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Naturally grown green leafy vegetables contribute nutrients, fiber, antioxidants, dietary diversity, household food security, income, and livelihood to rural people. Due to their good vitamin, mineral, and fiber properties, green leaves are considered to be protective foods. The physical-functional properties of four fresh and dried (Aerva lanata, Corchorus olitorius, Celosia argentea, and Leucas aspera) uncultivated green leafy vegetables available in Nalgonda District of Telangana State, India, were analyzed and compared. The results of the study reported that fresh Aerva lanata has high pH and fresh Corchorus olitorius has highest relative reconstitution capacity. It was found that fresh Celosia argentea has high shrinkage and dehydration ratio, and the leaves of Leucas aspera had high rehydration capacity. Dried leaf powder of Aerva lanata has high flowability, cohesiveness, pH, total soluble solids, water-retention capacity, and oil-retention capacity. Dried Corchorus olitorius was found to have high bulk density, tapped density, and rehydration capacity on dried weight basis. Leucas aspera powder had a high water absorption index and hydrophilic-lipophilic index. It was found that water activity of all the leaf powders is below 0.5 so they can be stored at room temperature. Physical and functional properties of uncultivated greens powders help in development of value-added products, product-specific equipment, and behavior of leaf powders at processing and packing levels., Globally, uncultivated green leafy vegetables (UCGLVs) are resource of great importance to mankind. There is no particular definition of wild edible plants but they are usually defined as being neither [...]

In the present competitive market environment, the success of an innovative product depends on satisfaction of its users. To achieve this, user-centred product design (UCPD) approach is more appropriate to develop an innovative product as its basic tenet is to match the design attributes with the user requirements and thereby increasing product quality, usability and comfort as desired by the users. In order to accomplish end user comfort in using a product, it is also necessary to integrate ergonomics into user centred product design. In this paper a methodology has been proposed to reflect the ergonomic needs of users in a product under UCPD approach with the support of QFD, TRIZ and DSM techniques. The methodology is suitable for developing ergonomic products to mitigate the musculoskeletal disorders experienced by users while using the product. A case study is also presented in this paper to illustrate the implementation of the proposed methodology.

Byline: Kaushik. Murali, Viswesh. Krishna, Vrishab. Krishna, B. Kumari, Sowmya. Raveendra Murthy, C. Vidhya, Payal. Shah Purpose: Amblyopia is a significant public health problem. Photoscreeners have been shown to have [...]

Byline: Kaushik. Murali, Viswesh. Krishna, Vrishab. Krishna, B. Kumari Purpose: Photo screeners and autorefractors have been used to screen children for amblyopia risk factors (ARF) but are limited by cost [...]

Celastrus paniculatusWilld., an important medicinal plant for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases is at risk of extinction due to destructive harvesting by pharmaceutical industries in its different habitats. This study aims to determine the impact of silver nanoparticles on the enhancement of therapeutic Celastrol content in adventitious and hairy root culture. MS medium supplemented with 0.3 mg L−1Indole Acetic Acidwas found suitable for adventitious root induction (69%). Hairy roots were successfully induced by co-cultivation of leaf explants with Agrobacterium rhizogenesstrain MTCC532 supplemented with acetosyringone (100 µM) to the half-strength medium. Transformation confirmed by PCR analysis.10 µg mL−1of AgNPs with 48 h exposure time resulted in enhanced biomass accumulation in adventitious roots and in hairy roots. HPLC analysis confirmed that Celastrol content increased 2.24-fold and 1.87-fold higher in hairy root and adventitious roots respectively.

Byline: L. Appaji, B. Aruna Kumari, K. Babu, C. Premalata, K. P. R.. Pramod, Gita. Bhat, Chinchu. Prem Background: Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (AT/RT) constitute a rare group of pediatric [...]

