1,183 research outputs found

    Kudakrumia rangnekari Kumar & Lelej & Das & Raveendran & Loktionov 2019, sp. nov.

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    <i>Kudakrumia rangnekari</i> Girish Kumar & Lelej, sp. nov. <p>(Figs. 1–10)</p> <p> <b>Type material.</b> Holotype ♂, mounted on card stock, <b>India</b>: Goa, South Goa district, Kotigao Wildlife Sanctuary (14°58’36’’N 74°12’22’’E, 108 m), 18.v.2018, Coll. P. Girish Kumar, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.12178. Paratype ♂, <b>India</b>: Kerala, Kasaragod district, Ranipuram Hill (12°24’56’’N 75°21’11’’E, 901 m), 21.i.2018, Coll. P.M. Rajan, ZSIK Regd. No. ZSI/ WGRC /IR/INV.12179.</p> <p> <b>Diagnosis</b>. Male. This new species is characterized by the following combination of characters: metasomal sternum 1 basally with distinct, long process (Fig. 1); metapleuron uniformly punctured, except median small smooth area (Fig. 5); propodeum punctate laterally (near metapleuron) (Fig. 5); propodeum strongly punctate without microsculptures (Fig. 5); parapenial lobe of basiparamere apically not modified, simple (Fig. 10). Female unknown.</p> <p> <b>Description</b>. Holotype male. Length: 3.28 mm. Body black but mandible except base, scape, pedicel and flagellum beneath brownish red; palpi, tegulae and legs testaceous except mesocoxa partially, metacoxa, apical half of mesofemur, metafemur almost entirely, meso- and metatibia except base, protarsomere 2–5, meso- and metatarsomere 1–5 black. Vestiture short and silvery, moderately dense and appressed on most of body, sparse erect setae also present between punctures. Wings hyaline, veins testaceous.</p> <p> <i>Head.</i> Sculpture dense, fine, at higher magnification polygonal in shape (Fig. 2); eye setae length about half frons setae length; apical clypeus margin not emarginated; mandible with three teeth; POL 0.605 × OOL; POL 1.619 × LOL; POL 2.44 diameter of posterior ocellus; scape (Fig. 3) 1.59 × as long as wide, inner lateral margin carinate, inner surface of flagellomeres 2–10 with few shorter, stouter setae.</p> <p> <i>Mesosoma</i>. Notauli almost touching anterior border of mesoscutum, parapsidal lines two-thirds of mesoscutum length, dorsum with slightly larger, more separated punctures, with microsculpture similar to that of head (Fig. 4); propodeum strongly punctate without microsculptures; metapleuron uniformly punctured, except median small area smooth. Forewing as in Fig. 6; basal part of medial vein of hindwing curved but not angulate (Fig. 7).</p> <p> <i>Metasoma</i>. First two metasomal terga with fine, subcontiguous punctures, with microsculpture almost similar to that of mesosomal dorsum, remaining terga with finer, slightly separated punctures (Fig. 8); sternum 1 basally with distinct long process (Fig. 1); second sternum with larger subcontiguous punctures, remaining sterna with small subcontiguous punctures (Fig. 9). Genitalia as in Fig. 10. Parapenial lobe of basiparamere apically not modified, simple.</p> <p>Female. Unknown.</p> <p> <b>Etymology</b>. The species is named after Mr. Parag Rangnekar, a well-known butterfly and dragonfly specialist from Goa who helped the first author to conduct a collection tour in Goa state during which the holotype was collected.</p> <p> <b>Distribution</b>. India: Goa, Kerala.</p> <p> <b>Remark</b>. The differences between the male of this new species and <i>Kudakrumia mirabilis</i> are given in the key below.</p>Published as part of <i>Kumar, Girish P., Lelej, Arkady S., Das, Dipanwita, Raveendran, Hanima K. P. & Loktionov, Valery M., 2019, Discovery of the genus Kudakrumia Krombein, 1979 (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) in India and description of a new species, pp. 260-266 in Zootaxa 4612 (2)</i> on pages 261-264, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4612.2.8, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/3234350">http://zenodo.org/record/3234350</a&gt

