Showing papers by "Jawaharlal Nehru University published in 2011"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the relationship between financial inclusion and development by empirically identifying country specific factors that are associated with the level of financial inclusion, and found that levels of human development and financial inclusion in a country move closely with each other.
Abstract: An important question raised in the literature is whether development leads to an all-inclusive financial system. This paper attempts to examine the relationship between financial inclusion and development by empirically identifying country specific factors that are associated with the level of financial inclusion. It finds that levels of human development and financial inclusion in a country move closely with each other. Among socio-economic and infrastructure related factors, income, inequality, literacy, urbanisation and physical infrastructure for connectivity and information are important. Health of the banking sector does not seem to have an unambiguous effect on financial inclusion whereas ownership pattern does seem to matter. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
663 citations
TL;DR: It is remarkable that oak chars can remove similar amounts of Cr(VI) as activated carbon (S(BET): ∼ 1000 m(2)g(-1)).
455 citations
TL;DR: A comprehensive national policy for human resources is needed to achieve universal health care in India and additional investments will be needed to improve the relevance, quantity, and quality of nursing, medical, and public health education in the country.
407 citations
TL;DR: Thymol and carvacrol show strong fungicidal effect against all of the Candida isolates and the mechanisms of action of these natural isopropyl cresols appear to originate from the inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis and the disruption of membrane integrity.
Abstract: Natural isopropyl cresols have been reported to have antifungal activity. This work is an attempt to examine thymol and carvacrol against 111 fluconazole-sensitive and -resistant Candida isolates. Insight into the mechanism of action was elucidated by flow cytometric analysis, confocal imaging and ergosterol biosynthesis studies. The susceptibility tests for the test compounds were carried out in terms of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), disc diffusion assays and time-kill curves against all Candida isolates by employing standard protocols. Propidium iodide (PI) cell sorting has been investigated by flow cytometric analysis and confocal imaging. Haemolytic activity on human erythrocytes was studied to exclude the possibility of further associated cytotoxicity. Both compounds were found to be effective to varying extents against all isolates, including the resistant strains. In contrast to the fungistatic nature of fluconazole, our compounds were found to exhibit fungicidal nature. Significant impairment of ergosterol biosynthesis was pronouncedly induced by the test entities. Negligible cytoxicity was observed for the same compounds. Furthermore, it was observed that the positional difference of the hydroxyl group in carvacrol slightly changes its antifungal activity. Carvacrol and thymol show strong fungicidal effect against all of the Candida isolates. The mechanisms of action of these natural isopropyl cresols appear to originate from the inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis and the disruption of membrane integrity.
327 citations
TL;DR: Magnetic and non-magnetic low cost activated carbons from almond shells were prepared, characterized, and used to remove 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) from water as discussed by the authors.
297 citations
TL;DR: The role of ROS was demonstrated in the AgNP-induced cell death and DNA damage and colloidal AgCl was identified to be the least cytotoxic and genotoxic among different tested chemical forms of silver.
236 citations
TL;DR: The study indicates that the AgNP in doses (< 10 mg/kg) is safe for biomedical application and has no side-effects, but its high dose (> 20’s of silver nanoparticle) is toxic.
Abstract: This study aims to suggest the limits of silver nanoparticle (AgNP) uses for medicinal purpose and was performed to explore the effect of various doses of silver nanoparticle in rats. Four different doses of AgNP (4, 10, 20, and 40 mg/kg) were injected intravenously. For safety evaluation of injected AgNP, body weight, organ coefficient, whole blood count, and biochemistry panel assay for liver function enzyme (AST, ALT, ALP, and GGTP), comet assay, ROS, and histological parameter were performed; 10–12 week old animals were randomly divided into groups of six individuals each for control, and doses of 40, 20, 10, and 4 mg/kg AgNP injected. Significant changes were observed (p 20 mg/kg) is toxic.
235 citations
TL;DR: Tenofovir significantly reduces HBV‐DNA levels, improves CTP and MELD scores, and reduces mortality in patients with severe spontaneous reactivation of CHB presenting as ACLF, and the probability of survival at 3 months is higher in the ten ofovir than the placebo group.
231 citations
TL;DR: The calculated values of sodium adsorption ratio, percent sodium, residual sodium carbonate, and permeability index indicate good to permissible use of water for irrigation, and only a few locations demand remedial measures for better crop yields.
