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

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF A HEAT SINK WITH DIMPLES

In this paper, a numerical simulation is carried out to analyse the heat transfer performance of copper channel. COMSOLMULTIPHYSICS commercial software is used for the analysis. The material chosen for the channel is copper because of its good thermal properties. A channel with dimples on its base is chosen for the analysis. The heat transfer of the microchannel is found to increase with the use of dimples.Â

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

Spherical Casimir energies and Dedekind sums

Casimir energies on space-times having general lens spaces as their spatial sections are shown to be given in terms of generalised Dedekind sums related to Zagier's. These are evaluated explicitly in certain cases as functions of the order of the lens space. An easily implemented recursion approach is used.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, v2:typos corrected, inessential equation in Discussion altered. v3:typos corrected, 1 reference and comments added. v4:typos corrected. Ancillary results added in an appendi

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

DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MUCOADHESIVE GASTRO SPHERES OF CARVEDILOL

Objective: The purpose of this study was to design mucoadhesive gastro spheres of carvedilol targeting to upper GIT, and optimize it in terms of its entrapment efficiency and drug release. A 32 full factorial design was employed to study the effect of independent variables like sodium alginate and sodium carboxyl methyl cellulose on entrapment efficiency and in vitro drug release. Methods: Mucoadhesive gastro spheres were prepared by Orifice-Ionic gelation method, in which drug is uniformly distributed in the polymer solution so drug can be loaded easily in the polymer.32 full factorial designs were used to study the effect of process variables on formulation characteristics by applying statistical analysis. Results: FTIR, XRD and DSC analyses apparently did not indicate any interaction of the drug with the polymers. However, the drug content, drug entrapment efficiency and morphology of the gastro spheres were found to be influenced by the method of preparation, composition of gastro spheres as well as exposure to the cross linking agent. In vitro drug release study showed that drug release can be modified by varying drug to polymer ratio. The release rate was found to be decreased in accordance with the increase in the ratio of polymer used. Conclusion: From the study, we successfully developed carvedilol gastro spheres by using mucoadhesive polymer like SCMC and rate retardant sodium alginate polymer

Coordinated analysis of two graphite grains from the CO3.0 LAP 031117 meteorite: First identification of a CO Nova graphite and a presolar iron sulfide subgrain

Presolar grains constitute remnants of stars that existed before the formation of the solar system. In addition to providing direct information on the materials from which the solar system formed, these grains provide ground-truth information for models of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. Here we report the in-situ identification of two unique presolar graphite grains from the primitive meteorite LaPaz Icefield 031117. Based on these two graphite grains, we estimate a bulk presolar graphite abundance of 5-3+7 ppm in this meteorite. One of the grains (LAP-141) is characterized by an enrichment in 12C and depletions in 33,34S, and contains a small iron sulfide subgrain, representing the first unambiguous identification of presolar iron sulfide. The other grain (LAP-149) is extremely 13C-rich and 15N-poor, with one of the lowest 12C/13C ratios observed among presolar grains. Comparison of its isotopic compositions with new stellar nucleosynthesis and dust condensation models indicates an origin in the ejecta of a low-mass CO nova. Grain LAP-149 is the first putative nova grain that quantitatively best matches nova model predictions, providing the first strong evidence for graphite condensation in nova ejecta. Our discovery confirms that CO nova graphite and presolar iron sulfide contributed to the original building blocks of the solar system.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Pathogenic and Molecular Characterization of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri Causing Chickpea Wilt through ISSR Markers

In the present investigation the pathogenic and genetic variability was assayed, amongst the seven isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri (Foc) collected from different agro-climatic zones of Maharashtra State, India. The isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.ciceri were confirmed by SCAR marker which yielded 1.5 KD band. The pathogenicity of each isolate was confirmed using the wilt susceptible chickpea genotype JG-62. On the basis of pathogenic ability the isolates were grouped as highly pathogenic (FOC-2, FOC-5, FOC-6), strongly pathogenic (FOC-1,FOC-3) and moderately pathogenic (FOC-4,FOC-7). Eight Inter Simple Sequence Repeats primers (ISSRs) were used to determine the genetic variability in seven isolates Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri. The seven primers produced 80 scorable bands. Off 80 bands, 73 bands were polymorphic and average level of polymorphism was 91.25 per cent. In UPGMA analysis, Foc-1 (Wardha) was found to have higher value of similarity coefficient (0.8375) whereas Foc-2 (Lonar) was found to have lower value of similarity coefficient (0.4625). The isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.ciceri were grouped into two major clusters. First group, cluster-A includes isolates belonging to Wardha, Washim and Lonar. Second group, cluster-B includes Nashik, Ahmednagar, Rahuri and Pune. It shows that Foc-1 (Wardha) have higher value of similarity coefficient with Foc-3 (Washim) whereas Foc-2 (Lonar) have lower value of similarity coefficient with Foc-5 (Ahmednagar).The similarity matrix indicated that seven isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.ciceri exhibited in between 46-84 per cent similarity coefficient