Thyroid profile in depression: a cross-sectional study from North-East India

Background: Thyroid function disorder is a common feature in depression, with mixed type of response. Some cases are associated with hyperthyroidism and most commonly hypothyroidism. Unipolar and bipolar depressions are also related differently in consideration to thyroid status. This study comprises of assessment of the thyroid disorder prevalence in depressive patients and comparative analysis among unipolar and bipolar groups.Methods: Study consisted of 161 unipolar and 160 bipolar cases of depression as diagnosed by ICD 10 criteria supported by MINI. Thyroid profiling was done against common thyroid hormones TSH, T3, T4 and FT4 by standard method.Results: Gender wise males were dominant with majority in bipolar group in the younger age group. Most of the cases were normal with few hyperthyroid and hypothyroid cases. Bipolar group comprised the majority of overt hyperthyroid, overt hypothyroid and subclinical hyperthyroid cases, whereas unipolars were more in the subclinical hypothyroid category.Conclusions: This study concludes that differences exist in the thyroid response among the unipolar and bipolar depression group, more prominent numbers of hypothyroidism in unipolar group

AAUOKHYB -1 : An excellent Okra hybrid developed by Assam Agricultural University (AAU) suitable for diverse agro-climatic situation of North East India

A hybrid development programme on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) was undertaken at the Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat. The work included collection and evaluation of okra germplasm, identification of parents for hybridization, selfing of identified parental lines, making crosses and production of hybrid seeds, testing of hybrids for yield and resistance to Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus (YVMV) disease, adaptability under diverse agro-climatic condition and testing in all India trials. The programme resulted in development and identification of excellent Okra hybrid AAUOKHYB-1 in 2017.  The performance of the hybrid was very good under diverse agro-climatic conditions yielding about 162.0 q/ha fruit yield which is 32.5% higher than the best commercial check Arka Anamika. The hybrid showed resistant (R) reaction to YVMV disease. A wide range of heterosis upto 43% was exhibited by the hybrid in different vegetable research centers of the country as compared to the best check variety

Elyyal oleate synthesis by Porcine pancreatic lypase in organic solvent

The Porcine pancreatic lipase catalysed esterification of oleic acid with ethanol was studied in 10 different solvents with constant initial water content in the reaction mixture. The initial rates of the esterification reaction were attempted to correlate with such solvent properties as hydrophobicity (log P), water solubility (Sw), dielectric constant, electron pair acceptance and donation index (expressed as EN T + DNN), polarisability etc. While significantly good linear correlations with log P and log Sw were obtained, the correlations with the other properties were found to be inferior. The kinetics of the reactions was found to conform to the so-called Ping-Pong-Bi-Bi model with ethanol inhibition effect and the estimated model parameters exhibited statistically significant correlation with log P consistent to its correlation with the initial rate. Assuming that organic solvents do not interfere with the lipase–substrate binding process nor with the catalytic mechanism, the contribution of substrate–solvent interactions to enzyme kinetics was accounted for by replacing the substrate concentrations of the intrinsic kinetic equations by thermodynamic activities. The values of the corrected intrinsic parameters (Km, ksp) and the maximal rate (Vmax) were found to be nearly equal for all the medi

Insect pests of tea and their management

Globally, 1031 species of arthropods are associated with the intensively managed tea Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze monoculture. All parts of the plant, leaf, stem, root, flower, and seed, are fed upon by at least one pest species, resulting in an 11%–55% loss in yield if left unchecked. There has been heavy use of organosynthetic pesticides since the 1950s to defend the plant against these pests, leading to rapid conversion of innocuous species into pests, development of resistance, and undesirable pesticide residues in made tea. As a result of importer and consumer concerns, pesticide residues have become a major problem for the tea industry. Integrated pest management (IPM) may help to overcome the overuse of pesticides and subsequent residues.We review the advances made in our understanding of the biology and ecology of major insect and mite pests of tea, host plant resistance, cultural practices, biocontrol measures, and need-based application of botanicals and safer pesticides to understand the present status of IPM and to identify future challenges to improvement

Transesterification of 2-o- benzylglycerol with vinyl acetate by immobilized lipase : study of reaction and deactivation kinetics

The transesterification of 2o -benzylglycerol with vinyl acetate has been studied in dichloromethane using free and immobilized lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia with particular emphasis on the effect of the pertinent variables and kinetic aspects of the reaction. The activity of the immobilized lipase was found to be maximum in the temperature range of 3050 ° C, and it retained about one-third of the initial activity up to the third cycle after repeated use. The kinetics of the reaction was analysed by the so-called Ping Pong Bi Bi mechanism, and the model parameters were estimated by nonlinear regression analysis using Marquard’s technique. The immobilized lipase, which had the activity in general, 3 times greater than that of the free lipase was deactivated by both temperature and vinyl acetate. The deactivation was found to be insignificant up to a certain level of vinyl acetate concentration above which, however the lipase activity fell rapidly. The deactivation kinetics was analysed by using a mathematical model which accounts for a series type of reaction mechanism

Decision Making in Optimizing a Product of a Small Scale Industry: A Bayesian Analysis Approach

This paper intends to find Expected monetary value (EMV), Expected opportunity loss (EOL) and conditional profit of the main product (Mukta) of a small scale industry–“ORGAMAN” situated at Jorhat District of Assam. To meet the above specific objectives, the method of Bayesian Analysis has been adopted. The data used in this endeavor is secondary in nature, collected by direct personal investigation. As per prior information, the target of the industry is to produce a minimum of 50 MT (low production) of product and a maximum of 350 MT (high production) of the same per month. The prior analysis reveals that the expected monetary value and expected opportunity loss are optimum against high production. Based on both the prior analysis and posterior analysis, it is observed that the profit for the product of the industry is maximum against high production of 350 MT per month. Although, the profit based on posterior analysis is slightly high, it seems that the additional amount of money has to be spend to collect additional information for posterior analysis