Marginal View on Moral literature - P. Velsamy and Raj Gauthaman

This article focuses on the marginal view on ‘Moral Literature’ which is called Sangam Maruviya literature. The development of critical analysis after the nineties became the starting point for re-meaning all literature. Virtues are taught to people in their day to day life. Even if there is no education provided for a person, some kind of virtues work spontaneously in his/her thoughts. In more theoretical terms, each individual body functions as a collection of virtues. In this case, there are 18 books in Moral Literature. Virtues are being taught in educational institutions that civilized the society and studies are also being conducted to re-read them. There is not enough attention and interest towards its field of study and most of the studies is conducted with the same ideas and it feels like a kind of stagnation. In order to change them and to view literature in a new way it is necessary to carry out studies by following the research ideas undertaken with efforts. Considering this, the article examines Velsamy and Raj gauthaman’s view of virtues in a comparative way

Crystal structure of human angiogenin with an engineered loop exhibits conformational flexibility at the functional regions of the molecule

Human angiogenin (ANG) is an angiogenic molecule and a ribonucleolytic enzyme with significant amino acid sequence identity to pancreatic RNase A, plays a critical role in the establishment and growth of tumours. An association between ANG and cancer has been observed in more than 25 clinical studies to date. In addition, ANG has now been shown to be implicated in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's Disease (PD). Structural and biochemical studies so far have showed several distinguishing features of ANG molecule compared to RNase A and provided details of the putative cell binding site, active site, nuclear translocation sequence and the roles of residues in binding and cleaving RNA. A key finding elucidated from the structural study on ANG is the presence of a 'blocked' C-terminus (part of the active site apparatus) compared with RNase A. Here we report the crystal structure of ANG with an 'engineered-loop' from eosinophil derived neurotoxin (a homologue of ANG) which has resulted with local perturbations (conformational flexibility) at the cell binding site and at the C-terminus of the molecule. This experimental observation will now provide a new avenue to design compounds (potent inhibitors) through a structure guided drug design route

Trend analysis and variability of satellite-based soil moisture data for the Lower Bhavani basin, Tamil Nadu using Google Earth Engine

Soil moisture is a significant hydrological component that is dynamic in nature. The variation in soil moisture in the basin scale would affect the vegetation, ecology and environment. Soil moisture trend analysis aids in providing the variation of soil moisture over the basin. The present study aimed to analyse the soil moisture trend in Lower Bhavani basin, Tamil Nadu from 2003-2022. Satellite-based soil moisture Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data was extracted from the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to analyse the variation and trend over the period of time. The highest and lowest soil moisture was observed during monsoon and summer months and its percentage variation was studied. Using Man-Kendall test and Sen’s slope, trend analysis was calculated for two decades (2003-2012 and 2013-2022). In 2003-2012, an increasing trend of soil moisture was observed during winter (October to February); from 2013-2022, an increasing trend was observed during both winter (October to February) and monsoon seasons (June to September). The remaining season did not follow any trend, and there was no decreasing trend in soil moisture. The trend analysis of the study will help to monitor and manage the environmental system across the Lower Bhavani basin

A prospective study on adverse drug reactions reported in a tertiary referral hospital

Background: To determine the incidence of Adverse drug reactions in our hospital, to study the age wise distribution, the role of concurrent medication and the common drugs that are prone to cause adverse drug reactions and its seriousness.Methods: After getting prior approval from Institutional ethical committee a prospective study was done where in cases attending OPD, ward, ICU were studied over a year. A complete history was taken regarding drug exposure (dosage, date started, duration and interruptions in use), initiation of drug use and onset of reaction, previous adverse drug reactions, improvement after decrease in dosage, disease states predisposing to eruptions, previous family and personal history of skin disease, environmental and occupational exposure to chemicals. Relevant laboratory test such as blood investigations, liver and renal function tests are carried out and results were analysed statistically by SPSS version 21 and interpretations done based on the results.Results: Incidence of ADR among OPD =0.18, IPD=1.98, OPD+IPD=0.39 /1000cases.The highest incidence of Adverse drug reactions were found among the age group of 30-39 years (27.45%), 40-49 years (23.53%), with the highest among antibiotic group of drugs (35.29%) involving a maximum duration of 2-7 days. Drug reactions mostly occurred with the oral route 66.67) and most of it requiring hospitalization (47.06%), 60.78% of reactions were manifested in skin, 58.82% of patients with ADR had concomitant medications and 19.61% had Diabetes mellitus, 90% of reactions abated after drug withdrawal with regard to its outcome 94.12% of reactions recovered.Conclusions: The study suggest the adverse drug reactions commonly occur in middle age, mostly manifesting in skin with oral route of administration ,associated with concomitant medications and it requires hospitalisation with a good recovery rate with diabetes being the common comorbid disorder

Examining the relationship between academic book citations and Goodreads reader opinion and rating

