Analysis of phytohormones and phosphate solubilization in Photorhabdus spp.

Bacteria of the genus Photorhabdus are nematodes (Heterorhabditidae) symbiont and highly entomopathogenic in nature. Present study was concerned to investigate the effects of Photorhabdus temperata M1021 and Photorhabdus luminescens TT01 on plant morphology and physiology (‘Dongjin-beyo’ and ‘waitoc’). A significant (p<0.05) increase in the plant growth attributes including total plant length, root length, biomass, and chlorophyll contents were observed after treatment with culture extracts. Moreover indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production by respective bacteria was confirmed by GCMS analysis. IAA production through tryptophan independent pathway was confirmed in P. temperata M1021 and P. luminescens TT01. Phosphate solubilization capability was also investigated by growing them on pikovskaya (PVK) agar as well as on PVK liquid medium with pH 7 at 28±2°C for 14 days. IAA production and phosphate solubilization capability of these bacteria could be the potential factors for plant growth promotion.     

Modeling of the Strugula Hypothesis of Carbon-Seal Blistering

Theoretical modeling of the oil expansion hypothesis for blister formation is carried out. The authors estimate the pressure developed when a porous carbon soaked with oil is subjected to a temperature change, and the authors use that pressure to gauge the tendency for a crack emanating from a pore to extend. The potential reduction in oil pressure associated with oil being able to migrate from regions of high pressure to low pressure is then quantified through the use of Darcy's law. The role of various physical parameters in enabling this mechanism of blister formation is discussed.     

An improved strategy for skin lesion detection and classification using uniform segmentation and feature selection based approach

Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer with highest mortality rate. However, the annihilation in early stage implies a high survival rate therefore, it demands early diagnosis. The accustomed diagnosis methods are costly and cumbersome due to the involvement of experienced experts as well as the requirements for highly equipped environment. The recent advancements in computerized solutions for these diagnoses are highly promising with improved accuracy and efficiency. In this article, we proposed a method for the classification of melanoma and benign skin lesions. Our approach integrates preprocessing, lesion segmentation, features extraction, features selection, and classification. Preprocessing is executed in the context of hair removal by DullRazor, whereas lesion texture and color information are utilized to enhance the lesion contrast. In lesion segmentation, a hybrid technique has been implemented and results are fused using additive law of probability. Serial based method is applied subsequently that extracts and fuses the traits such as color, texture, and HOG (shape). The fused features are selected afterwards by implementing a novel Boltzman Entropy method. Finally, the selected features are classified by Support Vector Machine. The proposed method is evaluated on publically available data set PH2. Our approach has provided promising results of sensitivity 97.7%, specificity 96.7%, accuracy 97.5%, and F‐score 97.5%, which are significantly better than the results of existing methods available on the same data set. The proposed method detects and classifies melanoma significantly good as compared to existing methods.     

Morpho-anatomical characterization of some members of euglenophycota (algae) of north-east Punjab,Pakistan based on light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

The study was carried out in four districts, that is, Gujranwala, Gujarat, Narowal and Sialkot of Punjab, Pakistan. The sampling was carried out randomly in different seasons from the water bodies especially from wastewater. Twenty-one species belonging to Euglenophycota were identified using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy from which 04 species belong to genus Phacus, 02 species belonging to Trachelomonas and Euglena based on light microscopy. It was observed that Euglena was the most diverse genus and it is supposed to be the indicator species of the polluted water. It was observed that E. oblonga was found in maximum pH range, that is, 7.0–11.0. Similarly, E. brevicaudatus was found in maximum EC, that is, 169 ± 1.5 ms/cm these outcomes indicated that for internal examination along with LM, SEM was necessary for correct identification of algal sample up to specie level.     

