Description of two new species of Plectinae (Nematoda: Araeolaimida) from India

Two new plectid species from India are described and illustrated. Plectus glandulatus sp. n. has 917-1307 µm long body. strongly annulated cuticle; conspicuously large hypodcrmal glands: ovoid amphidial apertures; offset lip region; separate, globular, lips; thickly cuticularised. arcuate, cheilostomal walls: basal bulb with four to five paired denticulate ridges: a pair of pseudocoelomoeytes located posterior to the cardia and tail with a subtenninal spur and three pairs of caudal setae. Chiloplectus indicus sp. n. has 695-1041 pm long body: thick, transversely annulated, cuticle: three lateral incisures: markedly offset, narrow, lip region: lips with conical apices anil slightly raised papillae: inner margin of lips forming well cuticularised oral framework; prorhabdion as long as wide and comprising 20% of the stoma length; basal bulb with six pairs of denticulate ridges; paired pseudocoelomoeytes located posterior to the cardia. genital tract weakly developed and tail with one median spur and two pairs of caudal setae

Fire Arm Weapon Injuries In Karachi In Relation To Mortality & Morbidity An 8-Years Study From 2007 – 2014.

Background: Crime on gunpoint has increased in metropolis of Karachi in last many years with increasing mortality & morbidity so what could be done to minimize it and how we can proceed further to make Karachi a peaceful city. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether more firearm laws & associated firm restrictions over the availability of fire arm weapons is required to minimize fire arm fatalities Methods: It is a cross sectional descriptive study for retrospective analysis of all firearm related deaths and injuries, reported to authorized medico –legal sections of Karachi ,located in Civil hospital , Abbasi Shaheed & Jinnah Post Graduate Medical center . The study period is 8 years, extending from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2014.All medico legal cases & postmortems due to firearm weapons reported and / or sent by police are examined & autopsies done in authorized medico legal sections are included in this study. All cases referred for treatment purposes from outside Karachi are excluded. Results: Total 208241 medico legal cases referred during study period out of which 14.03% (n=27638) cases were identified as firearm weapons injuries. Maximum cases of firearm were reported in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital 37.9% (n= 10478) while minimum cases 29.3% (n=8107) in Civil Hospital Karachi. Postmortems conducted on fire arm weapons deaths were 37.7% (n=4246) in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi. Male dominated with 91.74% (n=10325) of post mortems over female with 8.26% (n=928) only. Conclusion: The study concluded that homicidal firearm injuries contributed as one of the major cause of death. The age group of 21-25 years was most affected. The most commonly targeted body part was chest & abdomen .The use of fire arm weapons & resultant mortality is increasing day by day. The easy availability of weapons, unemployment, poor socio-economical conditions & the use of youth by Political parties & other criminal groups, for their perverted purposes are main factors behind increased homicidal killings. All these issues are required to be addressed seriously. Key Words: Mortality, Morbidity, Firearm, Post mortem, Medico legal cases

Effect of Cadmium Levels on the Growth Curve of Candida albicans

Environmental pollution by toxic heavy metals is one of the most pressing problems. Metals are released in the environment in industrial effluent. Cadmium is one of the heavy metal toxic to microorganisms; however, there are yeast strains resistant to this metal. One of yeast species Candida albicans is a diploid fungus (a form of yeast) that is a causal agent of opportunistic oral and genital infections in humans. In the present study, effect of Cadmium on the growth curve of Candida albicans was demonstrated. Candida albicans was grown both in the presence and absence of Cadmium in YEPD media. Growth curves of the Candida albicans were plotted to study the growth pattern of the yeast isolate. It was found that Candida albicans grow well at 50 µg/ml concentration of cadmium. The organism was found to be resistant to the used heavy metal. Growing metal resistant cells is very important as it can ensure better removal through the process of biosorption. Such approaches may help in the removal of toxic metals from the environmental thus reducing environmental pollution

Effect of Burn Injury on the Dissemination of Candida albicans from the Skin of Mouse

Burn injury is associated with the greatly increased susceptibility of thermally injured patients to infection from a variety of pathogens. Candida albicans is a commensal of skin and has been reported as a severe pathogen in thermally injured patients. Systemic candidiasis has emerged as a major cause of death in burn patients. In this study, the ability of Candida albicans to infect thermally injured host and the host response to systemic infections with Candida albicans was studied by using burned mice. The C. albicans suspension was spreaded over the burn surface. Mice were sacrificed ten days after burn to check the presence of yeasts in the kidneys, lung, liver and spleen or burn wounds. After 48 hr. of incubation of culture plates yeasts were recovered from the kidneys, lung, liver, spleen of burned mice. This study describes the enhanced susceptibility of burned mice to systemic candidiasis and shows that a systemic infection with Candida can lead organisms to contaminate the wound

Application Potentials of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria and Fungi as an Alternative to Conventional Weed Control Methods

Weeds are the plants usually grown on unwanted places and are notorious for causing interruptions in agricultural settings. Remarkable yield losses have been reported in fields infested with weeds worldwide. So far, these weeds cause about 34% of losses to yields of major agricultural crops and pose threats to economic condition of the farmers. Conventionally, weed control was achieved by the use of chemical herbicides and traditional agronomic practices. But these methods are no more sustainable as the magnitude of threats imposed by these conventionally outdated methods such as chemical herbicides is greater than the benefits achieved and their continuous use has disturbed biodiversity and weed ecology along with herbicide resistance in some weeds. Herbicide residues are held responsible for human health hazards as well. Therefore the future of weed control is to rely on alternative approaches which may be biological agents such as bacteria and fungi. This chapter highlights the potentials of using bacterial and fungal biocontrol agents against weeds in farmer fields. Moreover, detailed review on merits and demerits of conventional weed control methods is discussed in this chapter

Description of Metarhabditis andrassyana gen sp. n. (nematoda: Rhabditidae) from India

Metarhabditis andrassyana gen. n., sp. n. from cow dung in India is described and illustrated. The new genus is characterised by medium- to large-sized body; slightly setoff lip region; six lips forming three doublets; rhabditoid stoma with cluster of knobbed setose denticles on metastegostomal swellings; uniformly cylindrical pharyngeal corpus; well developed didelphic gonad with proximally dilated oviducts; ovoid, setoff spcrmathecae; vulva with epiptygma and vulval flaps; rectum with rectal glands; sexual dimorphism in tail with females having long filiform and males with shorter tails: stout spicules with dorsal arm; a pseudopeloderan bursa: eight bursal papillae and copulatory muscle bands. The new genus resembles Rhabditella (Cobb. 1929) Chitwood. 1933 in the structure of spicules (with dorsal arms) but differs in having larger and greater number of metastomal denticles, a remarkably weak pharyngeal corpus, lesser number of genital papillae, a well developed bursa and presence of copulatory muscle bands

Expression of Growth Form Factors during Morphogenesis in Candida albicans

The transition of Candida albicans from unicellular yeast form to filamentous form i.e, pseudohyphae and hyphae is referred to as morphogenesis. C.albicans has the ability to respond to environmental conditions and accordingly changing its cell morphology. Three main morphological forms of C.albicans are unicellular yeast, pseudohyphae and hyphae. Environmental factors are important in selectively favouring yeast or hyphal form, most important being the growth medium, incubation temperature and external pH value. Cell morphology in C.albicans is associated with changes in the expression of specific factors that are expressed exclusively in particular growth form. These growth form factors are an important target in the investigation of morphogenesis in C. albicans and in the discovery of antifungal drugs that targets the specific growth form of C. albicans

Caregivers’ burden among parents of children with Cerebral Palsy

Introduction: Caregivers help a person in those actions which cannot be performed by an individual independently; a person’s personal needs, environmental barriers that hinders an individual’s abilities etc. This ultimately puts an increased burden on the caregiver. This study was conducted to determine the levels of caregivers’ burden among the parents of children with cerebral palsy. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 298 parents of children with cerebral palsy. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from the parents coming to the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, Islamabad. The parents of children with cerebral palsy who were having auditory, cognitive or visual impairment were excluded from this study. Demographic information form and Caregiver Burden Inventory were used for the data collection. The data was analysed through IBM SPSS version 21 and results were presented in the form of frequency, percentages and mean ± sd with p-value wherever needed. Results: the result of this study showed a greater need for respite and other services for caregivers of children with cerebral palsy. The overall Caregiver Burden Inventory score was 45.19 ± 11.9. Out of the total included participants, 163 (54.33%) participants sometimes needed relief, 116 (36.67%) needed frequent need for relief and other services while 19 (6.33%) of the included parents rarely needed relief and other services. Conclusion: Majority of the caregivers of children with cerebral palsy needed relief and other services (compromise the growth, physical and emotional health and social relationship) to manage caregivers’ burden

Identification of novel and safe fungicidal molecules against fusarium oxysporum from plant essential oils: in vitro and computational approaches.

Phytopathogenic fungi are serious threats in the agriculture sector especially in fruit and vegetable production. The use of plant essential oil as antifungal agents has been in practice from many years. Plant essential oils (PEOs) of Cuminum cyminum, Trachyspermum ammi, Azadirachta indica, Syzygium aromaticum, Moringa oleifera, Mentha spicata, Eucalyptus grandis, Allium sativum, and Citrus sinensis were tested against Fusarium oxysporum. Three phase trials consist of lab testing (MIC and MFC), field testing (seed treatment and foliar spray), and computer-aided fungicide design (CAFD). Two concentrations (25 and 50 μl/ml) have been used to asses MIC while MFC was assessed at four concentrations (25, 50, 75, and 100 μl/ml). C. sinensis showed the largest inhibition zone (47.5 and 46.3 m2) for both concentrations. The lowest disease incidence and disease severity were recorded in treatments with C. sinensis PEO. Citrus sinensis that qualified in laboratory and field trials was selected for CAFD. The chemical compounds of C. sinensis PEO were docked with polyketide synthase beta-ketoacyl synthase domain of F. oxysporum by AutoDock Vina. The best docked complex was formed by nootkatone with -6.0 kcal/mol binding affinity. Pharmacophore of the top seven C. sinensis PEO compounds was used for merged pharmacophore generation. The best pharmacophore model with 0.8492 score was screened against the CMNP database. Top hit compounds from screening were selected and docked with polyketide synthase beta-ketoacyl synthase domain. Four compounds with the highest binding affinity and hydrogen bonding were selected for confirmation of lead molecule by doing MD simulation. The polyketide synthase-CMNPD24498 showed the highest stability throughout 80 ns run of MD simulation. CMNPD24498 (FW054-1) from Verrucosispora was selected as the lead compound against F. oxysporum

Concept Maps: An Instructional Tool to Facilitate Meaningful Learning

This paper describes the procedure of developing an instructional tool, ‘concept mapping’ and its effectiveness in making the material meaningful to the students. In Pakistan, the traditional way of teaching science subjects at all levels at school relies heavily on memorization. The up-to-date data obtained from qualitative and quantitative research strongly supports the value of concept mapping as an instructional tool both for cognitive and affective gains. This study seeks to contribute to this development by considering how the insights of Ausubel can be converted into an effective and efficient instructional method. It was found that concept maps help improving achievement of the students and make learning more meaningful so that retrieval is possible