Assessment of Knowledge and Practices on Rabies among Veterinary Staff in Cuttack City, Odisha

Background: Veterinarians and their staff are placed in the high-risk group of acquiring rabies due to the frequent exposure to rabid animals, experiences as a part of their routine job schedule. Research focusing on rabies control among veterinarians is very limited. This study attempts to assess the knowledge andpractices regarding rabies prevention and control among veterinary staff of Cuttack city.Objectives1. To assess the knowledge on rabies among veterinary staff2. To know the extent of pre- and post-exposure vaccination coverage against rabies among veterinary staff.Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was done among the government veterinary staff in Cuttack city from February to April, 2016. A pretested and predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the data by interviewing method.Results: Most of the surveyed veterinary individuals were aware of the disease rabies. Bite and saliva contact of rabid animals with open wound was known as mode of rabies transmission to 82.5% of the respondents. 42.5% of the study subjects used three or more personal protective measures while handling the animals. Of total 40 respondents, only 22.5% had taken full pre-exposure vaccination against rabies.Conclusion: Despite being a risk group of acquiring rabies because of their job, the total veterinary staff currently vaccinated fully either by pre or post-exposure with anti-rabies vaccine is very low. Proper education and awareness need to be provided to all the veterinary staff regarding seeking dog bite management and the need to take pre-exposure vaccine

Morbidity pattern of school children: a study conducted in the urban field practice area of a tertiary health care centre of Odisha, India

Background: School is acknowledged as the place where children gain knowledge from health education sessions on various aspects of personal hygiene, sanitation and social customs. Health is one of the key factors determining the enrollment, performance and continuation in school. Objective was to study the morbidity pattern of school children.Methods: The present cross sectional study was conducted in selected schools (both govt. and Private) of urban field practice area of SCB Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha during January 2016 to December 2016. A total of 660 school going children were taken for the study. After taking informed consent of the head of the school data was collected by using a Pre-designed, pre-tested questionnaire. Clinical examination was conducted to detect any morbidity pattern.Results: In the present study most common morbidity detected was pallor (47.6%) followed by skin disease (34.5%) and dental caries (23.2%). Other morbidities found were acute respiratory infections 21.9%, eye problems 21.4%, fever 6.8%, pain abdomen 3%, diarrhoea 3.2%, ear discharge 3.9%, headache 5% and rhinitis 3.9%.Conclusions: More emphasis should be given on primordial and primary preventive measures for prevention of childhood morbidities. School based health education programme may be a useful effort in this regard

Unified Dark Fluid and Cosmic Transit Models in Brans-Dicke Theory

Some dark energy cosmological models are constructed in the framework of a generalised Brans-Dicke theory which contains a self interacting potential and a dynamical coupling parameter. The dark sector of the universe is considered through a unified linear equation of state. The parameters of the unified dark fluid have been constrained from some physical basis. Since the universe is believed to have undergone a transition from an early deceleration to a late time acceleration, the deceleration parameter should have a signature flipping behaviour at the transition redshift. We have used a hybrid scale factor to simulate the dynamical behaviour of the deceleration parameter. Basing upon the observational constraints on the transition redshift, we have constructed four different transitioning dark energy models. The constructed models are confronted with observational data. For all the models, the behaviour of the dynamical scalar field, Brans-Dicke parameter, Self interacting potential are investigated. Also, on the basis of the generalised Brans-Dicke theory, we have estimated the time variation of the Newtonian gravitational constant.Comment: 17pages, 12 figure

Revealing contrasting genetic variation and study of genetic diversity in urdbean (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) using SDS-PAGE of seed storage proteins

Total seed storage protein profiles of 20 urdbean genotypes including the popular variety T9 were analysed by Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). 14 genotypes could be clearly identified based on genotype-specific seed protein fingerprints while rest of the test genotypes were categorized into three protein types. Dendrogram based on electrophoretic data clustered the genotypes into seven groups at 78.5% phenon level.  TU 95-1 with TU 12-25-4 revealed lowest similarity index value (0.33) followed by TU 95-1 with PU 30 and KU 96-3(SI=0.35). Clustering pattern revealed distinctly divergent group formed by TPU 95-1 and TPU 4. These may serve as a valuable source genotype in recombination breeding.   Key words: Seed storage protein profiling, SDS-PAGE, Genetic variation, urdbean

