Dietary Phytase: an ideal approach for a cost effective and low-polluting aquafeed

Global fishmeal production from wild-catch sources cannot continue to increase indefinitely; suitable alternatives have to be found for sustainable aquaculture. Plant-based aquafeed seems to be the ideal alternative to this, but has its own limitations. Plant ingredients are rich in phytic acid, which reduces the bioavailability of nutrients like minerals and protein to the fish, thereby causing aquaculture pollution. Dietary phytase treatment reduces the aquaculture pollution by improving the bioavailability of nutrients, and reduces the feed cost as evident from poultry and piggery. Phytase activity is highly dependent upon the pH of the gut. Unlike mammals, fish are either gastric or agastric, and hence, the action of dietary phytase varies from species to species. In this article, the authors attempt to summarise various effects of phytase on nutrient utilization, growth of fish and aquatic pollution

Institutional repository of CSIR-NML and the global information seeker

CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) Jamshedpur established its institutional repository – Eprints@NML inSeptember 2009. The study looks at the use of the repository based on the repository log data. It was found that NMLScientists received 1847 enquires for their articles/projects until September, 2012 which motivated them further to enrich therepository by uploading their research outputs. As a result, by the end of September 2012 there were 5071 uploads as against3972 documents uploaded in December 2011. A total of 27, 40,343 hits were received from different countries duringAugust 2011 to September 2012 and a cumulative total of over 4.86 million hits since inception. The maximum number ofhits was 0.27 million in August, 2012. More than 75% of NML scientists/researchers have registered with Eprints@NMLfor uploading their documents. The top twenty countries accessing the repository were United States, India, Russia, China,UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Netherlands, Iran, Japan, France, Italy, Canada, Korea, Ukraine, Brazil, Poland, Australia,Turkey and South Africa

Sum Uncertainty Relation in Quantum Theory

We prove a new sum uncertainty relation in quantum theory which states that the uncertainty in the sum of two or more observables is always less than or equal to the sum of the uncertainties in corresponding observables. This shows that the quantum mechanical uncertainty in any observable is a convex function. We prove that if we have a finite number $N$ of identically prepared quantum systems, then a joint measurement of any observable gives an error $\sqrt N$ less than that of the individual measurements. This has application in quantum metrology that aims to give better precision in the parameter estimation. Furthermore, this proves that a quantum system evolves slowly under the action of a sum Hamiltonian than the sum of individuals, even if they are non-commuting.Comment: LaTeX file, no figure, 4 page

Rematuration of Spent Macrobrachium rosenbergii Female Broodstock through Dietary Manipulation and Eyestalk Ablation

The single or combined effects of artificial feed and eyestalk ablation on gonadal maturation of spent Macrobrachium rosenbergii female brooders was studied in 48 females. Significant differ- ences in percent weight gain, food conversion ratio, specific growth rate, gonado-somatic index, number of molts, molting interval, and ovarian development stages were observed. The highest numbers of molts and shortest molting intervals were found in eyestalk-ablated groups while higher percent weight gains were obtained in non-ablated groups. Groups fed formulated feed registered lower percent weight gains and higher FCRs than groups fed natural feed (clam and squid meat). Females in immature stages were found only in non-ablated groups while the only ovigerous females were found in the ablated group fed formulated feed. In short, unilateral eye- stalk ablation together with properly formulated feed (46.1% crude protein) could induce gonad maturation of spent female Macrobrachium rosenbergii brooders during the non-monsoon sea- son

Impact of torrential rain on coastal ecosystem at kalpakkam, southeast coast of India

1609-1615The present study focuses on the drastic changes observed in the coastal ecosystem at Kalpakkam during flooding event due to huge rainfall that occurred in and around northern Tamil Nadu during December 2015. A significant increase in hydrological parameters (nitrate, phosphate, silicate, total nitrogen and phosphorous) was recorded as compared to previous years (2006-2014). In the present instance, the coastal water salinity which was about 19 psu was the lowest as compared to the data available since 1979. The phytoplankton population density was severely affected by the runoff. The present observed density 1.4 x 104 cells l-1 was the lowest among the available data at this coast. Availability of green algae species in the coastal waters was significantly high (10 species, 17 % of total species) as compared to previous reports. One of the most interesting features of this study was the observation of epibiosis on zooplankton in massive numbers. A comparison of previous occurrences of epibiotic relationship in plankton community with the present observation showed a staggering increase in epibiosis to 38 % of zooplankton species as compared to 5-13 % during 2008-2014

