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Among the heavy metals (HMs), lead (Pb) is considered as a toxic HM which adversely affects growth and development of crop plants. The present experiment was aimed to investigate the potential role of ascorbic acid (ASC) in the reversal of Pb-inhibited nitrogen and sulfur assimilation enzymes activity and activity of photosynthesis enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) and growth response in wheat plants. Wheat seedlings were subjected to 0 mM (control) and 0.2 mM and 0.6 mM of ASC with and without 2 mM of Pb. Plants treated with Pb exhibited the following reduced growth characteristics (root length, shoot length, root fresh weight (FW), shoot FW, root dry weight (DW) and shoot DW). A decrease was also observed in the activity of Rubisco and ATP sulfurylase (ATP-S), relative water content (RWC), accumulation of total chlorophyll (Total Chl) and content of nutrients [nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg)] in Pb-treated plants. However, an increase in Chl degradation and in the activity of O-acetylserine(thiol)lyase (OAS-TL) and accumulation of cysteine (Cys), malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was observed in plants under Pb stress. On the contrary, exogenous application of ASC mitigated the Pb-toxicity-induced oxidative damage by enhancing the activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione reductase. Improved activity of antioxidant enzymes suppressed the formation of MDA and H2O2, which was reflected in the form of improved growth characteristics. Moreover, ASC induced improvement in plants defense systems by reduced Chl degradation and improved the content of essential nutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and Cys, RWC and the activity of Rubisco, ATP-S, NR and OAS-TL.

Cytochrome B (Cyt B) gene and control region of mitochondrial DNA are considered important for evaluating phylogenetic association of a species. In this study, we sequenced Cyt B and control region...

In this article, we report the synthesis of two (A3 and A4) new ferrocene-based heterobimetallic compounds of Fe and Sn. Both compounds are structural isomers with formula (C5H5)Fe(C5H4C6H4COO)Sn(CH3)3 and have been characterized by elemental analysis, cyclic voltammetry, FTIR, UV-vis and NMR spectroscopy. Additionally, the structure of A3 was confirmed by single-crystal XRD studies. XRD studies confirmed that in the solid phase A3 exists as a unidirectional polymeric material. DNA-binding potential of these compounds was evaluated by UV-vis spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and viscosity measurements. These interaction assays conclude that A3 (binding constant ~104 M−1) and A4 have good attraction towards DNA and bind with DNA in intercalative manner.

A sand culture experiment was carried out to study the effects of sulfur deprivation on heat stress tolerance of two cluster bean (Cymopsis tetragonoloba L. Taub) cultivars (GC-1 and Pusa Nau Bahar (PNB)). Three weeks old sulfur-starved and sulfur-supplemented plants were subjected to heat stress (45°C/35°C) treatment for 24 h. Total dry weight, chlorophyll content, Chlorophyll a:b ratio, electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation, H2O2 content, sugar, glucose-6-phosphate (G-6-P), fructose-6-phosphate (F-6-P), ascorbate and glutathione concentrations and antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT)) were monitored, at the end of the heat stress treatment. Heat stress enhanced and sulfur starvation depleted the contents of sugar metabolites, but the accumulation of sugar, G-6-P and F-6-P were not related with heat stress tolerance. Antioxidant enzyme activities of SOD and CAT were influenced significantly more by sulfur starvation than heat stress. The res...

This article considers the problem of estimating the population mean using information on two auxiliary variables in the presence of non response under two-phase sampling. Some improved ratio-in-regression type estimators have been proposed in four different situations of non response along with their properties under large sample approximation. Efficiency comparisons of the proposed estimators with the usual unbiased estimator by Hansen and Hurwitz (1946), conventional ratio and regression estimators using single auxiliary variable and Singh and Kumar (2010b) estimators using two auxiliary variables have been made. Finally, these theoretical findings are illustrated by a numerical example.

