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The present study investigated the variation in surface free energy, adhesion strength, and bacterial attachment during early colonization. Two different sizes of micro dimple textured surface MDS 400 and MDS 200 on Ti6Al4V were fabricated using mechanical micro-milling and studied with an un-textured surface. One polar (water) and dispersive liquid (diiodomethane) were used to study the work of adhesion and surface free energy of both surfaces. The Neumann method and Owen & Wendt approach were used to calculate the SFE. EDS analysis was carried out to check the surface composition. E. coli bacterial strain was used to study the early colonization responses using FESEM and optical microscope. Results indicate that the formed textures are uniform with good quality and as per the design of experiment. Area surface roughness values of the textured surface have been increased from UTS. Besides, no tool wear debris has been found on textured surfaces. SFE and adhesion strength of water and diiodomethane increase due to surface texturing and initial colonization of bacteria on textured surfaces is in the form of E. coli cellular chains has been observed. The current study offers insights into the surface free energy, adhesion strength of water and diiodomethane, and bacterial attachment during the early stage of colonization.

Nanoarchitectonics has gained recent attention from researchers and can be utilized in the development of catalytic systems with unique morphological features, high surface area and engineered catalytic sites. In this work, biomimetic substrates have been fabricated by replicating wings of a grasshopper insect with interesting surface hierarchical architecture by employing a soft lithography technique. Further, the substrates were engineered to form a hetero-nanojunction of gold and silver nanolayers by using the sputtering technique. The replicated substrates possess multi-wall supported sharp edged pods type morphology and provide a good degree of adhesion to the deposited metal layers with increased surface area in comparison to a flat control substrate. The catalytic potential of these metal-coated nanoarchitectonics-based substrates was examined as dip catalysts for degradation of a model organic pollutant, methylene blue in the presence of sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. The biomimetic substrate showed higher photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue due to the enhanced plasmonic effect in comparison to the flat control substrate. The mechanism of the degradation has been discussed in detail in the presence and absence of light irradiation. This work paves way for the design and development of recyclable and efficient dip catalysis substrates by combining the nanoarchitectonics and biomimetic approaches.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a significant public health emergency in recent times. It is a respiratory illness caused by the novel virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was initially reported in late December 2019. In a span of 6 months, this pandemic spread across the globe leading to high morbidity and mortality rates. Soon after the identification of the causative virus, questions concerning the impact of environmental factors on the dissemination and transmission of the virus, its persistence in environmental matrices, and infectivity potential begin to emerge. As the environmental factors could have far-reaching consequences on infection dissemination and severity, it is essential to understand the linkage between these factors and the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to improve our current understanding over this topic, the present article summarizes topical and substantial observations made regarding the influences of abiotic environmental factors such as climate, temperature, humidity, wind speed, air, and water quality, solid surfaces/interfaces, frozen food, and biotic factors like age, sex, gender, blood type, population density, behavioural characteristics, etc. on the transmission, persistence, and infectivity of this newly recognized SARS-CoV-2 virus. Further, the potential pathways of virus transmission that could pose risk to population health have been discussed, and the critical areas have been identified which merits urgent research for the assessment and management of the COVID-19 outbreak. Where possible, the knowledge gaps requiring further investigation have been highlighted.

Surface architecture belonging to flora and fauna is preferred because of their unique three dimensional micro/nanostructures, which can be utilised as novel support in SERS based chemical detectio...

