Alkaline phosphatase activity in ovaries Of some clupeoides

The alkaline phosphatase activity .has been determaned in the three different stages of growth of the ovary of Stolepliorux lieterolobus, Stolephorus commersonii, Thryssa mystax. Tliryssa sctirostris, Thryssa vitrirostiis and Sardinella jussieu. The phosphatase activity rises to a peak in the- maturing stage (Stage tl) and declines in the mature stage (Stage IM) to about the same level or slightly higher level than in the immature stag

Automatic Clustering with Single Optimal Solution

Determining optimal number of clusters in a dataset is a challenging task. Though some methods are available, there is no algorithm that produces unique clustering solution. The paper proposes an Automatic Merging for Single Optimal Solution (AMSOS) which aims to generate unique and nearly optimal clusters for the given datasets automatically. The AMSOS is iteratively merges the closest clusters automatically by validating with cluster validity measure to find single and nearly optimal clusters for the given data set. Experiments on both synthetic and real data have proved that the proposed algorithm finds single and nearly optimal clustering structure in terms of number of clusters, compactness and separation.Comment: 13 pages,4 Tables, 3 figure

Fuel Air Explosives

In this paper, important features of Fuel Air Explosives studies on different performance parameters, namely, minimum initiation energy, fuel droplet size, sensitivity to detonation etc. and current trends in this field of research have been briefly discussed

Role of toughness in abrasion, and impact-abrasion wear

Despite the significant progress in understanding the wear mechanisms and associated factors, steels for components susceptible to wear are developed primarily based on their hardness. The hardness often is achieved by martensitic transformation. Increasing the carbon concentration and substitutional solute content may also help. Hardness certainly helps to improve the wear properties, but it is known in the context of lifting and excavation equipment that other properties, such as toughness, may also play a role. In any event, it always is necessary to optimise a basket of properties rather than a single parameter, because the manufacture of a component requires a combination of performance criteria. It also is clear that a variety of microstructural features can influence the overall wear properties, although the results are not quantitative and the relationships claimed can be uncertain. The aim of work presented in this thesis is to study of role of toughness in increasing wear resistance in impact-abrasion conditions, in an experiment that, for the first time, decouples toughness from microstructure- and hardness-induced effects. The relevant literature has been critically examined to highlight the roles of properties other than hardness, such as fracture toughness, the work hardening rate and microstructural considerations in determining wear resistance of steel. In the work presented in the thesis, a remarkable new steel has been studied to reveal the role of toughness on a particularly dramatic wear scenario involving both abrasion and impact. The steel has very high toughness, (72.0 ± 1.5)MPa√m, and yet is hard, 561 ± 23 HV. The same steel was heat-treated to produce another variant with poor toughness but similar microstructure. It is demonstrated with clarity that the toughness becomes incredibly important in impact-abrasion, though not during abrasion on its own. The steel with high fracture toughness performed better during impact-abrasion wear tests compared to the other variant with poor toughness but high hardness and similar microstructure. Detailed microscopy and other characterisation techniques have revealed explanations for these observations. Based on the laboratory test results, full scale trials were undertaken in an integrated steel plant and the performance of a novel steel has been satisfactory thus far.The project was funded by Tata Steel Limited, Indi

Exploring Predicate Based Access Control for Cloud Workflow Systems

Authentication and authorization are the two crucial functions of any modern security and access control mechanisms. Authorization for controlling access to resources is a dynamic characteristic of a workflow system which is based on true business dynamics and access policies. Allowing or denying a user to gain access to a resource is the cornerstone for successful implementation of security and controlling paradigms. Role based and attribute based access control are the existing mechanisms widely used. As per these schemes, any user with given role or attribute respectively is granted applicable privileges to access a resource. There is third approach known as predicate based access control which is less explored. We intend to throw light on this as it provides more fine-grained control over resources besides being able to complement with existing approaches. In this paper we proposed a predicate-based access control mechanism that caters to the needs of cloud-based workflow systems

Transgenic expression of glucose dehydrogenase in Azotobacter vinelandii enhances mineral phosphate solubilization and growth of sorghum seedlings

