Search

Aim: The study aims to determine whether oxidative stress contributes significantly to the development of Senile cataract by comparing serum levels of oxidative stress marker Malondialdehyde and antioxidants Ascorbic acid, Alpha Tocopherol and Uric acid among Senile cataract patients and healthy controls. Materials and Methods: A total of 86 subjects were included in the study, out of which 49 were senile cataract patients and 37 were age and gender matched healthy controls. Estimation of Malondialdehyde, Ascorbic acid, Alpha- Tocopherol and Uric acid was done in the serum samples of all subjects included in the study. Results: Mean MDA level in cases was significantly higher at 4.41nmol/ml compared to controls which was 3.88nmol/ml. Mean ascorbic acid level among cases was 10.99 mg/L whereas in controls it was significantly higher at 13.69 mg/L. α-tocopherol level among cases was 7.98 mg/L whereas in controls it was significantly higher at 8.76 mg/L. Mean uric acid level among cases was 4.29mg/dl whereas in controls it was 4.55mg/dl, the difference was statistically insignificant. Conclusion: Oxidative stress and antioxidant status contributes significantly to the development and progression of senile cataract. Clinical Significance: Measures to monitor oxidative stress and improve antioxidant status in the population can be helpful in delaying the onset and progression of senile cataract. Keywords: Oxidative stress, Senile cataract, Malondialdehyde, Antioxidants

We report a study of longitudinal resistivity, anisotropic magnetoresistance (MR), and Hall effect on epitaxial Nd2Ir2O7 (111) thin films grown by the solid phase epitaxy technique, in which spin–orbit coupling, electronic correlation, magnetic frustration, and f-d exchange interaction are present. Temperature-dependent longitudinal resistivity (ρxx) data indicate semimetallic charge transport in the low-temperature region. Field-cooled longitudinal resistivity measurements detect negligible domain-wall conductance compared to the polycrystal or single-crystal samples. Angle-dependent MR measurement shows that the magnetic structure of Ir4+ 5d moments can be finely tuned by applying a magnetic field along different crystallographic directions. MR measurements show a field-induced modification of the Nd3+ 4f spin structure from all-in-all-out/all-out-all-in (AIAO/AOAI) (4-in-0-out) to 1-in-3-out for the applied field (H) along the [111] direction, resulting in field-induced plastic deformation of the Ir4+ domain distribution. In contrast, the application of field (H) along the [001] and [011] directions could not modify any domain distribution. A large spontaneous Hall effect (SHE) signal has been observed on Nd2Ir2O7 (111) thin film with AIAO/AOAI antiferromagnetic ordering for the application of field (H) along [001], [1̄1̄0], and [111] directions. The appearance of a large spontaneous Hall signal for the applied field along [001] and [1̄1̄0] directions rules out domain switching as the origin of the Hall effect and confirms the presence of the Weyl semimetallic phase in Nd2Ir2O7 (111) thin films. In addition to SHE, a large topological-like Hall signal is also observed, possibly due to the presence of multiple Weyl nodes in the electronic band structure.

Eddy current sensors are an attractive choice due to their high resolution, reliability, and durability in harsh environments while being able to measure in a noncontact manner. This article presents a novel design to realize a thin eddy-current-based angle sensor. It is realized by converting the shaft, whose rotation angle is to be measured, into the sensing element. The modification to the shaft is minimal; a small surface groove is introduced without affecting the mechanical strength. The stationary part of the sensor consists of two layers of flexible square-planar coils. Depending on the angular position of the shaft, the inductances of the planar coils get modified. These are measured using a specially designed circuitry, optimized for this sensor. The output for the entire circle range (360°) is derived from the inductance values of each coil using a successive approximation algorithm developed for this purpose. Finite-element analysis was employed to design the sensor and analyze the axial/radial misalignment of the rotor. A sensor prototype was built and tested. The output showed a resolution of 0.1° and the worst case linearity error of 0.9%. The prototype sensor dimensions are designed to fit in a standard steering column. The proposed sensor is thin, easy to manufacture at low cost, tolerant to axial vibration by design, and has a 360° sensing range.

Drought restricts plant growth and productivity. Silicon has beneficial effects on imparting drought tolerance in plants. Present work was intended to evaluate the effect of Si on polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG) induced osmotic stress in local landraces of finger millet. The seeds of stress-tolerant and stress-sensitive landraces of finger millet were treated with distilled water, 15% PEG, and PEG+Si (5-25 ppm). The ameliorative effect of Si was evaluated in terms of percentage seed germination, seedling growth, accumulation of osmolyte and activity of antioxidative enzymes. PEG-induced osmotic stress reduced seed germination, seedling growth, and augmented osmolyte accumulation. It also elevated the levels of antioxidant enzymes. The exogenous supplementation of silicon significantly improved seed germination as well as early seeding growth. Positive effects of Si were reflected in decline in malondialdehyde (MDA) content and improved glycine betaine content and antioxidant enzymes in PEG-induced stress tolerant as well as susceptible landraces. The Si-induced ameliorated effects on all the parameters studied were more pronounced in the stress-tolerant landrace (FM/ST/01) than the stress-sensitive landrace (FM/RT/01). These results clearly indicate advantageous effects of Si in relieving PEG-induced stress during seed germination and early seeding growth and suggest a possibility of better stand establishment by application of silicon containing fertilizer during seed sowing.

Potassium (K+) is the most abundant cation that plays a crucial role in various cellular processes in plants. Plants have developed an efficient mechanism for the acquisition of K+ when grown in K+ deficient or saline soils. A total of 47 K+ transport gene homologs (27 HAKs, 4 HKTs, 2 KEAs, 9 AKTs, 2 KATs, 2 TPCs, and 1 VDPC) have been identified in Sorghum bicolor. Of 47 homologs, 33 were identified as K+ transporters and the remaining 14 as K+ channels. Chromosome 2 has been found as the hotspot of K+ transporters with 9 genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the conservation of sorghum K+ transport genes akin to Oryza sativa. Analysis of regulatory elements indicates the key roles that K+ transport genes play under different biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Digital expression data of different developmental stages disclosed that expressions were higher in milk, flowering, and tillering stages. Expression levels of the genes SbHAK27 and SbKEA2 were higher during milk, SbHAK17, SbHAK11, SbHAK18, and SbHAK7 during flowering, SbHAK18, SbHAK10, and 23 other gene expressions were elevated during tillering inferring the important role that K+ transport genes play during plant growth and development. Differential transcript expression was observed in different tissues like root, stem, and leaf under abiotic stresses such as salt, drought, heat, and cold stresses. Collectively, the in-depth genome-wide analysis and differential transcript profiling of K+ transport genes elucidate their role in ion homeostasis and stress tolerance mechanisms.

Roots from salt-susceptible ICSR-56 (SS) sorghum plants display metaxylem elements with thin cell walls and large diameter. On the other hand, roots with thick, lignified cell walls in the hypodermis and endodermis were noticed in salt-tolerant CSV-15 (ST) sorghum plants. The secondary wall thickness and number of lignified cells in the hypodermis have increased with the treatment of sodium chloride stress to the plants (STN). Lignin distribution in the secondary cell wall of sclerenchymatous cells beneath the lower epidermis was higher in ST leaves compared to the SS genotype. Casparian thickenings with homogenous lignin distribution were observed in STN roots, but inhomogeneous distribution was evident in SS seedlings treated with sodium chloride (SSN). Higher accumulation of K+ and lower Na+ levels were noticed in ST compared to the SS genotype. To identify the differentially expressed genes among SS and ST genotypes, transcriptomic analysis was carried out. Both the genotypes were exposed to 200 mM sodium chloride stress for 24 h and used for analysis. We obtained 70 and 162 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) exclusive to SS and SSN and 112 and 26 DEGs exclusive to ST and STN, respectively. Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis unlocked the changes in metabolic pathways in response to salt stress. qRT-PCR was performed to validate 20 DEGs in each SSN and STN sample, which confirms the transcriptomic results. These results surmise that anatomical changes and higher K+/Na+ ratios are essential for mitigating salt stress in sorghum apart from the genes that are differentially up- and downregulated in contrasting genotypes.

