Wetlands of India preserve a rich variety of fish species. Globally wetlands as well as fauna and flora diversity are affected due to increase in anthropogenic activities. The present investigation deals with the fish bio-diversity of selected major wetlands Periyakulam famously called Ukkadam Lake, Singanallur Lake andSulur Lake of Coimbatore district fed by Noyyal River. Due to improper management of these lentic wetlands water bodies around Coimbatore district by using certain manures, insecticides in agricultural practices in and around these selected areas has polluted the land and these fresh waters creating hazards for majorvertebrate fishes which are rich source of food and nutrition, an important and delicious food of man. The results of the present investigation reveals the occurrence of 19 fish species belonging to 5 order, 8 families 18 species recorded from the Ukkadam wetland followed by Singanallur wetland with 5 different orders 7 different families and 14 species. Ichthyofaunal diversity of Sulur wetland compressed of 6 families with 14 species. The order Cypriniformes was found dominant followed by Perciformes, Ophicephalidae, Siluriformes and Cyprinodontiformes species in Ukkadam and Singanallur wetland lakes while in Sulur it was recorded as Cyprinidae > Cichlida > Ophiocephalidae > Anabantidae > Bagridae > Heteropneustidae. This study on the freshwater fish species diversity of these wetlands would help in explore the fish fauna status and estimate the factors that may need rectification for fish conservation and management.

Active suspension systems have been used in the recent years as they provide better ride comfort, road handling and safety. The effect of vehicle vibration caused by road roughness is effectively reduced by active suspension system which plays an important role in improving the vehicle performance indices. The application of active suspension system is limited because it consumes high amount of energy. From the point of energy saving, a regenerative active suspension system is designed and its working principle with two modes switched in different conditions was implemented. In this implementation scheme, operating electric circuits are designed based on different working status of the actuator and power source. In the first stage an electromotor mode in which an active suspension system uses a linear electric actuator controlled by constrained PID controller. In the generator mode, under certain circumstances using linear motor as actuators enables to transform mechanical energy of the car vibrations to electrical energy and accumulated to charge the energy-storage capacitor and fed back into the power source when needed.

The main objective of the variable damper controlled vehicle suspension system is to reduce the discomfort identified by passengers which arises from road roughness and to increase the ride handling related with the rolling, pitching and heave movements. This imposes a very fast and accurate variable damper to meet as much control objectives, as possible. The method of the proposed damper is to reduce the vibrations on each corner of vehicle by providing control forces to suspension system while travelling on uneven road. Numerical simulations on a full vehicle suspension model are performed in the Matlab Simulink toolboxes to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The obtained results show that the proposed system provides better results than the conventional suspension system.

In the chassis assembly shop, there are instances when the rear axle oil was not filled. During the period from January to December, there were ten such instances that were reported. Out of the 10 cases, 6 cases seized after handing over the vehicle to the customer and 4 cases were identified when the vehicles left the assembly process. The reason for the seizing of the trucks was predominantly due to the absence of the oil in the rear axle or in some cases, due to the discrepancy that occurred. This problem can be rectified by introducing the concept of interlocking, wherein the conveyor stops from proceeding to the next stage in case the rear axle oil is not filled. To prevent any further chances of error, a system was suggested where a code is scanned, which gives details of the bill of materials used to assemble the truck. This bill of material includes the axle model number which is cross referenced with a traceability matrix to determine the quantity of oil required and confirming the oil filling process with a sticker.

Objectives: This work is an attempt to present commercially used designs and analyze it to compare the impact behavior of each design of bumper beams during head-on collisions Methods/Statistical Analysis: In order to avoid series of destructive test for a new vehicle to be performed the necessity of economical design using finite element is performed in this study. Parameters like materials, shape and thickness are considered for carrying out analysis with the help of Hypermesh 9.0 and LS-DYNA software Findings: The main criterion to be discussed is energy absorbing Behavior of bumper beams during headon collisions. Analysis is carried out upto 20 millisecond. Results for different Designs and for varying thickness are obtained and compared to study the impact Behavior of beams under study. Impact behavior of Bumper beam is analyzed based on energy absorption of the beam and the displacement condition. Maximum nodal displacement is obtained for different thickness and materials and plotted over the period of time Application/Improvements: Experimental setup has to be developed for the testing of the model under crashes and to be analysed at operating condition. Keywords: Bumper Beam, Bumper Rebound, Crashes, Energy Absorption, Investigate, Impact