The enzyme quinoprotein glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) catalyses the oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid by direct oxidation in the periplasmic space of several Gram-negative bacteria. Acidification of the external environment with the release of gluconic acid contributes to the solubilization of the inorganic phosphate by biofertilizer strains of the phosphate-solubilizing bacteria. Glucose dehydrogenase (gcd) gene from Escherichia coli, and Azotobacter-specific glutamine synthetase (glnA) and phosphate transport system (pts) promoters were isolated using sequence-specific primers in a PCR-based approach. Escherichia coli gcd, cloned under the control of glnA and pts promoters, was mobilized into Azotobacter vinelandii AvOP and expressed. Sorghum seeds were bacterized with the transgenic azotobacters and raised in earthen pots in green house. The transgenic azotobacters, expressing E. coli gcd, showed improved biofertilizer potential in terms of mineral phosphate solubilization and plant growth-promoting activity with a small reduction in nitrogen fixation ability

Distribution function for seasonal and annual rainfall over India

Distribution functions for seasonal (southwest monsoon) and annual rainfall at 53 long-record stations in India have been obtained. It was found that the frequency distributions are right skewed. Tests for normality show that while normal distribution gives a good fit to seasonal and annual rainfall at stations in some parts of India it does not give a good fit to seasonal and annual rainfall at stations over the major portion of the country. Tests of goodness of fit of the Gamma distribution, however, clearly indicate that this distribution provides a good fit to seasonal and annual rainfall at stations in different parts of the country

Proximate composition, bio-chemical and microbial quality of pet food prepared from chicken byproducts by incorporating cauliflower wastes

A study was under taken on preparation of pet food from chicken head (20 %), feet meal (15 %) and cauliflower waste meal (10 %). The proximate composition, chemical and microbial qualities were analysed. The proximate composition (%) viz., crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, total ash, nitrogen free extract and metabolizable energy (K Cal/100g) of pet food on dry matter basis were 26.63, 18.52, 1.38, 10.29, 43.17 and 422.28, respectively. The thiobarbituric acid from 0.46 to 2.52 mg MA/kg, tyrosine value 35.53 to 77.36 mg/100g and total viable count log 3.46 to 5.90 cfu/g were increasing significantly (P<0.01) and yeast and mould count was not detected up to 50 days of storage period. The pets were fed with prepared pet food and evaluated by pet owner gave score for appearance, consistency, odour which were in normal range and overall acceptability was good

Preparation and evaluation of oral controlled release mucoadhesive Microspheres of Ketorolac Tromethamine

Recently, lot of emphasis is being laid on oral controlled release multiple unit particulate (MUP) dosage forms, for their significant and potential benefits.  Ketorolac tromethamine (KTM) is a potent non-narcotic analgesic and anti-inflamatory drug administered orally in multiple divided doses (10 mg four times a day) for the management of mild to moderate post-operative pain. KTM’s short biological half-life demands frequent administration of the drug leading to poor patient compliance and inadequate pain management. Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to develop and evaluate oral controlled release mucoadhesive microspheres by ionotropic gelation method using natural and biodegradable polymers such as sodium carboxy methyl cellulose (Na CMC) and sodium alginate (SA). The influence of various formulation factors on the drug entrapment  efficiency,  in vitro drug release, micromeritic properties, and  mucoadhesion ability  was investigated. Scanning electron micrographs of alginate beads loaded with drug exhibited rough surface morphology and  sizes were found to be  in the range of 842 to 1265 µm. Among all the formulations, the drug loaded microspheres of formulation CA6   showed the highest drug release retarding effect over a period of  8  hours.  The drug-polymer compatibility studies and solid state properties were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) X- Ray diffraction techniques (X-RD)

Overlapping sets of transcripts from host and non-host interactions of tomato are expressed early during non-host resistance

Natural immunity present in all the plants against most of the pathogens is called as non-host resistance (NHR). Although NHR is most durable form of resistance, it was less studied compared to other forms of resistance. We compared transcriptional changes in tomato during non-host (Magnaporthe grisea) and compatible (Alternaria alternata f. sp. lycopersici) interactions using Agilent microarray GeneChip containing ~44,000 probe sets. The experiment was designed to understand the early and late responses of tomato leaves inoculated with non-host and compatible pathogens. Microarray data revealed that the expression profiles in the non-host and compatible interactions at 6 h post inoculation (hpi) and 24 hpi largely overlapped indicating that a set of genes are activated during plant-pathogen interaction. However, these genes were expressed much earlier in NHR compared to a compatible interaction. NHR is, therefore, an accelerated and amplified basal defense response. Transcripts involved in energy production (carbohydrate metabolism and photosynthesis) were down-regulated, whereas transcripts associated with catabolic processes (starch and sucrose hydrolysis) were up-regulated in both the interactions at 6 and 24 hpi. We have also identified that the pathway involved in synthesis of volatile compounds like 2-phenylethanol was induced during NHR in tomato. This is the first report of transcriptome profile in tomato during non-host interactions against M. grisea