Wild Halophyte Plants as Potential Fodder Resource under Extreme Saline Environment of Kachchh, Gujarat, India

Rann of Kachchh in North West India is a unique saline marshy desert. It is described as a desolate area of unrelieved, sun-baked saline clay desert, shimmering with the images of a perpetual mirage (Mountfort et al., 1991) and is regarded as the largest salt desert in the world. In the Indian part it stretches in 7505.22 sq. km known as Great Rann and 4,953 sq. km known as Little Rann. The Ranns turns into marshy land by inundated water from runoff during monsoonal rainfall and water driven by forces of winds and tides from Arabian Sea making the area unapproachable especially during June to September and in reminder of months the area remain as a hyper saline desert. Even at these extreme saline conditions certain halophytic plants come up from the native seed bank/ roots once the water gets evaporated as these plants possess some mechanisms to survive salinity even higher than that of sea water (Goswami et al., 2014). Some of these plants are grazed by livestock of the area. Due to uncontrolled grazing by ever increasing livestock population and increasing demand for fuel wood, in these deserts the natural diversity of these halophytes are at stake (Arndt et al., 2004). Information on the diversity of halophytes in the hyper saline desert in relation to varying degree of salinization is not available. Therefore the present study was undertaken to study the distribution of halophyte grasses and non-grasses in Great Rann of Kachchh and their usefulness as fodder resource

AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF NARINGENIN AGAINST ANTITUBERCULOSIS DRUGS INDUCED ALTERATIONS IN HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF RATS

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of naringenin against antituberculosis drugs (ATDs) induced alteration in hematological parameters in rats.Methods: Rats were administered with ATDs for 8 weeks (3 days/weeks) followed by naringenin at three different doses (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg) conjointly for 8 weeks (3 days/weeks) orally. After 8 weeks, animals were euthanized; blood was collected by retro-orbital sinus method for the analysis of hematological parameters.Results: The results of this study show decreased in red blood cells, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, platelets, and eosinophils along with increase in the number of lymphocytes in ATDs induced rats. Treatment with naringenin encountered ATDs induced hematological parameter alteration which was evident by significant reversal in hematological indices toward control in dose-dependent manner.Conclusion: The present study concluded that ATDs exposure caused adverse effects in various blood components and conjoint treatment of naringenin reduced hematological alterations toward control due to antioxidant activity

EFFECT OF RUTIN AGAINST HIGH-FAT DIET AND ALCOHOL-INDUCED ALTERATIONS IN HEMATOLOGICAL VARIABLES OF RATS

Objectives: Alcohol abuse leads to several diseases and millions of death worldwide. High-fat diet (HFD) is major contributor of non-alcoholic liver diseases and obesity. Combined consumption of HFD and alcohol has deleterious effect on blood cells. This study was carried out to evaluate the protective effect of rutin against combined consumption of HFD and alcohol-induced hematological alterations.Methods: HFD 30% and ethanol 10% were administered for 4 weeks for induction of toxicity. Rutin (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg) and 50 mg/kg dose of silymarin were administered along with HFD and alcohol for 4 weeks.Results: Combined consumption of HFD and alcohol increased mean corpuscular volume, total leukocytes count, eosinophil and monocyte, and decreased hematocrit and platelets. Administration of rutin improved hematological variables altered by HFD and alcohol consumption.Conclusion: The present study concluded that administration of rutin may alleviate HFD and alcohol-induced hematological alterations by scavenging free radicals generation

Review Paper on Smart Systems

Nowadays, technology has become an inseparable part of human lives. Technologies are smart enough to respond to human commands, provide protection to them and their accessories. Smart systems provide functionalities that of humans and are able to execute them much more efficiently than us. Smart systems search for multiple solutions for a particular problem and based on their intellectual capability and available knowledge base and are able to process solutions from solution set to give optimized output to the user

Understanding the impact of sociosexual interactions on sleep using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism

Sleep is conserved across species, and it is believed that a fixed amount of sleep is needed for normal neurobiological functions. Sleep rebound follows sleep deprivation; however, continuous sleep deprivation for longer durations is believed to be detrimental to the animal’s wellbeing. Under some physiologically demanding situations, such as migration in birds, the birth of new offspring in cetaceans, and sexual interactions in pectoral sandpipers, animals are known to forgo sleep. The mechanisms by which animals forgo sleep without having any obvious negative impact on the proper functioning of their neurobiological processes are yet unknown. Therefore, a simple assay is needed to study how animals forgo sleep. The assay should be ecologically relevant so it can offer insights into the physiology of the organisms. Equally important is that the organism should be genetically amenable, which helps in understanding the cellular and molecular processes that govern such behaviors. This paper presents a simple method of sociosexual interaction to understand the process by which animals forgo sleep. In the case of Drosophila melanogaster, when males and females are in proximity, they are highly active and lose a significant amount of sleep. In addition, there is no sleep rebound afterward, and instead, males engaged in sexual interactions continue to show normal sleep. Thus, sexual drive in the fruit flies is a robust assay to understand the underlying mechanism by which animals forgo sleep

