Synthesis, Structural, and Magnetic Characterization of Mn1?x Ni x Fe2O4 Spinel Nanoferrites

Nanoferrites of composition Mn_1−x Ni _x Fe₂O₄ with x=0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 were prepared by the chemical coprecipitation method. The prepared nanoferrites were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) to study the compositional, structural, morphological and magnetic changes taking place with varying Ni concentration in the composition of the prepared nanoferrites. IR reveals the presence of both high-frequency and low-frequency bands due to tetrahedral and octahedral sites, respectively. The XRD results indicated the formation of single spinel ferrite with crystalline size in the range of 14–26 nm. The lattice parameters (a) decrease with the increase of the Ni concentration x in the lattice. Further information about the morphology of the nanoferrites was obtained from the AFM and SEM results. The magnetic hysteresis curves clearly indicate the soft nature of the prepared nanoferrites. Various magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization (M _s ) and remanence (M _r ) are calculated from the hysteresis loops and observed to be dependent on the composition.     

Molecular Cloning and Functional Analysis of GmLACS2-3 Reveals Its Involvement in Cutin and Suberin Biosynthesis along with Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Cutin and wax are the main precursors of the cuticle that covers the aerial parts of plants and provide protection against biotic and abiotic stresses. Long-chain acyl-CoA synthetases (LACSs) play diversified roles in the synthesis of cutin, wax, and triacylglycerol (TAG). Most of the information concerned with LACS functions is obtained from model plants, whereas the roles of LACS genes in Glycine max are less known. Here, we have identified 19 LACS genes in Glycine max, an important crop plant, and further focused our attention on 4 LACS2 genes (named as GmLACS2-1, 2, 3, 4, respectively). These GmLACS2 genes display different expression patterns in various organs and also show different responses to abiotic stresses, implying that these genes might play diversified functions during plant growth and against stresses. To further identify the role of GmLACS2-3, greatly induced by abiotic stresses, we transformed a construct containing its full length of coding sequence into Arabidopsis. The expression of GmLACS2-3 in an Arabidopsis atlacs2 mutant greatly suppressed its phenotype, suggesting it plays conserved roles with that of AtLACS2. The overexpression of GmLACS2-3 in wild-type plants significantly increased the amounts of cutin and suberin but had little effect on wax amounts, indicating the specific role of GmLACS2-3 in the synthesis of cutin and suberin. In addition, these GmLACS2-3 overexpressing plants showed enhanced drought tolerance. Taken together, our study deepens our understanding of the functions of LACS genes in different plants and also provides a clue for cultivating crops with strong drought resistance.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Micellization Behavior of Cationic Surfactants: n-Alkyl-3-Methylpyridinium Bromides and Their Drug Interaction Study by UV–Visible Spectroscopy and Conductometry

The synthesis of new cationic surfactants i.e., n-hexyl-3-methylpyridium bromide ( a ) and n-octyl-3-methylpyridium bromide ( b ), and their characterization using multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) (¹H, ¹³C) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectroscopic techniques were reported. The micellization behavior of the synthesized surfactants was studied using conductometry and ultraviolet–Visible spectroscopy. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of compounds a and b was found to be 0.41 and 0.35 m mol L⁻¹, respectively. The effect of temperature on the CMC of these compounds was examined in the range of 298–318 K and thermodynamic parameters (ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS) of the micellization process were calculated. The antibacterial study of the synthesized surfactants revealed their strong activity against different bacterial strains. Moreover, the interaction of drugs i.e., flurbiprofen and ketoprofen, with the synthesized surfactants was investigated for gaining insights into the role of micelles as drug-delivery devices. Drug–surfactant interactions were also confirmed via a conductometric method.     

Palyno‐anatomical studies of monocot taxa and its taxonomic implications using light and scanning electron microscopy

Palyno‐anatomical study of monocots taxa using Light and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was first time conducted with a view to evaluating their taxonomic significance. Studied plants were collected from different eco‐climatic zones of Pakistan ranges from tropical, sub‐tropical, and moist habitats. The aim of this study is to use palyno‐anatomical features for the correct identification, systematic comparison, and investigation to elucidate the taxonomic significance of these features, which are useful to taxonomists for identifying monocot taxa. A signification variation was observed in quantitative and qualitative characters by using the standard protocol of light microscopy (LM) and SEM. Epidermal cell length varied from maximum in Allium griffthianum (480 ± 35.9) μm at the adaxial surface to minimum in Canna indica (33.6 ± 8.53) μm on abaxial surface. Maximum exine thickness was observed in Canna indica (4.46) μm and minimum in Allium grifthianum (0.8) μm. Variation was observed in shape and exine ornamentation of the pollen, shape of the epidermal cell, number, size, and type of stomata, guard cell shape, and anticlinal wall pattern. Based on these palyno‐anatomical features a taxonomic key was developed, which help in the discrimination of studied taxa. In conclusion, LM and SEM pollen and epidermal morphology is explanatory, significant, and can be of special interest for the plant taxonomist in the correct identification of monocots taxa.     

