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The antioxidant activity of the aqueous extracts of five umbelliferous fruits--caraway (Carum carvi), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), cumin (Cuminum cyminum), dill (Anethum graveolens) and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)--were investigated in comparison with the known antioxidant ascorbic acid in in vitro studies. The amount of aqueous extract of these five umbelliferous fruits and ascorbic acid needed for 50% scavenging of superoxide radicals was found to be 105 microg (caraway), 370 microg (coriander), 220 microg (cumin), 190 microg (dill), 205 microg (fennel) and 260 microg (ascorbic acid). The amount needed for 50% inhibition of lipid peroxide was 2100 microg (caraway), 4500 microg (coriander), 4300 microg (cumin), 3100 microg (dill), 4600 microg (fennel) and 5000 microg (ascorbic acid). The quantity needed for 50% inhibition of hydroxyl radicals was 1150 microg (caraway), 1250 microg (coriander), 470 microg (cumin), 575 microg (dill), 700 microg (fennel) and 4500 microg (ascorbic acid). The daily use of the above fruits in various forms is very common in India and the present study revealed strong antioxidant activity of their extracts that was superior to known antioxidant ascorbic acid and indicate their intake may be beneficial as food additives.

Symbiosis is a complex genetic regulatory biological evolution which is highly specific pertaining to plant species and microbial strains. Biological nitrogen fixation in legumes is a functional combination of nodulation by nod genes and regulation by nif, fix genes. Three rhizobial strains (Rhizobium leguminosarum, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, and Mesorhizobium ciceri) that we considered for in silico analysis of nif A are proved to be the best isolates with respect to N2 fixing for ground nut, chick pea and soya bean (in vitro) out of 47 forest soil samples. An attempt has been made to understand the structural characteristics and variations of nif genes that may reveal the factors influencing the nitrogen fixation. The primary, secondary and tertiary structure of nif A protein was analyzed by using multiple bioinformatics tools such as chou-Fasman, GOR, ExPasy ProtParam tools, Prosa -web. Literature shows that the homology modeling of nif A protein have not been explored yet which insisted the immediate development for better understanding of nif A structure and its influence on biological nitrogen fixation. In the present predicted 3D structure, the nif A protein was analyzed by three different software tools (Phyre2, Swiss model, Modeller) and validated accordingly which can be considered as an acceptable model. However further in silico studies are suggested to determine the specific factors responsible for nitrogen fixing in the present three rhizobial strains.

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This paper presents voltage stability analysis of radial distribution networks in the presence of distributed generation. The analysis is accomplished using a voltage stability index which can be evaluated at each node of the distribution system. The location of DG has the main effect voltage stability on the system. Artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) is proposed to determine the optimal DG-unit size and location by loss sensitivity index (LSI) in order to improve the voltage stability in radial distribution system. Constant power, constant current, constant impedance and composite load modelling are considered for the purpose of voltage stability analysis.

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Peptidoglycans isolated from two Fusobacterium species of anaerobic bacteria were analyzed for constituent amino acids. Hydrolysis conditions were varied to optimize the yield of diamino acids from peptidoglycan. The o-phthalaldehyde derivatives of the diamino acid stereoisomers were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography (OPA-HPLC), and variations in the relative areas of the two peaks noticed during analysis of solid samples were attributed to sampling errors. Co-derivatization/injection experiments using standards of the meso and rac forms separated from commercial mixtures demonstrated that meso-2,6-diaminopimelic acid and meso-lanthionine were peptidoglycan components in Fusobacterium varium and Fusobacterium nucleatum, respectively. The protonated molecules of 2,6-diaminopimelic acid and lanthionine were detected in peptidoglycan hydrolyzates by off-line, flow-injection electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). In ESI-MS-MS experiments under identical collision-induced dissociation (CID) conditions, peptidoglycan-derived and standard diamino acids exhibited similar fragmentations. Fragmentation pathways are proposed for each diamino acid. The results confirm that the meso forms of two different diamino acids are utilized in the peptidoglycans of Fusobacterium species.