Measuring the Influence of Bedding on Soil Nitrogen Losses and Corn Crop Nitrogen Characteristics for Fall Applied Solid Beef Cattle Manure in Eastern South Dakota

Nitrogen (N) is a major component of chlorophyll which plays a key role in the photosynthesis process in crops. The N is one of the highest demanded nutrients by all plants for their growth and reproduction. Manure or inorganic fertilizer is often applied to fulfill the crops’ N demand. However, the applied N sources have the potential of N losses in different forms from the soil volume in many ways such as ammonia (NH3) volatilization, aerial nitrous oxide (N2O) loss, nitrate (NO3 --N) leaching, and runoff and/or erosion. Soil fertility, crop yield, water quality, and air quality can be reduced by excessive N losses from the soil volume. The goal of this study was to understand the effect of fall-applied solid beef manure with bedding on nitrogen movement and transformations during corn production. The objectives of the research were to measure the N losses (NH3, N2O, and soil water NO3 --N concentration) from the soil for fallapplied N and corn production, then compare the impact of applied N form (solid beef cattle manure with bedding (MB), solid beef cattle manure only (MO), urea only (UO) and no-fertilizer (NF)), in Brookings County, SD. The methods for collecting samples for soil N losses were semi-static open chambers for NH3 flux, static chambers for N2O flux, and suction lysimeters for soil water. The applied N were 130 and 184 kg ha-1 in Year 1 and Year 2, respectively. The studied showed the average (±SE) soil NO3 --N for UO (105 ± 9 kg ha-1) was significantly higher than the remaining treatments; soil NO3 --N was 72 and 65 kg ha-1 for manure treatments MB and MO, respectively. The average (±SE) total soil NO3 --N for Year 1 (83 ± 6 kg ha-1) was significantly higher than Year 2 (67 ± 5 kg ha-1). However, the average total soil NO3 --N at Pre-plant stage was significantly higher than V6 and Postharvest stages in both years. The study results did not show any significant difference in total soil NO3 --N due to interaction of Treatment and Growth Stage. Furthermore, the average NH3 flux, and N2O flux were significantly affected by treatments. The highest N2O flux was produced by the UO (79.0 ± 24.9 μg m-2 h-1) plots, whereas the flux released from MB was 49.0 ± 15.1 μg m-2 h-1 and for MO it was 33.3 ± 10.3 μg m-2 h-1. The N2O flux obtained from UO was significantly higher than NF, while MB and MO-produced N2O fluxes were not significantly different than neither UO nor NF. The highest NH3 flux occurred from the MB treatment, which was 3.4 ± 0.9 g ha-1 h- 1, however this flux was only significantly different than NF. The NH3 fluxes from UO and MO were not significantly different than MB and NF. The average (±SE) N2O and NH3 fluxes for control (NF) were 25 (±8) μg m-2 h-1 and 1.4 (±0.4) g ha-1 h-1, respectively. The average soil water NO3 --N concentration was not significantly different among the treatments (P \u3c 0.05). The average soil water NO3 --N concentration was significantly greater in Year 1 (12.5 ± 2.0 mg L-1) compared to Year 2 (6.5 ± 2.0 mg L-1). Crop N characteristics such as leaf-N and grain-N tended to be different (P \u3c 0.1) among treatments, with a higher N concentration in UO-treated plots. The corn yield was not significantly affected by treatment in Year 1 (the only year measured). The study aids the understanding of soil N losses via various paths and the effect of fall-applied solid manure with or without bedding on soil N losses and N transformations. Overall, the data obtained from our study will be used in model application purposes, which will help to further understand the factors and processes affecting nutrient transformations and losses during corn production with beef cattle manure