The ber fruit fly, Carpomyia vesuviana Costa (Tephritidae: Diptera) is a well established notorious monophagous major pest of ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk) in all the ber growing arid and semi-arid regions and may cause severe yield losses. Plants frequently display genetic variation within and between populations for traits that influence the host selection preference of herbivores. While analyzing the effect of various physico-chemical traits on the C. vesuviana infestation, significant differences in fruit fly incidence were observed in 39 cultivars of ber under field conditions. Fruit fly infestation had significant positive correlation with fruit size, average fruit weight, pulp: stone ratio, total soluble solids and Vitamin C, and was negatively correlated with fruit firmness, acidity content and total phenolic content. The maximum variation in fruit infestation was explained by total phenols (57.0%) followed by pulp: stone ratio (10.4%) and TSS (2.3%). Based on the varimax rotation method with Kaiser Normalization, two principal components (PCs) were extracted explaining the cumulative variance of 54.00% in fruit fly infestation. PC1 explained 29.91% while PC2 explained 24.09% of the total variance. Thus, the importance of genetic diversity is apparent and can be utilized to enhance the income of the farmers by reducing cost of cultivation by developing resistant cultivars which are major component of integrated pest management strategies.

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a widespread phenomenon globally. Conventional Zn fertilizers viz zinc sulfate (ZnSO4· 7H2O) reported to have very low use efficiency (1–5%). Hence, technological interventi...

Composite materials are best material which mankind can get as they are available in abundant and are natural. The word ‘Composite’ is shortened form of Composition and is defined as a solid matter composed of more than one component having different physical and chemical composition. The final product obtained is found out to have a better property meeting the specific requirement. It has wide range of application in agriculture, automobile industry, medicine, sports and aerospace. In the present scenario, the need for more different polymer-based composites has extended in enhancing inclination towards polymer-based composites strengthened with natural fillers, i.e., fillers derived from nature. The main aim of this work is to design an orthotic calipers/braces with epoxy-based composites using bamboo dust as natural filler. Orthotic calipers/braces are an aid/appliance used by the patients whose joints are feeble and need support to carry out their day to day work or have locomotor disability. Mostly patients who are suffering from polio/or are handicapped use braces. Presently orthotic calipers are made up of Aluminum alloys which are considerably heavy so main purpose is to design calipers which will possess better strength, stiffness, low density, cheap, easiness in fabrication, environment friendly and sustainable and most important lighter in weight. Tribological test has been done to find out the longevity of the product. It is observed that the specific wear rate and coefficient of friction is minimum.

Now a days, farmers prefer to use Premix Formulations instead of single pesticide for the control of insects and pests. Large number of premix formulations are available in the market, Solomom OD (...

The discharge of arsenic (As) ions into water is a serious issue which needs to be curbed effectively due to the hazards of As exposure. Hence, a simple, cheap and effective removal procedure is required in order to meet water quality standards. In this research, magnetite (Fe3O4) particles coated with humic acid were investigated for its efficacy in adsorbing As. The particles were synthesised by varying the temperature (70, 80 and 90°C) and concentration of humic acid (1%, 2% and 3%) to study the corresponding changes in terms of size, structure and As adsorption performance. The phase and size were characterised with X-ray Diffraction and Dynamic Light Scattering technique, respectively. The performance of the synthesised particles in removing As (V) was quantitatively analysed using the colorimetric method with the assistance of a double-beam Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometry. XRD analysis confirms the formation of magnetite while samples coated with 2% and 3% humic acid exhibited less crystallised structures. From the DLS analysis, Fe3O4 was found to have an average size of 2238nm while humic acid coated-Fe3O4 had increased particle sizes of between 2400nm to 3712nm. All the synthesised magnetite particles were able to remove certain percentages of As (V) from water. The highest adsorption capacity obtained was 1.984 mg/g and the lowest was 1.376 mg/g for a contact times of 40 minutes and 20 minutes, respectively.

