Plant Growth Promotional Effect of Azotobacter chroococcum, Piriformospora indica and Vermicompost on Rice Plant

The activities of rhizospheric organisms have been well recognized in non-leguminous plants such as tropical grasses, rice and maize. Such activities include nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization and mineralization that are beneficial for the overall growth and development of the plant. An experiment was carried out to study the growth promotion of rice (Oryza sativa L.) due to dual inoculation of Azotobacter chroococcum and Piriformospora indica along with vermicompost. The effects on shoot length, root length, fresh shoot and root weight, dry shoot and root weight, and panicle number on 45th day and 90th day were investigated. In both the stages these parameters of all the treated plants were significantly (P<0.05) greater than the uninoculated control. Dual inoculated plants in presence of vermicompost gave better positive effects on both 45th day and 90th day, in comparison to single inoculation of A. chroococcum, P. indica and vermicompost. However, A. chroococcum treated plants showed significant decrease in dry root weight as compared to control plants on 90th day observation. This suggested that dual inoculation of A. chroococcum and P. indica had beneficiary response on growth of rice plant. Key words: rice; Azotobacter chroococcum; Piriformospora indica; vermicompost; mycorrhizae nitrogen fixation DOI: 10.3126/njst.v9i0.3170 Nepal Journal of Science and Technology 9 (2008) 85-90

Role of exfoliative cytology in oral lesions: with special reference to rule out malignancy

Oral malignancy is quite common in country like India because of tobacco chewing and smoking. Cytology is cheaper and easy procedure that can be carried out at outdoor patient department to diagnose malignancy at early stage. The present study carried out to detect cancer pre-invasive stage by use of exfoliative cytology and to explore the possibility of using this technique in diagnosis of other oral lesions considered as premalignant ones. A total 102 patients referred from OPD and surgery department of J.A. Group of Hospital, Madhav Dispensary and Cancer Hospital, Gwalior, between July 2004 to October 2005, were included in this study. Two smears by scrap method, from each patient were prepared and after air dried stained with RAPID PAP stain. The smear were evaluated along with clinical, epidemiological data and classified in group I to IV according to the Papanicolaou classification. In our result 25 cases were normal. 47 were Leukoplakia with mean age 47.5 years, 85% male. Smear show anucleated squames predominantly 53%. Six cases were submucous fibrosis 66.7% female with mean age 38.3 years and, smear revealed rarification of nuclei in 66% cases. Two cases of mucosal hyperemia (Erythema), one-one case of traumatic ulcer and granular buccal mucosa included. Out of Twenty cases of malignancy, male were 75% with mean age of 46 year. Cheek and tongue were the common site with incidence of 60%. The smear revealed inflammatory cells in 100%, malignant cells in 75% cases either in groups or in singles. The third type of cells 60%, the undifferentiated cells 37%, and Tadpole cells in 5% cases. In study 75% cases were positive for cancer, 10% were suspicious for cancer and remaining 15% were given as negative for cancer. Cytology is reliable diagnostic tool in diagnosis of presence or absence of malignancy in a lesion with high accuracy rate. The oral cytologic technique is easy to do and can provide the help of surgeon/physician, where he/she might hesitate to perform an invasive procedure, like a biopsy, or desire more information regarding a lesion before referring the patient. Key words: Cancer; exfoliative cytology; leukoplakia; oral malignancy. DOI: 10.3126/jcmsn.v6i2.3614 Journal of college of Medical Sciences-Nepal, 2010, Vol.6, No-2, 29-37

Thermal Stability of Polyester vs. Polyether-Based Urethans

It has been shown, by means of continuous and intermittent stress relaxation measurements and oven aging studies, that polyester-based urethans are more resistant to thermal degradation than the corresponding polyether-based urethans at temperatures in the range of 50° to 150° C. It has also been shown that this difference in thermal stability is due to irreversible, oxidative cleavage of polyether chain segments. Addition of representative antioxidants of the hindered phenolic and amine types to the polyether-based prepolymers prior to curing was found to be ineffective in improving the thermal stability of the resultant polyurethan elastomer. And, finally, the practical significance of these thermal stability studies has been demonstrated through heat buildup measurements.