Biodiesel: Freedom from Dependence on Fossil Fuels?

In view of the depleting oil reserves and exponential rise in petroleum prices, the search for alternative sources of fuel is very timely and important. The present paper addresses the underlying issues in biodiesel production from biomaterials and sustainable production and supply of first-generation biofuels, especially the one from jatropha. The agencies and research institutions involved in the production of biofuels and the national and international efforts made in this regard are discussed here. There is also a dire need of a step towards large-scale production and supply of second-generation biofuels, although in infant stage, to strengthen the world economy in general and Indian economy in particular. However, the production of biofuels are likely to have serious socio-economic implications especially to the lesser developed societies. This needs serious attention from policy makers and public at large

Ethnomedicinal Observations among Forest Dwellers of the Daitari Range of Hills of Orissa, India

Studies on hill tribes’ dependence on forest for their livelihood security are few for Orissa. Ethno medicinal observations in the state with a rich diversity of medicinal plants are still meager. The present study enumerates 21 plant species belonging to 18 families used in the treatment of various diseases among the tribes of Daitari Hill ranges of Orissa. The forest dwellers usually collect those rare plants from the nearby forest which is easily accessible and the medicines are prepared under the guidance of Vaidya or the village medicine man and are applied according to the dosage prescribed by the Vaidya. So this article gives an idea about the application of traditional medicines against various common and serious diseases

The influence of consolidation force on the performance of AFP manufactured laminates

With the increasing use of carbon/glass fibre reinforced polymer composites for large components like wing skins, fuselages and fuel tanks in aircrafts and next generation of spacecraft, utilization of advanced automated manufacturing is critical for mass production. In-situ consolidation in automated fibre placement (AFP) technology through merging several manufacturing stages like cutting, curing and consolidation has opened up a wider range of applications as well as new markets for composite materials in several sectors including aerospace and automobile in large scale. Nevertheless, the quality and integrity of AFP manufactured composites is heavily dependent on large number of variables and parameters like lay-up speed, curing/melting temperature and consolidation force. In order to establish and understand a correlation between the key parameters in AFP and the mechanical properties, several parametric experiments were performed. This is done through manufacturing uni-directional carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates and identifying some of their main mechanical properties at different location along the length of samples. It was found that, the strength of laminates at different locations is critically dependent on the effect of those parameters

Primary mediastinal choriocarcinoma

Primary mediastinal choriocarcinoma is a rare entity and is peculiar only to man. Although rigid criteria such as serial biopsies of the gonads are essential to rule out the possibility of such mediastinal tumor as a metastatic lesion, a review of the literature shows that anterior medlastinum is rarely involved by the metastasis from gonadal tumors. The clinical diagnosis of such a tumor can be made by the presence of the triad of chest pain, cough and gynecomastia in a man in the third decade. The prognosis of such a lesion is uniformly hopeless irrespective of the mode of treatment. A case of primary medlastinal choriocarcinoma in a 22-year-old man has been described. This case brings the total number of cases to 16

Le micocoulier : de l'arbre au fouet

Cet article expose le procédé (peu connu) de fabrication des cravaches et fouets d'attelage à partir de micocoulier du Roussillon, patrimoine mis en valeur de façon traditionnell

INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZER AND WEED MANAGEMENT ON YIELD AND NUTRIENT UPTAKE IN ONION (Allium cepa L.)

A field experiment was conducted to find out appropriate nutrient and weed management practices for yield maximization and nutrient uptake of onion during rabi 2018-19 at the experimental plot of Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station, Keonjhar of Odisha. The experiment was laid out in Split plot technique with fifteen treatments viz., Main plot belongs to Nutrient management (N) with treatments i.e. N1- Soil test based fertilizer recommendation (STBFR), N2 - 50% STBFR + FYM (Based on N requirement), N3-STBFR + Sulphur), while Subplots belongs to weed management (W) with treatments viz., W1- Pendimethalin (PE) @ 0.8 Lha-1, W2- Oxyflurofen (PE) @ 0.2 Lha-1, W3- Pendimethalin (PE) @ 0.8 Lha-1+ one hand weeding at 25 days after transplanting(DAT), W4-Oxyflurofen (PE) @ 0.2 Lha-1+ one hand weeding at 25 days after transplanting(DAT), W5- one hand weeding at 25 days after transplanting (DAT). The highest onion bulb yield of 16.72 t ha-1 was obtained under the treatment applied with Pendimethalin (PE) @ 0.8 Lha-1 along with one hand weeding at 25 DAT, followed by Oxyfluorfen 0.2Lha-1pre-emergence + 1 hand weeding at 25 DAT (15. 88 t ha-1). The treatment combination of N2W3 (96.83, 16.80, 57.73 kg ha-1) was recorded the highest N, P, and K uptake by crops respectively while N3W3 (51.39 kg ha-1) was recorded as the highest S uptake by a crop over the rest of the treatments

Digital technologies, legal design and the future of the legal profession

Legal Technology – or “Legal Tech” – is disrupting the traditional operations and self-understanding of the legal profession. This chapter introduces the central claim of this book, namely that these developments are having and will continue to have a disruptive effect on the work of lawyers and that adapting to this new operating environment is crucial for legal professionals remaining relevant in an increasingly technology-driven world. This introductory chapter outlines some of the main features of this on-going transformation process, introduces some of the pressures it is creating for lawyers, and provides short summaries of the chapters that comprise this collection.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

‘G’ followed by ‘H’-gout follows homoeopathy

Currently in modern medicine, it is seen that taking a uric acid reducing drug during an attack of gout actually prolongs the pain and discomfort. So, the learning is that one need not worry about high uric acid levels during an acute flair of gout. What actually someone needs is an anti-inflammatory that reduces the inflammation caused by the crystals of uric acid that build up in the joints when someone has gout. This anti-inflammatory drug is ‘colchicine’. Homoeopathy has been using the drug ‘colchicum autumnale’ for last 233 years since its discovery in 1790 by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). It also uses its active principle ‘colchicine’ for the last 233 years. It is quite striking to see that the modern medicine is realizing the importance of ‘colchicine’ currently. The same ‘colchicine’ was advised to be used as an anti-inflammatory to reduce the markers like C-reactive protein, LDH, D-dimer and homocysteine. During the COVID-19 peak, again the homoeopathic Colchicine came to the rescue. The current article examines the use of homoeopathy in gout and uric acid problems and again at a larger issue with the protein metabolism and the kidney heath. Integration of homoeopathy at large scale will help the nation to protect its members from protein metabolism disorders, kidney health and gout as well

Application of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing for abiotic stress management in crop plants

Abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, cold, heat, and heavy metals, extensively reducing global agricultural production. Traditional breeding approaches and transgenic technology have been widely used to mitigate the risks of these environmental stresses. The discovery of engineered nucleases as genetic scissors to carry out precise manipulation in crop stress-responsive genes and associated molecular network has paved the way for sustainable management of abiotic stress conditions. In this context, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-Cas (CRISPR/Cas)-based gene-editing tool has revolutionized due to its simplicity, accessibility, adaptability, flexibility, and wide applicability. This system has great potential to build up crop varieties with enhanced tolerance against abiotic stresses. In this review, we summarize the latest findings on understanding the mechanism of abiotic stress response in plants and the application of CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene-editing system towards enhanced tolerance to a multitude of stresses including drought, salinity, cold, heat, and heavy metals. We provide mechanistic insights on the CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing technology. We also discuss applications of evolving genome editing techniques such as prime editing and base editing, mutant library production, transgene free and multiplexing to rapidly deliver modern crop cultivars adapted to abiotic stress conditions