IN VITRO ANALYSIS OF ORNITHINE DECARBOXYLASE INHIBITORY ACTIVITY OF THE EXTRACTS OF EXCOECARIA AGALLOCHA L.

Objective: Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) is one of the key enzymes involved in polyamine synthesis that has a prominent regulatory role in cell growth in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Its regulation/inhibition is a potential means of controlling cell growth. The purpose of the study was to check the effect of the methanol extracts of leaves and seeds of the mangrove plant Excoecaria agallocha in controlling/inhibiting ODC enzyme produced by Escherichia coli.Methods: The methanol extracts of leaves and seeds of the mangrove plant E. agallocha were made. The inhibitory effect of the extracts on ODC enzyme produced by E. coli was tested by a modified spectrophotometric assay (measured in terms of µM of putrescine produced), and the antibacterial effect of the extract was determined by well diffusion assay.Results: It was found that both the leaf and seed extracts inhibited ODC activity thereby preventing the conversion of ornithine to putrescine (the prominent by-product of ODC activity) in a concentration-dependent manner. The leaf extract exhibited 50% inhibition of ODC activity at a concentration of 17.5 µg/ml whereas seed extract inhibited 50% of the activity at a concentration of 16.1 µg/ml. In the growth inhibition assay by well diffusion method, the effect of the extracts on the growth of E. coli was studied and a concentration-dependent growth inhibition was found - 100 µl of leaf extract showed a zone of inhibition of 12.31 mm (diameter) and seed extract showed 12.64 mm, confirming the antibacterial activity of the extracts.Conclusion: The ODC inhibition-mediated growth inhibition of E. coli is a novel finding as far as the extracts of E. agallocha are concerned. The extract was potent enough to be suggested as an antibacterial agent.Keywords: Ornithine decarboxylase, Excoecaria agallocha, Escherichia coli, Ornithine decarboxylase inhibition, Putrescine, Ornithine, Antibacterial effect

Nanotechnology in Herbicide Resistance

Herbicide market in agriculture is a multi‐billion dollar industry with sophisticated multi‐impact issues, with increased weed resistance at the topmost. Nanoherbicides under development in the current decade could be a new strategy to address all the problems caused by the conventional non‐nanoherbicides. With polymeric nanoparticles often used as nanocarriers for herbicide delivery, the current era has seen the rise of new nanoparticles‐based delivery systems. As the potential use of nanostructured materials enables the use of herbicides effectively and rules out the emergence of weed‐resistant population at an early stage, these very desirable nanotechnological practices in agriculture are reviewed here

Correlation study between total calcium, ionized calcium, serum albumin and their significance with Vitamin D.

Calcium is an essential but controversial nutrient: there is no consensus on the level of human calcium requirement or the significance of calcium deficiency. Apart from providing rigidity to the skeleton, an alternate metabolic form of calcium viz., ionized calcium plays a key role in the biochemical and metabolic functions. The protection of this critical concentration by parathyroid hormone and vitamin D reflects the vital role that calcium plays in the neuromuscular system in regulation of the heart, in enzyme-mediated reactions and in many other metabolic processes. The objective of this study was to examine and establish the relationship between Total Calcium, Ionized Calcium and Serum Albumin and the significance of these factors with Vitamin D. For the samples, biochemical assay using electro-chemiluminescence technique (for Vitamin D) was used; Total Calcium and Serum Albumin were analyzed using manual dye-binding methods and the readings were acquired using a semi automatic analyzer. Appropriate statistical methods were used to conclude that, a very good correlation exists between Total calcium to VitaminD3 to that of Ionized Calcium to Vitamin D3 (

IN VITRO EVALUATION OF THE ANTIOXIDANT, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTIPROLIFERATIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE LEAF EXTRACTS OF EXCOECARIA AGALLOCHA L.

Objective: To evaluate the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative activities of the leaf extracts of Excoecaria agallocha L.Methods: To estimate the antioxidant effect of the extract from Excoecaria agallocha, various assays were carried out. Estimation of total phenolics was done by Folin–Ciocalteu micro-method, total antioxidant capacity was determined by sulphuric acid-ammonium molybdate method, reducing power assay was carried out by FRAP (Ferric cyanide (Fe3+) Reducing Antioxidant Power) assay method and free radical-scavenging activity was estimated by DPPH (diphenyl-picrylhydrazine) and ABTS methods. Bovine serum denaturation inhibition assay was performed to test the in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of the extract, MTT assay was carried out to find out the antiproliferative effect of the extract against SKMEL 28 skin cancer cell lines The crude ethyl acetate fraction was finally analyzed by thin layer chromatography to reveal 8 bands indicating presence of various compounds that probably contributed to the various biological activities.Results: The total antioxidant activity, total phenolics content and reducing power assay tested with various solvent fractions of Excoecaria agallocha leaf extract showed that ethyl acetate fraction had the highest antioxidant activity, reducing power and phenolics content among other fractions. The scavenging effect of extracts and standards on ABTS•+decreased in the order: ethyl acetate>n Butanol>Water>petroleum ether>Gallic acid. The relative percentage of inhibition of BSA denaturation by the ethyl acetate extract was found to be 85.38% at a concentration of 100 µg/ml in comparison to the standard diclofenac sodium which brought about 13.65% of inhibition of BSA denaturation at the same concentration. The GI50 was found to be 19.02 µg/ml for DMSO and 39.2 µg/ml for ethyl acetate fraction against SKMEL 28 skin cancer cell lines.Conclusion: These results suggest that the extracts of Excoecaria agallocha possess significant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative activities.Â

Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of graphene oxide – fungal hyphae: An efficient and reclaimable adsorbent for chromium(VI) removal from aqueous solution

