Nanotechnology a Potential Tool to Mitigate Abiotic Stress in Crop Plants

The response of plants to abiotic stress is complex and involves changes in their morphology, physiology and metabolism. A number of strategies are being followed to enhance the tolerance of abiotic stress conditions, including the development of genetically-engineered varieties containing various gene constructs believed to enhance the performance under stress conditions. Nanotechnology is a versatile field and has found application in almost all the existing fields of science. The application of nanoparticles increased germination and seedling growth, physiological activities including photosynthesis and nitrogen metabolism, leaf activities of CAT, POX and APX, chlorophyll contents, protein, carbohydrate contents and yield, and also positive changes in gene expression indicating their potential use in crop improvement. Nanoparticles enhances the water stress tolerance via enhancing root hydraulic conductance and water uptake in plants and showing differential abundance of proteins involved in oxidation-reduction, ROS detoxification, stress signaling, and hormonal pathways. The mobility of the nanoparticles is very high, which leads to rapid transport of the nutrient to all parts of the plant. In particular, the most actual is to find ways to increase the adaptation potential of cultivated plants with the use of nanopreparations in stressful conditions

ネットワーク混雑問題および電力節約ネットワーク問題に対するロバスト最適化アプローチ

電気通信大学201

ネットワーク混雑問題および電力節約ネットワーク問題に対するロバスト最適化アプローチ

This thesis focuses on providing robust optimization models for minimization of the network congestion ratio and design of power efficient network that can handle fluctuation in traffic demands between source-destination pairs in the networks. It has become essential to design networks that are robust to different traffic conditions. In the first part of the thesis, we propose robust optimization models to minimize congestion ratio for better performance of the network. The simplest and widely used model to minimize the congestion ratio, called the pipe model, is based on precisely specified traffic demands. However, in practice, network operators are often unable to estimate exact traffic demands as they can fluctuate due to unpredictable factors. To overcome this weakness, we apply robust optimization to the problem of minimizing the network congestion ratio. First, we review existing models as robust counterparts of certain uncertainty sets. Then we consider robust optimization assuming ellipsoidal uncertainty sets; the total amount of squared errors in traffic demands is bounded by a positive constant which represents the total admissible fluctuations over the network, and derive a tractable optimization problem in the form of second-order cone programming (SOCP). Furthermore, we take uncertainty sets to be the intersection of ellipsoid and polyhedral sets, and considering the mirror subproblems inherent in the models, obtain tractable optimization problems, again in SOCP form. Compared to the previous model that assumes an error interval on each coordinate, our models have the advantage of being able to cope with the total amount of errors by setting a parameter that determines the volume of the ellipsoid. In the second part of the thesis, a green and robust optimization model is proposed to minimize the network power consumption. There are several researches that assume fluctuation in the traffic-demand matrix, our model is based on the idea of the green hose model where the knowledge of an exact traffic-demand matrix is not required. In the green hose model, the traffic sboundedbyjusttotal outgoing and incoming amount at each node. To allow fluctuations in traffic demands, here we also consider the same uncertainty set and subproblems as we did in the first part and formulate the green hose ellipsoid (green HE) model in the form of mixed-integer second-order cone programming (MISOCP) problem whose objective is to reduce the total energy by allowing some links to be put into the sleep mode.Furthermore, we establish a relationship between our model and the green HLT model, formulated from an extended version of the hose model called the hose model with bound of link traffic (HLT). Numerical results demonstrate that our proposed robust optimization models for congestion ratio and power efficent network achieves the performances with traffic luctuationscomparabletothe previous studies in terms of congestion ratio, computation time and power efficiency.本研究は、通信ネットワークの問題に対してロバスト最適化の手法を適用することをテーマとしている。1つ目の題材は、基幹ネットワークが混雑しないようにルーティングを定める問題である。基本的かつ重要な問題である。既存研究では、通信需要が正確にわかっているモデルや末端ノードにおける入出力量が制限されているモデルなど、さまざまなモデルが提案されている。この問題において通信需要が正確にはわかっていない場合を想定し、真の通信需要が楕円体と多面体の交わりに含まれているという仮定のもとでロバスト最適化の手法を適用し、その問題を2次錐計画問題として定式化した。いくつかの例に対して数値実験を行い、提案したモデルは汎用ソルバーを用いて合理的な時間内で求解可能であることを示し、また、従来のモデルとの比較検討を行なった。2つ目の題材は、エネルギーの節約のために不要なネットワークのリンクの電源を落とす問題である。このとき、真の通信需要が正確にはわからない状況は容易に起こりうるし、ネットワーク全体が通信需要のゆらぎに対して頑健であることが求められる。真の通信需要が楕円体と多面体の交わりに含まれているという仮定のもとでロバスト最適化の手法を適用し、その問題を整数2次錐計画問題として定式化し、実際に汎用最適化ソルバーで求解できることを示した。電気通信大学201

SOME GENERALIZED TRIPLE SEQUENCE SPACES DEFINED BY MODULUS FUNCTION

In this paper we have introduced some newly defined triple sequence spaces by combining the modulus function and non-negative six dimensional matrix of the form A=(........) and study some of their topological properties. We have also obtained and proved some inclusion relations

Pharmacotherapeutic Options for Visceral Leishmaniasis—Current Scenario

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or Kala-azar is a protozoal disease, which was previously regarded as one of the most neglected tropical diseases. Management of this disease is quite difficult, because it is said to affect the poorest of the poor. Previously Sodium Stibogluconate (SSG) was regarded as the gold standard treatment for VL. But due to the increasing unresponsiveness, to this drug various other drugs were tried and are still being tried. Pentamidine is very toxic and has been discarded of late. Amphotericin B and its lipid formulations are very effective but require hospital admission and monitoring. Oral drugs like Miltefosine have already been launched. An amino glycoside Paromomycin and another oral drug Sitamaquine are in the pipe line. Interferon gamma has been used with discouraging results

