Green synthesis of the plant assisted nanoparticles from Euphorbia neriifolia L. and its application in the degradation of dyes from industrial waste

In the world industries are growing very rapidly resulting in fast development. Various industries are coming up such as that of dyes, paints, pharmaceuticals etc. Dyes are used in various industries and release pollutants in the environment. It is necessary to remove such pollutants from the environment. Euphorbia neriifolia L. grow as the weed in the forests of the konkan region in waste land area. This weed is a typical latex bearing plant. This latex can be converted into the powder under sun drying process. This powder can be used for the preparation of Fe nanoparticles. The plant assisted synthesized nanoparticles have good particle size, morphology and band gap. These nanoparticles used for the degradation of the dye like Methylene Blue and Methylene Red from the industrial waste. It gives very good results. We can develop new catalyst for the degradation of the dyes from the industrial waste. It act as good catalyst by the simple non form of the catalyst. This catalyst is derived from the plant Euphorbia neriifolia L. latex

Phytochemical analysis, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of leaves and bark of Ceropegia rollae Hemadri

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate in vitro antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity of methanolic extract of the leaves and the bark of the plant Ceropegia rollae Hemadri. The antioxidant activity of the both leaves and bark extract was studied using FRAP and DPPH method. The in vitro anti-inflammatory activity and phytochemical characterization were carried using known protocols. The various phytochemical components such as total phenolics and flavonoids were determined. The plant Ceropegia rollae also contains tannis and ascorbic acid. This is related to the antioxidant activity of the plant Ceropegia rollae extract. The leaves shows good antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity as compared to the bark. These can be used as natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents

Reação de cultivares de algodoeiro a Ramularia areola

Dentre as doenças causadoras de manchas foliares em algodoeiro, a mancha de ramulária (Ramularia areola Atk) tem se tornado importante em virtude das condições climáticas favoráveis para o desenvolvimento do patógeno, aliadas ao uso de cultivares suscetíveis, plantio consecutivo e extenso. Neste trabalho avaliaram-se os cultivares Delta Opal, Acala 90, Makina, Delta Penta e Sure Grow 821 quanto à resistência a R. areola, em condições de campo na FCAV-UNESP, no ano de 2006. A severidade da doença, que ocorreu por infecção natural das plantas pelo fungo, foi avaliada semanalmente em trinta plantas devidamente marcadas, utilizando-se uma escala descritiva de notas: 1 = 0%, 2 = até 5%, 3 = de 5,1 a 25%, 4 = de 25,1 a 50% e 5 = acima de 50% de área foliar com sintomas. Foram elaboradas curvas de progresso da doença para os cinco cultivares e o modelo monomolecular foi o que melhor se ajustou aos dados, em comparação com o logístico, o exponencial e o modelo de Gompertz. A análise dos dados indicou que houve diferença significativa entre os genótipos, sendo que Delta Opal, Makina e Sure Grow 821 mostraram-se mais suscetíveis e Delta Penta e Acala 90 mais resistentes ao fungo.Among the disease causing leaf spot in cotton, the gray mildew (Ramularia areola Atk.) has become important due to environmental conditions favorable for development of the disease susceptible cultivars, consecutive and intensive and extensive cultivation. This work evaluated the resistance of the cultivars Delta Opal, Acala 90, Makina, Delta Penta and Sure Grow 821 to resistance the R. areola, in field conditions in FCAV-UNESP. The disease occurred under natural infection and, its severity was evoluated weekly, in thirty previously marked plants using the following rating scale: 1 = 0%, 2 = up to 5%, 3 = 5,1 to 25%, 4 = 25,1 to 50% and 5 = over of 50% of foliar area with symptoms. The monomolecular model was better adjusted to the data in comparison with the logistic, exponential and Gompertz models, for elaboration of the curves of progress of the disease. The analysis of the data indicated significant differences between the genotypes.The cultivars Delta Opal, Makina and Sure Grow 821 were more susceptible and Delta Penta and Deltapine Acala 90 more resistant to gray mildew

Development of catalyst complexes for upgrading biomass into ester-based biolubricants for automotive applications: a review

