Variación en la morfología de semillas y parámetros de aceites seleccionados de lilas india (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) de diferentes zonas agroclimáticas de Tamil Nadu, India

Tamil Nadu, in southern India, has the second-largest number of neem trees in the country. The oil from the seeds has high economic significance for cottage industries in the region. This paper examines 28 Candidate Plus Trees (CPTs) selected from six agroclimatic zones in Tamil Nadu which exhibit exceptional traits such as superior growth and other desirable characteristics. We aimed to understand seed morphology variations and physicochemical properties in the oil across different regions. Significant differences were observed for morphometric traits. Fruit production correlated negatively with rainfall. 100-seed kernel weight and seed length correlated with oil percentage. Rainfall influenced seed breadth and pericarp weight. Clustering using morphological characters did not group genotypes from the same region; while soil type could distinguish them. Correlation helped us determine the prominent features which influence the traits of interest, which can be useful for breeding programs, cultivation practices, and the development of neem-based products in Tamil Nadu and beyond.Tamil Nadu, en el sur de la India, tiene el segundo mayor número de árboles de lilas india del país. El aceite de las semillas tiene una gran importancia económica para las industrias artesanales de la región. En este trabajo se examinan 28 árboles Candidate Plus (CPT) seleccionados de seis zonas agroclimáticas en Tamil Nadu, que exhiben rasgos excepcionales como un crecimiento superior y otras características deseables. Nuestro objetivo era comprender las variaciones de la morfología de las semillas y las propiedades fisicoquímicas del aceite en diferentes regiones. Se observaron diferencias significativas para los rasgos morfométricos. La producción de frutos se correlacionó negativamente con las precipitaciones. El peso de 100 semillas y granos y la longitud de la semilla se correlacionaron con el porcentaje de aceite. Las lluvias influyeron en el ancho de la semilla y el peso del pericarpio. El agrupamiento utilizando caracteres morfológicos no agrupó genotipos de una misma región, mientras que el tipo de suelo pudo distinguirlos. La correlación nos ayudó a diseccionar las características prominentes que influyen en las características de interés, que pueden informar los programas de reproducción, las prácticas de cultivo y el desarrollo de productos a base de neem en Tamil Nadu y más allá

An FPGA based Efficient Fruit Recognition System Using Minimum Distance Classifier

The paper deals with a simple yet effective fruit identification system developed on an FPGA, SPARTAN 3(XC3S200-5PQ208) platform .The fruits under consideration were apple, banana, sapodilla and strawberry. Out of these selected fruits there were four different classes of apples, two different classes of sapodillas and one class each of the other two fruits. A total of 800 color images, 200 images of each fruit of size 64x64 were used for training. The fruit identification success rate mainly depends on the feature vector and the Classifier used. The 3D feature vector incorporates two first order statistical features and the shape feature. Using the 3D feature vector the MATLAB analysis of The Minimum Distance Classifier (MID) fetched a success rate of 85%.The Verilog coded Hardware platform was developed by burning the COE file of a Test image generated by JAVA ECLIPSE IDE onto the IP core. The MATLAB results were verified using the Hardware Platform. Keywords: RGB image, feature vector, MID, Verilog, FPGA, IP core, COE file

Multi-scale modelling to estimate spall parameters in metallic single crystals

Modeling dynamics fracture in materials involves usage of hydrodynamic codes which solve basic conservation laws of mass, energy and momentum in space and time. This requires appropriate models to handle elastic-plastic deformation, equation of state, material strength, and fracture. Nucleation and Growth (NAG) damage model is a micro-physical model which computes amount of damage in the material by accounting for phenomena like nucleation, growth and coalescence of voids or cracks. The NAG model involves several material model parameters, such as nucleation threshold, growth threshold, etc. Traditionally these parameters are fitted to experimental void volume distributions. In the present paper we fit these parameters to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of void nucleation and growth and use the fitted parameters in hydrodynamic simulations in a multi-scale computational approach. Cubic metallic single crystals are subjected to isotropic deformation and the nucleation of voids and their growth were post-processed from the simulations. These results are used in an in-house Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) code to obtain NAG parameters for materials of our interest. Using these parameters in a 1D hydrodynamic code developed in-house, fracture parameters such as spall strength and thickness are obtained. The results are validated with published experimental data for Mo, Nb and Cu which have been simulated using the multi-scale model. This paper describes the application of the multi-scale model to obtain the NAG fracture model parameters of Al and its spall data. The results are compared with published experimental results in single crystal Al.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Pro-apoptotic and anti-cancer properties of diosgenin: A comprehensive and critical review

