Conceived conclusions in favour of GM cotton? - a riposte to a paper in Science

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In situ Degradation Kinetics of Crop Residue Based Complete Rations in Murrah Buffalo Bulls

The present investigation was carried out to determine the in situ degradation kinetics of crop residue based complete rations using Nylon bag technique. Three iso-nitrogenous complete rations comprising of maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) or black gram straw (T3) and concentrate in 60: 40 proportion were prepared and evaluated for their rumen degradable DM, CP, NDF and ADF content using three adult male graded Murrah buffalo bulls (350 ± 9.36 kg) fitted with permanent rumen cannula. The slowly degradable fraction (b) of DM, CP, NDF (P<0.01) and ADF (P<0.05) and potential degradability (a+b) of DM, NDF, ADF (P<0.01) and CP (P<0.05) were higher in maize stover based complete ration (T1) when compared to others. The coefficients of effective degradability (ED) of CP, NDF (P<0.05) and ADF (P<0.01) were higher in T1 compared to other complete rations. However, the ED (%) of DM was higher in T1 compared to other rations but the differences were not statistically significant. Hence, it is concluded that maize stover based complete ration was better utilized in sacco in terms of protein and fibre as compared to other crop residue based complete rations

Mathematical Model Validation of Search Protocols in MP2P Networks

Broadcasting is a basic technique in Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET), and it refers to sending a packet from one node to every other node within the transmission range. Flooding is a type of broadcast where the received packet is retransmitted once by every node. The naive flooding technique, floods the network with query messages, while the random walk technique operates by contacting the subsets of every node's neighbors at each step, thereby restricting the search space. One of the key challenges in an ad-hoc network is the resource or content discovery problem which is about locating the queried resource. Many earlier works have mainly focused on the simulation-based analysis of flooding, and its variants under a wired network. Although, there have been some empirical studies in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, the analytical results are still lacking, especially in the context of P2P systems running over MANET. In this paper, we describe how P2P resource discovery protocols perform badly over MANETs. To address the limitations, we propose a new protocol named ABRW (Address Broadcast Random Walk), which is a lightweight search approach, designed considering the underlay topology aimed to better suit the unstructured architecture. We provide the mathematical model, measuring the performance of our proposed search scheme with different widely popular benchmarked search techniques. Further, we also derive three relevant search performance metrics, i.e., mean no. of steps needed to find a resource, the probability of finding a resource, and the mean no. of message overhead. We validated the analytical expressions through simulations. The simulation results closely matched with our analyticalmodel, justifying our findings. Our proposed search algorithm under such highly dynamic self-evolving networks performed better, as it reduced the search latency, decreased the overall message overhead, and still equally had a good success rate. Funding Agency:Taif University, Taif, Arabia Saudi TURSP2020/36</p

Evaluation of crop residue based complete rations through in vitro digestibility

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate three potential complete rations made from locally available ingredients through in vitro digestibility (DM, CP, NDF and ADF) and in vitro total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) production. Three iso-nitrogenous complete rations comprising of maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) or black gram straw (T3) and concentrate in 60:40 ratio were prepared and the cost/kg diets were 5.2, 5.5 and 5.7 rupees/Kg diet, respectively. Three fistulated buffalo bulls (5 yrs, 350 ± 9.36 kg BW) used as donors of rumen inoculums were fed the same three complete rations (T1, T2 and T3) after proper adaptation. The three complete rations were iso-nitrogenous with CP content ranging from 12.62 to 12.82, while T3 contained higher EE (1.68 %) and TA (9.75 %) and higher NFE (34.38 %) in T1 than in other complete rations. However, variation was apparent in the fiber fractions of the three complete rations attributable to varying sources of the fibrous crop residues. Overall in vitro DM digestibility (IVDMD) and in vitro NDF digestibility (IVNDFD) % was higher (p<0.05) in T1 (58.59 ± 1.55 and 56.33 ± 0.24) followed by T3 (57.75 ± 0.46 and 54.20 ± 0.64) and in T2 (55.45 ± 0.69 and 53.23 ± 1.25). However, the differences for in vitro CP digestibility (IVCPD) and in vitro ADF digestibility (IVADFD) % were higher in T1 than in other complete rations, the values did not differ statistically. Overall TVFA (meq/L) production was higher in T1 (87.65 ± 7.17) than in T2 (83.00 ± 5.74) and T3 (84.00 ± 5.52). It is concluded that T1 is superior to T2 or T3 in terms of in vitro digestibility (DM, CP, NDF and ADF), in vitro TVFA production and cost of formulation

Exploring the Anti-quorum Sensing and Antibiofilm Efficacy of Phytol against Serratia marcescens Associated Acute Pyelonephritis Infection in Wistar Rats

Quorum Sensing (QS) mechanism, a bacterial density-dependent gene expression system, governs the Serratia marcescens pathogenesis through the production of virulence factors and biofilm formation. The present study demonstrates the anti-quorum sensing (anti-QS), antibiofilm potential and in vivo protective effect of phytol, a diterpene alcohol broadly utilized as food additive and in therapeutics fields. In vitro treatment of phytol (5 and 10 μg/ml) showed decreasing level of biofilm formation, lipase and hemolysin production in S. marcescens compared to their respective controls. More, microscopic analyses confirmed the antibiofilm potential of phytol. The biofilm related phenomenons such as swarming motility and exopolysccharide productions were also inhibited by phytol. Furthermore, the real-time analysis elucidated the molecular mechanism of phytol which showed downregulation of fimA, fimC, flhC, flhD, bsmB, pigP, and shlA gene expressions. On the other hand, the in vivo rescue effect of phytol was assessed against S. marcescens associated acute pyelonephritis in Wistar rat. Compared to the infected and vehicle controls, the phytol treated groups (100 and 200 mg/kg) showed decreased level of bacterial counts in kidney, bladder tissues and urine samples on the 5th post infection day. As well, the phytol treatment showed reduced level of virulence enzymes such as lipase and protease productions compared to the infected and vehicle controls. Further, the infected and vehicle controls showed increasing level of inflammatory markers such as malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) productions. In contrast, the phytol treatment showed decreasing level of inflammatory markers. In histopathology, the uninfected animal showed normal kidney and bladder structure, wherein, the infected animals showed extensive infiltration of neutrophils in kidney and bladder tissues. In contrast, the phytol treatment showed normal kidney and bladder tissues. Additionally, the toxic effect of phytol (200 mg/kg) was assessed by single dose toxicity analysis. No changes were observed in hematological, biochemical profiles and histopathological analysis of vital organs in phytol treated animals compared to the untreated controls. Hence, this study suggested the potential use of phytol for its anti-QS, antibiofilm and anti-inflammatory properties against S. marcescens infections and their associated inflammation reactions

Kasabach–Merritt syndrome with large cutaneous vascular tumors

A case series of four patients who presented with large surface vascular tumors and low platelet count and their management is reported. Medical management was done with steroids, propranolol and vincristine in different combinations. The final response was excellent without surgery