Haematology and biochemical parameters of different feeding behaviour of teleost fishes from Vellar estuary, India

Haematological parameters have been recognized as valuable tools for monitoring fish health. Haematological and serum biochemical parameters were studied and compared different feeding behaviour of teleost fishes. Three marine teleost fishes, Lates calcarifer (carnivores), Mugil cephalus (omnivores) and Chanos chanos (herbivores), were carried out in order to find out a normal range of blood parameters which would serve as baseline data for assessment of the health status of the fish as well as reference point for future comparative surveys. Blood parameters such as red blood cell count (RBC) and white blood cells count (WBC), haemoglobin, haematocrit, mean cell haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell haemoglobin, glucose, protein, cholesterol and urea were estimated from teleost fishes of different trophic level. Statistical analysis revealed that differences in haematological parameters between marine fish were significant (P<0.01)

Diversity of Ascidians from the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve (GNBR), India

The Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve nurtures a diverse amount of life and is very importantto the biological diversity of India. Ascidians diversity has been recorded for the first timefrom the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve. In the present study, 15 species of ascidians werenoticed in both intertidal and sub-tidal regions of GNBR, belonging to two orders, threesuborders, six families and ten genera (Didemnum fulgens, Didemnum vexillum, Didemnumgranulatum, Didemnum albidum, Didemnum candidum, Trididemnum cyanophorum,Diplosoma simile, Diplosoma spongiforme, Clavelina oblonga, Aplidium fuscum, Synoicumcastellatum, Pycnoclavella diminuta, Ascidia virginea, Ascidiella aspersa and Styela sp.)during the year 2013-2014 of which, the Didemnidae family was recorded with the highdiversity of 15 species. Species richness were highly recorded in Bquary Beach and lowlyrecorded from Campbell Bay. The present data suggests that GNBR coast offers a uniqueopportunity for future research on the ascidians diversity and ecology assessment.Keywords: Ascidians, Biodiversity, GNB

The Quenched Satellite Population Around Milky Way Analogs

We study the relative fractions of quenched and star-forming satellite galaxies in the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) survey and Exploration of Local VolumE Satellites (ELVES) program, two nearby and complementary samples of Milky Way-like galaxies that take different approaches to identify faint satellite galaxy populations. We cross-check and validate sample cuts and selection criteria, as well as explore the effects of different star-formation definitions when determining the quenched satellite fraction of Milky Way analogs. We find the mean ELVES quenched fraction ($\langle QF\rangle$), derived using a specific star formation rate (sSFR) threshold, decreases from $\sim$50% to $\sim$27% after applying a cut in absolute magnitude to match that of the SAGA survey ($\langle QF\rangle_{SAGA}\sim$9%). We show these results are consistent for alternative star-formation definitions. Furthermore, these quenched fractions remain virtually unchanged after applying an additional cut in surface brightness. Using a consistently-derived sSFR and absolute magnitude limit for both samples, we show that the quenched fraction and the cumulative number of satellites in the ELVES and SAGA samples broadly agree. We briefly explore radial trends in the ELVES and SAGA samples, finding general agreement in the number of star-forming satellites per host as a function of radius. Despite the broad agreement between the ELVES and SAGA samples, some tension remains with these quenched fractions in comparison to the Local Group and simulations of Milky Way analogs.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, 1 appendix with 2 additional figures. Main results in Figure 3-6. Submitted to MNRAS and comments welcome

Utilization of Marine Fishery Wastes for Protease Production by Halophilic Bacterium Halolactibacillus Miurensis RSK CAS7- A Microbial Approach

