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This work aims to study the extraction of Pb(II) from contaminated aqueous solutions using imidazolium-based room temperature ionic liquids as sole extracting agent, i.e., without using any chelating agent and mixing agent. Secondly, ultrasonication technique is employed first time, to facilitate the swift contact of potentially toxic metal ions present in aqueous solution with ionic liquid. Furthermore, various salting-out agents were investigated to reduce the leaching of ionic liquid (IL) cations into aqueous phase upon extraction of toxic metal ion. > 90% of Pb(II) was removed from artificially contaminated aqueous solution using 100 mg of IL in 6 min sonication time. Moreover, the used ionic liquid was proved to be selective for Pb(II) in real water conditions. MgSO4 salt at 1.0 M concentration found to be superior salting-out agent without having any adverse effect on the extraction efficiency. Determination of total dissolved organic carbon in treated aqueous solution was used as potential tool to propose the mechanism of metal ions transfer to ionic liquid phase from aqueous solution. This study show that ultrasonication-assisted extraction of potentially toxic lead metal ion from aqueous system using imidazolium-based ionic liquids as sole extracting agent followed by the application of salting-out agents to reduce the release of IL cations in aqueous phase offers great potential for practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant growth promoting (PGP) rhizobacteria exert beneficial effects and may establish as endophytes in their hosts. Here, plant growth promoting traits of 26 non rhizobial and one fungal endophyte previously isolated from Vigna radiata root-nodules were assessed for IAA and siderophore production, phosphate solubilization and hydrolytic enzymes production. Most bacterial endophytes improved seedling vigor index while fungal endophyte ( Macrophomina phaseolina) lacked all PGP traits. Endophytes Ml, M10 and M15 were most influential in improving Seedling Vigor Index. Three endophytes having multiple PGP traits with maximum siderophore production: 46.77 μg mL ( Bacillus anthracis; Ml), IAA production: 10.81 μg mL ( Paenibacillus taichungensis; M10) and phosphate solubilization: 134.483 μg mL ( Paenibacillus xylanilyticus; M15) significantly increased root length (RL), shoot length (SL), number of lateral roots (NLR) and plant dry weight (DW) when inoculated/co inoculated with E. adhaerens (native rhizobia) to V. radiata in a small field trial. M10 inoculation produced longest RL while Ml when coinoculated with E. adhaerens produced highest SL and NLR. Ml inoculation or coinoculation was most effective in improving dry weight of mature plants. Most of the endophytes coinoculated with E. adhaerens improved growth parameters. We report that non rhizobial endophytes with PGP traits in combination with native rhizobia can be prospective candidates for use as biofertilizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with impaired resistance to infection, which may be mediated by alterations in cytokine responses. We investigated the effect of vitamin D supplementation to infants on whole blood in-vitro cytokine production and on the inflammatory marker, plasma C-reactive protein (CRP).SUBJECTS/METHODS:Blood samples were taken at 6 months of age from infants participating in the DIVIDS (Delhi Infant Vitamin D Supplementation) randomized controlled trial of weekly vitamin D supplements (1400 IU=recommended intake) from birth to 6 months with the aim of decreasing mortality and severe morbidity. We measured plasma CRP and whole blood in-vitro production of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNFα), interferon-γ (INFγ), interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-13 following no stimulation or stimulation with lipopolysaccharide or phytohemagglutinin.RESULTS:Although the intervention improved vitamin D status in a severely deficient population, there were no differences between treatment groups in plasma CRP or in the production of any of the cytokines in either unstimulated or stimulated cultures. Recent illness had limited association with immunological markers. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were not associated with CRP or production of any cytokines.CONCLUSIONS:Vitamin D supplementation did not affect plasma CRP or whole blood cytokine production of vitamin D-deficient low birth weight infants. This is consistent with the lack of effect of vitamin D on mortality and severe morbidity among infants in the DIVIDS trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

lmost all active plant retroelements are known to be induced by various biotic and abiotic stresses. Here, we show the presence of transcriptionally active Ty1- copia like retroelements in chickpea and their induction in response to abiotic stress. Eight Ty1- copia retrotransposon like mRNA sequences were reverse transcribed, amplified, cloned and characterized from stressed plants. These mRNA sequences were not detected in chickpea plants grown under normal conditions. Basing on the similarity analysis, these RT transcript sequences were classified into three families. It is proposed that all sequences except CARE7 might be transcript sequences of functional retrotransposons. The mRNA sequence CARE3 shows 99% nucleotide identity to a genomic Ty1- copia like sequence present in the Genbank with accession no. AJ535883. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrotransposons represent a major fraction of the plant genome and play a significant role in the molecular evolution through sequence re-organization. In order to access the diversity in Ty1- copia group of retrotransposons in chickpea, reverse transcriptase (RT) conserved domain specific primers were selected to amplify RT conserved sequences. Thirty-six amplified fragments were cloned and characterized. On the basis of deduced amino acid homology among them, these sequences were grouped into five families. These sequence families showed from 34 to 81% inter-family homology at the amino acid level. Although these sequences belong to a highly conserved region no two sequences were identical. The results show that there is a high degree of heterogeneity among the Ty1- copia group of retroelements in chickpea. The genomic Southern hybridization with one of the reverse transcriptase sequences as a probe shows the presence of a large population of the Ty1- copia group of retrotransposons in chickpea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An artificially engineered structure of nano-inclusion made of metallic nano-rods embedded in a dielectric ( ε=12.96) matrix with hexagonal arrangement is proposed to demonstrate All-angle Negative Refraction (AANR) for the visible region. AANR with negative index is obtained by applying Surface Plasmon Polariton Excitation (SPPE) in Metallo-Dielectric Photonic Crystal (MDPC) operating in a dispersion regime with anti-parallel refracted wave vector and Poynting vector. It is shown that the proposed MDPC structure provides negative values of permeability ( μ) and permittivity ( ε) and shows their dependence on its structural parameters. The phase slope and phase velocity are shown to be negative for blue light in the proposed MDPC with index-matching to the incident medium. The Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method is employed to study the left-handed transmission and reflection properties. The far-field spectrum for the proposed MDPC is also shown to confirm left-handed transmission for the blue region of visible light. Further, the proposed design of MDPC is also extended to achieve negative refraction for all rainbow colors having applications in the design and development of nanophotonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides useful information about the level and chemical composition of particulate matter and about the possible sources of the aerosol pollutant in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Atmospheric aerosol samples were collected during winter (January and February) 1995, from two locations of Islamabad, namely of Sector F-7 and Sector I-9. Twenty-four elements were detected by using thermal neutron activation analysis (NAA) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The concentration of total suspended particulates (TSP) in the area around the industrial sector (I-9) was found to be more than twice higher (297 μg/m3) than in the Sector F-7 (133 μg/m3). The enrichment factor analysis revealed Zn, As, Br, Sb, I and Pb, originated mainly from anthropogenic sources. The elemental ratio analysis indicated that both Sectors I-9 and F-7 are under the influence of coal burning processes whereas transportation is responsible for the toxic pollutants Pb and Br. The present results were discussed and compared with those of the literature. The results may also serve as base line level as this work employed samples collected in 1995 and many of the air environmental change factors occurred after the sampling year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristic absolute efficiency response curves of a high purity germanium detector (HPGe) for different counting geometries have been established in the energy range 50–1500 keV by measuring the absolute efficiencies using both mono-energetic and multi-gamma emitting radionuclide point calibrated sources supplied by IAEA. Several fitting functions proposed in the literature were assessed for interpolation within the intermediate energy range of interest. The values of the function parameters have been determined by using the linear least square methods. The problems associated with the measurements of experimental efficiency data at small source–detector distances and the importance of the correlation matrix in the estimation of precise uncertainties have been shown. It was found that the inclusion of correlation matrices in the propagation of error formulae plays a significant role up to 450 keV gamma-ray energy and results in a drastic reduction of errors associated with the predicted efficiencies. The discrepancy at closer counting geometries in the absence of true gamma-gamma coincidence corrections is found to reach to about 30%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prompt gamma-rays from thermal neutron capture reaction have been used to measure the concentrations of the main constituents namely Fe, Ni and Cr in 316-L stainless steel using recently established prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) facility at Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH). High resolution, high purity germanium detector with 40% relative efficiency was employed for the gamma-ray spectroscopy of the samples. The interference-free full energy gamma-ray peaks of the elements of interests were selected in the high energy low background region (5.0–9.0 MeV). The efficiency calibration of the detector was performed using ultra pure standards of chromium and chlorine obtained respectively from Merck and Alpha Inorganics. This paper describes, in addition, the salient features as well as the background of establishing PGNAA facility at the Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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