The Sky Is Rigged with Booby Traps: Tracing Eco-Anxiety in Some Select Poems of Assam and Tripura in India’s North-East

Indian literatures in general including those written in English, entail (in a vivid or veiled manner) a rich legacy inherited from the epics, other classical texts and the Puranas which promote overall, an equilibrium in the eco-space, the flora and fauna, while at the same time strongly recommending a protective role of the human and his being in perfect peace with the habitat. The literature of India’s North-east, poetry in particular, further posits an interesting case study of both adulation and apprehension. Here one experiences an abiding respect for the exotic beauty of nature - the mystic hills and magic rivers with the sprawling verdure around- which, with a potency though to lure poetic hearts into the realm of thoughts offering some emancipatory streaks of revelations, cannot however dispel the confounding mess of impressions of the muddled present which is lacerated by political unrest, insurgency and its countermeasures, the culture of dominance and finally a seamless urbanization which is keen to trammel up the traditional ways of life and thought that have enjoyed a sanctity of practice over generations. The poems discussed in the paper articulate a disquieting awareness of some grim possibility lurking under the Edenic greenery around

Proteomic analysis of human plasma in chronic rheumatic mitral stenosis reveals proteins involved in the complement and coagulation cascade

BACKGROUND: Rheumatic fever in childhood is the most common cause of Mitral Stenosis in developing countries. The disease is characterized by damaged and deformed mitral valves predisposing them to scarring and narrowing (stenosis) that results in left atrial hypertrophy followed by heart failure. Presently, echocardiography is the main imaging technique used to diagnose Mitral Stenosis. Despite the high prevalence and increased morbidity, no biochemical indicators are available for prediction, diagnosis and management of the disease. Adopting a proteomic approach to study Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis may therefore throw some light in this direction. In our study, we undertook plasma proteomics of human subjects suffering from Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis (n = 6) and Control subjects (n = 6). Six plasma samples, three each from the control and patient groups were pooled and subjected to low abundance protein enrichment. Pooled plasma samples (crude and equalized) were then subjected to in-solution trypsin digestion separately. Digests were analyzed using nano LC-MS(E). Data was acquired with the Protein Lynx Global Server v2.5.2 software and searches made against reviewed Homo sapiens database (UniProtKB) for protein identification. Label-free protein quantification was performed in crude plasma only. RESULTS: A total of 130 proteins spanning 9–192 kDa were identified. Of these 83 proteins were common to both groups and 34 were differentially regulated. Functional annotation of overlapping and differential proteins revealed that more than 50% proteins are involved in inflammation and immune response. This was corroborated by findings from pathway analysis and histopathological studies on excised tissue sections of stenotic mitral valves. Verification of selected protein candidates by immunotechniques in crude plasma corroborated our findings from label-free protein quantification. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that this protein profile of blood plasma, or any of the individual proteins, could serve as a focal point for future mechanistic studies on Mitral Stenosis. In addition, some of the proteins associated with this disorder may be candidate biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. Our findings might help to enrich existing knowledge on the molecular mechanisms involved in Mitral Stenosis and improve the current diagnostic tools in the long run. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1559-0275-11-35) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Internet of Things Software and Hardware Architectures and Their Impacts on Forensic Investigations: Current Approaches and Challenges

The never-before-seen proliferation of interconnected low-power computing devices, patently dubbed the Internet of Things (IoT), is revolutionizing how people, organizations, and malicious actors interact with one another and the Internet. Many of these devices collect data in different forms, be it audio, location data, or user commands. In civil or criminal nature investigations, the data collected can act as evidence for the prosecution or the defense. This data can also be used as a component of cybersecurity efforts. When data is extracted from these devices, investigators are expected to do so using proven methods. Still, unfortunately, given the heterogeneity in the types of devices that need to be examined, few widely agreed-upon standards exist. In this paper, we look at some of the architectures, current frameworks, and methods available to perform forensic analysis of IoT devices to provide a roadmap for investigators and researchers to form the basis of an investigation