45.22 ± 15.2 years (range 18–98 years) and 55.1% of them were males and 44.9% were females. The overall prevalence of CKD in the SEEK-India cohort was 17.2% with a mean eGFR of 84.27 ± 76.46 versus 116.94 ± 44.65 mL/min/1.73 m2 in non-CKD group while 79.5% in the CKD group had proteinuria. Prevalence of CKD stages 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 was 7%, 4.3%, 4.3%, 0.8% and 0.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of CKD was observed to be 17.2% with ~6% have CKD stage 3 or worse. CKD risk factors were similar to those reported in earlier studies. It should be stressed to all primary care physicians taking care of hypertensive and diabetic patients to screen for early kidney damage. Early intervention may retard the progression of kidney disease. Planning for the preventive health policies and allocation of more resources for the treatment of CKD/ESRD patients are imperative in India

The NORAD lncRNA assembles a topoisomerase complex critical for genome stability

The human genome contains thousands of long non-coding RNAs, but specific biological functions and biochemical mechanisms have been discovered for only about a dozen. A specific long non-coding RNA—non-coding RNA activated by DNA damage (NORAD)—has recently been shown to be required for maintaining genomic stability, but its molecular mechanism is unknown. Here we combine RNA antisense purification and quantitative mass spectrometry to identify proteins that directly interact with NORAD in living cells. We show that NORAD interacts with proteins involved in DNA replication and repair in steady-state cells and localizes to the nucleus upon stimulation with replication stress or DNA damage. In particular, NORAD interacts with RBMX, a component of the DNA-damage response, and contains the strongest RBMX-binding site in the transcriptome. We demonstrate that NORAD controls the ability of RBMX to assemble a ribonucleoprotein complex—which we term NORAD-activated ribonucleoprotein complex 1 (NARC1)—that contains the known suppressors of genomic instability topoisomerase I (TOP1), ALYREF and the PRPF19–CDC5L complex. Cells depleted for NORAD or RBMX display an increased frequency of chromosome segregation defects, reduced replication-fork velocity and altered cell-cycle progression—which represent phenotypes that are mechanistically linked to TOP1 and PRPF19–CDC5L function. Expression of NORAD in trans can rescue defects caused by NORAD depletion, but rescue is significantly impaired when the RBMX-binding site in NORAD is deleted. Our results demonstrate that the interaction between NORAD and RBMX is important for NORAD function, and that NORAD is required for the assembly of the previously unknown topoisomerase complex NARC1, which contributes to maintaining genomic stability. In addition, we uncover a previously unknown function for long non-coding RNAs in modulating the ability of an RNA-binding protein to assemble a higher-order ribonucleoprotein complex

The NORAD lncRNA assembles a topoisomerase complex critical for genome stability

The human genome contains thousands of long non-coding RNAs, but specific biological functions and biochemical mechanisms have been discovered for only about a dozen. A specific long non-coding RNA—non-coding RNA activated by DNA damage (NORAD)—has recently been shown to be required for maintaining genomic stability, but its molecular mechanism is unknown. Here we combine RNA antisense purification and quantitative mass spectrometry to identify proteins that directly interact with NORAD in living cells. We show that NORAD interacts with proteins involved in DNA replication and repair in steady-state cells and localizes to the nucleus upon stimulation with replication stress or DNA damage. In particular, NORAD interacts with RBMX, a component of the DNA-damage response, and contains the strongest RBMX-binding site in the transcriptome. We demonstrate that NORAD controls the ability of RBMX to assemble a ribonucleoprotein complex—which we term NORAD-activated ribonucleoprotein complex 1 (NARC1)—that contains the known suppressors of genomic instability topoisomerase I (TOP1), ALYREF and the PRPF19–CDC5L complex. Cells depleted for NORAD or RBMX display an increased frequency of chromosome segregation defects, reduced replication-fork velocity and altered cell-cycle progression—which represent phenotypes that are mechanistically linked to TOP1 and PRPF19–CDC5L function. Expression of NORAD in trans can rescue defects caused by NORAD depletion, but rescue is significantly impaired when the RBMX-binding site in NORAD is deleted. Our results demonstrate that the interaction between NORAD and RBMX is important for NORAD function, and that NORAD is required for the assembly of the previously unknown topoisomerase complex NARC1, which contributes to maintaining genomic stability. In addition, we uncover a previously unknown function for long non-coding RNAs in modulating the ability of an RNA-binding protein to assemble a higher-order ribonucleoprotein complex