SCREENING, CHARACTERIZATION, AND IN VITRO EVALUATION OF PROBIOTIC PROPERTIES OF LACTOBACILLUS STRAINS

  Objective: The aim of the present investigation was to isolate and identify Lactobacillus strains from dairy and cattle dung samples. Potent isolates were selected for screening by antimicrobial activity; selected lactobacilli were further tested for probiotic properties and adhesive attributes.Methods: Lactobacilli were isolated aseptically on specific de man, rogosa and sharpe medium from dairy and cattle dung samples. Isolates were identified by Gram-staining, motility, catalase, endospore, and carbohydrate fermentation tests. Further, the isolates were screened for antimicrobial activity by disk diffusion assay, and potent lactobacilli were observed for probiotic properties: Acid and bile salt tolerance, gelatinase activity, and autolytic activity. For analyzing the adhesive attributes, isolates were observed for autoaggregation, coaggregation and microbial adhesion to solvents assay.Results: About 12 Lactobacillus strains among 98 isolates exhibited maximum antimicrobial activity were further selected for identifying their probiotic and adhesive attributes. Among 12 selected isolates, cell-free supernatant (CFS) of buffalo milk BM10 and goat milk GM10 showed excellent antimicrobial activity, 20.34±0.02 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and 18.65±0.11 mm against Escherichia coli. Isolates showed survival at pH 2 and 3 and can tolerate 0.2-0.3% bile salt concentrations. The GM5 showed maximum autoaggregation (67.04±0.61%) and minimum coaggregation (11.51±0.50%) showed by GM3. The BM10 exhibited maximum adherent value 64.84±1.41% for n-hexadecane.Conclusion: The two lactobacilli, BM10 and GM10 identified as Lactobacillus fermentum and Lactobacillus pentosus on the basis of phenotypic and sugar utilization tests. The CFS of both lactobacilli can be used as antimicrobial agent. Both isolates showed significant results of probiotic and adhesive attributes, therefore, can be evaluated for clinical and therapeutic applications

Bradford assay as a high-throughput bioanalytical screening method for conforming pathophysiological state of the animal

Proteins are the essential components of the tissues that play a key role in the body. Its expression in the cell or tissue under a specified set of conditions and at a particular time regulates the different body conditions either as a normal body function or as a disease state. Protein is an important building block of muscles, skin, cartilage, bones and blood. Bradford assay is a reliable advanced and cost-effective protein estimation test for determining the exact concentration of protein in different tissues of the animal. In this study, we have taken a rat suffering from protein deficiency disorder and total protein concentration in the heart, brain, liver, blood and kidney was determined. It was found that the total protein concentration in different tissues of rat i.e., heart, brain, liver, plasma and kidney was found to be 8.39 ± 0.75, 10.46 ± 0.76, 6.74 ± 0.39, 8.12 ± 0.32 mg/g of tissue and 61.27 ± 0.95 mg/mL of plasma respectively (mean ± SEM). As compared to earlier published reports the total protein concentration in different tissues like hear, brain, liver and kidney found much lower to standard value as reported by Beyer, the reason behind obtaining this kind of results may be due to the presence of insufficient amount of the protein content in different tissue of animal as suffering from protein degeneration disorder. The rat was unable to digest and store the protein or catabolism was much faster than anabolism. Keywords: Anabolism, Bradford assay, Catabolism, Protein estimation

Evaluating the performance of irrigation scheduling approaches based on monitoring and modeling soil water status

Improving irrigation management through adopting scientific irrigation scheduling offers a great potential for optimizing irrigation applications and reducing water withdrawals. However, adoption of scientific irrigation scheduling approaches in irrigated agriculture is limited. More research and investigations are needed to demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of different irrigation scheduling approaches under variable soils, crops, and climatic conditions. The objectives of the research were to: (1) evaluate the performance of a multi-sensor capacitance probe in determining soil water content and field capacity, (2) study the effects of soil data accuracy on irrigation scheduling using a soil water balance model for different crops and climatic conditions across western Oklahoma, and (3) investigate the impact of variable soil data and root water uptake distributions on multi-layer soil water status and irrigation parameters simulated by a vadose-zone water transport model. The performance of a commercially available probe and its six calibrations provided by the manufacturer revealed how each calibration performed differently depending on clay and salinity levels. Evaluation of two sensor-based approaches in determining field capacity showed that both approaches were unreliable and highly sensitive to variations in soil texture and layers, irrigation systems, and irrigation management. Investigation of soil data accuracy using a soil water balance model revealed that easily obtainable web soil survey data may have relatively large impacts on irrigation recommendations at field scale, whereas the impacts could be small at regional scale. Evaluation of a vadose-zone model using variable soil data and root water uptake distributions, as model inputs demonstrated the importance of using accurate input data in irrigation scheduling models to achieve improvements in irrigation management