Thunderstorms are major meteorological events that wreak havoc on people, crops and property. Thunderstorms can occur at any time of day and in any season when atmospheric conditions are right, though they are most common in the late spring, summer afternoons and evenings. The importance of studies examining thermodynamic indices cannot be overstated. During the pre-monsoon season, the Bangladesh region is regularly subjected to severe thunderstorms. The lifted index, K index, Total Totals Index (TTI), humidity index (HI), total precipitable water (TPW), Convective available potential energy (CAPE) and rainfall (rf) are investigated over four stations in Bangladesh during the pre-monsoon season. We have measured all thunderstorm-related parameters using daily ERA5 reanalysis data for the pre-monsoon season from 2011 to 2020. Chittagong, Patuakhali, Rangpur and Sylhet are the four stations that we have chosen for our research work. Out of these four stations, Chittagong and Patuakhali are coastal regions, whereas Rangpur and Sylhet are inland stations. The daily mean values of all indices indicated high values over coastal stations than inland stations.

Byline: K. Lakshmaiah, B. Guruprasad, Ashish. Shah, S. Kavitha, Linu. Abraham, K. Govindbabu, B. Aruna kumari, L. Appaji Background: Systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) accounts for 2-8% of non-Hodgkin's [...]

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) have no cure and pose a serious threat to human health. The accumulated amyloid has been the therapeutic target of various studies for over a decade, but there is a lack of effective treatments due to various limitations, such as the difficulty to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and unfavorable bioaccumulation. To overcome these challenges, ultra-small metal nanoclusters (MNCs) (<2 nm) have emerged as promising new agents. Simple modifications of MNCs efficiently cross the BBB to reach the brain and dissociate amyloid fibrils into less toxic species. In addition, the enzymatic behavior of MNCs facilitates the scavenging of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and alleviates neuroinflammation. Herein, we summarize the reported anti-amyloid MNCs. Multiple promising functions of MNCs that may alleviate the harms of neurodegenerative diseases are exhibited. The physicochemical properties that influence the inhibition and degradation of common amyloid fibrils, including alpha-synuclein (α-syn) and amyloid beta-peptide (Aβ) are discussed. The prospect of optimizing MNCs to suppress more harm in the brain is presented to facilitate the development of practical therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.

To find out the effect of ethanol extract of Dactyloctenium aegyptium(D. aegyptium) on the fertility of male albino rats.

Statistical systems with high accuracy are very useful in real-world applications. If these systems can capture basic linguistic information, then the usefulness of these statistical systems improves a lot. This paper is an attempt at incorporating linguistic constraints in statistical dependency parsing. We consider a simple linguistic constraint that a verb should not have multiple subjects or direct objects as its children in the dependency tree. We first describe the importance of this constraint considering machine translation systems which use dependency parser output, as an example application. We then show how the current state-of-the-art dependency parsers violate this constraint. We describe two methods to handle this constraint. We evaluate our methods on the state-of-the-art dependency Telugu parser. Our results show that we can build a statistical parser which handles linguistic constraints and thus be more useful in real-world applications without compromising accuracy.

Magnesium oxide nanoparticles in their pure phase are carefully and homogenously decorated by a facile approach on oxygen-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (O-MWCNTs) using magnesium nitrate. Magnesium oxide nanocrystals imbued on O-MWCNTs were examined for its structure and morphology by various techniques, such as powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The nanocrystals on the O-MWCNTs were determined to be 20–25 nm size. Magnesium oxide nanocrystal’s dislocation density and microstrain are calculated. Thermogravimetric measurements are studied for the weight loss. The antibacterial studies are performed against a set of bacterial strains. It has shown its antibacterial properties on both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains.

The Present work outlines the antibacterial activity of Fe3O4nanoparticles synthesized through chemical combustion method where ferric nitrate is used as precursor material and urea as fuel with the assistant of Tween 80, a non-ionic surfactant. The obtained Fe3O4nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis/thermo gravimetric analysis (DTA/TGA), particle size analyzer, SEM with EDAX and TEM. Various parameters such as dislocation density, micro strain, analysis of weight loss and surface morphological studies were calculated. The particle size was calculated from XRD and it was found to be 33–40 nm. Using well diffusion method antibacterial activity of Fe3O4nanoparticles was tested against gram-positive and gram-negative Staphylococus aureus, Xanthomonas, Escherichiacoliand Proteusvulgaris. Fe3O4nanoparticles exhibited strong antibacterial activity against bacterial species.