    Identification of Abiotic and Biotic Factors Causing Deterioration During Storage and Development of Storage Techniques for Mahua (Madhuca indica Syn. Bassia latifolia) flowers

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    Mahua (Madhuca indica syn. Bassia latifolia) flowers, occupy an important position in the life of the tribal in many parts of India. Particularly, the flowers of the plant are sugar rich and in certain cases it is the only source of livelihood for those people. However, its nutrient quality deteriorates during the postharvest storage and thus, poses a serious problem of adequate storage. In order to determine the cause of spoilage and to develop the measures to check it, collected flowers were stored using two methods in this investigation; first, under normally practiced conditions (NPS), i.e., the practice adopted by the flower’s collectors, and second, oven dried, powdered with liquid nitrogen, and stored at 00C (±10C) in different small airtight sterilized vials labelled as laboratory processed samples (LPS). Both LPS and NPS were stored for a year i.e. from one harvesting season to the next. Experiments were carried out, at every month interval, to identify the factors responsible for spoilage of flowers during storage. LPS did not exhibit deterioration in the nutrient value throughout the year of storage, but NPS showed spoilage due to various biotic and abiotic factors comprised of moisture, temperature and microorganisms. To check postharvest spoilage various innovative storage techniques like physical and chemical treatments were experimented. Results revealed that storage at low temperature by liquid nitrogen treatment and chemical conversion to oxalic acid were the most effective techniques for a long-term storage

    Article and Author Level Measurements

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    Article and author level measurements have been discussed in this Unit. Author and researcher identifiers are absolutely essential for searching databases in the WWW because a name like D Singh can harbour a number of names such as Dan Singh, Dhan Singh, Dhyan Singh, Darbara Singh, Daulat Singh, Durlabh Singh and more. The ResearcherID.com, launched by Thomson Reuters, is a web-based global registry of authors and researchers that individualises each and every name. Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) is also a registry that uniquely identifies an author or researcher. Both have been discussed in this Unit. Article Level Metrics (Altmetrics) has been treated in this Unit with the discussion as to how altmetrics can be measured with Altmetric.com and ImpactStory.org. Altmetrics for Online Journals has also been touched. There are a number of academic social networks of which ResearchGate.net, Academia.edu, GetCited.org, etc. have been discussed. Regional journal networks with bibliometric indicators are also in existence. Two networks of this type such as SciELO – Scientific Electronic Library Online, and Redalyc have been dealt with. This Unit discusses in details aspects such as Unique Identifiers for Authors and Researchers; Article Level Metrics (Altmetrics); Academic Social Networks; and Regional Journal Networks with Bibliometric Indicators

    Redox-Responsive Nanocapsules for the Spatiotemporal Release of Miltefosine in Lysosome: Protection against Leishmania

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    Leishmaniasis, a vector-borne disease, is caused by intracellular parasite Leishmania donovani. Unlike most intracellular pathogens, Leishmania donovani are lodged in parasitophorous vacuoles and replicate within the phagolysosomes in macrophages. Effective vaccines against this disease are still under development, while the efficacy of the available drugs is being questioned owing to the toxicity for nonspecific distribution in human physiology and the reported drug-resistance developed by Leishmania donovani. Thus, a stimuli-responsive nanocarrier that allows specific localization and release of the drug in the lysosome has been highly sought after for addressing two crucial issues, lower drug toxicity and a higher drug efficacy. We report here a unique lysosome targeting polymeric nanocapsules, formed via inverse mini-emulsion technique, for stimuli-responsive release of the drug miltefosine in the lysosome of macrophage RAW 264.7 cell line. A benign polymeric backbone, with a disulfide bonding susceptible to an oxidative cleavage, is utilized for the organelle-specific release of miltefosine. Oxidative rupture of the disulfide bond is induced by intracellular glutathione (GSH) as an endogenous stimulus. Such a stimuli-responsive release of the drug miltefosine in the lysosome of macrophage RAW 264.7 cell line over a few hours helped in achieving an improved drug efficacy by 200 times as compared to pure miltefosine. Such a drug formulation could contribute to a new line of treatment for leishmaniasis.A. Das acknowledges SERB (India) Grants (CRG/2020/000492 and JCB/2017/000004) and DBT Grant (BT/PR22251/NNT/28/1274/2017) for supporting this research. N. Mukherjee acknowledges SERB (India) Grant PDF/2016/001437 and K. Das acknowledges the grant EMR/2015/001674 for supporting this research. Financial support from DST (DST/INSPIRE/03/2017/002477) is acknowledged by R.T. This manuscript bears CSMCRI registration no 7/2021.Pramanik, SK (corresponding author), CSIR Cent Salt & Marine Chem Res Inst, Bhavnagar 364002, Gujarat, India. Mukherjee, N (corresponding author), CSIR Indian Inst Chem Biol, Canc Biol & Inflammatory Disorder Div, Kolkata 700032, India. Chattopadhy, S (corresponding author), BITS Pilani, Pilani 403726, Goa, India. Das, A (corresponding author), Indian Inst Sci Educ & Res Kolkata, Mohanpur 741246, W Bengal, India. [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

