Extraction of lignocellulosic fiber and cellulose microfibrils from agro waste-palmyra fruit peduncle: Water retting, chlorine-free chemical treatments, physio-chemical, morphological, and thermal characterization.

In this paper, lignocellulosic fibers and cellulose microfibrils (CMFs) were extracted from palmyra fruit peduncle waste and investigated as naturally derived cellulosic materials for their potential use as reinforcement materials in composite applications. The physicochemical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the extracted fiber were studied. Physical and morphological analysis results revealed an extracted fiber diameter of 82.5 µm with a very rough surface, providing excellent interfacial bonding performance with the polymer matrix. Chemical, mechanical, and thermal results showed that the fibers consist mainly of cellulose as their crystallized phase, with a cellulose content of 56.5 wt% and a tensile strength of 693.3 MPa, along with thermal stability up to 252 °C. The chemically extracted CMFs exhibit a short, rough-surfaced, cylindrical cellulose structure with a diameter range of 10-15 µm. These CMFs demonstrate excellent thermal stability, withstanding temperatures up to 330 °C. Furthermore, the formation of CMFs is evident from a substantial increase in the crystallinity index, which increased from 58.2 % in the raw fibers to 78.2 % in the CMFs. FT-IR analysis further confirms the successful removal of non-cellulosic materials through chlorine-free chemical treatments. These findings strongly support the potential use of extracted fibers and CMFs as reinforcement materials in polymers.

Molecular Docking of Nimbolide Extracted from Leaves of Azadirachta indica with Protein Targets to Confirm the Antifungal, Antibacterial and Insecticidal Activity.

Nimbolide, a tetranortriterpenoid (limonoid) compound isolated from the leaves of Azadirachta indica, was screened both in vitro and in silico for its antimicrobial activity against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, Macrophomina phaseolina, Pythium aphanidermatum, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, and insecticidal activity against Plutella xylostella. Nimbolide exhibited a concentration-dependent, broad spectrum of antimicrobial and insecticidal activity. P. aphanidermatum (82.77%) was more highly inhibited than F. oxysporum f. sp. cubense (64.46%) and M. phaseolina (43.33%). The bacterium X. oryzae pv. oryzae forms an inhibition zone of about 20.20 mm, and P. xylostella showed about 66.66% mortality against nimbolide. The affinity of nimbolide for different protein targets in bacteria, fungi, and insects was validated by in silico approaches. The 3D structure of chosen protein molecules was built by homology modelling in the SWISS-MODEL server, and molecular docking was performed with the SwissDock server. Docking of homology-modelled protein structures shows most of the chosen target proteins have a higher affinity for the furan ring of nimbolide. Additionally, the stability of the best-docked protein-ligand complex was confirmed using molecular dynamic simulation. Thus, the present in vitro and in silico studies confirm the bioactivity of nimbolide and provide a strong basis for the formulation of nimbolide-based biological pesticides. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-023-01104-6.

Genome wide identification and evolutionary analysis of vat like NBS-LRR genes potentially associated with resistance to aphids in cotton.

Nucleotide Binding Site - Leucine Rich Repeat (NBS-LRR) genes play a significant role in plant defense against biotic stresses and are an integral part of signal transduction pathways. Vat gene has been well reported for their role in resistance to Aphis gossypii and viruses transmitted by them. Despite their importance, Vat like NBS-LRR resistance genes have not yet been identified and studied in cotton species. This study report hundreds of orthologous Vat like NBS-LRR genes from the genomes of 18 cotton species through homology searches and the distribution of those identified genes were tend to be clustered on different chromosome. Especially, in a majority of the cases, Vat like genes were located on chromosome number 13 and they all shared two conserved NBS-LRR domains, one disease resistant domain and several repeats of LRR on the investigated cotton Vat like proteins. Gene ontology study on Vat like NBS-LRR genes revealed the molecular functions viz., ADP and protein binding. Phylogenetic analysis also revealed that Vat like sequences of two diploid species, viz., G. arboreum and G. anomalum, were closely related to the sequences of the tetraploids than all other diploids. The Vat like genes of G. aridum and G. schwendimanii were distantly related among diploids and tetraploids species. Various hormones and defense related cis-acting regulatory elements were identified from the 2 kb upstream sequences of the Vat like genes implying their defensive response towards the biotic stresses. Interestingly, G. arboreum and G. trilobum were found to have more regulatory elements than larger genomes of tetraploid cotton species. Thus, the present study provides the evidence for the evolution of Vat like genes in defense mechanisms against aphids infestation in cotton genomes and allows further characterization of candidate genes for developing aphid and aphid transmitted viruses resistant crops through cotton breeding.

Safety and Feasibility of Very Early Bronchoscopy-assisted Percutaneous Dilatational Tracheostomy in Anterior Cervical Spine Fixation Patients.

