Some studies on six American varieties of eggplants with particular reference to floral morphology, fruit set and fruit characters

The object of the present work is threefold: firstly, to study the basic characters such as plant growth habit, number of flowers per inflorescence, floral composition, number of fruits that set per inflorescence and fruit characters of six American eggplant types; secondly to study the success of fruitset under selfing, emasculation without pollination (so that parthenocarpic set may be induced) and crossing (so that the compatibility of the varieties may be known); and thirdly to compare the production potentialities of the varieties

EXTRACTION AND ISOLATION OF FLAVONOID QUERCETIN FROM THE LEAVES OF TRIGONELLA FOENUM-GRAECUM AND THEIR ANTI-OXIDANT ACTIVITY

Objective: The present study was designed for isolation of bioactive flavonoid molecule quercetin from the leaves of Trigonella foenum-graecum and their subsequent characterization. Methods: Crude extracts of fenugreek were prepared using various solvents such as hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol. The plant extracts were subjected for photochemical analysis and total flavonoid content. The extracts were then subjected to column chromatography followed by TLC. The isolated compound was subjected to FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectroscopy and their free radical scavenging activity was studied.Results: The ethanol extract showed the presence of higher flavonoid content when compared with other solvent extracts. The ethanol extract was subjected to fractionalization by column chromatography. The eluted fractions were run in TLC mobile phase with the different solvent ratio. The fractions showed Rf value equal to standard quercetin in TLC were combined and crystallized. The characterization techniques confirmed that the isolated compound was found to be quercetin. The free radical scavenging activity suggests that the isolated compound quercetin could act as a potent source of antioxidants.Conclusion: The flavonoid quercetin was isolated effectively from the leaves of Trigonella foenum-graecum and their antioxidant activity was studied.Keywords: Antioxidant activity, DPPH, Flavonoids, NMR, Querceti

Documentation of Indigenous Knowledge of Indian Traditional Medicinal Mangroves in a Coastal Village of Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu, India

An ethno botanical survey was undertaken to collect information from traditional healers on the use of mangrove plants in Thirupullani coastal village of Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu, India. The indigenous knowledge of local traditional healers and the native plants used for medicinal purposes were collected through questionnaire and personal interviews during field trips. The investigation revealed that, the traditional healers used some species of plants to treat various diseases. The documented mangroves and associated plants are mostly frequently used for the treatment of diseases. This study showed that many people in the studied parts of coastal villages of Thirupullani still continue to depend on medicinal plants at least for the treatment of primary healthcare.Keywords: Mangroves, Indigenous knowledge, Medicinal plan

ACUTE DERMAL TOXICITY OF COAL FLY ASH NANOPARTICLES IN VIVO

Objectives: To study the toxicity effects of coal fly ash nanoparticles-induced acute dermal toxicity in Wistar albino rats.Methods: Acute dermal toxicity studies for coal fly ash nanoparticles (CFA-NPs) were conducted in Wistar albino rats. A single dose of various concentrations of CFA-NPs or vehicle was applied on the dorsal layer after shaving. Animals were observed for 14 days. Parameters like body weight, feed intake and histopathology were studied.Results: The CFA-NPs treated rats did not show any abnormal clinical signs. The body weight was not significantly altered when compared with the control group. Treatment with CFA-NPs showed mild to severe histological changes in all organs with increase dose-related manner in concentrations of CFA-NPs treated groups. The acute dermal LD50 of CFA-NPs was found to be greater than 2000 mg/kg body weight (bw) for rats.Conclusion: Dermal acute treatment with CFA-NPs can induce mild to significant dose-dependent histological changes in biological organs.Â

Cooking practices, air quality, and the acceptability of advanced cookstoves in Haryana, India: an exploratory study to inform large-scale interventions.

