Serum lipid profile and retinol in rats fed micronutrient rich edible vegetable oil blend

Khan HN, Farooqi H, Ali S, Khan JS. 2010. Serum lipid profile and retinol in rats fed micronutrient rich edible vegetable oil blend. Nusantara Bioscience 2: 109-116. The animal rats were given 10% oil mixed in fat free diet for one month or six months. In the experiment, the groups of rats were fed with the micronutrient (MN) rich blends mixed previously with 1% cholesterol, and their effects were tested on serum lipid profile. Most significant changes in the High Dencity Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were observed in one-month study where HDL increased from 24 mg/dl in group to 64 mg/dl in the Mustard palm olein oil blend (MP); in mustard oil (MO) alone fed rats, the HDL was 36 mg/dl. Serum retinol was analyzed as one of the important MN in rats receiving the diet mixed with the blend for various duration of time. The results assume great significance as MO or palm olein oil (PO) alone could not bring the maximum beneficial effects, and the blends appear to have more merit as health oils in alleviating adverse health condition such as coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes, obesity and hypertension

The SER Analysis of Rayleigh, Rician and Nakagami Channels at Various Relay Locations in Cooperative Networks

Reliable communication between transmitter and receiver is accomplished by cooperative diversity techniques. Sending of data in various paths has greatly improved the performance of communication. We have studied the performance of Amplify-and-Forward (AF) based network in this work for diverse relay location at Nakagami, Rician and Rayleigh fading channels. The relay performance in Amplify-and-Forward (AF) protocol based on Symbol Error Rate (SER) against Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) in dBs is calculated. The software that is used to construct Monte-Carlo link level simulation is MATLAB. The effects of a relay at changed location in diverse channels accompanied with Additive White Gaussian noise (AWGN) is also calculated. BPSK modulation scheme is used for the transfer of information between the source, relay and destination node. The signals are combined through Maximum Ratio Combining method (MRC).Reliable communication between transmitter and receiver is accomplished by cooperative diversity techniques. Sending of data in various paths have greatly improved the performance of communication. We have studied the performance of Amplify-and-Forward (AF) based network in this work for diverse relay location at Nakagami, Rician and Rayleigh fading channels. The relay performance in Amplify-and-Forward (AF) protocol based on Symbol Error Rate (SER) against Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) in dBs is calculated. The software that is used to construct Monte-Carlo link level simulation is MATLAB. The effects of relay at changed location in diverse channels accompanied with Additive White Gaussian noise (AWGN) is also calculated. BPSK modulation scheme is used for the transfer of information between the source, relay and destination node. The signals are combined through Maximum Ratio Combining method (MRC)

An investigation of two universities’ postgraduate students and their teachers’ perceptions of policy and practice of English Medium of Instruction (EMI) in Pakistani universities

In this thesis, I examine the perceptions of university staff and postgraduate students to explore the relation between policy and practice of English as the Medium of In-struction (EMI) in Pakistani universities. The theoretical framework of the study comprises literature on language in education policy, language in education goals, the status of English and World English. Findings from qualitative and quantitative data collected from students and staff in two public universities are compared to identify the perceptions of issues concerning EMI for postgraduate study. The findings indi-cate that although EMI is accepted as compulsory in Pakistani universities for post-graduate study, it is not fully implemented. The evidence supports the view that multi-lingualism, cultural diversity and ethnicity present challenges to the country’s national integration and the formulation and implementation of an effective language policy. The perceptions support the view that in Pakistan, English is required for socio-economic development and higher education and symbolises liberal values. However, the views signifying pride in local culture and national language highlight a potential conflict between modernity and tradition. The findings show a number of practices that indicate a pragmatic approach to implementation of the English medium policy. It appears that not only do postgraduate students express their preference for using Urdu in classroom but highly qualified university teachers’ views, under the plea of covering up their own deficiencies in English, show an inclination towards using Urdu in the classroom to accommodate students from diverse educational backgrounds. University faculty consult and provide reading material in English but postgraduate students find language and content of curriculum challenging because of their need for English language and lack of familiarity with foreign culture and philosophical ideology. Postgraduate students experience academic challenges arising from EMI which are demonstrated by their hesitation to speak English in classroom, difficulties of understanding teachers’ lectures, confusion of interpreting reading texts and stress of academic writing. The university teachers claim that their postgraduate students use memorisation as a strategy to get through the examinations rather than working ar-dently towards the development of academic skills. The responses suggest that solu-tions may lie in the area of reducing the anxiety that postgraduate students experience as a consequence of their language learning difficulties. The participants express their preference for using Pakistani English (PakE) in the study context. Motivation might act as an effective strategy to assist students to overcome their language problems. These views suggest that universities can enhance the communication skills of postgraduate students through the inclusion of English language proficiency courses in their curricula to support language development and possibly avoid foreign language anxiety. The professional development programmes should train University staff with strategies for teaching postgraduate students using EMI. It would seem advisable that the University can encourage the use of PakE by giving it recognition as an acceptable variety of English in the University context

Isolation and structure elucidation of a new oleanane type glycoside from the aerial portion of Cestrum nocturnum

