Role of Higher Education Institutions in Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development: A case study of Shivaji University, Maharashtra, India.

The ever increasing population and changing lifestyles are making the environmental problems more critical. Higher educational institutions can be the best solution to solve this situation. Higher education can play a crucial role in sustainable development of any nation. As environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue for the world, the role of higher educational institutions in relation to environmental sustainability is more prevalent. Universities are the apex bodies in higher education system and can provide environmental education through its curricular design, research and collaborative efforts with NGO’s working in those areas. They can provide trained manpower and knowledgeable expertise to solve critical environmental problems. They can also act as a good networking system and data collector. Shivaji University is one of the significant higher education institution located in heart of Western Ghats working with the same goal of environmental sustainability through various activities. The paper examines the efforts taken by higher education in environmental development in the areas of creating healthy environment and conservation of resources. Key words: Role of Higher education, Environmental protection, Universities, sustainable developmen

Reduction of Cd(II)-Itaconate & Cd(II)-Oxalate-Itaconate Complexes at d.m.e.

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Isolation, Screening and Characterization of Exopolysaccharide Producing Pseudomonas Sp. from The Soil Sample

  Exopolysaccharides (EPS) are vital metabolites that specific environmental microorganisms produce and expel. The goal of the current investigation is to identify bacteria that produce exopolysaccharides in soil samples from the Buttenath Dam region, At. Chanai, Tq. Ambajogai, Dist. Beed situated in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, India. Two methods, such as gravimetric analysis of exopolysaccharide dry weight and quantification as, instance, for total carbohydrate content using phenol sulphuric acid technique, were used to screen the EPS-producing capacities of the chosen isolates. Post preliminary screening by selecting thick, ropy-like colony formers on agar medium, the results showed that thirteen (13) distinct colonies were marked to manufacture EPS. Tentative identification of these isolates was done based on morphological and biochemical tests. Three (03) isolates, VJ001, VJ003 and VJ010, were identified through secondary screening as the most effective EPS producers (producing precipitates over 1.46 mg/L of total dry weight and 8). This was in comparison to other bacterial colonies that were also isolated. Out of these screened isolates, VJ003 was the isolate with the highest exopolysaccharide produced and this isolated bacterium was identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence and phylogeny study as Pseudomonas aeruginosa VJ003 with NCBI GeneBank accession no. OR196093. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa VJ003 strain can be used in biotechnological sectors because of the ability it has to create significant levels of exopolysaccharides, according to the results of the current study

Ex-HABE with User Accountability for Secure Access Control in Cloud

Data outsourcing is becoming a useful and feasible paradigm with the rapid application of service-oriented technologies. Many researchers have tried combination of access control and cryptography to propose a model to protect sensitive information in this outsourcing scenario. However, these combinations in existing approaches have difficulty in key management and key distribution when fine-grained data access is required. Taking the complexity of fine-grained access control policy and the wide-reaching users of cloud in account, this issue would become extremely difficult to iron out. Various system models using attribute-based encryption (ABE) have been proposed however, most of them suffer from heavy overhead in implementing the access control policies. In this paper, a system is proposed with extended hierarchical attribute-based encryption (HABE) by using ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (ABE). It uses the hierarchical structure of users and bilinear mapping for generating the keys for various data handlers. Also the system focuses on user tracking by allocating an unique id to user. The system uses traitor tracing along with separation of duty made available by HABE and reduces the scope of key abuse. It is formally proved extended HABE with traitor tracing adds on to user accountability if user tracking for resource is maintained for hierarchical systems. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.16042

Intranasal Mice Model to Study the role of Bordetella pertussis antigens in Immunity

699-702Pertussis known as whooping cough is a highly contagious disease. Whole cell pertussis vaccine is the most economical and effective strategy for preventing and controlling pertussis. The efficacy of whole cell vaccine is ascertained most commonly by intracerebral challenge assay, but it does not reflect the true efficacy of vaccine as Pertussis essentially is a respiratory disease. Therefore, in order to mimic the natural infection, intranasal challenge model in mice was developed. In intranasal challenge assay mice were immunized with vaccine and challenged through intranasal route. Mice lungs were dissected and examined for bacterial count. The degree of count was related to efficacy of vaccine, higher count indicated low efficacy and low count pointed to better efficacy