Novel electronic structure is central to Kitaev-like quantum spin liquid ground state in the van der Waals antiferromagnet α -RuCl _3 . In this octahedral low-spin $4d^5$ system, the rich bandstructure includes Mott–Hubbard insulating bandgap of ∼1.1 eV and ligand field induced gap of ∼2 eV. Though the bandgap is extensively reported in previous optical and photoemission studies, the latter gap is less understood. In this regard, we probed the ligand field-induced electronic structure of bulk α -RuCl _3 single crystals via unpolarized photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy under linearly polarized excitation in the visible region. We observed the broad principal PL peak at E _PL $\approx$ 1.87 eV, close to the energy required for the optical transition across the ligand field splitting gap (∼2 eV). This gap ( E _PL ) monotonically increases with temperature, described by the thermal expansion of lattice parameters dominating the electron–phonon interaction in this Honeycomb Mott insulator. Moreover, we observed the multiplet structure of the PL spectra, which can be explained by parity-forbidden d–d transitions in the light of single ion ligand-field theory. We attribute the broad PL linewidths to strong vibronic coupling modeled by the Huang–Rhys parameter. Further we observed the signature of structural transitions, indicated by thermal hysteresis in normalized integrated PL intensity.

Epitaxial ferrimagnetic thin films of (Co, Ru) Fe2O4 were grown on MgO (001) substrate using pulsed laser deposition technique. Ruthenium substitution in cobalt ferrite has increased the conductivity by orders of magnitude, but it has a minimal effect on magnetic properties. The film has a high coercivity and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), where the magnetic easy axis points perpendicular to the film surface. We report the magnetic and electrical transport properties here. The temperature variation of resistivity showed different conduction mechanisms at high and low-temperature regimes. Room temperature Hall measurement reveals “n” type carrier with a carrier concentration of 4×1020/cm3. The film showed negative MR and a linear decrement with the magnetic field without any saturation.

In this current study, in pursuit of novel anti-cancer alternative medicines, four medicinal plant extracts were investigated for phytochemical screening and in vitro cytotoxicity studies, and the most potent cytotoxic extract was utilised for qualitative analysis. For preliminary phytochemical screening, three phytochemical extracts, namely ethyl acetate extract (EAE), methanol extract (ME), and distilled water extract (DWE), of four plants, namely Antigonon leptopus Hook. & Arn., Aristolochia bracteolata Lam., Dodonaea viscosa Jacq., and Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex Corr., were screened, and the same were screened for in vitro cytotoxicity by MTT assay against four cell lines: namely Human Colorectal adenocarcinoma (HCT 116), Human Hepatocellular adenocarcinoma (HepG2), Human lung carcinoma (NCIH-460), and Human Prostate adenocarcinoma (PC3). The presence of several phytochemicals was identified during the phytochemical screening. All IC50 values mentioning 17.50 and 29.47 µg/ml of EAE of A. bracteolata were found to have the strongest anticancer activity against NCIH-460 and HCT-116 cell lines, respectively. The EAE at IC50 of 17.50 µg/ml accounts for about 30 compounds after a qualitative GC-MS study, and it includes anticancer chemicals such as pentadeconic acid, phytol, phenol-2,4-bis-1,1-dimethylethyl, 2,6,10-trimethyl-14-ethylene-14-pentadecene, phytol-acetate, and others. The extract of ethyl acetate from A. bracteolata strongly suppressed the growth of malignant cell lines NCIH-460 and HCT-116 and included many physiologically active chemicals. This could be the first evidence of the antitumor efficacy of A. bracteolata in lung and colorectal cancer screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We report zero-field-cooled spontaneous-positive and field-cooled conventional-negative exchange bias effects in epitaxial bilayer composed of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) with ferromagnetic (FM) and Eu0.45Sr0.55MnO3 (ESMO) with A-type antiferromagnetic (AF) heterostructures respectively. A temperature dependent magnetization study of LSMO/ESMO bilayers grown on SrTiO3 (001) manifest FM ordering (TC) of LSMO at ~320 K, charge/orbital ordering of ESMO at ~194 K and AF ordering (TN) of ESMO at ~150 K. The random field Ising model has demonstrated an interesting observation of inverse dependence of exchange bias effect on AF layer thickness due to the competition between FM-AF interface coupling and AF domain wall energy. The isothermally field induced unidirectional exchange anisotropy formed at the interface of FM-LSMO layer and the kinetically phase-arrested magnetic phase obtained from the metamagnetic AF-ESMO layer could be responsible for the spontaneous exchange bias effect. Importantly, no magnetic poling is needed, as necessary for the applications. The FM-AF interface exchange interaction has been ascribed to the AF coupling with $$\sum {J}_{ex}\vec{{S}_{{\rm{FM}}}}\cdot \vec{{S}_{{\rm{AF}}}}$$ ∑JexSFM⃗⋅SAF⃗ ($${J}_{ex}\approx {J}_{AF}$$ Jex≈JAF , coupling constant between AF spins) for the spontaneous positive hysteresis loop shift, and the field-cooled conventional exchange bias has been attributed to the ferromagnetically exchanged interface with $${J}_{ex}\approx {J}_{F}$$ Jex≈JF (coupling constant between FM spins).

