Ashif Ahamed
Assistant Professor of Zoology
School of Sciences, NSOU

We have published a research article titled "Nonsynonymous mutations in VEGF receptor binding domain alter the efficacy of bevacizumab treatment" in the prestigious journal-Journal of Cellular Biochemistry (Wiley).

Our study investigated how nonsynonymous mutations (nsSNPs) in the VEGF-A gene impact the efficacy of bevacizumab, a cancer drug that inhibits tumour angiogenesis by binding to the receptor binding domain of VEGF-A. Using computer-based tools, 18 potentially deleterious mutations were identified. Analysis showed that 17 of these mutations may reduce binding effectiveness of this cancer drug, potentially decreasing treatment success. However, one mutation, R229H, may enhance binding affinity. These findings highlight the importance of characterizing a patient's VEGF-A gene before bevacizumab treatment to predict its efficacy and guide personalized cancer care, ensuring better therapeutic outcomes.

* Ashif Ahamed is now working as Assistant Professor of Botany, Netaji Subhas Open University. Author can be reached at ashifahamed.sosci@wbnsou.ac.in

https://doi.org/10.1002/jcb.30515

Dr. Puspal Mukherjee
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
School of Sciences, NSOU

Perovskites are the energy material of the future. They have shown many fold increase in efficiency in trapping energy from the Sun. Researchers all over the world are now exploring the possibilities of perovskite materials for energy applications. To truly unlock the potential of perovskite, we need to understand the photophysics of it. In this contribution, we explored the photophysical properties of a highly emissive 0D copper-based perovskite material. Using ultrafast optical spectroscopy and theoretical understanding, we showed that the self-trapped exciton is of triplet character and substantial intersystem crossing happens in the excited state of the material. This work was published in the prestigious Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters published by the American Chemical Society with the DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c00511.

Dr. Puspal Mukherjee is now working as Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Netaji Subhas Open University. Author can be reached at puspalmukherjee.sosci@wbnsou.ac.in

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c00511

Dr. Puspal Mukherjee
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
School of Sciences, NSOU

Traditionally, water is known as the most polar solvent. In this work, we have explored whether the polarity of a liquid medium can increase than that of water. Obviously, no neat liquid can show such properties. So, we explored the binary solvent mixtures of water with three solvents 1,2-Dimethoxyethane, 2-Methoxyethanol, and Ethylene Glycol. The polarity of the medium was checked spectroscopically using solvatochromic dyes i.e. the chemicals which changes colour based on the polarity of the medium. We found that in all three aqueous mixtures, the polarity of the medium increases beyond water. We termed it as 'hyper-polarity". The "hyper-polarity" was found to be maximum in aqueous mixture of 2-methoxyethanol, followed by 1,2-Dimethoxyethane-water mixture and lowest in ethylene glycol-water mixture. The reason was found to be a synergistic intermolecular hydrogen bonded cluster formation among the molecules of the mixture. This work has been published in the prestigious Journal of Physical Chemistry B published by the American Chemical Society with the DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c07433.

*Dr. Puspal Mukherjee is now working as Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Netaji Subhas Open University. Author can be reached at puspalmukherjee.sosci@wbnsou.ac.in

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c07433

Dr. Sintu Ganai
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
School of Sciences, NSOU

Recently, our group have published article in Journal of Molecular Structure, a prestigious journal under Elsevier publications with the title "Photophysical properties of coumarin-annulated thiazole derivatives: A combined experimental and computational study". This work mainly investigated four coumarin-thiazole derivatives across diverse solvents using absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, complemented by TD-DFT calculations. The compounds exhibited unusual solvent-dependent shifts and exceptionally low fluorescence quantum yields compared to typical coumarins. Computational insights revealed the role of closely spaced singlet-triplet states, with intersystem crossing as the dominant non-radiative pathway. This work advances understanding of structure-property relationships in heterocyclic photo physics.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2025.142838

Dr. Sintu Ganai
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
School of Sciences, NSOU

We have been recently published in the Journal of Molecular Liquids (Elsevier, Q1) a study titled "Investigation of the solubility of adipic acid in binary water-organic solvents (DMF, DMSO, ACN) in the temperature range 288.15-313.15 K." Solubility measurements across varying solvent compositions revealed that adipic acid solubility increases with DMF and DMSO content, while in ACN it rises up to 60 wt% before declining. Thermodynamic parameters (△H, △S, △G) were calculated, highlighting solvent-dependent energetics. Complementary DFT analysis provided molecular-level insight into solute-solvent interactions, offering a deeper understanding of adipic acid behavior in diverse solvent environments.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2025.127692

For Citation:
Choudhuri, S. (2025). Theorising the Information Society: Counting the Havens and the Hazards. In A. Chauhan, A. Niumai& T. Paltasingh (Eds.), Hundred Years of Sociology in India: Evolving Issues, Emerging Trends (pp. 139-148). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-1317-5_11 . ISBN 978-981-96-1316-8

My research has been published by Springer Nature as a book chapter in the international volume Hundred Years of Sociology in India: Evolving Issues, Emerging Trends. This prestigious book, edited by Prof. Abha Chauhan (Central University of Himachal Pradesh), Prof. Ajailiu Niumai (University of Hyderabad) et al, is a landmark scholarly endeavour commemorating a century of Sociology in India. It brings together selected contributions from leading sociologists across the country, originally presented at the 47th All India Sociological Conference, and addresses evolving issues, diverse perspectives, and emerging trends within the discipline.

