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Personality covers the whole nature of the individual. Socio Economic Status refers to the position that an individual and family occupies with reference to prevailing average standards, cultural possession and participation in group activity of community. This paper reports on relationship between Personality and Socio Economic Status of student teachers. The sample consists of 1,080 student teachers of Madurai revenue district. A Multi-dimensional Personality Inventory constructed by Manju Rani Agarwall was used to get the data from the student teachers. Percentage analysis and Chi-square test were used for analyzing the data. The results showed that there is significant relationship between personality and socio economic status of student teachers.

There is a great need to identify and develop positive attitude towards science subject of student teachers. The time has come to increase our efforts to develop positive attitude towards science subject among teachers, student teachers and school children. This is an immediate requirement of the present day. This paper reports on attitude of student teachers towards science with respect to their locality of the college. The sample consists of 1080 student teachers of Madurai revenue district. A scale on attitude towards science was used to get the data from the student teachers. Percentage analysis, Mean, Standard deviation and't'tests were used for analyzing the data. The results showed that there is no significant difference in attitude towards science of urban and rural student teachers.

The variant antigen Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1), which is expressed on the surface of P. falciparum-infected red blood cells, is a critical virulence factor for malaria (1). Each parasite has 60 antigenically distinct var genes that each code for a different PfEMP1 protein. During infection the clonal parasite population expresses only one gene at a time before switching to the expression of a new variant antigen as an immune-evasion mechanism to avoid the host antibody response (2,3). The mechanism by which 59 of the 60 var genes are silenced remains largely unknown (4-7). Here we show that knocking out the P. falciparum variant-silencing SET gene (here termed PfSETvs), which encodes an orthologue of Drosophila melanogaster ASH1 and controls histone H3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3) on var genes, results in the transcription of virtually all var genes in the single parasite nuclei and their expression as proteins on the surface of individual infected red blood cells. PfSETvs-dependent H3K36me3 is present along the entire gene body, including the transcription start site, to silence var genes. With low occupancy of PfSETvs at both the transcription start site of var genes and the intronic promoter, expression of var genes coincides with transcription of their corresponding antisense long noncoding RNA. These results uncover a previously unknown role of PfSETvs-dependent H3K36me3 in silencing vargenes in P. falciparum that might provide a general mechanism by which orthologues of PfSETvs repress gene expression in other eukaryotes. PfSETvs knockout parasites expressing all PfEMP1 proteins may also be applied to the development of a malaria vaccine., In addition to histone deacetylases (HDACs) (8,9), histone lysine methyl-transferases (HKMTs) or histone lysine demethylases (HKDMs) may have critical roles in controlling gene expression in P. falciparum (4-7,10,11). There are [...]

We examined the retention ability of a New Zealand dairy farm soil amended with 3 types of biochar produced from a variety of feedstocks for a steroid hormone (oestradiol, E2) and its primary transformation product (estrone, El). Biochars produced from corn cob (CC), pine sawdust (PSD) and green waste (GW) were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and solid-state [sup.13]C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Batch sorption studies were performed on soil amended with each biochar (0.5% and 1% by weight) using a complex solvent extraction scheme, and isotherms were fitted to the Freundlich model. All isotherms were highly non-linear, with N values in the range 0.46-0.83 (E2) and 0.664).88 (El) in soil amended with different percentages of biochars. Overall, addition of all 3 biochars was found to increase the soil sorption affinity for the hormones, with E2 sorption being the highest in the soil amended with 1% PSD biochar. There was no marked difference in hormone sorption ability in the other 2 treatments (soil treated with 1% CC biochar and 1% GW biochar). Overall, the effective distribution coefficient ([K.sub.d.sup.cfr]) values for E2 at the lowest equilibrium concentration ([C.sub.w] 0.5 mg/L) ranged from 35 to 311 L/kg in soil amended with the 3 types of biochar. Addition of 0.5% of PSD biochar resulted in ~560% increase in the [K.sub.d.sup.efr] value for E2, while at 1% addition of PSD biochar, uptake of E2 was nearly 1400% higher than the control. For E1, the percentage increase in [K.sub.d.sup.elf] was comparatively smaller than E2; however, it still ranged from 40 to 280%, and 60 to >320% at addition of 0.5% and 1% PSD biochar, respectively, compared with the control soil. Highest treatment temperature and associated greater surface area, low ash content, higher carbon content, and the abundance of polar functional groups (e.g. 43H, C=O) may explain why the soil amended with PSD biochar exhibited high sorptive capacity for the hormones. Additional keywords: effective distribution coefficient, estradiol, estrone, FTIR, NMR spectroscopy, SEM., Introduction Steroid hormones such as 17β-oestradiol (E2) and its primary metabolite estrone (El) are naturally excreted in the faeces and urine of dairy cows and other livestock animals (Hanselman et [...]

Background: Bloodstream malaria parasites require Ca++ for their development, but the sites and mechanisms of Ca++ utilization are not well understood. We hypothesized that there may be differences in Ca++ uptake or utilization by genetically distinct lines of P. falciparum. These differences, if identified, may provide insights into molecular mechanisms. Results: Dose response studies with the Ca++ chelator EGTA (ethylene glycol-bis(β-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid) revealed stable differences in Ca++ requirement for six geographically divergent parasite lines used in previous genetic crosses, with the largest difference seen between the parents of the HB3 x Dd2 cross. Genetic mapping of Ca++ requirement yielded complex inheritance in 34 progeny clones with a single significant locus on chromosome 7 and possible contributions from other loci. Although encoded by a gene in the significant locus and a proposed Ca++ target, PfCRT (P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter), the primary determinant of clinical resistance to the antimalarial drug chloroquine, does not appear to contribute to this quantitative trait. Stage-specific application of extracellular EGTA also excluded determinants associated with merozoite egress and erythrocyte reinvasion. Conclusions: We have identified differences in Ca++ utilization amongst P. falciparum lines. These differences are under genetic regulation, segregating as a complex trait in genetic cross progeny. Ca++ uptake and utilization throughout the bloodstream asexual cycle of malaria parasites represents an unexplored target for therapeutic intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]