Background: Anterior cervical spine fixation (ACSF) is a common mode of stabilization of cervical spine injuries. These patients usually need a prolonged mechanical ventilation, so an early tracheostomy is beneficial for them. However, it is often delayed due to the close proximity to the surgical site, due to the concerns of infection, and increased bleeding. Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) is also considered a relative contraindication due to the inability to achieve adequate neck extension. Objectives: The objectives of our study are to assess the:Feasibility of performing a very early percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in cervical spine injury patients, post-anterior cervical spine fixation.Safety in doing so with regard to surgical-site infection, early, and late complications.Benefits with regard to outcome measures like ventilator days and length of stay (LOS) in the intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital. Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective review of all patients who underwent anterior cervical spine fixation and bedside percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in our ICU from 1st January 2015 to 31st March 2021. Results: Out of the 269 patients admitted to our ICU with cervical spine pathology, 84 were included in the study. About 40.4% patients had injury above C5 level (n-34) and 59.5% had below C5 level. About 86.9% patients had ASIA-A neurology. In our study, percutaneous tracheostomy was done at an average of 2.8 days from the cervical spine fixation. Average length of ventilator days post-tracheostomy was 8.32 days, ICU stay was 10.5 days, and hospital stay was 28.6 days. One patient developed anterior surgical-site infection. Conclusion: We conclude from our study that a very early percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy can be done in post-anterior cervical spine fixation patients as early as within 3 days without significant complications. How to cite this article: Paul AL, Varaham R, Balaraman K, Rajasekaran S, Balasubramani VM. Safety and Feasibility of Very Early Bronchoscopy-assisted Percutaneous Dilatational Tracheostomy in Anterior Cervical Spine Fixation Patients. Indian J Crit Care Med 2022;26(10):1086-1090.

Impedance Spectroscopy-Based Reduced Graphene Oxide-Incorporated ZnO Composite Sensor for H2S Investigations.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been applied to measure the H2S gas response of the sensor fabricated on reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-incorporated nano-zinc oxide (n-ZnO) composites. These nanocomposites were prepared by a facile one-step solution route at room temperature. The structural, surface morphological, and elemental analyses of the composite material have been investigated. EIS was carried out to study the H2S gas-sensing properties of fabricated sensors. The developed sensor showed an optimal H2S gas response to various concentrations ranging from 2 to 100 ppm at 90 °C. The H2S gas-sensing performances of pure n-ZnO and various concentrations of rGO-incorporated n-ZnO were evaluated. The H2S gas-sensing results showed that n-ZnO/rGO composites exhibited high response when compared to pure n-ZnO. The enhanced H2S response was speculated to be ascribed due to two factors. First, rGO creates reactive sites for H2S molecule adsorption. Second, rGO has great electrical conductivity compared to n-ZnO that enables the active transport of electrons from H2S gas on interaction with the sensing layer, resulting in enhanced gas response at 90 °C temperatures.

[Characterization and cloning of the cry2A gene from indigenous isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis].

Discovery of novel cry genes of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with higher toxicity is important for the development of transgenic Bt crops resistant to target pests. Two new indigenous isolates of Bt were characterized for their colony type, crystal inclusion and toxicity with Helicoverpa armigera Hubner and Spodoptera litura Linn. Screening of cry2A genes from the two new isolates of Bt, T30 and T48, by PCR with cry2A family primers showed the presence of cry2A genes only in the isolate T30. Further screening of these isolates of Bt with three different cry2A gene specific primers showed the presence of cry2Aa, cry2Ab and cry2Ac genes in both of the new Bt isolates. The cry2A open reading frame (ORF) of Bt T48 (~1.9 kb) was amplified and cloned in a T/A vector (~2.8 kb). All the E. coli transformants showed only the cry2Aa gene. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence data generated from the cry2Aa (~1.9 kb) gene showed a 99 percent homology and one amino acid variation when compared with the holotype sequence of Cry2Aa1.

Characterization of parasporin gene harboring Indian isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is popularly known as insecticidal bacterium. However, non-insecticidal Bt strains are more extensively available in natural environment than the insecticidal ones. Parasporin (PS) is a collection of genealogically heterogeneous Cry proteins synthesized in non-insecticidal isolates of Bt. An important character generally related with PS proteins is their strong cytocidal activity preferentially on human cancer cells of various origins. Identification and characterization of novel parasporin protein which are non-hemolytic and non-insecticidal but having selective anticancer activity raise the possibility of a novel application of Bt in medical field. In the present study, seven new indigenous isolates (T6, T37, T68, T98, T165, T186, and T461) of Bt showed variation in colony morphology, crystal characters and protein profiles with each other. Out of the seven new isolates screened for parasporin (ps) and cry genes, two of the new indigenous isolates (T98 and T186) of Bt showed the presence of ps4 gene. Partial ps4 gene was cloned from the two new isolates and the sequence of partial ps4 gene showed high homology with its holotype ps4Aa1. These two isolates were characterized based on the proteolytic processing of the inclusion proteins and the proteolytic products were found to be comparable to the PS4 reference strain A1470. The two isolates of Bt did not show toxicity toward Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the isolates T98 and T186 are parasporin producers.

3-Bromo-5-tert-butyl-2-hy-droxy-benz-alde-hyde.

The mol-ecular conformation of the title compound, C(11)H(13)BrO(2), is stabilized by an intra-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bond. All non-H atoms except the methyl groups lie approximately in a common plane (r.m.s. deviation = 0.011 Å).

2-Bromo-4-tert-butyl-6-[(pyridin-2-yl-imino)-meth-yl]phenol.

In the title compound, C(16)H(17)BrN(2)O, the pyridine and benzene rings are almost coplanar [dihedral angle = 1.3 (2)°]. An intra-molecular O-H⋯Br inter-action forms an S(5) ring motif.