Control of post- harvest fungal diseases of tropical fruits by heat treatment: A review

Present research communication deals with review of impact of heat treatment on post-harvest diseases of tropical fruits.&nbsp

Biochemical status of fruit under the influence of post-harvest fungi: A review

Present research article deals with biochemical changes in fruits due to post-harvest fungi

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON HYDROLYTIC ENZYMES PRODUCED BY DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGICAL FORMS OF CANDIDA ALBICANS

In recent years, the incidence of fungal infections has been rising all over the world. The ability of Candida albicans to switch from yeast to hyphal growth is essential for its virulence. The aim of this comparative study was to biotype and characterize phospholipase, proteinase, phosphatase and haemolytic activities of yeast and hyphal forms of Candida albicans. The hyphal form of Candida albicans secrets high quantity of hydrolytic enzymes than yeast form, which helps in its virulence. These results suggest that pathogenic fungi produce larger amount of inducible hydrolytic enzymes than non-pathogenic fungi. In this investigation, plate methods were used to determine the phospholipase, proteinase and haemolytic activities and spectrophotometric method was employed for testing acid phosphatase activity

New particle formation by ion-induced nucleation during dissipation stage of thunderstorm

A case of new particle formation observed during dissipation stage of a thunderstorm at a tropical station, Pune, India on 3 June 2008 is reported. The flash rate and rainfall intensity increased as high as 110 flashes per 5 minutes and 150 mm hour-1 respectively during the active stage of thunderstorm, and then gradually decreased during the dissipation stage. The number concentration of particles in the size range of 10-100 nm sharply increased from 350 particles cm-3 to ~8000 particles cm-3 during the dissipation stage of a thunderstorm and grew to larger diameter subsequently. Observations suggest that the atmospheric conditions such as (i) reduced background aerosol concentration after heavy rain, (ii) high humidity condition, and (iii) increased ion concentration during the dissipation stage by corona discharges, favoured generation of new particles by ion-induced nucleation (IIN). Observations also suggest that generation of unipolar ions by corona discharges may be more favourable for IIN and subsequent growth of the particles

Anomalous electric field changes and high flash rate beneath a thunderstorm in northeast India

In spite of many experimental and theoretical studies the relationships between storm dynamics, severe weather, and lightning activity have been least understood. Measurements of electric field made under a severe thunderstorm at a northeastern Indian station, Guwahati, India are reported. Lightning flash rate increases drastically to about 84 flashes per minute (fpm) during the active stage which lasted for about 7 minutes, from about 15 flashes per minute during the initial phase of thunderstorm. Sudden increase in lightning flash rate ('lightning jump') of about 65 fpm/min is also observed in the beginning of the active stage. The dissipating stage is marked by slow and steady decrease in lightning frequency. Despite very high flash rate during the active stage, no severe weather conditions are observed at the ground. It is proposed that the short duration of the active stage might be the reason for the non-observance of severe weather conditions at the ground. Analysis of Skew-t graph at Guwahati suggests that vertical distribution of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) also may play some role in non-occurrence of severe weather at ground in spite of large lightning flash rate and lightning jump observed in this thunderstorm. Further, all electric field changes after a lightning discharge indicates the presence of strong Lower Positive Charge Centers (LPCC) in the active and dissipation stages. This suggests that LPCC plays an important role in initiation of lightning discharges in these stages

Hidden Markov model technique for dynamic spectrum access

Dynamic spectrum access is a paradigm used to access the spectrum dynamically. A hidden Markov model (HMM) is one in which you observe a sequence of emissions, but do not know the sequence of states the model went through to generate the emissions. Analysis of hidden Markov models seeks to recover the sequence of states from the observed data. In this paper, we estimate the occupancy state of channels using hidden Markov process. Using Viterbi algorithm, we generate the most likely states and compare it with the channel states. We generated two HMMs, one slowly changing and another more dynamic and compare their performance. Using the Baum-Welch algorithm and maximum likelihood algorithm we calculated the estimated transition and emission matrix, and then we compare the estimated states prediction performance of both the methods using stationary distribution of average estimated transition matrix calculated by both the methods

Impacts of leaf extract of Catharanthus roseus (L.) on seed mycoflora of soybean

Present research communication deals with study impact of Catharanthus roseus (L.) leaf extract on seed borne fungi of soybean seeds.&nbsp

Physico-Chemical Analysis of Effluents from Dairy Industry

The treated and untreated effluents samples from dairy industry were collected and brought in to laboratory for studying physicochemical parameters like pH, temp, color, DO, BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, TS, Chloride Sulphate, Oil & grease were analyzed

Antimicrobial activity of medicinal plant to control seed borne pathogen of soybean

Several species of fungi belonging to 12 genera viz. Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor mucedo, Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizopus stolonifer, Cephalosporium acromonium, Rhizopus leguminicola, Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum dematium, Macrophomina phaseolina, Phoma sp., Sclerotium rolfsii and Curvularia lunata were isolated from seeds of soybean cultivars. Among these fungi Aspergillus flavus,  Fusarium oxysporum, and  Alternaria alternata were found to  dominant. Seed borne fungi of soybean can be controlled by using leaf extract of medicinal plant and biocontrol agent. The seeds were treated with leaf extracts of plants like, Azadirachta indica A.Juss., Acacia nilotica (L.) Del., Datura stramonium L., Polyalthia longifolia (Sooner.)Thw., Allium sativum L. and Annona squamosa. An attempt has made to know the efficacy of leaf extract by food poisoning technique. Among these plants Polyalthia longifolia Thw., Allium sativum L. and Azadirachta indica A. Juss. Were more effective than other plants. All these plant extracts showed inhibitory effect on linear growth of dominant fungi