STUDIES ON PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, TANNINS CONTENT AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY FROM LEAF AND CALLUS EXTRACTS OF MEMECYLON UMBELLATUM.

Objective: This study aims to determine the phytochemical screening, tannins content, and antibacterial activity from leaf and callus extracts of Memecylon umbellatum.Methods: Preliminary screening involved the qualitative methods to detect the presence of terpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, steroids, quinones, saponins, cardiac glycosides, and alkaloids. Total tannins contents were quantitatively estimated with tannic acid as standard. Different concentrations of ethanolic leaf and callus extracts were tested using the agar disc diffusion technique for the antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli.Results: The phytochemical analysis of leaf and callus extract of M. umbellatum revealed the presence of significant secondary metabolites such as tannins, saponins, quinones, cardiac glycosides, phenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids, and alkaloids. The total tannins content in callus and leaf extract were found to be 11.37 mg tannic acid equivalents (TAE)/g and 7.1 mg TAE/g, respectively. The antibacterial activity of ethanolic leaf and callus extracts of M. umbellatum shown more active against B. subtilis. Both the callus and leaf extract of M. umbellatum was found to be inactiveagainst E. coli.Conclusion: It was concluded that the powerful antibacterial effect is attributed to the greater amount of tannin compounds in the ethanolic callus extracts of M. umbellatum.Â

Diagnostic Methods For Breeding Pearl Millet With Farmers In Rajasthan

The role of local farmers in ICRISAT's pearl millet improvement project for Rajasthan has changed: from unidentifiedsuppliers oflocalgermplasm to the base materialof a formal breeding program, to active collaborators in selection and variety development. On-farm trials, designed to expose farmers to a wide range of diversity for traits that the local landraces do not'possess, provided the starting point for this change in farmers' roles. Farmers' evalua tions of this new diversity have provided insight into theirpreferences for specific traits and their production objectives, thus allowing the breeding program to focus on improving traits of primay interest for farmers in the target region. Farmers from different regions, and farmers representing different socialgroups prefer different traits and place different emphasis on yield stability versus maximizing yield in favorable years. Interested farmers have selected among a widerrange of advanced experin~entavl arieties in onstation trials. Their selections reflect the needs of their conlmunities and production conditior)s. Farmers' traditional strategies for seed selection andpreservation vary among individuals willlin a village and across regions. Farn?ers are exploiting the variability generated by the natural outcrossing between the local landraces and the experitnental cultivars. An initial on-station evaluation of the effect of this selection indicates that farmers are selecting elfeclively for improved productivity

An intelligent payment card fraud detection system

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this recordPayment cards offer a simple and convenient method for making purchases. Owing to the increase in the usage of payment cards, especially in online purchases, fraud cases are on the rise. The rise creates financial risk and uncertainty, as in the commercial sector, it incurs billions of losses each year. However, real transaction records that can facilitate the development of effective predictive models for fraud detection are difficult to obtain, mainly because of issues related to confidentially of customer information. In this paper, we apply a total of 13 statistical and machine learning models for payment card fraud detection using both publicly available and real transaction records. The results from both original features and aggregated features are analyzed and compared. A statistical hypothesis test is conducted to evaluate whether the aggregated features identified by a genetic algorithm can offer a better discriminative power, as compared with the original features, in fraud detection. The outcomes positively ascertain the effectiveness of using aggregated features for undertaking real-world payment card fraud detection problems

Participatory Approaches in Pearl Millet Breeding

It is the objective of this chapter to explore opportunities for involving farmers in the process of breeding varieties of an open-pollinated crop. We describe and discuss here the methods we used to interact with farmers and report results relevant to pearl millet breeding for Rajasthan. The description and analysis of methods and specific results of farmers participation in this breeding programme is divided into four sections corresponding to the four major stages of the cycle of any breeding programme (Schnell, 1982): evaluating varieties; selection among experimental varieties; generating new variability and segregating populations; and defining goals for the breeding programme. This will facilitate the comparison and application of these results to other situations

Sustainable Smart Polymer Composite Materials: A Comprehensive Review

This review provides a thorough analysis of the progress made in smart polymer composite materials, which have recently been seen as potential game-changers in areas such as construction, aerospace, biomedical engineering, and energy. This article emphasizes the distinctive characteristics of these materials, including their responsiveness to stimuli like temperature, light, and pressure, and their potential uses in different industries. This paper also examines the difficulties and restrictions associated with the creation and utilization of smart polymer composite materials. This review seeks to provide a thorough understanding of smart polymer composite materials and their potential to offer innovative solutions for a variety of applications

Search for CP Violation in the Decay Z -> b (b bar) g

About three million hadronic decays of the Z collected by ALEPH in the years 1991-1994 are used to search for anomalous CP violation beyond the Standard Model in the decay Z -> b \bar{b} g. The study is performed by analyzing angular correlations between the two quarks and the gluon in three-jet events and by measuring the differential two-jet rate. No signal of CP violation is found. For the combinations of anomalous CP violating couplings, ${\hat{h}}_b = {\hat{h}}_{Ab}g_{Vb}-{\hat{h}}_{Vb}g_{Ab}$ and $h^{\ast}_b = \sqrt{\hat{h}_{Vb}^{2}+\hat{h}_{Ab}^{2}}$, limits of \hat{h}_b < 0.59$and$h^{\ast}_{b} < 3.02$ are given at 95\% CL.Comment: 8 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses here.sty, epsfig.st

Search for the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) in gamma gamma collisions

Data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 have been used to search for gamma gamma production of the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) via their decay to pi+pi-. No signal is observed and upper limits to the product of gamma gamma width and pi+pi- branching ratio of the f0(1500) and the fJ(1710) have been measured to be Gamma_(gamma gamma -> f0(1500)). BR(f0(1500)->pi+pi-) < 0.31 keV and Gamma_(gamma gamma -> fJ(1710)). BR(fJ(1710)->pi+pi-) < 0.55 keV at 95% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure