Partial Characterization of α-Amylase from Germinating Little Millets (Panicum sumatrense)

α-Amylase, a starch splitting enzyme, was purified to homogeneity from little millet (Panicum sumatrense L. Roth ex Roem. et Schult.) cotyledons excised from 3-day-old seedlings by successive chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-150. Purification achieved was 10.15 fold from the crude extract with a yield of 29% giving a final specific activity of 1001U/mg protein. SDS-PAGE showed a molecular weight of 46 kDa for the enzyme. The enzyme was characterized in terms of pH optimum and stability, temperature optimum and stability, activation energy, Km and Vmax. The enzyme displayed optimum activity at pH 5.0 and 50°C with an apparent Km value of 1.6 mg for soluble starch as substrate and Vmax 1388 units/ min/mg protein. The energy of activation (Ea) for the enzyme-catalyzed reaction was 9.7 kcal./mole. Significant enhancement in the enzyme activity was observed in the presence of metal ions like Ca2+ and Ba2+ while metal ions such as Fe2+, Hg2+ and  Al3+ completely inactivated the enzyme. Incubation of the enzyme with 10mM EDTA for 30 min at 45°C results in complete loss of activity. Key words: α-Amylase, Little millet, Characterization, Panicum sumatrense Usha B et al. Partial Characterization of α-Amylase from Germinating Little Millets (Panicum sumatrense). J Phytol 3/1 (2011) 01-08

Alterations in Serum SOD and CAT Levels in Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancers are potentially life-threatening malignancies in women. Development of cancer produces oxidative stress, which increases with disease progression. Hence, studies on antioxidants may be the most promising area of research for this clinical menace. We analysed serum superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) in women with breast cancer. The changes in the levels of serum superoxide dismutase and catalase are measured in breast cancer patients to assess the oxidative stress. A significant increase in the level of superoxide dismutase and a lower catalase activity was observed in all the three categories of breast cancer patients compared to normal individuals. The results suggested that high ROS production supports the oxidative stress in breast cancer. So, the treatment with antioxidants in the initial stages of the disease may be useful as secondary therapy

Clinical Evaluation of Oxidative Stress in Women with Breast Cancer

Breast cancers are potentially life-threatening malignancies in women. Development of cancer produces oxidative stress, which increases with disease progression. Hence, studies on antioxidants may be the most promising area of research for this clinical menace. We analysed serum Uric acid (UA) and Bilirubin (BR) in women with breast cancer. The changes in the levels of serum uric acid and bilirubin are measured in breast cancer patients to assess the oxidative stress. A significant increase in the levels of uric acid and an insignificant increase in the levels of bilirubin was observed in all the three categories of breast cancer patients compared to normal individuals. The results suggested that high ROS production supports the oxidative stress in breast cancer. So, the treatment with antioxidants in the initial stages of the disease may be useful as secondary therapy

Validation of reported markers for seed dormancy and pre-harvest sprouting resistance in rice (Oryza sativa. L)

Not AvailableDNA markers have enormous potential to improve efficiency and precision of conventional plant breeding via marker assisted selection. To test the usefulness of microsatellite markers associated with pre-harvest sprouting resistance QTLs in rice, 32 diverse rice genotypes and two F2 populations were used. A total of 24 reported SSR markers were used to reveal polymorphism between dormant and non-dormant rice genotypes. Among the 24 tested SSR primers five markers viz., RM252, RM17, RM564, RM480 and RM346 showed polymorphism for pre-harvest sprouting resistance among 32 genotypes. The phenotyping results revealed that MTU 1075, MTU 3626, MTU 5293, MTU 1010, BPT 2658, BPT 2741, BPT 2411, RGL 1414 and BPT 3291 possess moderate dormancy for 12 DAH while MTU 1001 exhibited strong dormancy. The phenotypic germination patterns of 32 genotypes at different intervals were compared with the genotyping results using Map Disto method of analysis. The test of goodness of fit χ2 test was conducted for phenotypic germination patterns of 32 genotypes and genotypic data developed by five polymorphic markers and the results revealed that two markers i.e., RM252 and RM17 exhibited significance. Among the 6 markers studied, the primers RM21 and RM252 were able to show distinct polymorphism between dormant and non-dormant genotypes among the individuals selected from BPT 5204/ MTU 1001 F2 population while RM480 and RM235 showed a good characteristic polymorphism among the selected individuals of BPT 2231/MTU 1001 F2 population.Not Availabl

The World Karst Aquifer Mapping project : concept, mapping procedure and map of Europe

Karst aquifers contribute substantially to freshwater supplies in many regions of the world, but are vulnerable to contamination and difficult to manage because of their unique hydrogeological characteristics. Many karst systems are hydraulically connected over wide areas and require transboundary exploration, protection and management. In order to obtain a better global overview of karst aquifers, to create a basis for sustainable international water-resources management, and to increase the awareness in the public and among decision makers, the World Karst Aquifer Mapping (WOKAM) project was established. The goal is to create a world map and database of karst aquifers, as a further development of earlier maps. This paper presents the basic concepts and the detailed mapping procedure, using France as an example to illustrate the step-by-step workflow, which includes generalization, differentiation of continuous and discontinuous carbonate and evaporite rock areas, and the identification of non-exposed karst aquifers. The map also shows selected caves and karst springs, which are collected in an associated global database. The draft karst aquifer map of Europe shows that 21.6% of the European land surface is characterized by the presence of (continuous or discontinuous) carbonate rocks; about 13.8% of the land surface is carbonate rock outcrop