We show that Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) supertags can improve Telugu dependency parsing. In this process, we first extract a CCG lexicon from the dependency treebank. Using both the CCG lexicon and the dependency treebank, we create a CCG treebank using a chart parser. Exploring different morphological features of Telugu, we develop a supertagger using maximum entropy models. We provide CCG supertags as features to the Telugu dependency parser (MST parser). We get an improvement of 1.8 in the unlabelled attachment score and 2.2 in the labelled attachment score. Our results show that CCG supertags improve the MST parser, especially on verbal arguments for which it has weak rates of recovery.

The detection of minor quantitative trait loci (QTL) with conventional mapping populations can be complicated by the overshadowing effect of major QTL as well as by interactions between QTL. To overcome these constraints, we developed a set of chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) by introgression of overlapping chromosome segments from 863B into ICMB 841 background for use in QTL detection, fine mapping, and trait mechanism studies, especially for complex traits. Since each CSSL carries one or a few donor segments in the genetic background of the recurrent genotype, the QTL interaction is confined to genes present on small homozygous substituted segments. Advanced generation backcross progenies (1492), expected to provide coverage across the mapped length of each of the seven pearl millet linkage groups (LGs), were genotyped at 74 marker loci [(48 simple sequence repeats (SSRs), 21 single strand conformation polymorphism‐single nucleotide polymorphism (SSCP‐SNP), and 5 sequence tagged sites (STSs)] identifying 124 segment introgression homozygotes (13 for LG1, 9 for LG2, 10 for LG3, 41 for LG4, 23 for LG5, 11 for LG6, and 17 for LG7). These CSSLs consisted of 1–3 homozygous introgression segments substituted from 863B in the genetic background of the recurrent parent ICMB 841 and among them, 54 represent unique lines with the donor chromosome segment averaging 100.69 cM. These CSSLs developed here provide a nearly ideal set of genetic stocks for mapping and fine mapping the multitude of traits for which their parents differ.

Abutilon indicum(L.) Sweet is an Asian phytomedicinal plant and it has hypoglycemic and anti-bacterial activities. The nano silver was successfully synthesized from leaf extract using A. indicum(L.) Sweet. Nitrate reductase enzyme or other extra cellular proteins released from leaf extract involve in reduction of nitrate and formation of silver ions occurs. These proteins or enzymes act as template for the silver nucleation sites for the formation of silver nanocrystals and also act as capping agents (peptides or proteins) which control the size and shape of silver nanoparticles. FT-IR reveals that protein molecules can be bound to silver nanoparticles and XRD result confirmed crystal structure of nanoparticles. On the basis of our results, extract of A. indicum(L.) Sweet leaf protein molecules plays a vital role in reducing and capping of silver nanoparticles at 50 μl concentrations which act as anti-bacterial agent to control pathogenic microorganisms of Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhi, Bacillus subtilis, and Proteus vulgaris.

A novel potential tridentate Schiff base was prepared by condensing equimolar quantities of 2-hydroxyacetophenone and 2-aminopyrimidine in methanol. This ligand was versatile in forming a series of complexes with lanthanide ions such as La(III), Pr(III), Nd(III), Sm(III), Gd(III), Dy(III) and Yb(III). The ligand and the metal complexes were characterized through elemental analysis, molar conductance, UV-Visible, IR, 1H NMR, and mass spectral studies. The spectral studies indicated that the ligand was coordinated to the metal ion in neutral tridentate fashion through the azomethine nitrogen, one of the nitrogen atoms in the pyrimidine ring and the phenolic oxygen without deprotonation. Thermal decomposition and luminescence property of lanthanum(III) complex were also examined. The X-ray diffraction patterns showed the crystalline nature of the ligand and its lanthanum(III) complex. The DNA cleavage studies of the ligand and the metal complexes were carried out and it was observed that the lanthanum(III) and neodymium(III) complexes cleaved the pUC19 DNA effectively. The ligand and the metal complexes were screened for their antibacterial activities. The metal complexes were found to be more potent bactericides than the ligand.

