Landmark-based morphometric and meristic variations of endangered mrigal carp, Cirrhinus cirrhosus (Bloch 1795), from wild and hatchery stocks

Wild stocks of endangered mrigal carp, Cirrhinus cirrhosus (Bloch 1795), continues to decline rapidly in the Indo-Ganges river basin. With an objective to evaluate its population status, landmark-based morphometric and meristic variations among three different stocks viz., hatchery (Jessore), baor (Gopalganj) and river (Faridpur) in Bangladesh were studied. Significant differences were observed in 10 of the 15 morphometric measurements viz., head length, standard length, fork length, length of base of spinous, pre-orbital length, eye length, post-orbital length, length of upper jaw, height of pelvic fin and barbel length, two of the 8 meristic counts viz., scales above the lateral line and pectoral fin rays and 10 of the 22 truss network measurements viz., 1 to 10, 2 to 3, 2 to 8, 2 to 9, 2 to 10, 3 to 4, 3 to 8, 4 to 5, 4 to 7 and 9 to 10 among the stocks. For morphometric and landmark measurements, the 1st discriminant function (DF) accounted for 58.1% and the 2nd DF accounted for 41.9% of the among-group variability. In discriminant space, the river stock was isolated from the other two stocks. On the other hand, baor and hatchery stocks formed a very compact cluster. A dendrogram based on the hierarchical cluster analysis using morphometric and truss distance data placed the hatchery and baor in one cluster and the river in another cluster and the distance between the river and hatchery populations was the highest. Morphological differences among stocks are expected, because of their geographical isolation and their origin from different ancestors. The baseline information derived from the present study would be useful for genetic studies and in the assessment of environmental impacts on C. cirrhosus populations in Bangladesh

Association between peri-operative angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-2 receptor blockers and acute kidney injury in major elective non-cardiac surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study

The peri-operative use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers is thought to be associated with an increased risk of postoperative acute kidney injury. To reduce this risk, these agents are commonly withheld during the peri-operative period. This study aimed to investigate if withholding angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers peri-operatively reduces the risk of acute kidney injury following major non-cardiac surgery. Patients undergoing elective major surgery on the gastrointestinal tract and/or the liver were eligible for inclusion in this prospective study. The primary outcome was the development of acute kidney injury within seven days of operation. Adjusted multi-level models were used to account for centre-level effects and propensity score matching was used to reduce the effects of selection bias between treatment groups. A total of 949 patients were included from 160 centres across the UK and Republic of Ireland. From this population, 573 (60.4%) patients had their angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers withheld during the peri-operative period. One hundred and seventy-five (18.4%) patients developed acute kidney injury; there was no difference in the incidence of acute kidney injury between patients who had their angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers continued or withheld (107 (18.7%) vs. 68 (18.1%), respectively; p = 0.914). Following propensity matching, withholding angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-2 receptor blockers did not demonstrate a protective effect against the development of postoperative acute kidney injury (OR (95%CI) 0.89 (0.58–1.34); p = 0.567)

Intensification of “mola” (Amblypharyngodon mola) culture in homestead ponds

The research was carried out with small indigenous fish species (SIS) named mola (Amblypharyngadan mola) in monoculture system to intensify production in farmers’ homestead ponds with 50% household women involvement during June to December, 2016. Brood mola was stocked at the rate of 2, 4 and 6 m-2 with three replications in each treatment. Supplementary feed (27.1% protein) consisted of commonly available agricultural by-products was provided daily at the rate of 2% of the total biomass along with natural feed as mola is planktivorous species. Seven different water quality parameters were measured fortnightly and found within cultivable range. Gross production of mola were obtained 520.59±23.4, 599.06±258.87, 1063.94±42.87 kg ha-1 from T1, T2 and T3, respectively after 4 months’ culture period. The yield of T3 was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than T1 and T2. The highest gross production was obtained in T3 where stocking density was 6 brood mola m-2

Application of probiotics and prebiotics for promoting growth of Tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon): an approach to eco-friendly shrimp aquaculture

The current study has been conducted to evaluate the growth performance of shrimp (Penaeus monodon) by applying eco-friendly culture mechanism like prebiotics and probiotics. The experiment was carried out for 95 days in different shrimp farms at coastal district of Bagerhat, Bangladesh. Three different treatments viz., probiotic treated as T1, prebiotics treated as T2 and both probiotics and prebiotics as T3 with a control group were designed to conduct the experiment. The size of the experimental ponds was five acre and the stocking density was 4/m2 in each treatment. CP NASA shrimp feed (32% protein) was given thrice in a day during the study period. After 95 days of culture period, the maximum weight gain was observed at T3 (33.78±0.18 g) whereas the minimum weight gain was observed at control group (25.69±0.10 g). The survival rate was the highest in T3 (89.01%) followed by T2 (75.51%) and T1 (53.44%) and the lowest rate was observed in control group (50.88%). Overall production was higher in T3 (833.78 kg ha-1) compared to T2 (553.40 kg ha-1), T1 (447.84 kg ha-1) and Control group (310.57 kg ha-1). pH value was found to maximum in T3 (7.71±0.08) and it was minimum in T1 (7.41±0.10). In addition, the maximum TAN value was found to be 2.22±0.19 mg L-1 in C pond and it was minimum in T3 (0.32±0.06 mg L-1). Therefore, it could be concluded that combine application of probiotics and prebiotics might be the reliable media to enhance production of shrimp by maintaining eco-friendly environment in aquaculture

Toward gravitational wave detection

An overview of some tools and techniques being developed for data conditioning (regression of instrumental and environmental artifacts from the data channel), detector design evaluation (modeling the science "reach" of alternative detector designs and configurations), noise simulations for mock data challenges and analysis system validation, and analyses for the detection of gravitational radiation from gamma-ray burst sources

Occurrence and characterization of multidrugresistant new delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1- producing bacteria isolated between 2003 and 2010 in Bangladesh

The purpose of this study was to screen for reduced susceptibility against imipenem and the presence of the New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) gene in a collection of Enterobacteriaceae (Escherichia coli, Shigella spp. and Klebsiella pneumoniae) from different surveillance studies between 2003 and 2010 at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. None of the E. coli (n51789) and Shigella spp. (n590) isolated between 2009 and 2010 from stool samples was resistant or had intermediate susceptibility to imipenem. Among 127 extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing strains isolated during 2003-2009, three Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates (2.4 %) were resistant to imipenem and were positive for blaNDM-1. All these NDM-1-producing strains were isolated in 2008 and were resistant to all antibiotics tested except for tigecycline and colistin. All three isolates were positive for blaOXA-1 group, blaCTX-M-1 group (blaCTX-M-15) and blaSHV genes, whilst two isolates were positive for 16S rRNA methylase (armA) and qnr (qnrB) genes. One isolate was positive for the blaCMY gene and one for the rmtB gene. The blaNDM-1 gene was located on a conjugative plasmid of