Biomass-derived oils are recognised as the most promising renewable resources for the production of ester-based biolubricants due to their biodegradable, non-toxic and metal adhering properties. Homogeneous acid catalysts have been conventionally used in catalytic esterification and transesterification for the synthesis of ester-based biolubricants. Although homogeneous acid catalysts encounter difficulty during phase separation, they exhibit superior selectivity and good stereochemistry and regiochemistry control in the reaction. Consequently, transition metal complex catalysts (also known as homogeneous organometallic catalysts) are proposed for biolubricant synthesis in order to achieve a higher selectivity and conversion. Herein, the potential of both homogeneous transition metal complexes and heterogeneous supported metal complexes towards the synthesis of biolubricants, particularly, in esterification and transesterification, as well as the upgrading process, including hydrogenation and in situ hydrogenation–esterification, is critically reviewed

Insect Pests as a Limiting Factor in Green Fodder Production in Lucerne, Their Control and Residual Persistence of Insecticides

The green fodder production in lucerne suffers serious loss of about 38 % caused by the insect pests like Empoasca sp., Therioaphis maculata Buck, Aphis craccivora Koch and Hypera variabilis Herbst. under the tropical agroclimatic zone of Bundelkhand-India (Shri Ram and Gupta, 1976). Of these H. variabilis is most serious with regular occurrence and world­wide distribution. No work has been reported on the control aspect of these pests in India, except a few on insecticidal evalu­ation (Shri Ram and Gupta, 1975) and the economic injury level of lucerne weevil (Gupta et al., 1982). Need of the studies on the chemical control to check such excessive losses and the information of residual persistence from such measures was therefore much felt

Automated Lane Keep Assist System: A study on the formation and evolution of the mental model of the user of ALKS

The mental model is a very rarely studied topic when it comes to human-machine interaction. Nearly all the studies that are done in this field are on measuring the actual performance of the human while performing the collaborative task with the automation system rather than understanding the complete picture of how the human is understanding and interpreting the automation is his actions due to just chance or does he/she have logical the reasoning for his/her actions.This research consists of recognising the factors that affect the mental model, designing the experiment that measures the mental model as well as the factors that affect it. This work focuses on ALKS (Automated lane keep assist system) which is a subset of the SAE level 3 automation system for which the rules are laid down by UNECE(United Nation Economic Commission for Europe).The approach of this research consists of an experimental setup in which the participants are given training and then are allowed to experience the level 3 automation in the driving simulator. The training and the simulation are designed to give a different depth in the functionalities and limitations of the system. The weak training just briefly describes the limitations of the system and how to interpret the user interface based on research done by Strand [35] with the consumer of level 2 automation system, on the other hand, the stronger training explains in detail the functionality and the limitations of the system along with the video explanations of how the automation will react in the different scenarios. Both the training are available in English and Dutch depending language preference of the participant. The participants are divided into 2 groups both of them are given different training but both of them experience similar driving conditions on the driving simulator.Later the performance of the mental model, as well as the performance of the factors affecting the mental model are measured. Each participant receives the training once and is subjected to 3 trials of the driving simulation to understand the learning effect of the mental model and its related factors. The results of the mental model performance show that there is a significant gap of 5.5% between the weak and the strong mental model group just after the training, this trend then continues until the last trial where a significant gap of 6.5% in the mental model score.A positive learning curve is also observed starting from the training to the last trial, the learning curve has a positive trend but the data is statistically insignificant to show the difference in the learning rate of the two different groups. There is a significant gap observed between the automation acceptance level of the two groups, although there is no significant rise in the level of acceptance of automation from just after the training to the last trials their difference in the acceptance level is present after the training and all the trials. For the trust level, the difference between the two groups is statistically insignificant, the difference is too small and the number of participants for the experiment is too less. Analysing the pragmatic significance of the trust data, a positive trend can be seen for the strong group whereas the weak group shows a negative trend, even though at the start of the experiment the weak group had a higher trust level. For situational awareness, the weak model group shows the lower situation awareness throughout the lap as compared to the strong mental model group.Mechanical Engineering | Vehicle Engineering | Cognitive Robotic