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Plants need to counter continuous threats posed by the environment, such as pathogen attacks (fungi, viruses, insects, nematodes) and harsh physical conditions (drought, salinity, temperature, exposure to UV radiation). Plants recognize the threat signals through their receptors and sensors and activate defense responses to stabilize against these stresses. The responses include accumulation of secondary metabolites. Enhanced synthesis of secondary metabolites, called elicitation ensures the survival, persistence and competitiveness of the plant. Secondary metabolites include volatile oils, flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, resins etc that have been successfully exploited for vital sources for food additives, flavors, and industrially important pharmaceuticals. The improved production of the secondary metabolites through elicitation has unlocked a new area of research that could have significant economic benefits for the pharmaceutical and therapeutic (including neutraceutical) industry. The present review discusses about the different elicitation methods through various biotic (proteins, carbohydrates, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, fungus, hormones) and abiotic elicitors (heavy metals, low and high temperature, light, salt, drought) that could bring about increased yield of secondary metabolites especially in medicinal plants beneficial to the medicinal and aromatic industry.

Secondary metabolites not only play vital role in plant defense against herbivory and other interspecies defenses but also used by humans as medicines, flavorings, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, fragrances, colours, biopesticides, food additives and drugs. Many of the drugs retailed today are simple synthetic modifications of the naturally obtained substances. The developing commercial status of secondary metabolites in recent years has resulted in a great interest in secondary metabolism. Different strategies have been extensively studied with the objective of improving the production of secondary metabolites in plants. Based on this limelight, the focus of the present review is to study the application of plant growth regulators for the production of some essential plant secondary metabolites. This review covers brief introduction of secondary metabolites and plant growth regulators and production of secondary metabolites by using different plant growth regulators according to their classification.

Metallo-β-lactamase producing carbapenem non-susceptible multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa creates a great challenge for treatment as the choice of antibiotics gets severely restricted .This study aimed at detecting such strains in different clinical samples in a tertiary care hospital in Kolkata. Materials and methods-Out of 169 isolates detected as Pseudomonas spp.in Microbiology laboratory 98 consecutive non-duplicate isolates phenotypically confirmed as Pseudomonas aeruginosa were selected following inclusion criteria of being resistant to≥ 3 different classes of antibiotics including Imepenem. Antibiogram with antibiotics suggested by CLSI-2011 was performed and resistance to different antibiotics was recorded .Then combined disc test with Imepenem(10µg) and Imepenem(10µg)+EDTA (750 µg)was performed.Observation - Strains showing zone difference ≥ 7mm during combined disc test were considered as metallo-β lactamase producing multidrug resistant strains and those showing

We investigate the photoemission from quantum wells (QWs) in ultrathin films (UFs) and quantum well wires (QWWs) of non-linear optical materials on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion law considering the anisotropies of the effective electron masses, the spin-orbit splitting constants and the presence of the crystal field splitting within the framework of k.p formalism. The results of quantum confined Ill-V compounds form the special cases of our generalized analysis. The photoemission has also been studied for quantum confined II-VI, n-GaP, n-Ge, PtSb2, stressed materials and Bismuth on the basis of respective dispersion relations. It has been found taking quantum confined CdGeAS(2), InAs, InSb, CdS, GaP, Ge, PtSb2, stressed n-InSb and B1 that the photoemission exhibits quantized variations with the incident photon energy, changing electron concentration and film thickness, respectively, for all types of quantum confinement. The photoemission from CNs exhibits oscillatory dependence with increasing normalized electron degeneracy and the signature of the entirely different types of quantum systems are evident from the plots. Besides, under certain special conditions, all the results for all the materials gets simplified to the well-known expression of photoemission from non-degenerate semiconductors and parabolic energy bands, leading to the compatibility test.

