Composition, repellent and fumigant toxicity of Mentha longifolia essential oil on Tetranychus urticae and three predatory mites of the family phytoseiidae (Acari: Tetranychidae: Phytoseiidae)

The chemical composition of essential oil extracted from leaves of the medicinal plant Mentha longifolia (L.) Huds growing in Egypt, were determined through Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry ( GC/MS). The analyses revealed that the major component of M. longifolia was Monterpene ketone (piperitone oxide). Mentha longifolia was potent for the pest Tetranychus urticae Koch with a significant increase in repellency. In addition, it exhibited strong oviposition deterrence to the pest based on a 99.4% reduction of the total number of eggs on leaf discs treated with the oil. The LC50 values of M. longifolia against eggs, nymphs and females of T. urticae by fumigant application, were 2.95, 3.47, 3.74 μL / L, while the LC90 values were 8.99, 9.41, 11.01 μL/ L, respectively. The toxicity of M. longifolia oil by fumigant application to females and eggs of 3 predatory phytoseiid mites was tested. Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) is extremely insusceptible to M. longifolia oil than the pest T. urticae and both phytoseiid mites, Neoseiuls barkeri (Hughes) and Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias Henriot) under laboratory conditions. When both stages of tested predatory mites, exposed to fumigant of LC50 and LC90 μL/L values reported on T. urticae, female’s mortality of N. californicus was lesser than that reported on N. barkeri and T. swirskii. These show that the fumigant toxicity of M. longifolia oil has the highest lethal activity to the pest T. urticae and the least to the predatory mite N. californicus. Results indicated that the mode of delivery of the essential oil was largely a result of action in the vapor phase via respiratory system. Data was suggested that M. longifolia oil have the potential agent to be used in the maintainable management of T. urticae combined with N. californicus

A phylogeny analysis on six mullet species (Teleosti: Mugillidae) using PCR-sequencing method

In this study, genetic differences and phylogenic relationships among six Mugillidae species (Mugil cephalus, M. capito, Liza subviridis, L. saliens, L. aurata, Valamugil buchanani) were determined using PCR-sequencing. M. cephalus, L. subviridis, and V. buchanani from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, and L. aurata and L. saliens from the Caspian Sea were collected. Samples of an imported, Egyptian species M. capito were obtained from the Gomishan Research Center in Gorgan. Total DNA from the samples were extracted according to phenol-chloroform procedure. The extracted total DNAs were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sequenced. The number of bases in the mitochondrial 16s rRNA genome used in this study approximated 600 base pairs. The size of the bands was identical in all the studied species and no heteroplasmia was observed. In addition, the numbers of variable, preserved, and Pi sites were about 114/624, 488/624, and 110/624, respectively. Analysis of the sequences showed great differences between Mugil species and the other studied species. The phylogenetic tree obtained through Neighbor-Joining method revealed that L. saliens and L. aurata were in the same branch while L. subviridis was in a separate branch. In contrast, Maximum Parsimony tree located L. subviridis and L. aurata in a single branch and assigned L. saliens to a distinct branch. This result brings in the question of monophyletic origin of the genus Liza

Influence of Melissa officinalis essential oil and its formulation on Typhlodromips swirskii and Neoseiulus barkeri (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

The toxicity of Melissa officinalis L. essential oil and its formulation (Melissacide) were evaluated against eggs and females of two predatory phytoseiid mites, Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias Henriot) and Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes), using direct spray. Results indicate that both tested materials were potent on predatory females than egg stage. Typhlodromips swirskii was proved to be more sensitive to the oil and formulation than N. barkeri. Females mortality were (62-100%) in T. swirskii, and (46-69%) in N. barkeri, when both predatory mites were sprayed with LC50 and LC90 of the oil and Melissacide reported on Tetranychus urticae Koch. Females of both predators were suffered from reduction in food consumption when sprayed with two sublethal concentrations of Melissacide, while insignificant differences reported in daily number of eggs deposited by females of T. swirskii, when sprayed with its LC25 value of Melissacide and control

Effect of planting method on onion (Allium cepa L.) bulb production in Faridpur region of Bangladesh

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effective planting method for onion production for motivating onion producing farmers in Faridpur region of Bangladesh during rabi season 2014-15 and 2015-16 at spices Research Sub-centre, Faridpur. The number of treatment was four viz., Raised bed + Spices Research Centre (SRC) recommended practice, Raised bed + Farmer’s practice, Flat method + Spices Research Centre (SRC) recommended practice and Flat method + Farmer’s practice. The onion variety BARI Piaz-1 used as planting material. The SRC recommended practice consist of seed sowing at 2nd week of November + seedlings transplanting at the end of December + Spacing (10cm × 10cm) + Irrigation (4times) + weeding (four at 15, 25, 45 and 60 DAT) + Fungi-cide application with Rovral and Ridomil gold (four spray when disease appears) + Insecticide application (2-3 spray when/before thrips / insect appears) + Fertilizer doses (cow dung 5 ton ha-1, N120, P54, k75 and S20 kg ha-1. On the other hand farmer’s practice consist of seed sowing at last week of November in flat seed bed + seedling transplanting at 3rd week of January + Spacing (10cm × 7cm) + Irrigation (2-3 times) + Weeding (2times) + Fungicide application with Rovral, Score and other type of ineffective fungicide at 5-7 days interval + insecticide application with Confidor after thrips / insect appears + Fertilizer doses (N46, P45, k30 and S16 kg ha-1. The results of the study revealed that planting method and management practices had significant impact on yield and yield attributes of onion and among the treatments the highest yield was found from Raised bed + SRC recommended practice. Significantly highest yield 14.42 t ha-1 in 2014-15 and 12.57 t ha-1 in 2015-16 was recorded from SRC recommended practice. The lowest yield 8.05 t ha-1 in 2014-15 and 7.66 t ha-1 in 2015-16 was recorded from Flat method + Farmer’s practice. Therefore, the farmers of Faridpur region of Bangladesh are advised to adopt SRC recommended practice with raised bed method for increasing their annual average onion productio

