Aflatoxins: Biosynthesis,Occurrence, Toxicity,and Remedies

Food contagion with aflatoxins is the modern concern and has received a great awareness during the last few decades. The intermittent incidence of these toxins in agricultural commodities has negative role on the economy of the affected regions where harvest and postharvest techniques for the prevention of mold growth, are seldom practiced. Aflatoxins are difuranocoumarin derivatives produced by a polyketide pathway by the fungus Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus via polyketide pathway which are highly hepatotoxic, hepatocarcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic in nature and contaminate a wide variety of important agricultural commodities before, during, and after harvest in various environmental conditions. The production of aflatoxins in innate substrates depends upon the various factors, that is, type of substrate, fungal species, moisture contents of the substrate, minerals, humidity, temperature, and physical damage of the kernels. These toxins cause several ailments such as cancer, hepatitis, mutation abnormalities, and reproduction disorders. Minimization and inactivation of aflatoxins contaminants through proper crop management at farm level and with physical, chemical, and biological techniques are the limelight of the article.     

Predictive Modeling of Spring Wheat Varieties by Cluster Analysis

Spring wheat varieties were subjected to physico-chemical, mixographic and amino acid analysis. The data obtained was subjected statistically analyzed. The cluster analysis classification based on centroid method indicated that for lysine and overall cookie scores, generally most wheat varieties fell in one group, while for total chapati score most of the wheat varieties were classified into two groups. The wheat varieties falling in same cluster group have similarities in respect of lysine, chapati and cookie quality. This indicated that wheat varieties in Pakistan have narrow ranges of spectrum in their genetic make up for their quality attributes. However, some wheat varieties were distinguished into different groups having a wide distance range especially Shahkar 95 for lysine content, LU 26 and Punjab 96 for cookie quality and Punjnad 88 in case of chapati quality. The present grouping suggests that wheat varieties in cluster group with wider range for lysine content may be used further in a hybridization program to improve the nutritional quality of wheat.     

MAGNETIC FIELD ANALYSIS AND ROUGHNESS PREDICTION IN MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL ABRASIVE HONING (MRAH)

Magnetorheological Abrasive Honing (MRAH) is a recently developed process to finish engineering surfaces. The process makes use of a magnetically stiffened abrasive-mixed magnetorheological fluid as the flexible tool and rotation-cum-reciprocation movements between the finishing medium and the workpiece surface for providing finishing action. In the present work, a finite element analysis with Mechanical/Emag module of ANSYS is performed to understand the nature of magnetic field developed in the process and verification is done with actual measurements. Considering the simulated magnetic field, a model to predict final roughness value (R _a ) is developed. The model, when applied for different work materials and various process parameters, such as magnetic flux density, process duration and workpiece rotation, yields results that are in good agreement with experimental results.     

Exploring the Relationship between Soil Properties and Deterioration of Metallic Pipes Using Predictive Data Mining Methods

Soil corrosivity is considered to be a major factor for the deterioration of metallic water mains. Using a 10-point scoring method as suggested by the American Water Works Association, soil corrosivity potential can be estimated by five soil properties: (1) resistivity; (2) pH value; (3) redox potential; (4) sulfide; and (5) percentage of clay fines. However, the relationship between soil corrosivity and pipe deterioration is often ambiguous and not well-defined. In order to identify the direct relationship between soil properties and pipe deterioration, which is defined as the ratio of the maximum pit depth to pipe age, predictive data mining approaches are investigated in this study. Both single- and multipredictor based approaches are employed to model such relationship. The advantage of combining multiple predictors is also demonstrated. Among all approaches, rotation forest achieves the best result in terms of the prediction error to estimate pipe deterioration rate. Compared to the random forest method, which is next to the best, the normalized mean square error decreased 50%. With the proposed approaches, the assessment of pipe condition can be achieved by analyzing soil properties. This study also highlights the importance for collecting more reliable soil properties data.     

Chemical Composition and Antidiabetic Activity of Essential Oils Obtained from Two Spices (Syzygium aromaticum and Cuminum cyminum)

The current aim was to evaluate antidiabetic potential of Syzygium aromaticum and Cuminum cyminum essential oils and their emulsions by alpha amylase inhibition assay. Antidiabetic activity of C. cyminum and S. aromaticum was examined in dose dependent mode (1 to 100 µg/mL). The maximum antidiabetic activity for S. aromaticum and C. cyminum essential oils was noted at the highest dose (100 µg/mL). Five emulsions (essential oil + surfactant [tween 80] + co-surfactant [ethanol] + water) of different concentrations for S. aromaticum (A1 to A5) and C. cyminum (B1 to B5) essential oils were formulated. Among different emulsions, A5 of S. aromaticum and B5 of C. cyminum essential oil exhibited a maximum antidiabetic activity with 95.30 and 83.09% inhibition of α-amylase, respectively. Moreover, the analysis of essential oils showed that eugenol (18.7%) and α-pinene (18.8%) were the major components of S. aromaticum and C. cyminum essential oils, respectively.     

