GC-155 - Runbook Automation

Runbook is common terminology used in every IT organization which is maintained in Excel for taking the components to production in a particular time frame after making an agreement with the business for the downtime of systems (Freeze Period). Runbook Automation is a web application for delivering and tracking deliverables to production. It acts as an interface between Infrastructure teams responsible for deployments and runbook coordinator, development teams, and Business Analysts. The application consists of a home page consisting of a Dashboard where the user can edit the profile, and other employee tracking details and timesheets. In Employee tracking, the details of the employees and their backgrounds are displayed. In Timesheets, the hours of the project and the runbook actions are displayed. In Access Management, different users are allowed to request access to perform daily activities. In Employee Performance, the feedback and achievements of the employer are shown. The Objective of the application is to develop a web application using various technologies to bring all the stakeholders to a common page about the project execution and make them aware of top management activities ongoing in the organization. The Application will have an interface to tools for updating the status of Jobs in the application. The idea of the application will be provided to the project owner for approval before design and development. The scope of the project will include planning, design, development, testing, and documentation.stratosphere to provide wide coverage and strong computational capabilities. It is suitable to coordinate terrestrial resources and store the fundamental data associated with ITS-based applications. Performing task offloading and data caching at Roadside Units (RSUs) in a cooperative manner can reduce the heavy backhaul load and the retransmission of content downloading

Evaluating rice germplasm for iron and zinc concentration in brown rice and seed dimensions

The lack of micronutrients such as Fe and Zn in staple food crops is a widespread nutrition and health problem in developing countries. Biofortification is one of the sustainable approaches, for improving the Fe and Zn content and their bioavailability in rice grain. Screening germplasm for Fe and Zn content is the initial step of biofortification. We analyzed brown rice of 126 accessions of rice genotypes for Fe and Zn concentration. Iron concentration ranged from 6.2 ppm to 71.6 ppm and zinc from 26.2 ppm to 67.3 ppm. Zn concentration and grain elongation (-0.25) was significantly correlated. The wild accessions had the highest Fe and Zn. Thus, wild species are a good source for biofortification of popular rice cultivars using conventional, acceptable, non transgenic methods. Â

Telomerase inhibition by siRNA causes senescence and apoptosis in Barrett's adenocarcinoma cells: mechanism and therapeutic potential

BACKGROUND: In cancer cells, telomerase induction helps maintain telomere length and thereby bypasses senescence and provides enhanced replicative potential. Chemical inhibitors of telomerase have been shown to reactivate telomere shortening and cause replicative senescence and apoptotic cell death of tumor cells while having little or no effect on normal diploid cells. RESULTS: We designed siRNAs against two different regions of telomerase gene and evaluated their effect on telomere length, proliferative potential, and gene expression in Barrett's adenocarcinoma SEG-1 cells. The mixture of siRNAs in nanomolar concentrations caused a loss of telomerase activity that appeared as early as day 1 and was essentially complete at day 3. Inhibition of telomerase activity was associated with marked reduction in median telomere length and complete loss of detectable telomeres in more than 50% of the treated cells. Telomere loss caused senescence in 40% and apoptosis in 86% of the treated cells. These responses appeared to be associated with activation of DNA sensor HR23B and subsequent activation of p53 homolog p73 and p63 and E2F1. Changes in these gene regulators were probably the source of observed up-regulation of cell cycle inhibitors, p16 and GADD45. Elevated transcript levels of FasL, Fas and caspase 8 that activate death receptors and CARD 9 that interacts with Bcl10 and NFKB to enhance mitochondrial translocation and activation of caspase 9 were also observed. CONCLUSION: These studies show that telomerase siRNAs can cause effective suppression of telomerase and telomere shortening leading to both cell cycle arrest and apoptosis via mechanisms that include up-regulation of several genes involved in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Telomerase siRNAs may therefore be strong candidates for highly selective therapy for chemoprevention and treatment of Barrett's adenocarcinoma

