Mussel culture experiments in Ennore estuary, Chennai

The present paper gives a detailed account on experiments of mussel culture carried out by the Institute in 1996 in association with fishermen of Ennore in an estuarine environment by adopting the long-line and rack culture methods

Environmental impact assessment in the shrimp farming areas of Nagapattinam Quaid-E-Milleth district, Tamil Nadu

To assess the effects of shrimp farming on the environment and on the coastal population, a study was undertaken by a team of scientific and technical staff of CMFRl in Nagapattinam Quaid-e-Milleth district, Tamil Nadu in September, 1995. Several small and large farms and corporate farms in nine coastal places, where a number of farms are located were covered in the study. With the help of the mobile laboratory of the CMFR Institute, the team collected and aneilysed soil, water and plankton samples in the inlet and outlet of the farm areas, shrimp ponds and from the wells of the nearby villages. Estimations on hydrological parameters, nutrients and total and differential counts of bacteria in the water and soil samples were made following standard procedures

Advanced Fractal Image Coding Based on the Quadtree

Fractal image coding simply based on quad tree is a unique technique for still image compression. Compared with other image compression methods, fractal image coding has the advantage of higher compression ratio, higher decoding speed and decoded image having nothing to do with the resolution of image. It spends too much time to look for the best matching Ri block on encoding. To improve the encoding speed, we must narrow the search range and improve the search skills to ensure the best match block falls within our range. In this paper, an advanced fractal image compression algorithm based on quad tree is proposed. First, we can improve the construction method of search attractor by constructing directly from the big Di block, so it can save a lot of searching time in encoding. Second, the attractors can be self-constructed, so it is not happened that the attractor is not found in the traditional methods. Experimental result shows that the algorithm makes image coding faster and more efficiency

MAFB is dispensable for the fetal testis morphogenesis and the maintenance of spermatogenesis in adult mice

journal articl

Modeling E-Learning Readiness Among Instructors In Iraqi Public Universities

E-pembelajaran telah digunakan oleh banyak institusi pengajian tinggi seluruh dunia. Namun, adakah pensyarah di universiti bersedia untuk menggunakan e-pembelajaran dalam aktiviti-aktiviti pengajaran mereka? Apakah faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kesediaan e-pembelajaran mereka? Kajian ini berhasrat menjalankan pemodelan kesediaan e-pembelajaran dalam kalangan pensyarah di empat buah universiti awam terkemuka di Iraq. Berdasarkan sorotan literatur, sembilan faktor telah dikenalpasti boleh mempengaruhi kesediaan e-pembelajaran, iaitu iklim organisasi (kesediaan persekitaran dan kewangan), budaya (sosial dan komuniti), peralatan (peralatan/infrastruktur, kemahiran teknologi dan sumber manusia), kesediaan subjek/individu untuk berubah (sikap dan gaya pembelajaran atas talian) serta penglibatan. E-learning has been used by many higher learning institutions around the globe. However, are the university instructors ready to use e-learning in their teaching and learning activities? What are the factors influencing their e-learning readiness? This study attempts to model e-learning readiness among instructors in four Iraqi public universities (IPUs). Based on the literature, nine factors involving organizational climate (environmental and financial readiness); societal/community readiness (culture); tools (equipment/infrastructure, technology skills, and human resources); subject/individual readiness for change (attitude and online learning style); and engagement readiness have been identified to influence e-learning readiness

M-Government Application for Retrieving Users Queries Based on WAP Technology in the Rural Communities Area

Today's, mobile applications have brought the different advantages for accessing and sharing information over wireless application protocol (WAP). There are difficulties for accessing and searching information especially in the rural communities. Hence, the study aimed to develop a mobile application for accessing and retrieving user queries over WAP technology. Moreover, the proposed application will provide users in rural communities with their request information about different events, such as (News, clinics, stations, and other events). Furthermore, Application Development Modified Methodology (Charles, 1995) has been used for building the proposed application. Finally, the proposed application has been evaluated and the obtained results have been produces

MAFB is dispensable for the fetal testis morphogenesis and the maintenance of spermatogenesis in adult mice

The transcription factor MAFB is an important regulator of the development and differentiation of various organs and tissues. Previous studies have shown that MAFB is expressed in embryonic and adult mouse testes and is expected to act as the downstream target of retinoic acid (RA) to initiate spermatogenesis. However, its exact localization and function remain unclear. Here, we localized MAFB expression in embryonic and adult testes and analyzed its gene function using Mafb-deficient mice. We found that MAFB and c-MAF are the only large MAF transcription factors expressed in testes, while MAFA and NRL are not. MAFB was localized in Leydig and Sertoli cells at embryonic day (E) 18.5 but in Leydig cells, Sertoli cells, and pachytene spermatocytes in adults. Mafb-deficient testes at E18.5 showed fully formed seminiferous tubules with no abnormal structure or differences in testicular somatic cell numbers compared with those of control wild-type mice. Additionally, the expression levels of genes related to development and function of testicular cells were unchanged between genotypes. In adults, the expression of MAFB in Sertoli cells was shown to be stage specific and induced by RA. By generating Mafbfl/fl CAG-CreER™ (Mafb-cKO) mice, in which Cre recombinase was activated upon tamoxifen treatment, we found that the neonatal cKO mice died shortly upon Mafb deletion, but adult cKO mice were alive upon deletion. Adult cKO mice were fertile, and spermatogenesis maintenance was normal, as indicated by histological analysis, hormone levels, and germ cell stage-specific markers. Moreover, there were no differences in the proportion of seminiferous stages between cKO mice and controls. However, RNA-Seq analysis of cKO Sertoli cells revealed that the down-regulated genes were related to immune function and phagocytosis activity but not spermatogenesis. In conclusion, we found that MAFB is dispensable for fetal testis morphogenesis and spermatogenesis maintenance in adult mice, despite the significant gene expression in different cell types, but MAFB might be critical for phagocytosis activity of Sertoli cells