Baruipur College

Atropa belladonna is a valuable medicinal plant and a commercial source of tropane alkaloids, which are frequently utilized in therapeutic practice. In this study, bioinformaticmethodologies were used to examine the pattern of coding sequences and the factors thatmight influence codon usage bias in the chloroplast genome of Atropa belladonna andother nightshade genomes. The chloroplast engineering being a promising field in modernbiotechnology, the characterization of chloroplast genome is very important. The resultsrevealed that the chloroplast genomes of Nicotiana tabacum, Solanum lycopersicum, Capsicum frutescens, Datura stramonium, Lyciumbarbarum, Solanum melongena, and Solanumtuberosum exhibited comparable codon usage patterns. In these chloroplast genomes, weobserved a weak codon usage bias. According to the correspondence analysis, the genesisof the codon use bias in these chloroplast genes might be explained by natural selection,directed mutational pressure, and other factors. GC12 and GC3S were shown to have nomeaningful relationship. Further research revealed that natural selection primarily shapedthe codon usage in A. belladonna and other nightshade genomes for translational efficiency. The sequencing properties of these chloroplast genomes were also investigated by investing the occurrences of palindromes and inverted repeats, which would be useful forfuture research on medicinal plants.

The study focuses on the two most important constructs of self- efficacy and reasoning ability, which have a positive impact on the achievement of the students. The study intends to find out the relationship between the two variables with respect to gender. Survey method was employed to conduct the study. The sample group of the study included the secondary school students (n=102) of Kolkata, West Bengal. Purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. The data collected were statistically analysed and results revealed a positive and significant correlation between the two variables. Gender difference was noticed in the case of both the variables. Girls displayed higher self-efficacy levels compared to the boys, whereas boys outperformed girls in reasoning ability.

The emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, causing a highly contagious disease COVID-19 poses a tremendous global public health concern. As the disease is quickly developing into a worldwide pandemic, a careful analysis of its origin, evolution, transmission, and cellular mechanism is urgently needed to combat the deadly virus. Successful isolation of the 2019-nCoV has promoted some bioinformatic studies to understand the viral origin and the feature of its infectivity. However, at this stage, much remains unclear about the origin of the novel virus and to be investigated to develop ways to control its spread. The mechanisms associated with the infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2 are not entirely understood. The current knowledge in 2019-nCoV pathogenicity and transmissibility along with several commonly known emerging viruses and information is very much important for better control of the disease. So far, the treatment is only supportive. Any antiviral agent is yet to emerge. The scientific community raced to understand the pathogenesis of the disease for developing treatment options. Extensive research is going on to understand the host response to the pandemic virus to develop the disease therapeutic. To fill the knowledge gap about the human immune response to SARS-CoV- 2 infections that may help in designing the appropriate immune intervention for treatment, diagnosis, and prophylactic/therapeutic vaccines against COVID-19, we present hereby a brief review on the genomic organization, origin, and evolution, transmission and pathogenesis of the novel virus, and clinical spectrum and possible preventive measures against COVID-19 which may be used for future references.

A typical bioactive borate glass of composition 5Na 2 O-30Ca-65B 2 O 3 (NCBO) was prepared by melt quenching method. The NCBO glass powder and solid glass fibers were found to slowly converted to nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (or Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 (OH) 2 ) by soaking in (0.25M)K 2 HPO 4 (KDP) solution (with pH = 9.5 and Ca/P ratio ˜1.6 at 37°C) for about one month. We studied biocompatibility (cells adhesion and proliferation) of the NCBO glass by allowing adhesion and proliferation of human cord blood derived mesenchymal stem cells (CB-hMSCs) directly on the thin glass plate. The cells viability on glass surface was determined by MTT [3-(4,5-di-methylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide] assay analysis. The NCBO glass exhibiting excellent biocompatibility might be suitable for in vivo tissue engineering applications.

The Burstein–Moss shift (BMS) has been revisited for n-type GaAs semiconductor with and without band-tailing conditions. Unlike the earlier reported results, the present theoretical analyses of BMS depicted an oscillatory behavior due to the inclusions of the following relevant factors, viz. (a) $$ \overline{k} $$ dependency of the optical matrix elements, (b) consideration of the Fermi integral (FI) methods for the calculation of Fermi energy in non-degenerately doped cases, to a higher-order terms, and (c) band-tailing effects due to heavy doping in degenerately doped condition. In the present communication, attempt has been made to recapitulate the FI of F1/2(η), for non-degenerately doped semiconductor that showed oscillations due to the presence of confluent hyper-geometric function, obtained by the exact integrations method involved with F1/2(η). However, for the heavy doping with band-tailing cases, the FI is found to be complex function of oscillatory amplitude and a phase angle (α). It must be noted that these oscillatory behaviors, demonstrated in the present paper, seemed to be depicted for the first time in both non-degenerately and degenerately doped semiconductors on the literature in the study of BMS.