Chemical Sympathectomy Restores Baroreceptor-Heart Rate Reflex and Heart Rate Variability in Rats With Chronic Nitric Oxide Deficiency

Summary Nitric oxide (NO) plays a crucial role not only in regulation of blood pressure but also in maintenance of cardiac autonomic tone and its deficiency induced hypertension is accompanied by cardiac autonomic dysfunction. However, underlying mechanisms are not clearly defined. We hypothesized that sympathetic activation mediates hemodynamic and cardiac autonomic changes consequent to deficient NO synthesis. We used chemical sympathectomy by 6-hydroxydopamine to examine the influence of sympathetic innervation on baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and heart rate variability (HRV) of chronic N G -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) treated adult Wistar rats. BRS was determined from heart rate responses to changes in systolic arterial pressure achieved by intravenous administration of phenylephrine and sodium nitroprusside. Time and frequency domain measures of HRV were calculated from 5-min electrocardiogram recordings. Chronic L-NAME administration (50 mg/kg per day for 7 days orally through gavage) in control rats produced significant elevation of blood pressure, tachycardia, attenuation of BRS for bradycardia and tachycardia reflex and fall in time as well as frequency domain parameters of HRV. Sympathectomy completely abolished the pressor as well as tachycardic effect of chronic L-NAME. In addition, BRS and HRV improved after removal of sympathetic influence in chronic L-NAME treated rats. These results support the concept that an exaggerated sympathetic activity is the principal mechanism of chronic L-NAME hypertension and associated autonomic dysfunction

Context Mining of Sedentary Behavior for Promoting Self-Awareness Using Smartphone

Sedentary behaviour is increasing due to societal changes and is related to prolonged periods of sitting. There is sufficient evidence proving that sedentary behaviour has a negative impact on people’s health and wellness. This paper presents our research findings on how to mine the temporal contexts of sedentary behaviour by utilizing the on-board sensors of a smartphone. We use the accelerometer sensor of the smartphone to recognize user situations (i.e., still or active). If our model confirms that the user context is still, then there is a high probability of being sedentary. Then, we process the environmental sound to recognize the micro-context, such as working on a computer or watching television during leisure time. Our goal is to reduce sedentary behaviour by suggesting preventive interventions to take short breaks during prolonged sitting to be more active. We achieve this goal by providing the visualization to the user, who wants to monitor his/her sedentary behaviour to reduce unhealthy routines for self-management purposes. The main contribution of this paper is two-fold: (i) an initial implementation of the proposed framework supporting real-time context identification; (ii) testing and evaluation of the framework, which suggest that our application is capable of substantially reducing sedentary behaviour and assisting users to be active

Temperature dependence of J–V and C–V characteristics of n-InAs/p-GaAs heterojunctions prepared by flash evaporation technique and liquid phase epitaxy

In this work, n-type of InAs films have been successfully fabricated on p-GaAs monocrystalline substrates by both flash evaporation technique and liquid phase epitaxy. The elemental composition of the prepared films has been confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The morphology of the films has been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The current transport mechanisms of n-InAs/p-GaAs heterojunctions in the temperature range 300-400 K have been investigated. Temperature-dependent dark current density-voltage (J–V) studies under forward and reverse bias have been carried out for this purpose. In the temperature range studied, the dark current contribution in the low bias range is believed to be due to the generation-recombination of minority carriers in the space-charge region. A change in the preparation technique does not seem to have altered the dark current conduction mechanism. Capacitance-voltage (C–V) at various temperatures has been measured to identify the junction type as well as determination of the important junction parameters

Monoclonal antibody: a cell specific immunotherapy to treat cancer

Fundamentally, the therapy technique which is utilized in malignancy immunotherapy, monoclonal antibodies (mAb), is one of them, and it is used extensively as a treatment for the disease. To achieve more successful treatment, novel combination treatments and treatment procedures must be created. The purpose of this study is the improvement of mAb treatment and detail late advance and new limits, particularly in cancer therapy. With various keywords, we searched Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus for monoclonal antibody therapy as an alternate form of chemotherapy. The number of patients who received each therapy regimen, and the recovery rate are all displayed in this study, also a comparative study between monotherapy and chemotherapy. The result showed that rituximab had a greater overall response rate than other drugs, at 68%. In the combination treatment group (monotherapy+chemotherapy), 100% of patients had adverse events, compared to 84.2 percent in the monotherapy group. The pharmaceutical industry's fastest-growing medications, monoclonal antibodies are increasingly being examined in Clinical trials as stand-alone treatments or in conjunction with other therapies. It has a promising future since it will provide better tailored therapy and combination therapy for the treatment of cancer