Gibberellic acid (GA3) can shorten the grafting cycle through enhanced seedling growth and biomass in cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.)

Due to the slow growth of cashew seedlings, nurserymen and growers have to wait for more time for taking up softwood grafting operations to market or planting them. The use of growth regulators has resulted in a shortening of propagation time in many fruit crops. Therefore, the nursery experiment was conducted to study the effect of foliar spray of GA3 and NAA on the growth and biomass of cashew seedlings. Five treatments viz., control and foliar application of GA3 @ 50 ppm, GA3 @ 100 ppm, NAA @ 50 ppm and NAA 100 ppm were replicated four times in completely randomized design. Growth regulators were sprayed on 10 days old seedlings of cashew cultivar Vengurla-4. Cashew seedlings sprayed with GA3 @ 100 ppm recorded highest shoot length, seedling length and girth, leaf numbers, shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight. However, spraying of NAA @ 100 ppm recorded maximum root length and highest root fresh weight and root dry weight. Irrespective of the treatments, most of the seedling growth parameters increased as days progressed. Post germination sprays with GA3 @ 100 ppm can be effectively employed for increasing the seedling growth of cashew which would help in producing healthy seedlings in a short period for advancing the grafting operations and in turn reduce the duration of propagation as well as the cost of seedling production. &nbsp

Effect of plant growth regulators on leaf area, chlorophyll content, carotenoids, stomatal count and yield of cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) var. Bhaskara

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of exogenous application of growth regulators at three important growth stages(flushing, flowering and fruiting) on leaf area, chlorophyll content, carotenoids, stomatal count and yield of cashew var. Bhaskara.Irrespective of growth stages, foliar application of GA3 @ 50 ppm and ethrel @ 50 ppm was found to be superior in all theparameters and on par with each other compared to other growth regulators. Out of nine treatments of different growth regulators;the highest leaf area was recorded in trees sprayed with GA3 @ 50 ppm and ethrel @ 50 ppm. At flushing stage, spraying with GA3@ 50 ppm resulted in highest stomatal number (21.9) and carotenoids (0.41) whereas unsprayed (control) trees recorded leaststomatal number (11.6) and carotenoids (0.19). Thus, leaf area, chlorophyll content, carotenoids and stomatal count increased intrees sprayed with growth regulators than unsprayed trees. Spraying of ethrel @ 50 ppm recorded highest nut yield(14.3 kg tree-1) followed by NAA @ 25 ppm + GA3 50 ppm (12.9 kg tree-1). This study demonstrated the potential of ethrel as wellas GA3 in improving various biochemical parameters viz., chlorophyll ‘a’, chlorophyll ‘b’, carotenoids and leaf area in cashewwhich are important determinants in increasing nut production

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Development of Eco-Sustainable Silica-Reinforced Natural Hybrid Polymer Composites for Automotive Applications

The increasing demand for eco-friendly materials and technology has made the industry focus on bio-compatible composites. This made the researchers explore the potential of eco-friendly, bio-degradable, and inexpensive banana fibre for automotive applications. This work reports the preparation and testing of banana fibre natural hybrid composite fibres randomly oriented with and without adding silica filler (5–15 wt.%) through a hand lay-up process. The mechanical properties such as tensile modulus, flexural modulus, hardness, impact strength, and water absorption capacity were measured. Composite specimens having a fibre length of 30 mm (15 wt.% of silica) exhibited better mechanical properties. The hardness, tensile, flexural, and impact strength measured were 46.74 HV, 54.71 MPa, 127.94 MPa, and 15.19 kJ/m2. The results showed significant improvement in mechanical properties in silica-reinforced hybrid composite compared to composites without silica filler. The wt.% of banana fibre increases, and the number of free hydroxyls (-OH) groups increases in cellulose, increasing moisture absorption. The pattern in which the composite absorbs the moisture at room temperature is called “Fickian behaviour.” Furthermore, scanning electron microscope (SEM) characterisation studied the interaction between fibre matrix and the distribution of silica reinforcement. This research concludes that bio-composites that exhibit improved mechanical properties are eco-friendly and are found to be suitable for automotive applications that meet present-day requirements

Individualized Medicine for Renal Cell Carcinoma: Establishment of Primary Cell Line Culture from Surgical Specimens

BACKGROUND: The lack of effective "in vivo" and "in vitro" models to predict success of pharmacological therapy for patients with renal cell carcinoma, as well as, the variety of cancer cell types demands the development of better experimental models to understand the pathophysiology of the disease and evaluate drug sensitivity in vitro. PURPOSE: To develop primary renal cancer cell culture irrespective of tumor grade and tumor type, harvested from the patient's pathological specimen immediately after the laparoscopic radical nephrectomy to study potential "in vivo" pharmacological sensitivity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 24 patients (17 males and 7 females). Mean age of 63.1+/-3.1 y.o. The mean size of the renal masses was 7.56+/-3.1 cm. Normal and pathological renal tissue was collected immediately after the specimen was extracted and submitted to enzymatic digestion for 16-24 hours. Clear cell carcinoma cells were selected through multiple passages in DMEM medium supplemented with glucose and antibiotics. RESULTS: Establishment of cell line culture from all the patients' specimens irrespective of tumor grade and tumor type was achieved successfully. In addition to the tumor cell line culture, normal parenchyma tissue yielded primary cell lines to allow testing the response of tumor types to various pharmacological therapeutic agents and toxicity of such treatments to healthy tissue. From the initial collection of the specimens obtained after the removal of the kidney to the development of cell lines took occurred in average 32+6 hrs. The cells in culture showed characteristics of epithelial cells; like expression on cytokeratin and were maintained in culture for more than 20 passages. CONCLUSION: The development of renal cancer cell cultures in vitro is labor intense but may yield a more realistic model to tailor pharmacological therapies and predict therapeutic success prior to "in vivo" application-a step in the direction of individualized medicine for RCC.The authors gratefully acknowledge support from NIH- 2RO1DKO54084 (H. Koul) and the Department of Surgery, School of Medicine University of Colorado Denver AEF-seed grant funds (F. Kim and H. Koul)