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The use of natural colorants in modern dye factories is a potential green chemistry idea that should be widely promoted in order to minimize the wool dyeing’s dependency on some hazardous and non-biodegradable synthetic colors. In this study, an effort was undertaken to see if Rheum Emodi (Rhubarb) extract might be used as a natural dye for wool dyeing for the replacement of synthetic dyes. The dyeing of wool fabric was carried out using microwave (MW) rays’ treatment. By combining several mordants, a stunning color pallet of shades of varying hue and tone was created. Comparative evaluation of the effects of various chemical mordants (aluminum salt, iron salt, tannic acid, and cream of tartar) and bio mordants (pomegranate extract, and pine nut hull extract) on the characteristics of dyed wool samples was carried out to choose the best mordant for each application. It was found that MW treated wool fabric using bio mordant shown higher color fastness value of 4/5 to 5 and color strength value of approximately 10 to 20 rather than using metallic mordant. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) photographs and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analyses revealed the difference between irradiated and un-irradiated wool fabric. The employment of MW rays and bio-mordants in the natural coloring of wool fabric is encouraged due to their biocompatibility and non-toxicity when combined with MW treatment of wool fabric, as well as their high color fastness and color strength performances. As a result, the naturally extracted dyes from rhubarb can be the replacement of synthetic dyes for the coloration of wool fabric in the textile industry due to their environmental issues.

Present experiment carried out at Vegetable Farm, FOA (SKUAS-K) Wadura, Kashmir (India) to determine the influence of Farmyard manure (FYM) and Zinc nutrition on pea productivity. The experiment was set up in Factorial RBD with sixteen treatments and three replications. Pea variety PS-1100 was taken as experimental material. Growth height, yield attributing characteristics, and pod yield were recorded and statistically analysed. Both Zinc and FYM nutrition treatments showed a substantial impact on plant growth, yield and yield attributing characters in pea. Results revealed that treatment combination of Zinc at 5 kg ha-1 + FYM at 350 q ha-1 outperformed than other treatment combinations in terms of maximum pods plant-1 (20.8), length of pods (9.4 cm), grain pod-1 (9.8), pod weight (12.7g) and pod yield (71.2 q ha-1). In conclusion, Zinc at 5 kg ha-1 + FYM at 350 q ha-1 is an effective dosage for maximizing pea pod production about 11.0 per cent greater than the control in Kashmir conditions.

Sustainable chemistry is a relatively new field that aims to achieve both economic and environmental goals simultaneously. This paper discusses a cleaner and more sustainable method for dyeing cotton fabric using Direct Violet 09 and Reactive Violet 05 dye. It has been noticed that good color characteristics were obtained when cotton fabric was dyed with 35 mL of microwave-treated Reactive Violet 05 dye solution of 7 pH and 2 g Aluminum sulfate for 30 min at 60 °C. When dyeing cotton fabric with Direct Violet 09 dye, it has been observed that cotton fabric, when microwave treated for 6 min and dyed at 80 °C for 50 min using 35 mL of non-treated dye solution of 7 pH with 2 g Potassium sulfate, produces good results. The colorfastness of the dyed fabrics using ISO standards was also evaluated. Overall, it was found that the use of microwave radiation improves the sustainability of the dyeing process.

Floods are the most recurrent weather-related natural disaster causing widespread devastation. In India, about 12% of the land is prone to flood and river erosion where Bihar is the most flood-prone state. The impact of floods becomes more pronounced in areas where population density is relatively high. The study was carried out to prepare a model to identify different levels of flood susceptible zones. A set of multi-sourced geospatial data such as slope, elevation, curvature, rainfall, drainage density, proximity to the river, soil types, land use, stratigraphy, Topographic Ruggedness Index, Sediment Transport Index, and Topographic Wetness Index were considered for the modeling. A flood susceptibility map was produced using Shannon’s entropy model in which the receiver-operating characteristics curve achieved 0.87 accuracy indicating high precision. The outcome of the study demonstrates five different zones of very high, high, medium, low, and very low susceptibility. It was found that very high and high susceptible zones constitute about 52% of the total area that needs a special attention. The findings of the study can be useful to planners and researchers for flood management strategies.

