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In a country like India where agriculture is the most prevalent occupation of the people, there is still a disconnect between the farm and the household consumption basket. The paper tries to analyze the recent shift of Indian agriculture towards horticultural crops like fruits and vegetables in light of whether the increase in production has translated into such items being included in the diet. The findings of the paper help in understanding the longdebated agriculture nutrition disconnects in policy discourse. The analysis reveals that there has been an unprecedented increase in the production of horticultural crops over the years when compared to food grains. An analysis of the dietary diversity reveals that there has only been a marginal increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables rather the trend is more or less stagnant. The paper concludes that the high export value of horticultural crops resulting in maximum export of the produce leads to high prices of fruits and vegetables in the market and their subsequent exclusion from the consumption basket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child labor has been regarded as one of the most serious issues faced by developing countries since time immemorial. The complexity involved with the problem demands for detailed research in order to cull out the most specific ways to eliminate it. The Census of India provides data on child labor since 1971, however, most of the researches have been either case studies or restricted to data provided on national and state scenario by the NSSO. The paper, therefore intends to study the data at the district level and explore the emerging patterns. The paper restricts the data analysis to the state of Gujarat and conducts an inter-district comparison, in order to explore the correlates and the determinants of child labor. It maps the districts of Gujarat with highest concentrations of child labor across categories of gender and rural/urban areas. The findings of the paper help in understanding the actual magnitude of the problem at the district level. The analysis reveals that the large presence of child laborers in rural areas with a predominance of male child laborers; child laborers in urban area have higher access to educational institutions. There is a large proportion of children who are neither attending school nor working, categorized as the "nowhere children" with a preponderance of females. The correlation exercise provides evidences of scheduled tribe's children being more susceptible towards becoming child laborers and household industries and agricultural farms being the largest employer of child laborers. The regression results reveal that, the level of urbanization and the proportion of the ST population highly influence the proportion of child labor in a particular district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims  Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an acute heart failure, typically triggered by high adrenaline during physical or emotional stress. It is distinguished from myocardial infarction (MI) by a characteristic pattern of ventricular basal hypercontractility with hypokinesis of apical segments, and in the absence of culprit coronary occlusion. We aimed to understand whether recently discovered circulating biomarkers miR-16 and miR-26a, which differentiate TTS from MI at presentation, were mechanistically involved in the pathophysiology of TTS. Methods and results  miR-16 and miR-26a were co-overexpressed in rats with AAV and TTS induced with an adrenaline bolus. Untreated isolated rat cardiomyocytes were transfected with pre-/anti-miRs and functionally assessed. Ventricular basal hypercontraction and apical depression were accentuated in miR-transfected animals after induction of TTS. In vitro miR-16 and/or miR-26a overexpression in isolated apical (but not basal), cardiomyocytes produced strong depression of contraction, with loss of adrenaline sensitivity. They also enhanced the initial positive inotropic effect of adrenaline in basal cells. Decreased contractility after TTS-miRs was reproduced in non-failing human apical cardiomyocytes. Bioinformatic profiling of miR targets, followed by expression assays and functional experiments, identified reductions of CACNB1 (L-type calcium channel Cavβ subunit), RGS4 (regulator of G-protein signalling 4), and G-protein subunit Gβ (GNB1) as underlying these effects. Conclusion miR-16 and miR-26a sensitize the heart to TTS-like changes produced by adrenaline. Since these miRs have been associated with anxiety and depression, they could provide a mechanism whereby priming of the heart by previous stress causes an increased likelihood of TTS in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Cardiac regeneration; engineered heart tissue; heart failure; ischaemic heart disease; cellular therapy; tissue engineering Engineered heart tissue involves the encapsulation of cells into a hydrogel matrix ex-vivo to create patches of heart like muscle "in a dish". A similar trial has recently been granted approval in Japan using cell sheet technology and plans to use 100 million cells again from an allogenic cell source. [Extracted from the article]