This article reviews the recent progress of zirconium complexes for ethylene polymerization. Zirconium complexes are one of the most important types of catalysts for homogeneous ethylene polymerization. Polymerization behavior and polymer structure can be adjusted through the balancing of ligand structure. We surveyed the zirconium complexes synthesized from 2006 to early 2009 and summarize their comparative catalytic activities. Generally, the main factor observed is the steric bulk which on increasing reduces the catalytic activity. Electron count, electronic cloud, and inductive effect also influence the catalytic activity.

Crystal structure refinement of the synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction data for pure CaTiO3 as well as doped with Lanthanum, Niobium and Zinc were carried out with Rietveld refinement method. The refinement results revealed that crystal structure of pure and doped samples is orthorhombic with Pbnm space group. The structure is found to be isostructural with GdFeO3 perovskite structure. TiO6 octahedra are found to be distorted in all these samples. B-site cation doping has more pronounced effect on the octahedral as well as cuboctahedral distortion than A-site doping.

Joint Rietveld structural refinement of the neutron and X-ray powder diffraction data of PbTiO3 ceramics was carried out at room temperature. Crystallographic parameters, bond distances and bond angles thus determined are reported. The displacements of Ti and Pb atoms with respect to OII at 1/2 c were found to be 0.37A and 0.51A, respectively.

Crystal structure refinement of CaTiO3 and CaTi0.99Nb0.01O3 ceramics data measured by synchrotron x-ray diffraction technique revealed orthorhombic (Pbnm) perovskite symmetry for both the ceramics. TiO6 octahedra exhibited slight distortions from the ideal cubic perovskite symmetry that was attributed to the size ratios of the two types of cations occupying A- and B-sites.

Sniffers are program that are used to capture network packets illegally. It is a malicious activity performed by network users, and because of this network security is at risk. Detection of sniffers is an essential task to maintaining network security. Man in the middle (MiM) intrusion detection, switched network sniffer detection based on IP packet routing, and ARP watch detection techniques are used to detect a sniffer in switch Local Area Network (LAN) environments. This paper highlights the shortcomings of previous techniques that detect sniffers in switch LAN environments. We propose a new sniffer detection technique based on Internet Protocol (IP) packet routing that removes the shortcomings of previous techniques. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed detection technique shows a significance improvement in network performance.

Soil salinity is one of the major factors responsible for the low productivity of crop plants and has become an increasing threat for agriculture. In this context, the selection of tolerant genotype/s may be one of the remedies. Keeping this in view, the effect of NaCl (0–120 mM) stress on shoot length (SL) plant−1, area (A) leaf−1, leaf area index (LAI), fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW) plant−1, stomatal conductance (gs), net photosynthetic rate (P N), total chlorophyll (Chl) content, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, sensitivity rate index (SRI), leaf- nitrogen (N), potassium (K) and sodium (Na) content, leaf-K/Na ratio, nitrate reductase (NR: EC.1.6.6.1) and ATP-sulphurylase (ATP-S: EC.2.7.7.4) activities and proline (Pro) and glycinebetaine (GB) content of ten genotypes of Brassica juncea L. was studied at 55 and 65 days after sowing (DAS). NaCl treatments decreased all the above parameters, except Pro, GB, MDA, Na and SRI at both stages. Salt stress resulted in accumulation of Pro and GB, ...

The plants of Cassia tora L. were grown in pots containing soil, supplied with five levels of phosphorus: 0 (Control), 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 g P per kg soil. The fresh and dry weights, number of leaves and leaf-area per plant were recorded. The leaves were analyzed for inorganic elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. Physiological and biochemical attributes including chlorophyll and carotenoid content, nitrate reductase activity, carbonic anhydrase activity, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate were determined. Yield attributes including number of pods, number of seeds per pod, 100-seed weight, and seed-yield per plant were recorded. In addition, protein, total anthraquinone glycosides (in seeds) and total sennoside content (in pods) were also estimated. The results showed that phosphorus at the level of 0.3 g per kg soil proved optimum and significantly enhanced most of the attributes studied.

