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Centella asiatica phytocompounds coated onto Multi‐Walled Carbon Nanotube (MWCNT) possessing antibacterial activity were prepared using a simple physical absorption method. The incorporation of Centella asiatica phytocompounds into functionalized MWCNTs could improve the physical properties of Centella asiatica phytocompounds conjugated MWCNT compared to pure MWCNT. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) results depict the presence of bioactive compounds on MWCNT coatings and the Raman spectrum confirms the presence of carbon in various ranges by their peaks from 636 to 1594.46 cm−1 in the MWCNT. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) micrograph images confirmed the existence of MWCNT‐Nano composites with Centella asiatica phytocompounds exhibiting the surface structure with pore clarity and visible pipes. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images show the uniform dispersed spherical ultrathin nanosheets at the size of 10–20 nm. Further anti‐bacterial analysis results revealed that Centella asiatica phytocompounds coating enhances the anti‐bacterial activity of MWCNT. Prepared Centella asiatica phytocompounds ‐MWCNT possess maximal inhibition and produces high zones of inhibition 11 ± 0.06, 17 ± 0.08, 14 ± 0.07, and 16 ± 0.08 mm against four food‐spoiling bacterial clinical pathogens Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumonia respectively. Centella asiatica phytocompounds conjugated‐MWCNT spin‐coated packaging showed good preservation properties. Centella asiatica phytocompounds conjugated with MWCNTs provide antimicrobial properties, enabling the development of novel food packaging materials that can protect food from spoilage, increase food stability, and sustainability, and improve the shelf life of food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Greengram Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek, is an important legume crop that serves as a low-cost source of protein. The bruchid (Callosobruchus spp.) is a serious storage pest affecting greengram and other pulse crops. Thus, a study was designed to investigate bruchid resistance (Callosobruchus chinensis) in inter sub-specific derived lines of greengram and to identify chemical compounds responsible for resistance. Methods: The experimental material comprised of 200 inter sub-specific derived lines of F9 generation of VBN (Gg) 2 (susceptible to bruchid) x Vigna radiata var. sublobata/2 (resistant to bruchid) and a susceptible check variety. The bruchid screening experiment was carried out in completely randomized design and replicated twice with 50 seeds in each replication by adopting no choice test. Out of 200 lines evaluated for bruchid screening, seed damage due to bruchid was less than 20 per cent in 11 lines, identified as resistant. However, three resistant lines viz., GGISC 124, GGISC 140 and GGISC 150 were taken for further confirmation for bruchid resistance and GC-MS analysis to discover the chemical compounds conferring resistance (Clarus SQ 8C, Perkin Elmer). Result: In confirmation screening, seed damage due to bruchid (Callosobruchus chinensis) on 30th day was less than 20 per cent in three inter sub-specific lines viz., GGISC 124, GGISC 150 (17.00%) and GGISC 140 (18.00%), whereas the susceptible check [VBN (Gg) 2] reached 100 per cent adult emergence. The three inter sub-specific lines recorded susceptibility index of 0.046 (GGISC 124), 0.047 (GGISC 140) and 0.048 (GGISC 150) and classified as resistant. The susceptible check [VBN (Gg) 2] recorded the susceptibility index of 0.085. GC-MS study was carried out in resistant lines GGISC 124, GGISC 140, GGISC 150 and susceptible check VBN (Gg) 2. The results revealed that the existence of three compounds viz., 9, 12-octadecadienoic acid, methyl ester; Hexadecanoic acid, 1- (hydroxymethyl)-1, 2-ethanediyl ester and Hexadecanoic acid, 2-oxiranyl methyl ester in resistant lines conferred resistance against C. chinensis in greengram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Greengram is third most important pulse crop which is widely adapted and can improve soil fertility. The genetic variability and association studies help in selection which would increase the yield potential of greengram. Methods: Two hundred stabilized lines (F9) obtained from the cross VBN (Gg) 2 and Vigna radiata var. sublobata were evaluated. The yield and yield contributing traits were recorded to evaluate genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance as % of mean and correlation among the yield and its component traits. Result: Analysis of variance exhibited significant differences among the lines for all the ten quantitative traits indicating the presence of genetic variability. The high GCV values were found for the traits viz., single plant yield (30.18) and the number of pods per plant (26.80). High heritability combined with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for the number of pods per plant (90.19, 52.43), single plant yield (89.58, 58.84), the number of