Dietary Phytase: an ideal approach for a cost effective and low-polluting aquafeed

Global fishmeal production from wild-catch sources cannot continue to increase indefinitely; suitable alternatives have to be found for sustainable aquaculture. Plant-based aquafeed seems to be the ideal alternative to this, but has its own limitations. Plant ingredients are rich in phytic acid, which reduces the bioavailability of nutrients like minerals and protein to the fish, thereby causing aquaculture pollution. Dietary phytase treatment reduces the aquaculture pollution by improving the bioavailability of nutrients, and reduces the feed cost as evident from poultry and piggery. Phytase activity is highly dependent upon the pH of the gut. Unlike mammals, fish are either gastric or agastric, and hence, the action of dietary phytase varies from species to species. In this article, the authors attempt to summarise various effects of phytase on nutrient utilization, growth of fish and aquatic pollution

Health Issues of Rat Hole Coal Mine Workers of Meghalaya - A Logit Regression Analysis

Most of the coal mines in Meghalaya are controlled by private individuals and companies. The Garo Hills district has the highest coal reserve of 390 million tonnes. Locally the mining of coal is done by making small pit holes commonly known as Rat Hole mines. These coal mines are illegal and the owners of the mine exploit the poor workers as they have no other means of livelihood to support them. This study intends to highlight the various health problems faced by the coal mine workers who are mostly migrants. The study was carried out in South Garo Hills which is one of the 11 districts of Meghalaya, by interacting with 110 workers of different private coal mines. A logit regression model is used to find the significance of various independent variables which are broadly classified as individual habits, demographic factors, work environment, and the fuel used for cooking.  Certain  factors come under these broad categories like working hours, age, gender, leisure time. The dependent variables include certain health problems like skin problems, hearing problems, Respiratory problems. The result of the logit regression reveals that for most of the health issues suffered by the coal mine workers, the individual habits and work environment are more significant than the other independent variables

Theoretical infra-red, Raman, and Optical spectra of the B36N36 cage

The B36N36 fullerene-like cage structure was proposed as candidate structure for the single-shell boron-nitride cages observed in electron-beam irradiation experiment. We have performed all electron density functional calculations, with large polarized Gaussian basis sets, on the B36N36 cage. We show that the cage is energetically and vibrationally stable. The infra-red, Raman and optical spectra are calculated. The predicted spectra, in combination with experimentally measured spectra, will be useful in conclusive assignment of the proposed B36N36 cage. The vertical and adiabatic ionization potentials as well as static dipole polarizability are also reported.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 4 figures (TO appear in Physical Review A (Breif Report)

Photo-excitation of a light-harvesting supra-molecular triad: a Time-Dependent DFT study

We present the first time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) calculation on a light harvesting triad carotenoid-diaryl-porphyrin-C60. Besides the numerical challenge that the ab initio study of the electronic structure of such a large system presents, we show that TDDFT is able to provide an accurate description of the excited state properties of the system. In particular we calculate the photo-absorption spectrum of the supra-molecular assembly, and we provide an interpretation of the photo-excitation mechanism in terms of the properties of the component moieties. The spectrum is in good agreement with experimental data, and provides useful insight on the photo-induced charge transfer mechanism which characterizes the system.Comment: Accepted for publication on JPC, March 09th 200

Participatory cotton breeding for organic and low input farming in Central India

Up to 80% of world’s organic cotton is produced in India. However, involved producers are facing increased difficulties to find suitable cultivars. Few hybrids selected for high input farming and genetically-modified (GM) cotton, which is explicitly excluded in organic farming, are presently dominating the Indian seed market. In addition farmers have lost their traditional knowledge on seed production and hybrid seed needs to be purchased each season

PAN AIR: A computer program for predicting subsonic or supersonic linear potential flows about arbitrary configurations using a higher order panel method. Volume 4: Maintenance document (version 1.1)

The Maintenance Document is a guide to the PAN AIR software system, a system which computes the subsonic or supersonic linear potential flow about a body of nearly arbitrary shape, using a higher order panel method. The document describes the over-all system and each program module of the system. Sufficient detail is given for program maintenance, updating and modification. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with programming and CDC (Control Data Corporation) computer systems. The PAN AIR system was written in FORTRAN 4 language except for a few COMPASS language subroutines which exist in the PAN AIR library. Structured programming techniques were used to provide code documentation and maintainability. The operating systems accommodated are NOS 1.2, NOS/BE and SCOPE 2.1.3 on the CDC 6600, 7600 and Cyber 175 computing systems. The system is comprised of a data management system, a program library, an execution control module and nine separate FORTRAN technical modules. Each module calculates part of the posed PAN AIR problem. The data base manager is used to communicate between modules and within modules. The technical modules must be run in a prescribed fashion for each PAN AIR problem. In order to ease the problem of supplying the many JCL cards required to execute the modules, a separate module called MEC (Module Execution Control) was created to automatically supply most of the JCL cards. In addition to the MEC generated JCL, there is an additional set of user supplied JCL cards to initiate the JCL sequence stored on the system

Mice lacking C1q or C3 show accelerated rejection of minor H disparate skin grafts and resistance to induction of tolerance

Complement activation is known to have deleterious effects on organ transplantation. On the other hand, the complement system is also known to have an important role in regulating immune responses. The balance between these two opposing effects is critical in the context of transplantation. Here, we report that female mice deficient in C1q (C1qa(−/−)) or C3 (C3(−/−)) reject male syngeneic grafts (HY incompatible) at an accelerated rate compared with WT mice. Intranasal HY peptide administration, which induces tolerance to syngeneic male grafts in WT mice, fails to induce tolerance in C1qa(−/−) or C3(−/−) mice. The rejection of the male grafts correlated with the presence of HY D(b)Uty-specific CD8(+) T cells. Consistent with this, peptide-treated C1qa(−/−) and C3(−/−) female mice rejecting male grafts exhibited more antigen-specific CD8(+)IFN-γ(+) and CD8(+)IL-10(+) cells compared with WT females. This suggests that accumulation of IFN-γ- and IL-10-producing T cells may play a key role in mediating the ongoing inflammatory process and graft rejection. Interestingly, within the tolerized male skin grafts of peptide-treated WT mice, IFN-γ, C1q and C3 mRNA levels were higher compared to control female grafts. These results suggest that C1q and C3 facilitate the induction of intranasal tolerance