A nationally representative study on socio-demographic and geographic correlates, and trends in tobacco use in Nepal

© 2019, The Author(s). Tobacco control still poses an immense challenge for the government of Nepal. Updated knowledge on the current pattern of tobacco use and its associated factors will be helpful for policy makers to curb the tobacco epidemic. This study fills this gap by, (i) exploring demographic, socio-economic and geographic correlates of current tobacco use using a nationally representative sample of 15–49-year adults from Nepal Demographic Health survey 2016, and (ii) examining the prevalence and trends of both smoking and non-smoking forms of tobacco use in a nationally representative sample of 15–49-year adults drawn from three consecutive Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) between 2006 and 2016.Among males, the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use was higher than that of smoking (40.1% and 27.4% respectively), whereas among females smoking was more common than smokeless tobacco use (prevalence of 5.5% and 3.8% respectively). Both smoking and smokeless tobacco use were associated with older age and lower level of education. Among males, those living in urban areas were more likely to consume any form of tobacco. Residents of terai/plains were more likely to use smokeless tobacco. The concentration curves on cumulative proportion of tobacco use ranked by wealth quintiles showed tobacco use to be highest among the lowest socio-economic groups in both males and females in all three survey years. We found a decreasing trend of tobacco smoking and an increasing trend of smokeless tobacco use over the 10-year period. However, the consumption of both forms of tobacco increased in young males during the same period. Proper monitoring of adherence to directives of the anti-tobacco law should be ensured to curb the increasing burden of tobacco use among young males, and a similar effort is needed to sustain the decline in tobacco uses among other population groups in Nepal

Computational Identification of Indispensable Virulence Proteins of Salmonella Typhi CT18

Typhoid infections have become an alarming concern with the increase of multidrug resistant strains of Salmonella serovars. The new pathogenic Gram-negative strains are resistant to most antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, ampicillin, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin and even co-trimoxazole and their derivatives thereby causing numerous outbreaks in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asian and African countries. Conventional and modern methods of typing had been adopted to differentiate outbreak strains. However, identifying the most indispensable proteins from the complete set of proteins of the whole genome of Salmonella sp., comprising the Salmonella pathogenicity islands (SPI) responsible for virulence, has remained an ever challenging task. We have adopted a network-based method to figure out, albeit theoretically, the most significant proteins which might be involved in the resistance to antibiotics of the Salmonella sp. An understanding of the above will provide insight into conditions that are encountered by this pathogen during the course of infection, which will further contribute in identifying new targets for antimicrobial agents

Health system’s readiness to provide cardiovascular, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease related services in Nepal: analysis using 2015 health facility survey

