Effects of organic manuring (chicken droppings) on growth of Labeo rohita Ham. spawn

An experiment was conducted in six nursery ponds to determine the effect of different doses of organic fertilizer (chicken droppings) on growth and survival of Labeo rohita spawn. Ponds were stocked with four-days old L. rohita spawn at a density of 25 g/decimal and reared for 25 days. Three doses of organic fertilizer viz. 20kg, 10 kg and 5kg per decimal were tried in treatments Tp T2 and T3 respectively with two replication each. Fry were fed twice a day with a mixture of fine mustard oil cake and rice bran at the ratio of 1:1. The highest growth (6.33 em and 3.33 g) and survival rate (72.30%) were observed for the treatment T2. Physico-chemical and biological parameters were found within the productive range for all the treatments

Solution structures of gycosaminoglycans and their interactions with complement factor H

Factor H (FH), a complement regulatory protein comprised of 20 SCR domains, is able to discriminate host from pathogen cell surfaces by recognising glycosaminoglycans such as heparan sulphate on host cells to protect these from complement attack. Heparin is an analogue of HS. FH has heparin and HS binding sites located at SCR-6/8 and SCR-19/20. While the structure of FH is known from Xray solution scattering and analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), the effects of heparin and HS on intact FH are not yet known. To evaluate the interactions with FH, solution structures of heparin fragments were determined by a combination of Xray solution scattering, AUC and constrained scattering modelling. These results revealed that heparin fragments starting from dp18 progressively show higher degrees of bending up to dp36, and resemble known crystal structures of heparinprotein complexes. Similar structural studies on similar-sized HS fragments showed that HS fragments exhibit more bent structures than heparin. This greater bending in HS fragments might be due to the reduced degree of sulphation in HS molecules. To assess the effect of heparin and HS fragments on intact FH, FH was studied in the presence of a range of purified heparin and HS fragments by scattering and AUC. The smallest heparin fragments showed little effect on the radius of gyration RG values of FH. Dramatic increases in the RG values were seen with the larger heparin sizes, and both AUC and scattering showed that a series of large but compact complexes were formed. In the presence of HS, smaller increases in oligomer formation were observed. The heparin- and HS-induced formation of oligomers in FH provide a first molecular picture of how FH may interact with host cell surfaces, and may facilitate an improved understanding of how extracellular deposits form on Bruch’s membrane during the development of age-related macular degeneration

Dietary protein and energy interations: an approach to optimizing dietary protein to energy ratio in walking catfish, Clarias batrachus

An 8 weeks feeding trial was conducted in a static indoor rearing system to investigate protein to energy ratio (PIE ratio) in walking catfish Clarias batrachus. Six fishmeal based diets of two protein levels (25 and 35%), each with three lipid levels (5, 10 and 15%) resulted in P/E ratios ranging from 13.57 to 21.97 mg protein kJˉ¹ gross energy (GE) were fed to 50 fish in triplicate. Fish were fed 6% of their body weight three times per day adjusted fortnightly. Significantly higher (p0.05) values of protein utilisation were found in between the both (higher and lower) protein diets. Higher lipid deposition (p<0.05) in whole body was observed with increasing dietary lipid level at each protein diet and as higher (p<0.05) for the lower protein diets. The study reveals that C. batrachus performed best the diet containing 35%, 17.06 kJ gˉ¹ and 20.55 mg protein kJ gˉ¹ GE protein, gross energy and P/E ratio respectively

Culture potentials of climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch) under different stocking densities at semi-intensive management

Anabas testudineus was cultured at different stocking density for the period of five months from May to September. Three stocking densities such as 50,000 (Treatment-1, T1), 56,250 (Treatment-2, T2) and 62,250/ha (Treatment-3, T3) were tested with three replications. After five months rearing, the mean weights of koi were 46.74±2.59, 40.44±2.98 and 37.27±3.01 in T-1, 2 and 3, respectively. The calculated production of native koi in T1 T2 and T3 were 1,916±314, 1,774.31 ±260 and 1,431 ±297 kg/ha, respectively which were significantly different (p<0.05) from each other

Rapid bioassay-guided isolation of antibacterial clerodane type diterpenoid from Dodonaea viscosa (L.) Jaeq