Abstract: The hydrogeochemical parameters for groundwater samples of the Varanasi area, a fast-urbanizing region in India, were studied to evaluate the major ion chemistry, weathering and solute acquisition processes controlling water composition, and suitability of water quality for domestic and irrigation uses. Sixty-eight groundwater samples were collected randomly from dug wells and hand pumps in the urban Varanasi area and analyzed for various chemical parameters. Geologically, the study area comprises Quaternary alluvium made up of an alternating succession of clay, silty clay, and sand deposits. The Total dissolved solids classification reveals that except two locations, the groundwater samples are desirable for drinking, and all are useful for irrigation purposes. The cationic and anionic concentrations indicated that the majority of the groundwater samples belong to the order of Na > Ca > Mg > K and HCO3 > Cl > SO4 types, respectively. Geochemical classification of groundwater based on the Chadha rectangular diagram shows that the majority (81%) of groundwater samples belong to the calcium–bicarbonate type. The HCO3/ (HCO3 + SO4) ratio (0.87) indicates mostly carbonic acid weathering process due to presence of kankar carbonate mixed with clay/fine sand. The high nitrate concentration (>45 mg/l) of about 18% of the groundwater samples may be due to the local domestic sewage, leakage of septic tanks, and improper management of sanitary landfills. In general, the calculated values of sodium adsorption ratio, percent sodium, residual sodium carbonate, and permeability index indicate good to permissible use of water for irrigation, and only a few locations demand remedial measures for better crop yields.
221 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the question of whether an individual makes decisions that reflect the risk preferences of the party bearing the consequences in a sealed-bid auction and find that when the individual makes a decision for an anonymous stranger, there is a tendency to exhibit less risk aversion.
Abstract: Decisions with uncertain outcomes are often made by one party in settings where another party bears the consequences. Whenever an individual is delegated to make decisions that affect others, such as in the typical corporate structure, does the individual make decisions that reflect the risk preferences of the party bearing the consequences? We examine this question in two simple settings, lottery choices and sealed-bid auctions, using controlled laboratory experiments. We find that when an individual makes a decision for an anonymous stranger, there is a tendency to exhibit less risk aversion. This reduction in risk aversion is relative to his or her own preferences, and it is also relative to his or her belief about the preferences of others. This result has significant implications for the design of contracts between principals and agents.
198 citations
TL;DR: The Government of India will, however, need to introduce specific methods to contain costs, improve the efficiency of spending, increase accountability, and monitor the effect of expenditures on health.
TL;DR: This speedy, yet less labor-intensive protocol overcomes major limitations associated with genetic manipulation in rice and has the potential to be a major tool for crop improvement and gene-function studies on the model monocot plant rice.
Abstract: Background: Rice genome sequencing projects have generated remarkable amount of information about genes and genome architecture having tremendous potential to be utilized in both basic and applied research. Success in transgenics is paving the way for preparing a road map of functional genomics which is expected to correlate action of a gene to a trait in cellular and organismal context. However, the lack of a simple and efficient method for transformation and regeneration is a major constraint for such studies in this important cereal crop. Results: In the present study, we have developed an easy, rapid and highly efficient transformation and regeneration protocol using mature seeds as explants and found its successful applicability to a choice of elite indica rice genotypes. We have optimized various steps of transformation and standardized different components of the regeneration medium including growth hormones and the gelling agent. The modified regeneration medium triggers production of large number of shoots from smaller number of calli and promotes their faster growth, hence significantly advantageous over the existing protocols where the regeneration step requires maximum time. Using this protocol, significantly higher transformation efficiency (up to 46%) and regeneration frequency (up to 92% for the untransformed calli and 59% for the transformed calli) were achieved for the four tested cultivars. We have used this protocol to produce hundreds of independent transgenic lines of different indica rice genotypes. Upon maturity, these transgenic lines were fertile thereby indicating that faster regeneration during tissue culture did not affect their reproductive potential. Conclusions: This speedy, yet less labor-intensive, protocol overcomes major limitations associated with genetic manipulation in rice. Moreover, our protocol uses mature seeds as the explant, which can easily be obtained in quantity throughout the year and kept viable for a long time. Such an easy, efficient and generalized protocol has the potential to be a major tool for crop improvement and gene-function studies on the model monocot plant rice.