The feasibility of split (soil + foliar) applications of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and addition of a small quantity of sulfur (S) in the spray was tested for improving performance of rapeseed-mustard genotypes in a factorial randomized field experiment. Three genotypes (two erucic acid free, viz. Brassica napus L. cv. ‘Hyola PAC – 401’ and Brassica juncea L. Czern. and Coss. cv. ‘TERI (0E) M 21-Swarna’, and one best performing high yielding Brassica juncea L. cv. ‘Rohini’ as a check) were grown with four soil (B) plus foliar (F) applications of N, P, and S with uniform basal 30 kg potassium (K) ha− 1 (K30), viz. (i) the optimum soil-applied treatment supplemented with the spray of deionized water (BN90P30 + Fw) comprising control, (ii) BN70P30 + F N20, (iii) BN70P28 + FN20P2, and (iv) BN70P28 + FN20P2S2. Soil Plus foliar application of nutrients, particularly BN70P28 + FN20P2S2, improved their performance with respect to growth characteristics (shoot length plant− 1, leaf number plant− 1, a...

Results from earlier experiments in our laboratories revealed that both selective and nonselective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase-2 possess little potential for decreasing in vitro phagocytosis by rat macrophages or canine neutrophils and no potential for decreasing in vivo phagocytosis by the intact murine immune system. We now report the results of studies to assess in vitro and ex vivo effects of the drugs on 1) canine complement activation, 2) generation of superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide (oxidative burst) by canine neutrophils, and 3) leukocytic chemotaxis and transmigration through endothelial cell monolayers. In vitro concentrations of naproxen sodium, SC-236, SC-245, and SC-791 ranging from 0.1 to 10 muM were tested for their abilities to inhibit canine complement-mediated hemolysis of opsonized sheep erythrocytes and to block phorbol myristate acetate-induced oxidative burst in canine neutrophils. Both models responded to known inhibitory agents, leupeptin in the complement activation test and staurosporine in the superoxide anion assay. In contrast, tested nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs produced only trivial changes in complement activation and superoxide anion production. Experiments on plasma and neutrophils isolated from dogs administered an experimental selective COX-2 inhibitor during a 28-day toxicology study revealed no evidence of drug-associated changes in complement activation or formation of superoxide anion. SC-791 reduced chemotaxis of canine leukocytes toward zymosan-activated dog plasma, but not toward leukotriene B(4). None of the other drugs tested significantly affected leukocytic chemotaxis. Ibuprofen, SC-245 and SC-791 but not SC-236, reduced transmigration of canine leukocytes through endothelial cell monolayers. Based on the results of these experiments and our earlier studies we have concluded that, although high (suprapharmacologic) concentrations of the drugs may induce in vitro evidence of apparent immunomodulation of the innate immune system, the findings are unlikely to represent a significant human health risk.

The mitochondrial DNA sequence represents a mainstay of phylogenetics. It allows biologists to elucidate the evolutionary relationships among species. It also permits an examination of the relatedness of populations, hence got importance in the field of biology. The current study was designed to know the mitochondrial sequence of Schizothorax esocinus, a delicious fish belonging to family Cyprinidae. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of S. esocinus from Northern Pakistan was determined. The mitogenome of S. esocinus was found to be 16 591 bp in length and consisted of 13 protein coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one control region. All genes were encoded on heavy strain except ND6 and few tRNA genes. The overall base composition was T 25.5%, C 27.0%, A 29.8% and G 17.7%, A + T content 55.3% and G + C content 47.7%. The length of control region (CR) was 938 bp and contained putative termination-associated sequence (TAS) and several conserved sequence blocks (CSB) and control region also contained a microsatellite region (TA). This is the very first study reported from a reservoir of large cold water bodies in Pakistan which have a great potential for conservation of cold water fish species. This mitogenome sequence would be useful to know the phylogenetic status of the fish.