We construct a rational extension of the truncated Calogero-Sutherland model by Pittman et al. The exact solution of this rationally extended model is obtained analytically and it is shown that while the energy eigenvalues remain unchanged, however the eigenfunctions are completely different and written in terms of exceptional X1 Laguerre orthogonal polynomials. The rational model is further extended to a more general, the Xm case by introducing m dependent interaction term. As expected, in the special case of m = 0, the extended model reduces to the conventional model of Pittman et al. In the two appropriate limits, we thereby obtain rational extensions of the celebrated Calogero-Sutherland as well as Jain-Khare models., 09 pages, LaTex, No fig

Synthetic membranes are currently employed for multiple separation applications in various industries. They may have been prepared from organic or inorganic materials. Present research majorly focuses on polymeric (i.e., organic) membranes because they show better flexibility, pore formation mechanism, and thermal and chemical stability, and demand less area for installation. Dendritic, carbon nanotube, graphene and graphene oxide, metal and metal oxide, zwitter-ionic, and zeolite-based membranes are among the most promised water treatment membranes. This paper critically reviews the ongoing developments to utilize nanocomposite membranes to purify water. Various membranes have been reported to study their resistance and fouling properties. A special focus is given towards multiple ways in which these nanocomposite membranes can be employed. Therefore, this review provides a platform to develop the awareness of current research and motivate its readers to make further progress for utilizing nanocomposite membranes in water purification.

The current analysis examines the efficiency of a composite with polymer matrix reinforced with carbon fibre and graphene at the micro and nano level respectively as an alternative material for aluminium components of Orthotic callipers. An attempt has been made to use both the carbon fibre and graphene as hybrid reinforcement with the matrix as epoxy resin. The addition of graphene and carbon fibre was 2% and 10% respectively by weight of epoxy. Dispersion of graphene was carried out using an ultrasonic sonicator and carbon fibres were a reinforced using hand lay-up technique. The total fabrication was carried out under vacuum to ensure void-free test samples. The samples were tested under tension and 3 Point Bending condition to estimate the Tensile and Flexural properties, under permissible load and deflection criteria. The results found were then compared with presently used material for orthotic callipers extensively used by amputees suffering from the locomotive, gait issues, and polio-affected survivors. The proposed composite showed higher strength, lower deformation and higher stiffness with a lower weight-to-volume ratio as compared to presently used material, i.e. aluminium.

Increasing population has led to numerous disabilities. One such disability which should be taken into account is related to human gait. Polio patients mainly suffer from this kind of disability due to which their muscles get weakened and they are unable to walk properly. The handicapped patients require an appliance with the help of which they can walk without any difficulties and the appliance acts as an aid for the correct positioning of their joints. Presently Aluminum Alloy based calipers are used but still the patients urge for better comfort. The requirement apart from more strength and stiffness, durability at lesser cost, environment friendly and light weight. Composite material is one such material which provides lower weight to volume ratio, high strength and stiffness at lesser cost. The purpose of the authors is to compare the mechanical properties of presently used aluminum calipers with polymeric thermoset based matrix (Carbon cloth with epoxy) based on CAD tools. The comparison reveals that thermoset based matrix will provide the maximum strength and firmness when compared to presently used Aluminum based calipers and model designed on CAD tools. Hence, the usage of the composite material will help the researchers design orthotic calipers which will have higher strength at a lower weight.

Two climate metrics, Global surface Temperature Change Potential (GTP) and the Absolute GTP (AGTP) are used for studying the global surface temperature impact of CH4 emission from livestock in India. The impact on global surface temperature is estimated for 20 and 100 year time frames due to CH4 emission. The results show that the CH4 emission from livestock, worked out to 15.3 Tg in 2012. In terms of climate metrics GTP of livestock-related CH4 emission in India in 2012 were 1030 Tg CO2e (GTP20) and 62 Tg CO2e (GTP100) at the 20 and 100 year time horizon, respectively. The study also illustrates that livestock-related CH4 emissions in India can cause a surface temperature increase of up to 0.7mK and 0.036mK over the 20 and 100 year time periods, respectively. The surface temperature response to a year of Indian livestock emission peaks at 0.9mK in the year 2021 (9 years after the time of emission). The AGTP gives important information in terms of temperature change due to annual CH4 emissions, which is useful when comparing policies that address multiple gases.

