Responses of birds and mammals to long-established wind farms in India.

Wind turbines have been recognised as an alternative and clean-energy source with a low environmental impact. The selection of sites for wind-farm often creates serious conservation concerns on biodiversity. Wind turbines have become a serious threat to migratory birds as they collide with the turbine blades in some regions across the globe, while the impact on terrestrial mammals is relatively less explored.

Simulation of optically encoded multiplexing for parallel multipoint sensing.

Spectral emission/absorption-based sensors are commonly used to monitor explosives, narcotics, and other restricted materials in high-security zones such as airports. Monitoring a broad range of spectral wavelengths with high spectral resolution would increase the repertoire of chemicals that can be monitored. However, a portable unit will have limitations in meeting these requirements.

Differential antigen expression and aberrant signaling via PI3/AKT, MAP/ERK, JAK/STAT, and Wnt/β catenin pathways in Lin-/CD38-/CD34+ cells in acute myeloid leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia is often called as stem cell disease that presents with treatment failure and poor disease outcome. Leukemic stem cells in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are enriched in Lineage-/CD38-/CD34+ compartment of CD34-positive AML. Many markers important for stem cell biology have been reported for their association with leukemic stem cell population, but what remains clinically most important is a rapid identification of prognostic information.

Dynamic interrogator for elastic wave sensing using Fabry Perot filters based on fiber Bragg gratings.

Use of in-fiber Fabry-Perot (FP) filters based on fiber Bragg gratings as both sensor as well as an interrogator for enhancing the detection limit of elastic wave sensing is investigated in this paper. The sensitivity of such a demodulation scheme depends on the spectral discrimination of the sensor and interrogator gratings. Simulations have shown that the use of in-fiber FP filters with high finesse provide better performance in terms of sensitivity compared to the demodulation using fiber Bragg gratings.

An absolute method for determination of misalignment of an immersion ultrasonic transducer.

An absolute methodology has been developed for quantification of misalignment of an ultrasonic transducer using a corner-cube retroreflector. The amplitude based and the time of flight (TOF) based C-scans of the reflector are obtained for various misalignments of the transducer. At zero degree orientation of the transducer, the vertical positions of the maximum amplitude and the minimum TOF in the C-scan coincide.

Single-fiber grid for improved spatial resolution in distributed fiber optic sensor.

The spatial resolution of an optical-fiber-based Raman distributed temperature sensor is limited by the pulse width of the laser used. We discuss a methodology of increasing spatial resolution by using a single-fiber grid. Spatial resolution improvement of up to 10 times is demonstrated.

Fluorescence studies on the interaction of choline-binding domain B of the major bovine seminal plasma protein, PDC-109 with phospholipid membranes.

The microenvironment and accessibility of the tryptophan residues in domain B of PDC-109 (PDC-109/B) in the native state and upon ligand binding have been investigated by fluorescence quenching, time-resolved fluorescence and red-edge excitation shift (REES) studies. The increase in the intrinsic fluorescence emission intensity of PDC-109/B upon binding to lysophosphatidylcholine (Lyso-PC) micelles and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) membranes was considerably less as compared to that observed with the whole PDC-109 protein. The degree of quenching achieved by different quenchers with PDC-109/B bound to Lyso-PC and DMPC membranes was significantly higher as compared to the full PDC-109 protein, indicating that membrane binding afforded considerably lesser protection to the tryptophan residues of domain B as compared to those in the full PDC-109 protein.

Nondestructive characterization of musical pillars of Mahamandapam of Vitthala Temple at Hampi, India.

This paper presents the first scientific investigation on the musical pillars of the Vitthala Temple at Hampi, India. The solid stone columns in these pillars produce audible sound, when struck with a finger. Systematic investigations on the acoustic characteristics of the musical pillars of mahamandapam (great stage) of the Vitthala Temple have been carried out.

Chromosomal breakage in myelodysplatic syndrome.

The myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) represents a group of clonal hematological disorders characterized by progressive cytopenia reflecting defects in erythroid, myeloid and mega karyocytic maturation. The incidence of MDS is greter in older age groups. Detailed studies on MDS from India are not available.

Structure elucidation of thermal degradation products of amlodipine.

Thermal degradation of amlodipine base causes intramolecular reactions affording three cyclic products, referred to as AMLDEG-I, AMLDEG-II, and AMLDEG-III, respectively. AMLDEG-I is a cyclized product formed by intramolecular elimination of ammonia from amlodipine. AMLDEG-II is a positional isomer of AMLDEG-I.

Fanconi's anemia in newborn.

Fanconi's anemia (FA) is a paradigm for congenital anomalies, aplastic anemia and predisposition to malignancies. Identification of the disease at birth is based on characteristic physical malformations, as hematologic manifestations at birth are extremely rare. We report a case of FA in a newborn who presented with anophthalmia, unilateral radial ray defect, hemivertebrae and thrombocytopenia.

Translocation Down syndrome.

Cytogenetic investigations carried out on 1021 cases of Down syndrome revealed translocation in 46 cases. The most frequent was of t(14;21) and t(21;21) types. Most of the translocation DS cases (n = 31) were born to younger mothers (< 25 years), when compared to pure trisomy 21 DS cases.

Translocation Down syndrome.

Cytogenetic investigations carried on 1021 cases of Down syndrome revealed translocation in 46 cases. The most frequent was of t(14;21) and t(21;21) types. Most of the translocation DS cases (n = 31) were born to younger mother's (< 25 years), when compared to pure trisomy 21 DS cases.

Natural abundance nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance spectral studies on selected donors.

The natural abundance 15N-NMR chemical shifts of selected aliphatic amines, 2-substituted pyridine type compounds, bialicyclic tertiary amines have been measured as a function of the nature of the solvent. In the case of cyclic aliphatic amines, like piperidine, morpholine, piperazine, thiomorpholine, the nitrogen is more shielded in concentrated solution compared to that in dilute solution whereas in the hydrogen bonding and protonating solvents there is a prominent deshielding. 2-Substituted pyridines studied can be further divided into four sub groups.

Parental age and the origin of extra chromosome 21 in Down syndrome.

We present a report of the parental ages (n = 865) and parental origin of meiotic nondisjunction (n = 236) that are likely to show a predisposition in the etiology of Down syndrome (DS). Chromosomal analysis, performed over a 20-year period, on 1,001 Down syndrome subjects, revealed pure trisomy 21 karyotype in 880 subjects (87.92%), mosaic trisomy karyotype in 77 (7.