Prebiotic Oligosaccharides: Special Focus on Fructooligosaccharides,Its Biosynthesis and Bioactivity

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important nonprotein-coding genes involved in almost all biological processes during biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. To investigate the miRNA-mediated plant response to drought stress, two drought-tolerant (C-306 and NI-5439) and two drought-sensitive (HUW-468 and WL-711) wheat genotypes were exposed to 25 % PEG 6000 for 1, 12 and 24 h. Temporal expression patterns of 12 drought-responsive miRNAs and their corresponding nine targets were monitored by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The results showed differential expression of miRNAs and their targets with varying degree of upregulation and downregulation in drought-sensitive genotypes. Likewise, in drought-tolerant wheat genotypes, maximum accumulation of miR393a and miR397a was observed at 1 h of stress. In addition, nearly perfect negative correlation was observed in four miRNA and target pairs (miR164-NAC, miR168a-AGO, miR398-SOD and miR159a-MYB) across all the temporal period studied which could be a major player during drought response in wheat. We, for the first time, validated the presence of miR529a and miR1029 in wheat. These findings gives a clue for temporal and variety-specific differential regulation of miRNAs and their targets in wheat in response to osmotic shock and could help in defining the potential roles of miRNAs in plant adaptation to osmotic stress in future.     

Oleic acid-assisted phase transfer of nanosized silver colloids

In this study, it is demonstrated that silver nanoparticles can be transferred from formamide to chloroform using oleic acid as a phase transfer agent with a transfer efficiency of 90–95%. The silver nanoparticles are initially formed as an organosol by the reduction of silver ions with formamide. On aging the complex, the particles self-assemble to form an ordered close-packed two-dimensional array of silver nanocrystals when dissolved in CHCl₃. The size distribution of the colloidal silver particles after transfer in different solvents remains almost the same. On the basis of IR spectroscopy, we discuss the adsorption of oleic acid over the silver particles.     

High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography Analysis of Saccharin in Foods and Beverages

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - A simple, accurate, and inexpensive high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been established for analysis of...     

Evaluation of Methanogenic Activity of Biogas Plant Slurry for Monitoring Codigestion of Ossein Factory Wastes and Cyanobacterial Biomass

Overall measurement of methanogenic activity of sludge and or slurry is thought as a key for understanding the basic physiology of anaerobic consortia involved in anaerobic digestion process of an alternative biomass. In this study, the methanogenic activity of biogas plant slurry was used to evaluate the anaerobic digestion of ossein factory wastes such as sinews and primary clarified bone waste (PCBW) and cyanobacterial biomass in standard assay conditions. A maximum methanogenic activity was reported here when ossein factory wastes mixed with cyanobacterial biomass in specific proportions in which sinews and PCBW alone also favored to a significant methane yield. Cyanobacterial biomass alone did not give a desirable methanogenic activity. Approximately 48% of total solids were destroyed from these wastes after 30 days. This study gives information on the use of these wastes with suitable proportions for taking an effort in a large-scale anaerobic digestion in an effective way of ossein factory.     

Do Two Flavour Oscillations Explain both KamLAND Data and the Solar Neutrino Spectrum?

The recent measurement of Δ _sol by the KamLAND experiment with very small errors, makes definitive predictions for the energy dependence of the solar neutrino survival probability P _ee . We fix Δ _sol to be the KamLAND best fit value of 8×10⁻⁵ eV² and study the energy dependence of P _ee for solar neutrinos, in the framework of two flavour oscillations and also of three flavour oscillations. For the case of two flavour oscillations, P _ee has a measurable slope in the 5–8 MeV range but the solar spectrum measurements in this range find P _ee to be flat. The predicted values of P _ee , even for the best fit value of θ _sol , differ by 2–3 σ from the Super-K measured values in each of the three energy bins of the 5–8 MeV range. If future measurements of solar neutrinos by Super-K and SNO find a flat spectrum with reduced error bars (by a factor of 2), it will imply that two flavour oscillations can no longer explain both KamLAND data and the solar spectrum. However a flat solar neutrino spectrum and the Δ _sol measured by KamLAND can be reconciled in a three flavour oscillation framework with a moderate value of θ ₁₃≈13°.     

Routing and wavelength assignment algorithms for multiclass WDM optical networks

In this paper dynamic routing and wavelength assignment strategies have been proposed for multiclass WDM optical networks. Multiclass optical networks provide multiple classes of services to the subscriber according to the requirement, which in turn increase operational profitability. Each class of service could be characterized by parameters like number of wavelengths, expected call holding time and average arrival rate of request. The proposed strategies have been analyzed and compared with existing strategies on the basis of blocking probabilities for multiclass traffic scenarios. Simulation results on different network topologies demonstrate that the performance of proposed strategies “Fixed shortest/alternate shortest path routing with wavelength reservation (FSASWR)” and “Fixed alternate shortest path routing with least priority wavelength assignment (FASPL)” are much better as compared to existing strategies. Proposed strategies minimize blocking probability of the multiclass network using limited number of wavelengths.     

Structural and optical properties of RF magnetron sputtered aluminum nitride films without external substrate heating

We report structural and optical properties of aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering. A ceramic AlN target was used to sputter deposit AlN films without external substrate heating in Ar-N₂ (1:1) ambient. The X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy results revealed that the films were preferentially oriented along c-axis. Cross-sectional imaging revealed columnar growth perpendicular to the substrate. The secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis confirmed that aluminum and nitrogen distribution was uniform within the thickness of the film. The optical band gap of 5.3 eV was evaluated by UV-vis spectroscopy. Photo-luminescence broad band was observed in the range of 420-600 nm with two maxima, centered at 433 nm and 466 nm wavelengths related to the energy states originated during the film growth. A structural property correlation has been carried out to explore the possible application of such important well oriented nano-structured two-dimensional semiconducting objects.     

Biased random walks on a disordered one-dimensional lattice

We employ the spectral properties of cyclic random matrices to understand the approach to equilibrium of a biased random walk on a disordered lattice. The simplicity of the calculations and the flexibility with which randomness can be modelled makes it a worthwhile alternative.     

Synthesis of novel dihydrooxazine and oxazoline based sugar hybrids from sugar azides

A convenient one-step method for the synthesis of novel dihydrooxazine and oxazoline based sugar hybrids is reported starting from the readily accessible sugar azides and aldehydes. We have used Aubé’s protocol to achieve this transformation. The resulting glycoconjugates could be used to increase the diversity on the sugar backbone and may find applications as potential glycomimetics and in drug discovery.