Principal component analysis was carried out with 20 morphological traits (including quantitative as well as qualitative) among 96 germplasm lines of Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss.]. Principal factor analysis led to the identification of eight principal components (PCs) which explained about 70.41% variability. The first principal component (PC1) explained 16.21% of the total variation. The remaining PC’s explained progressively lesser and lesser of the total variation. Varimax Rotation enabled loading of similar type of variables on a common principal factor (PF) permitting to designate them as yield factor, maturity factor and oil factor etc. Based on PF scores and cluster mean values the germplasm accessions viz., RC2, RC32 and RC51 (cluster I), RC95 and RC96 (cluster X) were found superior for seed yield/plant and yield related factors like primary and secondary branches/plant; while the accessions RC34, RC185 and RC195 (cluster III) and RC53 (cluster VIII) were found superior for oil content. These accessions may further be utilized in breeding programmes for evolving mustard varieties having high seed yield and oil content. Hierarchical cluster analysis resulted into ten clusters containing two to 26 accessions. The results of cluster and principal factor analyses were in confirmation of each other.

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the nutritional potential of five different Indian mustard genotypes. Fatty acid composition was determined in the oil, whereas seed meal was analyzed for limiting amino acids (tryptophan and methionine), protein content, glucosinolate content and antioxidant potential (DPPH free radical scavenging activity, total antioxidant activity and iron chelating activity). The monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) were found to be maximum in RH 0749 (58.70 %) followed by RH (OE) 0801 (48.91 %), JM 6011 (47.03 %), EC 597328 and EC 597340 (45.77 %). Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were observed maximum in EC 597340 (47.45 %).Glucosinolate content ranged from 42.80 (EC 597328) to 79.79 μmole/g defatted seed meal (EC 597340). The methanolic seed meal extract exhibited a concentration dependent elimination of DPPH free radicals. All the five genotypes showed about 50 % inhibition in 3.0 mg of dry seed meal. The highest total antioxidant activity (20.41mg/g) and metal ion chelating activity (32.58 %) was observed in RH 0749. Protein content varied from 33.57 [RH (OE) 0801] to 38.01 % (RH 0749). Maximum methionine and tryptophan content were recorded in RH 0749 (0.99 and 1.01 g/100g protein, respectively). Thus, RH 0749 was observed as a potent variety in terms of total antioxidant activity, metal ion chelating activity, protein content, methionine and tryptophan content.

A simple and efficient method has been developed for the synthesis of marine fish toxin derivatives bis-(N,N-dialkyl)/O-aryl N,N-dialkyl-2-(1-methyl/phenyl-2-oxopropylidene) phosphorohydrazido oximes from their corresponding hydrazides by using magnesium sulfate as a solid support under microwave irradiation.

A large population of the world is under increased health risk due to consumption of arsenic contaminated groundwater. The present study investigates the arsenic resistance and arsenic biotransforming ability in three bacterial species, namely Bacillus arsenicus, Rhodococcus sp. and Alcaligenes faecalis for employing them in potential groundwater bioremediation programmes. The tolerance to pH levels for the 3 organisms are 6–9 for A. faecalis, 5–10 for Rhodococcus and 5–9 for B. arsenicus. The arsenic bio-oxidation capacity was qualitatively confirmed by using the silver nitrate method and all three bacteria were able to convert arsenite to arsenate. The arsenite tolerance capacity (MIC values) were found to be 3 mM, 7 mM and 12 mM for B. arsenicus, A. faecalis and Rhodococcus sp. respectively. The changes in cellular morphology of these strains under various arsenic stress conditions were studied using advanced cell imaging techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy. Rhodococcus sp. emerged as a potential candidate for bioremediation application. A response surface methodology was employed to optimize key parameters affecting arsenic removal (pH, Iron (II) soluble, concentration of humic acid and initial arsenic concentration) and at optimized conditions, experimental runs demonstrated 48.34% removal of As (III) (initial concentration = 500 μg/L) in a duration of 6 h, with complete removal after 48 h. Evidences from this work indicate that arsenic removal occurs through bioaccumulation, biotransformation and biosorption. The present study makes the first attempt to investigate the arsenic removal capability of Rhodococcus sp. in synthetic groundwater by employing bacterial whole cell assays. This study also sheds light on the arsenic tolerance and detoxification mechanisms employed by these bacteria, knowledge of which could be crucial in the successful implementation of in-situ bioremediation programmes.