Assessing village-level carbon balance due to greenhouse gas mitigation interventions using EX-ACT model

Under National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, a range of climate smart agricultural practices were evaluated with on-farm demonstrations during 2011–2013 in eight climatically vulnerable villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. Proven climate smart practices viz residue recycling, soil, water and nutrient management, afforestation and feeding + breeding practices in livestock were implemented in annual and perennial crops, irrigated rice, horticulture, fodder, forestry and livestock. An EX-ante carbon-balance tool (EX-ACT) developed by the FAO was used with a combination of various climate smart interventions to know the mitigation potentials in eight climatically vulnerable villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. Based on our observations, EX-ACT model had shown that these practices were effective to mitigate CO2 emissions apart from enhancing soil productivity. In Nacharam, Yagantipalli, Sirusuwada and Matsyapuri villages, climate smart practices implemented in annual crops along with crop residue recycling, crop and water management practices resulted in negative carbon (C) balance by −16,410, −8851, −7271 and −6125 t CO2 e, respectively. The EX-ACT model predicted positive carbon balance with irrigated module in the rice-growing villages of Sirusuwada and Matsyapuri villages. The negative values suggest a sink, and positive values a source for CO2 emissions. In Chamaluru village, although there were CO2 emissions (source) due to livestock and non-forest and land use changes, there was a carbon sink due to other activities as predicted by the model. The results suggested that various climatic smart practices at the village level were successful in creating net sink of CO2 emissions (t CO2 e)

The Socio-economic Impacts of Social Media Privacy and Security Challenges

© 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Privacy and Security are two major challenges faced by users on social media today. These challenges are experienced in diverse ways and forms by different types of users across the web. While technological solutions are usually implemented to address them, the effects have proven to be limited so far. Despite continuous deployment of technological solutions, the need to evaluate socio-economic impacts of these challenges have also become more imperative. Hence, this paper provides a critical review and analysis of socio-economic impacts of these social media challenges. The research findings reveal significant levels of negative socio-economic impacts and provides an evaluation framework towards defining the scope, thereby identifying appropriate measures for both addressing the challenges and curbing the socio-economic impacts. The findings also demonstrate the need for solutions beyond the use of technology, to employing and deploying solutions from social sciences which deals with behavioral issues and how to address them

Improvement for detection of microcalcifications through clustering algorithms and artificial neural networks

A new method for detecting microcalcifications in regions of interest (ROIs) extracted from digitized mammograms is proposed. The top-hat transform is a technique based on mathematical morphology operations and, in this paper, is used to perform contrast enhancement of the mi-crocalcifications. To improve microcalcification detection, a novel image sub-segmentation approach based on the possibilistic fuzzy c-means algorithm is used. From the original ROIs, window-based features, such as the mean and standard deviation, were extracted; these features were used as an input vector in a classifier. The classifier is based on an artificial neural network to identify patterns belonging to microcalcifications and healthy tissue. Our results show that the proposed method is a good alternative for automatically detecting microcalcifications, because this stage is an important part of early breast cancer detectio

Exploring farmers’ communication pattern and satisfaction regarding the adoption of Agromet advisory services in semi-arid regions of southern India

Agriculture is significantly impacted by the variability in weather patterns, imposing substantial constraints on farmers’ ability to make informed tactical and strategic decisions regarding their crops. Seasonal climate projections have shown potential for informing agricultural decisions, but the actual adoption of climate information by farmers has been relatively slow and limited. The present study was conducted with the objective of investigating the characteristics of adopters, the communication network, and the level of farmer’s satisfaction concerning the adoption and continued use of Agromet Advisories Services (AAS). Two semi-arid districts, namely Kurnool and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, were purposively selected, wherein 280 farmers constituted the sampling frame. In this study, social network analysis (SNA) was conducted to examine the peer-to-peer communication patterns, while importance-performance analysis (IPA) was employed to evaluate farmer’s satisfaction, contributing to the continued adoption of AAS. The findings revealed that with regard to personality and communication characteristics, farmers were in the low category for their ability to cope with uncertainties and risk and even for their information-seeking behavior. Furthermore, the results showed farmers to be highly satisfied with the overall adoption of AAS. However, the IPA matrix revealed that among the nine attributes, the credibility of the forecasts needed refinement to promote sustained adoption. Excessive emphasis was placed on attributes such as the frequency of forecasts, which could be channeled into other initiatives. Peer-to-peer communication emerged as a crucial strategy in the adoption of AAS. Governments, non-governmental organizations, and extension functionaries should make a concerted effort to enhance the continued adoption of AAS by involving local stakeholders in sharing and participating in climate information production, forming farmer’s groups, and focusing on farmers’ literacy toward AAS