RESUMO
Sesame is considered as the queen of oil seeds owing to its high oil content of about 56-62% and good quality oil. Sesame oil alone or in combination with other vegetable oils can yield good quality biodiesel. Sesame biodiesel blends up to 20% yields fuel efficiency and power output on par with mineral diesel but superior in environmental performance. Though biodiesel from edible oil is highly criticized, the demand for renewable energy compels the development of high-performance sesame plants. Triacylglycerol synthesis in flowering plants follows an acyl CoA-dependent and independent manner. This study envisages transgenic approaches to enhance oil production in sesame biomass. The genes of choice for oil enhancement includes DGAT1, PDAT1, FAD3 and cytochrome b5F. Diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) and phospholipid diacylglycerol acyltransferases (PDAT) are key enzymes in TAG synthesis. Fatty acid desaturases (FAD) has the ability to enhance specific fatty acids, whereas cytochrome b5 genes augment the process by donating electrons. A combination of the above categories of genes which performed well in terms of oil content in the yeast expression system from our earlier studies is used in Agrobacterium-mediated sesame transformation experiments to evaluate the biodiesel potential of transgenic sesame plants. The transgenic construct with PDAT1 and FAD3 combination yielded a 10% increase in TAG content. The possibility of transgenic sesame as a biodiesel plant is discussed.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The promotional activities by medical representatives (MRs) of the pharmaceutical companies can impact the prescribing pattern of doctors. Hence, the interaction between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry is coming under increasing scrutiny. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective was to assess the attitude of the doctors toward the interaction with the MRs of the pharmaceutical company. The secondary objective was to assess the awareness of the doctors about regulations governing their interaction with the pharmaceutical company. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. This study was carried out using a pretested questionnaire containing 10 questions between June and September 2014. The doctors working in the Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College and Hospital, Perambalur (Tamil Nadu) during the study period was included. RESULTS: A total of 100 pretested questionnaires were distributed, and 81 doctors responded (response rate 81%). 37% doctors responded that they interacted with MR once a week whereas 25.9% told that they interact with MRs twice a month. About 69.1% doctors think that MR exaggerate the benefits of medicines and downplays the risks and contraindications of medicine(P = 0.000). 61.7% doctors think that MR has an impact on their prescribing (P = 0.000). 63% doctors stated that they had received promotional tools such as stationery items, drug sample, textbooks or journal reprints from MR in last 12 months (P = 0.0012). Unfortunately, 70.4% doctors have not read the guidelines about interacting with the pharmaceutical industry or its representative (P = 0.000). CONCLUSION: Rather than forbidding any connection between doctors and industry, it is better to establish ethical guidelines. The Medical Council of India code is a step in the right direction, but the majority of doctors in this study have not read the guidelines about interacting with the pharmaceutical industry or its representative.
RESUMO
In this paper, the problem of the global O(t(-α)) stability and global asymptotic periodicity for a class of fractional-order complex-valued neural networks (FCVNNs) with time varying delays is investigated. By constructing suitable Lyapunov functionals and a Leibniz rule for fractional differentiation, some new sufficient conditions are established to ensure that the addressed FCVNNs are globally O(t(-α)) stable. Moreover, some sufficient conditions for the global asymptotic periodicity of the addressed FCVNNs with time varying delays are derived, showing that all solutions converge to the same periodic function. Finally, numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of our theoretical results.