Plant extracts are complex matrices and, although crude extracts are widely in use, purified compounds are pivotal in drug discovery. This study describes the application of automated preparative-HPLC combined with a rapid off-line bacterial bioassay, using reduction of a tetrazolium salt as an indicator of bacterial metabolism. This approach enabled the identification of fractions from Dodonaea viscosa that were active against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, which, ultimately, resulted in the identification OPEN ACCESS of a clerodane type diterpenoid, 6\u3b2-hydroxy-15,16-epoxy-5\u3b2, 8\u3b2, 9\u3b2, 10\u3b1-cleroda-3, 13(16), 14-trien-18-oic acid, showing bacteriostatic activity (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) = 64\u2013128 \u3bcg/mL) against test bacteria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on antibacterial activity of this metabolite from D. viscosa

Biological screening and docking studies of unique hybrids synthesized by conventional versus microwave assisted techniques

Purpose: To carry out the synthesis of various hybrids of 1,2,4-triazole in search of potential therapeutic enzyme inhibitory agents, and carry out docking and bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding studies on docking and bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding studies on the hybrids. Methods: The target compounds were synthesized by following a multistep protocol. Compound 1 was synthesized from 4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl chloride (a) and ethyl isonipecotate (b). Compound 1 was refluxed with hydrazine to synthesize compound 2, which was converted to compound 3 through two consecutive steps. Compound 4 and different amines (5a-5i), were utilized to synthesize an array of electrophiles (6a-6i). A series of 1,2,4-triazole hybrids (7a-7i) were synthesized at room temperature by stirring together 3 and 6a-6i. The final structures of 7a-7i were elucidated through 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and EI-MS spectroscopy. The BSA binding studies were performed by fluorometric titration. Furthermore, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities were determined colorimetrically. Results: Compound 7d was the most active antioxidant agent, compared to butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), while compounds 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g and 7i proved to be potent urease inhibitors with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 19.5 ± 0.12, 21.1 ± 0.68, 18.2 ± 0.78, 19.9 ± 0.77 and 17.9 ± 0.10 µM, respectively, compared to thiourea with an IC50 of 24.3 ± 0.24 µM. Compounds 7a, 7b, 7d, and 7e exhibited high butyrylcholinesterase inhibition potential, compared to eserine. Conclusion: The synthesized compounds require studies further as potential therapeutic enzyme inhibitory agents in view of their urease inhibition as well as antioxidant activity

A cache-based approach toward improved scheduling in fog computing

Fog computing is a promising technique to reduce the latency and power consumption issues of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem by enabling storage and computational resource close to the end-user devices with additional benefits such as improved execution time and processing. However, with an increase in IoT devices, the resource allocation and job scheduling became a complicated and cumbersome task due to limited and heterogeneous resources along with the locality restriction in such computing environment. Therefore, this paper proposes a cache-based approach for efficient resource allocation in fog computing environment, while maintaining the quality of service. The proposed algorithm is realized using iFogSim simulator and a comprehensive comparison is presented with the traditional First Come First Served and Shortest Job First policies. The performance evaluation revealed that with the proposed scheme the execution time, latency, processing delays and power consumption decreased by 38%, 11.1%, 6%, and 17.8%, respectively, as compared to those of the traditional schemes

A homozygous AKNA frameshift variant is associated with microcephaly in a Pakistani family

Primary microcephaly (MCPH) is a prenatal condition of small brain size with a varying degree of intellectual disability. It is a heterogeneous genetic disorder with 28 associated genes reported so far. Most of these genes encode centrosomal proteins. Recently, AKNA was recognized as a novel centrosomal protein that regulates neurogenesis via microtubule organization, making AKNA a likely candidate gene for MCPH. Using linkage analysis and whole-exome sequencing, we found a frameshift variant in exon 12 of AKNA (NM_030767.4: c.2737delG) that cosegregates with microcephaly, mild intellectual disability and speech impairment in a consanguineous family from Pakistan. This variant is predicted to result in a protein with a truncated C-terminus (p.(Glu913Argfs*42)), which has been shown to be indispensable to AKNA’s localization to the centrosome and a normal brain development. Moreover, the amino acid sequence is altered from the beginning of the second of the two PEST domains, which are rich in proline (P), glutamic acid (E), serine (S), and threonine (T) and common to rapidly degraded proteins. An impaired function of the PEST domains may affect the intracellular half-life of the protein. Our genetic findings compellingly substantiate the predicted candidacy, based on its newly ascribed functional features, of the multifaceted protein AKNA for association with MCPH