Mapping an atlas of tissue-specific drosophila melanogaster metabolomes by high resolution mass spectrometry

Metabolomics can provide exciting insights into organismal function, but most work on simple models has focussed on the whole organism metabolome, so missing the contributions of individual tissues. Comprehensive metabolite profiles for ten tissues from adult Drosophila melanogaster were obtained here by two chromatographic methods, a hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) method for polar metabolites and a lipid profiling method also based on HILIC, in combination with an Orbitrap Exactive instrument. Two hundred and forty two polar metabolites were putatively identified in the various tissues, and 251 lipids were observed in positive ion mode and 61 in negative ion mode. Although many metabolites were detected in all tissues, every tissue showed characteristically abundant metabolites which could be rationalised against specific tissue functions. For example, the cuticle contained high levels of glutathione, reflecting a role in oxidative defence; the alimentary canal (like vertebrate gut) had high levels of acylcarnitines for fatty acid metabolism, and the head contained high levels of ether lipids. The male accessory gland uniquely contained decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine. These data thus both provide valuable insights into tissue function, and a reference baseline, compatible with the FlyAtlas.org transcriptomic resource, for further metabolomic analysis of this important model organism, for example in the modelling of human inborn errors of metabolism, aging or metabolic imbalances such as diabetes

Micropropagation and conservation of selected endangered anticancer medicinal plants from the Western Ghats of India

Globally, cancer is a constant battle which severely affects the human population. The major limitations of the anticancer drugs are the deleterious side effects on the quality of life. Plants play a vital role in curing many diseases with minimal or no side effects. Phytocompounds derived from various medicinal plants serve as the best source of drugs to treat cancer. The global demand for phytomedicines is mostly reached by the medicinal herbs from the tropical nations of the world even though many plant species are threatened with extinction. India is one of the mega diverse countries of the world due to its ecological habitats, latitudinal variation, and diverse climatic range. Western Ghats of India is one of the most important depositories of endemic herbs. It is found along the stretch of south western part of India and constitutes rain forest with more than 4000 diverse medicinal plant species. In recent times, many of these therapeutically valued herbs have become endangered and are being included under the red-listed plant category in this region. Due to a sharp rise in the demand for plant-based products, this rich collection is diminishing at an alarming rate that eventually triggered dangerous to biodiversity. Thus, conservation of the endangered medicinal plants has become a matter of importance. The conservation by using only in situ approaches may not be sufficient enough to safeguard such a huge bio-resource of endangered medicinal plants. Hence, the use of biotechnological methods would be vital to complement the ex vitro protection programs and help to reestablish endangered plant species. In this backdrop, the key tools of biotechnology that could assist plant conservation were developed in terms of in vitro regeneration, seed banking, DNA storage, pollen storage, germplasm storage, gene bank (field gene banking), tissue bank, and cryopreservation. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to critically review major endangered medicinal plants that possess anticancer compounds and their conservation aspects by integrating various biotechnological tool

An Insight to Micropropagation of Freshwater Aquatic Medicinal Plants

Freshwater aquatic plants include medicinal and ornamental species: have limited demand and rarely micropropagated. Most of them are found in Southeast Asian environments as amphibians or fully submerged or floating in lakes, streams, and watercourses that are ignored as weeds. These plants have never been central focuses and were not looked for characteristic proliferation. It is difficult to multiply these plants using traditional techniques through seeds or natural proliferation of rhizomes or cuttings by maintaining quality. Rare and fragmented but important information about micropropagation of these neglected plants has been discussed in this chapter. There are certain aquatic or semiaquatic medicinal plants for which no effort has been made to propagate in vitro. Contrarily, plants like water hyssop have extensive in vitro regeneration protocols due to its high demand. This study compares methodologies used by researchers to micropropagate these plants. It is concluded that this study will help in understanding and establishing systems for scientific propagation of these plants. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Macro & micro-feature fabrication on external cylindrical surface using perimetric electrical discharge texturing

