Mosquito larvicidal and pupicidal activity of Euphorbia hirta Linn.(Family:Euphorbiaceae) and Bacillus sphaericus against Anopheles stephensi Liston.(Diptera:Culicidae)

Objective:To explore the larvicidal and pupicidal activity of Euphorbia hirta（E.hirta） leaf extract and Bacillus sphaericus（B.sphaericus） against the malarial vector.Anopheles siephensi（An. stephensi）.Methods:The larvicidal and pupicidal activity was assayed against An.stephensi at various concentrations ranging from（75-375 ppm） under the laboratory as well as field conditions. The LC50 and LC90 value of the E.hirta leaf extract was determined by probit analysis.Results: The plant extract showed larvicidal effects after 24 h of exposure;however,the highest larval mortality was found in the methanol extract of E.hirta against the first to fourth instars larvae and pupae of values LC50=137.40,172.65,217.81,269.37 and 332.39 ppm;B.sphaericus against the first to fourth instars larvae and pupae of values LC50= 44.29,55.83,68.51,82.19 and 95.55 ppm, respectively.Moreover,combined treatment of values of LC50= 79.13,80.42,86.01,93.00 and 98.12 ppm,respectively.No mortality was observed in the control.Conclusions:These results suggest methanol leaf extracts of E.hirta and B.sphaericus have potential to be used as an ideal ecofriendly approach for the control of the malarial vector.An.stephensi as target species of vector control programs.This study provides the first report on the combined mosquito larvicidal and pupicidal activity of this plant crude extract and bacterial toxin against An.stephensi mosquitoes.

Incremental Linear Discriminant Analysis Dimensionality Reduction and 3D Dynamic Hierarchical Clustering WSNs

Optimizing the sensor energy is one of the most important concern in Three-Dimensional(3D)Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs).An improved dynamic hierarchical clustering has been used in previous works that computes optimum clusters count and thus,the total consumption of energy is optimal.However,the computational complexity will be increased due to data dimension,and this leads to increase in delay in network data transmission and reception.For solving the above-mentioned issues,an efficient dimensionality reduction model based on Incremental Linear Discriminant Analysis(ILDA)is proposed for 3D hierarchical clustering WSNs.The major objective of the proposed work is to design an efficient dimensionality reduction and energy efficient clustering algorithm in 3D hierarchical clustering WSNs.This ILDA approach consists of four major steps such as data dimension reduction,distance similarity index introduction,double cluster head technique and node dormancy approach.This protocol differs from normal hierarchical routing protocols in formulating the Cluster Head(CH)selection technique.According to node’s position and residual energy,optimal cluster-head function is generated,and every CH is elected by this formulation.For a 3D spherical structure,under the same network condition,the performance of the proposed ILDA with Improved Dynamic Hierarchical Clustering(IDHC)is compared with Distributed Energy-Efficient Clustering(DEEC),Hybrid Energy Efficient Distributed(HEED)and Stable Election Protocol(SEP)techniques.It is observed that the proposed ILDA based IDHC approach provides better results with respect to Throughput,network residual energy,network lifetime and first node death round.

Purification,characterization and kinetics of protease inhibitor from fruits of Solanum aculeatissimum Jacq

Double-headed protease inhibitor was isolated,purified and characterized including its kinetics from the fruits of Solanum aculeatissimum Jacq.(SAPI).The inhibitor was purified to homogeneity via four sequential step procedure,i.e.,salt precipitation to Sepharose affinity chromatography.The purity was confirmed by reverse phase HPLC chromatography.The molecular mass was detected using size elution chromatography(22.2 kDa).SAPI inhibits trypsin and chymotrypsin simultaneously and the molar inhibitory ratio for trypsin and chymotrypsin was 1:1,i.e.,it functions as double headed PI of Bowman–Birk group.Purified SAPI showed optimal specific activities of 502 and 433.7 U/mg with trypsin and chymotrypsin,respectively.Overall,the fold of purification increased with remarkable yield.Native-PAGE showed four isoinhibitors(pI:4.7,5.2,5.6 and 5.9).Dixon plots and Lineweaver–Burk double reciprocal plots revealed competitive mode of inhibition.High pH amplitude(2–12)and broad temperature range(10–80◦C)were observed for SAPI.Circular dichroism spectrum of native SAPI displayed random structure with moreβ-sheets.Further,metal ions,detergents,oxidizing and reducing agents affected the inhibitory potential of SAPI in different levels.Chemical modification studies to analyze the key amino acid present in the reactive site of SAPI revealed the presence of lysine and tryptophan residue(s).