The marine wastes generates 50–60% of the total weight of shell fish as waste consists of protein (35–50%), chitin (15–25% of dry weight) which considered as major environmental pollutants due to uncontrolled dumping. The utilisation of marine waste not only solves environmental problems but also decreases the production costs of microbial products. So far in this study, halophilic bacterium was isolated from marine ascidians and identified as Halolactibacillus miurensis RSK CAS7 through 16S rRNA sequence. The effect of different marine wastes such as shrimp shell powder (SSP), crab shell powder (CSP), squid pen powder (SPP), sardinella powder, tuna powder and anchovy powder were tested on protease production. Among these Sardinella powder (579.46 U/ml) and shrimp shell powder (470.36 U/ml) showed maximum level of protease production and followed by other marine wastes. All the significant nutrients identified from the preliminary screening were further screened by using Plackett - Burman Design and it resulted sardinella powder, K2HPO4,NaCl and pH were the highly influencing factors and their concentration were further optimized by using central composite design. Central composite design revealed that four independent variables such as Sardinella powder (14.21 g/l), K2HPO4 (3.81 g/l), NaCl (154.1 g/l) and pH (9.0) were significantly influenced the protease production. With these optimum concentration levels, the maximum protease production (1,794.41 U/ml) was observed. Thus, protease production by microbial conversion of marine wastes suggested its potential utilisation for the production of high value products.Keywords: Waste Management, Protease, Marine Wastes, Halophilic Bacteri

Gas-rich, field ultra-diffuse galaxies host few globular clusters

We present Hubble Space Telescope imaging of 14 gas-rich, low surface brightness and ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the field at distances of 25-36 Mpc. An inspection of point-like sources brighter than the turnover magnitude of the globular cluster luminosity function and within twice the half-light radii of each galaxy reveals that, unlike those in denser environments, gas-rich, field UDGs host very few old globular clusters (GCs). Most of the targets (nine) have zero candidate GCs, with the remainder having one or two candidates each. These findings are broadly consistent with expectations for normal dwarf galaxies of similar stellar mass. This rules out gas-rich, field UDGs as potential progenitors of the GC-rich UDGs that are typically found in galaxy clusters. However, some in galaxy groups may be directly accreted from the field. In line with other recent results, this strongly suggests that there must be at least two distinct formation pathways for UDGs, and that this sub-population is simply an extreme low surface brightness extension of the underlying dwarf galaxy population. The root cause of their diffuse stellar distributions remains unclear, but the formation mechanism appears to only impact the distribution of stars (and potentially dark matter), without strongly impacting the distribution of neutral gas, the overall stellar mass, or the number of GCs.Comment: Submitted to AAS journal

Gas and Star Formation in Satellites of Milky Way Analogs

We have imaged the entirety of eight (plus one partial) Milky Way (MW)–like satellite systems, a total of 42 (45) satellites, from the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs II catalog in both Hα and H i with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope and the Jansky Very Large Array. In these eight systems we have identified four cases where a satellite appears to be currently undergoing ram pressure stripping (RPS) as its H i gas collides with the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of its host. We also see a clear suppression of gas fraction (M HI/M *) with decreasing (projected) satellite–host separation—to our knowledge, the first time this has been observed in a sample of MW-like systems. Comparisons to the Auriga, A Project Of Simulating The Local Environment, and TNG50 cosmological zoom-in simulations show consistent global behavior, but they systematically underpredict gas fractions across all satellites by roughly 0.5 dex. Using a simplistic RPS model, we estimate the average peak CGM density that satellites in these systems have encountered to be logρcgm/gcm−3≈−27.3 . Furthermore, we see tentative evidence that these satellites are following a specific star formation rate to gas fraction relation that is distinct from field galaxies. Finally, we detect one new gas-rich satellite in the UGC 903 system with an optical size and surface brightness meeting the standard criteria to be considered an ultra-diffuse galaxy

Cardiometabolic health across menopausal years is linked to white matter hyperintensities up to a decade later