Novel 3,5-disubstituted 1,2,4-oxadiazoles 4a-4j were prepared from commercially available chlorosalicylaldehyde and screened for their cytotoxicity properties using brine shrimp (Artemia salina) bioassay and compared with the standard podophyllotoxin. The oxadiazoles 4a, 4c, 4e and 4h exhibited cytotoxicity activity in the series.

Background: Desmodium gangeticum(L.) DC. (Fabaceae) (DG) is a perennial non-climbing herb or shrub and folklore medicine, widely shows a large number of medicinal properties, as well as contains divergent bioactive compounds. Many of the herbal formulations contain this medicinal plant, which is considered as master of medicinal plant in Ayurveda. This study is an attempt to establish this plant material based on its pharmaco-chemical profiles with special reference to soil chemistry. The pharmaco-chemical features such as organoleptic, DNA sequence, physicochemical, proximate, phytochemical, UV, and FTIR profiling were carried out using standard techniques. Moreover, the ADME-PK properties of the selected molecules were established. Results: The pharmaco-chemical features like organoleptic, DNA sequence, physicochemical, proximate, phytochemical, UV, and FTIR profiling, ADME-PK properties, and soil chemistry of D. gangeticumrevealed its unique and diagnostic peculiarities. DNA barcoding showed that the sequence was 99.77% similar to D. gangeticum(KP094638) having 100% query coverage. The soil analysis revealed the presence of moderately high content of NPK and sufficient amount of all essential macro- and micronutrients (S, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, and B). The phytochemical profiling showed that the ethanolic extract of the aerial part contained glycoside, amino acid, phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, and coumarins, while the ethanolic root extract of the plant revealed the presence of glycoside, amino acid, phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarins, and triterpenoids. FTIR results indicated that the plant extracts are mainly rich in phenolic derivatives. ADME-PK properties of pterocarpan such as gangetin (1a), gangetinin (1b), desmocarpin (1c), and desmodin (1d) were found to pass the Lipinski, Ghose, Veber, and Egan rules, supporting the drug-likeliness. Conclusion: This is the first record of pharmaco-chemical profiling of D. gangeticumalong with soil chemistry, and this information helps in the proper identification and future studies on this species. Graphic abstract:

Abstract: An in vitro propagation system for Artemisia vulgaris L., a traditional medicinal plant, has been developed. The best organogenic response, including adventitious shoot number and elongation, was obtained when hypocotyl segments were cultured onto MS medium supplemented with 4.54 μM TDZ (N-phenyl-N′-(1,2,3-thidiazol-yl) urea). Up to 28 shoots formed per explant for an optimal duration of exposure of 48 days. Regenerated shoots formed roots when subcultured onto a medium containing 8.56 μM IAA (indole-3-acetic acid). Healthy plantlets were transferred to a garden soil:farmyard soil:sand (2:1:1) mixture for acclimatization, which was successful, and subsequent maturity was achieved under greenhouse conditions over a six-month period. The survival rate of the plantlets varied under acclimatization. The regeneration protocol developed in this study provides a basis for germplasm conservation and for further investigation of medicinally active constituents of A. vulgaris. This optimized protocol has been successfully employed for genetic transformation studies in A. vulgaris, which are currently underway in our laboratory.