A greenhouse experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the efficiency of seven Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) namely, Acaulospora deligata, Glomus aggregatum, G feugianum, G fasciculatum, G rubiforme, Gigaspora margarita, and Scutellospora heterogama collected from the rhizosphere soils of Wedilia chinensis (Osbeck) Merril. They were evaluated on the same host for improvement of phytochemical constituents, namely total phenols, ortho dihydroxy phenols, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins and saponins and enhanced levels of acid and alkaline phosphatase, nitrate reductase, peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activities. The extent of phytochemical constituents and levels of enzymes varied with the species of AM fungi inhabiting the W. chinensis seedlings. Analyses performed 90 days after inoculation showed that maximum beneficial effect in terms of increased phytochemical constituents and defense related enzyme levels was with Glomus fasciculatum.

In order to prepare a list of the raw drugs sold in Coimbatore city, a market survey was conducted. There are 72 species spreading over 41 families and according to their life forms, 29 are herbs, 13 shrubs, 23 trees and 7 climbers and 88% of these belong to the dicotyledons. It was also noticed that various plant parts were used as crude drugs. The species like Acacia nilotica (Linn.) Willd. ex Del. subsp. indica (Benth.) Brenan, Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees, Eclipta prostrata (Linn.) Linn., Adhatoda zeylanica Medic., Zingiber officinale Rosc., Acorus calamus Linn., Centella asiatica (Linn.) Urban, Phyllanthus amarus Schum. & Thonn., Solanum nigrum Linn. and Gymnema sylvestre (Retz) Schult. have higher market potential. Most of the crude drugs are already commercially cultivated in India but a few endangered plants like Dysoxylum malabaricum Bedd. , Rauvolfia serpentina Benth. ex Kurz are also sold in the market. If the same trend continues, we may have to lose our valuable plant heritage by way of over exploitation of the wild and endangered species. There is an urgent need of documentation of this irreplaceable knowledge to meet the ever growing demand of medicinal plants in the market.

Patchouli (Pogostemon patchouli Pellet) is an important aromatic crop cultivated for its essential oil used in cosmetics. arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is known to modify several aspects of plant physiology and phytochemical constituents. Hence, a study was conducted on the efficacy of certain AM fungi in the improvement of some growth parameters and content of some phytochemical constituents in the leaves of P. patchouli. Patchouli seedlings were raised in soil inoculated with isolates of seven indigenous AM fungi, viz. Acaulospora scrobiculata, Gigaspora margarita, Glomus aggregatum, G. geosporum, G. mosseae, Sclerocystis pakistanika and Scutellospora heterogama. Seedlings raised in the presence of AM fungi generally showed an increase in growth, nutritional ingredients (sugars, N, P, K, Zn, Ca and Mn), total chlorophyll, and secondary metabolites in the leaves of patchouli compared to those from seedlings grown in the absence of AM fungi, the extent of increase, however, being varied with the AM fungi species. Furthermore, it was found that the phosphorus concentration was positively correlated with all growth parameters and content of phytochemical constituents (except essential oil), and that G. aggregatum seemed to be the best AM symbiont for the patchouli plant used in this experiment.

A green house nursery study was conducted to assess the interaction between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, a nitrogen fixing bacterium, Glomus geosporum, Azotobacter chroococcum, and a mycorrhiza helper bacterium (MHB), Bacillus coagulans, in soil and their consequent effect on growth and nutrition of Melia azedarach L. seedlings. Triple inoculation of G. geosporum, A. chroococcum. and B. coagulans resulted in maximum plant biomass, N, P, Zn, and Cu uptake, and biovolume and quality index of M. azedarach seedlings. It also increased the mycorrhizal root colonization and spore numbers in the root zone soil of the inoculated plants over uninoculated control plants. The enzyme activity, namely acid phosphatase and dehydrogenase, in the root zone soil was found high in the 3-combination treatments and low in the uninoculated control. Triple inoculation with G. geosporum + A. chroococcum + B. coagulans proved to be the best microbial consortium for inoculating M. azedarach at nursery level in order to get healthy and vigorously growing seedlings.

