GREEN SYNTHESIS OF NANOSTRUCTURED ZINC PARTICLES USING AQUEOUS LEAF EXTRACT OF SCHREBERA SWIETENIOIDES ROXB. AND THEIR CATALYTIC APPLICATION IN DEGRADATION OF METHYL ORANGE, CRYSTAL VIOLET DYES AND CHROMIUM METAL

Objective: The present work was aimed to synthesized the zinc nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) using aqueous leaf extract of Schrebera swietenioides Roxb., and further, the green-synthesized ZnO NPs were studied for its efficacy in the degradation of hazardous dyes like methyl orange, crystal violet and hazardous metal such as chromium. Methods: The ZnO NPs were synthesized using aqueous leaf extract of S. swietenioides Roxb., as a green reducing agent and 0.1 M Zinc acetate as metal source and the NPs synthesis was completed within a short period of 6 h. The ZnO NPs synthesized were characterized using SEM, TEM, EDS, XRD, FT-IR and UV-visible spectrophotometer. Further, the synthesized NPs were applied for reduction of pollutant days such as methyl orange, crystal violet and pollutant metal chromium. Results: The synthesis of NPs was monitored by observing the color change in the reaction mixture and UV visible spectral analysis. The UV spectral analysis shows a characteristic absorption wavelength at 379 nm. The synthesized NPs were hexagonal wurtzite form crystals having a spherical shape with rough surfaces with an average size of 68 nm and having 73.7 % of zinc content. At a NPs dose of 1.0 g/l the photocatalytic reduction was observed as 85.33±0.02 %, 86.82±0.095 % and 86.73±0.104 % for crystal violet dye, methyl orange dye and chromium metal, respectively. The NPs shows a high % photocatalytic reduction of chromium metal, crystal violet dye and methyl orange dye with less contact time confirms that the synthesized ZnO NPs were effectively catalyzed the degradation of methyl orange, crystal violet dyes and chromium metal. The NPs were observed to be recyclable and can shows high reduction activity after the completion of three cycles of degradation. Conclusion: Hence it can be concluded that synthesized greener nanocatalyst was efficient for pollutant treatment and demonstrated the power of green biosynthesis for metallic nanoparticles

A study on the association of diabetes and semen quality in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Background: Globally prevalence of diabetes is gradually increasing in individual at reproductive stage. Uncontrolled blood sugar affects biological systems including reproductive. Thus, this study was aimed to analyze the association of diabetes and male infertility in and around Chennai. Methods: Fifty-four male participants who visited the fertility clinic was grouped in two based on the sugar value. An anthropometric measurement, clinical, blood, seminal parameters and life style behaviors was analyzed. All study variables was analyzed to examine the association of diabetes and semen quality. Results: Study results shows that people with diabetes had abnormal semen parameters as compared to non- diabetic study participants. Pearson’s correlation between the semen parameters and blood sugar value of the study participants showed semen parameters: volume (r=-0.28, p<0.05), count (r=-0.22, p<0.05), and motility (r=-0.23, p<0.05), has a significantly week negative correlation with blood sugar level.  Scatter plots also showed semen parameters:  volume (r2=-0.079), count (r2=-0.048), and motility (r2=-0.053), had a significantly week negative linear correlation with blood sugar level. Conclusions: From the study it was concluded that the uncontrolled blood sugar levels affect the reproductive health of the study participants.

An Overview of Personalized Recommendation System to Improve Web Navigation

We present a new personalized recommendation system, which means the searches of each user is done according to their interest which is based on ranking or preference method. It also maintains the logs which records the sessions of each user and brings out the exact data required by the user. This is done by fetching the data that is already stored in the database. Web server logs maintains history of page results and consists of a log file which automatically creates and maintains the list of activities performed by the users. For extracting the data according to the user’s previous searches, we are using Stemming Algorithm. The Stemming Algorithm is a process where the exact, meaningful words are extracted from the URL. Because of this process the user’s search time will be reduced. It also improves the quality of web navigation and overcomes the limitation of existing system. In the proposed system we extract user’s behaviour from web server logs in the actual process whereas, in the anticipated system, the user’s behaviour is done with the help of cognitive user model and we perform the comparison between the two usage processes. The data produced from this comparison can help the users to discover usability issues and take actions to improve usability. In the anticipated usage the cognitive user model is done that can be used to simulate or predict human behaviour or by performance and task. Finally, the system is executed by using the top-k ranking algorithm. The advantage of this system are accuracy and better processing speed. The user’s convenience deals with the ease of navigation which helps the users to interact with their interface

Deflouridation from Aqueous Solutions Using Alum

Abstract: This research work has been designed to remove the fluoride from aqueous solutions using alum by bench scale experiments. The defluoridating agent, which is easily available even in rural areas, has been selected. The known concentrations of fluoride solution were prepared. The removal of fluorides by the defluoridating agent was studied up to 4 hours for all the fluoride concentrations. The variations in the percentage removal and attainment of equilibrium were recorded. The solutions of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mg/L were prepared. Each Fluoride concentration was tested with 100, 200 and 300 mg/L of alum. The removal of fluoride increased at the rate of 10% per hour up to 55% by 4 h for 100 and 200 mg/L while it rose from 40 to 60% by 4 h equilibration time in 300 mg/L alum solution it reaches 60%. The difference of fluoride removal between 100 and 300 mg/L alum concentrations was only 5% i.e. 0.9 and 0.8 mg/L of fluoride remained after 4 h equilibration time. All the concentrations of defluoridating agent have successfully reduced the fluoride content in waters to permissible limits

