Trials on Induced Ovulation of Fugu niphobles (Jordan and Snyder) with Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

The effect of administration of HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) on ovulation of Fugu niphobles was studied. The female fish which exhibited distended abdomen were randomly assigned to four groups and the treatments for groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 0, 100, 200 and 300 I. U of HCG per fish respectively. The fish were injected immediately after the groups were established and unovulated females were reinjected after 72 hours. The dosage for each fish was calculated based on the body weight and expressed as 1.U/g body weight. The ovulatory success in fish administered with 0, 1, 2, 3 and 41. U of HCG/g body weight was 40%, 83 %, 70%, 90% and 80% respectively. This indicated that fish in the control group could also ovulate in captivity and that administration of HCG would enable a higher degree of ovulatory success

The life and health challenges of young Malaysian couples: results from a stakeholder consensus and engagement study to support non-communicable disease prevention

BACKGROUND: Malaysia faces burgeoning obesity and diabetes epidemics with a 250% and 88% increase respectively between 1996 and 2006. Identifying the health challenges of young adults in Malaysia, who constitute 27.5 % of the population, is critical for NCD prevention. The aim of the study was two-fold: (1) to achieve consensus amongst stakeholders on the most important challenge impacting the health of young adults, and (2) to engage with stakeholders to formulate a NCD prevention framework.METHODS: The Delphi Technique was utilised to achieve group consensus around the most important life and health challenges that young adults face in Malaysia. Subsequently, the results of the consensus component were shared with the stakeholders in an engagement workshop to obtain input on a NCD prevention framework.RESULTS: We found that life stress was a significant concern. It would seem that the apathy towards pursuing or maintaining a healthy lifestyle among young adults may be significantly influenced by the broader distal determinant of life stress. The high cost of living is suggested to be the main push factor for young working adults towards attaining better financial security to improve their livelihood. In turn, this leads to a more stressful lifestyle with less time to focus on healthier lifestyle choices.CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight a pivotal barrier to healthier lifestyles. By assisting young adults to cope with daily living coupled with realistic opportunities to make healthier dietary choices, be more active, and less sedentary could assist in the development of NCD health promotion strategies<br/

Field-applied fungicides and postharvest treatments to control asparagus diseases posing biosecurity threats to New Zealand

Collaborative research between New Zealand and Australia has investigated field-applied fungicides and postharvest treatments for control of asparagus rust (caused by Puccinia asparagi) and phomopsis stem blight of asparagus (caused by Phomopsis asparagi) in Queensland. In a 2004 field trial, the fungicides difenoconazole and propiconazole reduced the incidence of asparagus rust. In a 2005 field trial, four fungicides (carbendazim, chlorothalonil, iprodione and propiconazole) reduced the severity of phomopsis stem blight. Postharvest disinfection with sodium hypochlorite or with calcium hypochlorite at 150 ppm was highly effective at reducing Pu. asparagi and Ph. asparagi spore germination on water agar. Integrated disease management based on field and postharvest methods are suggested to reduce the risk of importation of the diseases to New Zealand. Similar methods could be used for controlling these diseases if they establish

Question Classification Using Extreme Learning Machine on Semantic Features

In statistical machine learning approaches for question classification, efforts based on lexical feature space require high computation power and complex data structures. This is due to the large number of unique words (or high dimensionality). Choosing semantic features instead could significantly reduce the dimensionality of the feature space. This article describes the use of Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) for question classification based on semantic features to improve both the training and testing speeds compared to the benchmark Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Improvements have also been made to the head word extraction and word sense disambiguation processes. These have resulted in a higher accuracy (an increase of 0.2%) for the classification of coarse classes compared to the benchmark. For the fine classes, however, there is a 1.0% decrease in accuracy but is compensated by a significant increase in speed (92.1% on average)

Preliminary Trials on juvenile Macrobrachium rosenbergii Production under modified Static 'Green water' Conditions

The methods of juvenile production of Udang Galah (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) have been documented by several workers (ling, 1969 .. Ling and Costello, 1976 .. Fujimura 7966, 1967, 1968, 1972 .. Fujimura and okomoto, 1970,. Sandifer etl.1976). The methods given by these workers involve intensive hatchery management such as frequent water change and cleaning of larval tanks to ensure good sanitation. Such a technique would involve wastage of sea water and at the same time is labour intensive. 'to overcome the above mentioned problems a study 'was conducted at the hatchery of the Faculty of Fisheries and marine Science, Serdang, to produce" Udang Galah" juveniles 'Without water change and by using «green water' at salinities 6~8°100 and 12-14% 0 respectively. Previous studies by Cohen et al. (1976) have conclusively shozon that (green water' is an efficient system to remove toxic metabolites such as ammonia from the culture medium. The 'green water' 'which mainly consists of unicellular algae such as Chlorella is produced by expos;'lg 'loater of salim'ty 6°(00 'Which contained Sarothcrodon mossambicus to sunlight (Fujimura