The NiII complex 1 containing pyridyl- and hydroxy-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) is synthesized and its catalytic utility for the selective nitrile hydration to the corresponding amide under base-free conditions is evaluated. The title compound exploits a hemilabile pyridyl unit to interact with a catalytically relevant water molecule through hydrogen-bonding and promotes a nucleophilic water attack to the nitrile. A wide variety of nitriles is hydrated to the corresponding amides including the pharmaceutical drugs rufinamide, Rifater, and piracetam. Synthetically challenging α-hydroxyamides are accessed from cyanohydrins under neutral conditions. Related catalysts that lack the pyridyl unit (i.e., compounds 2 and 4) are not active whereas those containing both the pyridyl and the hydroxy or only the pyridyl pendant (i.e., compounds 1 and 3) show substantial activity. The linkage isomer 1′ where the hydroxy group is bound to the metal instead of the pyridyl group was isolated under different crystallization conditions insinuating a ligand hemilabile behavior. Additional p Ka measurements reveal an accessible pyridyl unit under the catalytic conditions. Kinetic studies support a ligand-promoted nucleophilic water addition to a metal-bound nitrile group. This work reports a Ni-based catalyst that exhibits functional hemilability for hydration chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of Mn(I) complexes Mn(L 1 )(CO) 3 Br, Mn(L 2 )(CO) 3 Br, Mn(L 1 )(CO) 3 (OAc) and Mn(L 3 )(CO) 3 Br [L 1 =2-(5-tert-butyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)-1,8-naphthyridine, L 2 =2-(5-tert-butyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine, L 3 =2-(5-tert-butyl-1-methyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)-1,8-naphthyridine] were synthesized and fully characterized. The acid-base equilibrium between the pyrazole and the pyrazolato forms of Mn(L 1 )(CO) 3 Br was studied by 1 H NMR and UV-vis spectra. These complexes are screened as catalysts for acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling (ADC) of primary alcohols and aromatic diamines for the synthesis of benzimidazole and quinoline derivatives with the release of H 2 and H 2 O as byproducts. The protic complex Mn(L 1 )(CO) 3 Br shows the highest catalytic activity for the synthesis of 2-substituted benzimidazole derivatives with broad substrate scope, whereas a related complex [Mn(L 3 )(CO) 3 Br], which is devoid of the proton responsive β-NH unit, shows significantly reduced catalytic efficiency validating the crucial role of the β-NH functionality for the alcohol dehydrogenation reactions. Control experiments, kinetic and deuterated studies, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal a synchronous hydride-proton transfer by the metal-ligand construct in the alcohol dehydrogenation step., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The Ni II complex 1 containing pyridyl- and hydroxy-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) is synthesized and its catalytic utility for the selective nitrile hydration to the corresponding amide under base-free conditions is evaluated. The title compound exploits a hemilabile pyridyl unit to interact with a catalytically relevant water molecule through hydrogen-bonding and promotes a nucleophilic water attack to the nitrile. A wide variety of nitriles is hydrated to the corresponding amides including the pharmaceutical drugs rufinamide, Rifater, and piracetam. Synthetically challenging α-hydroxyamides are accessed from cyanohydrins under neutral conditions. Related catalysts that lack the pyridyl unit (i.e., compounds 2 and 4) are not active whereas those containing both the pyridyl and the hydroxy or only the pyridyl pendant (i.e., compounds 1 and 3) show substantial activity. The linkage isomer 1' where the hydroxy group is bound to the metal instead of the pyridyl group was isolated under different crystallization conditions insinuating a ligand hemilabile behavior. Additional pK a measurements reveal an accessible pyridyl unit under the catalytic conditions. Kinetic studies support a ligand-promoted nucleophilic water addition to a metal-bound nitrile group. This work reports a Ni-based catalyst that exhibits functional hemilability for hydration chemistry., (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)