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

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

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

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

Elucidating the structure, and composition of bacterial symbionts in the gut regions of wood-feeding termite, Coptotermes formosanus and their functional profile towards lignocellulolytic systems

The wood-feeding termite, Coptotermes formosanus, presents an efficient lignocellulolytic system, offering a distinctive model for the exploration of host-microbial symbiosis towards lignocellulose degradation. Despite decades of investigation, understanding the diversity, community structure, and functional profiles of bacterial symbionts within specific gut regions, particularly the foregut and midgut of C. formosanus, remains largely elusive. In light of this knowledge gap, our efforts focused on elucidating the diversity, community composition and functions of symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the foregut, midgut, and hindgut of C. formosanus via metagenomics. The termite harbored a diverse community of bacterial symbionts encompassing 352 genera and 26 known phyla, exhibiting an uneven distribution across gut regions. Notably, the hindgut displayed a higher relative abundance of phyla such as Bacteroidetes (56.9%) and Spirochetes (23.3%). In contrast, the foregut and midgut were predominantly occupied by Proteobacteria (28.9%) and Firmicutes (21.2%) after Bacteroidetes. The foregut harbored unique phyla like Candidate phylum_TM6 and Armatimonadetes. At the family level, Porphyromonadaceae (28.1, 40.6, and 53.5% abundance in foregut, midgut, and hindgut, respectively) and Spirochaetaceae (foregut = 9%, midgut = 16%, hindgut = 21.6%) emerged as dominant families in the termite’s gut regions. Enriched operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were most abundant in the foregut (28), followed by the hindgut (14), while the midgut exhibited enrichment of only two OTUs. Furthermore, the functional analyses revealed distinct influences of bacterial symbionts on various metabolic pathways, particularly carbohydrate and energy metabolisms of the host. Overall, these results underscore significant variations in the structure of the bacterial community among different gut regions of C. formosanus, suggesting unique functional roles of specific bacteria, thereby inspiring further investigations to resolve the crosstalk between host and microbiomes in individual gut-regions of the termite

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

EFFECT OF MODERATE DOSE OF INHALED BUDESONIDE ON HBA1C IN ASTHMATIC CHILDREN

Objective: The objective of the study was to find out effect of inhaled corticosteroids on HbA1c. Methods: Asthma patients in the age group 5-15 years who were started on moderate doses of inhaled budesonide (400-800 microgram/day) for the first time were selected for the study. HbA1c level was measured before initiating inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and after 6 months using venous blood samples. Results: The mean (SD) HbA1c levels before and after 6 months of starting inhaled corticosteroids was 4.75(0.16) and 5.25(0.29) respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p value <0.0001). After 6 months of inhaler use, HbA1c level of 5 patients (8.33%) reached at high risk level (5.7-6.4%). Conclusion: inhaled corticosteroids have a significant effect onHbA1c level after prolonged usage. We recommend monitoring HbA1c levels in children on long term inhaled corticosteroids

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