Remote Sensing Based Land Surface Temperature Analysis in Diverse Environment of Lalgudi Block

Introduction: Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a significant climatic variable and defined as how hot the "surface" of the Earth would feel to the physical touch in a particular location. A spatial analysis of the land surface temperature with respect to different land use/cover changes is vital to evaluate the hydrological processes. Methods: The objective of this paper is to assess the spatial variation of land surface temperature derived from thermal bands of the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) by using split window algorithm. Place and Data: The study was conducted in Lalgudi block of Trichy District, Tamil Nadu, India. The block has diverse environment like forest area, barren land, river sand bed, water bodies, dry vegetation, cultivated areas (paddy, sugarcane, banana etc.) and settlements. Landsat 8 satellite images for four selected scenes (December 2014 & January 2015 and December 2017 & January 2018) were used to estimate the LST. Results: The spatial and temporal variation of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST were estimated. The average NDVI values of cropped fields varied from 0.3 to 0.5 in all the scenes. The maximum value of LST ranging from 35 to 40°C was recorded in river sand bed. Subsequently, semi-urban settlements in the central part of Lalgudi block exhibited higher temperature ranging from 28 – 30°C. The LST of paddy crop and sugarcane was in the range of 23 to 25°C. The water bodies exhibited LST around 20°C. The coconut plantations, forest area and Prosopis juliflora showed LST value ranging from 24 – 29°C. This kind of block level monitoring studies helps in adopting suitable policies to overcome or minimize the problems triggered by increase in land surface temperature.

Evaluation of the Antioxidant and Hepatoprotective Activity of Cryptolepis Buchanani.

Cryptolepis buchanani (Berberidaceae) is a climbing tree, leaves is widely used in folk medicine in Southeast Asia. The alcoholic extract of stem of this plant is commonly used for the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, and muscle and joint pain. The development of hepatotoxicity induced by acetaminophen is promoted by oxidative stress. The aim of the present study was to investigate the hepatoprotective effect and antioxidant activities of the ethanolic extract of Cryptolepis buchanani on acetaminophen induced hepatotoxicity in rats. We observed that the ethanolic extract of cryptolepis buchanani conferred hepatoprotectivity. Biochemical observations confirmed the beneficial roles of Cryptolepis buchanani and silymarin against acetaminophen induced liver injury in rats.

Studies on simultaneous inhibition of trypsin and chymotrypsin by horsegram Bowman-Birk inhibitor.

Bowman-Birk inhibitors (BBI) isolated from plant seeds are small proteins active against trypsin and/or chymotrypsin. These inhibitors have been extensively studied in terms of their structure, interactions, function and evolution. Examination of the known three-dimensional structures of BBIs revealed similarities and subtle differences. The hydrophobic core, deduced from surface accessibility and hydrophobicity plots, corresponding to the two tandem structural domains of the double headed BBI are related by an almost exact two-fold, in contrast to the reactive site loops which depart appreciably from the two-fold symmetry. Also, the orientations of inhibitory loops in soybean and peanut inhibitors were different with respect to the rigid core. Based on the structure of Adzuki bean BBI-trypsin complex, models of trypsin and chymotryspin bound to the monomeric soybean BBI (SBI) were constructed. There were minor short contacts between the two enzymes bound to the inhibitor suggesting near independence of binding. Binding studies revealed that the inhibition of one enzyme in the presence of the other is associated with a minor negative cooperativity. In order to assess the functional significance of the reported oligomeric forms of BBI, binding of proteases to the crystallographic and non-crystallographic dimers as found in the crystal structure of peanut inhibitor were examined. It was found that all the active sites in these oligomers cannot simultaneously participate in inhibition.

Effect of flickering light stress on certain biochemical parameters in rats.

The acute effects of flickering light of 80 Lux intensity for thirty minutes duration, on plasma corticosterone, total serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) and serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) levels were studied in albino rats. Statistically significant increase was observed in the corticosterone, cholesterol, SGOT and SGPT, while a marked reduction was seen in the serum triglyceride level, indicating that the flickering light is a potent stressor to these animals causing alterations in the biochemical parameters studied.