Prestressing Plant Equipment and Procedures

Civil Engineerin

Geothermal probabilistic cost study

A tool is presented to quantify the risks of geothermal projects, the Geothermal Probabilistic Cost Model (GPCM). The GPCM model was used to evaluate a geothermal reservoir for a binary-cycle electric plant at Heber, California. Three institutional aspects of the geothermal risk which can shift the risk among different agents was analyzed. The leasing of geothermal land, contracting between the producer and the user of the geothermal heat, and insurance against faulty performance were examined

Genetic Divergence Study in Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

The genetic divergence of forty bitter gourd genotypes was studied for sixteen different parameters by adopting Mahalanobis D2 statistics using Tocher's method. The genotypes were grouped into six clusters irrespective of geographic divergence, indicating no parallelism between geographic and genetic diversity. A maximum of 32 genotypes entered in cluster I, followed by 4 genotypes in cluster II. The cluster III, IV, V and VI had single genotypes each. The maximum inter-cluster distance was obtained between cluster II and VI (1620.05) while minimum distance was between III and V (103.32). Cluster V followed by cluster VI showed superiority for yield and other desirable traits, which indicate the potentiality of these diverse genotype collection for providing basic material for future breeding programmes

A Novel Class of Pyrazoline Analogue of Combretastatin-A4 (CA-4): Synthesis Characterization and in-vitro Biological Testing

A series of pyrazoline bridged combretastatin analogues were designed and synthesised from their precursor chalcone analogues, and all these compounds were ascertained by IR, 1H NMR, and mass spectral analysis. Subsequently, all these compounds were evaluated for anticancer activities against breast cancer (MCF-7) and normal Vero (Monkey Kidney) cell lines, and five selected compounds from the series were evaluated against Hela (Human Cervical), MDA-MB-231 (Breast), and A-549 (Lung cancer) cell lines using the Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay method. Compounds 3a, 6a, 6e, 5b, 7a, 5a, and 7d were found to be the most potent in the series, with a GI50 value of 10 to 30 M in the MCF-7 cell line. Moreover, the same compounds 6a and 7a showed remarkable cytotoxicity against the A-549 (Lung) cell line with a GI50 value ranging from 10 to 30 M, while compound 3a displayed moderate cytotoxicity against the Hela (Human Cervical) cell line. All these compounds were found nontoxic to the Vero (Monkey Kidney) normal cell line

Effect of modified atmosphere package on physico-chemical properties of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruits

Pomegranate is an important table and processed fruit owing to its nutritional quality. Extending the fruit life of the plant is very much limited owing to its metabolic activities viz., respiration, transpiration and microbial infection. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different packaging materials on physico-chemical properties of pomegranate fruits during storage. Fruits were harvested with stalk and washed with sodium hypochlorite, air dried and graded. Fruits were stored under modified atmospheric packaging conditions using different packaging materials viz., polyethylene bag, polypropylene bag, Xtend® bag and silver nano bag Hima Fresh®. Fruits without package served as controls. Fruits were stored at low temperature 7±2 °C and 90±5 % RH. MAP treated fruits had higher quality parameters across all packaging treatments. PLW and respiration rate increased while, moisture content, colour, texture and acidity decreased with prolonged storage, but the rate of decrease was highest in unpacked fruits. MAP maintained the quality of pomegranate fruits upto 100 days compared to unpackaged fruits (40 days). Shelf life of stored fruit at ambient condition was 4 to 5 days. Fruit decay was 12 % in polyethylene whereas it was 6 % in Xtend® bag at the end of 100 day of storage

Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of Pyrazoline and Pyrimidine Analogs of Combretastatin-A4 as Anticancer, Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Agents

A library of 3,5-diaryl-1-carbothioamide-pyrazoline (5a–j), N1-phenyl sulfonyl pyrazoline (6a–e) and pyrimidine (7a) analogs of combretastatin-A4 were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. Results of in vitro assay against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) showed several compounds endowed with significant cytotoxicity compared to the adriamycin, a standard anticancer drug. Among the compounds synthesized, 7a was found to possess significant antiproliferative activity (GI50 < 0.1 µM) against the MCF-7 cell line as good as adriamycin (GI50 < 0.1 µM) whereas, compounds 6c, 5j and 5g also displayed good cytotoxicity (GI50 = 25.3–42.6 µM). Besides this, most active compound 7a was also evaluated against human myeloid leukemia cell line K562 and the remarkable result was obtained with GI50 < 0.1 µM, comparable to that of adriamycin (GI50 < 0.1 µM). In addition, all the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. The percent inhibition studies revealed that most of the compounds were found to possess substantial anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Design, Synthesis, and Spectroscopic Study of 7-Azaindolyl Hydrazones with Anti-Breast Cancer Activity

A series of 7-azaindolyl hydrazones were prepared by reacting of hydrazides of 7-azaindole-3-acetic acids with aromatic aldehydes and N-substituted indolyl-3-carboxyaldehydes. Structure of all the synthesized compounds were satisfactorily correlated by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectroscopic evidences. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their possible anticancer potential against MCF-7 induced breast carcinoma. It is worth mentioning that most of the compounds were considerably active against MCF-7 cell line with GI50 values ranging from 22.3–81.0 μM. The hydrazones of N-1-substituted indole-3-carboxyaldehydes 9f, 9g, 9h, 9c, and 9j were active against MCF-7 cell line with GI50 values less than 40 μM (GI50 = 22.3 and 24.9, 29.6, 30.2 and 37.8 μM respectively) with moderate TGI values (TGI = 56.6, 59.5, 65.5, 70.7 and 94.6 μM respectively). The active compounds were also screened against the normal Vero monkey cell line, which showed moderate selectivity against inhibition of cancer cells. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Genetic Divergence Study in Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

The genetic divergence of forty bitter gourd genotypes was studied for sixteen different parameters by adopting Mahalanobis D2 statistics using Tocher's method. The genotypes were grouped into six clusters irrespective of geographic divergence, indicating no parallelism between geographic and genetic diversity. A maximum of 32 genotypes entered in cluster I, followed by 4 genotypes in cluster II. The cluster III, IV, V and VI had single genotypes each. The maximum inter-cluster distance was obtained between cluster II and VI (1620.05) while minimum distance was between III and V (103.32). Cluster V followed by cluster VI showed superiority for yield and other desirable traits, which indicate the potentiality of these diverse genotype collection for providing basic material for future breeding programmes

An ELISA-based high throughput protein truncation test for inherited breast cancer

Abstract Introduction Breast cancer is the most diagnosed and second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. female population. An estimated 5 to 10 percent of all breast cancers are inherited, caused by mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA1/2). As many as 90% of all mutations are nonsense mutations, causing a truncated polypeptide product. A popular and low cost method of mutation detection has been the protein truncation test (PTT), where target regions of BRCA1/2 are PCR amplified, transcribed/translated in a cell-free protein synthesis system and analyzed for truncated polypeptides by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and autoradiography. We previously reported a novel High Throughput Solid-Phase PTT (HTS-PTT) based on an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format that eliminates the need for radioactivity, SDS-PAGE and subjective interpretation of the results. Here, we report the next generation HTS-PTT using triple-epitope-tagged proteins and demonstrate, for the first time, its efficacy on clinical genomic DNA samples for BRCA1/2 analysis. Methods Segments of exons 11 of BRCA1/2 open reading frames were PCR amplified from either blood derived genomic DNA or cell line mRNA. PCR primers incorporate elements for cell-free transcription/translation and epitope tagging. Cell-free expressed nascent proteins are then antibody-captured onto the wells of a microtiter plate and the relative amount of truncated polypeptide measured using antibodies against the N- and C-terminal epitope tags in an ELISA format. Results 100% diagnostic sensitivity and 96% specificity for truncating mutations in exons 11 of BRCA1/2 were achieved on one hundred blood-derived clinical genomic DNA samples which were previously assayed using the conventional gel based PTT. Feasibility of full gene coverage for BRCA1/2 using mRNA source material is also demonstrated. Conclusions Overall, the HTS-PTT provides a simple, quantitative, objective, low cost and high throughput method for analysis of truncating mutations as an alternative to gel based PTT for BRCA analysis. The technology is readily accessible to virtually any laboratory, with the only major instrumentation required being a PCR thermocycler and a basic micro-well plate reader. When compared to conventional gel based PTT, the HTS-PTT provides excellent concordance

Dual RNA-Seq of Human Leprosy Lesions Identifies Bacterial Determinants Linked to Host Immune Response

Summary To understand how the interaction between an intracellular bacterium and the host immune system contributes to outcome at the site of infection, we studied leprosy, a disease that forms a clinical spectrum, in which progressive infection by the intracellular bacterium Mycobacterium leprae is characterized by the production of type I IFNs and antibody production. Dual RNA-seq on patient lesions identifies two independent molecular measures of M. leprae, each of which correlates with distinct aspects of the host immune response. The fraction of bacterial transcripts, reflecting bacterial burden, correlates with a host type I IFN gene signature, known to inhibit antimicrobial responses. Second, the bacterial mRNA:rRNA ratio, reflecting bacterial viability, links bacterial heat shock proteins with the BAFF-BCMA host antibody response pathway. Our findings provide a platform for the interrogation of host and pathogen transcriptomes at the site of infection, allowing insight into mechanisms of inflammation in human disease