Analysis of plant growth promoting potential of endophytes isolated from echinacea purpurea and lonicera japonica

Plant endophytes help in maintaining plant health by means of their biofertilizer and biocontrol attributes and, are currently being explored for their ability to produce novel biologically active compounds. Herein, we have isolated beneficial endophytic bacteria from Echinacea purpurea (EF.B3) and Lonicera japonica (LS.B11) that showed phosphate solubilization, siderophore, indole acetic acid and hydrogen cyanide production, and fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Additionally, the endophytes also conferred antifungal activity against Fusarium sp., Rhizoctonia sp., Pythium sp. and Alternaria sp. When tested in plantae, the LS.B11 and EF.B3 strains were able to promote plant growth and control fungal infections in peaseedlings. Both strains were found to be endophytic as tested by RAPD and viability count. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we show that the LS.B11 and EF.B3 strains are related to Pseudomonas sp. And Burkholderia sp. By using degenerate primers, we identified genes related to polyketide synthases and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases in EF.B3 and LS.B11, respectively that are typically involved in the production of antimicrobial compounds. Therefore, we conclude that both endophytes can be used for increasing agriculture productivity and in the production of antimicrobial compounds for crop improvement

Rheograms for asphalt from single viscosity measurement

Asphalt materials are used in a variety of applications such as road paving, waterproofing, roofing membranes, adhesive binders, rust proofing and water resistant coatings. There are available in a number of grades distinguished in terms of their softening point and flow resistance. The selection of the proper grade of asphalt for a particular application is governed by the desired flow behaviour. A knowledge of the complete flow curve depicting the variation of melt viscosity with shear rate at the relevant temperatures is necessary not only for proper grade selection, but also for specifying processing conditions for aggregate mixing and spraying. The rheological data are also useful in assessing end use performance. The scientific techniques for generating the rheological data involve the use of expensive, sophisticated instruments. Generation of the necessary flow data using these instruments is beyond the financial and technical means of most processors of asphalt materials. The engineering techniques involving the use of inexpensive vacuum viscometers are relatively easy, but provide a single point viscosity measurement at low shear rate. In the present work, a method is proposed for unifying the viscosity versus shear rate a data at various temperatures for a number of asphalt grades. A master curve has been generated that is independent of the grade of asphalt and the temperature of viscosity measurement. The master curve can be used to generate rheograms at desired temperatures for the asphalt grade of interest, knowing its zero-shear viscosity at that temperature

Melt rheology of polymer blends from melt flow index

Polymer blends have received a lot of attention in recent years due to the possibility of getting compounds with novel and/or different properties through proper marriage of the properties of the respective mono-components. The flow behaviour of blends when subjected to stresses is complex and is often found not to vary monotonically with composition. Mixing rules and mixture theories have been used for estimating melt viscosity of a blend at zero shear rate. However a knowledge of the entire rheogram is desirable for process optimization, process design and trouble shooting. In the present paper a method proposed earlier to estimate the rheograms of polymer melts through the use of the melt flow index has been extended to polyblends. A method for obtaining the melt flow index of the polymer blends at various compositions from the melt flow index of the individual components and the blend ratio has been suggested based on the altered free volume state model. Curves that are coalesced using the melt flow index of the blend at different blend ratios have been presented for a polypropylene-high density polyethylene blend, a high density polyethylene-polymethyl methacrylate blend, a polystyrene-polymethyl-methacrylate blend, a polystyrene-polyacetal blend and a polymethylmethacrylate-polyacetal blend

Rheograms for engineering thermoplastics from melt flow index

A method proposed earlier has been extended to estimate complete flow curves or rheograms of engineering plastics. Master curves that are independent of the grade and temperature have been generated and presented for acrylics, polyacetal, nylons, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate and polysulfone. The influence of the various molecular parameters on the viscosity behaviour of polymer melts have been explained rationally. More specifically, the effects of chain branching and of chain rigidity on the master curve of a resin type have been elucidated with reference to polyacetal and polysulfone, respectively. The method presented here can be used effectively by processors of engineering plastics

Rheology of nylon 6 containing metal halides

Addition of metal halides to nylons has been shown to be advantageous in a number of ways. The decrease in melting temperature, increase in glass transition temperature and melt viscosity by such additions have allowed more convenient processing of low molecular weight polymers and thermally unstable polymers. Rheological data depicting the variation of melt viscosity with shear rate at temperatures relevant to processing are necessary in optimizing and trouble-shooting plastics processing operations. In the present paper, a method has been proposed to estimate, complete flow curves or rheograms of nylon-metal halide systems with the use of a master curve knowing the melt flow index and glass transition temperature of the system. The validity of the approach has been verified for the nylon 6-lithium chloride system and shown to hold good for any nylon-metal halide combination

