Molecular surveillance of Theileria parasites of livestock in Oman

Background: Theileriosis is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases of livestock in the Arabian Peninsula, and causes high rates of mortality and morbidity in sheep and cattle. However, there is a paucity of information on the distribution of Theileria spp. over the whole region and their impact on different hosts. The present study carried out a country-wide molecular survey for Theileria spp. of livestock in Oman across four governorates. The aim of the survey was to define the prevalence of Theileria spp. in cattle, sheep and goats, highlight risk factors for infection and identify the main tick species involved in parasite transmission. Material and methods: A total of 2020 animals were examined in the survey consisting of sheep [n = 592], goats [n = 981] and cattle [n = 447]. All three species were raised and co-grazed on the same farms. Theileria parasites were detected using PCR-RFLP and RLB of the 18S rRNA gene. Cloning and sequencing of the 18S rRNA was carried out on 11 T. lestoquardi isolates from Ash-Sharqiyah, and Ad-Dhahira governorates, and phylogenetic relationships were inferred using additional sequences of T. lestoquardi, T. annulata and T. ovis available in GenBank. Results: Theileria spp. prevalence was 72.3%, 36.7% and 2.7% among cattle, sheep and goats, respectively. Strong similarity in results was obtained using RLB and PCR-RFLP for detection of Theileria spp. however, RLB detected a higher rate of mixed infection than PCR-RFPL (P < 0.001). Theileria annulata was the only parasite detected in cattle, while sheep and goats carried T. ovis, T. lestoquardi and T. annulata as well as Theileria spp. OT1. Of the four Theileria spp. detected in small ruminants, overall T. ovis was most prevalent (sheep [33.4%], goats [2.0%]), whereas T. lestoquardi was less prevalent (sheep [22.0%], goats [0.5%]). A large proportion of infected sheep (19%) carried mixed infection of T. ovis and T. lestoquardi. However, single T. lestoquardi infections (3.0%) were less prevalent than T. ovis infections (14.5%). Risk of Theileria spp. infection was significantly higher for exotic breeds, relative to native breeds, of cattle (p = 0.00002) and sheep (p = 0.005). Phylogenetic analysis placed T. lestoquardi in Oman in the same clade as other T. lestoquardi strains isolated from the same regional area (Iraq and Iran). The main tick species, identified on the examined animals, Hyalomma anatolicum, was widely distributed and was found in all of the surveyed governorates. Conclusion: Theileria spp. are widespread in Oman with variable prevalence detected in different regions. Two economically important hosts, cattle and sheep are at high risk from virulent T. annulata and T. lestoquardi, respectively. The survey indicates extensive exposure to ticks and transmission of infection that has a significant economic impact. The higher prevalence of T. lestoquardi as mixed rather than single infection requires further investigation

Land resource assessment for agricultural development in Seoni district (Madhya Pradesh), India

The objective of land resource assessment for rainfed agridevelopment in tribal dominated Seoni ditrict, Madhya Pradesh was to assess the suitability of thrity soil mapping units for sorghum-cotton based systems in relation to fertility constraints and for enhancing crop productivity. The arability and suitability analysis showed that fifty six per cent of arable land is suitable for eleven land use systems. The twenty two per cent of arable basaltic lands in northen plateaus were evaluated as suitable for for citrus, sorghum and soybean cropping systems with limitations of low available nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc whereas in southern precipitous zone , fifteen per cent of granitic lands were evaluated as suitable for sorghum and cotton with limitations of stoniness, low water holding capacity, low status of available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and zinc and eighteen per cent of area in sagar and hirvi river valleys for rice, citrus, maize, sunflower and vegetables. Out of 44.6 per cent of nonarable land, thirty seven per cent of land was evaluated as suitable for forestry / grazing and 6.8 per cent for wild life.The study advocates agroecological zonation for maximum utilization of land resources for potential cropping systems in improving produvtivity and fertility management

Supramolecular Association of Hydrogen-bonded Polybutadienes Functionalized with Ureidopyrimidone