Field theory of the photon self-energy in a medium with a magnetic field and the Faraday effect

A convenient and general decomposition of the photon self-energy in a magnetized, but otherwise isotropic, medium is given in terms of the minimal set of tensors consistent with the transversality condition. As we show, the self-energy in such a medium is completely parametrized in terms of nine independent form factors, and they reduce to three in the long wavelength limit. We consider in detail an electron gas with a background magnetic field, and using finite temperature field theory methods, we obtain the one-loop formulas for the form factors, which are exact to all orders in the magnetic field. Explicit results are derived for a variety of physical conditions. In the appropriate limits, we recover the well-known semi-classical results for the photon dispersion relations and the Faraday effect. In more general cases, where the semi-classical treatment or the linear approximation (weak field limit) are not applicable, our formulas provide a consistent and systematic way for computing the self-energy form factors and, from them, the photon dispersion relations.Comment: Revtex, 27 page

Monitoring, Corporate Performance and Institutional Directors

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Monitoring, Corporate Performance and Institutional Directors, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/auar.12262. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Our main objective is to study the effect of institutional directors on firm performance, distinguishing directors according to whether they maintain business relationships (pressure‐sensitive) or not (pressure‐resistant). Our results show that in weak regulatory and low investor protection environments, institutional directors have a negative impact on corporate performance. Our evidence shows that this negative effect is mainly driven by the role of pressure‐resistant directors and not for those directors representing mainly banks and other financial institutions with a long‐term investment horizon. These findings have implications for numerous parties, such as institutional investors, regulators, potential new board members and other corporate governance reform proponents, who frequently examine board characteristics to assess the effectiveness of boards in value‐creation policies

Effects of Bt-cotton on biological properties of Vertisols in central India

Growing areas under transgenic crops have created a concern over their possible adverse impact on the soil ecosystem. This study evaluated the effect of Bt-cotton based cropping systems on soil microbial and biochemical activities and their functional relationships with active soil carbon pools in Vertisols of central India (Nagpur, Maharastra, during 2012–2013). Culturable groups of soil microflora, enzymatic activities and active pools of soil carbon were measured under different Bt-cotton based cropping systems (e.g. cotton-soybean, cotton-redgram, cotton-wheat, cotton-vegetables and cotton-fallow). Significantly higher counts of soil heterotrophs (5.7–7.9 log cfu g−1soil), aerobic N-fixer (3.9–5.4 log cfu g−1soil) and P-solubilizer (2.5−3.0 log cfu g−1soil) were recorded in Bt-cotton soils. Similarly, soil enzymatic activities, viz. dehydrogenase (16.6–22.67 µg TPF g−1 h−1), alkaline phosphatase (240–253 µg PNP g−1 h−1) and fluorescein di-acetate hydrolysis (14.6–18.0 µg fluorescein g−1 h−1), were significantly higher under Bt-cotton-soybean system than other Bt- and non-Bt-cotton based systems in all crop growth stages. The growth stage-wise order of soil microbiological activities were: boll development > harvest > vegetative stage. Significant correlations were observed between microbiological activities and active carbon pools in the rhizosphere soil. The findings indicated no adverse effect of Bt-cotton on soil biological properties

Accelerating Bianchi Type-V Cosmology with Perfect Fluid and Heat Flow in Saez-Ballester Theory

In this paper we discuss the law of variation of scale factor $a = (t^{k}e^{t})^{\frac{1}{n}}$ which yields a time-dependent deceleration parameter (DP) representing a new class of models that generate a transition of universe from the early decelerated phase to the recent accelerating phase. Exact solutions of Einstein's modified field equations with perfect fluid and heat conduction are obtained within the framework of Saez-Ballester scalar-tensor theory of gravitation and the model is found to be in good agreement with recent observations. We find, for n = 3, k = 1, the present value of DP in derived model as q_0 = -0.67 which is very near to the observed value of DP at present epoch. We find that the time-dependent DP is sensible for the present day Universe and give an earmark description of evolution of universe. Some physical and geometric properties of the models are also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Single Spin Asymmetry ANA_N in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at s=200\sqrt{s}=200 GeV

We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin asymmetry $A_N$ at the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV in elastic proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The $A_N$ was measured in the four-momentum transfer squared $t$ range $0.003 \leqslant |t| \leqslant 0.035$ \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of $A_N$ and its $t$-dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated by the Pomeron amplitude at this $\sqrt{s}$, we conclude that this measurement addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure