Anti-Diabetic Activity Of Aqueous Extract Of Pithecellobium Dulce Benth Fruit Peel On Streptozotocin Induced Diabetic Rats

The decoction of the Pithecellobium dulce fruit peel has been used for the control of diabetes mellitus in the traditional method adopted by the local people of northwest region of Tamil Nadu, India. The present study was carried out to investigate the anti-diabetic potential of aqueous extract of Pithecellobium dulce fruit peel by its oral administration (200 mg/kg) to streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. The levels of blood glucose, urine sugar, glycosylated hemoglobin, glucose-6-phosphatase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, total cholesterol, triglycerides, aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, alkaline phosphatase and reduced  glutathione were increased significantly whereas the levels of plasma insulin, hexokinase, protein, liver glycogen, reduced glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase were decreased in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and it was normalized after treatment of aqueous extract. Glibenclamide was used as the standard drug. These outcomes suggest that the aqueous extract possesses anti-diabetic activity and supports the traditional use of the Pithecellobium dulce fruit peel decoction as hypoglycemic agent

ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANT IN TRADITIONAL TREATMENT OF WOUND INFECTION IN SOUTHEAST INDIA

Objective: The wound healing potential of fruit peel of Pithecellobium dulce Benth, a plant traditionally used for wound treatment against wound- infecting bacteria, was assessed using disc diffusion and microtitre plate methods. Methods: P. dulce fruit peel was extracted using ethyl acetate, methanol and water and tested for their antimicrobial activities against bacterial isolates from wound infection using disc diffusion and microtitre plate methods. Results: All the three extracts had antimicrobial activities, among which methanol extract had higher activities against all the tested organisms compared to the ethyl acetate and aqueous extracts. The most susceptible organism to all the extracts was K. pneumonia and S. aureus while the most resistant were P. mirabilis and P. vulgaris. Conclusion: The potential antibacterial activity of P. dulce plant against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria justifies the use of the plant as the wound healing agent. The isolation of active principle of this plant may serve as source and lead for the synthesis of drugs in pharmaceutical industries

Genetic diversity within and among populations of the Indian short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx assessed through RAPD analysis

Genetic diversity was studied among 40 different zone samples in the Indian short-nosed fruit bat, Cynopterus sphinx. Samples were collected from 127 locations in different districts of southern Tamil Nadu, India. Polymorphism at molecular level was studied by random amplified polymorphic DNA marker technique. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with 30 arbitrary decamer oligonucleotide primers was applied to the 40 zone samples. Out of 30 random primers screened, 22 gave reproducible polymorphic bands. PCR product of bat genome revealed a total of 234 bands, out of which 171 were found to be polymorphic. The dendrogram displaying the relative genetic similarities between the zones ranged from 0.42 to 0.92. Principal coordinates analysis revealed that the first two components accounted for 51.4% of the total variation. The results show that considerable genetic diversity was observed in this species from different zonal populations, possibly due to complete dispersal of juveniles of both sexes from their natal groups and gene flow between the zones. The results obtained from this study suggest not only a predictive framework for future studies, but also the use of genetic data in the management and meaningful conservation of this species

Introductory biology undergraduate students\u27 mixed ideas about genetic information flow

The core concept of genetic information flow was identified in recent calls to improve undergraduate biology education. Previous work shows that students have difficulty differentiating between the three processes of the Central Dogma (CD; replication, transcription, and translation). We built upon this work by developing and applying an analytic coding rubric to 1050 student written responses to a three‐question item about the CD. Each response was previously coded only for correctness using a holistic rubric. Our rubric captures subtleties of student conceptual understanding of each process that previous work has not yet captured at a large scale. Regardless of holistic correctness scores, student responses included five or six distinct ideas. By analyzing common co‐occurring rubric categories in student responses, we found a common pair representing two normative ideas about the molecules produced by each CD process. By applying analytic coding to student responses preinstruction and postinstruction, we found student thinking about the processes involved was most prone to change. The combined strengths of analytic and holistic rubrics allow us to reveal mixed ideas about the CD processes and provide a detailed picture of which conceptual ideas students draw upon when explaining each CD process

Mixed Student Ideas about Mechanisms of Human Weight Loss

Recent calls for college biology education reform have identified “pathways and transformations of matter and energy” as a big idea in biology crucial for students to learn. Previous work has been conducted on how college students think about such matter-transforming processes; however, little research has investigated how students connect these ideas. Here, we probe student thinking about matter transformations in the familiar context of human weight loss. Our analysis of 1192 student constructed responses revealed three scientific (which we label “Normative”) and five less scientific (which we label “Developing”) ideas that students use to explain weight loss. Additionally, students combine these ideas in their responses, with an average number of 2.19 ± 1.07 ideas per response, and 74.4% of responses containing two or more ideas. These results highlight the extent to which students hold multiple (both correct and incorrect) ideas about complex biological processes. We described student responses as conforming to either Scientific, Mixed, or Developing descriptive models, which had an average of 1.9 ± 0.6, 3.1 ± 0.9, and 1.7 ± 0.8 ideas per response, respectively. Such heterogeneous student thinking is characteristic of difficulties in both conceptual change and early expertise development and will require careful instructional intervention for lasting learning gains

Parametric Investigations at the Head-Disk Interface of Thermal Fly-Height Control Sliders in Contact

