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Background: Utilizing and disposing of expired drugs improperly can adversely affect patients,healthcare systems, economy, and environment. Thus, creating awareness about it is highly necessary. Objectives: Carry out an online survey to understand the knowledge, attitude, and practice among people of Odisha on proper drug utilization and its disposal along with their opinion on future dispensing models for medicines. Method: A questionnaire was designed after determining the criteria to participate in this cross sectional study. The sample size was estimated to get 95% CI. The Chi-square test for independence was chosen to analyze: the relationship between education and drug disposal behavior; and the relationship between the number of unused and expired medications and the age of the participants. Data was collected by sharing the questionnaire link through G-Mail, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, and Instagram. Results: 181 people (113 males and 68 females) completed the survey. 87.8% of participants agreed that improper drug disposal would damage human health and the environment. 65.8% agreed to share medication with others for similar symptoms. 66.2% disposed household unused and expired medications in the dustbin. 75.13% showed interest in having E-Pharmacy and drones as smart-medicine delivery technology systems. The study showed no relationship either between education and drug disposal behavior; or between the number of unused and expired medications and the age of the participants. Conclusion: Participants lacked knowledge to use and dispose (expired) medications. Large-sample studies are required to get a clear picture of people’s opinions on smart drug-dispensing models.

A photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) system is associated with a solar thermal collector and a photovoltaic (PV) module. PV/T systems are converting the solar energy in to electricity and thermal energy. Tropical country like India has good potential for applying this technology. In this study, a hybrid system is fabricated by using a polycrystalline silicon module as a solar collector attached with heat exchanger. The comparative study was carried out with same capacity PV module. The results show that the performance of the PV/T system is better than the simple solar PV system. PV/T systems are simple and suitable for electricity generation as well as for low-temperature heating applications.

Archetypal metalloenzyme Cytochrome P450cam (CYP101A1) catalyzes regioselective hydroxylation of its native substrate camphor in heme active site. However, the proposal of potential existence of additional substrate binding modes distal from the active site in P450cam and their concomitant roles in regulating recognition at active site have remained a matter of recurring discourse. Herein we report the discovery of a novel3sitestate in P450cam, where three substrate molecules were observed to simultaneously bind to P450cam at three distinct sites including the heme active site. These three binding modes, hereby referred ascatalytic,waitingandallostericbinding modes in3sitestate, are allosterically inter-linked and function in mutually synergistic fashion. The3sitestate possesses regio-selective conformations of substrate essential for catalysis and establishes substrate-ingress and product exit process to and from the active site via two distinct channels. The ensemble of three-state binding modes are found to be self-consistent with NMR pseudo-contact shift data obtained from TROSY-HSQC measurements and DEER based predictions. Binding of redox partner Putidaredoxin with3sitemodel retains closed conformation of 3site state, siding with NMR based hypothesis that the catalysis would take place in closed insulation of P450cam even in presence of its redox partner.Statement of SignificanceUbiquitous superfamily of mono-oxygenases cytochrome P450s are involved in broad range of metabolic process in all domains of life and are also important drug targets. Apart from the well known and established binding mode in heme active site, the substrate bindings at additional distal sites have been postulated in multitude of P450s. Using the archetypal bacterial cytochrome P450 i.e., P450cam, a novel3sitestate of cytochrome P450 is elucidated in this work. The novel 3site state has two additional binding modes namelywaitingandallosteric(also postulated previously), apart from known binding modecatalyticin the active site. The known functions of P450cam are found to be most optimally explained by this 3site state, instead of single substrate bound catalytic state. This state can be of critical importance for CYP superfamily at large and potentially be useful in understanding the non-Michaelis behaviour, observed in many P450s.

The NtrC family of proteins senses external stimuli and accordingly stimulates stress and virulence pathways via activation of associated σ

NtrC family of proteins sense external stimuli and accordingly stimulate stress and virulence pathways via activation of associated σ54-dependent RNA polymerases. Here, we establish that MopR, an NtrC protein, harbors a dynamic bi-directional electrostatic network that connects the phenol pocket to two distal regions, namely the “G-hinge” and the “allo-steric-linker”. While G-hinge influences the entry of phenol, the allosteric-linker passes the signal to the downstream ATPase domain. Phenol binding induces a rewiring of the electrostatic connections by eliciting dynamic allostery, and it was demonstrated that perturbation of the core relay residues results in a complete loss of ATPase stimulation. A mutation of the G-hinge,∼20Å from the phenol pocket, demonstrated altered flexibility by shifting the pattern of conformational states accessed, leading to a protein with 7-fold enhanced phenol binding ability and enhanced transcriptional activation. A global analysis illustrates that dynamic allostery-driven conserved community networks are universal and evolutionarily conserved across species.