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Novel and alternative options are being adopted to combat the initiation and progression of human cancers. One of the approaches is the use of molecules isolated from traditional medicinal herbs, edible dietary plants and seeds that play a pivotal role in the prevention/treatment of cancer, either alone or in combination with existing chemotherapeutic agents. Compounds that modulate these oncogenic processes are potential candidates for cancer therapy and may eventually make it to clinical applications. Diosgenin is a naturally occurring steroidal sapogenin and is one of the major bioactive compounds found in dietary fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) seeds. In addition to being a lactation aid, diosgenin has been shown to be hypocholesterolemic, gastro-and hepato-protective, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-cancer. Diosgenin has a unique structural similarity to estrogen. Several preclinical studies have reported on the pro-apoptotic and anti-cancer properties of diosgenin against a variety of cancers, both in in vitro and in vivo. Diosgenin has also been reported to reverse multi-drug resistance in cancer cells and sensitize cancer cells to standard chemotherapy. Remarkably, diosgenin has also been reported to be used by pharmaceutical companies to synthesize steroidal drugs. Several novel diosgenin analogs and nano-formulations have been synthesized with improved anti-cancer efficacy and pharmacokinetic profile. In this review we discuss in detail the multifaceted anti-cancer properties of diosgenin that have found application in pharmaceutical, functional food, and cosmetic industries; and the various intracellular molecular targets modulated by diosgenin that abrogate the oncogenic process

Cortical nNOS neurons co-express the NK1 receptor and are depolarized by Substance P in multiple mammalian species

We have previously demonstrated that Type I neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-expressing neurons are sleep-active in the cortex of mice, rats, and hamsters. These neurons are known to be GABAergic, to express Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and, in rats, to co-express the Substance P (SP) receptor NK1, suggesting a possible role for SP in sleep/wake regulation. To evaluate the degree of co-expression of nNOS and NK1 in the cortex among mammals, we used double immunofluorescence for nNOS and NK1 and determined the anatomical distribution in mouse, rat, and squirrel monkey cortex. Type I nNOS neurons co-expressed NK1 in all three species although the anatomical distribution within the cortex was species-specific. We then performed in vitro patch clamp recordings in cortical neurons in mouse and rat slices using the SP conjugate tetramethylrhodamine-SP (TMR-SP) to identify NK1-expressing cells and evaluated the effects of SP on these neurons. Bath application of SP (0.03–1 μM) resulted in a sustained increase in firing rate of these neurons; depolarization persisted in the presence of tetrodotoxin. These results suggest a conserved role for SP in the regulation of cortical sleep-active neurons in mammals

Stemness, Pluripotentiality, and Wnt Antagonism: sFRP4, a Wnt antagonist Mediates Pluripotency and Stemness in Glioblastoma

Background: Chemotherapeutic resistance of glioblastoma has been attributed to a self-renewing subpopulation, the glioma stem cells (GSCs), which is known to be maintained by the Wnt β−catenin pathway. Our previous findings demonstrated that exogeneous addition of the Wnt antagonist, secreted fizzled-related protein 4 (sFRP4) hampered stem cell properties in GSCs. Methods: To understand the molecular mechanism of sFRP4, we overexpressed sFRP4 (sFRP4 OE) in three human glioblastoma cell lines U87MG, U138MG, and U373MG. We also performed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing of sFRP4 OE and RNA sequencing of sFRP4 OE and sFRP4 knocked down U87 cells. Results: We observed nuclear localization of sFRP4, suggesting an unknown nuclear role. ChIP-sequencing of sFRP4 pulldown DNA revealed a homeobox Cphx1, related to the senescence regulator ETS proto-oncogene 2 (ETS2). Furthermore, miRNA885, a p53-mediated apoptosis inducer, was upregulated in sFRP4 OE cells. RNA sequencing analysis suggested that sFRP4-mediated apoptosis is via the Fas-p53 pathway by activating the Wnt calcium and reactive oxygen species pathways. Interestingly, sFRP4 OE cells had decreased stemness, but when knocked down in multipotent mesenchymal stem cells, pluripotentiality was induced and the Wnt β-catenin pathway was upregulated. Conclusions: This study unveils a novel nuclear role for sFRP4 to promote apoptosis by a possible activation of DNA damage machinery in glioblastoma