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Item Dynamics of stock market cycles: a systematic Introspection from some recent evidencesChakrabarti, GagariHistorically, stock-market cycles, crashes and the resultant panic have ended in ultimate devastating impact on the rest of the economy. Proper macroeconomic management and accomplishing macroeconomic objectives require both in terms of depth and width, sound health of the financial system. A fragile financial sector is often identified as the prime factor in generating and aggravating crises. Moreover, with extensive trade and financial integration, crises in one market immediately affect others through dynamic linkages among markets or “contagion”. Hence, at this juncture, inquiry into market dynamics becomes crucial. Present study intervenes here focusing on the two past significant stock-market crises namely, the dotcom bubble and the global melt-down of 2007-08. Around the five sub-phases the study found significant volatility transmission channels primarily through past-volatility impacts. In recent era of fluctuation and instability, the stock-markets have become more integrated where innovation and volatility impacts are strong and significantly positive. The news-impacts, however, are always less intense than past-volatility impacts. Moreover, even with increasing financial integration, there remains a basis for global portfolio diversificationItem Graphene Oxide based polyvalent metal oxide nanocomposite: preparation, characterization and efficiency evaluation on arsenic and fluoride removal from contaminated waterGhosh, Uday Chand; Palani, Sasi KumarIron-Aluminum mixed oxide (HIAMO) and various proportions of Graphene oxide (GO)-incorporated iron-aluminium mixed oxide (GIAMO-1 to GIAMO-6) composite materials were prepared and characterized by several modern instrumental techniques such as FTIR, XRD, TGA/DTA, SEM, TEM, and Raman spectroscopy. The prepared materials particularly GIAMO-1 and GIAMO-3 were employed for adsorption of the arsenic and fluoride from aqueous solutions respectively. GIAMO-1 shows very good (92–95%) arsenic(III) removal efficiency from water, which is 30–35% higher than pristine iron-aluminium oxide (HIAMO) from an aqueous solution (5.0 mg AsIII•L−1) at pH 7.0 (± 0.2) and 303 K.The kinetic data agree more closely with pseudo-first order equation (R2 = 0.98–0.99) than pseudo-second order equation (R2 = 0.92–0.93). The equilibrium data describe the Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.97–0.98) better than the Freundlich isotherm (R2 = 0.91–0.92), showing the Langmuir monolayer capacity 42.2836 mg•g−1 at 293 K which drops to 24.9170 mg•g−1 at 313 K. Similarly, GIAMO-3 showed highest fluoride adsorption capacity (qe, mg g−1) at pH ∼ 7.0 and ambient temperature. The material showed an increase of qe with pH up to ∼5.5, and then reduced. Kinetically, fluoride adsorption took place obeying the pseudo-second order model. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm described the equilibrium data best with monolayer adsorption capacities 22.13, 22.90 and 27.75 mg g−1 at 288, 308 and 318 K, respectively, indicating endothermic nature of adsorption process, which was also confirmed from the thermodynamic analysis of equilibrium data. Fluoride adsorption efficiency of HIAGO had been predicted by modelling a single stage batch adsorber design parameters.Item Protrusions; the role of actin cytoskeleton(2019-04-29) Majumder, PralaySinged (human Fascin), being an parallel bundle actin cross linker, is required for cell motility in both Droso¬phila and mammalian systems, as Fascin 1–dependent actin bundles are required for the formation of filopodia and invadopodia. Actin polymerization is the process through which the protrusions are formed but the stabilization of the protrusions are, perhaps, determined by the stability of the parallel bundles. Performing different experiments in this project we have come to know about the potential role of different actin cross linker proteins in the cell migration during protrusion formation. Various data from this project also clarify the role of hyper expressed singed in the border cell migration. We have to some extent found the redundant protein of singed which is the vinculin protein as the double knock down result of both singed and vinculin gene affects the border cell migration almost two folds greater than that of their individual knock down effect.Item Asporin function in aortic endothelial cell mineralization and calcification(2019-02-14) Chakraborty, SantanuWorldwide, calcific aortic valve disease is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among patients with cardiac abnormalities. Aortic valve mineralization and calcification are the key events of adult calcific aortic valve disease manifestation and functional insufficiency. Due to heavy mineralization and calcification, adult aortic valvular cusps show disorganized and dispersed stratification concomitant with deposition of calcific nodules with severely compromised adult valve function. Interestingly, shared gene regulatory pathways are identified between bone forming cells and heart valve cells during development. Asporin, a small leucine rich proteoglycan, acts to inhibit mineralization in periodontal ligament cells and is also detected in normal murine adult aortic valve leaflets with unknown function. Therefore, to understand the Asporin function in aortic cusp mineralization and calcification, adult avian aortic valvular interstitial cell culture system is established and osteogenesis has been induced in these cells successfully. Upon induction of osteogenesis, reduced expression of Asporin mRNA and increased expression of bone and osteogenesis markers are detected compared to cells maintained without osteogenic induction. Moreover, addition of human recombinant Asporin protein also reduces the mineralization level in cultured adult aortic valve cells with induced osteogenesis. Therefore, we have identified Asporin as a natural anti-calcific molecule with a therapeutic potential in the treatment of human calcific aortic valve disease.Item Targeted identification of novel stress responsive gene copies in Brassica arisen through gene duplication(2019-02-12) Das, MalayAbiotic stress severely affects agricultural crop productivity world-wide. Since our objective was to identify the effects of gene duplication in abiotic stress tolerance in Brassica, a reference tolerant Brassica genotype for assessment of stress tolerance mechanism was required . As Brassica. juncea is an economically important crop and is also know to contain various tolerant genotypes. Therefore, a cumulative study which included study in both laboratory and field settings was conducted on 104 Brassica juncea and their responses to salt stress was assessed using diverse morphological and biochemical parameters. The finding identifies the germplasms selected to show maximum tolerance for different parameters. For example B. junceaRH-781 showed highest tolerance for Sodium and potassium content of shoot tissues, B. junceaNC1-jhumka showed maximum tolerance for proline content in shoot tissues,B. juncea NPJ-200 for dry biomass of shoot tissues, B. junceaRW-46-6-3 for total number of seeds per plant ,B. junceaSitara- Srinagar showed best tolerance in case of number of siliques per plant. In the insilico experiments comparison of gene model of homologs of B. rapa, B.juncea and T.halophila to that of A. thaliana predicted out many major loss or gain of exon regions that may affect the overall functionality of the proteins. For example in case of TH.HKT1.3 and BJ.HKT1.4 exon loss had led to loss of three conserved domains- M1D, F2D and M2D . Study of the major cis-elements responsive to abiotic stress (ABRE, HSE,MYB, MBS) also provides major cues which helped in the identification of important gene copy responsible for providing stress tolerance. For example in TH.HKT1.2 total of 11 cis elements were found in comparison with 3 in AT.HKT1. This gain of cis elements possible could provide stress tolerance to T. halophila.Item Development, synthesis and characterization of ZnSnP2 chalcopyrite thin film for photovoltaic devices(2019-01-15) Nayak, Arabinda