TL;DR: This work proposes a recommender system framework utilizing both local and global similarities, taking into account not only the overall sparsity in the rating data, but also sparsity at the user-item level, and proposes an automatic scheme for weighting the various sparsity measures through evolutionary approach to obtain a unified measure of sparsity (UMS).
Abstract: Collaborative filtering is a popular recommendation technique, which suggests items to users by exploiting past user-item interactions involving affinities between pairs of users or items. In spite of their huge success they suffer from a range of problems, the most fundamental being that of data sparsity. When the rating matrix is sparse, local similarity measures yield a poor neighborhood set thus affecting the recommendation quality. In such cases global similarity measures can be used to enrich the neighborhood set by considering transitive relationships among users even in the absence of any common experiences. In this work we propose a recommender system framework utilizing both local and global similarities, taking into account not only the overall sparsity in the rating data, but also sparsity at the user-item level. Several schemes are proposed, based on various sparsity measures pertaining to the active user, for the estimation of the parameter α, that allows the variation of the importance given to the global user similarity with regards to local user similarity. Furthermore, we propose an automatic scheme for weighting the various sparsity measures, through evolutionary approach, to obtain a unified measure of sparsity (UMS). In order to take maximum possible advantage of the various sparsity measures relating to an active user, a scheme based on the UMS is suggested for estimating α. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed estimates of α, markedly, outperform the schemes for which α is kept constant across all predictions (fixed-α schemes), on accuracy of predicted ratings.
TL;DR: It is shown that overproduction of GLY I and/or GLY II enzymes in transgenic plants provide tolerance towards salinity and heavy metal stresses and qRT-PCR is performed in two contrasting rice genotypes, i.e., IR64 and Pokkali where OsGLyI6 and OsGLYI11 are found to be highly stress inducible.
Abstract: Glyoxalase pathway, ubiquitously found in all organisms from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, consists of glyoxalase I (GLY I) and glyoxalase II (GLY II) enzymes, which detoxify a cytotoxic molecule, methylglyoxal (MG). Increase in MG has been correlated with various diseases in humans and different abiotic stresses in plants. We have previously shown that overproduction of GLY I and/or GLY II enzymes in transgenic plants provide tolerance towards salinity and heavy metal stresses. We have identified nineteen potential GLY I and four GLY II proteins in rice and twenty two GLY I and nine GLY II proteins in Arabidopsis. An analysis of complete set of genes coding for the glyoxalase proteins in these two genomes is presented, including classification and chromosomal distribution. Expression profiling of these genes has been performed in response to multiple abiotic stresses, in different tissues and during various stages of vegetative and reproductive development using publicly available databases (massively parallel signature sequencing and microarray). AtGLYI8, OsGLYI3, and OsGLYI10 expresses constitutively high in seeds while AtGLYI4, AtGLYI7, OsGLYI6, and OsGLYI11 are highly stress inducible. To complement this analyses, qRT-PCR is performed in two contrasting rice genotypes, i.e., IR64 and Pokkali where OsGLYI6 and OsGLYI11 are found to be highly stress inducible.
TL;DR: It is concluded that radiofrequency electromagnetic wave from commercially available cell phones might affect the fertilizing potential of spermatozoa and the findings on antioxidant, malondialdehyde, histone kinase, micronuclei, and sperm cell cycle are clear indications of an infertility pattern.
Abstract: The present study investigates the effect of free radical formation due to mobile phone exposure and effect on fertility pattern in 70-day-old male Wistar rats (sham exposed and exposed). Exposure took place in Plexiglas cages for 2 h a day for 35 days to mobile phone frequency. The specific absorption rate was estimated to be 0.9 W/kg. An analysis of antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidase (P < 0.001) and superoxide dismutase (P < 0.007) showed a decrease, while an increase in catalase (P < 0.005) was observed. Malondialdehyde (P < 0.003) showed an increase and histone kinase (P = 0.006) showed a significant decrease in the exposed group. Micronuclei also show a significant decrease (P < 0.002) in the exposed group. A significant change in sperm cell cycle of G0–G1 (P = 0.042) and G2/M (P = 0.022) were recorded. Generation of free radicals was recorded to be significantly increased (P = 0.035). Our findings on antioxidant, malondialdehyde, histone kinase, micronuclei, and sperm cell cycle are clear indications of an infertility pattern, initiated due to an overproduction of reactive oxygen species. It is concluded that radiofrequency electromagnetic wave from commercially available cell phones might affect the fertilizing potential of spermatozoa.