Identification of seed storage protein markers for drought tolerance in mungbean

A set of 292 mungbean germplasm accessions including 62 popularly adapted local land races and two wild forms (Vigna radiata var. sublobata), important breeding lines and standard ruling varieties were screened for drought stress tolerance at seedling stage.  Eight genotypes e.g., C. No. 35, OUM 14-1, OUM 49-2, Pusa 9072, OM 99-3, Banapur local B, Nipania munga, Kalamunga 1-A) have been identified to possess drought tolerance.  Globulin seed storage protein profiling was carried out in 19 selected mungbean genotypes comprising eight drought tolerant, seven drought sensitive, two wild forms of mungbean (TCR 20 and TCR 213) and two standard checks (LGG 460 and T 2-1) to explore differentially expressed polypeptides. Seed protein profiles revealed 15 scorable polypeptide bands with molecular weights ranging from 10.0 to 102.2kD. A specific 12.8kD polypeptide band was present in all above drought tolerant test genotypes including the wild accession TCR 20. Such a polypeptide band may serve as useful biochemical marker for identification of drought tolerant genotypes in mungbean.             Key words: Genetic diversity, seed storage protein profile, wild and cultivated Vigna radiata

Globulin seed storage protein based genotyping and Study of genetic diversity in core accessions of mungbean under drought stress

Globulin seed storage protein profiles of 19 mungbean genotypes including two wild forms of Vigna radiata var. sublobata(TCR 20 and TCR 213) and two standard  checks(T 2-1 and LGG 460) were analysed by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Thirteen genotypes could be clearly identified based on genotype-specific seed protein fingerprints. The combined dendrogram showed six genetic clusters within 68% phenon level. The clustering based on the combined clustering analysis revealed discrimination of all test genotypes even immediately beyond 88% phenon level, whereas individual clustering analysis based on protein and agro-morphological level failed to do so. Nipania munga, TCR 213, T 2-1, LGG 460, TCR 20 and Banapur local B were identified to be highly divergent genotypes. TCR 20 appears to have more genetic proximity to the mungbean genotypes than TCR 213. T 2-1, LGG 460 and TCR 20 are potentially high yielding. These may serve as valuable materials for recombination breeding in mungbean

Operational issues and lessons learned during National Iron Plus Initiative documentation in Eastern India

Anaemia is a condition in which red blood cells have fewer haemoglobin molecules than normal, or fewer red blood cells overall, and thus less ability to carry oxygen to tissues in the body. Nutritional anaemia is a major public health problem in India and is primarily due to iron deficiency. Symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia are primarily non specific and become apparent when there is severe anaemia. The National Iron Plus Initiative (NIPI) is the most ambitious and comprehensive anaemia control programme in the world. The process documentation team conducted 170 interviews in March, April and May 2016 among officials and frontline workers at state, district, block, sector/cluster and field levels and among NIPI beneficiaries in Odisha. To achieve variation in responses and to get full set of information on how NIPI was being implemented, process documentation and survey data were collected in four districts of Odisha– Keonjhar, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak and Kalahandi. This review will give an overview about the operational issues encountered during the National Iron Plus Initiative documentation in Odisha

The Role of Tau Protein in Diseases

Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) and tau protein deposits in the human brain are the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Tau is a class of proteins that are abundant in nerve cells and perform the function of stabilizing microtubules. However, in certain pathological situations, Tau proteins become defective and fail to adequately stabilize microtubules, which can result in the generation of abnormal masses that are toxic to neurons. This process occurs in a number of neurological disorders collectively known as Tauopathies. Tau protein is the major factor of the intracellular filamentous deposits that relate to a number of neurodegenerative diseases which includes the progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Pick’s disease, and Parkinsonism. The identification of mutations in Tau established that dysfunction or misregulation of tau protein is sufficient to cause dementia and neurodegeneration. In this review article, we discussed the etiology of the tau formation and role in AD and subsequently therapeutic approach for disassembling and Tau inhibition