215-221Although the traditional bibliometric citation database is an established academic impact assessment source, in this paper, we examine the role of social media impact on academic books. We identified the highly cited books in Scopus and compared the citations with ratings and reviews on the Goodreads website. R stat was used to extract the data from Goodreads website. We found that there is an uneven distribution of Goodreads rating and reviews. Social science books received the highest number of user‘s ratings, reviews and citations. The study finds that there is no relationship between citation counts and Goodreads ratings and reviews count in social science books. Although social science books generated the highest number of studies and engagement by the readers, there seems to be no evidence to suggest that this engagement results in an academic citation. Whereas, a correlation was observed between health science books citations and Goodreads overall rating, as with physical science book reviews and Google Scholar citation counts

Novel, isoform-selective, cholecystokinin A receptor antagonist inhibits colon and pancreatic cancers in preclinical models through novel mechanism of action

Colon and pancreatic cancers contribute to 90,000 deaths each year in the USA. These cancers lack targeted therapeutics due to heterogeneity of the disease and multiple causative factors. One important factor that contributes to increased colon and pancreatic cancer risk is gastrin. Gastrin mediates its actions through two G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs): cholecystokinin receptor A (CCK-A) and CCK-B/gastrin receptor. Previous studies have indicated that colon cancer predominantly expresses CCK-A and responds to CCK-A isoform antagonists. However, many CCK-A antagonists have failed in the clinic due to poor pharmacokinetic properties or lack of efficacy. In the present study, we synthesized a library of CCK-A isoform-selective antagonists and tested them in various colon and pancreatic cancer preclinical models. The lead CCK-A isoform, selective antagonist PNB-028, bound to CCK-A at 12 nM with a 60-fold selectivity towards CCK-A over CCK-B. Furthermore, it inhibited the proliferation of CCK-A-expressing colon and pancreatic cancer cells without affecting the proliferation of non-cancerous cells. PNB-028 was also extremely effective in inhibiting the growth of MAC-16 and LoVo colon cancer and MIA PaCa pancreatic cancer xenografts in immune-compromised mice. Genomewide microarray and kinase-array studies indicate that PNB-028 inhibited oncogenic kinases and angiogenic factors to inhibit the growth of colon cancer xenografts. Safety pharmacology and toxicology studies have indicated that PNB-028 is extremely safe and has a wide safety margin. These studies suggest that targeting CCK-A selectively renders promise to treat colon and pancreatic cancers and that PNB-028 could become the next-generation treatment option

Examining the relationship between academic book citations and Goodreads reader opinion and rating

Although the traditional bibliometric citation database is an established academic impact assessment source, in this paper, we examine the role of social media impact on academic books. We identified the highly cited books in Scopus and compared the citations with ratings and reviews on the Goodreads website. R stat was used to extract the data from Goodreads website. We found that there is an uneven distribution of Goodreads rating and reviews. Social science books received the highest number of user’s ratings, reviews and citations. The study finds that there is no relationship between citation counts and Goodreads ratings and reviews count in social science books. Although social science books generated the highest number of studies and engagement by the readers, there seems to be no evidence to suggest that this engagement results in an academic citation. Whereas, a correlation was observed between health science books citations and Goodreads overall rating, as with physical science book reviews and Google Scholar citation counts

Distribution of luminescent Vibrio harveyi and their bacteriophages in a commercial shrimp hatchery in South India

Luminescent Vibrio harveyi is a natural microflora of marine and coastal water bodies and is associated with mortality of larval shrimp in penaeid shrimp hatcheries. It is also known that the bacteriophages occur virtually in all places where their hosts exist. In this study, distribution of luminescent V. harveyi and the bacteriophages affecting these hosts was examined in a commercial Penaeus monodon hatchery during three shrimp larval production cycles, including a cycle affected by luminescent bacterial (LB) disease outbreak

USERS’ ENGAGEMENT IN BANKING ACTIVITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO FACEBOOK

This study was conducted to assess the users’ (customers’) engagement in Indian commercial banks on social media through customer reactions (likes, comments and shares) to the banking activities (banks’ Facebook page posts) on Facebook. The data was collected through Facebook for a period of five and half years (June 2016 to December 2021). This paper also found the presence of Indian commercial banks on various social media platforms. The results show that most of the commercial banks are present in popular social media platforms and all the banks are present on Facebook as well. With respect to users’ engagement in social media, private sector banks have more engaged users, especially in ICICI bank in comparison to public sector banks even though there are more public sector banks’ activities

Analysis of the pore structure of activated carbons produced from paper mill sludge using small angle neutron scattering data

A novel, cost-effective, and environmentally benign process was developed to produce highly efficient carbon-based adsorbents (CBAs) from paper mill sludge. The production process required chemical activation of sludge using zinc chloride and pyrolysis at 750 C in N{sub 2} gas. The produced CBAs were characterized according to their surface area and pore size distribution using N{sub 2}-BET adsorption isotherm data. Further characterization of the surface and pore structure was conducted using a unified exponential/power law approach applied to small angle neutron scattering (SANS) data. The structural features analyzed by SANS revealed the dependence of porosity with zinc chloride concentration. The presence of inaccessible pores was also determined by contrast-match experiments