Thirty years of chronic current account deficit 1972 2001 ： The case of Pakistan

Current account balance has a momentous role inthe economic growth of a country.Itis an importantba-rometer to both local policymakers and international in-vestors as it represents an indicator of a country’s eco-nomic performance.Temporary current account deficitspresent fewer problems for the economy and can be eas-ily adjusted.However,large and chronic current ac-count deficits tend to pose more serious problems for aneconomy and require an appropriate policy response[1].Acurrent account d…     

Interface split routing for finer-grained traffic engineering

Legacy IP routing restricts the efficacy of traffic engineering solutions. This restriction stems from the constraint that traffic at a node must be uniformly split across all next-hop nodes corresponding to equal cost shortest path to a destination. Proposals that alleviate this constraint either completely overhaul legacy IP routing, or introduce complex control and/or forwarding plane components. This additional complexity departs from the elegant simplicity of legacy routing protocols where statically optimized link weights embed all traffic engineering semantics.

We present Interface Split Routing (ISR), which retains the basic forwarding and control mechanism of legacy IP routing. Furthermore, a set of link weights embed all traffic engineering semantics in ISR. However, ISR makes possible finer-grained traffic engineering by configuring independent sets of next-hops to a destination at each incoming interface. This lends itself well to modern router architectures where each incoming interface has its own forwarding table. Consequently, at the aggregated node level, traffic to a particular destination may be non-uniformly distributed across next-hop nodes. Hence, ISR allows additional flexibility in routing traffic as compared to default IP routing while retaining its simplicity. We conduct simulation studies on representative ISP topologies to compare ISR with traditional link-weight-optimized routing. ISR reduces the difference between optimal routing and weight-optimized routing by 50%.     

Activity of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts,spectroscopic and chromatographic characterization of biodiesel: A review

Biofuel has got tremendous attraction for the last decade as an alternative source of energy. Bioethanol and biodiesel are two main products of first generation biofuel. Biodiesel is chemically fatty acid methyl esters prepared from various edible and non-edible oils. It has been used as a substitute to mineral diesel during the last decade. This review is about generation, transesterification, factors affecting transesterification, catalysts (homogeneous and heterogeneous) and physico-chemical characterization of biodiesel by chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. The alkaline homogeneous catalysts (NaOH or KOH) have been used on commercial scale for production of biodiesel because these are cheap and reaction occurs in less time. The heterogeneous catalysts such as metal oxides, e.g., CaO, MgO, SrO, ZnO, La₂O₃, Mg–Al hydrolalcite have been used for transesterification of vegetable oil due to their easy separation and reuse but these catalysts take more time for completion of reaction. The yield of biodiesel may be affected by alcohol/oil ratio, concentration of catalyst, time required for reaction, temperature free fatty acid moisture. The prepared biodiesel has been characterized by chromatographic techniques like gas chromatography, gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy, high performance liquid chromatography and spectroscopic techniques like nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy.     

Fortification of Skim Milk with Nanoliposomes Loaded with Shrimp Oil: Properties and Storage Stability

Shrimp oil nanoliposomes (SONL) were fortified into skim milk at various levels (2–10%, v/v), followed by pasteurization at 63 °C for 30 min. Skim milk showed lowered whiteness but increased redness and yellowness as SONL levels added increased (P < 0.05). Viscosity of fortified samples was also augmented with increasing levels of SONL (P < 0.05). Sensory analysis indicated that fortified milk skim samples had no perceivable fishy odor and were organoleptically acceptable. When skim milk fortified with 10% SONL was stored up to 15 days at 4 °C, the microbial load was less than 2.54 log CFU mL⁻¹. The pH and acidity values were also within the acceptable limits. As measured by peroxide value (PV) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), shrimp oil in SONL did not undergo oxidation during the extended storage. The fatty acid profile of shrimp oil revealed no loss of polyunsaturated fatty acids taken place during the storage of fortified milk. Therefore, nanoliposomes could be an effective carrier for shrimp oil to be fortified in skim milk.