Modeling the impact of mitigation options on abatement of methane emission from livestock

Mitigation of methane emission from livestock sector is crucial to combat the menace of global warming. In the present paper, a nonlinear mathematical model is proposed to investigate the impact of mitigation options, for curtailing livestock methane emission, on the reduction of atmospheric concentration of methane. In modeling process, it is assumed that the mitigation options are applied at a rate proportion to the livestock population. The conditions for reduction and stabilization of atmospheric methane have been obtained. Numerical simulation has been performed to verify the analytical findings by taking the secondary data of atmospheric concentration of methane, human and livestock populations. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to explore the impact of the key parameters of the model system

INSECTICIDAL AND GENOTOXIC POTENTIAL OF ACORUS CALAMUS RHIZOME EXTRACT AGAINST DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

ABSTRACTObjectives: Insect pest problems in agriculture have a considerable shift during first decade of 21st century due to global climate changes. Varioussynthetic insecticides were used from last 50 years to overcome the pest problem, but major concerns in using these pesticides were: Public healthand pesticide resistance in pests. To abolish the catastrophic effect of synthetic insecticides, urgent need to develop new drugs for pest control. In thisstudy we evaluate the insecticidal and genotoxic activity of ethanolic extract of Acorus calamus rhizome against Drosophila melanogaster.Methods: Different concentration of ethanolic extracts of A. calamus, fed to different developmental stages of D. melanogaster to determine insecticidalactivity and genotoxicity; genotoxicity was determined by the comet assay in male flies.Results: Lethal concentration 50 (LC50) values of ethanolic extract against larvae, adult males and females of D. melanogaster were 109.54, 52.51 and41.11 mg/L respectively. Genotoxicity of adult's flies were determined at 30 and 55 mg/L ethanolic extract of A. calamus, The mean comet tail lengthwas 4.24±0.653 μm and 6.13±0.721 μm and the respective DNA damage was 5.1% and 7.3% with reference to controls.Conclusion: The present finding suggests that ethanolic extract of A. calamus rhizome showed higher insecticidal potential in adults than larvaeof D. melanogaster. Results from genotoxicity studies further support the insecticidal activity against adult stages of D. melanogaster. The studyreflects ethanolic extract of A. calamus could be used as an alternative pest control negotiator for minimizing the noxious effects of pesticides in theenvironment.Keywords: Insecticidal activity, Genotoxicity, Ethanolic extract, Botanical pesticides, Acorus calamus, Drosophila melanogaster

Corona Pandemic and Environment in India: A Perspective

As far as the natural environment is seen, it is a major basis for the positive life of the living beings in every way. In this, life continues to develop gradually. Every small activities of the living beings keep on flourishing in this. Human population has increased tremendously in the last century. To meet the needs of this huge population, natural resources had to be exploited on a large scale. As a result, pollution was born in the environment. A decline in natural resources was recorded, due to which various kinds of natural hazards arose at many places. Recently, the corona virus knocked, due to this the lockdown process was adopted not only in India but in the whole world, due to which there was a huge reduction in environmental pollution. In this research paper, the positive changes in the environment due to the corona virus epidemic have been underlined

Larvicidal Activity of Methanol and Chloroform Extract of Swertia celiata against Three Mosquito Vectors

Background: Mosquitoes are an important public health concern as they spread life-threatening diseases such as malaria, filaria, Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever. In the last decades, synthetic insecticides were extensively used for the control of these vector-borne diseases but it also reported the detrimental side-effects in human beings and pet animals. To overcome the side effects, plants-derived secondary metabolites were screened and tested for insecticidal properties. The present study deals with the insecticidal activity of chloroform and methanol extracts of Swertia celiata leaves against Culex quenquifasciatus, Aedes aegypti, and Anopheles stephensi larvae.Method: The S. celiata leaves were subjected to chloroform and methanol with 1:3 (Weight/ Volume) ratio and the extracted solvent was dried using rotary vacuum evaporator. The larvicidal activity of the extract was tested using WHO method and LC50 and LC90 were evaluated by probit analysis.Results: The LC50 value of chloroform extract of S. celiata was found to be 65.288, 67.406 and 71.608 ppm whereas LC90 was 184.721, 186.582 and 192.497 ppm against C. quinquefasciatus, Ae. aegypti and A. stephensi, respectively. The methanolic extract was also found potent; LC50 was 91.503, 101.574 and 99.104 ppm whereas LC90 was 230.823, 271.927 and 234.257 ppm against C. quinquefasciatus, Ae. aegypti and A. stephensi, respectively. Both chloroform and methanol extract were found significantly lethal tothe tested mosquito vectors.Conclusion: Taken results together, chloroform extract showed higher toxicity as compared to methanolic extract against all the tested species. The study clearly revealed that S. ciliata extract or bioactive compounds can be used as an alternative to synthetic insecticides

