A life of dignity for all : the journey of Shishu Sarothi

Persons with disabilities (PwDs) account for 15 percent of the total world population, of which 80 percent live in developing countries. According to Census 2011, 2.21 percent are living with one or more form of disabilities in India. This group of people remains the most marginalized and vulnerable in society. The reasons are inaccessible environment, discriminatory practices and noninclusion in society

Distance, magnetic field and kinematics of a filamentary cloud LDN 1157

LDN 1157, is one of the several clouds situated in the cloud complex, LDN 1147/1158, represents a coma-shaped morphology with a well-collimated bipolar outflow emanating from a Class 0 protostar, LDN 1157-mm. The main goals of this work are (a) to map the inter-cloud magnetic field (ICMF) geometry of the region surrounding LDN 1157 to investigate its relationship with the cloud morphology, with the outflow direction and with the core magnetic field (CMF) geometry inferred from the mm- and sub-mm polarization results from the literature, and (b) to investigate the kinematic structure of the cloud. We carried out R-band polarization observations of the stars projected on the cloud to map the pc-scale magnetic field geometry and made spectroscopic observations of the entire cloud in 12CO, C18O and N2H+ (J=1-0) lines to investigate its kinematic structure. We obtained a distance of 340$\pm$3 pc to the LDN 1147/1158, complex based on the Gaia DR2 parallaxes and proper motion values of the three YSOs associated with the complex. A single filament of $\sim1.2$ pc in length and $\sim0.09$ pc in width is found to run all along the coma-shaped cloud. Based on the relationships between the ICMF, CMF, filament orientations, outflow direction, and the presence of an hour-glass morphology of the magnetic field, it is likely that the magnetic field had played an important role in the star formation process in LDN 1157. Combining the proper motions of the YSOs and the radial velocity of LDN 1147/1158 and another complex LDN 1172/1174 which is situated $\sim2$\dgr~east of it, we found that both the complexes are moving collectively toward the Galactic plane. The filamentary morphology of the east-west segment of LDN 1157 may have formed as a result of mass lost by ablation due to the interaction of the moving cloud with the ambient interstellar medium.Comment: 20 pages, Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Abstract has been shortened due to word limit in arxi

Investigation of ZnO nanoparticles for their applications in wastewater treatment and antimicrobial activity

The photocatalytic as well as the antimicrobial activity of the synthesized ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) through solution based approach have been presented in this study. ZnO-NPs have been characterised by thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. Raman studies confirm that it has stable wurtzite structure. FTIR spectrum confirms the Zn–O band at ~460 cm-1. Optical studies reveal that the optical band gap value increases with increasing annealing temperature. The photocatalytic activity of the ZnO-NPs has been evaluated for removal of pollutants from wastewater by measuring COD and BOD. Results show that ZnO-NPs are capable of working efficiently for waste water treatment. ZnO-NPs also demonstrate antimicrobial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains

Lead content in new decorative paints in India

The paint industry in India is broadly classified into two categories: organized sector and unorganized sector. Multinational and big Indian companies form the organized sector, whereas the small- and medium-scale industries which produce paints for the local market form the unorganized sector. The present study was undertaken to determine the level of lead in decorative paints in India. A total of 148 paint samples sourced from four organized sector companies and six unorganized sector companies were analyzed for the total lead content. Results of this study reveal that 39 % of the total paints tested (n = 148) contain lead more than 300 ppm, the voluntary limit prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards, BIS (IS 15489:2011), and 45 % of the tested paints contain lead more than 90 ppm, the US limit. Further analysis of the data indicates that only 5 % of the tested paints manufactured by organized sector companies contain lead more than 300 ppm (n = 91), whereas 93 % of the tested paints manufactured by unorganized sector companies contain lead more than 300 ppm (n = 57). Comparison with earlier reported data suggests that while organized sector companies are gradually abandoning the use of leadbased compounds in their paints, the unorganized sector companies are still adding lead based compounds intentionally in their paints despite the potential health hazards associated with it. The maximum concentration of lead obtained was 80,350 ppm in one of the paints manufactured by an unorganized sector company. The presence of high concentration of lead in yellow and green color paints indicates that color can be a predictor of lead content in decorative paints

Inhibition of the Growth of Plasmodium falciparum in Culture by Stearylamine-Phosphatidylcholine Liposomes

