CSIR UGC NET Life Science December 2011 Exam Key

CSIR UGC NET Life Science December 2011 Exam conducted on 18th December 2011 (Sunday). The result released from IAFS.

Just Visit the link and get your copy.
Download from this link

CSIR UGC NET Life science Dec 2011 Exam Paper & key

Education in Biology & Job prospectus

Education in Biology & Job prospectus
Biology is the study of life. This is one of the amazing future. most of the peoples are going through common routes in their higher educations. It is very good. But i am trying to introduce few of the good courses in job oriented. They are

1.Education in Forensic Sciences & Job prospectus

       2.Education in Medical Transcription & Job prospectus

  

3.Education in Biochemistry & Job prospectus

4.Education in Bioinformatics & Job prospectus 

(Link will update soon)

Do not forget to visit BIOCHEMISTRY DEN official site for latest information

An Introduction to Genetic Analysis by Griffith (8th Edition) ebook

Below is the review of Free Ebook: An Introduction to Genetic Analysis by Griffith (8th Edition):

 

Ebook‘s Description
An Introduction to Genetic Analysis (IGA) stands out from its peers in this course in that it provides a clear introduction to the techniques and experiments of scientists past and present, not just an “encyclopedia” of information.

This experimental emphasis, together with a solid pedagogical framework in the chapters, provides the clearest, most cutting-edge text available.

IGA is also well-known for its outstanding problem sets, an integral part of the genetics course at any school.

Ebook‘s  Details:

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman; Eighth Edition edition (April 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716749394
• ISBN-13: 978-0716749394

DOWNLOAD

CSIR UGC NET JRF December 2011 Notification / Apply online

CSIR will hold the Joint CSIR-UGC Test on 18th December, 2011 for determining the eligibility of the Indian National candidates for the award of Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) NET and for determining eligibility for appointment of Lecturers (NET) in certain subject areas falling under the faculty of Science. The award of Junior Research Fellowship (NET) to the successful eligible candidates will depend on their finding admission/placement in a university/ national laboratory/ institution of higher learning and research, as applicable.

• Junior Research Fellowships (NET)
• Lecturers (NET)

Educational Qualification:

M.Sc. or Equivalent degree under the subjects mentioned in para 2.1 above, with minimum 55% marks for General & OBC candidates; 50% for SC/ST candidates, Physically and Visually Handicapped candidates and Ph.D. degree holders who had passed Master's degree prior to 19th September 1991.

A candidate can also apply for the Test under RA (Result Awaited) category, if he/she is appearing or has appeared in his/her final year (Last Semester where Semester system is there) of M.Sc. OR equivalent Degree Examination in subjects mentioned in para 2.1 above during the academic Session 2011-2012. Such candidates will have to submit the attestation format (given at the reverse of the application form) duly certified by the Head of the Deptt./Institute over his/her signature and rubber stamp (with address and name) from where the candidate is appearing or has appeared in the final year(Last Semester where Semester system is there) M.Sc. or equivalent degree examination. However, such candidates shall be admitted to the Test provisionally. 

They shall only be considered eligible for JRF-(NET)/LS-(NET), if they are able to produce the proof of having passed the Master’s Degree examination in the relevant or related subject with the requisite percentage of marks and within the stipulated IMPORTANT DATES time frame. Students enrolled in integrated MS-Ph D. program are also eligible to apply for JRF in subject areas of NET. Their eligibility for Lectureship will be subject to fulfilling the criteria laid down by UGC.

Subjects of The Test:

The Test will be held in the subjects as given under:

• Chemical Sciences,
• Earth Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Mathematical Sciences
• Physical Sciences

Age Limit:

• For JRF (NET): Minimum 19 Years and maximum 28 years as on 01-07-2011 (upper age limit may be relaxed up to 5 years as in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC(Non Creamy Layer), Physically handicapped/Visually handicapped and female applicants).
• For LS (NET): Minimum 19 years, as on 01.07.2011. No upper age limit.