A cost-effective and efficient protocol has been described in the present work for large- scale and rapid in vitro propagation of a valuable medicinal herb Begonia malabarica Lam. (Begoniaceae) by shoot auxillary-bud proliferation and organogenesis on MS medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BA; 0.0-8.8 mg/l) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA; 0.0-2.88 mg/l) at different concentrations, either alone or in combinations. Initiation of callus formation from the base of the leaf lamina was observed on MS supplemented with BA, IAA and adenine sulphate. Root induction on shoots was achieved on full strength MS with IAA/ indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at different concentrations. MS medium with 4.4 mg/l BA and 1.4 mg/l IAA elicited the maximum number of shoots (10 multiple shoots) from nodal explants. Leaf-based callus differentiated into more than 28 shoots on MS with 150 mg/l adenine sulphate. The regenerated shoots were rooted on MS with 1.2 mg/l IBA within ten days. Almost 95% of the rooted shoots survived hardening when transferred to the field. The regenerated plants did not show any morphological change and variation in levels of secondary metabolites when compared with the mother stock. Thus, a reproduction of B. malabarica was established through nodal and leaf explants. This protocol can be exploited for conservation and commercial propagation of this medical plant in the Indian subcontinent and might be useful for genetic improvement programs.

Begonia malabarica Lam. (Begoniaceae) is one of the important medicinal plants whose main secondary metabolites are luteolin, quercetin and β-sitosterol. The leaves are used for the treatment of respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea, blood cancer and skin diseases. A study was undertaken to determine the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus, Glomus mosseae, and some plant growth promoting rhizomicro-organisms (PGPR's) on the growth, biomass, nutrients, and content of secondary metabolites of B. malabarica plant under green house conditions. Various plant growth parameters (total plant biomass, mycorrhizal parameter, shoot and root phosphorus), mineral content (potassium, iron, zinc, and copper), and secondary metabolites (total phenols, ortho-dihydroxy phenols, tannins, flavonoids, and alkaloids) were determined and found to vary with different treatments. Among all the treatments, plants inoculated with 'microbial consortium' consisting of Glomus mosseae + Bacillus coagulans + Trichoderma viride performed better than with other treatments or uninoculated control plants. The results of this experiment clearly indicated that inoculation of B. malabarica with G. mosseae along with PGPR's enhanced its growth, biomass yield, nutrients and secondary metabolites.

A study was conducted under greenhouse nursery condition on the efficacy of seven indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in the improvement of growth, biomass, nutrition and phytochemical constituents, namely total phenols, ortho dihydroxy phenols, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins and saponins, in the roots and leaves of Plectranthus amboinicus (Lour) Spreng. Seedlings were raised in polythene bags containing soil inoculated with isolates of seven different indigenous AM fungi, viz. Acaulospora bireticulata, A. scrobiculata, Gigaspora margarita, Glomus aggregatum, G. mosseae, G. geosporum, and Scutellospora heterogama. P. amboinicus seedlings raised in the presence of AM fungi generally showed an increase in plant growth, nutritional status and phytochemical constituents over those grown in the absence of AM fungi. The extent of growth, biomass, nutritional status and phytochemical constituents enhanced by AM fungi varied with the species of AM fungi inhabiting the roots and leaves of P. amboinicus seedlings. Considering the various plant growth parameters, nutritional status of the plant, total phenols, ortho dihydroxy phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, and saponins in the roots and leaves, it was observed that Gigaspora margarita is the best AM symbiont for P. amboinicus used in this experiment.

This study was conducted to assess the downstream pollution profiles of Huluka River due to sewage water contamination, and to provide the data on the physico-chemical properties and nutrient content of Huluka River in Ethiopia. The water quality indices, viz. temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, carbon dioxide content, total dissolved solids (TDS), hardness, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), calcium, magnesium, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, and phosphate were determined. Results reveal a worsening trend in the variations of most of these parameters from upstream to downstream areas of the river, which indicates an introduction of pollution load from domestic sewage and agricultural activities. For example, TDS and DO values for some downstream water samples do not conform to the accepted standards, and these samples also have eight to ten times higher values of BOD and COD compared to those for the upstream samples. Progressing downstream, the majority of the measured ions also show an increasing trend. All of these findings indicate that the quality of the water of Huluka River is declining.