Load Balancing Congestion Games and Their Asymptotic Behavior

International audienc

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Origin, Impact, and Drug Development

At the end of December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a rapidly spreading unknown virus was reported to have caused coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). Origin linked to Wuhan’s wholesale food market where live animals are sold. This disease is caused by SARS Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is closely related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This virus shares a high sequence identity with bat-derived SARS-like Coronavirus, which indicating its zoonotic origin. The virus spread globally, provoking widespread attention and panic. This Coronavirus is highly pathogenic and causes mild to severe respiratory disorders. Later, it was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its highly infectious nature and worldwide mortality rate. This virus is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genome, and its genome length about 26 to 32 kb that infects a broad range of vertebrates. The researchers worldwide focus on establishing treatment strategies on drug and vaccine development to prevent this COVID-19 pandemic. A drug repurposing approach has been used to identify a rapid treatment for the people affected by COVID-19, which could be cost-effective and bypass some Food and Drug Association (FDA) regulations to move quickly in phase-3 trials. However, there is no promising therapeutic option available yet. This book chapter addresses current information about the COVID-19 disease, including its origins, impacts, and the novel potential drug candidates that can help treat the COVID-19

Heterologous Expression of Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase-3 From Rice Confers Tolerance to Salinity Stress in E. coli and Arabidopsis

Among abiotic stresses, salt stress adversely affects growth and development in rice. Contrasting salt tolerant (CSR27), and salt sensitive (MI48) rice varieties provided information on an array of genes that may contribute for salt tolerance of rice. Earlier studies on transcriptome and proteome profiling led to the identification of salt stress-induced serine hydroxymethyltransferase-3 (SHMT3) gene. In the present study, the SHMT3 gene was isolated from salt-tolerant (CSR27) rice. OsSHMT3 exhibited salinity-stress induced accentuated and differential expression levels in different tissues of rice. OsSHMT3 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and assayed for enzymatic activity and modeling protein structure. Further, Arabidopsis transgenic plants overexpressing OsSHMT3 exhibited tolerance toward salt stress. Comparative analyses of OsSHMT3 vis a vis wild type by ionomic, transcriptomic, and metabolic profiling, protein expression and analysis of various traits revealed a pivotal role of OsSHMT3 in conferring tolerance toward salt stress. The gene can further be used in developing gene-based markers for salt stress to be employed in marker assisted breeding programs.HIGHLIGHTS- The study provides information on mechanistic details of serine hydroxymethyl transferase gene for its salt tolerance in rice

Development and validation of a photographic food atlas for portion size assessment in the southern plains of Nepal.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a photographic food atlas of common foods for dietary assessment in southern Nepal. DESIGN: We created a life-sized photographic atlas of forty locally prepared foods. Between March and June 2014, data collectors weighed portion sizes that respondents consumed during one mealtime and then a different data collector revisited the household the next day to record respondents' estimations of their previous day's intakes using the atlas. Validity was assessed by percentage error, Cohen's weighted kappa (κ w) and Bland-Altman limits of agreement. SETTING: Dhanusha and Mahottari districts in southern Nepal. SUBJECTS: A random sample of ninety-five adults in forty-eight rural households with a pregnant woman. RESULTS: Overall, respondents underestimated their intakes (mean error =-4·5 %). Rice and dal (spiced lentil soup) intakes were underestimated (-14·1 % and -34·5 %, respectively), but vegetable curry intake was overestimated (+20·8 %). Rice and vegetable curry portion size images were significantly reliably selected (Cohen's κ w (se): rice=0·391 (0·105); vegetable curry=0·430 (0·139)), whereas dal images were not. Energy intake over one mealtime was under-reported by an average of 569 kJ (136 kcal; 4·5 % error) using recall compared with the weighing method. CONCLUSIONS: The photographic atlas is a useful tool for field estimation of dietary intake. Average errors were low, and there was 'modest' agreement between weighed and recalled portion size image selection of rice and vegetable curry food items. Error in energy estimation was low but with wide limits of agreement, suggesting that there is scope for future work to reduce error further