Study on weed flora and their influence on patchouli (Pogostemon cablin Benth.) oil and patchoulol

Experiments were conducted to study the weed flora and its influence on the yield of oil and Patchoulol by co-distillation of fresh Patchouli leaves with weed biomass at different proportions (0, 5, 10, 15 and 30%) during 2004-05 and 2005-06. The survey of weeds commonly growing in patchouli plantation was made and a total of 17 weed species were recorded. Alternanthera sessile, Cynodon dactylon and Oxalis cornicullata exhibited 100% frequency in both the years. A. sessile, C. dactylon and O. cornicullata had highest density during 1st year and the density of most of the weed species increased during 2nd year except C. dactylon and A. sessile. Co-distillation of fresh Patchouli leaves with weeds at the rate of 0, 5, 10,15 and 30% yielded 0.70, 0.67, 0.65, 0.50 and 0.43% oil, respectively. It was observed that the oil yield decreased gradually with the increase in weed biomass. However, the percentage of patchoulol showed a different behaviour. It decreased at 15% (53.7) and 30% (50.4) and increased at 5% (56.5) and 10% (63.8) treatments. The oil extracted with weed biomass imports a weedy odour, which may decrease its commercial value. © Academic Journals Inc

Surface-Oxygen Induced Electrochemical Self-Assembly of Mesoporous Conducting Polymers for Electrocatalysis

Porous polymers have immense potential in catalysis, energy conversion and storage, separation sciences and life sciences due to their high surface area and high diffusion flux. Developing porous polymers with micro and mesoscale porosity with long-range order is challenging and involves multistep templated approaches. Here we demonstrate a simple surface-oxygen induced electropolymerization route to directly obtain self-assembled porous polymers of polyparaphenylene (PPP) and PPP based copolymers in ionic liquids. By combining experimental and theoretical studies, we show that surface oxygen on Cu changes the orientation and assembly of benzene which then results in a change in electropolymerization mechanism leading to a self-assembled porous structure with porosity between 2 and 5 μm. Furthermore, with controlled experimental parameters, bicontinuous conducting polymers with porosity of >10 μm are obtained. The porous conducting polymers show absorption of light in the visible range which was also used as an efficient electrode for investigation of the photoelectrochemical oxygen evolution reaction.We acknowledge the use of Athena at HPC Midlands+ in this research, which was funded by the EPSRC (grant EP/P020232/1) via the EPSRC RAP call of spring 2018 and 2019. Supercomputer Wales is also thanked for the computing time. In this work ARCHER - the UK National Supercomputing Service (https://www.archer.ac.uk) was also used via the membership of the UK’s HEC Materials Chemistry Consortium, which is funded by EPSRC (EP/L000202)

Antifungal activity and chemical composition of Citrus reticulata Blanco essential oil against phytopathogens from North East India

The essential oil (EO) isolated by hydro-distillation from the peel of fully matured ripen fruits of Citrus reticulata Blanco were analyzed by GC and GC 13MS. Thirty seven different components were identified constituting approximatel

Cymbopogon citratus L. essential oil as a potential antifungal agent against key weed moulds of Pleurotus spp. spawn

The essential oil of Cymbopogon citratus L. (250–1500 p.p.m.) was tested in vitro for antifungal activity against seven Pleurotus spp. spawn-contaminating fungi, viz. Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Alternaria alternata, Penicillium citrinum, Curvularia lunata and Trichoderma harzianum. Oil-enrichment resulted in significant (p < 0.05) reduction of growth for the pathogens examined. Fungal spore production inhibited up to 80% at 250 p.p.m. of the oil except for C. lunata, which was inhibited by only 30%. In the higher oil concentration (1500 p.p.m.) employed, fungal sporulation was completely retarded. Lemongrass oil reduces spore germination in A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. alternata, P. citrinum and T. harzianum, with the effects dependent on oil concentration. However, lemongrass oil at 250 p.p.m. accelerated spore germination for A. niger and P. citrinum. Indeed, further increase in oil concentration shows complete inhibition. Among the pathogens, C. lunata was found to be most resistant strain, while A. niger was the most sensitive strain against lemongrass oil. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Grey number based methodology for non-homogeneous preference elicitation in fuzzy risk analysis management