Perspective of self-help groups, Panchayati Raj institution and adolescents on implementing COVID appropriate behavior in the community in rural settings

The vaccination drive in India brought cheers to the country's people, only to be eroded by the unpredictable twitch of the COVID-19 second wave. The best way to tackle the pandemic has been to adopt appropriate practices, thereby breaking the chain of transmission. The second wave in India has already created havoc both on the people and health system, questioning and challenging our capabilities to handle any heave of sudden cases, particularly in rural areas. Time has arrived to inflate our horizon by including groups of society close to the people, particularly in the rural community. Like the previous wave, COVID appropriate behavior was very much instrumental in slowing the pace. Adolescents’ self-help groups in coalition with Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI) will be the main stand in the fight against the dreadful virus. Their main role is to translate the prevailing preventive measures into action among the very people they live around. Passing the right message through IEC/BCC to the right people will bring about dramatic changes in the attitude, belief, and exercise they do in their day-to-day life. PRIs members would utilize their powers to execute optimum administrative services. A decentralized approach involving these stakeholders will spearhead the fight against the pandemic. This trifold power shall bear the torchbearer in preventing the disastrous consequences of any upcoming wave, if any, in a holistic manner

Parametric optimization of yield percent of chitosan extracted from fish scale (Labeo rohita) through central composite design approach

Fish scales are extensively found waste materials that take a lot of time to degrade, thereby causing environmental pollution. A sequence of chemical processes involving Demineralization, Deproteinization, and Deacetylation can be effectively used to extract chitosan from the waste fish scale. This study elaborates on the extraction of chitosan from Labeo rohita. The obtained chitosan is efficiently characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, XRF and proximate, analysis. The small particle size (3.3748 µm) and the high surface area (4.046 m2/g) of the produced cost-effective chitosan (0.26 USD/g) justified its use as an antimicrobial filler in producing food-grade plastic. The degree of deacetylation is found to be 52.11%. The biodegradability is explained by its high capacity for water binding (160%) and fat binding (457%). The individual effect of the essential parameters like deacetylation time, deacetylation temperature, and amount of NaOH added, influencing the yield percent,is studied using Central Composite Design approach of Response Surface Methodology. The influence of autolysis time and the ratio of fish scale to HCl acid is also visualized. ANOVA (Analysis of variance) study suggested that the obtained equation for the maximum yield percent is quadratic in nature and is significant for the process. The maximum yield percent of 29.63% is found at optimized conditions of 4.48% of NaOH content, 6.624 hrdeacetylation time and 58.2°C deacetylation temperature

Parametric optimization of yield percent of chitosan extracted from fish scale (Labeo rohita) through central composite design approach

358-373Fish scales have been extensively reported as waste material that takes a lot of time to degrade, causing environmental pollution. This work has been substantiated to summarize a sequence of chemical processes (demineralization, deproteinization, and deacetylation) used for the extraction of useful product like chitosan from fish scale (Labeo rohita). The obtained chitosan have been efficiently characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, XRF, and proximate analysis. The small particle size (3.3748 μm) and the high surface area (4.046 m2/g) of the produced cost-effective chitosan (0.26 USD/g) have justified its applicability as an antimicrobial filler. The degree of deacetylation have been reported to be 52.11% along with a high capacity of water binding (160%) and fat binding (457%), indicating its biodegradable nature. The individual effect of the essential parameters like deacetylation time, deacetylation temperature, and amount of NaOH added, influencing the yield percent have been studied using the central composite design approach of response surface methodology. The maximum yield percent have been reported to be 29.63% for the optimized conditions of 4.48% of NaOH content, 6.624 hr deacetylation time, and 58.2°C deacetylation temperature

Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from chronically infected children with cystic fibrosis in India

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). With chronicity of infection, the organism resides as a biofilm, shows multi-drug resistance, diversifies its colony morphology and becomes auxotrophic. The patients have been found to be colonized with multiple genotypes. The present work was carried out to characterize P. aeruginosa isolated from children with cystic fibrosis using phenotypic and genotypic methods. RESULTS: We studied 56 patients with CF attending the Pediatric Chest clinic at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India during August 1998-August 2001. These patients were regularly followed up at the clinic. Out of 56 patients, 27 were culture positive for P. aeruginosa where 8 were chronically infected (Group1) and 19 were intermittently colonized with the organism (Group2). Patients under Group1 had significantly higher rates of hospitalization, death and colonization with different colony morphotypes (p < 0.05). The isolates from Group1 patients were the positive producers of extended spectrum beta lactamase. A total of 5 auxotrophs were recovered from 2 patients where one was chronically infected with P. aeruginosa and the other was a recently enrolled patient. The auxotrophs had the specific requirement for methionine and arginine. Molecular typing revealed 33 ERIC-PCR (E1-E33) and 5 PCR-ribotyping (P1-P5) patterns. By ERIC-PCR, 4 patients were colonized with 2–4 genotypes and the remaining 23 patients were colonized with the single genotype. CONCLUSION: With chronicity of infection, P. aeruginosa becomes multidrug resistant, diversifies its colony morphology, acquires mucoidity and shows auxotrophy for amino acids. The chronically infected patients can be colonized with multiple genotypes. Thus in a particular clinical set up, high index of suspicion should be there for diagnosis of CF patients so as to prevent the delay in diagnosis and management of CF patients