In this research, eight local mung bean (Vigna radiata) varieties were analyzed for their performance against two levels of CdCl.sub.2 solution (0.3 and 0.5 mM) alone and priming with gibberellic ...acid (GA.sub.3) (100 muM), salicylic acid (SA) (50 muM) and proline (5 mM) solution prior to Cd exposure. Mung bean seedlings were analyzed for disturbance in cytological, morphological, biochemical and enzymatic parameters under cadmium stress. For cytological studies, 48 h grown mung bean seedlings root tips were used to prepare slides and studied for percent mitotic index (MI%) and to calculate percent C-mitosis, laggard, sticky and fragmented chromosomes, pictures were captured by a Nikon camera (DS-Fi 1 Japan) attached with a microscope. One-week grown mung seedlings were studied for growth traits, malondialdehyde (MDA), protein, proline and antioxidant enzymes. ANOVA and DMR test of this research revealed that all the tested mung bean varieties and treatments were significantly different regarding mitotic index and number of chromosomal aberrations. Both the Cd treatments exhibited increased total chromosomal aberrations with different types and a maximum decrease in MI%. In pretreated samples, GA.sub.3, SA and proline serve as mitigating agents that reduce mutagenic effects of Cd in mung bean by increasing MI% and decreasing chromosomal aberrations as compared to non-pretreated samples. Both the Cd treatments showed a decrease in all growth traits. Total proteins were also found to be significantly reduced in a dose-dependent manner in all genotypes. Cd treatment increased the activities of all antioxidant enzymes tested. Cd caused oxidative damage as indicated by elevated levels of MDA content in treated samples in comparison to control. Proline content levels were also high in Cd treated seedlings indicating stress. Results demonstrated that pretreatment with phytohormones and proline before Cd were found to improve all morphological parameters, by altering antioxidant enzymes activities along with a decrease in MDA and proline contents as well. It was further noticed that the performance of GA.sub.3 was better at 0.3 mM Cd treatment while SA was found to be a good mitigating agent at 0.5 mM Cd stress in all tested mung bean varieties. This research concluded less deleterious effects of Cd on AZRI-2006 while more sensitivity to NM-51 towards Cd. Priming with phytohormones and proline is a user-friendly, economical, and simple mitigation strategy to reduce Cd toxicity in plants and get better yield from contaminated lands.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The role of plant-derived smoke, which is changed in mineral-nutrient status, in enhancing germination and post-germination was effectively established. The majority of plant species positively ...respond to plant-derived smoke in the enhancement of seed germination and plant growth. The stimulatory effect of plant-derived smoke on normally growing and stressed plants may help to reduce economic and human resources, which validates its candidature as a biostimulant. Plant-derived smoke potentially facilitates the early harvest and increases crop productivity. Karrikins and cyanohydrin are the active compound in plant-derived smoke. In this review, data from the latest research explaining the effect of plant-derived smoke on morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses of plants are presented. The pathway for reception and interaction of compounds of plant-derived smoke at the cellular and molecular level of plant is described and discussed.
The aim of this research is to examine the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in the post pandemic world in auto care industry. The car care vendor in the study made effective use of ...social media to provide responsive updates to the customers in the post pandemic world; such use of social media provides bases for service quality and customer satisfaction. The study examined the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction using the SERVQUAL framework. According to the findings, empathy, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and tangibles have a significant positive relationship with customer satisfaction. Our findings suggest that it is critical for workshops to recognize the service quality factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. Findings also suggest that empathy, assurance, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibles contribute to customer satisfaction. Auto repair industry must regularly provide personal attention, greet customers in a friendly manner, deliver cars after services, notify customers when additional repairs are required, and take the time to clarify problems to customers. Furthermore, workshops must screen and hire courteous staff who can clearly communicate the services required to customers both in-person and online and effectively communicate the risks associated with repairs. Service quality seems to be aided by prompt services.
Excessive use of pesticides can adversely affect the growth of non-target host plants in different ways. Pesticide-induced stress can affect non-target plants through elevated levels of reactive ...oxygen species (ROS) responsible for detrimental effects on cell metabolism, biochemical and other physiological activities. In response to oxidative stress, plant activates antioxidant defense system consisting of both enzymatic and non-enzymatic components. In the present investigation, three commonly used pesticides, emamectin benzoate, alpha-cypermethrin and imidacloprid, were assessed for causing oxidative stress in tomato. The oxidative damage induced by these pesticides at five different concentrations i.e. 1/4X, 1/2X, recommended application dose (X), 2X and 4X in the root and shoot tissues of tomato plant/seedlings were evaluated. Following pesticide exposure for 35 days, cell viability, cell injury, total soluble sugar (TSS) and total soluble proteins (TSP) were measured. Antioxidant activities were estimated by measuring activity levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR) peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and proline. Hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) levels were analysed as ROS, lipid peroxidation was measured in term of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) as membrane damage caused by ROS was also assessed. Analysis of the data revealed that pesticides application at higher concentrations significantly elevated ROS levels and caused membrane damage by the formation of TBARS, increased cell injury and reduced cell viability both in root and shoot tissues compared with non-treated plants. Moreover, a gradual decrease in the levels of TSS and TSP was observed in plants subjected to increasing doses of pesticides. To cope with pesticide-induced oxidative stress, a significant increase in levels of antioxidants was observed in the plants exposed to higher doses of pesticides. Shoot tissues responded more drastically by producing higher levels of antioxidants as compared to root tissues indicating the direct exposure of shoots to foliar application of pesticides. Taken together, these results strongly suggested that the application of pesticides above the recommended dose can provoke the state of oxidative stress and can cause oxidative damages in non-target host plants.
