Assessment of Grasslands and Livestock Production in Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh

In Himachal Pradesh 89.96 percent as per 2011 census of population lives in rural areas. The mainstay of the people of Himachal Pradesh is agriculture and has an important place in the economy of the State. Agricultural census shows that 87.95 percent of the total holdings are of small and marginal. Rearing of livestock is an integral component of rural economy (Anonymous, 2014). Livestock depend to a certain extent on fodder and grass grown on common property resources (CPR) as well as on crops and residues. Animal production is an integral part and forms part of the earning of small and marginal farmers. Almost every household in the State maintains a few heads of livestock of one kind or the other. The indigenous livestock population, and in many cases their cross bred progeny are dependent on grazing/pasture land and forest. When these animals become unproductive, old or sick, there is a tendency to abandon them rather than be responsible for feeding them. Grassland/pastures produce far below their potential and there is a gap between demand and supply of green fodder. The geographical area of Kangra is 5, 63,832.3 ha and area under grasslands is 69,781.7 ha that comes around 27. 51%. (Singh et al., 2009). The problem of animal productivity has been exacerbated by the shortage of fodder as holdings have become smaller and the extent and productivity of common grazing lands has also reduced over time. There are mainly two reasons which are responsible for poor performance of livestock, i.e., low productive animals and low availability of fodder

Cholesterol-Lowering Probiotics as Potential Biotherapeutics for Metabolic Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the major causes of deaths in adults in the western world. Elevated levels of certain blood lipids have been reported to be the principal cause of cardiovascular disease and other disabilities in developed countries. Several animal and clinical trials have shown a positive association between cholesterol levels and the risks of coronary heart disease. Current dietary strategies for the prevention of cardiovascular disease advocate adherence to low-fat/low-saturated-fat diets. Although there is no doubt that, in experimental conditions, low-fat diets offer an effective means of reducing blood cholesterol concentrations on a population basis, these appear to be less effective, largely due to poor compliance, attributed to low palatability and acceptability of these diets to the consumers. Due to the low consumer compliance, attempts have been made to identify other dietary components that can reduce blood cholesterol levels. Supplementation of diet with fermented dairy products or lactic acid bacteria containing dairy products has shown the potential to reduce serum cholesterol levels. Various approaches have been used to alleviate this issue, including the use of probiotics, especially Bifidobacterium spp. and Lactobacillus spp.. Probiotics, the living microorganisms that confer health benefits on the host when administered in adequate amounts, have received much attention on their proclaimed health benefits which include improvement in lactose intolerance, increase in natural resistance to infectious disease in gastrointestinal tract, suppression of cancer, antidiabetic, reduction in serum cholesterol level, and improved digestion. In addition, there are numerous reports on cholesterol removal ability of probiotics and their hypocholesterolemic effects. Several possible mechanisms for cholesterol removal by probiotics are assimilation of cholesterol by growing cells, binding of cholesterol to cellular surface, incorporation of cholesterol into the cellular membrane, deconjugation of bile via bile salt hydrolase, coprecipitation of cholesterol with deconjugated bile, binding action of bile by fibre, and production of short-chain fatty acids by oligosaccharides. The present paper reviews the mechanisms of action of anti-cholesterolemic potential of probiotic microorganisms and probiotic food products, with the aim of lowering the risks of cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases

Putative amniotic fluid stem (AFS) cells express transcription factor Oct-4 in goat (Capra aegagrus hircus)

Abstract The current study was carried out to isolate, culture, characteriz

The influence of a carbon ablation layer on radiation from a hydrogen shock layer

