The first multituberculate mammal from India

Mesozoic deposits of the former Gondwanaland are depauperate in early mammals, in general, and multituberculate mammals, in particular. Until now, the oldest multituberculate mammals known from the Gondwanan continents come from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco, NW Africa. Here, we report the presence of a new multituberculate mammal, Indobaatar zofiae gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower/Middle Jurassic Kota Formation, Pranhita-Godavari valley in peninsular India. This is the first record of a multituberculate from the Mesozoic rocks of India and possibly predates the oldest known multituberculates from Gondwanan continents. The new specimen, representing an upper premolar (P⁴), compares well with the upper premolar morphology of Eobaatariinae multituberculates known from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia, China, England, and Spain. Together with the recent findings of cimolodontan multituberculates from the Early Cretaceous of Australia and Late Cretaceous of South America, the new discovery indicates a wide temporal and spatial distribution for multituberculate mammals in the former Gondwanaland.     

Performance enhancement of solar photovoltaic system for roof top garden

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The photovoltaic (PV) for irrigation system is an emerging technology to harness the solar energy. The performance of the PV modules depends on the...     

Spatio-temporal assessment of ambient air quality,their health effects and improvement during COVID-19 lockdown in one of the most polluted cities of India

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The present work aims to investigate seasonal variations in air pollution levels in Lucknow and assess the ambient air quality of the city together...     

Removal of chromate ions from leachate-contaminated groundwater samples of Khan Chandpur,India, using chitin modified iron-enriched hydroxyapatite nanocomposite

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Chromite ore processing residues (COPR) are real environmental threats, leading to CrO42-, i.e., Cr (VI) leaching into groundwater. It is of serious...     

Hexachlorophene induced alterations in brain carbohydrate metabolism of Wistar rat.

Effect of repeated oral administration of hexachlorophene (HCP) on glycolytic and oxidative pathways was studied in the rat brain. The rats were divided into three batches of six in each batch. The first batch was treated with paralytic dose (60 mg.kg-1.day-1) of HCP for 7 days. The second batch of animals was treated with sublethal dose (18 mg.kg-1.day-1) for 7 days. The third batch of animals was served as the age matched controls which received vehicle (corn oil) only. The glycolytic and oxidative metabolism of carbohydrates was significantly inhibited in the brain of rat during HCP treatment and the inhibition was more pronounced in paralytic dose treatment as compared to sublethal dose treatment. The inhibition of NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase coupled with glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase indicates reduced generation of NADPH2 and pentoses for the synthesis of fatty acids and nucleotides.     

Degradation of biopolymeric pigments in distillery spentwash by electrocoagulation using copper anodes: statistical and canonical analysis

The electrocoagulation studies of distillery spentwash using copper anodes were utilized to demonstrate the usefulness of Box–Behnken experimental design of response surface analysis to derive a statistical model and the optimum parameters for color removal. The current intensity (1.5 A), dilution (10%) and time of electrolysis (5 h) had been found to be the optimum conditions for maximum 77.11% color removal. The actual color removal at optimized conditions was found to be 78.26%, which is to the predicted response using response surface methodology. The energy consumption and current efficiency were determined from reduction in chemical oxygen demand.     

Physiological,biochemical and growth responses of Azolla pinnata to chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin pesticides exposure: a comparative study

Cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos pesticide- (5, 15 and 30 ppm) induced effects on growth, metabolic and antioxidative behaviour of Azolla pinnata were analysed after 96 h of treatment. Growth of A. pinnata was increased by 72–76% over the initial mass under control condition. Further, the growth was decreased by 26 and 30% following treatment with 5 ppm of cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos, respectively, compared to control. Whereas, 30 ppm of pesticide treatment caused substantial decrease in biomass accumulation, even less than the initial mass. The Chlorophyll a content was declined at higher concentrations of chlorpyrifos, while carotenoids content increased significantly in the presence of both the pesticides. Photosynthetic rate showed declining trend with rising concentration of pesticides, while an increasing trend was noticed in the case of respiratory O₂ consumption. The oxidative biomarkers malondialdehyde, superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide increased with increasing concentration of both the pesticides. The activity of enzymatic antioxidants enzyme superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) was enhanced with increasing concentrations of both the pesticides; however, a declining trend was noticed in the case of APX at 30 ppm chlorpyrifos treatment. The study concludes that chlorpyrifos appeared to be more toxic than cypermethrin; however, both the pesticides significantly reduced the growth performance.     

Metabolic responses of Azolla pinnata to cadmium stress: photosynthesis,antioxidative system and phytoremediation

This present study deals with the growth, photosynthesis, oxidative stress and phytoremediation character of Azolla pinnata L. exposed to different levels (0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg·L^?1) of cadmium (Cd). Significant accumulation of Cd in Azolla fronds was noticed after 24 and 96 h of exposure and the accumulation rate was dose and time dependent. Growth of A. pinnata increased significantly after both exposure times with and without metal. At lower Cd doses (0.05 and 0.1 mg·L^?1), growth and photosynthesis of A. pinnata showed a marginal increase over the respective control, however, at higher Cd doses (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg·L^?1), a decreasing trend was noticed. At lower doses, Azolla fronds could counterbalance the negative effect of enhanced levels of superoxide radicals (SOR) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) through the greater activity of antioxidative enzymes. The decaresing trends in catalase and peroxidase activity at higher Cd doses suggest that Azolla fronds were not able to mitigate the negative effects of H₂O₂, hence an increase in malondialdehyde content was noticed. The study concludes that up to 0.1 ,mg·L^?1 Cd, A. pinnata can flourish and be used as biofertiliser and for phytoremedial purposes in Cd-contaminated fields; beyond this concentration poor growth may restrict its application.     

Chelating resin immobilized sawdust packed chromatographic column: Application to separation and preconcentration of lead ion

Naturally abundant rubber sawdust has been utilized as a stationary support, which after immobilization with a chelating polyelectrolyte (xylenol orange as counterion) gets converted into a suitable column packing material for isolation and enrichment of trace level target analyte, accurately detectable by the technique of differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. The sorbent is robust and re-usable in column-chromatography without showing any leaching and interference complications. Its unique lead ion selectivity from multielemental complex matrices (synthetic water sample, blood serum) at optimized column conditions (pH 2.5 and flow rate 0.5?mL?min^?1) mitigates the usual problems of intermetallic and readsorption effects. Effects of flow rate, pH, equilibration time, and other variables are reported. The system has advantageous feature to be used in a single-column ion chromatography with satisfactory performance. A modest attempt has been made to determine lead fractions in human blood serum samples on the bases of selective retention of ionic and labile fractions on complexing resin.