Detection of Ralstonia solanacearum in Asymptomatic Imported Seed Potato using a DNA-based Method

Potato is an economically important crop among vegetables grown in Sri Lanka that mainly relies on healthy seed potatoes. About 40% of the annual seed potato requirement is fulfilled by the import of seed potatoes from Netherland, USA, Germany and France. Import of seed potatoes makes possibilities to enter plant pathogenic pests and diseases to Sri Lanka. Bacterial wilt is one of the most destructive diseases of potato. Ralstonia solanacearum, which causes bacterial wilt of potato, is considered as an important quarantine significant plant pathogen in Sri Lanka. The currently available conventional methods such as culture methods, biochemical methods are time consuming, very laborious and not sensitive for the detection of R. solanacearum in imported seed potatoes. Although immunodiagnostic methods are rapid, the sensitivity is not enough to detect the bacterium in asymptomatic or latently infected seed potatoes. In this study, a DNA-based detection method was applied to screen seed potatoes imported into Sri Lanka and 5 out of 30 tested samples (17%) were positive for R. solanacearum. The seed potato samples detected as infected with R. solanacearum were further studied and it revealed that the Asian phylotype I and the American phylotype II were detected from seed potato samples imported to the country. Phylotype II (Race 3/biovar 2) was detected in seed potatoes imported from USA and France and both phylotype I and phylotype II (Race 3/biovar 2) were detected in seed potatoes imported from Netherland from where majority of seed potatoes are imported into the country. The quarantine measures should be strictly followed to avoid the spread and establishment of phylotype II, Race 3/biovar 2 strains within the country, as it is the extremely destructive potato pathogen which have a restricted distribution in higher elevations of Sri Lanka. Further, the DNA-based method can be used to identify the pathogen to avoid the introduction or entry of R. solanacearum into the country for the betterment of potato cultivation in Sri Lanka.KEYWORDS: Seed potato, Bacterial wilt, Ralstonia solanacearum, Quarantine pest, Rsol_fli

Adomian decomposition method simulation of Von Kármán swirling bioconvection nanofluid flow

The study reveals analytically on the 3-dimensional viscous time-dependent gyrotactic bioconvection in swirling nanofluid flow past from a rotating disk. It is known that the deformation of the disk is along the radial direction. In addition to that Stefan blowing is considered. The Buongiorno nanofluid model is taken care of assuming the fluid to be dilute and we find Brownian motion and thermophoresis have dominant role on nanoscale unit. The primitive mass conservation equation, radial, tangential and axial momentum, heat, nano-particle concentration and micro-organism density function are developed in a cylindrical polar coordinate system with appropriate wall (disk surface) and free stream boundary conditions. This highly nonlinear, strongly coupled system of unsteady partial differential equations is normalized with the classical Von Kármán and other transformations to render the boundary value problem into an ordinary differential system. The emerging 11th order system features an extensive range of dimensionless flow parameters i.e. disk stretching rate, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, bioconvection Lewis number, unsteadiness parameter, ordinary Lewis number, Prandtl number, mass convective Biot number, Péclet number and Stefan blowing parameter. Solutions of the system are obtained with developed semi-analytical technique i.e. Adomian decomposition method. Validation of the said problem is also conducted with earlier literature computed by Runge-Kutta shooting technique

Contrasting effects of diclofenac and ibuprofen on active imatinib uptake into leukaemic cells

BACKGROUND: The human organic cation transporter-1 (OCT-1) is the primary active protein for imatinib uptake into target BCR-ABL-positive cells. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently used by chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients on imatinib to manage musculoskeletal complaints. METHODS: Here we investigated the impact of NSAIDs on functional activity of the OCT-1 (OCT-1 activity; OA) in CML cells. RESULTS: Although ten of twelve NSAIDs tested had no significant impact on OA (P>0.05), we observed increased OA (27% increase in K562; 22% increase in KU812 cells, P<0.05) and reduced IC50(imatinib) when treated with diclofenac. Co-incubation with imatinib and diclofenac resulted in a significantly lower viable cell number compared with imatinib alone. In contrast, ibuprofen led to a significant decrease in OA, an increase in IC50(imatinib) and thus reduced the cytotoxicity of imatinib. In primary CML samples, diclofenac significantly increased OA, particularly in patients with low OA (<4 ng per 200 000 cells), and significantly decreased IC50(imatinib). Ibuprofen induced significant decreases in OA in CML samples and healthy donors. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the expected impact of these two drugs on OA, ibuprofen should be avoided in combination with imatinib. Further studies are warranted regarding the potential benefit of diclofenac to improve OA in a clinical setting.J. Wang, T.P. Hughes, C.H. Kok, V.A. Saunders, A. Frede, K. Groot-Obbink, M. Osborn, A.A. Somogyi, R.J. D’Andrea and D.L. Whit