pods per cluster (79.28, 22.70) and the number of clusters per plant (69.50, 30.22) which indicates additive gene effects. In the present study, the number of pods per plant had a high positive direct effect (0.919) on a single plant yield. Therefore, the selection for these characters would improve yield in greengram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite nanobeams with carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforcement are crucial components in various applications due to their unique mechanical and thermal properties. The present work investigates the frequency–aspect ratio relationship in composite nanobeams with CNT reinforcement, particularly under varying temperatures, magnetic field strengths, and Winkler elastic stiffnesses. The non-dimensional frequency variation with aspect ratio, influenced by temperature differences, reveals distinct behavior patterns. The introduction of a magnetic field alters frequency characteristics, with uniform distribution (UD) nanobeams displaying higher frequencies. The impact of Winkler elastic stiffness, temperature differences, and magnetic field strengths on frequency elucidates differing responses between UD, X-type distribution (XD), and V-type distribution (VD) nanobeams. Nonlocal strain gradient theory proves essential in capturing dynamic characteristics influenced by CNT distribution. These findings shed light on the intricate dynamics of composite nanobeams, providing valuable insights for the design of future nano-devices employing CNT-reinforced composite beams as fundamental elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Eating behaviours in childhood are linked to malnutrition and have found to influence the eating behaviour into adolescence and adulthood. Aim: (i) To develop and validate a questionnaire on the eating behaviour patterns of school children and correlate it with their nutritional status (ii) To test the utility of the questionnaire using the Intra-class coefficient, factor and construct validity. Objective: (i) To develop a self-administered questionnaire on the prevailing eating behaviour patterns among school going children and validate the content using a multidisciplinary team ii) To compare the eating behaviour of school children and the nutritional status of children using anthropometric measures (iii) To test the developed Eating Behaviour Questionnaire for School Children for its factor and construct validity. Method: A questionnaire was developed and validated based on eating behaviour patterns and habits that were prevalent supported by scientific evidence. The validated questionnaire was administered among 462 school going children of age 10 -12 years. Factor analysis, construct validity for the same was performed and correlated with the anthropometric measures. Results: The correlation of BMI verses WHtR was 0.305 and the correlation value between the subsets was >0.2 indicating weak uphill (positive) linear relationship. Conclusion: The Eating Behaviour Questionnaire was found to have an acceptable reliability but the intra-class correlation coefficient was found to be unacceptable and the scores of the questionnaire were found to be independent of BMI and WHtR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation was conducted in the F2 population of CR 1009 × WP 22-2 for earliness and semi-dwarfism. The yield contributing traits viz., plant height, days to fifty per cent flowering, number of productive tillers, panicle length, number of grains per panicle, thousand grain weight, grain length, grain breadth, length breadth ratio were interpreted based on their exposition of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance besides correlation and path coefficient analysis. Negligible values of difference between PCV and GCV were recorded for plant height, number of grains per panicle, grain length and grain breadth suggesting lower environmental influence on the expression of these traits. The results of correlation and path analysis indicated that the number of productive tillers shows significantly positive and highest correlation with single plant yield pursuing selection of this trait is rewarding for grain yield improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to screen actinobacteria isolated from Bidor tin tailings for heavy metal tolerance as an early exploration into their bioremediation capabilities. As a comparison, isolates from forest soil in Pasoh were also studied for heavy metal tolerance. At the highest test concentration, rapid metal tolerance screening showed that the numbers of Hg2+, Cd2+ and Cu2+ tolerant isolates were less than 7% of the total isolates screened for both sites. More than 10% of total isolates screened from both sites showed tolerance to Pb2+, As3+ and Zn2+. The number of Ni2+ tolerant isolates was significantly higher for Bidor (12.6%) compared with Pasoh (6.6%). Metal toxicity assay carried out on tolerant isolates from Bidor showed that the final metal concentrations supporting actinobacteria growth were 138.9 mmol L-1 for Ni2+, 43.2 mmol L-1 for Pb2+, 