Effect of irrigation on the lipid composition of taramira seed

The effect of irrigation on the lipid composition in maturing taramira (Eruca sativa, Mill) seed was studied. Decreasing the number of irrigations had an adverse effect on oil setting. Restricted irrigations affected adversely the biosynthesis of erucic acid in the oil at initial stages, though at later stages of seed development, irrigation had no such effect.     

Cationic surfactant-selective potentiometric sensors based on neutral ion-pair carrier complexes

Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane electrodes to determine monomer concentrations of tetradecyltrimethylammonium ion (TTA⁺) and hexadecylpyridinium ion (HPy⁺) based on neutral ion-pair carrier complexes of tetradecyltrimethylammonium dodecyl sulfate (TTA⁺-DS⁻) and hexadecylpyridinium dodecyl sulfate (HPy⁺-DS⁻), respectively, are reported here. The electrodes exhibit a Nernstian slope of 59 mV per decade for TTA⁺ and a sub-Nernstian slope of 34.5 mV per decade for HPy⁺ ions. The TTA⁺ ion-selective electrode (ISE) and the HPy⁺-ISE can determine the monomer units down to concentrations as low as 4.0×10⁻⁴M and 1.66×10⁻⁵ M, respectively. The effect of various additives, such as the anionic polyelectrolyte sodium dextran sulfate and macrocyclic β-cyclodextrin, on the surface activity exhibited by the cationic surfactants TTA⁺-DS⁻ and HPy⁺-DS⁻, in the presence of background concentrations of NaCl was also examined with surfactant-selective sensors. The Gibbs free energy of micelle formation (ΔG _m ) of both surfactants in the presence of various additives was calculated and found to be less favorable with respect to an increase in the amount of additives due to less availability of cationic surfactant monomer units. The ion-pair complexes TTA⁺-DS⁻ and HPy⁺-DS⁻ were found to behave as selective carrier compounds in PVC membranes in determining the concentration of monomer units of both TTA⁺ and HPy⁺, respectively. The proposed sensors worked well at a fairly acidic pH of 1–6.5 with response time of 60 s. The sensors responded well to the surfactant ions even in the presence of additives at lower concentration. The lifetime of the sensors is 3 mon.     

Robust kernelized approach to clustering by incorporating new distance measure

A new data clustering algorithm Density oriented Kernelized version of Fuzzy c-means with new distance metric (DKFCM-new) is proposed. It creates noiseless clusters by identifying and assigning noise points into separate cluster. In an earlier work, Density Based Fuzzy C-Means (DOFCM) algorithm with Euclidean distance metric was proposed which only considered the distance between cluster centroid and data points. In this paper, we tried to improve the performance of DOFCM by incorporating a new distance measure that has also considered the distance variation within a cluster to regularize the distance between a data point and the cluster centroid. This paper presents the kernel version of the method. Experiments are done using two-dimensional synthetic data-sets, standard data-sets referred from previous papers like DUNN data-set, Bensaid data-set and real life high dimensional data-sets like Wisconsin Breast cancer data, Iris data. Proposed method is compared with other kernel methods, various noise resistant methods like PCM, PFCM, CFCM, NC and credal partition based clustering methods like ECM, RECM, CECM. Results shown that proposed algorithm significantly outperforms its earlier version and other competitive algorithms.     

Relationship between physicochemical and functional properties of amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus) protein isolates

Protein isolates from six amaranth lines/cultivars (APIs) were evaluated to study their physicochemical (hunter colour, protein content and zeta potential), structural (thermal and conformational) and functional (emulsification, foaming, water and fat absorption) properties. APIs had protein content, whiteness index and gel temperature in range of 79.4–85.4%, 41.17–54.26 and 87.8–91.8 °C, respectively. The Fourier‐transform infrared spectra of APIs revealed α‐helix, β‐sheets and random coil conformations in the secondary structure. APIs with higher relative proportion of β‐sheets had higher Differential Scanning Calorimeter denaturation temperature and gel temperature. Minimum protein solubility (PS) was observed at pH 5.0, indicating isoelectric point (pI) of amaranth proteins. The PS, emulsifying activity index (EAI), emulsifying stability index (ESI), foaming capacity (FC) and foam stability (FS) of APIs at neutral pH were related to their zeta potential (ζ). The emulsifying and foaming properties were also determined at different pHs (between 2.0 and 9.0). The EAI‐pH profile of APIs confirmed close relationship between the emulsifying ability and PS.     

Effect of Ni7+ Ion Irradiation on Structure and Ammonia Sensing Properties of Thermally Oxidized Zinc and Indium Films

ZnO and In2O3 films were prepared by thermal oxidation of vacuum deposited zinc and indium films, respectively onto the glass substrate at 30 C. The fabricated films have been irradiated with 100-MeV Ni7+ ions at different fluences ranging from 5×1011 to 5×1013 ions/cm2. The structural and gas sensing properties of pristine and irradiated films have been discussed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of pristine and irradiated films reveal that the films are polycrystalline in nature and crystallinity increases after irradiation. In this study, highly porous In2O3 nanorods evolved when being irradiated at a fluence of 5×1013 ions/cm2 while ZnO film shows decrease in number of nanowires. The ammonia sensing performance of the Ni7+ irradiated In2O3 films shows an improvement as compared to its pristine counterpart.     