We have examined the effect of stearylamine (SA) in liposomes on the viability of Plasmodium falciparum in culture by studying the inhibition of incorporation of [3H]-hypoxanthine in the nucleic acid of parasites. Stearylamine in liposomes significantly inhibits the growth of the parasites depending on the phospholipids composition. The maximum inhibition was observed when SA was delivered through Soya phosphatidylcholine (SPC) liposomes. The chain length of alkyl group and density of SA in liposomes play a significant role in inhibiting the growth of the parasites. Incorporation of either cholesterol or Distearylphosphatidylethanolamine−Methoxy-Polyethylene glycol-2000 (DSPE-mPEG-2000) in Soya phosphatidylcholine-stearylamine (SPC-SA) liposomes improves the efficacy. Intraerythrocytic entry of intact SPC-SA liposomes into infected erythrocytes was visualized using fluorescent microscopy. No hemolysis was observed in uninfected erythrocytes, and slight hemolysis was noted in infected erythrocytes at high concentrations of SPC-SA liposomes. Overall, our data suggested SA in SPC-liposomes might have potential application in malaria chemotherapy

miRegulome: a knowledge-base of miRNA regulomics and analysis

miRNAs regulate post transcriptional gene expression by targeting multiple mRNAs and hence can modulate multiple signalling pathways, biological processes, and patho-physiologies. Therefore, understanding of miRNA regulatory networks is essential in order to modulate the functions of a miRNA. The focus of several existing databases is to provide information on specific aspects of miRNA regulation. However, an integrated resource on the miRNA regulome is currently not available to facilitate the exploration and understanding of miRNA regulomics. miRegulome attempts to bridge this gap. The current version of miRegulome v1.0 provides details on the entire regulatory modules of miRNAs altered in response to chemical treatments and transcription factors, based on validated data manually curated from published literature. Modules of miRegulome (upstream regulators, downstream targets, miRNA regulated pathways, functions, diseases, etc) are hyperlinked to an appropriate external resource and are displayed visually to provide a comprehensive understanding. Four analysis tools are incorporated to identify relationships among different modules based on user specified datasets. miRegulome and its tools are helpful in understanding the biology of miRNAs and will also facilitate the discovery of biomarkers and therapeutics. With added features in upcoming releases, miRegulome will be an essential resource to the scientific community. Availability:http://bnet.egr.vcu.edu/miRegulome

Role of polyvinyl pyrrolidone as a capping agent in the synthesis of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles

Uncapped magnetite (Fe3O4) and magnetite capped with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) (Fe3O4-PVP) have been synthesized by a rapid, cost effective aqueous precipitation method. The nanoparticles are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV spectroscopy. The role of PVP as a capping agent in the synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles has been investigated. Thermal stability and surface charge of the nanoparticles have been characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and zeta potential measurements. Results suggest that PVP as a capping agent reduces the grain size, regularizes the shape, and increases the crystallinity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Thermal stability and surface charge of Fe3O4-PVP nanoparticles are also significantly higher as compared to the uncapped Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Magnetic characterization by vibrating sample magnetometry of both Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-PVP nanoparticles indicates the superparamagnetic behavior of the nanoparticles.

Synthesis and antimalarial activity of sulfonamide-attached coumarin-[1,2,3]-triazoles

1545-1555Drug resistance in malaria parasites is one of the major stumbling blocks hindering the goal of malaria elimination. One of the major strategies to counter drug resistance is the development of new potent antimalarial drugs. In the present study, a series of novel sulfonamide based coumarin-[1,2,3]-triazole conjugates have been synthesized via Huisgen reaction between azidosulfonamides and 4-hydroxy- or 7-hydroxymethylcoumarinoalkynes. All the compounds have been characterized spectroscopically and screened for their in vitro antimalarial activity against P. falciparum 3D7 strain. Out of the twenty five synthesized compounds, four compounds displayed significant activity (IC50 50 of 3.64 µM

DISMIRA: Prioritization of disease candidates in miRNA-disease associations based on maximum weighted matching inference model and motif-based analysis

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have increasingly been found to regulate diseases at a significant level. The interaction of miRNA and diseases is a complex web of multilevel interactions, given the fact that a miRNA regulates upto 50 or more diseases and miRNAs/diseases work in clusters. The clear patterns of miRNA regulations in a disease are still elusive. Methods In this work, we approach the miRNA-disease interactions from a network scientific perspective and devise two approaches - maximum weighted matching model (a graph theoretical algorithm which provides the result by solving an optimization equation of selecting the most prominent set of diseases) and motif-based analyses (which investigates the motifs of the miRNA-disease network and selects the most prominent set of diseases based on their maximum number of participation in motifs, thereby revealing the miRNA-disease interaction dynamics) to determine and prioritize the set of diseases which are most certainly impacted upon the activation of a group of queried miRNAs, in a miRNA-disease network. Results and Conclusion Our tool, DISMIRA implements the above mentioned approaches and presents an interactive visualization which helps the user in exploring the networking dynamics of miRNAs and diseases by analyzing their neighbors, paths and topological features. A set of miRNAs can be used in this analysis to get the associated diseases for the input group of miRs with ranks and also further analysis can be done to find key miRs or diseases, shortest paths etc