TL;DR: It is suggested that difference in dissociation constants of pollutants by calorimetry, spectroscopic and computational approaches could correspond to occurrence of different set of populations of pollutants having different molecular characteristics in ground state and excited state.
Abstract: 1–naphthol (1N), 2–naphthol (2N) and 8–quinolinol (8H) are general water pollutants. 1N and 2N are the configurational enantiomers and 8H is isoelectronic to 1N and 2N. These pollutants when ingested are transported in the blood by proteins like human serum albumin (HSA). Binding of these pollutants to HSA has been explored to elucidate the specific selectivity of molecular recognition by this multiligand binding protein. The association constants (Kb) of these pollutants to HSA were moderate (104–105 M−1). The proximity of the ligands to HSA is also revealed by their average binding distance, r, which is estimated to be in the range of 4.39–5.37 nm. The binding free energy (ΔG) in each case remains effectively the same for each site because of enthalpy–entropy compensation (EEC). The difference observed between ΔCpexp and ΔCpcalc are suggested to be caused by binding–induced flexibility changes in the HSA. Efforts are also made to elaborate the differences observed in binding isotherms obtained through multiple approaches of calorimetry, spectroscopy and bioinformatics. We suggest that difference in dissociation constants of pollutants by calorimetry, spectroscopic and computational approaches could correspond to occurrence of different set of populations of pollutants having different molecular characteristics in ground state and excited state. Furthermore, our observation of enhanced binding of pollutants (2N and 8H) in the presence of hemin signifies that ligands like hemin may enhance the storage period of these pollutants in blood that may even facilitate the ill effects of these pollutants.
TL;DR: The importance of p53-mediated regulation of glycolysis and OXPHOS and its relation with the tumor suppressor function of p 53 is elucidated and the role of p52 in regulation of aging via its transcriptional control of cellular metabolism is established.
Abstract: Esha Madan 1,2 , Rajan Gogna 2 , Madan Bhatt 3 , Uttam Pati 2 , Periannan Kuppusamy 4 , Abbas Ali Mahdi 1 1 Department of Biochemistry, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, India 2 Transcription and Human Biology Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New-Delhi, India 3 Department of Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, India 4 Dorothy M Davis Heart and Lung Research institute, Department of Internal Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA Received: December 19, 2011; Accepted: December 20, 2011; Published: December 31, 2011; Keywords: p53, Metabolism, TIGAR, SCO2, Tumor Suppressor Correspondence: Abbas Ali Mahdi, email: // // Abstract p53 is well known as the "guardian of the genome" for differentiated and neoplastic cells. p53 induces cell-cycle arrest and cell death after DNA damage and thus contributes to the maintenance of genomic stability. In addition to this tumor suppressor function for pro-oncogenic cells, p53 also plays an important role as the central regulator of stress response by maintaining cellular homeostasis at the molecular and biochemical level. p53 regulates aerobic respiration at the glycolytic and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) steps via transcriptional regulation of its downstream genes TP53-induced glycolysis regulator (TIGAR) and synthesis of cytochrome c oxidase (SCO2). p53 negatively regulates glycolysis through activation of TIGAR (an inhibitor of the fructose-2,6-bisphosphate). On the contrary p53 positively regulates OXPHOS through upregulation of SCO2, a member of the COX-2 assembly involved in the electron-transport chain. It is interesting to notice that p53 antagonistically regulates the inter-dependent glycolytic and OXPHOS cycles. It is important to understand whether the p53-mediated transcriptional regulation of TIGAR and SCO2 is temporally segregated in cancer cells and what is the relation between these paradoxical regulations of glycolytic pathway with the tumor suppressor activity of p53. In this review we will elucidate the importance of p53-mediated regulation of glycolysis and OXPHOS and its relation with the tumor suppressor function of p53. Further since cellular metabolism shares great relation with the process of aging we will also try and establish the role of p53 in regulation of aging via its transcriptional control of cellular metabolism.