Date and Scheme of the Test:

The single paper MCQ based test will be held on Sunday, the 18th December, 2011 as under:

Morning Session:

Subject	Marks	Timings	Duration
(i) Life Sciences (ii) Mathematical Sciences	200	9.00AM-12.00PM	3 hrs

Afternoon Session:

Subject	Marks	Timings	Duration
(i) Chemical Sciences (ii) Earth, Atmospheric, Ocean and Planetary Sciences (iii) Physical Sciences	200	2.00 PM-5.00 PM	3 hrs

Syllabus of the Test:

The question paper shall be divided into three parts, (A, B & C) as per syllabus & Scheme of Exam.

• Part 'A' shall be common to all subjects. This part shall contain questions pertaining to General Science, Quantitative Reasoning & Analysis and Research Aptitude.
• Part 'B' shall contain subject-related conventional Multiple Choice questions (MCQs), generally covering the topics given in the syllabus.
• Part 'C' shall contain higher value questions that may test the candidate's knowledge of scientific concepts and/or application of the scientific concepts. The questions shall be of analytical nature where a candidate is expected to apply the scientific knowledge to arrive at the solution to the given scientific problem.
• Negative marking for wrong answers, wherever required, shall be applicable as per scheme of Exam. Syllabus & Scheme of Exam of single Paper is given in the Information Bulletin for this test at Annexure "A" and may also be seen at CSIR website: www.csirhrdg.res.in

Examination Centers:

The test will be held at 26 Centers spread all over India, as specified below:

Bangalore, Bhavnagar, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Guntur, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Jamshedpur, Karaikudi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, Pilani, Pune, Raipur Roorkee, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur and Varanasi.

For more info please visit this Link:

Biochemistry Den official site 

(Just click this link and get CSIR old papers with key and Study materials absolutely FREE  FREE)

Protein folding made easy

Protein folding has nothing to do with laundry. It is, in fact, one of the central questions in biochemistry. Protein folding is the continual and universal process whereby the long, coiled strings of amino acids that make up proteins in all living things fold into more complex three-dimensional structures. By understanding how proteins fold, and what structures they are likely to assume in their final form, researchers are then able to move closer to predicting their function.

This is important because incorrectly folded proteins in humans result in such devastating diseases as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, emphysema and cystic fibrosis. Developing better modelling techniques for protein folding is crucial to creating more effective pharmaceutical treatments for these and other diseases.

Computational methods of modelling protein folding have existed for a couple of decades. But what McGill researcher Jérôme Waldispühl of the McGill Centre for Bioinformatics has done, working with collaborators from MIT, is to develop algorithms that can work from a laptop computer to examine a protein's fundamental chemical properties and then scan a number of possible protein shapes before predicting the final form that the protein is likely to take.

The results have been impressive. Whereas classical techniques for predicting protein folding pathways required hundreds of thousands of CPU hours to compute the folding dynamics of 40 amino acids proteins, the program tFolder implemented by Solomon Shenker – a former McGill under-graduate student now at Cornell – has been able to predict correctly in 10 minutes on a single laptop, a coarse-grained representation of the folding pathways of a protein with 60 amino acids.

Waldispühl and his students continue to work on their algorithm to improve its success rate at predicting protein folding with broader categories of proteins including some that are important in DNA-binding. The research was recently presented at the 15th Annual International Conference in Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB 2011).

Heaviest element officially named Copernicium

Label follows tradition of naming elements after merited scientists 

The heaviest element yet known is now officially named "Copernicium," after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicium has the atomic number 112 — this number denotes the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. It is 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element officially recognized by international union for chemistry IUPAC. 

The name for the element was suggested by the team that discovered it, led by Sigurd Hofmann at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Germany. The suggested name "Copernicium" in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) follows the tradition of naming chemical elements after merited scientists.

IUPAC officially announced the endorsement of the new element's name on Feb. 19, Nicolaus Copernicus' birthday. Copernicus' work in the field of astronomy is the basis for our modern, heliocentric world view, which states that the sun is the center of our solar system with Earth and all the other planets (in our solar system) circling around it.

On the periodic table of elements, Copernicium will have the symbol "Cn." The team had originally suggested "Cp" as the element's symbol, but because this abbreviation has other uses in science (such as a material's specific heat), the team agreed to "Cn."

Other elements named for famous scientists include: Einsteinium (for Albert Einstein), Fermium (for nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi), and Curium (after Marie Curie and her husband Pierre).

