Green Banking Practices of State Bank of India – Some Insights

Green banking refers to a set of banking procedures that attempts to preserve natural resources and save the environment while taking into consideration all social and environmental concerns. State Bank of India, the largest public sector bank in India is putting its humble efforts in reducing the carbon footprints by eliminating the paper printout work to the maximum extent possible. Deploying solar power systems in the bank as well as ATMs, encouraging the customers to use internet banking, extending loans towards green initiatives by corporates etc. are few to mention out of many. The present study is chosen with an objective of studying the green banking practices of SBI.  The study has been carried out by administering a structured questionnaire among 400 Hyderabad based State Bank of India (SBI) customers and analyzed with the help of suitable statistical tools. An attempt is made to examine whether customers are aware of green banking products and services or not, it is also intended to study whether there is significant difference between the satisfaction levels towards green banking practices with regard to age of the customers. The study reveals that out of 400 respondents, 345 respondents are aware of green banking products/practices. In addition, this study also reveals that there is significant difference between the respondent’s perceptions towards green banking practices with regard to age.</jats:p

Interaction between Potassium-Depleting Diuretics and Lovastatin in Hypercholesterolemic Ambulatory Care Patients

Objective: To evaluate the potential impact of potassium-depleting diuretics on the efficacy of lovastatin. Design: A retrospective study of ambulatory patients taking lovastatin and thiazide or loop diuretics was conducted. Setting: Ambulatory care patients with coexisting hypercholesterolemia and hypertension from a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Participants: A total of 32 patients were studied, 13 of whom had been taking lovastatin before diuretics were added. Another 19 patients had been receiving diuretics before lovastatin was initiated. The changes in their total cholesterol from baseline were recorded and analyzed. Main Outcome Measures: In all the patients taking lovastatin and diuretics concurrently, total cholesterol concentrations dropped initially, followed by a rise despite continuation of therapy with lovastatin. The reason for this initial drop in total cholesterol following 1 month of concurrent therapy is the subject of further investigation in a prospective study. Results: Regardless of the order of administration of the lipid-lowering and antihypertensive drugs, serum cholesterol rose 20% from its nadir. Conclusions: Patients taking potassium-depleting diuretics and a hepatic hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase enzyme inhibitor (lovastatin) concurrently do not seem to benefit substantially from the lipid-lowering effect of lovastatin, probably because of a functional antagonism of the lipid-lowering effect of lovastatin by potassium-depleting diuretics. </jats:sec

Cultures of Human Skin Mast Cells, an Attractive In Vitro Model for Studies of Human Mast Cell Biology

Studies of mast cell biology are dependent on relevant and validated in vitro models. Here, we present detailed information concerning the phenotype of both freshly isolated human skin mast cells (MCs) and of in vitro cultures of these cells that were obtained by analyzing their total transcriptome. Transcript levels of MC-related granule proteins and transcription factors were found to be remarkably stable over a 3-week culture period. Relatively modest changes were also seen for important cell surface receptors including the high-affinity receptor for IgE, FCER1A, the low-affinity receptor for IgG, FCGR2A, and the receptor for stem cell factor, KIT. FCGR2A was the only Fc receptor for IgG expressed by these cells. The IgE receptor increased by 2-5-fold and an approximately 10-fold reduction in the expression of FCGR2A was observed most likely due to the cytokines, SCF and IL-4, used for expanding the cells. Comparisons of the present transcriptome against previously reported transcriptomes of mouse peritoneal MCs and mouse bone marrow-derived MCs (BMMCs) revealed both similarities and major differences. Strikingly, cathepsin G was the most highly expressed granule protease in human skin MCs, in contrast to the almost total absence of this protease in both mouse MCs. Transcript levels for the majority of cell surface receptors were also very low compared to the granule proteases in both mouse and human MCs, with a difference of almost two orders of magnitude. An almost total absence of T-cell granzymes was observed in human skin MCs, indicating that granzymes have no or only a minor role in human MC biology. Ex vivo skin MCs expressed high levels of selective immediate early genes and transcripts of heat shock proteins. In validation experiments, we determined that this expression was an inherent property of the cells and not the result of the isolation process. Three to four weeks in culture results in an induction of cell growth-related genes accompanying their expansion by 6-10-fold, which increases the number of cells for in vitro experiments. Collectively, we show that cultured human skin MCs resemble their ex vivo equivalents in many respects and are a more relevant in vitro model compared to mouse BMMCs for studies of MC biology, in particular human MC biology.De två sista författarna delar sistaförfattarskapet.</p

Silver-catalyzed synthesis of pyrrolopiperazine fused with oxazine/imidazole <i>via</i> a domino approach: evaluation of anti-cancer activity

Ag-Catalyzed synthesis of pyrrolopiperazine fused with oxazine/imidazole by the reaction of δ-alkynyl aldehydes and nucleophilic amines was performed. Several of these compounds were found to exhibit anti-cancer activity against cancer cell lines.</p

A new facile synthesis of (2<i>S</i>,5<i>S</i>)-5-hydroxypipecolic acid hydrochloride

A simple and efficient synthesis of (2S,5S)-5-Hydroxypipecolic acid hydrochloride is reported. The key features of the synthesis involve the asymmetric reduction of ketone using (S)-CBS oxazaborolidine and the use of commercially available methyl pyroglutamate as a starting material. </p