Nature of Philosophy

The aim of this paper is to examine the nature, scope and importance of philosophy in the light of its relation to other disciplines. This work pays its focus on the various fundamental problems of philosophy, relating to Ethics, Metaphysics, Epistemology Logic, and its association with scientific realism. It will also highlight the various facets of these problems and the role of philosophers to point out the various issues relating to human issues. It is widely agreed that philosophy as a multi-dimensional subject that shows affinity to others branches of philosophy like, Philosophy of Science, Humanities, Physics and Mathematics, but this paper also seeks, a philosophical nature towards the universal problems of nature. It evaluates the contribution and sacrifices of the great sages of philosophers to promote the clarity and progress in the field of philosophy

Diversity and Functions of Chromophores in Insects: A Review

Insects are the most diverse among the animal kingdom. The diversity of insects is ever increasing due to their fast adaptability to the rapidly changing environmental conditions. The physiology of insects plays a vital role in the adaptation and competing adjustments in the nature with other species. The mechanism of vision and the involvement of visual pigments, like chromophores particularly in flies, have proved to be landmarks in the field of research. This has been achieved with the discovery of novel pathways involved in the mechanism of pigment development. However, certain visual pigments and their relationship with various chromophores need to be further elaborated. The role of insect pigments in vision, to identify the hosts, prays, and predators, is also discussed. Many naturally occurring pigments of insect origin are continuously being explored for better prospects and human welfare. The abundant availability of insect species all over the world and the never ending task of exploring their potential at morphological, physiological, evolutionary, and genetic levels have a tremendous potential to explore the subject like entomology

Diversity of Pigments in Insects, Their Synthesis and Economic Value for Various Industries

Pigments play an essential role in imparting colors to the various organs of invertebrates particularly, insects. Genetic evolution and adaptive pigmentation of invertebrates have been studied which depicted that insect colors respond to the climatic changes. The physical, chemical and structural properties of insect pigments are being studied by researchers for years to elucidate their evolutionary aspects of physiology, metabolism, and economic importance for human welfare. Color development in insects varies within the species of different genera. In this state-of-the-art literature review, we discuss the variety of pigments other than visual ones found in different species of insects. The review also highlights the potential benefits or functions of pigments to insects

Comparative study of inhaled steroids versus inhaled steroids plus long acting beta agonists in childhood asthma: a randomized controlled study

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition of lung airways resulting in episodic airflow obstruction causing considerable morbidity in paediatric population. The main objective of the study was to find out whether addition of long acting beta agonists to steroids provides better asthma control.Methods: This randomized controlled trial study was performed in children aged 6-15 years of age, with clinically stable and moderate persistent asthma.Results: The findings of this study indicate SABA use in Budesonide/formoterol group patients was significantly less compared to budesonide group patients (1.5±1.1 v/s 2.13±0.9, p-value 0.01). Both groups experienced decrease in night time symptoms and acute exacerbations however there was no significant difference between the two groups in these variables.Conclusions: This study showed addition of LABA to inhaled steroids in moderate persistent asthma provided better asthma control and LABA is mainly recommended to be used as add-on therapy for patients whose asthma is not controlled on low to high doses of inhaled corticosteroids

Gut Microbiome Analysis of Snails: A Biotechnological Approach

Mollusks are a diverse group of animals not only at the species level but also with respect to their habitat and behavior. Gastropods comprise 80% of the mollusks with approximately 62,000 living species including snails. Over the period of time, snails have evolved into marine, freshwater and terrestrial forms with a transitional shift in their feeding habits. From prehistoric times, mollusks have established an intimate relationship with humans. These animals are used as food, medicine, offering to gods and are also responsible for economic losses in the form of agricultural pests. As most of these animals feed on plant biomass, their guts have evolved to digest such lignocellulosic biomass with extraordinary efficiency. The plant fiber digestion in their guts depends predominantly on the metabolic activities of the gastro‐intestinal microflora. Besides digestive functions, the seasonal dynamic and spatial distribution of bacterial gut community largely influences cold hardiness and many other metabolic properties in snails. Here, we assessed an overview of the various bacterial populations dwelling in digestive tracts of snails. This chapter provides insights into the gut microbiome of various snails that can be exploited for various industrial applications such as biomass degradation, production of biofuel, paper, wine and laundry detergents

Impact of Income on the Insurance Potential-A Case Study of Rural Sector of Jammu and Kashmir State

The Indian Insurance industry is flourishing with several national and international players competing and growing at rapid rates. The globalisation has allowed the Indian insurance sector to flourish as there is huge market potential for insurance in India and this potential will definitely increase further in future.  The survey was conducted from the state of Jammu and Kashmir using primary and secondary sources of data. This study has explored and assessed insurance potential in rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir State by analysing relationship between disposable income and Insurance potential. Looking at the source of information for households, it was found that television is the primary source for both insured and uninsured households. Other sources of information are friends, relatives and neighbours, news papers, radios, and transistors. Keywords: Households, Insurance, Information, Potential, Regulation