QTL Analysis for Grain Iron and Zinc Concentrations in Two O. nivara Derived Backcross Populations

Identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain mineral elements can assist in faster and more precise development of micronutrient dense rice varieties through marker-assisted breeding. In the present study, QTLs were mapped for Fe and Zn concentrations in two BC2F3 mapping populations derived from the crosses of O. sativa cv Swarna with two different accessions of O. nivara. In all, 10 and 8 QTLs were identified for grain Fe and Zn concentrations in population 1, and 7 and 5 QTLs were identified in population 2, respectively. Eighty percent of the QTLs detected in both populations were derived from O. nivara. Five QTLs for Fe and three QTLs for Zn explained more than 15% phenotypic variance either in interval or composite interval mapping. The locations of O. nivara derived QTLs such as qFe2.1, qFe3.1, qFe8.2 and qZn12.1 were consistently identified in both the populations. Epistatic interaction was observed only between RM106 and RM6 on chromosome 2 and between RM22 and RM7 on chromosome 3 for Fe concentration in population 1. Sixteen candidate genes for metal homeostasis were found to co-locate with 10 QTLs for Fe and Zn concentrations in both the populations. Most of the Fe and Zn QTLs were found to co-locate with QTLs for grain yield and grain quality traits. Some of the major effect QTLs identified can be used to improve rice grain Fe and Zn concentrations

CPPsite: a curated database of cell penetrating peptides

Delivering drug molecules into the cell is one of the major challenges in the process of drug development. In past, cell penetrating peptides have been successfully used for delivering a wide variety of therapeutic molecules into various types of cells for the treatment of multiple diseases. These peptides have unique ability to gain access to the interior of almost any type of cell. Due to the huge therapeutic applications of CPPs, we have built a comprehensive database ‘CPPsite’, of cell penetrating peptides, where information is compiled from the literature and patents. CPPsite is a manually curated database of experimentally validated 843 CPPs. Each entry provides information of a peptide that includes ID, PubMed ID, peptide name, peptide sequence, chirality, origin, nature of peptide, sub-cellular localization, uptake efficiency, uptake mechanism, hydrophobicity, amino acid frequency and composition, etc. A wide range of user-friendly tools have been incorporated in this database like searching, browsing, analyzing, mapping tools. In addition, we have derived various types of information from these peptide sequences that include secondary/tertiary structure, amino acid composition and physicochemical properties of peptides. This database will be very useful for developing models for predicting effective cell penetrating peptides

Sox2 Is Essential for Formation of Trophectoderm in the Preimplantation Embryo

In preimplantation mammalian development the transcription factor Sox2 (SRY-related HMG-box gene 2) forms a complex with Oct4 and functions in maintenance of self-renewal of the pluripotent inner cell mass (ICM). Previously it was shown that Sox2-/- embryos die soon after implantation. However, maternal Sox2 transcripts may mask an earlier phenotype. We investigated whether Sox2 is involved in controlling cell fate decisions at an earlier stage.We addressed the question of an earlier role for Sox2 using RNAi, which removes both maternal and embryonic Sox2 mRNA present during the preimplantation period. By depleting both maternal and embryonic Sox2 mRNA at the 2-cell stage and monitoring embryo development in vitro we show that, in the absence of Sox2, embryos arrest at the morula stage and fail to form trophectoderm (TE) or cavitate. Following knock-down of Sox2 via three different short interfering RNA (siRNA) constructs in 2-cell stage mouse embryos, we have shown that the majority of embryos (76%) arrest at the morula stage or slightly earlier and only 18.7-21% form blastocysts compared to 76.2-83% in control groups. In Sox2 siRNA-treated embryos expression of pluripotency associated markers Oct4 and Nanog remained unaffected, whereas TE associated markers Tead4, Yap, Cdx2, Eomes, Fgfr2, as well as Fgf4, were downregulated in the absence of Sox2. Apoptosis was also increased in Sox2 knock-down embryos. Rescue experiments using cell-permeant Sox2 protein resulted in increased blastocyst formation from 18.7% to 62.6% and restoration of Sox2, Oct4, Cdx2 and Yap protein levels in the rescued Sox2-siRNA blastocysts.We conclude that the first essential function of Sox2 in the preimplantation mouse embryo is to facilitate establishment of the trophectoderm lineage. Our findings provide a novel insight into the first differentiation event within the preimplantation embryo, namely the segregation of the ICM and TE lineages

