Rising surface ozone due to anthropogenic activities and its impact on COVID-19 related deaths in Delhi, India.

The rapidity and global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have left several vital questions in the research community requiring coordinated investigation and unique perspectives to explore the relationship between the spread of disease and air quality. Previous studies have focused mainly on the relation of particulate matter concentration with COVID-19-related mortalities. In contrast, surficial ozone has not been given much attention as surface ozone is a primary air pollutant and directly impacts the respiratory system of humans.

Integrated approach for effective debris mapping in glacierized regions of Chandra River Basin, Western Himalayas, India.

The mapping of debris in glacierized terrain is required for managing the water resources, glacier mass-balance studies and the monitoring of glacier health. Two types of debris i.e.

Mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium in waters of the Singrauli coal mining and power plants industrial zone, Central East India.

The present investigation is an attempt to assess the contamination of heavy metals in the ground and surface water of the Singrauli industrial belt area. Pollution indices like heavy metal index (HPI), contamination index (CD) and heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) are used for the evaluation of heavy metal pollution (arsenic As, mercury Hg, cadmium Cd, and lead Pb). Contour maps are constructed to interpret metal spatial distribution.

Assessment of land use/land cover dynamics of Tso Moriri Lake, a Ramsar site in India.

Wetlands accounts for 6% area of the Earth's land cover and nearly 17% of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. They are of utmost importance to climate dynamics and are critical links between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Despite the need of high attention towards conserving and managing wetland resources, mapping them is a least practiced activity.

A Scientific Validation of Antihyperglycemic and Antihyperlipidemic Attributes of Trichosanthes dioica.

The present study was undertaken to scientifically validate the antidiabetic activity of aqueous fruit extract of Trichosanthes dioica Roxb. (Family: Cucurbitaceae) which has been traditionally used for managing diabetes mellitus. This plant commonly known as "Sespadula" in English has not been explored scientifically so far for its glycemic potential except by our research group.

Influence of PNA containing 8-aza-7-deazaadenine on structure stability and binding affinity of PNA·DNA duplex: insights from thermodynamics, counter ion, hydration and molecular dynamics analysis.

This paper describes the synthesis of a novel 8-aza-7-deazapurin-2,6-diamine (DPP)-containing peptide nucleic acid (PNA) monomer and Boc protecting group-based oligomerization of PNA, replacing adenine (A) with DPP monomers in the PNA strand. The PNA oligomers were synthesized against the biologically relevant SV40 promoter region (2494-AATTTTTTTTATTTA-2508) of pEGFP-N3 plasmid. The DPP-PNA·DNA duplex showed enhanced stability as compared to normal duplex (A-PNA·DNA).

Inhibition of 5'-UTR RNA conformational switching in HIV-1 using antisense PNAs.

Background: The genome of retroviruses, including HIV-1, is packaged as two homologous (+) strand RNA molecules, noncovalently associated close to their 5'-end in a region called dimer linkage structure (DLS). Retroviral HIV-1 genomic RNAs dimerize through complex interactions between dimerization initiation sites (DIS) within the (5'-UTR). Dimer formation is prevented by so calledLong Distance Interaction (LDI) conformation, whereas Branched Multiple Hairpin (BMH) conformation leads to spontaneous dimerization.

Evaluation of electronic effect of phenyl ring substituents on the DNA minor groove binding properties of novel bis and terbenzimidazoles: synthesis and spectroscopic studies of ligand-DNA interaction.

Several minor groove binding agents (MGBD) were synthesized to study their binding behaviors and sequence specificity with DNA. In order to further understand the binding interactions of the MGBD to DNA, we have synthesized some novel benzimidazoles, which have electron donating (OCH(3), OCH(2)CH(3), OH, O(CH(2))(3)NH(2)) and electron withdrawing cyano groups on the phenyl ring. The interaction of these new benzimidazoles along with parent compounds Hoechst 33342 have been studied with CT DNA, two A-T rich [d(GA(5)T(5)C) and d(CGCA(3)T(3)G)] and one G-C rich [d(GCATGGCCATGC)] oligonucleotide sequences using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), absorption, fluorescence, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy.

Benzimidazoles: a minor groove-binding ligand-induced stabilization of triple helix.

Nonintercalating minor groove-binding ligands netropsin, Hoechst 33258, and DAPI are reported to destabilize the triplex. Ligands with different substitutions on the phenyl ring of bis- and terbenzimidazoles were evaluated for their effect on the stability of C+.GC triplex and Hoogsteen duplex.