A Review on Recent Advances in Aloperine Research: Pharmacological Activities and Underlying Biological Mechanisms

Aloperine, a quinolizidine-type alkaloid, was first isolated from the seeds and leaves of herbal plant, Sophora alopecuroides L. Empirically, Sophora alopecuroides L. is appreciated for its anti-dysentry effect, a property that is commonly observed in other Sophora Genus phytomedicines. Following the rationale of reductionism, subsequent biochemical analyses attribute such anti-dysentry effect to the bactericidal activity of aloperine. From then on, the multiple roles of aloperine are gradually revealed. Accumulating evidence suggests that aloperine possesses multiple pharmacological activities and holds a promising potential in clinical conditions including skin hyper-sensitivity, tumor and inflammatory disorders etc.; however, the current knowledge on aloperine is interspersed and needs to be summarized. To facilitate further investigation, herein, we conclude the key pharmacological functions of aloperine, and most importantly, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are clarified in detail to explain the functional mode of aloperine.

AUTO LPG AS AN ALTERNATIVE FUEL AND ITS PROSPECTS TO COMBAT AIR POLLUTION IN GUWAHATI CITY, ASSAM, INDIA

Auto LPG is considered as an environment friendly fuel. Auto LPG powered cars emit less pollutants compared to the other conventional fuels by 15-20% less carbon dioxide (CO2) than their petrol- and diesel-motivated counterparts and emit virtually no nitrogen oxides (NOX) or particulate matter (PM). LPG is legal to use as an automobile fuel by Government of India by Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of use in Motor Vehicles Order, 2001 dated 1st August 2001 under instruction from the Hon’ble Supreme Court to reduce automobile pollution in Indian cities. There are more than 27 million Auto LPG vehicles in use around the world. In India, there are about 2.32 million vehicles running on Auto LPG in 2018 with 1300 filling stations in 500 cities. In Assam there are four refineries. At present Guwahati is considered as one of the most polluted city in India. So, Government policies and regulations is very mush essential to popularize auto LPG as an alternative fuel in Assam for improving the air quality as well as to combat climate change. In 2007, four numbers of Auto LPG dispensing stations were set up in Assam which is now in non-functional mode. In this paper a survey was conducted to analyze the awareness and extent of adoption and perception of Auto LPG in Guwahati City.

Effectiveness Analysis of a Two Non-Identical Unit Standby System with Switching Device and Proviso of Rest

This paper deals with two-unit cold standby system with switching device and proviso of rest. The system consists of two non-identical units which are connected in parallel redundancy. Initially, the first unit is in operative mode and second is kept in cold standby mode. There is also a proviso for rest for the first unit after a random time from its starting operation. For operation and repair, priority is always given to first unit. A switching device is used to shift the failed unit to repair mode. If the switching device is found non-operational then priority is given to it for repair provided that system is in functional mode. The effectiveness of the proposed system has been carried out by determining various reliability characteristics of the proposed model.

Enhancing Sensor Network Security with Improved Internal Hardware Design

With the rapid development of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), sensors are being widely applied in industry and human life. Sensor networks based on IoT have strong Information transmission and processing capabilities. The security of sensor networks is progressively crucial. Cryptographic algorithms are widely used in sensor networks to guarantee security. Hardware implementations are preferred, since software implementations offer lower throughout and require more computational resources. Cryptographic chips should be tested in a manufacturing process and in the field to ensure their quality. As a widely used design-for-testability (DFT) technique, scan design can enhance the testability of the chips by improving the controllability and observability of the internal flip-flops. However, it may become a backdoor to leaking sensitive information related to the cipher key, and thus, threaten the security of a cryptographic chip. In this paper, a secure scan test architecture was proposed to resist scan-based noninvasive attacks on cryptographic chips with boundary scan design. Firstly, the proposed DFT architecture provides the scan chain reset mechanism by gating a mode-switching detection signal into reset input of scan cells. The contents of scan chains will be erased when the working mode is switched between test mode and functional mode, and thus, it can deter mode-switching based noninvasive attacks. Secondly, loading the secret key into scan chains of cryptographic chips is prohibited in the test mode. As a result, the test-mode-only scan attack can also be thwarted. On the other hand, shift operation under functional mode is disabled to overcome scan attack in the functional mode. The proposed secure scheme ensures the security of cryptographic chips for sensor networks with extremely low area penalty.

The Formation of Civil Society and Party-Political system: the Experience of India

The article, India taken as a case study, is focused on civil society/party system interrelationship. Among origins of comparative advancement of India’s party system are such historical constituents as: lasting existence of “centre- periphery” relations, ambivalent role of “pragmatic” British imperial rule in country’s development, availability of proactive social forces susceptible to absorb overseas industrial culture as well as political democracy. In the ultimate analysis, these and other “motives” were instrumental in India’s choice for representative institutions as most functional mode of governance. India’s civil society and party system are examined from the “classic”/ west European political economy perspective.

TALE factors use two distinct functional modes to control an essential zebrafish gene expression program

TALE factors are broadly expressed embryonically and known to function in complexes with transcription factors (TFs) like Hox proteins at gastrula/segmentation stages, but it is unclear if such generally expressed factors act by the same mechanism throughout embryogenesis. We identify a TALE-dependent gene regulatory network (GRN) required for anterior development and detect TALE occupancy associated with this GRN throughout embryogenesis. At blastula stages, we uncover a novel functional mode for TALE factors, where they occupy genomic DECA motifs with nearby NF-Y sites. We demonstrate that TALE and NF-Y form complexes and regulate chromatin state at genes of this GRN. At segmentation stages, GRN-associated TALE occupancy expands to include HEXA motifs near PBX:HOX sites. Hence, TALE factors control a key GRN, but utilize distinct DNA motifs and protein partners at different stages – a strategy that may also explain their oncogenic potential and may be employed by other broadly expressed TFs.