ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI FROM MEDICINAL PLANT CRESCENTIA CUJETE L. AND THEIR ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTICANCER PROPERTIES

Objective: The present study was aimed to isolate endophytic fungi from ethano-medicinally important plant Crescentia cujete L. in view to screen their bioactive principles towards different pharmacological applications. Methods: A total of four morphologically distinct endophytic fungi were isolated and identified via analyzing their ITS region of 5.8s rRNA and sequences were submitted in Genbank. The recovered four isolates were further cultivated in Czapek-Dox broth, from this extra cellular bioactive metabolites has been extracted using ethyl acetate for their different biological activities. DPPH assay was performed to measure the free-radical scavenging activity of extracts and antibacterial property was assessed through disc diffusion method. On the other hand, the cytotoxic potential of fungal extracts against hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (HepG2) was studied by MTT assay, AO-EB and Hoechest staining methods under in vitro condition. Most importantly, the active compounds present in the solvent extracts were identified through GC-MS analysis.Results: The fungal extracts showed a strong growth inhibitory effect against bacterial human pathogens and excellent free radical scavenging activity. It also exhibits excellent antiproliferative effect against hepatocellular carcinoma cells, further it was observed that the cell death was primarily mediated by apoptosis. The active compounds present in the extracts were identified through GC-MS analysis, which depicts the presence of aspirin and diethyl phthalate as the major constituents.Conclusion: Overall, this study strongly suggests that extracts of isolated endophytic fungi from C. cujete L. can be developed as a lead/drug molecule in view of pharmaceutical context.Â

Experimental Simulation of Particulate dispersion in Sand-Water Slurry System in Mechanically Agitated Metallurgical Vessel

Simulation by dispersion of sand particles in water in an impeller stirred vessel has been carried out with a view to establish parameters for effective dispersion of dispersoids in Mg- Metal Matrix Composites by liquid metallurgy route. The effect of z-distance (height of the impeller from the base of the vessel) and rotational speed on the degree of dispersion has been studied and the results are reported in this paper

Historical perspective of iron in ancient India

Iron is an important metal which has influenced the march of civilization over atleast 5000 years and it has been in the service of man from the dawn of time. The ancient scriptures and legends have extensive references about the use of iron. The archaeological evidences show that iron was being made all over India and there was no written records of the process of manufacturing iron. The technology has been handed over from one person to another within a limited group. Unfortunately this art phased out with the development of new technology during 19-20 century. The paper discusses the various sources of existence of iron, its utilization and importance right from pre-Rig Vedic period upto the first half of 20 century

Continuing WebAssembly with Effect Handlers

WebAssembly (Wasm) is a low-level portable code format offering near native performance. It is intended as a compilation target for a wide variety of source languages. However, Wasm provides no direct support for non-local control flow features such as async/await, generators/iterators, lightweight threads, first-class continuations, etc. This means that compilers for source languages with such features must ceremoniously transform whole source programs in order to target Wasm. We present WasmFX an extension to Wasm which provides a universal target for non-local control features via effect handlers, enabling compilers to translate such features directly into Wasm. Our extension is minimal and only adds three main instructions for creating, suspending, and resuming continuations. Moreover, our primitive instructions are type-safe providing typed continuations which are well-aligned with the design principles of Wasm whose stacks are typed. We present a formal specification of WasmFX and show that the extension is sound. We have implemented WasmFX as an extension to the Wasm reference interpreter and also built a prototype WasmFX extension for Wasmtime, a production-grade Wasm engine, piggybacking on Wasmtime's existing fibers API. The preliminary performance results for our prototype are encouraging, and we outline future plans to realise a native implementation

Partitioning of 14C-Photosynthate in Low and High Nodulating Selections of Chickpea

