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Not AvailableEnd-users acceptance has been major obstacle to the success of new technology. Attitude is vital for acceptance and sustainability of new technology or knowledge interventions. The study envisaged to evaluate the attitude of dairy farmers towards aAQUA (Almost All Questions Answered) e-Agriservice. A Likert-type-scale was developed, consisted of 22-items, covered under four construct, viz., pessimistic, utility, technical and efficacy perspectives. Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α=0.91) of reliability test was measured. Instrument was administered to randomly selected, 120 users of aAQUA in four districts of Maharashtra covering four zones of state during 2012-13. The results indicated that about one third (32.50%) of the users had more favourable attitude towards the aAQUA e-Agriservice followed by 24.17 per cent of the users with favourable attitude. The existing and proposed ICT based services in India would undertake this scale considering four perspectives for developing favourable attitude of end-users and for its effective utilization and sustainability. This study enhances value to the body of knowledge in evaluation and theory building through understanding the attitude about ICT based e-Agriservice from different perspective.Not Availabl

Dietary inclusion of plant ingredients induces epigenetic changes in the intestine of zebrafish

Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, can be regulated by nutrition and dietary factors. There has been a large increase in the use of sustainable plant-based protein sources in fish feed due to limitations of fishmeal resources, which are needed to sustain a rapidly growing aquaculture industry. With this major transition from marine ingredients to plant-based diets, fish are abruptly introduced to changes in dietary composition and exposed to a variety of phytochemicals, some of which known to cause epigenetic changes in mammals. However, the effect of plant ingredients on the epigenome of fish is barely understood. In the present study, the nutriepigenomic effects of the addition of pea, soy, and wheat gluten protein concentrate to aquafeeds were investigated using zebrafish as a model. A genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation patterns was performed by reduced representation bisulphite sequencing to examine global epigenetic alterations in the mid intestine after a 42-day feeding trial. We found that inclusion of 30% of wheat gluten, pea and soy protein concentrate in the diet induced epigenetic changes in the mid intestine of zebrafish. A large number of genes and intergenic regions were differentially methylated with plant-based diets. The genes concerned were related to immunity, NF‐κB system, ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, MAPK pathway, and the antioxidant defence system. Epigenetic regulation of several biological processes, including neurogenesis, cell adhesion, response to stress and immunity was also observed. Ultimately, the observed epigenetic changes may enable zebrafish to rapidly regulate inflammation and maintain intestinal homoeostasis when fed plant protein–based diets