Synthesis of active electrocatalysts using glycine–nitrate chemistry

Due to sluggish oxygen reduction reactions, development in the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) field is stagnant. Two solutions, increasing the active surface or use of precious materials, can stimulate the oxygen reduction kinetics on electrodes. Thus, to gain both these benefits, the present article addressed the synthesis of high surface-area mixed oxide ionic–electronic conductor La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (LSCF) using chemistry of the propellant glycine–nitrate reaction. In this study, different fuel to oxidant ratios (ψ), 2.0, 2.6, and 3.0 were used to control the exothermicity of reaction and powder properties. The maximum reaction temperature of 1337 K at ψ = 3.0 resulted in coarsened powder. In contrast, comparatively less exothermicity of reaction at ψ = 2.0 resulted in powder with substantial Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of 10.97 m2 g−1, with maximum powder compaction achieved at sintering of 1273 K. With optimal direct current in-plane electrical conductivity of 341 S cm−1, H2-temperature-programmed reduction showed excellent catalytic activity for the sample obtained at ψ = 2.0. The electrochemical performance comparisons of electrodes in two different cell geometries – with and without a gold catalytic current collecting layer (Au–CCCL) – revealed the least polarization and cell resistance in the cell with Au–CCCL. The electrode area specific resistance and cell conductivity using Au–CCCL were 0.097 Ω cm−2 and 0.15 S cm−1, respectively.publishe

Antioxidant and antihyperglycemic potential of methanolic extract of bark of mimusops elengi l. In mice

Ayurveda refers Mimusops elengi L. for the treatment of the diabetes. Considering the traditional claim of M. elengi in management of diabetes and the possible involvement of oxidative stress in pathogenesis of diabetes, the present study was aimed to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and in vivo antihyperglycemic property of methanolic extract of bark of M. elengi (MEMeOH). In vitro antioxidant activity of MEMeOH was evaluated using reducing power assay, DPPH and hydroxyl radical scavenging assay. MEMeOH offered significant in vitro reducing power capacity and radical scavenging activity. In acute study in alloxan induced diabetes, MEMeOH exhibited significant (p< 0.001) antihyperglycemic effect. The onset of antihyperglycemic effect was observed at 2nd hr; peak activity was demonstrated at 6th hr. The antihyperglycemic effect of MEMeOH 400mg/kg, p.o. was persistent up to 24th hr after drug administration. MEMeOH produced significant (p < 0.01) reduction in elevated glucose levels in glucose loaded non diabetic animals. The onset of action in non diabetic oral glucose tolerance test was found to be at 60th min and peak activity was observed at 120th min after oral glucose load. MEMeOH demonstrated significant (p < 0.01) reduction in elevated glucose levels 2hr before glucose administration and 6 hr after glucose load in oral glucose tolerance test in diabetic animals. MEMeOH has demonstrated antihyperglycemic activity in diabetic as well as non diabetic glucose loaded mice. MEMeOH should be further explored against diabetes and related complications.Keywords: Mimusops elengi; antihyperglycemic, antioxidant, DPPH, diabetic OGT

Packed hybrid silica nanoparticles as sorbents with thermo-switchable surface chemistry and pore size for fast extraction of environmental pollutants

Thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-grafted silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) have been synthesized and fully characterized by ATR-FTIR, TGA, HRTEM, BET and DLS analysis. Hybrid solid phase extraction (SPE) beds with tuneable pore size and switchable surface chemistry were prepared by packing the polymergrafted nanoparticles inside SPE cartridges. The cartridges were tested by checking the thermoregulated elution of model compounds, namely methylene blue, caffeine and amoxicillin. Extraction of the analytes and regeneration of the interaction sites on the sorbent surface was carried out entirely in water solution by changing the external temperature below and above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the polymer. The results demonstrate that the elution of model compounds depends on the temperature-regulated size of the inter-particle voids and on the change of surface properties of the PNIPAM-grafted nanoparticles from hydrophilic to hydrophobic