Cestrum nocturnum (Solanaceae) is an ornamental plant cultivated in various parts of the world due to its sweet-scented white flowers. It is commonly called night-blooming Jessamine (Raat ki Rani). The genus is known for its toxicity to feedents. The leaves may cause uneasiness in animals which may lead to severe gastroenteritis. The plant is known to be a rich source of pharmacologically active saponins. Looking to its various pharmacological activities as reported, the plant was explored for the isolation of new phytochemicals. During the process, a new oleanen type glycoside was isolated from the butanolic fraction of the leaves of Cestrum nocturnum and was characterized as 3-O-β-D-xylopyranoside-olean-12-en-28-oic acid-28-O-β-arabinopyranosyl-(1-3)-β-D-galacto-pyranosyl-(1-2)-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-4)-β-D-glucopyranosyl ester, along with two reported compounds nocturnoside A and karativoside A. The structure was elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR and mass spectrometry.   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2020, 34(1), 141-148. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v34i1.1

Functional characterization of fifteen hundred transcripts from Ziarat juniper (Juniperus excelsa M.Bieb)

Background: Ziarat juniper (Juniperus excelsa M.Bieb) is an evergreen and dominant species of Balochistan juniper forests. This forest is providing many benefits to regional ecosystems and surrounding populations. No functional genomics study is reported for this important juniper plant. This research is aimed to characterize the Ziarat juniper functional genome based on the analyses of 1500 transcripts.  Methods: Total RNA from shoot of Juniperus excelsa was extracted and subjected for transcriptome sequencing using Illumina HiSeq 2000 with the service from Macrogen, Inc., South Korea. The Illumina sequenced data was subjected to bioinformatics analysis. Quality assessment and data filtration was performed for the removal of low-quality reads, ambiguous reads and adaptor sequences. The high-quality clean reads data was deposited in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) at NCBI, and used for downstream processes. Fifteen hundred transcripts were randomly chosen and used for functional characterization.Results: As a result of homology search 80.3% transcripts showed significant similarities and were placed  in significant similarities category, 19.3% transcripts showed low similarities and assigned to the ‘‘unclassified’’ category while 0.4% transcripts are defined as no hits. The functional characterization results showed that most (18%) of the transcripts are involved in metabolism, followed by 11.7% in transcription and 11.5% as structural protein. 8.8% transcripts are engaged in stress response, whereas the transcripts involved in growth and development constituted 6.7%. Transcripts involved in signal transduction represented 5.6%, while 3.5% facilitating transport and 34.1% are involved in hypothetical functions.Conclusion: The functional annotation data produced in this study will be very useful for future functional genome analysis of Juniperus excelsa.

Comparative Analysis of Microbial Prevalence in Normal and Endometritic cows

The objective of this study was to perform a comparative analysis of microbial prevalence in normal and endometritic cows. To determine the causative microbes of endometritis, cows were divided into four groups, comprising 10 cows each. Group A: normal cows with no signs and symptoms. Group B: Young stock (fit for breeding) cows suffering from endometritis. Group C: milking cows suffering from Endometritis. Group D: dry cows suffering from Endometritis. Three sterile swabs were collected from all cows of four groups, thus making a total of 120 samples. Bacterial isolation and identification was performed according to bergey’s manual. Most common pathogen in the uterus of endometritic cows were Escherichia coli and then Trueperella pyogenes > Salmonella enterica > Klebsiella pneumonia > Bacillus subtilis > Fusobacterium necrophorum > Proteus vulgaris > Staphylococcus aureus > Streptococcus pneumoniae. In normal cows, mostly numbers of isolates were gram positive. S. aureus was found to be most abundant in normal cows followed by S. pneumoniae, B. subtilis, T. pyogenes, E. coli and K. pneumoniae. Higher numbers of bacteria were found in endometritic cows as compared to normal cows. In conclusion, E. coli was found to be abundant pathogens in the diseased cows and S. aureus was mostly found in normal cows. This study provides information about prevalence of endometritis in cows which can be used as base to treat endometritic cows

Serum Lipid Profile and Retinol in Rats Fed Micronutrient Rich Edible Vegetable Oil Blend

Khan HN, Farooqi H, Ali S, Khan JS. 2010. Serum lipid profile and retinol in rats fed micronutrient rich edible vegetable oilblend. Nusantara Bioscience 2: 109-116. The animal rats were given 10% oil mixed in fat free diet for one month or six months. In theexperiment, the groups of rats were fed with the micronutrient (MN) rich blends mixed previously with 1% cholesterol, and their effectswere tested on serum lipid profile. Most significant changes in the High Dencity Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were observed in onemonthstudy where HDL increased from 24 mg/dl in group to 64 mg/dl in the Mustard palm olein oil blend (MP); in mustard oil (MO)alone fed rats, the HDL was 36 mg/dl. Serum retinol was analyzed as one of the important MN in rats receiving the diet mixed with theblend for various duration of time. The results assume great significance as MO or palm olein oil (PO) alone could not bring themaximum beneficial effects, and the blends appear to have more merit as health oils in alleviating adverse health condition such ascoronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes, obesity and hypertension