Live food organisms – Artemia Part II - Artemia cyst and biomass production

The brine shrimp, Artemia a crustacean which is naturally found in hypersaline waters throughout most of the world, has become the most important source of live-feed for the last twenty years. All its life stages such as cysts after decapsulation, freshly hatched nauplii, juveniles, preadults and adults, are used as live-feed according to the feed-size requirement of the predator. Artemia decapsulated cysts and freshly hatched nauplii form as ideal food for the larvae of cultured fish and crustaceans in their hatchery phase while juveniles, pre adults and adults form as suitable diet for prawn/fish juveniles in their nursery phase

Live food organisms – Artemia Part I. Artemia cysts and their utilization

Extensive literature reveals that only very few organisms have been utilized as live feed of which the brine shrimp Artemia, is the most important one. In the growing aquaculture industry, a great demand exists for Arteinia cysts which form as dried inert food source. In these cysts embryos, after development upto gastrula stage, are kept in diapause. The cysts are brownish in colour and mi^asure about 0.3 mm in diameter. When dehydrated, they are biconcave in shape

Large scale phytoplankton batch cultures for rearing of marine prawn larvae

Successful rearing of penaeid prawn larvae depends on the continuous availability of desired species of phytoplankton. A breakthrough in the culture of penaeid larvae was achieved by Japanese scientist Hudinaga when he was able to cultu re the diatom Skeletonema cost8tum to feed the Penaeus japonicus larvae

A Study to correlate Serum Prolactin and Child Pugh Scoring in Cirrhosis

BACKGROUND: Cirrhosis is a condition in which hepatocytes are replaced by fibrosis of liver parenchyma. Various metabolic derangements occur secondary to cirrhosis. The severity of cirrhosis is classically assessed by child pugh scoring, no biomarker has been determined. Prolactin seems to be elevated in cirrhotic individuals and its increase is similar to the severity of cirrhosis as assessed by childpugh. In this study we prove the correlation between child pugh severity and serum prolactin as a marker for severity of cirrhosis. OBJECTIVES: To determine the correlation between serum prolactin levels and child pugh scoring in cirrhosis. METHODOLOGY: 100 patients of cirrhosis of varied etiology both men and women, determined to have cirrhosis by clinical, biochemical evidence and the presence of esophageal varices, ascites with albumin gradient more than 1.1grms/l and imaging evidence. Patients with age less than 18yrs,acute liver cell failure, chronic kidney disease, hypothyroidism, head injury, drugs increasing serum prolactin levels. RESULTS: Among the 100 cirrhosis patients, statistically significant difference of serum prolactin level is noted between child B class (majority) and child A class with a p value of <o.o5 as per fischers exact test. CONCLUSION: The patients belonging to child A are associated with normal serum prolactin levels and patients belonging to child C class have elevated serum prolactin level

Rhythms in the biting behaviour of a mosquito Armigeres subalbatus

The biting cycle of Armigeres subalbatus is distinctly crepuscular, exhibiting two peaks of activity, a smaller one at dawn and a larger one at dusk. The biting cycle is entrained to natural light-dark cycles and the time interval from dawn to dawn or dusk to dusk peaks is exactly 24 h and from dawn to dusk or dusk to dawn is about 12 h measured at 50% level. This rhythm manifests itself day after day without any marked qualitative change. The rate of change of light intensity may determine the onset of crepuscular biting. The sudden increase (up to ca. 17 lx) or decrease (down to ca. 4 lx) in the intensity of ambient light at the time of sunrise or sunset coincides with the peak of the biting activity. The density of the population of the host-seeking females fluctuates in relation to the phases of the moon, increasing with the full moon phase and decreasing with the new moon phase. Even though the density of the population is greater outdoors than indoors both at ground levels and in the first floor, the peak of activity occurs at the same time in all the places. A vertical stratification of biting activity was also noticed

The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey - III: Distances and Luminosities

We derive kinematic distances to the 86 6.7 GHz methanol masers discovered in the Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey. The systemic velocities of the sources were derived from 13CO (J=2-1), CS (J=5-4), and NH3 observations made with the ARO Submillimeter Telescope, the APEX telescope, and the Effelsberg 100 m telescope, respectively. Kinematic distance ambiguities were resolved using HI self-absorption with HI data from the VLA Galactic Plane Survey. We observe roughly three times as many sources at the far distance compared to the near distance. The vertical distribution of the sources has a scale height of ~ 30 pc, and is much lower than that of the Galactic thin disk. We use the distances derived in this work to determine the luminosity function of 6.7 GHz maser emission. The luminosity function has a peak at approximately 10^{-6} L_sun. Assuming that this luminosity function applies, the methanol maser population in the Large Magellanic Cloud and M33 is at least 4 and 14 times smaller, respectively, than in our Galaxy.Comment: Accepted by Ap

FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF MARINE RED ALGAE HYPNEA MUSCIFORMIS

Objective: The study focused on determining the antioxidant properties of the Hypnea musciformis methanol crude extracts, from the red algae.Methods: The evaluation of antioxidant properties was determined by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azinobis 3ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), nitric oxide scavenging assay (NO), reducing power, superoxide radical scavenging (SOD), hydroxyl and hydrogen peroxide radical assay, the metal chelating activity as well as phosphomolypdenum assay.Results: Among the tested red algae, the maximum antioxidant activity was recorded in the methanol extract of Hypnea musciformis. Whereas methanolic crude extract of red algae and diatom showed good antioxidant potential.Conclusion: This study suggests that methanolic crude extracts contain different potential antioxidant compounds capable to scavenge different types of free radicals.Â