Hofmann and his team were able to produce the element Copernicium at GSI for the first time on Feb. 9, 1996. Using the 100-meter long GSI accelerator (an atom smasher), they fired zinc ions onto a lead foil. The fusion of the atomic nuclei of the two elements produced an atom of the new element 112. But the atom was only stable for a fraction of a second.

Further independent experiments confirmed the discovery of the element. Last year, IUPAC officially recognized the existence of element 112, acknowledged the GSI team’s discovery and invited them to propose a name.

Periodic table gains two elements

Chemistry officials have confirmed the creation of two new elements - so now names will be given to elements 114 and 116.

By John Roach

The periodic table has two new heavyweights, elements 114 and 116, according to a committee of  international chemists and physicists. The elements are fleeting — they are created by bombarding lighter elements together and exist for less than a second before undergoing radioactive decay. Such a short lifespan means that we can't say much about them other than they really do exist.

"The lifetimes of these things have to be reasonably long so you can study the chemistry — meaning, pushing a minute," Paul Karol  of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who chaired the committee that approved the new elements, told New Scientist.

The evidence for element's existence has been mounting for more than a decade. In 1999, for example, Russian scientists with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research bombarded plutonium-244 with calcium-48 to produce a single atom of 114, which has an atomic weight of 289.

Further collaboration between Russian and U.S. scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory resulted in papers published in 2004 and 2006 on the creation of the elements 114, 116, and the yet-to-be-approved 118.

To create 116, the researchers smashed together curium atoms, which have 96 protons in their nucleui, with calcium nuclei, which have 20 protons. This lasted a few milliseconds before decaying into 114, which in turn decayed into copernicum, element 112.

These papers served as the basis for review by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which made the formal announcement of the new elements on June 1 with the publication of a paper in Pure Applied Chemistry.

The elements currently go by the placeholder names ununquadium and unuhexium, which by IUPAC convention are derived from the digits 114 and 116. The Russian discovery team at JINR has proposed flerovium for 114, after Soviet element finder Georgy Flyorov, and muscovium for 116, after Russia's Moscow region, according to Wired.

The committee also reviewed claims associated with elements 113, 115, and 118, but found they are not yet conclusive and thus do not meet the criteria for discovery. For more information on how the elements were discovered and the review process, check out the video above from the University of Nottingham's Periodic Table of Videos series.

Few Images collections for students

 Digital Weighing Machine

Double Beam VIS-UV_Spectrophotometer

 Generic HPLC

 Thermometer

 HPLC

  HPLC

  HPLC

  HPLC

 Intelligent High Speed Refrigerated Centrifuge

  Thermometer 

Modern Stethoscope

 PAGE

 PCR - Thermo cycler

 REFRIGERATED CENTRIFUGE

Sphygmomanometer

 Stethoscope

  PCR - Thermo cycler

 PCR Thermo cycler

 PCR

Upper Arm Digital Sphygmomanometer 

Auto Blood pressure monitor A386d0

VIS-UV_Spectrophotometer

VIS-UV_Spectrophotometer

Biotechnology Colleges in India

• in-WestBengal
• in-Uttaranchal.
• in uttarPradesh
• in TamilNadu
• in-Rajasthan
• in-Punjab
• in-Pondicherry
• in-Maharashtra
• in-MadhyaPradesh
• in-Kerala
• in-Karnataka
• in-Jharkhand
• in Himachal
• in Haryana
• in Gujarat
• in Goa
• in Delhi
• in Bihar
• in Assam
• in Andhra Pradesh

Inborn Errors of Metabolism

Inborn errors of metabolism comprise a large class of genetic diseases involving disorders of metabolism. The majority are due to defects of single genes that code for enzymes that facilitate conversion of various substances into others . In most of the disorders, problems arise due to accumulation of substances which are toxic or interfere with normal function, or to the effects of reduced ability to synthesize essential compounds. Inborn errors of metabolism are now often referred to as congenital metabolic diseases or inherited metabolic diseases.

