Production of Microbial Surfactants from Oily Sludge-Contaminated Soil by Bacillus subtilis DSVP23

The indigenous microbial community utilizing aliphatic, aromatic, and polar components from the oily sludge as sole source of carbon and energy was selected from the soil samples of Ankleshwar, India for biosurfactant production. Evaluation of biosurfactant production was done using screening assays such as surface tension reduction, hemolytic activity, emulsification activity, drop-collapse assay, and cell surface hydrophobicity studies. Maximum biosurfactant (6.9?g/l) production was achieved after 5?days of growth from Bacillus subtilis DSVP23 which was identified by 16S RNA technique (NCBI GenBank accession no. EU679368). Composition of biosurfactant showed it to be lipopeptide in nature with 15.2% protein content and 18.0% lipid content. Functional group analysis was also done by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy which showed it to be a protein-bound lipid thereby imparting them special properties. Analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometric and nuclear magnetic resonance revealed that the major constituents of lipopeptide are leucine and isoleucine. Gas chromatographic analysis data indicated that oily sludge components of chain length C₁₂?CC₃₀ and aromatic hydrocarbons were degraded effectively by B. subtilis DSVP23 after 5?days of incubation. These results collectively points toward the importance of B. subtilis DSVP23 as a potential candidate for bioremediation studies.     

An Indigenous Hyperproductive Species of Aureobasidium pullulans RYLF-10: Influence of Fermentation Conditions on Exopolysaccharide (EPS) Production

In recent years, a significant interest has been generated in discovering and developing exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by microorganisms, especially fungi due to their multifaceted industrial and pharmacological applications. A number of filamentous and cellular fungi have been explored for this; however, according to the existing literature, the work on exopolysaccharide production by indigenous culture on this aspect is still very less and requires a serious attention. The present work is an attempt in this regard and aims to optimize the submerged culture conditions to produce the exopolysaccharides from an indigenous yeast Aureobasidium pullulans RYLF-10 with respect to several operating parameters in shake flask fermentation. The yeast A. pullulans RYLF-10 was identified by 18s RNA sequencing and detailed study on its nutritional requirements, and environmental conditions for submerged culture have been optimized. The optimal temperature and pH for both the vegetative growth and EPS production were found to be 28?±?1 °C and 5.0, respectively, while the agitation speed and inoculum size were reported to be 150 rpm and 1 % (v/v), respectively. Sucrose (50 g/l) and yeast extract (1 g/l) were found to be the most suitable carbon and nitrogen sources which worked best in the ratio of 60:1 and resulted in the maximum EPS yield. Similarly, the other variables like growth regulator (riboflavin) and minerals (NaCl?+?K₂HPO₄?+?MgSO₄) altogether resulted in a noteworthy EPS yield of 45.24 g/l which is the maximum yield from this indigenous isolate of A. pullulans RYLF-10.     

In Situ–Generated Zinc Bromide–Catalyzed α‐Bromination of Alkanones in Water

α‐Bromination of alkanones with bromine catalyzed by in situ–generated zinc bromide from zinc dust and bromine in water is investigated. Bromination with dioxane‐dibromide as a source of bromine does not require zinc dust and provides selectively α‐mono and α,α‐dibromo products in excellent yields when water is used as solvent.     

An attempt for modeling the atmospheric transport of tritium (<Superscript>3</Superscript>H) around the site of Narora atomic power station

Prediction of downwind tritium air concentrations in the environment around Narora Atomic Power Station was studied on the basis of Gaussian plume dispersion model. The tritium air concentrations by field measurement [measured tritium air concentrations in the areas adjacent to NAPS] were compared with the theoretically calculated values (predicted) to validate the model. This approach will be useful in evaluating environmental radiological impacts due to standard pressurised heavy water reactors.     