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Light Microscopy (LM)‐based Palyno‐morphological views of Solanaceae in Western Himalaya

In this study, plants belonging to family Solanaceae growing in Western Himalaya region have been observed palynologically under Light Microscope and Scanning electron microscope. Present investigation comprises of 10 genera and 23 species, namely, Atropa acuminata, Capsicum decoraticus, Capsicum frutescens, Cestrum aurantiacum, Cestrum diurnum, Cestrum nocturnum, Datura alba, Datura innoxia, Datura stramonium, Hyoscymus niger, Lycopersicon esculentum, Nicotiana rustica, Nicotiana tabacum, Petunia alba, Petunia hybrida, Solanum erianthum, Solanum melongena, Solanum miniatum, Solanum pseudocapsicum, Solanum surratense, Solanum tuberosum, Withania coagulans, Withania somnifera. Solanaceae is a eurypalynous family. Grains are usually Tricolporate and Tetracolporate, radially symmetrical, isopolar, prolate‐spheroidal to oblate‐spheroidal to oblate‐spheroidal to subprolate to per prolate or suboblate to oblate, size range: 8.55–72 μm, amb circular, semi‐angular or subangular, aperture drop‐type, labrum common‐type, exine usually 2 μm thick, nexine 1–1.5 μm thick. Tectum usually psilate, sexine reticulate, granulate or striato‐reticulate, with obscure pattern, sexine 1–2 μm thick, nexine 1–1.5 μm thick, and intine 0.5–1 μm thick. Most striking variation has been found in the shape class, aperture‐type, and tectal surface. Based on these characters, taxonomic keys have been made for correct identification of members in Solanaceae. However, the grains of this family are usually tricolporate and have direct relationship with certain members of the family Scrophulariaceae. Palyno‐morphological characters of family Solanaceae have been studied for the first time in Western Himalayan region of Pakistan. These palyno‐morphological characters are significant for identification of the members of family Solanaceae.     

Taxonomic significance of foliar epidermal morphology in Lamiaceae from Pakistan

Foliar micromorphological features are useful to elucidate the taxonomy and systematics of the Lamiaceae species. Leaf epidermal morphology using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy of 22 Lamiaceae species from 15 genera have been investigated with an aim to solve its taxonomic problem in the correct identification. Various foliar micromorphological features were observed to explain their importance in resolving the correct identification of Lamiaceae taxa. Two main types of trichomes were observed; glandular trichomes (GTs) and nonglandular trichomes (NGTs). GTs were further divided into seven subtypes including the capitate, subsessile capitate, sessile capitate, sunken, barrel, peltate, and clavate. Similarly, NGTs were also divided into simple unicellular and multicellular including conical, falcate, cylindrical, dendrite, papillose, and short hook shape. Quantitative measurement includes the length and width of the trichomes, stomatal complex, epidermal cells, stomata, and trichomes index. Based on the foliar micromorphological characters, a taxonomic key was developed to delimit and correctly identify studied taxa. Further molecular, other anatomical and phylogenetic studies are recommended to strengthen the systematics of Lamiaceae.     

Thermomechanical investigation of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene-based linear polyurethane elastomers

The present work describes the trend of linear polyurethane elastomers for its thermal and mechanical behavior. The linear polyurethane elastomers have been synthesized in two different series by changing the composition of the polymers. Both series have common macrodiol of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene and butanediol while they vary in the presence of diisocyanate. One of the series, contain an aromatic diisocyanate, toluene diisocyanate (TDI), and the other consist of 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) as an aliphatic diisocyanate. For linear structure, ratio of OH and NCO group has been maintained 1.0. The hydrogen bonding index is determined from Fourier transform infrared to calculate the extent of interchain hydrogen bonding which manifest the microphase separation. Young's modulus (5.79 MPa) and tensile strength (1.14 MPa) are recorded for HDI-derived elastomers, while Young's modulus varies from 1.14 to 1.63 MPa for TDI-based elastomers which also resulted in higher thermal stability. Thermogravimetric curves exhibit two-step degradation with the stability of 300 °C. HDI-based polyurethane elastomers show better tensile properties and HDI but poor thermal stability as compared to TDI-based elastomers. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47289.