TL;DR: Results show that the action of fenugreek in lowering blood glucose levels is almost comparable to the effect of insulin, and administration of the various combinations of the antidiabetic compounds to diabetic animals was found to reverse most of the diabetic effects studied.
Abstract: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycaemia resulting in defective insulin secretion, resistance to insulin action or both. The use of biguanides, sulphonylurea and other drugs are valuable in the treatment of diabetes mellitus; their use, however, is restricted by their limited action, pharmacokinetic properties, secondary failure rates and side effects. Trigonella foenum-graecum, commonly known as fenugreek, is a plant that has been extensively used as a source of antidiabetic compounds from its seeds and leaf extracts. Preliminary human trials and animal experiments suggest possible hypoglycaemic and antihyperlipedemic properties of fenugreek seed powder taken orally. Our results show that the action of fenugreek in lowering blood glucose levels is almost comparable to the effect of insulin. Combination with trace metal showed that vanadium had additive effects and manganese had additive effects with insulin on in vitro system in control and diabetic animals of young and old ages using adipose tissue. The Trigonella and vanadium effects were studied in a number of tissues including liver, kidney, brain peripheral nerve, heart, red blood cells and skeletal muscle. Addition of Trigonella to vanadium significantly removed the toxicity of vanadium when used to reduce blood glucose levels. Administration of the various combinations of the antidiabetic compounds to diabetic animals was found to reverse most of the diabetic effects studied at physiological, biochemical, histochemical and molecular levels. Results of the key enzymes of metabolic pathways have been summarized together with glucose transporter, Glut-4 and insulin levels. Our findings illustrate and elucidate the antidiabetic/insulin mimetic effects of Trigonella, manganese and vanadium.
TL;DR: It is proposed that de novo designed VS2 and VS3 peptides have multiple detrimental effects on target fungi, which ultimately result in cell wall disruption and killing, therefore, these peptides represent a good template for further design and development as antifungal agents.
TL;DR: It is shown how the refractive index mismatch of a solution can be corrected in FCS to obtain accurate size parameters of particles, bypassing the optical matching problem of light scattering techniques that are used often for particle-size measurements.
Abstract: Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is an ideal tool for measuring molecular diffusion and size under extremely dilute conditions. However, the power of FCS has not been utilized to its best to measure diffusion and size parameters of complex chemical systems. Here, we apply FCS to measure the size, and, most importantly, the size distribution and polydispersity of a supramolecular nanostructure (i.e., microemulsion droplets, MEDs) in dilute solution. It is shown how the refractive index mismatch of a solution can be corrected in FCS to obtain accurate size parameters of particles, bypassing the optical matching problem of light scattering techniques that are used often for particle-size measurements. We studied the MEDs of 13 different W0 values from 2 to 50 prepared in a ternary mixture of water, sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT), and isooctane, with sulforhodamine-B as a fluorescent marker. We find that, near the optical matching point of MEDs, the dynamic light scattering (DLS) mea...
TL;DR: The ligand loading of HSA with uremic toxin predicts several key side chain interactions of site I that presumably have the potential to impact the specificity and impaired drug binding in renal disease state.
Abstract: Uremic syndrome results from malfunctioning of various organ systems due to the retention of uremic toxins which, under normal conditions, would be excreted into the urine and/or metabolized by the kidneys. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the renal elimination of uremic toxin creatinine that accumulate in chronic renal failure. Quantitative investigation of the plausible correlations was performed by spectroscopy, calorimetry, molecular docking and accessibility of surface area. Alkalinization of normal plasma from pH 7.0 to 9.0 modifies the distribution of toxin in the body and therefore may affect both the accumulation and the rate of toxin elimination. The ligand loading of HSA with uremic toxin predicts several key side chain interactions of site I that presumably have the potential to impact the specificity and impaired drug binding. These findings provide useful information for elucidating the complicated mechanism of toxin disposition in renal disease state.
TL;DR: The study concludes that a reduction or an increase in antioxidative enzyme activities, protein kinase C, melatonin, caspase 3, and creatine kinase are related to overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in animals under mobile phone radiation exposure.