Pm-EEMRP: Postural Movement Based Energy Efficient Multi-hop Routing Protocol for Intra Wireless Body Sensor Network (Intra-WBSN)

Intra-WBSN plays an important role in health monitoring, military and consumer electronics. It iscomposed of wireless bio-sensor nodes which are strategically placed on the body. Due to body posture movement, network topology of Intra-WBSN changes continuously. It plays a significant role in Intra-WBSN. In proposed Pm-EEMRP, network stability, energy efficiency and high throughput are the prime parametersfor body posture movement in which sensing informations from bio-sensor nodes are forwarded to relay nodes. Relay nodesare deployed in cloths, which aggregate these data and forward it to body network controller (BNC). It provides reliable and comfortable health monitoring. Through simulation, the proposed routing protocol provides better network stability, improved energy efficiency and high throughput in comparison to conventional routing schemes

AN INNOVATIVE METHOD OF PREPARATION OF HEALTHY GRAIN SPAWN

ABSTRACT Mushroom spawn is prepared on cereal grain media by inoculating them with pure cultures of selected mushroom species under sterile conditions, yet the problem of contamination of spawn is a major bottle-neck in the growth and spread of mushroom farming in developing countries. Species of Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, etc. besides wet spot causing bacteria are known to be major contaminants of mushroom spawn in eastern India, including Jharkhand affecting commonly grown mushrooms viz., Pleurotus spp, Hypsizygus ulmarius and Volvariella volvacea, which need urgent action for their management. In view of reports of appearance of fungicide-resistant strains of Trichoderma, therefore, a Neem-based herbal formulation, viz., Mahaneem containing 0.15% Azadirachtin was tried as a prophylactic pretreatment of the wheat grains used for the spawn medium together with some empirical changes in the current method of preparation of the grain spawn medium. The modified method tried successfully for raising healthy, contamination-free and productive master and planting spawns of oyster and paddy straw mushrooms has been discussed

A study on drug utilization pattern of antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive diabetic patients

Background: Hypertension management is of paramount importance in diabetic patients for reduction of cardiovascular and other complications. The objective of the present study was to assess prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients and evaluate them by comparing with Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC-8) hypertension treatment guidelines.Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out on 110 hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients of age 41-80 years visiting outpatient department of Medicine at G.S. Medical College and Hospital, UP, India for 4 months. JNC-8 hypertension management guideline was considered while evaluating the prescribed drugs. All the relevant data was collected from the prescription card of the patient on a preformed performa and analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: Total of 176 drugs was prescribed to the study patients among which two drug combination therapy (55.45%) was mostly used. The most common group prescribed was angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) (29.45%) and ARB+CCB (calcium channel blockers) (34.92%) were the commonest fixed drug combination. Overall, it was amlodipine (21.47%) that was most frequently prescribed among all antihypertensive drugs.Conclusions: ARB was the most commonest class, ARB+CCB was the most frequent fixed drug combination prescribed to the study patient while amlodipine was the highly utilized individual antihypertensive drug in the study. Prescriptions evaluation revealed that 94.88% prescription were rational and were in accordance with the JNC-8 hypertension treatment guidelines except the use of beta blockers (5.12%)

ANTI MICRO-BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF ARJUNARISTA

Arjunarista, an imperative Ayurvedic formulation used for treatment of cardiovascular disorders and prepared by fermenting the decoction of specified plant materials i.e. Arjuna twak (Terminalia arjuna), Draksha phala (Vitis vinifera), Madhuk puspa (Madhuka indica), Dhataki puspa (Woodfordia fruticosa) and Jaggery (Saccharum officinarum). Aim: To assess anti-microbial analysis of Arjunarista. Setting and Design: Arjunarista was prepared as per process of Shandhan kalpana mentioned in manuscripts of Ayurveda with consideration of two variations. These variations were at the level of pot like earthen pot and porcelain pot and addition/deletion of flowers of Dhataki (Woodfordia fruticosa (L.) Kurz). Methods and Materials: Micro-biological analysis was done for total bacterial count, total fungal count and specific pathogens. Total bacterial count, total fungal count was done via plate count agar method and potato dextrose agar respectively. Test for specific pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus & Pseudomonas aeruginosa was done by Violet red bile agar, Salmonella Agar and Mueller Hinton Agar (for last two bacteria). Results: Total bacterial count (TBC) was absent in all batches except one sample of batch II and batch IV respectively. Total fungal count (TFC) was not present in all batches except one sample of batch I. Specific pathogens count were not present at all in any batches. Conclusion: Arjunarista showed anti micro-biological activity irrespective of variations taken in study