In this study, a hybrid film bio-nanocomposite material was developed based on the graphene oxide/fungal hyphae (GO-FH) interaction. The developed GO-FH bio-nanocomposite material was used for the removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution. The GO-FH bio-nanocomposite material was prepared by ultrasonic irradiation technique. The synthesized GO-FH bio-nanocomposite material was characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM and TGA. The adsorption experiments were carried out in batch mode to optimize parameters such as pH, adsorbent dosage, initial Cr(VI) ion concentration, contact time and shaking speed. The results indicated that the adsorption of Cr(VI) onto GO-FH bio-nanocomposite material was pH dependant, with the maximum adsorption capacity of 212.76 mg/g occurred at pH 2.0. The adsorption studies followed, Langmuir isotherm and pseudo second order kinetic model. Findings demonstrates that GO-FH bio-nanocomposite material exhibited excellent regeneration performance

A bibliography of parasites and diseases of marine and freshwater fishes of India

With the increasing demand for fish as human food, aquaculture both in freshwater and salt water is rapidly developing over the world. In the developing countries, fishes are being raised as food. In many countries fish farming is a very important economic activity. The most recent branch, mariculture, has shown advances in raising fishes in brackish, estuarine and bay waters, in which marine, anadromous and catadromous fishes have successfully been grown and maintained

Roadmap for Cloud Optimization

In the last decade, the Information Technology industry witnessed one of the biggest paradigm shift in the form of Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing is what it enables or should be considered a key ingredient in the process of digital transformation for any company. However, the operational costs of Cloud Computing maybe surprisingly high, if Cloud Optimization is not approached correctly, in a carefully planned way. Therefore, before approaching the challenge of controlling the operational costs in the cloud journey, there is a need to develop a clear roadmap for optimization in Cloud Computing. Solving this problem became the objective for this Thesis. The study follows the multiple case study approach. In this study, three case projects were chosen to be investigated. The thesis researcher has worked in every case project analysed in this thesis as a developer and as an architect, which was one of the criteria when choosing the case projects. To develop the roadmap, the existing migration paths to cloud, best practices and governance strategies were explored, the current problems faced in cloud were analyzed, and data was collected from different organizations through interviews, questionnaire and their own publications. The analysis results provided an understanding of the current problems faced in cloud optimization, their impact and, backed up with the review of available best practice, has led to developing own proposal of the governance roadmap for cloud optimization. By adopting the proposed roadmap for cloud optimization via governance, the case company, as well as wider professional community when applying it in similar projects, will benefit from having a greater visibility of the resources and the actual usage, reduce unnecessary cloud costs, boosts cloud utilization, drives innovation and efficiency. Optimization is all about saving costs, gaining more visibility and efficient management of resources. Also, automation of provisioning, monitoring and governance of resources will add to greater savings of development and operational costs. These actions combined, it would have large impact on the effective management of expenditure, security, and innovation in cloud. The outcome of this study is currently being implemented in multiple phases in several projects in the case company

Residential Air Conditioning System Integrated with Packed Bed Cool Storage Unit for Promoting Rooftop Solar PV Power Generation

The increase in the share of renewable-based power in the gross power generation in most countries causes significant concerns over the addition of renewable power with the grid, results in stability issues in most developed nations. Energy storage is an emerging technology that is considered the ultimate solution in developing microgrids with distributed renewable power generation. The cool thermal storage plays a vital role in economically promoting renewable power among different storage units. The major objective of the research work is to demonstrate the integration of residential air-conditioning systems with packed bed cool storage units to promote rooftop solar power generation for residential space cooling applications. In order to achieve the said objective, an experimental investigation was made to study the charging/discharging characteristics of a packed bed cool-storage unit combined with a chiller and a cooling coil unit suitable for small capacity air-conditioning applications. The system consists of encapsulated spherical capsules filled with a phase change material blended with distilled water and pseudomonas (nucleating agent) and the heat transfer fluid as a combination of distilled water and Mono-ethylene glycol. A cooling coil unit was connected to the cool-storage tank to transfer cool energy from the storage tank to the space to be cooled when there is a demand. The important parameters, such as instantaneous and cumulative heat transfer during the charging/discharging processes, are presented. The average COP values of the chiller during the charging operation were estimated as 1, 0.93, and 0.89 when the HTF setpoint temperatures were -6°C, -9°C, and -12°C, which shows a decrease in performance as the setpoint temperature decreases. During the discharging process, a cooling load of 2.25 kW is obtained during the first cycle of operation and gradually reduces to 0.3 kW during the sixth cycle of operation. The increase in the HTF temperature during each cycle of operation indicates that the Phase Change Material (PCM) in the balls cannot release the heat as per the demand after a certain period of discharging. Hence, decreasing the internal thermal resistance by suitable measures is essential to achieve uniform heat flux and to operate the system successfull

Multifaceted Applications of Microbial Pigments: Current Knowledge, Challenges and Future Directions for Public Health Implications

Microbial oddities such as versatile pigments are gaining more attention in current research due to their widely perceived applications as natural food colorants, textiles, antimicrobial activities, and cytotoxic activities. This indicates that the future generation will depend on microbial pigments over synthetic colorants for sustainable livelihood. Although several reviews have detailed the comprehensive applications of microbial pigments extensively, knowledge on several aspects of pigmented microbes is apparently missing and not properly reviewed anywhere. Thus, this review has been made to provide overall knowledge on biodiversity, distribution, pathogenicity, and ecological and industrial applications of microbial pigments as well as their challenges and future directions for food, industrial, and biomedical applications. Meticulously, this compendious review treatise on the pigments from bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and microalgae includes reports from the 1970s to 2018. A total of 261 pigment compounds produced by about 500 different microbial species are included, and their bioactive nature is described