Mineralogical Studies of Coal Fly Ash for Soil Application in Agriculture

Coal fly ash procured from Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant, Ropar, Punjab, India, was analyzed for its mineralogical content and thermal stability by x-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and physicochemical properties. XRD studies showed that major crystalline phases observed were quartz (SiO₂) and aluminum silicon oxide (Al_4.52Si₁.₄₈) with macro- and microelement (N, P, K, Mg, Zn, S, and Fe). Fly ash showed thermal stability up to 500°C and reduction in weight was up to 200°C, primarily due to loss of water and decarboxylation as revealed by TGA plots. FTIR of fly ash showed that the most prominent peaks in the spectra corresponded to Si–O and Al–O stretch vibrations. Coarse-grain accumulation of fly ash indicated the presence of 70% of fine-grained particles of 0.075 mm. Coal fly ash was alkaline in nature (pH 7.85 ± 0.03) with an electrical conductivity of 0.14 ± 0.02 µS m^?1, water holding capacity of 62%, low bulk density of 0.99 g cm^?3, and a surface area of 0.96 m² g^?1. With properties similar to that of soil coal, fly ash represents a suitable material for use in specific quantities as a soil amending agent in agriculture.     

Nyctanthes arbor‐tristis leaves extract as Antagonizer of immunotoxic effects of chemical pesticides (experimental study)

Increased incidence of immunosuppression due to diseases like AIDS, drug resistant tuberculosis, malaria or exposure to chemicals, calls for general immunopotentiators or anti immunosuppressents. In our previous work while screening the chemical and biopesticides for their immunopotentiating activity, aqueous leaves extract of bio‐pesticidal plant Nyctanthes arbor‐tristis [HL(aq)] was found to be a potent immuno‐modulator. The present study was conducted to evaluate the immunorestorative or anti immunosuppressive activity of the N. arbor‐tristis leaves aqueous extract in the malathion exposed immunosuppressed mice. The immunorestorative potential of HL(aq) was evaluated by studying various immunological parameters (humoral, cell mediated immune, numerical values of immunocytes and functions of phagocytes) in HL(aq) treated or untreated malathion‐exposed mice. The results revealed that the immunological parameters which were suppressed with malathion either reverted back to normal or showed a trend towards normalacy, when treated with HL(aq) extract.     

Silver Dopant-Induced Effect on Structural and Optoelectronic Properties of CdSe Thin Films

Thin films of CdSe and silver(Ag)-doped CdSe have been prepared on glass substrates by thermal evaporation in argon gas atmosphere. X-ray diffraction pattern indicates the presence of hexagonal structure with preferred orientation along (100) plane. Elemental composition of the thin films has been analyzed using energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to investigate the morphology of the thin films. Transmission electron microscope reveals spherical nature of nanoparticles. A decrease in the band gap due to the formation of band tails in the band gap with increase in Ag doping in CdSe lattice has been observed. Photoluminescence spectra indicate redshift in band edge emission peak with increase in Ag doping in CdSe. Electrical conductivity measurements are also studied, and two types of conduction mechanisms taking part in the transport phenomena are observed. Hall measurements indicate n-type behavior of undoped and Ag-doped CdSe thin films.     

Whale Optimization Algorithm Approach for Performance Optimization of Novel Xmas Tree-Shaped FinFET

Silicon - Today, Fin shaped Field Effect Transistors (FinFETs) are the framework of the sub-nanometer technology node. The leading semiconductor industry deploys it in low-power (LP) and...     

Hidden Relationships between N-Glycosylation and Disulfide Bonds in Individual Proteins

N-Glycosylation (NG) and disulfide bonds (DBs) are two prevalent co/post-translational modifications (PTMs) that are often conserved and coexist in membrane and secreted proteins involved in a large number of diseases. Both in the past and in recent times, the enzymes and chaperones regulating these PTMs have been constantly discovered to directly interact with each other or colocalize in the ER. However, beyond a few model proteins, how such cooperation affects N-glycan modification and disulfide bonding at selective sites in individual proteins is largely unknown. Here, we reviewed the literature to discover the current status in understanding the relationships between NG and DBs in individual proteins. Our results showed that more than 2700 human proteins carry both PTMs, and fewer than 2% of them have been investigated in the associations between NG and DBs. We summarized both these proteins with the reported relationships in the two PTMs and the tools used to discover the relationships. We hope that, by exposing this largely understudied field, more investigations can be encouraged to unveil the hidden relationships of NG and DBs in the majority of membranes and secreted proteins for pathophysiological understanding and biotherapeutic development.