The significantly increase in the number of vehicles have become a major problem, that cause enormous problems such as congestion, pollution, wastage of money and time. Therefore, the simulating and optimizing traffic control algorithms are needed to accommodate the demand in order to solve traffic congestion problems. Predicting effective and optimal green time taken for the intersections will help minimizing the traffic congestion henceforth reducing the waiting time. In this study, fuzzy logic is used to find optimal traffic waiting time. The method determines the effective and optimal traffic signal timing that suits different traffic densities. In this case, the study has considered a four-way intersection. The results indicate that different road intersections require different effective and optimal of green time to reduce traffic congestion. The higher the number of cars at the intersection, the effective green time will be longer rather than the lesser number of cars. The flexibility feature of the fuzzy logic will provide suitable optimal green time for the intersection, which is cordially benefit the users. It is worth mentioning that fuzzy logic traffic lights controller performed better than the fixed-time controller due to its flexibility and the capability in reducing the waiting time

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Not AvailableThe present study was conducted to ascertain the adaptive capability of pigs to different seasons based on changes in serum cortisol and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mRNA expression. Based on average THI, the seasons were classified as winter (November–February), spring (March–June), and summer (July–October). Hormone cortisol was found to be influenced by season (p < 0.01), age (p < 0.05), and genetics of the animal (p < 0.05). However, level of LDH was not influenced by either of these factors. HSP70 mRNA expression was higher in almost all age groups in crossbred and exotic pigs during summer in comparison to other seasons. Lower HSP70 gene expression was observed in almost all age groups of native pigs in comparison to crossbred and exotic during summer. In conclusion, native pigs were acclimatized for thermal stress in comparison to crossbred and exotic breeds of pigs. Also, the expression pattern of HSP70 gene is breed-specific, most likely due to variations in thermal tolerance and adaptation to different environmental conditions. Both serum cortisol and HSP70 gene may act as reliable biological markers for assessing the adaptive capabilities of pigs to different seasons.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe present study was conducted to ascertain the adaptive capability of pigs to different seasons based on changes in serum cortisol and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mRNA expression. Based on average THI, the seasons were classified as winter (November–February), spring (March–June), and summer (July–October). Hormone cortisol was found to be influenced by season (p < 0.01), age (p < 0.05), and genetics of the animal (p < 0.05). However, level of LDH was not influenced by either of these factors. HSP70 mRNA expression was higher in almost all age groups in crossbred and exotic pigs during summer in comparison to other seasons. Lower HSP70 gene expression was observed in almost all age groups of native pigs in comparison to crossbred and exotic during summer. In conclusion, native pigs were acclimatized for thermal stress in comparison to crossbred and exotic breeds of pigs. Also, the expression pattern of HSP70 gene is breed-specific, most likely due to variations in thermal tolerance and adaptation to different environmental conditions. Both serum cortisol and HSP70 gene may act as reliable biological markers for assessing the adaptive capabilities of pigs to different seasons.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe present study was designed to compare the efficacy of different liquid semen extenders for preservation of boar semen at 15°C. Twenty ejaculates, four from each of five Hampshire boars were used to study the efficacy of BTS, GEPS, FEY and LSEEY extenders for preservation of boar semen at 15°C up to 72 h. The mean sperm motility, live sperm and live spermatozoa with intact acrosome were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) higher in GEPS as compared to other extenders. The sperm motility, live sperm and live spermatozoa with intact acrosome differed significantly (P < 0.01) between extenders, preservation periods and interaction of extenders and preservation periods. GEPS was found to be the best extender for preservation followed by BTS, LSEEY and FEYNot Availabl