A closer look at the Mulliken-Barker test

Qualitative analysis of unknown organic compounds is an essential part of the core curriculum for BSc and MSc students in chemistry. The functional group detection is a significant component of qualitative analysis. The present work describes the reason for the failure of Mulliken-Barker test for nitro compounds having carboxylic acid functionality and suggests a possible remedy.     

The Curtin-Hammett principle

This article qualitatively discusses the Curtin-Hammett principle without mathematical treatment of the kinetic model. We show how the practical application of this principle can be extended to tautomers of several compounds and to explain the diazotization of aniline. The concept of ‘kinetic quenching’ is also discussed as a system where the Curtin-Hammett principle is inapplicable.     

The Hindu ascetic as fitness instructor: Reviving faith in yoga

Indian ascetics have recognized both the boom in the fitness industry in India and the global market potential for yoga and ayurveda. Swami Ramdev's yoga programme on Aastha channel broadcast daily on Indian television and available to diasporic and Western viewers is dipping in to this new era of the fitness consumer. Drawing from available nationalist and cultural repertoires, this new-age fitness guru imagines a new India embodied in the discipline associated with the practice of yoga and offers yoga as the effective ‘Indian’ antidote to both modern lifestyles and modern pharmaceuticals. His cures for consumerism denote a longing to transform discourses of health into commoditized regimens of medicalized self-help. He prescribes yoga not only as a personal self-care and spiritual development regimen, but as a way to create a nation of fit/healthy citizens. Such television-mediated religiosity variously aids the ideological work of Hindutva both within and outside India.     

Point set topological proof of ‘no-retraction’ theorem for 2 and 3 dimensional cases

We will give the proof of the no-retraction theorem for 2 and 3 dimensional cases, using only elementary concepts from point-set topology.     

Spurious Hyperphosphatemia in a Case of Multiple Myeloma

A 50 year old male was admitted in our hospital with anemia and impaired renal function. He was subsequently found to have extremely elevated serum phosphate level (24 mg/dL, reference interval: 2.5–4.5 mg/dL) with normal serum calcium when assayed on a Beckman Coulter AU 480^® analyser. Clinico-biochemical discrepancy led to the suspicion of spurious hyperphosphatemia. Serum total protein was grossly elevated with gross reversal of albumin to globulin ratio. Serum electrophoresis revealed a large M band and was confirmed as Ig G-Kappa type on immunofixation. Subsequently a bone marrow aspiration biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of multiple myeloma. The patient serum was then reassayed for phosphate on a Vitros^® 250 Dry Chemistry platform and the result was within normal reference interval. Paraproteinemias are a common cause of analytical interference in clinical biochemistry laboratories and as multilayered film technology platforms like Vitros^® assay most routine analytes on a protein free filtrate they are unaffected by paraprotein interference. Clinically discordant patient results should always be interpreted keeping such interferences in mind.     

On-chip lectin microarray for glycoprofiling of different gastritis types and gastric cancer

An on-chip lectin microarray based glycomic approach is employed to identify glyco markers for different gastritis and gastric cancer. Changes in protein glycosylation have impact on biological function and carcinogenesis. These altered glycosylation patterns in serum proteins and membrane proteins of tumor cells can be unique markers of cancer progression and hence have been exploited to diagnose various stages of cancer through lectin microarray technology. In the present work, we aimed to study the alteration of glycan structure itself in different stages of gastritis and gastric cancer thoroughly. In order to perform the study from both serum and tissue glycoproteins in an efficient and high-throughput manner, we indigenously developed and employed lectin microarray integrated on a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip platform. We analyzed serum and gastric biopsy samples from 8 normal, 15 chronic Type-B gastritis, 10 chronic Type-C gastritis, and 6 gastric adenocarcinoma patients and found that the glycoprofile obtained from tissue samples was more distinctive than that of the sera samples. We were able to establish signature glycoprofile for the three disease groups, that were absent in healthy normal individuals. In addition, our findings elucidated certain novel signature glycan expression in chronic gastritis and gastric cancer. In silico analysis showed that glycoprofile of chronic gastritis and gastric adenocarcinoma formed close clusters, confirming the previously hypothesized linkage between them. This signature can be explored further as gastric cancer marker to develop novel analytical tools and obtain in-depth understanding of the disease prognosis.