North Eastern Hill University

About: North Eastern Hill University is a education organization based out in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 2318 authors who have published 4476 publications receiving 48894 citations.

Nutritional Properties of Bamboo Shoots: Potential and Prospects for Utilization as a Health Food

Abstract: Bamboo is intricately associated with humans from times immemorial. Popularly known for their industrial uses, a lesser known fact of bamboos is the usage of its young shoots as a food that can be consumed fresh, fermented, or canned. The juvenile shoots are not only delicious but are rich in nutrient components, mainly proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, and fiber and are low in fat and sugars. In addition, they contain phytosterols and a high amount of fiber that can be labeled as nutraceuticals or natural medicines that are attracting the attention of health advocates and scientists alike. The shoots are free from residual toxicity and grow without the application of fertilizers. Modern research has revealed that bamboo shoots have a number of health benefits: improving appetite and digestion, weight loss, and curing cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The shoots are reported to have anticancer, antibacterial, and antiviral activity. Shoots have antioxidant capacity due to the presence of phenolic compounds. The increasing trends of health consciousness among consumers have stimulated the field of functional foods and bamboo shoots can be one of them. Bamboo fiber is now a common ingredient in breakfast cereals, fruit juices, bakery and meat products, sauces, shredded cheeses, cookies, pastas, snacks, frozen desserts, and many other food products. This review emphasizes the health benefits of bamboo shoots and their potential for utilization as a health food.

Metal hyperaccumulation and bioremediation

Abstract: The phytoremediation is an environment friendly, green technology that is cost effective and energetically inexpensive. Metal hyperaccumulator plants are used to remove metal from terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. The technique makes use of the intrinsic capacity of plants to accumulate metal and transport them to shoots, ability to form phytochelatins in roots and sequester the metal ions. Harbouring the genes that are considered as signatures for the tolerance and hyperaccumulation from identified hyperaccumulator plant species into the transgenic plants provide a platform to develop the technology with the help of genetic engineering. This would result in transgenics that may have large biomass and fast growth a quality essential for removal of metal from soil quickly and in large quantities. Despite so much of a potential, the progress in the field of developing transgenic phytoremediator plant species is rather slow. This can be attributed to the lack of our understanding of complex interactions in the soil and indigenous mechanisms in the plants that allow metal translocation, accumulation and removal from a site. The review focuses on the work carried out in the field of metal phytoremediation from contaminated soil. The paper concludes with an assessment of the current status of technology development and its future prospects with emphasis on a combinatorial approach.

Optical and electrical properties of some electron and proton irradiated polymers

Abstract: Ion beam treatment studies have been carried out to investigate the potential for improvements in conductivity properties of the polymers Polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE), Polyimide (PI), Polyethyleneterepthalate (PET) and Polypropylene (PP), after 2 MeV electron and 62 MeV proton irradiation. The shift in optical absorption edges as observed by UV–VIS spectra of the irradiated polymers has been correlated to the optical band-gap using Tauc’s expression. A decrease in the optical band-gap has been observed in irradiated PP and PTFE, but no considerable change was found for the optical band-gaps of PET and PI. Further AC conductivity measurements confirmed an increase in conductivity in electron irradiated PP.

Mapping the intellectual structure of scientometrics: a co-word analysis of the journal Scientometrics (2005---2010)

Abstract: 959 full text articles has been studied to explore the intellectual structure of scientometrics in the period 2005---2010 using text mining and co-word analysis. The trends and patterns of scientometrics in the journal Scientometrics were revealed by measuring the association strength of selected keywords which represent the produced concept and idea in the field of scientometrics. All articles were collected from the journal Scientometrics through Springerlink (full text database) and keywords were added non-parametrically from the LISA database and the articles themselves (keywords provided by author). Other important keywords are extracted from the title and abstract of the article manually. These keywords are standardized using a vocabulary tool. With the objective of delineating dynamic changes of the field of scientometrics, the period 2005---2010 was studied and further divided into two consecutive periods: 2005---2007 and 2008---2010. The results show that publication has some well-established topics which are changing gradually to adopt new themes.