Prevalence of iron deficiency Anaemia among adolescent girls and impact of Health and Nutrition Education Programme in changing their dietary behaviour

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Genetic Variants at the Apo-A1 Gene in Association with Coronary Artery Disease

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the genetic variants of apolipoprotein A1: MspI polymorphisms in non translated region at -75bp upstream and +83bp in the first intron, had any impact on the development of CAD. A total of 400 unrelated adult subjects were enrolled in the study (200 CAD patients & 200 CAD-free controls) from the Kashmir region. Plasma levels of lipids were estimated for each sample by using photometric system. DNA extracted from blood samples was amplified by means of polymerase chain reaction, and then subjected to RFLP by using MspI enzyme; resolving the product on 3% agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide, and visualized under UV light. The G ?A substitution a

Isolation and characterization of a new cold-active protease from psychrotrophic bacteria of Western Himalayan glacial soil

Abstract As an approach to the exploration of cold-active enzymes, in this study, we isolated a cold-active protease produced by psychrotrophic bacteria from glacial soils of Thajwas Glacier, Himalayas. The isolated strain BO1, identified as Bacillus pumilus, grew well within a temperature range of 4–30 °C. After its qualitative and quantitative screening, the cold-active protease (Apr-BO1) was purified. The Apr-BO1 had a molecular mass of 38 kDa and showed maximum (37.02 U/mg) specific activity at 20 °C, with casein as substrate. It was stable and active between the temperature range of 5–35 °C and pH 6.0–12.0, with an optimum temperature of 20 °C at pH 9.0. The Apr-BO1 had low Km value of 1.0 mg/ml and V max 10.0 µmol/ml/min. Moreover, it displayed better tolerance to organic solvents, surfactants, metal ions and reducing agents than most alkaline proteases. The results exhibited that it effectively removed the stains even in a cold wash and could be considered a decent detergent additive. Furthermore, through protein modelling, the structure of this protease was generated from template, subtilisin E of Bacillus subtilis (PDB ID: 3WHI), and different methods checked its quality. For the first time, this study reported the protein sequence for psychrotrophic Apr-BO1 and brought forth its novelty among other cold-active proteases

Artificial neural networks for data mining in animal sciences

Abstract Background With the advancement in technology the amount of data generated, in almost every sphere of life, is increasing exponentially. This enormous amount of data needs new powerful tools for analysis and inference drawing. One such process is data mining which is the automated extraction of hidden, previously unknown, and useful knowledge from big data. Data mining is crucial as conventional strategies cannot keep up with the analysis of rapidly accumulating data and they are also inflexible in the wake of new challenges. Animal sciences are no exception to the changing scenario, especially when animal farms are quickly becoming more data intensive. Main body of the abstract The amount of data generated on the farms is also growing exponentially as farms become more intensive and mechanized. There is thus a need to utilize the knowledge of multidisciplinary fields like advanced statistics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and database management, for revamping animal sciences. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) offer a lot of promise in this direction since they are motivated by the distributed, massively parallel computation in the brain. ANNs are powerful machine learning tools that offer multiple advantages for data mining over traditional techniques in being fast, accurate, self-organizing, robust, and highly accepting of noisy and imprecise data. Neural networks are being applied successfully for a myriad of supervised and unsupervised learning applications to draw useful hitherto unknown inferences, patterns, and relationships. Neural networks have been used successfully for pattern recognition, clustering, forecasting, prediction, and classification in animal sciences due to their capacity to learn from data, their nonparametric nature, and their ability to generalize well. Today ANN computing is a major element within any data mining tool kit. Popular methods used for neural network computing include feed-forward networks, feedback networks, and self-organization networks. ANN also offers powerful and distributed computing architecture, especially under a scenario where the data are readily available in significant quantity. Short conclusion This paper gives an overview of ANN and their applications in animal sciences and reviews major research conducted in this new and exciting area of artificial intelligence. Research in many aspects of ANN in Animal Sciences has been conducted globally although there is scope for more research in aspects of animal health, monitoring, breeding as well as nutrition