Though urbanization promotes development, the gender gap is being perceived in many socio-economic aspects, in the Indian urban economic scenario. With a 31.16% urban population (in 2011), India has experienced a lopsided development of its urban hierarchy in favour of metropolitan growth which accommodates 42.31% of the total urban population. For various socioeconomic reasons it has a declining female economic participation rate. Sehore M.C. (Madhya Pradesh), an upcoming Class I city, located near the metropolitan cities of Bhopal and Indore, is showing perceptible changes in female work participation, indicating a potential for development in Sehore M.C. along with other smaller cities in Madhya Pradesh. Based on the methodology for the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI, WEF 2018), the ward wise figures for Sehore M.C. for the partly adopted subindices of Survival, Social, and Economic Participation were calculated using local area indicators from standard international and national agencies to bring out the inter-ward variations in gender gap for Sehore M.C.. Spatial mapping of GGI showed that approximately 91% of wards belonged to the high category but 9% of wards were from the medium category. Suggestions for the promotion of gender parity in the city are made for the overall empowerment of females in Sehore M.C. within the constraints of an urban economic scenario.

The sphingosine kinase-1/sphingosine-1-phosphate pathway is linked with the cancer progression and survival of the chemotherapy-challenged cells. Sphingosine kinase-1 (SphK1) has emerged as an attractive drug target, but their inhibitors from natural sources are limited. In this study, we have chosen harmaline, one of the β-carboline alkaloids, and report its mechanism of binding to SphK1 and subsequent inhibition. Molecular docking combined with fluorescence binding studies revealed that harmaline binds to the substrate-binding pocket of SphK1 with an appreciable binding affinity and significantly inhibits the kinase activity of SphK1 with an IC50 value in the micromolar range. The cytotoxic effect of harmaline on non-small-cell lung cancer cells by MTT assay was found to be higher for H1299 compared to A549. Harmaline induces apoptosis in non-small-cell lung carcinoma cells (H1299 and A549), possibly via the intrinsic pathway. Our findings suggest that harmaline could be implicated as a scaffold for designing potent anticancer molecules with SphK1 inhibitory potential.

Though the gender gap in workforce participation rate in India is already established, a lack of economic participatory power of females is becoming a major area of concern for overall economic development of the region. India with an upcoming urban economy and rapid transformation into an urban society still lags behind in sending urban women to urban job market and recording only 15.4% of urban females as workers as against the total work participation rate of 35.3% in urban areas. Therefore, issue of analyzing spatial regularity in the distribution of percentage of female population and female workforce participation emerges a significant aspect for finding out the concentration of urban females in relation to their working arena. The present study, therefore, focuses and addresses the issue for spatial regularity in the distribution of females work participation in relation to female concentration in Sehore Municipal Council (Sehore M.C.), an upcoming township of Madhya Pradesh, India, with a high proportion of females, 937 females/1000 males as against state average of 931 females/1000 males, and a female workforce participation rate of 19.15%, which is higher than the state average of 15.1%. Court’s Method of Map Comparison is applied to find out the degree of association of percentage of females in relation to their workforce participation. The study has concluded that there is no spatial regularity in the distribution pattern of female population and female workers as shown by the medial correlation coefficient of − 0.27 with more than 60% of the study area is falling under negative medial correlation. The absence of spatial regularity between female population and female workers is due to lack of economic opportunities for women in Sehore M.C. as well as accessibility and availability to jobs due to social factors and regional economic constraints. Therefore, few suggestions are given for proper planned economic development as well as promotion of secure job avenues for all socio-economic strata of female group of population for Sehore M.C., a forthcoming urban centre of Madhya Pradesh in India.

Design and development of potential pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 3 (PDK3) inhibitors have gained attention because of their possible therapeutic uses in lung cancer therapy. In the present study, the binding affinity of naturally occurring alkaloids, hordenine, vincamine, tryptamine, cinchonine, and colcemid was measured with PDK3. The molecular docking and fluorescence binding studies suggested that all these compounds show a considerable binding affinity for PDK3. Among them, the affinity of hordenine to the PDK3 was excellent (K = 106 M&minus, 1) which was further complemented by isothermal titration calorimetric measurements. Hordenine binds in the active site pocket of PDK3 and forms a significant number of non-covalent interactions with functionally important residues. All-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study suggested that the PDK3-hordenine complex is stabilized throughout the trajectory of 100ns and leads to fewer conformational changes. The enzyme inhibition studies showed that hordenine inhibits the activity of PDK3 with an IC50 value of 5.4 &micro, M. Furthermore, hordenine showed a cytotoxic effect on human lung cancer cells (A549 and H1299) with an admirable IC50 value. However, it did not inhibit the growth of HEK293 cells up to 200 &micro, M, indicating its non-toxicity to non-cancerous cell lines. In summary, our findings provide the basis for the therapeutic implication of hordenine and its derivatives in lung cancer and PDK3-related diseases after required in vivo validation.