Abstract: Recently, there have been several reports referring to detrimental effects due to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) exposure. Special attention was given to investigate the effect of mobile phone exposure on the rat brain. Since the integrative mechanism of the entire body lies in the brain, it is suggestive to analyze its biochemical aspects. For this, 35-day old Wistar rats were exposed to a mobile phone for 2 h per day for a duration of 45 days where specific absorption rate (SAR) was 0.9 W/Kg. Animals were divided in two groups: sham exposed (n = 6) and exposed group (n = 6).Our observations indicate a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the level of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and an increase in catalase activity. Moreover, protein kinase shows a significant decrease in exposed group (P < 0.05) of hippocampus and whole brain. Also, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the level of pineal melatonin and a significant increase (P < 0.05) in creatine kinase and caspase 3 wa...
TL;DR: Mutational analyses showed that both the bZIP and Hap4-like domains perform critical and independent functions for growth under iron-deprivation conditions and indicates that the Cap2-HAP complex functions both as a positive and a negative regulator to maintain iron homeostasis in C. albicans.
TL;DR: In this paper, principal components analysis (PCA) together with other factor analysis procedures consolidate a large number of observed variables into a smaller number of factors that can be more readily interpreted, concentrations of different constituents were correlated based on underlying physical and chemical processes such as dissociation, ion exchange, weathering or carbonate equilibrium reactions.
Abstract: The dependency of people on groundwater has increased in the past few decades due to tremendous increase in crop production, population and industrialization. Groundwater is the main source of irrigation in Shiwaliks of Punjab. In the present study the samples were collected from predetermined location as was located on satellite image on basis of spectral reflectance. Global positioning system was used to collect samples from specific locations. Principal components analysis (PCA) together with other factor analysis procedures consolidate a large number of observed variables into a smaller number of factors that can be more readily interpreted. In the present study, concentrations of different constituents were correlated based on underlying physical and chemical processes such as dissociation, ion exchange, weathering or carbonate equilibrium reactions. The PCA produced six significant components that explained 78% of the cumulative variance. The concentration of the few trace metals was found to be much higher indicating recharge due to precipitation as main transport mechanism of transport of heavy metals in groundwater which is also confirmed by PCA. Piper and other graphical methods were used to identify geochemical facies of groundwater samples and geochemical processes occurring in study area. The water in the study area has temporary hardness and is mainly of Ca–Mg–HCO3 type.
TL;DR: First evidence that the quorum-sensing molecule farnesol (FAR) is a specific modulator of efflux mediated by ABC multidrug transporters is provided, which reveals that the synergistic interaction of FAR with the drugs led to reactive oxygen species accumulation, which triggered early apoptosis, and that both could be partly reversed by the addition of an antioxidant.
Abstract: Overexpression of the CaCDR1-encoded multidrug efflux pump protein CaCdr1p (Candida drug resistance protein 1), belonging to the ATP binding cassette (ABC) superfamily of transporters, is one of the most prominent contributors of multidrug resistance (MDR) in Candida albicans. Thus, blocking or modulating the function of the drug efflux pumps represents an attractive approach in combating MDR. In the present study, we provide first evidence that the quorum-sensing molecule farnesol (FAR) is a specific modulator of efflux mediated by ABC multidrug transporters, such as CaCdr1p and CaCdr2p of C. albicans and ScPdr5p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Interestingly, FAR did not modulate the efflux mediated by the multidrug extrusion pump protein CaMdr1p, belonging to the major facilitator superfamily (MFS). Kinetic data revealed that FAR competitively inhibited rhodamine 6G efflux in CaCdr1p-overexpressing cells, with a simultaneous increase in an apparent K(m) without affecting the V(max) values and the ATPase activity. We also observed that when used in combination, FAR at a nontoxic concentration synergized with the drugs at their respective nonlethal concentrations, as was evident from their <0.5 fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) values and from the drop of 14- to 64-fold in the MIC(80) values in the wild-type strain and in azole-resistant clinical isolates of C. albicans. Our biochemical experiments revealed that the synergistic interaction of FAR with the drugs led to reactive oxygen species accumulation, which triggered early apoptosis, and that both could be partly reversed by the addition of an antioxidant. Collectively, FAR modulates drug extrusion mediated exclusively by ABC proteins and is synergistic to fluconazole (FLC), ketoconazole (KTC), miconazole (MCZ), and amphotericin (AMB).
TL;DR: Inverse distance weighted spatial interpolation technique was used for generation of pollution potentiality map of the area and Agglomerative Cluster Analysis (CA) was performed for delineating and grouping the similar pollution causing areas.
Abstract: River water quality has gained significance as river water is being contaminated due to various human activities and it needs attention to ensure sustainable safe use. Geographical Information System (GIS) and Water Quality Index (WQI), which synthesize different available water quality data into an easily understood format, provide a way to summarize overall water quality conditions in a manner that can be clearly communicated to policy makers. Physicochemical analysis data of various water samples collected at different locations forms the quality database for the study. WQI was then calculated to find the suitability of water for drinking purpose. Inverse distance weighted spatial interpolation technique was used for generation of pollution potentiality map of the area. Agglomerative Cluster Analysis (CA) was performed for delineating and grouping the similar pollution causing areas. The overall view of the water quality index of the present study area revealed that most of the study area comes under highly to very highly polluted zone.
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative assessment of groundwater was done and a ground water quality index criterion was used to understand the suitability of groundwater for irrigation and drinking purpose in the study area.
Abstract: The groundwater resource is a multidimensional concept; it is defined by its location, its occurrence over time, its size, properties, conditions of accessibility, the effort required to mobilize it and therefore, all of which are to be considered in the context of demand. Groundwater, a renewable and finite natural resource, vital for man’s life, social and economic development and a valuable component of the ecosystem, is vulnerable to natural and human impacts. There is a great need for the assessment and monitoring of quality and quantity of groundwater resource required at local level to develop an exact scenario of watershed. In this study qualitative assessment of groundwater was done and a ground water quality index criterion was used to understand the suitability of groundwater for irrigation and drinking purpose in the study area. A GIS based multicriteria analysis was done by assigning weight to different water quality parameters. The water quality was grouped into six classes from very good to unfit for drinking. It was found that the in most part of the study area the water quality varied from moderate to good except in some areas where it is poor to unfit. An assessment of change in landuse and landcover was done from the year 1989 using Landsat data to year 2006 using LISS III satellite data. The change in LULC was correlated with water quality data and it was found that the areas around which rapid urbanisation as well as industrialisation is taking place showed poor to unfit groundwater in terms of quality.
TL;DR: The formation of membrane lesions by these phenylpropanoids appears to be the result of free radical cascade-mediated LPO, which has implications for understanding microbial cell death caused by essential oil components eliciting oxidative stress in Candida albicans.
Abstract: The increasing incidence of hospital-acquired infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens, host toxicity, the poor efficacy of drugs and high treatment costs has drawn attention to the potential of natural products as antifungals in mucocutaneous infections and combinational therapies. Moreover, cellular and subcellular targets for these compounds may provide better options for the development of novel antifungal therapies. Eugenol, methyl eugenol and estragole are phenylpropanoids found in essential oil. They are known to possess pharmacological properties including antimicrobial activity. Induction of oxidative stress characterized by elevated levels of free radicals and an impaired antioxidant defence system is implicated as a possible mechanism of cell death. An insight into the mechanism of action was gained by propidium iodide cell sorting and oxidative stress response to test compounds in Candida albicans. The extent of lipid peroxidation (LPO) of cytoplasmic membranes was estimated to confirm a state of oxidative stress. Activity levels of primary defence enzymes and glutathione were thus further determined. Whereas these compounds cause fungal cell death by disrupting membrane integrity at minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC), sub-MIC doses of these compounds significantly impair the defence system in C. albicans. The study has implications for understanding microbial cell death caused by essential oil components eliciting oxidative stress in Candida. The formation of membrane lesions by these phenylpropanoids thus appears to be the result of free radical cascade-mediated LPO.
TL;DR: The highly alkaline conditions indicated fluorite dissolution as major process responsible for high concentration of fluoride in Pokhran as well as the possibility of anthropogenic input of fluoride is all most negligible.
Abstract: The groundwater is the only major source of drinking water in western part of Rajasthan, India. The study was carried out to locate and decipher hydrogeochemical reactions responsible for elevated concentration of fluoride. The concentration of fluoride ranged from 0.6 to 4.74 ppm in groundwater of study area. Since the area is a desertic terrain and no industries are present thus possibility of anthropogenic input of fluoride is all most negligible thus the enrichment of fluoride in groundwater is only possible due to rock-water interaction. The highly alkaline conditions indicated fluorite dissolution as major process responsible for high concentration of fluoride in Pokhran.