Biochemical Characterization and Functional Analysis of Heat Stable High Potential Protease of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Strain HM48 from Soils of Dachigam National Park in Kashmir Himalaya

A novel temperature stable alkaline protease yielding bacteria was isolated from the soils of Dachigam National Park, which is known to be inhabited by a wide variety of endemic plant and animal species of Western Himalaya. This high-potential protease producing isolate was characterized and identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain HM48 by morphological, Gram’s staining and biochemical techniques followed by molecular characterization using 16S rRNA approach. The extracellular protease of B. amyloliquefaciens HM48 was purified by precipitating with ammonium sulfate (80%), followed by dialysis and Gel filtration chromatography increasing its purity by 5.8-fold. The SDS–PAGE analysis of the purified enzyme confirmed a molecular weight of about ≈25 kDa. The enzyme displayed exceptional activity in a broad temperature range (10–90 °C) at pH 8.0, retaining its maximum at 70 °C, being the highest reported for this proteolytic Bacillus sp., with KM and Vmax of 11.71 mg/mL and 357.14 µmol/mL/min, respectively. The enzyme exhibited remarkable activity and stability against various metal ions, surfactants, oxidizing agent (H2O2), organic solvents and displayed outstanding compatibility with widely used detergents. This protease showed effective wash performance by exemplifying complete blood and egg-yolk stains removal at 70 °C and efficiently disintegrated chicken feathers making it of vital importance for laundry purpose and waste management. For functional analysis, protease gene amplification of strain HM48 yielded a nucleotide sequence of about 700 bp, which, when checked against the available sequences in NCBI, displayed similarity with subtilisin-like serine protease of B. amyloliquefaciens. The structure of this protease and its highest-priority substrate β-casein was generated through protein modeling. These protein models were validated through futuristic algorithms following which protein–protein (protease from HM48 and β-casein) docking was performed. The interaction profile of these proteins in the docked state with each other was also generated, shedding light on their finer details. Such attributes make this thermally stable protease novel and suitable for high-temperature industrial and environmental applications

An overview of molecular identification of insect fauna with special emphasis on chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) of India

Identifying organisms has grown in importance as we monitor the biological effects of global climate change and attempt to preserve species diversity in the face of accelerating habitat destruction. Classical taxonomy falls short in this race to catalogue biological diversity before it disappears. Differentiating subtle anatomical differences between closely related species requires the subjective judgment of highly trained specialists – and few are being trained in institutes today. DNA barcodes allow non-experts to objectively identify species – from small, damaged, or even industrially processed material. The aim of DNA barcoding is to establish a shared community resource of DNA sequences commonly used for identification, discrimination or taxonomic classification of organisms. It is a method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify and distinguish its belonging from particular species, varieties or inter varieties. This simple technique has attracted attention from taxonomists, ecologists, conservation biologists, agriculturists, plant-quarantine officers and studies using the DNA barcode has rapidly increased. The extreme diversity of insects and their economical, epidemiological and agricultural importance have made them a major target of DNA barcoding. In this review, we present an overview of DNA barcoding of insects with emphasis on Chalcid wasps of India

Scientific Study of Gentiana kurroo Royle

The present investigation was carried out to review and highlight the potential phytochemicals and medicinal phenomena of the critically endangered medicinal plant, Gentiana kurroo Royle of the western and north-western Himalayas. The medicinal plant is heavily exploited for root and rhizome. Due to its endemic nature and the high rate of exploitation from its natural habitat, this species had become critically endangered. The phytochemical screening of the plant revealed that the plant contains some vital phyto-constituents (iridoids, xanthones, C-glucoxanthone mangiferin, and C-glucoflavones) that have a medicinal value for various acute and chronic diseases. Several researchers have carried out experimental work to validate the folkloric use of the medicinal plant for different ailments like antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic activities and anti-diabetic activity. However, it is yet to be confirmed the antifungal activity of the same plant. Because of endemic nature and high rate of exploitation there is need for alternative method called bio-prospecting of Endophytes from the plant, to carry out the production and characterization of bioactive metabolites for pharmacological uses and can become a conservative tool for the medicinal plant