In Vitro screening of larvicidal and insecticidal activity of methanolic extracts of Artocarpus heterophyllus, Artocarpus altilis and Piper betle

The aim of this work was to evaluate the larvicidal and insecticidal activity of the selected plants namelyArtocarpus altilis, Piper betle and Artocarpus heterophyllus. The leaves of Artocarpus altilis and Artocarpus heterophyllus and roots of Piper betle were subjected to methanolic solvent extraction for the isolation of various bioactive constituents. The evaluation of larvicidal activity was carried out using late third instar larvae of Drosophila melanogaster. The insecticidal activity of extracts was studied against adult Bruchus pisorum, Tribolium castaneum, Sitophilus oryzae and was evaluated by direct contact application method .Nucleic acids and protein contents are regarded as important biomarkers of the metabolic potential of cells, as these play the main role in regulating the different activities of cells. Piper betle and Artocarpus heterophyllusextractshad a reducing effect on the nucleic acid and protein content in the larvae in a dose dependent manner whereas Artocarpus altilis extract did not exhibit any significant larvicidal activity. Piper betle and Artocarpus heterophyllusextractsshowed good insecticidal activity whereas A.altilis extract showed poor insecticidal activity. The results of the present study clearly indicate that Piper betle and Artocarpus heterophyllus extracts can be developed as ecofriendly larvicides and were also quite effective as insecticides for providing a better and excellent alternate for the control of insects

LOW POWER AND LOW AREA MULTIPLICATION CIRCUITS THROUGH PARTIAL PRODUCT PERFORATION

Focus on hardware-level approximation by introducing the partial product perforation technique for designing approximate multiplication circuits. The partial product perforation method for creating approximate multipliers. It omit the generation of some partial products, thus reducing the number of partial products that have to be accumulated; we decrease the area, power. The major contributions of this work, the software-based perforation technique on the design of hardware circuits, obtaining the optimized design solutions regarding the power–area–error tradeoffs. Analyze in a mathematically rigorous manner the arithmetic accuracy of partial product perforation and prove that it delivers a bounded and predictable output error. Error analysis is not bound to specific multiplier architecture and can be applied with error guarantees to every multiplication circuit regardless of its architecture that compared with the respective exact design, the partial product perforation. Index Terms: Approximate Arithmetic Circuits, Approximate Computing, Approximate Multiplier, Error Analysis & Low Power

Marine fish landings in Kerala during 2016 - An overview

Kerala has 188 marine fish landing centres along the coastline of 590 km length and 1.2 lakh marine fishermen families. The estimated marine fish landings in Kerala during 2016 was 5,22,550 tonnes (t) contributing about 14% of the marine fish production in the countr

PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NITRENDIPINE LOADED GRAFTED COPOLYMER MICROSPHERES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Objectives: Developing countries like India suffers mostly from cardiovascular problems and kidney failure. An antihypertensive drug is mainly used to avoid the cardiovascular problems and kidney failure. Nitrendipine is a calcium antagonist widely used in the treatment of hypertension. The bioavailability of drug, when administered orally, is low. Sustained drug delivery systems are using microspheres emerging as an effective method to increase the bioavailability of the drug. The current work involves the encapsulation of nitrendipine - acrylamide grafted chitosan which helps to overcome poor solubility and hydrophobic nature of the nitrendipine. This will enhance the drug dissolution and reduce the side effects of the antihypertensive drug.Methods: By emulsion cross-linking method, grafted copolymers were prepared. The physicochemical interactions between the drug and grafted copolymer were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).Results: Encapsulated drug and grafted copolymer were characterized by FTIR to understand the chemical interactions and to identify the functional groups present. Morphology and particle size of the grafted copolymer with drug and without drug were assessed by SEM. DSC was used to identify the melting endotherms of a drug, copolymer cross-linked microspheres, and drug encapsulated microspheres.Conclusion: Thus, the drug encapsulated grafted copolymer increases the hydrophilic character and thereby making the polymers feasible for functioning as drug carriers for sustained drug delivery system

Marine fish landings in West Bengal during 2016 - An overview

A remarkable increase in marine fish landings in West Bengal was recorded in 2016. The estimated total marine fish landings with a 129% upsurge reached 2.72 lakh t from the 1.19 lakh t recorded in 2015. Almost all the main finfish resources showed an increase but the exceptional dominance was of Hilsa shad. Its estimated landings touched a record high of 89,109 t from the 16,273 t recorded in 2015. The increase was found to sustain throughout the year except during the fishing ban (April-May) period and in November and December

Data tools: Participatory Rural Appraisal Techniques

Institutions of all types have long been relied on questionnaire surveys and quick rural visits to gather information on rural people and rural resources. Samples of people selected from a large population are asked the same set of questions, and so it is assumed that the interviewers do not influence the process. Many informants are selected to ac count tor all variations, and the requesting data are statistically analyzed. Surely these survey methods are generally accepted for data collection and are used

Marine fish landings in Odisha during 2016 - An overview

The state of Odisha has a long coast line of 480 km with numerous fisheries harbours and fish landing centres like Paradeep, Bahabalapur, Dhamra, Atharabanki, Nuagarh, Bada Arjipally etc. According to Marine Fisheries Census 2010, there are 1.14 lakh fishermen families with 3.95 lakh fisherfolk engaged in actual fishing activities. In 2016, the marine fish production in Odisha was 1.17 lakh tonnes (t) showing a decrease of 17% over the previous year