Introduction: The menopause transition is associated with several cardiometabolic risk factors. Poor cardiometabolic health is further linked to microvascular brain lesions, which can be detected as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) using T2-FLAIR magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Females show higher risk for WMHs post-menopause, but it remains unclear whether changes in cardiometabolic risk factors underlie menopause-related increase in brain pathology. Methods: In this study, we assessed whether cross-sectional measures of cardiometabolic health, including body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), blood lipids, blood pressure, and long-term blood glucose (HbA1c), as well as longitudinal changes in BMI and WHR, differed according to menopausal status at baseline in 9,882 UK Biobank females (age range 40–70 years, n premenopausal = 3,529, n postmenopausal = 6,353). Furthermore, we examined whether these cardiometabolic factors were associated with WMH outcomes at the follow-up assessment, on average 8.78 years after baseline. Results: Postmenopausal females showed higher levels of baseline blood lipids (HDL (Formula presented.) = 0.14, p &lt; 0.001, LDL (Formula presented.) = 0.20, p &lt; 0.001, triglycerides (Formula presented.) = 0.12, p &lt; 0.001) and HbA1c ((Formula presented.) = 0.24, p &lt; 0.001) compared to premenopausal women, beyond the effects of age. Over time, BMI increased more in the premenopausal compared to the postmenopausal group ((Formula presented.) = −0.08, p &lt; 0.001), while WHR increased to a similar extent in both groups ((Formula presented.) = −0.03, p = 0.102). The change in WHR was however driven by increased waist circumference only in the premenopausal group. While the group level changes in BMI and WHR were in general small, these findings point to distinct anthropometric changes in pre- and postmenopausal females over time. Higher baseline measures of BMI, WHR, triglycerides, blood pressure, and HbA1c, as well as longitudinal increases in BMI and WHR, were associated with larger WMH volumes ((Formula presented.) range = 0.03–0.13, p ≤ 0.002). HDL showed a significant inverse relationship with WMH volume ((Formula presented.) = −0.27, p &lt; 0.001). Discussion: Our findings emphasise the importance of monitoring cardiometabolic risk factors in females from midlife through the menopause transition and into the postmenopausal phase, to ensure improved cerebrovascular outcomes in later years.</p

Investigating the synergistic effects of hormone replacement therapy, apolipoprotein E and age on brain health in the UK Biobank

Global prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease has a strong sex bias, with women representing approximately two-thirds of the patients. Yet, the role of sex-specific risk factors during midlife, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and their interaction with other major risk factors for Alzheimer's Disease, such as apolipoprotein E (APOE)-e4 genotype and age, on brain health remains unclear. We investigated the relationship between HRT (i.e., use, age of initiation and duration of use) and brain health (i.e., cognition and regional brain volumes). We then consider the multiplicative effects of HRT and APOE status (i.e., e2/e2, e2/e3, e3/e3, e3/e4 and e4/e4) via a two-way interaction and subsequently age of participants via a three-way interaction. Women from the UK Biobank with no self-reported neurological conditions were included (N = 207,595 women, mean age = 56.25 years, standard deviation = 8.01 years). Generalised linear regression models were computed to quantify the cross-sectional association between HRT and brain health, while controlling for APOE status, age, time since attending centre for completing brain health measure, surgical menopause status, smoking history, body mass index, education, physical activity, alcohol use, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, vascular/heart problems and diabetes diagnosed by doctor. Analyses of structural brain regions further controlled for scanner site. All brain volumes were normalised for head size. Two-way interactions between HRT and APOE status were modelled, in addition to three-way interactions including age. Results showed that women with the e4/e4 genotype who have used HRT had 1.82% lower hippocampal, 2.4% lower parahippocampal and 1.24% lower thalamus volumes than those with the e3/e3 genotype who had never used HRT. However, this interaction was not detected for measures of cognition. No clinically meaningful three-way interaction between APOE, HRT and age was detected when interpreted relative to the scales of the cognitive measures used and normative models of ageing for brain volumes in this sample. Differences in hippocampal volume between women with the e4/e4 genotype who have used HRT and those with the e3/e3 genotype who had never used HRT are equivalent to approximately 1–2 years of hippocampal atrophy observed in typical health ageing trajectories in midlife (i.e., 0.98%–1.41% per year). Effect sizes were consistent within APOE e4/e4 group post hoc sensitivity analyses, suggesting observed effects were not solely driven by APOE status and may, in part, be attributed to HRT use. Although, the design of this study means we cannot exclude the possibility that women who have used HRT may have a predisposition for poorer brain health

Recent research on changes in genomic regulation and protein expression in intracerebral haemorrhage

Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) is a devastating form of stroke that accounts for roughly 10% of all strokes and the effects on those that survive are often debilitating. To date, no suitable therapy exists. Recent work has examined alterations in gene and protein expression after ICH. The focus of this review is to outline the current knowledge of changes in genetic and protein expression after ICH and how those changes may affect the course of brain injury. Both animal and human data are reviewed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73607/1/j.1747-4949.2007.00160.x.pd