Potentiometric Studies of the Complexes of Pr(III) with Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid as Primary Ligand & Pyrogallol, Pyrocatechol, Protocatechuic Acid & Protocatechualdehyde as Secondary Ligands

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Inheritance of parthenocarpy in gynoecious cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivar PPC-2

The gynoecious and parthenocarpic inbred line, Pant Parthenocarpic Cucumber-2 (PPC- 2) was crossed with Indian monoecious and non-parthenocarpic cultivar Pusa Uday to develop F1, F2, B1 and B2 to determine the inheritance of parthenocarpy.The crop was grown under insect proof net house of 40 mesh. The pistillate buds were covered using butter paper bags before anthesis to prevent out-crossing.The observations were recorded separately for the development of early parthenocarpic fruits (i.e.1-7th nodes), late parthenocarpy (8th and above nodes) and non-parthenocarpic fruits. In F1 generation, out of 40 plants screened, 2 plants produced parthenocarpic fruits at lower nodes (1-7th nodes), 37 plants produced parthenocarpic fruits at upper nodes (8th and above), whereas,only 1 plant that did not produced any fruit was considered as non-parthenocarpic. The segregation of F2 population and test crosses for parthenocarpic fruit development suggested that parthenocarpy in gynoecious and parthenocarpic cucumber line PPC-2 is under the control of incomplete dominant gene

Gynoecious inbred improves yield and earliness in cucumber (Cucumis sativus)

Heterosis for yield and yield related traits were studied in 28 F1 hybrids of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) obtained by 8 × 8 diallel (excluding reciprocal) crosses involving eight parents including one gynoecious line (GBS-1). The F1 hybrids developed using gynoecious line as one parent were found to be superior in performance over top parents for various characters are GBS-1 × Pusa Uday for node number of first female flower (-2.61%), days to first female flower anthesis (-3.45 %), number of fruits/ plant (57.49 %) and yield / plant (66.40%) ,whereas GS-4 × Pusa Uday showed better heterosis for fruit length (20.34%), average fruit diameter (17.04 %) and average fruit weight (12.24%). The best three heterotic hybrids identified over the top parent for yield/plant GBS-1 × Pusa Uday (66.40%), GBS-1 × Punjab Naveen (54.44 %) and GS-4 × Pusa Uday (41.29%) and these may be exploited for commercial cultivation

Bremsstrahlung from an Equilibrating Quark-Gluon Plasma

The photon production rate from a chemically equilibrating quark-gluon plasma likely to be produced at RHIC (BNL) and LHC (CERN) energies is estimated taking into account bremsstrahlung. The plasma is assumed to be in local thermal equilibrium, but with a phase space distribution that deviates from the Fermi or Bose distribution by space-time dependent factors (fugacities). The photon spectrum is obtained by integrating the photon rate over the space-time history of the plasma, adopting a boost invariant cylindrically symmetric transverse expansion of the system with different nuclear profile functions. Initial conditions obtained from a self-screened parton cascade calculation and, for comparison, from the HIJING model are used. Compared to an equilibrated plasma at the same initial energy density, taken from the self-screened parton cascade, a moderate suppression of the photon yield by a factor of one to five depending on the collision energy and the photon momentum is observed. The individual contributions to the photon production, however, are completely different in the both scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, shortened version to be published in Phys. Rev.

HDAC Inhibition by LBH589 Affects Phenotype and Function of Human Myeloid Dendritic Cells

LBH589 is a novel pan-HDAC inhibitor which has potent antitumor activity in multiple myeloma and other hematologic malignancies. However, its impact on immune system has not been defined. We here evaluated the effects of LBH589 on human myeloid dendritic cells (DCs) at clinically relevant concentrations. Exposure to LBH589 affected the surface molecule expression on immature and mature DCs, associated with DC maturation (CD83↓), antigen presentation (HLA-ABC↓), and T cell co-stimulation (CD40↓ and CD86↑). LBH589 decreased both protein and polysaccharide antigen uptake capacities by DCs. Importantly, LBH589 impaired DCs function to stimulate antigen-specific immune responses, resulting in the significant reduction of invariant NKT cell (CD1d-restricted) and T cell (MHC-restricted) activation in innate and adaptive immunity. LBH589 also significantly repressed the production of IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-23 and TNF-α by TLR3 and TLR4-induced DCs activation, indicating an important role of HDAC activity in immune regulation and inflammation. RelB, a component of NF-κB signaling pathway, was the key component regulated by HDAC inhibition in DCs. Together, our preclinical study demonstrates that LBH589 significantly impairs phenotype and function of DCs, indicating a need for monitoring the immune status in patients receiving HDAC inhibitor therapy. It also provides a rationale to evaluate LBH589 activity for the treatment of inflammation

Soft Electromagnetic Radiations From Equilibrating Quark-Gluon Plasma

We evaluate the bremsstrahlung production of low mass dileptons and soft photons from equilibrating and transversely expanding quark gluon plasma which may be created in the wake of relativistic heavy ion collisions. We use initial conditions obtained from the self screened parton cascade model. We consider a boost invariant longitudinal and cylindrically symmetric transverse expansion of the parton plasma and find that for low mass dileptons ($M \leq 0.3$ GeV) and soft photons ($p_{T} \leq 0.5$ GeV), the bremsstrahlung contribution is rather large compared to annihilation process at both RHIC and LHC energies. We also find an increase by a factor of 15-20 in the low mass dileptons and soft photons yield as one goes from RHIC to LHC energies.Comment: 8 pages, including 7 figures To appear in Phys. Rev.