Microglia play a crucial role in the inflammatory brain response to infection. However, overactivation of microglia is neurotoxic. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is involved in microglial activation via ...lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which triggers a variety of cytotoxic pro-inflammatory markers that produce deleterious effects on neuronal cells. Ferulic acid (FA) is a phenolic compound that exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in neurodegenerative disease. However, the manner in which FA inhibits neuroinflammation-induced neurodegeneration is poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of FA against LPS-induced neuroinflammation in the mouse brain. First, we provide evidence that FA interferes with TLR4 interaction sites, which are required for the activation of microglia-induced neuroinflammation, and further examined the potential mechanism of its neuroprotective effects in the mouse hippocampus using molecular docking simulation and immunoblot analysis. Our results indicated that FA treatment inhibited glial cell activation, p-JNK, p-NF
K
B, and downstream signaling molecules, such as iNOS, COX-2, TNF-α, and IL-1β, in the mouse hippocampus and BV2 microglial cells. FA treatment strongly inhibited mitochondrial apoptotic signaling molecules, such as Bax, cytochrome C, caspase-3, and PARP-1, and reversed deregulated synaptic proteins, including PSD-95, synaptophysin, SNAP-25, and SNAP-23, and synaptic dysfunction in LPS-treated mice. These findings demonstrated that FA treatment interfered with the TLR4/MD2 complex binding site, which is crucial for evoking neuroinflammation via microglia activation and inhibited NF
K
B likely via a JNK-dependent mechanism, which suggests a therapeutic implication for neuroinflammation-induced neurodegeneration.
Fluorescent chemosensors are highly valuable in a variety of fields including environmental chemistry, analytical chemistry and biomedical science. They have provided accurate, online and low-cost ...detection of toxic heavy metal ions, anions and enzymes with high selectivity and sensitivity. Coumarins, with the structure of benzopyrone, have many advantages including high fluorescence quantum yield, large Stokes shift, excellent light stability and less toxicity. By far coumarin has been used as fluorescent probes of pH, for detection of nitric oxide, nitroxide and hydrogen peroxide. Moreover, coumarin derivatives have served as good chemosensors of anions including cyanide, fluoride, pyrophosphate, acetate, benzoate and dihydrogenphosphate as well as various metal ions comprised of Hg(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Ni(II), Ca(II), Pb(II), Mg(II), Fe(III), Al(III), Cr(III) and Ag(I). Several systems containing coumarin exhibited simultaneous sensitivity toward two or more different metal ions, e.g., Ca(II) and Mg(II), Ni(II) and Co(II), Cu(II) and Hg(II), Na(I) and K(I), Cu(II) and Ni(II), Hg(II) and Ag(I), Cu(II)/Ni(II)/Cd(II), Zn(II)/Cd(II)/Pb(II) or Ni(II)/Pd(II)/Ag(I). The sensing approach toward the ion has been discussed in detail along their detection limit to find the efficacy of the probe easier. Recently, scientists have been working on synthesizing novel fluorescence chemosensors with multiple-ion recognition ability to make the fluorescence sensing more effective and prolific.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance compliance, governance reforms and board attributes on operating liquidity of Pakistani listed non-financial firms. The study ...further tests how these relationships vary in the pre- and post-corporate governance reforms.
Design/methodology/approach
Fixed-effect regression model is used on 10 years panel data from 2007 to 2016 for a sample of 170 firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Two-stage least squares model is used for addressing the endogeneity problem.
Findings
The findings reveal that governance compliance and governance reforms negatively affect operating liquidity. Among the board attributes, board meetings, directors’ remuneration, board foreign diversity and board gender diversity are significantly related to operating liquidity. Further exploration indicates that internal governance mechanisms are less effective to safeguard shareholders from expropriation during weak external governance. This suggests that strong external governance is inevitable to the effectiveness of internal governance mechanisms. Overall, the study findings support the agency theory.
Practical implications
The findings provide valid recommendations to policymakers interested in safeguarding the investors to focus on macro-level governance for making the micro-level governance effective. Further, the results provide the executives with an insight to improve the compliance level with the code of corporate governance.