Breeding strategies for improving growth and yield under waterlogging conditions in maize: A review

Waterlogging, caused by flooding, excessive rains and poor drainage is a serious abiotic stress determining crop productivity worldwide. Maize (Zea mays L) is a basic food grain in many areas and several cultures and is culti- vated under much diverse agro-climatic zones extending from subtropical to cooler temperate regions. Therefore, the crop remains open to varied types of biotic as well as abiotic stresses. Among various abiotic stresses, water- logging is one of the most important constraints for maize production and productivity. Breeding for improved wa- terlogging tolerance includes modification of plant morphology, use of tolerant secondary traits and development of resistant varieties through conventional breeding and biotechnological approaches. A successful programme in conventional breeding should involve the integration of several criteria into one selection index and also successful breeding programmes for improved tolerance to submergence stress frequently combine two or more breeding strategies. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is an effective approach to identify genomic regions of crops under stress and construction of molecular linkage maps enable carry out pyramiding of desirable traits to improve sub- mergence tolerance through MAS

Breeding Maize for Food and Nutritional Security

Maize occupies an important position in the world economy, and serves as an important source of food and feed. Together with rice and wheat, it provides at least 30 percent of the food calories to more than 4.5 billion people in 94 developing countries. Maize production is constrained by a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses that keep afflicting maize production and productivity causing serious yield losses which bring yield levels below the potential levels. New innovations and trends in the areas of genomics, bioinformatics, and phenomics are enabling breeders with innovative tools, resources and technologies to breed superior resilient cultivars having the ability to resist the vagaries of climate and insect pest attacks. Maize has high nutritional value but is deficient in two amino acids viz. Lysine and Tryptophan. The various micronutrients present in maize are not sufficient to meet the nutritive demands of consumers, however the development of maize hybrids and composites with modifying nutritive value have proven to be good to meet the demands of consumers. Quality protein maize (QPM) developed by breeders have higher concentrations of lysine and tryptophan as compared to normal maize. Genetic level improvement has resulted in significant genetic gain, leading to increase in maize yield mainly on farmer’s fields. Molecular tools when collaborated with conventional and traditional methodologies help in accelerating these improvement programs and are expected to enhance genetic gains and impact on marginal farmer’s field. Genomic tools enable genetic dissections of complex QTL traits and promote an understanding of the physiological basis of key agronomic and stress adaptive and resistance traits. Marker-aided selection and genome-wide selection schemes are being implemented to accelerate genetic gain relating to yield, resilience, and nutritional quality. Efforts are being done worldwide by plant breeders to develop hybrids and composites of maize with high nutritive value to feed the people in future

Causes and Reasons of Insect Decline and the Way Forward

There are lot of reasons and causes of insect decline. The main causes of insect decline is attributed to habitat destruction, land use changes, deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, pollution, climate change, introduction of invasive insect species, application of pesticides, mass trapping of insects using pheromones and light traps, pathological problems on various insects, and introduction of exotic honey bees in new areas that compete with the native bees for resource portioning and other management techniques for pest management, and even not leaving any pest residue for predators and parasitoids for their survival. The use of chemical insecticides against target or non-target organisms is major cause for insect decline. The diseases and decline of the important pollinators is still a mistry for colony collapse disorder. To overcome the cause of insect decline, various conservation techniques to be adopted and augmentation of artificial nesting and feeding structures, use of green pesticides, maintaining the proper pest defender ratio (P:D), policies and reaching to political audience at global level and other factors already discussed in the chapter may be helpful for mitigating the insect decline and especially for the pollinators, a key insect for life

The transfer and fate of Pb from sewage sludge amended soil in a multi-trophic food chain: a comparison with the labile elements Cd and Zn

The contamination of agroecosystems due to the presence of trace elements in commonly used agricultural materials is a serious issue. The most contaminated material is usually sewage sludge, and the sustainable use of this material within agriculture is a major concern. This study addresses a key issue in this respect, the fate of trace metals applied to soil in food chains. The work particularly addresses the transfer of Pb, which is an understudied element in this respect, and compares the transfer of Pb with two of the most labile metals, Cd and Zn. The transfer of these elements was determined from sludge-amended soils in a food chain consisting of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea), the mustard aphid (Lipaphis erysimi) and a predatory beetle (Coccinella septempunctata). The soil was amended with sludge at rates of 0, 5, 10 and 20 % (w/w). Results showed that Cd was readily transferred through the food chain until the predator trophic level. Zn was the most readily transferred element in the lower trophic levels, but transfer to aphids was effectively restricted by the plant regulating shoot concentration. Pb had the lowest level of transfer from soil to shoot and exhibited particular retention in the roots. Nevertheless, Pb concentrations were significantly increased by sludge amendment in aphids, and Pb was increasingly transferred to ladybirds as levels increased. The potential for Pb to cause secondary toxicity to organisms in higher trophic levels may have therefore been underestimated