My chapter, titled "Theorising the Information Society: Counting the Havens and the Hazards", explores the complexities of the information and knowledge society within the larger context of post-industrial and post-modern transformations. In this work, I attempt to trace how different thinkers have conceptualised the information society, while also interrogating its promises and perils. On the one hand, I examine the "havens" of connectivity, innovation, and knowledge flows; on the other, I critically analyse the "hazards" of inequality, surveillance, exclusion, and the volatility that the digital age generates. The chapter reflects my commitment to advancing critical sociological inquiry by situating Indian experiences within global debates on digital transformations.

Having my research included in this Springer-published volume is both a professional honour and an encouragement to continue strengthening the research culture of Netaji Subhas Open University through globally relevant, socially engaged scholarship.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-1317-5_11

Microglia is a very important cell in brain which is designated as the gatekeeper or sentinel of CNS tissue. They are very vigilant and reactive to protect the neurons and other brain cells so that we can think and work properly.

Our team studied the characteristics of microglia from infant to adult brain with their morphological modifications and functional changes in terms of cellular protein, cytokine or other factor released by the cells to interact and modulate surrounding cells including neurons. Also, we measured how microglia behaves under different cytokine environment. Interestingly, we found that, the microglia cells isolated from infant are healthiest and adaptive under different situations with high survivability.

This was a fundamental work of neuroimmunology performed in rat as the model organism and practically important to do research on microglia in artificial environment out of the body, i.e., in culture. The entire work was supported by both SERB and ICMR with their project funding.

http://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2315

Glioma is the most dangerous and aggressive type of brain cancer which shown a maximum of 12-18 months of median survival period after diagnosis. My team made a detailed cellular and molecular study on the dissected glioma samples of patients and came up with some interesting results. We found that low-grade glioma, which was thought apparently less aggressive, actually laid the foundation of invasiveness of glioma for the later stages. Based on such ground work, the later stage can show such devastating consequences in brain tissue. This was a very significant information to formulate the strategy of treatment of glioma, if detected earlier. This work was funded mainly by CSIR and partially by ICMR.

http://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-021-01096-1

Ammonia and related chemicals are always contaminating the ponds, lakes, canals and rivers due to industrial affluents, fertilizers, and many other sources. Fishes are grown in the aquatic systems or within the fish farming environment are always tolerating such ammonia and nitrogenous by-product contamination. In this part of study, we tried to observe, record and interpret the effect of ammonia on zebrafish as model organism. Here we determined the level of ammonia stress that zebrafish can tolerate and also how such contamination levels affect or alter their behaviour, as well as, to what level such ammonia become fatal to the organism. We identified the behavioural modifications which are the indicator of such stress with quantitative estimation of behavioural shifts.

With these primary findings we are now investigating how ammonia stress is related with behavioural modifications along with the underlying neurophysiological changes due to such stress.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44339-025-00028-8

I recently published an article in Scientific Reports, Nature titled "Bacillus ayatagriensis sp. nov., a novel plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria strain isolated from the mulberry rhizosphere". This work reports the discovery and taxonomic characterization of a previously unknown Bacillus species with significant plant growth-promoting traits. Genomic and physiological analyses revealed its unique functional capabilities, suggesting promising applications in sustainable agriculture and sericulture. The study expands microbial diversity knowledge while underscoring its potential role in eco-friendly crop management.

This investigation was supported by Netaji Subhas Open University (NSOU), Kolkata and Raiganj University, Raiganj whose basic facilities and encouragement made the study possible.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-05508-w

Recently, I have published anarticle in Discrete Applied Mathematics. Its title is "A note on obtaining bipartite radio graceful graphs of arbitrarily large radio numbers with radio graceful complements" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2025.07.012 ). This work achieves two main things.

• It proposes a recursive construction of scalable bipartite graphs of diameter three. Each graph and its complement contain Hamiltonian paths.
• This iterative construction yields radio graceful graphs of arbitrarily large vertex size without requiring big cliques. From the motivational point of view, this has an interesting similarity with the Mycielski's construction. However, the growth of the vertex size in our recursive construction is linear in contrast to theexponential growth inthe Mycielski's construction. It was further proved that the complements are also radio graceful.

We believe such recursive construction is not much explored and may have non-trivialtechnological implications, especially in areas where efficient, low-latency communication and structure are important.This work is supported by the NSOU Project granted through Memo. No. Reg/1285 dated 22/11/2021 funded by Netaji Subhas Open University, W.B., India.