Mutation breeding of Phaseolus vulgaris L.: Studies on the effects of irradiation dosage to resolve a suitable procedure of handling M and M generations

Seedling growth studies on gamma-irradiated seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris were conducted in the greenhouse and the field. No significant differences in germination scores between the unirradiated control and the seeds exposed to 10, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 Krads of gamma radiation were obtained. Exposure to 100 Krads, however, was lethal to the apical meristem. Growth of the epicotyl under greenhouse conditions was the most affected by gamma radiation. Based upon a 30% reduction in epicotyl length the optimum dose for irradiation was 30 Krads. At this level of irradiation the survival score at harvest under field conditions was 50% of that of the unirradiated control. Treatment with 30 Krads also gave the highest number of solid chlorophyll mutants.While not all the chlorophyll mutants were scored in the Bs (Sl gle seed bulk) populations, the % occurrence was consistently higher than that for the corresponding Bp (single pod bulk) populations. Based on these results, it is recommended that: a) the most suitable level of gamma radiation to use in a mutation breeding programme is 30 Krads; b) the M1 seeds should be field-planted at double the planting density of the control; c) the M1 plants should be harvested such that the Bs (single seed bulk) population be used for screening of the mutants

An Evaluation of the Use of Egg Yolk, Artemia nauplii, Microworms and Moina as Diets in Larval Rearing of Helostoma temmincki Cuvier and Valenciennes

Five day old Helostoma temmincki larvae measing 4.6 ± 0.1 mm in total length were stocked into 12 larval culture tanks at the rate of 1000 larvae/tank (l0 larvae/l). The larvae were fed Diet I (Egg yolk), Diet II (Egg yolk + Artemia naupliz), Diet III (Egg yolk +microworms), and Diet IV (Egg yolk + Moina) for iz period of4 weeks. After 1 week of rearing, larvae fed Diet III measun'ng 8. 4 mm total length and 7.0 mg weight were larger than larvae fed the other diets (P < 0.05). A t the end of two weeks, larvae fed Diets II, III and IV were larger than larvae fed Diet I (P < 0.05). FrOm" week 3 onwards, larvae fed Diet IV were consistently larger (P <0.05). This experiment shows that microworms were very suitable as a starter feed and that Moina was suitable for feeding Helostoma temmincki larvae after week 2 under tropical conditions

A Preliminary Study on Induced Spawning of the Catfish Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus) in Malaysia

Ten gravid Clarias batrachus females were administered with a single dose of common carp pituitary homogenate (CPR). Bifore injection, the eggs were light yellow and the diameter rangedfrom 0.94 mm to 1.08 mm. Ovulation occurred approximately 12 hours after the adminstration of CPR. The colour of the eggs turned brown and the diameter rangedfrom o. 99 mm to 1.27 mm. The fertilization rates rangedfrom 10-81%. The eggs hatched after about 30-36 hours of incubation at 26°C to 28°C. The hatching rates ranged from 13-67070

Effects of Packing Densities in Plastic Bags on Survival of Larvae and Fry of Helostoma temmincki (C&V)

Helostoma temmincki (C&V) larvae measuring 4.6 ± 0.6 mm total length were packed in plastic bags with oxygen at stocking densities of 0, 250, 500, 1000 and 1500/liter. Fry measuring 2. 0 cm ± 0.2 were similarly packed at densities of 0, 125, 250, 500 and 750/litre. The fish were observed for mortality 10 minutes, 24 hours and 48 hours after packing. The water quality parameters - temperature, dissolved oxygen, ammonia-N, dissolved carbon dioxide, pH and alkalinity - were determined at 0 hours for control bags only and for all bags at 48 hours after packing. There was no mortality in all bags 10 minutes after packing. After 24 hours, mortality of larvae packed at 500, 1000 and 1500/litre was less than 2% whereas no mortality was observed in the bags with fry. At 48 hours, mortalities of larvae were similar (P > 0.05) in all bags and were less than 2%. Mortalities of fry packed at 125, 250 and 500/litre were similar (P> 0.05) and less than 2%, whereas mortality of fry packed at 750/litre was significantly different (P < 0.05)