Sequence‐specific nucleic acid mobility using a reversible block copolymer gel matrix and DNA amphiphiles (lipid‐DNA) in capillary and microfluidic electrophoretic separations

Reversible noncovalent but sequence‐dependent attachment of DNA to gels is shown to allow programmable mobility processing of DNA populations. The covalent attachment of DNA oligomers to polyacrylamide gels using acrydite‐modified oligonucleotides has enabled sequence‐specific mobility assays for DNA in gel electrophoresis: sequences binding to the immobilized DNA are delayed in their migration. Such a system has been used for example to construct complex DNA filters facilitating DNA computations. However, these gels are formed irreversibly and the choice of immobilized sequences is made once off during fabrication. In this work, we demonstrate the reversible self‐assembly of gels combined with amphiphilic DNA molecules, which exhibit hydrophobic hydrocarbon chains attached to the nucleobase. This amphiphilic DNA, which we term lipid‐DNA, is synthesized in advance and is blended into a block copolymer gel to induce sequence‐dependent DNA retention during electrophoresis. Furthermore, we demonstrate and characterize the programmable mobility shift of matching DNA in such reversible gels both in thin films and microchannels using microelectrode arrays. Such sequence selective separation may be employed to select nucleic acid sequences of similar length from a mixture via local electronics, a basic functionality that can be employed in novel electronic chemical cell designs and other DNA information‐processing systems.     

Rainbow perfect matchings and Hamilton cycles in the random geometric graph

Given a graph on n vertices and an assignment of colours to the edges, a rainbow Hamilton cycle is a cycle of length n visiting each vertex once and with pairwise different colours on the edges. Similarly (for even n) a rainbow perfect matching is a collection of independent edges with pairwise different colours. In this note we show that if we randomly colour the edges of a random geometric graph with sufficiently many colours, then a.a.s. the graph contains a rainbow perfect matching (rainbow Hamilton cycle) if and only if the minimum degree is at least 1 (respectively, at least 2). More precisely, consider n points (i.e. vertices) chosen independently and uniformly at random from the unit d‐dimensional cube for any fixed . Form a sequence of graphs on these n vertices by adding edges one by one between each possible pair of vertices. Edges are added in increasing order of lengths (measured with respect to the norm, for any fixed ). Each time a new edge is added, it receives a random colour chosen uniformly at random and with repetition from a set of colours, where a sufficiently large fixed constant. Then, a.a.s. the first graph in the sequence with minimum degree at least 1 must contain a rainbow perfect matching (for even n), and the first graph with minimum degree at least 2 must contain a rainbow Hamilton cycle. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 51, 587–606, 2017     

Yoctoliter Thermometry for Single‐Molecule Investigations: A Generic Bead‐on‐a‐Tip Temperature‐Control Module

A new temperature‐jump (T‐jump) strategy avoids photo‐damage of individual molecules by focusing a low‐intensity laser on a black microparticle at the tip of a capillary. The black particle produces an efficient photothermal effect that enables a wide selection of lasers with powers in the milliwatt range to achieve a T‐jump of 65 °C within milliseconds. To measure the temperature in situ in single‐molecule experiments, the temperature‐dependent mechanical unfolding of a single DNA hairpin molecule was monitored by optical tweezers within a yoctoliter volume. Using this bead‐on‐a‐tip module and the robust single‐molecule thermometer, full thermodynamic landscapes for the unfolding of this DNA hairpin were retrieved. These approaches are likely to provide powerful tools for the microanalytical investigation of dynamic processes with a combination of T‐jump and single‐molecule techniques.     

Synthesis and Antimicrobial Screening of Some Novel 2‐(5‐(4‐(1H‐Benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol‐1‐yl)phenyl)‐4,5‐dihydro‐1H‐pyrazol‐3‐yl)phenols Incorporated by Triazole Moiety

A novel series of 2‐(5‐(4‐(1H‐benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol‐1‐yl)phenyl)‐4,5‐dihydro‐1H‐pyrazol‐3‐yl)phenols derivative has been synthesized from (E)‐3‐(4‐(1H‐benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol‐1‐yl)phenyl)‐1‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)prop‐2‐en‐1‐ones in ethanol and hydrazine hydrate under reflux condition. The synthesized compounds were screened for antibacterial activity against Gram‐positive bacteria viz Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis and Gram‐negative bacteria viz Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi, respectively. Some of the tested compounds showed significant antimicrobial activity. IR, ¹H NMR, mass spectral data, and elemental analysis elucidated the structures of all the newly synthesized compounds.