Background:Chlamydia trachomatisis recognized as one of the most common sexually transmitted pathogen in the world. 50-80% of infected females are asymptomatic. These untreated women are at risk of developing chronic sequelae leading to tubal pathology causing infertility. Infertility is defined as 1 year of unprotected intercourse without pregnancy. It may be primary or secondary.Aim:To find out the association of genitalChlamydia trachomatisinfection with female infertility.Materials and Methodology:This case control study has been carried out in collaboration with R. G. Kar Medical College and Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research, India, between July 2012 and June 2013. 40 infertile and 40 pregnant women were enrolled by purposive sampling as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. ELISA test was performed to detect serum IgG and IgA antibody against recombinant analogs of MOMP and 3 different PCR assays were done targeting MOMP and rRNA DNA from DNA extracted from first void urine.Results:IgG seropositivity was significantly higher (15%vs0%,P=.0255) in cases than controls, though there was no significant difference in the proportion of IgA seropositivity among 2 groups (12.5%vs2.5%,P=0.2007). Out of 80 samples 2 samples showed the production of amplicons with R1 – R2 primers. Only 1 sample gave positive result with production of amplicons with all the 3 primers used (R1 – R2, CT0005 – CT06 and JM15 – JM16).Conclusion:PersistentC. trachomatisinfection must be recognized as a risk factor of infertility in this region of India. The low PCR positivity in FVU sample helps to conclude the diagnostic utility of serological tests in screening of infertile women.

Mycobacteria are aerobic, nonspore forming, non-motile,single-cell bacteria.Of more than 40 currently recognized species of mycobacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of human TB is the commonest pathogen for pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis cases. The other members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) or the nontubercular mycobacterium (NTM) produces similar diseases which cannot be differentiated from tuberculosis by clinical symptoms and signs. But this differentiation is important as the chemotherapy varies widely according to the strain of mycobacterium. The burden of morbidity and mortality of tuberculosis is rapidly growing worldwide, particularly with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The strain identification of Mycobacterium remains a cumbersome, labor intensive and expensive procedure, which requires 3 to 12 weeks of time. The conventional methods of strain identification lack proper standardization and precise diagnosis. The prime objective of this study is to overcome these problems. A multiplex PCR using 3 amplicons of 165,365, and 541 base pair target sequences was done with a total number of 165 clinical isolates of suspected Koch’s patients. Strain identification was compared both by conventional methods and multiplex PCR. The results of the study show that this multiplex PCR is supposed to be less complicated, less time consuming, cost-effective and superior to the conventional methods. It is also applicable for culture negative samples where strain identification is not possible by conventional approach.

Higher capacities of power plants together with increased awareness on environmental considerations have led to taller height of stacks. It is seen that strong wind can result in falling of stacks. So aerodynamic considerations of stacks is very important in order to save the falling of stacks. One stack is not enough in industries and power sectors and two or three stacks are required for proper operation of the unit. It is very important to arrange the stacks in proper way to resist their downfall. The present experimental study concentrates on the mutual effect of three nearby stacks on each other at three different arrangements, viz. linear, side-by-side and triangular. The experiments find out the directions of resultant forces acting on the stacks in different configurations so that proper arrangement of supports can be made with respect to the wind directionality obtained from local meteorological data. The other conclusions that could be drawn from these experiments are: (a) the second stack in along wind linear arrangement experiences the most drag and hence is much more susceptible to falling down with high gusts, whereas the last stack experiences the least drag and hence less prone to the downfall. (b) In side-by-side arrangement, although the middle one experiences maximum drag, the lift forces on the right and left stacks are far greater and hence the resultant force on them are much more in comparison to the middle one. (c) In the triangular arrangement also, the lift force being so pronounced on the right and left corner stacks, the resultant force on them will be much higher in comparison to that on the front stack sitting at the apex of the triangle. Thus, this study is important in studying the effect of wind force on three stacks in different arrangements and is very helpful in placing the supports in proper places in order to avoid failing of stack-like structures due to wind.

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PURPOSE: Eales' disease (ED) is an idiopathic retinal vasculitis characterized by capillary nonperfusion and neovascularization. Previous reports on ED demonstrated that T-cell-mediated immunoresponse and differential cytokine production in inflammatory and angiogenic stage seem to influence the extent and severity of this disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of cytokine gene polymorphisms on occurrence and severity of ED. METHODS: One hundred twenty-one patients with ED were recruited from an Eastern Indian population and compared with 223 matched healthy control subjects. Genotyping of IFN-γ, IL-10, and TNF-α were performed by amplification refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR). RESULTS: A statistically significant association was found between the IL-10 -1082AA (P = 0.002), TNF-α -308AA (P = 0.0017) genotypes and the IL-10 ATA haplotype (P = 0.0123) and the occurrence of ED. In addition IL-10 -1082GG (P = 0.0005), TNF-α -308GG (P < 0.0001) genotype were found to be protective against disease occurrence. A synergistically low IL-10/high TNF-α genotype increased the risk of development (P < 0.0001) and the severity (P = 0.019) of ED. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that a low IL-10-expressing and high TNF-α-expressing genotype of the host can influence the occurrence and severity of outcome of ED.