The present study was done to assess the dissipation behavior, decontamination, and half-life time of ready-mix formulation of trifloxystrobin (25% w/w) and tebuconazole (50% w/w) in okra and soil under the crop after foliar spray at fruiting stage. Samples of okra and soil were collected periodically, i.e., zero (2 h after spray), 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, and 25 days after third application at a 7-day interval. Residues of these fungicides were determined by gas liquid chromatography (GLC) equipped with electron capture detector (ECD) and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GCMS-triple quadruple). The limits of quantification (LOQ) and detection (LOD) for both the fungicides were 0.01 and 0.003 mg kg-1, respectively. Washing alone with faucet water was found successful in minimizing the residues. Soil was free from residual contamination at fifth day after spraying in case of both the fungicides and at both the doses.

Livestock is one of the major sources of anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) emissions. India has the world's largest number of livestock and thus CH 4 emissions from the Indian livestock sector are very significant. Any long-term CH 4 emissions mitigation strategies would require the precise projection of livestock growth, followed by implementation of appropriate policy mechanisms. However, livestock related long-term CH 4 emissions projection studies are currently lacking in India. In this study, a dynamic approach based on the STELLA software in combination with mathematical models was developed to assess livestock population growth and CH 4 emissions in India for a 25 year period (2007–2032) under baseline (BS: BS-I, BS-II, BS-III) and modified (MS: MS-I, MS-II, MS-III) scenarios. Standard Indian livestock database and IPCC emission guidelines were followed to estimate CH 4 emissions. The results indicate that under the baseline scenarios, CH 4 emissions range from 14.08 Tg (296 Tg CO 2 e CH 4 ) in 2007 to 68.49 Tg (1438 Tg CO 2 e CH 4 ) in 2032 and for modified scenarios, emissions range from 13.85 Tg (291 Tg CO 2 e CH 4 ) in 2007 to 16.62 Tg (349 Tg CO 2 e CH 4 ) in 2032. At the state level, the highest CH 4 emissions from livestock has been observed in Uttar Pradesh (15% of total emissions in India) followed by Madhya Pradesh (9.41%) and Andhra Pradesh (9.20%). The lowest emission per head livestock has been observed in goats and sheep (105 kg CO 2 e CH 4 head −1 yr −1 ) followed by cattle (672 kg CO 2 e CH 4 head −1 yr −1 ) and buffalo (1155 kg CO 2 e CH 4 head −1 yr −1 ) in all the scenarios. However, while considering livestock populations, cattle contribute the highest CH 4 emissions (more than 50%) trailed by buffalo, goat, and sheep. Substantial reduction in emissions would be possible if livestock population growth could be stabilized according to the modified scenarios. Different approaches (like dietary management, livestock product demand optimization, and population stabilization) for CH 4 emissions reduction are also discussed in this paper. A comparison of modeled v/s estimated emissions using actual recent livestock census data from year 2012 has also been presented in this paper. The findings of the present study are expected to help policy makers to adopt appropriate policy mechanisms to reduce CH 4 emissions from the Indian livestock sector.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) colloid has drawn significant attention recently due to its wide range of potential applications such as photonic crystals, solar cells, sensors, and other optical devices. In this work, low cost sol-gel spin coating technique was employed to synthesis ZnO colloid. The influences of stirring speed and post annealing temperature on the properties of ZnO colloid was investigated. The structural and optical properties of ZnO colloid was characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer, respectively. Subsequently, Tauc method was used to estimate the optical band gap of the ZnO colloid based on the optical transmittance data. The effects of the stirring speed and post annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO colloid are revealed and discussed in this paper. It was found that ZnO colloid prepared by the stirring speed of 500rpm and 400°C post annealing temperature demonstrates the best dispersity quality of colloid system.