The effect of ablation heat shields on the radiative heat transfer to vehicles entering hydrogen atmospheres at thermo-dynamic conditions similar to those expected in Jovian atmospheres is investigated. The shock layer is assumed to consist of two plane parallel layers, one consisting of pure hydrogen species, and the other consisting of carbon species only. Each layer is assumed to be in local thermodynamic equilibrium at its respective temperature. The thermodynamic conditions in the hydrogen layer are arrived at by solving the Rankine-Hugoniot Equations across the shock. The temperature of carbon layer is taken as (3000, 5000, and 7000ºK) to cover the range of possible surface temperatures. Two entry velocities (115,000 and 190,000 fps) and four ambient densities (10⁻⁶ through 10⁻⁹ gm/cm³) are considered. Four ratios of carbon layer thickness to total shock layer thickness (0.0, 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15) are considered, and the total shock layer thickness is allowed to vary from 0.1 to 10 cm. Both line (including carbon bands) and continuum processes are considered. The results show that: 1) The carbon layer reduces the flux reaching the surface from hydrogen layer in most cases, but not always. The reduction increases as the density and velocity increase. The ablation layer increases the flux when the hydrogen layer is optically thin and the ablation layer is optically thick. 2) Atomic carbon is the most effective absorber in the carbon layer. Molecular carbon bands also become important as the ambient density and temperature decrease. 3) The atomic and ionic carbon lines are unimportant in reducing or increasing the flux from the hydrogen layer. This is because the half-widths of these lines are small and the population of ionic carbon is not large at the temperature considered in the study. An error was detected in the computer program for the calculation of the position of the hydrogen edges. Two cases with correct positions of the hydrogen edges were run on the computer and the corrected results are shown in Appendix E. The numerical value of continuum flux changed considerably, but the trends of the results appear to be similiar to those discussed in the body of the thesis. Further results were not computed due to the expense of the computer runs --Abstract, pages ii-iii

Forty years of whistler research in India

466-473 An up to date review of whistler research in India has been presented which is an extension of previous reviews by Somayajulu et al. [Indian J Radio Space Phys, 1 (1972) 102], and Singh [Indian J Radio Space Phys, 22 (1993) 139]. In this review efforts have been made to highlight the recent advancements in technology adopted for recording and analysis of whistlers, re-interpretations of some old data, general consensus in propagation mechanism, and effects of ionospheric irregularities on whistler propagation in the low latitude ionosphere. Some new results of existence of ELF emissions in the low latitude ionosphere as determined from the satellite DEMETER data and Trimpi/TLE phenomena in the low latitude ionosphere as observed from phase and amplitude monitoring of VLF transmitter signals have been presented. </smarttagtype

Interpretation of higher harmonic tweeks recorded at Agra

205-208Higher harmonic tweeks (higher than the first harmonic) recorded for the first time at the low latitude station Agra (geomagn. lat., 17°N) are reported. The analysis of the data shows that higher harmonic tweeks are usually not associated with whistlers, and occur when the ionization in the lower ionosphere varies exponentially with height, giving the waveguide cut-off frequency fc = 1.6 kHz. On the other hand, normal tweeks or those with first harmonic only, are often associated with whistlers and occur when fc = 1.8 kHz. The higher harmonic tweeks have travelled distances between 4000 and 21000 km in the earth-ionosphere waveguide. The tweek activity is found to increase during periods of magnetic disturbances

A morphological study of VHF scintillations at Agra

131-137A morphological study of scintillations in the VHF signals at 244.16 MHz from satellite, FLEETSAT, has been made at Agra (geogr. Lat., 27.2°N; geogr. Long., 78°E) and reported in this paper. It is shown that the scintillations occurred at Agra mostly during nighttime, predominantly in pre-midnight hours, with peak-to-peak amplitude variation of less than 15 dB. The occurrence is highly increased during equinoxes and considerably reduced during summer. The activity is found to vary substantially during magnetically disturbed periods in the post- and pre-midnight hours of winter and summer. The daytime scintillations are slow and weak and occur rarely. The scintillation index for nighttime scintillation fluctuates between 20 and 45% from pre- to post-midnight hours in winter and equinoxes and falls smoothly below 10% in summer. Most of the present results are found to be similar to those at Varanasi (another station outside the anomaly zone), but differ markedly with those at other stations near and inside the zone

Scattering of VLF signals from localized perturbations in the lower ionosphere

144-149A wave-slab interaction model has been used to study the scattering of very low frequency (VLF) ground transmitter signals from localized enhancements of ionization in the lower ionosphere caused by transient luminous events (TLEs) such as sprites. The variation of reflection coefficients has been studied for a fixed frequency VLF transmitter signal of frequency 19.8 kHz (NWC, Australia) monitored at Agra for different slab thicknesses, incident angles, and enhancement factors. The results show that sufficient strength of the reflected signals is obtained for a slab thickness of 3 km, enhancement factor between 2.5 and 3, and incident angle around 750. These results explain satisfactorily the VLF amplitude and phase anomalies in sub-ionospheric VLF transmitter signals recorded at Agra station which are interpreted as caused by transient luminous events