Partitioning of "c-photosyn1hate in low and high nodulating selections of chickpea. Genetic variation for nodulation’ capacity bas been detected in chickpea cultivars. Five groups of cultivar ICC 5003, were selected based on increasing nodule ,number and mass. These groups were examined to understand carbon budgeting in relation La Nz fixation. Chickpea plants grown at two mineral nitrogen levels were exposed to 14C01 and !.he distribution of 14C-photosynthate in different plant parts was determined. Total plant biomass of chickpea selection increased Significantly (p < 0.01) with increasing mineral N and nodulation level. Mean percentage 14C-pholosynLhatc translocated to the foots decreased with increasing nodulation rank and also with increasing mineral N level. Low nodulating selections of chickpea grown under low soil N level were unable to fulfill their N requirements through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) as indicated by their higher root shoot ratio compared to UIC high nodulating selections. Such plants invested more carbon in increased root production so as to exploit soil N as evidenced by the greater partitioning of L 4C-photosynlhate La roots in low nodulating selections

Development of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Metrics and Risk Measures

This is an internal project milestone report to document the CCSI Element 7 team's progress on developing Technology Readiness Level (TRL) metrics and risk measures. In this report, we provide a brief overview of the current technology readiness assessment research, document the development of technology readiness levels (TRLs) specific to carbon capture technologies, describe the risk measures and uncertainty quantification approaches used in our research, and conclude by discussing the next steps that the CCSI Task 7 team aims to accomplish

Phylogenetic relations in section Arachis based on seed protein profile

Seed protein profiles of nine diploid species (2n = 20), ten tetraploid accessions, two synthetic amphidiploids and two autotetraploids (2n = 40) were studied using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. While the general profiles suggested considerable homology among these taxa in spite of speciation and ploidy differences, appreciable genetic differences were present to support the existing genomic divisions and sub-divisions in the section Arachis. A high degree of relationship was indicated between the two diploid species (A. duranensis containing the A genome and A. batizocoi (ICG 8210) containing the B genome) and tetraploids A. monticola/A. hypogaea (2n = 40) containing AABB genome. Similar relationships were recorded between the AABB synthetic amphidiploid and the profile obtained from the mixture of protein of A. duranensis and A. batizocoi, suggesting that these two diploid species were the donors of the A and B genome, respectively, to tetraploid A. monticola/A. hypogaea

Effect of pollen and DNA source on RFLP pattern of mitochondrial DNA in pearl millet

In this study, RFLP banding patterns based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) for the open-pollinated (OP) seed were identical to those based on mtDNA from sibbed seed of pearl millet. This clearly indicated that OP and sibbed seed can be used for mtDNA-RFLP analysis with equal reliability. In all four enzyme-probe combinations tested, RFLP banding patterns were identical from total DNA (tDNA) and mtDNA Southern blots. The only difference observed was that bands appeared hazy and their resolution was reduced when tDNA was used. A few bands with very similar molecular weights appeared fused, resulting in thick hazy bands when digested tDNA was used in place of digested mtDNA

Iron making in ancient India - a critical assessment

It is a well known fact, that Indian craftsman produced quality iron products much earlier than the developed countries, making use of local reserves of iron ore. Iron produced in ancient India was mostly wrought iron. The metal was obtained in the form of a pasty mass and then shaped under hammer. Today, when India is producing several million tons of iron, primitive iron making is still exists in some parts of India. The primitive iron making furnaces declined in numbers gradually from about 500 in the beginning of 20'h century to about 150 by the middle of the century. Their present number is not known. Such furnaces are in operation deep into the forests and the tribal areas of India. The paper discusses briefly the history of iron making along with the critical assessment of the ancient processes. Some of the important measures absolutely. essential to upgrade the processes have also been discussed. Several pertinent modifications have been proposed in the design of these furnaces to make them more energy efficient and economically viable 'for tribal and rural populace

Isolation of Putative Disease Resistance Gene Clones from Chickpea and Pigeonpea

Nucleotide binding sites conferring disease resistance were cloned from chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan). The majority of amplified resistance gene candidates showed high homology to N (tobacco) and L6 (flax) resistance genes