α-Fe2O3 thermoelectric thin films were electrodeposited onto copper substrates using chloride-based electrolytes by means of potentiostatic electrodeposition. The influence of several electrodeposition parameters on the surface morphology, elemental composition and electrical conductivity of the deposited films was studied and analyzed. The deposits formed porous, wire-like morphology, with the smallest width measured to be ~60 nm. The wires tend to aggregate to form clusters, in addition to multi-layered growth of the wires. Between the parameters studied, electrolyte concentration and deposition time parameters have higher influences on the electrical conductivity of the deposited films, with the increment up to two fold higher. Deposition potential parameter offered the lowest capability to improve on the electrical conductivity in addition to the non-uniform distribution of the measured electrical conductivities. The tunable electrical conductivity is favorable for improving the performance of α-Fe2O3 films for thermoelectric applications.

Although several techniques have been utilized to alter micro/nanotopographies of implant surfaces to improve the osseointegration rate, it has been challenging to fabricate micro/nano directional textures of desired shape size and accuracy. In the present study, mechanical micro-milling is utilized to create orderly conical dimple textures on the Ti6Al4V surface. The surface characterization, 3D surface topography, form measurement, and surface roughness were performed using FESEM and 3D surface analyzer. The wetting behavior of surfaces assisted by measuring advancing, receding contact angle, and contact angle hysteresis with ultrapure water and diiodomethane. Further, the Surface free energy of implants using the Chibowski approach, Neumann's equation, and Owen &Wendt method were calculated. The surface properties were studied with the roughness factor. The bacterial cell behavior of textured surfaces was studied in detail. Bacterial response studies on various surfaces are highly essential to gain insightful information about the usage of implants. Results indicate that the formed textures are uniform, dimensionally accurate with no defects, and as per the design of the experiment. The area surface roughness, hydrophilicity rate, and surface free energy increased in all cases, and all the surface properties alter with a change in textures density. Further, the results show that bacteria respond to surface modifications through changes in cell surface membrane, cellular roughness, morphological changes, the appearance of cellular appendages, and EPS production. The present study provides insight details about the surface properties of the Ti6Al4V implant and will be helpful to facilitate cell attachment, adhesion, proliferation, and protein adsorption.

In this study, the efficacy of a hybrid treatment approach by integrating Fenton’s oxidation with biological treatment for removal of phenol from synthetic coke oven wastewater was investigated. Central composite design using response surface methodology was applied to optimize the dose of FeSO4 and H2O2 with maximum phenol removal and minimum toxicity. Results indicate that 6.3 mM and 20 mM of FeSO4 and H2O2 respectively, were capable of 74 % degradation of 1000 mg/L phenol, 99.99 % of 100 mg/L of cyanide with 10 % residual toxicity, which was acceptable for the next biological treatment step. On the basis of biodegradation studies it was found that a mixed consortium of three isolated bacterial strains namely BSPS_CN, BSPS_PHE and BSPS_PHE2 were capable of 98.8 % degradation of 300 mg/L phenol, which was remaining after the Fenton treatment. BSPS_PHE2 was found to be the most efficient with 92.45 % phenol removal efficiency. Phylogenetic analysis of cultures indicated that isolates BSPS_PHE and BSPS_PHE2 were genetically most closely related to Pseudomonas species, whereas BSPS_CN was found to be closely related to Enterobacter sp. The 2-step sequential treatment was capable of achieving 99.3 % degradation of 1000 mg/L phenol and complete removal of cyanide (100 mg/L) from coke oven wastewater. Harmonization of Fenton’s oxidation with biodegradation makes the treatment method more economical and was found to be an efficient method for removal of recalcitrant compounds from coke oven wastewater.