BackgroundIn India, approximately 66% of households rely on dung or woody biomass as fuels for cooking. These fuels are burned under inefficient conditions, leading to household air pollution (HAP) and exposure to smoke containing toxic substances. Large-scale intervention efforts need to be informed by careful piloting to address multiple methodological and sociocultural issues. This exploratory study provides preliminary data for such an exercise from Palwal District, Haryana, India.MethodsTraditional cooking practices were assessed through semi-structured interviews in participating households. Philips and Oorja, two brands of commercially available advanced cookstoves with small blowers to improve combustion, were deployed in these households. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM) with a diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) related to traditional stove use were measured using real-time and integrated personal, microenvironmental samplers for optimizing protocols to evaluate exposure reduction. Qualitative data on acceptability of advanced stoves and objective measures of stove usage were also collected.ResultsTwenty-eight of the thirty-two participating households had outdoor primary cooking spaces. Twenty households had liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) but preferred traditional stoves as the cost of LPG was higher and because meals cooked on traditional stoves were perceived to taste better. Kitchen area concentrations and kitchen personal concentrations assessed during cooking events were very high, with respective mean PM2.5 concentrations of 468 and 718 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour outdoor concentrations averaged 400 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour personal CO concentrations ranged between 0.82 and 5.27 ppm. The Philips stove was used more often and for more hours than the Oorja.ConclusionsThe high PM and CO concentrations reinforce the need for interventions that reduce HAP exposure in the aforementioned community. Of the two stoves tested, participants expressed satisfaction with the Philips brand as it met the local criteria for usability. Further understanding of how the introduction of an advanced stove influences patterns of household energy use is needed. The preliminary data provided here would be useful for designing feasibility and/or pilot studies aimed at intervention efforts locally and nationally

Using distance sampling with camera traps to estimate the density of group-living and solitary mountain ungulates

This work is part of a project initiated under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) Programme funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (grant no.: DST/SPLICE/CCP/NMSHE/TF-2/WII/2014[G]). The Miriam Rothschild Travel Bursary Programme provided funding for a 4-week internship for R. Pal with S.T. Buckland at St Andrews University, UK.Throughout the Himalaya, mountain ungulates are threatened by hunting for meat and body parts, habitat loss, and competition with livestock. Accurate population estimates are important for conservation management but most of the available methods to estimate ungulate densities are difficult to implement in mountainous terrain. Here, we tested the efficacy of the recent extension of the point transect method, using camera traps for estimating density of two mountain ungulates: the group-living Himalayan blue sheep or bharal Pseudois nayaur and the solitary Himalayan musk deer Moschus leucogaster. We deployed camera traps in 2017-2018 for the bharal (summer: 21 locations; winter: 25) in the trans-Himalayan region (3,000-5,000 m) and in 2018-2019 for the musk deer (summer: 30 locations; winter: 28) in subalpine habitats (2,500-3,500 m) in the Upper Bhagirathi basin, Uttarakhand, India. Using distance sampling with camera traps, we estimated the bharal population to be 0.51 ± SE 0.1 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.31) in summer and 0.64 ± SE 0.2 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.37) in winter. For musk deer, the estimated density was 0.4 ± SE 0.1 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.34) in summer and 0.1 ± SE 0.05 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.48) in winter. The high variability in these estimates is probably a result of the topography of the landscape and the biology of the species. We discuss the potential application of distance sampling with camera traps to estimate the density of mountain ungulates in remote and rugged terrain, and the limitations of this method.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

On Inferences from Completed Data

Matrix completion has become an extremely important technique as data scientists are routinely faced with large, incomplete datasets on which they wish to perform statistical inferences. We investigate how error introduced via matrix completion affects statistical inference. Furthermore, we prove recovery error bounds which depend upon the matrix recovery error for several common statistical inferences. We consider matrix recovery via nuclear norm minimization and a variant, $\ell_1$-regularized nuclear norm minimization for data with a structured sampling pattern. Finally, we run a series of numerical experiments on synthetic data and real patient surveys from MyLymeData, which illustrate the relationship between inference recovery error and matrix recovery error. These results indicate that exact matrix recovery is often not necessary to achieve small inference recovery error