Originality/value
Unlike prior studies, this study examines the impact of corporate governance compliance and novel board attributes – directors’ attendance at board meetings, number of board committees, directors’ remuneration and board foreign diversity on operating liquidity. Further, the study subdivides its sample period into pre- and post-corporate governance reforms to examine how external governance influences internal governance effectiveness.
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•Impedance matching has a key role in strong microwave absorption.•To enhance impedance matching, MoS2 related materials are highly essential.•Hydrothermal method was used to prepare ...pristine MoS2 and its related composites.•The prepared rGO@Ni-doped-MoS2 achieved maximum microwave absorption of -40 dB at 2 mm thickness.
Impedance matching has a key role in strong microwave absorption. To achieve the perfect impedance matching and enhanced interface dielectric relaxation, nickel-doped rGO@MoS2 composite has been prepared. The complex permittivity and complex permeability of rGO@Ni-MoS2 show significant improvement by the combination of the high magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Ni metal with highly conductive reduced graphene oxide, leading to remarkable microwave absorption. The prepared rGO@Ni-MoS2 achieved maximum microwave absorption of −40 dB at 2 mm thickness. The control samples of MoS2, Ni-MoS2 and rGO@MoS2 indicate that micro-cluster of MoS2 and Ni doping is indeed helpful to improve the performance of rGO@Ni-MoS2. The study provides a pathway for practical applications of microwave absorption materials in terms of impedance matching.
Vertical stacking of two-dimensional materials into layered van der Waals heterostructures has recently been considered as a promising candidate for photocatalytic and optoelectronic devices because ...it can combine the advantages of the individual 2D materials. Janus transition metal dichalcogenides (JTMDCs) have emerged as an appealing photocatalytic material due to the desirable electronic properties. Hence, in this work, we systematically investigate the geometric features, electronic properties, charge density difference, work function, band alignment and photocatalytic properties of ZnO-JTMDC heterostructures using first-principles calculations. Due to the different kinds of chalcogen atoms on both sides of JTMDC monolayers, two different possible stacking patterns of ZnO-JTMDC heterostructures have been constructed and considered. We find that all these stacking patterns of ZnO-JTMDC heterostructures are dynamically and energetically feasible. Moreover, both ZnO-MoSSe and ZnO-WSSe heterostructures are indirect band gap semiconductors and present type-I and type-II band alignments for model-I and model-II, respectively. The Rashba spin polarization of the ZnO-WSSe heterostructure for model-I is greater than that in the others. Furthermore, valence (conduction) band edge potentials are calculated to understand the photocatalytic behavior of these systems. Energetically favorable band edge positions in ZnO-Janus heterostructures make them suitable for water splitting at zero pH. We found that the ZnO-Janus heterostructures are promising candidates for water splitting with conduction and valence band edges positioned just outside of the redox interval.
Vertical stacking of two-dimensional materials into layered van der Waals heterostructures has recently been considered as a promising candidate for photocatalytic and optoelectronic devices because it can combine the advantages of the individual 2D materials.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating and progressive neurodegenerative disease and is characterized pathologically by the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) and the hyperphosphorylation of tau ...proteins in the brain. The deposition of Aβ aggregates triggers synaptic dysfunction, hyperphosphorylation of tau, and neurodegeneration, which lead to cognitive disorders. Here, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of fisetin in the Aβ
1–42
mouse model of AD. Single intracerebroventricular injections of Aβ
1–42
(3 μl/5 min/mouse) markedly induced memory/synaptic deficits, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. Intraperitoneal injections of fisetin at a dose of 20 mg/kg/day for 2 weeks starting 24 h after Aβ
1–42
injection significantly decreased the Aβ
1–42
-induced accumulation of Aβ, BACE-1 expression, and hyperphosphorylation of tau protein at serine 413. Fisetin treatment also markedly reversed Aβ
1–42
-induced synaptic dysfunction by increasing the levels of both presynaptic (SYN and SNAP-25) and postsynaptic proteins (PSD-95, SNAP-23, p-GluR1 (Ser 845), p-CREB (Ser 133) and p-CAMKII (Thr 286) and ultimately improved mouse memory, as observed in the Morris water maze test. Fisetin significantly activated p-PI3K, p-Akt (Ser 473), and p-GSK3β (Ser 9) expression in Aβ
1–42
-treated mice. Moreover, fisetin prevented neuroinflammation by suppressing various activated neuroinflammatory mediators and gliosis; it also suppressed the apoptotic neurodegeneration triggered by Aβ
1–42
injections in the mouse hippocampus. Fluorojade-B and immunohistochemical staining for caspase-3 revealed that fisetin prevented neurodegeneration in Aβ
1–42
-treated mice. Our results suggest that fisetin has a potent neuroprotective effect against Aβ
1–42
-induced neurotoxicity. These results demonstrate that polyphenolic flavonoids such as fisetin could be a beneficial, effective and safe neuroprotective agent for preventing neurological disorders such as AD.
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