PROACTIVE EXCHANGE OF DATA BETWEEN CLOUD PROVIDERS VIA CONTROLLER COORDINATION AND TRIGGER DYNAMIC WORKFLOWS

A multi-cloud Software Defined Network (SDN) controller proactively learns insights about subscribers, such as enterprise users, end users, and/or other cloud providers. Based on the learned insights, the multi-SDN controller applies dynamic policies on other cloud provides to which those subscribers are attached to. The multi-cloud SDN controller co-ordinates with various cloud providers, enterprise network controllers, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to proactively notify other cloud providers with information about affected users so that those providers can install additional resources at cloud edge/core on the fly. Additionally, the multi-cloud SDN controller facilitates a warm hand off from one cloud region to another cloud region. When the multi-cloud SDN controller learns about an enterprise outage, it proactively notifies other cloud providers of the outage event and the other cloud providers can use this for a warm hand off of session to the region(s) through which the users will be reconnected. The likely regions are derived based on telemetry obtained from multi-cloud SDN controller. The multi-cloud SDN controller also triggers a proactive cleanup of user context of the cloud provider side. The cloud provider cleans up after the connection reset event based on information from the multi-cloud SDN controller, rather than wait on a timeout of the connection

Economic impact of dissemination of management strategies for sucking insect pests on transgenic cotton in Punjab, India

Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for the management of sucking insect pests were disseminated in 36 villages of three districts of Punjab during 2008 to 2010. Adoption of IPM strategies led to reduction in the population of jassid, whitefly and mealybug in IPM villages. Mean population of jassid was 0.62 and 1.60 nymphs per three leaves, whitefly 1.11 and 2.53 adults per three leaves and mealybug 0.53 and 1.03 per 2.5 cm of central shoot in IPM and non-IPM villages, respectively. Mean population of spiders, chrysoperla, coccinellids and predatory bugs was 0.65, 0.13, 0.15 and 0.04 in IPM villages and 0.29, 0.09, 0.06 and 0.00 per plant in non-IPM villages, respectively. IPM strategies resulted in the 47.69 and 50.56 per cent reduction in number of spray and cost of spray in IPM villages over non-IPM villages. The average cost of cultivation was Rs. 21324 ha−1 in IPM villages, as compared to non-IPM villages (Rs. 23774.67 ha−1). Average seed cotton yield in IPM villages was 2333 kg ha−1 in comparison to non-IPM villages (1959.67 kg ha−1) and average net return in IPM villages was Rs. 57194 ha−1, which was Rs. 15709 more than non-IPM villages

The Role of Coupled Positive Feedback in the Expression of the SPI1 Type Three Secretion System in Salmonella

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a common food-borne pathogen that induces inflammatory diarrhea and invades intestinal epithelial cells using a type three secretion system (T3SS) encoded within Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI1). The genes encoding the SPI1 T3SS are tightly regulated by a network of interacting transcriptional regulators involving three coupled positive feedback loops. While the core architecture of the SPI1 gene circuit has been determined, the relative roles of these interacting regulators and associated feedback loops are still unknown. To determine the function of this circuit, we measured gene expression dynamics at both population and single-cell resolution in a number of SPI1 regulatory mutants. Using these data, we constructed a mathematical model of the SPI1 gene circuit. Analysis of the model predicted that the circuit serves two functions. The first is to place a threshold on SPI1 activation, ensuring that the genes encoding the T3SS are expressed only in response to the appropriate combination of environmental and cellular cues. The second is to amplify SPI1 gene expression. To experimentally test these predictions, we rewired the SPI1 genetic circuit by changing its regulatory architecture. This enabled us to directly test our predictions regarding the function of the circuit by varying the strength and dynamics of the activating signal. Collectively, our experimental and computational results enable us to deconstruct this complex circuit and determine the role of its individual components in regulating SPI1 gene expression dynamics

DYNAMIC TELEMETRY PROFILE ENFORCEMENT IN A CONTROLLER NETWORK

Because telemetry processing can involve high resource usage, such processing is typically provided via a cloud infrastructure. However, there are drawbacks to current implementations involving such cloud infrastructure processing. For example, such processing typically follows standard processing patterns. Yet, with the increasing complexity of different network use cases, there are scenarios that would benefit from dynamic telemetry processing. Presented herein are techniques through which multiple device telemetry profiles can allow a cloud controller to dynamically match a telemetry profile to specific conditions for a tenant network. Each telemetry profile may include selections for data processing through priority and secured queues. Additionally, the cloud controller may have reverse telemetry policies to push reverse telemetry to the customer edge when original usage telemetry data is retrieved, processed, and/or transferred

The Next Generation Non-competitive Active Polyester Nanosystems for Transferrin Receptor-mediated Peroral Transport Utilizing Gambogic Acid as a Ligand

The current methods for targeted drug delivery utilize ligands that must out-compete endogenous ligands in order to bind to the active site facilitating the transport. To address this limitation, we present a non-competitive active transport strategy to overcome intestinal barriers in the form of tunable nanosystems (NS) for transferrin receptor (TfR) utilizing gambogic acid (GA), a xanthanoid, as its ligand. The NS made using GA conjugated poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) have shown non-competitive affinity to TfR evaluated in cell/cell-free systems. The fluorescent PLGA-GA NS exhibited significant intestinal transport and altered distribution profile compared to PLGA NS in vivo. The PLGA-GA NS loaded with cyclosporine A (CsA), a model peptide, upon peroral dosing to rodents led to maximum plasma concentration of CsA at 6 h as opposed to 24 h with PLGA-NS with at least 2-fold higher levels in brain at 72 h. The proposed approach offers new prospects for peroral drug delivery and beyond