Lesser Known Ethnomedicinal Plants of Alagar Hills, Madurai District of Tamil Nadu, India

The ethnobotanical uses of plant species viz. Embelia basal (Roxb.) DC., Gymnema lactiferum R.Br., Ophiorrhiza mungos L., and Syzygium alternifolium (Wight) Walp. were recorded from Alagar hills of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu

Experimental investigation on chromium-diamond like carbon (Cr-DLC) coating through plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) on the nozzle needle surface

This study emphases the reduction of droplet defect in nozzle needle during the application of Cr-DLC coating on the substrate. The coatings were carried out in the highly sophisticated chamber with attached coating setup under the vacuum atmosphere. The materials were assessed in terms of their adhesiveness, hardness, wear resistance, and microstructural morphology. The dry wear test result reveals the appreciable outcome of nitrogen (N2) flushing on quality of interfacial bonding. The indentation confirms the superior morphology of coated substrates but yet insufficient to resist crack propagation due to weak in adhesiveness of chromium (Cr) layer under non-N2 flushing. Scanning electron microcopy (SEM) embedded with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) was deployed for analysis of cross-sectional coated of substrate. The statistical results claimed that the samples rejection without N2 flushing was showed up to 1.2%. However, the results revealed that Cr-DLC coating with N2 flushing reduced droplet defect and gain remarkable performance over a wide range of samples. Consequently, this novel methodology was employed to assess the coating performance by using a performance index based on tribological properties

Internet of Things and Machine Learning Applications for Smart Precision Agriculture

Agriculture forms the major part of our Indian economy. In the current world, agriculture and irrigation are the essential and foremost sectors. It is a mandatory need to apply information and communication technology in our agricultural industries to aid agriculturalists and farmers to improve vice all stages of crop cultivation and post-harvest. It helps to enhance the country’s G.D.P. Agriculture needs to be assisted by modern automation to produce the maximum yield. The recent development in technology has a significant impact on agriculture. The evolutions of Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have supported researchers to implement this automation in agriculture to support farmers. ML allows farmers to improve yield make use of effective land utilisation, the fruitfulness of the soil, level of water, mineral insufficiencies control pest, trim development and horticulture. Application of remote sensors like temperature, humidity, soil moisture, water level sensors and pH value will provide an idea to on active farming, which will show accuracy as well as practical agriculture to deal with challenges in the field. This advancement could empower agricultural management systems to handle farm data in an orchestrated manner and increase the agribusiness by formulating effective strategies. This paper highlights contribute to an overview of the modern technologies deployed to agriculture and suggests an outline of the current and potential applications, and discusses the challenges and possible solutions and implementations. Besides, it elucidates the problems, specific potential solutions, and future directions for the agriculture sector using Machine Learning and the Internet of things

Antioxidant activity of selected lesser known edible fruits from Western Ghats of India

174-178Six species of lesser known edible fruits from Western Ghats of India were analysed for their anthocyanin, ascorbic acid, total phenolics and flavonoid levels and their antioxidant activities using the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) method. The data obtained shown the anthocyanin, ascorbic acid, total phenolics and flavonoid levels were significantly higher in the methanol extract of Mahonia leschenaultii (Wall. ex Wight & Arn.) Takeda fruits. Gaultheria fragrantissima Wall. and Rubus ellipticus Sm. fruits were also found to have significant amount of phytochemicals analyzed. M. leschenaultii fruits had highest antioxidant activity when compared to all other fruit extracts. There was a strong correlation between the content of phytochemicals and antioxidant activities in all fruit extracts in the following decreasing order: M. leschenaultii > G. fragrantissima > R. ellipticus > Grewia tiliaefolia Vahl > Ziziphus rugosa Lam.> Flueggea leucopyrus Willd

Rhodamine based “turn–on” molecular switch FRET–sensor for cadmium and sulfide ions and live cell imaging study

A novel fluorescent chemosensor based on a rhodamine derivative (RBD4) was designed, synthesized, and used as a selective Cd2+ ion sensor. The structure of the fluorescence sensor (RBD4) is confirmed through single crystal X-ray study. On the basis of the Förster resonance energy transfer mechanism between rhodamine and pyridine conjugated dyad, a new colorimetric as well as fluorescence probe was synthesized for the selective detection of Cd2+. This sensor shows high selectivity towards Cd2+ ions in the presence of other competing metal ions. On the basis of thorough experimental and theoretical findings, the additions of Cd2+ ions to the solution of RBD4 helps to generate a new fluorescence peak at 590nm due to the selective binding of Cd2+ ions with RBD4 in a 1: 1 ratio with a binding constant (K) of 4.2524×104M−1. The detection limit of RBD4 for Cd2+ was 1.025×10−8M, which presented a pronounced sensitivity towards Cd2+. The in situ generated RBD4–Cd2+ complex is able to selectively sense S2− over other anions based on the displacement approach, given a remarkable recovery of fluorescence and UV–vis absorption spectra. The fluorescence sensor has also exhibited very good results in HeLa Cells imaging under physiological pH

Synthesis of rhodamine based organic nanorods for efficient chemosensor probe for Al (III) ions and its biological applications

A novel highly selective rhodamine based organic nanorods (ONRs) was successfully designed and synthesised, which showed both absorption and fluorescence turn-on responses for Al3+ ions in aqueous solution. The ONRs possess strong fluorescence emission in aqueous solution. These spectral changes are sufficient to detection of Al3+ ions in the visible region of the spectrum and thus support naked eye detection. The aforesaid studies reveal that ONRs−Al3+ complex is highly selective and fully reversible in presence of sulphide anions. This study raises the new possibility of a highly selective and sensitive ONRs having multifunctional detection, including cation and anions, using a successive fluorescence response strategy in biological systems. Besides, the fluorescence microscopic studies confirmed that the fluorescent probe ONRs could be used as an imaging probe for detection of uptake of Al3+ ions in HeLa cells