In this work, we start from the well known Calogero-Wolfes type 3-body problems on a line and construct the corresponding exactly solvable rationally extended 3-body potentials. In particular, we obtain the corresponding energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions which are in terms of the product of Xm Laguerre and Xp Jacobi exceptional orthogonal polynomials where both m,p = 1,2,3,...., Comment: 15 pages, 2 tables and No Figs

It is proved the equivalence of the compatibility condition of [A. Ramos, J. Phys. A 44 (2011) 342001, Phys. Lett. A 376 (2012) 3499] with a condition found in [Yadav et al., Ann. Phys. 359 (2015) 46]. The link of Shape Invariance with the existence of a Potential Algebra is reinforced for the rationally extended Shape Invariant potentials. Some examples on X1 and Xl Jacobi and Laguerre cases are given.

Lignin is a versatile plant metabolite challenging high-end industrial applications of several plant products including jute. Application of developmental mutant in regulation of lignification in jute may open up door for much awaited jute based diversified products. In the present study, a novel dark jute (Corchorus olitorius L.) mutant with low lignin (7.23%) in phloem fibre being compared to wild-type JRO 204 (13.7%) was identified and characterised. Unique morphological features including undulated stem, petiole and leaf vein distinguished the mutant in gamma ray irradiated mutant population. Histological and biochemical analysis revealed reduced lignification of phloem fibre cells of the plant. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated temporal transcriptional regulation of CCoAMT1 gene in the mutant. The mutant was found an extremely useful model to study phloem fibre developmental biology in the crop besides acting as a donor genetic stock for low lignin containing jute fibre in dark jute improvement programme.

In this paper, we consider the rational extensions of two different P T symmetric complex potentials namely the asymptotically vanishing Scarf II and asymptotically non-vanishing Rosen-Morse II [ RM-II] potentials and obtain bound state eigenfunc- tions in terms of newly found exceptional Xm Jacobi polynomials and also some new type of orthogonal polynomials respectively. By considering the asymptotic behaviour of the exceptional polynomials, we obtain the reflection and transmission amplitudes for them and discuss the various novel properties of the corresponding amplitudes., Comment: 18 pages, Latex, No Figs

We start from a seven parameters (six continuous and one discrete) family of non-central exactly solvable potential in three dimensions and construct a wide class of ten parameters (six continuous and four discrete) family of rationally extended exactly solvable non-central real as well as PT symmetric complex potentials. The energy eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions of these extended non-central potentials are obtained explicitly and it is shown that the wave eigenfunctions of these po- tentials are either associated with the exceptional orthogonal polynomials (EOPs) or some type of new polynomials which can be further re-expressed in terms of the corresponding classical orthogonal polynomials. Similarly, we also construct a wide class of rationally extended exactly solvable non-central real as well as complex PT-invariant potentials in two dimensions., 20 pages, 02 tables

The resting cells of Gordonia terrae mutant E9 having enhanced nitrilase activity were used for biotransformation of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzonitrile into vanillic acid. The maximum conversion was observed in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 8.0), using 60 mM substrate and 0.75 mgDCW resting cells in 1 mL reaction at 40 °C. Km of the whole cell nitrilase of wild and mutant strains of G. terrae for this substrate were 20 and 16.6 mM, and Vmax were 0.19 and 0.95 Umg(-1)(DCW), respectively. Fed batch reaction for transformation of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzonitrile using whole cell nitrilase of wild G. terrae resulted in 2.36 g of vanillic acid in 5 h with a catalytic and volumetric productivity of 0.78 gg(-1)(DCW) h(-1) and 4.72 gL(-1)h(-1), respectively. The whole cell nitrilase of G. terrae mutant E9 resulted in higher catalytic and volumetric productivity, i.e., 1.68 gg(-1)DCW h(-1) and 10 gL(-1)h(-1). A total 5.04 g of vanillic acid with 99% purity were accumulated in 100 mL of reaction after 5 h.