Abstract We present our angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory results on quaternary topological insulator (TI) BiSbTe1.25Se1.75 (BSTS) confirming the non-trivial topology of the surface state bands (SSBs) in this compound. We find that the SSBs, which are are sensitive to the atomic composition of the terminating surface have a partial 3D character. Our detailed study of the band bending (BB) effects shows that in BSTS the Dirac point (DP) shifts by more than two times compared to that in Bi2Se3 to reach the saturation. The stronger BB in BSTS could be due to the difference in screening of the surface charges. From momentum density curves (MDCs) of the ARPES data we obtained an energy dispersion relation showing the warping strength of the Fermi surface in BSTS to be intermediate between those found in Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 and also to be tunable by controlling the ratio of chalcogen/pnictogen atoms. Our experiments also reveal that the nature of the BB effects are highly sensitive to the exposure of the fresh surface to various gas species. These findings have important implications in the tuning of DP in TIs for technological applications.

Detection and qualification of unknown impurities during commercial drug synthesis have been mandated by the regulatory authorities. 3,3'-(propane-1,3-diyl)bis(7,8-dimethoxy-1,3,4,5-tetrahydro-2H-benzo [d]azepin-2-one) in short IVA-9, is one such process-related impurity formed during the synthesis of cardiotonic drug Ivabradine. The structure and properties of this molecule have not been explored yet. A suggestive reaction route for the chance formation of IVA-9 during the commercial synthesis of parent drug molecule has been reported in this article. Further, the optimized geometry and vibrational studies have been computed using Gaussian 09. Experimental FTIR scan has also been performed and values show satisfactory consilience with the computational data. The frontier orbital energies and energy band gaps of the reaction fragments and products were computed. The evaluation of ADME parameters such as absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion are performed using SwissADME tool to assess the drug-likeness and medicinal chemistry friendliness. Six physiochemical parameters namely flexibility, lipophilicity, size, polarity, solubility and saturation and their critical limits are depicted using the bioavailability radar of the programme to provide insights into pharmacokinetic properties such as human gastrointestinal absorption (HIA), blood-brain-barrier (BBB) permeability, total polar surface area (TPSA) and inhibitor action to important cytochromes etc.

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, the space fillers or molecular shields, are the hydrophilic protective proteins which play an important role during plant development and abiotic stress. The systematic survey and characterization revealed a total of 68 LEA genes, belonging to 8 families in Sorghum bicolor. The LEA-2, a typical hydrophobic family is the most abundant family. All of them are evenly distributed on all 10 chromosomes and chromosomes 1, 2, and 3 appear to be the hot spots. Majority of the S. bicolor LEA (SbLEA) genes are intron less or have fewer introns. A total of 22 paralogous events were observed and majority of them appear to be segmental duplications. Segmental duplication played an important role in SbLEA-2 family expansion. A total of 12 orthologs were observed with Arabidopsis and 13 with Oryza sativa. Majority of them are basic in nature, and targeted by chloroplast subcellular localization. Fifteen miRNAs targeted to 25 SbLEAs appear to participate in development, as well as in abiotic stress tolerance. Promoter analysis revealed the presence of abiotic stress-responsive DRE, MYB, MYC, and GT1, biotic stress-responsive W-Box, hormone-responsive ABA, ERE, and TGA, and development-responsive SKn cis-elements. This reveals that LEA proteins play a vital role during stress tolerance and developmental processes. Using microarray data, 65 SbLEA genes were analyzed in different tissues (roots, pith, rind, internode, shoot, and leaf) which show clear tissue specific expression. qRT-PCR analysis of 23 SbLEA genes revealed their abundant expression in various tissues like roots, stems and leaves. Higher expression was noticed in stems compared to roots and leaves. Majority of the SbLEA family members were up-regulated at least in one tissue under different stress conditions. The SbLEA3-2 is the regulator, which showed abundant expression under diverse stress conditions. Present study provides new insights into the formation of LEAs in S. bicolor and to understand their role in developmental processes under stress conditions, which may be a valuable source for future research.