Influence of formulated diets with varying protein levels on growth and ammonia excretion in the fry of Indian major carp, Cirrhina mrigala

The influence of formulated isocaloric diets of different protein levels (30, 35, 40, 45 and 50%) on the growth and ammonia excretion of the Indian major carp Cirrhina mrigala fry was studied for a rearing period of four weeks in the laboratory. Fishmeal, groundnut oilcake and silkworm pupae formed the source of protein in all the diets. As the dietary protein level increased from 30 to 40%, the growth and conversion efficiency increased significantly. Further increase in the protein level resulted in decrease in growth and conversion efficiency. Growth rate, weight gain (%), and gross and net feed conversion efficiencies were maximum at 40% dietary protein level. Ammonia excretion was directly proportional to the level of protein in the diet

Owls of the forest’s edge

It looked like just a few random vertical poles stuck in between carefully-planted paddy fields adjoining the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. The poles were crudely fashioned and topped with flattened pads of hay, stuffed into polythene or white cloth bags

Hydrogen-bonded multilayer thin films and capsules based on poly(2-n-propyl-2-oxazoline) and tannic acid : investigation on intermolecular forces, stability, and permeability

In recent years, hydrogen-bonded multilayer thin films and capsules based on neutral and nontoxic building blocks have been receiving interest for the design of stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems and for the preparation of thin-film coatings. Capsule systems made of tannic acid (TA), a natural polyphenol, as a hydrogen bonding donor and poly(2-n-propyl-2-oxazoline) (PnPropOx), a polymer with lower critical solution temperature around 25 degrees C, as a hydrogen bonding acceptor are advantageous over other conventional hydrogen-bonded systems because of their high stability in physiological pH range, biocomparibility, good renal clearance, stealth behavior, and stimuli responsiveness for temperature and pH. In this work, investigations on the interactive forces in TA/PnPropOx capsule formation, film thickness, stability, and permeability are reported. The multilayer thin films were assembled on quartz substrates, and the layer-by-layer film growth was investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and profilometry. Hollow capsules were fabricated by sequential coating of TA and PnPropOx onto CaCO3 colloidal particles, followed by template dissolution with a 0.2 M ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid solution. The obtained capsules and multilayer thin films were found to be stable over a wide pH range of 2-9. It is found that both hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions are responsible for the enhanced stability of the capsules at higher pH range. Swelling followed by dissolution of the capsules was observed at a pH value lower than 2, while the capsules undergo shrinking at a pH value higher than 8 and finally transform into a particle-like morphology before dissolution. The TA/PnPropOx capsules reported here could be used as a temperature-responsive drug delivery system in controlled drug delivery applications

Conservation of a fragmented population of blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra)

The Vallanadu Blackbuck Sanctuary (VBS), Tamil Nadu, India is a small protected area (PA) designated to conserve blackbuck. We did a study on habitat use and suitability in the PA that has come under various management interventions. The occupancy of blackbuck was positively correlated with areas lying within the PA, but the encounter rate of blackbuck was significantly higher in areas outside the PA. Being small in size, VBS may not hold a large population of blackbucks, but may help in saving the species which once widely occurred in the southernmost parts of India

Identifying Genes Linked to Variation in Metabolic and Whole Plant Phenotypes using Data from Genome Resequencing, Transcriptomics, and Metabolic Profiling of a Field-Grown Maize Diversity Panel

Maize metabolism is highly complex and influenced by genetic variation, yet the specific genes contributing to this variation and their links to non-metabolic traits remain less understood. To address this knowledge gap, we identified genes involved in maize metabolic variation and linked them to non-metabolic traits. We utilized a quadruplicate dataset of whole genome resequencing, transcriptomic, metabolic, and whole plant phenotype data from a single common field experiment of 660 diverse maize inbred lines. Leaf samples were collected shortly before flowering and analyzed using GC-MS for 26 metabolites. A Resampling Model Inclusion Probability Genome-Wide Association Study (RMIPGWAS) of approximately 2.6 million SNPs was conducted for these metabolites, identifying 155 candidate genes, with 17 showing particularly strong signals. A parallel Transcriptome Wide Association Study (TWAS) identified 6 candidate genes. A random forest feature importance-based approach identified one overlapping gene, Cu(2+)-exporting ATPase, and other genes not found by TWAS. Three loci associated with metabolite traits were also linked to non-metabolic traits in RMIPGWAS of 41 non-metabolic traits, including whole plant phenotypes, hyperspectral, and photosynthetic traits. Key genes identified include Zm00001eb270570 (Theobromine synthase), Zm00001eb354560 (Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase), and Zm00001eb051410 (N-acetyl-gamma-glutamyl-phosphate reductase). Our analysis showed that each method identified unique sets of genes associated with metabolite variation, demonstrating the complementary nature of different genomic approaches. The use of machine learning techniques like RF is crucial for identifying genes from gene expression data. These findings facilitate further studies on the roles of these metabolites and genes in plant growth and development. Advisor: James C. Schnabl