    Response surface based experimental analysis and thermal resistance model of a thermoelectric power generation system

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    In this work, a response surface analysis is carried out on an experimental setup of a combined two-phase flow thermosyphon and thermoelectric generator (TEG) system. Three-level Box-Behnken response surface method is adopted for the design of experiments, and analysis of variance is carried out to gauge the contribution of operating parameters on various performance parameters. Effects of operating parameters such as working pressure, filling ratio, evaporator length, and evaporator temperature are studied. The performance of the system itself is gauged concerning the maximum power obtained, open circuit voltage and short circuit current. With an increase in vacuum pressure and evaporator temperature, performance parameters are found to increase. However, performance parameters under the influence of filling ratio and evaporator length first decrease and then increase due to uneven variation in evaporation rate of working fluid. Experiments also reveal that the performance of the thermosyphon-assisted (TEG) system is mainly governed by pressure and evaporator temperature, whereas filling ratio and evaporator length have relatively lesser influence.Design and Development of a Solar Pond and Biomass Driven Thermoelectric Unit for Domestic Power Generation using Inverse Method from Science & Engineering Research Boar

    Protective Effects of <i>Chlorella vulgaris</i> Supplemented Diet on Antibacterial Activity and Immune Responses in Rohu Fingerlings, <i>Labeo rohita</i> (Hamilton), Subjected to <i>Aeromonas hydrophila</i> Infection

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    The current study focuses on the antibacterial activity and potential efficiency of dietary supplements of Chlorella vulgaris on the immune response, improved growth performance, and disease resistance of Labeo rohita fingerlings against Aeromonas hydrophila infection. Crude ethanolic extract of Chlorella and partially purified fractions of the extract were tested against two selected fish pathogens using the disc diffusion method. A total number of 360 rohu fingerlings (25 ± 2 g) were allocated to 4 treatments for 90 days. They were fed with an experimental diet containing Chlorella powder (0, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 g Kg−1 of a basic diet). To evaluate the non-specific immunity parameters including serum bactericidal, lysozyme activity, superoxide anion production, and biochemical and haematological indices, the fish were sampled at day 30, 60, 90, and after bacterial challenge. Mortalities of the fish were observed over 10 days post challenge with A. hydrophila. The protein and globulin levels of the treatment group were significantly higher after being treated with Chlorella than those of the control group. The total blood-cell count and haemoglobin content were also increased in the algal-diet-treated group. Among all the experimental diets, the 0.5 g Kg−1Chlorella fed group of fish showed significantly (p −1 diet fed group on day 30. The Chlorella treated group exhibited a better growth performance of the fish. The maximum survivability (86.5%) was recorded in the 1.0 g Kg−1 diet fed group at the end of the 10-day fish exposure to A. hydrophila. These results suggest that the optimum dietary Chlorella supplementation could be 0.5–1.0 g Kg−1 of the diet, which stimulates immunity and protects L. rohita from A. hydrophila infection

    Modern & Smart Library in the Information Age

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    Due to information explosion, the knowledge can be available without boundaries and with the help of new technologies, the library services are developing day-by-day. With smart Technology, the modern library can fulfill the demand of the user
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