Accurate touchdown power detection is a prerequisite for read-write head-to-disk spacing calibration and control in current hard disk drives, which use the thermal fly-height control slider technology. The slider air bearing surface and head gimbal assembly design have a significant influence on the touchdown behavior, and this paper reports experimental findings to help understand the touchdown process. The dominant modes/frequencies of excitation at touchdown can be significantly different leading to very different touchdown signatures. The pressure under the slider at touchdown and hence the thermal fly-height control efficiency as well as the propensity for lubricant pickup show correlation with touchdown behavior which may be used as metrics for designing sliders with good touchdown behavior. Experiments are devised to measure friction at the head-disk interface of a thermal fly-height control slider actuated into contact. Parametric investigations on the effect of disk roughness, disk lubricant parameters, and air bearing surface design on the friction at the head-disk interface and slider burnishing/wear are conducted and reported

Recent Developments in Fiber Genomics of Tetraploid Cotton Species

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) produces naturally soft, single-celled trichomes as fiber on the seed coat supplying the main source of natural raw material for the textile industry. It is economically considered as one of the most leading cash crops in the world and evolutionarily very important as a model system for detailed scientific investigations. Cotton production is going through a big transition stage such as losing the market share in competition with the synthetic fibers, high popularity of Bt and herbicide resistance genes in cotton cultivars, and the recent shift of fiber demands to meet the standard fiber quality due to change of textile technologies to produce high superior quality of fibers in the global market. Recently, next-generation sequencing technologies through high-throughput sequencing at greatly reduced costs provided opportunities to sequence the diploid and tetraploid cotton genomes. With the availability of large volume of literatures on molecular mapping, new genomic resources, characterization of cotton genomes, discoveries of many novel genes, regulatory elements including small and microRNAs and new genetic tools such as gene silencing or gene editing technique for genome manipulation, this report attempted to provide the readers a comprehensive review on the recent advances of cotton fiber genomics research

A study on the low-latitude daytime E region plasma irregularities using coordinated VHF radar, rocket-borne, and ionosonde observations

[1] In this paper we study the off-electrojet low-latitude daytime E region plasma irregularities using first multi-instrument observations in India made during July 2004 by the MST radar from Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E, magnetic latitude 6.4°N), Langmuir probe on board the RH-300 Mk II rocket, and ionosonde from Sriharikota (13.6°N, 80.2°E, magnetic latitude 6.4°N). Radar echoes were confined to altitudes below 105 km and were observed in the form of a descending echoing layer with the descent rate of 1 km/h. Virtual height of the E layer, as observed by ionosonde, shows identical descending behavior. A detailed analysis based on the radar and ionosonde observations shows that the radar echoes are related to the range spread in the ionogram. Rocket observations made on 23 July 2004 revealed weak plasma irregularities with scale sizes more than 100 m and no noticeable irregularity at shorter scales. The spectral slope of the irregularities observed by the rocket probe is found to be À4 for scales in between 1 km and 100 m. During the rocket launch, radar did not detect any echo conforming that the small-scale irregularities were not present. Examination of concurrent observations of neutral wind made by TIMED Doppler interferometry suggests that zonal wind plays a crucial role in forming electron density layers, which become unstable via the gradient drift instability with background electric field or/and zonal neutral wind generating low-latitude E region plasma irregularities. Citation: Patra, A. K., N. Venkateswara Rao, D. V. Phanikumar, H. Chandra, U. Das, H. S. S. Sinha, T. K. Pant, and S. Sripathi (2009), A study on the low-latitude daytime E region plasma irregularities using coordinated VHF radar, rocket-borne, and ionosonde observations

The CMS Outer Hadron Calorimeter

The CMS hadron calorimeter is a sampling calorimeter with brass absorber and plastic scintillator tiles with wavelength shifting fibres for carrying the light to the readout device. The barrel hadron calorimeter is complemented with a outer calorimeter to ensure high energy shower containment in CMS and thus working as a tail catcher. Fabrication, testing and calibrations of the outer hadron calorimeter are carried out keeping in mind its importance in the energy measurement of jets in view of linearity and resolution. It will provide a net improvement in missing \et measurements at LHC energies. The outer hadron calorimeter has a very good signal to background ratio even for a minimum ionising particle and can hence be used in coincidence with the Resistive Plate Chambers of the CMS detector for the muon trigger

Design, Performance and Calibration of the CMS Forward Calorimeter Wedges

We report on the test beam results and calibration methods using charged particles of the CMS Forward Calorimeter (HF). The HF calorimeter covers a large pseudorapidity region (3\l |\eta| \le 5), and is essential for large number of physics channels with missing transverse energy. It is also expected to play a prominent role in the measurement of forward tagging jets in weak boson fusion channels. The HF calorimeter is based on steel absorber with embedded fused-silica-core optical fibers where Cherenkov radiation forms the basis of signal generation. Thus, the detector is essentially sensitive only to the electromagnetic shower core and is highly non-compensating (e/h \approx 5). This feature is also manifest in narrow and relatively short showers compared to similar calorimeters based on ionization. The choice of fused-silica optical fibers as active material is dictated by its exceptional radiation hardness. The electromagnetic energy resolution is dominated by photoelectron statistics and can be expressed in the customary form as a/\sqrt{E} + b. The stochastic term a is 198% and the constant term b is 9%. The hadronic energy resolution is largely determined by the fluctuations in the neutral pion production in showers, and when it is expressed as in the electromagnetic case, a = 280% and b = 11%