Open Source Drug Discovery: Highly Potent Antimalarial Compounds Derived from the Tres Cantos Arylpyrroles

The development of new antimalarial compounds remains a pivotal part of the strategy for malaria elimination. Recent large-scale phenotypic screens have provided a wealth of potential starting points for hit-to-lead campaigns. One such public set is explored, employing an open source research mechanism in which all data and ideas were shared in real time, anyone was able to participate, and patents were not sought. One chemical subseries was found to exhibit oral activity but contained a labile ester that could not be replaced without loss of activity, and the original hit exhibited remarkable sensitivity to minor structural change. A second subseries displayed high potency, including activity within gametocyte and liver stage assays, but at the cost of low solubility. As an open source research project, unexplored avenues are clearly identified and may be explored further by the community; new findings may be cumulatively added to the present work

Experimental investigation of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness over a circular, fan and laidback fan shaped hole flat plate test models

The experimental investigation of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness is carried out on a flat plates with 4:1 scaled up hole geometries, similar to that of typical turbine nozzle guide vane film cooling holes. Under this study, three flat plate models are considered with the two rows of holes having circular, fan and laidback fan shapes arranged in a staggered manner. These flat plate models are generated using solid works design software and fabricated using low thermal conductivity nylon based material using RPT technique. The mass flow results indicated the average nominal coefficient of discharge for the cooling holes as 0.71, for all these three models based on the inlet hole area and length of the holes. The laterally averaged adiabatic film cooling effectiveness is found along the stream wise direction at a density ratio of 1.62 by varying the blowing ratio in the range of 0.5 to 2.5. The surface temperatures of the test models are captured using the infrared camera, to evaluate the film cooling effectiveness. The experimentally evaluated results shows that, there is no increase in cooling effectiveness for the blowing ratio of 2.0 to 2.5 in the stream wise direction up to the X/d of 25 and there is a marginal increase above the X/d of 25 in the cases of these type of two row circular and Fan shaped hole models. Where as in the Laidback fan shaped hole model, the increase in cooling effectiveness is found significant up to the blowing ratio of 2.5 in the considered range. From the comparative results of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness of these three models, the laidback fan shaped hole model shows the higher film cooling effectiveness than the circular and fan shaped holes model at all the considered blowing ratios

Modified decompression technique in the management of odontogenic cystic lesions: An retrospective study

Introduction: Odontogenic cystic lesions requiring conservative management were treated with a novel technique of modified decompression and assessed. Aims and Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the resolution of the lesion, recurrence, and complications in patients treated with the novel modified decompression technique. Materials and Methods: The retrospective study included patients treated with the novel modified decompression technique between 2004 and 2022. The cystic lesions were packed with chlorhexidine acetate gauze dressing (Bactigras), and patients were prescribed a combination of Calcium, Vitamin C, and Vitamin D. Pack was changed periodically until a reduction of at least 80% in the volume of the lesion was achieved. Period of decompression, volume at each follow-up, and lesion size were recorded. In addition, inter-group significance co-relating the size and diagnosis of the lesions with the rate and duration of healing were derived by ANOVA test. Results: OKC, unicystic ameloblastoma, and dentigerous cysts were included, and the follow-up period ranged from one year to eighteen years. 25 cases (83.33%) showed full resolution, whereas five cases (16.17%) showed more than 80% resolution. The period of decompression and the rate of decompression was found to correlate with both the diagnosis and the size of the lesion. Conclusions: The modified decompression technique is superior to traditional decompression with a high rate of resolution of cystic lesions and no recurrence over a long follow-up period