Debraj Roy College (informally known as D. R. College or D. R.) is a leading public higher education institution established in 1949 at Jonaki Nagar in Golaghat. Affiliated to Dibrugarh University, the college has 15 departments running Higher Secondary and Undergraduate programmes both in Science and Arts. The college also offers Postgraduate and Doctoral Research programmes in Life Science in regular mode under Dibrugarh University. The college has a current enrollment of more than 2500 students. The college was ranked 4th among the colleges of Assam by Career360 in 2016.
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus related to yellow fever virus and dengue virus that has gained attention in recent years due to its association with congenital microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome in human body. There is no specific treatment for Zika virus infection or illness at present. Lead compounds are in high demand for developing promising or effective medicines to treat ZIKAV. Plantbased antiviral medication is currently required for holistic health care management via in silico research. Essential oils have strong antiviral activity against a wide range of DNA and RNA viruses. The present study is an investigation on the antiviral activity of some selected essential oil molecules with low IC50 values against various viruses. Total 16 essential oil compounds were selected and docked them with two ZIKV proteins: NS5 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (5U04) and NS2B-NS3 protease (5LC0). Following a molecular docking research, h-bond interaction and ADMET, it was concluded that the lead compounds Farnesol, b-Santalol and Citral may be strong ZIKV inhibitors
Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus, LG-SiO2), horsetail (Equisetum debile, SG-SiO2), and cassava leaves (Manihot esculenta, CL-SiO2) were used to green-synthesize silica (SiO2) nanoparticles (NPs). While LG-SiO2 and SG-SiO2 had strong (101) peaks and a large 22 degrees amorphous peak, XRD of CL-SiO2 verified crystallinity. LG-SiO2 (agglomerated porous), SG-SiO2 (rectangular-cube agglomerates), and CL-SiO2 (flake agglomerates) had different morphologies. The TEM image of LG-SiO2 revealed agglomerated spherical NPs with an average particle size of about 32.17 nm, the smallest among all the samples. Under solar illumination, LG-SiO2 demonstrated superior photocatalytic activity, which is 1.5 times higher than SG-SiO2 and 3.2 times higher than CL-SiO2 in terms of their rate constant values. Concentration-dependent inhibitory zones were observed in antibacterial tests against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Among the samples, LG-SiO2 exhibited the strongest antibacterial response. This work provides an optimal green catalyst for dual applications that have not yet been investigated.
Earthworms are one of the key soil macro-organisms that keep the soil fertile and healthy, for which they are also referred to as ecosystem engineers. Nitrogen-containing fertilizers are one of the most common fertilizers used in agriculture to improve crop yields. But they have a negative impact on soil biodiversity. This review article summarizes the current knowledge regarding physiological and behavioural responses of earthworms to nitrogen-based fertilization with focus on its short-term and long-term impacts on earthworm survival, reproduction, activity, and its related ecosystem services. Results show that even low concentrations of nitrogen fertilizers such as urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), anhydrous ammonia, diammonium phosphate (DAP), potassium nitrate (NK), and ammonium hydroxide (AH) can cause organic matter turnover and earthworm activities, over- and/ or long usage causing increased mortality, suppression of reproduction, burrowing behavior, and soil microbial community. These negative effects on soil health can be mitigated strategies including, slowrelease fertilizers, urease inhibitors, organic amendment, and use of nano-fertilizers. This review reveals the knowledge gap that exists between field-based studies with a long-term duration that integrate functional traits of earthworms in nutrient management frameworks to limit trade-offs between agricultural productivity and preservation of soil biodiversity. From this review, it’s clear that there is lack of integrated research and so there is the need to conduct more long-term studies and find ways to know how earthworms’ functions can be used in nutrient management to support healthy soils and better harvests.
The persistent contamination of water bodies by synthetic dyes like methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) presents a significant environmental challenge. In this work, SnO2 embedded with natural cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) has been investigated as a novel photocatalytic material for enhanced photodegradation of these dyes under natural sunlight. The material was prepared by a combined sol-gel/hydrothermal method. The CNC/SnO2 composite demonstrated outstanding photocatalytic degradation, achieving 94.46% removal of MO and 92.75% of MB under natural sunlight within 4 h significantly outperforming pure SnO2. CNCs induce the formation of a hierarchical porous structure composed of interconnected mesopores and macropores. This architecture significantly increases the surface area of the composite, as confirmed by SEM and BET analyses. Moreover, the composite showed excellent reusability over three successive cycles with minimal loss in efficiency. Further, machine learning models were employed to analyse the influence of various synthesis parameters, revealing that hydrothermal temperature, pH, and drying temperature play critical roles in determining photocatalytic efficiency. We also developed a DFT-based model to understand the variation in the band gap of CNC/SnO2 at the molecular level and compared it with bare SnO2.
Herein, two new bifunctional Brønsted–Lewis acidic chloronickellate ionic liquid systems, 1a and 1b ([RSIM] x [NiCl y ], where R = C 2 H 5 and CH 3 , x = 2, y = 2, 3, 4 or 5), were developed by incorporating two –SO 3 H groups into the imidazolium cation.