Fruits provide nutritional security and help growers to generate income. In order to get good quality produce good agricultural practices should be followed right from the start. Orchards should be monitored for regular water supply, fertilizer applications, crop management, outbreaks of diseases and other environmental factors that govern the quality of fruits. Quality of fruits depends to a greater extent on the ripening and storage conditions of the fruits. There are both external and internal quality attributes that are responsible for obtaining good quality fruit. A grower should be well equipped with the latest technological know-how in order to face challenges in using technologies for obtaining high-class produce. However, there are other factors that are also responsible for the ripening disorders of the fruits. It has been observed that preharvest factors to a greater extent influence the postharvest losses as growers are not aware of the facts about postharvest biology of their produce. Therefore, efforts should be taken to make the growers understand the importance and effects of preharvest factors which control the quality of the produce.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding, conserved, single-stranded nucleotide sequences involved in physiological and developmental processes. Recent evidence suggests an association between miRNAs' deregulation with initiation, promotion, progression, and drug resistance in cancer cells. Besides, miRNAs are known to regulate the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, autophagy, and senescence in different cancer types. Previous reports proposed that apart from the antioxidant potential, flavonoids play an essential role in miRNAs modulation associated with changes in cancer-related proteins, tumor suppressor genes, and oncogenes. Thus, flavonoids can suppress proliferation, help in the development of drug sensitivity, suppress metastasis and angiogenesis by modulating miRNAs expression. In the present review, we summarize the role of miRNAs in cancer, drug resistance, and the chemopreventive potential of flavonoids mediated by miRNAs. The potential of flavonoids to modulate miRNAs expression in different cancer types demonstrate their selectivity and importance as regulators of carcinogenesis. Flavonoids as chemopreventive agents targeting miRNAs are extensively studied in vitro, in vivo, and pre-clinical studies, but their efficiency in targeting miRNAs in clinical studies is less investigated. The evidence presented in this review highlights the potential of flavonoids in cancer prevention/treatment by regulating miRNAs, although further investigations are required to validate and establish their clinical usefulness.

Objective of this study was to examine and evaluate the role of different rates of salicylic acid (SA) as foliar spray on growth and yield performance of BRRI dhan29. The experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Bangladesh from November, 2016 to May, 2017 following a randomized complete block design with five rates of SA in six replications. The results showed that the lower rate of SA (upto 0.75 mM) has a positive effect on rice biomass production including effective tiller per hill, filled grain per panicle, grain yield and straw yield. The highest dry matter production at both maximum tillering and panicle initiation stages was found at SA spray rate of 0.5 mM. The highest number of effective tillers per hill (14.7) as well as the highest filled grain (120.4) and grain yield (8.1 t/ha) were found at SA rate of 0.75 mM. However, the maximum biomass production was obtained at SA rate of 0.25 mM. The minimum grain yield (7.0 t/ha) was observed in the control treatment.

Urease is an enzyme of amidohydrolase family and is responsible for the different pathological conditions in the human body including peptic ulcers, catheter encrustation, kidney stone formation, hepatic coma, encephalopathy, and many others. Therefore, the search for potent urease inhibitors has attracted major scientific attention in recent years. Urea and thiourea derivatives of tryptamine (1–25) were synthesized via reaction of tryptamine with different substituted phenyl isocyanates/isothiocyanates. The synthetic compounds were evaluated for their urease enzyme inhibitory activity and they exhibited good inhibitory potential against urease enzyme in the range of (IC50 = 11.4 ± 0.4–24.2 ± 1.5 μM) as compared to the standard thiourea (IC50 = 21.2 ± 1.3 μM). Out of twenty-five compounds, fourteen were found to be more active than the standard. Limited structure-activity relationship suggested that the compounds with CH3, and OCH3 substituents at aryl part were the most potent derivatives. Compound 14 (IC50 = 11.4 ± 0.4 μM) with a methyl substituent at ortho position was found to be the most active member of the series. Whereas, among halogen substituted derivatives, para substituted chloro compound 16 (IC50 = 13.7 ± 0.9 μM) showed good urease inhibitory activity. These synthetic derivatives were found to be non-cytotoxic in cellular assay. Kinetic studies revealed that the compounds 11, 12, 14, 17, 21, 22, and 24 showed a non-competitive type of inhibition. In silico study identified the possible bindings interactions of potential inhibitors with the active site of enzyme. These newly identified inhibitors of urease enzyme can serve as leads for further research and development.

The cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp., an isolate from polluted water of Satluj river, India, was found resistant to chromium(VI) up to 200 nmol mL(-1). In this study, it has been demonstrated that this organism takes up Cr(VI) through a phosphate transporter. The organism removed 250 nmol Cr(VI), 210 nmol phosphate and 180 nmol sulphate mg(-1) protein from a buffer solution in 8 h. Cr(VI) uptake by the organism decreased to 135 nmol Cr(VI) removed per milligram protein in the presence of 200 nmol phosphate mL(-1), but the same concentration of sulphate did not affect the Cr(VI) uptake. Similarly, the presence of Cr(VI) in the solution affected the phosphate uptake but not sulphate uptake by the test organism. The kinetic studies on Cr(VI) uptake in the presence of phosphate revealed that phosphate and Cr(VI) acted as competitive inhibitors for one another. Phosphate-starved cells of the organism removed more amount of Cr(VI) than the basal medium-grown cells. The uptake of Cr(VI) as well as phosphate by the organism was observed to be a light-dependent process. Cinnamic acid, a phosphate transporter inhibitor, inhibited Cr(VI) uptake by the organism. Results clearly demonstrated that the test organism takes up chromate ions by phosphate transporter and not by the sulphate transporter. This organism is thus a potential candidate for the bioremediation of Cr(VI) from Cr(VI) and sulphate-laden water.

A hexavalent chromium-tolerant cyanobacterial strain isolated from the Satluj River, Ludhiana, India was identified as Synechocystis sp. strain PUPCCC 62 based on the 16S rRNAgeneandphycocyanincpcBA-intergenicspacer sequenceanalysis.Cr IC50for theorganismwasdeterminedto be 100 μmol L �1 . The organism removed nearly four times more Cr(VI) from imidazole-HCl buffer (200 mmol L �1 , pH 6.0) (250 nmol Cr(VI) mg �1 protein) compared with basal medium(59 nmolCr(VI)mg �1 protein)in8 h.Temperatureof 28 °C, pH of 6.0, and biomass load of 200 μ gp rotein mL �1 were found to be the optimum parameters for Cr(VI) bioremoval from the buffer solution. Cr(VI) bioremoval by the cyanobacterium was light/photosynthesis dependent. Along with Cr(VI) bioremoval, its reduction to Cr(III) was alsodemonstrated.Ina6-hperiod,theamountofCr(VI)inthe solution decreased to 7.3 μmol and the amount of Cr(III) increased to 2.7 μmol from initial amount of 10 μmol Cr(VI). Both Cr(VI) and Cr(III) were observed in the solution only and not on the surface or inside the cells. It has been demonstrated that the organism reduced Cr(VI) to Cr(III) intracellularly and excreted it outside the cells. This is the first report on intracellular reduction of Cr(VI) by a cyanobacterium.