Abstract Machining of thin walled lesser stiff rotationally symmetric components is quite challenging. Electric discharge texturing is one among many of the material removing texture fabrication techniques. Extensive research has been performed for wire electric discharge machining by various researchers but so far very little effort has been made for electric discharge texturing on cylindrical surface. No one has attempted for texturing on thin walled cylindrical components. In the present study, preliminary trial experiment was conducted to evaluate suitability of newly developed Electric Discharge Machining technique i.e. Perimetric Electric Discharge Texturing (PEDT). A Perimetric Work Support &amp; Drive System (PWSDS) was developed for Die sinker EDM to perform texturing on thin walled difficult to machine circular components used in aviation, automobile and heat transfer applications. Experimental setup was prepared for ENC-35 (Die sinker EDM). Trial experiment were performed at low current on Aluminium alloy (EN AW-6082-AlSi1MgMn) tube using copper electrode. Process was investigated for the effect of current and current density on MRR, surface roughness and geometrical accuracies (circularity, concentricity). The dielectric Dearomatized hydrocarbon fluid EDM100 was applied through nozzle to flush out the material removed by melting and evaporation. It was found that very small current quickly removes a very thin layer of the surface material without much damage to the base metal and improves the surface finish. The circularity is found to be dependent upon the run out accuracy of the spinning drive wheel. PEDT proves out to be most promising method of metal removing texturing technique specially for lesser stiff typical components.</jats:p

Development of Centreless Electric Discharge Grinding Machining Process and Optimization of Process Parameters

Aims &amp; Objective: Producing thin walled rotationally symmetrical parts of difficult-to-machine materials by electrical discharge machining is an evolving field of research. Poor heat transmissivity, high hot strength and in-process deflection of thin walled Inconel 600 parts puts great challenge for its processing by conventional machining methods. Methods: In this study a novel hybrid process called centreless electric discharge grinding(CEDG) is employed for machining of Inconel 600 tubes using rotating disc wheel electrode to improve process parameters. This paper details about the experimental findings of the influence of four process parameters viz. pulse on time, peak current, gap voltage, and duty cycle on the responses viz. average material removal rate (MRR) and average surface roughness(Ra). Response surface method’s (RSM) central composite design was implemented to determine the effects of parameters on responses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques were employed to establish the adequacy of the mathematical models and to analyse the significance of regression coefficients. RSM’s desirability approach was used to solve the multi-response optimization. Results: It was clearly noticed that the peak current and gap voltage were the most influential parameters to affect the MRR and surface roughness. Maximum average MRR of 473 mg per min. was achieved at pulse on time 60µs, peak current 25 amps, gap voltage 40 V, at duty cycle of 8 while minimum average surface roughness of 8.4 µm Ra was obtained at pulse on time 40µs, peak current 15 amps, gap voltage 40 V, and duty cycle 6. Conclusion: Confirmation run was conducted by adjusting the variables at optimal level within the selected range. It was concluded that optimum level of variables can be determined for optimized responses prior to conduct of experiment. </jats:sec

Ethno-medico-biological studies of South India

116-118Some ethno-biological observations have been made amongst the aboriginals of the South India for their traditional method of treatment using animals and their products. They live in harmony with the nature. They are using many drugs of animal origin (birds, fishes, reptiles, ants, insects, mammals, etc.) They are using entire organism or their body parts and products such as flesh, bones, teeth, bone marrow, blood, fat, testicles, semen; other secretion products such as milk, butter, ghee, honey, and even metabolic products like urine and excreta of not only the domesticated animals but also of the wild animals. Over all, 42 animals were identified as drug producing and recorded by their zoological names

A new method for automated reconstruction of pre-transformation microstructures

A new method, referred to as the cluster method, is proposed and tested for the reconstruction of pre-transformation microstructure in Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The cluster method begins by constructing clusters of daughter grains (room-temperature hcp -phase) that have a high probability of being transformed from the same parent grain (high-temperature bcc -phase). These clusters are then grown, and back-transformed to the parent grain orientations using the summation of mutual misorientation angle method' (SMMA method). The cluster method is validated by comparing the obtained results with the results of the SMMA and triplet methods