Methyl ricinoleate (9-cis, 12-hydroxyoctadecenoate) was transformed to 12-bromo/iodo-oleate via methyl 12-mesyloxyoleate by homoallylic displacement reaction. The halooleate was reacted with triethyl phosphite to give methyl 12-diethyl phosphonooleate via the Michaelis-Arbuzov reaction under modified conditions. The phosphonooleate was hydrolyzed to 12-phosphonoleic acid using conc. hydrochloric acid. The compounds were characterized by phosphorus estimation and a combination of IR,1H-NMR and13C-NMR spectroscopic techniques. The 12-phosphonooleic acid was neutralized to its sodium salt, and the salt was then studied for its surfactant properties. The sodium phosphonooleate was found to be superior to sodium salts of sulfate and phosphate esters of castor oil, and comparable to sodium lauryl sulfate in wetting ability, emulsifying power and in lowering of surface tension. The sodium phosphonooleate, being a poor foamer, could be used for machine laundry washing, dish washing and cosmetics.

Poly A enriched RNA from either liver or oviduct of estradiol-17β treated immature chicks supported [3H]-leucine incorporation into immunoprecipitable riboflavin carrier protein in a dose-dependent manner when translated in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate system. Primary translation product of riboflavin carrier protein had a molecular weight of 38,000 which on incubation with a stripped hepatic microsomal preparation was processed to a product with a size comparable to native riboflavin carrier protein. Poly A enriched RNA from both the liver and the oviduct of estrogen-treated birds stimulated [3H]-leucine incorporation into riboflavin carrier protein and this was 2–3 fold higher during secondary stimulationvis-a-visprimary stimulation with the steroid. Poly A enriched RNA from the liver of progesteronetreated birds during secondary stimulation did not support riboflavin carrier protein synthesis. In contrast, poly A enriched RNA from the oviduct of the birds treated with progesterone during secondary (but not primary) stimulation did exhibit riboflavin carrier protein-mRNA activity which was comparable to that stimulated by estradiol-17β

The production of three ligninolytic enzymes, laccase (LAC), manganese peroxidase (MnP) and lignin peroxidase (LiP) by the white-rot fungus, Stereum ostrea, was significantly more in Koroljova liquid medium in the presence of chlorpyrifos under shaking conditions than under stationary conditions. These enzymes were secreted into the broth to the extent of 214.37, 82.75 and 8.05 U/ml under influence of chlorpyrifos on 10th day of incubation in comparison with 138.06, 51.85 and 6.44 U/ml, respectively, under similar conditions in control. Maximum production of LAC, MnP and LiP on liquid medium with/without chlorpyrifos under stationary conditions did not exceed 80–85, 33–40, 0.6–0.7 U/ml, respectively. Among lignosulfonic acid, veratryl alcohol (VA), gallic acid (GA) and tannic acid tested, GA induced maximum production of LAC (300.53 U/ml) and MnP (181.66 U/ml) after 10 days of growth in the presence of chlorpyriphos, while maximum LiP (1.134 U/ml) was produced when grown with the inducer VA during this period. Our data suggest that chlorpyrifos and inducers interacted positively in producing higher amounts of the ligninolytic enzymes in S. ostrea.

Seventeen newer varieties of castor seed grown in different parts of India and the oils extracted therefrom were analyzed. The seed characteristics varied as follows: 100-seed weight, 15.2–30.2 g; 100-seed volume, 15.0–32.5 ml; kernel, 64–75%; oil, 46.0–51.8%; protein, 17.1–24.4%; crude fiber, 18.2–26.5%, and ash, 2.1–3.4%. Oil characteristics were: acid value, 1.0–2.9; saponification value, 176.2–183.7; iodine value, 81.4–88.1, and hydroxyl value, 159.2–167.1. Ricinoleic acid content varied from 87.4% to 90.4%.

The influence of water stress on proline metabolism was studied in 3-month-old mulberry plants at four levels of water stress. Leaf water potential was drastically decreased in all treatments. Though leaf area and relative water content were decreased, drastic decrease was observed only in very severe stress treatments. Proline accumulation was observed both in roots and leaves in stress treatments; but accumulation was greater in roots than in leaves. The enzymes, proline dehydrogenase and proline oxidase, were inhibited under stress conditions. Proline oxidase was more inhibited in roots than in leaves. The significance of the relative activities of these two enzymes is discussed.