Ureidopyrimidone (UPy) is a well-known self-complementary quadruple hydrogen bonding unit, extensively applied in the preparation of supramolecular polymers with enhanced physical properties. The property enhancement is assigned partly to linear chain extension and fibrillar nanophase separation due to secondary hydrogen bonding by urethane and urea linker, though a clear distinctive structure property relationship has not be reported. In this work, two distinct sets of UPy functional polymers, a series of monochelic polybutadienes (PBd) and telechelic polybutadienes, were synthesized and analyzed by solution and bulk characterization techniques to probe the role of polymer chain mobility and polarity on the UPy chain-end association. ω [omega]-UPy terminated polybutadiene was semi-solid waxy material, indicating association beyond dimers. Solution studies indicate the presence of star-like micelles that are in equilibrium with dimers. These aggregated micellar clusters have distinct endothermic transitions in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies show an evidence of micellar-clusters forming associated parallel line-like structures on a mica surface with the well-defined order. A series of α [alpha], ω [omega]-di-UPy terminated polybutadienes and hydrogenated polybutadienes were synthesized, and their properties was evaluated as a function of 1,2-vinyl content. Telechelic UPy-PBd differs strongly in their physical properties, PBd with low Tg [glass transition temperature] (-90 °C) forms semi-solid and brittle material, whereas PBd with moderate Tg (-45 °C) gave strong thermoplastic elastomer. AFM images give parallel association of micellar clusters. Dynamics of micellar-cluster associated UPy domains with unassociated chain extended dimers lead to gelation at specific temperature depending on the characteristics of the linker precursor oligomers. Supramolecular gel transition temperature (Tsg) was identified in rheological studies on various UPy telechelics. In addition, polystyrene and poly(n-butylacrylate) UPy telechelics were also prepared by copper (I) catalyzed alkyne azide coupling (CuAAC) “click” reaction. The triazole linker in these polymers interferes with the UPy association and reduces the size of the hydrogen bonded UPy aggregates, which was found to improve the physical property of the supramolecular polymers. An attempt was made to examine the role of polymer chain mobility and its polarity was used to correlate structure and property with reference to room temperature

Simulation based study of the Hydraulic Power Steering System and the Steer-by-wire System of a forklift

Simulation based study of the Hydraulic Power Steering System and the Steer-by-wire System of a forkliftSimulation based study of the Hydraulic Power Steering System and the Steer-by-wire System of a forklif

Health Prediction and Personal Pollution Exposure Monitoring using Pollution Sensors

The aim of this paper is to outline a wearable air pollution mapping system for an in- dividual. For this it incorporates interfacing some pollution related sensors (CO2, CO and clean sen-sor) to the clients body which will continually screen the encompassing air pollution levels and gure the correct measure of dangerous gasses breathed in by the client contingent on the breath- ing rate of the client. Contingent on these qualities, the client will be alerted continuously by indicating notices where pollution level has outperformed the allowable breaking point. The data will be pre- served (on-chip) and later analyzed using graphs and diagrams prepared in Excel using Visual Basic. The data analysis will provide the user with health prediction

OFDM-Based Based Cognitive Radio Networks for Spectrum Monitoring Using Energy Ratio Algorithm

This paper presents a spectrum mon- itoring algorithm for Orthogonal Frequency Di- vision Multiplexing (OFDM) based cognitive ra- dios by which the primary user reappearance or availability can be detected during the secondary user transmission. The proposed method or tech- nique reduces the frequency with which spectrum sensing must be performed and greatly decreases the elapsed period between the start of a primary transmission and its detection by the secondary network. This is done by sensing the change in signal strength throughout a number of reserved OFDM sub-carriers so that the availability of the primary user is easily detected. Moreover, the OFDM impairments such as power leakage, Narrow Band Interference (NBI), and Inter-Carrier Inter-ference (ICI) are investigated and their impacts are studied. Both analysis and simulation show that the energy ratio algorithm can e ectively and accurately detect the appearance of the primary user. Furthermore, this method achieves more im- munity to frequency-selective fading channels for both single and multiple receive antenna systems, with a complexity that is approximately twice that of a conventional energy detector.Cognitive radios o er the promise of being a disruptive technologies innovation that would enable the future wireless world. Cognitive radios network is programmable wireless devices that could sense their environment and dynamically adapted their transmission wave- form, channel access methods, spectrum used, and networking protocol as needed for better network and application performanc

Simulation of Material losses in SMD Fiber

The Simulation and analysis of the SMF is carried out with the total loss of the germania-doped silica-core fibers can be separated into the inherent ultraviolet absorption loss, the scattering loss and the inherent infrared absorption loss. It is also seen that the ultraviolet absorption loss and the scattering loss are dominated at the short wavelengths below 1.2 ?m and the infrared absorption loss is dominated at longer wavelengths above 1.5 ?m. The dopants have a great effect on the transmission loss of high-silica glass optical fibers at long wavelengths. When an optimum dopant is selected for making a doped-silica optical fibers and OH content is greatly reduced, a phenomenally broad window where the loss is below 1 dB/Km can be achieved. An ultimate lower loss SMF has been fabricated by reducing the excess loss due to imperfections of waveguide as much as possible. The loss mechanism in the optical fiber discussed has been also analyzed. Transmission losses have been reduced almost down to the intrinsic material loss and the minimum loss is 0.20 dB/Km at 1.55 ?m. The dispersion characteristics also analyzed at long wavelength the dispersion is minimized, thus it is confirmed that the single mode fibers are most applicable for long distance and large capacity transmission

Three Swarm Intelligence Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Network Applications: A review

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are increasingly realizing applications in IoT, smart grids, healthcare, security, swarm robotics, etc. Swarm Intelligence is used to optimize performance parameters associated with WSNs including localization, coverage, network lifetime, energy efficiency to name a few. The scope of this paper is restricted to a survey on Stochastic Diffusion Search, Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm Algorithm with respect to their organization and capacity to optimize these network parameters and their current as well as potential applications in WSNs