Major categories of inherited metabolic diseases

• Disorders of carbohydrate metabolism - glycogen storage disease(Type 1= Von Gierke’s,Type 2- Pompe’s disease) 
• Disorders of amino acid metabolism - phenylketonuria , maple syrup urine disease, glutaric acidemia type 1 
• Disorders of organic acid metabolism - alcaptonuria 
• Disorders of fatty acid oxidation and mitochondrial metabolism 
• Disorders of porphyrin metabolism - acute intermittent porphyria 
• Disorders of purine or pyrimidine metabolism - Lesch-Nyhan syndrome 
• Disorders of steroid metabolism - congenital adrenal hyperplasia 
• Disorders of mitochondrial function - Kearns-Sayre syndrome 
• Disorders of peroxisomal function - Zellwegger’s (Cerebro-Hepato-renal) X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy 
• Lysosomal storage disorders - Mucopolysaccharidoses (X-linked Hunter’s, Hurler’s),Gaucher disease,Tay-Sachs Disease

PCR Saliva Tests Useful for Congenital CMV Screening

Real-time polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assays of saliva samples are accurate for detecting congenital cytomegalovirus infection in newborns, researchers found.

Assays using both liquid and dried saliva had high sensitivity and specificity for identifying the infection, with positive predictive values over 90% and negative predictive values at or near 100%, according to Suresh Boppana, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues.

Unlike the standard rapid cultures of saliva and urine samples, the PCR assays can be automated and adapted for widespread screening, which could identify babies who would benefit from early intervention to mitigate the effects on speech and language development of any cytomegalovirus-related hearing loss, the researchers reported in the June 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Although screening would allow for early identification, the standard culture method performed on saliva or urine samples cannot be automated, which limits utility for large-scale screening. Most infants with congenital cytomegalovirus infection are not identified because the infection is asymptomatic and testing is not routine. 

A previous study by Boppana's group showed the dried-blood-spot PCR assays identified fewer than 40% of cytomegalovirus-infected newborns, so the researchers compared real-time PCR assays (using either liquid or dry saliva samples) with rapid culture at seven U.S. hospitals.

Of those screened with the liquid-saliva PCR assay, 85 infants (0.5%) were positive on both rapid culture and the PCR assay. Another eight infants were positive on the PCR assay but not on culture. Of the 34,989 screened, 0.5% were positive for cytomegalovirus using at least one of the three screening methods. 

Of the newborns screened with the dried-saliva PCR assay, 76 (0.44%) were positive on rapid culture -- 74 of whom were also positive on the PCR assay. Another eight infants were positive on the PCR assay only. The sensitivity and specificity of the PCR assay were 100% and 99.9%, respectively, and the positive and negative predictive values were 91.4% and 100%, respectively. 

The sensitivity and specificity of the PCR assay were 97.4% and 99.9%, respectively, and the positive and negative predictive values were 90.2% and 99.9%, respectively.
Of the 16 infants who were positive on one of the PCR assays, but not on rapid culture, 13 underwent follow-up testing of saliva and urine samples; only three actually had a cytomegalovirus infection.

"Although false-positive saliva PCR results could lead to unwarranted parental anxiety and additional testing in infants to confirm or rule out congenital cytomegalovirus infection, the overall frequency of false-positive results for both liquid-saliva and dried-saliva PCR assays was less than 0.03%," they wrote. Those false-positives may have been the result of cytomegalovirus-containing maternal secretions in the infants' mouths, according to the researchers. 

"Nevertheless," they added, "when saliva PCR assay is used to screen newborns, a positive screening result should be confirmed within the first three weeks of age to avoid false-positive screening results."


Although the dried-saliva PCR assay failed to identify two infants who had the infection according to the standard rapid culture -- and the liquid-saliva PCR assay did not miss any -- the researchers suggested that using dried saliva may be preferable for screening.


"The simplified procedures for specimen collection, storage, and transport, combined with the high sensitivity, support dried-saliva PCR assay as a reasonable approach to cytomegalovirus screening in newborns," they wrote.


They acknowledged that the study was limited in that the infants who were found negative on initial testing were not enrolled in follow-up testing to confirm the absence of the infection.




Action Points:

• Explain that PCR testing of liquid or dried saliva was able to identify newborns with congenital cytomegalovirus infection with high sensitivity and specificity.
• Note that congenital cytomegalovirus infection is usually asymptomatic but can cause hearing loss; currently newborns are not screened for this infection.