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of various post harvest treatments (shrink wrap, 1-MCP@1ppm, 1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap, Carbendazim @ 500 ppm, Carbendazim @ 500 ppm + Shrink Wrap, Calcium Chloride @ 4%, Calcium Chloride @ 4%, + Shrink Wrap, Wax (SH002) @ 10%, Wax (SHOO2)@10% + Shrink Wrap ) in order to increase the shelf life and to avoid post harvest losses of William’s Bartlett Pear under refrigerated storage conditions (Temperature 1-2 C and 85-95% RH). In physical characteristics PLW, spoilage, firmness, juice yield, colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability were studied during refrigerated storage conditions. In chemical characteristic TSS, total sugar, pectin, acidity, ascorbic acid and total chlorophyll were analyzed after 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 and 105 Days of storage. After 105 days of refrigerated storage best two treatments i.e. T3 (1-MCP@1ppm) and T4 (1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap) were subjected to quality evaluation for 10 days under ambient storage conditions. 1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap was reported superior to all other treatments. 1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap proved very useful for reducing storage loss, spoilage. Sensory panel evaluation exhibited fair to good acceptability response of 1 MCP@ 1ppm +shrink-wrapped fruit up to 105 days of storage, where as in control lots the quality attributed showed maximum acceptability only up to 75 days under refrigerated storage conditions. Agriculture Introduction Fruit culture is an important industry in the economy of Jammu and Kashmir State. Pear (Pyrus communis L.) belongs to family Rosaceae and is an important fruit cultivated throughout the temperate regions of world (Meheriuk and Lau, 1988; Anonymous, 2005). In Jammu and Kashmir, pear ranks second after apple in production with the annual production of 47.38 (000 MT) cultivated over an area of 12.359 (000 hectares) (Anonymous, 2008). The important cultivars grown in the valley include Bartlett, Monarch, Devoes, Fertility, Chinese Sandy Pear, and Vicar of Wink Field (Farooqui and Happa, 1990). Amongst them, Bartlett occupies more area throughout the world including J&K state (Anonymous, 2005). Fresh Bartlett pear contains moisture (86.5%), protein (0.4%), fat (0.1%), minerals (0.3%), fiber (2.15%), other carbohydrates (10.6%), calcium (20mg/100g), phosphorus (20mg/100g), Iron (1.5mg/100g), Vitamin A (0 IU/100g), Nicotine acid (0.2mg/100g), Vitamin C (1mg/100g) (Rathore, 1991). The cultivar matures usually in the 3rd week of July (110 DAFB) and is harvested in August. The fruit is traditionally packed in wooden boxes and is transported outside the valley for either cold storage or fresh marketing. Being climacteric in nature, its rate of ripening is very fast after harvesting and has very limited shelf life. After harvest a good portion of fruit gets wasted resulting in greater economic losses to the growers, due to lack of proper post harvest infrastructure facilities (Ghani et al., 2003). Post harvest management practices such as harvesting at optimum maturity, controlled atmosphere storage, post harvest dipping of fruits in various chemicals e.g. Calcium chloride, wax coating, anti ethylene (1-MCP) treatment, etc. have been attempted to prolong the post harvest quality for pear fruit with variable degree of success (Banks et al., 1993). The main purpose of post harvest management systems is to maintain quality, increase the period of availability of fruit for table purpose, extending the working period of food processing plants, avoiding gluts in the market at certain periods, providing variety to the consumers and fetch higher profits to the growers with increased export potentialities. However, in Kashmir valley, very little information is available regarding the impact of post harvest treatments and storage conditions on the shelf life of pear particularly Bartlett. Therefore, keeping in view the above facts, the present investigations are aimed to improve the shelf life of the pear under controlled conditions by the application of various post harvest treatments Material and Methods:The present investigation was carried out in the department of post harvest technology Sher-e-Kashmir University of science and technology Shalimar Jammu and Kashmir. Freshly harvested healthy and uniform sized fruits taken from the orchard during autumn seasons were subjected to pre-cooling treatment at 4 C for 24 hrs to remove field heat. The experiment consists of 10 post harvest treatments viz

A series of N-substituted morpholines 2-20 was synthesised by reacting various acid chlorides and alkyl halides with morpholine (1). All of the synthesised compounds 2-20 were screened for their leishmanicidal effects using amphotericin B (IC(50) = 0.24 microg L(-1)) and pentamidine (IC(50) = 2.56 microg mL(-1)) as standards and a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study was established. The compounds 2 (IC(50) = 48 microg mL(-1)), 3 (IC(50) = 30.0 microg mL(-1)), 10 (IC(50) = 41.0 microg mL(-1)), 15 (IC(50) = 33.0 microg mL(-1)), 16 (IC(50) = 35.0 microg mL(-1)) and 20 (IC(50) = 47.0 microg mL(-1)) showed weak leishmanicidal activities.

A rapid, convenient and accurate method for the determination of xanthates has been developed. N-bromosuccinimide has been used to displace iodine from potassium iodide which in turn oxidizes xanthate to dixanthogen. The pH 4 is optimum for the determination. The maximum relative standard deviation is 6% in the case of ethyl potassium xanthate when a 0.5 mg sample was taken.

A semiquantitative method for the determination of 13 alkaloids (nicotine, quinine, strychnine, brucine, ephedrine, pilocarpine, narcotine, cinchonine, ajmaline, atropine, cocaine, papaverine and morphine) from a single drop of solution by making “circular spots” on chromatoplate with the circular thin-layer Chromatographic apparatus and their comparison with sensitivity standard has been developed. The accuracy is ±5% and the procedure is rapid, simple and economical.