BACKGROUND: The burgeoning rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is posing serious challenges in resource constrained health facilities of Nepal. The main objective of this study was to assess the readiness of health facilities for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) services in Nepal. METHODS: This study utilized data from the Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015. General readiness of 940 health facilities along with disease specific readiness for CVDs, diabetes, and CRDs were assessed using the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment manual of the World Health Organization. Health facilities were categorized into public and private facilities. RESULTS: Out of a total of 940 health facilities assessed, private facilities showed higher availability of items of general service readiness except for standard precautions for infection prevention, compared to public facilities. The multivariable adjusted regression coefficients for CVDs (β = 2.87, 95%CI: 2.42-3.39), diabetes (β =3.02, 95%CI: 2.03-4.49), and CRDs (β = 15.95, 95%CI: 4.61-55.13) at private facilities were higher than the public facilities. Health facilities located in the hills had a higher readiness index for CVDs (β = 1.99, 95%CI: 1.02-1.39). Service readiness for CVDs (β = 1.13, 95%CI: 1.04-1.23) and diabetes (β = 1.78, 95%CI: 1.23-2.59) were higher in the urban municipalities than in rural municipalities. Finally, disease-related services readiness index was sub-optimal with some degree of variation at the province level in Nepal. Compared to province 1, province 2 (β = 0.83, 95%CI: 0.73-0.95) had lower, and province 4 (β =1.24, 95%CI: 1.07-1.43) and province 5 (β =1.17, 95%CI: 1.02-1.34) had higher readiness index for CVDs. CONCLUSION: This study found sub-optimal readiness of services related to three NCDs at the public facilities in Nepal. Compared to public facilities, private facilities showed higher readiness scores for CVDs, diabetes, and CRDs. There is an urgent need for policy reform to improve the health services for NCDs, particularly in public facilities

Burden of Diabetes and Prediabetes in Nepal: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Unhealthy behaviors, such as energy-dense food choices and a sedentary lifestyle, both of which are established risk factors for diabetes, are common and increasing among Nepalese adults. Previous studies have reported a wide variation in the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes in Nepal, and thus a more reliable pooled estimate is needed. Furthermore, Nepal underwent federalization in 2015, and the province-specific prevalence, which is necessary for the de novo provincial government to formulate local health policies, is lacking. This study aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the current literature on various aspects of diabetes in Nepal, i.e., the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes as well as of the awareness, treatment, and control of diabetes in Nepal.This review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched three electronic databases-PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science-using a comprehensive search strategy to identify eligible studies published up to April 2, 2020. Data on prevalence estimates of prediabetes and diabetes were extracted and pooled in a meta-analysis using a random effect model. Subgroup analyses and meta-regression were conducted to assess heterogeneity across the studies. The quality of included studies was assessed using the New Castle-Ottawa scale.We included 14 eligible studies that comprised a total of 44,129 participants and 3517 diabetes cases. Half of the included studies had good quality. Overall, the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes was 9.2% (95% CI 6.6-12.6%) and 8.5% (95% CI 6.9-10.4%), respectively. Among the participants with diabetes, only 52.7% (95% CI 41.7-63.4%) were aware of their diabetes status, and 45.3% (95% CI 31.6-59.8%) were taking antidiabetic medications. Nearly one-third of those under antidiabetic treatment (36.7%; 95% CI 21.3-53.3%) had their blood glucose under control. The prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes gradually increased with increasing age and was more prevalent among males and urban residents. There was a wide variation in diabetes prevalence across the provinces in Nepal, the lowest 2% in Province 6 to the highest 10% in Province 3 and Province 4.The prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes was high in Nepal, while its awareness, treatment, and control were low. Our findings call for urgent nationwide public health action in Nepal

Synthesis of diamagnetic ZnO nano-crystallites via sol-gel method and their photocatalytic activity

The diamagnetic zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-crystallites were synthesized via the sol-gel method. The X-ray diffraction(XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) were used for structural characterization. The XRDpattern demonstrates that the ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) have a wurtzite structure with an average crystallite size of ~20 nm.TheFESEM and EDAX (energy- dispersive x-ray analysis) confirm the particles are in granular, spherical, and rod-likemixed-phase. The absorption spectra show a red shift and observed bandgap energy of about 3.17 eV, which might attributebecause of the oxygen vacancies. Further, photoluminescence (PL) exhibits dual peaks at wavelengths 430 and550 nm, which maybe due to defects induced at the surface of the NPs. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) studydemonstrates the diamagnetic behavior of zinc oxide nanoparticles at 300 K. The photocatalytic effectiveness of the ZnONPs was examined by decomposing a congo red (CR) dye as an organic water pollutant under UV irradiation. The leadingabsorption peak of CR dye decreases with the UV irradiation time. The complete decolorization of the CR dye was observedafter 150 min with the reaction rate constant of 0.018 min-1