A series of novel 5-[(9H-carbazol-9-yl)methyl]-N-[(substituted phenyl)(piperazin-1-yl)methyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-amines (4a-o) derivatives was synthesized by starting with carbazole, which on reaction with ethyl chloroacetate yielded ethyl 2-(9H-carbazole-9-yl)acetate (1). Compound 1 on reaction with semicarbazide followed by cyclisation with sulphuric acid gave 5-((9H-carbazole-9-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-amine (3), which through Mannich reaction with piperazine and a variety of aromatic aldehydes in the presence of acetic acid yielded the titled compounds (4a-o). The structures of compounds were characterized by UV, FT-IR, 1 H-NMR and MS spectral studies, and by elemental analysis. All the derivatives were evaluated for their antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer activities. Among the tested compounds, 4a, 4d, 4e and 4n exhibited significant antibacterial and antifungal activity, while the compounds 4a, 4d, 4k and 4n were found to be active on the human breast cancer cell line MCF7.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of hepatitis B immunization program in a field setting in India.Design: Serological survey of retrospective cohorts of children, vaccinated or not vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine. Results: Anti-HBs positivity was higher among immunized than in unimmunized children (53% vs.18%; P<0.001), and anti-HBc positivity was lower (1.1% vs 10.8%: P<0.01). HBsAg positivity was low in both the groups (0.15% and 0.17%; P=0.855). AntiHBs positivity rate declined with increasing age. Conclusions:Administration of hepatitis B vaccine as part of Universal immunization program led to anti-HBs in a large proportion of children and a reduction in anti-HBc positivity, a marker of hepatatis B virus infection. These data provide evidence supporting efficacy of hepatitis B immunization program in an Indian field setting, justifying the decision to include it in the universal immunization program.

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This paper presents an investigation to evaluate the reading speed and reading comprehension of non-native English speaking students by presenting a simple analytical model. For this purpose, various readability softwares were used to estimate the average grade level of the given texts. The relationship between the score obtained by the students and their reading speed under average grade level 9 and 14 using font size 12 and 14 is presented. The experimental results show that the reading speed and the score versus the students may be explained by a linear regression. Reading speed decreases as the score decreases. The students with a higher magnitude of reading speed scored better marks. More importantly, we find that the reading speed of our students is lower than the native English speakers. This approach of modeling the readability in linear form significantly simplifies the readability analysis.