21.8 mmol L-1 for Cd2+, 0.8 mmol L-1 for Hg2+, 182 mmol L-1 for As3+ and 14.1 mmol L-1 for Cu2+. For Pasoh isolates, tolerance was observed at 21.8 mmol L-1 for Cd2+ and 182 mmol L-1 for As3+. Compared with rapid metal tolerance screening, metal toxicity assay clearly showed that metal tolerant isolates from Bidor were capable of tolerating heavy metals at a higher concentration compared with Pasoh isolates. Isolates TY046-021 and TY046-078, which showed multimetal tolerance to As3+, Pb2+ and Ni2+ and TY046-017, the only Hg2+ tolerant isolate from Bidor, should be further studied for heavy metal uptake and removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder. The diagnosis of Parkinsonism is challenging because currently none of the clinical tests have been proven to help in diagnosis. PD may produce characteristic perturbations in the metabolome and such variations can be used as the marker for detection of disease. To test this hypothesis, we used proton NMR and multivariate analysis followed by neural network pattern detection. Methods & Results: 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy analysis was carried out on plasma samples of 37 healthy controls and 43 drug-naive patients with PD. Focus on 22 targeted metabolites, 17 were decreased and 5 were elevated in PD patients (p < 0.05). Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) showed that pyruvate is the key metabolite, which contributes to the separation of PD from control samples. Furthermore, gene expression analysis shows significant (p < 0.05) change in expression of PDHB and NPFF genes leading to increased pyruvate concentration in blood plasma. Moreover, the implementation of 1H- NMR spectral pattern in neural network algorithm shows 97.14% accuracy in the detection of disease progression. Conclusion: The results increase the prospect of a robust molecular definition in detection of PD through the early symptomatic phase of the disease. This is an ultimate opening for therapeutic intervention. If validated in a genuinely prospective fashion in larger samples, the biomarker trajectories described here will go a long way to facilitate the development of useful therapies. Moreover, implementation of neural network will be a breakthrough in clinical screening and rapid detection of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Internet infrastructure grows to support a variety of services, its legacy protocols are being overloaded with new functions such as traffic engineering. Today, operators engineer such capabilities through clever, but manual parameter tuning. In this paper, we propose a back-end support tool for large-scale parameter configuration that is based on efficient parameter state space search techniques and on-line simulation. The framework is useful when the network protocol performance is sensitive to its parameter settings, and its performance can be reasonably modeled in simulation. In particular, our system imports the network topology, relevant protocol models and latest monitored traffic patterns into a simulation that runs on-line in a network operations center (NOC). Each simulation evaluates the network performance for a particular setting of protocol parameters. We propose an efficient large-dimensional parameter state space search technique called "recursive random search (RRS)." Each sample point chosen by RRS results in a single simulation. An important feature of this framework is its flexibility: it allows arbitrary choices in terms of the simulation engines used (e.g., ns-2, SSFnet), network protocols to be simulated (e.g., OSPF, BGP), and in the specification of the optimization objectives. We demonstrate the flexibility and relevance of this framework in three scenarios: joint tuning of the RED buffer management parameters at multiple bottlenecks, traffic engineering using OSPF link weight tuning, and outbound load-balancing of traffic at peering/transit points using BGP LOCAL-PREF parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Marine sponge associated bacterium Planococcus sp. MMD26 was isolated and selected for biosurfactant production. Criteria for screening of biosurfactant production by MMD26 were hemolytic activity, oil displacement test and drop collapsing test. Based on the response surface methodology (RSM)-based optimization experiments the biosurfactant production was enhanced to one fold over the wild strain. The biosurfactant produced by the strain Planococcus sp. MMD26 was characterized as a glycolipid biosurfactant based on FT-IR, GC-MS and 1H NMR spectra. The biosurfactant producing strain Planococcus sp. MMD26 had the ability to degrade 80% of different hydrocarbons present in the crude oil. The production of the glycolipid biosurfactant from Planococcus sp. MMD26 under submerged fermentation condtions revealed that the strain could be used for the pilot scale production of biosurfactant for environmental applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome is characterized by clustering of independent cardiovascular risk factors including impaired glucose regulation, central obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. There are three main definitions of the syndrome: WHO, ATP3 and IDF. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity in both Type I and 2 diabetes. Aims: 1. To assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes 2. To assess cardiovascular risk in these patients. 3. To assess the relevance of a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome to the management of diabetes. Methods: Two hundred patients (100 Type 1 and 100 Type 2) were randomly selected from a secondary care clinic. Patients excluded were those in whose BMI could not be calculated. The presence of metabolic syndrome was determined according to all three definitions. Cardiovascular risk was calculated using the UKPDS risk engine. Results: The majority of Type 2 patients had metabolic syndrome by any criterion: 95% (WHO), 91% (ATP 3), 92% (IDF). CVD risk increased as criteria for metabolic syndrome increased : 0 criteria 9.20%, 2 criteria 15.98%, 3 criteria 19.02% (p=0.05). For Type 1 patients prevalence was 70% (WHO), 62% (ATP 3), 55% (IDF). CVD risk was: 0 criteria 3.23%, 1 criterion 9.63%, 2 criteria 10.71%, 3 criteria 13.17% (p<0.01). In Type 2 South Asian patients(n=25) prevalence was 92% (WHO), 92% (ATP 3), 84% (IDF). Total CVD risk for these patients was 16.89% which is similar to White Caucasians (18.93%, p=0.003). Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome is present in at least 91% of Type 2 and at least 55% of Type 1 patients. In Type 1 patients CVD risk increased as criteria for metabolic syndrome increased and this will help identify those patients with highest risk of CVD. In this study both South Asian and White Caucasians with Type 2 diabetes had a similar prevalence of metabolic syndrome and CVD risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Newspaper pulp was found to be a potential adsorbent for removal of copper from aqueous medium. Detail adsorption study of Cu on newspaper pulp was investigated. Batch adsorption study was carried out as a function of contact time, adsorbent dose, temperature (303–323K). The experimental data was analyzed using Freundlich, Langmuir, Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) and Redlich-Peterson (R–P) isotherm models. It was found that Freundlich, Langmuir and R–P models fitted well. pH variation study revealed that the adsorption increased with increase in pH of the solution. Maximum loading capacity was found to be 30mgg−1 at 20mgL−1 of initial Cu concentration. Adsorption data were analyzed using two kinetic models, Lagergren first order and pseudo second order. It was observed that pseudo second order represented the best correlation. Langmuir isotherm was used to obtain the thermodynamic parameters such as free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°) and entropy (ΔS°) of adsorption. The negative value of free energy and positive value of enthalpy change indicate that the adsorption of Cu on newspaper pulp is a spontaneous process and endothermic. The results of activation energy also confirmed that the adsorption of Cu on newspaper pulp is physical in nature. Present investigation emphasized that newspaper pulp may be utilized as a low cost adsorbent for copper removal. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Adsorption of zinc was studied using chemically modified newspaper pulp as an adsorbent in the aqueous medium. Quantitative chemical analysis showed the presence of trace quantities of some inorganic elements along with phosphorous in TNP. The experimental adsorption data fitted reasonably well to both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm. pHzpc of TNP was 5.1, which indicated that the adsorbent was more potential for cationic adsorption. The adsorption kinetic data followed a pseudo-second order model for zinc. Optimum Zn2+ loading was 9.20mg/g for 10.31mg/l initial zinc concentration at pH 5.80. Zn2+ loading on TNP was dependent on initial zinc concentration. TNP was a potential adsorbent for the removal of Zn from the effluent of electroplating industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Marine endosymbiotic fungi Aspergillus ustus (MSF3) which produce high yield of biosurfactant was isolated from the marine sponge Fasciospongia cavernosa collected from the peninsular coast of India. Maximum production of biosurfactant was obtained in Sabouraud dextrose broth. The optimized bioprocess conditions for the maximum production was pH 7.0, temperature 20 degrees C, salt concentration 3%, glucose and yeast extract as carbon source and nitrogen sources respectively. The response surface methodology based analysis of carbon and nitrogen ratio revealed that the carbon source can increase the biosurfactant yield. The biosurfactant produced by MSF3 was partially characterized as glycolipoprotein based on the estimation of macromolecules and TLC analysis. The partially purified biosurfactant showed broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. The strain MSF3 can be used for the microbially enhanced oil recovery process.