Palyno-anatomical characters and their systematic significance in the family Apiaceae from Chitral,eastern Hindu Kush,Pakistan

The present study was performed to provide a detailed explanation of leaf epidermal anatomy and pollen micromorphological features of selected species of family Apiaceae from Chitral, eastern Hindu Kush region as the basis of forthcoming studies. In the present article pollen morphology of eight species and foliar epidermal of seven species of family Apiaceae have been examined through microscopic techniques. In results two types of pollen prolate (five species) and perprolate (three species) with three colpi have been recorded. The exine ornamentation was found to be regulate, striate, and cerebroid. Largest pollen was found in Heracleum leucocarpum with the polar diameter of 43.25 μm and equatorial diameter of 21.6 μm. Smallest pollen was observed in Elaeosticta chitralica with the polar diameter of 18.4 μm. The P/E ratio varied from 1.59 to 2.16. Regarding to foliar epidermal anatomy, three types of epidermal cells including rectangular, irregular, and polygonal with variation in anticlinal wall pattern were determined. In the selected species three kinds of stomata comprising anisocytic, anomocytic, and paracytic type were reported in the current research. The size of epidermal cells ranged from 106 × 42.50 μm in Bupleurum falcatum subsp. cernuum and 77.25 × 26.35 μm in Prangos pabularia in adaxial surface. Largest stomatal complex was found in Prangos pabularia both in adaxial 33.55 × 20.05 μm and abaxial 50.25 × 39.40 μm. All the observed quantitative and qualitative features of the species were proved to be useful in the delimitation of species at generic and species level.     

Pollen morphology and its taxonomic potential in some selected taxa of Caesalpiniaceae observed under light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy

Pollen micromorphology is not only used to check the functional and structural evolution in plants but also to solve the taxonomic problem related to the classification of plants. Therefore, keeping in view the significance of pollen traits, selected taxa of the subfamily Caesalpiniaceae was collected from different geographical regions of Pakistan. The species were then analyzed under both light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques to investigate the importance of micromorphological characters of pollen in the identification and classification of species. Great variation was recorded in equatorial shape, surface ornamentation, tectum, polar diameter, equatorial diameter, and exine thickness. However, little variation was observed in pollen type, polar shape, and fertility of pollen. The equatorial shape of five types was observed: prolate, prolate-spheroidal, spheroidal-subprolate, subspheroidal-prolate, and subspheroidal. Four types of surface ornamentation, psilate, granulate, clavate, and perforate, were recorded. Tectum of five types, intactate, reticulate regulate, medium reticulate, tactate, and striate, was observed. Sexine was thicker than nexine in all studied species. The largest polar diameter was observed in Caesalpinia pulcherrima 64.1 μm while the smallest in Parkinsonia aculeata 26.1 μm. The largest equatorial diameter was found in C. pulcherrima of 70.25 μm whereas the smallest in P. aculeata 27.57 μm. All the pollens analyzed were tricolporate. All studied species have a fertility ratio of more than 90%. A taxonomic key was developed to show the variation in pollen features and delimit species for the correct identification. In conclusion, the pollen traits were found useful to define species boundaries at various taxonomic ranks and will strengthen the taxonomy of this subfamily. Besides, this study also explored the palynological traits and their implication in the taxonomy of the subfamily Caesalpiniaceae.     

Erratum to: Conductivity Sensors Based System Development and Application to Investigate the Interfacial Behaviour between Supersonic Steam Jet and Water

Instruments and Experimental Techniques - An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0020441221050249     

On the sampling of three-dimensional polycrystalline microstructures for distribution determination

How to sample three-dimensional microstructure and effectively reduce experimental error is a challenging problem. Taking seven single-phase polycrystalline structures generated by 400×400×400 Potts Monte Carlo simulation as the study object, effects of sampling strategy on the determination of various characteristic parameters of the grain size distribution and grain topology distribution are studied. The mean voxel value (or volume) of individual grains in the three-dimensional simulated microstructure varies from 4.56×10(4) to 1.0×10(3) , and the number of grains contained in the structure varies from 63 901 to 1403. The results show that, a minimum of 200 sampled grains can ensure the relative error to be less than 5% for determination of the mean grain volume, the mean grain face number and the coefficient of variance of the distribution of grain size and the grain face number. Whereas for the coefficient of the skewness and the kurtosis of grain size distribution or grain face number distribution, a minimum of 800 sampled grains are required for the same error level. However, if some exceptional big grains appear, e.g. a grain larger than with eight multiples of mean grain volume and/or three multiples of mean grain face number, abnormal values of the two parameters would be resulted, even the number of examined grains is over 1000.     

Mesh stiffness analysis of beveloid gears for the rotating vector transmission

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This paper investigates the meshing stiffness of beveloid gears in the beveloid rotate vector (BRV) transmission. It is a new kind of transmission...