BAY 61-3606, CDKi, and Sodium Butyrate Treatments Modulate p53 Protein Level and Its Site-Specific Phosphorylation in Human Vestibular Schwannomas In Vitro

This study is done to evaluate the effect of spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor (BAY 61-3606), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKi), and sodium butyrate (Na-Bu) on the level and phosphorylation of p53 protein and its binding to murine double minute 2 (MDM2) homologue in human vestibular schwannomas (VS). Primary cultures of the tumor tissues were treated individually with optimum concentrations of these small molecules in vitro. The results indicate modulation of p53 protein status and its binding ability to MDM2 in treated samples as compared to the untreated control. The three individual treatments reduced the level of total p53 protein. These treatments also decreased Ser392 and Ser15 phosphorylated p53 in tumor samples of young patients and Ser315 phosphorylated p53 in old patients. Basal level of Thr55 phosphorylated p53 protein was present in all VS samples and it remained unchanged after treatments. The p53 protein from untreated VS samples showed reduced affinity to MDM2 binding in vitro and it increased significantly after treatments. The MDM2/p53 ratio increased approximately 3-fold in the treated VS tumor samples as compared to the control. The differential p53 protein phosphorylation status perhaps could play an important role in VS tumor cell death due to these treatments that we reported previously

Adaptive and Efficient Hybrid In-loop Filter Based on Enhanced Generative Adversarial Networks with Sample Adaptive Offset Filter for HEVC/H-265

In this manuscript, an Adaptive and Efficient Hybrid In-loop Filter based on Enhanced Generative Adversarial Network Deblocking Filter (EGANDF) with Sample Adaptive Offset filter (EGANDF-SAO-HEVC) is proposed for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)/H-265. In this, the proposed hybrid in-loop filter involves EGANDF and Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) filter that lessens the blocking artifacts caused by block-wise processing for coding unit (CU), which is mainly used for improving the video quality. Initially, EGANDF is proposed for HEVC/H-265 for removing blocking artifacts along low computation. Here, the output of EGANDF is given to the SAO filter for reducing ringing artifacts by diminishing high-frequency components during quantization. Thus, the proposed method efficiently reduces artifacts for improving video quality performance. The proposed EGANDF-SAO-HEVC method is implemented in the working platform of HEVC reference software with MATLAB. Finally, the proposed EGANDF-SAO-HEVC model has attained 27.26%, 29.65%, 12.45% higher accuracy, 33.56%, 31.8%, 28.7% higher sensitivity, 34.7%, 33.5%, 32.6% higher specificity, 46.92%, 35.7%, 41.3% lower MSE, 25.7%, 29.7%, 35.6% higher PSNR, and 25.6%, 28.9%, 13.6% higher SSIM for using basketball video sequence when compared to the existing methods

Full C-Band Tunable V-Cavity-Laser based TOSA and SFP Transceiver Modules

We report the latest development in tunable transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) and small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers based on simple and compact V-cavity laser (VCL), aiming for low-cost deployment in metro, access and data center networks. The VCL employs a half-wave coupler to achieve high side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) and the Vernier effect to achieve a wide wavelength tuning range. Full C-band tuning from 1529.55-nm to 1566.31-nm with SMSR above 36 dB is demonstrated. Since the laser does not involve any grating or epitaxial regrowth, and has a simple tuning algorithm, it allows simpler processes for fabrication and testing as compared to other widely tunable laser structures. Compact TOSAs and SFP transceiver modules have been developed for full C-band tuning with up to 93 channels at 50 GHz spacing. Transmission experiments are carried out for direct modulation with data rates from 2.5 Gbps to 8.5 Gbps. The results of reliability tests of the modules are also presented

Landsman Converter Based Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

This paper proposes a novel control technique for landsman converter using particle swarm optimization. The controller parameters are optimized by pso algorithm,the proposed algorithm is compared with pid controller and the comparative results are presented. Simulation results shows the dynamic performance of pso controller. landsman converter reduction in output voltage ripple in the order of mV along with reduced settling time as compared to the conventional pid controller . The simulated results are executed in MATLAB/SIMULINK